Person

Abraham Potter

Abraham Potter of Deerfield, New Hampshire, enlisted in Captain McClary’s company, Colonel Alexander Scammell’s 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment, on April 3, 1777. Towns within the state were tasked with filling quotas to raise troops for the Continental Army, and thus men like Abraham enrolled from the ranks of the militia to fulfil the obligation. As with most men who joined the service in 1777, Abraham entered the service for a three-year term.

Abraham formed part of the Fort Ticonderoga / Mount Independence garrison when the British invaded from Canada that summer. He retreated with the rest of the Northern Army on July 6 before the British completed their envelopment maneuvers. The summertime retreat south was a rough one, with sparse food, no shelter, and little in the way of spare clothing. Fortunes were reversed by mid-September, and the Northern Army was waiting for the British at Bemus Heights, located just north of Stillwater, New York.

But Abraham wasn’t there – he was a patient in the General Hospital at Albany. We don’t know what was wrong with him, but common ailments suffered amongst those from Scammell’s Regiment committed to the hospital that fall were the cough, dysentery, diarrhea, fractures, and those who were convalescing. Unfortunately, Abraham didn’t make it, and he died there on September 30.

We don’t know much more about Abraham – what his family life was like, his age, or his occupation. Hopefully, someday, we’ll know more.

He was probably buried near the hospital in an unmarked grave.