Aquilla Kimball was born in Bradford MA on Sept.28, 1755, the son of Isaac Kimball and Anna Tenney.

While we don’t have  Aquilla’s account of his participation in the Revolutionary War, we can have a pretty good idea of his participation because of the record of the units that he was serving in.  On April 19, 1775, the day of Lexington and Concord,  he enlisted in Bradford at age nineteen, in Capt. Gage’s Company, Frye’s Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia.  Nathaniel Gage had a company of 48 men and they probably left Bradford before dark, arriving at Boston 7 days later after marching 36 miles.  In June 1775 Frye’s Regiment started entrenching Breed’s Hill, in Charlestown, building a redoubt.  At the time, Lt. Col. James Brickett was in charge of the regiment, because Col. James Frye was indisposed with the gout.  Frye crossed the Charlestown Neck under fire the next day to take command.  Frye’s regiment took heavy casualties during the battle of Bunker Hill (actually Breed’s Hill) because they occupied the redoubt on the top of the hill.  Brickett, a surgeon, left the hill with serious wounds and helped to care for the wounded.  There isn’t any record of casualties from Gage’s company, and there is some indication that they might have been left to guard the neck, although I don’t recall where I saw that.  He is listed in the same company in Cambridge on  September 6, 1775.  From June 16, 1776 to August 1, 1776, he was in J. Smith’s Co., J. Whitney’s Regt.  (To be Continued)