USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume II > Part 8
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in the State Records of Connecticut, we may learn of rob- beries and rapes of defenseless women, the murder of two aged men, Benjamin English and Nathan Beers, during a reign of terror which goes far to blacken the record of the British and Hessian soldiers of the Revolution.
Tryon effected a landing on the east side of the harbor towards noon of the same day, and with his twelve hundred men or more, and the assistance of a cannonade from the fleet, succeeded in silencing Fort Hale with its armament of three guns and its garrison of nineteen men, after a brave and stub- born resistance, in which the garrison finally spiked the guns and retreated. Before beginning this military exploit, the handsome residence of Captain Amos Morris had been burned by Tryon's men, perhaps as a specimen of the im- munity which his proclamation promised. On his march to the commanding position known as Beacon Hill, he met with a reception in the afternoon similar to that which Garth had met in the morning .. The handful of militia and others who had gathered to resist the invader, harassed the enemy in true Lexington fashion, and inflicted and received some losses. A bronze tablet on Beacon Hill commemorates the defense of New Haven at this point, a defense as stubborn and brave as the annals of the Revolution can show, when the disparity of numbers is considered.
As usual in such marauding expeditions, the invading sol- diers gave themselves up to drunken rioting. The contem- porary diary of Dr. Ezra Stiles relates that on the next morn- ing "those fit for duty ( for they had been very drunk) crossed the ferry and joined Gov. Tryon's Corps or Division on Beacon Hill half a mile from the water." At this time four regiments of militia were coming to the rescue, and were placed in command of General Andrew Ward, who had
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directed the defensive movement of the previous day. These four regiments mustered about one thousand men, and proved sufficient to cause Tryon and his twenty-five hundred men to seek safety in flight, as usual in such cases. They embarked at once on board their ships in search of a safer field for their depredations, having burned at New Haven only a few warehouses and vessels.
The casualties of the Americans at New Haven were twenty-three killed and nineteen wounded. From Tryon's official report, taken for what it is worth, the loss of the in- vaders was nine killed, forty wounded, and twenty-five miss- ing. The proportion of wounded to killed among the Amer- icans as compared with the British appears to support the statement that practically no quarter was given to the Ameri- cans who were wounded.
On the morning of July 8th, Tryon with his Hessians and British appeared at Fairfield. Repeating the programme of the attack on New Haven, Garth's Division landed at the western portion of the town, and Tryon's division at the eastern. Although Fairfield was an easy prey, and although the proclamation which had been issued at New Haven was repeated here, the few men who could be mustered for the defense of the town showed true Connecticut grit and hero- ism, using a field-piece to advantage in opposing their ad- vance, and holding their little fort, with its garrison of twenty-three men under Lieutenant Isaac Jarvis, against an attack from a British galley, sent from the fleet with the ex- pectation of silencing this little stronghold. The fiendish barbarities enacted at New Haven were repeated and more than repeated at Fairfield; for, after a night of plunder, rapine and arson, the work of destruction was completed by burning the entire town, two hundred and eighteen buildings
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in all, of which ninety-seven were dwelling houses. The court-house, the jail, three churches, and two schoolhouses shared the fate of the dwellings. But few buildings escaped, and the inhabitants of the town were left homeless, and in many instances were robbed of their all. The village of Green's Farms, an outlying parish of Fairfield, also perished in the flames. In his official report, Tryon gives as his reason for this wholesale incendiarism that the Americans fired on his men from some of the houses. Before most of the houses were burned, he had sent, by a flag of truce, his stereotype proclamation, in which he had said among other things: "The existence of a single habitation on your defenceless coast ought to be a subject of constant reproof to your in- gratitude," to which Colonel Samuel Whiting promptly sent the following reply :
"Connecticut having nobly dared to take up arms against the cruel despotism of Britain, and as the flames have now pre- ceded the answer to your flag, they will persist to oppose to the utmost that power exerted against injured innocence."
The determined resistance of the few men under Colonel Whiting, and the gathering and rumors of gathering of militia from the neighboring towns, were with Tyron a suf- ficient cause for withdrawing his forces, which he did on the morning of the 8th of July, under a running fire from the militia and volunteers.
Crossing to Huntington, Long Island, the fleet remained until the 10th, taking in supplies, and waiting to spring upon its next defenceless victim. Norwalk was selected, and late in the evening of the 10th all the attacking forces were landed with the exception of the "King's American Regiment (Tories)", which joined the others before dawn on the morn- ing of the I Ith. The forces were divided as usual, approach-
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ing the town by different routes. Garth, with his division, came through what is now South Norwalk, and Tryon , with his division, marched on the easterly side to the heart of the town, establishing himself on Grumman's hill, where, in a comfortable chair still preserved among Norwalk relics, he watched the burning of the town, inspired perhaps by the example of Nero.
The number of defenders at Norwalk appears to have been larger than is generally supposed. From the diary of Ezra Stiles we learn that "Major Gen. Woolcott & B. Gen. Parsons with Militia & Continentals fr. 900 to Eleven hun- dred opposed them. Our men gave way." Tryon, in his exaggerated official report says that "they were said to be upwds of Two Thousd." From the draft of an unpub- lished letter of General Oliver Wolcott's, presumably ad- dressed to General Heath ,and now in the possession of the Connecticut Historical Society, we learn that he "with about seven hundred of Militia arrived at Norwalk about Twenty- four hours before the destruction of that Town." From a letter of General Parsons to Governor Trumbull, it appears that he also was present at the time of the destruction of Norwalk, with what force we do not learn; but it appears by the affidavit of Captain Stephen Betts that he, under these generals, was in command of about fifty Continentals; so Dr. Stiles cannot be far from correct in his estimate of the total number of defenders. Tryon's own report of his casualties, erroneously quoted by Barber and others, admits but two killed and twenty-three wounded. Although this need not be taken as final authority, it appears that owing to the late arrival of the undisciplined militia the defense did not assume the form of a pitched battle.
Tryon withdrew precipitately from Norwalk as soon as his
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work of destruction was completed. On the 10th of July, General Heath had received orders from Washington to march with two Connecticut brigades, from his headquarters in the Highlands, "towards Bedford." Having learned of Tryon's raid at New Haven and Fairfield, Heath at once proceeded in that direction with Parsons' and Huntington's brigades, but only reached Ridgefield on the 13th. Learning that the enemy had then left Norwalk, and threatened Stam- ford, he proceeded in that direction, making a demonstration at Stamford which doubtless prevented the cautious Tryon from making a descent upon that town.
The loss of life among the Americans at Norwalk appears to have been small; but the destruction of property was large, being one hundred and thirty-five dwellings, eighty- nine barns, twenty-five shops, five vessels, and four mills.
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CHAPTER IX THE GROTON MASSACRE
T HE pitiful story of Arnold's treason is too well known to call for a detailed recital in this con- nection. It cannot be denied that he was a Connecticut man, nor need it be cited as an in- stance of the sagacity of his native State that he never bore a Connecticut commission. It must even be confessed that he did bear such a commission, as Captain of the Second Company of Governor's Foot Guards, which has already received honorable mention in a previous chapter. If such a man as Washington could trust him with the com- mand of West Point, which he so basely betrayed, it is absurd to set up the wisdom of the General Assembly of Connecticut in military matters as superior to the wisdom of Washing- ton. The fact is, that the same General Assembly of this stanch little State would have been proud to issue a com- mission to Arnold at any time in his earlier brilliant career, and thus to have shared more closely in his record at Quebec, at Saratoga, and at Ridgefield. His native State, as the record stands, can claim her share in the great glory of the first five years of his career during the Revolution, and must bear her share of the still greater shame of the last two years.
Hartford and its vicinity will always be memorable as the place where Washington held important conferences with the leading French officers. On the 25th of September, 1780, he was returning from one of these conferences, in company with Lafayette. It was his unexpected arrival and the cap- ture of André which prevented the treacherous surrender of West Point which Arnold had planned. Thus the sequel to the Hartford conference was fortunate in its results, even though it failed of its most wished-for result, the capture of
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the traitor himself, who probably would never have been taken alive.
Under the commission of a Brigadier General in the Brit- ish army, he commenced a career which forms a sad contrast to the brilliant record of heroic service in the army of his own people. He was first detailed with sixteen hundred men for service in Virginia of a character quite similar to Tryon's service in Connecticut during the summer of 1779. In May 178 I we find him reporting to Sir Henry Clinton, the burning of warehouses, barracks, tobacco, and provisions, at various points in Virginia.
On the 22d of this same month, another conference of Washington with Rochambeau and others was taking place at Wethersfield, at the house of Joseph Webb. There were present at this conference Generals Knox and Duportail and the Marquis de Chastellux. A plan of campaign was then and there agreed upon which makes this one of the most im- portant councils of the Revolution, and has given to it the name of the Wethersfield conference. It is sometimes stated that the Yorktown campaign was planned at this conference, but this is saying too much. The most that can be said of it is that the combination of forces which brought about the de- feat and surrender of Cornwallis was planned at this con- ference. The military movement decided upon at the time was an attack on New York with a view to gaining possession of that important point, and withdrawing the British forces from the South for its defense. The French fleet, then in the West Indies, formed a rather uncertain factor in this plan, and it was finally upon receiving a despatch from DeGrasse that he would enter the Chesapeake on his arrival off the coast, that the great movement against Yorktown was sud-
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denly undertaken, nearly four months after the Wethersfield conference.
As one of the results of this conference, the French legion under command of the Duc de Lauzun, which had been cantoned at Lebanon since November 1780, was ordered in the June following to join the main army in New York; much to the relief of the gay young nobleman in command, who in his autobiography compares Lebanon to Siberia. This legion, with other French troops which passed through Con- necticut at about this time, saw some skirmishing in New York, and later did good service at Yorktown.
On the 5th of September, 1781, Washington with the allied forces was embarking at the head of Chesapeake bay, the waters of which were blockaded by the French fleet. On this day the famous engagement between the French and British fleet took place, the result of which made the defeat of Cornwallis possible. On the same afternoon a fleet of thirty-two British transports and war vessels, carrying troops to the number of two thousand under command of the traitor Arnold, appeared in Long Island Sound, and arrived off the harbor of New London at one o'clock on the following morn- ing. Owing to adverse winds, the harbor was not reached until about nine o'clock. Sir Henry Clinton at New York was just awakening to a full comprehension of Washington's masterly movement against Cornwallis. Racking his brains for a counter-movement of some kind, it seems quite prob- able that he decided upon this expedition against the almost defenseless towns of New London and Groton, as something which might divert Washington from his plans against Corn- wallis, although even Clinton must have known that no such movement could possibly accomplish this result .. However this may be, it gave Arnold command of another marauding
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expedition, which proved to be the last, and by far the most shameful and horrible, piece of dirty work which formed his sole occupation in the British service.
Even Tryon could hardly have undertaken a Connecticut raid which promised such results at so small an apparent risk. The garrison at Fort Trumbull on the New London side was a mere handful of men, and the fort was then only a small battery open in the rear. On the Groton side, Fort Gris- wold, though a much more extensive stronghold, and better adapted for defense, was occupied only by a few men. It was reported to Arnold, by "friends to the [British] govern- ment," that this fort was very incomplete, and that there were only twenty or thirty men in it. No attack of any conse- quence had been made on the coast of Connecticut for two years, and the frequent appearance of British war vessels sail- ing harmlessly past New London harbor during this time had given the people a sense of security, so that their vigilance had been relaxed. Rich stores from prize ships were in the warehouses near the water front, and on board vessels in the harbor; and the destruction of these, with other military stores, would give ready excuse for the plunder and destruc- tion of private property, to which the "Yagers" who ap- peared among the forces were particularly prone.
By ten o'clock on the morning of September 6th the forces had landed from the fleet, in two divisions on opposite sides of the harbor. On the Groton side, at what is now called Eastern Point, eight hundred men under Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre were landed to proceed against Fort Griswold; and on the New London side about one thousand men to capture Fort Trumbull with its garrison of twenty-three, and then to proceed with the work of destruction which followed. New London proved an easy prey. The garrison of Fort Trum-
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bull, under command of Captain Adam Shapley, fired one broadside at the invaders, spiked the guns of the fort, and retreated to the shore, where they embarked in small boats under a heavy fire to reinforce Fort Griswold. Seventeen men from this garrison of twenty-three reached Fort Gris- wold and did good service, being experienced artillerists. One boat containing six men from the Fort Trumbull gar- rison was captured by the British.
Arnold, with the main portion of the troops on the New London side, pursued his course over Town Hill and Man- waring's Hill, then unsettled portions of New London, to the thickly settled part of the town where the wharves and ware- houses were located, with dwelling-houses near by. On this march he met with some opposition, which he magnifies in his report, from a little temporary earthwork, called by the townspeople Fort Nonsense on account of its insignificance. He was harassed on his march, too, by the militia and others, who to the number of about one hundred had gathered for such defense as could be made without organization. Gain- ing the more northern portion of the town, and joined by the four companies under Captain Millet, flushed with their victory at Fort Trumbull with its garrison of twenty-three men, Arnold proceeded at once to the destruction of stores, and of such vessels as could be safely reached. Fire was used as the most expeditious destructive, and soon sixty-five dwell- ing houses, thirty-one stores and warehouses, eighteen me- chanics' shops, and nine public buildings were reduced to ashes. In his official report, Arnold explains the burning of dwelling-houses as unavoidable by reason of the explosion of a powder magazine in the town which scattered fire in all directions; but many of the burned dwellings and public buildings were far beyond the reach of this fire.
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Noticing, meantime, that many vessels were escaping up the Thames river, Arnold had directed Colonel Eyre to lose no time in taking Fort Griswold, on the opposite side, and in turning its guns on the escaping fleet. In pursuance of these instructions, Eyre had immediately advanced towards the Groton fort, and had demanded its surrender. Arnold, from the commanding hill in New London where the old burial ground is located, saw with some concern that Fort Griswold appeared much more formidable than he had been led to suppose, and despatched a messenger across the har- bor to countermand his orders for an attack. But it was too late. Eyre's second demand for a surrender of the fort, coupled with the threat that if he was obliged to storm the work martial law would be enforced, was met by Colonel Ledyard and his gallant little band of one hundred and fifty with the reply, "We shall not surrender, let the consequences be what they may," and the attack had begun when Arnold's messenger arrived. The British advanced in full force towards the eastern side of the fort, and were met by a volley of musketry from the men stationed on this side. Under Colonel Ledyard's order the artillery fire was reserved until the enemy approached within close range. At the word, a single eighteen pounder doubly charged with grape shot was brought to bear upon them, under the direction of Captain Elias H. Halsey, an experienced privateer gunner. The effect was deadly, cleaving a gap in the British ranks, leaving about twenty dead and wounded in its course. The advanc- ing column wavered, but, spurred on by the officers, continued its advance, and deploying in two directions, one division towards the south and west under Eyre, and the other towards the north under Major Montgomery. At the south- west bastion they were met with a fierce and obstinate resist-
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ance, Colonel Eyre being mortally wounded, and three officers of his regiment killed.
On the east, Major Montgomery with his men advanced in a solid column, gaining possession of a small redoubt which had been abandoned, and rushing forward to the main works, effected an entrance, his men climbing upon each other's shoulders over a strong barricade of pickets, many meeting their death in the attempt. The defense was obstinate; cold shot were hurled upon the assailants, and all that a few brave men could do to resist an overwhelming force was done. Ma- jor Montgomery fell, pierced by a spear, as he entered at the head of his men, who followed him in a force which soon overwhelmed the few defenders at this point. Meanwhile at the southwest bastion the fight still raged, the few men engaged here being apparently unaware that the fort had been entered upon the other side. It is said that the flag at this point had been shot away, and its disappearance was taken to be a token of surrender. Luke Perkins, however, is credited with immediately replacing the flag upon a pike pole. This incident appeared to encourage the assault at this point, as they supposed that the flag had been struck; and "rushing with redoubled impetuosity, carried the south- west bastion by storm," as we learn from the narrative of Stephen Hempstead, one of the few survivors of the garrison. Here Captain Adam Shapley, Captain Peter Richards, Lieu- tenant Richard Chapman, and several other officers were killed or mortally wounded, after manfully fighting in the breach.
Further resistance being hopeless, and with the enemy pouring in overwhelming numbers at two opposite sides of the fort, Colonel Ledyard ordered his men to throw down their arms and surrender. The order was obeyed, but the
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slaughter continued. The enemy from the parapets and at the entrance continued firing upon the disarmed garrison, and rushing into the parade within the fort, continued their mur- derous work with the bayonet. While this was going on, Colonel Ledyard advanced towards the British officer in com- mand who asked of him who commanded the fort. Ledyard's reply, as reported by Stephen Hempstead, who stood near him was, "I did, sir, but you do now." In saying this he presented his sword in token of surrender, upon which the officer grasped it, and plunged it through his heart. The name of the perpetrator of this dastardly deed is a matter of dispute, and fortunately for his memory will probably remain so. By some who were present, Major Bromfield, who suc- ceeded to the command at Montgomery's death, is said to have been Ledyard's murderer; by others, Captain Beckwith is said to have been the guilty man. It is useless to discuss the various theories and conflicting evidence regarding this. The defenders of the fort who have made the only written statements in the mater could hardly be supposed to be competent to identify the man, and his comrades in arms very naturally preferred not only to conceal his name, but to sink the foul deed in oblivion if possible.
Colonel William Ledyard, the victim of this unknown murderer was a knightly soldier. He was the commander of Fort Griswold from the time of its completion in 1776, his command also covering New London and Stonington. He will always be remembered as the brave and inspiring leader of one of the most determined and heroic actions of the Revolution, leading, as he did, one hundred and fifty undis- ciplined, unorganized men to resist some eight hundred dis- ciplined veterans of the British army.
The scenes which followed the death of Ledyard were such
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as may have been expected from a horde of British soldiers under such an officer as the murderer of Ledyard. No quar- ter was given to the survivors. Wounded men were des- patched by the bayonet, and of the unarmed survivors among the defenders, hardly a man escaped unhurt. The dead and wounded were plundered and even stripped of their scanty clothing. At last an officer more humane than the rest put a stop to the butchery and plunder, and the massacre was over. To add to the horrors of the day, a number of help- less wounded men, piled one upon another, were placed in a large ammunition wagon, for the purpose of removing them hastily from the fort where an attempt was made to blow up the magazine. The wagon with its tortured freight was drawn by about twenty soldiers; but on reaching the top of a steep hill near by, it appeared to be beyond their control, and after efforts to stop its descent, the soldiers abandoned it to its fate, thinking only of their own safety. Thus left, it dashed down the hill with fast increasing speed, until at last its course was arrested by coming in contact with a tree, killing some of the men already nearly dead from their wounds, throwing others to the ground, and by the shock adding excruciating pain to the hapless victims.
With the burning of nearly all the few dwellings and other buildings which formed the little village of Groton, the hor- rors of the day closed. The militia were now fast gathering from the adjoining and near-by towns, and at about sunset of this memorable sixth of September, 1781, the British hastily embarked on board their transports, to disappear with their commander Benedict Arnold from further active scenes in the Revolution.
It is impossible to justify-almost impossible to account for this barbarous massacre. It is doubtless true that the
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survival of a mediæval custom still made it at this time a code of European warfare that no quarter should be given to the garrison of a conquered stronghold; but the code was always "honored in the breach" by the Americans, as in the case of Stony Point, and both European and American civi- lization were, or should have been, far beyond its observance. The fall of the flag at Fort Griswold seemed only, as we have seen, a signal for renewed attack. If there is a shadow of an excuse for the scenes which followed the taking of the fort, it lies in the fact that resistance was in progress at one part of the works after the other part had been carried.
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