{"id":1538,"date":"2012-08-21T15:24:59","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T15:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=1538"},"modified":"2012-08-27T16:12:56","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T16:12:56","slug":"thomas-hill-american-revolutionary-war-minuteman-hero-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/thomas-hill-american-revolutionary-war-minuteman-hero-gone.html","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Hill\u2014American Revolutionary War Minuteman Hero Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHardly a man is now alive<\/p>\n

Who remembers that famous day and year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In searching through early 19th<\/sup> Century newspapers, time and again we find historical obituaries about the passing of \u201cRevolutionary Heroes,\u201d as America\u2019s newspapers recorded the honored service of those who fought to secure this country\u2019s freedom from England.<\/p>\n

This 1851 American Revolutionary War soldier\u2019s obituary of Thomas Hill is a good example.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>
Massachusetts Spy (Worcester, Massachusetts), 15 July 1851, page 3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This soldier\u2019s obituary says of Thomas Hill: \u201cHe was in the battle of Concord, and was on Bunker Hill, but not in the engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wait\u2014he was there at the battle but didn\u2019t fight?<\/p>\n

Why was he given a pension by the U.S. federal government and called a \u201cRevolutionary Hero\u201d in this historical obituary if he was there at the battle but not engaged in the fighting?<\/p>\n

Digging deeper in GenealogyBank I found this old newspaper article profiling Thomas Hill when he was 89, one year before he died. It was published in the New Hampshire Gazette<\/em> (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), 23 April 1850, page 2, giving more details about his military service.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>So he was at the Battle of Concord as a 14-year-old boy and also at the Battle of Bunker Hill \u201cwith his father and eldest brother Abraham.\u201d They were part of \u201cthe volunteer minute men who fought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas Hill went on to fight in \u201ctwo campaigns in the Jerseys and New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas Hill was honored along with \u201cfour other survivors, being all that could be found in the country around who were active in the scenes of 1775.\u201d<\/p>\n

And honored he was\u2014the historical newspaper article went on to say:<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>We can picture the old Revolutionary War veteran being escorted by the grateful citizens of West Cambridge over the same route used by the British when they attacked Lexington and Concord.<\/p>\n

It calls to mind the words of the poet Longfellow:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cListen my children and you shall hear<\/p>\n

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,<\/p>\n

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;<\/p>\n

Hardly a man is now alive<\/p>\n

Who remembers that famous day and year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Longfellow\u2019s immortal words were published in January 1861, 11 years after the 1850 tribute to Thomas Hill. Perhaps he was inspired by this celebration honoring Hill and the other four remaining men \u201cwho remembered that famous day and year.\u201d<\/p>\n

GenealogyBank gives us the key opportunity to dig in and find the details of the thousands who served as soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. Search GenealogyBank\u2019s newspaper archives<\/a> and document your ancestors\u2014don\u2019t let their stories be lost.<\/p>\n

<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.\u201d \u2014Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In searching through early 19th Century newspapers, time and again we find historical obituaries about the passing of \u201cRevolutionary Heroes,\u201d as America\u2019s newspapers recorded the honored service of those who fought to secure this country\u2019s freedom from England. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[1076,1128,2916,5282,2346,1031,1762,1661,3207,2191,443,1067,1070,1038,27,1084,1068,500,441,5446,2345,442,1156],"class_list":["post-1538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-america","tag-american","tag-battle-of-bunker-hill","tag-british","tag-bunker-hill","tag-concord","tag-father","tag-genealogybank-2","tag-hill","tag-history","tag-ma","tag-massachusetts","tag-military","tag-newspaper","tag-newspapers","tag-obituaries","tag-obituary","tag-paul-revere","tag-revolutionary-war","tag-thomas","tag-thomas-hill","tag-united-states","tag-worcester"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}