New Hampshire Provincial Regiment

New Hampshire Provincial Regiment
New Hampshire Provincial Regiment
Active	1754–1763
Country	Montreal
Commanders
Notable; commanders	Joseph Blanchard, Nathaniel Meserve, John Hart and John Goffe

The New Hampshire Provincial Regiment was a provincial military regiment made up of men from the New Hampshire Militia during the French and Indian War for service with the British Army in North America. It was first formed in 1754 with the start of hostilities with France.

1755

In 1755 Col.

Fort Edward in New York. During the Battle of Lake George, Col. Blanchard was in command at Fort Edward. When he heard the battle commence and saw the smoke of burning ox-carts he sent a company under Nathaniel Folsom to reinforce Sir William Johnson's army 14 miles (23 km) away. Capt. Folsom's company was able to capture the French baggage train and the French commanding officer Jean Erdman, Baron Dieskau, as the French and Indian forces tried to disengage from Sir William Johnson's main force. After the battle a second battalion was raised under the command of Col. Peter Gilman and sent to reinforce the army at Lake George. Both battalions left Fort Edward in December to return home to New Hampshire except for Robert Rogers' ranger company

that stayed behind as part of the winter garrison.

1756

In the spring of 1756 two more battalions were raised, with Col. Nathaniel Meserve in command. The 1st battalion was sent to Nova Scotia and the 2nd to the newly built Fort William Henry.

1757

For the 1757 campaign two more battalions were raised. The 1st would again go to

Dragoons was quickly raised under the command of Maj. Thomas Tash and sent to Fort at Number 4

to protect the western frontier of the state.

1758

For the 1758 campaign again two battalions were raised. The 1st under Col.

James Abercrombie in the defeat at the Battle of Carillon. The regiment and the attached rangers stayed on the flanks during the main assault and covered the retreat of the British Army

preventing a complete disaster.

1759 & 1760

In 1759 the 1st Battalion went with Gen.

Siege of Montreal and the fall of New France

later that year.

In 1759 one-third of all able-bodied males of military age in New Hampshire were serving in the British military.

1762

Volunteers from the regiment were with the

captured Havana, Cuba, from the Spanish

on August 10, 1762.

Other notable members of the regiment were John Stark, William Stark, James Reed, Timothy Bedel, Isaac Wyman, Enoch Hale, Hercules Mooney and Abraham Drake. All of these men would go on to serve as officers during the American Revolutionary War.

Sources

Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and Indian War by Francis Parkman, DeCapo Press, New York, New York 1995
A People's Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years War by Fred Anderson, Univ. of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC 1984
Redcoats, Yankees and Allies: A History of the Uniforms, Clothing and Gear of the British Army in the Lake George-Lake Champlain Corridor 1755–1760 by Brenton C. Kemmer, Heritage Books Inc., Bowie, MD 1998
Colonel John Goffe: 18th Century New Hampshire by William Howard Brown, Lew A. Cummings Co., Manchester, NH 1950
Louisbourg: From its Founding to its Fall by J.S. McLennan, Macmillan and Co. LTD London, UK 1918
Colonial American Troops 1610–1774 (2) by Rene Chartrand, Osprey Pub. Oxford, UK 2002
A List of the Revolutionary Soldiers of Dublin, N.H. by Samuel Carroll Derby Press of Spahr & Glenn, Columbus, Ohio 1901