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2

n Street. 1860.

Transcriber's Note:

Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. A table of contents, though not present in the original publication, has been provided below:

I. A MONUMENT TO COL. BIGELOW. II. EARLY EFFORTS FOR LIBERTY. III. THE MINUTE MEN. IV. MAJOR BIGELOW A PRISONER. V. IN PENNSYLVANIA. VI. AT VALLEY FORGE. VII. THE BATTLE OF MONMOUTH. VIII. THE SLAUGHTER AT WYOMING. IX. SCOUTING. X. DISASTERS AT THE SOUTH. XI. BATTLE AT YORKTOWN. XII. CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION.

TO COL. T. BIGELOW LAWRENCE, A GREAT GRANDSON OF THE HERO OF THESE PAGES, I Dedicate this feeble effort.

It is written to perpetuate the memory of one of

WORCESTER'S MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SONS, and also of HIS COMPANIONS IN ARMS, WHO FOR EIGHT YEARS STRUGGLED SO HARD TO GAIN THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE COLONIES.

INTRODUCTION.

The writer of the following pages was dandled upon the knee of a worthy sire, who had spent eight years of his life in the struggle for Independence, and taught me the name of Col. Bigelow, long before I was able to articulate his name. Many have been the times, while sitting on my father's lap around the old hearthstone, now more than fifty years since, that I listened to affecting reminiscences of Col. Bigelow and others, until his voice would falter, and tears would flow down his aged and careworn face, and then my mother and elder members of the family would laugh, and inquire, "what is there in all of that, that should make you weep?" but I always rejoiced with him, and wept when I saw him weep. After the death of my father, having engaged in the active scenes of life, those childish memories in some degree wore away, but the happiest moments of my life have been spent in company with some old Revolutionary Patriot, while I listened to the recital of their sufferings and their final conquest. The first history of the American Revolution I ever read, is found in Morse's Geography, published in 1814. This I read until I had

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