On January 19, 1834, Benjamin Lattimore appeared before three justices of the Court of the City of Albany.1 Described as “about six feet high, a mullatto a thin spare man with Hazel Eyes,”2 Benjamin was in court at the age of 72 to give the account of his military service in the American Revolutionary War, so that he might be eligible to collect a pension in his old age.
Congress had recently passed the Pension Act of 1832, providing every officer and soldier in the Continental Army or Navy who had served at least two years with a pension for life. Many soldiers who had resisted accepting or who had been ineligible for previous pension legislation were by the 1830s entering their elderly years and were less able to care for themselves. Thousands of men and widows applied for pensions under these laws. Pension applications required affidavits of service sworn before a justice of the peace, generally with supporting testimony from veterans they served with, or respected community members who testified in favor of their virtue. Not every pension application was accepted. Jehu Grant, a Rhode Island man of African descent who escaped slavery and enlisted in the Continental Army, where he served as a teamster and waiter, submitted an application. His pension was denied based on the fact that he had never served as a soldier, despite enlisting and being paid as one.3
Unlike Grant, Benjamin Lattimore had served as a soldier and had seen combat. In addition, he had at least one high-ranking official on his side: General Abraham Godwin. Two months earlier, on November 4, 1833, Godwin had appeared before Peter Sythoff, Justice of the Peace of Essex County, New Jersey. A veteran of both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, he went to affirm the service record of his old friend and comrade-in-arms, Benjamin Lattimore.4 Benjamin brought Godwin’s notarized written testimony with him to submit for the record.
Benjamin Lattimore was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut to Benoni Lattimore and Mary Freeman. Benoni had been formerly enslaved by Captain Roger Newberry and later Newberry’s daughter Hannah Wolcott. Benoni was listed in Newberry’s will to be freed at age 25. He likely worked on the Newberry ferry in Connecticut and upon gaining his freedom purchased land in Connecticut. In 1767, he acquired land in Ulster County, NY and later set up the Lattimore ferry across the Hudson near present-day Milton.5
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, slavery was legal in all thirteen colonies, and New York was a major hub for the Transatlantic slave trade. But not everyone of African descent was born into slavery. In 1662, British colonial law was changed to ensure that the institution of slavery passed through the maternal line, a reaction to the court case of Elizabeth Key in 1656, who successfully argued for her freedom under English common law based on the identity of her White father.6 Under that law, people with Indigenous mothers and enslaved fathers, for instance, were born free. There were also small pockets of emancipated and freeborn Black communities throughout the North, like that of Lattimore’s mother, Mary Freeman. Others, like his father Benoni, were manumitted by their enslavers.
Benjamin Lattimore, was born in January of 1762, although by his own admission he had “no record of his age it having been kept in the family bible which was taken by the enemy at the time his fathers house was robbed in the Revolution.”7 By 1776, he was living in New Malbury (modern-day Marlborough) in Ulster County, NY, with his parents and his older siblings, including his older brother Roger.
Roger Lattimore enlisted in the 5th New York Regiment in July of 1776, at the age of 16.8 His little brother Benjamin joined him in August or September, and may have been as young as 14 years old.9 Unfortunately, we know little about Roger’s service beyond his presence in the muster rolls, but Benjamin left an extensive record of his time in the military as part of his pension application.10 Benjamin’s old friend Abraham Godwin enlisted with the 5th New York Regiment a few months later on January 1, 1777 at the age of 13. His older brother Henry Godwin was already in the regiment and Abraham likely served as a fifer. His younger brother David, who had joined just a few days earlier on December 29, 1776, was the tender age of 10, and served as the regiment’s drummer.11 The Lattimore and Godwin boys likely became friends due to their similarity in ages.
Benjamin enlisted as a private in the company of Captain Amos Hutchinson, under the command of Colonel Lewis DuBois. DuBois had served in the French & Indian War. He was living in Dutchess County when he was asked to raise a regiment in June of 1776 “for three years or during the war.”12 On August 5, 1776, DuBois wrote to George Washington from Poughkeepsie, explaining the difficulty he was having in raising a regiment.13 Perhaps that difficulty was why, a month later, he took on someone like Benjamin Lattimore, who was not only extremely young, but also of African descent.
The Continental Army was integrated, although not, for the most part, by choice. Free men of African and Indigenous descent were enlisted on the same terms as free White men, and with a few exceptions (notably the First Rhode Island Regiment and the Stockbridge Militia) were not segregated into separate units. Enslaved men were also sent in their enslavers’ steads to fill enlistment quotas. Some enslaved men, notably in Rhode Island, were promised freedom in exchange for their service, but many who joined were already free, like the Lattimores.14
The concept of men of African descent serving in the military was unpopular with Congress and Continental Army Commander-in-Chief, General George Washington. In October of 1775, Congress had sought to ban the enlistment of “negroes,” even though men of African descent had fought bravely at the Siege of Boston.15 In November of 1775, Washington’s General Orders stated, “Neither Negroes, Boys unable to bare [sic] Arms, nor old men unfit to endure the fatigues of the campaign, are to be inlisted [sic].”16
However, the need for soldiers was great. In December of 1775, Washington wrote to John Hancock on a whole host of topics, notably writing,
“it has been represented to me that the free negroes who have Served in this Army, are very much dissatisfied [sic] at being discarded—as it is to be apprehended, that they may Seek employ in the ministerial Army—I have presumed to depart from the Resolution respecting them, & have given Licence [sic] for their being enlisted, if this is disapproved of by Congress, I will put a Stop to it.”17
Clearly, Washington was worried about impact of the proclamation of Lord Dunmore of Virginia, issued November 7, 1775, which promised freedom to enslaved men who took up arms for the British cause.18 If Washington turned out trained soldiers of African descent, they were more likely to join the enemy. In January of 1776, Congress relented, but only partially, passing a resolution, “that the free negroes who have served faithfully in the army at Cambridge, may be re-inlisted [sic] therein, but no others.”19 Evidently, by the summer of 1776, that directive was no longer possible to maintain, as both Roger and Benjamin Lattimore enlisted, along with hundreds of others, as the Continental Army expanded in the face of the British invasion of New York.
Just a few days after Benjamin’s enlistment, his company sailed down the Hudson River to New York City, joining the main force of the Continental Army, which was in retreat from the British invasion of New York and the prolonged Battle of Long Island. After days of retreat, the Continentals got a boost in morale on September 16, 1776, when the British retreated after the Battle of Harlem Heights.20 In his pension record, Lattimore described this engagement as, “a skirmish was had between a part of our troops and the Enemy in which we had the advantage and the next day we sent a flag to the Enemy and at truce was declared for the purpose of burying the dead.”21
Although the Continental Army was able to return the relative safety of Fort Washington at the northern end of Manhattan, the British were anything but defeated. George Washington decided to control the terms of the next engagement. Lattimore and the Continental Army went to White Plains, where the Battle of White Plains took place on October 28, 1776. The Continental Army lost, and retreated to Crompond, NY, then to Peekskill, and then “left and went by water to New Windsor. Here the declarant [Lattimore] was taken sick and had permission to go home which he did.”22
Whatever his ailment, by April of 1777, Lattimore had recovered. He left home in Marlborough, NY and went “by water” down the Hudson River to Fort Montgomery in the Hudson Highlands, then under the command of General George Clinton. He rejoined the 5th New York who were stationed at the fort. There “they remained without being disturbed or having any engagement with the Enemy until in October following.”23 On October 6, 1777, the Lattimore and Godwin boys were present for what would become the Battle of Fort Montgomery.
In his pension record Benjamin recounted the preliminary exchange between General Clinton and the British forces, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Mungo Campbell of the 52nd Regiment, with Colonel Beverly Robinson24 leading the Loyal American troops:25
“Before they [the British] arrived at the Fort Geo Clinton sent out different attachments of men to meet them and a fire was kept up between them and the Enemy until our men returned to the Fort. Shortly after orders were given by Geo Clinton to stop firing as the Enemy had sent a flag by Col Campbell. The Col approached near to one of the gates of the Fort and was met on the outside of the Fort by Gov Clinton26 & Dr Cook after the usual salutations had passed between them and Col Campbell the Col was asked by Gov Clinton the nature of his business. who replied that he came to demand a surrender of the Fort which if done within one hour and our troops grounded their arms they would be permitted to go as it was not wished to take the prisoners because they (the Enemy) had more men with them that could be accommodated in the fort. Gov Clinton replied that the Fort would not be surrendered as long as he had a man able to fire a gun. Col Campbell then said he would Eat his supper or would sleep & which it is not recollected in the fort that night or in hell. They then parted. An attack was made on the fort by the Enemy and was defended until six or seven o Clock P. M, when it was taken.”27
The 900 British troops overwhelmed the 400 Americans left to defend the fort. British Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell was killed in the fight. Patriot General/New York Governor George Clinton, his brother General James Clinton, Colonel DuBois, and Dr. Cook were all able to escape, but the majority of the men in the fort were captured. Among them was Benjamin Lattimore, one of 237 privates captured.28 A muster roll for Captain Amos Hutching’s Company of Foot from November, 1777, lists Benjamin “Lattemore” as “missing.”29 His brother Roger appears to have escaped with his commander.30
The captured men remained in the Fort under the control of the British forces, until they “went by water to New York,” likely meaning Manhattan, because as Lattimore records, they remained there until “the middle of the following winter,” or the winter of 1777-78, when they were “taken to Kings Bridge.”31
The fortifications at Kingsbridge were at the time on the northern tip of Manhattan island and were named after the toll bridge of the same name.32 Built by the American forces and called Fort Washington in honor of their commander-in-chief, the fort was renamed Fort Knyphausen, after the Baron von Knyphausen, the Hessian General who commanded it. Here Lattimore was “compelled to wait on the British officers as a servant,”33 likely because he was a person of color, and a young one at that. They may have assumed he was enslaved.34 It is unlikely that other prisoners of war would be treated in a similar manner, and indeed, Henry Godwin (Abraham’s older brother) who had also been captured at Fort Montgomery, was sent to the notorious prison ship Jersey, where he remained for more than three years.35 Perhaps Benjamin decided it was in his best interest to cooperate.
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British officers were almost uniformly members of the aristocracy, and having body servants (valets, batmen) and waiters was common for officers on both sides of the conflict. Lattimore may have served in one or more of these capacities, but we do not know for sure. In his pension, he wrote that from Kingsbridge “he went in the capacity of a servant with Captain Althouse, a Lieutenant.” Lieutenant John Althouse, who may have been a Hessian or simply an American of German descent, was in charge of a company of New York Loyalist sharpshooters, which he raised in 1776, and by 1777 was assigned to Emmerich’s Corps.36
Lattimore wrote that sometime in March of 1778, he accompanied Althouse on an “incursion in the vicinity of Tarrytown,” where they were all captured by the Americans.37 Although Lattimore remembered the capture as happening in March, Major General Israel Putnam wrote to George Washington on January 13, 1778 recounting the capture of Lieutenant Althouse soon after the first of the year.38 Althouse had gone to rescue four officers from Fort Independence who had been captured by the Americans. Foiled in his rescue, Althouse headed back for Kingsbridge, but 30 American boatmen and militia “Marchd [sic] to Intercept them – the partys [sic] met at Young’s [at the Four Corners, four miles east of Tarrytown] when a skirmish ensued; the Enemy gave way, & fought on the Retreat several miles – our party pursued them, killd & Capturd [sic] the whole except two.”39 Putnam dispatched other parties to cover the retreat of the company who had captured Althouse and his men. Along Tuckahoe Road and the Saw Mill River, they encountered Captain Joshua Barnes with a company of 30 New York Loyalist Provincials, who also surrendered after exchanging fire with the Americans.40
After seeing General Israel Putnam, it was discovered that Lattimore was a private in the Continental Army, and Putnam ordered him to return to Colonel Dubois’ Regiment in New Windsor, which he did.41 Upon his arrival Lattimore discovered some change in command, as his company’s captain, Captain Hutchinson, had been arrested and cashiered for “being absent from Fort Montgomery.” Lieutenant Vanderburgh was promoted to Captain in his stead.42 Lattimore and his regiment stayed at New Windsor until “the roads were good when they crossed over the river and marched to the White Plains and remained there until the next fall.”43
In September of 1778, Washington moved the bulk of the Army between Fishkill, NY and Danbury, CT.44 The October muster rolls list Benjamin and Roger as being present at Continental Village (near present-day Philipstown, NY) as late as November 1, 1778.45 Sometime after, at Fishkill, the Lattimores and Dubois’ Regiment “embarked onboard of vessels for Albany and proceeded up the river as far as Claverack,” where they were stopped by ice.46 They marched overland to Albany, stopped for “ten or twelve days,” and then went through Schenectady and over “the Helderbarach” or Helderberg Mountains west of Albany, heading for Schoharie, NY.47 There they were stationed for the winter ”at the lower fort,” which was likely the stone Dutch Reformed Church in Schoharie built in 1772 and transformed into a military fort in 1777.48 Lattimore’s stay was apparently uneventful, as the troops spent their time there “without being required to act against the Enemy except on one occasion.”49 The occasion Lattimore references as “a band of Tories & Indians came to place called Beaver Dams some miles from the fort and carried off some four commettes [sic] men who were pursued but not over taken.”50
It is not entirely clear which incident Lattimore is referring to. The Mohawk Valley was marred by violence throughout the summer and fall 1778, but the 5th New York did not arrive in “Scoharry”(Schoharie, NY) until November of 1778, eliminating earlier attacks on Andrustown and German Flatts as those he observed.51 The Cherry Valley Massacre occurred on November 11, 1778 in Cherry Valley, NY – approximately 30 miles from Schoharie.52 British, Loyalist, Seneca, and Mohawk forces attacked the valley, killing a number of non-combatant civilians, likely in retaliation for American attacks on Seneca settlements. This is probably the incident Lattimore is referencing.53
In March or April of 1779, Benjamin, Roger, and their regiment left Schoharie and went 25 miles north to Johnstown, on the Mohawk River.54 Founded by British officer and chief diplomat in Indian Country Sir William Johnson, Johnstown had by 1779 been occupied by Continentals, and the remaining Johnson family fled. American soldiers occupied Sir William Johnson’s former home – Johnson Hall. Lattimore noted in his pension record that he was “under the command of Capt Henry Vandenburgh and stationed as an outside guard at a block house near the fishing place of Sir William Johnson about eight miles from Johnstown.”55 He spent an uneventful two months there.
In June, 1779, they went to Schenectady “and were there for a few days and left there some in battag [batteaux – a type of boat] on the Mohawk [River] and some on foot where they found Col Livingston’s Regiment was then forming a circle around a gallows on which was hung a Canada spy.”56
The spy hung in June of 1779 in Canajoharie was likely Henry Hare, a Loyalist who was said to have participated in the Cherry Valley Massacre, and who was captured by Americans on his way to Canada.57 A few days after the execution, Lattimore and his regiment went to Otsego Lake, where along with Colonels Gansevoort, Verplanck, and Cortlandts’ Regiments, “they damed [sic] up one end of the lake so as to raise it an enable them to carry their stores and baggage by water to the Susquehanna River.”58 Today known as “Clinton’s Dam,” it was designed to control the flow of water into the headwaters of the Susquehanna.59 According to Lattimore, the dam was enough to float the regiments “as far as Tioga Point, where they found Genl Sullivan & stayed a short time” and celebrated the news of the retaking of Stony Point by General “Mad Anthony” Wayne.60
From Tioga, located on the New York-Pennsylvania border, the assembled Continental forces of Generals James Clinton and John Sullivan, “proceeded through the woods to Niagara and halted within hearing of the enemys guns.”61 Fort Niagara was under British control and served as headquarters for many of the allied Indigenous groups and Mohawk Valley Loyalists. Lattimore notes that on the way to Niagara, “they passed through and destroyed a number of Indian settlements friendly to the enemy.”62
This was the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, a targeted retaliation campaign against the British-Allied Haudenosaunee. Frontier violence since the war began had entered a feedback loop of violent retaliation for violent attacks, with civilians on both sides caught in the crossfire. The 1778 British-Allied Haudenosaunee attacks on Wyoming Valley and Cherry Valley – themselves retaliation for earlier attacks on Seneca villages – were now being repaid in blood as the Continental forces destroyed village after village, burning fields and orchards right at harvest time. On May 31, 1779, General George Washington had written to General John Sullivan, “The immediate objects [of the campaign] are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more.” Later in the letter, he ordered, “you will not by any means listen to ⟨any⟩ overture of peace before the total ruin of their settlements is effected.”63
The Continental Army was bent on decisive victory, but Lattimore noted that the troops “had no battle with them except at a place called Newtown.”64 Instead, they destroyed villages and crops relatively unopposed, until August 29, 1779, when they reached the village of Newtown, NY. There, British forces and their Indigenous allies – numbering only 600 troops – defended a concealed earthen fortification and waited in ambush. But the Continentals were seasoned and wary, and did not fall into the trap. Instead, Sullivan ordered a complicated two-pronged attack, which worked. Lattimore and the New York brigades braved the swampy ground to the left, while other Continental troops circled around the fortification.65 As Lattimore noted, “the enemy made a stand and threw up a breastwork and after erecting about an hour they gave way and fled."66 The Continentals had been victorious, but the Loyal British and Haudenosaunee troops escaped to fight another day. Indeed, stripped of their villages and crops, Haudenosaunee refugees made their way to Fort Niagara, where the British, unprepared for them, allowed hundreds to die of starvation and exposure during the winter of 1779/80. The remaining forces continued to attack and harass Americans across the New York and Pennsylvania frontier for the remainder of the war.67
Elated by their victory, the Continentals, including Benjamin and Roger Lattimore, made their way back to Tioga by October, 1779. This was where Lattimore says he received his official discharge, having served his contracted 3 year term in the army. However, a discharge paper, signed by James Clinton at Camp Tioga, is dated August 25, 1779. It reads, “This is to certify that the Bearer James Pride, Abraham Oakley, Samuel Langdon, Benjamin Lattimer, & Daniel Robinson, who have been lately Discharged from the 5th N. York Regiment & have served the time for which they were inlisted [sic], have now permission to return to their Respective Places of aboad [sic] unmolested, and all Commissaries & [illegible] are requested to furnish them with Provision until they arrive at New Windsor.”68
It is unclear whether or not he was given the opportunity to reenlist, but regardless, Benjamin Lattimore returned home to New Malbury/Marlborough at the age of 18, having served in the military for three eventful years. According to his pension record, he spent “three of four years” at Marlborough after his discharge, before moving first to Poughkeepsie and later to Albany.
Benjamin’s brother Roger Lattimore would remain in the army, spending the winter with the 5th New York at Morristown, NJ, where he was discharged from the Continental Army on January 1, 1780.69 He must have preferred military life by that point, as he transferred to Colonel Johannes Jansen’s (or Johnson’s) Regiment of the New York Militia, under the command of Captain Arendt Ostrander of Kingston, NY.70 Although the muster roll appears to read 1784, it must be 1781, as that is the year Jansen’s Regiment was disbanded. He then transferred to Frederick von Weissenfels’ Regiment of the New York Levies and appears on a muster roll dated1782.71 After that, Roger Lattimore’s trail runs cold.
Benjamin Lattimore’s service to his community and country did not end in 1779. Missing from the pension record’s short summary of his life is Lattimore’s work in abolition. As a free Black Revolutionary War veteran, Benjamin Lattimore had clout in the free Black community. He moved to Albany in 1794 and worked as a cartman.72 He soon acquired properties in Albany, and in 1811 purchased land from Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton which would become the location of Albany’s first Black school. That same year (or perhaps earlier) he became a founding member and leader of the Albany African Society.73
On March 4, 1816, he was listed in a petition to the New York State Legislature which read, “The petition of Benjamin Lattimore and others, free people of color in the city of Albany, praying to be incorporated into a society for the education of their children.” The petition was admitted between the Legislature’s discussions of building what would become the Erie Canal, and “Mr. Van Buren” (possibly future president Martin Van Buren) denying the petition for a Presbyterian Church to be built in Newburgh, NY.74 On March 12th, the committee tasked with reviewing the request unanimously brought forth the bill entitled, “an act to incorporate a school for people of color in the city of Albany.” The Albany school was later built, and Lattimore also became a founding member of the Albany African Temperance Society, the Albany African Methodist Episcopal Church, and senior chairman of the “funeral association of colored people” in Albany.75
But his success was not without its difficulties. In 1820, his legal status as a free Black man was challenged, and he was called before the Albany Court of Common Pleas to defend himself. Witness after witness testified to his character and status. Judge Estes Howe declared Benjamin Lattimore a free man and issued him formal manumission papers.76 This step may seem unnecessary for someone born free until you consider the climate of 1820s New York, where slavery was still legal, and where free Black people were regularly kidnapped and sold into slavery in southern states or the Caribbean.77 Racism was still rampant, and likely played a role in trying to silence or stop Benjamin from bettering his community. However humiliating it must have been for Benjamin to have to get witnesses to affirm his character and prove his freedom, the manumission record gives us our only visual description of him. The record reads:
“Albany County
“Gerrit V. Denniston Esq. being sworn says that he has known Benjamin Lathimore for a number of years and has no doubt but that he is a freeman & that said Benjamin supports an irreproachable character for integrity and uprightness and further says that – [record unfinished]
“Gerrit V. Denniston
Sworn this twenty-sixth
day of April 1820
Estes Howe Judge
Albany Com. Pleas
“Benjamin Latimore being sworn says that he is fifty-nine years of age & that he was born in the town of Wethersfield and State of Connecticut and that he has lived in the City of Albany for twenty six years and is a member of the First Presbyterian Church under the pastoral care of the Rev’d. A. J. Stansbury and he further says that he is free Born is not now nor never was held as a slave in the State of New York or any other State
“By Benjamin Lattimore, X Mark
“Sworn to this Sixth
Day of April 1820
Estes Howe Judge
Albany Com. Pleas
State of New York.
“Albany County This certifies that from the affidavits hereto annexed I am of the opinion that Benjamin Lattimore is a freeman according to the Laws of the State. That the said Benjamin is about six feet high, a mullatto a thin spare man with Hazel Eyes born in the town of Wethersfield State of Connecticut is fifty nine years of age & was born free
“Estes Howe Judge
Albany Com. Pleas
Albany April 26 1820”78
Thankfully, Benjamin would live to see the end of slavery in New York, though its end was anything but simple. In 1799, New York State passed its first Gradual Manumission Act, which freed no one, but promised that anyone born into slavery after July 4, 1799, would be freed after 25-28 years of “indenture.” Then, in 1817, New York passed another Gradual Manumission Act, which freed everyone born before July 4, 1799, but not until July 4, 1827.
As New York’s abolition day approached, free and enslaved communities throughout the state began making plans for celebration. In Albany, that planning committee consisted of Benjamin Lattimore, Sr., his eldest son Benjamin Lattimore, Jr., and other members of First African Baptist Church. Even though slavery was set to end on July 4, 1827, many in the formerly enslaved community worried about superseding the nation’s birthday, a popular celebration among White New Yorkers, and the possibility of violent retaliation. Others did not want to share celebration with the birth of a nation that had denied them freedom time and again. The First African Baptist Church committee chose July 5, 1827, as their celebration date.79
On June 18, 1827, “at a meeting of the common council, a communication was received from Benjamin Lattimore, informing that the citizens of African descent intended to celebrate the abolition of slavery in this state, on the 5th of July, and inviting their presence at the African church to hear an oration by the pastor, Mr. Paul. The communication was laid on the table.”80 In The Annals of Albany, published in 1858, author Joel Munsell noted in his July 5, 1827 entry recounting the festivities, “Many of these people seemed to have entertained a notion that the remainder of their lives was to be a session of perpetual rest, for money would not induce many of them to undertake any labor, until they were brought by starvation to realize the impossibility of subsisting by idleness.”81 Clearly not everyone was ready to celebrate the end of slavery in New York, even more than 30 years later.
In his speech in Albany on July 5, 1827, at the First African Baptist Society Church, which Lattimore helped found, Pastor Nathaniel Paul recounted the history of slavery in New York, and noted,
“But strange as the idea may seem, or paradoxical as it may appear to those acquainted with the constitution of the government, or who have read the bold declaration of this nation’s independence; yet it is a fact that can neither be denied or controverted, that in the United States of America, at the expiration of fifty years after its becoming a free and independent nation, there are no less than fifteen hundred thousand human beings still in a state of unconditional vassalage.”82
25 years later to the day, Frederick Douglass gave his keynote address in Rochester, NY – “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”83
The Lattimore family were involved in abolitionist work throughout the early 19th century, particularly Benjamin’s son, Benjamin Lattimore, Jr., who served on the executive committee of the Anti-Slavery Society of Eastern New York, among others.84 No known photo of Benjamin Lattimore, Sr. exists, but one of Benjamin Lattimore, Jr. does.
Thanks to his personal history of service, and the testimony of others like General Abraham Godwin, Benjamin Lattimore’s pension request was approved. He received his pension of $80/year in 1834, and was awarded back pay of $240.85 Sadly he died just four years later, on April 30, 1838, at the age of 78.86 The newspaper notice of his death listed him simply as “a revolutionary soldier.”87
This article was borne out of a desire to expand upon the excellent research of others, particularly the Friends of Albany History and the Saratoga Springs Library, especially Local History Librarian Lorie Wies, to illuminate the Revolutionary War service of Benjamin Lattimore and his brother Roger. This research would not have been possible without the generous assistance of my colleagues at Fort Montgomery State Historic Site, notably Grant Miller, and the research of Lattimore descendant Terry Jackson and his family.
Sarah Wassberg Johnson is the education and programs manager at Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site. She has an MA in public history from the University at Albany
[1] Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 13,683, for Benjamin Latimore, New York. National Archives and Records Administration. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/196154753; We have chosen to use the name “Benjamin Lattimore” as that is how he is often referred to in his pension record and other references in later years, but his birth name may have been Benoni, after his father, and there are multiple variants on the spelling of his last name in the historical records, including “Latimore,” “Lattimer,”“Latimer,” “Latemore,” etc.
[2] Register of Manumitted Slaves, 1800-1820, Albany County Clerk’s Office Archival Records, Albany County Hall of Records, Albany, NY.
[3] “Jehu Grant, Black Revolutionary, Makes an Eloquent Plea for Fairness,” New England Historical Society.
[4] William Nelson and Charles A. Shriner, History of Paterson and its Environs (The Silk City) Volume II (New York: 1920), 282-285.
[5] Research of Lattimore descendant Terry Jackson.
[6] “Elizabeth Key,” Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia.
[7] Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 13,683, for Benjamin Latimore, New York, page 11 ; Benjamin may have also been born in 1761, according to the Friends of Albany History - “Eight Short Stories Recalling the Lives of African Americans Buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery,” Friends of Albany History.
[8] Jackson family research; the Roger Lattimore muster rolls, National Archives, indicate an enlistment of January 1, 1777, but this was likely part of the reorganization of the army in 1777. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/141161965
[9] Benjamin Lattimore pension record; Benjamin Lattimore Muster Roll, Fifth New York Regiment, page 6 lists his enlistment date as August 12, 1776; other muster rolls say January 1, 1777 – a common enlistment date.
[10] Benjamin Lattimore pension record
[11] Nelson and Shriner, History of Paterson, 282-285.
[12] “Colonel Lewis Dubois, 5th New York Regiment,” from Francis J. Sypher, “New York State Society of the Cincinnati Biographies of Original Members & Other Continental Officers," 2004.
[13] “To George Washington from Colonel Lewis Duboys, 5 August 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0430. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 565–566.]
[14] Rhode Island Slave Enlistment Act of 1778, https://www.americanrevolution.org/1778-rhode-island-1st-regiment-opens-to-non-whites/
[15] “II. Minutes of the Conference, 18–24 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0175-0003. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 190–205.]
[16] “General Orders, 12 November 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0326. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 353–355.]
[17] “From George Washington to John Hancock, 31 December 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0579. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 622–626.]
[18] “Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation (1775),” Library of Virginia.
[19] Resolution, January 16, 1776, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 4 (Washington Printing Office, 1906), 60.
[20] Joshua Shepherd, “’Cursedly Thrashed:’ The Battle of Harlem Heights,” Journal of the American Revolution, April 15, 2014.
[21] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, National Archives.
[22] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, National Archives; Although the Continental Army would encamp at New Windsor several years later, this is likely only where they landed, as the bulk of the Army was stationed in the Hudson Highlands.
[23] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, National Archives.
[24] Beverly Robinson was a French & Indian War veteran and friend of George Washington who had married Susannah Philipse in 1748 and who in March of 1777declared his loyalty to the King, fled Beverley House (later seized by the Patriots and used as headquarters for the generals in charge of West Point) for New York City, and promptly raised a Loyal American regiment, including several of his tenant farmers and his son, Beverly Robinson, Jr.
[25] Donald F. Clark. “Revolution in the Highlands: The Story of the Battle of Fort Montgomery,” originally published in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society (1979).
[26] General George Clinton had become the Governor of New York in May of 1777, a position he held until 1795, and then again from 1801 to 1804.
[27] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, National Archives.
[28] Clark. “Revolution in the Highlands."
[29] Fort Montgomery State Historic Site research files.
[30] Muster rolls for Roger Lattimore – New York – Fifth Regiment, list Roger for September 1 to November 1, 1777, and November to December 12, 1777. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/141161965?objectPage=4
[31] Benjamin Latimore pension record, page 8.
[32] The King’s Bridge was built by Frederick Philipse I in 1693/94 and was the main route off of Manhattan island, crossing the Harlem River. Today’s bridge is not quite in the same location as the original. Most of the original fortifications were on Marble Hill, which is today part of the Bronx.
[33] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, National Archives.
[34] This is before the British Philipsburg Proclamation of June 30, 1779, which directed men of color fighting for the “rebels” to be re-enslaved and sold.
[35] Nelson and Shriner, History of Paterson, 66.
[36] Footnote in “To George Washington from Major General Israel Putnam, 13 January 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-13-02-0190. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 13, 26 December 1777 – 28 February 1778, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003, pp. 228–230.]
[37] Benjamin Latimore pension record, page 8-9.
[38] “To George Washington from Major General Israel Putnam, 13 January 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-13-02-0190. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 13, 26 December 1777 – 28 February 1778, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003, pp. 228–230.]
[39] “To General Washington from Major General Israel Putnam, 13 January, 1778.”
[40] “To General Washington from Major General Israel Putnam, 13 January, 1778.”
[41] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 9.
[42] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 9.
[43] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 9.
[44] “Introduction,” Philander D. Chase, ed., The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series volume 17, 15 September – 31 October 1778. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2008.
[45] Lattimore, Benjamin - New York - Fifth Regiment, muster roll, National Archives and Records Administration, page 19.
[46] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 9.
[47] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 9-10.
[48] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 10; “Lower, Fort” New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center. https://museum.dmna.ny.gov/forts/L. The Lower Fort still stands and is today the Old Stone Fort Museum in Schoharie, NY.
[49] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 10.
[50] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 10.
[51] Lattimore, Roger – New York – Fifth Regiment muster rolls, National Archives, page 18 – “Scoharry” Nov & Dec, 1778.
[52] “Cherry Valley, NY, November 11, 1778,” American Battlefield Trust.
[53] He also references Beaver Dam, which was the site of the Dietz Massacre, in which the home farm of Patriot Captain William Dietz was attacked by a small group of “Tories and Indians,” and Dietz, his wife, his parents, and their four young children were all murdered. But although date citations for the Dietz Massacre have varied over the years, British primary sources place the date of the massacre in September of 1781 – several years after Lattimore left the Continental Army. The Cherry Valley Massacre is therefore the likeliest candidate for Lattimore’s incident. More information on the Dietz Massacre can be found at “Dating the Dietz Massacre: Correcting Two Centuries of Confusion and Error,” Berne Historical Project.
[54] Roger Lattimore muster roll, page 20.
[55] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 10.
[56] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 10.
[57] “1779: Henry Hare, Tory Spy,” from “Executed Today,” https://www.executedtoday.com/2018/06/21/1779-henry-hare-tory-spy/; “Hunting the Hare: A Loyalist Spy Story,” https://www.quintrees.ca/post/hunting-the-hare-a-loyalist-spy-story
[58] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 10.
[59] WilliamA. Starna and Leslie Hasbargen. “Before and After the Deluge: A New Assessment of Clinton’s Dam, 1779,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies (2018) 85 (4): 441–459.
[60] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 10-11.
[61] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 11.
[62] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 11.
[63] “From George Washington to Major General John Sullivan, 31 May 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-20-02-0661. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 20, 8 April–31 May 1779, ed. Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 716–719.]
[64] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 11.
[65] "Battle of Newtown, NY, August 29, 1779." American Battlefield Trust.
[66] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 11.
[67] “Old Fort Niagara’s Long History,” Old Fort Niagara Historic Site.
[68] Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files for James Pride, National Archives. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/196442315?objectPage=35
[69] Roger Lattimore muster rolls, page 24.
[70] Lattimore, Roger – New York – Janson’s Regiment, Militia, National Archives. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/141259658?objectPage=2
[71] Lattimore, Roger – New York – Weissenfels’ Regiment, New York Levies, National Archives. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/141319412?objectPage=3; Levies were professional full-time troops paid for and controlled by the states.
[72] “Eight Short Stories Recalling the Lives of African Americans Buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery,” Friends of Albany History; Stefan Belinski, “Benjamin Lattimore,” People of Colonial Albany, New York State Museum.
[73] “Against All Odds – Building Albany’s Free Black Community in the Early 1800s,” Friends of Albany History.
[74] Journal of the Senate of the State Of New York at Their Thirty-Ninth Session, Begun and held at the City of Albany, The Thirtieth Day of January, 1816, (Albany: 1816), p. 84.
[75] Belinski, “Benjamin Lattimore” ; “We the undersigned give notice to the PEOPLE OF COLOUR of this city,” Albany Gazette, October 21, 1813; “The Committee of the funeral association of colored people,” Albany Gazette, January 30, 1818.
[76] Belinski, “Benjamin Lattimore” ; Register of Manumitted Slaves, 1800-1820, Albany County Clerk’s Office Archival Records, Albany County Hall of Records, Albany, NY.
[77] For more information, see David Gelman’s Emancipating New York: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom, 1777-1827 (2008), and Jonathan Daniel Wells’ The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War (2023).
[78] Register of Manumitted Slaves, 1800-1820, Albany County Clerk’s Office Archival Records, Albany County Hall of Records, Albany, NY.
[79] “Celebrating NYS Abolition of Slavery – July 5, 1827 in Albany,” Friends of Albany History; “Abolition of Slavery,” Freedoms Journal, April 20, 1827; “Abolition of Slavery in the State,” Poulson’sAmerican Daily Advertiser, April 5, 1827.
[80] Joel Munsell, The Annals of Albany, Volume 9 (Albany: 1858), 156.
[81] Munsell, The Annals of Albany, Volume 9 (Albany: 1858), 157.
[82] Nathaniel Paul, An address, delivered on the celebration of the abolition of slavery, (Albany: 1827), 11. Library of Congress.
[83] Learn more, including a reading of the speech by Douglass’ descendants, from the National Museum of African American History & Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/nations-story-what-slave-fourth-july
[84] “Abolition of Slavery,” Freedoms Journal, April 20, 1827; “Abolition of Slavery in the State,” Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, April 5, 1827; “Union Meeting of the Colored People of Albany, Troy, and Vicinity,” The Friend of Man, April 12, 1837; “Anti-Slavery Society of Eastern New York,” Emancipator and Free American, May 12, 1842; “Convention at Albany,” The Liberator, July 28, 1843. To learn more about the work of Benjamin Lattimore, Jr. and other Lattimores in abolition, check out "The Lattimore Circle" lecture recording with Saratoga Librarian Lorie Wies.
[85] Belinski, “Benjamin Lattimore.”
[86] Benjamin Lattimore pension record, page 15 is a Treasury Department letter to the children of Benjamin Lattimore, assigning to them the last pension payment of $80 owed before his death.
[87] Joel Munsell, The Annals of Albany, Volume 10 (Albany: 1859), 279.
