Born in
Westfield in the
Province of Massachusetts Bay, he attended the common schools, engaged in agricultural pursuits, and served in the
French and Indian Wars for six years. He was a member of the
committee of correspondence for Westfield in 1774, and was a lieutenant colonel of
Minutemen in April 1775 and served under Colonel
Timothy Danielson. He entered the
Continental Army in May 1775 as lieutenant colonel and was commissioned Colonel of the
4th Massachusetts Regiment on October 6, 1776, serving throughout the
Revolutionary War, including winter at
Valley Forge,
Pennsylvania, where he commanded the 4th Regiment of Massachusetts Continentals, under the overall command of General
John Glover. His name is immortalized along with his comrades on stone monuments there. Many letters still exist between Shepard and other commanders, including General
George Washington, the
Marquis de Lafayette,
John Hancock,
Samuel Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, General
Henry Knox and other illustrious founding fathers.'', by
John Trumbull. Shepard was a member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1785 and 1786 and was
selectman for Westfield from 1784 to 1787. In this time local farmers and veterans of the war began to rebel after months of destitution and taxation they believed to be unfairly levied by the powers from Boston. Many were consigned to debtors' prison. Shepard, then a major general in the state militia, called to duty the Fourth Division of the Massachusetts militia in 1786 and defended the
Springfield Armory during what became known as
Shays' Rebellion (after one of its principal leaders,
Daniel Shays), ordering defenders of the arsenal to fire cannons at attacking the rebels at "waist height" with cannons filled with anti-personnel
grape shot. Two of the insurgents were mortally wounded. Messages to Governor
James Bowdoin expressed his deep regret at the shedding of blood. He kept in constant contact with Governor Bowdoin, Sam Adams, John Hancock, and General
Benjamin Lincoln, who arrived in a blizzard from Boston just after the Springfield arsenal attack to pursue Shays and his men into the surrounding towns. That order would earn Shepard a lasting reputation as the "murderer of brethren." The local neighbors were so angry that they mutilated his horses, gouging out their eyes, to his horror. He was a member of the
Governor's council of Massachusetts from 1792 to 1796, and was appointed in 1796 to treat with the
Penobscot Indians and, in 1797, with the
Six Nations. Shepard was elected as a
Federalist to the
Fifth,
Sixth, and
Seventh Congresses, serving from March 4, 1797, to March 3, 1803, representing the
2nd congressional district; he previously unsuccessfully ran for this district in 1792 (for its
Hampshire County seat) and 1794. After retiring, he resumed his agricultural pursuits and died in Westfield, essentially penniless. ==In popular culture==