Captain Moody Dustin, 1st Regiment, N.H. Continental Line
Moody Dustin was born around 1742. It is thought he was a native of Dunstable, Massachusetts. By the start of the American Revolution he was living in Litchfield, New Hampshire.
Moody Dustin was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the 16th Continental Infantry Regiment (previously known as Sargent’s Regiment and later known as the 8th Massachusetts Regiment, Continental Line) on January 1, 1776. On November 8, 1776, he was transferred to the 1st New Hampshire Regiment, Continental Line and commissioned as a First Lieutenant in Captain William Scott’s company. During the Continental Army’s encampment at Valley Forge, First Lieutenant Dustin is listed in Captain Scott’s company and was present for the entire encampment from December 1777 to June 1778. Furthermore, First Lieutenant Dustin was promoted to Captain during that time on March 5, 1778. Captain Dustin served until December 1783. One of his letters was inserted by Kidder in his “History of the 1st New Hampshire Regiment” that detailed:
Stony Point, Oct. 17, 1783
Sir: I would thank you to let me know whether Thomas Hunt has got the months of Feb., March, and April for 1783, due to him. Please write the first opportunity.
As for news I have none. If you have any, pray let me hear from you.
My compliments to the officers. Tell Major Morrell that I want to hear from him as soon as possible.
Yours to serve,
Moody Dustin
To Lieut. Blake, paymaster of
The New Hampshire Line,
West Point, N.Y.
Kidder identifies that this letter is significant for a number of reasons. It highlights a connection between Captain Dustin and Major Morrill who had been a Captain in the 1st New Hampshire but had been promoted to Major and transferred to the 2nd New Hampshire. It furthermore highlights that at that time in late 1783, that the 1st New Hampshire was on duty at Stony Point. Finally, it reveals that First Lieutenant Thomas Blake of the 1st New Hampshire had been promoted to become the Paymaster for all that constituted the New Hampshire Line.
After the war, Captain Moody Dustin removed to Claremont, New Hampshire where he died August 11, 1810.
Sources: Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army (Baltimore, 1914), 162; Frederic Kidder, History of the First New Hampshire Regiment in the War of the Revolution (Albany, 1868), 114; National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Lineage Book – National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Volume XXXII (Washington, D.C., 1911), 119; Selected Wartime Service Records for Captain Moody Dustin
