Benjamin Reed

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1748

Place of Death:

Stillwater, NY

Date of Death:

September 19, 1777

Benjamin Reed (born 1748) of Chesterfield, Massachusetts, and his wife Levina were the proud parents of three young children when the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775. In 1776, Ben joined the cause to fight British tyranny when he was commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant and Adjutant in the 13^th Continental Regiment. He served with Washington’s army throughout 1776 and participated in the Trenton Campaign at the end of the year. It was at this time that the Reeds’ fourth child was born.

With new Continental regiments being raised for 1777, Ben decided to sign up again and was commissioned a 1^st lieutenant of Captain Day’s company of Colonel Ichabod Alden’s (7^th) Massachusetts Regiment. His new unit joined the Northern Army in mid-July, a very dire time during which the army was retreating in the face of the British onslaught from Canada.

In late August, Northern Army commander General Horatio Gates formed a Corps of Light Infantry, an elite unit drawn from the army’s non-rifle Continental infantry regiments. Officers and men selected were to be “the most able, active, spirited Men in their respective Regiments”; Ben was the officer selected from Alden’s Regiment for this duty.

Finally, both armies faced off in the September 19 Battle of Freeman’s Farm. The light infantry was sent into the fight early on, and although the Americans lost the battle, they succeeded in keeping the British at bay. The Corps of Light Infantry returned to camp late that evening, having lost two officers and 16 men killed; the 29-year old officer, father, and husband was one of them.

It’s sobering to consider that Ben would not have lost his life that day if he wasn’t serving with the light infantry.

The British probably buried Ben’s remains near where he fell. Levina remarried in 1783.