46 Facts About Moses Hazen

Moses Hazen was a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

Moses Hazen's service included particularly brutal raids, during the Expulsion of the Acadians and the 1759 Battle of Quebec.

Moses Hazen was formally commissioned into the British Army, shortly before the war ended, and retired on half-pay outside Montreal, Province of Quebec, where he and Gabriel Christie, another British officer, made extensive land purchases in partnership.

Moses Hazen went on to lead his own regiment, throughout the war, seeing action in the 1777 Philadelphia campaign and at Yorktown in 1781.

Moses Hazen was frequently involved in litigation, both military and civil, and constantly petitioned Congress for compensation of losses and expenses incurred due to the war.

Moses Hazen supported similar efforts by men from his regiment who were unable to return to Quebec because of their support for the American war effort.

Moses Hazen was born in Haverhill, a frontier town in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, to an old New England Puritan family.

Histories that mention Hazen sometimes indicate that he was Jewish, however a genealogist documents Hazen's lineage to England, where the family name was Hassen.

Moses Hazen was apprenticed to a tanner when the French and Indian War broke out.

In one particularly brutal incident, Moses Hazen was responsible for the scalping of six men, and the burning of four others, along with two women and three children, in a house he set on fire.

Moses Hazen fought at the 1760 Battle of Sainte-Foy, where he was severely wounded in the thigh.

Moses Hazen thus missed the final British campaign which saw the capture of Montreal later that year, although his Rangers did take part.

Moses Hazen spent the remainder of the war on garrison duty at Montreal, retiring on half-pay in 1763.

Christie, who was still in military service, was frequently away from the land, so Moses Hazen developed the land while Christie provided the funding.

Moses Hazen constructed a manor house at Iberville, and two mills, and set about selling timber and other business endeavours.

In 1765, Moses Hazen was appointed a deputy land surveyor, and a justice of the peace.

Gage was uninterested at the time, letting Moses Hazen know that he would keep the offer in mind, if the need for military movements became necessary in the area.

Moses Hazen expanded the business of the seigneuries, but his aggressive development incurred debts, which caused friction with Christie.

Moses Hazen had shares in both of these settlements; he acquired land west of the Connecticut River in what is Bradford, Vermont.

Moses Hazen's coinvestors included Thomas Gage, Frederick Haldimand, William Johnson, and Thomas Hutchinson.

At the start of the Revolutionary War, in 1775, Moses Hazen was living on half-pay in Saint-Jean.

On that day, Moses Hazen met with General Philip Schuyler, explaining to him that Fort Saint-Jean was well-defended and unlikely to be taken by siege, and that the local habitants were unlikely to assist the American effort.

However, a British sortie from the fort forced Brown's men to retreat; Moses Hazen ended up in British hands.

Major Charles Preston, the British commander, was mistrustful of Moses Hazen, and sent him to Montreal under the guard of Claude de Lorimier.

Moses Hazen was held in poor conditions for 54 days.

Unhappy with the treatment he received by the British, Moses Hazen joined the American forces, which were on their way to Quebec City.

Moses Hazen did this in spite of the fact that the Americans had done significant damage to his estate during the siege, plundering the estate for supplies, and using his house as a barracks.

Moses Hazen served in the Battle of Quebec, and was one of two men sent to report the devastating loss to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Moses Hazen was initially offered a position as brigadier general, but he refused, requesting instead a colonel's commission, and indemnification against losses caused by the conflict.

Moses Hazen were called as reinforcements to assist in the American response to the action at The Cedars.

Arnold had previously held a high opinion of Moses Hazen, writing that he was "a sensible, judicious officer, and well acquainted with this country".

Arnold wanted to immediately court-martial Moses Hazen for failing to follow orders, but the arriving British army delayed any such activity until the army's return to Fort Ticonderoga.

Moses Hazen then countercharged Arnold with the plundering of the Montreal merchants; Arnold was not cleared of these charges until a higher-level inquiry in 1777.

The cultural differences between the original Quebec enlistees and the new recruits from the Thirteen Colonies was a regular source of friction within the regiment, and Moses Hazen consequently kept the French-speakers in companies separated from the English-speakers.

Moses Hazen submitted to Congress a claim for damages to his estate in Quebec.

Some of Moses Hazen's companies participated in the Battle of Staten Island; in this action, Antill was captured.

Moses Hazen made an early report indicating the presence of British troops on the American flank that turned out to be the main British thrust.

Moses Hazen's regiment lost 4 officers and 73 men in the battle.

Moses Hazen was assigned the job of deputy quartermaster for this operation.

Moses Hazen's regiment was then transferred to the brigade of Enoch Poor.

Moses Hazen was acquitted, and promptly countercharged von Steuben with behavior unbecoming an officer and gentleman; von Steuben apologized.

Moses Hazen's regiment was garrisoned opposite West Point that fall when British Major John Andre was captured and General Arnold defected.

One hundred of Moses Hazen's men, including his nephew, Benjamin Mooers, witnessed Andre's hanging.

Moses Hazen was active for many years on behalf of the men who served under him and their families, especially those that originally came from Quebec, in their quest for compensation for their losses.

Moses Hazen was an original member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati.

Moses Hazen died in 1803 in Troy, New York, where he was buried.