Andrew McClary of Epsom Andrew McClary | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Detail of McClary and Knowlton from Trumbull painting. McClary is standing behind Thomas Knowlton, holding musket. Major McClary was the last American soldier to fall during the Battle of Bunker Hill. | |
| Born | 1730 Ulster, Ireland |
| Died | June 17, 1775 (aged 44–45) Charlestown, Massachusetts |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  United Colonies |
| Service | Rogers' Rangers Continental Army |
| Rank | Major |
| Battles / wars | American Revolutionary War |
Andrew McClary (1730 – June 17, 1775)[a] was an Irish soldier and major in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. McClary was born in Ulster, Ireland and came to colonial America with his parents at age sixteen where they lived on a farm in New Hampshire. Here the McClary family built a local tavern, where town meetings were also held. Many of New Hampshire's prominent and influential men had come from the McClary family. In session Andrew McClary had also become the Town Clerk and soon a notable community leader during the years before the revolution. In the mid 1700s New Hampshire frontier McClary gained much of his field experience leading expeditions against hostile Indians in the area.
Just before the revolution McClary planned and led an attack on a British supply depot at the castle at Portsmouth. McClary was said to have been a natural leader and one who greatly inspired morale among the New Hampshire militia. During the revolution he assembled a company of men in New Hampshire and marched over seventy miles to Boston and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. During the retreat he was the last soldier to leave the battle site. Soon after he was killed when he returned to the site to survey British activity, the last American soldier to die during the battle.
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