USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > New Haven > New Haven, a book recording the varied activities of the author in his efforts over many years to promote the welfare of the city of his adoption since 1883, together with some researches into its storied past and many illustrations > Part 38
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IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of the Pension Bureau to be affixed, on the day and year above written.
(Seal)
G. M. SALTZGABER, Commissioner of Pensions.
IN CONGRESS
The Delegates of the United Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts- Bay, Rhode-Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the
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Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, and South Carolina, to Elish: Bostwick
Gentleman
We reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism, valour, conduct and fidelity, DO by these presents constitute and appoint you to be Second Lieutenant of Captain Isaac Bostwicks Company in the nineteenth Regiment of foot Commanded by Colonel Charles Webb - in the army of the United Colonies, raised for the defence of American Liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof. You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of Second Lieutenant by doing and per- forming all manner of things thereunto belonging. And we do strictly charge and require all officers and soldiers under your command, to be obedient to your orders, as Second Lieutenant And you are to observe and follow such orders and directions from time to time as you shall receive from this or a future Congress of the United Colonies, or Com- mittee of Congress, for that purpose appointed, or Commander in Chief for the time being of the army of the United Colonies, or any other your superior officer, according to the rules and discipline of war, in pursuance of the trust reposed in you.
This commission to continue in force until revoked by this or a future Congress.
Attest
By Order of the Congress,
Cha Thompson Secy.
John Hancock President.
January the first 1776-
A Sketch &c - In the month of May 1775 I inlisted as Sergeant & Clark in Capt. Isaac Bostwicks Company, Colo. Charles Webbs Regt. march'd for Boston for 8 months, viz from Ist May to last Decr. & when arived at Hartford recd. orders to go by water down Connecticut river to Lyme, where we kept Guard at Governor Griswolds house left by his family, the enemy being in the Sound; thence march'd to Newlondon, kept guard there awhile - thence to Stonington & back to Newlondon, thence thro' Norwich, Providence &c to Genl. Washingtons head quarters at Cam- bridge-Encamped on Winterhill - there remained until first of Jany. 1776 when our Regt. was discharg'd - I then had the offer of a Lieutenancy in the Continental Army for 12 months in a new Regt. to be commanded by the same Colo. Charles Webb - Street Hall Lt. Colo. - John Brooks Major - Capt. Bostwick went home to Newmilford to raise his new company, & I took winter quarters with the few men which then inlisted for the ensuing year, at the Temple house North of Bunkers hill - In the Spring, the Regt. being fill'd up we were Stationed at Roxbury near Boston neck .- was in the party which on the 4th of March took possession of & fortified Dorchester heights under the command of Genl. Thomas - remained at Roxbury until the British evacuated Boston on the 17th day of
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March 1776: upon which our Regt. with others recd. orders immediately to repair to New York; march'd direct to Newlondon; thence by water to N. York, remained there and on long island until the retreat of our Army from N. York - The first battle I was in was at the white plains, where our army was defeated Octr. 29th. Lt. Yates' Platoon which was next to that of mine received a Cannon shot which with one ball kill'd three men, namely - Serjeant Garret & Smith & Taylor, & Chilsey had one arm taken off by the same ball. Some while after had orders to march into Jersey, cross'd the Hudson at Peekskill Novr. 15th. - on our march thro' Jersey our General Charles Lee was taken Prisoner by a party of light horse, being put up for the night a mile or two in rear of our main Army, (which was a discouraging stroke to us for the time) - continued our march - crossed the Delaware & encamped at a place called Newtown on the Pensylvania side- and on the 24th of Decr. our whole Army, being very small Recd. marching orders; toward evening Crossed the Delaware 9 or 10 miles North of Trenton: but by reason of ice in the river & the storm of snow & hail the whole Army did not get across till late at night-it being dark every Officer commanding a platoon for distinction had a piece of white paper placed on his hat; & each Officer having a Watch at the time our line of march began had it set exactly by the tinie of his excellency's watch,- Soon began our March and march'd in the Storm till day break - a halt was made - at which time his excel- lency with his Aids came from the rear encouraging & talking to the soldiers as he rode by them toward the front & the words of his Excel- lency which I heard I well remember were these "Soldiers keep by your Officers, for Gods sake keep by your Officers" Spoken with a deep & solemn voice it being then twilight; the horses taken out, & the Artillery- men harness'd & prepared march'd on & it was not long before we heard the firing of the out Centrys of the enemy both on the North road that we ware in & the road which leads from Princeton into Trenton from the East; & their out Guards retired firing; & our Army taking a very quick march soon entered the town on both roads at the same time; the Enemy having scarcely time to parade made but little resistance -their Artillery taken, about one thousand resign'd their arms all Hessians; the remainder crossing the bridge at the lower end of the town escaped - Their commander Colo. Rhall a Hessian officer was mortally wounded & perhaps 15 or 20 killd; our loss only one killd, two officers & a few Soldiers wounded .- March'd the next day with our Prisoners back to our encampment at Newtown - then recrossed the Delaware & returned back to Trenton & there on the first day of Jany. 1777 our years service expired. And then by the pressing Solicitation of General Washington a part of those whose time of service was out, consented on a ten dollars bounty to stay six weeks longer; & although desirous to return home I engaged to stay, & made every exertion in my power to make as many stay with me as I could : and before night on that same day an express from our piquet Guard inform'd that the Enemy were advancing upon us from Princeton : an Alarm was made, our Army crossed the bridge and formed on the South side of the Creek South of the town: where, in the evening &
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thro' the night fires were kept burning, while our Army by a Cercuitous night march arived by sunrise the next morning at Princeton; where we attack'd those of the enemy who were left there kill'd about one hundred & took about 300 prisoners - (In this action it was said that the person of his excellency was to much exposed to the enemy's fire)
NB: The body of a British Capt. by the name of Lesslie was found among the dead, which was carried along with us in a waggon & the next day buried with the honors of war - he was said to be a Nobleman's son - General Mercer of the Pensylvania Melitia & sundry other excellent officers & soldiers were killd in this Battle - The prisoners being British & some highlanders with their Scotch Plaid dress were conducted to Peekskill; from whence those of us who composed their guard return'd to headquarters at Morristown - The enemy having with drawn to Brunswick made continual excurtions after forage & plunder -, which rendered it necessary we should have strong guards on the lines - I was detached in one of them of 300 men under Colo. Scott for a fortnight, during which time we all slept on our arms & in our clothes - while we lay at a place called Quibbletown, had sundry skirmishes with those forag- ing parties, one of which was severe; we drove them some time & they began to leave their waggons, but at last they brought their Artillery to bear upon us & we having none retreated leaving our wounded in the field, among which was our Adjutant - Kelley - an Active charming Officer, he was wounded in the flesh of his thigh by a musket ball, he could still walk & the soldiers endeavoured to bring him off, but being press'd he told them to leave him, saying I must be a prisoner : - but horrid to tell, as soon as they came to him while asking for quarter they took his own Rifle & with the but of it broke & pounded his skull to pieces & then cutting off both skirts of his coat took them off with both pockets & their contents - and a Soldier in my Platoon - Andrew Cushman a pleasant youth was left among the wounded, & with the rest were all murdered with the Bayonet by repeated Stabs, they were buried there -but Kelley was brought into Camp and buried under arms - Such is British Clemency & mercy! And with this tour of Duty my time of service in the Conti- nental Army expired - I then return'd to head quarters at Morristown Febry. 15th, 1777: And being discharged, from thence waded in the snow on foot home to my fathers house - And may I add that my heart was impressed with the tenderest sensations, and I trust with Gratitude & thankfulness to God that my life was spared, while alas my companions were slain by my side & left in their graves -
NB :- The Logical advice of Colo. Scott when we were going into a skirmish one day I always remember, & the glib manner in which he spoke it - said he-"Take care now & fire low, bring down your pieces, fire at their legs, one man wounded in the leg is better than a dead one, for it takes two more to carry him off, & there is three gone- leg them, dam 'em I say leg them." -
When the enemy destroyed the publick stores at Danbury (april 26 1777) & burnt the town, there was not enough of us collected to make any resistance, but the next day as they return'd by the way of Ridgefield had
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a skirmish with them there, a number kill'd on both sides - Genl. Wooster mortally-wounded I saw him a little before the Action began but not afterward - slept in a barn -next day followed them to Wilton - slept that night in Marvins barn - next day followed them to Compo where we attack'd them while going on board their Ships -Lt. Seeley mortally wounded - a number of others killed & wounded.
Colo. Knowlton who commanded the rear Guard of our Army in the Retreat from N. York being mortally wounded & the enemy pressing upon them ordered his men who were trying to bring him off to take him aside out of the road that he might die alone where the enemy could not see him & abuse him John Terrill of our Company was there with him.
One peculiar circumstance I here state, as a remarkable occurrence - A soldier in my family mess Paul Todd of Massachusetts, in the evening of one day when we had been skirmishing with the enemy on the iines near Brunswick while we were at supper found a musket ball lodged in a piece of bread which he had carried all day upon his back in his pack; we immediately made search to find how it got there; but to our astonish- ment for some time could not find any bullet hole in his pack, but at length it was found on that side of his Pack which was next to his back, we then searched his cloaths & found a bullet hole in the back of his coat, our wonder still increasing he striped off his clothes & found that the ball had passed through all his cloaths in a slanting direction, & passed first through the elbow of his coat, then entered the side of his coat under the arm, went thro his coat & his vest & shirt & so into his pack & bread, the force being spent it lodged there .-
"I will now make some observations upon the amiable & unfortu- nate Capt. Nathan Hale whose fate is so well known; for I was with him in the same Regt. both at Boston & New York & until the day of his tragical death: & although of inferior grade in office was always in the habits of friendship & intimacy with him: & my remembrance of his person, manners & character is so perfect that I feel inclined to make some remarks upon them: for I can now in imagination see his person & hear his voice - his person I should say was a little above the common stature in height, his shoulders of a moderate breadth, his limbs strait & very plump: regular features - very fair skin - blue eyes - flaxen or very light hair which was always kept short - his eyebrows a shade darker than his hair & his voice rather sharp or piercing - his bodily agility was remark- able I have seen him follow a football & kick it over the tops of the trees in the Bowery at New York, (an exercise which he was fond of) - his mental powers seemed to be above the common sort -his mind of a sedate and sober cast, & he was undoubtedly Pious; for it was remark'd that when any of the soldiers of his company were sick he always visited them & usually Prayed for & with them in their sickness .-
A little anecdote I will relate; one day he accidentally came across some of his men in a bye place Playing Cards-he spoke-what are you doing - this won't do, - give me your cards, they did so, & he
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chopd them to pieces, & it was done in such a manner that the men were rather pleased than otherwise-his activity on all occations was wonderful-he would make a pen the quickest & the best of any man-
Inumerable instances of occurrances which took place in the Army I could relate, but who would care for them: Pehaps it may be thought by some that I have already been at the expense of Prolixity: nobody in these days feels as I do, left here alone, & they cannot if they would. but to me it is a melancoly pleasure to go back to those Scenes of fear & anguish & after the laps of 50 years (1826 was in my 78th year) to rumenate upon them which I think I can do with as bright a recollection as though they were present - One more reflection I will make - why is it that the delicious Capt Hale should be left & lost in an unknown grave & forgotten-
The foregoing Statements were mde from Memory & recollection & from documents & Memorandoms which I kept.
ELISHA BOSTWICK
N.B. Soon after my return from the Army I received a Lieutenants Commission in the Militia afterwards a Captains Commission & served in various terms of duty in Alarms to the close of the War: during the War was in six actions, to wit: that at Whte Plains -at Trenton - Princeton - Quibbletown - Ridgefield & Compo - in the later part of the War a Captain
Elisha Bostwick - born in Newmilford - Decr. 17th - (O.S.) 1748
Where will you find, if I do say it, such a striking, first- hand narrative of the experience of a Revolutionary soldier,- so swift, so detailed and, withal, so compact, so pungent, so wonderful in its visualizing power, as this story of Elisha Bostwick's? I know of no picture of Washington crossing the Delaware so impressive as the scene Bostwick evokes with his rare economy of words :
Toward evening Crossed the Delaware 9 or 10 miles North of Trenton : but by reason of ice in the river & the storm of snow & hail the whole Army did not get across till late at night-it being dark every Officer commanding a platoon for distinction had a piece of white paper placed on his hat; & each Officer having a Watch at the time our line of march began had it set exactly by the time of his excellency's watch,-Soon began our March and march'd in the Storm till day break-a halt was made-at which time his excellency with his Aids came from the rear encouraging & talking to the soldiers as he rode by them toward the front & the words of his Excellency
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which I heard I well remember were these "Soldiers keep by your Officers, for Gods sake keep by your Officers." Spoken with a deep & solemn voice it being then twilight.
In the whole range of Washington portraiture, as the Com- manding Officer of the Continental Army, this seems to me incomparable in its humanity, sweep and power.
During the World War we heard much of German atrocities, as though atrocities were not as old as war itself. But what a dreadful picture Bostwick draws of the murders of "our Adjutant-Kelly-an Active charming officer" and of "a soldier of my platoon, Andrew Cushman a pleasant youth." These appalling atrocities, told with fearful vividness, even outrank in brutality the murder of the "Gallant Ledyard" 1750-1781 by a British officer during Benedict Arnold's inva- sion of New London in September 1781. Bostwick's ironic, bitter comment on the murders of that "Active charming officer" and that "pleasant youth" is, "Such is British Clem- ency & Mercy." Bostwick's shade, in Paradise, happily sees allies in old enemies.
From such pictures he turns away to find relief in humor. Says he :
The Logical advice of Col. Scott when we were going into a Skirmish one day I always remember & the glib manner in which he spoke it-said he-"Take care now & fire low, bring down your pieces, fire at their legs, one man wounded in the leg is better than a dead one, for it takes two more to carry him off, & there is three gone-leg them, dam 'em I say leg them"-
Bostwick's quick sympathy, as evidenced by his account of the death of Kelly, prepares us for the tribute to Hale with which he concludes his narrative. More of that anon !
And now for a word about Bostwick himself. He surely has a place in our Hale gallery.
A son of Samuel Bostwick, of New Milford, Connecticut, he was born there 17 December, 1748, and was thus seven and a half years older than Hale (born 6 June, 1755), whose most authentic portrait he was destined to hand down to us. Samuel, the father, served as Deputy from New Milford to the General Assembly in May, 1763, a Justice of the Peace from 1764 to
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I777. Samuel, in turn, was a son of Major John Bostwick, one of the most prominent and active men of the town; Deputy 1725-1727 and 1732-1740, and Justice of the Peace 1732-1741. "The leading family in the Revolution in New Milford was the Bostwicks. There were ten of the name in the service during the War" ("Two Centuries of New Milford, Conn."). Elisha had two brothers, Jared and Samuel, both Yale men.
Jared, born 9 August, 1751, matriculated at Yale in 1770, graduating in 1774. Jared was, therefore, in college for three years with Hale, who matriculated in 1769 and graduated in 1773. It is more than likely that the two young men were acquainted. Jared was three years older than Nathan and not a Linonia brother, but Nathan was such an outstanding figure in the undergraduate world that Jared could hardly have escaped knowing Hale in those simple days of small college classes and solidarity of feeling in the college microcosm. Jared must at least have known about Hale and have partici- pated, to some extent, in the general admiration which it is clear he inspired as an undergraduate, as well as a school- teacher and soldier later on. Jared, like Hale, became a school- teacher, and "died unmarried and greatly lamented while teaching in Norwich, on August 30, 1778, at the age of 27" (Dexter's "Yale Biographies and Annals," Third Series, p. 520). He was lamented, this young collegian, by that same engaging group of young people in Norwich who lamented Hale, for Hale too had many warm friends in Norwich and among them the young woman of "the weeping house" which figures in the doggerel verses* appended by Elihu Marvin to his letter of Feb. 26, 1776, to Hale from Norwich, where Marvin was then teaching school. Writes Marvin :
"Nearby lives Nathan's other self, Poor girl she's left almost alone, Since neighbor Hale's been gone from home."
When Marvin reached the "weeping house" he found "the Lady drowned in tears" but he gallantly does not mention her name, still unrevealed.
* See "The 'Weeping House' of Norwich," page 433.
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Whoever "Nathan's other self" was (no place for that inquiry here), it is certain that the "weeping-house" was in Norwich, since it is expressly stated that it was nearby,-i.e., nearby the house "on the hill" of Captain Russell Hubbard in which the scene of Marvin's doggerel verses opens. Professor Johnston could not, in his "Nathan Hale 1776," page 59, have placed the "weeping-house" in Coventry,-many miles from Norwich,-had he studied the setting of the poem. "Nathan's other self" was certainly not his widowed step-sister, Mrs. Alice (Adams) Ripley, at this time an inmate of his father's large household in Coventry.
We get a pleasing idea of Jared from the lines in which some friend mourned his loss in the Norwich Packet as:
A friend sincere whose heart did aim In virtue's path at honest fame While modest wit and sense refined With radiance sweet adorned his mind Such virtues, Bostwick! warm'd thy breast Such Sentiments thy Soul possest.
Samuel, the younger brother of Elisha and Jared, born 19 January, 1755, was six months older than Hale, matriculated at Yale in 1776, graduating with the Class of 1780 when twenty-five years old. "At the Presentation of his class for degrees in July, 1780, he delivered a poem on the Genius of America, the manuscript of which is preserved among Presi- dent Stiles' papers in the Yale Library" (Dexter's "Yale Biog- raphies and Annals," Fourth Series, p. 139). He studied law, practicing in his native town, where he died of the small pox on 3 April, 1799, in his forty-fifth year. He married, first, Polly Trail, who died soon, and, second, Polytheme, fourth daughter of Lazarus Ruggles. We can but wonder what he called his Polytheme by way of endearment !
Our Elisha, as we may suppose, first heard of Hale through his brother Jared, but their acquaintance began, as it is also reasonable to suppose, at Winter Hill, where both were encamped during the Siege of Boston, both being of Colonel Webb's regiment. Thus he says, "I was with him in the same Regt. both at Boston & New York & until the day of his
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tragical death: and although of inferior grade in office was always in the habits of friendship and intimacy with him."
In his diary, under date of September 29, 1775, Hale men- tions Captain Bostwick, the reference being to Captain Isaac Bostwick, who was also of New Milford, a kinsman of our Elisha and his company commander.
In his "History of New Milford and Bridgewater, Conn." (1882), Orcutt says of Elisha Bostwick:
Col. Bostwick was a fine appearing man, a full manly form, with some- what of a military bearing, intelligent & benevolent in the expression of his countenance, religious & noble in his character; a man in whom all the people of the town took much honor and delight; and when, after fifty-five years of service as town clerk, he declined a further election, there was a most affecting scene at the town meeting (p. 583).
In the same "History," pp. 584-5, we read that :
Colonel Bostwick was Representative from the town of New Milford to the Assembly fourteen sessions, and served his native town in many ways, quite to the satisfaction of the people. He was surveyor of lands, and did so much service in that capacity that he was familiar with the boundaries of nearly every farm and locality in the town, and by reason of which he was of great service to the inhabitants, and saved them much expense.
One of the most beautiful transactions in the life of this good man and public servant of the people took place in 1833, when he was eighty-five years of age. At that time the new Congregational meeting-house was just opened for worship where it now stands, and on the morning that Anan Hine was to commence tearing down the old meeting-house, which stood in the middle of the green, Col. Bostwick went into the old house, took his usual seat, looked around on the seats where his kindred and neighbors had sat for worship during eighty years of his own memory; then rising with the hymn-book in his hands, he sang a hymn, knelt and offered the last prayer in the old house, then arose and departed in peace to his own home. In the next year, on Dec. 11, 1834, when eighty-six years of age, he departed from his own "earthly tabernacle," and the spirit returned to God who gave it. His faithful and honored wife had departed just six months before him.
In these extracts, Bostwick appears with the title of "Colonel," a title acquired as a Colonel of Militia after the war. He was also, for many years, a Justice of the Peace. Another claim to fame was his penmanship. We read that :
His fine penmanship has never been surpassed, or half-equalled by any town clerk in New Milford. With his quill pens he filled 21 volumes of land records, besides doing all the other writing as a town clerk during the service of 55 years. (Hist. New Milford and Bridgewater, Conn., p. 582.)
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In this accomplishment we find the clue to Bostwick's refer- ence to Hale's proficiency in that art, where he says, in his account of Hale, "he would make a pen the quickest and the best of any man." In our age of steel, not to say of fountain pens, we do not realize what skill is required to fashion a quill pen,-to sharpen and accurately split a goose quill. Let anyone who doubts this try it. The surviving examples of Hale's handwriting testify to this proficiency (invaluable to the school-master of that day), which Bostwick, himself a famous scribe, thought worthy of mention in his narrative.
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