Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 1.djvu/272

 264

��GEN. JAMES REED.

��and a rail fence extending up the hillside to the redoubt. It was in front of the breastwork that the British lines were three times hurled back under the deadly fire of Reed and Stark. Here the most efficient fighting was done; and here the greatest number of dead were lying when the battle had ceased. After the third and last repulse the New Hampshire troops raised the shout of victory, rushed over the fence and pursued the retreating foe until restrained by Col. Stark. This post, so nobly defended through the ac- tion and so resolutely maintained against the last assault of the British, after the redoubt had fallen, defeated General Howe's design of cutting off the main body. After the redoubt had given way, this heroic band slowly retreated, and Col. Reed was the last officer who left the field.

He remained with the army after its command was assumed by General Washington, being posted upon Winter Hill, and upon the reorganization of the forces on the first of January, 1776, his regiment was ranked second in the Con- tinental Army.

The evacuation of the British troops on the 17th of March concluded the siege of Boston, and Colonel Reed accompa- nied the army on its movement to New York in the following April. On the 24th of April he was put into the 3d Bri- gade under General Sullivan, and was soon after ordered up the Hudson to re- lieve the force under Arnold. The fol- lowing receipt, extracted from the Amer- ican Archives, given on his departure from New York, serves to illustrate the confidence reposed in Colonel Reed :

New York, April 29, 1776. Then received from Gen. Washington three boxes, said to contain three hundred thousand dollars, to be delivered to Gen. Schuyler at Al- bany,

Signed James Reed.

The money above alluded to was doubt- less for the payment of Schuyler's army. Sullivan's command passed over the ground which was familiar to Colonel Reed by his campaigns in the previous wars, as far as the mouth of the river Sorrel. Here they met the retreating army, and Gen. Sullivan assumed the command. Col. Reed's skill and forti- tude in the conduct of the retreat is

��highly spokon of. On one occasion, in the absence of Arnold, he received and held a talk with the chiefs of some Indian tribes. It was managed with address and successfully concluded by Colonel Reed, and the pledges of their friendly disposition were transmitted by him to the President of Congress. The retreat reached Ticonderoga on the 1st of July, 1776. A worse foe than the enemy at this time attacked the American army. Disease, the unfailing attendant of hard- ship and exposure, now broke out and prevailed to an alarming extent. Small- pox, dysentery and malignant fevers rap- idly thinned the ranks of the patriot army. Colonel Reed was attacked with fever at Crown Point, and, perhaps for want of proper medical treatment, suf- fered the loss of his sight. This calam- ity terminated his prospects for any fur- ther usefulness in the service of his coun- try. It was while thus suffering from dangerous illness he was created a Brig- adier General of the Continental Army. He was appointed by Congress on the 9th of August, 1776, on the recommenda- tion of General Washington. On the 2d of September Gen. Gates speaks of him as so ill at Fort George that he would probably not be fit for service in that campaign. He received orders from Gen. Washington to join him at headquarters, but on account of sickness was unable to comply. He eventually retired from the army on half pay until the close of the war.

He returned to Fitzwilliam, where he resided until the year 1783, when he moved to Keene. Here his Abigail died. The following inscription was taken from the large headstone of slate erected to her memory in the cemetery at Keene ;

"In memory of Mrs. Abigail, wife of Genl. James Reed, who departed this life August 27th, 1791, in the 68th year of her age. There's nothing here but who as nothing weighs. The more our joy the more we know it's vain; Lose then from earth the grasp of fond desire, Weigh anchor and some happier clime explore."

Hale, in his " Annals of Keene," says that Gen. Reed, whose ordinary res- idence was Fitzwilliam, is remembered here as an old blind man, and as almost daily seen, after the close, of the war, walking up and down Mafn Street, aid- ing and guided by Mr. Washburn, who

�� �