Captain Daniel Pomeroy's Payroll

Did you know that soldiers received travel reimbursement based on how far they marched from home? This document lists how much was paid to thirty-seven soldiers who served the Continental Army for the month of July 1778. They served in Albany, New York, and then marched back to their homes in western Massachusetts. These men, who were members of their local militias in western Massachusetts, were temporarily attached to General Timothy Danielson’s Brigade (he was from Deerfield) to do a special service for the Continental Army in Albany.

In this detachment, there were seven officers and thirty privates. Daniel Pomeroy, the captain, was paid six times as much as the privates, (12 pounds to 2 pounds), and the lieutenant was paid four times as much as the privates (8 pounds to 2 pounds). At this time, the Americans used the British currency system of pounds-shillings-pence. There were twelve pence in a shilling, and twenty shillings in a pound. A pound contained 240 pence. During the War, inflation was high and rising, so the soldiers’ pay may not have amounted to as much as they had hoped.

Everyone was paid a penny per mile for their march home. By looking down the list you can see that several of the men marched the same distance, so they must have come from the same towns. The closest to Albany was sixty miles and the furthest was 115 miles. It is a puzzle to figure out which town was sixty-six miles east of Albany, which one was one hundred miles, and if these are names of men who lived in these towns.

We know that the captain, Daniel Pomeroy, was from Northampton so all the men who marched eighty miles must also have come from Northampton. He stayed on to serve until October 31, 1778. Before and after the war, Daniel Pomeroy ran a tavern, called the “red tavern” on Northampton’s Main Street. He was the fourth generation of Pomeroys to live on Main Street and own a tavern.

This payroll shows that many men participated in the American Revolution, even if they were part of a local militia and even if they served for only a short time. July would have been an okay time to leave their farms for a month. Their crops were already growing in the fields. The soldiers would be home in August in time to harvest them. While they were gone, their wives and children worked the farm.

Every company had a clerk whose job it was to keep detailed records, like this payroll. He used his good math skills to add up the long column of figures, and then he copied the record several times so that everyone in charge had a copy.