Charles Lynde

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1758

Place of Death:

Albany, NY

Date of Death:

April 1, 1778

Charles Lynde (born 1758) of Claremont, New Hampshire, was one of seven surviving children born to parents David and Jerusha Lynde (or Lind). Born in Leicester, Massachusetts, young Charles and his family moved to New Hampshire to start a new life after the destruction of their Leicester home and barn by a tornado in 1759. The Lyndes were some of Claremont’s first settlers.

Charles heeded the patriotic call of enlistment when New Hampshire’s three new Continental regiments were being recruited to strength in early 1777. In January, the 18-year old teenager volunteered as a private soldier in Captain Farwell’s company of Colonel Joseph Cilley’s 1^st New Hampshire Regiment for a three-year term.

All three New Hampshire regiments were deployed to Forts Ticonderoga and Independence that spring. The British Army from Canada invaded upstate New York in early summer, prompting the much smaller American Northern Army to evacuate the forts. Most of the infantry made its way overland to Castleton, Vermont, with the British in pursuit; the British van and the American rear came into contact and fought the Battle of Hubbardton on July 7. It’s unclear what, exactly, happened to Charles that day, but he was somehow separated from his regiment either in the battle or during the chaotic retreat. Eventually, he made his way back and rejoined his regiment just in time to fight the Battles of Saratoga.

The 1^st New Hampshire Regiment, Charles included, fought hard in the Battle of Freeman’s Farm on September 19, and although this regiment had the highest casualties of any American unit engaged, Charles survived. The second battle, the Battle of Bemus Heights, was fought over two weeks later on October 7. Again, Cilley’s regiment was sent into the fray; this time, Charles wasn’t so lucky. He was brough back into camp, wounded, and then whisked off to the General Hospital in Albany to be placed under the military medical staff there.

Months passed and Charles lingered in the large Albany hospital, which housed hundreds of other patients, most of whom were casualties of the fighting. It was while he convalesced in the hospital that a basic description of his physical appearance was recorded: in it, he was measured to be five feet, seven inches tall, and had a “light” complexion, hair, and eye color.

We know nothing of the nature of Charles’s wound; sadly, the teen succumbed to his injuries months later in the Albany hospital on April 1, 1778. He was 19 years old.

In 1785, David Lynde was finally paid the arrears that was due for Charles’s 1777 service. One can only imagine the pain the measly £8.16.08 in back pay brought to his grieving family.