War Veterans

REVOLUTIONARY WAR - (1775-1783) There are nine veterans buried in Cabot's first cemetery at the Center of Town. Some men served with Colonel Jacob Bayley to open the Bayley-Hazen military road from Newbury, Vermont to St. Johns, Quebec, Canada. Later some of those men bought land in Cabot. The road was never completed, but it opened the territory to future settlement.

WAR OF 1812 - 1812-1814. Little information about Cabot's involvement in this war was found:

"In 1809, 27 soldiers' names are on the town record: Anthony Perry, captain ; Solomon W. Osgood, ensign; 1810, 32 soldiers enrolled: Anthony Perry, capt. ; John Stone, 1st lieut. ; Joseph Stone, ensign; Anthony Perry was captain until 1817, when George Sumner was elected. The enrolled militia were now 52 men. They were not obliged to uniform, but they were furnished with a gun, 24 rounds of cartridge, priming wire and brush, and three flints. From 1812 to 1816, the military spirit seems to have run at a very high pitch; our country having come to the point when forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and having declared war on Great Britain, patriotism rekindled in all those who but a short time before had laid aside the weapons of war in the Revolutionary struggle. They were alive all through, those old veterans, as well as those that had more recently come to the age to bear arms, and were emulous to equal the old warriors. The regular militia of the town was called out and put in thorough fighting order, and in addition to this, a company of minute men enlisted in this town, Woodbury, and Calais, and Anthony Perry, who also was a captain of the regular militia, was elected captain, and Nathaniel Perry, lieut. These men were to be ready to march to the front at any time they were called by their captain. For this roll I have made diligent search, but have not been able to find it; the last traces I got of it, was among the papers of Reuben Waters of Calais. The battle of Plattsburg, Sunday Sept. I I, 1814, our townsmen had been expecting for some days. The cannon was distinctly heard all day. Captain Perry at once dispatched lieut. Perry to Woodbury and Calais, and his other officer through Cabot to rally the men, while he proceeded directly to Montpelier. The company here at once rallied and camped the first night near Montpelier Centre; but on arrival next day at Montpelier, to their great disappointment learned the Britishers had been beaten. They were discharged and returned to their homes, except a few that were on horseback and wished to get a stronger smell of powder, who pushed on to Burlington. John Stone, who in 1800, held the office of Sergeant, held all the various commissions in the military rank; 1809, was commissioned Col. of the First Regiment, 3d Brigade 4th Division of the Militia of the State" - from The Vermont Historical Gazetteer: A Magazine, Embracing a History of Each Town, Civil, Ecclesiastical, Biographical and Military Abby Maria Hemenway 1882 - Vermont; Cabot history written by John M. Fisher in 1881.

Volunteers from Cabot, Vermont were: Luther Swan, Simeon Walker, Leander Collis, Samuel Dutton, Ezra Kennerson, Peter Lyford, Jesse Webster, David Lyford, Royal Gilbert. David Lyford received a pension because of his service in Captain Andrew Perry's Company of Vermont Militia.

Fifield Lyford, who served as a teenage aide in the American Revolution, was 2d Lieutenant, 31st Infantry in the war of 1812. He was the last person buried in the old cemetery in the Center of Town.

On November 6, 1812, the Vermont legislature authorized a volunteer corps of sixty-eight companies (two brigades) for Federal service. In 1814, many Vermont men volunteered when Plattsburg was invaded. Only those who lived nearby reached Plattsburg in time. Most Vermonters in the Regular Army were in the 11th, 26th, 30th, or 31st Infantry. The 11th was formed in 1812. It served for the entire war, almost three years. The others were created to serve for one year, in spring 1813. Part of the former 30th and 31st was in the Battle of Plattsburg, in September, 1814.

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR - 1898. No veterans of this war from Cabot were found.

CIVIL WAR - 1861-1865. Cabot, a small rural Vermont town, sent more than a fair share of men to serve the Union. We list almost 150 men from Cabot who served. Five died in action, 18 died from disease, and others died after the war from the effects of their service.

WORLD WAR I - 1914-1918. The United States entered the war in April 1917. Forty-seven Cabot men served in "the war to end all wars." Charles Barnett, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ely Barnett (1896-1918), was the only officially reported death of a Cabot man in WWI. Barnett died of pneumonia, likely a victim of the influenza pandemic, in October 1918. It took some 675,000 Americans, many of them soldiers. Around the world, the pandemic killed 50 million, more than WWI and WWII combined military deaths.

WORLD WAR II - 1941-1945. "The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The following day, United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan. Within three days, Germany and Italy declared war on United States. The nation was plunged into war with two sets of enemies half a world apart. Young men and women barely old enough to drive, some not yet out of school, rushed to enlist. Cabot was no exception."

From Cabot, Vermont, A Collection of Memories From the Century Past, Cabot Oral History Committee, 1999.

KOREAN WAR - 1950-1953. Twenty-four Cabot men and women answered the call to duty. The division of Korea along the 38th Parallel was decided by the Allies after victory in the Pacific that ended WWII. North of the 38th Parallel, the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC) was occupied by Soviet troops. South of the 38th Parallel, the Republic of Korea was occupied by United States troops. When a communist government was set up in North Korea in 1948, free elections were not allowed, and friction grew. In June 1950, PRC troops, armed by the Soviet Union, invaded South Korea. The United Nations, predominantly United States, supported South Korea, ultimately driving North Korean forces back beyond the agreed division.

VIETNAM WAR - 1954-1975. There were 41 Cabot men in the Vietnam War. This was then the longest military engagement in United State's history. It was a conflict between communist North Vietnam and U. S. supported South Vietnam. It ended with the defeat of South Vietnam and signing the Paris Peace Accord in 1973. The United States withdrew. North and South Vietnam were eventually united.