Alexander Lemmon

Men dressed in the garb of a Continental Soldier.

National Park Service

Quick Facts

Significance:

Lemmon was an Irish immigrant who joined the Continental Army in 1775, fought in the attack of Quebec and survived the Siege of 1777.

Place of Birth:

Ireland

Date of Birth:

circa 1749

Place of Death:

Hamilton County, Ohio

Date of Death:

circa 1824

Alexander Lemmon was born in Ireland around the year 1749. At some point in his younger life, he emigrated to the Colony of New York. He was a weaver by trade but also served as a barber for his fellow soldiers. He was left-handed.  

In the summer of 1775, at about the age of 26, in Esopus he enlisted as a fifer in the 3^rd NY Regiment commanded by Colonel James Clinton in Captain Elias Hasbrook’s company. From there he marched north, participating in the capture on St. John’s on November 3, 1775, the capture of Montreal on November 13, 1775, and the attack on Quebec, Canada under command of General Richard Montgomery. Montgomery was killed in the attack on the night of December 31, 1775. Lemmon bore scars on his face from gun powder burns suffered during the attack for the rest of his life. Most of the American’s spent that cold winter living in the outskirts of the old city in Quebec before fleeing south the following spring. He continued his original enlistment for two extra months and upon his return to Albany, NY he was discharged.

A few months later, on January 12, 1777, he reenlisted as a private in the 3^rd NY Regiment in Captain James Gregg’s Company. He and the regiment made their way to Fort Schuyler (Stanwix) in spring of that year. In July, Captain Gregg himself was scalped about a mile from the garrison walls. Gregg was sent to Albany to recover. With two weeks of that attack, the fort was surrounded by a coalition of British forces and allies. They were besieged from August 2 – August 22, 1777. The 3^rd NY was kept at Fort Schuyler for another year.

On August 29, 1779, Lemmon fought at the Battle of Newtown (near present-day Elmira, NY), which was part of the larger Sullivan-Clinton Campaign against the western members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. That winter he spent in camp near Morristown, NJ, having two weeks furlough to himself and then rejoining the army. He continued with the regiment as it was consolidated into the 1^st NY. Some point later took ill and appears to have not traveled with his company to Virginia to participate in the Siege of Yorktown.

Sometime later he was married and moved west to start a family, settling in Hamilton County, OH, near Cincinnati. He and his wife had at least 6 children (Rachel, Dow, James, Alexander, Mary, and Sam).

In March of 1818, the U.S. Congress passed “An act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and Naval Service of the United States during the Revolutionary War,” which allowed for pensions to be given to veterans of the American Revolution. On January 2, 1821, in Hamilton County, OH, Lemmon was deposed to prove his claim. He still lived with his wife and the six children listed, and owed several persons a total of $17. He said stated his eyesight was “failed” and he was unable to continue the practice of weaving and therefore required assistance.

His claim listed the value of all his belongings at the time. This included:
1 Mare 13 years old $10.00
1 Cow and Calf 10.00
1 Sheep 6.00
1 Loom & Tackle 12.00
2 chairs .50
1 table .50
1 8 Gallon Kettle 2.00
1 Dutch oven 1.50
½ Doz Knives & Forks .50
2 tin cups .12 ½ cents
2 Plates .12 ½ cents
1 saw and 6 shoals valued at 4.00
Total value of = $47.25

His pension was granted at a rate of $8 a month for life. He also turned in two letters, written by friends whom he had known during the war, to support his claim.

David Munroe was a veteran who had met Lemmon in the Hudson highlands. He described Lemmon as a barber and “and from the fact of his using his left hand in his business, he was known in his Regiment by the name of the left handed barber and from his being marked with gunpowder in the face, which deponent then understood and believing, the said Lemmon received in the expedition into Canada under General Montgomery…”

John Lafler, a batteauxman that met Lemmon at Fort Schuyler in 1777, said of him: “from the circumstances of his being a barber and in consequence of his using his left hand he was called the left handed barber, he was besides an Irish man, by birth & and a humorous & eccentric man…”

In about 1824, Lemmon passed in Hamilton County, OH. Although not many details of his life are known, the personal descriptions in his story go to show the humanity of all the forgotten soldiers of the American Revolution.

Below: An image of Alexander Lemmon's pension deposition record. He was likely literate.