Collins Eaton

Quick Facts

Date of Death:

October 9, 1777

Collins Eaton of Goffstown, New Hampshire, was a private soldier serving in Captain Stone’s company of Colonel Alexander Scammell’s 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment. He voluntarily signed up on February 20, 1777, for a three-year term to fight for United States independence.

Very little is known about Collins’s life before he entered the army; unfortunately, we don’t know how old he was, what he did for a living, or if he had a family.

Collins fought in the September 19 Battle of Freeman’s Farm. We’re unsure what happened to him afterward, but the company records state that he was “Dead Octr 9^th.” This could mean that he was mortally wounded on September 19 or even when fighting in the Battle of Bemus Heights on October 7. It’s also possible that he died from disease, or even from being mortally wounded or killed in an accident.

Collins was probably buried in the Bemus Heights Flying Hospital burial yard or the Albany General Hospital burial yard. As with most everyone else who met the same fate, this was done with neither headstone nor ceremony. There was no official system in place to notify his family of his untimely death.