Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman

Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman

NOTE: Isaac has no DAR number, because he had no descendants.

Isaac Sherman was the son of Roger Sherman by his first wife, Elizabeth Hartwell, sister of Moses Hartwell (Yale 1762), who was born in New Milford, Connecticut, on June 22, 1753. His mother died when he was seven years old, and the next year the family moved to New Haven.

He was teaching in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1774, and was looking for occupation in Massachusetts when the attack on Lexington took place in 1775. He immediately entered the service there and received a commission as a captain. After the Siege of Boston, he went with the army to New York, was promoted to be major of his regiment in March, 1776, and came to be regarded as an active and valuable officer.

On the formation of the Continental Line, he entered the service of his native State, and was commissioned in January, 1777, as Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Connecticut. His final rank (from October, 1779) was that of Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant. His own statement of his services is given in a letter towards the end of his life, as follows:

I entered the army immediately after the Battle of Lexington, and continued therein till sometime after the preliminary articles of treaty were announced in the United States. I was at the siege of Boston, with General Washington at the taking of the Germans at Trenton, commanded the advance guard into Princeton on the third of January, 1777, at the battle of Monmouth, with General Wayne in the taking of Stony point, and many other actions and skirmishes in my power to enumerate. I underwent great hardships, privations and dangers. At White Marsh in the close of the year 1777, I was placed in front of the American Army 17 days, was twice in action, in which nearly 120 brave Americans lost their lives under my command.

The testimony of competent critics is that he was an excellent disciplinarian, and his record is among the most honorable in the Connecticut Line. General Wayne, in a letter written on August 10, 1779, after the attack on Stony Point, to the President of Congress, mentions Lieutenant Colonel Sherman as one of those whose good conduct and intrepidity justly entitled them to notice.

In 1785 he was appointed by Congress one of the assist- ant-surveyors of Western territory, under Captain Thomas Hutchins, then Geographer-general of the United States. A few years later he was interested in the " Mississippi Company," and proposed raising a band of old soldiers to settle on the banks of that river, but the scheme fell through.

His residence was in Philadelphia in March, 1795, when he deeded to others of the family his residuary rights in his father's real estate in New Haven. His name is given in the directory of New York City in 1796. In later years he lived mainly in Northern New Jersey, with occasional visits to his friends in New Haven. He was never married.

He secured a pension under the act of Congress of 1818; but died, at the house of Zohas Hetfield, in Essex County, New Jersey, on February 16, 1819, in his 66th year. His meagre estate was administered by Levi Hetfield.

Two of his letters are quoted by Professor Johnston in his Yale in the Revolution, and two are given in Dawson's Assault on Stony Point (pp. 131-33, 136).

Name: Isaac Sherman
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 17 Jun 1753
Birthplace: New Milford
Parent: Roger Sherman
Parent: Elizabeth Hartwell

Connecticut, U.S., Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection)

Name: Isaac Sherman
Birth Date: 1750-1759
Birthplace: Connecticut, USA
Volume: 158
Page Number: 117
Reference: Record of Conn. Men in Mil. and Naval Service During the Rev. War, 1775-1783. By Henry P. Johnston. Hartford. 1889. (17,779p.):136, 157, 229, 241, 301-2, 308, 343, 374

Name: Isaac Sherman
Gender: Male
Military Date: 24 Dec 1777
Military Place: Connecticut, USA
State or Army Served: Connecticut
Regiment: Connecticut Regiment
Rank: Lieutenant Colonel

U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783

Name: Isaac Sherman (see sources)
Probate Date: 12 Apr 1819
Probate Place: Essex County, New Jersey, USA
Inferred Death Date: 1819
Inferred Death Place: New Jersey, USA
Individuals Listed: Isaac Sherman

3rd Regiment: Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs of the 6th Connecticut – eight companies all from Connecticut. The 1st Battalion was led by Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman of the 2nd Connecticut, son of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, he had fought at Trenton and Princeton.

"My grandfather was a friend of Lafayette, who mentions him in one of his letters, the original of which is in my possession. One of my mother's brothers, Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman, led the advance at Princeton, and was himself intimate with Washington and Lafayette. He was a very brave officer and commanded a Connecticut regiment at the storming of Stony Point. He is honorably mentioned in Gen. Wayne's report of the action. Washington alludes to him in one of his letters to Lafayette, as one of his friends whom Lafayette will be glad to see if he will visit this country once more. There is, in the State Department, an amusing correspondence between Col. Sherman and Gen. Wayne, in which he complains that Mad Anthony does great injustice in his report to the soldiers from other States than Pennsylvania. Mad Anthony was mad at the letter. But after a rather significant request from Gen. Washington, he repaired the wrong." - U.S. Senator George F. Hoar

ADDITIONAL SOURCES:

• To General George Washington from Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman, 14 December 1777
• From General George Washington to Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman, 24 March 1778
• General George Washington to Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman, May 30, 1779
• American Revolution Collection: Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman's orderly book, 1778
• African American Revolutionary War Soldier Receives Pay from Connecticut - Seth Keller

Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman Borrows $150 from Alexander Hamilton (not repaid for 3 years)

• To Alexander Hamilton from Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman, 16 October 1790
• To Alexander Hamilton from Lt. Colonel Isaac Sherman, 5 February 1791

NOTE: $150 in 1789 would be worth roughly $6,500 in 2022.