On September 6th, 1814 the small company known as the "Aiken's Volunteers" seemed to be everywhere. First they fought in the morning with an overwhelmed Militia being beaten back by the British on the Beekmantown Road, then the 17 lads, all in their mid-teens, fell back to the village in the afternoon and took up sniper positions in a still-standing stone mill on the east side of the Saranac River. Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812 says that "they garrisoned that mill-citadel most admirably."

 

On May 20, 1826 Congress passed a Resolution that rewarded the boys for their bravery by issuing each of them "one rifle, promised them by General Macomb, while commanding the Champlain Department, for their gallantry and patriotic services as a volunteer corps during the the siege of Plattsburg, in September one thousand eight hundred and fourteen. On each of which said rifles there shall be a plate containing an appropriate inscription."

 

The Resolution and subsequent presentation of the rifles is a unique page of American history and is the only instance of valor in battle being rewarded with a firearm. This rifle was awarded to Martin J. Aiken and was handed down in the Barton family. In later years Martin Aiken became a district attorney in Willsborough, Essex Co. and at age 37, on April 7th, 1828, he died, just two years after receiving his rifle.