Welcome to Bidwell Lore number 144! This week we will share a bit more about Agrippa’s time at war and the end of his military service.
The End of Agrippa’s War Experience
Rick Wilcox, 2022
Following the 1777 the Battle of Saratoga, Agrippa accompanied General Paterson, and his troops, as they made their way south to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington had gathered some 12,000 men to winter there. Conditions were horrific and Nash and Hodges quote Joseph Plumb Martin’s account: “the army was now not only starved but naked. The greatest part were not the shirtless and barefoot but destitute of all other clothing, especially blankets. I procured a small piece of raw cowhide and made myself a pair of moccasins, which kept my feet (while they lasted) from the frozen ground, although as I well remember the hard edges so galled my ankles while on a march that it was with much difficulty and pain that I could wear them afterwards; but the only alternative I had was to endure this inconvenience or to go barefoot, as hundreds of my companions had to, till they might be tracked by their blood upon the rough frozen ground.” [1]
For Agrippa, the upside to his travails was his contact with not only Paterson and Kosciuszko, but also the Marquis de Lafayette and Washington’s aides-de-camp, John Laurens, both decidedly anti-slavery in belief and practice. Laurens’ wealthy father was a slave-owning planter and the State of Carolina’s representative to the Continental Congress. On June 28, 1778, the battle of Monmouth Courthouse (New Jersey) got underway, where this time heat, not cold, felled a large number of soldiers. Paterson’s Third Massachusetts Brigade then spent some time in Connecticut and in December 1778 he was stationed at West Point. By May of 1779, Agrippa, having served Paterson for two years, was transferred for service to General Kosciuszko, with whom he would stay for the remainder of his time in the war, an additional fifty months. The winters of 1778-79 and 1779-80 found Agrippa with General Kosciuszko at West Point where Kosciuszko fortified the Hudson River.
Taking direction from England, Sir Henry Clinton moved an estimated 8,700 troops by ship in December 1779 to the South. By August of 1780, General Kosciuszko and Agrippa were also headed south after meeting with General Washington while traveling through Virginia and into North Carolina. The British began their southern campaign in Savannah, Georgia, moving rapidly northward where they were met by General Gates, whose soldiers were beaten badly, suffering what was probably the worst American defeat of the war.
“Upon their arrival, Kosciuszko and Agrippa Hull could see the desperate conditions in the South. The army bivouacked at Hillsborough was so barren of supplies that Kosciuszko had to share his cloak as a blanket with his bunk mates, Brigadier General Isaac Huger and Dr. William Read, the army’s chief physician. But at least these officers’ boots were intact. While Kosciuszko and other officers rode horses, Hull walked. His shoes worn through from the six- hundred-mile trek southward, the blanket-less Grippy got through the winter, the worst in memory, only after a pair of shoes ‘for Colonel Cusiack’s Servant’ arrived. [2]
General Nathan Green took over command from General Gates and kept one step ahead of General Cornwallis throughout the winter of 1780-81. The price that both sides paid was that by 1781-82 they were left with a countryside without any edible flora or fauna. In addition, Kosciuszko and Hull witnessed slavery in all its cruelty as they moved about the deep south. During the worst of times, Kosciuszko would lead troops into battle while Agrippa would be sent to assist the army doctors, where arms and legs were sawed off without benefit of anesthesia on a regular basis. “Hull was assigned to pinion [3] some of the 375 badly wounded Americans, as field surgeons amputated their mangled limbs.” [4] On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his army and Kosciuszko and Hull were able to witness the final British departure on December 14, 1782. It was April of 1783 when they received word that a settlement had been agreed to between the Americans and the British. Agrippa was discharged from the army at West Point on July 23, 1783, his papers signed by George Washington, some six years and two months after he joined. Although not directly involved as a combat soldier, it is clear that he was exposed to all of the horrors of war and conditions of deprivation experienced by other soldiers. Given what we know about his post-war years, he remained steadfastly positive and giving for his entire adult life, despite the traumatic war experience of early adulthood.
Below we share Agrippa’s discharge papers and their transcriptions.
THESE are to CERTIFY that the Bearer hereof Agrippa Hull Private Soldier in the Second Massachusetts Regiment, having faithfully served the United States the term of Six Years and two Months and being inlisted for the War only, is hereby Discharged from the American Army. GIVEN at HEAD-QUARTERS the 24th day of July 1783 [signature illegible] By HIS EXCELLENCY [blank] COMMAND, J. Townhut. REGISTERED in the Books of the Regiment Jacob Townhew. The above named Agrippa Hull has been honored with the BADGE of MERIT for Six Years faithful Service. Jacob Townhut Commander, 2nd Mass Regiment. [5]
Agrippa Hull Stockbridge Received by E. Williams Esqr. Feby 29th 1802
Secretary’s Office Boston June 18th 1802 Please Certify that Agrippa Hull has received State Benefits of the Resolves of the 4th March and June 19th 1801 passed the two [illegible] of the [illegible] is Petition on this discharge is [illegible] up agreeable to the [illegible] Secy
Agrippa Hull Stockbridge Received by E. Williams Esqr. Feby 29th 1802
Secretary’s Office Boston June 18th 1802 Please Certify that Agrippa Hull has received State Benefits of the Resolves of the 4th March and June 19th 1801 passed the two [illegible] of the [illegible] is Petition on this discharge is [illegible] up agreeable to the [illegible] Secy
Next week we will share a side story about Shays’ Rebellion
1. Friends of Liberty Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Agrippa Hull: A Tale of Three Patriots, Two Revolutions and a Tragic Betrayal of Freedom in the New Nation, Gary B. Nash, Graham Russell, Gao Hodges, 2008, Basic Books, p. 53.
2. Friends of Liberty Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Agrippa Hull: A Tale of Three Patriots, Two Revolutions and a Tragic Betrayal of Freedom in the New Nation, Gary B. Nash, Graham Russell, Gao Hodges, 2008, Basic Books, p. 62.
3. Tie or hold the arms or legs of (someone).
4. Friends of Liberty Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Agrippa Hull: A Tale of Three Patriots, Two Revolutions and a Tragic Betrayal of Freedom in the New Nation, Gary B. Nash, Graham Russell, Gao Hodges, 2008, p. 70.
5. All three pages of Agrippa Hull’s discharge papers are from the Stockbridge Library Museum & Archives, Agrippa Hull Collection.