Image courtesy of Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Embattled Farmers, by Richard C. Wiggin

Embattled Farmers: Campaigns and Profiles of Revolutionary Soldiers from Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1775-1783

By Richard C. Wiggin
They were ordinary farmers, laborers, merchants, tradesmen, slaves, and former slaves, the cross-section of a typical eighteenth-century New England farming community. But when faced with the loss of their cherished liberties and long-standing tradition of self-government, they were swept up in an epic struggle against long odds. These are the forgotten men who fought the American Revolution.

 Meticulously researched, Embattled Farmers traces the footsteps of 252 individual men—all connected with the Lincoln, Massachusetts, but with family and economic ties throughout New England—who served as Patriot soldiers. Through repeated enlistments, they served at Lexington and Concord, at the Siege of Boston, and during the campaigns to Ticonderoga, Canada, New York, Saratoga, the Hudson Valley, The Jerseys, Valley Forge, and Yorktown.
Embattled Farmers is the only known work that identifies and profiles all known Revolutionary soldiers from any given community in the nation. It examines the Revolutionary War from the ground up—from individual records, rather than aggregate data.  It brings to light many stories for the first time, enriching and humanizing our overall understanding of the Revolutionary War with specific details and biographical data. 

Robert  Gross, author of The Minutemen and Their World, writes “Thanks to Wiggin, the American Revolution in Massachusetts stands out as a triumph of popular mobilization and as a symbol of what citizens can accomplish in common when motivated by a willing spirit of self-sacrifice.”  Mel Bernstein, moderator of  the minute man ARRT, believes that Embattled Farmers may be  a prototype for future investigations of the Revolution as it played out in other communities throughout colonial America. 
We all recommend this new book to you, as does our Minute Man ARRT friend Mel Bernstein.  It’s available through the Lincoln Historical Society http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/Pages/Embattled%20Farmers%20flier.pdf, as well as Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Embattled-Farmers-Campaigns-Revolutionary-Massachusetts/dp/0944856101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368477425&sr=1-1&keywords=embattled+farmers

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