| He later claimed invalid pension as a result of rheumatic heart disease and shell shock. Sylvanus expressed strong Whig leanings and approval of the early Republican party, yet, he reported that his regiment supported McClellan over Lincoln in the 1864 election. According to later histories, only 3 Michigan regiments favored McClellan and all reporting regiments gave Lincoln a 9,402 to 2,959 majority. Sylvanus returned to Bath but considered moving to Alamo or even to Kansas. In 1870, he moved to the corner of Main and High in the village of Bath and was again elected Supervisor. He was Drain Commissioner in 1875 and Supervisor again in 1887. He was Justice of the Peace between 1877 and 1887 and listed as Postmaster in 1882. He was active in the GAR and the 100F. From the record it is easy to classify him as a pioneer, patriot and public servant. Reading his own words acress four tumultuous decades offers a more personal assessment. sylvanus Bachelder was a very independent, headstrong cuss. He acted out his dreams and convections, even as those shifted in his mind and the sands of time. He was alwys questing, never satisfied. His new western identity derided the New Englanders of the Civil War, though he descended from generations of New England deacons and farmers. - Batchelder Review, Issue 1, Spring 1988 (Ed. note: See Glen Bachelder's comment in the guest book- he is the author .) Josiah /Bachelder Josiah enlisted in the same company with his father on February 5, 1777, for three years. Killed July 3rd 77" (N.H. State Papers XVI, 28). He must be the son shot at his father's side, and buried in the trenches at Saratoga. - from the Corrections of Pierce's Work by Charles Batchelder James Monroe /Bachelder TITLE Captain BIRTH 18 JUN 1817 DEATH 8 APR 1865 CAUSE Pnuemonia James, the only child, grew up in Falmouth with his Bachelder cousins. He took to the sea at an early age. James became owner and captain of his own ship, the brig FAME. In 1850, he, his wife and crew sailed it from New York around Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco, October 12, 1850. A year later he set sail for Olympia, Washington in command of the brig George Emery. At this time, what became Washington State was then part of the Oregon Territory. Although explorers sailed by its coast in the late 1500's this land had remained an unexplored wilderness more than 200 years. The first permanent settlement was established near the present city of Spokane in 1810 by a British fur company. When the Washington Territory was created in 1853, there were only 4,000 white people in the region which, until 1863 included what is now Idaho. James and his wife settled at Fort Steilacoom, then a frontier outpost at the lower end of Puget Sound and located almost midway between the present cities of Tacoma and Olympia. There they reared a large family; unfortunately, family records and pictures of some of their nine children were destroyed during the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. In the Spring of 1856, James was appointed sutler at Fort Steilacoom by Jefferson Davis. Such sutlers were responsible for supplying provisions to Army personal stationed at a fort. Captain Bachelder's commission as sutler was signed by Davis when he was Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce preceding President Lincoln, Jefferson Davis afterwards became President of the Confederate States; the co-signer of Bachelder's warrant, Adjutant General Samuel Cooper, also became a supporter of the South. Captain Bachelder's commission as sutler for the fort was executed in Washington, D.C. on April 18, 1856. Nearly nine years after his appointment, James came down with pneumonia and died April 8, 1865, not long before his 48th birthday. He left several young children and was buried with an infant daughter in the fort cemetery. - from "Batchelder Review", Issue 1, 1988 Editor Shirley Penna-Oates (Ed. note: Included here, but needs documentation.) Nathaniel /Batchelder Corporal BIRTH 9 JUN 1732 North Hampton, New Hampshire DEATH 1777 Battle of Bennington OCCUPATION Farmer Nathaniel was one of the first settlers in Nottingham, NH, now Deerfield, and lived in that section called the Parade, not far from the Garrison house built by his father-in-law, Jonathan Longfellow, who was the first to settle there, and built the garrison about 1740, which remained standing till after the Revolution, when it was torn down by Simon Marston. The garrison had a stockade of timber enclosing a large yard, a lookout was placed upon the top of the house to fire on the Indians; the gate was fastened on the inside by a heavy iron bar. The neighboring settlers were accustomed to gather here for safety in times of danger from the Indians. Nathaniel and his wife and two children had to flee to her father's garrison one night in midwinter. Mary was knitting by the firelight when she heard a noise in front of the house; she hastily covered the fire and awakened her husband. Knowing it would be foolhardy to defend their home, they took the children, and a gun and made their way from the back of the house to the forest, through which they fled to the garrison house. When they reached there she was so overcome with fatigue and cold, she fainted at the door. They narrowly escaped death, as the Indians burned the house soon after the inmates escaped. February 23, 1756, a petition, headed by Jonathan Longfellow, and signed by Twenty four others, among whom was Nathaniel Batchelder, was presented to Gov. Wentworth, requesting him to set off the "Sow west part of Nottingham" as a new town; |
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