USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Ridgefield > The history of Ridgefield, Conn. : from its first settlement to the present time > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17
" Timothy Keeler was chosen Moderator of said Meeting.
"Said Meeting by their Major vote Revoked the vote of the Town whereby a tax was granted of six pence on the pound on the List of 1779 in a Town Meeting held June 29 1780.
52
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD.
" Said Meeting Voted that they would raise money by Tax on the List of 1779 and give to the Soldiers and non Commissioned officers that have been or shall be in the Service of the Continental and this State from the first of last March during this years campain.
" Said Meeting made choise of Benjamin Smith, William Forester, Timothy Keeler Esq' Stephen Smith and Stephen Norris a Committee to prepare a Memorial to be prefered to the General Assembly. Re- questing that for the future the method of Raising and procureing Soldiers for the Continental and State Service the present war, may be by classing men, viz all the men from sixteen and upward-and each class to procure a man for said service.
" Test STEPHEN SMITH Register."
" At a Town Meeting held in Ridgefield Nov. 20th, 1780 Daniel Coley Esq was chosen Moderator of said Meeting.
"Said Meeting Voted that a Committee should be chosen and as soon as may be to make Enquiery and Obtain the number of the Men that the Town is Deficient respecting their Quota of Soldiers in the Conti- nental Army And Thaddeus Rockwell and William Forrister were chosen for the purpose aforesaid.
" Also said Meeting by their Major vote made Choice of Nathan Smith and William Forrister to receive the salt necessary for putting up the Provisions required of this Town to be provided for the Army and to perform every part respecting said Provisions agreeable to an Act of the General Assembly of this State in their last session."
" At a Town Meeting held in Ridgefield Feby 8th 1781 Capt Jonah Foster was Chosen Moderator of said Meeting.
" Said Meeting Voted that the method for raising and procuring five Men for this State Service to serve as Soldiers in Col Bebees Regiment at Horseneck for the term of one year, be by classing the Inhabitants into five classes.
" And that three of the classes divided out to procure Soldiers for filling up the Continental Army be formed into one class. And the three committee men living in the southern three classes that were appointed to class the Inhabitants as above expressed be a committee for the class in the southern part of the Town and so successively through the Town to the North end thereof.
" And Samuel Olmsted Esq, Nathan Olmsted and Robert Edmond be a committee for the Southern class, And John Benedict Esq Benjamin Smith and John Jones a committee for ye second class.
" And Col Bradley Stephen Smith and Silas Hull a committee for the third class.
53
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
" And Daniel Smith, Matthew Northrop and Jonah Foster a com- mittee for ye fourth class.
" And Daniel Coley Esq, Wm Forrister and Capt Sears a committee for the fifth class.
" Also said meeting Resolved that the Representatives of this town be and they are hereby Instructed to use their Influence in the Honor- able General Assembly in remonstrating to Congress against a late resolve of Congress respecting the setting of half pay on the super- numerary Officers lately belonging to the Continental Army."
" At a Town Meeting held in Ridgefield March 23rd 1781.
" Col Philip B Bradley was chosen Moderator of said meeting.
"Said Meeting made choice of Capt David Olmsted, Col Bradley, Ebenezer Olmsted William Forrister and Stephen Norris a committee to procure Soldiers to complete the Towns Quota for filling up the Continental Army and this States service.
"Said Meeting Resolved and Ordered that the several classes that have procured Recruits for the Continental Army deliver their said Re- cruits to the Selectmen at the houses of Clements Smith and Daniel Coley Esq On Wednesday the 28th of this Instant at ten oclock in the morning in order to be taken to Danbury to be Mustered and delivered to an Officer and forwarded to the Continental Army."
" At a Town Meeting held in Ridgefield April 13th 1781.
" Capt Jonah Foster was chosen Moderator of said Meeting.
"Said Meeting made choice of John Benedict Samuel Olmsted Esq,
Col Bradley and William Forrister a committee (In Behalf of the Town) to make a settlement with the Men that were in service the last campaign either Continental or State that were Inhabitants of or counted for the Towns Quota ; Or with a committee by them appointed respecting two Grants they say was made them by ye Town at their Town Meetings held in Ridgefield on ye 29th day of June 1780 and on ye 23rd of August 1780 and make report to a future Town Meeting."
The campaign of 1777 opened with the invasion of Connecticut by the British, for the first time during the war.
The following account is taken from "Hollister's History of Connecticut," vol. 2, chap. 12 :
"Sir William Howe had been informed that the Americans had large depositories of military stores in Danbury and its neighborhood.
54
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD.
" He determined to destroy them without delay, and in casting about him for a faithful operator, in this most invidious of all employments-who would be re- morseless in the use of the torch-he hit readily upon His Excellency Governor Tryon of New York. He could hardly have made a more admirable selection.
" Howe was a shrewd judge of character, and knew well that nothing so effectually calls out the latent ener- gies of a man of genius as a sudden appeal to old and cherished recollections. Now there was no part of the world that could awaken in the mind of William Tryon so many lively and searching associations as Connecticut. The name of the little republic made His Excellency's hair bristle with certain sensations that a
soldier ought not to entertain. From the time when that irreverent company of Connecticut dragoons had scattered the type belonging to the administration organ through the streets of New York, and driven off his pet, Rivington, with hundreds of Tories-that were worthy of being elevated to the dignity of governor's horse-guards-he had felt the liveliest emotions at the very sound of the word Connecticut. In some way it was inseparably connected in his mind with that charm- ing society called the 'Sons of Liberty.'
" General Howe showed his shrewdness not only in selecting his agent for this work, but also in sending along with 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 Wil- liam Erskine. Those gentlemen furnished intellectual resources for the major-general, and he added the warmth of his nature to give soul to the enterprise. Accordingly, a detachment of two thousand men were
55
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
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 antici- pations 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 Excel- lency, 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 island that stands out from the Nor- walk shore.
" At about four o'clock, they cast anchor in Sauga- tuck harbor, and, with such haste as is consistent with a picnic 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,
56
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD.
moved forward toward Danbury. They 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 every thing save the grace of God and the supplications of his worshippers, and gave it a good round of canister 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 opposi- tion, until he began to ascend Hoyt's Hill, when the ยท 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 flourished his
57
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
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 supposed army that was advancing, and sent out detachments on the right and left to reconnoitre, and got his two field 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 vedettes 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 Danbury about two o'clock. 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 he 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
58
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD.
was also murdered, and the five bodies were thrown into the house, which was instantly set on fire.
" A man named Hamilton had on deposit at a clo- thier'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 pommel 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 re- doubled his speed. The troops gain upon their intend- ed 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 made good their escape.
" A large quantity of the public stores had been de- posited 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 proprietor 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, eight- een 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
59
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
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 reluc- tant 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 sig- nify 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 sur- passes 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, hold- ing 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.
" In this horrible condition the Revolutionary patriots of Danbury saw the shades of night gather around their dwellings, 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
60
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD.
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 defence- less 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 a while 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 bloodshot 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 de- fence ; he attended to all the arrangements, and pre- sided over every detail of the preparations that he was making to usher in, with ceremonies 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, and wandering zigzag 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 dwellings, stores, and barns of that peaceful com-
6 1
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
munity add their tributary lamps to that great centre beacon of the town, until every house, save those that have the mystic sign upon them, is in a broad blaze. Meanwhile, by the light of their own homes, mothers, screening their babies 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 comfortable 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 meet- ing -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, Ma- jor-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 forehead of the morning, withdrew his troops and resumed his march toward the sea-shore.
" When the invader was fairly out of sight, the poor fugitives 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.
4
62
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD.
"In the mean time the news of Tryon's arrival flew along the whole coast. Early on the morning of the 26th, General Sillman 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 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 de- tached General Sillman and Arnold, with about five hundred men, to advance and intercept the enemy in front, while he undertook with the remainder, amount- ing only to two hundred half-armed militia, to attack them in the rear. About nine o'clock he overtook Tryon's army, some three miles above Ridgefield, on the Norwalk road, and, taking advantage of the uneven ground, fell upon a whole regiment with such impetu- osity 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 Ridgefield, 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 former encounter, now faced about and met him with a dis- charge of artillery and small arms. -
63
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
" 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.
" Arnold and Sillman made a forced march to Ridge- field, 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 Americans were obliged to retreat. The American officers be- haved 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
64
HISTORY OF RIDGEFIELD.
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 Ridge- field. In the morning he set fire to the church, but he probably did not superintend this piece of work him- self, 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 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 centre and rear formed on a hill. While Arnold was discharging 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
65
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
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 Connecti- cut."
It would be a matter of interest to many to know just what kind of a report was made of this raid by General Tryon to his superior officers, and through them to the British Government.
In the June number of the Gentleman's Magazine, printed in London in the year 1777, we have the fol- lowing statement :
" General Howe has transmitted to Lord George Ger- maine the following particulars of a recent successful enterprise for the destruction of stores at the village of Danbury in Connecticut.
" The troops landed without opposition in the after- noon of the 25th of April, about four miles to the east- ward of Norwalk, and twenty miles from Danbury.
" In the afternoon of the 26th the detachment reached Danbury, meeting only small parties of the enemy on their march, but General Tryon having intelligence that the whole force of the country was collecting, to take every advantage of the strong ground he was to pass on his return to the shipping, and finding it impossible to procure carriages to bring off any part of the stores, they were effectually destroyed, in the execution of which the village was unavoidably burned.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.