Cyrus Hardy

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1752

Date of Death:

January 24, 1778

Cyrus Hardy (born 1752) was born in Massachusetts, but moved to Pelham, New Hampshire, shortly before the Revolutionary War broke out. It was in Pelham that he met his future wife, Olive, and the couple married in April 1774. Their first child was born three months later.

With the Continental Army desperate for recruits, governments offered sweet incentives in the form of bounty money for those who joined. Congress offered 20 dollars. The state of New Hampshire offered an additional 20 pounds. On April 7, 1777, Pelham’s government voted to give an additional 30 pounds for those who joined for three-year terms. Cyrus enlisted a week later, as a private soldier in Captain Bell’s company of Colonel Nathan Hale’s 2^nd New Hampshire Regiment.

Cyrus was involved in the Northern Campaign of 1777 from the very beginning. After months of difficult summertime service in Vermont and upstate New York, the 2^nd New Hampshire was stationed at Bemus Heights in mid-September. Unfortunately, the records are unclear as to when it happened, but Cyrus was wounded while fighting the British during the Battles of Saratoga.

After the British surrender, the 2^nd New Hampshire left Cyrus behind as it marched off to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The 25-year-old was furloughed home with the expectation that he would return to his regiment after he recovered in spring. As such, a descriptive list was made in case the army had to advertise him as a deserter: he stood at 5’ 9”, had a light complexion, light colored hair, and grey eyes.

But Cyrus never returned. He died, probably at home, on January 24, 1778.

Cyrus Jr. was born that June.