Shays' Settlement in Vermont: A Story of Revolt and Archaeology

By Stephen D Butz

“Reads very much like an adventure story . . . interweaving the history of the rebellion with the eventual discovery . . . of the Shaysite settlement.” —Bennington Historical Society News
 
The ruins of Daniel Shays’s fortified settlement reveal the hidden story of the famous rebellion. Shays and the Regulators founded the settlement deep in the Vermont wilderness after fleeing the uprising they led in 1787 in Massachusetts. Rediscovered in 1997 and under study since 2013, these remnants divulge secrets of Shays’ life that previously remained unknown, including his connection to Millard Filmore and the Anti-Federalist lawyer John Bay. As the leader of the site’s first formal study, Stephen D. Butz weaves together the tale of the archaeological investigation, along with Shays’ heroic life in the Continental army, his role in the infamous rebellion that bears his name and his influence on American law.
 
“An exciting story about some of the items found at the ruins of Daniel Shays’ fortified settlement, that help to reveal the hidden story of the famous rebellion.” —Albany Times Union
 
“Butz sets out to discover what happened to those who could not pay their taxes, who rebelled against Massachusetts, and who created an historical mystery by escaping into Vermont.” —Walloomsack Review
 
“Reveals a little-known side of the Shays’ Rebellion story that played out in a final confrontation in Sheffield in 1787.” —The Berkshire Eagle

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439662243

Book preview

Chapter 1

DANIEL SHAYS, COLONIAL SOLDIER

The quest to unlock the secrets of the ruins of the fort on Egg Mountain begins with a look at the life of Daniel Shays. The world Daniel Shays was born into in 1747 was a tumultuous one. This was a time when the Massachusetts Bay Colony was expanding rapidly outward from the merchant center of Boston to the inland territories, which was being tamed by free-spirited farmers. As the settlement of Massachusetts began to expand in the 1700s, a new class of non-slaveholding farmers, known as yeomen, began to transform the wilds of western Massachusetts into a patchwork of small, family-run farms. One such farmer was Daniel Shays’s father, Patrick Shays, who had emigrated from Ireland prior to 1740, paying for his voyage to North America by becoming an indentured farm servant. Patrick Shays married his second wife, Margaret, in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, in 1744. Eventually, the two would raise eight children. Margaret gave birth to Daniel sometime between April and August 1747. Shays grew up during the French and Indian War, which pitted France against England as both tried to gain control of North America.

Although much of the war was fought on the western frontier, men from all over the Massachusetts Bay Colony volunteered to take up the fight against France and its Native American allies. Eventually, peace was achieved in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, also known as the Treaty of 1763, giving the British control of eastern North America. Not much is known of Shays’s parents other than that they were very poor and that, in 1775, Daniel’s father enlisted as a private in the militia when he was around fifty years old. He served until 1779, when he was discharged as a result of being unfit for duty.

Growing up in Massachusetts, Daniel Shays lived like most inland colonials of the time, practicing the many skills needed to make a living as an iterant laborer. Like many young men of his day, his eventual goal was to own his own land and start a farm. In 1772, at the age of twenty-five, Daniel married Abigail Gilbert in her father’s kitchen, and the two resided in Brookfield, Massachusetts. Shortly after his wedding, Shays purchased sixtyeight acres of land in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, and his status as a yeoman farmer began. The first child of Daniel and Abigail Shays, Daniel Jr., was born in 1773; the couple would eventually raise six children.

As time went by, Shays became a respected landowner in western Massachusetts and began to participate in the local militia, which was typical for the time. He rose quickly to the rank of sergeant and trained and drilled the men of Shutesbury in military tactics with much enthusiasm. At that time, local militias were being formed as a result of the tensions that were growing between Britain and the colonies. The British Crown had ordered the military governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, to seize arms amassed by colonists near Boston. General Gage had also been directed to capture two prominent Rebel leaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The actions of Parliament against the colonies were putting town leaders across the state on high alert. Men from the farms all across western Massachusetts began to join ranks in locally organized militias, preparing to protect themselves from the British army.

The day of April 19, 1775, changed many lives in the colonies, including Shays’s, as the Revolutionary War broke out with the encounters at Lexington and Concord. Daniel Shays, a sergeant serving under Captain Reuben Dickinson’s company of Minutemen in Shutesbury, joined the fight. Although Shays did not actually participate in the battles of Lexington and Concord, the very next day, he marched under Colonel Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge’s command with the Massachusetts Twenty-Fifth Regiment to begin the Siege of Boston. The siege lasted three months, and eventually, the British army tried to break out of its entrapment in Boston, leading to the battle of Bunker Hill. Shays’s first taste of war most likely came when Woodbridge’s Regiment was ordered to cross the Charlestown Neck, a thin portion of land connecting Charlestown to the mainland. Their mission was to reinforce troops that were there building fortifications on Breed’s Hill in anticipation of a British assault. It was on the Charlestown Neck that Shays experienced heavy cannon bombardment from the HMS Glasgow, a twentygun British ship.

The Battle of Lexington. Published by John H. Daniels & Son, Jan. 15, ca. 1903. Library of Congress.

The Battle of Bunker Hill had begun—Shays arrived just as the first shots were being fired. His regiment took position on Bunker Hill itself. The British sent three waves of attacks up Breed’s Hill, with the first two being repulsed by the colonists. Shays’s regiment was stationed on the left flank of Bunker Hill, just above Breed’s Hill, where most of the fighting occurred. The third and final British attack drove the colonists off Breed’s Hill and led to a controlled retreat. Shays’s regiment helped to slow the British advance as the colonial forces escaped back across the Charlestown neck and into Cambridge. When the battle was over, the British controlled Charlestown, although it came with a heavy loss—the redcoats suffered over 1,000 casualties. This was approximately 50 percent of the troops that General Howe had sent to take the peninsula. In comparison, the colonists suffered only 450 casualties, most of which occurred during the retreat.

It didn’t take long for Shays to rise through the ranks and assume the role of a Continental officer. Shortly after Bunker Hill, Shays was promoted to second lieutenant, still serving under Dickinson. Shays’s rise to the rank of officer came as a result of the bravery and leadership he exhibited during the action at Bunker Hill. Shays then spent time with the garrison protecting Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. In 1776, he transferred to Colonel James Mitchell Varnum’s Ninth Continental Regiment and assumed the rank of lieutenant. This change put him under the command of General Washington’s army and into a series of battles—mostly defeats—with the Continental army in New York and New Jersey. It was also during this campaign that Shays first encountered the Marquis de Lafayette, under whom he would serve later in the war. Lafayette was the famous nineteen-year-old French aristocrat and confidant of George Washington who volunteered to fight for the Continental army, eventually serving as a general.

The Battle at Bunker’s Hill. Drawn by Henry A. Thomas. Boston: C. Frank King, ca. 1875. Library of Congress.

Shays returned home to Shutesbury sometime in the winter of 1777. It was not uncommon for officers to take leave during the winter. The season usually slowed down military operations, allowing for men to return to their farms and tend to their families. Shays’s winter leave orders also charged him with recruiting men to enlist in the army. While at home in Massachusetts, he managed to recruit twenty local men to return with him the following spring. As a result, he assumed the rank of captain beginning on January 1, 1777, in Colonel Rufus Putnam’s Fifth Massachusetts Regiment.

The newly appointed Captain Shays next saw action in eastern New York during the famous Battles of Saratoga. Shays’s regiment was assigned to serve under General Benjamin Lincoln’s command. (Ten years later, it would be General Lincoln who, as the leader of the Massachusetts militia, was dispatched to crush the rebellion lead by Shays in 1786–87.)

The Battles at Saratoga took place in the late summer of 1777, when General John Burgoyne marched his British forces down from Canada. His plan was to divide New England from New York and the rest of the colonies by controlling the Hudson River Valley. The British plan also involved Brigadier General Barry St. Ledger marching his forces eastward along the Mohawk River and, in the final part of a three-pronged attack, General Sir William Howe bringing his forces northward up the Hudson from New York City. The idea was for all three armies to meet near Albany. The plan began to falter when St. Ledger’s advance was halted at Fort Stanwix near Lake Ontario. St. Ledger’s attempt at besieging the fort failed, and he was forced to retreat back into Canada. The northward advance up the Hudson never took place, because Howe decided to move his forces to Philadelphia, leaving only a small contingent of British in New York City under the command of General Henry Clinton. This left Burgoyne in a precarious position and led to the two battles at Saratoga.

The first engagement, known as the Battle of Freeman’s Farm, occurred on September 19, 1777, and stopped Burgoyne’s advance down the banks of the Hudson River near present-day Stillwater, New York. The Continental army had a fortified position on a farm that overlooked the Hudson River. Burgoyne’s plan was to drive the Continentals off the hill and push them south. After a long battle that saw heroic efforts by Major General Benedict Arnold and Colonel Daniel Morgan, the fighting led to a stalemate as the sun set and the British advance was halted. It is debated if it really was a victory; the battle ended in a stalemate, but the British suffered more casualties and the Continental army commanded by Major General Horatio Gates held its ground. Shays was not present at this first engagement. He was serving under General Lincoln during the attack at Fort Ticonderoga eighty miles to the north. Lincoln’s plan was to harass Burgoyne’s long supply line, which stretched from Stillwater all the way back to Montreal, passing near Fort Ticonderoga. Shays took part in freeing American prisoners of war held at the fort and skirmished with the British on Lake George. After the Battle of Freeman’s Farm, the British did not take up the fight the next day, instead reorganizing and holding camp north of Stillwater. Burgoyne decided to stall the next attack in hopes that Clinton’s troops would reinforce him from New York. Unfortunately for Burgoyne, that never happened, and he was left on his own to take the Hudson Valley.

Captain Shays arrived at Saratoga under General Lincoln sometime at the end of September. He joined ranks under General John Nixon’s brigade, which was part of the right wing of the Continental army led by Lincoln. Shays’s role as a captain serving in Colonel Rufus Putnam’s Fifth Massachusetts Regiment would have put him in command of about fifty to sixty infantrymen. Service records show that in 1777, Shays was issued 56 coats, 55 vests, 125 shoes, 144 shirts, 63 hats and other assorted items to outfit his company of men. The uneven number of shoes attests to the fact that during this time, soldier’s shoes were made to fit on both feet—there were no specific right or left shoes. As a captain, Shays most likely would have carried a sword and spontoon in lieu of a musket. The spontoon was akin to a pike, six feet in length and topped with a spearhead. He also would have carried a flintlock pistol. Shays’s men were trained to line up in rows of three, standing shoulder to shoulder. The first two rows would fire on command, with the third row waiting in reserve to fill the ranks of the fallen. The job of a captain in the Continental army was to maintain the focus of his men during battle, instruct and encourage their movements and, usually after the third or fourth volley of musket fire, lead them to charge with fixed bayonets. Often, it was the captain who stood ahead of his troops, organizing them and exposing himself to enemy fire.

Burgoyne’s decision to stall his advance down the river in hopes that General Clinton would arrive from the south continued to provide time for the Continental army to swell in numbers as colonists flocked to join the fight at Saratoga. By this time, the American forces numbered around fourteen thousand. The British forces under Burgoyne consisted of six thousand. General Gates, who commanded the Continental army at Saratoga, decided to take advantage of Burgoyne’s delay and attack him. The second battle of Saratoga, also known as Bemis Heights, took place on October 7, 1777. Shays’s company was part of the right-wing assault, which consisted of five brigades led by General Benjamin Lincoln. The British had constructed two large, makeshift forts, also known as redoubts, along the edge of an open field. The smaller of the two redoubts was manned by German reserve troops commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Christoph Breymann. Shays was part of Brigadier General Nixon’s assault at the center of Breymann’s redoubt.

Shays’s company marched into an open field, advanced toward the timber and earthen wall that made up the redoubt and opened fire. The Germans responded by firing grape shot from their twin cannons at the approaching army. Shays and the other regiments in Nixon’s brigade began to overtake the redoubt. Colonel Daniel Morgan and his famous riflemen helped storm the left side of the redoubt during the combined assault. Soon, after heavy fighting, the Breymann redoubt was taken. Shays and his men charged with bayonets fixed, climbed the walls of the fortification and seized control of the German canons and equipment. Breymann lay dead within the redoubt, and the battle was over. It had lasted about thirty minutes. The other redoubt, called the Balcarres redoubt, lay just to the south of the Breymann redoubt, and was under attack by General Gates’s division. It was during this time that Shays would have been witness to one of the Revolutionary War’s most gallant acts. Earlier in the day, Major General Benedict Arnold had been arguing with Gates about his tactics—or, as Arnold saw it, Gates’s lack of military prowess. This infuriated Gates, who removed Arnold from command and had him confined to his tent. Although Arnold held no true authority that day, as the battle raged on, he could not stand to be trapped in his tent any longer. He eventually left his confines, mounted his horse and quickly joined the fight. Arnold immediately helped to spur on the movement of the men in his own brigade (now commanded by his rival, Gates) to attack the Balcarres redoubt. Not long after Arnold rode into battle, he turned his horse and rode between the battle lines of both redoubts, exposing himself to a hail of musket fire. His act of bravery and selflessness helped to spur on the troops, and soon after he arrived on the field, Brigadier General Ebenezer Learned’s brigade was able to take the Breymann redoubt. Shays was leading his own men in the fight right near the area when Arnold rode toward the Germans and ordered them to lay down their arms. His command was met by a volley of fire from a German platoon that was attempting to reinforce the redoubt as it was falling into the hands of the Continental army. A German musket ball struck Arnold in the leg, wounding him badly. Then, his horse was also shot; it fell, trapping Arnold underneath it. The combined wound to his leg and the fall resulted in Arnold cursing violently while soldiers quickly extricated him from under his dead horse, right at the height of battle while under heavy fire from the Germans. He was then carried from the field. Soon thereafter, the German platoon was driven back, and the British retreated. The battle was won.

Battle of Saratoga: Gen. Arnold wounded in