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For over two decades,
members and associates of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) have
collectively researched the Battle of Valcour Island. Their historians
and genealogists have searched through many archives and libraries. Their
survey crews and divers have diligently explored the depths of the lake.
Contemporary journals and
reports indicated that an American gunboat had sunk during the retreat
from the Valcour battle. Researchers were confident this gunboat was
still resting on the bottom of the lake. However, due to the separation
and confusion of the fleet during its harried retreat, accounts of the
vessels’ fates were conflicting. The exact location of the gunboat
remained a mystery. Many organized searches were launched throughout the
latter half of the twentieth century in an effort to locate it.¹ In 1997 a
LCMM survey crew, deploying side-scan sonar, discovered the vessel, intact
and upright.
Although the gunboat had
been located, its identity was uncertain due to the contradictory
contemporary accounts. An LCMM research team, that included Peter
Barranco, Russell Bellico, Art Cohn, Robert Maguire and George Quintal,
intensified their efforts in an attempt to correctly identify the
gunboat². It was during this exhaustive research effort that George
Quintal discovered the pension records of Jonas Holden.
 Jonas
Holden was a farmer from Westford, Massachusetts. Soon
after the start of the American Revolution, Jonas became a tireless
patriot. He would fight vigorously for the American cause
throughout the conflict and witness the British surrender in
Yorktown, Virginia.
Mr. Quintal would tell us,
that in his six-year career as a patriot, Jonas would advance in rank from
private to lieutenant; be involved in six major battles, suffering wounds
in three; and march over two thousand miles! Jonas was also among a
detachment of Capt. Joshua Parker’s company that volunteered to reinforce
General Arnold’s Lake Champlain fleet.³
Jonas Holden was laid to rest in South Wallingford, Vermont's Doty
Cemetery. His gravesite is lovingly maintained to this day.
Many thanks to
Wallingford Town Clerk Joyce Barbieri, Mrs. Carolyn Holden Patch and her
husband Earl Patch for leading us to the Holden plot in Doty Cemetery.
(Click on the photo to see a large-size image).
The inscription includes this tribute to the patriot:
"A friend sincere and faithful
A citisen [sic] virtuous and useful
A soldier brave and valiant"
Although his entire pension record is extraordinary, it was Jonas’
account of his involvement in the Battle of Valcour Island that would be
of greatest interest to the VBRP participants. During the battle he
had received injuries to his right arm and side when one of the New York’s
cannon accidentally exploded!
 Left:
Jonas Holden’s pension application may have looked like this. This
image is from an LCMM
movie, A Key to Liberty. A Key to Liberty is a re-enactment
of the Battle of Valcour Island featuring the LCMM’s replica
gunboat
Philadelphia II. The story is told from the perspective
of Bayze Wells, First Officer of the American gunboat Providence.
In this image taken from the movie, Bayze Wells (played by painter/actor/LCMM
volunteer Ernest Haas) recounts his service on Lake Champlain
to a pension officer (played by LCMM director/researcher/actor
Arthur Cohn). The video may be purchased from the
museum store. (Click the thumbnail
to see a full-size image).
Mr. Quintal had discovered
an invaluable link between historical record and the Valcour cannon! But
that was only the start of what Mr. Quintal would be able to tell us about
the broken gun…
Continued here:
Lieut. Thomas Rogers
Back to the VBRP HOME PAGE
Note: Over the winter months of
2002 and 2003, members of the Westford Museum and Historical Society
meticulously located, copied, organized and transcribed the Holden pension
documents from U.S. National Archive records. They have also made them
available through the Westford Colonial Minutemen Website. Many
thanks to Marilyn Day, Bob Oliphant, and Webmaster Daniel Lacroix for
making this material so readily accessible. Links to the Westford
Colonial Minutemen Website are provided below.
Jonas Holden Pension Record Documents from the
Westford Colonial Minutemen Website:
http://lacroixfam.home.comcast.net/wmm/Holden_Pension_Records.html .
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