William Stacy (February 15, 1734 – August 1802) was an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country. Published histories describe Stacy's involvement in a variety of events during the war, such as rallying the militia on a village common in Massachusetts, participating in the Siege of Boston, being captured by Loyalists and Natvie Americans at the Cherry Valley massacre, narrowly escaping a death by burning at the stake, General George Washington's efforts to obtain Stacy's release from captivity.
During Stacy's post-war life, he was a pioneer, helping to establish Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory. He was active in the Marietta pioneer community, and served as foreman of the first Grand Jury in the Northwest Territory. At the age of 56, he ice skated thirty miles up a frozen river, warning two of his sons of a possible Native American attack, which occurred several days later as the Big Bottom massacre and marked the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.
Early life William Stacy was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in about 1734.Lemonds, Col. William Stacy, 13, 15, 61. Slightly different years of birth and death have been reported.Lemonds, Col. William Stacy, 61. (The William Stacy plaque in New Salem shows dates of 1733-1804, and the William Stacy marker in Marietta shows 1730-1802.) Stacy grew up in Gloucester on the coast of Massachusetts and worked as a shoemaker, a trade learned from his father; he may also have worked in the seafaring business. William Stacy married Sarah Day in 1754. Subsequently, during 1757, they moved away from the coast to New Salem in western Massachusetts, and raised a large family. Stacy took up farming and continued his work as a shoemaker. He also became a commercial banker, loaning money at interest before there were any banks in the area. His customers were from New Salem and other towns in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. By the time of his early middle age, William Stacy was living a comfortable life; he was successful and widely known.Lemonds, Col. William Stacy, 15-16. During 1775, at the age of 41, William Stacy's life changed with the onset of friction between the Thirteen Colonies and the British Empire.
Opening days of the Revolutionary War
William Stacy was an active revolutionary from the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. By one account, he entered service on April 19, 1775,Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution, Vol 14, 796, 804-5. the day of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the opening day of the war. Another account has William Stacy rallying the militia at his home village of New Salem, in the western portion of the colony, on April 20, 1775, upon receiving the news of Lexington and Concord.Barber, Historical Collections...of Every Town in Massachusetts, 264–65. A memorial plaque was dedicated to Colonel Stacy in 1956 on the village common of New Salem.Smithsonian American Art Museum, New Salem Lt. Col. William Stacy Monument, Smithsonian link at Stacy Monument.Hunting, "Plaque Honoring William Stacy", Enterprise and Journal newspaper, October 4, 1956.Hunting, "Donor Attends Unveiling of Stacy Plaque", Enterprise and Journal newspaper, October 11, 1956. The story reflected on the plaque has been handed down for generations beginning with an early history in 1841,Blake, Anecdotes of the American Revolution, 200–02 and was included in the publication of the New Salem Sesquicentennial Committee in 1904.New Salem Sesqui-Centennial and History of the Town, 21. The inscription on the plaque reads:
The New Salem Bicentennial Commission and town historian later speculated that this event might have occurred earlier, at the time of the Powder Alarm during 1774.Lemonds, Col. William Stacy, 99-100. The Powder Alarm was a precursor to the events at Lexington and Concord.
Battle of Bunker Hill As the war began, William Stacy served as major in Colonel Benjamin Woodbridge's regiment of Minutemen, which was organized into Woodbridge's (25th) Regiment. During the Siege of Boston, Woodbridge's regiment was based at Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston, and participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first large-scale battle of the war.Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 136, 183. An orderly book shows that on June 13, 1775, several days before the battle, Major Stacy was officer of the night guard, while Colonel William Prescott, who would be the primary leader of patriot forces during the battle, was officer of the day.Frothingham, Battle-Field of Bunker Hill, 38–9. Stacy was recommended for commission on June 16, the day before the battle. On June 17, 1775, Woodbridge's regiment of 300 soldiers arrived at Bunker Hill and took up positions immediately prior to the battle, and parts of the regiment engaged. A portion of Woodbridge's regiment joined Colonel Prescott's regiment at the redoubt and breastwork on the hill, and a company from Woodbridge's regiment deployed on the right flank.Ketchum, Decisive Day, 146.
The defenders on the right flank fought valiantly from behind what cover they could find.Ketchum, Decisive Day, 163. The men at the redoubt and breastwork fought until they had no more bullets, finally fighting with the butts of their guns, rocks, and their bare hands.Ketchum, Decisive Day, 172–74. Woodbridge's regiment "was not commissioned, and there are few details of it, or of its officers, in the accounts of the battle."Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston, 183. Stacy's disposition is unknown. He later signed an affidavit regarding the guns of a fellow patriot who was killed in action at Bunker Hill.Dean, New England Historical & Genealogical Register, 1895, Vol XLIX, 203-04. Sergeant Benjamin Haskell (Haskall), also of New Salem and also a co-signer of that same affidavit, was reportedly in the center of the action near General Joseph Warren when Warren was killed during the battle. The New Salem Sesquicentennial Committee paid homage to Stacy, Haskell, and others of that village, proclaiming:
And in those days of darkness and disaster, which, as they come to all nations, will surely again come to us, he will tell us of another Jeremiah Meacham, of more Jeremiah Ballards, of another Benjamin Haskell, of another William Stacy...New Salem Sesqui-Centennial and History of the Town, 49.
Cherry Valley massacre, and prisoner of war
Stacy served as lieutenant colonel in Colonel Ichabod Alden's 7th Massachusetts Regiment during 1777 and 1778.Heitman, Officers of the Continental Army, 38. The regiment was sent to Cherry Valley, New York, to protect the local population from Loyalists and Native Americans. The Loyalists were organized as Butler's Rangers, a Loyalist military unit led by Colonel John Butler and his son, Captain Walter Butler. The Loyalists operated together with American Indians, including some who were under the leadership of Joseph Brant, a Mohawk leader also known as Thayendanegea.Stone, Life of Joseph Brant, 372, 374, 386–87.
While serving with Colonel Alden at Cherry Valley during October 1778, William Stacy was transferred to the 4th Massachusetts Regiment,Heitman, Officers of the Continental Army, 37, 513. though remaining with Colonel Alden. During that time period, Lieutenant William McKendry, a quartermaster in Colonel Alden's regiment, kept a journal with firsthand accounts of the actions at Cherry Valley. One of his lighter notes concerning Colonel Stacy was a journal entry for October 6, 1778: "Col. Stacy and Capt. Ballard had a horse race. Col. Stacy won the bet."Young, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. II – Second Series, 1855–1886, 449. However, one month later, Cherry Valley suffered war.
On November 11, 1778, a mixed force of Loyalists, British soldiers, Mohawk and Seneca people under the command of Walter Butler descended on Cherry Valley.Graymont, The Iroquois in the American Revolution, 184.Kelsay, Joseph Brant, 229. Colonel Alden had been warned of their approach, but had dismissed the warnings. He and his command staff, including Stacy, were stationed in a house some from the fort.Barr, Unconquered: The Iroquois League at War in Colonial America, 153. McKendry described the attack in his journal: "Immediately came on 442 Indians from the Five Nations, 200 Tories under the command of one Col. Butler and Capt. Brant; attacked headquarters; killed Col. Alden; took Col. Stacy prisoner; attacked Fort Alden; after three hours retreated without success of taking the fort."Young, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. II – Second Series, 1855–1886, 449-50.Ketchum, History of Buffalo, 322. McKendry incorrectly placed John Butler and Joseph Brant in command of the force. McKendry identified the fatalities of the massacre as Colonel Alden, thirteen other soldiers, and thirty civilian inhabitants.
It became known as the Cherry Valley massacre and was noted as one of the most horrific frontier massacres of the Revolution.Murray, Smithsonian Q & A: The American Revolution, 64. Three months later, in his journal entry for February 12, 1779, McKendry describes receiving a report from an Indian of William Stacy in captivity; Stacy was apparently concerned to reassure his fellow soldiers: "the last he knew of Col. Stacy he was well and in good spirits, and told him not to mind it for it was only the fortune of war."Young, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. II – Second Series, 1855–1886, 452.
Several accounts indicate that during the Cherry Valley massacre or thereafter, Stacy was stripped naked and tied to a stake, and was about to be tortured and killed, as was the ritual for enemy warriors, but was spared by Joseph Brant.Barker, Recollections of the First Settlement of Ohio, 35.Beardsley, Reminiscences, 463.Hildreth, Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, 405-6.Moore, Masonic Review, Vol XI, 306-07.Drake, Memorials of the Society of Cincinnati, 465–67.Zimmer, "Colonel Stacy defies odds", Marietta Times, 21 March 1994. William Stacy was a Freemason; Joseph Brant was also a Freemason. It is reported that Stacy made an appeal as one Freemason to another, thus saving his life. Colonel Stacy was subsequently taken to Fort Niagara, the Loyalist base in New York and held prisoner under Colonel Butler during the summer of 1779.Campbell, Annals of Tryon County; or, the Border Warfare of New-York during the Revolution, 110–11, 181-82. At Fort Niagara, Molly Brant, the sister of Joseph Brant, was hostile toward Stacy, and wanted Butler to return custody of Stacy to the Iroquois. She proclaimed dreams of she and the other Iroquois using Stacy's head in an Iroquois football game. Butler placated Molly Brant with rum and protected his prisoner. Subsequently, from late-1779 through mid-1782, Stacy was held prisoner at Fort Chambly near Montreal.McHenry, Rebel Prisoners at Quebec 1778-1783, 10, 34.