Lieutenant Edmund Munro was no stranger to war. During Seven Years’ War, he had served on the New York frontier as an ensign in Rogers’ Rangers and done garrison duty at Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Crown Point. At the close of the war, he returned to his hometown of Lexington, MA, where he worked as a cordwainer (a maker of shoes) and ran a short-lived potash works. He married Rebekah Harrington in 1769, and the two had four children in quick succession, although their first child died in infancy.
In April 1775, war came almost literally to the Munros’ doorstep. As part of the Lexington militia, Munro was present on Lexington Green for the skirmish with British soldiers that marked the opening of the Revolutionary War. He largely spent the first year of the war at home with his family, but in July 1776, war came calling again. Munro joined Colonel Jonathan Reed’s regiment of Middlesex County militia as a lieutenant and quartermaster. He left Rebekah, 5-year-old Beka, 2-year-old Pamela, and 9-month-old Edmund Jr. behind to march with Reed’s regiment to reinforce Ticonderoga.
On August 5, 1776—250 years ago today—Munro and his regiment had made it as far as Charlestown in western New Hampshire, where he wrote this letter to Rebekah. The letter carries “no news that is of any consequence”, Munro claims, but is filled with expressions of his love for his family. “My dear,” he begins, “These lines wait upon you with as sincere Love & respect as ever warm’d the brest of man… I wou’d have you write me every opportunity. You may Send Every Week.” He sends love to “Beka, Pamy, & the only Son” and closes the letter, “I am your Loving Husband till Death”.
Munro was a veteran and had risked his life before, but when he served in the Seven Years’ War, he was a young man, unmarried and unattached. Now, as a father and husband just past his 40th birthday, he had more to leave behind. He could only hope and pray that he would return unscathed from his time at Ticonderoga.
Learn more about this letter
(object ID MS.1963) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29989