Early History of West Springfield
In 1774, as the citizens of the thirteen colonies thought about declaring their independence from their mother country, England, the people of West Springfield were celebrating their independence from their mother town of Springfield. They requested incorporation of their town from the General Court for two reasons: a growing discontent with the representation that Springfield chose to send to the General Court and with the difficulties of geography. What was then called the Great River Connecticut separated the parish of West Springfield from Springfield making voting and attending town meetings difficult. On February 23rd, 1774, the Act of Incorporation was approved and West Springfield became a town.
On April 19, 1775, British soldiers attacked the towns of Lexington and Concord. When the news reached West Springfield a company of minutemen composed of West Springfield’s citizens began the nearly one hundred mile march to the west on April 20th. Captain Enoch Chapin, First Lieutenant Samuel Fowler and Second Lieutenant Luke Day led fifty men westward to aid their fellow colonists. They were part of a larger regiment led by Colonel Patterson. At the end of their month long service, the minutemen returned home. A majority of the men would later re-enlist.
In 1776, in response to the call for the creation of a Continental Army, Massachusetts raised over five thousand men. Of them, West Springfield contributed forty-eight, the largest total of any western Massachusetts town.
Many of West Springfield’s men would fight for the freedom of America. James Wade (1750-1826) fought at the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill before being captured and spent the remainder of the ...
... middle of paper ...
... were marked with heroism and sacrifice as a young nation and her people struggled to become the great nation we are today.
Bibliography:
Swift, Esther. West Springfield Massachusetts: A Town History. Springfield, MA:
1969.
Bagg, J.N. Account of the Centennial Celebration of the town of West Springfield.
West Springfield: 1874.
Lockwood, Rev. John, Ernest Newton Bagg, Walter Carson, Herbert Riley, Edward
Boltwood and Will Clark, eds. Western Massachusetts: A History 1636-1925.
New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1926.
Massachusetts Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Soldiers and Sailors
Whose Graves Have Been Designated by the Marker of the Society. Boston: MA
Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1901.
Frothingham, Jr, Richard (1851). History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington,
In the fall of 1777, Martin’s division was one of those called to Pennsylvania, where British forces led by General William Howe had managed to take the rebel capital ...
The American Revolution started in the year 1765, when the Colonists rejected the Parliament of Great Britain to tax them without representation and ended in 1783 with the peace treaty with Britain; Treaty of Paris. But a lot of major events occurred in the colonies before the American Revolution could be over and these events would result in series of social, political, and intellectual transformation in American history. In his book, The Minutemen and Their World, Robert Gross’s describes the lives of people in Concord, Massachusetts before, during and, after the American Revolution, where much of these events took place and changed the way of life people lived in Concord. He goes through a very brief detailed aspects of colonial life in
...ing to survive. Their militant demeanor and strong willed nature foreshadowed the coming modern civil rights movement. They realized the importance of education and utilized it to change the climate of their time. I think these to women defined the term "ordinary to extraordinary". They had both broke through color and gender barriers and earned the respect and admiration of colleagues, politicians the African American people. Who knows what would have happened if these two brave women did not stand up and accomplish what they had done. Would "White Supremacy" prevail in a post WWII society. It is hard to quantify the contribution of these women to the civil rights movement but I think it is safe to say that we were fortunate as a nation to have these great crusaders, as well as many other notable figures, to educate us and force us to see change in the United States.
It was a much bigger deal than just that. The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the very first battles of the Revolutionary War. The battle of Lexington was a brief fight that marked the first war-like conflict. It took place on the morning of April 19, 1775, when about 70 colonial minutemen, commanded by Captain John Parker, collided with about 800 British soldiers marching their way to Concord, Massachusetts, to steal some equipment from the colonial militia. The British soldiers were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith (Lexington, Battle of).
Clark, during the 1770’s, was helping Kentucky defend itself from Native Americans. At the time, Clark was transporting gunpowder to the frontier between the Americans and the British. The Native Americans, who lived in the Northwest, disliked the Americans in the Northwest and their claim on Kentucky and with the British backing, waged war with the Americans. Clark was now in charge of defending the settlements and was promoted to major. Clark then made plans in taking British held forts in the region and persuaded Governor Patrick Henry to support him in capturing the forts. Clark had won the support of Patrick Henry, was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and was given command of the mission (“George Clark” 1). With the command of the mission, Clark had lead 175 men who traveled to Fort Kaskaskia, Illinois in six days. The fort was almost defenseless and was easily taken with Clark’s force. Clark had sent Captain Leonard Helm to capture Fort Sackville, after learning that the fort was undefended from American spies. Leonard Helm had then captured the fort, but was taken back by Henry Hamilton shortly after. Henry Hamilton, the famous British “Hair Buyer”, used militia and Native Americans to take Fort Sackville. In the winter, Clark lead a force of 170 men ...
The Sons of Liberty was a group of men fighting for their independence. They were fighting before the continental congress or the beginning of the Revolutionary War. They were called out as being disobedient. They were believed to be political radicals at the time; doing what they felt was right for their town and their colonies. The Sons of Liberty were everyday men that expanded from New England all the way down the thirteen colonies. However, the high activity political gang started to appear with aggressiveness in Boston, Massachusetts. This paper will demonstrate the origins of the Sons of Liberty in Boston, their manifest, leading actions, and development within their first year.
...rader. Committees operating under rules set by the newly created Continental Association enforced a boycott on good from British. The Congress pledged to support Massachusetts if an attack were to happen; meaning all of the colonies would become involved. The American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord a year after congress gave Massachusetts this pledge." it was not immediately clear to British, and even to many Americans, that the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord were the first battles of war." (Brinkley, 128) Colonists prepared a militia, organizing small, armed groups ready for quick action as Minute Men, ready for an open rebellion. At the same time the military governor of Massachusetts began fortifying Boston, despite the discussions underway in Parliament, the Massachusetts military, marched on Concord, where militia supplies were stored.
...a out into the harbor. Then a few years later in 1775 soldiers were told there was an armory in concord and marched to it. While marching they came across minute men who are not soldiers but will fight to protect their homes.
As the story goes on it is the next morning, and attention is called to a man named John Parker. At this point the British soldiers along with General Gage were marching toward concord. When this occurred there were also minutemen or the American soldiers waiting there as well to engage in a battle. This is seen in the poem. The man tells John Parker to look outside his windows and to witness independence. He says this because both men believe that the American soldiers will win. It is to say that they have no doubt in there minds that they will win. Continuing on, as the British approached concord and so the American soldiers are told to line up in formation. This man asks for all the men of [President] Lincoln to start getting ready to fight. He mentions that through the wounds of this war liberty will be won, because these men know that some will die in order to win. The poet calls Prescott and Revere in hurry. He tells the other men such as Chelmsford, Littleton, Carlisle, and others to line up in formation.
The Minute Men shall be the first for they were thought to show up on a minute’s notice (Hence their name, “Minute Men”). They were generally known as militia because they were local citizens fighting the British when they attack small communities. These were the type of people fighting at the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. They donned no uniforms and had no training in fighting compared to the British army and the Continental army. When the Minute Men went into combat, they were each expected to have a gun, some ammo, and their equipment. The towns would usually help each other out but that was as far as they went. Instead of the “Traditional Style” like the British used, these men used “Indian Tactics”.
In the book Women in the Civil War, by Mary Massey, the author tells about how American women had an impact on the Civil War. She mentioned quite a few famous and well-known women such as, Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, who were nurses, and Pauline Cushman and Belle Boyd, who were spies. She also mentioned black abolitionists, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, feminist Susan B. Anthony, and many more women. Massey talks about how the concept of women changed as a result of the war. She informed the readers about the many accomplishments made by those women. Because of the war, women were able to achieve things, which caused for them to be viewed differently in the end as a result.
That day would happen on March 5th 1770. On this evening, a British guard was patrolling a custom house, some colonists began taunting the soldier and soon a crowd of angry colonists arrived. The British officer decided it would be necessary to call in more troops. Later, around eight soldiers arrived to support the guard, by this time the mob grew to about three hundred people. A colonist kicked one of the soldiers down, and the soldier fired upon the crowd. After a short pause, the other British troop fired on the colonists. Thanks to the press and art of Paul Revere, this event is now known as the Boston Massacre. The Boston Tea Party, one of the most famous events of per-revolution America. The British imposed a tax on all tea and this united the colonists in an agreement against the tax. The Sons of Liberty once again mobbed up and threatened the shop owners to not support the tax. Throughout the colonies, agents of the Tea Act were forced to resign. When this didn't seem to be enough, the Sons of Liberty devised a plan at the liberty tree in Boston. On the night of December 16th a group of men dressed as Mohawk Indians, boarded four British ships carrying tea and dumped it all into the harbor. This tea never landed and therefore this tea was never
They were truly a remarkable testament to the hard work and ingenuity of the time that even the men of the time could have learned from.
Boston Massacre was a street fight between the patriots and British troops that happened on March 5, 1770. It is remembered as an important event that helped gain America’s Independence. The riot was about the disagreement the settlers of America had on the Townshend Act. The Townshend Act was an act passed by the British ruler and it was about taxing on everything except tea. The Americans disapproved of the act, they believed it was an abuse of power. The Boston Massacre resulted in public protest and threats against Britain’s Townshend Act. During the Boston Massacre, there were five deaths. The town demanded a trial for Captain Preston and his men for murder. John Adam and Josiah Quincy the second were on the British side and didn’t believe