USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania : from its first beginnings to the present time, including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 82
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When making the memorable journey from Wethersfield to Hartford Mr. Ingersoll was mounted on a white horse. As he rode silently along in the midst of the "Sons" some one asked him what he was think- ing of. "Death on a pale horse and Hell following," was his quick retort.
In 1766 Major Durkee was one of the two Deputies chosen to represent Norwich in the General Assembly of Connecticut.
After his release from his imprisonment of almost two years at Philadelphia (an account of which is given hereinafter), Major Durkee repaired to Norwich, where his wife and children were still residing -they having never removed to Wyoming. Charles Miner says ("History of Wyoming"): "Several months' imprisonment extinguished his [Durkee's] ardor for the settlement at Wyoming, and he returned to Norwich." In 1773 and 1774 he made brief visits to Wyoming-his last one being made during the months of March-May, 1774, when, as a member of the "Committee to order and direct the laying out of towns," he signed certain documents, and, as "President of the Settlers," gave receipts, or certificates, for payments made by several buyers of rights in the Susquehanna Purchase.
In England, in March, 1774, the leaders of the Government, under Lord North, proposed and carried very drastic measures in relation to the American Colonies. Says Woodrow Wilson (in "A History of the American People," II : 187, 209): "By one bill they closed the port of Boston, transferring its trade after the first of June to the older port of Salem. * * By another Bill they suspended the Charter of the Colony. By a third they made provision for the quartering of troops within the Province ; and by a fourth they legalized the transfer to England of trials growing out of attempts to quell riots in the Colony. * * It was the 2d of June [1774] before the text of the new statutes was known in Boston. That same month -almost upon that very day-Thomas Hutchinson, the constant-minded Governor whom Samuel Adams had tricked, hated, and beaten in the game of politics, left his perplexing post and took ship for England, never to return. * * * Mr. Hutchinson left General [Thomas] Gage Governor in his stead-at once Governor and military commander. Gage was to face a season of infinite trouble, and, as men soon learned, did not know how to face it either with patience or with tact and judgment. * * Samuel Adams and those who acted with him very carefully saw to it that agitation should not lose its zest or decline to the humdrum levels of ordinary excitement. They kept their alarm-bells pealing night and day, and were vigilant that feeling should not subside or fall tame."
On Saturday, September 3, 1774, there arrived at Norwich, Connecticut, an express from Col. Israel Putnam at Pomfret with information that an attack had been made the night before by General Gage's soldiers upon certain citizens of Boston, and that six of them had been killed. This was only a rumor, but it caused the greatest consternation, and the citizens assembled around the "Liberty Tree"-a tall pole, which, as early as 1765, had been erected by the Sons of Liberty in the center of the village "Green." From the "Liberty Tree" the crowd adjourned to the Court House, where a full and free discussion of the news took place. The next morning, Sunday, April 4th-which was the day preceding that upon which the First Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia (see page 354)-464 men, well armed, and the greater part mounted on good horses, started from Norwich for Boston under the command of Major Durkee. Seven miles from Norwich they were met by an express from Providence, Rhode Island, with intelligence that the report of the previous day was without foundation ; whereupon the company dis- persed. This false alarm had for its basis what was really an aggressive act on the part of General Gage. He had landed a body of troops and removed the military stores from Charlestown, together with two field-pieces from Cambridge, to Castle William. This excited a tumult in Boston, the news of which, distorted and intensified by rumor, was delivered verbally by a messenger hastily sent to Colonel Put- nam. Putnam condensed the intelligence in a despatch to Captain Cleveland at Canterbury, who sent it on by express to Major Durkee.
Early in April, 1775, the Connecticut authorities established and commissioned Israel Putnam Colonel of the 3d Regiment and John Durkee Major of the Ist Regiment of the Colony. On the 19th of April, at Boston, General Gage detailed 800 of his troops to seize the military stores which the Provincials had gathered at Concord, and there followed an instant rising of the country. "Riders," says Wilson, "had sped through the country-side during the long night which preceded the movement of the troops, to give warning ; and before the troops could finish their errand armed men beset them at almost every turn of the road, swarming by companies out of every hamlet and firing upon them from hedge and fence corner and village street as if they were outlaws running the gantlet."
News of the fight at Lexington was forwarded by the Town Clerk at Worcester, Massachusetts, to Brooklyn in the town of Pomfret, Windham County, Connecticut, the home of Colonel Putnam. It reached there in the morning of April 20th, and Putnam, who was plowing in one of his fields, left his plow and set out immediately for Boston. The despatch received at Brooklyn was sent on by messenger to Norwich, and soon, in the counties of Windham and New London, messengers on horseback, with beating drums, carried the news in all directions. Meanwhile a message came direct from Boston, to the effect that it would be expedient for every man who was "fit and willing" to repair to the scene of action. Putnam was then in Concord, whence he wrote on the 21st of April.
On Sunday, April 23d, at nine o'clock in the evening, an express arrived at Norwich with despatches for the Committee of Correspondence of the town, and a certified copy of a letter from Colonel Putnam dated at Cambridge, April 22d, and evidently written under a stress of excitement. He called for im- mediate supplies of troops and provisions. Volunteers were now almost daily departing for the army at Cambridge in squads of two, three and four, and regularly organized companies were not far behind. In the latter part of the month a special session of the Connecticut Assembly was held, and it was resolved that, for the safety and defense of the Colony, six regiments of ten companies each should be enlisted from the militia of the Colony, and organized and equipped without delay. The term of enlistment was fixed at seven months, and the regiments were raised almost with a rush.
As chief officers of the 3d Regiment of the six thus provided for the Assembly named Israel Putnam, Colonel; Benedict Arnold, then of New Haven, but formerly of Norwich (see page 284), Lieutenant
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Colonel ; John Durkee, Major, and Captain of one of the companies. This regiment (with the exception of one company of 100 men-Durkee's-which was raised at Norwich) was recruited in Windham County. The company from Ashford was commanded by Capt. Thomas Knowlton. (See page 481.) In May the regiment was marched, by companies, to the camps forming around Boston. Durkee's company left Norwich for the scene of action May 23d, in charge of Lieut. Joshua Huntington, Durkee having joined Putnam at Cambridge some days previously. The 3d Regiment took part in the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, and in the retreat of the Americans after the battle the men of Durkee's company lost twenty guns and forty blankets. Two days after this battle the Continental Congress appointed four Major Generals for the Continental Army, one of them being Col. Israel Putnam. By reason of Putnam's promotion Major Durkee succeeded to the temporary command of the 3d Regiment, inasmuch as Lieu- tenant Colonel Arnold was then at Ticonderoga. Eight days after the fight at Lexington Arnold had proposed that a force be sent northward for the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and early in May he went forward as the leader of such a force. Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys set out with the same object in view, and the two commanders came together on the way and pressed forward to success-Ticonderoga being captured on the 10th of May.
In July, 1775, the 3d Regiment was adopted as a Continental Regiment, and Lieut. Col. Benedict Arnold, Maj. John Durkee and Capt. Thomas Knowlton were respectively promoted and commissioned Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major. The regiment remained in camp at Cambridge until the expiration of its term of service in December, when it was reorganized with the same field officers, and the men were re- enlisted, for the campaign of 1776. The regiment was officially designated as the "20th Regiment, Conti- nental Foot," but was commonly referred to as "Arnold's Regiment." At that time the regiment was still in command of Durkee, Arnold having been sent in the early Autumn in command of an expedition against Quebec. During the Winter of 1775-'76 and the Spring of 1776 the "20th" formed part of the army which closely invested Boston. During the latter part of February, 1776, Major Knowlton was in com- mand of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Durkee being absent on account of ill health. After the evac- uation of Boston by the British in March, 1776, the 20th Regiment was transferred to the city of New York.
About that time Arnold, having performed conspicuous and hazardous services and been wounded during the Quebec campaign, was promoted by Congress a Brigadier General. For the vacancy thereby created in the Colonelcy of the 20th Regiment there were two applicants : Lieutenant Colonels John Dur-
BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. After the painting by John Trumbull (mentioned on page 471).
kee and David Waterbury. Under date of June 10, 1776, Col. Eliphalet Dyer, at Windham, wrote to Col. Joseph Trumbull (see page 471) as follows; "Since I last saw you at New York the Governor wrote General Washington in favor of Colonel Waterbury to be appointed Colonel of Durkee's regiment. Waterbury will not accept unless he can have his Continental commission of ye date he ought to have had one when in Canada, to give him his proper rank. He is at present appointed to command a regi- ment raised by the Colony, stationed at New London, which he accepts till he hears from Congress; and if they give him his former proposed commission then he will leave New London and repair to New York and take the command of Durkee's regiment. If he should not, I have strong solicitations to use my small influence for Durkee. It is said in his favor that he has gained his health ; is much more alert than he used to be ; that his regiment-both officers and soldiers-are very fond of him, and that there is no one will give so good satisfaction as he will. * * * Let me hear from you whether Durkee will do- whether he can be promoted or not. If he will do I should be willing to help him forward. I will own I feel myself a little interested in the affair, as probably Capt. Thomas [Dyer] may stand a chance for the Majority."
A week later Colonel Dyer wrote from Hartford to Colonel Trumbull as follows : "The Assembly have appointed Colonels Waterbury and Wadsworth the two Brigadier Generals for these new raised battalions. * * Waterbury is now out of the question for Arnold's regiment. Durkee is much recom- mended to me by many of his officers. and that the regiment would be better satisfied with him than any other they can think of, except Waterbury." At the city of New York, July 29, 1776, General Washington wrote to the Continental Board of War as follows (see "American Archives," Fifth Series, I : 641): "For the 20th Regiment (then-June 27th-late Arnold's) there were two competitors, to wit : Colonel Durkee, the present Lieutenant Colonel, who has had charge of the regiment ever since the first establishment of it, and Lieutenant Colonel Tyler of Parsons' regiment." In an order issued from "Headquarters, New York, August 12, 1776," General Washington announced : "Lieutenant Colonel Durkee is appointed Colonel of the regiment late Arnold's, and Major Knowlton Lieutenant Colonel of said regiment." A few days later
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Capt. Thomas Dyer, just mentioned (see, also, page 394), was promoted Major of the 20th Regiment, which, about the same time, was put in a new brigade-to be commanded by Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons of Connecticut-forming part of the division under the command of Maj. Gen. Joseph Spencer of Connecticut.
August 27, 1776, the battle of Long Island was fought, ending disastrously for the American forces. General Parsons' brigade took part in this engagement; being stationed on the spot now known as "Battle Hill" in Greenwood Cemetery. Many of Parsons' men were killed and more were captured. Moreover, it was at this battle that Maj. Edward Shippen Burd (mentioned on page 361) was captured by the British, and Col. Philip Johnston (mentioned on pages 459 and 488) fell at the head of his New Jersey regiment. Three days later occurred Washington's skillful retreat to the New York side of the East River, and with it began the series of perplexities and reverses which so distressed the American army in that critical campaign. Immediately after the retreat from Long Island Durkee's 20th Regiment was stationed in the entrenchments at Paulus' Hook, on the New Jersey shore nearly opposite Cortlandt Street, New York. On the 6th of September, at a council of war convened in New York, it was decided that the city should be held by the American forces ; but six days later a council reversed this decision and con- cluded that New York should be evacuated on September 15th. Durkee's regiment was then withdrawn from Paulus' Hook and marched up along the New Jersey shore of the Hudson to Fort Lee, on the Pali- sades opposite Harlem Heights. There the regiment remained doing garrison duty during the next two months. November 13, 1776, according to an official "return of the forces encamped on the Jersey shore, commanded by Major General Greene," Durkee's regiment comprised 494 men fit for duty, including one Colonel, one Major, six Captains, seven First Lieutenants, eight Second Lieutenants and eight Ensigns.
By direction of General Washington, within a few days after the battle of Long Island, there had been organized a corps of about 130 officers and soldiers selected from four of the Connecticut regiments and one Massachusetts regiment in service at New York-Durkee's 20th Continental Foot, one of these five regiments, furnishing the largest number of men. Brave and experienced fighters with unblemished records, these men were detailed "to scout between the lines, feel the enemy's position and report directly to the commander-in-chief," and were to return to their respective regiments when no longer needed for this special service. Lieut. Col. Thomas Knowlton of Durkee's regiment was assigned to the command of this detachment, which became known as "Knowlton's Rangers." Among Knowlton's officers was young Capt. Nathan Hale-the patriot-spy-of the 19th Continental Foot, who, captured by the British, was hanged two days afterwards (September 22, 1776) near the corner of the present Forty-fifth Street and First Avenue, New York. On the 16th of September, on the ground now covered by the buildings of Columbia University, was fought the battle of Harlen Heights. "Knowlton's Rangers" took part in this battle-as well as in the preliminary skirmish on Harlem Plains-and in the hottest part of the engagement on the "Heights" Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton, while bravely leading an attack, was shot through the head, and survived only an hour. In General Orders the next day General Washington announced : "The gallant and brave Colonel Knowlton, who would have been an honor to any country, having fallen yester- day while gloriously fighting, Captain Brown is to take command of the party lately led by Colonel Knowlton." Stephen Brown, Captain of one of the companies in Durkee's regiment, was the officer thus assigned to the temporary command of the "Rangers."
After the battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776, and the surrender of Fort Washington on Manhat- tan Island on the 16th of the following November, Washington, who was then at Fort Lee, ordered the abandonment of that fort on the 20th of November and the withdrawal of the American army to the west side of the Hackensack River. Durkee's regiment and the other troops that formed the garrison of Fort Lee evacuated the fort so hastily that they left their mess-kettles on the fires, and 1.000 barrels of flour, 300 tents and a number of mounted cannon fell into the hands of Cornwallis. By the 22d of November the whole American army had fallen back to Newark, New Jersey, and on the 28th, as Washington was leaving Newark at one end of the town, Cornwallis entered at the other. About the 1st of the following December Durkee's regiment was transferred to the brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer (mentioned on page 361), and December 22, 1776, according to the official "return of the forces encamped and in quarters on the banks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, under command of General Washing- ton," the 20th Continental Foot of Mercer's brigade had 465 men, including Colonel Durkee, present for duty.
In The Connecticut Gazette of February 14, 1777, there was printed a letter from an army correspondent which contained the following paragraph : "Durkee's regiment covered the retreat from Fort Lee to Delaware River, which regiment, both officers and men, behaved with great spirit and bravery, to the entire satisfaction of the General [Washington], and was with him in the action at Trenton." The battle of Trenton was fought December 26, 1776. In the morning of Christmas-day General Mercer had issued the following order to Colonel Durkee (see Stryker's "Battles of Princeton and Trenton," page 379): "You will order your men to assemble, and parade them in the valley immediately over the hill on back of McConkey's Ferry, to remain there for further orders. In forming the brigade, Colonel Durkee takes the right." On that day there were thirty commissioned officers and 283 enlisted men of Durkee's regi- ment present, and "217 men absent, sick, on extra duty, or on furlough." It was at McConkey's Ferry, in the night of Christmas-day, that Washington, with 2,400 troops, including Durkee's regiment, crossed the Delaware-the swift current of the river filled with cakes of floating ice, and a driving storm of snow and sleet pelting the poorly-clad troops. Six days later the term of service of the regiment expired, but, at the urgent request of Washington, Colonel Durkee, nearly all the other commissioned officers and a con- siderable number of the enlisted men of the regiment, continued in service for about six weeks longer, and on January 3, 1777, they participated, as part of Mercer's brigade, in the battle of Princeton-described in the note on page 362. Three days after this event Washington went into Winter-quarters at Morris- town, New Jersey.
At the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut held in October, 1776, John Durkee was "ap- pointed Colonel of one of the eight battalions now ordered to be raised in this State." (See "Records of the State of Connecticut," I : 13.) . These battalions, or regiments, were to be raised for the new Conti- nental Army-to serve through the war. Durkee having accepted the appointment made by the Assembly was commissioned Colonel of the "4th Regiment, Connecticut Line," January 1, 1777. Returning home some weeks later the recruiting of the regiment was proceeded with, mainly in the counties of Windham and New London. Early in March the regiment-a mere skeleton in numbers-went into camp at Peeks- kill, New York. Under date of March 23, 1777, General Washington, at Morristown, wrote to Governor Trumbull of Connecticut as follows (see the "Trumbull Papers," previously referred to): "I wish you may not have been deceived in the forwardness of your regiments, for I can assure you the returns fall far short of what was given out. Chandler's, Swift's and Charles Webb's, by General Parsons' letter of the 6th inst., had only eighty men each, though the latter (Webb) sent his son down some weeks ago and drew 400 stand of arms, assuring me that his father had as many men ready. None of the other regi- ments were half full. Durkee's had only 140 men." The first Adjutant of the 4th Regiment was Lieut. Elihu Marvin, a native of Lyme, New London County, Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College in the class of 1773. After leaving college he taught school and studied medicine in Norwich, Connecticut, and left there in June, 1777, to join Durkee's regiment.
In September, 1777, the 4th Regiment was ordered to join Washington's army in Pennsylvania, and it marched from Peekskill in the Connecticut brigade commanded by General McDougall. October 4, 1777, the regiment was engaged in the battle of Germantown, Pennsylvania, on the left flank of the army, and suffered some loss. Later it was assigned to Varnum's brigade, and a detachment of the regiment continued the brave defense of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware from the 12th to the 16th of November, 1777, during which Capt. Stephen Brown, previously mentioned, was killed and several of the enlisted men of the detachment were either killed or wounded. The regiment spent the never-to-be-forgotten Winter of
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1777-'78 at Valley Forge, and June 28, 1778, was closely engaged in the battle of Monmouth, New Jersey. Colonel Durkee, who was in command of Varnum's brigade on that occasion, received a severe wound in his right hand, whereby it was permanently disabled. Later the 4th Regiment encamped with the main army at White Plains, New York, until ordered into Winter-quarters at Redding, between Danbury and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Assigned to the 1st Connecticut Brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. Samuel H. Parsons, the regiment was engaged in the movements and operations on the east side of the Hudson during the campaign of 1779. In the Winter of 1779-'80 it was with the Connecticut division of the army stationed on the outposts at and near Morristown, New Jersey. In the campaign of 1780 it was with the main army in its operations on both sides of the Hudson-spending the Winter of 1780-'81 in the camp "Connecticut Village," above Robinson's farm, on the east side of the Hudson, opposite West Point.
Beginning with January 1, 1781, a new formation, or a consolidation, of the "Connecticut Line" went into effect, which continued till the end of the war. The non-commissioned officers and privates of the 3d and 4th Regiments of the old "Line" (the formation of 1777-'81) were consolidated into a new regiment designated the "1st," with Colonel Durkee in command. June 21, 1781, the 1st Regiment, with other regi- ments, marched from "Connecticut Village" down along the Hudson to Peekskill. Later they moved down to Camp Phillipsburg, near Dobbs Ferry, where Durkee's regiment was stationed near the river, on the extreme right of the first, or advance, line of the division. During the Summer and Autumn of 1781, the "Ist" guarded certain outposts in the Highlands on the Hudson against predatory parties of the enemy sent out from New York, and about the last of November the regiment went into Winter-quarters again at "Connecticut Village." Some weeks later Colonel Durkee, who had long borne up under what a fellow officer described as "a slender and debilitated constitution," went to his home at Norwich on sick-leave, turning over the command of his regiment to Lieut. Col. Thomas Grosvenor.
Colonel Durkee died at Norwich May 29, 1782, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, "from exhaustion induced by the service." Brig. Gen. Jedidiah Huntington of the Connecticut Line, who was then at his home in Norwich on leave of absence, sent news of the death of Durkee to "Connecticut Village," and some weeks later received from Lieutenant Colonel Grosvenor a letter containing the following reference to the occurrence : "By your letter to Dr. Ellis we are informed of the death of Colonel Durkee. It is a soldier's maxim not to repine at Fate, and a Christian virtue to hold ourselves conformable to the dispen- sations of Providence. I am happy to hear that the Colonel possessed his mind with its usual firmness and composure to his final exit. It highly indicates the soldier and man of worth." (See "Connecticut in the Revolution," page 315.) Colonel Durkee's will (which had been executed at Norwich October 18, 1780, in the presence of Joshua Abell, Jr., Capt. Richard Lamb and Uriah Waterman) was probated at Norwich June 4, 1782. By it the Colonel devised to his wife Martha all his estate except twenty shillings, which he bequeathed to his "worthy friend Isaac Abell." who, with Mrs. Martha Durkee as executrix, was appointed executor of the will. The inventory of the estate contained the following items: One silver watch ; one blue, one red and one brown regimental coat ; one white, one buff and one green cloth and one corduroy waistcoat ; six pairs of breeches-white, green, and buff cloth, corduroy, leather and linen ; gold sleeve buttons ; silver buckles ; ivory-headed cane ; saddles and bridles ; a goodly supply of household furniture and utensils and a number of books; dwelling-house, valued at £230; orchard, at £50; several small lots of land ; four "Treasurer's Notes" for £116, 8s. 112d. each. Total amount of in- ventory, £1,264, 4s. 4d. Charles Miner says ("History of Wyoming," Appendix, pages 27 and 49) that Colonel Durkee was buried at Norwich "with extraordinary display. * * Military honors were accorded at his funeral, and the display on a similar occasion in that city had never been surpassed." Miss Caul- kins, writing some years later than Miner, stated : "On the grave-stone of Col. John Durkee is the follow- ing : 'In memory of Doct !. Dominie Touzain who was lost in a hurricane in March 1782 in ye 31st year of his age.'" It is presumed, of course, that the foregoing was in addition to an inscription relating to Colonel Durkee. Who Dr. Touzain was we have been unable to learn.
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