USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928, Volume I > Part 16
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The Assembly reviewed past grievances suffered despite evi- dences of loyalty and self-sacrifice, called for troops on May 1 and on May 6 summoned one-quarter of all the militia-6,000 men in six regiments, a major-general and two brigadiers each of whom also was to command a regiment as colonel; and at a July session called for two more regiments, making a total of 7,400, all officers appointed by the Assembly. The Assembly authorized the payment of commissary bills and soon after appropriated £50,000 for that purpose and a like amount twice again within a short time. By the rolls of 1774 there had been 23,000 men be- tween 16 and 60, drilling in twenty-two regiments, with two more added when the county of Westmoreland, which had been the Litchfield part of the Pennsylvania region, was established. There were only patches of irregular uniform here and there; the one requirement was that men should be able to shoot straight
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and sleep wherever they might halt, in fields or woods, and with only odds and ends from their own homes to cover them. Con- necticut's government alone of the colonies remained unchanged, barring a touch of the pen on the royal charter provisions. It is to be remembered also that the essence of the Constitution and charter was DUTY along with independence.
To get this picture clearly, however, developments of adverse character during the prolonged French-Indian wars must not be forgotten. Numerical strength of the soldiery and quality of preparedness, indicated by orders for drilling, might elsewise be as misleading as would be the reading of the religious exhorta- tions and zealous conduct of the faithful in the churches. Even the solemn exercises of the inauguration of the governor had de- generated into something scandalous. When some of the clergy who assembled for the great sermon of the year and took part in the processions were none too able to walk after their libations, there is little wonder that the military escort of his excellency had become a rabble. These manifestations had so offended those who were really making colonial history that the Assembly had to appoint a committee to "take notice and resent the disrespect and indignity shown them by the military company ordered to serve." Prosecutions followed the committee's investigation and for two years an East Hartford company had to be the escort. Young men of Hartford who would redeem the town's fair name organized among themselves a company which should be worthy.
It was on October 2, 1771, that Samuel Wyllys, recently from Yale and soon to win high honor in war, with forty-three others petitioned the Assembly, saying that the individual expense of keeping up companies for escort duty and having their turns come but once in many years, made it seem wise to have one company formed to do the duty regularly. The Assembly was grateful. The uniform adopted was that of the British grenadiers, main- tained as the dress uniform of these the Governor's Foot Guard to the present time-to be laid away, however, during war so soon to come and never, in Connecticut, to be worn under the British flag until a memorable day in Hartford during the World war when that flag had place with the American flag on the Capi- tol. The Assembly was so pleased with the company thus out- fitted in 1772 that it directed that muskets be procured direct from England for the men. On the formation of a like company
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in New Haven in 1775, the Hartford company became the First and the New Haven the Second Company. Wyllys was still cap- tain of the company in 1775 and its members were active in im- proving the morale they had done so much to save.
Another power for good was the Connecticut Courant, which, as elsewhere told, was established in 1764 and was now giving its meagre bits of news of the rapid progress of affairs, for one thing answering the question as to which fired first at Lexington-the British or the hastily assembled farmers; and for another, pub- lishing the public sentiment concerning those with tory sympa- thies. It appeared that critical year of '75 with varying size of paper and sometimes omitting advertisements. For two months it was printed on wrapping paper. On October 11 it rejoiced over the prospect of a paper mill (which was to become a source of supply for over a hundred years), yet soliloquized thus: "But we live in a crooked world and through the monopolizing spirit of the times things are often puffed out of their proper channel, by which means it is reduced to its present awful and distressed condition." Later the editor urged the Daughters of Liberty to save rags for him, lest there be no paper whatever. Daughters and mothers were making rags go a long way at home, and in De- cember the Courant had to announce suspension till it could get paper from some source. Its next issue was on January 22, 1776 -the only hiatus in its unparalleled history.
The capture of Ticonderoga May 10, 1775, was one of the most effective incidents of the war period. It was the colonial way of capturing supplies as compared with the British way at Concord. Moreover it closed that historic gateway from the north which so carelessly had been left unguarded since the days when the blood of the colonials had been spilled there in vain and for which Burgoyne was to contend most fiercely at a later date. The few cannon and the powder that Ethan Allen found there, transported to Cambridge, were of material aid to the colonies. Benedict Arnold's quick eye had perceived the opening and he had spoken of it to General Parsons, but it was Silas Deane of Wethersfield who deserved the credit of arranging and putting through the project. Theoretically without the Assembly's knowl- edge, Deane and ten others procured £800 from the colonial treas- ury, pledging therefor their private fortunes. The ten were Sam- uel Wyllys, Samuel H. Parsons, Samuel Bishop, Jr., Joshua Por-
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ter, Jesse Root, Ezekiel Williams, William Williams, Thomas Mumford, Adam Babcock and Charles Webb. Hartford men on the committee of sixteen from Connecticut were Epaphras Bull, William Nichols, Elijah Babcock, Capt. John Bigelow, Bernard Romans and Ashbell Wells of Hartford and Capt. Elisha Phelps and Noah Phelps of Simsbury. Ethan Allen, of Southbury birth and Salisbury raising, the Green Mountain leader who had worsted the New York speculators in their attempt to get con- trol of Vermont lands, commanded the expedition after the force had been made to number eighty-three by the addition of men from Pittsfield led by Col. John Easton, a native of Hartford, and men from Vermont. Benedict Arnold received the first of that series of snubs which were to make him a traitor when he sought command because he bore a commission as colonel in Washington's forces and the men voted for Allen as the two men stood before them.
After Arnold and Seth Warner had pushed the Ticonderoga victory, the prisoners were sent to Hartford in the care of Epaph- ras Bull. They included Governor Philip Skene of Skenesbor- ough, who later was to figure among the British officers at Ben- nington, and his son, Major Skene. They were permitted to at- tend an Episcopal church in Middletown till friction arose be- tween them and the neighbors of Mrs. Sarah Whitman Hooker, in whose house they lived (on present New Britain Avenue in West Hartford), a house which recently has been bought by Mrs. Ralph E. Gerth and in 1928 was dedicated to the use of patriotic organizations. The General Assembly took up the subject and limitations were put upon the Skenes during the rest of their stay and before parole. War had not yet been declared.
Deane's ability was recognized by the colonial government when it began to take shape and he was sent to France on a semi- secret mission to secure munitions. Beaumarchais was ready to assist and devised ways to make the shipments which counted for so much, as, for an example, when they enabled Gates to turn the tide against Burgoyne. Eight vessels then had evaded the British and had landed their cargoes at Portsmouth, N. H. Deane also did so well in advancing the cause of the sailors that he was known among them as the "father of the American navy." In diplomacy his skill was of value in bringing about the alliance of France. To Franklin and Lee he was indispensable. And yet
SILAS DEANE (1737-1789)
THE DEANE HOUSE, WETHERSFIELD
New residence of Congressman E. Hart Fenn. Washington was enter- tained here on his way to take command of the army. Webb House to the right.
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his last days were to be embittered by slanders at the national capital, based upon misinterpretation of his necessarily secret work, and, his fortune expended for his country, he died alone and in poverty in England, his reputation not to be cleared till near the middle of the next century.
One of the scandals framed against Deane, one which per- haps more than any of the others was made to impress Congress, had to do with Hartford citizens and business, with no less a per- sonage than Gen. Nathanial Greene, a favorite and adviser of Washington, and with Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth of Hartford, who as commissary-general for the allied armies, did much to win for Connecticut the title of the "Provision State." When Deane went to Congress in 1779, leaving his fine residence in Wethersfield now the home of Congressman E. Hart Fenn, he turned over his large affairs there and in Hartford to his brother Barnabas whose home in Hartford was on Grove Street. He was closely associated with Colonel Wadsworth in the produce and shipping business. Early in 1779 the firm of Barnabas Deane and Company was formed for general trading. At that time the government was being imposed upon by profiteers. General Greene was Washington's quartermaster-general, and what be- tween the scheming at Philadelphia and the difficulty in getting supplies at any cost, his duties were onerous. Having seriously impaired his fortunes, he welcomed a plan to join with Commis- sary-General of Purchase Wadsworth to get supplies without having it known that the government was the purchaser. Both he and Wadsworth entered this firm as silent partners. The company owned grist mills, was interested in distilleries and tried to establish salt works to eke out the supply that could be brought through from the Indies. Not a word must be said to Silas Deane or anyone else, for if the secret became known great dam- age would be done to the cause, and profiteers would make the most of it. The army and the cause suffered all they could en- dure as it was, and more of it might have meant defeat.
Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull of Hartford a hundred years later obtained the key to all this correspondence, stories about which so disturbed the country in later days, and revealed not only the high honor of the men but "the difficulties and prejudices insur- mountable which beset them in their superhuman effort to keep
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the army from disintegrating through want of the bare necessi- ties of life."
The county's highways were hardly clear of the men who had hastened to Lexington when they were filled again with others who had made the weary marches from the colonies further south. Many were returning after a few days to reorganize under enlistments for two months and to march back to become a part of the army then in command of General Ward of Massa- chusetts, 3,000 of whose eager troops were from this colony. Among those who went with Putnam the night of June 16 to throw up the trenches on Breed's Hill were John Chester of Wethersfield and his men and they were a part of the brave con- tingent who the next day checked the British after their hard- won victory and covered the retreat of the Americans from Bunker Hill. The repulse after repulse the magnificently trained and magnificently uniformed army of Gage had suffered was, in the frank statement of the veteran Burgoyne, the worst spectacle he ever had witnessed.
One item will give an idea of the work of recruiting through the summer, reorganizing and beating the raw material into shape, with almost no resources for equipment. It is the receipt of a Simsbury captain and reads:
Aug. 1, 1775 .- Three guns and 2 bayonets prized at 55s. each gun and bayonet of the selectmen of the town of Sims- bury to supply my solgers now going in the service of this government. The gun without the bayonet, is prized at 50s.
Rec'd by me Elihu Humphrey, capt. 4th Company, 8th Regt. Marked on ye barrel- DW-two of the guns-1 gun marked S B on thumbpiece.
A member of that company was Daniel Barber, later a clergy- man, who minutely described the recruiting and departure of the company in his "History of My Own Times" (1827). Nowhere is there a better account of what was being done at that critical hour in America's history in every little hill town, or a better sidelight on the men who were doing it. Of the captain he says he was a well-bred gentleman, of friendly turn of mind and sweet disposition, who became major and died in 1776. Lieut. Andrew Hillyer (whose descendants, it may be remarked, have been prominent in Hartford history through all the years since) was a handsome, sprightly young gentleman, with a college educa-
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tion-unassuming, gentle, persuasive, and later a colonel in the militia. Lieut. E. Fitch Bissell of Windsor was a gentleman, though not of the most easy and familiar turn, efficient and well respected. Sergt. Aaron Pinney had "a fierce and fiery coun- tenance and commanding air, well becoming a soldier of '75." From Sergt. Jacob Tuller, no one expected much flattery; his brow was generally knit together. Sergt. Daniel Higley, vet- eran of the earlier wars, entertained them with camp songs. Sergt. Thomas Hayden was a military man, "but I should guess no soldier ever admired him for his pleasant airs." Jonathan Humphrey, clerk of the roll, was a most charming companion.
As soon as seventy-five had been enrolled, the company met at the captain's house, ready to march. Rev. Mr. Pitkin of Farm- ington, by request, that day preached the farewell sermon, the company appearing in the church "as men prepared for battle." In going to and from the service, the soldiers were accompanied by a mixed multitude of relatives, friends and strangers. In the midst of this scene of sorrow, the drums beat to arms, and with one lingering look, the long march is begun in silence. The most of the men had not been twenty miles from home before. The company marched eight miles that afternoon and put up at Marsh's inn. For the first time in his life the writer spent the night on the floor with a cartridge box for a pillow. Due to scarcity of horses, an ox team carried the provisions and a barrel of rum. The rations were salt pork and dried peas. "While passing through Connecticut, the females were very polite, in lending us knives and forks; but after entering Massachusetts, we were not allowed the like favor without pledging money or some kind of security-the people saying they had lost many of their spoons by the soldiers who had gone before us. Our bread was hard biscuit, in which there was a small quantity of lime, just enough to make the mouth sore."
The marching and martial music on Sundays and while pass- ing churches caused reflection on whether the Lord would be as well pleased as if the men had stayed home to read their Bibles; but military discipline soon effected a degree of relaxation and in time many came to consider all days alike. Soldiers are not inclined to the same degree of civility as others. During the march it was not uncommon if a soldier were not well treated by the inn-keeper to show resentment by firing a ball through his
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sign. In Connecticut (again) the men were treated with great respect, but as they came nearer Boston they were treated as though they were "a banditti of rogues and thieves," and the sol- diers expressed themselves resentfully. It required about ten days to reach camp at Roxbury. Six men were there quartered in each 6x7 tent. "Our household utensils were an iron pot, a can- teen or wooden bottle holding two quarts, a pail and a wooden bowl."
Lieut .- Col. Roger Enos of Windsor with his men was sent with Arnold on his Quebec expedition in September, 1775, but turned back with his half-starved followers, and when court- martialed was exonerated and indirectly commended for good judgment. Capt. Oliver Hanchett's company of Wethersfield was in that expedition and Benjamin Catlin of Wethersfield was a quartermaster.
In the reorganization after the first brief enlistments, the number of Connecticut regiments was reduced from six to five. Samuel Wyllys became colonel of General Parsons' old command. In 1776 the number of "regular" state regiments was increased to eighteen and of militia to thirty-three. Matthew Talcott of Hartford County was appointed a colonel of militia. Erastus Wolcott of Windsor was made colonel of Waterbury's former regiment at New London. Colonel Enos commanded a regiment on the threatened western border. In James Wadsworth's brigade, hurried to reinforce Washington in June, 1776, Fisher Gay of Farmington and John Chester of Wethersfield were colonels of two of the eight regiments. The Assembly voted £110,000 in credit bills. Col. Thomas Seymour, 4th, of Hartford (later the city's first mayor) commanded a large body of light horse; because of disagreement as to guard duty he brought them back but later returned and received special praise from Wash- ington for their services. His son, Thomas Youngs Seymour, was given a commission in Sheldon's Dragoons while still a student at Yale in the class of 1777.
Following the custom of the earliest days, a war committee was appointed, or Committee of Correspondence and Observation as it was styled in 1774 when sympathizing with the Boston brethren. The Hartford County men, composing the larger part of the committee, were Samuel Pitkin, Aaron Bull, Samuel Wyllys, Timothy Cheney, Richard Pitkin, Noah Webster, Eben-
JONATHAN TRUMBULL Governor 1769-1784
:
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ezer Welles, Oliver Ellsworth, Hejekiah Wyllys, Jonathan Welles and Ashbell Wells. There also was a committee to disburse pub- lic money for the care of soldiers' families.
From the beginning, Washington looked to "Brother Jona- than," Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, the only governor elected by the people, with utmost confidence. Thus when advised of the swarming of the British from overseas and from the South to attack New York, the distracted commander of the pseudo army of ill-assorted and ill-conditioned colonials, almost weaponless and held by no reasonable terms of enlistment, told Trumbull of the situation. It was August 12, 1776, that, in his own hand- writing, the governor dispatched to the officials in each town his historic circular letter of appeal. In a week the attacking force would number 30,000. "In this day of Calamity and general ex- pectation when our enemies are exerting every nerve to pluck up pull down and destroy us it is of the greatest necessity that everything in our power be done for the defense of our rights, properties, lives and posterity." All men exempt from military duty were urged to form companies, choose officers and attach themselves to the militia already preparing to go to New York -to be held only for the short time of the emergency. "Play the man for God and the cities of our God, may the Lord of Hosts and the God of the armies of Israel be your Captain and leader, your Conductor and saviour, give wisdom and conduct to Generals and officers, and inspire our Soldiery with courage, resolution and fortitude, that God may delight to spare us for His own name's sake."
This document in itself, of which only one copy is known to exist, breathes the spirit of the hour as felt by Washington's closest civil associate, pictures the conditions and more clearly than could pages of description indicates the position the colony occupied, the character of its leader and his faith in his people as well as in the common cause. It marks the contrast with the Hes- sian hirelings, who by their training and experience in European wars, could laugh at such an appeal to provincials.
Commanders of the fourteen militia regiments already spe- cifically ordered and organizing under Maj .- Gen. Oliver Wolcott of Litchfield, scion of the Windsor family, included Maj. Roger Newberry of Windsor, Col. Elizur Talcott of Glastonbury, Lieut .- Col. Selah Hart of Farmington, Col. Jonathan Pettibone of Sims-
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bury, Lieut .- Col. George Pitkin of Hartford and Col. Matthew Talcott, then of Middletown. Preceded by the dragoons and pick -. ing up the extra companies on the way, they immediately began their march to New York, where already Connecticut men were enduring unspeakable hardships in hastily preparing fortifica- tions. Under direction of a Congress, which through fear of "militarism" had ignored Washington's request to organize an army with enlistments for at least a year, the general's position, spread over Brooklyn, New York and upper New Jersey, was ab- solutely untenable, and no Lord of Hosts could save him from de- feat. Weakened by expiring enlistments and by disease, and badly equipped, part of his force already dispatched up-river at behest of Congress, he could count but 8,000 fairly effective men the night before the battle. And one-third of them were from Connecticut, with Putnam in command in Brooklyn as second to Washington.
The world knows the rest-Putnam's remarkable handling of his men against the overwhelming force Howe was landing, and Washington's marvelous retreat-the most notable in history, ac- cording to late British authorities. The shock to the anxious people at home was tremendous but not unnerving, as the im- mediate sequel showed; many hung their heads in shame over the stories of Americans running away at Kip's Bay, told by un- experienced men who, no more than their home folks, could grasp the wonderful exhibition of military science.
Parsons, Huntington, Knowlton, Nathan Hale and many other Connecticut leaders made imperishable names in those few days, and the men from Hartford County were an important part. Col. Selah Hart of Farmington was as much a type as those who fared through or gave their lives on the field. Worn out by his exertions in the campaign around Boston, he left a bed of sick- ness to rally a regiment at the call in June and was deaf to all suggestions through the summer that he spare himself. The force of his devotion was felt till he died; he was buried on the day of the first battle.
Distress at home compelled a resort to price-fixing, for both labor and necessities, a law which was repealed in 1777 but re- enacted in 1778 after a colonial convention called by Congress. The care with which prisoners were attended to was not dimin- ished with the reports from the colonials suffering on the British
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prison ships. The local committee on prisoners consisted of Col. Erastus Wolcott, Samuel Wadsworth, Ezekiel Williams, Epaph- ras Bull (commissary), Henry Allyn, Col. Fisher Gay, Col. Matthew Talcott, Jonathan Welles and Ebenezer White with Col. James Wadsworth and Col. J. Humphrey. Col. Nathaniel Terry of Enfield, who had succeeded Gen. Erastus Wolcott in command of the Nineteenth Militia on the latter's appointment to be a brigade commander, was also active in arranging for prisoners and in providing supplies for the front line.
For the most part the prisoners were allowed freedom within prescribed limits, as in the case of Governor Skene which has been mentioned. Any infraction of regulations meant jail. A romantic case was that of Maj. Christopher French of a British regiment, taken prisoner at Gloucester, Mass .- improperly, ac- cording to his diary. He lived at Mrs. Knox's where there were other officers, some of whom engaged in private teaching. French devoted himself to writing long harangues to the authorities to prove that they were ignorant and incapable. Like the Skenes he was permitted to attend Rev. Mr. Jarvis' Episcopal church in Middletown till he tried to escape. His obnoxious bearing brought him in occasional conflict with the rougher element and he was locked up. Inasmuch as there was suspicion that the jail inmates had communication with the tories and as there were supplies of munitions in Hartford, a fence was built around the jail and Barzillai Hudson was appointed chief of the guard. French formed a habit of addressing circular letters to his fellow inmates, assuming an authority over them. One thing led to another till he was brought before a committee of which the emi- nent jurist Jesse Root was chairman, sitting with Samuel Wads- worth and Mr. Payne. He seemed to welcome this as an oppor- tunity to malign Judge Root and ridicule the positive evidence that he was in communication with those outside of jail. His contention was that his parole-date of which he had fixed him- self before his escape in November and his recapture in Bran- ford-had expired. He was committed to still closer confine- ment, yet nevertheless succeeded in getting away late in Decem- ber. Rev. Roger Viets of Simsbury was found to have been in connivance and was punished.
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