Amos Spring

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1734

Place of Death:

Stillwater, NY

Date of Death:

September 19, 1777

Amos Spring (born 1734) of Westminster, Massachusetts, was a “yeoman” farmer who, with his wife Phebe, had at least three surviving children when the Revolutionary War began in 1775. Amos joined the fight as a soldier in Colonel Asa Whitcomb’s Regiment and participated in the siege of British-held Boston that summer. Afterward, he returned home, and he and his wife had two more children, Katherine (born 1776) and William (born 1777).

In May 1777, Amos found himself drafted into the Continental Army – rather than pay the fine or find a substitute, Amos chose to enlist for a three-year term and settled in as a private soldier in Captain Hodgkin’s company of Colonel Timothy Bigelow’s (15^th) Massachusetts Regiment. It’s hard to imagine why a man with such a young, growing family didn’t get out of it – maybe he didn’t have the money to pay the fine; maybe he couldn’t find a replacement; maybe he saw this as a way to make money to support his family. We may never know.

A couple weeks before the Battles of Saratoga, Amos was selected as one of his regiment’s more capable soldiers and was drafted into the Northern Army’s provisional Corps of Light Infantry commanded by Major Henry Dearborn. According to the order, the selected men were supposed to be “the most able, active, spirited Men in their respective Regiments.”

Dearborn’s Light Infantry was one of the first units sent to fight in the September 19 Battle of Freeman’s Farm (the First Battle of Saratoga). It was one of the longest land battles of the war…and one of the most costly.

Amos was killed in the fighting that day and was probably buried by the victorious British near where he fell.