Eleazer Gove

Quick Facts

Place of Birth:

1732

Place of Death:

Stillwater, NY

Date of Death:

September 19, 1777

Eleazer Gove (born 1732) made his living as a fisherman in the peaceable seacoast town of Seabrook, New Hampshire, where he lived with his wife, Mary, and their five children. With the start of the Revolutionary War in April 1775, Eleazer joined the fight for freedom that June as a private in Colonel Poor’s Regiment and participated in the siege of British-held Boston.

By 1777, the war had become a War for Independence and the need for Continental Army soldiers was dire. Eleazer enlisted in mid-May for the three-years’ service as a private soldier in Captain Weare’s company of Colonel Alexander Scammell’s 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment.

Eleazer repaired to Ticonderoga to join his regiment just in time for the 1777 British invasion of upstate New York. While Eleazer may have fought in some of the campaign’s summertime skirmishes and battles, he certainly endured weeks of privation – little food, no change of clothes, and no pay.

Finally, by mid-September, the Northern Army was ready to face off against the British at Bemus Heights. During the September 19 Battle of Freeman’s Farm, the 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment was one of the first American units committed to the fight. It was on that day that the 45-year-old husband, father, and soldier was killed.

Eleazer’s remains were probably buried by the victorious British in the field near where he fell.