Joseph Goreham

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Battle of Fort Cumberland
, 1776

Joseph Gorham (sometimes recorded as Goreham, 1725–1790) was an American colonial military officer during

Governor of Placentia
.

Family

The Gorham family (from Cape Cod) had a distinguished history in the New England colonial military. Serving alongside the early colonial military innovator Benjamin Church, John Gorham I died while fighting in the famous Great Swamp Fight during King Philip's War. Joseph's grandfather, John Gorham II, also served with Church during the fourth Eastward Expedition into Acadia, which involved the Raid on Chignecto (1696) during King William's War and again during Queen Anne's War. His father Shubael Gorham was also a provincial military officer in Queen Anne's War and again in King George's War. Joseph and his brother John Gorham III fought as rangers in Acadia/Nova Scotia throughout the 1740s as well as at the Siege of Louisbourg (1745) as officers in the Massachusetts provincial forces.[1]

Career

Joseph served as a lieutenant in his brother's ranger company from 1744 through 1752. Initially the rank and file members of the company were

St. John River Campaign.[4]

A contemporary of the famous ranger

Siege of Quebec in 1759, and after his promotion to Major Commandant of the Nova Scotia Ranger Corps in 1761, the expedition to Havana in 1762, where disease all but wiped out the rangers.[2]

Joseph settled in Nova Scotia where he was active in Indian affairs. Rev. Wood taught Mi'kmaq people the bible in their own language in Gorham's home.

Fort Cumberland in 1776.[7][8]

In 1790, he was promoted to be a

major-general shortly before his death[9]

Legacy

References

  1. ^ Brian D. Carroll, ""Savages" in the Service of Empire: Native American Soldiers in Gorham's Rangers, 1744-1762," New England Quarterly (September 2012), pp. 383-429.
  2. ^ a b Carroll, ""Savages" in the Service of Empire."
  3. ^ Pote, William (1896). The Journal of Captain William Pote, Jr., during his Captivity in the French and Indian War from May, 1745, to August, 1747. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. p. 176.
  4. ^ For a full treatment of the ranger's operations in Nova Scotia, see John Grenier, The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008).
  5. ^ a b p. 155
  6. ^ Charters, David A.; Sutherland, Stuart R. J. (1979). "Gorham, Joseph". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. IV (1771–1800) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  7. S2CID 144041261
    .
  8. JSTOR 361615
    .
  9. ^ London Gazette
  10. ^ George Bates. John Gorham 1709-1751. Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, p. 87

External links

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