William Shepard

(1737–1817) Revolutionary War army officer and U.S. Representative. An active patriot, he enlisted as a lieutenant colonel in the Continental army at the outbreak of the war, fighting during the siege of Boston and in the Continental loss at New York City and retreating north with Gen. George Washington's troops. He wintered at Valley Forge in 1778 and returned to Massachusetts as a recruiter. In 1786 he was commissioned major general in the New Hampshire militia, in which role he helped put down Shays's Rebellion (1786). In 1796 Shepard was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served three terms.

From The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military in Oxford Reference.