Joseph Stebbins- A Pioneer at Outbreak of the Revolution

JOSEPH STEBBINS 9

in the new army which he was raising to defy Gage. As fast as the men found places they were transferred to the rolls of the new service with pay from the day they left Deerfield. Capt. Locke was given a post of honor in the new army. In some way—it may have been his soldierly bearing or his known activity in the rebel cause—Stebbins had attracted the attention of Ward who, on April 27, appointed him Captain in Col. Jonathan Brewer's regiment, and his appointment was forwarded to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. It may be a surprising statement, but it is a fact, that Stebbins was appointed a Captain in the rebel army nearly two months before Washington was placed in his exalted position.

For unexplained reasons, before Stebbins's commission was received, Ward placed Stebbins in Col. Prescott's regiment, and on the night of June 16, he was active with pick and spade at Bunker Hill, while the next day he was in the thickest of the fight, serving as a Captain under Brewer, with a company not fully recruited.

His commission, dated July 1, 1775, signed by John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, now hangs in Memorial Hall. This Congress was made up of men selected from the leading spirits of the rebel colonies.

This commission shows Stebbins to have been a Captain in the Seventh Regiment raised by Washington for the Revolutionary Army.

The commission follows:—

In Congress.

The Delegates of the United Colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Suffex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina and South-Carolina to Joseph Stebbins, Esquire.

We reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Patriotism, Valour, Conduct and Fidelity DO by these presents constitute and appoint you to be Captain of a Company in the 7th Regiment, commanded by Col. Brewer, in the army of the United Colonies, raised for the Defense of American