American Army of Two

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The American (sometimes Lighthouse) Army of Two is the name commonly given to Rebecca and Abigail Bates, daughters of Scituate lighthouse keeper Simeon Bates.

In September, 1814, Bates was away from the station with most of his family when the British landed a warship near the harbor with the intent of sending a raiding party into the town. Soon the ship launched a small boat filled with soldiers. Rebecca and Abigail, left alone with their mother at the station, realized that there was no time to warn citizens of the impending attack. Seizing a fife and drum that had been left behind at the station, they began to play. The soldiers, assuming that the sound signaled the approach of the town militia, retreated hastily.

The sisters lived to be quite old, and Rebecca took to selling affidavits for ten cents apiece in later years, always swearing the story to be true.