Benjamin Collamer, Jr.

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1756

Place of Death:

Stillwater, NY

Date of Death:

October 23, 1777

Benjamin Collamer, Jr. (born 1756) of Scituate, Massachusetts, was the eldest child of six and the only son of Benjamin, Sr. and Hannah. Benjamin, Sr. served in the French and Indian War and took up the carpentry trade. Benjamin Jr. may have planned to follow in his father’s footsteps, but such things were put on hold with the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.

Benjamin, Jr. enlisted in Captain Winslow’s company, Colonel Thomas Marshall’s (10^th) Massachusetts Regiment in March 1777 for a three-year term. The 20-year-old was elevated to the rank of corporal shortly thereafter. Come to find out, a teenaged cousin of his, Anthony Collamer III of Scituate (born 1759), had joined the same company and regiment nearly a month prior.

The cousins proceeded to Fort Ticonderoga that spring and were part of the summertime retreat during the British invasion from Canada. By mid-September, the Collamers were ready and waiting to fight against the British at Bemus Heights, located just miles north of Stillwater, New York.

Marshall’s Regiment was deployed for combat in the September 19 Battle of Freeman’s Farm (First Battle of Saratoga) and suffered about a dozen casualties by the end of it; both Ben and Anthony were counted amongst the wounded and placed in the Flying Hospital located next to headquarters.

While on his way to watch the October 17 British surrender at Saratoga, a friend from Scituate named Elisha came to visit the Collamers. Writing to his wife on October 19, Elijah reported that Anthony "was wounded in his Elbo…I Sepose he is Like to git well Soon.” Ben was in a much worse way, however, as he:
"was wounded very Badly in the Knee the Doctor Saith he thinks he cannot Live I have Ben to See him Severall times he told me he was not Long for this world the Last time I Saw him I askd him if he thought he could Resign his will To God's holy will he said if it was God's will he was willing to Dye."

Anthony survived his wound, and the war, but the pain he endured plagued him for the remainder of his life.

Ben died on October 23. The 21-year-old was probably laid to rest at Bemus Heights in an unmarked grave.