Amos Gage – The Soldier That Guarded John Andre

In This Article

His Story

On the night before British Major John André was executed in October 1780, an American private named Amos Gage later recalled being assigned to guard the condemned officer. André had been captured during the exposure of Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British. His execution became one of the most remembered episodes of espionage during the American Revolution.

Gage’s recollection was recorded more than fifty years later, when he applied for a Revolutionary War pension. By then, he was an elderly farmer living in Bethel, Maine, far removed from the military camps of his youth.

His declaration described a soldier whose service carried him through New England, New York, Canada, and New Jersey. He served under Colonel John Stark, suffered from illness during the Saratoga campaign, and was present when General John Burgoyne’s British army surrendered in October 1777.

Unlike soldiers whose pension accounts emphasized personal participation in famous battles, Gage repeatedly described the ways sickness prevented him from fighting. He stated that he was absent from Trenton because he had become an invalid and was too ill to take part in the second battle at Saratoga.

His military account also contained a remarkable passage describing a privateering voyage in European waters. Yet that passage was crossed out in the surviving pension declaration, making it a research lead rather than an established part of his military record.

Gage’s later life proved equally revealing. He became a farmer in Maine, raised a family whose descendants would include physicians and civic leaders, and experienced the difficulty of obtaining federal support as an aging Revolutionary War veteran.

His pension was approved, then discontinued because the government considered his property holdings too substantial. He later regained a pension under a different federal law, only to die the following year.

Today, the combination of his pension file and surviving Gage family papers allows a more complete reconstruction of his life than the military declaration alone could provide.

A Young Soldier from Pelham

Amos Gage stated that he was born in Pelham, New Hampshire, on August 9, 1758. His birthplace placed him near the Massachusetts border, within a region whose communities supplied men to the American forces during the Revolution.

He was approximately seventeen years old when fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

His pension declarations contain different dates for the beginning of his service. In 1818, he recalled enlisting at Winter Hill in November 1775. In 1832, he stated that he enlisted at Pelham on January 1, 1776.

His brother Abel Gage and fellow soldier Enoch Howard provided supporting testimony concerning his service in 1776. The precise enlistment date remains uncertain, but his connection to Captain John Hale’s company and Colonel John Stark’s regiment is supported by multiple statements.

Abel Gage, born in 1755 according to later family records, served in the same regiment and became an important witness when Amos sought his pension decades later.

Under Colonel John Stark

Gage’s first documented military service was in Captain John Hale’s company of Colonel John Stark’s New Hampshire regiment, serving within General John Sullivan’s brigade.

He recalled initially being stationed at Winter Hill during the siege of Boston. Following the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776, his regiment moved to New London, Connecticut, and then traveled by water to New York City.

From New York, the regiment moved northward through Albany and Saratoga toward the American army operating in Canada. Gage remembered Fort George, Crown Point, St. John’s, Montreal, and La Prairie among the locations associated with this service.

The American campaign in Canada had become increasingly difficult. Disease, supply shortages, and British military pressure contributed to the withdrawal of American forces during 1776.

Gage recalled that smallpox afflicted the army during the retreat. His regiment eventually returned toward Ticonderoga before moving south later that year.

Although Stark’s regiment was connected to the military operations that culminated in the American victory at Trenton, Gage stated that he was not present at the battle. He had become an invalid and departed with a group of other sick soldiers.

He remembered receiving his discharge near Springfield, Massachusetts, at the conclusion of his enlistment.

Because Gage’s documented service began after June 1775, his association with John Stark does not establish that he participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Stark commanded New Hampshire troops at Bunker Hill, but Gage’s own pension evidence does not place him in that battle.

Sickness and the Surrender at Saratoga

In August 1777, Gage entered another period of military service, enlisting at Bradford, Massachusetts, in Captain Eaton’s company of Colonel Johnson’s regiment.

He recalled marching toward Bennington and arriving shortly after the American victory there. The regiment then continued toward the American army confronting British General John Burgoyne in northern New York.

On October 7, 1777, the armies fought the second major engagement at Saratoga. Gage was nearby, but illness again prevented him from participating.

He reported suffering from dysentery and being carried away from the camp to a place approximately half a mile from the battlefield.

Ten days later, Burgoyne surrendered his army to the Americans. Gage stated that he was present for the surrender on October 17.

The victory at Saratoga became a turning point in the Revolution, strengthening the American diplomatic position and contributing to the formal alliance with France in 1778.

Gage’s testimony illustrates how a soldier could be present for a decisive campaign without personally fighting in its best-known engagement. His illness was a significant part of his military experience, not a detail to be omitted from the record.

Following the surrender, he recalled marching toward Albany, New Windsor, and White Plains before completing his enlistment around the beginning of 1778.

Guarding Major John André

Gage returned to military service in July 1780, enlisting at Boxford, Massachusetts, for approximately six months.

He traveled to Springfield, passed muster, and continued to West Point, where he joined Captain Pearce’s company in Colonel Michael Jackson’s regiment.

His regiment later moved into New Jersey. During this period, British Major John André was captured carrying information connected to Benedict Arnold’s plan to surrender West Point.

André was tried by an American military board and sentenced to death. He was executed at Tappan, New York, on October 2, 1780.

In his 1832 pension declaration, Gage recalled being assigned to guard André on the night before the execution.

This is one of the most distinctive claims in his military testimony. It places an otherwise little-known American private near an event remembered throughout Revolutionary War history.

The statement must nevertheless be attributed to Gage’s own recollection. The reviewed pension transcriptions do not include a contemporary guard roster independently confirming the assignment.

Gage continued serving until January 1781, when he reported receiving an honorable discharge.

He later explained that he had given the discharge to Lemuel Wood, a Boxford selectman, so that Wood could collect military pay on his behalf. According to Gage, the document was never returned to him.

A Crossed-Out Account of Privateering

Among the most unusual portions of Gage’s surviving pension declaration is a passage describing service aboard an American private armed vessel named Revolution.

The passage claims that Gage sailed from Salem, Massachusetts, in March 1782 under Captain Stephen Webb. It describes voyages in European waters, including the British Channel, and visits to a French port that may have been Lorient.

The account continues with claims of captured prizes and encounters with British warships before Gage’s return to America in May 1783.

However, the entire privateering account was crossed out of the transcribed declaration.

That editorial change is significant. The reviewed material does not establish who crossed out the passage or why. Nor has the described voyage been independently verified through a privateer commission, ship’s log, prize record, or contemporary newspaper account.

It would therefore be misleading to present Gage’s privateering service as an established fact.

The crossed-out account remains a potentially important research lead. Additional evidence may eventually establish whether Gage served aboard the vessel and whether the events described occurred as stated.

Building a Life in Maine

After the Revolution, Amos Gage returned to civilian life. He stated that he remained in Pelham until approximately 1784, when he moved to Bethel in the District of Maine.

Maine was then part of Massachusetts and did not become a separate state until 1820.

Gage became a farmer. His later property declaration listed 205 acres of land, although only twenty-five acres were improved. He also owned livestock, farming tools, and household possessions.

In April 1787, he married Lois Hovey in Boxford, Massachusetts. The couple raised four sons whose names and later lives are preserved in the genealogical descriptions of the Gage family papers held by the American Antiquarian Society.

Their sons were Thomas Hovey Gage, Leander Gage, William Gage, and Amos Gage Jr.

The family’s surviving correspondence, legal documents, and genealogical records extend beyond the veteran’s lifetime. They provide evidence of later generations who lived in Maine and Massachusetts, including descendants who entered medicine and other professions.

By the time Gage sought a federal pension, however, he was elderly and described himself as increasingly unable to support his household through agricultural labor.

The Pension He Lost and Regained

On May 11, 1818, Amos Gage applied for a federal pension based upon his Revolutionary War service.

He stated that his financial circumstances had declined and that he needed assistance from the government he had helped establish.

His application was supported by testimony from men who remembered his service, including his brother Abel Gage and former fellow soldier Enoch Howard.

The government approved a pension of eight dollars per month, beginning May 11, 1818.

But under the financial eligibility requirements applied to pensions under the 1818 law, Gage was required to disclose his property.

In July 1820, he submitted an inventory listing his farm, livestock, tools, and household goods. The court valued his property at $293.75.

Gage explained that his age and his wife’s poor health limited their ability to support themselves. Nevertheless, the government determined that his property disqualified him from continuing to receive the pension.

In October 1820, the War Department informed him that his name had been removed from the pension roll.

The decision illustrates a problem faced by some elderly veterans: owning land or livestock did not necessarily mean possessing enough income to live comfortably, particularly when age and illness made the property difficult to work.

Gage applied again on August 28, 1832, under the pension legislation enacted earlier that year.

His new declaration described several periods of military service, including the Saratoga campaign and his claimed assignment guarding Major André.

His pension was approved at an annual rate of $73.33, beginning March 4, 1831.

Gage died in August 1833, approximately one year after making his final declaration. His widow later obtained a pension based upon his Revolutionary War service.

From His Account

Military Service

Conflict	American Revolutionary War
Rank	Private
First Enlistment	November 1775 or January 1776; conflicting recollections
First Company	Captain John Hale
First Regiment	Colonel John Stark’s New Hampshire regiment
Associated Campaigns	Siege of Boston; New York; Canadian campaign
Trenton	Not personally present, according to his declaration
Second Enlistment	Approximately August 1777–January 1778
Second Company	Captain Eaton
Second Regiment	Colonel Johnson’s Massachusetts regiment
Saratoga	Ill during October 7 battle; reported witnessing October 17 surrender
Third Enlistment	July 1780–January 1781
Third Company	Captain Pearce
Third Regiment	Colonel Michael Jackson’s regiment
Major André	Claimed guard assignment before October 2, 1780 execution
Possible Privateering	1782–1783 account crossed out; not independently established
1818 Pension	$8 monthly; discontinued in 1820
1832 Pension	$73.33 annually
Pension File	W.24271
National Archives ID	54631531

Later Life & Burial

Amos Gage spent much of his adult life in Bethel, Maine, where he worked as a farmer. His property declaration from 1820 records land, livestock, agricultural equipment, and the household circumstances that became central to his pension dispute.

Although his pension was discontinued in 1820, he successfully applied again under the federal law of 1832.

He died in Bethel in August 1833. His widow Lois reported August 28, while a later Pension Office summary gave August 18. The exact day therefore remains uncertain in the reviewed records.

Lois survived him until 1842, according to the American Antiquarian Society’s genealogical descriptions of the Gage family.

The reviewed evidence does not establish Amos’s exact burial location. No cemetery or gravestone is assigned here without a reliable supporting record.

Family & Descendants

Amos Gage’s family history can now be traced beyond the information contained in his pension declaration. The American Antiquarian Society preserves descriptions of extensive Gage family papers, including genealogical materials, correspondence, estate documents, and records of later generations.

These collection guides identify Amos and Lois Hovey Gage as the parents of four sons. They also document several grandchildren and later descendants, providing a family history that extends from rural Maine into the professional and civic life of nineteenth-century Massachusetts.

His Parents and Brother Abel

Amos Gage was born in Pelham, New Hampshire, in 1758, according to his pension declaration. The reviewed pension evidence does not establish the names of his parents.

His brother Abel Gage, born in 1755 and deceased in 1846 according to the American Antiquarian Society’s collection guide, lived in Pelham and served in the Revolutionary War.

Abel provided sworn testimony in April 1819 confirming Amos’s service in Captain John Hale’s company and Colonel John Stark’s regiment.

The pension file also contains testimony from Daniel Gage. A later Pension Office summary identifies Daniel as another brother, although his individual affidavit does not explicitly state the relationship.

Lois Hovey Gage — His Wife

Amos Gage married Lois Hovey in Boxford, Massachusetts, in April 1787.

Lois was born in 1759 and died in 1842, according to the American Antiquarian Society’s genealogical collection guides.

The certified Boxford marriage record contains an uncertainty regarding the exact day in April 1787. The transcription gives April 22, while an alteration appears to indicate April 27.

Lois later recalled that the marriage took place on a Sunday evening but could not remember the precise date when she applied for her widow’s pension.

Following Amos’s death, she moved or resided in Waterford, Maine, where she made her pension declaration in 1838.

Her widow’s pension was approved at an annual rate of $73.33, beginning March 4, 1836.

The Four Sons of Amos and Lois Gage

The American Antiquarian Society identifies four sons of Amos and Lois Hovey Gage:

Son	Dates	Documented Information
Thomas Hovey Gage	1789–1823	Married Frances Angier Stockbridge; lived in Bath, Maine.
Leander Gage	1792–1842	Physician in Waterford, Maine; married Anne Brewer Sargent in 1820.
William Gage	1795–1820	Identified in the family collection; further biographical details require research.
Amos Gage Jr.	1797–1869	Identified as a son in the family collection.

Thomas Hovey Gage and His Family

Thomas Hovey Gage, the eldest son, was born in 1789 and died in 1823.

He married Frances Angier Stockbridge, who survived until 1882. The couple lived in Bath, Maine.

The American Antiquarian Society’s collection guide identifies their daughter Lois Gage, born in 1817 and deceased in 1876.

Lois married Joel Holkins, who lived from 1812 to 1853.

This documented relationship establishes one line of descent from Revolutionary War veteran Amos Gage through his son Thomas Hovey Gage and granddaughter Lois.

Dr. Leander Gage of Waterford

Leander Gage, born in 1792, became a physician and community leader in Waterford, Maine.

On October 7, 1820, he married Anne Brewer Sargent. The American Antiquarian Society’s family papers contain correspondence, professional documents, and genealogical records associated with Leander and Anne.

Leander and Anne had eight children identified in the collection guides: Phebe Hovey, Frances, Irene Bliss, Thomas Hovey, Ann Louisa, Mary Sargent, Lois Maria, and George Manlius.

Leander died in 1842. His surviving family papers document the education, marriages, correspondence, and later movements of his children.

A Grandson Who Became a Worcester Physician

One of Amos Gage’s grandsons was Thomas Hovey Gage, born in 1826, the son of Dr. Leander Gage and Anne Sargent Gage.

Thomas graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1852 and practiced medicine in Massachusetts. He eventually settled in Worcester, where he became a prominent physician, surgeon, and community leader.

In 1860, he married Anna Maria Lane. Their children included Homer Gage, Thomas Hovey Gage, and Mabel Carleton Gage.

The grandson’s professional life represents a notable change from the circumstances of his Revolutionary War grandfather, who had spent his later years working a farm and disputing his eligibility for a modest pension.

Later Generations in Worcester

The family line continued through Dr. Thomas Hovey Gage’s children.

Homer Gage, born in 1861, became a surgeon, businessman, and civic leader. He later served as president of Crompton & Knowles Loom Works.

Another son, Thomas Hovey Gage, born in 1865, became a lawyer in Worcester. He worked for a time as secretary to Senator George F. Hoar and later practiced law in the city.

These later generations are documented in the American Antiquarian Society’s family collection guides, which preserve the connection from Amos Gage through Leander Gage to the Worcester family.

The surviving family papers offer opportunities for additional research into correspondence, property, education, and the experiences of women and men in the extended Gage family.

The 1924 Gage Family Publication

In 1924, Thomas Hovey Gage published a small volume entitled Amos Gage’s Account of His Service in the Revolutionary War and a Brief Biographical Notice, together with a list of descendants.

The publication is an important research resource because it brings together material concerning Amos’s military service and later family history.

However, it was published more than ninety years after Amos’s death. Its biographical and genealogical claims should be distinguished from contemporary records and evaluated against the original pension documents and surviving family papers.

The digitized volume is available through the Internet Archive and is listed among the research sources below.

Original Sources & Historical Note