Joseph Stebbins- A Pioneer at Outbreak of the Revolution

14 JOSEPH STEBBINS

 

Capt. Joseph Stebbins	Sergt. Daniel Slate	Corp. Samuel Gladding
Lt. John Bardwell	Sergt. Samuel Turner	Corp. Jason Parmenter
Sergt. George Herbert	Corp. David Hoyt	Drummer, James Warren
Sergt. Abel Parker	Corp. Zibah Phillips	Fifer, Justin Hitchcock

Privates

Allen, Joseph	Frary, Nathan	Parker, Samuel
Andrews, Nehemiah	Galt, John	Sanderson, Joseph
Beaman, John	Gray, David	Sheldon, Amasa
Billings, Thomas	Gray, Robert	Sheldon, Cephas
Bliss, David	Harding, Abiel	Stone, Elias
Burt, Ithamar	Joiner, Edward	Taylor, Eliphalet
Burt, Simeon	Joiner, William	Taylor, John
Catlin, Timothy	Maxwell, Philip	Tute, Moses
Childs, Lemuel	Miller, Tilotson	Webster, Stephen
Connable, John	Newton, Jeremiah	Wells, Thomas
Dickinson, Eliphalet	Newton, Levi	Wheat, Samuel
Faxon, Thomas	Orvis, William

The day after the surrender of Saratoga, Capt. Stebbins and his company took the trail for home, the blood of each tingling with the consciousness that he had done something to bring about this glorious result.

We must leave to the imagination the stories these gallant soldiers told to their neighbors and one another while peacefully smoking their pipes at their evening haunt in the store of Col. David Field, which stood under the folds of the liberty flag, opposite the home of their Captain.

Comparatively little is known of Capt. Stebbins's military history during the closing years of the war. In 1779 and 1780 he is in lists of soldiers "serving short terms from Deerfield." In 1781 he was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel in the "Fifth regiment of militia in the County of Hampshire." This commission signed by John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts, now hangs in Memorial Hall. This year Stebbins enlisted for three years or the war. In the late autumn of 1783 Washington discharged all the soldiers whom he had so enlisted.