Pastor Thomas Alan was one of the men from the Black Robed Regiment and a commander of the Berkshire Militia.
He served as there chaplain and was a fighter through and through.
The best illustration I can give of him would be at the Battle of Bennington, Vermont, on August 16, 1777.
Even though Pastor Alan had his white preaching band on and his black preaching robe, he walked out ahead of the bluecoats that were positioned to fight and gave the enemy a chance to surrender.
However, one of their Tories spotted him and said, “That’s Pastor Alan, somebody pop him!”
They responded with musket fire and missed him when he gave them a chance to surrender, but one of them put a hole in his hat.
He went back to his men infuriated and stood by his brother Joseph and said, “Joe, I am a better shot than you are, so I will shoot and you will reload (Luke 11:21-22).”
They fought that battle all day and a few days later, one of the men from his congregation said, “Pastor Alan, I heard that you fought like a common soldier.”
Pastor Alan replied, “Oh yes, the fighting was hot and every man had to do his duty.”
The man replied, “Well, you’re a pastor, did you kill anybody?”
Pastor Alan replied, “I don’t know if I killed anybody, but there was this frequent flash that went off behind a bush and every time that flash went off one of our men would fall, so I took steady aim and fired at that flash,” he said. “I don’t know if I killed anybody, but I took out that flash!”
Pastor Alan was one of the heroes of the black robbed regiment who fought bravely for his country!
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