I’ve referenced Abraham Holmes many times due to the valuable memoirs that he left to us. However, I realized as I prepared for the SAR event on October 26, I had never really thought much about his participation in the events up to and during the Revolutionary War.
According to Mary Hall Leonard’s book on Rochester’s history, Abraham not only took part in the march of young men from Rochester to Barnstable in 1774, but it was his zeal for liberty that “did much to arouse the revolutionary spirit of Rochester.”
It was he who was sent to discover the results of April 19, 1775, and he wrote that he returned, “as gay as a lark” at the great news that “the struggle for independence had begun.”
In 1775, Holmes wanted to enlist, but his parents were extremely opposed to his accepting a small office in the army. In 1778, he did enter the army for three months as a recruit. He was soon appointed as the Company’s only “sergeant.” His company was sent to Roxbury until their service time expired on July 2.
The following September, there was an incursion into New Bedford and Fairhaven by the British forces. Holmes, again in the army, was there on the night of September 8 when, in his words, a ” brush” occurred. According to his memoirs, “a cannon ball struck the ground about six inches from his foot.” Later, in the same year, he was chosen to be the lieutenant of the company.
However, an unexplained misunderstanding (we’ll never know what it was) took place in the regiment and none of the militia officers from Rochester would accept their commissions. After this, he returned home to a different kind of service as a selectman for the town of Rochester from 1782-1792.
By Connie Eshbach
