Richard Hill Gets His Due-- Part 3: His Story

Historian Hern Adams of Portland, Maine, has found information on the life of Richard Hill, including newspaper accounts of his death. 

Hill was born about 1792, but it is not clear if he was born in Portland or moved there later in life.  records show that during the War of 1812, he served on the  U.S. Gunboat  47 with the New York Flotilla.

"The U.S. Navy was not segregated then, and that might have been the first time in his life that Hill was on equal footing with his co-workers," Adams said.  His gunboat was probably in  Baltimore Harbor on  September 14, 1814, when the British shelled Fort McHenry.  "Both Hill and Key witnessed one of the iconic moments of U.S. history," according to Adams.

I have not been able to find if Gunboat 47 was at the battle.

After the war, he returned to Portland and worked as a common laborer.  He was one of 400 Blacks who lived in  neighborhoods  at the foot of Munjoy Hill.  At one point, he applied for and received 160 acres of government land in the Ohio hills as an 1812 veteran.  Adams said Hill probably sold it for a fraction of what it was worth.

That was the only veterans benefit he ever received (well, now he has the government-issued headstone, even with the incorrect death date).

--Brock-Perry