Shadrach Snell was a 19-year-old fifer who was born in Rhode Island and raised in Martinsburg, New York. Still in his teens, he joined the first group of American soldiers passing through Lewis County and, upon reaching Sackets Harbor, enlisted in Colonel Christopher P. Bellinger’s Volunteer Regiment. He later reenlisted in Captain Benjamin Forsyth’s company of the 1st Rifle Regiment. During the War of 1812, Snell was captured by British forces on September 6, 1814, during the Plattsburgh campaign and was subsequently sent to Dartmoor Prison in Princetown, England. After approximately six months in captivity, he died of smallpox (variola) on March 16, 1815, only weeks before the release of the American prisoners began. Snell was buried at the American Prisoner of War Cemetery in Dartmoor Forest, Devon, England.