Black War of 1812 Veteran Honored-- Part 2

The new gravestone was paid for by the federal government. Richard Hill's grave is located alongside Portland's black Revolutionary War veterans at the cemetery located at Congress and Montfort streets.

Larry Glatz said that 20,000 white Mainers in the state militia were called upon to defend Portland in 1814. Another 5,000 served in the U.S. Army. Most of the federal troops were buried in unmarked graves.

Hill was born around 1792 and they're not sure if he was born in Portland or moved there later. Records show him in service in 1812 on Gunboat 47 with the New York Flotilla. It is believed that he was at Baltimore Harbor on September 14, 1814, when Fort McHenry was attacked.

After the war, he returned to Portland and worked as a common laborer. He was one of the city's 400 blacks who lived in neighborhoods at the foot of Munjoy Hill. At one point, he applied for and got 160 acres of government land in Ohio as a War of 1812 veteran. He never moved there and probably sold it to a land speculator at a fraction of its cost.

His son, Richard L. Hill, was a troubled young man. He robbed a boot store as a teenager and went to jail. After his release, he killed his father.

An Interesting Story. --Brock-Perry