USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 54
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1 Major Peters held a captain's commission at Roxbury in 1775, and in 1778 was appointed a major in Gen. Tyler's brigade. He served in several campaigns during the war. The exploit noticed in the text, has been attributed to others, but docu- mentary evidence afterward exhibited at the pension office, gives to him the honor of having been the first man who entered the fort after its evacuation by the enemy, and of having had the chief agency in extinguishing the fire.
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to be blown into the air, and it was to preserve them from this awful fate that they hazarded their lives by entering the fort. The fire being quenched, they hastened to examine the heaps of human forms that lay around, but found no lingering warmth, no sign to indicate that life yet hovered in the frame, and might be recalled to conscious- ness. Major Peters easily selected the lifeless remains of his friend Col. Ledyard. His strongly marked features, calm and serene in death, could not be mistaken.
As soon as it was known that the British had re-embarked, all Groton was moved, inquiring for her sons. Women and children as- sembled before the morning dawn, with torches in their hands, exam- ining the dead and wounded in search of their friends. They passed the light from face to face, but so bloody and mangled were they- their features so distorted with the energy of resistance, or the con- vulsion of pain, that in many cases the wife could not identify her husband or the mother her son. When a mournful recognition did take place, piteous were the groans and lamentations that succeeded. Forty widows had been made that day, all residing near the scene of action. A woman, searching for her husband among the slain, cleansed the gore from more than thirty faces before she found the remains she sought.
The wounded men, left in that lonely house at the foot of the hill, passed a night of inexpressible pain and anguish. Morning at last came, and gentle forms began to flit before their eyes. To these poor, exhausted men, the females who raised their heads from the bare floor, and held cordials and warm chocolate to their lips, seemed ministering angels sent from another world to their relief.
Dr. Joshua Downer, of Preston, surgeon of the regiment on that side of the river, with his son, came early to the relief of the suffer- ers, dressing their wounds with skill and tenderness. Two had died during the night, but most of the others finally recovered. Capt. Adam Shapley was an exception ; he languished for five months, en- during great pain from his wounds, and died Feb. 14th, 1782.
Fourteen among the dead, and three among the wounded, bore the title of captain. Captains Elisha Avery and Henry Williams had served in the continental army ; the others bore that rank in the militia, or were commanders of vessels. Of the killed, sixty belonged to Groton and twelve to New London. Eleven bore the name of Avery, six that of Perkins. When Ledyard gave up his sword, few of the garrison had fallen ; at least three-fourths of the killed were sacrificed after the surrender. Among them were several of such
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tender age, that they could not be called men. Daniel Williams, of Saybrook, was perhaps. the youngest ; his gravestone bears an in- scription which, though brief and simple, is full of pathetic meaning.
" Fell in the action at Fort Griswold, on Groton Hill, in the fifteenth year of his age."
One boy of sixteen, escaped unhurt. Thomas, son of Lieut. Parke Avery, aged seventeen, was killed fighting by the side of his father. Just before he fell, his father, finding the battle growing hot, turned and said, "Tom, my son, do your duty." "Never fear, father," was the reply, and the next minute he was stretched upon the ground. ""Tis in a good cause," said the father, and remained firm at his post.
The loss of the British, according to Arnold's report, was forty- eight killed and one hundred and forty-five wounded. Many of the latter died before they returned to New York, and were buried in the sea, or on the shores of Plum and Gardiner's Islands, near which the fleet anchored.1 They were eight days absent on the expedition. Some of the British officers estimated that the number of sound men with which they returned, was two hundred and twenty less than that with which they started. On the New London side of the river, the havoc of human life was nearly equal in the British and Ameri- can ranks ; about half a dozen killed and a dozen wounded on each side. A Hessian officer and seven men were taken prisoners by the Americans. A number of the inhabitants of New London and Gro- ton were taken and carried away by the British. They had remain- ed too adventurously to take care of their property, or lingered too long in removing effects, or were suddenly seized by some flanking party. These, together with the captives from Fort Griswold, were treated with great severity ; more like cattle than men. On the way to New York, they suffered every indignity that language could im- pose in the way of scorn, contempt and execration ; and being driven into the city with their hands bound, were confined in the noted Sugar-house.
The next morning, at daylight, the fleet of the enemy was seen at
1 Capt. William Coit, one of the prisoners carried from New London, stated that thirteen died the first night on board the transport he was in, and were let down into the sea while they lay at anchor in Gardiner's Bay. As the number was called out, when they came to thirteen, Capt. Coit, who was on deck, exclaimed, impromptu, "Just one for every state !" The words were scarcely uttered, before the officer on duty, flourishing a weapon over his head, knocked his hat overboard-he was conse- quently driven into New York bareheaded.
.
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anchor off the mouth of the harbor. They made sail at 8 o'clock, but were in sight an hour or two longer. By this time, the whole surrounding country was in motion.1 All the militia, all who had friends on the sea-board, all who hated the British, all who were impelled by curiosity, came rushing to the scene of desolation, min- gled with the fugitives returning after a dismal night of terror and anxiety, to their forlorn homes. On the heights in view of the town, they paused and gave vent to lamentations and cries of anguish over the smoking ruins.
That the enemy suffered so little annoyance on the New London side, and were allowed to retire unmolested to their ships, has been attributed to the want of an efficient leader to concentrate and direct their force. But even under the ablest commander, no position of attack or defense could have been sustained. What could be effected by a motley assemblage of two hundred citizens, against a compact army of one thousand disciplined soldiers ! It was well that no dar- ing leader came forward to germinate and encourage rash attempts, whose only result must have been a duplicate of the slaughter on the other side of the river. A single spark more, to kindle indignation to a flame, and the inhabitants had come rushing down on the enemy to pour out their blood like water.
A single anecdote will suffice to show the spirit of the inhabitants, male and female. A farmer, whose residence was a couple of miles from the town-plot, on hearing the alarm-guns in the morning, started from his bed and made instant preparations to hasten to the scene of action. He secreted his papers, took gun and cartridge-box, bade farewell to his family, and mounted and put spurs to his horse. When about four or five rods from the door, his wife called after him-he turned to receive her last commands-" John ! John !" she exclaimed, " don't get shot in the back !"
The loss of New London from this predatory visit, can only be given in its main items : sixty-five dwelling-houses were burnt, occu- pied by ninety-seven families ; thirty-one mercantile stores and ware- houses, eighteen mechanic's shops, twenty barns, and nine other buildings for public use, including the Episcopal church, court-house, jail, market, custom-house, &c. Nearly all the wharfing of the town
1 The regiment from Norwich, under Col. Zabdiel Rogers, was the first upon the ground. It arrived early in the evening. Wm. Williams, Esq., of Lebanon, rode from Lebanon to New London in three hours, (twenty-three miles,) on horseback. The enemy were just preparing to embark when he arrived.
48*
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was destroyed, and all the shipping in port, except sixteen sloops and schooners which escaped up the river.
" Ten or twelve ships were burned, among them three or four armed vessels, and one loaded with naval stores ; an immense quantity of European and West India goods were found in the stores-among the former the cargo of the Han- nah, Capt. Watson, from London, lately captured by the enemy, the whole of which was burnt with the stores. Upward of fifty pieces of iron eannon were destroyed in the different works, exclusive of the guns of the ships." (Arnold's report.)
The General Assembly of the state, in 1793, compensated the suf- ferers in part, by grants of land in the western reservation, belonging to the state, on Lake Erie, which were called, from this circumstance, the fire lands. But this late attempt at recompense, was in most in- stances nugatory ; very few of the real sufferers ever received any benefit from it. The losses of individuals cannot be estimated. Na- thaniel Shaw stated his personal loss at more than £12,000 sterling,
On the 15th of May, 1782, Mr. Greene Plumbe, rate-collector, came into the town-meeting, and asked and obtained an abatement on the rate-bill of 1780, stating that a sum of money which he had collected on said bill, was plundered from his house when the British invaded the town, August 6th, 1781. This is the only allusion to the great event on the town records, of a date any where near the time, and in this there is a misstatement of the month, which was sixth of September, not sixth of August.
Ten years after the conflagration, it is referred to again :
" April 18th, 1791.
" Voted, that John Deshon, Esq., is ehosen agent for this town, to attend the Committee appointed by the General Assembly to aseertain the losses of the sufferers at the fire in this town in the year 1781."
The probate records are not thus silent. A portion of these rec- ords was destroyed, and in consequence, some estates were obliged to be settled anew, and several wills were legalized by the legislature from copies of them which had been made. It is not known where the probate records were lodged, either the part destroyed, or the part saved. It is probable, however, that those preserved were with the town records in Waterford. A note made a few years later by the clerk specifies the particular portion lost :
" On the 6th of Sept., 1781, were burnt the records of wills, &c., from the be- ginning-files since the year 1777, and journals from April 1763; so that there are remaining before Sept. 6th, 1781, the Journals from the first to the 22d of
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April, 1763, and files from the beginning to the year 1777 inclusive-unless scat- tering ones missing.
" Certified Jan. 28th, 1788, Joshua Coit, Clerk of the Probate District of New London."
The anniversary of the massacre at Groton fort was celebrated for many years with sad solemnity. Within the inclosure of the old wall of the fortress, where the victims had been heaped up and the blood flowed around in rivulets, sermons were annually preached and all the details of the terrible event rehearsed. In 1784 the preacher was Rev. Solomon Morgan of Canterbury ; in 1785, Rev. Samuel Nott of Norwich ; (that part of Norwich which is now Franklin, where the preacher died May 26th, 1852, aged ninety-eight years and four months ;) and in 1786, Rev. Paul Parke of Preston.
In the year 1789, Rev. Henry Channing of New London deliver- ed the annual sermon. His text was-" If thine enemy hunger, give him bread to eat; if he thirst, give him drink." Unlike the usual tone of such discourses, which had served to keep alive the remembrance of the country's wrongs, the speaker recommended forgiveness, peace and reconciliation. The British were no longer our declared ene- mies: why cherish this envenomed spirit ? The actors in that awful tragedy were passing away to their final award: does it become Christians to follow them with their reproaches to another world? Should they nourish the bitter root of hatred in the heart, and attrib- ute to a whole nation, the crimes of a few exasperated soldiers ?
Through the effect of this sermon, or the diversion of public sen- timent from some other cause, the celebrations were discontinued for many years. In the course of time, however, a desire became prev- alent-not to revive the embittered feeling of Revolutionary days- but to erect some enduring memorial of the heroism and unfortunate end of the Groton victims. A general spontaneous utterance of this wish led to a celebration of the anniversary of the battle day in the year 1825. The orator was Wm. F. Brainerd. A grand military parade and a large assemblage of citizens gave effect to the unani- mous sentiment then expressed, that a monument to the memory of the slain should be erected near the scene of the fatal assault. A lottery for the purpose of raising funds was granted by the legisla- ture ; the corner-stone laid Sept. 6th, 1826, and the monument com- pleted in 1830. It is built of native rock, quarried not far from the place where it stands; is twenty-six feet square at the base, twelve at the top and 127 feet in height. In the interior a circular flight of 168 steps leads to the platform, from whence a fine view is
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obtained, particularly toward the west and south, where lie New London and the river Thames, the Sound and its islands.
On the west side of the monument is engraved a list of the names of the victims, eighty-three in number, and on the south side is the following inscription :
" This Monument was erected under the patronage of the State of Connect- icut, A. D. 1830, and in the 55th year of the Independence of the U. S. A., in memory of the patriots who fell in the massacre at Fort Griswold, near this spot, on the 6th of September, A. D. 1781, when the British under the command of the traitor Benedict Arnold, burnt the towns of New London and Groton, and spread desolation and woe throughout this region.
" ' Zebulon and Napthali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto death in the high places of the field. Judges, 5th chap., 18th ver.'"
Since the erection of the monument, the anniversary day has been usually noticed by gatherings on the spot of individuals, and sometimes by prayers and addresses, but not often by a public cele- bration. Mr. Jonathan Brooks of New London, who died in 1848, took a special interest in this anniversary. For many years before his death, he resorted annually on this day to Groton Height, and whether his auditors were few or many, delivered an address, which was always rendered interesting by graphic pictures and re- miniscences connected with the Revolution. On one occasion when he found himself almost without an audience, he exclaimed with sud- den fervor " attention ! universe !"
CHAPTER XXXIII.
FROM THE CLOSE OF THE WAR TO THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
Results of war .- Revival of commerce .- Various commanders .-- The Lady Strange .- An execution .- Commercial items .-- French exiles .-- Deaths of seamen .-- Yellow fever of 1798.
IT is needless to observe that the moral and religious character of the place had not improved during the long period of conflict and distress. On the contrary, the tendency had been continually down- . ward : all the agencies at work were in favor of misrule and disor- der.
There was no regular minister of any sect remaining in New London ; the schools were in a great measure broken up; wives were without husbands to provide for them ; children without fathers to guide and govern them. Want was in many instances the parent of vice. For eight years the town had been like a great militia garrison ; a resort for privateersmen and state and continental vessels ; it had been kept in continual alarm, scarcely a day passing in which the sails of the enemy were not in sight, either hovering like birds of prey, ready to pounce upon the property of the inhabitants, or skirt- ing like thunder-clouds the distant horizon, menacing an immediate attack ; and at last it had been actually plundered and burnt by the enemy. As a natural result, ignorance, discord, profanity and row- dyism were lamentably prevalent.
The Congregational church on the hill, near where the alms-house now stands, had not been destroyed by the enemy. A clergyman from a neighboring town who preached in it shortly afterward, often reverted, in later days, to the scenes he then witnessed.1
1 Rev. Joseph Strong, D. D., of Norwich.
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Before the service commenced, there was loud talking and laugh- ing around the house and in the porch, and even in the pews. The whispering and moving about during the service were so annoying that he could scarcely proceed with his duties, and the instant the blessing was pronounced, uproar commenced. The galleries were in a tumult; young people calling to each other from side to side, jesting and laughing; while the boys and girls were pushing, stamp- ing and rushing out with violence. Before he could reach his lodg- ings, the young lads, and even some men, had gathered into parties and were playing ball or pitching quoits.
The war left the inhabitants poor and exhausted. Some were not able to rebuild their dwellings. Ten or twelve years afterward many an old chimney might be seen, standing amid heaps of rubbish, ruin- ous and forlorn, meinentos of strife and desolation. But peace works rapidly, and is a near ally to prosperity. Trade revived, prospects brightened and the town was soon, in part revivified. The unem- ployed officers and crews that had manned the state vessels were eager for employment, the privateersmen, became peaceful traders, and by the year 1784, a flourishing commerce was again the characteristic of the place.
Vessels cleared that year, not only for the West India market, but for London, Liverpool, Cadiz and Ireland. The clearances included, however, all vessels from the Connecticut and Thames Rivers. Nor- wich at that period having suffered less, took the lead of New Lon- don in her shipping list. The ship Centurion, the brig Littlejoe, (Capt. Gurdon Bill,) and the Ranger, (Capt. McEwen,) all sailing in 1784 for London, were owned in Norwich.
As incidents worthy of being recorded, it may be stated that Capt. White from this port, made a voyage to Jamaica in 1784, in the brig Zephyr and back again in thirty-seven days ; and Capt. Samuel Still- man, in the brig Milley, made three voyages to Jamaica during the year, in which he carried out 122 horses. He came in from the third voyage, Nov. 3d. It was very unusual for a vessel to accom- plish more than two West India voyages in a year.
Captains Hinman, Bulkley, Fosdick, and other commanders of armed vessels, casting aside the apparel of war, entered into the mer- cantile line. Hinman was afterward in the revenue service. He died in 1807, aged seventy-three. Bulkley was in actual sea service, "afloat and ashore," for nearly sixty successive years. He died in 1848, at the age of ninety-five, the oldest seaman of New London- perhaps of any generation. Fosdick, though a seaman, had served
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in the army at the siege of Boston in 1775. He was of nearly equal age with John Ledyard of Groton, the noted traveler, and in boyhood they made their first voyage together. Capt. Fosdick died in 1821, aged seventy-one.
Robert Winthrop made voyages from New London to Ireland in 1787 and 1788. He was a son of John Still Winthrop, and born at New London in 1764, but having been placed during the Revolu- tionary. War under the guardianship of English relatives, at the age of fifteen or sixteen he entered the British naval service. On the conclusion of peace he returned, for a few years to his native place, and was connected in business with his brother William, but in 1790 went back to the British service, in which he subsequently rose to the rank of vice-admiral of the blue. He died in Dover, England, in 1832. Richard Law, a coeval and school-mate of Robert Winthrop, entered the American naval service, at the age of fifteen, and was a midshipman on board the ship Trumbull in her desperate combat with the British letter of marque Watt, June 2d, 1780. Winthrop was a midshipman on board the Formidable, which bore the flag of Sir George B. Rodney in the battle of April 12th, 1782. Capt. Law died in 1845, aged nearly eighty-three years.
We may add the names of Daniel Deshon and Jared Starr, as belonging to the list of those who were seamen before and after the war, and continued in the service many years-dying at an advanced age-Deshon in 1826 aged seventy-two; Starr in 1838 aged ninety- one.
On the revival of trade a host of younger mariners launched at once upon the sea, and promotion being rapid when business is brisk, many of them soon took rank as commanders. They had perhaps but little nautical science : they had just learned enough of naviga- tion to be able to ascertain their latitude. At a very early age and with very little training, except familiarity with the sea, they em- barked as masters of vessels with life and property, their own and others', dependent on their ability and good fortune. Yet in general, prosperity and success attended them, and long experience, added to their native sagacity, made them at last veterans and princes in sea- manship.
Ship-building revived with trade. The ship Jenny built for the European service was launched at Groton, opposite New London, Oct. 30th, 1784. Between this period and the year 1800, a large number of sloops and schooners were set afloat from the various
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building yards of the place. Vessels of a larger size were also oc- casionally built, but of this business we have few statistics.
In 1786 a very singular vessel was constructed at Poquctannuck on the river Thames, ten miles from New London, by Jeremiah Hal- sey. She was double-decked, burden about 150 tuns, and built almost wholly of plank-several courses being laid, crossing cach other at right angles. The only timbers in her were the keel, stem and stern-post. She was firm, well-molded, graceful, and on com- ing down to New London in November, excited very general curios- ity. She was called a snow, and named Lady Strange, but many people from her lightness called her the Balloon. In a storm which occurred Dec. 3d, while she was fitting for sea, she was driven directly over the sandy point of Shaw's Neck, and stranded among the trees of an orchard on Close Cove; but was got off without damage and sailed for Ireland Jan. 19th, 1787. She proved to be a good sea vessel and a fast sailer, and made several voyages from New London, but was afterward owned in Philadelphia. According to a statement published soon after the death of Halsey, the ingenious architect of this vessel, she was examined at Philadelphia when thirty-two years old, and was at that time staunch and sound.
On the 20th of December, 1786, Hannah Occuish was executed in New London for the willful murder of Eunice, daughter of James Bolles. The crime was committed July 21st, 1786. The perpetrator was an Indian girl of Pequot parentage, only twelve years and nine months old ; her victim was six years and six months old. The murdered child was found about ten o'clock in the morning, on the Norwich road two or three miles from town. She lay under the wall, from which heavy stones had been thrown down upon her body. On ex- amination it was discovered that her death could not have been the result of accident, and after a day or two, suspicion having rested on Hannah Occuish, who lived with a widow woman near by, she was examined and confessed the crime. It was a case of cruel and mali- cious murder, growing out of a dispute that occurred in a strawberry field some days before. The fierce young savage, nursing her wrath and watching for an opportunity to take revenge, at length came up- on her victim, on her way to school alone, and after coaxing and alluring her into a wood, fell upon her and beat her to death. The only alleviating circumstances in this case were the extreme igno- rance and youth of the criminal. These were forcible arguments
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but not at that day of sufficient weight to reprieve from execution. The gallows was erected in the rear of the old meeting-house, near the corner of Granite Street. The sermon on the occasion was de- livered by the Rev. Henry Channing,1 from Yale College, who was then preaching as a candidate to the First Congregational Society.
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