American AcornsHeitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army (1893), p. 101: Brooks, John (Mass.): Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant 7th Massachusetts. Entry for John Brooks: captain of minute men at Lexington and Concord 1775, major, and lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 7th Massachusetts from 1778 to 1783.
Image · dated 1893 · source: Internet Archive (public-domain scan); heitmanregister00franrich.
Transcription
Word-for-word transcription (spellings kept; uncertain letters in brackets).
Brooks, John (Mass). Captain of a Company of Massachusetts Minute Men at Lexington and Concord, 19th April, 1775; Major of Bridge’s Massa- chusetts Regiment, May to December, 1775; Major 19th Continental In- fantry, 1st January, 1776; Lieuten- ant-Colonel 8th Massachusetts, 1st November, 1776; Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant 7th Massachusetts, 11th November, 1778, and served to 12th June, 1783; Brigadier-General United States Army, 11th April, 1792; hon- orably discharged 1st November, 1796. (Died 2d March, 1825.)
Excerpt: the entry relevant to the family's research, not the whole page.
How it is shown: Complete page as supplied; no crop, no retouch, no search highlight.
Keep in mind: Officer chronology only (context for a unit named in the person's own record); the page names no Oak, and no personal service is inferred from it. Context for John Oaks of Exeter: his own 1818 pension declaration names service of nine months under Capt. White, Col. Brooks's regiment (Confirmed as his statement; the colonel's identification with this Brooks is Likely).