Eleazer Isbell

Quick Facts

Date of Birth:

1740

Place of Death:

Stillwater, NY

Date of Death:

September 19, 1777

Eleazer Isbell (born 1740) and his wife Hannah of Killingworth, Connecticut, were the proud parents of seven young children when the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775. Although Eleazer previously served in the French and Indian War and supported the Revolution, working the farm and caring for his large family took top priority.

But the war had other plans. In August 1777, the state ordered that a large body of militia was to march to upstate New York in order to defend against the British invasion from Canada. While many volunteered for this service most, like Eleazer, were drafted. Although the tour of duty was for only a couple months, their goodbyes must have been particularly difficult—Hannah was pregnant again.

Now a 37-year-old private soldier in Captain Shipman’s company in Colonel Thaddeus Cook’s Connecticut militia battalion, Eleazer arrived just in time for the September 19 Battle of Freeman’s Farm. General Arnold sent Cook’s militia into the fray early on, but they were pummeled so badly that Cook ordered his men to retire from the fight. Eleazer remained behind, dead. The soldier who stood next to him later told the family that Eleazer “was loading his musket at the time he was shot.”

The British likely buried Eleazer’s body near Freeman’s Farm.

Hannah gave birth to their son, Stephen, in March 1778.