Andrew McClary

Andrew McClary
Detail of McClary from Trumbull painting. Major McClary was the last American soldier to fall during the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Born	Ulster, Ireland
Died	June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Buried at	Medford, Massachusetts
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	New Hampshire militia Continental Army
Rank	Major

Andrew McClary (1730 – June 17, 1775) was a soldier and major in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. McClary was born in Ulster, Ireland and came to colonial America with his parents at age sixteen where they lived on a farm in New Hampshire. Here the McClary family built a tavern which was where town meetings were held. Many of New Hampshire's prominent and influential men had come from the McClary family. In session Andrew McClary had also become the Town Clerk and soon a notable community leader during the years before the revolution. In the mid 1700s New Hampshire frontier McClary gained much of his field experience leading expeditions against hostile Indians in the area.

Just before the revolution McClary planned and led an attack on a British supply depot at the castle at Portsmouth. McClary was said to have been a natural leader and one who greatly inspired morale among the New Hampshire militia. During the revolution he assembled a company of men in New Hampshire and marched over seventy miles to Boston and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. During the retreat he was the last soldier to leave the battle site. Soon after he was killed when he returned to the site to survey British activity, the last American soldier to die during the battle.

Andrew McClary was the second son of his father, Andrew Senior, who emigrated from Ulster, Ireland, with his wife and children to the British colonies in 1726 to escape British oppression that was common in Ireland in those days. In 1733 his family moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire, where they lived until 1738 and then moved to Epsom, where the elder McClary soon died. McClary stood well over six feet tall, with a straight, proportioned and athletic build, with blue eyes and was known as a jovial and generous man. The McClary family were among the most prominent and respected families in the Suncook Valley region.

McClary and his older brother John McClary were the leading influential men in all the town and military affairs. John became a colonel just before the American Revolution began. His nephew Michael would later become General Michael McClary. McClary served as the town clerk. His entries in the town books revealed a thorough knowledge of business and language and according to contemporary historian John C. French, exhibited a unique literary and writing style. His last entry in the town's records were made approximately one year before he died.