View of Bunker Hill Monument, mid-nineteenth century
It has always been the tradition in southeastern New
Hampshire, founded upon the statements of persons who claimed to
have the facts from the actors themselves, that Major John
Demerit took a cart load of the powder, captured at Portsmouth,
from the magazine at his house, to Cambridge, and reached there
just in time for its opportune use at Bunker Hill. No inhabitant
of Madbury or Durham doubts the story, but it cannot with our
present knowledge be proven. On the other hand there is nothing
to render it improbable. The official documents of the time are
silent upon the question.
On the fly leaf of an application dated April 21, 1775, from
the Committee of Correspondence in Portsmouth to a like
committee in Exeter, a statement, made at the time, is given of
the quantity of powder stored in Exeter and vicinity.1 It states
that at that time there were twelve barrels at Kingston, eight at
Epping, four at Poplin, eight at Nottingham with Major Cilley,
six at Brentwood, one at Londonderry, four at Portsmouth, and
twenty-nine at Exeter. It is quite probable that this represents
part of the powder from Fort William and Mary, but there is
nothing to indicate the fact except, perhaps, that Major Cilley's
name appears as a custodian, and he was directed by the Exeter
Committee of Safety2 on the 7th of the following August 11 "to
apply to the Selectmen of the Several Towns in this Colony with
whom was lodged the powder taken last winter from Fort Willm &
Mary, take an account of what is now in their Custody
respectively and request of them forthwith to convey the whole of
it to Col. Nicholas Gilman at Exeter." This request to Major
Cilley was the result of a letter from General Sullivan to the
Committee of Safety, under date of August 4th, at Winter Hill,
stating that the army was in sore straits for powder, and asking
that at least twenty barrels be sent at once.3 There is no doubt
that Major Cilley, carried out his instructions, and that much of
the powder from Fort William and Mary was carried to Winter Hill,
for General Sullivan in a subsequent letter claims to have
supplied the troops at Winter Hill, when in sore need, with
powder. On June 2d the Committee of Supplies had been ordered to
"apply and obtain the Quantity and Quality of the Powder bro't
from the Fort Wm and Marv, also take it into their possession and
lay the state of it before the Committee of Safety"4 but there is
no record of their having carried out their orders. In fact the
latter instructions to Major Cilley would seem to indicate that
this order was not carried into effect. Now, although much of
this powder was probably sent to General Sullivan at Winter Hill,
there is nothing to indicate that the portion retained in Durliam
was not previously used at Bunker Hill. There are two facts,
apart from tradition, which seem to show the truth of the
statement, and that the tradition was not of recent birth.
C.E. Potter, in his History of Manchester, 1856, p. 410, states
in a footnote that Major Demerit took the powder to Bunker Hill,
and further says that a "gentleman is now living in Portsmouth to
whom he gave some of it for squirrel hunting, after relating the
taking of the fort, remarking as he gave it, 'Here, try this
powder, this is the kind we killed the red coats with at Bunker
Hill.'" Still earlier, on May 21, 1823, at the Portsmouth
Bicentennial Anniversary celebration, the following toast was
printed on the programme: "Major Sullivan and Capt Langdon. Our
delegates to Congress in '75 who supplied Bunker Hill with Powder
from his Majesties fort at Pascataquack."5
FOOTNOTES: 1. Bell's History of Exeter, p. 242. 2. N.H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, p. 573. 3. N.H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, p. 572. 4. N.H. Provincial Papers, Vol. VII, p. 497. 5. Portsmouth Journal, May, 1823; N.H. Historicial Society Collections, Vol. II, p. 195.
