By Staff
NILES – At this time of year, most 15-year-old boys are enjoying their summer. Some may be finding work on family farms; others will spend some time having fun at summer camp.
In June of 1778, five months before his 16th birthday, young Ezra Chilson joined a camp of a different kind. He served in the Massachusetts Militia until July 1779 and then another two months in Hopkins Privateers a Rhode Island Unit.
He died in Bertrand at 77 years of age. Chilson's obituary as listed in the 1838 volume of the Niles Intelligence states:
"Yet another Revolutionary soldier gone – died on the night of the 18th of September at his residence…
"If usefulness and honesty give title to nobility, it may be said that he had attained it – for from his youth he had devoted his whole strength to the service of his country. First in fighting her battles which eventuated her Independence…"
His commanding officer appears to have been Col. Ebenezer Sprout. The colonel himself would have been only 25 years old when he and young Chilson met.
Sprout's family was descendants of two brothers, who came from Scotland, about the time of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth and settled in Massachusetts.
The colonel is listed in the Historical register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution by Francis Bernard Heitman as "Captain of Cotton's Massachusetts Regiment, 23d April, 1775; major, 27th June to December 1775; Major 3d Continental Infantry, 1st January to 31st December 1776; Lieutenant Colonel Commandant 12th Massachusetts, 29th September 1778; transferred to 2d Massachusetts, 1st January 1781; Colonel, 30th September, 1783; served to 3d November 1783."
A historical summary of the Massachusetts Militia 1776 states:
"On January 22, 1776, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts passed a statute reorganizing that colony's militia, replacing the loosely-structured volunteer army of 1774-5 with a more permanent and formal organization.
"The new militia regiments were organized into county-wide brigades and included all able-bodied male citizens between 16 and 60. In addition to providing local defense and training these regiments served as the primary source of reinforcements for the Continental Army throughout the war."
This would seem to verify the suggestion of Chilson's obituary of his willing devoting not only his "whole strength" but that it was a voluntary decision on his part. What kind of young person, what kind of life, leads one so early in life to make such a decision?
And what led the young man, four months prior to his 17th birthday, to make an apparent move to naval service with the troops known as Hopkins Privateers.
A read of the original of the unit suggests it was named after Esek Hopkins the brother of Stephen Hopkins governor of Rhode Island. A history of Esek states:
"As a young man he began a career at sea, captaining merchant vessels and, during the French and Indian War, a successful privateer. After the American Revolution broke out in 1775, Rhode Island appointed Hopkins as commander of its military forces. Later in that year he became Commander in Chief of the still very small Continental Navy. In mid-February 1776, Commodore Hopkins sailed from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under orders from the Continental Congress to attack British maritime forces in the Chesapeake Bay, along the southern coast and off Rhode Island.
"Realizing that enemy strength was too great to permit execution of this ambitious task, Hopkins instead undertook what would be the Navy's first amphibious offensive. On 3 March, his squadron put a landing party ashore on New Providence Island, in the Bahamas, seized the local defensive works and captured a stock of equipment and supplies that were badly needed for military purposes in the rebellious American colonies. On 4 April 1776, while en route home, the Continental ships encountered and captured two small British warships. Two days later they had an inconclusive engagement with HMS Glasgow. Hopkins' squadron arrived at New London, Connecticut, on 8 April."
It would seem that Hopkins conduct was the cause of much concern to the Congress of the time which censured him. The online history continues to say that continued dissatisfaction with his performance led to loss of his command in 1777 and dismissal from service in early 1778.
What must if have been like for the young Chilson to go from an infantry unit commanded by, from all accounts, a well-respected and honored man to a until that mere months before his arrival, was the source of such negative scrutiny?
We only know that young Chilson spent only two months with the regiment. How he came to reside in Niles from his New England days is unknown, but it does seem that his decorum resembled more of his first military commander.
The obituary continued: " …from that period, as an industrious citizen, laboring with his own hands, providing for the wants of a numerous family, all which he performed with a punctuality seldom equaled, leaving behind him a name more enduring than riches; that of 'an honest man.' Those best acquainted with is worth have faith to hope that the immortal Spirit of the old Soldier has, ere this passed in honorable review before the Grand Marshal of the Universe, as received the plaudits of 'well-done, enter into the full fruition of that Pension you so richly deserve and which can never fail."
In July 1915, local members of the Daughters of the American Revolution decorated Chilson's grave with his only descendent still living in the Niles area, great-granddaughter Mrs. Harriett Seward, attending.