Alexander Scammel (1747-1781)
Revolutionary War military leader.
Portrait by U.D. Tenney, after "Battle of Saratoga" likeness by Jonathan Trumbull.
State purchase. 1873.

Alexander Scammel's parents emigrated from Portsmouth, England to Mendon (MA), c. 1737. Scammel's father was an affluent and well regarded doctor; when he died (1753) he left money for the care of his two sons. Rev. Amariah Frost, of the Congregational Church, was a graduate of Harvard College (Class of 1740); he prepared Alexander for Harvard and the young man graduated (Class of 1769).

As a Harvard College student Scammel held Hollis and Browne scholarships, waited on tables, and once sought leave to return home so as to raise funds for study. He joined the Association for the Suppression of Vice at Harvard, and during the student disorders of 1768 he joined the majority of his class in leaving the college. He became a teacher at the Mendon School for a time, but was granted readmission to Harvard and was assigned a Commencement dialogue in Greek. He graduated with an A.B. degree in 1769, and with an M.A. degree soon thereafter.

Following graduation Scammel taught school, at Mendon, then Kingston, and then Plymouth (MA), where he was paid 60 Pounds/year to preside over the (private) school. A fellow Harvard classmate, Peleg Wadsworth, had founded this school.

As early as 1771 Scammel and Wadsworth were studying military tactics and putting students through military training. Summer vacations got longer, as Scammel worked as an assistant to his cousin Thomas Scammel, "who held the position of surveyor of the King's Woods in North America" [John L. Sibley et al., Sibley's Harvard Graduates (Cambridge, 1963), vol. XVII, p. 221]. He came to like the work, and did numerous surveys for individuals and corporations as well as the government.

In August 1773 Scammel began to read law with John Sullivan (Harvard class of 1758.) He and Sullivan held similar views of Britain as a "cruel Stepmother" who ignored the colonies. December 14, 1774 Scammel was part of a group which took over Royal arms and gunpowder at Fort William & Mary, in Portsmouth (NH) harbor.

Shortly thereafter Sullivan went to Congress, and Scammel was left to run the Portsmouth law office. When war began Scammel was made a major by the provincial congresses of both NH and MA. When he arrived at his position, however, "the York regiment protested that it was satisfied with the officers elected at a county meeting, and had no need of him" (Ibid, p. 223). When Scammel showed up in the lines outside Boston in June 1776, he was a brigade major in Col. Poor's New Hampshire regiment, and later in Col. Reed's New Hampshire regiment. He was popular with Washington, and George Washington recommended Scammel for service as a brigade major in the Continental Army. He joined the troops at Winter Hill; during the winter troop morale was very poor, in part because General Gates (Harvard class of 1749) never visited the men. Scammel reported to Sullivan that the men were selling their guns to the militia and drawing new ones, and playing cards while on duty. Commissioned officers were also frequently AWOL. Clothing and supplies were poor.

In May 1776 Scammel was ordered to join the Northern Army with his New Hampshire men. They sailed from New York up the Hudson to Albany, and then on to St. Johns, where Sullivan commanded the forces. August 1776 saw Scammel made aide de camp to Sullivan, but in September 1776 Scammel was sent to assist Col. Joseph Reed. Scammel fought at the Battle of Long Island, where on the second day he misinterpreted his orders and ordered his Sixth Connecticut troops to retreat. Scammel's order was countermanded by Washington, and the Sixth Connecticut troops returned to their original position at a Brooklyn church.

In October 1776 Scammel was commissioned assistant adjutant general to General Charles Lee's division, with the rank of major. In November he was commissioned colonel of the Third NH. On Christmas Night, 1776, Scammel and Sullivan were in the same boat crossing the Delaware. Scammel fought at Trenton, and his men stormed Nassau Hall at Princeton.

In May 1777 Scammel was recruiting men at Keene, NH. Then they marched on foot to Ticonderoga, where they were routed. They marched through the Green Mountains, harassed by small arms fire, to Stillwater, where the troops performed well under fire (Ibid, p. 225). Wounded, Scammel gave up command of the First NH and instead took command of the Third NH, raw recruits he had "raised."

January 5, 1778 Scammel was appointed to replace Adjutant General Timothy Pickering, when Pickering went to run the War Office. The change was a good one, for Scammel's sense of humor and anecdotes made him a favorite with both Washington and the troops. Scammel was very concerned over the troops' equipment and supplies, and he wrote frequently about the poor quality of both.

Until 1780 Scammel performed administrative duties. He was shaken by Benedict Arnold's treason, and he was appointed to handle Major Andre's execution by hanging. Then he requested a return to active duty, and November 1, 1780 he was reappointed to the First NH. He took up his duties in January 1781. In May, and again in July, 1781 he and his men were in actions against the British in the lower Hudson River Valley; then in September they marched through Philadelphia toward Williamsburg and Yorktown. Suffering from sickness Scammel was captured by the British October 1, 1781; his captors ignored his uniform and one shot him, while another swung his sword at him as Scammel fell from his horse. His wound was ignored, and he died at the Governor's Palace, Williamsburg.

After the surrender of Cornwallis, Alexander Hamilton had difficulty keeping his men from retaliating for Scammel's treatment by killing British officers.

Scammel was buried on the Palace grounds at Williamsburg. His stone was lost during the Civil War, but the grave was rediscovered when Colonial Williamsburg conducted archaeological digs at the site of the Palace and grounds. According to Sibley, the archaeologist Harold Shurtleff tried to get Harvard to take Scammel's remains, but without success.

Location: First Floor Visitor Center Wall (Rooms 118,119)