USA > Connecticut > Windham County > History of Windham County, Connecticut, Volume II, 1760-1880 > Part 23
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" August 6. Did march to town and barrack in the Court House. 7. As soon as light, got up and see the Continentals march for Tivertown; got some breakfast, and then I went to the New Light meeting-hoase and got a canteen, and about 12 we set ont for Tivertown, marched through Pawtuxet into Se- konk or Rehoboth, and did lie in the meadow on the side of a fence. 8. Mustered about 2 or 3 o'clock and marched into Swanzea, and then over States Ferry into Freetown, and then over Fall River to Tiverton. and I encamped by side of a hay stack. 9. Had bowl of chocolate and went to Parade, and fixed our guns for business; then rode over the ferry and landed upon Rhode Island ; formed and marched up to the fort, and lay down in the great chamber. 10 French did engage the English batteries with their ships, and cannonaded very smart for three hours, and brothers Jesse and John went to the lines scouting at night. I went upon guard to the bridge, and did sleep in the road. 11. Jesse and John fixed a little wall to break the wind, and we have nothing to eat hardly. 12. Knocked abont and built us a stone house and covered it with bay, and it rained very hard, and the house leaked and we thought we could not stand it, went about a mile and got wet to the skin, and found a hay stack, and almost chilled to death we rolled off some hay and did lie by the stack, and were almost dead in the morning. 13. Crept out, and came to stone house; found John alive, and after a while I got dry, and had a boil on my eye, and did feel very poorly. Our folks fixed up all our barracks, and got a little green corn to cat."
This terrible storm was the chief cause of the failure of the enter- prise. The fleet was seattered and disabled, and the land force greatly worn down and dispirited. Several soldiers died that night, and many were made ill. Provision and ammunition were greatly damaged. Gov- ernor Trumbull had already made requisition upon Ebenezer Devotion of Scotland Parish for a hundred barrels of musket powder, and all the cartridges in his hands, to be forwarded with all speed to General Greene at Providence-needful teams to be impressed if necessary- and now sends swift express, stating that the storm had wet most of the cartridges in General Sullivan's army, and begs him to hurry on stores with the utmost dispatch, as powder sufficient for supply was not
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to be had in Providence. In face of this great disaster, Sullivan con- tinued his operations. Joslin reports :-
"Aug 14. Got up and paraded and marched to the water and fired by pla- toons. 15. Not well, nor John either, and all the brigades marched to the lines and we got our packs brought down and encamped in a huckleberry plain. and I had a clean shirt and trousers come and felt very poorly ; blind with one eye, and not any tents nor ha'n't had but the heavens to cover us. Huckleberries very thick. We built a house of bushes. John and I drawn out to entrench and made a fort and almost finished it. 17. Very poorly ; ate nothing. 18. Still very poorly. The enemy keep a constant firing at our men while they are building the fort. John and I go upon guard. Two or
three wounded to-day. Many guns broke, some the breeches off, some the barrels struck asunder. 19. A little firing on both sides. 20. They fire a little; are all the time entrenching and building forts. I washed my knapsack and feel some better. 21. Set out upon fatigue down the lines, had to dig in plain sight of the enemy. The ground was but just broke and we got to work when they began to fire upon us very fast, but we received no damage. I got home alive to my tent. 22d. One man killed. one wounded. 23d. Enemy
firing hot shells and we begun the breastwork for the great mortar. Two of our men were taken. Jesse, John and I worked till noon and placed the great mortar. 24. Constant firing. 25. All paraded and went to headquarters; went three miles for rum. A great gun ball took a board off the store and struck here and there. 26. Paraded; six or seven men killed; an eighteen-
pounder split all to pieces and a brass mortar. Aug. 27. Paraded and took our cooking utensils and went to headquarters and delivered them up, and marched through Portsmouth to Bristol Ferry and went on board a vessel to go to Providenee. There was but little wind and that was wrong, and at two the men came jumping down into the hold and said we were all prisoners, for there was an English privateer just by, but it proved to be one of our own, and we got along slowly and beat along almost to Conanieut Point and east an- chor and lay till light and then struck for Warwick Rock and landed and came along and got some victuals and I feel very poorly. Camp Middle- town, Aug. 28. Hear that they had a smart fight."
Deserted by the French fleet, and alarmed by rumors of large acces- sion to the forces of the enemy, Sullivan was compelled to abandon his enterprise, and instead of the brilliant victory so confidently anticipated the patriots could only rejoice that the army had safely retreated. Several Windham County soldiers were slain or wounded in the " smart fight" with the pursuing British. Theodore, son of Deacon Lusher Gay, of Thompson Point, a most promising and engaging young man of nineteen years, died of sickness at Tiverton.
IV.
DISCOURAGEMENTS. ENDURANCE. HOME AFFAIRS. BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS. VICTORY.
W ITH such reiterated defeat, disaster and disappointment the war dragged on. The succeeding year brought no improvement. Little was attempted or accomplished. Financial embarrassment, in- ternal dissension and insufficient supplies, compelled inaction. Never were affairs more gloomy and discouraging. The best that could be said was that the army was not annihilated, that the States and
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
General Government still maintained their integrity, that after all the efforts and expenditures of Great Britain, rebellion was not crushed ont, the Colonies were not subdued. The people all over the land were weary, depressed and discouraged. Their property was becoming worthless, the comforts and even necessaries of life almost unattainable. Thousands of their brethren had been sent out to die in camp, prison and battle, and to little apparent purpose. And there were things harder to bear than discomforts, loss of property and even friends. There was demoralization, degeneration and defection. Young men came back wrecked in health and character, dissolute in habit and infidel in prin- ciple. Even Windham County had its ARNOLD. Poor Colonel Fitch, with all his chivalrous devotion to the royal cause, could never openly take ground against his countrymen ; but Pomfret's dashing at- torney was less scrupulous. Nathan Frink, a shrewd and successful lawyer, who had gained an extensive legal practice and wide reputation, seeing no hope for success on the patriot side, left home and friends and offered himself and his services to the British commander in New York ! His aged father most piteously bemoaned "that he had lost his son, lost his education, lost everything in him that was dear to him," and soon went down into the grave mourning. His sister, the wife of Schuyler Putnam, a large circle of family connections, and all the earnest patriots of Pomfret and its vicinity, were overwhelmed with grief, shame and resentment at this " mournful defection."
And even among those who claimed to be patriots there were things that caused sorrow and discouragement. There were murmurings, and bitter wranglings, and selfish speculation and extortion. Men kept back their goods for a price, though they knew their soldiers were starving and naked. The brief sessions of the County Court were chiefly occu- pied with hearing complaints against various people for selling cattle and swine at foreign markets and for unauthorized prices, and for other breaches of wholesome laws made to encourage fair dealing and restrain and punish sharpers and oppressors. Ebenezer Gray, now Lieutenant-Colonel, thus writes of the sufferings of the soldiers :-
" CAMP, Jan. 7, 1779.
Dear Brother-I wrote several times to my father and Dr. Elderkin to procure me some butter and cheese, and if they should not do it pray procure me some, and forward by the first State or Continental teams that come to the army, for I am in great need of them as there is nothing to be bought here and our allowance very short, only fourteen ounces of meat for seven days, or three gills of rice and three-fourths of a pound of corn bread of buckwheat and corn not sifted, and sometimes neither. I am credibly informed that some officers have been so hard pressed by hunger as to kill and eat their dogs. We cer- tainly fare very hard. My own hunger and the cries of a distressed regiment for victuals as well as for clothes gives me sensible pain, and in such a man- ner as I never felt before. I hope I shall be able to get well through it. I have no news only our present difficulties for want of supplies. The patience
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and submission of our men under such difficulties and trying scenes are in- credible. The avarice of the people, which depreciates the currency, is, I be- lieve, the grand source of our present troubles. Your affectionate brother."
Doetor Waldo of Pomfret, returning home during this winter upon a furlough, "found his family on the point of famishing with mere want of food and every other necessary." Money received from sale of a small possession and such wages as had been paid him, reduced to a trifle in value, were now wholly gone, and he was compelled by sheer necessity to resign his place as surgeon to protect them "from the in- solence of pressing want."
Yet in the face of all these difficulties and discouragements, Wind- ham County continued steadfast, trusting in the justice of the patriot cause and in that Providence which had so wonderfully led and sus- tained the people of America. The high position assumed by her at the breaking out of the Revolution was steadily maintained. Those ve- hement and somewhat over-confident " resolutions " had been followed by abundant performance. In darkest days she stood firm and unway- ering, striving with unceasing diligence to strengthen the hands of government and carry forward the war. Though in the increasing poverty and searceness these demands were very burthensome, the sev- eral towns never failed to meet them. Year after year they taxed themselves heavily to pay bounties, furnish clothing, and provide for the families of the soldiers. Those sturdy fathers and patriots who had taken so bold a stand in the beginning of the great struggle carried the towns onward. Solid as their own granite rocks they stood in unbroken phalanx, manfully bearing the heavy financial burden, and faithfully ful- filling social and political obligations. Ebenezer Smith of Wood- stoek, called to attend a special session of the General Assembly in winter when the roads were snow-blocked, walked the whole distance to Hartford on snow-shoes rather than fail of attendance, and there were scores of men in that and other towns equally ready to perform any patriotic service in the same self-sacrificing and conscientious spirit- men who had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their saered honor to the patriot cause, who sent their sons to the front and went them- selves in any extremity, who held up the hands of Trumbull, and made Conneetient a tower of strength throughout the war. Washington never called in vain upon "Brother Jonathan," and Trumbull was sure of instant response from his own County. Again and again those patriot fathers stepped into the breach and led the people onward ; went forth themselves into the field or furnished vital aid to those engaged in battle. General Douglas of Plainfield, Colonels Wil- liams, Danielson and Johnson, though now advanced in years, led the militia many times on alarm of danger, and Major Backus time after 24
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
time hurried his troops of horse to the relief of New London and Rhode Island. MeClellan not only served almost continuously in the field, but paid his regiment out of his own pocket when the public treasury was empty. General Douglas, Colonel Johnson, Major Ripley, Commissary Waldo, and, indeed, very many of those leading men who had money at command, advanced it repeatedly to pay ont bounties or fit off ex- peditions.
Col. Dyer, when not representing Connecticut in Congress, devoted his time and energies to deliberations with the Council and Committee of Safety. Elderkin and Wales maintained their place on this Com- mittee. Samnel Gray served as assistant-commissary to Col. Joseph Trumbull, and after his decease was appointed by Congress, deputy commissary-general of the Eastern Department, comprising New Eng- land and New York, a most laborions and responsible office. Very many men were employed by him in Windham County, securing and forwarding for the use of the suffering army all provisions that could possibly be spared. Elderkin and Gray repaired their powder-mill and were able to send out fresh supplies of ammunition, under the su- pervision of their efficient and ingenious superintendent, Henry De Witt ; and Hezekiah Huntington continued to repair and manufacture arms at his State Armory at Willimantic, while others with equal dili- gence and efficiency labored to fulfill varying demands. Town acts and votes were still unanimons. No attempt was made to evade military or civil requisitions. The leaders kept their post and the people faith- fully upheld them. That spirit of detraction and suspicion which wronght such mischief within the patriot ranks was denounced and held in abeyance. Judge Ebenezer Devotion of Scotland thus writes to Dr. Waldo :-
"We have many loud declaimers against the times, the very worst that ever were known; the Americans have in three years lost all their virtue, their honor, their patriotism; but what is the foundation of this outery? The prin- cipal thing is the depreciation of our currency, by which so many worthy men have suffered, which has highly disgusted and soured them. They cry out, Public virtue is at an end. Congress hath promised and not performed. I confess I am unable to see wherein Congress has been to blame, except that it did not tax more and higher. This might have lessened but not prevented the dif- fienlty and might have excited in the minds of the people a most fatal uneasi- ness. Congress has been obliged, as there was no other possible way to carry on the war, to emit vast sums. It is a certain known maxim that the prices of commodities will be proportionate to the plenty or scarcity of cash, taking into due consideration the quantity of and demand for such commodities. It is, I believe, an undoubted fact, that the quantity of necessaries of life usually produced in this country have since the war diminished, while for obvious rea- sons the demand has greatly increased. These two causes, co-operating with the first, viz. : the amazing superabundant quantity of money, have produced the effect they never failed to produce in one instance since the siege of Samaria. The honest merchant and farmer have acted on the same principle as ever before-in open market to sell their merchandize or produce at as high a price as the purchaser was willing to give. Rogues and knaves we
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have now as before, but God forbid that the State should take its complexion from them. It is on this principle and not on the total decay of virtue and public spirit, I have to account for the depreciation of currency. A people never lost their virtue in a day,"
Colonel Dyer was particularly sensitive and scrupulous with regard to the fulfillment of every pledge and promise, and thus writes Gover- nor Trumbull in reference to the Burgoyne contract which some thought of evading :-
"It concerns us inviolably to keep our faith and maintain our honor, pledged for the punctual fulfillment on our part of all treaties, contracts or conventions, made even with our enemies; as we would not offened Heaven by our perfidy. nor forfeit our honor and reputation in the eyes of this or the European world, which are and will be most attentively watchful over every part of our public conduct, and will fix their opinion and form their estima- tion of these American States on no part more than that which concerns our public faith and honor. In the beginning of this infant Empire the greater care is to be taken to establish a fair and reputable character which if once lost is hardly to be regained."
Publie calls found Windham town ever ready for speech or action. An address from Congress, May 26, 1779, requesting " the immediate, strenuous and united effort of all friends to the United States of Amer- ica for preventing the mischiefs that have arisen from the depreciation of their currency," was met by a prompt assemblage of the inhabitants of this town who unanimously voted to unite with other towns of the State in all proper Constitutional measures. The published report of the proceedings of the meeting failing to incite other towns to action, the Committee of Correspondence, viz. : Eliphalet Dyer, Nathaniel Wales, Jr., Samuel Kingsbury, Ebenezer Mosely and Hezekiah Bissell, fearing that by a long delay in so important a crisis the whole should prove abortive, issued a circular, urging the " vast importance of sup- porting our public and national faith, especially in time of war," and the necessity of having the whole State agreed in any plan proper to be pursued. But as no method had been proposed for calling a State meeting, a meeting of the several towns in Windham County was deemed "expedient and necessary to give spring to the whole," and though they did not by any means claim a right to dietate, yet since one must needs be first in a matter of this kind they therefore requested the several towns in the County by their committees or selectmen to meet "at the Court house in Windham on the first Monday of Septem- ber to take the matters aforesaid into their consideration and agree on such measures as they may judge necessary to accomplish the end de- signed."
With such unfailing spirit. resolution and persistence Windham ear- ried on the war. The substratum of strength underlying the early ef- fervescence was more and more apparent as the years went on. All were ready to do their part and share in the sufferings and sacrifices.
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Men went out to battle and council and provided for public demands, and women labored as efficiently in their own especial fields of useful- ness. The burdens and distresses of the war fell very heavily upon these women. They sent out husbands, brothers, sons, and labored to fill their places. Farm work was added to their ordinary domestic du ties. They had to take care of their stock as well as their children, to plant and reap as well as spin and weave, to cure herbs for their own tea, and manufacture their molasses out of corn-stalks. These various demands stimulated ingenuity so that whatever the call they were ready to meet it. Mrs. Philemon Adams of Brooklyn, left by her husband ere their house was finished, laid the floor herself and made it ready for the occupation of her family. Somebody in Windham Village had the enterprise to begin to build a house during this period, but when the timbers were ready there was not a man to help about the raising. The spirited and capable women of the district came to the rescue, and under the lead of an old lame carpenter set up the frame of a large two story dwelling in so satisfactory and workman-like a manner that after more than a hundred years it stands as a memorial of their achieve- ment. Many marvelous feats of handiwork were accomplished. A good lady in Thompson hears of a chance to send a package to her husband and in one day and night knits a pair of long woolen stock ings. Shubael Dimmock of Mansfield comes home in rags for a brief furlough in midwinter. There was no cloth in the house, but there was a web of warp drawn into the loom and an old black sheep nib- bling round the dooryard. Instantly the sheep was caught, sheared, and bundled down cellar in a blanket, and in forty-eight hours its black fleece was transmuted into a golden suit of clothes wending its way to the army. Mother, sisters, and neighbors, working with skill and dex- terity, had woven the wool into cloth, cut and made the garments. Children as they grew up caught the pervading spirit. Lads hurried off to camp or worked like men at home ; young girls devoted all their overflowing energies to useful labors. The only daughter of Captain James Stedman, of Canada Parish, often worked in the fields with the hired woman, while her father and workmen were on militia service, and before she had completed her eleventh year had achieved by the sole labor of her own hands-carding, spinning and weaving-a web of tow cloth which she took down herself on horseback to Windham Green and exchanged for six silver teaspoons, to be treasured as priceless heir- looms by appreciative descendants. And while thus burthened with business and family cares they were ready for any patriotic and neighborhood service. Trumbull, with his neighbor, Jonathan J. Hazard of Rhode Island, " stumped " New London and Washington Counties in the hard winter of 1777-78, urging all the women " to com-
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mence making yarn and knitting stockings for the suffering army "- "- but a single telegraphic dispatch from headquarters was enough to elec- trify the knitting needles of Windham County. Thousands of cartridges were made by Plainfield women to keep up the supply of military stores at their depot. Sick and weary soldiers passing along the public highways were nursed and tended. A widow in Thompson, who had spared her only grown-up son to the service, found time with all her other labors to brew every day in summer a barrel of beer to stand by her door step for the especial refreshment of these way-worn soldiers.
With such support and sympathy from town and fireside the soldiers sent out by Windham County could hardly fail to do her honor. Their early reputation for courage and good conduct was abundantly sus- tained. Many who had sallied out at the first cry from Lexington re- mained in service throughout the war. The officers of Putnam's first regiment-the CONNECTICUT THIRD of 1775-thus served with but few exceptions. Lieutenant Thomas Grosvenor went on from rank to rank, succeeding Durkee in command when that valiant leader was compelled by ill-health to retire from active service. Lientenant Ebenezer Gray served the whole seven years, attaining the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Captain Mosely was often called to command the militia in special ser- vice at Rhode Island or New London. Captains Dana, Clark, Cleft, Manning : Lieutenants Daniel Marcy, John Keyes, Daniel Allen, John Adams, Melatiah Bingham, Benoni Cutler, Josiah Cleveland, Nathaniel Webb, William and Stephen Lyon served with distinction through successive campaigns and were honored by various promotions. Nor less faithful and devoted were many of the subalterns and privates of that first regiment and hundreds of subsequent recruits. Their beloved leader and general, under whom they had first enlisted, was taken from them in 1779. paralyzed and disabled, but they were able to fight on to the last, supporting Washington and his immediate command through all their privations and disappointments. Even when roused by poor food, insufficient clothing and worse pay to the very verge of mutiny, and preparing with other Connecticut soldiers to march to Hartford and demand redress from the General Assembly, they yielded at once to this characteristic appeal from General Putnam :-
" My brave lads, whither are you going? Do you intend to desert your of- ficers and to invite the enemy to follow you into the country ? Whose cause have you been fighting and suffering so long in? Is it not your own? Have you no property, no parents, wives or children? You have behaved like men so far. All the world is full of your praises, and posterity will stand aston- ished at your deeds, but not if you spoil it all at last. Don't you consider how much the country is distressed by the war and that your officers have not been any better paid than yourselves? But we all expect better times and that the country will do us ample justice. Let us all stand by one another, then, and fight it out like brave soldiers. Think what a shame it would be for Connecticut men to run away from their officers !"
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HISTORY OF WINDHAM COUNTY.
Many of these old Windham heroes were noted in the army. Diah Farnham was the bully among Connecticut soldiers ; Ralph Farnham, the heaviest man in the Connecticut line, but a wiry little Killingly ex- pert managed to bring down both those mighty champions. It was said that Sergeant 'Bijah Fuller could throw any man in the army but Ralph Farnham, and carried this big fellow off on his back when he was wounded at the battle of White Plains, the enemy close upon them and " bullets falling like hail around them." He would turn round upon his pursuers, " pick his man," bring him down, and hurry on with his wounded comrade. Captain Abner Robinson of Scotland, Josiah Cleveland of Canterbury, Daniel Knowlton of Ashford, Joel Webb, Joseph Ashley, John Burnap and John Bingham of Windham, and many from other towns, were valiant veterans serving throughout the war, returning to the field at the first opportunity, if wounded or taken cap- tive. Daniel Knowlton was twenty-three months in the enemy's hands, suffering from bad air, bad food and every possible discomfort and an- noyance. When first taken he was confined in an old meeting-house without a particle of food or drink for four days. A compassionate woman, hearing of the condition of these prisoners, concealed food and a bottle of water under her clothing and prevailed upon the guard to allow her to visit them. She found them almost in a dying state, the feeling of hunger had passed, their only suffering was from faint- ness, and but for her timely relief they would soon have perished. But while those hardy veterans withstood for so many years danger, disease and imprisonment, thousands had perished on the way-some slain in battle, the greater number dying from sickness or imprisonment. Un- numbered sons of Windham County homes were sleeping in unknown graves in distant States. No tongue or pen can do justice to the ser- vice and sufferings of these men. Their names cannot be sought out ; their deeds cannot be recorded. The system of enrollment at that date was so confused and imperfect that it would be impossible to obtain the whole number sent out from any section, and very difficult to form even an approximate estimate. This much we know, that the several towns of Windham County fulfilled every requisition for Continental or militia service. The burden of the war was borne by the whole population, and a complete muster-roll of Windham's Revolutionary soldiers would probably include the name of nearly every family in the Connty, while many families sent very large representations. It is said that seventeen cousins named Fuller in Windham's second society were in the service, and Adams's and Cleveland's almost without number. Peter Adams of Brooklyn, and Ephraim Fisk of Killingly, had each six sons in the army ; Barzillai Fisher and Lusher Gay, each four ; and larger numbers from many other families. The following list, taken
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