UNIVERSITY Of 
 CALIPORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 GEN. JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 COL. JOSEPH CILLEY
 
 LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 GEN. JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 By JOHN SCALES, A B., A. M. 
 
 STANDARD BOOK COMPANY 
 
 MANCHESTER, N. H. 
 
 1921
 
 OBeneral 3lo$epf) Olillep 
 
 His Ancestors 
 By JOHN SCALES, A. B., A. M. 
 
 CjflOSEPH CILLEY, commonly known as Gen. Joseph 
 II Cilley, was born in Nottingham, N. H., in 1734, 
 and died in that town August 25, 1799. He was 
 the son of Capt. Joseph Cilley and Alice Rollins or Raw- 
 Hns, who were married in 1724-25. Captain Cilley was born 
 in Hampton October 6, 1701, and died in Nottingham in 
 1786. Alice (Rawlins) Cilley was born in 1701 and died in 
 Nottingham in 1801, aged a full hundred years. Captain 
 Cilley was the son of Thomas and Ann (Stanyan) Cilley. 
 Ann Stanyan was the daughter of John and Mary (Brad- 
 bury) Stanyan of Salisbury, Mass. John Stanyan was the 
 son of Anthony Stanyan, who was born in England about 
 1611 and came to New England in 1635 i n "The Planter." 
 He lived in Boston and Salisbury. His wife's name was 
 Mary. Captain Cilley's grandmother, Mary Bradbury, 
 was the daughter of Capt. Thomas and Mary (Perkins) 
 Bradbury of Salisbury. Captain Bradbury was one of the 
 ablest men in Massachusetts during his period of active 
 life, 1640-1680. 
 
 General Cilley showed his love and respect for this 
 ancestor by naming his eldest son Bradbury. Mary Per- 
 kins (Bradbury) was the daughter of John and Judith 
 Perkins of Ipswich, Mass. He was born in England in 
 1590 and came over in the ship "Lyon" with Roger Wil- 
 liams in 1631. He lived in Boston two years and settled in 
 Ipswich in 1633. He owned "Perkins Island" in Ipswich 
 River. He held various town offices and was representative 
 in the General Court in 1636 and later. He died in 1654.
 
 - GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 So much for the ancestors of General Cilley in lines other 
 than the Cilley; all first-class Puritan stock. 
 
 General Cilley's grandfather, Capt. Thomas Cilley 
 (Seally), was a sea captain, whose residence was at Hamp- 
 ton, N. H., where his children were born. Later in life he 
 resided at Andover with his son Thomas. He died in 
 Nottingham while there on a visit to his son, Capt. Joseph 
 Cilley, the date of which is not known. He appears to 
 have been a successful sea captain, a good citizen, and not 
 given to office holding or participating in public affairs. 
 He was a gallant old sea dog. 
 
 Richard Cilley (Sealy), his father, was a magistrate of 
 the Isles of Shoals for several years, who finally removed 
 to Hampton, where he died; his wife's name is not known; 
 he seems to have been at the Shoals from 1650 to 1660, 
 engaged in the fishing business, at which time and long 
 after the islands were a great fishing station. 
 
 He was son of Captain Robert (Seely) Cilley of Water- 
 town, Mass, who came there from England in 1630; his wife's 
 name was Mary who had administration of his estate Octo- 
 ber 19, 1668. He had three sons, John, William and Rich- 
 ard, whose residence for a number of years was on the 
 Isles of Shoals, where there was then a large settlement. 
 They were all sea-captains and were men of enterprise in 
 various ways. 
 
 Such were the ancestors of Captain Joseph Cilley, 
 who with his wife and family removed from Hampton to 
 Nottingham about 1727, and settled on Rattlesnake Hill, 
 so called, on the south easterly side of The Square. 
 He first erected a log cabin in which he deposited his 
 household goods, all of which effects of every description 
 he brought with him on the back of one horse, himself and 
 family accompanying on foot, a distance of about 20 miles 
 they had to travel, much of the way through forests. A 
 clearing was soon effected, with what preliminary work he 
 had done, and good crops were raised the first year. He 
 was industrious, economical and enterprising; his means
 
 HIS ANCESTORS "J 
 
 increased and in a few years replaced the log cabin with a 
 large frame house; a monument by the road side, from 
 Nottingham Square to Epping Corner, marks the spot 
 where his first log house stood. He purchased other land; 
 built other houses; engaged in lumbering and farming, and 
 became noted for his enterprise and his possessions among 
 the dwellers in Nottingham and the towns around. He 
 earned his title as Captain by service in command of the 
 Provincial Militia, having received his commission from 
 Governor Wentworth. All of his Cilley ancestors were 
 Captains, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He 
 was of medium height, compact frame, active temperament, 
 with great powers of endurance and quickness of percep- 
 tion with an almost unerring judgment. He combined 
 great cheerfulness and generous hospitality with a remark- 
 able fearlessness in danger and hopefulness under discour- 
 agements. He was born October 6, 1701, and lived to be 
 85 years old, vigorous almost to the end of life. 
 
 Alice (or Elsie) Rawlins (or Rollins) was grand- 
 daughter of James Rawlins (or Rollins) who emigrated to 
 America in 1632 with the settlers of Ipswich, Mass., and 
 whose wife was Hannah. They were the ancestors of the 
 distinguished Rollins family of New Hampshire. She was 
 born in 1701 and died in 1801. It was said of her that she 
 was a large, strong, vigorous woman quick of step, strong 
 of will and very methodical in conducting her household 
 affairs. Her home, whether a log cabin or a house two 
 stories high with "gable windows" was a model of neatness 
 and order. She drank neither tea or coffee, nor tasted of 
 the intoxicating bowl, nor smoked or took snuff, which 
 latter was a very fashionable custom in her day. The 
 Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 
 Nottingham is named for her, and they have marked her 
 grave in the General Cilley burying ground on The Square 
 with an immense boulder and bronze tablet.
 
 /y GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE NAME 
 
 > 
 
 In the earliest records the name is variously spelled 
 as Seely, Seeley, Sealy, Sealey, Seelye, Sillea, Ceely; 
 spelling in those days was not a fixed art; it was a sort of 
 spell as you please period; the first of the race to spell in 
 the present way was Captain Joseph Cilley of Nottingham; 
 he so spells his name in his Will and on various documents, 
 and he appears to have been very well educated for a man 
 of that period. 
 
 In Froude's History of England, Vol. VIII, page 452, 
 it is recorded that in the year 1563 the following petition 
 was addressed to the Lords of Elizabeth's Council: "In 
 most lamentable wise showeth unto your honors, your 
 humble Orator Dorothy Seely, of the city of Bristol, wife 
 to Thomas Seely, of the Queen's Majesty's guard, that 
 where her said husband upon most vile, slanderous, spite- 
 ful, malicious and most villainous words spoken against 
 the Queen's Majesty's own person by a certain subject of 
 the King of Spain here not to be uttered not being able 
 to suffer the same did flee upon the same slanderous per- 
 son, and gave him a blow so it is, most honorable Lords, 
 that here upon my said husband, no other offence in 
 respect of their religion then committed, was secretly 
 accused to the Inquisition of the Holy House, and so com- 
 mitted to most vile prison, and there hath remained now 
 three whole years in miserable state and cruel torments." 
 
 In the list of captains who accompanied Drake to the 
 West Indies in his famous voyage 1585-86, appears the 
 name of Captain Thomas Seeley in command of the 
 "Minion"; he was probably a son of the Thomas above 
 mentioned; his mother had trained him up to manhood in 
 deadly hatred of the Spanish race. 
 
 Burke states: The family was of Norman extraction; 
 that John Sealey, Esq., said to have been of the family of 
 Sealy of Bridgewater, went to the sister isle in the time of 
 Charles II. He was the father of Robert Sealy, Esq., of
 
 ORIGIN OF THE NAME ' ^ 
 
 Bardon, who married Miss Marsh, sister of General Marsh, 
 and had issue, Robert, Armiger, George, Baldwin, Eliza, 
 Bridget and Jane. From Burke it also appears that 
 Charles Seeley, Esq., was a member of Parliament from 
 Nottingham. "Ollyver Ceely" appears as Major of the 
 militia in Plymouth in 1660. The name of Ceely occurs in 
 the list of emigrants from Essex County, England. 
 
 Robert Seely of Watertown probably came to America 
 in the fleet with Winthrop, as the registry of his desire to 
 become a freeman was October 19, 1630, and as "Robte 
 Seely" took the oath of freeman May 18, 1631, at Water- 
 town, Mass. 
 
 This Robert Seeley rendered valuable military service 
 in the Indian wars and came to be an officer with the rank 
 of Lieutenant. He was second in command under Captain 
 Mason in the Pequot War. This service called his atten- 
 tion to the lands in Rhode Island and Connecticut and he 
 finally settled in the latter colony. He had then risen to 
 the dignity of Captain, and was chosen "Commissioner for 
 ye Town of Huntington and sworn in Court May 14, 
 1663." Captain Seeley seems to have died in New York 
 in 1668. 
 
 While Captain Seeley was engaged in fighting the 
 Indians, his sons appear to have come down to the Isles of 
 Shoals and engaged in fishing, which was then a very 
 flourishing and profitable business there. One of the 
 settlers there at that time was John Cutting, and probably 
 his daughter or grand daughter married Captain Joseph 
 Cilley's grandfather Richard Cilley (Sealy); hence it came 
 that Capt. Joseph named one of his sons "Cutting," for the 
 boy's great-grandmother, Mary Cutting. This son became 
 Capt. Cutting Cilley in the Revolutionary Army and did 
 valliant service for the patriot cause. 
 
 "A History of Cailly in Normdie," recently published 
 in pamphlet form says: "Guillaume de Cailly accompanied 
 in 1066 Guillaume The Conqueror, in England and val- 
 liantly fought at Hastings, preferring to die than to fail to
 
 t _ GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 the faith that he owed to his Duke." It is claimed, and 
 perhaps truthfully, that this soldier is the founder of the 
 family in England and established the name. In this His- 
 tory the name is spelled de Cailly, de Caly, and de Sailly 
 previous to 1399 when it -was spelled de Sealy and de Cely. 
 Later the "de" was dropped and it appears as Cailly, Cely 
 and Sealy, but all from that same old warrior who came 
 over from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066. 
 
 HIS EARLY MANHOOD AND HIS FAMILY 
 
 General Cilley's ancestors, paternal and maternal, were 
 all English; he was a thoroughbred Englishman on Amer- 
 ican soil; not of a lineage counted great, but of fishers and 
 choppers and ploughmen, who constituted New England's 
 yeomanry. For forty years he was a loyal subject of the 
 king of Great Britain, and he would no doubt have 
 remained so all his life if King George had behaved him- 
 self and treated his subjects justly and honorably, as King 
 Edward of to-day conducts the affairs of state in Great 
 Britain. The story of General Cilley's dealings with King 
 George will be told later. Let us look at the first two 
 score years of his life. 
 
 Joseph Cilley was born in Nottingham, in 1734; he 
 had three sisters older, one of whom, Alice, married Enoch 
 Page; and one sister and a brother younger. That younger 
 sister was Abigail, who married Capt. Zephaniah Butler, 
 an officer in the Revolutionary Army; they were the 
 grand-parents of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler of the Civil 
 War. She was the woman who taught her grandson his 
 A, B, C's and instilled into his mind the spirit of inde- 
 pendence and free thought which she had inherited and 
 imbibed during the great struggle of the Revolution, in 
 which her brothers Joseph and Cutting were such prom- 
 inent actors. The younger son was born in 1738, married 
 Martha Morrill in 1761 and died in 1825, aged 87 years. 
 He resided in Nottingham and was a captain in the Revo-
 
 HIS EARLY MANHOOD ' .7. 
 
 lutionary Army during the war. He held various town 
 offices in Nottingham. His last days were passed in 
 Northfield, where he died at the residence of his son John. 
 They had twelve children, nine boys and three girls, all but 
 one of whom were married and left descendants. Several 
 of the sons lived to great age and have honorable records. 
 
 Gen. Joseph Cilley was a farmer; his farm and family 
 residence were on The Square, about a mile above the resi- 
 dence of his father at the Ledge Farm, where he was born. 
 Previous to the Revolution he held some town offices, but 
 his chief attention was given to farming, lumbering and 
 business affairs in general, such as occupied the attention 
 and energies of business men in that period. He was 
 united in marriage with Sarah Longfellow, November 4, 
 1756. He was then 22 years old; she was 17. They had 
 ten children, three daughters and seven sons. He died 
 August 25, 1799, aged 65. She died May 23, 1811. 
 
 Sarah Longfellow was the daughter of Judge Jonathan 
 and Mercy (Clark) Longfellow, who settled in Nottingham 
 about the same time, or a little after Capt. Joseph Cilley 
 settled there. For further information in regard to Judge 
 Longfellow and his wife, the reader is referred to a previous 
 number of THE GRANITE STATE MAGAZINE. Sarah 
 Longfellow Cilley was a woman of superior intelligence 
 and strong personality. At the opening of the Revolution 
 she was only 37 years old. When her husband went to 
 the war she resolutely took up the burden of managing the 
 farm, the family of eight children and household affairs in 
 general. Her eldest daughter had been married two years; 
 her eldest son, Bradbury,was 1 5 years old. Those were stren- 
 uoustimes, but Mrs. Cilley was equal to the demand, and with 
 the loyal help of her young sons, whom she trained in ways 
 of industry, she kept the farm and all the family affairs in a 
 prosperous condition until her gallant husband sheathed 
 his sword and returned from the warpaths to the paths of 
 peace. What the woman did at home was equally as patri- 
 otic as what the man did in the field of war. After the 
 war Mrs. Cilley was a conspicuous and leading lady in the
 
 8. GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 numerous social functions which the brilliant career of her 
 husband demanded of them to participate in. Sarah Long- 
 fellow Cilley was a model Colonial Dame of the opening 
 years of the American Republic. 
 
 The children of Gen. Joseph and Sarah (Longfellow) 
 Cilley were as follows: 
 
 1. Sarah, born October 16, 1757; married, August 19, 
 1773, Judge Thomas Bartlett of Nottingham, who was one 
 of the leading patriots in New Hampshire, and a descend- 
 ant of the distinguished Bartlett family of Old Newbury, 
 Mass. He was one of the leading men in town affairs of 
 Nottingham for forty years. He was captain of a com- 
 pany at Winter Hill in 1775-76; lieutenant-colonel in 
 Colonel Oilman's Regiment in 1776, and same in Colonel 
 Evans' Regiment in Rhode Island, 1778. He was colonel 
 of one of the regiments New Hampshire raised for the 
 defense of West Point in 1780, where he was stationed 
 when General Arnold played the traitor. He was a mem- 
 ber of the Committee of Safety from May 28, 1778, to 
 January 5, 1779. After the war he was major-general of 
 the New Hampshire militia, succeeding his father-in-law, 
 Gen. Joseph Cilley. During the last ten years of his life he 
 was judge in the Court of Common Pleas, holding that 
 office at the time of his death, in 1805. 
 
 2. Bradbury, born February I, 1760; married, Novem- 
 ber 19, 1792, Martha, daughter of Gen. Enoch Poor. This 
 son was not much in public life, but was a man of great 
 business ability, much of which was due to the training his 
 mother gave him during the Revolutionary period. He 
 was elected representative in Congress in 1813 and served 
 one term. He was colonel on Governor Gilman's staff in 
 1814-15, doing active duty in the fall of 1814. In 1817 he 
 was United States marshal for the district of New Hamp- 
 shire. He acquitted himself honorably in all of those 
 offices, but his great ability was manifested in business 
 affairs. He always resided on Nottingham Square; he died 
 there December 17, 1831, in his seventy-second year.
 
 HON. JONATHAN CILLEY
 
 General Josfepi) Ctttep 
 
 By JOHN SCALES. A. B. f A. M. 
 
 , third child, born March 8, 1762; married, 
 July 5, 1786, Dorcas Butler, daughter of Rev. Ben- 
 jamin Butler, pastor of Nottingham for many years. 
 He was with his father, then a colonel of the First New 
 Hampshire Regiment, in 1777, a boy of fifteen years. 
 When the sudden march from Ticonderoga took place, 
 Jonathan was taken prisoner. His captor, on learning who 
 he was, took him to General Burgoyne, who ordered that 
 he should be treated kindly, and later he was provided with 
 a pass to join his father in the American army. General 
 Burgoyne also permitted the boy to select from the cap- 
 tured baggage, which was immense, any article of clothing 
 he might desire. Jonathan took the best looking coat he 
 could find. This proved to have belonged to Major Hull, 
 afterwards the celebrated General Hull. He was also pro- 
 vided with an old horse and a pair of saddlebags, filled with 
 Burgoyne's proclamations, to convey to his father. On 
 reaching the regiment, he found it on parade, with his 
 father in front. Colonel Cilley seized one of the procla- 
 mations and read it aloud to his men; then, ordering all the 
 papers to be torn to pieces, he said: 
 
 "Thus may the British army be scattered." 
 Early in 1782, when he was twenty years old, Jona- 
 than was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, which posi- 
 tion he held to the close of the war. He married, July 5, 
 1786, Dorcas, daughter of Rev. Benjamin and Dorcas 
 (Abbott) Butler, and they resided in Nottingham until 
 1804, when he removed with his family to Ohio and settled 
 at Colerain, near Cincinnati In Nottingham he held vari-
 
 \O i GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 ous town offices, was justice of the peace, inspector and 
 brigade major of the Third Regiment of New Hampshire 
 Militia, assistant treasurer of the Order of Cincinnati from 
 1794 to 1799, and vice-president from 1799 to 1802. In 
 Ohio he became a large land-owner, and was prominent in 
 business and military affairs. They had six sons and five 
 daughters, most of whom married and have descendants in 
 the West. 
 
 4. Joseph, born November 19, 1764; died December 
 
 3, 1779- 
 
 5. Greenleaf, born March 5, 1767; married May 22, 
 1788, Jennie Nealley; he died February 25, 1808; she died 
 March 26, 1866, aged ninety-four years. She was a daugh- 
 ter of Joseph and Susannah (Bowdoin) Nealley of Notting- 
 ham. Her father was an officer in the Revolutionary 
 Army and participated in the Siege of Boston. He was in 
 the army at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered and at 
 Yorktown when Cornwallis capitulated, besides being in 
 other battles. Mrs. Cilley was a remarkable woman, 
 handsome in personal appearance, brilliant in intellect, and 
 retaining all of her faculties and vigor of mind to the end 
 of life. Her husband was a farmer in Nottingham; he held 
 various town offices and was major in one of the regiments 
 of the state militia. They had three sons and four daugh- 
 ters. Two of the sons had notable careers: Joseph, who 
 was born January 4, 1791, and Jonathan who was born 
 July 2, 1802. 
 
 The elder son was known as Col. Joseph Cilley, his 
 grandfather was General Joseph, and his great-grandfather 
 was Capt. Joseph Cilley. It is well to keep these titles 
 in mind in considering the various persons bearing the 
 name Joseph Cilley. They have sometimes been confused. 
 
 Col. Joseph Cilley was educated at Atkinson Acad- 
 emy. He was commissioned as ensign in the First Com- 
 pany of the Eighteenth Regiment, by Gov. John Lang- 
 don, October 17, 1811. On March 12, 1812, he was 
 appointed an ensign in the United States army and ordered
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 17 
 
 for duty in Capt. John McClary's company, Eleventh Regi- 
 ment, United States Infantry, then commanded by Col. 
 Isaac Clark of Vermont. He was promoted to lieutenant 
 March 17, 1814, and transferred to the Twenty-First 
 United States Infantry, commanded by Colonel Miller, and 
 was in the battle of Chippewa. In the battle of Brandy- 
 water, or "Lundy's Lane," he was badly wounded by a 
 musket ball, producing a compound fracture of the thigh 
 bone. Soon afterwards he was brevetted captain for his 
 gallantry in that battle. 
 
 The action of the Twenty-First Regiment in this 
 engagment deserves mention. The enemy after the 
 repulse at Chippewa, July 4, 1814, on the 25th of July 
 appeared in force at Queenstown, and his fleet arrived and 
 lay near Fort Niagara. General Scott, with the First 
 Brigade, Towson Artillery and all the dragoons and cav- 
 alry, was ordered to march towards Queenstown, to report 
 if the enemy appeared, and to call for assistance if neces- 
 sary. Scott pushed on his command with vigor, and upon 
 his arrival at the Falls found the enemy, under General Riall, 
 directly in front, behind a narrow strip of woods, and in line 
 of battle up Lundy's Lane, a ridge of land nearly at right 
 angles with the Niagara, and about a mile below the Falls. 
 General Scott sent informatian to General Brown, and 
 his advance commenced skirmishing about 5.30 P. M., but 
 the action did not commence in earnest until 7 p. M., 
 The British were in much larger force, hence were able to 
 extend their lines much farther and to make flank move- 
 ments. To counteract this advantage, our troops fought 
 in detachments and charged in columns, each upon their 
 own responsibility, until General Brown came up with the 
 remainder of the forces. Major Jessup, taking advantage 
 of a wood between a road parallel to the river and the 
 river, through which he led his regiment, turned the 
 enemy's left, took General Riall and some of his principal 
 officers prisoners, and, charging back, regained his position 
 in gallant style. Meanwhile, the enemy moved a battalion
 
 1JL, GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 to the rear of our right flank, but were promptly met by 
 Major McNeil with the Eleventh, and driven back with 
 great slaughter. Thus the contest raged for an hour; the 
 British infantry driven back at each point by turns, but 
 holding their position through a powerful battery of two 
 twenty-fours, four sixes, and three howitzers, planted upon 
 a rising ground and commanding the field, and keeping up 
 a destructive and incessant fire. 
 
 Now came Ripley's brigade, containing Lieutenant 
 Cilley's regiment, to the front, enveloped in smoke and 
 mad with excitement, greeted with cheer after cheer by the 
 combatants. While forming for evening parade, the boom- 
 ing of cannon and the rattling of small arms announced 
 that Scott had found the enemy. They moved immedi- 
 ately, and at the double quick, actually running three miles 
 betwixt the camp and the battlefield. Porter's brigade fol- 
 lowed them. Both were soon deployed and hurled against 
 the enemy, but the battery upon the hill made sad havoc 
 among our troops. It became evident to General Brown 
 that the British battery must be carried to insure success. 
 He turned to gallant Miller of the Twenty-First, and 
 ordered him to storm the battery. "I'll try, sir," was the 
 laconic reply. The contest that followed is well described 
 in a letter written by Colonel Miller. 
 
 "I had short of 300 men with me, as my regiment had 
 been weakened by numerous details made from it during 
 the day. I however, immediately obeyed the order. We 
 could see all their slow matches and port fires burning and 
 ready. I did not know what side had the most favorable 
 approach, but happened to hit upon a very favorable place, 
 notwithstanding we advanced upon the mouths of their 
 pieces. There was an old rail fence on the side where we 
 approached, undiscovered by the enemy, with a small 
 growth of shrubbery by the fence, and in within less than 
 two rods of the cannon's mouth. I then very cautiously 
 ordered my men to rest across the fence, take good aim, 
 fire and rush; which was done in style. Not a man at the
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH C1LLEY Ij, 
 
 cannon was left to put fire to them. We got into the 
 center of their park before they had time to oppose us. A 
 British line was formed and placed in line to protect their 
 artillery; the moment we got to the center they opened a 
 most destructive flank fire on us; killed many and attempted 
 to charge with their bayonets. We returned the fire so 
 warmly they were compelled to stand. We fought hand 
 to hand for some time, so close that the blaze of our guns 
 crossed each other; but we compelled them to abandon 
 their whole artillery, ammunition wagons and all; amount- 
 ing to seven pieces of brass cannon, one of which was a 
 twenty-four pounder, with eight horses and harnesses, 
 though some of the horses were killed. The'British made 
 two more attempts to charge us at close quarters, both of 
 which were repulsed before I was re-enforced by the First 
 and Twenty-Third Regiments; and even after that the 
 British charged with their whole line three several times, 
 and after getting within half pistol shot of us were com- 
 pelled to give way. I took with my regiment between 
 thirty and forty prisoners." 
 
 This charge took place about 10 o'clock at night, in 
 moonlight. Colonel Miller's regiment lost in killed, 
 wounded and missing, one hundred and twenty-six, nearly 
 one-half his strength. Lieutenant-Colonel Cilley's com- 
 pany led in the charge on the cannon, and every commis- 
 sioned and every non-commissioned officer present with 
 the company was either killed or wounded. This was one 
 of the most sanguinary battles of the war, and the gallant 
 act of Colonel Miller and the noble Twenty-First won 
 the admiration of all. 
 
 Lieutenant Cilley was afterwards brevetted captain for 
 his gallantry in that battle, and was retained in the United 
 States army on the peace establishment until he resigned 
 his commission in July, 1816. An explosion of cartridges 
 at Detroit, Mich., caused the loss of his right eye. On the 
 2ist of June, 1817, he was commissioned as quartermaster 
 on the staff of the first division, New Hampshire militia,
 
 l^f GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 and in 1821 as division inspector; in 1827 he was appointed 
 aide on the staff of Gov. Benjamin Pierce, with the rank 
 of colonel, by which title he was known the rest of his 
 life. In 1846, Colonel Cilley was elected by the legislature 
 to the United States senate, to fill the vacancy caused by 
 the resignation of Hon Levi VVoodbury. Upon the close 
 of his senatorial term, Colonel Cilley retired to his farm 
 
 in Nottingham. 
 
 HON. JONATHAN CILLEY 
 
 Hon. Jonathan Cilley, a younger brother of Colonel 
 Joseph, born July 2, 1802, prepared for college at Atkin- 
 son Academy, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825, 
 the class which had many members who became distin- 
 guished, among the number being Longfellow and Haw- 
 thorne; he studied law with United States Senator John 
 Ruggles at Thomaston, Me.; being admitted to the bar, he 
 entered into practice of his profession at that place. He 
 not only became a successful lawyer, but also became inter- 
 ested in political affairs soon after entering upon his prac- 
 tice of law; he edited the "Thomaston Register" from 
 1829 to 1831; he was elected representative from Thomas- 
 ton to the legislature in 1831-33-34-35 and served as speaker 
 of the house the latter year. In 1832 he was elected pres- 
 idential elector; in 1836 he was elected to congress, being 
 the acknowledged leader of the Democratic party in that 
 congressional district, although only thirty-four years old. 
 His career as congressman was cut short by a duel with 
 Congressman William J. Graves of Kentucky, February 
 24, 1838, in which he was shot dead on the field at Bladens- 
 burg, Md. That duel is historic, as it caused the end of 
 duelling by congressmen. A brief of the story of the 
 duel is as follows: 
 
 On January 23, 1838, in the house of representatives, 
 Henry A. Wise, representative from Virginia, who later 
 was governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860, in which his 
 last act was hanging John Brown at Harper's Ferry,
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY !' 
 
 opposed the appropriation bill before the house for the 
 expenses of the Seminole War, in which he indulged in 
 one of his most bitter tirades and a general attack upon 
 the administration. 
 
 Mr. Cilley answered him in calm language, delivering 
 one of the most admirable speeches ever heard in that 
 ancient hall of congress. In this he brought to bear upon 
 the unworthy factiousness from which the opposition to 
 the bill evidently sprung, a power of reasoning, a broad, 
 philosophic elevation of views, and a moral power of sin- 
 cerity and patriotism perfectly overwhelming, but Henry 
 A. Wise was one of those "Hotspurs" who make all the 
 more fuss the more they are "overwhelmed." 
 
 The next step towards the duel arose from a Washing- 
 ton letter, published by the New York Courier and 
 Enquirer, signed, "A Spy in Washington," in which some 
 unnamed member of congress was charged with corrup- 
 tion and bribery, and the charge was backed editorially by 
 Col. James Watson Webb, a man who was as much of a 
 "Hotspur" as Henry A. Wise, who introduced a resolution 
 of inquiry in regard to the charge. A lively debate 
 occurred on that resolution, in which Mr. Cilley took part 
 and opposed the adoption of the resolution on the ground 
 that the anonymous obscurity of the source from which the 
 charge came placed it entirely beneath the dignity of the 
 house to entertain it, especially as the charge was with- 
 out specification, individuality, oath, or direct responsi- 
 bility, the writer being unknown, and the member accused 
 being not named, the writer being vouched for by the 
 editor of a newspaper, of which paper he said: 
 
 "He knew nothing of the editor, but if it was the 
 same editor who had once made grave charges against 
 an institution of the country and afterwards was said t'o 
 have received facilities to the amount of some fifty-two 
 thousand dollars from the same institution and gave it his 
 hearty support, he did not think his charges were entitled 
 to much credit in an American congress."
 
 16. GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 This led to a letter from Webb, demanding that Mr. 
 Cilley should apologize or fight a duel. Mr. Cilley posi- 
 tively declined to have anything to do with Webb, or to be 
 called to account for words spoken in debate on the floor 
 of the house. Webb's challenge was carried to Mr. Cilley 
 by Congressman William J. Graves of Kentucky and, as 
 the challenge was declined, Graves took it upon himself 
 to make Mr. Cilley apologize in some way and say that he 
 had not "any personal objection to Colonel Webb as a 
 gentleman." Mr. Cilley replied that he would not be 
 drawn into any controversy with Webb, and he would 
 neither affirm nor deny that Webb was a "gentleman" and 
 a "man of honor," and at the same time he assured Mr. 
 Graves that he intended no disrespect for him (Graves) in 
 refusing to have anything to do with Webb. 
 
 An extended correspondence then followed in regard 
 to the challenge by Graves and arranging for the duel, 
 Henry A. Wise acting as "second" to Graves, and George 
 W. Jones acting as "second" to Mr. Cilley. Mr. Jones 
 was congressman from Michigan. The duel was fought 
 on the famous duelling ground at Bladensburg, just outside 
 of Washington; time about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Feb- 
 ruary 24; the weapons, rifles; distance apart, 80 yards; 
 three shots were fired and Cilley fell on the third, shot 
 dead. 
 
 The affair caused a tremendous commotion in Wash- 
 ington, which spread throughout the country, the general 
 public branding Graves as a murderer and Wise and Jones 
 as particeps criminis. All three were terribly frightened, 
 fearing prosecution and severe punishment. Jones and 
 Wise published a statement, trying to justify their connec- 
 tion with the affair and calm the excitement which had 
 arisen, but their statement failed to accomplish anything 
 of the kind.
 
 GEN. JONATHAN PRINCE CILLEY
 
 General 3Josepi) CtUep 
 
 in 
 
 By JOHN SCALES, A. B., A. M. 
 
 duel was fought on the 24th of February. 
 Hon. John Fairfield, congressman from York 
 county, Me., at once introduced a resolution in 
 the house, calling for the appointment of a committee to 
 investigate the affair and report whether there had been 
 any breach of the privileges of the house. That committee 
 reported on the 2ist of April, 1838, that "It is a breach of 
 the highest privilege of the house, and of the most sacred 
 rights of the people, in the person of their representative, 
 to demand, in a hostile manner, an explanation of words 
 spoken in debate." The report was accompanied by reso- 
 lutions for the expulsion of Graves, Wise and Jones. A 
 long debate followed, in which the sentiments expressed in 
 favor of duelling seem most ridiculous now. Finally they 
 were saved from expulsion by a vote of 102 to 76, but this 
 did not end the excitement and indignation outside of the 
 house, and James Watson Webb, the New York editor, 
 was denounced as equally guilty with Graves. The following 
 session of congress enacted the law, which now stands, 
 forever forbidding duelling by congresssmen for words 
 spoken in debate. Party feeling then ran high, but party 
 lines were abolished in the manifestation of indignation. 
 It was denounced as "a dastardly murder," "a cold blooded 
 assasination." Mr. Cilley himself believed that the chal- 
 lenge was the fruit of a desire to take his life. Mr. Cilley 
 said to his friends on the morning of the encounter: 
 
 "I am driven to this meeting by a positive compulsion. 
 I have done all that an honorable man could to avert it. 
 Why should I acknowledge that man (Webb) to be a gen- 
 
 17
 
 18 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 tleman and a man of honor? In truth and conscience I 
 could not do so; and still less can I have it so unreason- 
 ably extorted from me by force and threat. I have no ill 
 will or disrespect towards Mr. Graves. He knows it, and 
 I have repeatedly expressed it. I abhor the idea of taking 
 his life, and I will do nothing not forced upon me in self- 
 defense. The pretext of the challenge is absurd. I under- 
 stand the conspiracy to destroy me as a public man. But 
 New England must not be trampled upon; my name must 
 not be disgraced; and I go to this field sustained by as 
 high a motive of patriotism as ever led my grandfather or 
 my brother to battle; as an unhappy duty, not to be shrunk 
 from, to my honor, my principles and my country." 
 
 Mr. Cilley's college classmate and lifelong friend, 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, said of this duel, soon after it 
 occurred: "A challenge was never given on a more shadowy 
 pretext; a duel was never pressed to a fatal close in the 
 face of such open kindness as was expressed by Mr. 
 Cilley; and the conclusion is inevitable that Mr. Graves 
 and his principal second, Mr. Wise, have gone further than 
 their own dreadful code will warrant them, and overstepped 
 the imaginary distinction, which, on their own principles, 
 separates manslaughter from murder." 
 
 Mr. Hawthorne further said: "As a young man he was 
 of a quick and powerful intellect, endowed with sagacity 
 and tact, yet frank and free in his mode of action; ambi- 
 tious of good influence, earnest, active and persevering, 
 with an elasticity and cheerful strength of mind, which 
 made difficulties easy and the struggles with them a 
 pleasure. He was the kindliest and gentlest of human 
 beings, with a constant and happy flow of animal spirits, 
 and the innocence of a child; while at the same time as 
 independent, courageous and firm in his purpose as he was 
 clear in his judgment and upright in his every thought." 
 
 GEN. JONATHAN PRINCE CILLEY 
 
 In this connection it seems proper to give a brief men- 
 tion of Congressman Cilley's son, Gen. Jonathan Prince
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 19 
 
 Cilley of Thomaston, Me., who was two years old when his 
 father was killed in the duel. General Cilley graduated at 
 Bowdoin College in 1858; studied law with A. P. Gould of 
 Thomaston, Me., and after admission to the bar practised 
 his profession in that city. At the beginning of the Civil 
 War he enlisted 150 men for a light field battery; but that 
 arm of the service not being required, he enlisted in the 
 First Maine Cavalry and was commissioned captain. 
 During the retreat of General Banks from the Shenandoah 
 Valley, he was wounded and made prisoner at Middletown, 
 May 24, 1862. Subsequently he was promoted to be major 
 and was assigned to duty as judge advocate and examining 
 officer at the central guard house in Washington, D. C. 
 In 1863 he rejoined his regiment, although his severe 
 wound had not completely healed; in 1864 he was promoted 
 to lieutenant-colonel and placed in command of a regiment, 
 which position he held till the close of the war; when he 
 was mustered out, in 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-gen- 
 eral, for distinguished services at Five Forks, Farmville and 
 Appomattox court house. His regiment was the banner 
 regiment of Maine, and bears the names of three more 
 battles upon its standard than any other regiment in the 
 Army of the Potomac, and on the standard General Cilley 
 is designated as "the first man who enlisted, the first man 
 wounded, and nearly the last man mustered out." It is 
 officially stated that his regiment had ten more men and 
 one more officer than any other cavalry regiment in the 
 United States' service. 
 
 After the war, General Cilley resumed his law practice 
 in Rockland, Me., and has been much honored by his state. 
 He has been a member of the legislature, deputy collector 
 of customs, adjutant-general of the state, commissioner of 
 the United States circuit court. He is an active member 
 of the Maine Historical Society, corresponding member of 
 the New Hampshire Historical Society, member of the 
 New Hampshire Society of Cincinnati and of the Loyal 
 Legion Commandery of Maine. General Cilley has no
 
 20 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 children, having lost his only son, a very brilliant and 
 excellent young man, a few years ago. 
 
 GENERAL CILLEY's SONS CONCLUDED 
 
 The fifth son and sixth child was Daniel, born March 
 12, 1769; married November 7, 1790, Hannah Plumer; he 
 died December 4, 1842. His wife was a sister of Gov. 
 William Plumer and daughter of Samuel and Mary Dole 
 Plumer. She died February 19, 1850. Mr. Cilley was a 
 farmer and resided in Epsom, where he was one of the 
 most worthy and highly respected citizens. They had 
 seven sons and one daughter. One of the sons was Rev. 
 Daniel Plumer Cilley, who was one of the leading clergy- 
 men of the Freewill Baptist denomination. He was born 
 May 31, 1806, and died in Farmington, November 14, 1888. 
 He was chaplain of the Eighth New Hampshire Regi- 
 ment of Volunteers during the Civil War, and had a brave 
 record as a fighting chaplain, as well as in praying. Mrs. 
 Adelaide Cilley Waldron, author and editor, wife of Judge 
 John Waldron of Farmington, is his daughter. 
 
 A very large concourse of people attended his funeral: 
 At the service, one of his fellow-ministers, the oldest 
 among the number, who knew him in early years, arose and 
 said: "I knew this king among men all his life. How 
 powerfully he could preach; how fervently he prayed, and 
 oh, how sweetly he sang." 
 
 He had a remarkably vibrant, strong and resonant, 
 but sweet, high voice. I have seen few men so noticeable 
 in personal port and fineness of feature. He was very 
 dainty in his habits, clean of life and tongue, high-minded 
 and with all the fighting impulse of the soldierly clan of 
 the Cilleys, on occasion. 
 
 The sixth son and eighth child of General Cilley was 
 Jacob, born July 19, 1773; married, January 8, 1801, Har- 
 riet, daughter of General Enoch Poor. He died January 
 22, 1831. His wife was born January 31, 1780; died June 
 7, 1838, He resided in Nottingham and was known as
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 21 
 
 Major Cilley, having held that office in the state militia. 
 He was also a justice of the peace many years and repre- 
 sentative from Nottingham in the legislature for 1802, 
 1803, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1810, 1812 and 1813. One of his 
 grandsons was Prof. Bradbury Longfellow Cilley, who was 
 for forty years professor of Greek in Phillips Exeter Acad- 
 emy. Another grandson is Gen. Harry B. Cilley of Man- 
 chester, whose father was Jacob Green Cilley and whose 
 mother (Martha Cilley Bouton) is granddaughter of 
 Horatio Gates Cilley, and great-granddaughter of Gen. 
 Joseph Cilley. 
 
 Horatio Gates Cilley, the seventh son and youngest child 
 of Gen. Joseph Cilley, was born December 23, 1777; married 
 November 17, 1802, Sally Jenness; she was born in Deer- 
 field, August 4, 1/82; he died November 26, 1837; she died 
 November n, 1866. He was a farmer and resided in 
 Deerfield. He was an extensive land owner, a man of 
 great energy of character, a safe counsellor, a good advo- 
 cate, generous and humane. His only son, Horatio Gates 
 Cilley, graduated from Dartmouth ' College in 1827, and 
 was a prominent lawyer of Lewiston, Me. A grandson,. 
 Horatio Gates Cilley, graduated from Dartmouth in 1863 
 
 HIS MILITARY RECORD 
 
 Gen. Joseph Cilley was a representative from Notting- 
 ham in the Provincial Congress of New Hampshire, which 
 was held at Exeter in June, 1775. His most conspicuous 
 service in that Congress was his appointment as one of 
 a committee to go to Portsmouth for the money belonging 
 to the Province, then in the hands of the treasurer, George 
 Jeffreys, Esq. The treasurer was unwilling to give it to 
 the committee, but finally complied with the request. The 
 money was taken to Exeter and deposited in a safe in the 
 old Gilman house, which house is now owned by the New 
 Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati. General Cilley was 
 one of the original members of this society, and his great- 
 grandson, Gen. Jonathan Prince Cilley, of Maine, is the
 
 22 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 present lineal representative. Six months before that, 
 December 15, 1774, General Cilley was one of the party 
 with Gen. John Sullivan of Durham, who took the cannon 
 and other implements of war from Fort William and Mary, 
 now Fort Constitution, and carried them up the river to 
 Durham, with the powder, one hundred barrels or more, 
 which had been captured and taken from the fort on the 
 afternoon of the day before, December 14, by a party of 
 Portsmouth men, led by Capt. John Langdon. This was 
 done on the suggestion of Paul Revere, who came to that 
 town from Boston with the information that no more 
 powder was to be imported, and that the British would 
 probably remove any found from the fort if the people of 
 Portsmouth did not make the first move and take it. From 
 Durham the powder and cannon were distributed inland, 
 in various towns, for safe keeping. The Pascataqua River 
 was free of ice up to its head, the entrance to Little Bay 
 at Fox Point, and the mouth of the Oyster River. 
 
 The river and bay were frozen over, and it took a 
 crew of men two days to break the ice and get the powder 
 and cannon up to the head of tide water, a distance of two 
 miles, to the old meeting-house, near General Sullivan's 
 house. General Cilley and General Sullivan worked with 
 the big crew of men until the powder was stored tempora- 
 rily under the meeting-house. That transaction was the 
 first act of war in the Revolution; the conflict at Lexing- 
 ton and Concord was four months later. It was very 
 fortunate that the powder and cannon were removed 
 from the fort on December 14 and 15, for a day or two 
 afterwards the British frigate "Scarboro" and the sloop 
 "Canseau" arrived at Portsmouth with several companies 
 of soldiers, who took possession of the fort and of the 
 heavy cannon which Sullivan and his men had not been 
 able to remove. Paul Revere's ride to Portsmouth on 
 December 13, 1774, was no less important, though not 
 quite so exciting and picturesque, as his ride from Charles- 
 town to Lexington and Concord, four months later. On
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 23 
 
 the afternoon of December 14, Capt. John Langdon and 
 his men had taken out of the fort one hundred barrels of 
 powder, and he sent word to Sullivan at Durham to come 
 down and take it up to that town, hence Sullivan and Cil- 
 leyand Bartlett and a big crew of men went to Portsmouth 
 and took charge of it. Sullivan thinking it better to go to 
 the fort and finish the job which the Portsmouth men had 
 so successfully begun. 
 
 "I went down (December 15) with a large number of 
 men and in the night (December 15-16) went in person 
 with gundalos, took possession of the fort, brought away 
 the remainder of the powder, the small arms, bayonets, 
 and cartouch boxes, together with the cannon and ordi- 
 nance stores; I was out all night (very cold) and returned 
 to Portsmouth next day. The gundalos, with the stores, 
 were brought to Durham, after several days spent in cut- 
 ting ice, the Durham river being then frozen over; the 
 cannon; etc., was then deposited in places of security." 
 
 Those "places of security" were in the towns around 
 Durham; one place was on Nottingham Square, where 
 General Cilley lived; another place was in Madbury, where 
 Major John Demerritt built a storage cellar under his 
 barn and concealed several barrels; some of that powder 
 he carried to Medford in January and February and it was 
 used by Stark and Reed's regiments at the battle of Bun- 
 ker Hill, as Major Demeritt himself has stated. Later 
 some of it was used in the siege of Boston. 
 
 After the battle of Bunker Hill, General Cilley did 
 not participate in civil affairs to any extent; he had a 
 natural taste for military affairs and his time was taken up 
 in the performance of duties assigned him in that line of 
 work by the Colonial authorities. Soon after the battles 
 of Lexington and Concord the Massachusetts Committee 
 of Safety organized the New Hampshire troops into two 
 regiments, appointing John Stark colonel of the First, 
 and James Reid, colonel of the second; soon after that the 
 Congress of New Hampshire gave its formal approval of
 
 24 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 the action of the Massachusetts Committee in appointing 
 Stark and Reid, and also organized a Third Regiment, 
 appointing Enoch Poor, colonel, and Joseph Cilley, major, 
 and assigned this regiment to coast guard duty, from Kit- 
 tery to Salisbury, Mass., thus commenced the work of putting 
 Portsmouth in order of defense against expected attacks 
 from the British fleet. They were engaged in this work until 
 the battle of Bunker Hill; after that battle Colonel Poor's 
 regiment was ordered to Cambridge to engage in the Siege 
 of Boston, and a new regiment under command of Col- 
 Joshua Wingate was placed in charge of Portsmouth, and 
 the New Hampshire coast in general. This work became 
 very active after the burning of Falmouth (Portland) in 
 October, 1775, when it was daily expected that the British 
 fleet would attack the New Hampshire seaport, and burn 
 it. As a matter of fact, it was the most exciting period of 
 the war, as far as New Hampshire was concerned, though 
 it was never in danger of invasion after December, 1775. 
 At Winter Hill, August 5, 1775, General Sullivan 
 wrote to the Committee of Safety that the army then was 
 short of powder, to the great amazement of General Wash- 
 ington, when it was found that they had not a half pound 
 to a man, exclusive of what they had in their powder horns. 
 General Sullivan appointed Major Cilley as a special mes- 
 senger to carry his letter to Exeter. Arriving there August 
 6, on August 7 the Committe of Safety gave him the fol- 
 lowing order: 
 
 In Committee of Safety August 7, 1775 
 To Major Joseph Cilley: 
 
 You are desired as soon as possible to apply to the Selectmen of the 
 Several Towns in this Colony with whom was lodged the powder taken 
 last winter from Fort William and Mary; take an account of what is in 
 their custody respectively and request of them forth with to convey the 
 whole of it to Col. Nicholas Oilman at Exeter. 
 
 By Order of the Committee, 
 Indorsed "To Major Cilley" 
 August 7th 1775 
 
 ( To be continued)
 
 General Slogepf) CtUep 
 
 IV 
 
 S MAJOR CILLEY was one of the men who 
 helped take the powder from Portsmouth and 
 carry it up the Pascataqua River to Durham, from 
 where it was distributed, he knew just what towns to 
 which to go and get it, in that time of distressing need. 
 Some of it had already been used at the battle of Bunker 
 Hill by Colonels Stark and Reid. Major Cilley attended 
 to the duty assigned him and in due time had the powder 
 on the way to Winter Hill for use of the soldiers under 
 General Sullivan's command. The reader must bear in 
 mind that they did not have any telephones, telegraphs or 
 postoffices, and not very good roads in those days. All 
 letters and messages had to be sent by special carriers, who 
 rode on horseback, the latter being the way Major Cilley 
 went from town to town and gave orders for moving the 
 powder. When it came to carting the powder to Exeter, 
 and thence to Winter Hill, the work was done by ox teams; 
 they were slow, sturdy oxen and patriots held the goads, 
 and if slow they got there without delay. That campaign 
 of 1775 was the liveliest New Hampshire ever saw, and 
 Major Cilley was one of the most active men. He was 
 also one of the foremost during the siege of Boston, from 
 August, 1775, till the evacuation, March 17, 1776. Occa- 
 sionally he took a hand in arranging the defences at Ports- 
 mouth Harbor in the fall of 1775. 
 
 When the British left Boston, General Washington 
 anticipated that the next attaclc would be on New York, so 
 he marched his army as rapidly as possible to that place, 
 where he waited and watched for the movements of 
 
 25
 
 26 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 Admiral Howe. General Sullivan's brigade, of which 
 Major Cilley's regiment (Third) was a part, went to New 
 York with Washington. While the siege of Boston was 
 going on, General Montgomery from Ticonderoga and the 
 New Hampshire troops under Benedict Arnold from Cam- 
 bridge had attempted to capture Quebec, and failed, Mont- 
 gomery losing his life (Dec. 31, 1775). The army then 
 commenced the retreat up the St. Lawrence River, pur- 
 sued by the British forces. General Thomas was placed 
 in command of the American Army. 
 
 To relieve and save the army from destruction Gen- 
 eral Washington ordered General Sullivan and his brigade 
 to march as speedily as possible to Canada. Sullivan left 
 New York April 22, 1776, went up the Hudson river, then 
 overland to Ticonderoga, down Lake Champlain to the 
 Sorel River, down that river to the St. Lawrence, and so 
 on until he met and saved General Thomas's army, Thomas 
 having died before Sullivan arrived at the point of meeting. 
 Then came the retreat; many of the men sick with small- 
 pox; but at length General Sullivan and his army reached 
 Ticonderoga. The whole story is thrilling and soul-stir- 
 ring, the bravery and the suffering of the men, the skill 
 and good generalship of Sullivan, make one of the remark- 
 able chapters in the history of the Revolutionary War. 
 Major Cilley had been promoted to Lieut.-Colonel in June, 
 on retirement of John McDuffee, and was a conspicuous, 
 brave and useful officer during the Canadian campaign of 
 rescue. It was fortunate that he kept his health all 
 through it, while so many of his men were sick. When 
 Sullivan's army reached Crown Point and went into camp, 
 Colonel Trumbull took a look at them; he says: "I did not 
 look into a tent or hut in which I did not find either a dead 
 or a dying man." 
 
 After remaining there and at Ticonderoga a while, 
 General Gates being the superior in rank of Sullivan and 
 in command, Sullivan and his brigade of New Hampshire 
 (Lt. Col. Cilley's regiment a part of it) left for New York
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 27 
 
 and joined Washington, at some day in the last of July 
 1776. Washington's army then consisted of about 
 20,000 men, of whom one fifth were sick, Lieut. Col. Cil- 
 ley not being one of the list. Washington was socn re- 
 enforced by 7,000 troops, mostly New England men. 
 Against them, on Staten Island, Generals Clinton and 
 Cornwallis had 24,000 of the best disciplined, healthy and 
 well-fed soldiers in the world. Clinton was preparing to 
 go over into Long Island, and then attack Washington, 
 who divining the purpose of the British, sent a consider- 
 able part of his army across East River to Long Island 
 and placed General Greene in command to meet Clinton's 
 army. Among the troops who went over were General 
 Sullivan's brigade, one regiment of which was Lieut. Colonel 
 Cilley's, the Third New Hampshire. Previous to the bat- 
 tle August 27, 1776, there were several days of manoeuver- 
 ing by both armies to get in touch. General Greene was 
 taken sick and General Sullivan took his place for a while, 
 then General Putnam was put in chief command and held 
 it until the defeat and retreat were completed. It is not 
 the purpose of this article to describe the battle in detail. 
 Suffice to say that when Sullivan was surprised and taken 
 prisoner, Lieut.-Colonel Cilley's regiment and most of the 
 other New Hampshire troops fought their way through the 
 British lines which surrounded them and retreated success- 
 fully across East River to New York. That was the first 
 actual fighting in battle in which Cilley was engaged, and 
 he showed himself to be a brave, fearless and skillful 
 officer. 
 
 General Carleton compelled Washington to begin his 
 retreat out of New York City September 13 1776. He 
 crossed the Hudson to New Jersey and through that State to 
 Pennsylvania; Cilley and the other New Hampshire troops 
 were with him. Then followed the battle of Trenton 
 December 26, 1776, and the battle of Princeton, January 
 3, 1777. When the British had driven Washington's army 
 across the Delaware River General Howe felt sure that the
 
 28 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 back of the "rebellion" was broken, and his army was 
 taking things easy, encamped along the Jersey bank of the 
 Delaware. Lieut. Colonel Cilley was with his old Dur- 
 ham friend, General Sullivan, when Washington's army 
 crossed the Delaware, and on that cold winter night when 
 the ice was forming and its surface was covered with float- 
 ing pieces. The current was swift and the night was dark. 
 Towards midnight a storm of snow and sleet set in and 
 through this they crossed to the Jersey shore. This must 
 have reminded Sullivan and Cilley of the capture they had 
 together made at Fort William and Mary at New Castle two 
 years before. After crossing the river Sullivan marched his 
 part of the army along the road by the river, and the cap- 
 ture of the British force at Trenton soon followed; the 
 grand victory need not be further described here; Sullivan 
 and Cilley were among the heroes. 
 
 At Princeton, where Washington outgeneralled Corn- 
 wallis by the brilliant camp fires and shrewdly managed 
 flank movement of his army, the New Hampshire troops 
 under Colonels Stark, Reid and Poor were in the thick of 
 the fight and put to flight the British 55th and 4Oth regi- 
 ments, which ended the battle. That Lieut. Colonel Cilley 
 did his share of the fighting is a certain fact. Washing- 
 ton then marched his army to Morristown and went into 
 winter quarters, the New Hampshire regiments being with 
 him. During January and February, 1777, these regi- 
 ments were reorganized. Col. John Stark becoming 
 indignant because Col. Enoch Poor was appointed brigadier 
 general over him by Congress, would not serve longer as 
 Colonel of the First Regiment. So Lieut. Colonel Cilley 
 of the Third Regiment was appointed Colonel of the First 
 Regiment in place of Stark, April 2, 1777. 
 
 SERVICE AS COLONEL OF THE FIRST N. H. REGIMENT 
 
 Joseph Cilley was promoted to Colonel of the First 
 New Hampshire Regiment February 22, 1777; he received
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 29 
 
 his commission from congress April 2, 1777, he being then 
 at Morristown, New Jessey; soon after he marched with 
 his regiment to Ticonderoga, as part of General Poor's 
 Brigade. This move was made necessary by the news that 
 a large British force was on the march from Canada to that 
 place, via Lake Champlain and Crown Point. It was said 
 that General Burgoyne had it in mind to march down 
 through Vermont and New Hampshire to Boston and re- 
 capture what the British had been compelled to give up 
 when Washington forced them to evacuate that town 
 March 17, 1776. 
 
 Colonel Cilley encamped his regiment in the "Old 
 French Lines," in May, having tents for their habitations. 
 The regiments of Colonels Scammell and Dearborn were 
 compatriots on the same beautiful camping ground, and 
 General Enoch Poor was in command at Ticonderoga. It 
 is fortunate for the historian that one man ot Colonel Cil- 
 ley's regiment kept a daily record of the events in which 
 the regiment participated for three years from May 13, 
 1777, to May, 1781. That man was Thomas Blake, of 
 Lebanon, N. H., who was Lieutenant of one of the com- 
 panies. The diary was published in 1868 by Mr. Frederick 
 Kidder of Boston. Lieutentant Blake started on his jour- 
 ney from Lebanon May 14, and reached Fort Independ- 
 ence, on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain, May 21, 
 and joined his regiment that day. He says it was a very 
 hard tramp of seven days over very bad roads. 
 
 General Poor was superceded in command of Ticon- 
 deroga, June n, by Major-General St. Clair. The enemy 
 had begun to make their appearance then, and Colonel 
 Cilley's regiment had its first encounter with the advance 
 guard, on June 17, the second anniversary of the battle of 
 Bunker Hill, in which the regiment had taken a conspic- 
 uous and important part, under command of its first Col- 
 onel, John Stark, Cilley not then being a member of the 
 regiment. In that first encounter Colonel Cilley's men 
 did not suffer loss, but they killed one of the enemy and
 
 30 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 dispersed the rest. On June 30, the enemy began to 
 arrive in force, in numerous boats, landing troops on both 
 sides of the Lake and stationing their ships across the 
 water from shore to shore. On July ist the enemy got 
 possession of Mt. Hope, about one mile from Colonel 
 Cilley's regiment, and the next day the regiment had a 
 sharp encounter with the enemy; five of our men were 
 killed, four were wounded and one man was taken prisoner; 
 Colonel Cilley's son Jonathan, a boy of fifteen years who 
 was serving as an aid on his father's staff. The boy was 
 retained as a prisoner for a while, but when General Bur- 
 goyne learned that he was the son of a colonel of a New 
 Hampshire regiment he granted him a pass to return to 
 the American lines and permitted him to select any article 
 of clothing he might desire from the large amount Bur- 
 goyne's men had captured from the American army, when 
 it beat such a hasty retreat from Ticonderoga. Jonathan 
 was also provided with an old horse and a pair of saddle 
 bags containing proclamations by Burgoyne, ordering the 
 rebel Americans to surrender. He overtook his father 
 somewhere on the line of retreat from Lake Champlain to 
 North River. Colonel Cilley took one of the proclama- 
 tions and read it aloud in the presence of his regiment; 
 then ordering all of the circulars to be torn in pieces and 
 scattered to the wind, he said: 
 
 "Thus may the British Army be scattered!" 
 During this disastrous retreat, at night, when every- 
 thing was in confusion, Gen. Kosciuszko, not being able 
 to find his own horse, took the first that came in his way. 
 It belonged to Adjutant Caleb Stark of Colonel Cilley's 
 staff. When Stark came for his horse and not finding it 
 where he left it, proceeded on foot until daylight, when he 
 discovered the Polish general mounted on his horse and 
 demanded his property, which the other refused to give up. 
 Kosciuszko was a highly educated military officer, then 31 
 years old; Stark was a youth of 18 years; the Polish officer 
 was very impulsive, and young Stark was a "chip of the old
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 31 
 
 block," having served with his father at the battle of Bunker 
 Hill; high words ensued between the Pole and the Yankee. 
 Stark challenged him to fight a duel; Kosciuszko replied, 
 that "a subaltern is not of sufficient rank to meet a briga- 
 dier general." "If he is not," said a person coming up on 
 foot, "I am. This officer, general, is my adjutant, the 
 horse is his property, and his demand is a proper one." 
 "Ah, Colonel Cilley," replied the general, "if that is the 
 case I will give up the horse." The adjutant recovered 
 his horse; but in half an hour afterward, Colonel Cilley, 
 who had lost his own horse, said, "Stark, I am tired, you 
 must lend me your horse," which request was cheerfully 
 complied with, as Cilley was a man of 43 years. That 
 retreat from Ticonderoga and the summer campaign on the 
 upper part of the Hudson river, was a very trying time to 
 the regiment and its officers. 
 
 The abandonment of Ticonderoga began very sud- 
 denly, as the enemy came upon the Americans in an unex- 
 pected, and as was supposed, impossible quarter. On the 
 night of July 6, Lieutenant Blake says, "The First Regi- 
 ment was ordered to strike its tents about one o'oclock in 
 the morning, and parade as soon as possible with packs and 
 provisions. As soon as we were paraded we marched over 
 Mt. Independence, where we found all in moving posture, 
 the boats and batteaux chiefly loaded, the provisions not all 
 taken in, the clothing chests all broken open, the clothing 
 scattered about and carried off by all who were disposed to 
 take, and everything in great confusion. About sunrise 
 the last of the boats and the rear guard left the Mount, by 
 which time the enemy were in the 'French lines.' The 
 body of the army marched as far as Castleton, which is 
 about 30 miles, and the rear guard with the men who could 
 not keep up with the body, tarried at Hubbardtown six 
 miles back." 
 
 Colonel Cilley's regiment was not of the number that 
 "tarried at Hubbardtown" and had a lively fight with the 
 advance guard of the enemy, but kept on and after a very
 
 32 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 fatiguing march of five days came to North or Hudson 
 River, along the banks of which, several weeks later, 
 occurred the battles which led to the surrender of Bur- 
 goyne at Saratoga. From that date to September 10, the 
 regiment was engaged in hard work, along the river, at 
 various points, but they had no righting to do with the 
 enemy. On Sept. 10, Lieutenant Blake says: "We began 
 to fortify on the heights back of Stillwater, and built a 
 floating bridge across the river, etc." On the I2th they 
 marched up the river about three miles, and encamped on 
 the high ground, about half a mile from the river, known 
 by the name of Bemis's Heights, where they fortified, the 
 enemy then being at Saratoga. There they prepared, 
 with the rest of the army, for the first great battle with 
 Burgoyne, which took place on the igth and concerning 
 which Lieutenant Blake very modestly says: 
 
 "About 12 o'clock (noon) the First New Hampshire 
 Regiment marched out to meet the enemy. We met them 
 about one mile from our encampment, where the engage- 
 ment began very closely, and continued about 20 minutes, 
 in which time we lost so many men, and received no re- 
 enforcement, that we were obliged to retreat, but before 
 we got to the encampment we met two regiments coming 
 out as a re-enforcement, when we returned and renewed 
 the attack, which continued very warm until dark, at which 
 time we withdrew and retired to our encampment. In this 
 engagement the enemy had two field pieces in the field, 
 which we took three or four times, but as it was in the 
 woods, they were not removed."
 
 General 31o$epf) CtUep 
 
 V 
 
 By JOHN SCALES, A. B., A M. 
 
 SERVICE IN THE FIRST N. H. REGIMENT ( Continued) 
 
 BRIEF of the battle may better show just what 
 Colonel Cilley did with his regiment, At n 
 o'clock A. M., the booming of cannon in Burgoyne's 
 army gave the signal that he was about to advance on the 
 American lines. At noon General Arnold gave the order, 
 by permission of General Gates, to Col. Daniel Morgan, 
 commander of the famous regiment of riflemen, and to 
 Colonels Cilley, Dearborn and Scammell of the New 
 Hampshire regiments, to attack the Canadians and Indians, 
 who were swarming on the hills in advance of Burgoyne's 
 right. These were driven back and pursued. Morgan's 
 riflemen became scattered, were recalled, and with the 
 New England troops under Cilley, Dearborn and Scam- 
 mell, another furious charge was made. After a sharp 
 engagement in which Morgan's horse was shot under him, 
 the combatants withdrew to their respective lines. Mean- 
 while Burgoyne had moved rapidly upon the American 
 center and left. At the same time the vigilant Arnold 
 attempted to turn the British right. Masked by thick 
 woods, neither party was now certain of the movements 
 of the other and they suddenly and unexpectedly met in 
 a ravine at Freeman's Farm, at which Burgoyne had 
 halted. There the battle raged desperately for awhile. 
 Arnold was pressed back, when Fraser, by a quick move- 
 ment, called up some German troops from the British cen- 
 ter to his aid. Arnold rallied his men, and with New Eng- 
 land troops led by Colonels Cilley, Dearborn, Scammell 
 
 33
 
 34 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 and others, struck the enemy with such heavy blows that 
 his lines began to waver and fall into confusion. The Brit- 
 ish received re-enforcements and the battle continued. 
 The British ranks were becoming fearfully thinned, when 
 Riedesel fell heavily upon the American flank with infantry 
 and artillery and they gave way. A lull in the battle suc- 
 ceeded, but at the middle of the afternoon the contest was 
 renewed with greater fury. At length the British, fear- 
 fully assailed by bullet and bayonet, recoiled and fell back. 
 It was there that General Arnold was in the battle against 
 General Gates's orders, and the victory was saved for the 
 American army. For three hours the battle raged. Like 
 an ocean tide the warriors surged backward and forward, 
 winning and losing victory alternately. Night closed the 
 contest and both armies rested on their arms until morn- 
 ing, when both withdrew to their own lines. That ended 
 the battle at Bemis's Heights. 
 
 The Battle at Stillwater, two miles away, followed on 
 October 7, of which Lieutenent Blake says in his Journal: 
 
 "A detachment of the enemy marched upon the left 
 of our army, consisting of the grenadiers and light infan- 
 try, with six field pieces and posted themselves on a small 
 height in a cleared field, about a quarter of a mile from our 
 advance guard, where they began a cannonade upon the 
 riflemen, and the three New Hampshire regiments were 
 ordered out to attack them, and after a very warm dispute 
 of about half an hour, the enemy were obliged to quit the 
 field and retreat to their works, which they did in great con- 
 fusion, their horses being chiefly killed, and were obliged 
 to leave their field pieces which fell into our hands, together 
 with about 50 prisoners, and our army followed hard after 
 them, and coming on the lines where the German were 
 stationed, forced them and took a number of prisoners, two 
 field pieces and several waggons loaded with ammunition 
 and baggage and by the time we had what we had taken at 
 the line it was almost dark and the troops that had been in 
 action were relieved by fresh troops from our encampment,
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 35 
 
 who tarried at the lines we had taken all night, the British 
 lying about a hundred rods distant. The next day the 
 enemy moved their baggage and artillery back from their 
 front lines, and in the night marched their whole army to 
 Saratoga, leaving their sick and wounded in some large 
 hospital tents, with several surgeons to attend them." 
 
 From full reports of the battle it appears that on 
 October 7, 1777, the whole British army moved from their 
 quarters at Saratoga, towards the left wing of the Amer- 
 ican army, where Colonel Cilley was. Burgoyne pressed 
 with 1,500 picked men, eight brass cannon, and two how- 
 itzers, leaving his main army on the heights, in command 
 of Brigadiers Sprecht and Hamilton, and the redoubts 
 near the river with Brigadier-General Hall. This move- 
 ment was discerned before the British were ready for 
 battle. The drums of the American advance guard beat 
 to arms. The alarm ran all along the lines. General 
 Gates inquired the cause of the alarm, and then ordered 
 Colonel Morgan, with his sharpshooting riflemen to "begin 
 the game." 
 
 Morgan soon gained a good position on the British 
 right, while General Poor with his New Hampshire brigade, 
 followed by General Ten Broeck with New Yorkers 
 advanced against their left. It was between three and four 
 o'clock in the afternoon when General Poor and those with 
 him astonished General Burgoyne, as he was about to 
 advance, by thunder of cannon on his left, and the crack 
 of rifles on his right. Poor had pressed up the thick 
 wooded slope unobserved on which the British forces 
 under command of Majors Acland and Williams were 
 posted. The British did not observe the New Hampshire 
 troops until they were near the batteries, which were cap- 
 tured after a struggle, in which the leader of the British 
 grenadiers was severely wounded, and Major Williams of 
 the artillery was made prisoner. Five times one of the 
 cannon was taken and retaken. When the British fell 
 back, and the gun remained with the Americans, Colonel
 
 36 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 Cilley leaped upon it, waved his sword over his head, dedi- 
 cated the piece to the "American Cause," and, turning it 
 upon the foe, he opened its destructive energy upon the 
 enemy with their own ammunition, amid an avalanche of 
 applause from the New Hampshire brigade, and others 
 who saw the act. 
 
 Sir Francis Clarke, Burgoyne's chief aide, who was 
 sent to secure the cannon, was mortally wounded by it and 
 made prisoner, and was sent to Gates's tent. The whole 
 eight cannon and the possession of the field remained with 
 the Americans. That was Colonel Cilley's part in that 
 remarkable battle which caused the surrender of Bur- 
 goyne's whole army ten days later, October 17, at Saratoga, 
 at which Colonel Cilley took a conspicuous part. 
 
 That was the end of Colonel Cilley's military cam- 
 paign of 1777. He went south with his regiment by slow 
 marches, and finally went into camp at Valley Forge, 
 December 23, 1777. 
 
 COL. CILLEY AT VALLEY FORGE AND MONMOUTH 
 
 On November 21, 1777, Colonel Cilley marched his 
 regiment, in General Sullivan's brigade, to Whitemarsh, a 
 beautiful valley about 13 miles from Independence Hall in 
 Philadelphia, and there he joined the main army under 
 command of General Washington. December 5, early in 
 the morning, he had information that the greater part of 
 the British army was leaving Philadelphia to meet Wash- 
 ington's army; upon receiving this news, Colonel Cilley, 
 with the rest of the brigade, had his regiment strike their 
 tents and load them into wagons, together with their bag- 
 gage, and moved off, and the army paraded. In the after- 
 noon the enemy appeared on an eminence in front of them, 
 but at a distance of three miles, where they remained all 
 night, and Washington's army held its position, awaiting 
 and expecting to be attacked. December 6, the British 
 marched towards the left of the American army, but made 
 no attack, while Washington's army remained under arms
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 37 
 
 all day. On the /th a few shots were exchanged but no 
 battle. On the 8th the American army remained quietly 
 under arms all day and night, up to 2 o'clock on the morn- 
 ing of the 9th, when the rifle regiment and three brigades 
 marched out in order to attack the enemy on their own 
 grounds at daybreak; when the British saw them coming 
 prepared for battle they moved off towards Philadelphia. 
 
 On the morning of December 1 1, about an hour before 
 day, Colonel Cilley, with others, received orders to prepare 
 his regiment for a march, about daybreak, to meet a party 
 of the enemy who were foraging on the other side of the 
 Schuylkill river. They marched about ten miles and came 
 to a bridge; two brigades crossed; the rest were following, 
 but the enemy met them and took possession of the 
 heights in front, and of each side of the road leading from 
 the bridge; this move compelled our army to retreat over 
 the river again, and there halted, so that neither army 
 dared to attempt to cross the river. Colonel Cilley kept 
 his regiment there until almost night, when he, with a part 
 of the army, marched up the river to Sweed's ford, two 
 miles, to prevent the enemy from crossing at that place. 
 While there, oh the I2th, about sunset, some of the Amer- 
 ican horsemen brought into camp two Hessians they had 
 taken, who gave intelligence that there were about 4,000 of 
 the enemy over the Schuylkill after forage; General Sulli- 
 van, who was in command of the brigade of which Cilley's 
 regiment was a part, immediately crossed the river and 
 marched in pursuit of the enemy; on reaching the Gulph 
 mills he learned that the enemy had returned to Phili- 
 delphia with their plunder. General Sullivan and his 
 brigade remained there until December 16, when the whole 
 army marched to Valley Forge and proceeded to encamp 
 for the winter. 
 
 When all had reached there, the grounds were staked 
 out on the 23d for the army to build log huts in which to 
 pass the winter; there were about 11,000 men to be pro- 
 vided for, which work required about a week to get the vil-
 
 38 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 lage in order; the huts were built of round logs and most 
 of them were covered with straw and earth; they 
 were in two lines, extending from the Schuylkill river 
 about a mile and a half. This locality is about 22 miles 
 from Independence Hall. In the beginning of February 
 each brigade was ordered to build a breastwork in front of 
 their own huts, which was done in a few days. The whole 
 army lay there, except two brigades at Washington, down 
 the Delaware river, and also about three hundred men at 
 Reednar, 7 miles from camp; and 200 at Gulph Mills, about 
 the same distance; each of these two last-named parties 
 was relieved every week. There were likewise guards kept 
 about one mile distant from camp, which formed a chain of 
 sentinels around the whole encampment; these were 
 relieved daily. The army lay in this posture during the 
 winter and until May, 1778. No attack was made on 
 them; but it was an awful winter which Colonel Cilley and 
 his men had to endure. 
 
 That place was chosen because it was farther from the 
 dangers of sudden attack from the enemy, and also it 
 could more easily afford protection for the Congress sitting 
 at York, having been driven out at Philadelphia, which was 
 then occupied by the British army. Bloodstains made by 
 the lacerated feet of its poorly shod soldiers, marked the 
 line of their march to Valley Forge. In the camp they 
 suffered with cold and often had very short rations, for 
 food was as scarce as their clothing was poor. 
 
 The British, under General Howe, had full possession 
 of Philadelphia and of the Delaware river below, and 
 Pennsylvania was divided among its people, and in its 
 Legislature, by political factions. General uneasiness pre- 
 vailed; and when Washington sought refuge at Valley 
 Forge, the Pennsylvania Legislature adopted a remon- 
 strance against the measure. To this cruel missive Wash- 
 ington replied, after censuring the quartermaster-general 
 (Mifflin), a Pennsylvania!!, for neglect of duty in not sup- 
 plying the soldiers with proper food and clothing, he says:
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH C1LLEY 39 
 
 "For the want of a two-days supply of provisions, an 
 opportunity scarcely ever offered of taking an advantage of 
 the enemy, that has not been either totally obstructed or 
 greatly impeded. Men are confined in hospitals or in 
 farmers' houses for want of shoes. We have this day 
 (Dec. 23) no less than 2,873 men m camp unfit for duty 
 because they are barefooted and otherwise naked. Our 
 whole strength in continental troops amounts to no more 
 than 8,200 in camp fit for duty. Since the 4th inst. our 
 numbers fit for duty, from hardships and exposures, have 
 decreased nearly 2,000 men. Numbers are still obliged to sit 
 all night by their campfires to keep from freezing. Gentle- 
 men reprobates going into winter quarters as much as if 
 they thought the soldiers were made of sticks or stones. 
 I can assure those gentlemen that it is a much easier and 
 less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a comfort- 
 able room, by a good fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak 
 hill, and sleep under frost and snow without clothes or 
 blankets. However, although they seem to have little 
 feeling for the naked and distressed soldiers, I feel super- 
 abundantly for them; and from my soul I pity those mis- 
 eries which is neither in my power to relieve, or prevent." 
 
 That is what General Washington said, and thus we 
 have the picture of the scenes and conditions which Col- 
 onel Cilley and his soldiers had to endure until the warm 
 weather of spring. On May 6 a great rejoicing prevailed 
 in the camp on account of the news of the alliance of 
 France. Washington ordered all the prisoners to be 
 released that were then in confinement in the Continental 
 Army. The whole army was drawn up in two lines and 
 fired a volley, from right to left of the front, and then 
 from left to right of the rear lines; which was repeated 
 three times. It was a great day of rejoicing, especially for 
 Colonel Cilley's regiment whose men had suffered severely 
 from sickness, but had now largely recovered. 
 
 In the battle of Monmouth which followed on June 
 28, Colonel Cilley's regiment was closely engaged and he
 
 40 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 and his men behaved with such bravery as to merit the par- 
 ticular approbation of the illustrious Washington after the 
 battle was over and the treachery of Gen. Charles Lee was 
 thwarted, he having ordered a retreat when an advance 
 should have been made against General Howe's Army, 
 which was on its march from Philadelphia to New York. 
 It was when Washington met Lee on that retreat that the 
 illustrious commander showed his temper at its white heat 
 and bestowed on the traitorous commander some righteous 
 oaths, as became the occasion. No doubt Colonel Cilley 
 applauded as Washington swore. 
 
 Lieutenant Thomas Blake says in his Journal of that 
 period: "June 18 . .At 4 o'clock in the afternoon Gen. 
 Lee's division marched, consisting of Gen. Poor's, Varnum's 
 and Huntington's brigades three miles over Schuylkill 
 bridge and encamped." "June 19, . . . Marched iSmiles." 
 "June 20, ... At 12 o'clock we came to the Delaware 
 river, and crossed at Carrel 1's ferry; marched 3 miles and 
 encamped in Am well." "June 21, . . . Gen. Lee's division 
 lay still, and Gen. Washington crossed the river (Delaware) 
 and another division of the army." "June 22. . . . The 
 whole army crossed the river and encamped in Amwell, 
 excepting a party (under Gen. Arnold) that marched to 
 take possession of Philadelphia, from which Howe's army 
 had departed." "June 23, ... The whole army marched 
 down towards the enemy, leaving the tents and baggage, 
 as far as Hopewell township, and halted; but Col. Morgan 
 with his regiment of riflemen and a detachment under his 
 command, marched toward the enemy." 
 
 "June 24. . . . The army lay still; the tents came up 
 and were pitched; a detachment went forward under Gen. 
 Scott." 
 
 "June 25 ... March to Kingston, and another detach- 
 ment went forward under command of Marquis Dela- 
 fayette." 
 
 "June 26 ... Marched to Cranberry Town and Gen. 
 Lee went forward with two brigades."
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 41 
 
 "June 27. ... Marched to Cranberry meadows." 
 "June 28. ... Marched to English town and there 
 left our packs and coats, the weather being very warm, 
 and proceeded as fast as possible in pursuit of the enemy, 
 who were then near Monmouth Court House. The for- 
 ward detachment had attacked the enemy, and Gen. Wash- 
 ington met them on the retreat, about one and a half miles 
 from the Court House. Our artillery set in very briskly, 
 causing a heavy cannonade on both sides, holding for some 
 time until the enemy retreated. Our army pursued about 
 a mile, and then left them. The enemy encamped that 
 night near the Court House; and in the night moved off, 
 leaving all their wounded that were not able to march, 
 , numbering about 60, of whom were five commissioned 
 officers." 
 
 "June 29, ... Two brigades marched down to the 
 Court House, as a covering party while they buried the 
 dead. The number of those buried were about three hun- 
 dred, that of ours sixty. After the dead were buried the 
 whole army marched back to Englishtown." 
 "June 30. ... Lay still at Englishtown." 
 "July i, ... The whole army marched to Spotwod, 
 the weather being so excessively hot, the road for the 
 most part being through Pitch pine plain, that near one 
 third of the men were so overcome that they were obliged 
 to stop, many were not able to march until the cool of the 
 evening, ami some were so overcome that they were obliged 
 to be conyeyea/in wagons." 
 
 This^was the end of Colonel Cilley's regiment's con- 
 flict wijj'fi the enemy in 1778. By various routes they 
 marched from time to time, through New Jersey, New 
 York and Connecticut, to Redding in that State, where 
 they arrived December 2, built huts, went into camp and 
 spent the winter comfortably and quietly. For a while in 
 November General Poor's brigade, of which Colonel Cil- 
 ley's regiment was a part, had charge of German troops 
 that were captured with General Burgoyne, they being on
 
 42 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 their way to Virginia. Colonel Cilley's next campaign 
 began in May, 1779. 
 
 COLONEL JOSEPH CILLEY IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE 
 NEW YORtf INDIANS 
 
 Colonel Cilley's regiment remained in camp at Red- 
 ding, Conn., from December 4, 1778, until the loth of 
 April, 1779, and then marched to the high lands on North 
 River, where they went into huts and remained until May 
 9, when they broke camp and marched to Easton, Penn. 
 Arriving here on the i8th, they took quarters in the Court 
 House and other spare buildings. On the igth General 
 Sullivan arrived and took command of the Western army, 
 which had been aasembled there. The time from that 
 date to the 29th of May was spent in getting things in 
 order for the difficult march against the Indians. On the 
 28th they marched 12 miles to Wyoming; on the 2gth they 
 marched 15 miles to Pocono Point; on the 3Oth they went 
 10 miles to Tuckhannock; on the 3ist they marched six 
 miles to Locust Hill, where Colonel Cilley's regiment came 
 up with Colonel Courtland and Colonel Spencer's regi- 
 ments, who were cutting a road through to Wyoming. 
 They pitched their tents and went to work with those regi- 
 ments cutting trees and making corduroy paths where 
 necessary. They worked on this road building until June 
 7, when they moved their tents forward eight miles; June 
 9 they moved the tents forward two miles and encamped 
 June ii they moved their tents forward five miles to Bul- 
 lock's house, where the tents remained three days. On 
 the I4th they marched seven miles to Wyoming, having 
 made the distance of 65 miles through the forests from 
 Easton. On June I7th Colonels Cilley's, Courtland's and 
 Spencer's regiments marched up the river to Jacob's 
 Plains, four miles and encamped and remained so until 
 June 23, when General Sullivan arrived with five regiments. 
 On July 4, Colonels Cilley's and Courtland's regiments 
 crossed the river and marched down two miles towards
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 43 
 
 Wyoming and encamped with the rest of General Poor's 
 brigade. 
 
 On July 5 General Poor made an entertainment for 
 the officers of his brigade in honor of the Declaration of 
 Independence, and after dinner the following toasts were 
 drunk, and appropriate responses were made by various 
 officers: I. The United States. 2. July 4, 1776, the 
 memorable. 3. The grand council of America. 4. Gen- 
 eral Washington and the Army. 5. The King and 
 Queen of France. 6. General Sullivan and the Western 
 expedition. 7. May the Councillors of America be wise, 
 and their soldiers invincible. 8. A successful and deci- 
 sive campaign. 9. Civilization or death to all savages. 
 10. The immortal memory of those heroes who have fallen 
 in defense of American liberty. 1 1. May the husbandman's 
 cottage be blessed with peace, and his fields with plenty. 
 12. Vigor and virtue to all the sons and daughters of 
 America. 13. May the New World be the last asylum of 
 freedom and the arts. Among the speakers who responded 
 to the sentiments were General Sullivan and Colonel Cil- 
 ley. This is the first recorded celebration of the 4th of 
 July. 
 
 On July 27 General Poor's Brigade, of which Cilley's 
 regiment was a part, marched down to Wyoming and 
 encamped with the rest of the army. Four days were 
 spent there in getting ready to begin the march up the 
 river, and on the 3ist they marched ten miles to Lacawa- 
 neck. August i, they marched seven miles to Quiluta- 
 mack and met with so much difficulty in passing some 
 large mountains that ran down to the river, that the rear 
 of the army did not come up with the advance until the 
 next morning, for which reason General Poor's brigade 
 remained in camp there a second day; then they contin- 
 ued on their journey about 12 miles a day, till Augustn, 
 when they forded the river and marched to Tioga Point, 
 five miles and there encamped on the point between the 
 Seneca and Tioga branches. Now they had reached the
 
 44 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 Indian country and began to put everything in order for a 
 fight. They had cut a road through the forests about 175 
 miles from Easton, Penn., a very difficult and wearisome 
 job. 
 
 General Sullivan gave orders, toward night of August 
 12 for the army to march. Poor's regiment left Tioga just 
 after sunset, with one day's provisions, leaving their tents 
 standing, with the baggage in them; a few men were left 
 on guard who were least able to work. Cilley's regiment, 
 with Poor's brigade, marched all night; it was very dark and 
 the travelling was very difficult. Just at day break, on the 
 morning of August 13, they reached Chemung, a small 
 Indian village, 14 miles from Tioga; the Indians became 
 alarmed and ran away before the army could surround the 
 settlement and capture them by surprise, as General Sulli- 
 van had planned should be done. They had previously 
 removed all of their women and children, leaving only 
 about fifty of their warriors as a guard, under command of 
 Butler, the Tory leader and Brant the head man of the 
 Five Nation's Warriors. The Indians had large fields of 
 green corn about there, and Colonel Cilley's men with the 
 others, gathered a lot of the ears for roasting purposes, as 
 they were quite hungry, after their hard march all night. 
 While they were picking off the ears the Indians, in 
 ambush, attacked them, and killed one or two men and 
 wounded several more. Colonel Cilley promptly rallied 
 his men and rushed for the enemy, who fled in great haste. 
 The army then set to work and burned all the buildings in 
 the village, about twenty,and destroyed all of the cornfields 
 and other garden stuff, cutting and throwing it into heaps. 
 In the afternoon they marched back to Tioga, having 
 accomplished a very fatiguing amount of work in twenty- 
 four hours, without sleep. They had destroyed a large 
 amount of property, but so far as Colonel Cilley observed 
 his men had killed only one Indian and one Tory. 
 
 At Tioga they rested three days, waiting for General 
 Clinton's troops from Cherry Valley. August 15 a party
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 45 
 
 of Indians came down to the south side of the river, oppo- 
 site the encampment, and fired upon some of Colonel Cil- 
 ley's men, who were tending cattle. They killed one and 
 wounded another. August 16 Colonel Cilley's regiment, 
 with General Poor's brigade, marched up the river to meet 
 General Clinton's brigade, which had come over from the 
 Mohawk River. They were piloted by some friendly Indi- 
 ans for quite a distance, and then General Poor thought it 
 would be better, and more expeditious, to send three 
 chosen veterans to meet General Clinton and pilot him 
 to meet his brigade. The three men chosen for this pur- 
 pose were Sergeant Joseph Henderson, Sergeant Thomas 
 Scott, and Peter Stevens, all of whom belonged to the 
 First New Hampshire Regiment commanded by Colonel 
 Cilley. 
 
 These fearless heroes, with only three days' rations, 
 set out on their hazardous journey; they got lost in the for- 
 ests and did not meet Clinton's army, but after wandering 
 about several days they struck the track of Clinton's army 
 and following it arrived at head quarters, after having been 
 absent a dozen days; they were completely exhausted 
 Meanwhile General Poor's and General Clinton's brigades, 
 succeeded in meeting, and the combined forces arrived at 
 Tioga August 22d. 
 
 All preparations having been completed, General 
 Sullivan gave orders to march, three Indians belonging to 
 theOneida tribe having joined the army to assist as guides. 
 The army advanced into the Seneca country, leaving a gar- 
 rison of 500 men at Tioga point; they marched four 
 miles that day, six the next, four on the third and four 
 miles on the fourth day, August 29, when the advance 
 guards were fired upon by the enemy from a breastwork 
 they had thrown up, about a quarter of a mile in length, 
 extending from the river to a large range of mountains, 
 which lay parallel with the river; here Sullivan's army halt- 
 ed and prepared for battle.
 
 46 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 That march from Tioga, through the inhospitable wild- 
 erness, was in the following manner: A hollow square was 
 formed; General Hand's brigade in front, General Poor's 
 brigade on the right; General Maxwell's on the left, and 
 General Clinton's in the rear. Within the hollow square 
 was placed Colonel Procter's regiment of artillery, together 
 with the horses carrying general supplies, also the beef 
 cattle. The regiments marched in platoons, eight deep, 
 and each man had to keep his place, hence the march was 
 slow and fatiguing, but General Sullivan insisted on this 
 order, so that in case of an attack, which was reasonable to 
 be expected at any time, a front of three brigades could be 
 speedily formed. 
 
 The breastworks of the Indians were made deceptive 
 by being covered with small pines stuck into the ground. 
 It was Sunday morning, August 29, when this force of the 
 enemy was discovered. After a brief consultation of the 
 officers, General Sullivan ordered General Poor's brigade 
 to march to the rear of the hill, at the foot of which the 
 enemy were behind their breastworks; the brigade marched 
 around about three miles and then began to ascend it; as 
 they did so the Indians, concealed behind trees, sent forth 
 the most hideous yells, which echoed from the opposite 
 mountain sides as though the woods were full of the sav- 
 age warriors, at the same time they fired on our men. 
 They kept up their war-whoops and shooting as our sol- 
 dieas advanced, returning the fire; when General Poor's 
 brigade was about half way up the hill, the order was 
 given to charge bayonets, and they did so with a rush and 
 gave the American yell, which sent terror into the enemy 
 and they disappeared as fast as their legs could carry them, 
 completely deserting the breastworks they had so finely 
 planned and constructed. This was the battle of Newton, 
 of which General Sullivan's official account gives minute 
 details. Colonel Cilley led his men in that march up the 
 hill, and was active in the execution of the order from 
 beginning to end of the encounter. His men captured
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 47 
 
 two prisoners, one negro and one a white man. The latter 
 was found lying on his face and pretending to be dead; 
 but Colonel Cilley punched him a bit, and he proved to be 
 very much alive. His face was blacked, but the rest of his 
 person proved to be white, so they judged him to be a Tory 
 and put a rope around his neck and threatened to hang 
 him; but the threat was not put into execution. 
 
 They remained on the battle ground until sunset, 
 when, no enemy being in sight, they returned to the plain 
 and encamped, and sent the wounded down to Tioga in 
 boats. In burying the dead, they burnt brush over the 
 graves, so that the Indians might not distinguish them 
 from the places where the camp fires had been burned. 
 
 August 31 they advanced ten miles, and the next day 
 they marched 13 miles to French Katharine's, where they 
 rested a day. Before they started on this march up around 
 the small lakes, General Sullivan had told them they would 
 have very hard work and short rations, and those who 
 thought they were unable to endure it would be permitted 
 to return to the camp at Tioga. Colonel Cilley drew up 
 his regiment in line, and then walked from right to left of 
 it, looked every man in the face, gave each a pleasant word 
 and expressed his fears that some could not endure the 
 march, and he thought it would be better for them to 
 remain behind in camp; but not a man would consent to 
 remain behind. Near the left of the line, Colonel Cilley 
 found a boy, only fifteen years old, and he strongly urged 
 him not to undertake the campaign. The boy begged to 
 be permitted to go forward with the regiment, so finally 
 Colonel Cilley said: Go my lad, and God go with you" 
 The boy, whose name was Richard Drout, went with the 
 regiment and came out all right at the end of the 
 campaign . 
 
 It is not necessary to follow that campaign day by day, 
 
 to show what Colonel Cilley and his regiment did; a few 
 
 incidents will be given. The Indian and Tory army kept 
 
 little ahead of Sullivan's advance, and, frequently Col-
 
 48 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 onel Cilley's regiment came across their camp fires, where 
 they had left boiling their kettles of succotash, which, of 
 course, the soldiers found very acceptable, and disposed of 
 it with much relish. When they came near an Indian vil- 
 lage, parties were always sent out to burn the huts and to 
 destroy their corn. Near Geneva lake they encamped in a 
 very large apple orchard, hence they called the place 
 Appleton. There they caught several Indian horses by 
 driving them into the lake, where expert swimmers caught 
 them. They destroyed that orchard completely. 
 
 The army was obliged to ford Canandaigua Lake, a 
 short distance from its outlet, where the water was nearly 
 up to the men's shoulders, so each man had to be careful 
 of his powder. Both sides of the crossing were covered 
 with an underbrush of grapevines and thorn bushes, which 
 made the passage very difficult. Colonel Cilley's regiment, 
 being in front of the right wing, was ordered to ha t and 
 to see that all guns of the army in passing were well 
 loaded and fresh primed, as the expectation was that 
 the enemy would attack our army as soon as the men 
 emerged from the lake. The crossing was completed 
 about sunset. 
 
 ( To be continued)
 
 General 3NepI) CUlep 
 
 BY JOHN SCALES, A. B., A. M. 
 
 Conclusion of the New York Campaign Against 
 the Indians 
 
 FTER the army had completed the crossing of Lake 
 Candagua, General Sullivan ordered General Hand 
 to go with four regiments and capture a town a 
 mile or more distant. General Hand hesitated and began 
 to make excuses. He thought it would be a useless waste 
 of lives; it would be dark before they could reach the vil- 
 lage; in the dark the enemy would have the advantage on 
 all sides and could stampede, or completely destroy the at- 
 tacking force. Colonel Cilley was sitting on his horse lis- 
 tening to the talk between Sullivan and Hand. He became 
 impatient at the hesitancy and delay; he straightened him- 
 self up in his stirrups and exclaimed, in the forceful way he 
 had of saying things: "General Sullivan! give me leave and 
 I will take the town with my regiment alone!" 
 
 The general looked at the colonel a moment, and then 
 gave the word, "go!" Colonel Cilley's bugle call was 
 sounded and the regiment was in battle array for marching, 
 just at dusk; before the men got halfway there it was so 
 dark that each soldier was obliged to take hold of his file 
 leader to keep in line and not get lost; thus they marched 
 in Indian file until the village was reached. They found 
 the place deserted; nothing was left for them to fight ex- 
 cept swarms of mosquitoes, of which it would seem there 
 were hundreds attacking each man. Under these condi- 
 tions they encamped for the night, which they spent in 
 fighting mosquitoes and keeping close watch that the wily 
 enemy should not return upon them unprepared to defend 
 themselves. In the early morning they burned everything 
 
 49
 
 50 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 that was combustible in the village, and returned to the 
 army, where Colonel Cilley received the thanks of General 
 Sullivan. 
 
 The capital of the Five Nations was at Big Tree; when 
 Sullivan's army reached there Colonel Cilley and his regi- 
 ment witnessed the last scene of that war which completely 
 crushed the power of the Five Nations and the Indians who 
 had greatly aided the British since the beginning of the 
 Revolutionary War. The town contained one hundred and 
 twenty-two houses and wigwams. When all was ready 
 General Sullivan gave the order to destroy it, in every part; 
 make so much a desert no Indian could live in it. So, dur- 
 ing one day, the whole army of more than four thousand 
 soldiers were busily engaged in gathering corn from the 
 fields and storing it in the houses. The task was not com- 
 pleted until about noon of the next day, as the crops were 
 immense. The soldiers then struck their tents in the vil- 
 lage, and marched out a short distance and halted on a hill 
 which overlooked the town, from which they witnessed a 
 scene unsurpassed in that war of eight years. 
 
 Soldiers had been stationed at each house, with torches. 
 At the firing of a signal gun every house was set on fire, 
 and all were consumed with the contents, leaving only huge 
 heaps of roasted corn. Colonel Cilley was accustomed to 
 say, in after years, that the sight of so many buildings on 
 fire, the massy clouds of black smoke, the curling pillars of 
 flame bursting through them, formed the most awful and 
 sublime spectacle he ever witnessed. Awful as it were, it 
 was trifling in comparison with the inhuman barbarities 
 those Indians had inflicted on American citizens during the 
 preceding years of the war. 
 
 The army then commenced their return march to Tioga 
 Point, where they arrived in a very needy condition on Sep- 
 tember 30. When they started on the march up through 
 the Indian country they left the principal part of their 
 clothing at the fort, by general order; they were allowed to 
 carry no more than they wore, with the exception of one
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 51 
 
 spare shirt. The suits consisted of a short rifle frock, vest, 
 shirt, tow trousers, stockings, shoes and blanket. March- 
 ing nearly the whole time in the woods, among thick under- 
 brush, their whole suit became fearfully worn. Many of 
 the men returned barefooted, and became very footsore. 
 Thus in rags and tatters they arrived at the fort, having 
 completed one of the most remarkable campaigns of the 
 Revolutionary War. 
 
 They remained at Tioga Point until October ^ and on 
 that day marched fourteen miles towards Wyoming (the 
 modern town of Wilkesbarre). They arrived at that place 
 October 7, about noon. From there they marched to Eas- 
 ton where they arrived October 15, and encamped near the 
 river. There they received the report of the committee 
 appointed by General Sullivan, (of which Colonel Cilley 
 was a member), to estimate the quantity of corn destroyed 
 by the army, that belonged to the Indians. It was com- 
 puted at one hundred and sixty-five thousand bushels. 
 Whilst there they were ordered to attend divine service, 
 under arms, in a large meadow, to return thanks for the 
 signal success of the expedition, and the unparalleled health 
 of the troops. A discourse was delivered by the Rev. Ira 
 Evans of Concord, N. H. 
 
 On October 27 Colonel Cilley's regiment commenced 
 its march towards North River, and on November 25 they 
 arrived at its south bank and crossed over to the New York 
 side. Then they kept on their journey, by slow marches, 
 until they arrived at their winter quarters in Connecticut, 
 at a place about half way between Danbury and Newton. 
 They began to build their huts December 3, and finished 
 the job in about fifteen days, making everything very com- 
 fortable for the cold winter that followed. They remained 
 in camp there until April 6, 1780, when they broke camp 
 and marched for West Point; they remained there until 
 August 4. It is worthy of note here that Colonel Cilley's 
 son-in-law, Col. Thomas Bartlett of Nottingham, was there 
 at West Point at the same time in command of another 
 New Hampshire regiment.
 
 52 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 Colonel Cilley's regiment left West Point August 4, 
 and after crossing the river, by short marches each day 
 they arrived, August 8, at Tappan, Orangetown, where the 
 whole army encamped and remained there until August 23, 
 when the army marched down to Jenerich, N. J., opposite 
 the upper end of Manhattan Island. September 17, Gen- 
 eral Washington went on a journey to Hartford, Conn., 
 and left the command of the army to Major General Greene. 
 Three days later General Greene moved the army up the 
 river to Tappan and they pitched their tents on the old 
 camping ground. 
 
 Five days later, September 25, they were apprised of 
 General Arnold's plot, and of his escape, and of the cap- 
 ture of Major Andre. Colonel Cilley with his regiment 
 left Tappan, with the four brigades, October 6, under com- 
 mand of General Greene, and marched to Haverstraw. On 
 October 8 Colonel Cilley encamped his regiment on Con- 
 stitutional Island, opposite West Point. The Second New 
 Hampshire regiment also encamped there. October 25, 
 1780, they crossed the river and marched to Soldiers Fort- 
 une, where they built their huts and encamped for the win- 
 ter, but they were called out to the lines many times by 
 alarms of the enemy, so had a rather wide awake winter of 
 it without any fighting. The winter was unusually severe, 
 and the soldiers were often on the point of starvation, and 
 were for days without meat, and nearly all the time on short 
 allowance, while most of them had received no pay for 
 about a year. As for clothing they were often so destitute 
 that many of them could not do guard duty without bor- 
 rowing from their comrades, while for shoes they were still 
 more deficient, and parties who were on fatigue duty for 
 firewood and forage could often be tracked by the blood 
 from their bruised feet.
 
 General 3Nepi) Cillep 
 
 By JOHN SCALES, A. B., A. M. 
 
 His Career After He Left Command of the 
 First Regiment 
 
 COLONEL CILLEY ceased to be commander of this 
 famous First New Hampshire regiment January I, 
 1781, in accordance of a general order issued by 
 General Washington, dated "Headquarters, Totoway, No- 
 vember i, 1780," by which the three regiments of New 
 Hampshire were reduced to two, and Alexander Scammell 
 was appointed Colonel in place of Cilley whose term had 
 expired, he having been in command of it since April 2, 
 1777, a period of three years and nine months. Not only 
 that but his real service in the army began in June, 1775, 
 making nearly five years and a half of service in behalf of 
 the cause of his country. 
 
 That his State was not unmindful of his service is shown 
 by a vote ot the assembly, March 16, 1779, when a resolu- 
 tion was passed unanimously "that the worthy Colonel 
 Joseph Cilley be presented with a pair of pistols as a token 
 of this State's good intention toward merit in a brave offi- 
 cer." Colonel Cilley carried those pistols in the campaign 
 against the Indians in New York, in which he was soon 
 engaged. They are now in possession of his descendants, 
 perhaps in Manchester. 
 
 In previous notices of Colonel Cilley's military career 
 it is stated that "he was in the storming of Stony Point." 
 That statement is incorrect, because that battle occurred 
 on July 1 6, 1779, and the record shows that Colonel Cilley 
 was then in command of his regiment, in General Sullivan's 
 army, then on the march Against the Indians in New York. 
 
 53
 
 54 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 Before giving Col. Cilley's career after he ceased to be 
 colonel of the First Regiment, it seems proper to sketch 
 an outline of the closing years of that regiment with 
 which he was long connected. The final discharge of its 
 companies occurred on June 22, 1784. 
 
 Maj. Asa Bird Gardner, Professor of Law in the West 
 Point U. S. Military Academy, who prepared a Register 
 of the American Army from the Peace of 1783 to 1790, 
 says : "In 1779-80 New Hampshire had as her quota three 
 'regular' Continental regiments in the service of the United 
 States. On the 3d and 21st day of October, Congress 
 resolved to reorganize and consolidate the army, to take 
 effect January 1, 1781, and by the same resolution New 
 Hampshire's quota was reduced to two regiments." 
 
 Accordingly on January 1, 1781, under General Wash- 
 ington's general order, dated Army Headquarters, Toto- 
 way, November 1, 1780, the three regiments of New 
 Hampshire were reduced to two, and Col. Joseph Cilley of 
 the First New Hampshire was retired and succeeded by 
 Col. Alexander Scammell of the Third Regiment whose 
 officers had become supernumerary by its abolishment. 
 
 In like manner, by resolutions of Congress, another 
 consolidation took place January 1, 1783, and the Second 
 Regiment was disbanded and consolidated into the ranks 
 of the First. 
 
 On November 3, 1783, all of the Continental Army 
 was disbanded, except such as General Washington especi- 
 ally designated to remain in the service. The First New 
 Hampshire was especially honored by the Commander-in- 
 chief and it took part in the ceremonies in New York at- 
 tending the evacuation of the British Army, November 25, 
 1783. It then returned to duty at West Point. 
 
 The last official act of General Washington, prior to 
 resigning his commission, was to designate what troops 
 should be retained after the first of January, 1784. Ac- 
 cordingly Major-General Knox, in General Orders dated 
 Army Headquarters, West Point, December 23, 1783,
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 55 
 
 designated a small artillery force and detachments from the 
 Massachusetts line, together with Captain Frye's and Cap- 
 tain Potter's companies of the First New Hampshire, to re- 
 main in the service. 
 
 These two companies and the Massachusetts compa- 
 nies were organized into a regiment under command of 
 Col. Henry Jackson, constituting the Fourth Massachu- 
 setts Continental Infantry. Thus the First New Hamp- 
 shire ceased to exist, eo nomine, after a continuous service 
 of eight years and eight months. The two companies re- 
 mained in the service five months longer, until June 22, 
 1784, when they, withthe rest of the army, were honora- 
 bly discharged. It is gratifying to every son and daugh- 
 ter of New Hampshire tojjknow that the First Regiment, 
 commanded ^by Stark at Bunker Hill, Cilley at Saratoga, 
 and Scammell at Yorktown, received the distinction of 
 being especially designated by Washington to be retained 
 in service at the close of the war, and that it had the long- 
 est continuous service of any regiment in the Continental 
 Army, that is nine years and one month. 
 
 After Colonel Cilley left the army he entered actively 
 into matters of town and state and took a hand in his priv- 
 ate business affairs which had been managed by his oldest 
 son, Bradbury, and his very able and accomplished wife, 
 Sarah Longfellow, daughter of Judge Jonathan Longfel- 
 low, who died at Machias, Me., in 1774, being the first jus- 
 tice to hold a court east of the Kennebec River. The 
 mother and son had managed business successfully, and 
 when the colonel added his energy to theirs, the affairs of 
 the farm and the household prospered in every way. After 
 the close of the war in 1783 the militia of New Hampshire 
 was organized under the direction of Gen. John Sullivan, 
 who also prepared a new book of tactics for the use of the 
 state, and he was appointed Major-General, entering upon 
 the duties of that office in 1785; at the same time Colonel 
 Cilley was appointed Brigadier-General. Also he was ap- 
 pointed Justice of the Peace and Quorum for Rockingham
 
 56 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 County ; later, his authority was extended throughout the 
 state, and he continued to hold the office to the end of life. 
 
 When General Sullivan became President of the state 
 in 1786 he appointed his old friend and compatriot, Colonel 
 Cilley, Major-General, and at the same time appointed 
 Col. Thomas Bartlett, son-in-law to Col. Cilley, Brigadier- 
 General. They held those offices continuously until the 
 close of 1792, when Cilley declined to serve longer and 
 Bartlett was promoted to be Major-General and held the 
 office by reappointments until the end of the century. 
 Both had been very active and efficient in the Revolution ; 
 they were equally as active and efficient in organizing and 
 managing state affairs in the remaining years of the cen- 
 tury. 
 
 At the Presidential election in 1788 General Cilley, as 
 he was then everywhere known, was candidate for elector 
 and received 528 votes ; there were ten candidates ; the 
 state was entitled to six electors, and as his was next to 
 the lowest vote cast he failed to be elected. In 1789 he 
 was candidate for state Senator, but failed of election. 
 He was candidate again the next year and was elected and 
 served from June 2, 1790, to June 2, 1791. As a member 
 of the General Court he took an active and influential part. 
 He was in favor of honest dealing and against trickery and 
 claptrap legislation, every time a vote was taken on any 
 question. During his term of service as Senator steps 
 were taken to organize academies in various towns of the 
 state, one of which was Atkinson. In the petitions asking 
 for charters there was always a section asking permission 
 to raise ;1000 by lottery for the benefit of the institutions. 
 General Cilley opposed the lottery schemes, as dishonest 
 dealing, and voted nay when the question was decided. It 
 was a sample of how he voted on other questions. In the 
 June session of the General Court of 1792 he was Repre- 
 sentative for his town and served on important committees. 
 In the November election of 1792 he was again candidate 
 for presidential elector, but failed to be elected, being sev- 
 enth on the list, and only six could be elected.
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 57 
 
 When political parties began to evolve under Wash- 
 ington's second administration, and the people began to 
 line up under the leadership of Jefferson and Hamilton, 
 General Cilley endorsed the former, and, as time went on, 
 he became a very staunch anti-Federalist. He strenuously 
 opposed some of the measures advocated by Washington, 
 although he greatly admired him as a military chieftain, 
 and they were most cordial friends to the end of life, both 
 dying in the same year, Cilley in August and Washington 
 in December. When John Adams came into the Presi- 
 dential office General Cilley became still more radical in 
 his political views, and was fierce in his opposition to 
 Adams. As regarded the French Revolution he always 
 took sides with the Revolutionists. Being a personal 
 friend and admirer of General Lafayette he hoped the 
 Revolutionists would win, but nothing would arouse his 
 temper quicker than to call him a member of the "French 
 Party." With the most haughty disdain he disclaimed en- 
 tertaining foreign ideas and "entangling alliances." It 
 was said that in securing appointments to office he did not 
 always favor the candidates of his own party ; if he thought 
 his party man was not so well qualified for the place as the 
 opposing candidate he would favor the latter. Moreover 
 he had his strong likes and dislikes ; if he did not like a 
 man he was pretty sure to think him unfit for office. 
 
 General Cilley was a man of great business capacity ; 
 he had wide experience, good judgment and keen insight, 
 which produced good results. He had a strong attach- 
 ment for property, but would not tolerate or participate in 
 dishonest dealings to acquire it, nor oppress the poor. 
 His eldest son Bradbury had served on his father's staff, 
 and was known as Major Cilley. The father and son al- 
 ways worked together harmoniously in business, so that 
 the two came to be among the most prominent and pros- 
 perous business men of Rockingham County, and they 
 accumulated much wealth. At his death he left his sons 
 well settled in business and a very valuable estate for his 
 family.
 
 58 GENERAL JOSEPH CILLEY 
 
 With General Sullivan he was leader in organizing the 
 Order of Cincinnati in New Hampshire, at Exeter, in No- 
 vember, 1783. He was elected its treasurer; in July, 1784, 
 he was elected vice-president ; later he was elected presi- 
 dent and he kept a deep interest in the order as long as he 
 lived. His great grandson, Gen. Jonathan Prince Cilley, 
 of Maine, is his successor in that society now (1911.) 
 
 General Cilley was a man of strong passions, but he 
 always kept them under control and would not knowingly 
 deal unjustly with his neighbors or his opponents any- 
 where. His manners were not those of a courtier, but 
 having walked in the highest society of the land, he did not 
 despise good breeding and the proper rules and fashions of 
 the period. He did not try to please everybody so, of 
 course, not every one liked him, although all admired his 
 brilliant career and invaluable services in the Revolution- 
 ary army. There were grand social gatherings at the Cilley 
 residence on Nottingham Square, from time to time. In 
 military affairs he was very strict in enforcing discipline 
 and in demanding for rank all that properly pertained to 
 it. As a matter of fact, the common sort of fellows experi- 
 enced a feeling of great awe when in the presence of the 
 General. In the performance of all important functions 
 he was a strict observer of what the rules of etiquette de- 
 manded. As regards religious matters he was not much 
 of a churchman. He was decidedly liberal in his views at 
 a time when it required genuine courage to stand up in 
 opposition to the standard creeds of the period. He was a 
 man of temperate habits, not given to high living, so that 
 his religion consisted in the practice of moral and social 
 virtues as set forth in the New Testament. 
 
 General Cilley's last official position was that of Coun- 
 cillor, which office he held in 1797 and 1798. He was one 
 of the most efficient members of the Governor's advisers. 
 As an example of his courage and quickness of action take 
 the incident of quelling an insurrection of two hundred 
 armed men, who attempted to overawe the Legislature 
 when it was in session at Exeter in 1786. He was Major-
 
 GENERAL JOSEPH C1LLEY 59 
 
 General then ; he not only speedily gathered troops who 
 routed the insurgents and took thirty of them prisoners, 
 but he, personally, seized and arrested the leader and 
 marched him off to prison. 
 
 General Cilley was a man of fine personal appearance J 
 about five feet nine inches in height ; somewhat corpulent 
 in his later years ; he had a well shaped head, bright, spark- 
 ling black eyes, and a clear sounding, far reaching voice, 
 which always commanded attention when he spoke; he 
 was a good and rapid speaker, but made no pretensions to 
 oratory ; his ideas were always clear cut and well expressed, 
 showing that he understood what he was talking about, and 
 he rarely failed to make his hearers understand it as he did. 
 
 General Cilley died in August, 1799, after a brief ill- 
 ness, which was, no doubt, the disease now known as ap- 
 pendicitis ; the doctors then called it colic. The report 
 says he rode about thirty miles, (on horseback) into the 
 country, on a hot day, in the middle of August, to transact 
 some important business, and was taken ill soon after his 
 arrival there ; everything was done for him that medical aid 
 could do, and he was taken home in a carriage as speedily 
 as possible. The report says that a day or two after his 
 arrival there "sphacelation (mortification) seized his bow- 
 els ; he bore his pains with great fortitude, and died with a 
 calm and composed mind." The precise date of his death 
 is not stated, but it was during the last of August, 1799. 
 
 General Cilley became a Free and Accepted Mason in 
 St. John's Lodge, Portsmouth, soon after he left the army. 
 At his funeral the Masonic burial service was performed 
 by the officers of that lodge. There was also a large 
 gathering of military officers who had served with him and 
 under him, not only in the militia of the state, where he 
 had been Major-General, but also a good number of his old 
 comrades who had served with him in the First New 
 Hampshire Regiment in the Revolutionary War. The 
 whole made one of the grandest funerals ever witnessed in 
 Nottingham, or Rockingham County. His remains were 
 interred in the burial ground near the family residence.
 
 17653
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY