USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 34
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+ Hildreth, iii. 324.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Trumbull, son of the governor of Connecticut, and previously paymaster of the northern department .*
In November of the same year, Major Tallmadge resumed his scheme of annoying the British on Long Island. He crossed the Sound, made a personal examination of Fort St. George, and found it a depository of stores, provisions, and arms. The works looked quite formidable. After much importunity, Washington authorized him to attempt its cap- ture. On the night of the 21st of November, he embarked from Fairfield with about one hundred dismounted dragoons, and effected a landing on Long Island, several miles distant from the fort, about nine o'clock. In consequence of a heavy rain, they deferred the attack until the following night. Reaching the fortress about day-break, the attack com- menced. Cutting down the stockade, the little army forced their way through the grand parade, and in ten minutes, the main fort was carried at the point of the bayonet. The works, shipping, and stores were secured ; an immense maga- zine of forage, at Cazum, ten miles distant, was burnt; and the captors returned to Fairfield without the loss of a man. Major Tallmadge was tendered the thanks of Congress and of the commander-in-chief, for this heroic and successful exploit.
There is an interesting incident connected with the history of Major Tallmadge, that exhibits in a remarkable degree the patriotism and force of the old clergy of Connecticut, of which I have before, more than once, made mention. When the whole country was in a state of alarm at the intelligence that Lord Cornwallis, with a large fleet and armament, was approaching the American coast, Tallmadge happened to pass through Litchfield with a regiment of cavalry. While there, he attended public worship with his troops on Sunday, at the old meeting house, that stood upon the village-green. The occasion was deeply interesting and exciting. The Rev. Judah Champion, then the settled minister of the place, a man of great eloquence and a high order of intellectual
* Hildreth.
ยท
391
MR. CHAMPION'S PRAYER
[1781.]
endowments, in view of the alarming crisis, thus invoked the sanction of Heaven :
"Oh Lord! we view with terror and dismay the enemies of thy holy religion ; wilt thou send storm and tempest, to toss them upon the sea, and to overwhelm them in the mighty deep, or scatter them to the uttermost parts of the earth. But peradventure, should any escape thy vengeance, collect them together again, O Lord ! as in the hollow of thy hand, and let thy lightnings play upon them. We beseech thee, moreover, that thou do gird up the loins of these thy servants, who are going forth to fight thy battles. Make them strong men, that "one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight." Hold before them the shield, with which thou wast wont in the old time to protect thy chosen people. Give them swift feet that they may pursue their enemies, and swords terrible as that of thy destroying Angel, that they may cleave them down when they have overtaken them. Preserve these servants of thine, Almighty God! and bring them once more to their homes and friends, if thou canst do it consistently with thine high purposes. If, on the other hand, thou hast decreed that they shall die in battle, let thy spirit be present with them and breathe upon them, that they may go up as a sweet sacrifice into the courts of thy temple, where are habitations prepared for them from the foundations of the world."*
In January, 1781, an alarming revolt broke out among the Pennsylvania regiments encamped at Morristown. The sol- diers claimed that they had enlisted "for three years or the war," and as their three years had expired, they insisted upon being paid off and discharged. The officers maintained that their term of enlistment was for "three years and the war," and refused to give them a discharge. They accordingly, to the number of thirteen hundred, broke out in open revolt, killed
* This remarkable prayer is copied in part from the remarks made by the Hon. F. A. Tallmadge, at the Litchfield " Centennial Celebration," and in part from the recollection of others.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
an officer who attempted to restrain them, and under the direction of a board of sergeants, marched off toward Prince- ton. Finding it impossible to control such a body of men, goaded to desperation as they were by hunger and cold, the committees of Congress, and of the Pennsylvania legislature, deemed it expedient to bend to the necessity of the case, and accordingly compromised the matter with the revolters. It was agreed that the soldiers should receive an immediate supply of clothing, and certificates for the arrearages of their pay, and be forthwith discharged.
Alarmed at this outbreak, and fearing that still further trouble might arise in consequence of his inability to provide for and pay off the soldiers, Washington wrote urgent letters to Gov- ernor Trumbull, and the other New England governors, stating the exigency of the case, and calling earnestly for money. Congress had previously made a demand for nine hundred thousand dollars in specie, or its equivalent, upon the northern states, which had not as yet been met in full, and the commander-in-chief saw the necessity of looking elsewhere for the desired means. Accordingly, Colonel John Laurens, aid-de-camp to Washington, was dispatched to France to represent the pressing wants of the American army, and to negotiate a loan .*
By the 20th of January, a part of the New Jersey line, having witnessed the success of the Pennsylvania troops in procuring a redress of their grievances, proceeded to imitate their example. Washington, knowing by past experience that he could rely upon the fidelity of the eastern troops in all cases of emergency, immediately ordered a detachment to march from West Point, under General Robert Howe, to the scene of the revolt. This had the desired effect. The camp of the disaffected soldiers was surrounded, they were made to parade without arms, and complete order was soon restored. Two of the principal leaders were shot.
On the 6th of May, Monsieur de Barras, who had been appointed to the command of the French squadron at
* Gordon, Hildreth.
393
MOODY INTERCEPTS WASHINGTON'S MAIL.
[1781.]
1
Newport, in the place of Admiral Ternay, deceased,* arrived at Boston, bringing with them dispatches, for Count de Rochambeau. By a previous agreement, General Washington, in company with Generals Knox and Du Por- tal, repaired to Wethersfield, in Connecticut, where, on the 21st of that month, they met the Count de Rochambeau and the Chevalier Chastellux. The subject of attacking New York was once more debated in council, and was fully resolved upon. It was agreed that the French army should march toward the Hudson river as soon as circumstances would permit, after leaving a sufficient force in Rhode Island to guard their heavy stores and baggage, and to secure the works there. In furtherance of this project, letters were written, on the 24th, to the governors of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, requiring among other things, militia to the number of six thousand two hundred.
Washington returned to his head-quarters on the 26th of May. The enemy learning that a conference had taken place between the American and French officers, spies and secret agents were sent out to intercept the mails; and one Lieutenant Moody, of the British army, succeeded in seizing and conveying to New York the very mail-bag that contained some of the most important letters relating to the enterprise in contemplation.
The preparations in the American army had been going on for several weeks; until, on the 21st of June, the troops rendezvoused at Peekskill, on the Hudson. At three o'clock on the morning of July 2d, the army commenced its march toward New York, encumbered with only four days provis- ions, a blanket and an extra shirt for each soldier. Gen- eral Lincoln, who had taken post near Fort Independence, was attacked on the 3d, by about fifteen hundred royal troops. The object of Lincoln was, to draw the enemy as far as possi-
* Charles Louis de Ternay, Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, and late governor of the islands of France and Bourbon, died at Newport, Rhode Island, December 18th.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
ble from their post at Kingsbridge, in order that they might be attacked in the open field by Sheldon's dragoons and the Duke de Lauzun's French legion. The British commander, however, evidently comprehending the maneuvre, declined sending out reinforcements, and soon concentrated his entire force within the works at Kingsbridge.
The American and French troops, (the latter having been largely reinforced,) formed a junction near White Plains on the 8th. In a few days, it was ascertained that the British had commenced their march toward Tarrytown, with the design of capturing and carrying off the stores and ordnance deposited at that place. General Robert Howe was forth- with dispatched with a sufficient force, who succeeded in saving the stores and other property, and in repulsing the enemy's shipping. General Washington, in his dispatch, dated on the 14th, speaks of the "gallant behavior, and spirited exertions of Colonel Sheldon, Captain Hurlbut, of the second regiment of dragoons, Captain Miles, of the artil- lery, and Lieutenant Shaylor, of the fourth Connecticut regi- ment," in "rescuing the whole of the ordnance and stores from destruction."
On the evening of the 21st, a portion of the French and American troops, accompanied by the general officers and several engineers, marched to the vicinity of New York, where the officers made a careful reconnoisance of the enemy's posts. On the following afternoon, they all returned to their quarters. The expedition had already been too long delayed in consequence of the non-arrival of the reinforce- ments that had been ordered and anticipated by Washington. On the 2d of August, Washington wrote-" I am not stronger at this advanced period of the campaign, than when the army first moved from winter quarters. Not a single man has joined me, except one hundred and seventy-six militia from Connecticut, who arrived at West Point yesterday, and eighty of the New York levies and about two hundred state troops of Connecticut, both of which corps were upon the lines previous to leaving winter cantonments." The move-
395
GENERAL GREENE.
[1781.]
ments of the Americans and French in the neighborhood of New York, had in the mean time convinced Sir Henry Clin- ton that the intercepted letters which had fallen into his hands were genuine, and he had accordingly strengthened his garri- sons by calling to his aid a considerable part of the force under the command of Cornwallis, at the south. A knowledge of this fact, induced Washington to change his entire plan of operations. While he kept up the appearance of a design upon New York, he ordered the fleets and armies of the allied powers to concentrate upon the Chesapeake, to coope- rate with the naval force under the Count de Grasse, which had just arrived there from France. For the present, let us leave them on their several routes thither.
Early this year, an efficient guard was established, extend- ing along the entire range of our sea-board, which was placed under the chief command of Colonel Beebe, of Litchfield- who was regarded as one of the bravest and most excellent officers in Connecticut line of the continental army.
The campaign of General Greene, at the south during the winter and summer of 1781, had resulted in various successes and defeats, but no decisive action had taken place.
Clinton having at last discovered the real object of Wash- ington, determined to interrupt it by a diversion at the north. The Highlands being too strongly fortified and manned to justify him in hazarding an attack in that direction, he dispatched Arnold, who had a short time before been recalled from the south, on an expedition to Connecticut-the particu- lars of which may be found in the succeeding chapter.
CHAPTER XIII.
ARNOLD BURNS NEW LONDON. FALL OF FORTS TRUMBULL AND GRISWOLD.
FOR several years the whole surface of Long Island Sound had been vexed with every species of conflict known to unrestrained human passions in times of civil war. Pirating, privateering, foraging, with all the gradations of crime and brutality that attend them, swept the waters with the free- dom of the winds and the storms. The coast of Long Island had before fallen into the hands of the British and tories, and the patriots had abandoned their arms and passed over to the Connecticut side, where they found an asylum among friends who entertained the same political sentiments. Fisher's Island had already been robbed of its cattle and sheep, and stripped of everything that could afford nutriment to man. British fleets, sometimes numbering a hundred vessels, sometimes twenty, had almost from the beginning of the war been seen sweeping around Montauk Point, riding at anchor at Gardiner's Bay, loitering around the mouth of the Thames, or standing in toward Stonington, in such a threat- ening attitude that the citizens of New London had no as- surance when they retired at night, that they should not be awakened before morning by the light of their own dwellings. Again and again the alarm-gun from Stonington, answered from Fort Trumbull and Fort Griswold, had summoned in from the upper country the devoted militia to defend the coast, and often had the inhabitants looked out from the roofs of the houses, and from the tops of the rocky hills, with eyes strained and anxious, to watch the streamers of St. George, and returned with joy to tell their loved ones that Newport on the east or New York on the west, was their probable destination. This long indemnity tended to lull the minds of the people, and to make the signals of distress from
397
CAPTAIN DUDLEY SALTONSTALL.
[1781.]
the exposed points, less terrible to the militia of the inland towns. Even the officers shared in this feeling of security.
At length a large quantity of merchandize from Europe and the West Indies was accumulated in storehouses at New London. The place was wealthy and many sail of ships, built and owned by its citizens, were lying idle there, as well as the vessels that privateers had captured and taken into port as prizes.
All this property offered a strong temptation to the British commander-in-chief, who had found himself so often baffled in his undertakings by Colonel Meigs, Captain Hinman, and other officers, who did nothing but cut off his foraging par- ties, and intercept his transports laden with cattle and grain for the army. Of these prizes, the capture of the rich mer- chant ship Hannah by Captain Dudley Saltonstall, while on her passage from London to New York, was the most deeply resented, and was thought to have hastened the stroke of ven- geance. It is not likely that Sir Henry Clinton would have attempted to destroy New London at the time he did, had not General Arnold, who had just returned from a like expedition against the Virginian coast, advised him of the defenseless condition of the place, and offered to conduct the enterprise.
Arnold was a native of Norwich, and was of course ac- quainted with the whole neighborhood of New London and Groton, and knew the very steps to take to ensure success. His plan was, to enter the harbor in the night, and set fire to the stores, merchandise, shipping, and public offices, and de- molish the forts on both sides of the Thames before the militia could have time to rally from the country to oppose him. It is not likely that either he or Sir Henry Clinton contemplated the burning of the dwelling-houses and churches, or the murders that were able to blacken even the treason of Arnold.
On the evening of the 5th of September tidings were re- ceived in New London that a British fleet had been seen under the Long Island shore, at a point nearly opposite the town, but
398
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
this was so common an occurrence that it did not excite much alarm. The citizens sought their beds at about the same hour as usual, and probably most of them slept as soundly as they were in the habit of doing. When it was dark, Arnold advanced toward the Connecticut coast, which he reached about ten o'clock. The wind now shifted sud- denly, and blew so strongly from the north, that the large ships were forced to stand out to sea and the smaller ones to seek the protection of the shore. The morning twilight re- vealed to the garrison at Fort Griswold the spreading sails of thirty-two British ships standing in toward the doomed town.
At ten o'clock seventeen hundred troops were landed from twenty-four transports, at a distance of about three miles from New London. They were sent ashore in two divisions -eight hundred on the Groton side of the Thames, and nine hundred on the western or New London side. The eastern division consisted of the fortieth and fifty-fourth regiments, the third battalion of New Jersey volunteers, and a detach- ment of Yagers and artillery, all under the command of Lieut-Col. Eyre. The western division was made up of the thirty-eighth regiment, the loyal Americans, the American Legion, some refugees, and sixty Yagers, all under the com- mand of Arnold. The troops immediately began to move forward.
From the earliest morning twilight, Colonel William Led- yard, to whom the guardianship of the two forts and the towns in which they were situated, had been committed, had exerted himself to the utmost to alarm the neighboring towns, and to put the coast in a state of defense. Captain Adam Shapley commanded at Fort Trumbull and the Town Hill Battery, and Captain William Latham at Fort Griswold. The established signals that had long been used at Stonington and at the two forts, were three guns for good news and two for an alarm, fired at stated intervals. These signals were as well known to the tories as to the patriots, and were probably familiar to Arnold before he sailed from New York.
399
WOMEN AND CHILDREN FLEE.
[1781.]
As soon as the usual warning sounded from Fort Griswold, a third gun from one of the British ships was discharged, thus changing the signal of distress into one of jubilee. From the difference in the size of the guns, or in the eleva- tion of them, this false addition did not probably deceive the most wary of the militia officers; but it served to confuse and keep back those who were less critically observant of the sound. Other alarms followed : the inhabitants were panic-stricken at the sudden gathering of the storm, that was evidently about to burst upon their heads. Starting from their beds, and groping about with trembling hands to find their garments, they gathered together their families and moveable effects, and sent them into the woods and fields on the remote and difficult hill-sides where the enemy would find it impracticable to follow them.
An effort was made to secure the shipping, by sending it far up the Thames; but the wind and tide were both ad- verse. At noon, however, there sprung up a lively breeze from the south that favored the attempt, and a number of valuable vessels were saved.
After Colonel Ledyard had made such arrangements as his scanty means could allow, at Fort Trumbull, and had dispatched messengers to Lebanon to inform the governor of his condition, he hastened to repair to Fort Griswold, where he determined to make his last stand against the enemy. When he went down to cross the ferry, his friends gathered around him to wish him success and give him a farewell pressure of the hand. His noble features wore an expression of resolve which those who saw him remembered long after. His step was elastic as he leapt into the boat, and his voice had the triumphant tone of prophecy, as he said to them : "If I must lose to-day honor or life, you who know me, can tell which it will be !"
Meanwhile Arnold, who had landed his forces near the light-house, marched rapidly forward, as nearly in a right line as the nature of the ground would allow, and soon came into the Town Hill road. He arrived at the cross road that
400
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
leads to the fort at about eleven o'clock. Here he detached Captain Millett of the thirty-eighth regiment with four com- panies, to go down to the shore and attack the garrison. At the foot of this road, Millett was joined by a company of re- fugees under Captain Frink, who had followed the shore more closely in marching from the landing-place than the main body of the army had done.
Fort Trumbull was not then what it is now, a well- appointed fortification, with solid masonry on all sides, secure magazines, and all the furnishings of a fortress designed to resist aggressive attempts as well by land as by water; but an area, with three sides inclosed, and mounted with a few guns that were designed to protect the harbor from the ap- proach of ships. The rear of the fort was open, not having even the advantage of a temporary breastwork to cover the garrison, which numbered at the time of the invasion only twenty-three men. Colonel Ledyard was of course aware how idle it would be to resist the advance of the enemy with a mere nominal garrison, and had instructed Captain Shapley to retreat, should he be attacked, to Fort Griswold. In obedience to this order Shapley fired a single well-aimed volley at the approaching detachment, spiked the guns upon his batteries, and withdrawing his men in good order, em- barked them in whale-boats almost under the very shrouds of the British ships that were so near that the men from the decks could reach them with musket shot. Thus exposed seven of his men were wounded, and one of the boats was captured. It need hardly be said that Captain Millett im- mediately took possession of the deserted fort.
Arnold, goaded to madness as he always was when he found himself in the atmosphere of human strife, rushed for- ward toward the devoted town, to execute upon it the fierce- ness of his wrath. It is difficult to imagine a situation more likely to quicken the long stifled admonitions of a guilty con- science, than that of this bold bad man. He was now within a few miles of his birth-place. As he ascended the hill upon his nefarious errand, that most beautiful of our coast scenery
401
ARNOLD CONTEMPLATES THE SCENE.
[1781.]
lay spread out like a map in all its bewildering charms of pleasant inlets, seamed rocks fretted by the ebbing and flow- ing of the tides, strips of sandy beach sparkling with their shining decorations of shells, hills covered with cedars, and in the distance, islands crowned with groves, lying like sisters side by side in the feathery foam of the waves. At his feet the fairest harbor of the Atlantic, with its never failing river coming down from the sharp ledges, where in his childhood its waters, young and restless as he, had typified the future career, as they mirrored the features of the fickle, ambitious boy ; a fine old town, associated with the early settlement of the continent, and inhabited by his old schoolmates and acquaintances ; ships with the names of their owners upon them, huddling together like a flock of frightened sea-fowl in their attempt to escape the torch that he himself had brought to apply to them ; all these objects spread out before him, and, smiling in the light of a September sun, must have touched, one would think, even the heart of a traitor. But they do not appear to have made any impression upon Arnold. When he had reached the top of the hill, and had driven from the slight battery that had been hastily thrown up there, the few brave men who had dared to point its six small guns at an invading foe, he saw the owners of the ships trying to avail themselves of the breeze that had sprung up from the south, to get this most perishable of all property out of harm's way, and immediately sent a messenger to Lieutenant- Colonel Eyre with orders to press forward and attack Fort Griswold as speedily as possible, so that he might pos- sess himself of the guns and turn them against the fugitive vessels.
In addition to the cannon at this fort, (if it could be called a fort,) there was on the common upon Manwaring's hill still another gun, a four or six pounder, that had been kept there for use upon muster days, and to give the customary signals of distress or good tidings to town and country. As the enemy were descending Town Hill, three or four men levelled this little piece and fired it at them several times. 58
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Arnold sent a detachment of British troops up Blackhull Hill to silence this turbulant neighbor. At their approach the gunners abandoned it and fled. While the British were securing the gun they were exposed to the muskets of some marksmen who had secreted themselves behind the rocks and fences, and who kept up a severe though irregular fire upon them. Mr. Manwaring's house, the only mansion in that part of the town, was the next object of their attention. They broke it open, ransacked it, broke a part of the furni- ture in pieces, and set it on fire. One of the neighbors en- tered it soon after the soldiers had left it, and quenched the flames with a barrel of soap. Arnold now proceeded to the more populous parts of the town. As the hills abounded in loose stones, walls had been thrown up at intervals of a few rods, and from behind these breastworks the resolute citizens lurked in little groups, or in solitary security, and aimed their desperate shots at the invaders. When they had reached the southerly part of the town, Arnold ordered Lieutenant- Colonel Upham, who commanded the New Jersey tories, to advance and get possession of the hill north of the meeting- house, where, says this loyal hero, in his military dispatch to Governor Franklin, (who had now returned from his rural quarters at the Litchfield jail,) " the rebels had collected and which they resolved to hold." He advanced with his own troops, and with the Yagers, and drove the patriots from it. He kept it until the surrender of Fort Griswold, and accord- ing to his own account of the matter, "was exposed to a constant fire from the rebels" on the neighboring hills, and from the fort on the Groton side, until the work of destruc- tion was over on either bank of the river. On his way to this outpost of danger, Colonel Upham passed through Cape Ann-street, and Lewis-lane, while a flanking guard amused themselves by setting the house of Mr. Latimer on fire, that stood in what is now Vauxhall-street. This house had been filled with the goods of the citizens, who thought it was too remote from the populous parts of the town to be exposed. It was the very first house that was burned.
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