USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 37
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WHEREAS repeated application was made to a magistrate of Norwich aforesaid, for that protection which every subject in his legal business is entitled to, but no protec- tion being either afforded, offered, or promised,-This is therefore to offer a reward of
One Hundred Dollars,
to any person who shall give such information of the above mentioned, high handed, and audacious offenders, as that they may thereby be apprehended within this province, and be held to answer for their infamous conduct, the same to be paid on their convic- tion by FRANCIS GREEN.
Boston; July 13, 1774 .*
The treatment received by Mr. Green was stigmatized by the tories, as a "violent outrage from a petulant mob." The patriots called it "the cool, deliberate remonstrance of the sons of freedom." The advertise- ment was a subject of merriment to the good people of Norwich, who republished it in handbills, and hawked it about town with a running commentary.
About this time subscriptions were made in various towns in Connecti- cut, for the poor of Boston. Norwich sent on a noble donation of 291 sheep, and afterwards a second installment of cash, wheat, corn, and a flock of 100 sheep. This liberality was greatly applauded in the public prints. Samuel Adams, in a letter to the Committee, referring to this generosity, observes: "The part which the Town of Norwich takes in this struggle for American Liberty is truly noble."
The sympathy felt for the Bostonians was yet further displayed by the spirit manifested in September of this year, on the reception of a piece of intelligence, which proved to be false, of a rupture between them and the royal troops. On Saturday, Sept. 3d, at four P. M., an express arrived from Col. Israel Putnam, that Boston had been attacked the night before, and six of the citizens killed. This was but a rumor, yet it caused the greatest consternation ; the citizens assembled around Liberty Tree, then .adjourned to the court-house, and resolved to despatch an express to Providence. Mr. David Nevins volunteered on this service, as he had on many similar occasions, and departed at eight, P. M. On Sunday morning, 464 men, well armed, and the greater part mounted on good horses, started for Boston, under the command of Major John Durkee, and rendezvoused at Capt. Burnham's inn, seven miles from town. Here at eleven o'clock A. M., they were met by Mr. Nevins, on his return from Providence, with intelligence that the report was without foundation,- upon which they dispersed. That same morning, two hundred men, well
* Massachusetts Gazette.
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armed and mounted, left Windham at sunrise, and had proceeded twenty or thirty miles before they learned the falsity of the rumor. The people of Colchester were attending divine service, when a messenger entered and announced the report that Boston had been attacked by the troops. The minister immediately suspended the service, and all the men able to bear arms equipped themselves and marched. It was supposed that up- wards of 20,000 men from this colony alone were on the march to Boston that day.
This false alarm had for its foundation a real aggressive act. General Gage landed a body of troops and removed the military stores from Charlestown, together with two field-pieces from Cambridge, to Castle William. This excited a tumult in Boston, the news of which, distorted and intensified by rumor, was delivered verbally by a hasty messenger to Col. Putnam at Pomfret. Putnam condensed the intelligence in a des- patch to Capt. Cleveland in Canterbury, who sent it on by express to Major John Durkee in Norwich ; the latter forwarded it to New London, from whence it went to Lyme, Saybrook, and East Haddam,-the same despatch passing on with its various endorsements, and arousing the coun- try to arms.
A convention of delegates from New London and Windham counties met at Norwich Sept. 8, 1774, in order to consult upon measures for the common welfare. The result of their proceedings was an earnest recom- mendation that the towns should supply themselves with a full stock of ammunition and military stores,-that all officers and soldiers should be well armed and equipped,-that men should be collected and drilled, and skill in the art of war should be cultivated. Of this meeting the Hon. Gurdon Saltonstall was chairman, and Col. William Williams of Lebanon, clerk.
In October, the General Court of the Colony ordered that all the militia should be called out for drill twelve half-days before the next May. No regiment of militia had at this time ever been reviewed east of Connecti- cut river ; the trainings had all been by companies.
There was no regular uniform for the militia of the State at that period, nor for many years afterward. Rifle frocks and overalls were much worn, mostly white with colored fringes. One of the words of command in train- ing was, " Blow off the loose corns ;" and before and after the command to " Poise arms," came " Put your right hand to the firelock,"-" Put your left hand to the firelock." An odd kind of aspirate was sometimes used after a command; thus, "Shoulder! hoo!" The great object in the exercises then was to make the soldier familiar with his gun; that he might charge quick and aim sure. Now the trainings consist much more in maneuvering, wheeling, marching, &c. Instead of firelock, arms is used.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
At a field review in May, 1774, Norwich had four companies, under the following officers :
Ist Company-Jedidiah Huntington, Captain. Jacob Perkins, Jr., Lieutenant. Joseph Carew, Ensign.
2d Company-Samuel Wheat, Captain. Joseph Ellis, Lientenant. Isaac Griswold, Ensign.
3d Company-Isaac Tracy, Jr., Captain. Jacob Witter, Lientenant. Andrew Tracy, Ensign.
4th, or Chelsea Co .- Gershom Breed, Captain. Benjamin Dennis, Lieutenant. Thomas Trap, Ensign.
The militia at that period used the English colors; displaying the cross of St George (+) in a field of red or blue, and sometimes the cross of St. Andrew (X) united with it (*), in reference to the union of England and Scotland. After the troubles with the mother country commeneed, objections were made to this standard, and in all probability it was not displayed after 1774. It is said that on a certain training day, the artil- lery company, composed of able men and patriots of the first stamp, had provided themselves with a banner bearing the arms and motto of the State, while the light infantry performed their evolutions as heretofore under the old flag. In the course of the day's exercises, being on a march through the town street, the artillery managed to confront the infantry, and planting their cannon in the way, refused them a passage unless they would surrender their standard. After some parleying, the royal ensign was lowered, rolled up, and never used again.
In the autumn of 1774, the General Court ordered that Norwich should comprise the 20th regiment of infantry, and appointed Jedidiah Hunting- ton, Colonel; Samuel Abbott, Lieut. Colonel ; and Zabdiel Rogers, Major. These officers all belonged to Norwich town-plot. Col. Huntington gave notice that a regimental training would be held at Norwich on the first Monday of the next May. But before that time arrived, a great part of the men were in actual service near Boston, and the review was relin- quished.
When the flame of war broke forth in 1775, twenty-two regiments had been organized in Connecticut. In 1776 they were remodeled and twenty- five regiments formed, and of these all but two were in actual service for longer or shorter terms during the summer.
In October, 1776, Ebenezer Huntington and Jedidiah Hyde of Norwich were commissioned as captains, David Nevins, Simeon Huntington and Jacob De Witt lieutenants, in the regular army.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Such was the unanimity of the citizens, that through the whole Revo- lutionary struggle their proceedings were principally town-wise. They were not obliged to have such continual recourse to the committees of cor- respondence and safety, nor to invest them with such arbitrary powers as was done in most parts of the country. The public acts were all munici- pal, the dissenting voices few and weak, and very little change took place in laws or officers. The town was an independent community, actuated by a single impulse, swayed only by a Governor whom they loved, and a Congress which they revered.
March 28, 1775. In full town meeting the following resolution was passed :
" Whereas numbers of persons are removing from the town of Boston to this place and others may remove :- Voted, that this town request the select-men and committee of inspection to take effectual care that none of the addressers to Gov. Hutchinson or any others who have evidenced themselves to be inimical to the common cause of America, be admitted or suffered to reside in this town, unless they shall produce a proper certificate from the Provincial Congress that they have altered their conduct in such a manner as to give full satisfaction."
Among the persons alluded to in the above preamble, who at this time removed their families to Norwich, where they remained till after the evacuation of Boston by the British, and some of them during the greater part of the war, the names of Hubbard, Greene, Phillips, Quincy, How and Dorr have been preserved.
Mr. How was the pastor of the South Church in Boston, and had for- merly preached in Norwich.
Deacon Phillips occupied the Arnold house. He was one of the solid men of Boston, and his family came on in a coach with out-riders. The family of Josiah Quincy, the Boston Patriot, came with them; Mr. Quincy himself being then absent on a mission to England .*
The Hubbards and Greenes had connections in Norwich, and it was natural that they should remove to these well-known and retired scenes. Capt. William Hubbard took the house that had been long known as that of Col. Hezekiah Huntington, then recently deceased, and several of his Boston relatives, both Greenes and Hubbards, resided with him till the siege was raised.t
* The late Josiah Quincy, President of Harvard College, in conversation with a gentleman from Norwich, said that he distinctly remembered some of the circumstan- ces connected with this removal, though he was but three years old at the time.
t It is related that when Mrs. Greene and her young daughter returned to Boston, Zacchary, a faithful Indian runner, made one of the retinue, carrying the child upon his shoulders in a basket which depended from a broad strap around the head in true aboriginal style. This was doubtless the easiest mode in which the child could be con- veyed to such a distance
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Major Dorr of Boston, while tarrying at Norwich with his family, was nominated by Washington as one of three commissioners who were ap- pointed to view the harbor of New London, and select the most eligible place for a fortification.
From other places also, the population of Norwich was augmented in these troubled times. The Malbones came from Newport, the Moore family from New York ; Capt. Joseph Coit and Russell Hubbard from New London ; and doubtless many from other places, that have not been traced.
The attention of the whole country was at this time turned towards Boston. The Norwich Packet was rife with such remarks as these :
"Boston is now reduced to an alarming crisis, big with important events. Like a new piece of ordnance, deeply charged for the trial of its strength ; we listen with attention to hear its convulsed explosion, suspending ourselves in mysterious doubt, whether it will burst with dreadful havock, or recoil upon the engineers to their great confusion."
" The blocking up of Boston is like turning the tide of a murmuring river upon the whole land, and thereby spreading a dangerous inundation through the continent, for resentment already flows high at New York, Philadelphia, and the southern towns, and if it join with the flux at Boston, it may occasion a sea of troubles."
The explosion waited for in such dread suspense, at length broke upon the land. The battle of Lexington commenced early on Wednesday morning, April 19th. Gov. Trumbull was in Norwich when the news first arrived, which was in the afternoon of the next day .* The facts were greatly exaggerated and the public sympathy highly excited. Mr. Nevins, with his usual promptness, again mounted and proceeded to Prov- idence after correct information, returning on Saturday evening. Hand- bills were immediately struck off and dispersed through the town before daybreak the next morning.
It is interesting to trace the course of intelligence flying through the country at that period, and in this case we have the means of noting the points accurately.i
J. Palmer, one of the Committee of Safety at Watertown, at 10 o'clock on that memorable day, April 19th, sends forward Israel Bissell on a swift horse, with a despatch to Col. Foster at Brookfield, stating that "the British have landed two brigades, have already killed 6 men, and wounded 4 others, and are on their march into the country." Bissell is charged to alarm the people as far as the Connecticut line. At Worcester, Nathan Balding, town clerk, takes a copy of the despatch and forwards it to Daniel Tyler, Jr., of Brooklyn, Ct., who sends it by express to Norwich, where it arrives in the afternoon of the 20th.
* Stuart's Life of Trumbull, p. 173.
t Newspaper extras and private documents.
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Early the next morning another express with later news arrives. This is from Ebenezer Williams at Pomfret, to Col. Obadiah Johnson at Can- terbury, who forwards it to Jedidiah Huntington. It contains the startling news that 50 of our people are killed and 150 of the regulars,-that is, "as near as they could determine when the express came away."
On the 22d, Mr. Nevins returned with more correct accounts by way of Providence.
On the 23d, (Sunday,) at 9 o'clock in the evening, an express arrived from Woodstock, with despatches for the Committee of Correspondence, and a certified copy of a letter from General Putnam, dated at Cambridge, April 22d, evidently written under deep excitement, calling for immediate supplies of troops and provisions. The shades grow darker with each account, and Putnam represents the invading enemy as perfectly barba- rian, burning houses, "killing children, and putting the muzzle of the gun into the mouths of sick people not able to move, and blowing their heads to pieces."*
Volunteers were now almost daily departing for the army at Cambridge, in squads of two, three, and four, and regularly organized companies were not far behind. In April, 1775, the Legislature ordered six regiments to be enlisted and equipped without delay. The term of enlistment was seven months. These regiments were raised by volunteers from the reg- ular militia almost with a rush. In May, a company of 100 from Nor- wich, enlisted and accoutered under the superintendence of the veteran Durkee, left for the scene of action in charge of Lieut. Joshua Hunting- ton. These were annexed to Col. Putnam's regiment.
This company departed May 23d, and that same night a company from Saybrook arrived and encamped on the plain, marching early on the 24th. On the 25th, Capt. Coit's company from New London passed through the town, hastening forward, impatient to face the foe.
A company went from Preston nearly at the same time, under officers that all rose during the war to the rank of majors and colonels: Edward Mott, captain ; Benjamin Throop and Jeremiah Halsey, lieutenants; Na- than Peters, ensign.
Early in June, a second company, raised and drilled in the town-plot at Norwich, marched for Boston, and was annexed to the 6th regiment, com- manded by Col. Parsons. Samuel Gale, captain ; Josiah Baldwin and Elisha Lee, lieutenants ; David Nevins, ensign.
Two additional regiments were raised in the eastern part of Connecti- cut in July, under Colonels Jonathan Latimer of New London and Jedi- diah Huntington of Norwich. Rev. John Ellis of the West Farms was chaplain of Huntington's regiment, and Philip Turner surgeon. Two
* These atrocities were then currently reported, but the British officers indignantly denied that any such were perpetrated.
1
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companies went from Norwich, commanded by Asa Kingsbury and Joseph Jewett.
Phineas Lyman Tracy, son of Dr. Elisha Tracy, was ensign in Kings- bury's company, and a young man of great ability and promise. He died at Roxbury during the siege of Boston, before he had attained the age of twenty-one years.
Capt. Jewett was son-in-law to Dr. Theophilus Rogers. He was taken prisoner at Flatbush, Aug. 31, 1776, and barbarously slain with his own sword after he had surrendered.
A part of these recruits fought at Bunker's Hill. Major Durkee's com- pany, in the retreat from thence, according to the commissary's report, lost twenty guns and forty blankets.
These regiments passed the next winter on Prospect and Cobb's Hill, pressing the siege of Boston. They were transferred to New York in March ; were engaged in the battles at Brooklyn and Haerlem Heights ; endured all the hardships of the retreat through the Jerseys, and fought at Germantown, before their term of service expired. Many of these first volunteers served during the whole war, gradually acquiring an hon- orable rank and reputation in the army.
The great number of volunteers enlisting into the Continental service, left the militia ranks scanty and inefficient. In October, 1776, the 20th regiment was ordered to take position at Rye, for the defence of the State. A return of the regimental roll,* the first week after their arrival at Rye, (Oct. 11th,) shows eleven companies present, but no one company with more than 22 privates. Major Zabdiel Rogers was in command of the regiment, and the captains were Jacob and Joseph Perkins, Wheat, John- son, Stephens, Wight, Waterman, Lathrop, Brewster, Leffingwell, and McCall. Total on duty, 176.
The following order from Washington to Colonel Rogers, who was then with his regiment at Rye, has been preserved :+
Oct. 21, 1776.
SIR. You are hereby requested to make the best stand you can with the Troops under your command against the Enemy, who I am informed are advanced this morn- ing on Mamaronek, and I will as soon as possible order a party to attack them in flank of which you shall be fully informed in proper time .- Be cautious of mentioning the design. I am your most obedient servant,
G. WASHINGTON.
* Preserved in MS.
t The original is in the possession of Miss Olivia Tyler, a great-grand-daughter of Col. Rogers. Only the signature is in the hand of Washington.
CHAPTER XXX.
BIRDS-EYE VIEW OF A SCENE IN NORWICH. 1775.
SUPPOSE it to be that Sunday in June which succeeded the battle of Bunker Hill. It is 10 o'clock, and the second bell has just commenced ringing. The inhabitants are gathering slowly and solemnly to the house of worship. From Bean Hill come a throng of Backuses, Hydes, Rog- erses, Wheats, Tracys, Watermans, Griswolds. Here and there is a one- horse chaise, almost large enough for a bed-room, square-bottomed, and studded with brass nails, looking something like a chest of drawers or an antique book-case on wheels. Doctor Theophilus Rogers and his wife Penelope occupy one of these vehicles. Major Zabdiel Rogers holds in his impatient charger to keep pace with them. The brothers Thomas, with their families, join the downward train.
Those stout-looking men on horseback, with women and children upon pillions behind, are reputable farmers from Waweekus and Plain Hills. That young man with such erect form and attractive countenance, is Dr. Elihu Marvin, unconscious that he alone of all this population is to be the . victim of a future pestilence, that will nearly desolate a neighboring city. That one with the staid demeanor and grave aspect, whose hair is already silvered with age, is Deacon Griswold, destined to live nearly to the con- fines of another century.
Farther down, the stream is increased by the families of the philan- thropic Dr. Elisha Tracy and Dr. Philip Turner, the surgeon, and Elisha Hyde, an enthusiastic young attorney, and Mr. Billy Waterman and Mr. Jo. Waterman. Many of the foot-people have turned off by the willow tree, and ascending the rocks, proceed by a rude pathway, once the beaten road that led to the ancient meeting-house upon the hill ; others pursue their way through the town street, winding under the eaves of precipitous rocks till they reach the church.
But see, from opposite quarters are advancing the Lathrops, Hunting- tons, Leffingwells, Tracys, Adgates, Blisses, Reynoldses, Baldwins, Pecks, Trumbulls, &c. Dudley Woodbridge, clerk of the committee of inspec- tion, is a conspicuous personage. Samuel Tracy is accompanied by his wife Sybil, and his young family. Deacon Simon Huntington is here in
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his three-cornered hat and white wig, walking gravely with a staff. You may see other men in white wigs, some five or six in all. Dr. Daniel Lathrop wears one: he rides to meeting in a chaise with a negro driver in front,-his dignified companion, the daughter of Gov. Talcott, sitting by his side.
There comes the Hon. Samuel Huntington, Judge of the Superior Court and recently elected member of the Continental Congress, with his wife and their adopted children. There too is the patriotic Gen. Jabez Hunt- ington, and those of his sons whom the Lexington war-cry has not yet called to the field, and the family of the late Hon. Hezekiah Huntington, and Benjamin Huntington, the worthy patriot and clerk, and other Hunt- ingtons and Lathrops and Tracys innumerable.
The names of Fanning, Townsend and Carpenter have their represent- atives here. Seth Miner, Jabez Perkins, Silas Goodell, Dr. Jonathan Marsh, Jesse Brown, will be in their customary seats. Aaron Cleveland, a deep thinker ; William Hubbard, with large heart and open hand ; Wil- liam Pitt Turner, the wit and rhymester; the printers, Robertson, Trum- bull, Spooner ; the Morgans, Bushnells, and Starrs, from the Great Plain, -- all assemble at the sound of the churchi-going bell.
Around the Plain, every threshold seems to be simultaneously crossed. The two taverns kept by Azariah Lathrop and Joseph Peck pour forth a goodly number. Mr. Ben. Butler and his family and Mr. Joseph Carew are coming up on one side, and Mr. Elly Lord and his two daughters are just passing the court-house. And see, the parsonage door opens, and the venerable pastor comes forth, and slowly walks to the church and up the broad aisle, tottering as he ascends the pulpit stairs. How reverend are the curls of that white wig! The very wig which he wore some twenty years previous, when the old Rogerene so abusively followed him into meeting, exclaiming: "Benjamin ! Benjamin ! dost thou think that they wear white wigs in heaven !" And again : " Benjamin ! thou art a sinner ! thou wearest a white wig!"
Below the pulpit, in the broad aisle, are chairs and cushioned benches, where a few old people sit. The gallery is filled with the young, and with a choir of singers, which, though mainly made up of young people, have several grave men and women for their leaders.
The services commence; the sermon contains many pointed allusions to the critical state of affairs, and eyes sparkle and hearts throb as the pastor sanctifies the cause of liberty by mingling it with the exercises of religion, and justifies resistance to oppression by arguments from scripture. Just as the sermon is finished, a loud shout is heard upon the plain, the trampling of a hurried horse, an outcry of alarm, which brings the audi- ence upon their feet : uproar enters the porch, the bell is violently rung, several persons rush into the body of the church, and amid the confusion
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nothing can be heard, but "A battle ! a battle has taken place on Bunker Hill! The British are beat ! Hurrah ! hurrah !" The meeting is broken up amid noisy shouts of "Huzza for Boston ! Huzza for Liberty !" The audience rush out upon the plain, and gather round the panting courier ; his despatches are read aloud ; rejoicing and indignation, patriotism and military fire, hatred of British tyranny and defiance of British power, take the place of those quiet, devotional feelings, with which they assem- bled together.
That night, bells were rung, cannons were fired, bonfires blazed far and wide, and the Tree of Liberty was decked with triumphant devices. En- listments too were begun, arms were burnished, addresses made, and tories insulted; nor even by these and a hundred other exuberant demonstra- tions of excited fecling, could the agitated minds of the people be scarcely appeased.
Among the audience that day, was a poor German basket-maker named John Malotte, a deserter from the English army that took Canada, some few years before, who, wandering through the wilderness, had come down into the northern part of Norwich, and there pursued the humble occupa- tion which he followed in his native land, before he had been impressed as a soldier, and sent away to fight the battles of a foreign power. He was at this time but a spectator of the enthusiasm of others, but he, too, loved liberty ; he treasured up the scene, and more than forty years afterwards described it for the amusement of a child, in such vivid colors that the above picture is but a remembered transcript of his recollections.
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