History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 47

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572

USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 47

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

. . . "'Our loss cannot be exactly ascertained, no returns being made. It is judged to be about sixty killed and wounded.

"'The enemy's loss is judged to bo more than double onr number, and about twenty prisoners. The enemy on this occasion beliaved with their usual barbarity, wantonly and cruelly murdering the wounded prisoners who fell into their hands, and plundering the inhabitants, burning and destroying everything in their way.'

" According to the above account from the Connec- ticut State Journal, the American troops approached Danbury in a storm of rain. The British must have been more fortunate in their progress, judging from the following incident: Mrs. Stephen Ambler, who died at a ripe old age some years ago, was a girl of sixteen at that time. Her father, whose name was Munson, occupied a house which stood where Mr. E. A. Houseman's place now is, on Deer Hill Avenue. Many of our readers will remember the house. Miss Munson and her mother were engaged quilting on that Saturday when the news of the approach of the British was brought here. She went to an upper win- dow, which commanded a view clear through Bethel, and she saw the moving mass of men, distingnishing their presenee by the reflection of the sun on their burnished arms and accoutrements. The spectacle made so vivid an impression upon the mind of the young girl that she never forgot the sensation she then experienced .*

* Miss Munson subsequently married Stephen Ambler (who, with his six brothers, served in tho war), and became the grandmother of Oliver P. Clark.

4. .

d d

Par-

the

184

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

"The British reached the village shortly after two o'clock, so it was about one o'clock when Miss Mun- son saw them. The column had had an uninter- rupted march from the water. This is not surprising. The country was full of Tories,-men who were in sympathy with the king's canse and who knew every foot of the country. Through these Tryon knew the condition of defense and offense of the people, and by them was guided along the safest and most direct route. With such knowledge and help, and with troops in fine condition, the march to Danbury was but an excursion.

"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 approached Bethel. The hill is on the border of Redding and Bethel, and is not eight miles distant from here, as Barbour in his chronicles states.

" 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 con- siderable 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, in- stead 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 inci- dent that really did occur, although it has the sanc- tion of local tradition, and is repeated (in honest be- lief) by several aged residents, who got it from their parents, who were living here at the time.

"Joseph P. Cooke, a resident of Danbury, was in command of the few Continental soldiers here at this time, with the rank of colonel. We do not believe the troop was very large,-merely a guard over the government store which was located here.

"When the news of the British approach was learned in Danbury, Dr. John Wood dispatched a young man in his employ named Lambert Lockwood to learn the size and contemplated line of march of the British troops. Young Lambert reached the sum- mit of Hoyt's Hill, when he suddenly and rather un- expectedly 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 discovered 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 consider- ably impaired by this incident.

"Tryon's troops marched through Bethel without (singularly enough, taking in account his 'blood- thirsty' nature) doing any damage to life or property.

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. The father of the vener- able Thomas Andrews, of Bethel, with several com- panions, went on Shelter Rock to see the British col- umn pass, and while there were surprised and shot at by the royal scouts.

"On reaching the south end of our village Gen. Tryon took up his headquarters in the house of Nehemiah Dibble, on South Street. The same building has ever since been known as the Wooster Place, from the fact of Gen. Wooster dying there a few days later. Several years ago it was torn down.

HOUSE OF NEHEMIAHI DIBBLE, IN WHICHI GEN. WOOSTER DIED.

"It was between two and three o'clock in the after- noon 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, Gens. Erskine and Agnew, accom- panied 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. Knapp's house stood about where is now D. P. Nich- ols' brick block, long known as Military Hall, the corner of which is occupied by F. W. Barnum, drug- gist. 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 np Main Street the party met with two incidents. A man named William Hamilton had a piece of cloth at a fuller's on South Street. When he heard of the approach of the enemy, he got on his horse and rode there in full haste for his goods. He was rather late, however, and when he came out into the street to remount his horse a squad of the force

P T

0 t

te E

bu S tl dr

185

DANBURY.

was upon him. Danbury's horses could not have had the reputation for speed they now enjoy, or Mr. Ham- ilton was very poorly provided, for the steeds of the military gained on him at every rod of the way. He flew up Main Street with a half-dozen troopers in full pursuit, and on reaching West Street, then a mere lane, turned up it, the hair on his head being very ereet. The pursuers followed him, and one of them, being more in advanee and elose upon him, swung his sword to eleave him in two, when a singu- lar but most fortunate aeeident occurred. Hamilton lost a part of his hold on the roll, which he had up to this time tenaciously clung to; the cloth flew out like a ribbon, frightening the pursuing animals and rendering them unmanageable.

" The column that came up Main Street were fired at from the house of Capt. Ezra Starr. This building stood where now is the residence of the Hon. D. P. Nichols, corner of Main and Boughton Streets. The shots were fired by three young men. It was an act of reekless daring, and the actors must have been very young, as the shots could not have possibly had any other effeet on the invasion than to have cxas- perated the invaders. These men were Joshua Porter and Eleazer Starr and a negro named Adams, who was in Ezra Starr's employ. Mr. Porter lived in Ob- long (Westville Distriet). He was in the village after a gallon of molasses when the enemy came. Starr lived on the corner of Main and Elm Streets, within a few feet of The News office. Both men went into the captain's house, and there awaited the approach of the enemy. They were killed on the premises, and the building was immediately fired, the three bodies being consumed with it.

"The skirmish-line of the British as they ap- proaehed Danbury extended from Shelter Rock to Tom Mountain. Tryon was an able general, and, although pretty well assured that the country was without an organized military force, omitted no proper precaution. The main body came in on the road (now but little used) which skirts the west side of Coalpit Hill. The skirmishers advanced a few rods north of South Street, covering Main Street, and then rested. Gen. Tryon took up his headquar- ters with Nehemiah Dibble, and Gens. Agnew and Erskine, with a body of the troops, preceded by two pieces of artillery, started up the main street.

"The alarm in Danbury was, of course, consider- able. The town was in no position of defense. The news of the invasion was known in New Haven hours before it was received here. Danbury had a company of cavalry under command of Capt. Starr, but the greater portion of them were in New York State, in the Federal army. The number here with the few detachments did not forni a total of a liun- dred and fifty effective men. There were but very few able-bodied civilians present. The whole body of military was under command of Col. Cooke. He withdrew as the enemy advanced, so the only oppo-

sition Tryon's men found came from the few citizens who from every available shelter fired upon the col- umu as it advanced up Main Street.

" As the force reached the present location of the court-house the two pieces of artillery were dis- charged, and the heavy balls, six- and twelve-pound- ers, 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. There are probably a number of these balls saved up by our citizens. Two of them, found on Dr. W. F. Lacey's place, arc in possession of Col. Samuel Gregory.

" Immediately upon Gens. Agnew and Erskine taking up their quarters in Mr. Knapp's house, a pieket was located. One squad of twenty men occu- pied 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 enough 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 towards them.

"' You are our prisoner,' said they.

"' Guess not,' he laconically replied, moving stead- ily upon them.

"' We'll stiek you through and through if you don't stop,' one of them threatened, advaneing 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 lightning. 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 demoral- ized heap. The rest of the squad, seeing the disaster, immediately surrounded and subdued Porter. This little affair, it is said, gave the name of Squabble Hill to that neighborhood.

" 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 eonfined 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 eool 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

. He

: force

rad

with

186

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

the English invader. This church stood where is now the graveyard on South Street, which was then its churchyard. The building was years after re- moved to the corner of Main Street and turned into a tenement.

"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 Strect, near where is now Samuel 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 or since so shaken. They went up and down the main street in squads, singing army songs, shouting coarse speeches, hugging each other, swcaring, 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 Capt. 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 drunkenness.

"Some few of the troops remained sober, and these performed the duties of the hour. One of these was the marking of a cross upon the buildings which be- longed to the Tories. This was done with pieces of lime. There was considerable of this property. Sym- pathizers 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 jubi- lant now. The proper authorities were in possession, the rebel element was overcome, and the Tories be- lieved that Danbury was forever redeemed from the pernicious sway of the rebellion.

"It was two of these people who piloted Tryon into Danbury. They were Stephen Jarvis and Eli Benedict. They were very happy men on this dismal night, and the future looked very bright to them. The next night there was a very big difference in the state of their feeling. They had 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 lie returned on a visit to his sister. He came pri- vately ; but, the neighbors getting word of his pres-

ence, they 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. He lived in the house just east of George Ryder's place, on Wooster Street, and which, remodeled, stands there yet.

"It was not a particularly happy night for the gen- eral in command. He had met with a complete suc- cess in reaching Danbury and destroying 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 towards 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 Col. Cooke, who were undoubtedly 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 evi- dence of their presence by creeping up as near as pos- sible and firing at the pickets. The darkness that fell about the town after nightfall might pardonably 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 particular 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 Balniforth Avenue region, which was then pretty much sand. Barren Plain Road was not quite as straight as White Street. It bowed to the south about where Hawley & Sayers' coffin warehouse stands. Back and just east of there, on the stream, Mr. Knapp had his tannery.

. "It is very rarely the resident of a humble village has two brigadier-generals come to spend Sunday with him, and the advent of Gens. Agnew and Ers- kine should have been an unbounded delight to Mr. Knapp, but it is doubtful if it were. The generals made themselves fully at home. There was no stiff- ness about theni. 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 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 eventfiul afternoon, drew near to the town with their long-barreled guns, and, taking advantage, of the heavy growth of alders along the stream, fired at a red-coat wherever he showed himself. There was a picket stationed on the Main Street bridge, and

t t

187

DANBURY.

this party was a spceial target. All this made Mr. Knapp very nervous, as he could not very satisfae- torily show that he was not in league with the am- bushed patriots, and he feared his property would suffer. However, it did not. The British generals, in view of the accommodation and illness of Mrs. Knapp, sparcd the house in the general eonflagration that followed. The house was removed twenty-five years ago to make room for the present building. It was the stereotyped house,-side to the street, with baek roof sloping down to within a man's height of the ground.

" At midnight the uproar eaused by the inundation of two thousand 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 eame to him that the rebels, under Wooster and Arnold, had reached Bethel and were preparing to attaek him. This was unexpected to him. He had thought to spend the Sabbath leisurely in Danbury. The word that came from Bethel radi- cally changed his programme. At onec all beeame bustle. The drunken sleepers were aroused to new life by the most available means, and a movement made towards 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 mncn were aroused and in place, excepting those detailed for pieket, the work of destruction began. This was about two o'clock. In the next hour the buildings owned by Tories were marked with a eross, done with a chunk of lime. The work of burning was then commeneed.

"The first house burned stood just west of the Episcopal church on South Street, but some little distance from the street, and where is now the garden of the late Charles Ryder's house. There was a long garden attached to it, and at the opposite end of the garden, almost reaching Main Street, was another house. These buildings were owned and oceupied by John McLean, onc as a dwelling, aud the one on the corner as a store.

" Mr. MeLean was commissary of the Continental troops in that vieinity, and the objeet of the visit of the enemy to Danbury was to destroy the army pro- visions which he had aecumulated in his storc and in the Episcopal church, which was then unfinished. They would not burn the church, but rolled the bar- rels of flour and pork into South Street, and burned them and the buildings, the lard being over shoe deep after the eonflagration.

"Mr. MeLean had sent off all his working teams towards West Point with supplies, and had nothing at home but a pair of fatting oxen and a saddle-horse. Upon the alarm of the enemy's approach the oxen were put before a eart with a feather-bed in it, upon

which his wife and children proceeded to New Mil- ford, while he remained burying and putting in safety sueh of his property as he could conceal until the British appeared over Coalpit Hill. They saw and pursued him, calling out, 'Old Daddy,' ' Rebel,' etc., and firing after him when the fleetness of his horse seemed likely to earry him out of their reach. Some of the bullets passed through his coat and hat, but he escaped uninjured, joining his family in New Milford, whence they removed to a farm which lie owned in Stony Hill, and remained until the close of the war. They then returned to Danbury and built the house now standing near the foot of Main Street. A few of his descendants still reside in the town, but none bearing his name, the only grandson being Dr. John A. McLean, of Norwalk.

"Capt. Daniel Taylor, Maj. Taylor, Comfort Hoyt, Jr., and Joseph Wildman were also among the suf- fercrs, but the writer knows not where their property was located.

"The second house fired was on the cast side of Main Street, a few rods from the corner of South Street, and where the big pine-tree now stands. After that there was no order in the firing, but the flames seemed to burst out simultaneously in all directions.

"Dr. John Wood's place, about where are the places of William Bedient and the late Philauder Comstoek, was destroyed. There were two wells in this vicinity, caeh of which was filled with iron, ean- non-balls, ete., which could not be burned, and were thus put out of the way. David Wood's house, where William H. Clark now lives, was burned. Aeross the street from him lived Capt. James Clark, who lost his house. Next to Clark was Maj. Mygatt's home, just south of E. R. Whittlesey's place, also burued. Another contribution to the flames was the house of Rev. Ebenezer White, where G. F. Bailey's house now is. Zadoe Benedict's house stood where Sehop- paul's bakery is, north of the depot. Mr. Knapp must have thought the trouble was getting pretty elose to him. Capt. Joseph P. Cook's house also went. It stood where Lucius P. Hoyt's house is.

" The record says there were nineteen dwelling- houses burned in all. It is said also that there were several stores burned. They must have been owned by members of this list. We know that Capt. Cook owned one of the stores, and that the Woods owned another. Cook's store stood where he lived, and the latter was where Mr. Bedient's place is. Near Samuel C. Wildman's house stood a blacksmith-shop, which also perished. In it was made a part of the chains with which the Hudson was barrieaded at West Point. The meeting-house of the New Danbury Society was also burned. " It stood on Liberty Street, between Delay Street and Railroad Avenue.

" As but nineteen houses were burned, it was not so much of a conflagration, after all. Danbury then had a population of some two thousand five hnudred. To accommodate these there must have been at least four

hez

ix pie.

188

HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT.

hundred dwellings in the township, and nearly, if not quite, three hundred in the village. Historians say that every house was burned except those belonging to Tories. If this be so, then the humiliating reflec- tion is ours that the great bulk of Danbury was Tory. Thank Heaven for the strength to believe that it is not so! It is likely that the British burned only those buildings that were available in their hasty getting together, including those whose owners may have been particularly obnoxious to the loyal heart.

"With the fire well under way the pickets were called into the formed line, and the invading army took up its march in retreat.

"Tryon did not undertake to return as he came. The force under Wooster at Bethel deterred him from that, and he sought to make a detour through Ridge- field."

THE FIGHT.

" In the light from the burning buildings the British troops took up their line of march from town, passing over Deer Hill by way of the road now called Woos- ter Street. No sooner had the last man left Main Street than the advance of the American squad, which had hung on the outskirts of the village since being driven out, appeared on the street, and immediately followed after.

" Before the last of the British were fairly out of the village the gray dawn of the Sabbath waved up from the east, and as it advanced into the broader light of the new day it showed the long line of British filing through Miry Brook road, and the straggling but determined rebels, armed with long muskets, car- ried with both hands, bringing up the rear, and doing their best to harass the foe, and succeeding. Still, with all their patriotic zeal, we are obliged to enter- tain but a poor idea of their marksmanship, for there is no record that any of the enemy were killed on Danbury soil.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Fairfield County, Connecticut : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 47

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1572

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) comp. cn
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1572