USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 36
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On another occasion he was concerned with other boys in rolling away some valuable casks from a shop-yard to aid in making the usual thanksgiving bonfire, when the casks were arrested by an officer who had seen sent by the owner to recover them. Young Arnold was so enraged that he stripped off his coat upon the spot and dared the constable, a stout and grave man, to fight !
Miss Hannah Arnold, the only sister of Benedict, was an affable, witty and accomplished lady. Among those who paid her particular attentions was a young foreigner, who resided temporarily in the place. Benedict disliked the man and had tried in vain to break off their intimacy. He finally vowed vengeance upon the young man, if he ever caught him in the house again. On returning from New Haven one evening, he ascertained that the French- man was in the parlor with his sister. He instantly planted himself in front of the house, with a loaded pistol, while he ordered a servant to make a violent assault upon the parlor door. As Arnold anticipated, the young man leapt out of the window ; Arnold fired the pistol at him, but it being dark, he escaped, and the next day, left the place. Arnold afterwards met him at the Bay of Honduras, where a challenge was given and accepted, which resulted in severely wounding the Frenchman.
Miss Arnold never married. After the death of her father, she resided principally with her brother. She died at Montague, in Upper Canada, in 1803, aged 60 years.
The house in which the Arnold family lived is still standing in a good state of preservation.
CHAPTER XVIII.
YORKTOWN. TRUMBULL, AND PUTNAM.
IN the autumn of 1781, Major Tallmadge, who had been stationed with the troops in the Highlands under General Heath, renewed his plan of annoying the enemy on Long Island. Having marched his troops to Norwalk, he embarked with them on the 9th of October with the design of attack- ing Fort Slongo, on Treadwell's Neck. Early on the follow- ing morning the assault was commenced and the fortress was soon subdued The combustible part was burnt, and the party returned in safety with their prisoners. The gallant major again established his quarters at White Plains, where he found abundant employment in protecting the inhabitants from the plundering and marauding parties that infested the neighborhood .*
The French fleet under De Grasse and Du Barras having reached the Chesapeake, four ships of the line and several frigates were sent to block up James and York rivers, so as to cut off Cornwallis' retreat. During the maneuvering of the ships of De Grasse with those of Admiral Graves of the
* Major Tallmadge continued to be actively and successfully employed in the service of his country until the establishment of peace, when he retired from the army with the rank of colonel. He was subsequently president of the Cincinnati Society of Connecticut. In March, 1784, Colonel Tallmadge married Mary Floyd, daughter of General William Floyd, of Mastic, Long Island, and shortly after settled in Litchfield, Connecticut, where he became extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, and where he spent the remainder of his days. From 1800 to 1816, he was a representative in Congress. He was distinguished for his unostentatious piety and active benevolence.
Mrs. Mary Tallmadge died June 3d, 1805, leaving several children. Colonel Tallmadge was again married, on the 3d of May 1808, to Maria, daughter of Joseph Hallett, Esq., who survived her husband a few years.
Colonel Tallmadge died in Litchfield, March 7, 1835. He had four sons and two or three daughters.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
British service, Du Barras entered the bay along with several transports loaded with heavy artillery, for the siege of York- town. The combined armies of America and France soon formed a junction with Lafayette at Williamsburg, from which point, the plan of operations having been previously arranged, they commenced their march against Cornwallis. The French troops now amounted to seven thousand ; the continentals numbered five thousand five hundred ; and about three thousand five hundred Virginia militia, under General Nelson, had assembled in Lafayette's camp. The besieging army thus amounted to about sixteen thousand men. The British force at Yorktown, consisting of about eight thousand troops, had strongly fortified themselves, and works had been thrown up in the vicinity to impede the approach of the Americans. The most interesting event of the siege was the simultaneous storming of two of these out-posts. One of these forts, situated near the banks of York river, was assaulted about day-break on the morning of the 15th of October, by a detachment of American light infantry. The forlorn hope was commanded by Colonel Alexander Hamilton. The first company at the head of the column that supported the forlorn hope, was led by Captain James Morris, of Litchfield .* A brisk fire was soon opened
* James Morris, Esq., was born in Litchfield, South Farms parish, January 19, 1752 ; graduated at Yale College in 1775 ; and soon after commenced the study of divinity with the Rev. Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlem, in company with his college friends, Messrs. Seth Swift, David Tuller, and Adoniram Judson-all of whom subsequently became distinguished in the ministry. In May, 1776, while precep- tor of the grammar school in Litchfield, he received from Governor Trumbull an ensign's commission in the troops enlisted for a six months' campaign in New York, which he accepted, after obtaining the advice of Dr. Bellamy in its favor. He was in the retreat from Long Island, and in the battles of York Island and White Plains. During the autumn he received from Congress a commission of second lieutenant ; in January, 1777, he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and during that winter was stationed at Litchfield in the recruiting service, and as superintendent of the small-pox hospital. In May, he joined the army at Peeks- kill, with the men he had enlisted, and from thence in September marched with the army under the immediate command of General Washington, for Philadel- phia. Captured at the battle of Germantown, he was detained as a prisoner for the period of three years and three months, having been liberated January 3d,
417
YORKTOWN.
[1781.]
upon the Americans, but the van of the party under Hamil- ton and Morris, were so near the fort before they were dis- covered, that the British overshot them. Not a man of their party was killed, though the main body of the detachment lost about sixty in killed and wounded. At the same time, the French army made an attack on the second of these forts, which proved to be a much more disastrous conflict. They finally succeeded, but with the loss of about two hundred men .*
The allied forces now had possession of the grounds that overlooked Yorktown. The British were hemmed in on all sides, the elbow of the river being occupied by our ships. Our artillery began to play upon the town ; the condition of the enemy grew more and more hopeless ; and as a last resort Cornwallis thought of passing his army across to Gloucester and forcing his way through the troops on that
1781. During this period he had been appointed Captain. He passed the spring and most of the summer succeeding his exchange, with the army on the Hudson, and was in several skirmishes in that quarter. Near the close of August, Colo- nel Scammel's regiment, to which Captain Morris belonged, was ordered to march to Virginia, and he accompanied the army under Washington to Yorktown.
At the close of the war, Captain Morris returned to Litchfield, and there spent the remainder of his days. For many years he was a justice of the peace, select- man, and deacon in the church, and was often elected to represent the town in the Legislature of Connecticut.
In 1790, Mr. Morris commenced a school in South Farms, which gradually extended its reputation and influence, until " Morris' Academy" became favorably known throughout the country. While under his care, more than sixty of its pupils entered college, and nearly fifteen hundred children and youth had been members of it-from twelve different states of the union, and from the Islands of St. Thomas and Bermuda.
Mr. Morris was the author of a valuable pamphlet of 124 pages, entitled " A Sta- tistical account of several towns in Litchfield County," which was published in 1815, by the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also wrote a very inter- esting narrative of his own life and public services during the revolution and sub- sequently, which throws much light upon the history of the particular corps of the Connecticut line with which he was connected. I take great pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to his only surviving son, Dwight Morris, Esq., of Bridgeport, for the use of this manuscript volume-a work which does honor to the head and heart of its author.
* See Morris' Narrative ; also, Gordon's Hist.
59
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
side of the river. A violent storm, however, prevented the accomplishment of this purpose ; and in the afternoon of the 17th a flag was sent out, requesting the cessation of hostili- ties for the space of twenty-four hours. General Washing- ton sent back word that he would grant them two hours only. The moment the time designated had expired, all the artillery of the American and French armies was discharged at once upon Yorktown. Before another volley could be fired, the British beat a parley, and sent a second flag, with the request that commissioners might be appointed to agree upon articles of capitulation. This was done, and the terms were soon agreed upon.
On the 19th of October, 1781, the allied armies were drawn up in parallel lines, about six rods apart, each extend- ing more than a mile in length along the plain. The van- quished army then marched between these lines, playing their own tunes, but with their colors muffled .* General Lincoln was appointed to receive the submission of the royal army in precisely the same way that his own surrender had been conducted by the enemy eighteen months before. They piled up their arms on the field, and marched back to Yorktown unarmed .*
More than seven thousand British troops surrendered as prisoners of war, exclusive of fifteen hundred seamen ; more than two thousand of whom were either wounded or sick. The Guadaloupe frigate and twenty-four transports, together with one hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, and eight mor- tars, fell into the hands of the conquerors. The loss of the besiegers was about four hundred and fifty in killed and wounded ; the besieged had about five hundred and fifty slain, among whom was Major Cochrane. Twenty trans- ports belonging to the enemy had been sunk or burnt during the siege.
On the 20th, General Washington issued his orders for a general pardon of all culprits of the army that were in con- finement for crimes as well as those under sentence of a
* Morris. + Gordon, Morris, Hildreth.
419
TREATY OF PEACE.
[1782.]
court-martial. His orders closed with the following para- graph :
" Divine service shall be performed to-morrow in the differ- ent brigades and divisions. The commander-in-chief recom- mends that all the troops that are not upon duty, do assist in it with a serious deportment, and that sensibility of heart which the recollection of the surprising and particular inter- position of Providence in our favor, claims."
On the 24th of October, a British fleet, consisting of twenty-five sail of the line, with two of fifty guns and several frigates, arrived off the Chesapeake, having on board seven thousand men designed for the reinforcement of Corn- wallis. On receiving the intelligence of the catastrophe at Yorktown, the British commander returned to New York, with this formidable naval force.
The capture of Cornwallis determined the great contest in favor of the Americans. Although more than a year elapsed before a treaty of peace was actually made and ratified, and although during this period the armies of the two nations continued to maintain a hostile attitude, very few skirmishes and no general engagement took place. On the 3d day of September, 1782, definitive treaties between Great Britain, France, and Spain, were signed at Versailles by the Duke of Manchester, and the plenipotentiaries of the said courts. On the same day, a definitive treaty with Great Britain and the United States of America was also signed at Paris, by David Hartley, Esq., the British plenipotentiary, and the plenipotentiaries of the United States .* It was not until the 30th of November that the articles for concluding a general peace between the United States and Great Britain, were formally signed, at Paris, by Richard Oswold, Esq., the commissioner of his Britannic majesty on the one part, and by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens, commissioners of the United States of America, on the other part.
On the 19th of April, 1783, at noon, General Washing-
* Gordon, iii. 356.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
ton proclaimed to the American army the cessation of hostilities between the two governments. In November following, Washington issued his farewell address to the officers and soldiers, and the army was disbanded .*
It is particularly worthy of remark, that, notwithstanding
* Before a final separation, the officers of the army formed themselves into an association called the " Order of the Cincinnati " --- after the illustrious Roman Cin- cinnatus, who, having repelled the invaders of his country, returned to the hum- ble employments of agricultural life. As this society was long the subject of bitter animadversion on account of its supposed aristocratic objects and tenden- cies, I will briefly state some of its provisions.
Its principles, as officially stated by the association itself, were as follows : An incessant attention to preserve inviolate the exalted rights and liberties of human nature, for which its members have fought and bled-and an unalterable deter- mination to promote and cherish between the respective states union and national honor ; to render permanent, cordial affection, and the spirit of brotherly kindness among the officers ; and to extend acts of beneficence toward those officers and their families who may unfortunately be under the necessity of receiving it. The general society, for the sake of frequent communications, shall be divided into state societies, and those again into such districts as the state societies shall direct. "The society shall have an order by which its members shall be known and dis- tinguished, which shall be a medal of gold of proper size to receive the proposed emblems, and to be suspended by a deep blue ribbon two inches wide, edged with white, descriptive of the union of America and France." This order was to be perpetuated in the line of the eldest male descendents of the original mem- bers, or, failing such descendants, by the admission of such collateral relations as might be deemed worthy. There was also a provision for admitting as honorary members persons who had not belonged to the army .*
A great outcry was raised against the society, especially by the soldiers, and by many prominent civilians in America and in France, among whom were Franklin, John and Samuel Adams, Gerry and others. A pamphlet was published in Charleston, S. C., in October 1783, entitled, " Considerations on the Society of the order of Cincin- nati," which was attributed to Chief Justice Burke, in which the author attempts to prove that " the Cincinnati creates two distinct orders among the Americans- 1st, a race of hereditary nobles, founded on the military, together with the power- ful families and first-rate leading men in the state, whose view it will ever be, to rule; and 2d, the people, or plebeians, whose only view is, not to be oppres- sed ; but whose certain fate it will be to suffer oppression under the institution."
The prejudice and alarm became so universal that at the first general meeting of the order, in May 1784, through the efforts of Washington and other leading members, the constitution was so modified as to exclude the hereditary principle. Even this did not satisfy the people, and the association long continued to be an object of jealously.
* Gordon, Hildreth.
421
THE DEBATING CLUB.
the limited extent of her territory, and the comparatively small number of her population, Connecticut furnished for the continental ranks and kept in actual service more men than any other colony or state in the confederacy .* It should be borne in mind, also, that the thirty-two thousand of her able-bodied sons who formed a part of the continental army, constituted but a small portion of her force in actual service. Besides the detachments employed in defending her own frontiers, and her sea-coast, her militia shared in the privations of the camp and the perils of the field in every part of the country. It was estimated that more than five thousand of her citizens perished during the war, in their country's service, exclusive of those in the continental line.t
The part that Connecticut took in the revolution, grew not only out of the causes named in the preceding chapters, but from that peculiar deliberation with which the people of the colony were in the habit of making up their minds upon all matters of public importance. The following interesting extract from a letter of the Rev. Chauncey A. Goodrich, D.D., of Yale College, will set forth this characteristic in a much clearer light than any language of mine :
" There is one fact respecting the revolutionary history of our State which ought to be recorded, as exhibiting the wis- dom and deliberation with which our leading men entered into the war. Dr. Nathan Strong, of Hartford, told my father that about the time the contest drew on, our governor called a secret session of the Legislature. Dr. Strong was chaplain, and was sworn to secrecy. The Legislature then appointed six of the ablest jurists in the State-three to argue the cause in favor of the right of parliament to tax
* The number nominally furnished by each state was as follows : Massachu- setts 67,907 ; Connecticut, 31,939 ; Virginia, 26,678 ; Pennsylvania, 25,678; New York, 17,781 ; Maryland, 13,912 ; New Hampshire, 12,497 ; New Jersey, 10,726 : North Carolina, 7,263 ; South Carolina, 6,417; Rhode Island, 5,908; Georgia, 2,679 ; Delaware, 2,386. Total, 231,791. Hildreth.
+ Rev. Benjamin Trumbull's Thanksgiving Sermon at North Haven, December 11th, 1783.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the colonies, and three against it. These arguments were continued for two or three days, when the conviction became universal among the members, that parliament had not the right, and that the colonies might lawfully resist. With this conviction, and the arguments on which it was founded, the representatives returned each to his own place of residence. This, Dr. Strong stated, was the origin of the entire unanimity with which our state entered into the con- test. The whole people had the argument from their repre- sentatives ; but no one knew, at that time, by what means it had been so maturely formed. Dr. Strong mentioned these things to my father toward the close of his life, stating that he had never spoken of them before ; but considered him- self as released, by the lapse of time and course of events, from all further obligation to his oath of secrecy."
I mentioned these facts a few years ago to Charles Chaun- cey, Esq., of Philadelphia. He remarked, "It is one of the most curious and interesting pieces of secret history con- nected with our revolution. It is strikingly characteristic of the habits of Connecticut ; especially that so much pains should be taken to understand the argument fully on both sides."*
Before leaving this interesting era in the history of our state, let us revert to some of the traits of two or three of the principal actors in the events commemorated in these pages.
Colonel Seth Warner was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, in 1742. About the year 1763, his father purchased a tract of land in the township of Bennington, on the New Hamp- shire Grants, and young Warner removed thither with his parents. He soon became enured to the hardships of pioneer-life, and no hunter on the Green Mountains was more indefatigable and successful than he. Long before the breaking out of the revolution, the controversy between the
* It seems eminently proper that this important state secret should have fallen into the hands of a family so historical, and that it should have been given to the world by so accurate a pen.
423
COLONEL WARNER.
[1784.]
settlers on the grants and the government of New York gave scope to his energies and developed his manliness of charac- ter and his hatred of oppression. Associated with Ethan Allen as a recognized leader of the Green Mountain Boys, through a series of years Seth Warner's name was the watch-word of the settlers and a sound of dread in the ears of their enemies. His feats of noble daring and self-denying effort, are worthy of an honorable place on the page that tells the story of the heroic age of our country's history. Nor have his deeds been without a chronicler. A few years since the Hon. Daniel Chipman gave to the world a faithful record of his life and public services in a handsome volume, to which the reader is referred. Colonel Warner's services in the revolution have long formed a part of the history of that great struggle, but a perusal of Mr. Chipman's volume will show that previous biographers and historians had failed to do him justice.
He did not long survive to participate in the blessings of the peace and freedom which he had assisted to achieve. Worn down with toil and disease, he returned to his native town, where he died, December 26, 1784, in the 42d year of his age.
Colonel Warner was a man of iron frame and of remark- able strength and agility. He was six feet and four inches in height, and his figure was well proportioned and manly. He was mild and courteous in his bearing, cool and deliber- ate in his judgment, firm and energetic in his purposes, while his unwavering integrity and strict sense of honor inspired his friends and the community generally with the most implicit confidence.
The Rev. Thomas Canfield, of Roxbury, preached his funeral sermon, from 2 Samuel, ii. 27: "How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished ?"*
Pre-eminent in the roll of our patriots and statesmen,
* See Chipman's Life of Warner ; Houghton's Address on the life and public services of Colonel Warner.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
stands the name of Jonathan Trumbull. His position as governor of the state during the war, united with that rare combination of powers which made him second only to Washington in executive abilities, not second even to him in the maturity of his wisdom and the depth of his moral nature, and greatly his superior in intellectual culture, con- stituted him the principal character in our colony and state during the period occupied by his administration. It is true of Trumbull, as of Washington, that the perfect symmetry of his character has induced many to lose sight of the vast scale on which it was constructed, and the elevation with which it towers above the level of other public men of that day.
At the head of the little republic on the breaking out of the war, Trumbull was the only governor in all the colo- nies who had the courage and the firmness to make a stand against the tyranny of the British government. As before stated, he had indignantly refused to take an oath to execute the stamp-act, or even to witness the degrading ceremony. During the period that transpired between that day and the 19th of April, 1775, his convictions had been strengthened and his mind confirmed in the justice of the American cause. He was the presiding genius of Connecticut during the whole conflict. Marshalling troops, providing munitions, superintending the financial department and the building of ships of war, perfecting the defenses of the colony, purchas- ing cannon, muskets, clothing, and provisions for the army, sitting in council, advising with the General Assembly, writ- ing letters to committees of safety, keeping up a constant correspondence with Washington, composing state papers, mustering the militia, listening to the complaints of the soldiers as if they had been his children, and soothing them with soft words-in all departments, we find him the great central executive force to which Washington was drawn in the dark hours of that eight years' struggle. Did he need troops to swell the army at Cambridge, he called upon Trum- bull ; and reluctantly, and in spite of the solicitations of the
425
GOVERNOR TRUMBULL.
people whom he governed, rather than disobey the com- mander-in-chief, he ordered the coast of Connecticut to be left unguarded, and the citizen-soldiers to leave their homes to the mercy of the British invaders, and march into another colony .* Did a British fleet threaten to invade New York, and tories boast that they would lay the city in ruins Washington had only to write a letter to Trumbull, and the troops were sent into the infected district, and the British ships were soon seen to spread their wings like scared birds of prey, and fly toward the south. Did thousands of British regulars, at a later day, press around him, and seem about to overwhelm him ? A requisition upon Trumbull brought to his aid fourteen regiments of farmers, who obeyed the command of the chief magistrate whom they had themselves helped to elect, without a murmur, and returned, if they happened to survive, to vote for him again. In still darker hours, when the genius of the American people drooped, and the hearts of the other colonies sank beneath the accumula- ted burden of severe campaigns, heavy taxes, and debts that had been piled on them like mountains ; when even Wash- ington doubted from what source another dollar could be raised to keep the army in the field, he called upon Trum- bull, and the sinews of war, strained till they were ready to crack, again recovered their elasticity. Industrious, quiet, unselfish, trust-worthy-with a head never giddy, however steep the precipice upon which he stood, and a heart that kept all secrets confided to it as the deep wave holds the plummet that is dropped into its bosom-no wonder that Trumbull should have been selected by the first man of the
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