He was also town clerk for a total of two years, having first been elected in 1778,[6] and selectman for two terms, with his first election the same year.[7]
He "was a volunteer at the battle of Lexington. ... [In 1776, he] served nineteen days at Castle Island, Dec. 11 to Dec. 30, 1776; went on the expedition to Providence, R.I., May 8 to July 8, 1777; re-enlisted, and served from March 23 to April 5, 1778, and was commissioned captain of the Eighth Company in the Suffolk Regiment, July 2, 1778. He was promoted to be major, April 1, 1780, and became colonel of the Boston regiment in 1784." He joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in 1786.[1]
Bookseller
After the war Battelle sold and published books[9] from his shop in Boston on State Street (ca.1783-1785)[10] and Marlboro Street (1785-ca.1787).[11][12] In addition to books imported from London, he stocked American publications such as Isaiah Thomas' Almanack[13] and Noah Webster's Grammatical Institutes.
Personal life
Portrait of Anna Durant, wife of Ebenezer Battelle; by Gilbert Stuart, 1810 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Battelle married Anna Durant; children included Ebenezer Battelle (b.1778) and Thomas Battelle (b.1781).[1] Battelle and his family settled in Marietta, Ohio, around 1789.[14]
On July 26, 1783, Henry Belcher of Boston wrote to Battelle asking to be paid $8 ($244.00 in 2023) for a beaver skin hat that Belcher sold to Battelle but for which he had not yet received payment.[15]
^ abcRoberts. History of the Military company of the Massachusetts, now called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. 1637-1888, Volume 2. A. Mudge & son, printers, 1897.
^Letter from Fisher Ames to Rufus Putman, 1791. Memoirs of Rufus Putnam and certain official papers and correspondence. Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1903.
^Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University, 1636-1915. Harvard University Press, 1915
^An oration, delivered at Marietta, April 7, 1789, in commemoration of the commencement of the settlement formed by the Ohio Company. By Solomon Drown, Esq. M.B. / Early American Imprints, Series 1, no. 21802
