Soon after this second marriage the alarm of war with England sounded, and among the first to respond was the old ranger and Indian fighter, Ebenezer Webster.  In the town which had grown up near his once solitary dwelling he raised a company of two hundred men, and marched at their head, a splendid looking leader, dark, massive, and tall, to join the forces at Boston.  We get occasional glimpses of this vigorous figure during the war.  At Dorchester, Washington consulted him about the state of feeling in New Hampshire.  At Bennington, we catch sight of him among the first who scaled the breastworks, and again coming out of the battle, his swarthy skin so blackened with dust and gunpowder that he could scarcely be recognized.  We hear of him once more at West Point, just after Arnold’s treason, on guard before the general’s tent, and Washington says to him, “Captain Webster, I believe I can trust you.”  That was what everybody seems to have felt about this strong, silent, uneducated man.  His neighbors trusted him.  They gave him every office in their gift, and finally he was made judge of the local court.  In the intervals of his toilsome and adventurous life he had picked up a little book-learning, but the lack of more barred the way to the higher honors which would otherwise have been easily his.  There were splendid sources of strength in this man, the outcome of such a race, from which his children could draw.  He was, to begin with, a magnificent animal, and had an imposing bodily presence and appearance.  He had courage, energy, and tenacity, all in high degree.  He was business-like, a man of few words, determined, and efficient.  He had a great capacity for affection and self-sacrifice, noble aspirations, a vigorous mind, and, above all, a strong, pure character which invited trust.  Force of will, force of mind, force of character; these were the three predominant qualities in Ebenezer Webster.  His life forms the necessary introduction to that of his celebrated son, and it is well worth study, because we can learn from it how much that son got from a father so finely endowed, and how far he profited by such a rich inheritance.

By his first wife, Ebenezer Webster had five children.  By his second wife, Abigail Eastman, a woman of good sturdy New Hampshire stock, he had likewise five.  Of these, the second son and fourth child was born on the eighteenth of January, 1782, and was christened Daniel.  The infant was a delicate and rather sickly little being.  Some cheerful neighbors predicted after inspection that it would not live long, and the poor mother, overhearing them, caught the child to her bosom and wept over it.  She little dreamed of the iron constitution hidden somewhere in the small frail body, and still less of all the glory and sorrow to which her baby was destined.