Revolutionary Malta

 Malta Town Historian Tom Williams, our speaker last Thursday,  has been researching who from the town was enrolled in the Patriot forces of the American Revolution. It is a timely inquiry, as the nation prepares for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year, and the county prepares for the anniversary of the crucial Battles of Saratoga, which were fought in 1777.

One complication is that the town of Malta did not yet exist at the time, being part of Stillwater. Nor did Saratoga County, being part of Albany County. Hence most of the men who served were in the Albany County Militia. And the Saratoga battles were fought primarily by the regular Continental Army, with militia troops held in reserve.

Tom estimated the population of the area now defined as Malta was about 700 in 1775, about 200 of them "fighting-age men." Some fled south to avoid the British army advancing under Gen. John Burgoyne. Others, loyalists, fled north to Canada before or after the British invasion.

Prominent among the local militia members were Captain Michael Dunning and his sons, whose property was on what is now Dunning Street east of Northway Exit 12. Captain Dunning is among those buried at the cemetery on the north side of the road, where he used to live. The militia trained nearby at what is now Parade Ground Village.