Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1908-03-19
NATHANIEL GILBERT.
Captured by Indians.--SoId into the
British Army.--A Soldier Of 1912.

Captured by Indians.--SoId into the
British Army.--A Soldier Of 1912.
In an old hand-sewed leather wallet, as
strong and serviceatle now as the day it
was made close to hundred years ago,
Henry G. Gilbert preserves a curious and
ancient document-the discharge of his
grandfather, Nathaniel Gilbert. from the
service of the British army on the 21st
day o. June, 1884.
An eventful life had this Nathaniel Gill
bert, who was born in Connecticut but
when lad of 10, his father having died,
was brought to Royalton by his uncle,
Capt. Daniel Gilbert, to give the labor of
his strong young arms in exchange for
the privileges of his uncle's home. He
was there, sharing the hardships and
sometimes pleasures of this little commu-
nifty of early settlers, when, before dawn
of Oct. 16, 1880, came the dreadful It'd
ings of the near approach of band of
300 Indians from Canada, burning and
pillaging, and leaving a trail of smoke
and ruin as they came.
The settlers prepared to fee; and as
Captain Gilbert was getting his family
ready to start he sent his nephew over a
hill to warn household that the news
might not otherwise reach until 100 late.
The boy departed on his errand, but
though terror lent him fieetness of foot,
his uncle did not dare to await his return
and hurried his family out of the way of
the savages, who were already at their
destroying work in the settlement before
Nathaniel came back. Running towards
his uncle's cabin, he failed to notice that
the horses outside were not the familiar
animals of his kinsmen and neighbors,
and burst through the door TO fall, not
into the hands of friends, but of captors.
The long, toilsome march to Canada
was made with the Indians and their cap
tives. At the end of the journey, Ma
thaniel had the good luck to find a friend
in a matronly squaw who adopted him as
a promising young brave for palefaee,
and under her protection he romped and
grew up with the copper-hued youths OF
the forest. Arrived at the age of II. he
was given the option of permanent adop-
ton into the tribe or of enlistment in the
British army. He chose the latter and
the Indians then sold him for shalt a
joel eight dollars) to the British, whose
ranks were largely recruited in this way.
For two years he wore the red coat of
the kings soldier, but at the end of that
time the disbanding of the regiment
brought his grateful discharge in the fol-
lowing terms:-
Ellis Majesty's Provincial regiment,
called the I'd Battalion, Kings Royal
Regiment of New York, whereof Sir John
johnson, Knight, Bart, is lieutenant-col-
onel commandant. These are to certify
that the bearer hereof, Nathaniel Gilbert,
private soldier in Capt. William Redford
Crawford's company of the aforesaid regi-
ment, born in Coventry county, aged 10
years, hath served honestly and faithfully
in said regiment for the space of two
years and, in consequence of His Maj
esty's order for disbanding the said regi
ment, he is hereby discharged and enti-
tied by His Majesty's late order to a por-
ton of land allotted to each private sol
dier of his Provincial corps who wishes
to become a settler in this province, he
having first received all just demands of
pay, clothing, etc., from his entry into
said regiment"
On the reverse of the discharge is
written 81, Nathaniel Gilbert, do ac-
knowledge that have received all my
clothing, pay, arrears of pay and all de-
mands whatever from the time of enlist
ing in the regiment and company TO the
present day of my discharge, as witness
my hand this twenty-first day of June,
1884"
Upon leaving the army, he set of at
once on foot for his old home in Connec-
ticut, which he reached at length travel |
worn and weary. Ii was towards night |
when he raped at a certain door in the
village and his mother answered his sum
mons She had married again, her sec
ond husband having two daughters, who
now scrutinized from convenient win
dow the stranger at the door. His rough /.
appearance and his uniform did not De-
speak their confidence and they beckoned 4
their stepmother from the doorway par
lev to persuade her not 10 admit the 4
young man whom she had failed to recog-
nize as the son long mourned as dead. I
He, however, knew her at once, but with /
out revealing his identity accepted her re-
fusal of hospitality and took his way to
neighboring house whose master gave
him shelter and heard his story with in
terest.
The next morning, his host accompan-
led him to the home OF his mother and
asked her to look closely at the soldier,
which she did, and at last knew him for
the boy she had thought either murdered
by the Indians or carried so far beyond
her reach that she would never see him
again.
Nathaniel married Rachel Strong and
reared family of three sons and one
daughter, who, like their parents, bore
good old Scriptural names, the father OF
III. c. Gilbert being christened Israel.
Leaving Connecticut a second time,
Nathaniel came to Vermont again, settled
in Hardwick and lived also in Randolph.
When the war of 1912 broke out, he took
up arms once more, this time against the
British, and through that struggle car
ried the old wallet in which his discharge
from the British army 2s years before,
now reposes. He died June ~, 1923, at
the age of IS years and months and was
buried in South Woodstock.