To George Washington from Captain Levi Spaulding’s Company, 10 August 1775
From Captain Levi Spaulding’s Company
Winter Hill [Mass.] 10 August 1775.
The subscribers commend “the conduct and undaunted courage of William Lee” at the Battle of Bunker Hill. “He not only fought well himself but give good advice to the men, to place themselves in right order and to stand their ground well, the said William Lee belonging to Capt. Spauldin’s company in Colo. Reed’s Regiment, and is the first or orderly sergeant of Capt. Spaulding’s company and as their is a vacancie in the same company by a Lieut[’s]. Death, it is desired for the Ensign to take his place, and sergeant Lee to take the Ensign’s or second Lieut.”1
Copy, MHi: John Sullivan Papers. The names of forty-one subscribers appear at the bottom of the document. They include three officers: Capt. Levi Spaulding, “Thomas Roffe. Ensign belonging to Capt. Spaulding,” and “William Roby. Ensign belonging to Capt. [William] Walker.” The copyist erred in the name of Spaulding’s ensign. He was Thomas Buffe.
Levi Spaulding (1737–1825) was commissioned a captain in the 3d New Hampshire Regiment on 23 May 1775 and served to the end of 1776. He represented Lyndebourgh in the New Hampshire general assembly from 1780 to 1781.
1. William Lee was promoted to ensign at the end of 1775, and on 8 Nov. 1776 he became a second lieutenant in the 1st New Hampshire Regiment. Spaulding’s lieutenant at the Battle of Bunker Hill was Joseph Bradford.