HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855.
Charles Brooks, Ed.

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On the surrender of Burgoyne, Col. Brooks was ordered to join the army under Gen. Washington, and soon after went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, and, in common with the army, suffered all those privations and hardships, which required more heroism to endure than the most severe and bloody battles. How great are our obligations to those wonderful patriots, whom neither nakedness nor disease, nor famine, nor the sword, could dishearten!

To follow our hero through all his valuable and laborious military services would be to give a minute history of our Revolutionary War; for there was scarcely any important services performed in the northern and central operations of the army in which he did not act a conspicuous part. To describe these, is the province of the historian: we allude only to those remarkable events which serve to illustrate his character.

At the conclusion of the war, our army had a still more severe ordeal to pass through than the battles and privations they had endured. It remained for them to subdue their own passions and resentments, and to make this last and most noble sacrifice for the welfare of their country. The pay of the army was greatly in arrear; and most of the officers had spent, in their country's service, all they had owned and all they could borrow. Congress had no adequate funds for their payment, and it was deficient in the power of creating them. In this deplorable state of things, inflammatory anonymous letters were circulated through the army, founded on the most plausible reasons, exciting them to retain their arms, and to take by force what was due to them in right. The apparent justice of this measure concealed from the unreflecting the horrible consequences which must have ensued from it. Fortunately for our country, there were many influential officers in the army, of that purity of heart, that soundness of judgment and elevated patriotism, which led them to view with abhorrence this fatal expedient; and it is highly honorable to Col. Brooks that he was among the first who opposed it. He had taken measures to this effect in his own regiment before the opinions of Washington were known, and he had the satisfaction of finding that his sentiments were in perfect accordance with those of the Father of his country. He was honored with his most grateful acknowledgments and full confidence. His brother-officers were so strongly impressed with his wisdom and prudence, that he was appointed one of the Committee which finally made an adjustment with Congress, and allayed that dreadful excitement. By the influence of these magnanimous patriots, the army gave this distinguished proof of their devotion to the liberties of their country; and, in the language of Washington, we may say, “had this day been wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.”

After the army was disbanded, Col. Brooks returned to private life, rich in the laurels he had won, in the affections of his fellow-soldiers,