Footnotes and Further Reading

William Shepard

1737-1817
Footnote # 1

Robert K. Wright, The Continental Army, The Army Lineage Series (Washington, D.C. : Center of Military History, U.S. Army, 1983), 206.

Footnote # 2

Much has been made of the large proportion of Revolutionary War veterans who marched against the Massachusetts government in the fall and winter of 1786-87. (See, for example, Leonard Richards, Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 95.) This emphasis blurs important differences in service and experience between veterans of the Massachusetts militia and veterans of the Continental Army. Of the veterans who took up arms against the government, large numbers had served in the militia rather than the Continental Line; of those who had served as commissioned officers in the Continental Line, most had commanded no unit larger than a company. Captains Daniel Shays, Luke Day and Eli Parsons were typical of Regulator officers in their rank and military training. Higher ranking Continental Army veterans like General Shepard typically supported the Massachusetts government during the Regulation, despite the fact that some are known to have expressed sympathy for the complaints and concerns of the Regulators. For an excellent discussion of the nature and significance of serving as a commissioned officer in the Continental Army, see Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character (Chapel Hill : Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., by the University of North Carolina Press, 1979.)

Footnote # 3

Marion L. Starkey, A Little Rebellion, ( NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955), 78-83; Richards, Shays's Rebellion, 12.

Footnote # 4

William Shepard to Henry Knox, January 12, 1787, Shepard Papers, Memorial Libraries, Historic Deerfield.

Footnote # 5

William Shepard to Henry Knox, January 12, 1787, Shepard Papers, Memorial Libraries, Historic Deerfield.

Footnote # 6

Ibid.

Footnote # 7

Ibid.; William Shepard to James Bowdoin, January 19, 1787, Shepard Papers.

Footnote # 8

William Shepard to James Bowdoin, January 19, 1787, Shepard Papers.

Footnote # 9

William Shepard to James Bowdoin, January 26, 1787, Shepard Papers.

Footnote # 10

Starkey, A Little Rebellion, 136, 143-45; Richards, Shays's Rebellion, 31.

Footnote # 11

William Shepard to Henry Knox, n.d., Shepard Papers.

Footnote # 12

Alfred Minot Copeland, Our County and its People: A History of Hampden County, Massachusetts, 2 Vols. (Boston : Century Memorial Publishing Company, 1902), 2: 414-17.

Footnote # 13

Ibid.


Further Reading

Copeland, Alfred Minot. Our County and its People: A History of Hampden County, Massachusetts, 2 Vols. Boston: Century Memorial Publishing Company, 1902. Gross, Robert A., ed. In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Rebellion. Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 1993.

Gross, Robert A., ed. In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Rebellion. Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 1993.

Richards, Leonard. Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.

Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character. Chapel Hill : Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., by the University of North Carolina Press, 1979.

Starkey, Marion L. A Little Rebellion. New York, Knopf, 1955.