CALEB HASKELL'S DIARY
ADDENDUM

Captain Ezra Lunt's Company

This company was composed exclusively of Newburyport soldiers, excepting one or two credited to Newbury. The men really belonged in part to Newbury, but appear to have almost all enlisted on the quota of Newburyport. Newbury at that time included seven-eights of the present territory of Newburyport and where more than a third of the inhabitants dwell. The company was one of the finest bands of men ever enlisted in a noble cause. The commander was a stage driver and for some time the publisher of the "Essex Journal", the newspaper started in Newburyport by Isaiah Thomas. The first lieutenant of the company was a brother of the captain, and he kept an interesting diary of the service rendered by the company during the year 1775, which is now in the possession of his grandson, Daniel Lunt, of Oldtown (Newburyport) and which has been printed by Dr. S. A. Green of Boston. The story goes that the company was started in the South Church after a stirring discourse by Rev. Jonathan Parsons, the pastor, Capt. Lunt being the first to volunteer. Capt. Lunt afterwards did excellent service for his country in various positions of trust in the army during the whole of the war. His company as will be seen, in the text, formed one of eight of Col. Moses Little's (17th) regiment. The roll of the members is found at the State House, in at least two collections, one dated in April 1776, but giving the service for May 2, 1775 to Aug. 1, 1775 and the other among what was called the "coat rolls", which was made out on the first of Oct. 1775 and which is a little changed. This last gives the names of twenty men, including our diarist, who joined the Quebec expedition. The names are familiar ones to the ears of Newburyport, more than three quarters of them having descendants here, and nine-tenths of the names having representatives in the place. The rolls are worthy of preservation. It will be seen that our friend Mr. Haskell, furnished music for the band of patriots, though afterwards he became a private. The first roll is as follows.

N.B. The last four men are credited to Newbury. All the others to Newburyport, although Newbury is credited with furnishing arms to quite a large number of them.
The second list is more interesting as giving the names and correcting some of the mistakes in the names. It was a roll of the men who enlisted for eight months and were entitled to coats from the province. All these rolls at the State House have column headed Quebec. In this column are placed all the men who had joined the exposition the month before, they evidently being considered as on detached service and still members of their respective companies.

Bolin's and Wigglesworth.

These two houses at Cambridge where the diarist mentions as being quartered with his company are also mentioned by Paul Lunt. All the additional information that he gives is that the former was John Bolin. Wigglesworth was undoubtedly the home of Edward Wigglesworth, Hollis Prof. at Harvard and first cousin of Col. Edward Wigglesworth, one of the leaders in Newburyport revolutionary affairs. The latter shed some additional lustre on an already illustrious family. Although one of the better known officers in the army and one of the most prominent men in the affairs of the commonwealth, he so devoted his means to his country's cause as to impoverish himself. His wife was obliged to receive aid (soldiers) from the town and the colonel died a poor pensioner himself.

Eating a Dog

The simple narrative of our writer does not adorn the sufferings endured by the band with the romance of heroism, but his mention of one of the company having to subsist on the flesh of a dog was only one item in a series of terrible privations undergone. The grand attempt of Arnold's band could not be more fitly commemorated than by the following beautiful lines by an anonymous writer.

They marched with Arnold at their head,
Our soldiers true and brave.
To far off heights of Canada,
By wood and rock and wave.
They left the scenes behind perchance,
They might not see again.
The homesteads fair, the fields which smiled,
With autumns ripened grain.
And forth they marched to meet the foe,
The invader's course to check.
When the autumn leaves were brightening,
Along the Kennebec.

On thro' the deep and darkening wood,
Thro' brush and brake and brier.
The wolf howl round their path by day,
By night beyond their fire.
Their camp fire where, all travel worn,
When fording lake and stream
Chilled with the wave, with hunger faint
They laid them down to dream
Of those dear homes they left behind
A dim and lessening speck
When they marched away to Canada
Beside the Kennebec.

And one, a brave and noble boy
With kindling cheek and eye
Whose smile and voice brought light to all
Lay down at last to die.
To die of hunger's gnawing pain
A fate that some must share
Who closed with tear his soft blue eyes,
And heard his dying prayer
They took a bright curl from his brow
The kerchief from his neck
And laid him neath the autumn leaves
Beside the Kennebec.

Within a fair New England home
Are kept those relics yet
The story of our stormy past
True hearts will never forget.
A sister's love kept bright this theme
It passed from sire to sire.
And now when winter evening's come
And talk and song are done
The gran sire tells the story o'er
With a tear he will not check
Of the boy who died so long ago
Beside the Kennebec.

Other Pages
Diary Preface
Diary Part I
Diary Part II
Diary Part III

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