USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 26
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General Howe showed his shrewdness, not only in select- ing his agent for this work, but also in sending along with
297
TRYON GOES ASHORE.
[1777.]
him, to see that he did not lose himself in his explorations into a land that was so dear to him, those excellent advisers, General Agnew and Sir William Erskine .* Those gentle- men furnished intellectual resources for the tory major-gen- eral, and he added the warmth of his nature, to give soul to the enterprise. Accordingly, a detachment of two thousand men were selected from the choice spirits of the British army, and nominally placed under. Tryon's command. They embarked at New York, and under the convoy of a fine naval armament of twenty-five vessels, passed over the waters of Long Island Sound, in such high spirits, as the warmth of an April sun and the pleasing anticipations of the business that was to employ them, were calculated to inspire. They had chosen a time when Connecticut was almost entirely deserted by her male population, who had gone out to defend the soil of other states, and stay up the trailing banner of the noble Washington. They had left their homes to be guarded, with the exception of a few gallant troops, by the crutches of the grandfathers, and the distaffs of the grandmothers, who had two generations of descendants in the field hundreds of miles away. On this account his excellency, who was the very antipode of gunpowder Percy, had nothing to dampen his mood or cloud his brow. As the ships skimmed past the coast towns of western Connecticut, the people gazed at them with mingled curiosity and anxiety. Perhaps some of them called to mind the doings of Wallace, master of the Rose, at Stonington ; but no particular alarm appears to have been excited until the heads of the ships began to point toward the islands that stand out from the Norwalk shore. At about four o'clock, they cast anchor in Saugatuck harbor, and with such haste as is consistent with a pic-nic excursion into the country, two thousand men, consisting of infantry, cavalry and artillery, went ashore in boats, and under the superintendence of Tryon, with two tory guides to show them the way, moved forward toward Danbury. They
* Gordon, ii. 195.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
marched about eight miles that night, and encamped in the township of Weston .*
On the morning of the 26th, at a very seasonable hour, Tryon arrived at Reading Ridge, where was a small hamlet of peaceful inhabitants, almost every one of them patriots and most of them farmers, who had crowned the high hill where they had chosen to build their Zion with a tall, gaunt church, which drew to its aisles one day in seven, the people that dwelt upon the sides of the hills, and in the bosom of the valleys, within the range of the summons that sounded from its belfry.
By way of satisfying his hunger with a morning lunch until he could provide a more substantial meal, he drew up his artillery in front of this weather-beaten edifice, that had before defied everything save the grace of God and the sup- plications of his worshipers, and gave it a good round of can- nister and grape, that pierced its sides through and through, and shattered its small-paned windows into fragments. The only spectators to this heroic demonstration were a few women and little children, some of whom ran away at the sight of the red coats, and others faced the invaders with a menacing stare.
The British commander now resumed his march for some distance without meeting with the least opposition, until he began to ascend Hoyt's Hill, when the figure of a single mounted horseman appeared upon the summit of the eminence with his face turned backward, and his gestures and whole action indicating that he was issuing orders to a large army that was climbing the side of the hill. "Halt !" shouted the leader of the opposition in a voice of thunder, while he flour- ished his sword in the air, " Halt, the whole universe-wheel into kingdoms."
Now there was nothing that General Tryon had such a dread of, as dying. He prudently commanded his men to halt, in imitation of the order given by the leader of the sup- posed army that was advancing, and sent out detachments on the right and left, to reconnoitre, and got his two field-
* Deming.
299
GENERAL TRYON'S FRIGHT.
[1777.]
pieces, that were consecrated by the mutilation of the old church, in readiness to give such feeble battle as he could to this more than Persian array. The reader can judge how much his excellency was relieved, when the videttes returned, and informed him that the wretch who had thus disturbed his valor was the only mortal in sight ; and that no part of him was visible except his back, as he rode toward Danbury, with the speed of a shooting-star .* Little else occurred of an alarming character during the march. They arrived in Dan- bury about two o'clock.t There were a few continental soldiers in the place, but they could not make a stand against this large invading party, and were obliged to withdraw. General Tryon selected the house of one Dibble, a faithful tory, for his head-quarters, who lived at the south end of the main street, close by the spot where the military stores had been deposited.
As Generals Erskine and Agnew were advancing under the protection of a corps of light-infantry, to take up their quarters at the other end of the same street, the party was fired upon by four young men from the house of Major Starr. This brave but rash act cost the young patriots their lives. They were instantly pursued and shot. A poor negro who was caught near them without weapons in his hands, was also murdered, and the five bodies were thrown into the house, which was instantly set on fire.}
* Barber's Hist. Coll .; Deming's Oration.
+ " A man named Hamilton had on deposit at a clothier's in the lower part of the village, a piece of cloth, which he was determined at all hazards to rescue from sequestration. He accordingly rode to the shop, and having secured one end of the cloth to the pummel of his saddle, galloped rapidly away. He was seen by the enemy's light-horsemen, who followed hard upon him, exclaiming, " We'll have you, old daddy ; we'll have you." "Not yet," said Hamilton, as he redoubled his speed. The troops gain upon their intended victim ; the nearest one raises his sabre to strike, when fortunately the cloth unrolls, and fluttering like a streamer, far behind, so frightens the pursuing horses that they cannot be brought within striking distance of the pursued. The chase continues through the whole extent of the village, to the bridge, where finally the old gentleman and his cloth make good their escape." Deming, Hinman.
# Gordon, ii. 195.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
. A large quantity of the public stores had been deposited in the episcopal church, and the first work of the soldiers, was to remove them into the street and burn them. Some of the provisions were also stored in a barn belonging to Dibble. This building was treated with the same respect, as its pro- prietor had the honor to entertain General Tryon as a guest. Another barn belonging to a friend of American liberty, which had been appropriated to the same use, was set on fire and consumed with its contents. In a few hours eighteen hundred barrels of pork and beef, seven hundred barrels of flour, two thousand bushels of wheat, rye, oats and Indian corn, clothing for a regiment of troops, and seventeen hundred and ninety tents, were burned. The smoke arising from the destruction of this property was strangulating and filled the whole air, while the streets ran with the melted pork and beef. There was also a large quantity of liquors in some of the buildings. These the soldiers were most reluctant to destroy, and did not do so, until after they had drank so freely of them, that when the labors of the day were ended only a few hundred were fit for duty. While the imbruted soldiers piled the fuel around the flour and beef, and stirred up the laggard flames to a fiercer glare, the women and little children could see by the fitful light the mark of the white cross that had been distinctly drawn upon the tory dwellings, to signify that the destroying angel about to go through the town, would stay his hand at their door-posts and pass them by unharmed. The same dingy light now disclosed a scene of loathsome drunkenness that surpasses description. Hundreds lay scattered at random, wherever the palsying demon had overtaken them ; some in the streets, with their faces blackened with smoke and soiled with earth; others sprawling in the door-yards, and others still, wild with excitement, holding themselves up by fences and trees, or grasping fast hold of each other, called loudly with oaths and curses to be led against the rebels .*
* This description was given to me by a revolutionary soldier, who was present throughout the whole affair.
301
APPREHENSIONS OF TRYON.
[1777.]
In this horrible condition the revolutionary patriots of Danbury saw the shades of night gather around their dwell- ings, and in sleepless apprehension did they count the hours as they dragged slowly on.
Nor did the brigand who led this band of incendiaries pass the night in sleep. The faithful few who had resisted the temptations of the cup, were on the alert, and brought him from time to time the unwelcome intelligence that groups of patriot farmers were fast dropping in from the neighboring villages and towns, and were beginning to form into organized companies. What if Wooster, or Parsons, or Huntington, or Arnold, should prove to be at the head of them, and should steal upon him while his troops were in that defenseless condition ? The thought was horrible !
Thus heavily passed the watches of that gloomy Saturday night. At last the day began to approach, and reason, unsettled for awhile in the dull brains of the British soldiers, returned to them again. The marks of the late dissipation still appeared in their swollen faces and blood-shot eyes ; but they were now able to stand upright, to grasp a musket, and defend themselves against the farmers who were gathering, ill-weaponed and undisciplined as they were, to oppose them. Then the British general began to breathe more easily, and to exhibit in a more striking manner the remarkable traits of his genius. He drew up his forces in order of defense ; he attended to all the arrangements, and presided over every detail of the preparations that he was making to usher in, with ceremonials worthy of the occasion, another Sabbath day. On a sudden, as if by the pulling of a wire upon the stage, the curtains of darkness were withdrawn from the village, and, like a will-o'-the-wisp, wandering and zig-zag from street to street, from house to house, passed the flaming torch of the incendiary. The congregational meeting-house, the largest and most expensive building in the place, is soon discovered to be on fire, and, one after another, the dwell- ings, stores, and barns of that peaceful community add their tributary lamps to that great centre-beacon of the town,
302
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
until every house, save those that have the mystic sign upon them, are in a broad blaze. Meanwhile, by the light of their own homes, mothers, screening their babes from the bleak air with the scanty clothing that they had snatched up in haste and denied to themselves, crippled old men and palsied women, and little boys and girls clinging to their feeble protectors, made such haste as they could to save their lives from the fire ; taking care to avoid the jeers of their com- fortable tory neighbors, who looked out from the doors and windows where the white cross glared in mockery alike of God and of humanity, and to shun at the same time the unhallowed contact of the soldiers, they ran, crawled, or were carried upon their beds, into lonely lanes, damp pastures, and leafless woods.
Having witnessed the destruction of the meeting-house, nineteen dwelling-houses, twenty-two stores, and barns, and great quantities of hay and grain that belonged to the inhabitants of the place, and having feasted his eyes with the fear and anguish of the women against whom he waged this glorious war, Major-General Tryon, taking a last fond look of the scene of his exploits, and noting doubtless the artistic effect of the faint blue smoke- wreaths as they curled upward to stain the blushing fore- head of the morning, withdrew his troops and resumed his march toward the sea-shore.
When the invader was fairly out of sight, the poor fugi- tives from their several hiding-places, returned, and cowering over the charred timbers of the homes that they had fled from, warmed their shivering frames and trembling hands over the ruins of Danbury.
In the mean time the news of Tryon's arrival flew along the whole coast. Early on the morning of the 26th, Gene- ral Silliman, with about five hundred militia, such as he had been able to gather upon a sudden call, pursued the enemy ; and not long after, the venerable Wooster, who had started off at a moment's warning to defend the soil of his native
* See Gordon, Hinman.
303
FALL OF GENERAL WOOSTER.
[1777.]
state from insult, joined him, with Arnold, and another handful of militia. A heavy rain retarded their movements so much, that they did not reach Bethel till late at night. It was therefore decided to attack the enemy on their return.
On the morning of the 27th, the American troops were astir at a very early hour. General Wooster detached Generals Silliman and Arnold, with about five hundred men, to advance and intercept the enemy in front, while he under- took with the remainder-amounting only to two hundred half-armed militia-to attack them in the rear. About nine o'clock, he came up with them as they were marching upon the Norwalk road, and, taking advantage of the uneven ground, fell upon a whole regiment with such impetuosity as to throw them into confusion, and break their ranks. Before they could be restored to order, he had succeeded in taking forty prisoners ; a number equal to one fifth part of his whole force. He continued to hang upon their skirts and harass them for some time, waiting for another favorable opportunity to make an attack. A few miles from Ridge- field, where the hills appeared to offer a chance of breaking their ranks a second time, he again charged furiously upon them. The rear guard, chagrined at the result of the for- mer encounter, now faced about and met him with a dis- charge of artillery and small arms. His men returned their shot resolutely at first, but as they were unused to battle, they soon began to fall back. Wooster, uniting all the fire of youth with the experience of an old soldier, who had seen hard service in more than one field, sought to inspire them with his own courage. Turning his horse's head and waving his sword, he called out to them in a brisk tone, "Come on, my boys ; never mind such random shots." Before he had time to turn his face again toward the enemy, a musket ball, aimed by a tory marksman, penetrated his back, breaking the spinal column, and lodging in the fleshy parts of his body. He instantly fell from his horse. His faithful friends stripped his sash from his person and bore him upon it from the field.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Arnold and Silliman made a forced march to Ridgefield, and arrived there about eleven o'clock. They threw up a temporary barricade across the road on the rising ground, and stationed their little party in such a manner as to cover their right flank by a house and barn, and their left by a ledge of rocks. Here they quietly awaited the enemy.
As soon as Agnew and Erskine saw what position the Americans had taken, they advanced and received their fire, and though they sustained considerable loss, they returned it with spirit. The action lasted about ten minutes, when the British gained the ledge of rocks, and the Ameri- cans were obliged to retreat. The American officers behav- ed with great spirit. Arnold was shot at by a whole platoon of soldiers standing not more than thirty yards from him. His horse was killed under him, but no other ball took effect. Snatching his pistols, he shot dead a soldier who was making up to him to run him through with his bayonet, and thus made his escape. The Americans kept up a scattering fire till nearly night, when General Tryon encamped at Ridgefield. In the morning he set fire to the church, but he probably did not superintend this piece of work himself, as it was so inartistically done that it proved to be a failure. He was more fortunate with four dwelling-houses which he soon had the satisfaction to see wrapped in flames. He now resumed his march, but Arnold followed him up so closely that he soon crossed the Saugatuck river, and marched on the east side of it, while the Americans kept pace with him on the left. Thus they advanced, cannonading each other whenever they could find a convenient opportunity.
About three o'clock in the afternoon, the gallant Colonel Deming, with a little party of continental troops, forded the river where it was about four feet deep, and, unperceived by the enemy, attacked them with desperate violence upon the rear and upon the left flank, pursuing them and keeping up a galling fire that did them very serious harm. Arnold pushed forward toward the mouth of the river, and drawing his men up in good order upon a hill, opened a heavy fire
305
A DEATH-BED SCENE.
[1777.]
upon the right flank of the enemy's rear. The Americans could follow them no further on account of the dangerous proximity of the ships. The British troops who were marching in the van, immediately embarked, while the cen- tre and rear formed on a hill. While Arnold was discharg- ing his cannon at the boats, and while Deming was plying the major-general in the rear, Colonel Lamb, who was from New York, and of course one of his excellency's own subjects, crept with about two hundred men behind a stone- wall, and gave him a parting salute at the distance of about one hundred yards.
Glad enough was Tryon to get aboard his good ship once more, and it is believed that he cherished to his dying day the recollection of his first visit to Connecticut.
But let us turn our thoughts, for a moment, to other scenes.
Dr. Turner, the surgeon in attendance, probed the wound of the venerable Wooster, and informed him that it was mortal. He heard the intelligence with unruffled calmness. A messenger was immediately dispatched to New Haven for Mrs. Wooster, and the wounded man was speedily removed to Danbury. Inflammation soon extended to the brain, and when Mrs. Wooster arrived, he was too delirious to recog- nize her. For three days and nights he suffered the most excruciating agony. On the morning of the 1st of May, the pain suddenly ceased. During that whole day, and the next, his wife, who remained constantly at his bed-side, noticed with the quick eye of a woman's affection, that his mind was laboring with the broken images of scenes that had long ago faded from his recollection, and were now passing in wild review before him. Still, she called vainly upon him for a token of recognition. The paleness of death, the short breathing, the fluttering pulse, at length indicated that the last moment was at hand. She was stooping over him to wipe the death-dew from his forehead, when suddenly he opened his eyes, and fixed them full upon her with a look of consciousness and deep love. His lips trembled. He sought
52
306
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
to speak, but his voice was stifled in the embrace of death .* The character of Wooster needs no eulogy to recommend it to the people of the state, to defend whose soil against the polluting foot-prints of her first invader, he so nobly sacrificed his life. In personal appearance, as may be infer- red from the poor portrait that we have of him, few men have surpassed him ; in generous hospitality, in the most unwavering integrity, in the forbearance with which he sub- mitted to private insults and public slights, in the length of his military career, and in its glorious consummation, he will forever keep his rank among the first of American patriots,-while the tongue that traduced and the pen that libelled him, will be remembered chiefly because they are seen in contrast with his virtues.t
* Madam Wooster was a daughter of the Reverend Thomas Clapp, Presi- dent of Yale College. She was highly esteemed in her day for her dignity, hos- pitality, and benevolence.
+ General David Wooster was born in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1711, and graduated at Yale College in 1738. He served with distinction in the French and Indian wars ; and in April 1775, he was appointed a major-general in the Connecticut militia. During the following June, Congress commissioned him as one of the two brigadier-generals allotted to Connecticut-his colleague being General Spencer.
General Wooster was a patriot and christian, and deserves to be particularly remembered for the purity of his life, his distinguished public services-his zeal and bravery, united with energy and prudence.
The late Deacon Nathan Beers, of New Haven, himself an officer of the revo- lution, not long before his decease, communicated to the American Historical Magazine, the following statement :
" The last time I saw General Wooster was in June 1775. He was at the head of his regiment, which was then embodied on the Green, in front of where the centre church now stands. They were ready for a march, with their arms glittering, and their knapsacks on their backs. Colonel Wooster had already dis- patched a messenger for his minister, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, with a request that he would meet the regiment and pray with them before their departure. He then conducted his men in military order into the meeting-house, and seated himself in his own pew, awaiting the return of the messenger. He was speedily informed that the clergyman was absent from home. Colonel Wooster immedi- ately stepped into the deacon's seat in front of the pulpit, and calling his men to attend to prayers, offered up a humble petition for his beloved country, for him- self, the men under his immediate command, and for the success of the cause in which they were engaged. His prayers were offered with the fervent zeal of an
307
THE RETALIATION.
[1777.]
As the battle of Lexington was followed by a retaliatory act on the part of Connecticut, so the predatory incursions of Tryon produced a like result.
General Parsons, one of the most heroic soldiers as well as one of the best lawyers and most scholarly writers of the revolutionary period, had already discovered that there was a large deposit of military stores laid up for the use of the British army at Sag Harbor, and now determined to avenge the insult offered to Connecticut, by siezing and destroying them. He employed Colonel Meigs to execute this mission. Accordingly, Meigs, on the 21st of May, left New Haven for Guilford, with what men he could muster, in thirteen whale- boats. At Guilford he obtained some reinforcements, and on the 23d, crossed the sound with one hundred and seventy men, under convoy of two armed sloops. He took along with his company another sloop, that was unarmed, to bring off the prisoners that he had counted upon as a part of his booty. He reached the north branch of the island, near Southold, at six o'clock in the evening, and there took his whale-boats, with most of his men, overland to the bay, where they again embarked. About mid- night they found themselves on the other side of the bay, only four miles from Sag Harbor. They landed under the cover of a thick wood, where Colonel Meigs left the boats in care of a guard, and advanced with the main body, amounting to about one hundred and twenty men, in excel- lent order. He arrived at Sag Harbor about two o'clock, and dividing the company into several parties, made an attack upon all the guards at once, with fixed bayonets. The alarm was soon given, and a schooner that had been station- ed there with seventy men, and twelve guns, opened a heavy fire upon them.
Colonel Meigs attacked them with great spirit, killed
apostle, and in such pathetic language, that it drew tears from many an eye, and affected many a heart. When he had closed, he left the house with his men in the same order they had entered it, and the regiment took up its line of march for New York. With such a prayer on his lips he entered the Revolution."
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
some of them, and took nearly all the rest prisoners. Only six escaped by flight. He also set fire to the vessels and for- age. He destroyed twelve brigs and sloops, one hundred tons of pressed hay, a large quantity of grain, ten hogsheads of rum, and a great amount of merchandise. By two o'clock in the afternoon he returned to Guilford with ninety pris- oners. In a little more than twenty-four hours, he had trav- eled by land and water a distance of ninety miles, without the loss of a man. Congress voted him an elegant sword as a reward of his address and valor. He accomplished as much by this expedition as Tryon had done at Danbury, except that he burned no dwelling-houses, mutilated no churches, and drove from their homes no women and chil- dren .* It had always been the policy of our state to wage war only with men.
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