Prescott Town House

Some time in December I was appointed to take I he company raised in the towns of Petersham, Athol and Rutland, which was immediately filled by voluntary enlistment. I had enlisted as private soldiers thirteen old commissioned officers, among whom was Gen. Kufus Putnam, in whose regiment I had served during the War of the Revolution. Uuring these transactions Capt. Daniel Shays, commander-in-chief of the opposite party was not idle. He had collected, it was said, eight or ten thousand men, a part of whom, under the commaod of Luke Bay, were somewhere in the vicinity of West Springfield. Another large force commanded by Adam Wheeler collected first at Princeton, from thence marched to New Braintree, while Shays with the main body was in or near the town of Pelham. While Gen, Lincoln and his troops lay at Worcester, news arrived that Shays with his division was on the march to Springfield to tiike possession of the Continental stores, arms, ammunition, etc.. which were deposited there. Gen. Lincoln marched immediately to Brookfield, where he halted for the night. The next day we continued our march for Springfield, and white on the way sometime before noon we heard that Shays had reached there already and had had an encounter with Gen. Shepherd, who was there guarding the United States property with a detachment of government troops. We soon met stragglers from Shays' retreating troops, among others a sleigh with two or three dead men, who, as a soldier remarked, - " poor fellows, had had their grievances redressed forever," the "redress of grievances " being a term much in use among them. It was with no small grief that I now recognir-ed in one of the dead my old friend Spicer. ... I had known him as a faithful soldier through the war and as one who at various times had manifested much afl^ection for me. On our arrival at Springfield we found that Shays had made a rapid retreat towards Pelham, and Gen. Shepherd gave us the following account of the battle, if it could be termed such : ' Shays and his men were found to be rapidly marching to Springfield, where the Continental stores were deposited and guarded by Gen. Shepherd, who immediately sent out his aids with a flag to inform Shaj's that if he advanced any further he should fire upon him. He returned no answer, but continued marching more rapidly towards Shepherd, who then ordered his field-pieces loaded, some with balls and some with grape shot, and when within reach of the guns he ordered one of the field-pieces to be fired over the beads of the insurgents, which was quickly done, but they only quickened their march instead of baiting, as he had hoped they would do. Another piece was now ordered with as good aim as possible at the main body. This had the desired effect, a rapid and disorderly retreat, leaving their dead and one mortally wounded on the field. Gen. Shepherd remarked to me that at no time in his life was he called upon to perform so painful a duty as when he ordered good aim to be taken at Shays and his men, many of whom had fought at his side and stood firm through the most trying scenes of the late war. I had served under Shays and knew him to be a brave and good soldier or officer, and I can truly say that it was with no regret on my part that I had not reached here in season to see him and his mis' taken followers fired iipon as enemies.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

While Sliays was advancing upon Springfield Capt. Day had collected a considerable force on the opposite side of the river at West Springfield to re enforce Shays if necessary. Therefore, soon as Lincoln's men had taken some refreshments we crossed the river to call Capt. Day to account for bis acts and deeds, but on our arrival we found that he, in hia wisdom, had thought best to disband his troops, and that neither he nor his kinsmen were to be found. We next marched to old Hadley, thinking it possible that Day might collect his men and attempt to join Shays at Pelham. Here we remained two or three days to refresh and wait for our artillery and stores to overtake us. About the third day of our tarry in Hadley, at sunset we received orders to march immediately as we supposed to Pelliam, but the fact was that Gen. Lincoln had received information that Shays had left Pelham and was on his way to Petersham. We left immediately, late as it was. The weather was comfortably warm, but about ten or twelve o'clock in the night the wind changed to the northwest, blew furiously, accompanied by a violent snow-squall, and became intolerably cold. The snow was deep, though a fine sleigh path would have made it good travelling had it not been that our artillery was in front with wheels so much wider than the path that the road was filled with loose snow, which rendered the travelling as uncomfortable as can well be imagined. We reached Petersham about sunrise next morning, tired, hungry and frozen, having travelled in the course of the night thirty miles, the hardest march I ever endured. I found myself badly frost-bitten, and found but two of my whole company who were not more or less frozen. Shays being informed that Gen . Lincoln was close in his rear thought it best to leave town, and so rapid were his movements that many left their provisions, and some on the fire preparing for breakfast. Our quartermaster had gone in front of us to look out for houses to lodge in, so when we reached the main street we had only to take possession of such as were pointed out to us, some of which were still occupied by Shays' men, who soon left and gave us a peaceable entrance. Never were a good fire and breakfast enjoyed more highly by any set of men. The main body of Shays' troops marched throngh the town to the northern hounds, which pass through a valley, and were inamensuro out of tho colJ wind. There tbey made a halt» probably to consider what was best to be done; either to make a firm stand and give Gen. Lincoln battle or to make a final retreat. It appears that they cbose the hitter, as many relumed to their homes.

Passage source: History of Worcester County, Massachusetts, published 1889.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Petersham Town - 13,142 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.