by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, June 20, 2025.
When travelling to Boston, it is nearly impossible to avoid seeing the Bunker Hill monument. An imposing granite obelisk, it stands atop Breed’s Hill in Charlestown. To New Englanders, the monument is frequently a school field-trip – one of many stops on the Freedom Trail. Most of us learned the basics of the battle that was fought there on June 17, 1775.
After battles fought at Lexington and Concord in April, militias and volunteer soldiers swept into Boston from all over New England. Exeter historian Charles Bell, after no small amount of research, wrote of the days following the battles: “There was no hesitation in the men of Exeter. Notwithstanding the absence of their trusted leaders, Nathaniel Folsom, Nicholas Gilman, and Enoch Poor, who happened to be in Dover, they made haste to be ready. Some cast bullets, others made up cartridges, and every preparation was completed in the shortest time possible. At nine o’clock in the morning one hundred and eight men paraded near the courthouse, armed and equipped. No time was wasted in preliminaries. Which road shall we take? The nearest, through Haverhill. Who shall command us? Captain Hackett. Are you ready? Demanded the newly chosen officer. Yes. March! And they were off.” Bell further notes that the Exeter men turned out quite well. Thanks to Royal Governor John Wentworth’s recent improvements to the provincial militias, the New Hampshire men was well armed for battle. Bell notes that Wentworth “little imagined that he was supplying arms to be turned against the authority of the mother country.”
They also brought gunpowder that they’d seized the previous December from Fort William and Mary in New Castle. Concerned that the powder would be used against American colonists in Boston, local men raided the fort, seized powder and arms, and hid the gunpowder barrels in towns around the seacoast. Exeter hid 28 (or 29, depending on the source) of these barrels. None of the powder was used at Lexington or Concord, where the fighting had ended before Exeter men arrived. Instead, it would have been rolled into cartridges for future use.
Within a week, it was obvious that not all the men who’d arrived in Boston were needed. Bell notes, “the immediate exigency having passed, some of the members returned home, and the remainder probably joined some of the permanent military organizations then forming.” There is no complete list of the men who marched to Cambridge from Exeter. Even Charles Bell, known for carefully combing through source material, only lists 11 men from town at Cambridge in April. During the following month of May, about 20 more names are listed, but by June, when the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought, there is no accounting for who was still in the Boston area.
The National Park Service, in its roster of New Hampshire soldiers at Bunker Hill, lists only two men from Exeter: Edward and Michael Brown. Attempts to locate these men as residents in Exeter has thus far failed. This doesn’t mean there weren’t men from Exeter fighting at Bunker Hill, it just means that the participants names weren’t well recorded. It was a chaotic day.
There were two New Hampshire regiments at Bunker Hill. One was led by John Stark, now well-known for our state motto, “Live Free or Die,” which he wrote in a letter in 1809. The full quote is “Live free or die, death is not the worst of evils.” The shortened version became the official motto in 1945. Before that, New Hampshire didn’t have a state motto.
Several men, not from Exeter but later residents of the town, were known to have been at the battle. Jude Hall, a formerly enslaved man from Kensington came to Exeter in the 1790s and remained a resident until his death in 1827. Dr. Amos Winship, called “The Mysterious Dr. Winship” at the Exeter Historical Society, served as a surgeon during the battle. His story is worth looking at on our website or in our Exeter History Minute video. Jonathan Cass was from Exeter and his family genealogy states he joined up just after Lexington and Concord and served “at Bunker Hill with George Washington.” He may have been at Bunker Hill, but George Washington was not. Washington was appointed and arrived in Boston in July of 1775.
Of the 450 recorded colonial casualties, none were from Exeter – which must have come as a relief to the town. British losses that day numbered 1,054. The battle was short – only about two hours – and the American colonists lost. However, it shook up the British forces who must have realized that putting down a rebellious colony might not be as easy as they’d thought.
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org