Timothy Bedel

Timothy Bedel was born in Salem, New Hampshire in 1737. During the French and Indian War he served as a lieutenant in the New Hampshire Provincial Regiment at Fort Number 4, Crown Point, Fortress Louisbourg, the capture of Quebec and later at the capture of Havana, Cuba. Timothy Bedel and his wife Elizabeth would have a son Moody Bedel on May 12, 1764. Moody Bedel would become a brigadier general during the War of 1812 and his son John Bedel a Brigadier General of Volunteers during the American Civil War. After the war Timothy Bedel would serve in the New Hampshire colonial assembly.

American Revolution

On May 26, 1775 he was appointed to command a company of rangers in Coos, New Hampshire as a colonel in the NH militia. William Stark also wanted this command and when he was turned down joined the British Army. This company was quickly expanded to a regiment with eight companies and joined the Continental Army during the Invasion of Canada. He would see action at the Battle of Fort St. Jean but would miss the Battle of Cedars while he was ill at the hospital at Lachine, Quebec where most of Bedel's Regiment would be captured by the British and their Native American allies. Eight days later his men were exchanged for British soldiers captued at the Battle of St. Jean. Both Col. Timothy Bedel and his second in command Maj. Isaac Butterfield were court-martialed for the disaster at Cedars, Bedel was found not guilty and Butterfield was found guilty of cowardice. Bedel's regiment was disbanded on January 1, 1777 with the end of the enlistments for the men.

Timothy Bedel would command a militia regiment in the Battle of Bennington under Gen. John Stark. On December 11, 1779 Gen. George Washington ordered Col. Timothy Bedel to Coos to help in an investigation of misconduct and fraud against the Continental Army Quartermaster at Coos, NH. At the end of the American Revolution Timothy Bedel worked unsuccessfully to have lands in northern New Hampshire and Vermont granted to Abenakis who had sided with the United States during the war. Timothy Bedel would rise to the rank of major general in the NH militia before his death on February 24, 1787 at Haverhill, New Hampshire.

Sources

• A List of The Revolutionary Soldiers of Dublin, N.H. by Samuel Carroll Derby Press of Spahr & Glenn, Columbus, Ohio 1901

• The American Revolution in Indian County: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities By Colin Gordon and Frederick Hoxie, Cambridge Univ. Press 1995