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Eber Bradley
1761-1841
Fifer
American Revolutionary War
On March 4, 1778, Eber reached his seventeenth birthday and it was his turn.
That spring three men were called from Sunderland: Eber, Elon Lee, and Gerah
Paine. "We enlisted for seven months and were ordered to Rutland. I enlisted
as a musician, a fifer and always served in that capacity whenever I was called
into the army." Elon Lee, a year or two younger, became a musician too, a drummer.
From his brother's experience, Eber knew that a soldier's pay was uncertain at
best. Although Vermont's Board of War eventually ordered militiamen paid five
pre-war shillings daily, payment was up to the towns so a militiaman rarely got
more than one shilling a day.
Worse, to quote Eber's statements, he "received my pay, if pay it could be called
in depreciated continental money." Furthermore, "I never received any pay except
for the seven months at Rutland." Something else he never received was a formal
discharge, simply being "dismissed after serving out our time."
From Eber Bradley (1761-1841)and Some Relatives, page 7
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