USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Sharon > General history of the town of Sharon, Litchfield County, Conn. from its first settlement, 3rd ed. > Part 6
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* The meeting house in Salisbury, at that time, was small, and to accommodate the immense number of hearers which came together on the occasion, Mr. Whitfield preached in the open air. The meeting was holden on the public square near the meeting house. The late Dr. Hamilton in- formed Governor Smith that, on his way to this meeting, while descending the hill nearly half a mile from the meeting, he heard the preacher distinctly announce his text, "Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope.1,
t These were among the last labors of Whitfield. While on this tour he suffered much from the asthma, the disease which very soon after termi- nated his life. He spent the night previous to his preaching here with Parson Smith, and such was the alarming severity of the disorder then upon him, that it was thought very doubtful by those who watched with him whether he could survive the night. He attributed his restoration to such a comfortable state of health as that he was able to preach the next day, to the kind nursing of Madam Smith, for which he expressed the most deep-felt gratitude. It was, probably, in allusion to his own pre- carious situation, that he opened the public exercises on the following day by reading the following version on the third psalm by Dr. Watts. Its appropriate bearing upon his own feeble condition will be readily seen :- Oh, Lord, how many are my foes, Supported by thine heavenly aid, In this weak state of flesh and blood ; My peace they daily discompose, But my defence and hope is God. I laid me down and slept secure ; Not death should make my heartafraid Though I should wake and rise no more.
Tired with the burdens of the day, To thee I rais'd an evening cry ;
But God sustained me all the night, Salvation doth to God belong ;
Thou heardst when I began to pray, And thine almighty help was nigh.
He raised my hand to see the light,
And make his praise my morning song.
Mr. Whitfield died in about three months from this time, at Newbury- port, Mass.
CHAPTER VIII.
EVENTS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
We have now arrived at the period of the commencement of the Revolutionary War. The citizens of Sharon, almost with- out exception, partook largely of the feeling which pervaded the whole country, at the commencement of the struggle. Parson Smith, like the other clergymen of the day, was a most ardent and decided whig ; and his personal influence contributed, not a little, to lead the public mind in the right channel. In his publie ministrations, too, there was mingled much of the stirring patriotism of the times. In the prayers which were offered, and in the praises which were sung, there were interspersed many allusions to the tyrannical ediets of the British King, and to the degraded and suffering condition of the colonies. Hymns were written, and music was composed, which were used for public worship on the Sabbath, the effect of which would seem to be to stir up martial, rather than devotional feelings, and to excite in the worshipers the deepest hatred of their oppressors. The following stanza was the commencement of one of the hymns which was frequently sung for Sabbath worship :-
"Let tyrants shake their iron rod, And slavery clank their galling chains, We fear them not. we trust in God, New England's God forever reigns."
The intelligence of the battle of Lexington was brought to Sharon on the Sabbath, and Mr. Smith, at the close of the morning exercises, announced it from the pulpit, and made
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some remarks tending to arouse the spirit of the congregation to firmness and to resistance. Immediately after the congre- gation was dismissed, the militia and volunteers, to the number of one hundred men, paraded on the west side of the street, south of the meeting house, and prepared to march immediately to the scene of action. David Downs, Esq., was Captain, James Brewster, Lieutenant, and David Gould, Ensign. After further deliberation, however, it was determined to send Lieutenant Brewster to Litchfield, to enquire more fully into the accuracy of the intelligence, and whether the service of the militia would be required immediately. Lieut. Brewster * performed this mission, and learning that the British had returned to Boston, and that no pressing necessity existed for further military aid, it was determined not to march, until further hostile movements on the part of the enemy should render it necessary.
The General Assembly was forthwith convened, and a large military force raised. One company was raised in Sharon and its vicinity. Samuel Elmore received a Major's commission, and also had the command of this company. Amos Chappell was the Lieutenant.
The last survivors of this company were Thomas Heath and Adonijah Maxam. Deacon Isaac Chamberlain, Capt. Sylvanus Gibbs, and Mr. Ebe Everitt, lately deceased, were also members of this company, as were William Gray, Samuel Lewis, Jr., and David Goff. This company was attached to a regiment which marched to the northward in 1775, for the conquest of Canada, under General Montgomery. Before St Johns was taken, it was determined, by Colonels Allen and Brown, to make an attempt upon the city of Montreal with a few volunteers, if they could be obtained. The troops were paraded, and Allen marched in front of the Connecticut line, and invited volunteers to join him. Of the soldiers who belonged to Sharon, Adonijah Maxam, David Goff, William Gray and Samuel Lewis, stepped forward, and offered to share in the perils of the expedition. It was arranged between Allen and Brown, that the latter should land on the island, below the city, while Allen, with about eighty men, should land above the city, and there wait until they should hear the firing from Brown's party, when they were to rush on to the attack. Allen crossed the river St. Lawrence with his detacli-
* This young gentleman was at this time a clerk in Colonel Gay's store. He was originally from Windham, and came to Sharon in A. D 1770, with his mother, who was the second wife of Captain Caleb Jewitt. He died, much lamented, of consumption, on the 22d day of February, 1777.
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ment on the evening of the 24th of September, on a raft, and waited in the expectation of hearing the firing from Brown's party through the whole night, but he waited in vain. For some reason the expedition on Brown's part had failed, and the morning light found Allen altogether in the power of the enemy. This rash adventurer, however, determined to defend himself to the last extremity against the seven or eight hundred men that were brought against him, and he fought until twenty-five of his men were killed, and seven wounded, when he and his brave associates, including Maxam, Goff, Gray and Lewis, from Sharon, and one Roger Moore, of Salisbury, were compelled to surrender. They were loaded with irons, and sent to England, for the avowed object of receiving the sentence and punishment of traitors. The threat of retaliatory measures, however, on the part of the Americans, prevented such summary proceedings against them, and after being kept in close confinement, in England and Ireland, during the winter, the prisoners just named were brought back to New York in the spring of 1776. They were confined, in an old church, with a large number of others, who had been taken during the campaign, at Fort Washington, and other places. From this place the persons above named contrived to make their escape within a few days after they were put into confinement. The old church in which they were confined was surrounded by a high fence, and thus a little daily out door exercise was allowed the prisoners. While enjoying this liberty, William Gray managed to loosen one of the long planks of which the fence was made, but did not re- move it, and the appearance of things were so little disturbed by the act of Gray, that it escaped the observation of the officers in charge of the prisoners. Through the opening in the fence, thus made practicable, the five soldiers above named made their escape as soon as it was sufficiently dark to conceal their oper- ations. They had been habited in sailor's clothes during their captivity, and on this account they were less liable to be detected. They divided into two parties, Maxam and Moore forming the one, and Gray, Goff and Lewis the other. The three latter very soon found means to land on Long Island, and from thence passed over the Sound to the Continent, and returned to their friends in Sharon. Maxam and Moore had more difficulty. They were two or three days in the city before they found it possible to leave it, and after landing on Long Island they suffered much from hunger. After traveling several days, they
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found means to embark in a boat on the Sound, and to reach Saybrook. Their return to Sharon astonished their friends, who having learned from Gray and his comrades the circumstances of their escape from confinement, and having heard nothing further from them, had concluded that they had been retaken by the British. The last survivor of this band of sufferers was Mr. Adonijah Maxam, who died at the age of 97 years.
In the campaign of 1775, Parson Smith went with the army to the northward, as Chaplain to Col. Hinman's regiment, and spent several months in the service.
There was one soldier from Sharon, who joined the expedi- tion led by General Arnold through the wilderness of Kenne- bec, to Canada, whose name was Alexander Spencer. He died, however, on the march, from sickness.
The exigencies of the times calling for a large army at the commencement of 1776, a large number of men, more than one hundred, enlisted from the town of Sharon. One company marched for Canada. It was commanded by Captain David Downs, already mentioned. The first lieutenant was Adonijalı Griswold, and the second lieutenant was David Doty. The last survivors of this company, which was a large one, were Joel Chaffee and Adonijah Pangman, of Cornwall. Charles Gillet, another member of the company, was killed near The Cedars, so called, by a party of Indians in ambush, as he was riding along the road, having gone on some business connected with his duty as commissary. The other soldiers raised in Sharon for the campaign of 1776, were distributed among three other companies, and all marched for New York, against which an attack by the British was now apprehended. Of one company, Dr. Simeon Smith, was captain ; of another, Elijah Foster was captain ; and of the third, Nathaniel Hamlin was lieutenant These companies were in the campaign of 1776, under General Washington on Long Island and in the vicinity of New York, and shared in the fatigues and perils of that disastrous period. David Wood, Nathaniel Buel, Josiah Coleman, Jabez Jennings, Asahel Somers, John Randall, Jr., and Thomas Ackley were taken prisoners at Fort Washington, of whom Wood and Ackley died during their captivity, and Buel and Coleman on their return. The British having obtained possession of New York, General Washington determined to make an effort to dislodge them during the winter which followed the unfortunate campaigns of 1776. For this purpose a large military force was raised in the fall of that year
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF SHARON.
for two months service, and one company was enlisted in Sharon. William Boland was captain, Hezekiah Frisbie, lieutenant, and Azariah Griswold, ensign. As the period of enlistment was so short, there was no difficulty in filling the company. The survivors of this company were Messrs. Adonijah Maxam and Thomas Heath. New York was not attacked, and the company was discharged at Kingsbridge, at the expiration of their term of service.
The forces that had hitherto been called into the service were raised on the authority of the State. To provide for the cam- paign of 1777, Congress undertook to raise an army, which was called the Continental army ; and of this army, two regiments, Swift's and Bradley's, were raised in the western part of Con- nectieut. Of one company, David Strong was appointed lieu- tenant, and he enlisted a number of recruits, one of whom, David Goodrich, was killed at the battle of Brandywine, in the subsequent campaign. Of another company, Reuben Calkin was lieutenant, and a number of men enlisted under him. There are none now remaining of either company.
A large depot of provisions and military stores had been established at Danbury, and in the month of April, an expedi- tion was sent out from New York to destroy them. It was com- manded by Major General Tryon, of the British army, and con- sisted of two thousand men. They landed at a place called Compo, in the southwest part of the town of Fairfield, and pro- ceeding through the towns of Weston and Redding, reached Danbury, and effected their object, which was the destruction of the stores. The most active measures were taken to spread the alarm through the adjacent country, and to collect the militia to repel the invaders. On the evening of the 26th of April, a messenger arrived in this town bringing the intelli- gence, and requiring the immediate marching of such forces as could be collected, to meet the enemy. The bell commeneed tolling, and it was kept tolling through the night, and it was a night of great terror and solemnity. Colonel Ebenezer Gay, who then commanded the militia in this vicinity, gathered together as many troops as could be collected on so short notice, and marched for the scene of action ; and on the morning of the 28th reached Danbury, and finding that the British had retreated, pursued them. The route which the British had taken on their retreat, brought them on the west side of the Saugatuck River, which empties into the Sound a mile or two west of Compo, where their fleet lay. They were intercepted in their attempt to
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reach the bridge over this stream, by General Arnold, who was then in command of a few regular troops, and were guided by some tories to a fording place, a little higher up,-and it was while they were marching up on the west side of the stream to reach this fording place, that they were first observed by the troops from Sharon, who were endeavoring to reach the bridge, and to join the corps under Arnold. As the British marched by them on the low grounds which bordered on the river, Adonijah Maxam, who had not forgotten the injuries which were heaped upon him while a prisoner in England, begged permission of the commanding officer to steal down the hill from the left flank and shoot a few of them. He was strictly forbidden, however, to execute this perilous undertaking. The British marched by unmolested, and our troops took undisputed possession of the bridge. The enemy came down on the east side of the river, and having taken ground a little to the east of the bridge, fired upon our men who were stationed there. Arnold, perceiving the danger to which his men were exposed, brought his artillery to bear upon the new position of the enemy, and firing upon them over the heads of such of his men as were upon the bridge, soon drove them beyond the reach of his cannon. They took new ground a little to the southeast of their first position, and it was determined to attack them there with small arms. A few regular troops under Arnold, commenced the action with great bravery, and our men at the bridge were ordered to join them. They marched up the hill with a good degree of resolution, to sustain the regular troops. As they came within the reach of the enemy's musketry, however, some one, and it was never known who, cried out retreat. As this word was uttered, Lieutenant Samuel Elmer, Jr.,* perceiving the effect it was producing, and the
* This brave young officer was a son of Colonel Samuel Elmer, and a lieutenant in the New York line of the continental army. He had returned home on a short furlough the very day the intelligence of the invasion of Danbury was received in Sharon, and was one of the first to volunteer to drive off the enemy. He was buried on the spot where he was killed, by two of his comrades soon after the battle. His body was afterwards re- moved to the burying yard at Green's Farm where it reposes to this day.
EPITAPH.
"Lient. Samuel Elmer, son to Col. Samuel Elmer of Sharon, was killed at Fairfield, fighting for the liberties of his country, April 28th, 1777, in the 25th year of his age.
Our youthful hero, bold in arms, His country's cause his bosom warms ; To save her rights fond to engage, And guard her from a tyrant's rage, Flies to ye field of blood and death, And gloriously resigns his breath.
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trepidation which was taking hold of his comrades, stepped up on a stone wall, and cried out, "for God's sake, men, don't re treat, don't run, march up the hill and drive them off." He had barely uttered these words. when he was shot through the body. The only words he spoke afterwards, were addressed to his uncle, Mr. George Pardee, who was near him: " Uncle George," said he, "I am a dead man." A general retreat of our men then followed ; and the British, being left unmolested, marched to their shipping, and sailed for New York.
A large depot of provisions had been established in this town early in the war. The storehouse stood a little west of the Messrs. Goodwins, on the old road that formerly ran through their land, before the present turnpike road was established, and a guard was constantly kept at the depot during the war. The fate of the stores at Danbury caused much apprehension for the safety of those here. There were frequent alarms and the citizens fre- quently collected in arms to defend the public property at the storehouse. On one Sabbath day, during the sermon, Jonathan Gillett, who lived directly opposite the meeting house, came out of his house during the public service, and proclaimed with a loud voice that the British were coming. A dense smoke was seen rising beyond Tower Hill, a mountain in the state of New York. a few miles southwest of Sharon, and the belief was general that the enemy was at hand. Parson Smith was foremost in exhorting the people to firmness and resistance, and he entreated them to stand firm, not only as soldiers of the cross, but as soldiers of their country and of liberty. The aların, however, proved to be groundless.
The approach of a large British army from Canada, under General Burgoyne, and the expedition up the North River, under General Vaughan, filled the whole country with terror and des- pondency, and frequent alarms were spread, requiring the constant and active duty of the militia. The tories, too, in Dutchess county, New York, where they were numerous, took courage from the prospect of success which the progress of the British arms afforded, and embodied themselves into a formidable force. Information was brought to this town during the summer that four hundred of them had assembled at Carpenter's, as it was then called, now Washington Hollow, and that they were threat- ening destruction to all the whigs in the neighborhood. An expedition was immediately set on foot to break up the gang. Volunteers to the number of fifty or sixty immediately assembled.
* 10
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They marched for the Hollow, and were joined by others in their progress, so that when they arrived at Bloom's Mills, which is about four miles north of the Hollow, their numbers amounted to two hundred men. There they encamped for the night, and marched the next morning to attack the tories. They found them paraded in the meadow just north of the public house, and marching up with spirit, fired upon them. The tories fled imme- diately and as many as could made their escape. About thirty or forty of them, however, were made prisoners, and brought to this town, and locked up in the old church at the head of the street. They were taken to Exeter, in New Hampshire, where they were kept in elose confinement for two years. This pro- eecding broke up the gang, and no further trouble was had from this class of persons during the war.
A company of light horse, which belonged to Sharon and its vicinity, were kept on duty during the whole summer of 1777, on the North River, watching the motions of the enemy in that quarter. It was commanded by Captain Dutcher, of Salisbury, and David Boland, of Sharon, was the cornet of the company. The smoke of burning Kingston was distinctly seen from our mountain when it was destroyed by the Hessian troops. Adonijah Maxam belonged to this company.
A large number of men marched from this town under the command of Colonel Gay, to the northward, to oppose the pro- gress of Burgoyne's army, and shared in all the conflicts which preceded its surrender .* John Hollister, one of the soldiers from this town, was killed at the battle of Stillwater, on the 7th of October.
The intelligence of the surrender of Burgoyne's army was re- ceived here under circumstances which produced a deep impres- sion. Nothing had been heard respecting the state of affairs at Saratoga excepting that two severe battles had been fought with- out any very decisive result. This state of uncertainty produced extreme anxiety regarding the issue of the campaign, and many trembled at the prospect of defeat and disgrace to the American arms. The firmness and confidence of Parson Smith, however, never forsook him, and he did everything in his power to rouse the drooping spirits of his people. On Sabbath, the - day of
* The following is the record of an adjourned church meeting, holden on the 23d of September, 1777 : " Met according to adjournment, but by rea- son of a great number being called off into ye service of their country, and but a few members met, adjourned to the 4th Tuesday of November next ensuing."
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October, he preached a sermon from Isaiah xxi. II : Watchmau, what of the night ? the watchman saith the morning cometh." The discourse was entirely adapted to the condition of public affairs. Ile dwelt much upon the indications, which the dealings of Prov- idence afforded, that a bright and glorious morning was about to dawn upon a long night of defeat and disaster. He told the con gregation that he believed they would soon hear of a signal victory crowning the arms of America, and exhorted them to trust with an unshaken and fearless confidence in that God who he doubted not would soon appear for the deliverance of his people, and crown with success the efforts of the friends of liberty in this country. Before the congregation was dismissed, a mes- senger arrived, bringing the intelligence of the surrender of Burgoyne's army. Parson Smith read the letter from the pulpit, and a flood of joy burst upon the assembly.
During the next year a large part of Burgoyne's army was marched through this town on their way to the south. They were met here by a regiment of continental troops under the command of Lient. Colonel Jameson, who was afterwards somewhat con- spicuous in the affairs connected with the capture of Major Andre, and who here took charge of the prisoners .* One of Burgoyne's soldiers, by the name of Robert Gibbs, a Scotchman from Dundee, who was wounded and taken in the battle immediately preceding Burgoyne's surrender, was here left by his comrades. He died at the age of 94.
After the campaign of 1777, the seat of the war was removed to so great a distance that no further call was made for the militia of the town, except for the purpose of keeping guard on the sea coast. The burdens and privations of a pecuniary kind, however, which are incident to a state of war, were borne by the people of this town without a murmur, and the almost unanimous feeling in favor of the cause which marked the commencement of the war, continued with unabated ardor to the close of it.
The records of the County Court show that several of the citizens of Sharon were delinquent in responding to the calls for temporary service in the army, but it does not appear that their neglect was owing to any want of fidelity to the cause of the
* A large proportion of the prisoners of this detachment were Hessians. They were subjected to the most severe discipline, and were entirely inoffch- sive. Each regiment was furnished with a chaplain and divine service was frequently performed. They encamped here over night, and when they started in the morning, the whole body sang devotional music on the march. Governor Smith informed the author that he, then a lad, followed them some miles to hear their singing.
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country, but it was probably for some reasons which were deemed satisfactory to themselves, but which were not deemed sufficient by the Court. Abner Curtice, David Hollister, Elijah Pardee, and Apollos Smith were each fined £10 and costs of prosecution " for refusing to muster and march to the assistance of the conti- nental army," about the time of the apprehended invasion of this part of the country by Burgoyne's army. Stephen Sears was fined £10 for not marching to the relief of Peekskill. Theo- dore Elmer, Thomas Hamlin, Jun., Joseph Barrows, Jesse Goodrich, Amasa Hamlin, Robert Whitcomb, David Hollister. James Henry and Nathaniel Curtis, were prosecuted for the same offences, but were able to show good reasons why they had not reported for muster, and were discharged.
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