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17349 - CAPTAIN AND DRUMMER, 2nd MASSACHUSETTS
REGIMENT, 1777
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| When Colonel John Bailey's 2nd Massachusetts
Regiment deployed for battle at Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777,
its opponents must have thought they were facing raw militia rather
than seasoned regulars. State and Continental authorities had issued
the regiment no uniforms, forcing its personnel to serve in civilian
attire. Reports published in American newspapers that year described
deserters from the 2nd Massachusetts as wearing red or blue coats,
blue or brown jackets, waistcoats of various colors and patterns,
striped flannel drawers, leather breeches, and shoes with brass or
silver buckles.
The 2nd Massachusetts possessed a core of veterans who had followed General George Washington in 1775 and 1776. Bailey's Regiment was transferred from Washington's Main Army to the Northern Department on February 9, 1777, to guard upstate New York from a British invasion force assembling in Canada. On August 13, two months after Major General John Burgoyne commenced his Saratoga Campaign, the 2nd Massachusetts joined the 8th and 9th Massachusetts Regiments, the 1st New York Regiment, and the 1st Canadian Regiment in Brigadier General Ebenezer Learned's 4th Massachusetts Brigade. That same month, Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger besieged a small Patriot garrison at Fort Stanwix. Learned volunteered his brigade to march west with Major General Benedict Arnold and relieve the endangered outpost. After St. Leger retreated before Arnold's advance, Learned's Brigade backtracked to assist Major General Horatio Gates in trapping Burgoyne's larger British army at Saratoga. Gates released Learned's Brigade from its entrenchments late during the Battle of Freeman's Farm, September 19, 1777. Moving to bolster the American left, Learned's regiments suffered an initial repulse, but they rallied and helped check Burgoyne's best troops by 5:00 P.M. Learned's Brigade began the Battle of Bemis Heights on October
7, 1777, holding the Patriot center. A counterattack by Learned's
Continentals drove Burgoyne's Redcoats and Germans back to a line
of field works. Led by the indomitable Benedict Arnold, Learned's
Brigade seized some cabins situated between two enemy redoubts.
Then it captured the redoubt anchoring the British right flank,
delivering the blow that prompted Burgoyne's surrender ten days
later. In December 1777, the 2nd Massachusetts drew enough green
and red cloth from Continental stores to make real uniforms. Less
than two years later, the regiment received handsome blue coats
with white facings, finally acquiring a uniform that matched its
reputation. |
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