To George Washington from Eden Burroughs, 24 December 1779
From Eden Burroughs
Hanover, N. Hampshire, Dec. 24, 1779.
Much honored sir,
THESE wait on your Excellency, to inform, that while Col. Hazen’s regiment remained at Coos, Lieut. Crowley, an officer of the train, meeting with my son, a young lad, of the age of fourteen years, persuaded him to inlist into his company; with some difficulty I obtained his release from that inlistment:1 But the young lad having his mind inflamed, by many fair promises and airy encouragements, with unappeasable desires to join the service, afterwards eloped from me, and inlisted under Capt. Lloyd, on the regiment’s return from these parts to head quarters.2 But finding h[i]s expectations disappointed, he left the army soon after its arrival at head quarters, and is now at home with me.3 As a sovereign God, has not long since, deprived me of four children, and has left me but two to survive their death; and as this son is a lad, so much under the age, that is commonly deemed necessary to constitute a soldier, fit for the service, and I had ever designed him for a public education; your Excellency will please to indulge my request, that he may be regularly discharged from the service. Though I have the cause of America sincerely at heart, and ever have, and trust I ever shall, exert myself to the utmost of my ability in its behalf; yet your excellency will not wonder, at any degree of reluctance in me, against my son’s engaging in the service, under my present circumstances. Your Excellency will please to signify your pleasure by the bearer,4 and due obedience shall be rendered to your commands, with cheerfulness.—With daily prayers, that the God of armies will be your shield and friend, and honor your Excellency as an instrument of complete salvation, and deliverance to the United States of America, I am your Excellency’s Most obedient humble Servant,
Eden Burroughs.
P.S. During the time my son was with the army, he never passed muster, nor drew any bounty or clothing.
Memoirs of Stephen Burroughs (Hanover, N.H., 1798), 20–21.
Eden Burroughs (1737/8–1813) graduated from Yale College in 1757 and became an ordained minister in 1760. He married in 1762 and fathered at least eight children. From 1773 until the middle 1780s, Burroughs served as pastor at the Presbyterian church in Hanover, New Hampshire. Theological differences caused him to leave and eventually build another meetinghouse. Burroughs later left Hanover for a pastorate in Hartford, Vt., where he died (see James W. Woodward, A Sermon, Preached at Hartford, Vermont, May 24, 1813, at the Funeral of the Rev. Eden Burroughs, D.D., Pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Dartmouth College (Boston, 1814).
Stephen Burroughs (1765–1840) led an uproarious life that included matriculation at Dartmouth College, privateering, schoolteaching, preaching under an assumed name in Massachusetts, counterfeiting, imprisonments, and conversion to Catholicism. He lived his last years in Canada as a respected educator. For elaboration, see Memoirs of Stephen Burroughs: A New and Revised Edition; with An Appendix, Containing Authentic Facts Respecting the Latter Part of His Life (Amherst, Mass., 1858).
1. For Lt. Florence Crowley’s command in Col. Moses Hazen’s 2d Canadian Regiment, see GW to Robert Howe, 24 Oct., and n.6.
2. Richard Lloyd (c.1754–1792) served as a lieutenant in the 3d New Jersey Regiment from April to November 1776 and then transferred to the 2d Canadian Regiment. He rose to captain in September 1777 and remained in the army until June 1783. For Lloyd’s subsequent efforts to secure service benefits, see 7:174–76.
3. Stephen Burroughs later described his desertion from the army at West Point: “When the Regiment had arrived on the North river, they were constantly alarmed by the enemy, and had a number of skirmishes with them. At such times, I was always kept back with the baggage, and never suffered to go into action, notwithstanding all my intreaty. I fully believe, had I been indulged in my romantic disposition, I should have rushed, foolishily, into that danger, from which I never should have returned. These repulses brought about that mortification and disappointment, which cured me of my military ardor. Filled with resentment and chagrine I suddenly left the army and returned home to my Father” (Memoirs of Stephen Burroughs [1798], 20).
4. Bezaleel Woodward, who advocated New Hampshire’s claim to the territory that eventually became Vermont, carried this letter to GW (see Memoirs of Stephen Burroughs [1798], 20; see also James Lovell to Samuel Adams, 1 Feb. 1780; Nathaniel Peabody to Woodbury Langdon, 7 Feb.; and Peabody to William Whipple, same date, in 14:384–85, 392–94). No reply from GW to Eden Burroughs has been found.