Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-12-20
ONE MANS EXPERIENCE.
Told In Application for Pension for Rev
evolutionary War Services.

Told In Application for Pension for Rev
evolutionary War Services.
An application for a pension, recently
discovered among some very old papers,
discloses very interesting incidents In
the experience of one of our early set
tiers while employed in fighting for free
dom againstthe British inIthe Revolution.
His name was Samuel Blodgett and his
humble abode was almost within
stones throw of where the college now
stands, just across the ravlne to the
west on the lBridport road. The state
ment is made upon oath, and though
125 years have elapsed may be consid-
cred reliable. Mr.. Blodgett states that
when Col. Ethan Allen collected COM
pany of volunteers to take the fort of
TicOnderoga and Crown Point, which
must have been in May, 1875, he was APP
piled to by John Chapman, afterwards
attached to Col. Warmers regiment as a
lieutenant and captain, to volunteer and
aid in taking the said forts. That he
joined the company of volunteers of the
said Chipman's company who was then
considered their captain; that they
marched TO Lake Champlain and joined
the volunteers at Crown Point under
Col. f. Allen and Benedict Arnold the
same day that Grown Point fort was
taken; that he aided in removing the
cannon so as more eflectually to com
mand the lake, and continued with the
volunteers till after Col. Arnold had
returned from st. Johns with the
twenty-gun sloop-of-war taken there
from the British troops. That soon
after this expedition he enlisted in a
company of minute-men under Capt.
John Chapman of Mddlebury and Dan:
lei Foot his lieutenant, and Col. Mead of
Rutland, the commanders that under
those officers and the committees of
safety he was employed in ranging the
woods, taking up tories who were
passing through the woods of Vermont to
Canada to Join the British in that prOvi-
dence; that he continued actively en-
plOyed, some times in the forts at Rut-
land and PIttsfOrd performing garrison
duty, and other times ranging and scout
ing in the woods. That at one time in
pursuance of his duty he. with the rang
ing party to which he belonged, took
thirteen tories, all armed and on their
way to Canada, at place called Monk
ton; that the tories were dlsarmed
and guarded to the committee of
safety in Rutland county, andE that
he was directed by the said committee
to take the said tories to the command
ing officer of Ticonderoga. and take his
receipt, which service he performed. And
after wards, when a large party of troops
from the enemy, said to be about five
hundred in number, principally Indians,
came into Middlebury and Cornwall
from Lake Champlan up Otter Creek,
he with about twenty others was put on
board sloop-ofwar and confined a
prisoner on the lake. His captors found
in his pocketbook the receipt of his com
mapding officer at Ticonderoga for the
thirteen tories, which they alleged as a
reason for having him closely confined
and they threatened to hang him for
taking and combining his Maestys sub
jects. That he, with about a hundred
others, was retaken at a place where
they were kept at Mount Hope and the
lower falls between Lake George and
TicOnderOga, by Colonel Brown, a short
time previous to the capture of General
Burgoyne; that when recaptured he and
other prisoners were furnished with arms
taken from those who had guarded
them, and aided in guarding about three
hundred prisoners, British, tories, etc , to
Rutland Fort, where he was discharged
in September, l777, and returned home.