STORIES OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS

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Benoni Hathaway

Benoni Hathaway was born in Now Jersey in 1754. He was among the first who boldly struck for Liberty. He did not wait until the iron was hot before he raised his hammer but heated it by continuous heavy blows. He commanded a company of citizen rangers that became a terror to the scouting and foraging parties of the enemy and frequently captured them and the sentinels of their main camp in the darkness of night. When General Kniphausen was encamped at Elizabethtown with his Hessians his most bewitching hours were often interrupted by this sleepless company. At one of these attacks Capt. Hathaway was wounded in the head by a musket ball and was unconscious for several hours but recovered and continued his guerrilla warfare until the last loyal Briton made good his retreat across the great heron pond. He was highly esteemed through life and met death with Christian fortitude at Newark, N. J. on the 19th of April 1823.

Source: The Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll Judson