HENRY’S RELATIVES

ENSIGN LIEUTENANT CAPTAIN LIEUTENANT CAPTAIN MAJOR

JOHN THOREAU

This John Thoreau, who was an officer in the , does not seem to have had any point of connection with the Thoreau family of Concord. Despite the fact that his life ran concurrently with the lives of John Thoreau and John Thoreau, Jr. of Concord, we do not know that he and they were so much as aware of each other’s existence on the same planet at the same time!

This congruence of names, however, offers us an excellent opportunity to place side by side a man of peace with a man of war, and compare and contrast these two very different types of life — and ask ourselves whether it is indeed true, as has been said, or is merely an old saw, that “those who live by the sword die by the sword.”

In particular we may ruminate upon whether or not a strong disjunction exists between the life of such a military person living upon expectation of eventual promotion to a next higher ranking and/or upon expectation of eventual arrival in a home port on a durable half-pay pension, on the one foot, and the sort of life that was recommended to us by the Harvard College teenage scholar who asserted in 1834 that we ought not to paint to HDT WHAT? INDEX

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ourselves “an imaginary Elysium” towards which no step in our progress brings us nearer. –Because, if such a strong disjunction might be made out to exist, then also, the advice Henry offered to us might be made out to be at least in part an expression of a Peace Testimony: that an almost feminine enjoyment of “life as it passes” is more consistent with the choice of a peaceable life than it would be with the choice of the much admired manly spit- and-polish blood-and-guts way of the warrior.

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

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1787

October 8, Monday: John Thoreau was born in Boston, son of Jane “Jennie” Burns Thoreau and Jean Thoreau (a member of the 4th cohort after the great Huguenot diaspora that had begun during the 16th Century, which would make his son Henry Thoreau out to be a member of the 5th cohort).1

Meanwhile, back in France, King Louis XVI was issuing an “Edict of Toleration” which, among other things, was bringing to a state of legitimacy all the bastards who had been produced by a previous state ruling — that any marriage between loyal French Catholics and loyal French Huguenots was outside the law.

THOREAU LIFESPANS

1. Note: We don’t have a date of birth for the other John Thoreau, who would become a British officer. The most we can do safely is, to assign him to the same generation of the Thoreau family as this American John Thoreau. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1804

November: The British John Thoreau, the one for whom we don’t even have a birth date, in this year became an Ensign. According to an article in the Caledonian Mercury of , for November 15, Thursday, 1804, the “WAR-OFFICE” had released on November 3d a list of the names of officers being posted to various military formations. This appointments list was lengthy, but we note that a “John Thoreau” was being appointed as an “Ensign” to the “4th Foot.”2 (Since, ordinarily, a young man would become an Ensign toward the end of his teenage years, and since John Thoreau of Concord, Massachusetts had been born in 1787 and would have been about seventeen years of age at this point, although we have no date of birth for this British John Thoreau, we may safely presume that these two men of the same name were members of the same generation. We have no idea, of course, whether they were related by blood, and also, we have no idea whether

2. It had been the Light Infantry Companies of His Majesty’s 4th and 10th Regiments of Foot that had marched against the local militias in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. These were redcoats. The losses of that day, at Concord Bridge, were from the 4th Foot. It would be the 4th Foot that would set fire to the during the . HDT WHAT? INDEX

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they were even aware of each other’s existence.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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His Majesty’s 4th Regiment of Foot had two battle flags rather than one:

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

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December 2, Sunday: In a glittering ceremony at the cathedral of Notre Dame in , a ceremony that included of course Pope Pius VII, Napoléon Bonaparte made himself the crowned emperor of France, and then crowned his wife Josephine as Empress. Everybody who was anybody was there. The music for the occasion, a mass and a Te Deum, was by Giovanni Paisello. Due to the entire absence of color photography, the scene would need to be depicted by David:

Our question for us of course would be, is the Napoleonic General Thoreau to be found anywhere in this sea of faces?

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1 day 2 of 12 M 1804 / Our Meetings to day were very large. D Buffum was concerned in a few words of testimony in the morning: but my poor mind was tossed about with but little life. in the Afternoon it was rather better. —— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

Another John Thoreau “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1807

May 30, Saturday: According to an article in the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for June 8, Monday, 1807, copied from the London Gazette, the “WAR-OFFICE” had released on May 30th a list of the names of officers being posted to various military formations. This appointments list was lengthy, but we note that the “Ensign John Thoreau” who had been posted to the “4th Foot” on November 3, 1804 was appointed HDT WHAT? INDEX

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to be “Lieutenant, without purchase” in the 40th Regiment of Foot.

(His Majesty’s 40th Regiment of Foot had for instance fought to drive the forces of General off of Long Island and away from the port of New-York.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Without purchase means what it says, that Ensign John had not purchased this position for cash or received it through court influence as an English gentleman might do in this timeframe but instead was an ordinary bloke who got it awarded to him merely because of demonstrated military abilities. Since the image portrays an officer of the 30th Regiment of Foot during that timeframe, it will do very well as an illustration of our newly minted young Lieutenant of the 40th Foot named John Thoreau. He was a redcoat.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7 day 30 of 5 M / After writing the above last evening the pain in my side came on & was more severe that had ever been. it occasioned me to look around & consider that if I should be repatience & the anxiety that such a fit of sickness would accasion [occasion?] who is now at , was by no means the least consideration, but tho’ [through] mercy I am much relieved & favord to be in my Shop today, but not able to use much exercise. ——————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

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1811

May 10, Friday: The Accademia dei Concordi performed “The Seasons” by Franz Joseph Haydn, conducted by its musical director Gioaccino Rossini.

According to an article in the Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser of Exeter, for June 6, Thursday, 1811, copied from the London Gazette Extraordinary for June 3, Monday, 1811, containing information released by “Downing-Street” on June 2d, a list of officers killed, wounded, and missing on the 10th May, 1811 had included the name of “Lieut. Thoreau” among those members of the “1st batt. 40th foot” who had been wounded. Although the list contained modifiers such as “severely,” “slightly,” “since dead,” and “lost an arm,” this information failed to indicate the nature of the wound sustained by Lieutenant John Thoreau. (His subsequent career would indicate that the wound, although it might have put him on the sidelines for awhile, could not have been all that bad.)

According to an article in the Aberdeen Journal of Aberdeen, Scotland for June 12, Wednesday, 1811, copied from the London Gazette Extraordinary, “Major-Gen. and Adjutant-Gen.” Charles Stewart had announced among other things that Lieutenant John Thoreau had received a wound “in the Repulse of a Sortie from Badajoz, on the Morning of the 10th May, 1811” as a member of the “1st Batt. 40th Foot” under the command of “Lieutenant-General Lord Viscount Wellington, K.B. under the immediate Orders of Marshal Sir William HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Carr Beresford, K.B.”

Badajoz is in Spain close to the border with Portugal

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 10 of 5th Mo// It has been a day of much seriousness especially the after part of it — Was engaged this forenoon in removing the Books of Records & papers of the Monthly Meeting from Rowse Taylors to David Williams’s who is appointed Clerk in Rowse’s place. — My H spent the Afternoon at my fathers & in the evening we went over to Thos Robinsons & was thereby a little refreshed but felt concernd to find them so very unwell ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

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June 8, Saturday: According to an article in the Cobbett’s Weekly Political Register of London, England, Lieutenant John Thoreau was among the wounded of the “1st Batt. 40th Foot.” (This would not have been a 2d wound but a 2d report of the same wound. Again, there was no indication of the severity of his wound, and his subsequent career would indicate that although this might have put him on the sidelines for awhile, it could not have been all that bad.)

Rebecca Buffum was born, daughter of Friend Arnold Buffum.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 8 of 6 Mo// Again much occupied both in trade & in the settlement of Daniel Holloways concerns — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

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1813

July 26, Monday: On the island of Bermuda, 60 vessels were stranded in the harbor of St. George. According to an article in the Liverpool Mercury etc of Liverpool, England for August 20, Friday, 1813, under the headline “Total Defeat of SOULT on the Confines of France,” on the “26th July” “Lieuts. Kelley and Thoreau” of the 40th Foot, 1st batt.” had been wounded “slightly.”

LIEUTENANT JOHN THOREAU

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

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1815

July 19, Wednesday: According to an article in the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for August 3, Thursday, 1815, an announcement had been made by the “WAR-OFFICE” on July 29th in which was contained the intelligence that as of the date of July 19th, Captain Fisher having been killed in action, Lieutenant John Thoreau became Captain of Company. England being England, here is a poetic commemoration of the struggle that resulted in this fatality and this promotion: “Lines written after reading an account of the Late Battle,” by “W.A.”3

How soon the world’s pacific prospects fade And sink in sombre shade. Those joys which lately we with rapture viewed Those peaceful charms; To War’s alarms Once more give way; Mad Discord! not sufficiently imbrued With deeds of blood, and cursed destructive power Would still prolong its short remaining hour, Short I should hope, for lo! the embattled plain Proof of its potent sway Lies heaped with myriads of its victims slain. Once more the fiend in human form appears, The Monstrous hydra rears His seven-fold, hideous features, to our sight Rebellion thrives, The tyrant strives, But strives in vain To bring his traitorous forces to the fight, He ne’er can cope with England’s proudest boast, Who leads to victory, in himself a host, Whose troops are those heroic Britons born, Whom nothing can restrain; Who dare proud Gallia’s power, her empty vauntings scorn. But pause! and contemplate this scene of blood, This endless widowhood, To many a thousand sorrows, joys, and fears: The mother’s sighs, The Orphan’s cries, The parent’s grief, In agonising strains assail our ears— Say then; shall England’s sufferers bleed in vain, In this blest land sure no one will refrain To give a pittance to their country’s need, Tho’ small it gives relief, And heals the wound by want made deep indeed. What tho’ my feelings for my country yearn, And claim my first concern, Yet fine supporters of this glorious day, Allied by birth, And every worth, 3. This would appear on November 1st on page 331 of The New Monthly Magazine IV. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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To honour`s cause; Your dauntless prowess shines with brightest ray! And while we sojourn in this world below, May we no discord, no disunion know, Firm to each other, shew mankind like men Support, enjoy our laws, And drive oppression from his murderous den.

(With Napoleon having handed over his sword as of July 13th, this battle of the 19th would have been one of the mopping-up operations against French diehards.)

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

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1821

May 11, Friday: According to an article in the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser of Dublin, Ireland for May 17th, an announcement of military promotions had been issued by the “WAR- OFFICE” on May 11th, according to which Captain John Thoreau, who had been on half-salary paid by the 40th Regiment of Foot, had arranged with Archibald Taylor to take up that officer’s full-pay position as Captain in the 37th Regiment of Foot.4 (That may well mean that John had passed along some coin of the realm.)

October 24, Wednesday: According to an article in the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for December 6th, on October 24th the army of the had placed a number of its officers on half- pay. Among those were the officers of the 37th Regiment of Foot: “Captain J. Thoreau; Lieutenant C. Vincent; Ensign Hon. A.C.J. Brown.” CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU

Thomas Jefferson’s proposal for a revision of the laws of Virginia was approved. This self-described “author of the Declaration of Independence” had an understanding of race “treason” that would create a “treason” law of aiding and abetting a servile insurrection, which after several revisions would become the deadly Virginia “treason” statute under which Captain John Brown would be hanged: On the subject of the Criminal law, all were agreed that the punishment of death should be abolished, except for treason and murder; and that, for other felonies should be substituted hard labor in the public works, and in some cases, the Lex talionis. How this last revolting principle came to obtain our approbation, I do not remember. There remained indeed in our laws a vestige of it in a single case of a slave. it was the English law in the time of the Anglo-Saxons, copied probably from the Hebrew law of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” and it was the law of several antient people. But the modern mind had left it far in the rear of its advances.

4. 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. On the 1st of August of each year, known as “Minden Day,” he would be wearing a rose in his headdress to commemorate this regiment’s participation in the Battle of Minden. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1826

August 8, Tuesday: According to an advertisement and notice in the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle etc of Portsmouth, England for August 7th, a Regatta Ball had been scheduled for Portsmouth: “The Nobility, and Gentry are respectfully informed, the REGATTA BALL, will take place at the Royal Clarence Rooms, Southsea, on Tuesday evening the 8th inst, being the second day, under the patronage of Admiral Sir George Martin, G.C.B. Commander-in-Chief, and Lady Martin; Major-General Sir James Lyon, K.C.B. and G.C.H, Lieutenant Governor, and Lady Lyon.” The stewards for this ball were listed as “Capt. Warren, R.N.; Capt. Dickenson, R.N.; Capt. Thoreau, 37th Regt.5 Tickets (not transferable) 5s.6d. each, to include Tea, Coffee and Cards, may be had at the Rooms.” CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU ENGLISH EVENTS OF 1826

August 28, Monday: According to an article in the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for September 2, 1826, reprinting material from the London Gazette, according to an announcement of the “WAR- OFFICE” of August 28th, some changes had been made in the appointments of Ensigns in the “1st West Regiment”: “Urquhart, vice Ormsby, appointed to the 39th foot; Ensign J.A. Thoreau, from the half pay, vice Boyd, who exchanges.” ENGLISH EVENTS OF 1826

(We note that this appointment came less than three weeks after that Regatta Ball for which Captain John Thoreau had been a “steward.” What had that ball been, the proper British stiff-upper-lip 19th-Century equivalent of a job interview?)

5. 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1830

March 2, Tuesday: According to an article in the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser of Dublin, Ireland the army had released a list of its officers and, among other of its officers, among its Lieutenants, the name “Thoreau, 1st W.I.R.” was listed.

LIEUTENANT JOHN THOREAU June 18, Friday: According to an article in the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser of Dublin, Ireland for this day the army had been preparing to celebrate with a review in the Park, it being the day of the great victory at Waterloo in the Netherlands. As part of the arrangements for this review, “On Wednesday Captain Thoreau’s and Captain Massy’s companies of the 37th Regiment6 marched from Enniskillen to Omagh, to relieve those of Captains Skinner and Cunninghame, stationed there under command of Major Kell, who will be replaced by Major Manners.” CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU

October 8, Friday: According to an article in the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser of Dublin, Ireland “The service companies of the 37th7 expect to embark at Cork on Saturday, for Bermuda. The transports are hourly expected. The head quarters — grenadier, light company, and Captain Thoreau’s battalion company — go in the first transport.” CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU

October 22, Friday: Felix Mendelssohn reached Florence from Bologna.

According to an army announcement carried in the Belfast News-Letter of Belfast, Ireland the companies of Captains Woods, Castles, and Thoreau of the 37th8 under Major Kell had sailed from Cove for Bermuda. CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU

6. 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. 7. 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. 8. 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1833

February 8, Friday: According to an army report in the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser of Dublin, Ireland Captain Thoreau’s company was stationed at Port Royal on the island of Jamaica. CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1834

December 20, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 20 of 12 M / My mind has been favoured this Morning with a degree of life for which I desire to be thankful RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

According to a notice in the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle etc. of Portsmouth, England for February 16, Monday, 1835 and in the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for February 19, Thursday, 1835, on this day the British troop-ship containing Captain John Thoreau of the 37th Regiment of Foot was departing from the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean, intending to head for the harbor of Portsmouth, England: “The Athol, troop-ship, Mr. Karley, Master-Commander, arrived on Sunday, in 23 days from New Providence. She left Jamaica Dec. 20, and brought home a company of the Royal Artillery” and in addition four passengers including “Capt. Thoreau of the 37th Regiment.”9

We need not inquire as to whether Captain John and scholar David Henry were relatives by blood, as that might have been the case or might not have been the case but in any event matters not, not a whit, neither to them nor to us. What we need to ask of ourselves is whether or not we might be persuaded that a strong disjunction exists between the life of such a military person living upon expectation of eventual arrival in a home port and/ or upon expectation of eventual promotion to a next higher ranking, on the one foot, and the sort of life that was here being recommended to us by this Harvard College teenage scholar. –Because, if such a strong disjunction might be made out to exist, then also, the advice being offered to us above might be made out to be at least in part an expression of a Peace Testimony: that this recommended feminine enjoyment of “life as it passes” is more consistent with a peaceable life than with the much admired manly spit-and-polish blood- and-guts way of the warrior.

David Henry Thoreau’s Harvard College assignment was to write an essay on the topic “The different ideas we form of men whose pursuit is Money, Power, Distinction, Domestic Happiness, Public Good.” Quoting Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man,” Thoreau’s reaction, in part, was: Aristocrats may say what they please, liberty and equal rights are and ever will be grateful, till nature herself shall change; and he who is ambitious to exercise authority over his fellow beings, with no view to their benefit or injury, is to be regarded as actuated by peculiarly selfish motives. Self- ?gratification must be his sole object. Perhaps he is desirous that his name may be handed down to posterity, that in after ages something more may be said of him, than that he lived, and died. He may be influenced by still baser motives; he may take delight in the enjoyment of power merely, and feel a kind of satisfaction at the thought that he can command and be obeyed. It is evident then that he, who thus influenced, attains at last the summit of his wishes, will be a curse upon mankind. His deeds may never be forgotten; but is this greatness? If so, may I pass through life unheeded and unknown.

9. 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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“But grant that those can conquer; these can cheat; ’Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great.”

When we hear it said of a man that Money is the idol which he worships ... we figure to ourselves one who is continually striving after something which he is destined never to obtain, and who does not enjoy life as it passes, but lives upon expectation. In short, one who has painted to himself an imaginary Elysium, towards which no step in his progress brings him nearer. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1835

February 15, Sunday: The Reverend Andrew Bigelow preached at Norton, at the interment of the Reverend Pitt Clarke. (After the death of the wife Mary Jones Clarke, a poet, this would result in 1866 in a private distribution by the press of John Wilson and Son in Cambridge, Massachusetts, including a sketch of the reverend by his son Manlius Stimson Clarke, Esq., who at this point was one of David Henry Thoreau’s Harvard classmates.) THE REV. PITT CLARKE

According to a notice in the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle etc. of Portsmouth, England for February 16, Monday, 1835 and in the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for February 19, Thursday, 1835, “The Athol, troop-ship, Mr. Karley, Master-Commander, arrived on Sunday, in 23 days from New Providence. She left Jamaica Dec. 20, and brought home a company of the Royal Artillery” and in addition four passengers including a relative of David Henry Thoreau “Capt. Thoreau of the 37th Regiment.”10 CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU

(See image on a following screen.)

December 31, Thursday: According to the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland, the public tranquility had been completely restored at a port on the coast of Spain –the shops being open, there being music in the streets, a new governor having been installed– the result was a state of general confidence. The British troops had generally departed but, as a precaution, because it is better to be safe than to be sorry, had left behind “seventy artillerymen and two subalterns, under Captain [John] Thoreau, with a 24-pound howitzer, and two long 32-pounders.” –Just in case a whiff of the ol’ grapeshot might still upon occasion be what would be recommended. This is what warriors are for, to create peace! Congratulations, Sir! –Christmas has come and gone and the British army has brought the gift of peace to the entire Iberian peninsula but now you can’t go home. Not yet.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 12th M 1835 / Rose early this Morng & got into the Stage & rode to Portsmouth to attend the Moy [Monthly] Meeting - The first was a good solid Meeting - a sound lively & pertinent from Mary Hicks -In the last it seemed to me the buisness was all resulted in Wisdom - After meeting went with Francis Carr to Shadrach Chases & dined - not having been to Shadracks in some years a renewal of intimacy & good feeling was very pleasant — after dinner rode home with Francis he being alone in a Chaise True it is that times & seasons are not at our command -yesterday I was very desirous to feel the arising of life in my heart it being my birth day but was unable to get at it & today I have been favourd & am thankful for it Here closes the Year & this day commences another of my Life— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

10. 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Waldo Emerson lectured in Boston. This was lecture Number 8 of the series, on Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, Herbert, and Sir Henry Wotton.

On this day there was yet another episode in yet another of America’s race wars:

Black Native Warriors? Where Had That Come From? December 1835 The destruction of sugar plantations along the St. Johns River south of St. Augustine, Florida

December 18, 1835 The battle of Black Point, west of the town of Micanopy in the Florida Territory

December 28, 1835 Massacre of Major Francis Dade’s troops heading for Fort King

December 31, 1835 The 1st battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Clinch’s Battle)

February-March 1836 The siege of Camp Izard

October 12, 1836 The 2d battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Call’s Battle)

November 21, 1836 An action in the Wahoo Swamp on the Withlacoochee River

January 27, 1837 The battle of Hatcheelustee Creek at the head of the Kissimmee River

December 25, 1837 The battle of Lake Okeechobee

January 15, 1838 An action at Jupiter Inlet, on the east coast of Florida

January 24, 1838 The battle of Lockahatchee

SEMINOLES WHITE ON RED, RED ON WHITE SWAMP HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1836

May 17, Tuesday: Joseph Norman Lockyer, who would discover the presence of helium in the sun, was born.

According to the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for May 30, Monday, 1836, the General Order issued on the 17th by General Evans of the British legion in Spain, the Military Order “Second Class of St Ferdinand,” a decoration in recognition of services rendered,11 was issued among others to “P. Thoreau, artillery.” CAPTAIN JOHN THOREAU

One is of course reminded of the recycling by Henry Thoreau of a poetic remainder (by Charles Wolfe) from England’s painful Peninsular campaign:

11. The 1st class of this medal was lowest, the 3d class highest, and this officer was being awarded the intermediate grade. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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“RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT”: After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? — in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well- disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, , captain, corporal, privates, powder- monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts — a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments, though it may be “Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the rampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O’er the grave where our hero we buried.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be “clay,” and “stop a hole to keep the wind away,” but leave that office to his dust at least:— “I am too high-born to be propertied, To be a secondary at control, Or useful serving-man and instrument To any sovereign state throughout the world.”

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 17th of 5 M 1836 / This day I purchased a little Book which among other things contained the life of Our friend & my old acquaintance Thomas Watson of Bolton Massachusetts this little sketch of his life & some of his letters has indeed been a brook by the way - & refreshed my heart — all the circumstances it contains I have heard from his own Mouth, escepting the Annecdote of his going to Abel Noughtons house to warn him in the night — he used before I was married, for several years, to dine with me at my fathers house at least once in the course of the Yearly Meeting, & was always very communicative & interesting -he was rather tall, at least not far from the common height - his cloaths coarse & generally of a Sheeps grey colour & his whole appearance much of the rustic, quick spoken with considerable motion with his hands while speaking - his countenance hard & flushed, yet with all when favourd & under the right influence Divine grace Shone over all - he often said his natural disposition was rough & hard, & it required a constant Watch, to keep Nature in subjection - his religious commuications, of which I have heard but few want not in Mans Wisdom - but the wisdom attended them & were often very reaching to individuals. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1837

January 10, Tuesday: According to an article from the London Gazette of January 10, Tuesday, 1837 reprinted in The Morning Chronicle of London, England of January 11th, John Thoreau of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot had been promoted to Major in the Army. MAJOR JOHN THOREAU HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1838

June 18, Monday: According to an article in the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland, Major Thoreau and Lieutenant Durham of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot had obtained leave of absence. MAJOR JOHN THOREAU HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1839

July 10, Wednesday: According to the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for August 1st, “11th — On the 3d of June, embarked at Halifax on board HM. brig Ringdove, one officer, two serjeants [sic], and 30 rank and file, with women and children; and on board HM. steamer Medea, one officer, two serjeants, one drummer, and 50 rank and file, with women and children, for Sydney, Cape Breton, to relieve the detachment stationed there, which was to return to headquarters in the Ringdove. One company, under the command of Major Thoreau, embarked at Halifax on the 4th of June, on board HMS. Andromache for Charlottetown, Prince Edward’s Island. The men, women, and luggage, left at Halifax on the departure of the service companies for Canada, arrived at Quebec in the Pique the 22d of June, were landed next day and joined the corps. The Montreal Gazette announces the arrival of the band at Quebec, which, during the past winter has been quartered at Chambly, in the steam boat Canada, from Montreal. Two companies of the regiment still remain at Chambly.” According to an article in the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser of Dublin, Ireland of July 19th, in Canada “Part of the 37th regiment, under Major Thoreau, replaced the 23d at Prince Edward’s Island on the 10th.”

“A YANKEE IN CANADA”: This is the site where a real battle once took place, to commemorate which they have had a sham fight here almost every day since. The Highlanders manœuvred very well, and if the precision of their movements was less remarkable, they did not appear so stiffly erect as the English or Royal Irish, but had a more elastic and graceful gait, like a herd of their own red deer, or as if accustomed to stepping down the sides of mountains. But they made a sad impression on the whole, for it was obvious that all true manhood was in the process of being drilled out of them. I have no doubt that soldiers well drilled are as a class peculiarly destitute of originality and independence. The officers appeared like men dressed above their condition. It is impossible to give the soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him. What would any philanthropist who felt an interest in these men’s welfare naturally do, but first of all teach them so to respect themselves that they could not be hired for this work, whatever might be the consequences to this government or that; — not drill a few, but educate all. I observed one older man among them, grey as a wharf-rat and supple as the devil, marching lock-step with the rest, who would have to pay for that elastic gait.

MAJOR JOHN THOREAU

ANNURSNACK July 11. At length we leave the river and take to the road which leads to the hilltop, if by any means we may spy out what manner of earth we inhabit. East, west, north, and south, it is farm and parish, this world of ours. One may see how at convenient, eternal intervals men have settled themselves, without thought for the universe. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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How little matters it all they have built and delved there in the valley! It is after all but a feature in the landscape. Still the vast impulse of nature breathes over all. The eternal winds sweep across the interval to-day, bringing mist and haze to shut out their works. Still the crow caws from Nawshawtuct to Annursnack, as no feeble tradesman nor smith may do. And in all swamps the hum of mosquitoes drowns this modern hum of industry.

EVERY MAN IS A ROMAN FORUM All things are up and down, east and west, to me. In me is the forum out of which go the Appian and Sacred ways, and a thousand beside, to the ends of the World. If I forget my centralness, and say a bean winds with or against the sun, and not right or left, it will not be true south of the equator. HDT WHAT? INDEX

ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU

1840

April: According to the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for April 6th there had just been an “AFFAIR OF HONOUR. — An article in the Jersey Times having given offence to Major Thoreau, that gentleman DUEL demanded satisfaction of Mr Rafter, which was instantly granted. The parties met in the neighborhood of Prince’s Tower. Major Thoreau fired at his antagonist, who, deliberately raising his pistol, fired in the air, resuming immediately his former position. On which Major Thoreau advanced to Mr Rafter, said, ‘Mr Rafter, you have overpowered my feelings more by firing in the air, than if you had fired at me,’ at the same time holding out his hand to Mr Rafter, who took it, saying, ‘I bear you no enmity whatever.’”

(Whatever this gazette article had been that had given such cause for offense to Major John Thoreau, it would seem to have made no mention of him by name.)

“To be active, well, happy, implies courage. To be ready to fight in a duel or a battle implies desperation, or that you hold your life cheap.” — Henry David Thoreau HDT WHAT? INDEX

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October 23, Friday evening: According to The Era of London for October 25, Sunday, 1840, and according to The Derby Mercury of Derby, England for October 28, Wednesday, 1840, there had been a “DUEL IN GURENSEY. — A duel was fought in Guernsey on Friday evening, between Mr. D. Herbert, Lieutenant 77th Regiment, and Mr. J.P. De St. Croix, attorney’s clerk and militia captain. The former gentleman was accompanied by Mr. G. Prettie, of the Custom-house; and the latter by the Anglo-Spanish Major, Mr. C.P. Thoreau; Dr. G.M. Jones attended as medical friend.

Two shots were exchanged, fortunately without taking effect (Mr. De. St. Croix’s friends say that his pistol missed fire once); the two principals then desired to exchange a third shot, but the seconds interfered; satisfaction, they thought, had been fully given; each, therefore, withdrew his friend from the ground, and both Mr. Herbert and Mr. De. St. Croix returned to Jersey on Saturday morning. — Jersey Gazette. [Will the statute be put in force in this case?]” MAJOR JOHN THOREAU

“To be active, well, happy, implies courage. To be ready to fight in a duel or a battle implies desperation, or that you hold your life cheap.” — Henry David Thoreau HDT WHAT? INDEX

ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU

1842

January 7, Friday: Lieutenant Vincent Eyre would report from that at 8AM the British force heading off in the general direction of safety in India had begun to move on in inextricable confusion.12 Already nearly half the sepoys, from sheer inability to keep their ranks, had joined the lump of noncombatants. The rearguard was attacked and much baggage lost, and one of the guns having been overturned, it was taken off by the Affghans, whose horsemen were charging into the very heart of the column. Akber Khan averred that the assemblage was being attacked because it had marched contrary to the wish of the chieftains. He insisted that it should halt and promised to supply food, forage, and fuel for the troops. When he demanded six more hostages, these hostages were provided. Terms having been agreed to, for the time being firing ceased with the group encamped in great confusion at Bootkhak.

According to the London Gazette for January 7th and The Examiner of London for January 8th and the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser for January 10th, the “WAR-OFFICE” had announced on January 7th that in the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot, Lieutenant William Thornton Servantes was to be Captain without purchase, vice Thoreau, promoted in the St Helena Regiment;13 Ensign Herbert Russell Manners was to be Lieutenant, vice Servantes; Sergeant-Major Joseph Jones was to be Ensign, vice Manners. According to the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle etc of Portsmouth, England for January 10th, the London Gazette of January 7th had carried the information that “St. Helena Regiment — Major H. Simmonds, from the 61st Foot, to be Lieutenant-Colonel, without purchase; Brevet Major J. Thoreau, from 37th Foot, to be Major, without purchase.” MAJOR JOHN THOREAU

12. Lieut. V. Eyre (Sir Vincent Eyre, 1811-1881). THE MILITARY OPERATIONS AT CABUL: WHICH ENDED IN THE RETREAT AND DESTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH ARMY, JANUARY 1842, WITH A JOURNAL OF IMPRISONMENT IN AFFGHANISTAN. PA: Carey and Hart, 1843; London: J. Murray, 1843 (three editions); Lieut. V. Eyre (Sir Vincent Eyre, 1811-1881). PRISON SKETCHES: COMPRISING PORTRAITS OF THE CABUL PRISONERS AND OTHER SUBJECTS; ADAPTED FOR BINDING UP WITH THE JOURNALS OF LIEUT. V. EYRE, AND LADY SALE; LITHOGRAPHED BY LOWES DICKINSON. London: Dickinson and Son, [1843?]

13.The St. Helena Regiment had participated in 1821 in the initial interment of the captive Napoleon. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1843

November 11, Sunday: According to The Examiner of London, England, copying from other local gazettes, in the St Helena Regiment “Brevet Major H.E. O’Dell was to be Major, without purchase, vice Thoreau, deceased; Lieut. J. Keating to be Capt. vice O’Dell; Ensign R.J. Hughes to be Lieut. vice Keating; Quartermaster Serjeant [sic] J.H. Prenderville14 to be Ensign, vice Hughes.”

(That one word “deceased” terminates our story of the earthly trajectory of this John Thoreau, redcoat officer. We are not told where or how, let alone why, this functionary died — we are left only to wonder why he lived.)

14. This J.H. Prenderville had been on the ship that took Napoleon to St. Helena. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1855

April 21, Saturday. 5 A.M. — To Cliffs. Fair and still. There is a, fog over the river, which shows at a distance more than near by. Not much. The frost conceals the green of the gooseberry leaves just expanding. The shallow puddles left by yesterday’s rain in the fields are skimmed over. Hear the first seringo [Thoreau frequently called the Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis the seringo or seringo-bird, but he also applied the name to other small birds. At least once he spoke of the “seringo,” that is to say the “song” or “serenade,” of the Cedar Waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum]. The duskyish crown is divided by a lighter line. Above it is ashy-brown and drab (?) a streak of lemon yellow over the eye; some brownish drab or bay making a spot on wings; white lines diverging from throat; reddish legs against sun; breast and sides dashed. It has not the note of Nuttall’s Savannah, nor, methinks, the blackness of Wilson’s. Is it the passerina [Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis], which Nuttall does not describe? [THOREAU’S NOTE: Yes. He calls it T. savanurum (p. 494); says they arrive about the middle of May “occasionally.” “On these occasions they perch in sheltered trees in pairs, and sing in an agreeable voice somewhat like that of the Purple Finch, though less vigorously.” Thinks they go north to breed.] [1906 EDITOR’S NOTE, BASED ENTIRELY UPON THE FALSE CONCEIT THAT A GIVEN SPECIES’S BIRDSONG DOES NOT CHANGE FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION: It would be hard to describe the grasshopper sparrow’s song more inaccurately.] At Cliffs, I hear at a distance a wood thrush. [IT IS UNCLEAR WHETHER THE FOLLOWING IS THOREAU’S NOTE OR THE 1906 EDITOR’S: The singer must have been a hermit thrush [Hermit Thrush Catharus guttatus]. The date is conclusive.] It affects us as a part of our unfallen selves. The Populus grandidentata there may open to-morrow. The frost saves my feet a wetting probably. As I sit on the Cliffs, the sound of the frost and frozen drops melting and falling on the leaves in the woods below sounds [sic] like a gentle but steady rain all the country over, while the sun shines clear above all. Aunt Maria has put into my hands to-day for safekeeping three letters from Peter Thoreau, dated Jersey (the first July 1st, 1801, the second April 22d, 1804, and the third April 11th, 1806) and directed to his niece “Miss Elizabeth Thoreau, Concord, Near Boston,” etc.; also a “Vue de la Ville de St. Helier,” etc., accompanying the first. She is not certain that any more were received from him. The first is in answer to one from Elizabeth announcing the death of her father (my grandfather). He states that his mother died the 26th of June, 1801, — the day before he received E.’s letter, — though not till after he had heard from another source of the death of his brother, which was not communicated to his mother. “She was in the 79th year of her age, and retained her memory to the last.... She lived with my two sisters, who took the greatest care of her.” He says that he had written to E.’s father about his oldest brother, who died about a year before, but had had no answer; had written that he left his children, two sons and a daughter, in a good way. “The eldest son and daughter are both married, and have children, the youngest is about eighteen. I am still a widower of four children.... I have but two left, Betsy and Peter, James and Nancy are both at rest.” He adds that he sends a view “of our native town,” etc. The second of these letters is sent by Captain John Harvey of Boston, then at Guernsey. He says that on the 4th of February previous he sent her a copy of the last letter he had written, which was in answer to her second, since he feared she had not received it. Says they “are still at war with the French; that they received the day before a letter from her “Uncle and Aunt Le Cappelain of London.” Complains of not receiving letters. “Your Aunts Betsy and Peter join with me,” etc. According to the third letter, he received an answer to that he sent by Captain Harvey, by Captain Touzel, and will forward this by the last, who is going via Newfoundland to Boston. “He expects to go to Boston every year.” Several vessels from Jersey go there every year. His nephew had told him some time before that he “met a gentleman from Boston who told him he [saw or knew? (torn out.)][The previous set of brackets are Thoreau’s.] Thoreau & Hayse there,” and he (Peter Thoreau) therefore thinks the children must have kept up the name of the firm. Says Captain Harvey was an old friend of his. “Your cousin John is a Lieutenant in the British service, he has been already a campaign on the continent, he is very fond of it.” “Your aunts Betsy and Peter join,” etc. Aunt Maria thinks the correspondence ceased at Peter’s death, because he was the one who wrote English. MAJOR JOHN THOREAU HDT WHAT? INDEX

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P. M. — Sail to meadow near Carlisle Bridge. A fine, clear, and pleasant day with a little west wind. Saw a painted turtle not two inches in diameter. This must be more than one year old. A female redwing. I see yellow redpolls on the bushes near the water, — handsome birds, — but hear no note. Watched for some time a dozen black ducks on the meadow’s edge in a retired place, some on land and some sailing. Fifty rods off and without the glass, they looked like crows feeding on the meadow’s edge, with a scarcely perceptible tinge of brown. Examining the ground afterward, found that the whitish lichen thallus (which formed a crust, a sort of scurfy bald place, here and there in the meadow where the water had just risen) was loosened up and floating over the bare spaces mixed with a few downy feathers. I thought the flat meadow islets showed traces of having been probed by them. All the button-bushes, etc., etc., in and about the water are now swarming with those minute fuzzy gnats about an eighth of an inch long. The insect youth are on the wing. The whole shore resounds with their hum wherever we approach it, and they cover our boat and persons. They are in countless myriads the whole length of the river. A peep, peetweet, on the shore. There is some gossamer on the willows. The river has risen considerably, owing to yesterday’s rain, and new drift is brought down. The greater fullness of the Assabet is perceptible at the junction. The New York Tribune said on the 19th, “The caterpillar-blossoms, and the slightest peeping of green leaves among the poplars and willows, and a tolerable springing of grass, are the only vegetable proofs yet to be seen.” I should think they were just with our gooseberry.

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Another John Thoreau HDT WHAT? INDEX

ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: March 8, 2014 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX

ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU ANOTHER JOHN THOREAU

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.