Charles McCarty

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1761

Place of Death:

Stillwater, NY

Date of Death:

September 19, 1777

Charles McCarty (born 1761) of Goffstown, New Hampshire, and his large extended family were immigrants who came to America in 1771 from Cork, Ireland. Most of this new American family were members of the Religious Society of Friends and settled in Pennsylvania. Being Presbyterians, little Charles and his sizable immediate family split off and moved north to New Hampshire.

Charles was a young teenager when he elected to join the Continental Army by enlisting in Captain Livermore’s company of Colonel Alexander Scammell’s 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment on April 20, 1777. Livermore appointed the boy to be the company’s fifer; while drummer and fifers sometimes took up arms in battle, that was not part of their regular, standard duty.

1777 was a challenging year for the 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment, and elements of the corps fought in the July 7 Battle of Hubbardton, the July 8 Battle of Fort Anne, and in other skirmishes with the British Army from Canada. Beaten, threadbare, hungry, wet, and suffering from cold nighttime temperatures, soldiers of the American Northern Army retreated in the face of British domination. Finally, by mid-September, the Northern Army was ready to defend United States sovereignty at Bemus Heights, located just north of Stillwater, New York.

The British advanced toward Bemus Heights on September 19 and the subsequent Battle of Freeman’s Farm took place that afternoon. The 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment was hotly engaged and took a great number of casualties. Charles – who was 16 years old – was killed in the fighting that day.

His remains were probably buried by the victorious British in an unmarked trench-grave near where he was killed.

Charles was the only American fifer known to have been a casualty of the Battles of Saratoga.