USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > The history of the town of Litchfield, Connecticut, 1720-1920 > Part 11
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Mrs. Wolcott and family are well. Oliver is gone to Danbury. My haste must apologize for abruptness, &c.
I am, Sir, Your Humble Servant,
REUBEN SMITH.
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"Oliver" herein referred to is, of course, the younger Oliver Wolcott, then seventeen years old, and a student at Yale. He was in Litchfield at the time of the Alarm, and Kilbourne tells us, p. 110, how awakened at night, he armed himself and set out, at once, with his mother's charge, "to conduct like a good soldier".
Evidently Dr. Smith's pessimism concerning the spirit of the people was unfounded, or else the historian Gibbs was misinformed; for the latter tells us, that the fourteen men who left Litchfield on this occasion, were "the last in Litchfield capable of bearing arms".
Woodruff, pp. 39-40, quotes a second letter of Dr. Smith's, dated May 12th of this year, in which he writes more fully of the Alarm.
"Sunday morning, 27th April, about one o'clock, we were alarmed; our people turned out spiritedly; came up with rear of the enemy about eleven the next day, a little below Wilton Meeting House, and pursued them aboard their ships. Paul Peck was killed in the last attack on the enemy. Levi Peck, Thomas Peck's son, was wounded in the shoulder about the same time; in Wilton, Ozias Goodwin was wounded in the arm, and Salmon Buel had one of his thighs broken, and the other shot through with the same ball.
The infamous Daniel Griswold, came into the western part of the Town, the morning before the alarm, and was there concealed till Monday, and took off to join the ministerial army, David Kil- born, Benjamin Kilborn's son Cha's, Isaac Kilborn's son Abraham, and Samuel Kilborn son to Giles Kilborn, Jonathan Smith, Jr., and his brother Elisha, (who was enlisted in the light horse.) David Joy, Ephraim Bates, Benjamin Doolittle, Josiah Stone, and John Davies' youngest son David, and one John Beach of Wood- bury who lived at Josiah Stone's.
The Wednesday following they were taken, (except Benjamin Dootlittle, and Charles Kilborn, who it is said were killed in attempting to escape,) and were carried to Derby, where they were tried by a Court Martial, and Griswold was sentenced to be hanged; which sentence was executed the Monday following, at New Haven. The rest were pardoned, upon their enlisting into the Continental Army during the War. ... "
Of Paul Peck, alluded to in the Letter of Doct. Smith, it is said, "he was the most expert hunter of the time in which he lived. At the Danbury Alarm, he put his large Gun in order, and followed the enemy to Compo, on their retreat, and took a station behind a stone wall, and every shot told, until he was rushed upon by the enemy, who took his gun from him and dashed his brains out with it." He was killed April 28th, 1777, aged about seventy-five years.
Kilbourn tells us, p. 111, that "Father Mills the eccentric clergy- man of Torringford, wishing on one occasion to illustrate the cer- tain and irrevocable doom of the wicked, told of a timid Berkshire fox that started on a trip to the Sound", and "having safely passed the snares, and hunters, and hounds, that beset his way, he became
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careless, proud and self-conceited. 'He enters Fat Swamp at a jolly trot, head and tail up, looking defiance at the enemies he has left so far behind him. But O, the dreadful reverse: In the midst of his haughty reverie, he is brought to a sudden and everlasting stop IN ONE OF PAUL PECK'S TRAPS!'"
Of Griswold, Kilbourne says, p. 116, that he was reputed to be "a young man of good character and energy, and was not unpopu- lar with a large class of whigs. Perhaps, by the bloody code of war, he ought to have suffered death as a traitor for enlisting soldiers for the king's service; though it is a fact beyond dispute, that there were among the king's troops, in that very contest, whole regiments of 'Royal Americans', as they were styled. Many of the leading whigs of Litchfield were open in their condemnation of the action of the Court Martial in this instance, and the event probably did not advance the republican cause in this town".
In June of this year, the town witnessed the passage of four companies of Sheldon's Horse, under the leadership of Major Ben- jamin Tallmadge, bound to reinforce General Washington at his headquarters, at Morristown. Kilbourne suggests, p. 150, that it was probably on this occasion that the troops attended public wor- ship in the old Meeting House, and that Judah Champion offered the prayer, before referred to, which is given in Hollister's History of Connecticut, Vol. II, pp. 390:
"O 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 to 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 do 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. Pre- serve 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 has 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".
Sheldon's Regiment of Horse, says Kilbourne, p. 128, "was Washington's favorite corps, and continued to act under his imme- diate direction till the Treaty of Peace was signed-constituting at once his messengers, his body-guard, and his agents for the accom-
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plishment of any enterprise, however desperate". Colonel Sheldon, commander of the regiment, "had been for some twenty years a resident of Litchfield, and his troops were raised almost exclusively in this vicinity. Captains Moses Seymour, Stanton and Wads- worth, of this town, commanded companies in this corps-Captain Stanton being at the same time Paymaster of the Regiment. Major Tallmadge was one of Sheldon's most efficient Majors".
Tallmadge is one of the most attractive and dashing figures of our revolutionary history. He was later to establish himself in Litchfield, and enter into business enterprise and public affairs with the same adventurous enthusiasm with which he conducted himself in the war. He always held a high place in the esteem of the people. He joined the army early in 1776 and became a Captain of Dragoons later in that year. His company was mounted entirely on dapple-greys, and Kilbourne tells us, p. 150, that with their black straps and bear-skin holster covers they "looked superbly". Their commander was at this time a young man of twenty three. A sketch of him by Colonel Trumbull, shows, under the plumed helmet of the Dragoon, a high-bred sensitive face, clear-eyed, confident and gallant. His service throughout the war fulfilled this promise.
During the summer of 1777, the depot at Litchfield was actively employed in receiving and transmitting supplies. We can imagine the bustle and excitement of the little town with the passage of troops and supply trains. Kilbourne gives us, pp. 117-118, an
account of this activity. "On the 30th of June, Governor Trumbull wrote to General Wolcott, informing him that a team would be sent to Litchfield loaded with powder, lead and flints, and request- ing him to send a team to Salisbury for a load of cannon-shot, to be forwarded to Hartford by returning teams. By a subsequent record of the Council of Safety, it appears that on this occasion, there were sent to Litchfield seventeen hundred pounds of gun- powder, two thousand pounds of lead, one thousand flints, and three hundred pounds of cannon-powder.
"On the 23rd of July following, an order was drawn on David Trumbull, for twenty five pounds, five shillings and tenpence, in favor of John and Daniel Dewey, 'for carting powder and lead from Lebanon to Litchfield'".
In the following month, New York appealed to New England to come to their aid, and Dr. Goodwin tells us, p. 11, that "the com- mittee of the town of Litchfield transmitted by return post on August 4th, 1777, the following reply:
"Yours of the First Instant respecting the alarming Situation of our northern affairs never reached us before this moment. Surely, Gentlemen, we shall never be backward in affording every Possible aid in our power for the Relief of the County of Albany. We are not so narrow and Contracted as not to extend every assist- ance as well to the Inhabatents of a sister state as to those of our own; nor do we imagine that we our selfs can long be safe whilst
COL. BENJAMIN TALLMADGE From a Portrait by Ralph Earle
MRS. BENJAMIN TALLMADGE From a Portrait by Ralph Earle
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Desolation and Conquest over spread your State. In short our Feelings are such that we would run every Hazzard, and risque every danger, for you that we should for ourselves".
In August, also, according to Kilbourne, p. 118, "General Wol- cott wrote to the Governor and Council, stating that he had ordered all the effective inen of Sheldon's Horse and Humphrey's regiment, (who had not been called to duty under the recent act, and were liable to be called out of the State), to march immediately to Peeks- kill, well provided with arms, and with forty days' provisions. The General's course was approved, and an order was directed to be drawn on the State Treasurer, in his favor, for the sum of £1,000. About the same time, Sheriff Lord was directed to procure from the merchants of Litchfield county, for the use of the army, four hogsheads of rum, six hogsheads of sugar, and two thousand pounds of coffee, at a stipulated price. If the merchants refused to furnish the goods at the price named, the Sheriff was ordered to take the articles wherever he could find them, at the appraisal of two or three judicious freeholders and to make return of his doings to the Council.
"In September, Litchfield was established by the Council, as the place of rendezvous for the Sixth Brigade, and Major Beebe was stationed here as the recruiting officer for the Brigade.
"Late in the autumn of this year, a large proportion of the military stores, taken at the capture of Bourgoyne, were deposited here".
The capture of Bourgoyne brought new hope to the Americans. One of the British officers, wounded at Saratoga, said, when he heard the fate of the day: "Then the contest is no longer doubtful, America will be independent. I have fought earnestly for my King and Country, but the contest is ended". This officer was a prisoner in the custody of Captain Moses Seymour, whose troop of horse was in that memorable engagement.
Captain Seymour's account of the dinner given by the American officers to Bourgoyne and his associates after the surrender is recorded by Kilbourne, p. 158: "The utmost courtesy and good feel- ing prevailed on the part of the principal officers, and the responses to the sentiments given were hearty and enthusiastic. At length, General Bourgoyne was called upon for a toast. Every voice was for the moment hushed into the deepest attention, as he arose and gave: 'America and Great Britain against the world!' The response which followed may be imagined".
In spite of the success at the North, however, the army in Penn- sylvania had suffered double defeat on the Brandywine and at Germantown, and these losses were followed by the bitter winter at Valley Forge. It was a dark day for the young nation. Neverthe- less, the people were grimly determined to adhere to their cause. In January, 1778, the town of Litchfield confirmed by vote the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States.
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In this winter we hear again of Tallmadge, who was stationed with a detachmen of dragoons, as an advanced corps of observation between our army and that of the enemy. He wrote to Washington constantly at this time of the need of money and the difficulty of procuring the supplies necessary for his troops.
Later in 1778, he was transferred to service along the Sound, and began his private correspondence with Washington and his organization of an Intelligence Service, which he was to continue throughout the war. His letters of this period which are pre- served in the Litchfield Historical Society are very interesting, showing the care and attention which he gave to detail, combined with the imagination to conceive extended plans. He also shows a consideration for his subordinates remarkable in so young an officer.
Throughout the year 1779, he wrote nearly every month, arrang- ing to receive and pass on intelligence through men posted behind the British lines. A code was established and some sort of special ink, requiring a stain, was used. Early in this year, he spoke of the possible end of the war: there were certain significant move- ments of the enemy; Tories were selling their land. In September, he conducted a successful raid on Lloyd's Neck, to break up a band of free-booters, who from this shelter near a strong British post had been plundering the Connecticut shore. In spite of the success of this particular raid and the capture of nearly the entire band of marauders, the plundering of the coast was to be an annoyance till the end of the war, and Tallmadge was continually combatting it.
The hope of peace held in the early part of 1779 was not to be realized; and in 1780 we find Tallmadge still conducting operations on the Sound.
Meanwhile, the army at Morristown was in great distress after a severe winter, and Washington appealed to Governor Trumbull for aid. His messenger was detained but a short time, when Gov- ernor Trumbull placed a sealed letter in his hand, directed to Gen- eral Washington, announcing that on a certain day he would receive at Newburgh, by a wagon train from Hartford, two hundred barrels of flour, one hundred barrels of beef, and one hundred bar- rels of pork. Washington's comment on opening the letter was: "If the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be". And when the provisions arrived on the day appointed, he said: "No other man than Governor Trumbull could have procured them, and no other state than Connecticut would have furnished them". This train passed through Litchfield, where additional sup- plies were obtained. Colonel Henry Champion, the father of the Rev. Judah Champion and of Mrs. Julius Deming, accompanied the train, in charge of a drove of cattle, which were tolled across the Hudson by the side of small boats.
In Litchfield, in this year, the town did everything possible to encourage recruiting and to help the army. It is interesting to see the effort made to neutralize for the soldier the high cost of
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living, by a town vote to "make good to him his Forty Shillings per Month, by such addition to the Pay he shall receive from the State or the United States as shall make said Pay sufficient to purchase as much Provisions as Forty Shillings would have done in 1774".
Besides the visits at various times of Lafayette, Rochambeau and other generals, those of General Washington stand out in the traditions of Litchfield. In September, 1780, he arrived here on his way from Hartford to West Point, and according to Gibbs was entertained at General Wolcott's house. The following morning he proceeded westward. It was on his arrival at West Point from this journey that the historical breakfast occurred, at which the treason of Benedict Arnold was revealed. On the evening before, September 23, 1780, near Northcastle, Major Tallmadge was busily engaged in unraveling the mystery of Arnold's associate, John Andre, who in the guise of John Anderson had been captured by three militiamen. Tallmadge discovered the identity of Andre and suspected the treachery of Arnold. If his recommendations to Colonel Jameson, his superior officer, had been acted upon, Arnold would never have escaped.
Andre remained a prisoner in Tallmadge's custody until the time of his execution. During this brief period a warm attach- ment sprang up between the two young men. Years later Tall- madge wrote: "I became so deeply attached to Major Andre, that I can remember no instance where my affections were so fully absorbed in any man. When I saw him swinging under the gibbet, it seemed for a time as if I could not support it".
Shortly after this tragedy, Tallmadge was on duty again along the Sound; and in November he made a successful attack on Fort George on the south side of Long Island. In 1781 he actively con- tinued his Intelligence Service, and secured plans of the enemy's works at various points. He also arranged for Count Rochambeau, then at Newport, to communicate with the secret agents and to use their services, for which the Count was to provide the necessary money. On May 2, 1781, Tallmadge wrote to Washington from Wethersfield concerning this latter arrangement. On May 18th Wash- ington made the following entry in his diary: "Set out this day for an interview at Wethersfield with the Count de Rochambeau and Admiral Barras. Reached Morgan's Tavern, 43 miles from Fish- skill Landing, after dining at Col. Vanderberg's .. .. May 19th. Breakfasted at Litchfield, dined at Farmington, and lodged at Weth- ersfield at the house of Mr. Joseph Webb".
Whether Washington visited Litchfield a third time is uncer- tain; but on one of his visits he lodged at the Gould house on North Street, then occupied as a tavern by Samuel Sheldon. Captain Salmon Buel remembered going early in the morning, with about fifty of his school fellows, to see the renowned commander on this occasion. "A company of horse-guards was drawn up before the house waiting for him; but, as he was not ready to start, the guards rode down North Street and for a considerable distance out
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West Street, returning in a short time to the Gould House. The General now came out, mounted his horse, and the cavalcade pro- ceeded down South Street, perhaps to enable him to pay his respects to General Wolcott". (Kilbourne, p. 130).
During the last three years the center of military operations had shifted to the south, and it was there in this year 1781 that the decisive battle of the war was fought. "When Cornwallis was forced to retreat toward the north, after his engagement at Guilford Court House, North Carolina, he took a position at Yorktown. LaFayette had been sent by Washington against him and he held the British in check while the grand coup of the war was accom- plished. The commander-in-chief, with his army from the High- lands of the Hudson, including several Connecticut regiments, was making a feint as if to attack New York; his enemy's weak position on the York peninsula developed-the French fleet was investing it on one side-and Washington, by a swift movement, marched south- ward, and on the fourth anniversary of Bourgoyne's surrender, our Litchfield county men heard the British bands play 'The World Turned Upside Down', as the army of Cornwallis laid down its arms". (W. W. Ellsworth: Semicentennial Address before the Litchfield Historical Society).
It is part of the tragic necessity of war, and the suspicions engendered by it, that the machinery once set in motion cannot easily be brought to a stop; so, though the surrender of Cornwallis meant that American independence was assured, a state of war con- tinued, through the succeeding year and well into 1783. In the spring of 1782, the town of Litchfield voted to raise recruits by a sort of selective draft, decided on in 1781, by which the town was divided into classes, each class being responsible for procuring a certain number of recruits. In March of this year three citizens of the town were assessed "on examination by the civil authorities and selectmen, agreeable to law, for each a son gone to the enemy".
In the mean time, there was still a certain amount of unrest along the Sound; and Tallmadge was engaged in communicating intelligence, and through the first months of 1783 reported frequent skirmishes between British and American small craft on those waters. On March 29th he received rumors of peace, which were confirmed two days later. He immediately requested permission to be among the first to enter New York, in order to protect the Secret Service men, whose position, by reason of its necessary concealments, would be misunderstood by patriots more openly engaged.
It is a tribute to the good sense and good feeling of the people, that a number of British soldiers became residents of Litchfield after the war, and some of them died here leaving families. There was also the deserter Richard Morris, who with his brother Robert. left the British ranks to serve with the Americans under Captain Beebe. John Gatta, a Hessian, unwillingly impressed in the King's forces, who had deserted in New York and served in a New York regiment, also came subsequently to Litchfield, where he lived for
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fifty years and married the grand-daughter of Timothy Collins.
Litchfield was quick to begin the readjustments permitted by peace and to return to normal life.
In October, 1783, the town voted to adjust the claims of the non- commissioned officers and soldiers who had served in the eight bat- talions of Connecticut, and to whom a bonus had been previously granted by vote. This task, with the depreciation of currency, must have been a formidable one. An example of the light in which Continental money was considered is given in Kilbourne's account, pp. 160-161, of the experience of Elisha Mason, the last of Litch- field's Revolutionary soldiers. "On one occasion, at the expiration of a term of service, he was discharged on the Hudson, and paid off in Continental currency. Starting homeward on foot, he reached Danbury, where he spent the night. In the morning, on attempt- ing to settle his bill, his Continental money was refused. He offered larger and still larger sums, and finally tendered bills to the amount of forty dollars, for lodging and meals; but the landlord refused to take the money on any terms. Mr. Mason was finally compelled to pawn his rifle to cancel his indebtedness. As his wages were but eight dollars per month, he thus offered the avails of five months' services for his keeping for twelve hours.
A sufferer from the depreciation of the currency, on a larger scale, was Julius Deming, who had served throughout the war as Commissary officer. At one time, when money was urgently needed, for the purchase of cattle, he advanced to Colonel Champion, his superior officer, four Loan Office Certificates for $400 in cash, amounting in all to $1,600. Besides this his commissions from the Government, on purchases made by him aggregating $1,493,209, amounted to $28,247.96, which represented his income during three years of service. When the day of payment came, and he received Continental currency worth 1 to 70 or 72, the amount of his loss can easily be figured, as his commissions, large though they appear, amounted to less than half of his actual loan to Colonel Champion.
In the latter part of 1780, Mr. Deming came to Litchfield, and in 1790 built the house on North Street known as "the Lindens". In 1784, Major Tallmadge had established himself in his house on the other side of the street, bought two years before. Here the two distinguished men, long to be associated in business enterprises, enjoyed the years of prosperity in the "Golden Age" of Litchfield's history, to which each contributed so much.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GOLDEN AGE.
The Rev. Dan Huntington, who was pastor in Litchfield from 1798 to 1809, wrote of the town as it was when he first came here: "A delightful village, on a fruitful hill, richly endowed with schools both professional and scientific, with its venerable governors and judges, with its learned lawyers, and senators, and representatives both in the national and state departments, and with a population enlightened and respectable, Litchfield was now in its glory".
We have indeed reached the golden age of our town, the years following the Revolutionary War and the first three or four decades of the Nineteenth Century, an amazing period for a small village, not so much because of the inhabitants of prominence at the time, as because of their achievements, because of the pioneer work they did in so many different directions. Here, as we so proudly remem- ber, was the first Law School, the only one at that day conducted in the English language in any country; here too was the first school for the higher education of girls in America; here were the first mani- festations of the temperance movement; here were taken the first steps in the work of foreign missions; here were printed the first Reports of law cases; here were the beginnings of the spirit which led to the increased independence of married women under the Law; here were conducted some of the pioneer industrial experiments in the state. From the intellectual leadership of the Law School to the pioneer manufacture of elastic suspenders is a long interval, which Litchfield filled with energy and competence, until about 1840 the valleys throughout Connecticut conquered the hilltops and left us only the memories of our achievements.
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