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Historical SummaryWHEN the veterans of the American Revolution broke ranks there was no G.I. Bill of Rights to cushion the shock of readjustment to civilian life. Returning to plough or workbench, their pockets stuffed with worthless paper money, they were soon caught up in a post-war depression. Sheriffs were no respecters of service records and the erstwhile saviors of the country were soon regarded as public liabilities. Debtors were jailed, their goods attached, and they themselves often sold into servitude to pay off their creditors. By 1786 the situation had become so desperate in the western counties of Massachusetts that public protest meetings demanded action for the relief of debtors. Armed farmers, mostly former servicemen, broke up sittings of the courts to prevent distraint for debts or taxes. The leader of the armed veterans, a former serviceman himself, was Daniel Shays. His name became anathema to the men of property. General Henry Knox, spokesman for the extreme nationalists, viewed the activities of these veterans as a calamity justifying military intervention. General von Steuben, the renowned drillmaster, who tried to have Prince Henry of Prussia placed on an American throne, was actually backing the ex-veteran insurgents in the hope of serving as their leader. Meanwhile his closest friend, Major "Billy" North, was sent by Knox to recruit troops to put down the uprising. Wrote Mercy Warren to John Adams: "Time will make curious disclosures, and you, Sir, may be astonished to find the incendiaries who have fomented the discontents among the miserable insurgents of the Massachusetts, in a class of men least suspected." At Mount Vernon, Washington, constantly needled by the conservatives, declared: "For God’s sake, tell me, what is the cause of these commotions. If they have real grievances, redress them if possible. If they have not, employ the force of government against them at once." Jefferson in Paris, physically remote from the clash, was cool and collected. "I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing," he commented. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." The high point of the revolt was the attack on the Springfield arsenal. As its defender, General Shepard, reports, a whiff of grapeshot was sufficient to rout the attackers. Then General Lincoln, who had raised money at a swank Boston club by warning its members that it would be best to loan part of their wealth to save the rest, relieved Shepard with some 4,400 troops. The morale of the insurgents weakened, and Shays retreated. At Petersham, after a forced thirty-mile march through a blinding snowstorm, the militia surprised the rebels, captured 150 of their number, and scattered the rest. Shays himself fled to Vermont, and the revolt, save for a few guerilla incursions, came to an end. Lincoln’s was hardly a great military achievement. It was on a par with MacArthur’s dispersal of the Bonus Army, one of the saddest boners of the Hoover regime. The popularity of the insurgents was clearly demonstrated by the fact that Governor Bowdoin, who had called out the state troops, was swept out of office by Hancock in a landslide which elected a number of the erstwhile rebels to the legislature. The traditional reporter of the insurgency was the old New England historian, George Minot, whose hostile attitude toward the "malcontents" biased historical writing for many generations. It remained for progressive-minded Edward Bellamy, later author of Looking Backward, to redress the balance in his historical novel, The Duke of Stockbridge. In preference to the swivel-chair reporting of Minot, we have chosen the gunsight view recorded by the two chief actors in the drama. The contrast illustrates the fact that the greatest rancor is generally reserved for those who are far from the scene of battle. Your soldier-reporter is likely to be more compassionate and conciliatory toward his antagonist. In this revolt both generals went out of their way to avoid firing on their former comrades-in-arms. Of the two accounts Shepard’s is the more tensely dramatic, with some vivid dialogue. Lincoln’s is written with the confidence which comes from a superior military position and a profound assurance of the outcome.
Key QuoteGeneral Shepard: "The unhappy time is come in which we have been obliged to shed blood."
Shays Leads the Veterans to Disaster
[1787]
II
GENERAL LINCOLN TO GOVERNOR BOWDOIN
We arrived here yesterday about noon with one regiment from Suffolk, one from Essex, one from Middlesex, and one from Worcester, with three companies of artillery, a corps of horse, and a volunteer corps under the command of Colonel Baldwin; the other company of artillery with the other regiment from Middlesex and another from Worcester which were as a cover to our stores arrived about eight o’clock in the evening. On my arrival I found, that Shays had taken post at a little village six miles north of this, with the whole force under his immediate command, and that Day had taken post in West Springfield, and that he had fixed a guard at the ferry house on the west side of the river, and that he had a guard at the bridge over Agawam river. By this disposition all communication from the north and west in the usual paths was cut off.
From a consideration of this insult on Government, that by an early move we should instantly convince the insurgents of its ability and determination speedily to disperse them; that we wanted the houses occupied by these men to cover our own troops; that General Patterson was on his march to join us, which to obstruct was an object with them; that a successful movement would give spirits to the troops; that it would be so was reduced to as great a certainty, as can be had in operations of this kind; from these considerations, Sir, with many others, I was induced to order the troops under arms at three o’clock in the afternoon, although the most of them had been so from one in the morning.
We moved about half after three, and crossed the river upon the ice, with the four regiments; four pieces of artillery; the light horse, and the troops of this division, under General Shepard moved up the river on the ice, with an intention to fail in between Shays who was on the east side of the river, and Day on the west, and to prevent a junction as well as to cut off Day’s retreat. We supposed that we should hereby encircle him with a force so superior that he would not dare to fire upon us which would effectually prevent bloodshed, as our troops were enjoined in the most positive manner not to fire without orders. The moment we showed ourselves upon the river the guard at the ferry house turned out and left the pass open to us. They made a little show of force for a minute or two near the meeting house, and then retired in the utmost confusion and disorder. Our horse met them at the west end of the village, but the insurgents found means by crossing the fields and taking to the woods to escape them: some were taken who are aggravatedly guilty, but not the most so.
The next news we had of them, was by an express from Northampton, that part of them arrived in the south end of their town about eleven o’clock. Shays also in a very precipitate manner left his post a[t] Chickabee, and some time in the night passed through South Hadley, on his way to Amherst.
As soon as our men are refreshed this morning, we shall move northward, leaving General Shepard here as a cover to the magazines; perhaps we may overtake Shays and his party, we shall do it, unless they disperse. If they disperse, I shall cover the troops in some convenient place, and carry on our operations in a very different way.
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Chicago: Benjamin Lincoln, "Shays Leads the Veterans to Disaster," Works in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed September 18, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=68Z9BKL8F7V71EE.
MLA: Lincoln, Benjamin. "Shays Leads the Veterans to Disaster." Works, in History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, edited by Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 18 Sep. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=68Z9BKL8F7V71EE.
Harvard: Lincoln, B, 'Shays Leads the Veterans to Disaster' in Works. cited in 1951, History in the First Person: Eyewitnesses of Great Events: They Saw It Happen, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 18 September 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=68Z9BKL8F7V71EE.
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