Meeting “Capt. Yoking”

Here’s more from the diary of the Rev. David Avery, who as chaplain accompanied a regiment to Chelsea in the wake of the fight over Hog and Noddle’s Island.

This is Avery’s entry from 29 May 1775 as the provincial forces finished salvaging useful material from H.M.S. Diana, which had run aground during the fighting.

29. Monday. Lodged last night in a comfortable bed. Went down to the Ferry, much treasure was got out to-day. Two large anchors & one Kedge & several large square pig iron as ballast, with several articles of consequence & a barrel of pork. 

When this diary was published in the D.A.R.’s American Monthly Magazine in 1900, the word I typed as “Kedge” (a sort of small anchor) was transcribed as “Kelly.” I haven’t seen the original document to confirm my guess.

Avery’s entry continued:

About noon Capt. Yoking, a Stockbridge Indian & I reconnoitered the Ground East of the schooner & judged that the taking off the cattle was practicable. The Capt. with 3 men took a canoe & went about a mile & a quarter upon the north side of the river from the Ferry & went across to Noddle’s Island & reconnoitered & scouted round about an hour & a quarter, when he fixed his centuries & another canoe went over to his assistance & soon took 2 horses & mired a 3d when a cannon ball fell pretty near them & four barges landed upon which all the scout retreated to the main shore & came over.

Upon that I advised that they should go back & get the stock. Accordingly they got off the Stock about sunset.

Stood upon guard two hours near Winnisimmit Ferry. Prayed with company.

The reference to “Capt. Yoking, a Stockbridge Indian” is very interesting.

Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War notes one state record of a captain named Jehoiakim Youkin in Col. John Paterson’s regiment. The same name also shows up on the records of Gen. George Washington’s headquarters. In August 1775 the general’s military secretary, Joseph Reed, paid Jehoiakim Youkin for digging necessaries—though perhaps he was collecting money for other men.

According to Patrick Frazier’s The Mohicans of Stockbridge, Jehoiakim Yokun or Yokum was a Mahican leader and landowner in western Massachusetts in the mid-1700s. Sites in the region still bear the Yokun name.

When the war began, Jehoiakim’s son Timothy Yokun became the first sergeant in Capt. William Goodrich’s company of Stockbridge Indians within Col. Paterson’s regiment. These soldiers were part of the Massachusetts forces and yet set apart in their style of living and fighting. Most company records don’t list Jehoiakim Yokun’s name at all. But evidently he was in command alongside Goodrich, perhaps particularly in combat. Less than two months into the war, Avery was calling him “Captain.”

One historian appears to have conflated father and son, saying Timothy gained the rank of captain during the war. Yet other authors list Timothy Yokun among the Stockbridge soldiers killed by Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe’s rangers near Yonkers, New York, in August 1778. Diaries of the Sullivan expedition, the postwar diaries of the Rev. Samson Occom, the pension application of David Freemoyer, and an early history of the town of Stockbridge all refer to a “Captain Yoke or Yokun” active later in the war and returning to Stockbridge afterwards. That was most likely Jehoiakim.

Another source tells us the name of one of the Stockbridge men who went out onto Noddle’s Island and brought back those two horses. As quoted here, he was Henries Vomhavi. The Provincial Congress granted him the smaller of those two horses as a reward.

The Rev. David Avery on the Fight off Chelsea

The Rev. David Avery of Gageborough (Windsor) came to the siege of Boston as chaplain for Col. John Paterson’s regiment from western Massachusetts.

Here is Avery’s diary entry for 28 May 1775, describing several hours of fighting over livestock and hay on the Boston harbor islands that lay near Chelsea. Decades later, local historians called that fight the Battle of Chelsea Creek. At the time, it didn’t really have a name.

In his journal Avery used the thorn, the antiquated English letter that signified the “th” sound but looks like and gets transcribed as a Y. In fact, Avery used it so much, writing words like “ye” (the or they), “ym” (them), and “yr” (their), that I decided to change it to “th” in this extract for clarity. He also abbreviated “which” as “wh.”

28. L[ord]’s day. Yesterday a number of our army went on upon Noddle’s Island, but were repulsed by the Regulars. Upon wh they retreated to Hog Island, where a large number had taken the ground & got off the stock. Upon wh Regulars fired upon our men, then the Diana, a [Royal Navy] schooner with a number of barges came up & began their fire as soon as within swivel shot.

Col. [Israel] Putnam & his men planted themselves in a Ditch near the shore & reserved their fire till the barges came within reach of musket shot,—when a most hot and brisk fire commenced on both sides, & the Regulars finding too warm reception tried very hard for our boats, but our men happily secured them & made their escape from the island upon wh the barges & schooners retreated & were engaged with great fury by our men along the musketry—when Capt. [Thomas Waite] Foster of the train came up with two field pieces of 3 pounders & with one shot of a Double charge cleared the Deck of the Diana & she drove & lodged on the Ferry wharf —upon wh our men took bundles of hay & came up to her Stern, broke open the window & threw in & set it on fire, wh soon burnt down to the water.

In the meantime 3 cannon played upon us from the top of Noddle’s Island. The battle lasted 10 hours, from 4 P. M. Saturday till 6 Sabbath day morning. The heaviest of the Fire was about break of day. Our men had nothing to screen them but the Presence of God. The enemy made shift to get their wounded & dead chiefly away. There was a sloop anchored off near the Ferry in musket shot from the shore [coming] to the assistance of the Diana. Capt. Foster gave her a few shots & so wounded her as that the hands were obliged to towe her off to the Shipping. Then Col. Putnam & a few others returned to Cambridge in high spirits.

About half after 11 o’clock a detachment of several Regiments of 470 marched from Cambridge under the command of Col. [Ephraim] Doolittle, when I went with them upon desire. We arrived at Chelsea about 3 o’C. being about 12 miles. Here we took some refreshment & went to the relief of the guards about 6 o’C. There has been occasional fireing by turns good part of the day. Our men had supper very late.

Considerable treasure has been got out of the schooner today and it is very remarkable that not a single Cannon has been fired at our men any of the time they were to work on the hull of the schooner.

This wasn’t a major battle measured by casualties—the British suffered two dead and several wounded and the provincials only four wounded. But it was the first big action of the siege after the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The provincials not only showed that they could fight, but they even got lucky enough to destroy a Royal Navy ship, taking some of its cannon. A few more fights like that, and the war would be over!

The Man Who Shot Daniel Phelps

The Rev. David Avery identified the fellow provincial soldier who accidentally shot Daniel Phelps as “Mr. —— Yale of Col. [John] Patterson's company.”

In 1854 the Stockbridge chronicler Electa F. Jones referred to the man as  “Mr. Y.” She also wrote:

Mr. Y. became almost distracted, and, it is believed, continued in a gloomy state of mind until his own death many years afterward. He was not suspected of design, but was probably less cautious than he should have been.

We can certainly agree with that last bit.

A little digging reveals that that man was Noah Yale of Lenox. After marching to the siege lines in the town minute company, he enlisted in the Massachusetts army on 5 May through the end of the year. Only three days after enlisting, he shot Phelps while practicing the manual of arms, not realizing his musket was loaded.

This web genealogy for the Yale family says Noah Yale had been born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on 17 Mar 1749, making him twenty-six years old at the start of the war. He (or perhaps his namesake father) had purchased fifty acres in Lenox in 1773. According to state records, Yale served in the Massachusetts and then Continental Army through the end of the year.

This 1850 print genealogy says Yale didn’t live “many years,” as Jones wrote, but “died of a fever, December 28, 1776.” Though that family publication doesn’t mention the death of Phelps, it does implicitly link Yale’s death before age thirty to his experiences near “Boston, whither he had been called to serve his country, in her struggle for independence.” He appears to have come back to Lenox a changed person.

The Death of Daniel Phelps

Yesterday I quoted a nineteenth-century account of how Daniel Phelps of Stockbridge was accidentally shot during a drill by a reckless fellow militiaman on 8 May 1775.

We have a contemporaneous account of what followed from the diary of the Rev. David Avery (1746-1818, shown here) of Gageborough, later renamed Windsor, who had also come to the siege of Boston from western Massachusetts:

8 [May]. Monday. Prayed with R[egimen]t.—About 3 o’cl’k Mr. Phelps of Capt. [Thomas] William’s company was wounded in his Breast and Lungs by an accidental discharge of a musket by Mr. ———— Yale of Col. [John] Patterson’s company as he was exercising.

Dr. [Isaac?] Foster & others attended him but found the wound to be mortal.—Mr. Phelps appeared to be very calm & patient—had a good sense of God’s gov’t & ye Equity of Providence.—

Ys’day Four guns were discharged in ye camp & endangered men’s lives. One out of our window—One at ye Piquit guard. Two others hurt. An awful day!

Mr. Phelps died. I closed his eyes—& gave a word of exhortation to ye spectators.

Our Reg’t attended Mr. Phelps funeral. Capt. Williams’ company under arms reversed. I prayed before ye Regiment marched in procession.

Avery also wrote home on 12 May saying:

Mr. Phelps was wounded on Monday, at 3 P. M. He very quietly fell on sleep at about 6 P. M, Wednesday [10 May]. Thus expired the flower of our army. Yesterday he was interred in the Cambridge burying-yard in a very decent and respectable manner. I had the greatest satisfaction and comfort in his death, for he appeared to die in the triumphs of faith…

The chaplain added that Phelps’s brothers Jacob (probably born 1753, listed in a genealogy as Jabez but in state military records as Jacob) and Hezekiah (born 1756) were with him when he died.

With such a loss, the Rev. Mr. Avery was right to complain about how inexperienced soldiers shooting their guns in camp “endangered men’s lives.” Despite their militia training, those men had limited experience being around loaded guns all the time and were on edge at the start of the war. Accidental shootings continued.

Of the younger Phelps brothers, Jacob was the fifer in Capt. Williams’s company while Hezekiah marched with a company from Great Barrington. Jacob would not survive the war, dying at Skenesborough, New York. Hezekiah served several more short stints in the army or Massachusetts militia, married Ruth Dudley, and reportedly died in 1810.

TOMORROW: The man who shot Daniel Phelps.