Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/423

PATRIOTIC WOMEN. 337 knit stockings for the whole guard at Rumstick. Anna Al- drich of Sraithfield, widow of Israel, while her husband was in service, carried her baby with her to the field, cradled it in the boughs of a tree while she hoed corn and potatoes, raked hay, pulled flax, etc. She milked the cows, made butter and cheese, mended the fences on the farm, raised three or four hundred weight of pork, fattened a beef creature, and did all the work her husband would have done. The wife of the Hon. Paul Mumford of Barrington, who lived under the great elms, at the corner where the main road turns to Warren, did substantially the same work, and cared for her husband's large dairy, during his absence on matters of state. Such were the noble mothers of the Revolution, and worthier women never drew breath than these great souls, who not only stood the brunt of the home struggle, but they made it possible for their husbands and sons to go to battle, and cheered their return to duty with the Roman mother's com- mand : " Bring back your shield or be brought back upon it." From the first enlistments in Barrington militia in 1775, to the close of the war in 1783, our town enlisted into Colo- nial and Continental service more than one hundred and eighty men, many of whom rendered well authenticated active service from fifteen months to three years and up- wards. It is a great pity that our records are so incomplete as to the full amount of work done by our soldiers, and that we cannot make the Roll of Honor complete. It is on the other hand a great satisfaction to find so large a body of men from our little town, so patriotic that every call for men was met with a full quota, with only the usual bounties paid by the town or state. In addition to the companies of infantry that were at various times recruited, we had an artillery company of two guns which was called into action at Bristol, Warren, and presumably on the Island of Rhode Island in the battle of 1777, of which Samuel Bosworth was captain and Nathaniel Heath was lieutenant. The writer copied the following list of male persons in Barrington in 1777, from records at the State House while 22