MILITARY SERVICE OF OUR ANCESTORS

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"God and the Soldier, all men adore

in time of strife, and not before.

When the danger is past,

all wrongs arighted;

God is forgotten;

the Old Soldier slighted."

(Written by an anonymous soldier under the Duke of Marlborough, ca. 1705)

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"You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by;

Sneak home and pray you'll never know

The Hell where youth and laughter go."

(Written by Siegfried Sassoon, WWI English Infantry Officer)

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"When you go home, tell them of us and say:

For your tomorrow, we gave our today."

(Inscribed on a WWII memorial at Kohima, India, near the Burma border)

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There are many on our Family Tree who "gave their today" in service to their country, from the earliest skirmishes with the Indians to the holocaust of World War II and beyond.

The following is a brief summary of the military service of some of our ancestors who participated in these conflicts, listed alphabetically below by surname:

Stephen ACKLEY (1739-1823): Served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War; enlisted from East Haddam, Connecticut, 1775; was in the 2d regiment, 1st company, Capt. Joseph Spencer, and later in the 8th regiment, 9th company, Capt. Abraham Filer; subsequently his son, Stephen (1763-1836), enlisted as his substitute.

Tobias ALLEN (b. 1711): Soldier in Major Cutts' 4th Company on Pepperill's expedition to capture the French fort of Louisbourg at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, 1745.

Cassius Bartlett BARNES, Sr. (1872-1942): Graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, Class of 1895; served in the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and World War I (suspected); was part of Naval detachment that travelled to France in 1905 to bring remains of John Paul Jones home; earned the Spanish Campaign Medal and the Victory Medal; served on many US Navy ships; retired from active duty ca. 1918 as a Commander.

Cassius Bartlett BARNES, Jr. (1922-1992): Attended The Citadel, enlisting for active duty in the Army Air Corps in 1943; service in World War II included participation in the Battles of Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes Salient, Rhineland, Central Europe, and the Air Offensive over Europe; returned to The Citadel after 1945 honorable discharge to complete his degree.

Cassius McDonald BARNES (1845-1925): Lied about his age in order to enlist for service in the Civil War at age 16; served in the military telegraph and engineering corps under Generals Lyon and Sherman.

Darwin Henry BARNES (1838-1916): Was a captain and assistant quartermaster in the Civil War, 1865.

Harry Cooper BARNES (1873-1943): Served in the Army in the Philippines in the Spanish American War; was on General Pershing's staff during World War I; retired as a Brigadier General; received the Distinguished Service Medal.

Harry Cooper BARNES, Jr. (1897-1953): Graduated from West Point, 1917; was badly wounded in France during World War I; was in Germany on occupation duty; made the Army his career; retired as a Colonel in 1943 after WW I injury began giving him trouble again; received the Distinguished Service Cross.

Julius Agustus BARNES (1847-1924): Enlisted in the Union Army from Albion, Michigan (1862) during the Civil War.

Lucien Jerome BARNES (1839-1890): Was a major and Assistant Adjutant General in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Abner BARTLETT (1755-1792): Served in the Revolutionary War as a Private in Capt. Jonathan Barnes's company, Col. Jonathan Warner's regiment, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775.

Liberty Clarence “Sam” BARTLETT (1833-1862: Served in the Civil War, on the Confederate side, perhaps with one of the first three companies mustered in 1861 from Camden, Ouachita, Arkansas; was killed in the Battle of Shiloh.

Obadiah BARTLETT (1730-1779): Served in the Revolutionary War as a lieutenant in Captain Jonathan Barnes's company, Col. Jonathan Warner's regiment of militia at the Lexington Alarm of April 19, 1775.

Thomas BAXTER (ca. 1653-1713): Served and was wounded in John Gorham's company during King Philip's War, 1675.

Timothy BRYANT (1750-1794): Was a Minute Man at the Lexington Alarm during the American Revolution.

Philippe DELANOYE (ca. 1603-1681): Volunteered for the Pequot War, 1637.

Alan Arthur FENTON: Was a Naval aerial gunner during WW II, serving in the Pacific theater of operations.

Scott Thomas FENTON: Enlisted in US Navy in 1979; trained with distinction as a sonar technician; served on the USS VALDEZ. While on active duty, during a cruise aboard the VALDEZ in the Indian Ocean, he was admitted to a Navy hospital in Rota, Spain, for a routine test, and was put in an open ward with hepatitis patients and subsequently contracted hepatitis C himself. Eighteen years later, on July 13, 1999, after surviving treatment for liver cancer (a direct result of the prolonged hepatitis), he received a cadaverous liver transplant at MCV Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. So far, so good, thank God!

Daniel FORBES (1710-1780): Member of Westborough (MA) Committee of Correspondence during the American Revolution, 1774; and then Representative to Massachusetts General Court afterwards (1777).

William FRENCH (1603-1681): Officer in King Philip's War.

Jabez GORHAM (1656-1725): Wounded while serving in King Philip's War.

John GORHAM (1619-1675): As a captain in the militia in King Philip's War, he took part in the Narragansett fight in December 1675. He was wounded and died of the resulting fever.

Henry HOGAN (Unknown): Perhaps killed during the War of 1812, the Battle of New Orleans.

Stephen HOPKINS (ca. 1578-1644): Volunteered for the Pequot War.

George HUBBARD (1730-1809): Served as lieutenant in the Revolutionary War, 1777, in the second regiment Connecticut line, and as captain when Tryon invaded the colony.

Thomas HURLBURT (1610-after 1671): Enlisted from Hartford, Connecticut, to serve in the Pequot War, ca. 1637. He served with Captain Lyon Gardiner, and "was blacksmith and soldier at the fort in Saybrook" [Connecticut].

Jonathan HYDE (1626-1711): Fought in King Philip's War.

Ashbel KILBOURNE (1759-1814): Served in the American Revolution and suffered much in the cause of his country; was taken prisoner, 1777, and was almost frozen from exposure during his confinement in a British prison in Philadelphia, losing several toes as a result; Congress granted him a pension as he was totally disabled from further service.

Thomas KILBOURNE (ca. 1578-ca. 1639): May have been one of the victims of an Indian massacre in 1637 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, an event which led to the Pequot War.

James NOONAN (ca. 1730-1787): Two periods of service in the Revolutionary War -- First was as a Private, Capt. Daniel Sullivan's co., Col. Benjamin Forster's (6th Lincold Co.) regt.; engaged Nov. 8, 1780; discharged Nov. 12, 1780; service, 4 days; company ordered on duty by Col. John Allan to protect inhabitants of Frenchman's Bay; Roll sworn to at No. 4, Lincoln Co., and certified at Eastern Indian Department, Headquarters, Machias. Second was as a clerk; pay roll for Capt. Stephen Smith, Truck Master at Machias, and his clerks; entered service Feb. 1, 1779; discharged April 1, 1780; service, 1 year, 2 mos.

Ezekiel OLDS (1727-1777): Was a soldier in the French and IndianWar; later, was a member of the Committee of Safety, Correspondence and Inspection of Brookfield, Massachusetts; was a Corporal and Captain in the Revolutionary War, fighting in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill; died at the Siege of Boston, 1777.

Joseph OLDS (1761-1844): Was a private in Captain Morgan's company during the American Revolution (1778) and was promoted to corporal in 1779; was on duty at West Point when Benedict Arnold escaped to the VULTURE.

William OLDS (1680-1749): Was a Captain at the Siege of Lewisburg in Queen Anne's War, 1747.

Elisha PARKER (1727-1796): Served in the American Revolution as a Private under Captains Shaw, Dyer and Hall, Colonels Foster and Allan, Massachusetts Line.

John Newton PARMENTER: Was a 2nd Lieutenant in Captain Abel Wilder's company of Minute-men which marched in response to the alarm of April 19, 1775; "agreed to tarry" at Dorchester Heights until March 1, 1777.

George ROBERTS (1752-1824): Served in Captain Jonathan Wells' company, Col. Erastus Wolcott's regiment during the Revolutionary War.

John ROBERTS (1747-1837): Enlisted as a trumpeter in Captain Eli Butler's company, Major Elisha Sheldon's regiment, of Connecticut Light Horse, 1776.

Thomas SPENCER (1607-1687): Served in the militia and the Pequot War; granted land in 1671 for his service.

Joseph TREAT (1764- 1849): Served several enlistments and was a pensioner when he died in 1849.

Stephen TREAT (1734-1817): Was a soldier in the American Revolution, in Captain Eli Butler's Light Horse Regiment, 1776.

Henry Whinkler (1745-1827): Served in the Fourth Regiment, Fourteenth Company, under Captain Daniel Godfrey, during the American Revolution, 1776.

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Copyright 2004 Kathryn P.B. Fenton All rights reserved.