The Bangor Daily News has a story and pictures of a new tombstone being installed at the grave of Benjamin Gross. The new headstone replaces the original one that had cracked in two, due to age.
According to pension records, Benjamin Gross was born on Cape Cod, Mass., and got his first taste of battle when he enlisted in the Continental Army and took part in Gen. Philip Schuyler’s invasion of Canada in 1775. Afterward he was one of the 2,400 soldiers of George Washington’s army that crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776 and surprised and captured the Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J. He was with the army when it continued on to Princeton, N.J., and defeated the forces of Gen. George Cornwallis.
Years later, when British troops appeared at his home during the War of 1812, they found him sitting in his doorway. When asked why he did not run like many of the other locals, he told them he would never turn his back on “a rascally redcoat.” His life was spared. However, the British troops burned his home and confiscated his livestock. When Benjamin Gross died at age 94, he was said to have 350 living descendants.
You can read more and view the pictures in an article by Walter Griffin in the Bangor Daily News at http://goo.gl/Q4KFV
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