“This is also close to home for me too, as the Battle of Saratoga was fought a few miles from my home,” Piwowarski said. “I’ve walked the ground at Breymann Redoubt many times. I will think Private Barrett’s sacrifice again the next time I am there.”
The Lord’s said they both had an interest in researching their families. When they learned about Barrett, they visited Saratoga National Historical Park to see where he died, Steve Lord explained.
They also visited the national cemetery and learned of the opportunity to place a memorial marker there from Lamb.
The Lords spent about 100 hours doing the necessary research to document Oliver Barrett’s service, order a marker from the Veterans Administration and organize the October 19 ceremony.
Since Oliver Barrett’s remains are still on the battlefield where he fought, it was appropriate to allow him to rest there, but commemorate his service, according to the Lords.
“Being interested in history for much of our lives, we feel that it is important that future generations know where we, as a country, have come from, so that they, thoughtfully, can decide where it is best for us to go,” Steve said.
Lamb suggested they ask the New York National Guard to provide an honor guard.
“Private Oliver Barrett was a volunteer, a Minuteman, essentially today’s National Guardsmen and women. He is one of us,” Piwowarski said.
The memorial service included descendants of Oliver Barrett; representatives of the 10th Massachusetts Regiment and Westford Colonial Minutemen reenactors; Eric Schnitzer, the Saratoga National Battlefield historian; and the Sons of the American Revolution.
“In today’s ceremony, as we grasp hands, we reach back 245 years and grasp hands with Oliver Barrett and the soldiers at Saratoga, remembering and honoring them,” said the Reverend Jamie Hamilton, the rector at All Saints Episcopal Church in the Lord’s hometown.
After a solemn firing party salute and folding of the flag, Capt. Eric Sampson, leader of the honor guard detachment, presented the flag to Ann Lord.
Taps were not played as a final tribute since the bugle call, used at military funerals, was not written until the Civil War. Instead, reenactors from the Sons of the American Revolution fired a cannon salute to Barrett’s service.
“This event is significant to me,” said Sgt. Ryan Gosse, a member of the Honor Guard. “This is the first veteran I’ve honored who died during the birth of the nation.”
Oliver Barrett was born January 9, 1726, in Chelmsford, Mass. He made casks and barrels from timber. In 1754 he married Anna Fiske of Lexington, Mass., and together they had seven children.
By 1770, Barrett lived in Westford and joined his fellow townsmen as a Minuteman. He mustered for the Lexington Alarm on April 19,1775, as a member of Col. William Prescott’s regiment.
The capture of the Breymann Redoubt at Saratoga marked the final defeat of the British effort to capture Albany, secure the Hudson River valley to New York City and choke off the rebellion in New England.
The action was the first surrender of British forces in history to that time, Schnitzer said.
The success at Saratoga is widely considered the turning point of the American Revolutionary War.
Barrett was most likely buried on the battlefield near where he fell. Being a private, he would not have had a headstone.
Gosse said his presence means as much to the Soldiers as the families they turn out for.
“I love doing Honor Guard missions because I get to give something back to veterans who gave everything for their country,” Gosse said. “Honoring them at their funeral seems like the least that we can do.”
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This piece is written by Col. Richard Goldenberg from the New York National Guard. Want to feature your story? Reach out to us at [email protected].
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