Abel Getchell

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1736

Place of Death:

Stillwater, New York

Date of Death:

October 7, 1777

Although Abel Getchell (born 1736) of Berwick, Massachusetts (now Maine) was a farmer, he turned soldier at the outset of the Revolutionary War in 1775 when he enlisted in Colonel Scamman’s Regiment in May. In 1776, Abel reenlisted in the army as a soldier in the 6^th Continental Regiment. The family farm was managed by his wife, Miriam, and their children during Abel’s long absence.

It seems nothing could keep Abel away from the military life, and in spring 1777 he again volunteered to fight for the United States, this time as a private soldier “for the duration of the war” in Captain Burbank’s company of Colonel Samuel Brewer’s (12^th) Massachusetts Regiment.

Brewer’s regiment formed part of the Northern Army commanded by Horatio Gates during the Battles of Saratoga. The regiment didn’t fight in the first battle (September 19), but deployed in the second (October 7). One of Brewer’s captains wrote after the battle that they won a glorious victory that day, by forcing the enemy lines “by the assistance of Divine Providence with ye loss of a few men.” 41-year-old Abel was one of the fallen.

Years later, a family friend who served in Brewer’s regiment at the time recalled Abel’s last moments:

"he was killed by a grape [case] shot through the head—I did not see him after his death, but three of our company buried him. One of my mess mates told me repeatedly both in the army & since that the head of the said Getchell when he was killed, fell between his feet when advancing up to a log breast work."

This happened in front of Breymann’s fortified camp—stop 7 on the Battlefield’s tour road.