Enoch Poor Enoch Poor ( June 21 , 1736 , Old Style – September 8 , 1780 ) was a brigadier general in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War . He was a ship builder and merchant from Exeter , New Hampshire . Biography . Poor was born and raised in Andover , Massachusetts . His father , Thomas Poor had been part of the 1745 expedition that captured Louisburg , Nova Scotia , during King George ' s War . In 1755 young Poor enlisted as a private in one of the Massachusetts units raised to accompany Jeffrey Amherst ' s expedition to retake it during the French and Indian War . His unit enforced the expulsion of the Acadians . After the war , he came home to Andover , but only briefly . Poor eloped with Martha Osgood , and the newlyweds settled in Exeter . Poor supported the separatists as early as the Stamp Act protests in 1765 . He served on various committees for the town throughout the period of rising rebellion . In 1775 he was twice elected to the provincial Assembly . When the Battle of Lexington caused the assembly to call for three regiments of militia , Poor became the colonel of the 2nd New Hampshire Regiment . While the other regiments under colonels John Stark and James Reed were sent to Boston , the 2nd was stationed at Portsmouth and Exeter . After the Battle of Bunker Hill , they were also sent to Boston , arriving on June 25 . In the summer of 1775 , the unit was absorbed into the Continental Army . They were soon ordered into the Northern Department and went with General Richard Montgomery ' s invasion of Canada . After the disaster in Canada , Poor led the survivors of his regiment in early 1776 back to Fort Ticonderoga . After refitting and recruiting , the unit was renamed as the 8th Continental regiment and joined Washington ' s main army in December 1776 at winter quarters near Morristown , New Jersey . The Congress named Poor a brigadier general on February 21 , 1777 . That spring , his brigade of three New Hampshire ( 1st , 2nd and 3rd ) and two New York regiments ( 2nd and 4th ) was sent back to Ticonderoga . He withdrew with the rest of Arthur St . Clair ' s force of July 5 . Moving south , they joined General Horatio Gates before the Battle of Saratoga , and his brigade was expanded by two regiments of Connecticut militia ( Cook ' s and Latimer ' s ) . In the first engagement of Saratoga , the Battle of Freeman ' s Farm , Poor ' s brigade was the first to come to the aid of Daniel Morgan ' s attack . Poor held the American left flank , extending into the woods and even wrapping around the British position . They performed well , keeping General Simon Fraser ' s regulars engaged while Benedict Arnold led attacks on the central column . In the second engagement , the Battle of Bemis Heights , Poor ' s brigade was in General Benjamin Lincoln ' s division on the left ( western ) end of the American line . They were closest to the center of the advancing British , so they came under fire from the grenadier battalion of the British center . The fire was ineffective , so Major John Dyke Acland led the grenadiers in a bayonet charge . Poor held fire until they came very close , then opened up with the massed fire of his 1 , 400 men . These were the first American shots in the battle . The charge was completely broken , and Acland himself fell wounded . With this collapse of Burgoyne ' s center , the Americans captured the wounded Acland and Major Williams along with the column ' s artillery . Poor then turned to his left and gave support to Ebenezer Learned and Morgan ' s men . Poor ' s brigade again spent the winter with the main army , this time at Valley Forge . He led the last maneuvers in the Battle of Monmouth on June 28 , 1778 . He accompanied the Sullivan Expedition in 1779 , leading a brigade in the victory at Battle of Newtown . Afterward Poor was assigned to Lafayette ' s division and mainly saw garrison duty in New Jersey . Some sources say Poor was shot in a duel near Hackensack , New Jersey , on September 6 , 1780 , and died two days later from the wound , although the Army surgeon reported that Poor died from typhus . Poor was buried in the First Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery in Hackensack . George Washington and Lafayette both attended his funeral . When Washington wrote to inform Congress of Poor ' s death , he noted that " He was an officer of distinguished merit , one who as a citizen and soldier had every claim to the esteem and regard of his country . "