Asahel Terrill

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1739

Place of Death:

Schuylerville, NY

Date of Death:

October 10, 1777

Asahel Terrill (born 1739) of Fairfield, Connecticut, married the woman he loved, Hanna, in 1763. Sadly, misfortune stuck immediately: of their nine children born from 1764-1775, only four survived infancy. But cruel fate had more in store for this unlucky family.

Asahel joined Colonel Elmore’s Battalion in April 1776, a Continental regiment which was sent to garrison Fort Schuyler (Stanwix). When the battalion was slated to be disbanded a year later, recruiting officers convinced many, including Asahel, to enlist in Colonel James Livingston’s Battalion (a Continental regiment comprised of New Yorkers, New Englanders, and Canadians) for the duration of the war.

Asahel wrote to Hannah, explaining why he decided to reenlist: being “very poor,” military service would provide a much needed, steady wage. And, having enlisted for the war’s duration, he was promised bounty land at the end of it (100 acres). Of all things, the family home was burned in 1776 and although Hannah and the children survived, she was forced to “support herself and her family as well as she could,” which included work as a housekeeper. Unfortunately, Asahel’s plan went awry immediately: although he did his duty, Congress was in arrears and he had no money to send Hanna and the children (ages 9, 4, and 2-year-old twins).

Asahel’s new unit spent most of the spring and summer of 1777 defending the lower Mohawk Valley, and it was picked up by General Arnold during his march to relieve Fort Schuyler (Stanwix) from a British siege that August. After the expedition’s success, Livingston’s Battalion joined the Northern Army and fought in both battles of Saratoga. Happily, Asahel survived.

Defeated, the British retreated north to Saratoga (present-day Schuylerville), arriving there on October 9; the Northern Army got there the next day and planned for a siege of the British defenses. It was on that day that Asahel “had just come off from Guard [duty], and sat down on a Log,” when the unthinkable happened. His neighbor and companion in arms,David Hall, never forgot the shocking moment of his 38-year-old friend’s random, gory death:
"a Cannon ball was shot from the enemies line & struck the said [Asahel] Tyrrell to the head & tore it in pieces & his blood & brains flew & bespattered the clothes of the said David hall, who was standing in the Ranks, near by said Tyrrell, nearly all over."

Asahel’s burial place is unknown. Hannah remarried in 1778, but she never received her deceased husband’s backpay or the bounty land due to her.