In the spring of 1775, 32-year-old George Shannon left his wife and son in their Canterbury home on the east end of Ayers Road to join the New Hampshire First Regiment.
Led by Colonel John Stark, he found himself defending Charlestown at sunrise on June 17 when, confronted by the force of the British Army, the American militia was forced to retreat. Britain’s pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill that day cost Shannon his life and those of approximately 500 American revolutionaries, among them 32 other New Hampshire natives.
250 years later, Shannon’s courage still lingers in his hometown’s collective memory.
A new memorial stone erected in the northeast corner of Canterbury’s Center Cemetery honors the fallen Shannon – “citizen” and “soldier” – in addition to “all those who fought for independence.”
The monument is the result of the town’s nearly decade-long Veterans Project, which began in 2016 as an effort to identify all veterans interred in Canterbury cemeteries.
“At that time, the number of known veterans was 67,” said John Goegel, chairman of the Canterbury Cemetery Trustees, who initiated the project. “We now recognize and honor 185 veterans.”
Shannon was one of 14 Canterbury citizens to join the Captain Gordon Hutchins Company in Concord before trekking to Medford, Massachusetts with Stark.
According to Goegel, there were as many as 26 Canterbury residents in the regiment.
Rebeca Pereira can be reached at rpereira@cmonitor.com
