Another Revolutionary Wing

By Cyndy Doherty

Are you familiar with the statue of the Minute Man in Concord Massachusetts?  Created

by Daniel French, it depicts a young man, his sleeves rolled up, dressed in the everyday clothes of a farmer in 1775.  In his right hand is a musket, his left hand rests on a plow.

French is showing us how so many citizens of the colonies left their farming life for that of a citizen soldier.  They left their home and families to march to war with minimal training (if any at all) and little knowledge of the trials and tribulations that lay before them. 

Israel Wing (1761-1847) was born in Harwich Massachusetts to Elnathan Wing, a farmer and cooper, and Experience (Atwood) Wing. 

Records during war time were not kept reliably and an 1827 fire destroyed many Barnstable County records. It is believed that Elnathan died during the early war years, circa 1776-78.  Soon after his death Experience Wing and her children moved north to Maine and settled near her brothers-in-law.

Israel evidently had different ideas.  He would have been a teenager at the time he lost his father.  That must have been hard for him.  He was the eldest son, the “man” of the family but not yet an adult.  What did he do?  He signed up for the military. 

He entered as a private on June 6, 1776, two months shy of his 15^th birthday.  The British had left Boston in March of that year. Captain Isiaih Higgins recruited men from Cape Cod to build fortifications around Boston to prevent any further British occupations.   They toiled for five months, being discharged on December 1, 1776.

Israel’s service didn’t stop there.  His next military record states he joined Captain Allen’s company, Colonel Putnam’s regiment, for a term of three years ending January 10, 1780.  He was discharged from one regiment December 1, 1776 and was back six weeks later.  Did he spend the holidays with his family?  We will most likely never know though I would like to believe he did.

Israel’s regiment fought at the Battle of Saratoga.  Perhaps he witnessed the surrender of General Burgoyne in October, 1777.  Colonel Putnam was an engineer by trade so naturally his regiment, Israel included, was assigned to build defensive fortifications at West Point, similar to what Israel had done the year before in Boston.  This was difficult, often brutal work, hauling heavy timbers and boulders to ensure the enemy could not overtake them.

In 1779, Colonel Putnam’s regiment was now under General Anthony Wayne.  Their assignment was to guard the Hudson Highlands, looking for any potential British invasion. If the British controlled this area, they would conceivably cut off the New England colonies which would have been a devastating blow to the patriot cause.

The Hudson River and Highlands were heavily fortified and guarded, but the surrounding areas became a “no man’s land”.  Loyalists, called “cowboys” stole cows to feed the British army.  Patriots, called “Skinners” did whatever they could to stop them.   This was Israel’s lot in life for at least two years.  He would have done very heavy manual labor to fortify the Hudson Highlands.  After fortifications were in place it was long shifts guarding the territory he had just fortified.  He would have done this in the heat and humidity of a New York summer and in the frigid temperatures of a New York winter.  With meager clothing and even more meager rations.

The record gets a little difficult to follow.  This isn’t surprising.  Record keeping wasn’t a priority during the war and fires and flooding have not been kind to any existing records.  I can only assume that Israel served his three years, leaving the service in December 1780.

However, there is a notation in Israel’s record during those three years of some interest: “Service between June 28, 1779 and September 29^th 1779 Penobscot Expedition.”

In 1779 Britain began making plans to create a stronghold in Penobscot Bay in Maine.  British soldiers on land were fortifying the area as ships guarded the bay to prevent a siege.   The American forces of course had to do something to stop them.  They conceived a plan called the Penobscot Expedition.

Since the American Navy was almost nonexistent, privateers were called into action.  Forty-four vessels sailed up from Boston to Penobscot Bay on July 19. This was quite an impressive display of sea power. But behind the bold display lay a host of weaknesses.  While there were many boats, the navy lacked enough seamen and rations to support a prolonged siege. Most of the privateers had never seen battle, much less learned how to take orders from a commanding officer. Seamen who were used to giving orders were now being asked not only to submit to someone else’s command, but to do it in tandem with other boats. 

But perhaps the worst strategic failure was this: A leader had been chosen to coordinate the sea invasion and another for the land troops. But no one had been chosen to oversee the entire expedition. Someone had to make the final decision.  They had neglected to appoint that person. Land forces had gotten within striking distance to take over the British fortifications. But the land and sea leaders could not agree on a plan.  During their two week negotiations about next steps, five British warships entered the bay behind them.  All was lost.

Interesting fact: Paul Revere (…one if by land, two if by sea and I on the opposite shore will be) was a commissioned officer assigned to the Penobscot Expedition.  He was accused of disobeying orders and jailed when he got back to Boston.  He was eventually freed without charges but he insisted on a trial to clear his name.  In 1782 he had his court martial.   He was acquitted of all charges.  The judges ruled the chaos and general confusion of the very badly run expedition made “regular order” impossible.

Without going into detail, the Penobscot Expedition was a pure and utter failure.  Most of the ships were destroyed.  474 men lost their lives.  Was Israel on a ship or on land watching one of the American Revolution’s great losses for the patriots?

The record goes dark for Israel for a year.  I will make the assumption that he joined his family in Maine because the next record we have for him is his enlistment from May to December 1781 “roll sworn to in Lincoln Co”.  Lincoln County is in Maine. For six months Israel and his company guarded the Lincoln County coast

Israel must have had time for courting because on July 15, 1782, in Lewiston, Maine, he married Hannah Jellison.

Records are few and far between for someone like Israel.  But the fact that he fought in the War of Independence and applied for a pension gives us insight into his life that we would never find anywhere else.

In 1818 the U.S. government ordered pensions be given to veterans of the American Revolution.  Said veterans needed to serve in the Continental Army or Navy for at least 9 months and prove they were indigent. Israel was one of those soldiers who petitioned for a pension.  We can hear, in his own words, what his military experience was after 1781. 

I Israel Wing, aged fifty four years, a Citizen of the United States, born in Harwich Massachusetts now a resident in Fayette in the District of Maine. Upon Oath testify and declare that I entered into the United States Army during the revolutionary War, against the common enemy, upon the continental establishment in the month of June 1782. for the period of three years, and joined the company commanded by Cap Duston, and regiment commanded by Lt. Henry Dearborn of the third regiment New Hampshire line, I joined my regiment in the fall of 1782. near New Windsor – I served in said company and regiment untill the month of December 1783. and then took my final and honorable discharge at Constitution Island, near West Point.

New Windsor was sixty miles north of New York City.  General Washington had ordered his Continental Army to move there in October 1782.  The next few months were spent building log cabins to house them all. I suspect this is what Israel Wing did in the early months he spent in New Windsor.

Though the war was winding down, Israel’s company would have spent their time in practice drills, guard duty and reconnaissance missions, ever vigilant that the enemy might strike.

In March, 1783  many soldiers had had enough. Their conditions were bleak, their days included rigorous exercise combined with the monotony of repetition.  Most hadn’t seen their families for months.  But worst of all, none of these soldiers were getting paid. The beginnings of a mutiny among the officers began to take shape.

Showing the leadership that got him and his army through the war, General Washington addressed the mutinous soldiers directly in what has come to be known as the Newburgh address.  His speech empathized with the concerns of his officers and he assured them that the new government would come through for them.  The mutiny dissolved.

A ceasefire was declared on April 19, 1783.  Most soldiers were allowed to go home.  Israel, who had signed up for a three year period, stayed on until December.

Unfortunately General Washington’s pledge that the government would come through for the soldiers who won the war for them did not come true.  You can read Israel’s own words:

“I never received any money from the government for my military service, and what little "pay" I did receive was in worthless paper continental currency.”

Israel was now 22 years old.  He was married and he was penniless. 

On November 16, 1787, he and his wife Hannah had a baby girl, also named Hannah.  In either that same year or shortly into 1788, the record is unclear, Israel married his second wife, Lydia Jackson.  Though I find no record, I must assume that Hannah died in 1787, perhaps in childbirth.

What a terrible time that must have been for that little family.  The joy of birth, the grief of the loss of his wife, and then marriage within months to another woman.   Israel’s child Hannah died in 1805, just short of her 18^th birthday.

Lydia and Israel had three more daughters: Martha (also called Patty), Olive, who married Seth Browning and Lydia, who we believe eventually married and moved to Boston.  Lydia and Israel had a son, John, who died at the age of 13.

We can get a bit of an idea of how Israel’s life unfolded upon his return from war.  We know he had four daughters and one son.  Hannah and John died while still teenagers. 

There are court papers dated 1800 where Israel is a defendant in an “ejection” lawsuit.  He was being evicted, accused of squatting on another person’s land.

When he petitioned for a pension in 1818 he told the court he no longer had discharge papers due to his house burning down “thirty years since”.  We deduce from this that he lost his home and perhaps all his belongings in the late 1780’s, early 1790’s.  This would be between five and ten years after Israel returned from war.  Perhaps he was beginning to make his mark as a farmer and then lost it all.  We will never know.

Revolutionary pensions were given only to those soldiers who were impoverished.  Israel listed his scarce belongings, including livestock.  He says he has income of $25 a year (about $800 in today’s dollars) but owes $30 in debts.  His wife Lydia is “aged 65 years, rheumatic and unable to labor.”  His daughter Patty (Martha) also lives with them ”aged twenty four years, subject to fits and totally unable to labor, and subjecting me to constant expense.”

The leaders of Fayette, Maine sent a letter in support of Israel’s petition because he had applied to the town for financial relief.  The Kennebec County jailer also wrote in support of Israel’s petition, testifying that Israel had been imprisoned many times for small debts.

Israel’s life seemed very bleak indeed.  He was awarded a pension after his 1818 petition and continued to live in Maine.

The year 1827 brought changes for Israel.  He has removed from Maine and is now living in Boston Massachusetts “and that his reason for removing to the State of Massachusetts, are his wish to spend the remainder of his days with a Son in law and only daughter,”

No mention is made of daughter Patty or his wife Lydia.  Records show that daughter Olive lived in Maine her entire life.  Census records of husband Seth Browning for 1820, 1830 and 1840 show he and his wife living in Maine.   They may have come down to Boston in between 1820 and 30 but they didn’t stay long.  I believe Patty never married and, in fact, I have found a record to show that Patty Wing, her age accurate for “our” Patty Wing, died in 1826 in Boston at the “House of Industry” of consumption.  The House of Industry was a workhouse.  I believe Israel’s wife Lydia had already died, perhaps before they moved to Boston, but find no record of it.

That leaves Lydia as Israel’s “only” daughter and son in law who might be in Boston.  As of this writing I have been unable to find any reliable record of her. 

Israel still has some surprises up his sleeve.  In 1840, when he was 79 years old, he married Sally Page who was 57 at the time.  These nuptials may have taken place for many reasons.  Perhaps they fell in love.  Or, perhaps their relationship was based on more practical reasons.  Israel was aged and his petition said (12 years earlier) that he had trouble working due to an old war wound.  His pension was miniscule, but it was something.  If Sally was in similar dire financial circumstances, they may have made an agreement that she would care for him in exchange for a roof over her head.

Israel’s poverty made the news in 1846.  This was written in the August 23, 1846 edition of the Evening Transcript:

AN OLD PATRIOT

Mr. Editor:  Almost every week we read in the papers the death of a Revolutionary Patriot, and it is very certain that in a few years all will be in their graves; but while they live, they should be made comfortable as possible, and that gratitude shown on them which is their due.

I am induced to write this to call the attention of the humane to the case of an old patriot, in this city.  His name is ISRAEL WING, and he lives in No.1 Warren Place… Mr. Wing is nearly 98 years old, being born in Maine in August 1748.  He served under General Washington in the Revolutionary War and now draws a pension of ninety-six dollars a year, sixty of which he is obliged to pay for the miserable tenement he occupies.  He is poor—and were it not for the little aid he occasionally receives, he would have suffered.  The old veteran has recently been very sick and needs the aid of friends.

My object is to call the attention of the benevolent to him, that he may have a better room to dwell in, and his wants be supplied in such a way as to make the remainder of his days happy.

There are in this city many, very many who delight in doing good.  I would beg of such to visit the old man and they will, I doubt  not, devise something for his benefit, and receive his grateful benediction.

Good people of Boston did come to Israel’s aid and made his final days just a little easier.  He died a year later, August 22, 1847.  His wife, Sally (Sarah), died just five months later in the alms house.

Israel Wing’s obituary reported that he was a centenarian who was one of George Washington’s Life Guards (his well trained body guards)   While Israel may have been one of Washington’s Life Guards, he does not mention it in his pension petition and I have not been able to corroborate it.

We know for certain that Mr. Wing was not 100 when he died.  He was born in 1761 and died in 1847, making him 86 years old.  I’ve found other obituaries of some of the last Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers that embellish the truth and I believe Israel Wing’s obituary was an example.

Israel Wing lived a very hard scrabble life.  Would Israel’s life had been different if he had never gone to war?  From the age of almost 15 to 22 he was a soldier.  What would that have been like for a young teenager?  What horrors did he see or hardships did he endure? 

Israel persevered, but the odds were against him. 1784, his first year out of the service, was the beginning of an economic depression. A terrible time for a young man with no money trying to make his mark.  In addition he had his own personal heartaches; the early death of two of his children, and one child who had a significant disability. 

Unfortunately Israel’s story is not that different from many other soldiers who fought in the American Revolution.  I hope that Israel was heartened at the end of his life to see that kind strangers came to his aid to make his last year bearable.