and more frequent intervals for soldiers to
serve in the American army. In 1781 there is even a record of a town
meeting empowering selectmen to "free and emancipate negro men, on the
condition that said
negro men enlist into the state regiment...for the term of one year."31
It is appropriate at this time to mention that not all the opprobrium
associated with impressment into the army belonged to the British.
There is a story
of a young man named John Salem Hyde who lived
with his parents on a
farm
on Bowers Hill in Oxford during the Revolution. It is not certain how
old
he was, but records show that he was baptized in the Congregational
church
in 1775. Infant baptism was not the rule then, and he must have been in
his
teens, for in 1780 a group of Continental officers scoured this part of
New
Haven County, looking to secure raw recruits for the American army.
They
were empowered to offer bounties, but they also had the necessary
paperwork
to seize anyone old enough to serve.32
A descendant of the Hyde family reports that young Hyde
became aware of the officers approaching his father's farm. The
officers asked
and searched in vain, but young Hyde was no where to be found. Excited
family members joined in the search, anxious that the young man would
be taken
from his home. They searched the house from the attic to the cellar,
and
when that proved fruitless, the officers went to the barn. So angry
were
they that the Continental soldiers began running bayonets into the hay
mows,
hoping for the satisfaction of turning up a body, dead or alive. Hyde's
mother became so frantic that she began screaming for John to surrender
himself, but it was in van. With curses and oaths the American soldiers
gave up the search, mounted their horses, and rode to the next
settlement.33
After the commotion died down, young John appeared to tell
his story. Just before the officers entered the house, John had climbed
into the large open chimney in the kitchen, unseen by anyone. He
remained in
the flue by balancing on one of the cross sections, and he stayed there
until he was certain the impressment party was miles away.34
What can be said about Peck's admission of exceptions to
the Anglican-Tory association?
31
Orcutt, 194.
32 Litchfield,
Oxford
61.
33 Litchfield,
Oxford
62.
34 Litchfield,
Oxford
62. It was a bittersweet victory for the Hyde family. The mother
cracked
under the mental strain, and never fully recovered her reason. She was
able
to function in her daily tasks, but constantly asked any stranger she
met,
"Have you seen anything of John Salem Hyde today?"
