Hezekiah Wyman

This site is dedicated to the memory and purpose of the remarkable warrior and partisan, Hezekiah Wyman, in the First American Revolution, whose extraordinary marksmanship and riding skills set the Redcoats to fear and anguish; he helped to set loose the fetters of government oppression. They referred to him in dispatch as “Death on a Pale Horse”.

“On the 19th of April 1775 when word was spread to gather in Lexington, news of the British advance came to Cambridge Street where Hezekiah Wyman, fifty-five years of age, mounted his white horse and with musket in hand, set off for Lexington. Like other men from Woburn, he was too late for the fighting at Lexington Common but, continuing up the road, met the British soldiers returning from Concord. All along the route back to Boston was made the legend of the white horseman who charged again and again against the British, killing and wounding a number of the enemy, but always escaping untouched by the shower of bullets around him. According to the newspaper account (first printed in the Boston Pearl, repeated in the Woburn Journal, 29 July 1887) “his exploits were well nigh fabulous.”

When he met the British he began blazing away at them vigorously with his deadly firearm. Mounted on his strong steed he rode furiously in the direction of the British ranks. His aim was taken at close quarters, and his shots were sent with constant fatal effect.

“His tall gaunt form, his grey locks floating in the breeze, and the color of his steed distinguishing him from the other Americans, and the British gave him the name of ”Death on the Pale Horse”. The utmost endeavors of his enemies to kill him were unavailing. He passed through the whole melee unscathed and unhurt. Once a bayonet charge drove the old man and the party with which he was acting to a distance from the foe, but he was out of ammunition and was then compelled to pick some up, but he ere long returned to the charge and this time killed an officer, and after that exploit, the report of his piece was frequently heard till the close of the fight. His powerful white horse careening at full speed over the hills with the dauntless old man on his back, was continuously seen. The British learned to dread the frequent appearances of this dire rider at unexpected points along he route of their passage, for his aim was true, and the economical principals in which he was trained forbade his wasting powder and ball.

He lingered at Menotomy long enough to aid in a plot laid by Ammi Cutter for the taking of the British baggage wagon and their guards (with the old men of Menotomy)… The story says that Hezekiah pursued the British even after they entered Charlestown and then, turning his horse’s head, returned to his home.

Wyman’s name appears on a list of those who either paid for others to serve or did their own personal service in Captain Samuel Belknap’s company and is listed for five months service at Ticonderoga and three months in Jersey. In March 1777 the Town of Woburn voted to pay him 8 pounds, 16 shillings, and 10 pence in part for his service in the war. Wyman survived his part in the war as did the white mare, which he willed to one of his sons, and lived out his days, until his death during the summer of 1779 in his house not far from the corner of Cambridge and Wildwood streets (site of 195 Cambridge St.) He owned a large section of land upon which much of the west side is now built, where generations of descendants succeeded him. The neighborhood was often called Wyman Plains and, until recently, the family name was perpetuated through a succession of Wyman School.”

Written by Ellen Knight for the Winchester Archives

Bill Buppert is a retired officer from the US Army living in the high desert of the American Southwest with his wife and home-schooled family. He has been a writer for a number of publications to include www.lewrockwell.com. He is particularly interested in the issues of liberty, survival, shooting and military history.