GENERAL WILLIAM SHEPARD

While the surgeon was examining the serious wound in his neck the doughty patriot called for his canteen and finding a long drought of rum flowed freely down his throat he said, “It is all right doctor, stick on a plaster. I am going out again.” And tying on his cravat, he returned to the firing line. During the Hessian counterattack, the Knyphausen Regiment turned southward in an attempt to escape over Assunpink Creek. Glover’s brigade, including Col. Shepard’s regiment, played a key role in forcing the Hessians back into the town. The day at Monmouth was excessively warm, and his men suffered intensively from heat and thirst. The day was Sunday and the conflict continued from nine in the morning until darkness. At night the men lay upon their arms on the warm ground expecting a renewal of the fight in the morning, but when it dawned there was no British Army in sight. Captain Eli Parsons; however, resolved to continue the rebellion. Parsons attempted to rally his comrades with a call to destroy Shepard’s Army. In the months ahead, the armed Regulators in the Berkshires would increasingly become engaged in a bitter small-scale conflict until the final clash at Sheffield. In the 1800 election, during each of the thirty-six votes by Massachusetts representatives, the vote stayed three for Jefferson and eleven for Burr. Mr. Shepard, a Federalist, voted for Burr.