Page 38 - Armstrong Bloodline - ebook_Neat

At this time, there were three military companies in town, one of cavalry and two of infantry, belonging to the
regiment comprising Shoreham, Bridport and Addison. The company of horse, of which a few members belonged
in Bridport, was organized in 1802, and was commanded in 1814, by Captain Nathaniel North, Ebenezer Bush
being Lieutenant. This troop started for Burlington on Saturday morning, going in citizens' dress and taking their
own horses. General Chipman and Elisha Lewis, his aid, rode with them. There were two full companies of
infantry in town, the East, commanded by Captain Halladay, the West, by Captain Samuel Hand. The two were
merged into one for the expedition, Captain Hand commanding, and Captain Halladay being Lieutenant. All the
men that were liable to do military duty, and many who were exempt from it, volunteered and went. But few
men were left at home. In the Cutting District, Benjamin Healy, an aged man, was the only one remaining. The
people were cheerful, and all engaged in assisting to prepare their friends to leave early next morning. The
women were busy getting provisions and clothes in readiness, and as the horses required were many of them
unprepared, the blacksmiths worked incessantly night and day to fit them for service. Friday night, there was
very little sleep in Shoreham, and many anxious hearts; before dawn, the town was all alive. The farmers went
with their teams to carry the infantry and their supplies. The provisions taken were of the most substantial kind,
being chiefly pork and bread. A few of the men took equipments at home, but the majority obtained them from
the United States deposit at Vergennes.

The cavalry and infantry reached Burlington (VT) Saturday evening. Sunday morning, September 11th, there were
three vessels in readiness to take men on board to cross to Plattsburgh. Two of them were already filled with
others; the Shoreham men, now fully supplied with provisions and ammunition, embarked on the third. At the
same time the sound of the British long guns, as their fleet rounded Cumberland head, came booming over the
placid lake. So distant as was the scene of action, the troops of Shoreham arrived too late for any part in the
collision on shore. They were near enough to the engagement between the fleets to see the flashing of the guns,
and when the smoke lifted, the vessels in clear view. After the firing ceased, the side of victory remained still
uncertain to them, till a little sail-boat, with the stars and stripes floating, came bearing down towards them
under orders from the commodore, and announced the result of the battle and directed them where to land. The
place was in Peru (NY), four miles south of Plattsburgh. They passed the night in barns, but formed early in the
morning, their captain directing them to eat as they marched, and met the news of the British retreat a mile from
Plattsburgh. They were attended into camp by a party of regulars, which had come out to escort them.

One company of nine men, from a distant part of the town, left Shoreham Monday, and went as far as
Vergennes, another party of six as far as Addison, before they received reliable intelligence from the battle. The
booming of cannon, fired to celebrate the victory, was heard in the town, but as no tidings had yet been received
from the scene of action, those at home apprehended that the sounds came from the guns of the enemy
advancing through the lake, and were in great alarm for themselves and their absent townsmen.

On Tuesday or Wednesday, the volunteers re-crossed the lake in rough weather, and returned home in a violent
rain storm. General Chipman took a severe cold on this journey, from the effects of which he suffered until his
death; his Brigade Major, died from a similar cold, soon after reaching home. The rally from Shoreham was a
patriotic one, of a whole community at the call of their country, at the alarm of invasion approaching towards
their homes. The town was then more populous than now, but if the spirit remains and all answer to the same
obligation, Shoreham will never blush to recall with interest the part she took in this stirring episode of war.

The exodus from Shoreham of Elliott's offspring began with Chauncey. While it can be assumed that Chauncey
grew up and worked on his father's farm, after his marriage he owned and ran a grist mill in Shoreham for a time
(grist mills were used in the grinding of grain). In 1820 he sold his mill to his father, Elliott, and moved to St.
Lawrence County, NY where his wife Polly had been born. Perhaps he had been there before as his Grand Aunt
Lois (Ames) also lived in this area for a time. He appears in the 1850 and 1860 censuses in Lisbon, St. Lawrence,

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