Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2
1787-01-29
Bridge went to Salem, upon some business this day, and returned.
Miss Ellery and Miss Williams, her brother, Mr. Andrews and Freeman, drank tea at the professor's; I was sociable with Miss Jane, for the first Time. She is not destitute of personal charms, and has I believe a very good disposition. Mr. Andrews was quite elated with the news from Springfield, which arrived this evening. A party of 700 insurgents commanded by Luke Day,1 were put to flight, without a gun fired, and about 30 of them taken. Genl. Shepherd, had however been obliged to fire at a party headed by Shays. 3 men were killed, and 3 mortally wounded. Upon the whole, affairs in that quarter appear to take quite a favourable turn.
Day, of West Springfield, had his orders intercepted, and failed to lend support to Shays at the battle of the Springfield arsenal. After Lincoln's arrival in Springfield, both he and Shepard scattered Day's men in West Springfield; then Lincoln pursued Shays. Unable to secure a general pardon, Shays withdrew to Petersham, where, after a forced march in a snowstorm, Lincoln surprised and routed the insurgents. Most surrendered, although Shays and a few others escaped into New Hampshire. Within a month most insurgent opposition had ended (Ellery B. Crane, “Shays' Rebellion,” Worcester Society of Antiquity, Procs. ... For the Year 1881, p. 92–99; Robert J. Taylor, Western Massachusetts in the Revolution, Providence, 1954, p. 160–163).