USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Danbury > History of Danbury, Conn., 1684-1896 > Part 7
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61
HISTORY OF DANBURY.
General Tryon's expedition sailed from New York on the night of April 24th, 1777. There were twenty transports and six war vessels in the fleet. The object of the expedition was kept a secret by those in command. The next morning, from a point of observation at Norwalk, the fleet was first discovered by our people. Its destination was, of course, a mystery. The fleet passed Norwalk and stood in for the mouth of the Sauga- tuck River. In that harbor it dropped anchor. It was now four o'clock in the afternoon of April 25th. The troops imme- diately landed. The east shore of the river's mouth was called Compo Point. It was then in the town of Fairfield, since made Westport.
On the landing of this large body of men at this place the object of the expedition was divined by the citizens, and as soon as possible a messenger was dispatched to Danbury to warn the garrison there.
After the formation of their column, the British troops were marched into the country a distance of eight miles, and there- in what is now the township of Weston-encamped for the night. It is probable this movement inland led the people of Fairfield to suspect General Tryon's destination, and it is likely the mes- sengers were then sent out.
At the time a courier was sent to Danbury, and others were sent elsewhere to arouse the country. One of these went to New Haven, where General Wooster was abiding.
General Benedict Arnold, whose home was also in New Haven, happened to be there at the time on a furlough. On being noti- fied, General Wooster directed the militia of the city to march to Fairfield, and he with Arnold immediately repaired to that place. At Fairfield they learned that General Silliman, who was in command of this department of Connecticut, had started for Redding, on the way to Danbury, and had sent word in all directions to have what militia could be got together to report at Redding. Wooster and Selleck hastened to that place. It was now Saturday, April 26th.
The messenger sent from Fairfield to Danbury reached here at three o'clock on Friday morning. He said that a British force of between three and four thousand men had landed at Fairfield, and it was suspected their design was to capture the stores here. At sunrise another messenger arrived. His
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
intelligence strongly confirmed the theory of the man who pre- ceded him. Great consternation prevailed among our people on the receipt of this news. There was no possibility of keeping the invader away from the village. The only reliable defence to the town consisted of fifty soldiers of the Continental Army, who were on their way to the Hudson, and one hundred militia- men. Of course nearly every family had a musket in those days, but the safety of the women and children demanded almost the entire attention of the males of the community. Dr. Foster, who had recently been appointed medical director of this depart- ment, had his headquarters here, in charge of the medical stores. Four days after the coming of the enemy he wrote to a friend the particulars of the raid. We make the following extract from this letter :
" DANBURY, May 1, 1777.
" You have doubtless heard of the enemy's expedition to this place, and been anxious for us. This is the first moment of leisure I have had, and, if not interrupted, I will endeavor to give you a particular account. . . . The militia were mustered, and a few Continental troops that were here on their way to Peekskill prepared to receive them ; but their number was so inconsiderable, and that of the enemy so large, with a formid- able train of artillery, I had no hope of the place being saved. I had, upon the first alarm, ordered all the stores in my charge to be packed up, ready for removal at a moment's warning. Upon the arrival of the second express, I persuaded Polly, with what money was in my hands, to quit the town. She was un- willing, but I insisted upon it. We were so much put to it for teams to remove the medicines and bedding, that I determined rather to lose my own baggage than put it on any cart intended for that purpose, and had not a gentleman's team, already loaded with his own goods, taken it up, I must have lost it.
"As the enemy entered the town at one end after our troops had retreated to the heights, I went out at the other, not with- out some apprehension (as I was to cross the route of their flank guard) of being intercepted by the light horse.
"After having seen the medicines, all of them that were worth moving, safe at New Milford, I returned to town the next morn- ing and went with our forces in pursuit of the enemy. About
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
noon the action began in their rear, and continued with some intermission until night. The running fight was renewed next morning, and lasted until the enemy got under cover of their ships.
" We have lost some brave officers and men. Their loss is un- known, as they buried some of their dead and carried off others ; but from the dead bodies they were forced to leave on the field, it must have greatly exceeded ours. General Wooster was wounded early in the action. He is in the same house with me, and I fear will not live until morning."
Dr. Foster must have remained here some time, as on May 11th, 1779, he writes :
"To-morrow all the gentlemen of the department at this post [Danbury] dine with me, and the next morning I begin my jour- ney to headquarters. I mean to take in Newark in my way.
" General Silliman was taken prisoner last week and carried to Long Island."
The few soldiers here could not, of course, offer any substan- tial resistance to the force under Tryon's command, and retreated probably in rear of the fleeing families to the northward, as the British came in from the south. It is in evidence that the enemy, in its march from the Sound, did not disturb the property of residents, and came through Bethel without inflicting any notice- able injury upon the citizens or the property of that village.
The enemy reached Danbury between two and three o'clock Saturday afternoon. The sky was clear and the sun shining brightly when they appeared, but a storm of rain began shortly after and prevailed through the night.
While the British were marching here General Silliman, of the American army, was proceeding to Redding with a handful of troops in pursuit. At Redding he halted to enable recruits to reach his standard. Here he was joined by Wooster and Arnold and such citizens as they could rally on the way, but it was eleven o'clock at night when the force gathered to punish Tryon reached Bethel, two miles south of this village.
Owing to the weariness of the men, and the fact that their muskets were seriously crippled by the downpour of rain, it was decided to rest for the night, and make an attack on the enemy on its return from Danbury.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
The number of our troops at Bethel that night is variously estimated. The number of seven hundred appears to be the nearest correct. One writer is positive that it equalled the Brit- ish force ; but this, in view of all other evidence, is an unreason- able estimate. From the disposition of our forces in this part of the State at that time, no such body of organized troops could have been here then. It is probable there were five hundred soldiers, regular and militia, and two hundred citizens whose zeal for the cause made them shoulder the family musket and join in the pursuit.
While the seven hundred Americans were making themselves as comfortable as possible in the rain at Bethel, Tryon's followers were making merry in this village.
HOUSE WHERE GEN'L DAVID WOOSTER DIED.
CORNER CUPBOARD IN OLD HOUSE IN WHICH WOOSTER DIED. SHELVES Red, PILLARS AND DOME Blue, ARCH White, OUTSIDE Old Green.
WOOSTER MONUMENT.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BRITISH IN DANBURY.
WHAT military force was here to defend Danbury was under the command of Joseph P. Cooke, a resident, who held the rank of colonel. Another prominent citizen was Dr. John Wood. He had in his employ a young man named Lambert Lockwood. He sent him out as a scout to learn where the enemy were, some- thing of their number, and about the time they might be ex- pected to reach the village.
Some four miles below here is an eminence called Hoyt's Hill .* It is not on the turnpike, but is located by the road to Lonetown, southeast of the pike. It was along this road the British ap- proached Bethel.
An incident occurred here that has been confused by two or three versions. Hollister, in his history of Connecticut, says that Tryon was confronted on Hoyt's Hill by a presumably insane horseman, who appeared on the crest, waving a sword, and conducting himself very much as if he was in command of a considerable army in the act of climbing the opposite side of the hill. The British commander halted his force and sent out skirmishers to reconnoitre, when it was discovered that the stranger was alone, and instead of leading on an enthusiastic army to almost certain victory, was making the best of his way back to Danbury.
This account is apparently a distortion of an incident that really did occur, although it has the sanction of local tradition, and is repeated (in honest belief) by several aged residents who had it from their parents who were living here at the time.
* Dr. Adelaide Holten, a lineal descendant of Thomas Taylor, one of the first set- tlers, has heard her grandmother tell of seeing the approach of the British as she was returning on horseback over Hoyt's Hill from a visit to a neighbor. She de- scribed the gleam of the scarlet uniforms, and the flash of arms, and said that she dashed on toward Bethel, shouting, " The British are coming ! The British are coming !"
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
Young Lambert reached the summit of Hoyt's Hill, when he suddenly and rather unexpectedly came upon the foe. He must have been riding at a smart speed, or he would not have become so helplessly entangled as he turned out to be. When he dis- covered the enemy he was too close upon them to get away, and in attempting it he was wounded and captured.
He learned a great deal of the British and their designs, but the value of it was considerably impaired by this incident.
Young Lockwood was brought to Danbury with his captors, and was left here. It is said that he was once a resident of Nor- walk. When there he did a favor for General Tryon, on the occasion of an accident to that officer's carriage when he was driving through Norwalk. General Tryon recognized him, and in return for the favor ordered his discharge, and was writing a parole for him, to secure him against further molestation by the British, when the news of the approach of Wooster caused him to turn his attention to getting out of town.
After leaving Bethel the ranks were deployed, and Danbury was approached in open order, some of the advance being so far deployed as to take in Shelter Rock Ridge on the right and Thomas Mountain on the left.
On reaching the south end of our village General Tryon took up his headquarters in the house of Nehemiah Dibble, on South Street. The same building was known as the Wooster place (from the fact of General Wooster dying there a few days later) until its destruction some years ago.
It was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon when the British arrived. The leader having selected his headquarters, the quartering of the force for the protection of themselves was next attended to. Tryon's assistants, Generals Erskine and Agnew, accompanied by a body of mounted infantry, proceeded up Main Street to the junction of the Barren Plain Road (now White Street), where Benjamin Knapp lived. His house stood where is now the Nichols brick block, long known as Military Hall, the corner of which is now occupied as a drug store.
The two generals quartered themselves upon Mr. Knapp, taking complete possession of the house, with the exception of one room, where Mrs. Knapp was lying ill.
On this dash up Main Street the party met with two incidents. Silas Hamilton had a piece of cloth at a fuller's on South Street.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
It is said that Major Taylor was the fuller. When Hamilton heard of the approach of the enemy, he mounted his horse and rode off at full speed for his goods. He was rather late, how- ever, and when he came out to remount his horse, a squad of the force was upon him. He flew up Main Street with a half dozen troopers in full pursuit, and on reaching West Street he turned into it, with the hair on his head very erect.
The pursuers followed him, and one in advance and close upon him swung his sword to cut him down, when a singular but most fortunate accident occurred. Hamilton lost a part of his hold upon the roll, to which he had until this time tenaciously clung, and the cloth flew out like a giant ribbon, frightening the pursuing animals, and rendering them unmanageable, so Mr. Hamilton escaped with his cloth .*
The column that came up Main Street were fired upon from the house of Captain Ezra Starr, which stood where now is the residence of Mrs. D. P. Nichols, corner of Main and Boughton streets. The shots, it has been claimed, were fired by four young men. It was an act of reckless daring, and the actors must have been very young, as the shots could have had no other effect than to exasperate the invaders.
Dr. Robbins, in his account of the battle, says that one valu- able house with four persons in it was burned, but does not say who the persons were. The men who fired on the enemy, from Captain Starr's house, were killed, and their bodies were burned in the building ; but there were not four of them, there were three. One of these was a negro, named Adams. The two white men were Joshua Porter and Eleazer Starr. The former was a member of Noble Benedict's company, organized in 1775. He was great-grandfather of Colonel Samuel Gregory of this town, and lived in that part of the town that is called Westville Dis- trict. He was in the village after a gallon of molasses when the enemy came.
Starr lived where now stands the News building. He and
* The first ancestor of the Hamilton family in this country was William, a son of Gallatin Hamilton, of Glasgow, Scotland. William was born in Glasgow in 1643 ; came early to New England ; settled in Cape Cod, and was persecuted as one who dealt with evil spirits, for having killed the first whale on the New England Coast. He afterward went to South Kingston, R. I., and then came to Danbury, where he died in 1746, aged 103 years. This is a matter of family record, and also of anti- quarian history.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
Porter went into Captain Starr's house to observe the coming of the British. Colonel Gregory understands that the negro was in the employ of Captain Starr. Depositions before the General Assembly, made in 1778, show that this Adams was a slave and belonged to Samuel Smith, in Redding. His service may have been leased to Captain Starr ; at any rate, he died with Porter and Starr. A British officer, who was present at the time, sub- sequently spoke of the incident to a neighbor. He killed the negro himself.
As the British troops reached the present location of the court house their artillery was discharged, and the heavy balls, six and twelve-pounders, flew screaming up the street, carrying terror to the hearts of the women and children, and dismay to the heads of the homes thus endangered.
Immediately upon Generals Agnew and Erskine taking up their quarters in Mr. Knapp's house, a picket was located. One squad of twenty men occupied the rising ground where is now the junction of Park Avenue and Prospect Street. A second took position on the hill near Jarvis Hull's house. The third was located on what is now called Franklin Street. We have no information of other picket squads, but it is likely that every approach to the village was guarded.
It is related of a brother of Joshua Porter that, coming into the village to see what the British were doing, he came upon three of the picket stationed on Park Avenue. They commanded him to halt.
" What for ?" he inquired, still continuing toward them.
" You are our prisoner," said they.
" Guess not," he laconically replied, moving steadily upon them.
" We'll stick you through and through, if you don't stop," one of them threatened, advancing close to him.
Porter was a man of very powerful build, with muscles like steel, and a movement that was a very good substitute for light- ning. They were close upon him. There was a gulch back of them. In a flash he had the foremost trooper in his grasp. In the next instant he had hurled him against the other two, and the three went into the gulch in a demoralized heap. The rest of the squad, seeing the disaster, immediately surrounded and subdued Porter. This little affair, it is
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
said, gave the name of Squabble Hill to that neighbor- hood.
Porter and a man named Barnum are believed to be the only prisoners the enemy carried away from Danbury. They were taken to New York City and confined in the infamous Sugar House prison. Porter was subsequently released and returned home, but Barnum died there from starvation. When found he had a piece of brick in his hand, holding it to his mouth, as if to draw moisture from it to cool his feverish throat.
The main body of the troops remained in the village and shortly engaged in the destruction of the military stores.
Those in the Episcopal Church were rolled out into the street and there fired, as the edifice was of the Church of England, and so reverenced by the English invader.
Two other buildings contained stores. One of these was a barn belonging to Nehemiah Dibble. The goods were taken out and burned to save the building, as Dibble was a Tory. The other was a building situated on Main Street, near where is now Sam- uel C. Wildman's place. It was full of grain. It was burned with its contents. It is said that the fat from the burning meat ran ankle-deep in the street. No less free ran the rum and wine, although not in the same direction. The soldiers who were directed to destroy these tested them first, and the result was as certain as death. Before night had fairly set in the greater part of the force were in a riotous state of drunkenness. Discipline was set at naught. King George stood no chance whatever in the presence of King Alcohol, and went down before him at once. The riot continued far into the night. Danbury was never before nor since so shaken.
The drunken men went up and down the Main Street in squads, singing army songs, shouting coarse speeches, hugging each other, swearing, yelling, and otherwise conducting themselves as becomes an invader when he is very, very drunk.
The people who had not fled remained close in their homes, sleepless, full of fear, and utterly wretched, with the ghastly tragedy at Captain Starr's house hanging like a pall over them. The night was dark, with dashes of rain. The carousers tumbled down here and there as they advanced in the stages of drunken- ness. Some few of the troops remained sober, and these per- formed the duties of the hour. One of these was the marking
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
of a cross upon the buildings which belonged to the Tories. This was done with pieces of lime. There was considerable of this property. Sympathizers with the government of the mother country abounded hereabouts. They were men who honestly believed that colonies had no right to secede from the crown, and they defended their belief when they could, and cherished it at all times. They were jubilant now. The proper authorities were in possession, the rebel element was overcome, and the Tories believed that Danbury was forever redeemed from the pernicious sway of the rebellion.
It is said that two of these people piloted Tryon to Danbury. The names given are Stephen Jarvis and Eli Benedict. It is further said that they fled from Danbury. Some time after Benedict came back, but being threatened with violence he left for good. Jarvis went to Nova Scotia, where he made his home. Once he returned on a visit to his sister. He came privately, but the neighbors, getting word of his presence, went to the house in search of him. His sister hid him in her brick oven, and when the danger was over he secretly left Danbury for Nova Scotia, never again to return. This statement was made in an appendix to an edition of Robbins's address brought out in 1851. In its issue of April 2d of that year the Danbury Times prints the following :
" We refer to this statement in order to make a correction in point of fact, as well as of time. The brother of one of the alleged guides, a venerable resident of this town, proves an alibi in the case of Stephen. He says that at the time the British entered the town Stephen was confined at Stamford with the small-pox, and did not join the British until some time after- ward. He assigns a very tender reason for Stephen's Toryism. At that time our neighboring village of Newtown was, according to his statement, largely given to the Tory faith, and Stephen's sweetheart was of that stock."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE BURNING OF DANBURY.
THAT night of April 26th, 1777, was not a particularly happy one for the general in command of the British forces. He had met with a complete success in reaching Danbury and destroy- ing the stores, which was the object of his mission ; but the great bulk of his force was helpless in the strong embrace of New England rum, and news had come that a force of the enemy was gathering and marching toward him. They were anxious hours to the three generals and their aids, but especially to him on whom rested all the responsibility of the expedition.
Besides the approach of Wooster's men there was the small band of troops under command of Colonel Cooke, who were un- doubtedly near by, ready to give vigorous help to an attacking force, knowing every foot of the ground, and capable of giving an infinite amount of annoyance, if nothing"more. Then there were gathering farmers from the outlying districts, who had through the afternoon given substantial evidence of their pres- ence by creeping up as near as possible and firing at the pickets. The darkness that fell about the town after nightfall might par- donably be peopled with many dangers by even a less imagina- tive person than was the British general.
In the mean time Benjamin Knapp was having his own particu- lar trouble.
Mr. Knapp was a tanner. His house stood on what is now White Street, near the corner of Main. White Street was then called Barren Plain Road, and this name was given it because the road ran across the Balmforth Avenue region, which was then pretty much sand.
It is very rarely the resident of a humble village has two briga- dier-generals come to spend Sunday with him, and the advent of Generals Agnew and Erskine should have been an unbounded delight to Mr. Knapp, but it is doubtful if it were.
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HISTORY OF DANBURY.
The generals made themselves fully at home. There was no stiffness about them. They killed Mr. Knapp's stock, and cut up the meat on his floor, and the dents thereof were visible as long as the building stood. Mr. Knapp's wife was a sorely afflicted invalid, but her inability to attend to domestic duties did not in any way embarrass the guests, yet it was very unpleasant for Mr. Knapp. Besides that, the neighboring people, on that event- ful afternoon, drew near to the town with their long-barrelled guns, and taking advantage of the heavy growth of alders along the stream, fired at a redcoat wherever he showed himself. There was a picket stationed on the Main Street bridge, and this party was a special target. All this made Mr. Knapp very ner- vous, as he could not very satisfactorily show that he was not in league with the ambushed patriots, and he feared his property would suffer.
However, it did not. The British generals, in view of their accommodation and the illness of Mrs. Knapp, spared the house in the general conflagration that followed.
The house was removed twenty-five years ago to make room for the present building.
At midnight the uproar caused by the inundation of two thou- sand soldiers, and the absorption of such a great quantity of New England rum, had to a great degree abated. Tryon was fully awake. His position was becoming exceedingly perilous. Shortly after midnight word came to him that the rebels under Wooster and Arnold had reached Bethel, and were preparing to attack him. This was unexpected to him. He had thought to spend the Sabbath leisurely in Danbury. The word that came from Bethel radically changed his programme. At once all became bustle. The drunken sleepers were aroused to new life by the most available means, and a movement made toward immediate evacuation.
It was nearly one o'clock Sunday morning when Tryon got word of the Bethel gathering. Up to that hour there had been but three buildings destroyed (already mentioned). As soon as the men were aroused and in place, excepting those detailed for picket, the work of destruction began. This was about two o'clock. In the next hour the buildings owned by Tories were marked with a cross, done with a chunk of lime. The work of burning was then commenced.
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