USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Fairfield > This is Fairfield, 1639-1940 > Part 12
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The British came last; & while some of their offi- cers seemed to pity the misfortunes of the people, made the excuse that they had no other way to sub- due the country. Some of the troops were exceeding- ly abusive to the women; but by a vigorous resist- ance the women protected themselves, although obliged to submit to the most indelicate & rough treatment, & some continued to bear the scars & bruises of their assailants.
About an hour before sunset the burning of the houses & buildings began. The house of Josiah Jen- nings was the first set on fire. In the evening the house of Elijah Abel, Esqr., Sheriff of the county, with a few other; & during the night several houses on the main street were set on fire. Entreaties from men & women to Tryon, begging him to spare their houses, were joined by the Rev. Mr. Sayer, a clergy- man zealous in the cause of the British from the S. P. G. The house of Mr. Thaddeus Burr, writer of the above description, was spared by Tryon's consent, who treated the inhabitants with as much humanity as his errand would admit. At sunrise sev- eral houses were standing; but in about two hours the conflagration became general. The burning pi- rates carried on their business with horrible alacrity, headed by two or three persons, who were born and bred in the neighboring towns. All the town from the bridge towards Stratford to the Mill River (a few houses excepted) was consumed.
About eight o'clock the enemy sounded a retreat. The Congregational meeting-house and the Church of England, which had been spared by the entreaties of Mr. Sayer, afforded some pleasure amidst our woe; but the rear guard, consisting of a band of the vilest that was ever let loose among men, set fire to everything which General Tryon had left. The large and elegant meeting-house, the minister's houses, Mr. Burr's house, and other houses which had re- ceived protection were burned. They tore Tryon's
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papers of protection in pieces, abused the women shamefully and ran off in very disgraceful manner. Happily our men came in and extinguished the flames in several houses, so that we were not entire- ly destroyed. This rear were chiefly Germans, called Yagers, who carried small rifle guns and fought in a skulking manner, much like our Indians.
The enemy sent a row-galley to silence the fort on Grover's Hill, between which & the fort a constant firing was kept up all night. Attempts were made to take it by parties of troops, but Lieutenant Jarvis, who had but twenty-three men besides himself, bravely and obstinately defended it. The militia fol- lowed the incendiaries to the place of embarkation, where they galled them considerably. About twelve o'clock the cruel foe embarked, and about 2 P.M. set sail for Long Island. Many killed on both sides. Several prisoners were carried away, but no one of distinction. Old Mr. Solomon Sturgis, an Irish serv- ant of Mr. Penfield, and an old negro man belong- ing to Mr. Jonathan Lewis, were put to the bayonet. Mr. Job Bartram was shot through the breast, the ball came out just under his shoulder-blade; he fought bravely, as did also others.
Instead of sailing to New London, as it had been thought they would, on the morning of the 8th the British landed at Mill River (Southport), where a small battery had been raised, where they plundered and burned eight houses and out-buildings, destroy- ing furniture and whatever they could lay their hands upon.
They then cast anchor off Compo and landed at Green's Farms, where they burned thirteen houses, with their church.
From William Wheeler's Journal :-
July 7th, at 7 in the morning, the fog clearing off, the enemy's fleet, just returned from plundering New Haven, appeared. Three guns announced an alarm-everyone busy in moving or throwing their things out of doors-about 11 o'clock 1,600 regular troops landed at the foot of the bar on town beach. Isaac Jarvis commanded the battery at the point of Grover's Hill, Black Rock, who, as soon as the Brit- ish turned to go up the beach lane fired a 12-pound- er with ball & grape-shot, & kept it going till it was so hot you could hardly bear your hand thereon. As they approached the parade, a field piece let go a ball & grapes through them. I was at that time on Toilsome Hill, having been just about with my father to drive cattle to our woodland, to keep them from the enemy. As we arrived at Black Rock it was with no pleasant sensation we heard the firing back towards Barlow's-plain, and seemed to be in danger of being hemmed in -- this, however, we prevented by taking up the upper bridge. Black Rock people soon assembled on Grover's hill, among whom were several females, where we could see the enemy marching up. A continual cracking from near Round-hill was kept up the remainder of the after- noon, & sometimes from a field piece. The first building that appeared on fire was the guard-house at Kenzy's Point; next one at Barlow's-plain. You might from Black Rock see the fire shine through the windows & presently the fire on the outside. The town burnt all night-a cloud seemed to remain
fixed in the west, from which issued frequent flash- es of lightning; this joined to many a column from the flaming buildings, & frequent discharges of can- non & musketry on the British guard placed around the town; the poor inhabitants, with no shelter many of them but the canopy of heaven, with no clothing but what they had on; wives separated from their husbands, & exposed to the indecencies of an infuriated soldiery, rendered truly diabolical by the spirits they found in plenty in the town, formed a scene altogether so shocking that Fairfield will never see again, nor her present silken sons & daughters can form any conception of. There were some instances of great bravery among the inhabi- tants of Fairfield. A Mr. Tucker fired from his shop on the parade at the whole army only a few rods distant, & was wounded by them in the shoulder & taken prisoner. Mr. Parsons fired from a chamber into the road & killed a British officer; then running out the back door made his escape. The enemy com- ing into the house found an old negro bedridden; they said it was him, he declared it was not; they put the bayonet into him & burnt the house, next day my brother saw him about half burnt up & a beam lying on him. Parsons after this taking a pris- oner was conducting him away, when he was taken prisoner himself . .. Joseph Gold, a very old man & feeble, going off, stopped at a spring to drink; they commanded him to stop; he would not; they shot him. Several women stayed in town to save their houses; but were so frightened, they said they would never stay again. Jonathan Bulkley, living on the Green, stayed, got a protection from General Tryon & saved his house & three adjoining houses . . . July 8th. A Row-Galley, mounting an 18-pound- er of brass lay 3/4 of a mile from the Battery, & fired upon it, sending some shot over the hill; & the Bat- tery firing on them, & hallooing with a speaking trumpet to turn their broadside towards them & they would give it to them. Isaac Jarvis commanded at the Battery. Had he been a coward 10 more houses would have been burnt; Squire's, Burr's, Silliman's, Halberton's, Fowler's, Chauncey's, Widow Wheeler's Ichabod Wheeler's, E. Wheeler's, Bartram's.
About noon the enemy returned on board at Kenzy's Point, & were pursued through the burning houses by the enraged inhabitants, and at Sandy Lane the roar of the small arms was continued like the roll of a drum. Our people would have paid them as they were embarking had they not levelled all the stone walls near the shore where our men might get behind, & drew up their armed vessels to keep off the Americans. It is said the Fairfield people fought much better than they did at New Haven or Norwalk, which was burnt soon after .. . About 40 of the enemy were found dead & 8 or 10 of ours. No doubt many were wounded & carried off with them, for about a fortnight after, when on guard at the point, I observed the remains of one washed out of the sand where they had buried him. Eighty dwelling-houses, besides barns, stores, etc., were consumed. A Presbyterian meeting-house, Epis- copalian Church & a Court-house, Green's Farms with their meeting-house & Mill river were burnt at the same time. Eleven houses were left standing,
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some of them extinguished by our people, who fol- lowed close at the heels of the English, & afforded a refuge to the poor inhabitants from a hard suc- ceeding winter, the most terrible but one (1740) seen since the settlement of New England. The severe cold quieted in some measure our fears from an attack, & made the enemy in New York tremble in their turn for fear our men should march on the ice & attack them-& affording us a long season of excellent sleighing. Thus graciously did a kind Providence favour & defend us from an unrelenting foe, till they were tired out by the contest . . . The Sabbath after Mr. Eliot preached (from 'Our holy & our beautiful house, &c.') at Holland Hill, where Fairfield people assembled, not daring to meet near the shore for fear of being taken prisoners, so fear- ful were they then & long after, they could hardly sleep in their beds. My father had a place for his silver tankard & some silver therein in a stone wall. Many a time he has gone in a dark night with his gun to see if no enemy's boat came over the beach. Sometimes very few guards at the Battery or any- where else. Strange that the enemy did not burn us in the four long years that the war lasted after this time. I listed as a soldier in the Guard (Upper Wharf) from May 16th till July 7th, when Fairfield was burnt, being 16 years of age. We had a double fortified 3 pounder, which sent a shot over a boat of the enemy's, sounding at the broken place of the beach.
It is related that when Fairfield was attacked by the British, Colonel Whiting, the Commandant, hav- ing withdrawn the Americans to the Round Hill, north of the village, called for a captain & 30 men to volunteer for the purpose of reconnoitering the enemy; that Capt. Thomas Nash immediately stepped forth, followed by more than 100 men. The Colonel would allow only 30 to go. However, more fell in after they left the hill. Capt. Nash advanced to the fence north of the street, near where the meeting-house now stands, & ordered his men to lie behind the fence in the tall vegetation, until the enemy were near the centre of the street, when, as he gave the word, they were to rise & fire, load and fire, & then run. This they did with such effect, & so unexpectedly, that none of his party were injured until they began to ascend the rising ground towards the north, where one was killed. Afterwards, when a squad of the enemy approached to burn his house at Green's Farms, he alone, or with but little help, dragged the company field piece to a rising ground near the house, loaded it with grape, & fired upon them. They, suspecting he had a company to sustain him in so daring an act, retreated, & thus his home was saved. It is yet standing.
At another time, being on a scout in the night, with only three men, he discovered a whale-boat secreted on the shore, which he thought indicated an enemy near. He therefore stove in the boat, & searched for the foe. Perceiving a faint light from the window of a cabin in a cornfield, he ordered his army of three to pass rapidly round the cabin, mak- ing all the noise they could with their muskets, against the building, by which the inmates deemed themselves surrounded by a real force. Capt. Nash
then approached the window & told them to hand out their arms, & he would spare their lives. They complied & handed out 16 muskets, which he secured & told them to lie down until morning, when it ap- peared that he & his three men had surrounded & taken 15 Tories & one British soldier.
Captain Jarvis's Guard at Black Rock Fort
Captain Isaac Jarvis, Colonel Elijah Hill, Cap- tain David Jarvis, Chauncey Downs, Ezra Wheeler, David Sherwood, John Lyon, Daniel Wilson, Silas Hawley, Joseph Gold, Samuel Patchen, Nehemiah Burr, John Meeker, Nathan Jennings, John Wilson, Huldah Mason, James McNay, Nehemiah Rose, William Sturges, William Hawley, Abraham Parritt, Daniel Burr, Benjamin Meeker, Robert Walch, Na- thaniel Wilson, Jesse Burr, Fairweather Brothewell.
This guard not only guarded the fort but Penfield Mills, the fort overlooking the mills which were near the mouth of the Unquowa River. These all import- ant mills were well looked after, as James Penfield baked several barrels of flour daily for the army. Besides the guards at the fort a home guard was stationed around them night & day.
From Dr. Dwight :-
On the evening of the 7th, while the town was in flames, a thunderstorm overspread the heavens just as night came on. The conflagration of near two hundred houses illuminated the earth, the skirts of the clouds, & the waves of the Sound with a union of gloom & grandeur, at once inexpressibly awful & magnificent. The sky speedily was hung with the deepest darkness wherever the clouds were not tinged by the melancholy lustre of the flames. At intervals the lightning blazed with a livid & terrible splendor. The thunder rolled above. Beneath, the roaring of the fires filled up the intervals with a deep & hollow sound, which seemed to be the pro- tracted murmur of the thunder, reverberated from one end of heaven to the other. Add to this convul- sion of the elements, the dreadful effect of vindic- tive & wanton devastation, the trembling of the earth, the sharp sound of muskets occasionally dis- charged, the groans here & there of the wounded & dying, & the shouts of triumph, then place before your eyes crowds of miserable sufferers, mingled with bodies of the militia, and from the neighboring hills, taking a farewell prospect of their property & their dwellings, their happiness & their hopes, & you will form a just but imperfect picture of the burning of Fairfield. It needed no great effort of imagination to believe that the final day had arrived, & that amid the funeral darkness the morning would speedily dawn, to which no night would ever succeed; the graves yield up their inhabitants; & the trial com- mence, at which is to be settled the destiny of man.
The following elegy on the burning of Fair- field, was written by Col. Humphreys, in 1779, on the spot where the town stood:
Ye smoking ruins, marks of hostile ire,
Ye ashes warm, which drink the tears that flow,
Ye desolated Plains my voice inspire,
And give soft music to the song of woe.
How pleasant, Fairfield, on th' enraptured sight,
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Rose thy tall spires, and op'd thy social halls, How oft my bosom beat with pure delight At yonder spot where stand they darken'd walls! But there the voice of mirth resounds no more. A silent sadness thro' the streets prevails; The distant main alone is heard to roar, And hollow chimneys hum with sudden gales- Save where scorch'd elms th' untimely foliage shed, Which rustling, hovers round the faded green- Save where, at twilight, mourners frequent tread, Mid recent graves, o'er desolation's scene. How chang'd the blissful prospect when compar'd These glooms funereal, with thy former bloom, Thy hospitable rights when Tryon Shar'd Long ere he seal'd thy melancholy doom. That impious wretch with coward voice decreed Defenseless domes and hallow'd fanes, to dust; Beheld, with sneering smile, the wounded bleed, And spurr'd his bands to rapine, blood, and lust. Vain was the widow's, vain the orphan's cry, To touch his feelings, or to soothe his rage- Vain the fair drop that roll'd from beauty's eye, Vain the dumb grief of supplicating age. Could Tryon hope to quench the patriot flame, Or make his deeds survive in glory's page? Could Britons seek of savages the same; Or deem it conquest, thus the war to wage? Yes, Britons scorn the councils of the skies, Extend wide havoc, spurn th' insulted foes; Th' insulted foes to tenfold vengeance rise, Resistance growing as the danger grows. Red in their wounds, and pointing to the plain, The visionary shapes before me stand- The thunder bursts, the battle burns again, And kindling fires encrimson all the strand. Long dusky wreaths of smoke, reluctant driv'n, In black'ning volumes o'er the landscape bend: Here the broad splendor blazes high to heav'n, There umber'd streams in purple pomp ascend. In fiery eddies, round the tott'ring walls, Emitting sparks, the lighter fragments fly; With frightful crash the burning mansion falls, The works of years in glowing embers lie. Tryon, behold thy sanguine flames aspire, Clouds ting'd with dies intolerably bright. Behold, well pleas'd the village wrapt in fire, Let one wide ruin glut thy ravish'd sight! Ere fades the grateful scene, indulge thine eye, See age and sickness, tremulously slow Creep from the flames-See babes in torture die, And mothers swoon in agonies of woe. Go, gaze enraptur'd with the mother's tear, The infant's terror, and the captive's pain. Where no bold bands can check thy curst career; Mix fire with blood on each unguarded plain! These be thy triumphs! this thy boasted fame! Daughters of mem'ry raise the deathless song! Repeat thro' endless years his hated name, Embalm his crimes, and teach the world of our wrongs.
In Governor Tryon's official report to Lord Germain, Tryon regretted the conflagration of the two places of public worship at Fairfield. These he said "took fire unintentionally from
the flakes from the buildings". He then gave strict orders for the preservation of the church edifice in Norwalk where he took himself next.
The first entry in the First Church of Christ records following the burning is included here:
At a meeting of the Inhabitants of the First So- ciety in Fairfield legally warned and held at the house of Mr. Jonathan Bulkley's in said Fairfield on Friday the 30th day of inst. July A.D. 1779.
Jonathan Sturges Esqr. was chosen Moderator for sd Meeting.
Voted that the Society Committee be Impowered to desire Mr. Eliot to appoint a place or places for public worship and in the mean time the Society Committee are to procure a place for the same.
Voted that the Society Committee be appointed to abate the Rates of those of the Society that are not able to pay the same.
Voted that this meeting be adjourned to the 2nd Friday of August next at the house of Mr. Jonathan Bulkley at 4 of the clock in the afternoon.
and from the statistical records of the same Church:
The above Baptisms, private ones excepted, were administered in the meeting house which was con- sumed by fire July 8, 1779.
After which melancholy event-Baptisms contin- ued to be administered in the homes and congrega- tion met at private houses.
It is believed that much of the incendiarism in Connecticut in 1779 was the work of the American Loyalists or Tories. There were prob- ably nearly as many colonists enlisted under the triple crossed flag of Great Britain as under the striped standard of the Continental Congress.
The next day, July 9, ironically as it may seem, was one of rejoicing for the Fairfield folk for Major Talmadge had made his way from White Plains and reached Fairfield early that morning to camp upon the Village Green.
In the State Library there is a letter written by Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress and it is included here.
Philadelphia, July 17, 1779 to Major Gen- eral Lincoln of South Carolina
The American Duke d'Alba, Tryon has been brandishing the torch in Connecticut, has burnt Fairfield and part or the whole of New Haven, made some plunder, distressed Women and Children and retired again to his Ships, many particulars ought to have been published in Dunlap's paper today, but he has neglected them . . . had Georgia been de- fended we should at this moment have been en- gaged in a General Treaty, the Capture of that State has cost us a Campaign of blood and Conflagration. From: Benjamin De Forest Curtiss Collection Loaned By: Sarah Whitman Trumbull Chapter DAR-Watertown-No. 13.
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The people of Fairfield began again to pro- vide a means of living and made their way to new homes-they used buildings which may have been warehouses which had not been des- troyed or perhaps an old outbuilding of some sort. Their spirits were not crushed and before long they started building simple homes on the old foundations. The energy of the town was re- newed and the principles of these people con- tinued to show in the Town Meeting minutes.
A Town Meeting Legally warned and held in Fair- field August 31st: 1779:
Voted yt this Meeting disapprove of importing goods into this Town that are plundered from the Inhabitants on Long Island.
Voted yt Thaddeus Burr, Esqr. write to his Ex- cellency ye Governor of this State & Council of safety & inform them of this practice & Especially of one Bishop lately belonging to Hartford import- ing goods here from Long Island & selling them at Vendue without labelling the same.
Voted that this Meeting be adjourned to the third Tuesday of September next at one o'clock in ye afternoon.
The shadows of War continued.
During the same month as the above meeting, Governor Trumbull issued a call for contribu- tions for the relief of the sufferers at New Ha- ven, Norwalk and Fairfield, and a County Con- vention was held in Redding. Representatives from Fairfield included Thaddeus Burr Esq., Messrs. Peter Perry, Ebenezer Silliman, Samuel Odell, Nathan Seeley, Thomas Nash, Joseph Wakeman, James Bennett, David Wakeman, He- zekiah Bradley, Albert Sherwood, Daniel Dun- can, Benjamin Dean, Ephraim Lyon, Nathan Wheeler, Jr., David Silliman, L. Nathan Wil- liams.
In the following October when the General Assembly met in Hartford and Thaddeus Burr presented a Memorial from the inhabitants re- questing some compensation for the great loss received by the burning.
A Town Meeting Legally warned and held in Fair- field, October 18th, 1779
Voted yt Sam'll Squire and Sam'll Wakeman Esqrs. be a Committee to prepare a Memorial to the General Assembly in their present Sessions at Hart- ford praying said assembly to appoint a Committee to ascertain the Losses the Inhabitants of this Town sustained by the enemy in July last past by burning and plundering said Town.
And that the assembly will be pleased to abate the Taxes of those that were sufferers by the enemy.
Voted yt Doct'r David Rogers, Messrs. Seth Sherwood, Benjamin Banks, Jr., Hez. Bradley, Dan'll Bennett, Josiah Brinsmaide and Sam'll Thorp, Jr., be a Committee to provide Clothing for the
soldiers belonging to this Town who are in the Continental Service.
As the townspeople requested, a Committee was appointed to estimate the losses of every individual in the town-and to abate the taxes either in part or in the whole.
The War went on and the battles continued to rage in other parts of the land. With each event a spirit of retaliation for the burning of the town crept into the breasts of the inhabitants. The hard winter of 1780 fortunately helped to allay the fears of the Fairfielders for a return visit of the enemy.
A Town Meeting held in Fairfield Monday the 27th day of December 1779.
The former Moderator, Thaddeus Burr, Esqr. being Present.
Voted & Agreed yt Ephm. Jennings, Ebenezer Silliman, Nathan Seeley, Amos Hubbell, Joseph Wakeman, Joseph Bennett, Benjamin Banks, Jr., Seth Sherwood, Dan'll Duncan, Dan'll Andrews and Dan'll Bennett be a Committee to provide Clothing for the soldiers belonging to this Town in the Con- tinental Army.
Four companies of 50 men each for General Silliman's brigade were ordered to Greenwich for the defense of that place.
In February 1780, General Silliman was ex- changed with other prisoners for British Pris- oners. This story is told by Mrs. Silliman in her diary.
The British stood out a long time, but at last consented if in addition to Judge Jones they might have one Washburn, a noted bad character, a Tory, that we had taken during the war, if he might be put with Jones, it might make weight. This was finally agreed on, & Judge Jones was sent for from Middletown, & a vessel hired by us to take him in, & the same to bring your father if they would let him come. We agreed if they obtained him, two flags should be hoisted when they returned, that we might certainly know whether he was coming. The vessel sailed with Judge Jones about eight o'clock in the morning from our harbour. They had a fine wind, & I saw them go with great rapidity; & we hoped that in two or three days we should receive him, who had been so long separated from us. But about one o'clock we saw the same vessel returning; & to our surprise saw two flags; this we could not understand, as we knew they had not had time to go to New York. The fact was, the same day we were sending the Judge off, they at New York were sending off your father, & the vessels met. Their flag of truce hailed ours, & asked if they had Judge Jones on board? 'Yes. Well, we have Gen. Silliman too,' was the answer; & they soon boarded each other . .. When ours came in call of our fort & battery at Black Rock, one called to know if they had Gen. Silliman on board, he then leaped on deck, & waved his hat, at which there was so loud
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