Commander of the Fifteenth Regiment of the Massachusetts Line in the Continental Army, during THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. WORCESTER: PRINTED BY HENRY J. HOWLAND, 212 Main Street. 1860. 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. The writer

It is well known in this community, that one of the descendants of Col. Bigelow is about to erect a monument to his memory within the enclosure of our beautiful central park. Col. Timothy Bigelow Lawrence of Boston, a great grandson of the subject of this notice, received permission from the city government, last year, to enclose a lot of sufficient size, and to erect such a monument as he might deem suitable and proper. It is understood that Col. Lawrence will commence this benevolent and patri

The name of Timothy Bigelow stands conspicuous in the history of Worcester. As early as 1773, we find him on a committee with Wm. Young, David Bancroft, Samuel Curtis, and Stephen Salisbury, to report upon the grievances under which the province labored, and also upon what was then called the "Boston Pamphlet," which had been introduced at the town meeting in March. The writer of this article thinks that this "Boston Pamphlet" was John Hancock's oration in commemoration of the "Bloody Massacre"

In August, 1774, a company of minute men were enrolled under the command of Capt. Bigelow, and met each evening after the labors of the day, for drill and martial exercise. Muskets were procured for their arming from Boston. Their services were soon required for the defence of the country. At eleven o'clock, A. M., April 19th, 1775, an express came to town, shouting, as he passed through the street at full speed, "To arms! to arms! the war is begun!" The bell rang out the alarm, cannons were fir

We left Major Bigelow a prisoner of war. Whether he was confined in Canada, transported to Halifax, or placed aboard an English prison ship, does not appear on the record. But tradition has it, that he went aboard one of those tory vessels, so noted in the history of George the Third. The severe treatment and cruelty he received here, did not cool his ardor. His motto was, "I have not begun to fight yet." An exchange having been effected in the summer of 1776, after an imprisonment of seven mont

We left Col. Bigelow with the American army, under the command of Gen. Gates, on the banks of the Hudson, exulting over the capture of Burgoyne and the flower of the British army. The next we hear of him, he, with his regiment, together with Col. Morgan's celebrated rifle corps and one or two other regiments, are ordered to march to the relief of the army in Pennsylvania, under the command of Gen. Washington. This campaign in Pennsylvania was very disastrous to the American army. Being poorly cl

Valley Forge is on the west side of the Schuylkill, twenty miles from Philadelphia, and this is where Col. Bigelow spent the winter of 1777-78, with his regiment, and here is where the soldiers of freedom suffered most intensely. The British general had derived no other fruit from all his recent victories, than of having procured excellent winter quarters for his army in Philadelphia. Here they spent the winter within the splendid mansions of that city, feasting upon the best the country afforde

The battle of Monmouth, so called by the Americans, was fought in Freehold, Monmouth county, N. J., situated thirty-five miles southeast from Trenton. The commander-in-chief had detached two brigades to the support of Gen. Wayne, who had been sent on as a vanguard, and had already come up with the British rear. These two brigades were commanded by Gens. Lee and Lafayette. At this time Col. Bigelow was under the command of Gen. Lafayette. This vanguard of the American army had so severely galled

The history of Col. Bigelow is so interwoven with that of the Revolution, that it is difficult to separate the two. We shall therefore, give in this chapter a short account of the bloody butchery of the inhabitants of that beautiful little colony at Wyoming, and what Col. Bigelow thought of that demoniac cruelty, the bare remembrance of which makes us shudder. Wilkesbarre is the shire town of Luzerne county, Pa. It is situated in the Wyoming valley, one hundred and fourteen miles northeast from

After the British evacuated Rhode Island, Col. Bigelow moves on with his regiment, and the next we hear of him he is at "Verplank's Point." The American army was at this time very much divided. The great object of the commander-in-chief was to annoy the British forces as much as possible, and we think that it is not saying too much of Col. Bigelow, that no Colonel in the whole American army was better qualified for that service. His whole life had been and was at this time, devoted to his countr

Gen. Gates takes the command of the southern army. The British at this time had almost undisputed possession of South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina. In this condition Gates resolved to risk a general battle with Lord Cornwallis, and for which he was severely blamed. He lost the battle, hence the blame. If, on the other hand, he had gained it, he would have gained another laurel to place by the side of the one gained at Saratoga. At this battle, Gen. Gates lost more than two thousand men,

Yorktown is a port of entry in Virginia, 70 miles E. S. E. from Richmond, on the south side of York river, opposite Gloucester. The British army from the South had encamped at this place and fortified it. Col. Bigelow had arrived with his regiment to join Gen. Green. Col. Bigelow is now in Gen. Lafayette's detachment. Lafayette's second officer is Col. Hamilton, aid-de-camp of the commander-in-chief, a young man of the highest expectations, and accompanied by Col. Laurens, son of the former Pres

After the surrender of Yorktown, the American army divide. Part of the troops return to the banks of the Hudson, to watch the motions of Clinton, who had still a large force at New York. The rest were sent to South Carolina, to reinforce General Green, and confirm the authority of Congress in those provinces. Col. Bigelow and his regiment were among those that returned to the Hudson. The Marquis de la Fayette embarked about the same time for Europe, bearing with him the affection of the whole Am