^ 1^^ ^^^ Tffy^ "^^ ^^ gyg^^y^'^^Trw^'gv^Tvy Vw^^^ cvV'g^^Tt^y "cs^ gsjy i^jy gyg y^g ^^ "^^"^? TTw^ ^r»^ i^^'y/irz\^'^^ gy^ ^^ Cbc Battle of 6roton l)cigbt$ ti ii A Story of the Storming of Fort Griswold. J fc^.-Xifc i^ ^^s. W^l^v^^^^^m ^^^ _._(«,,. - ST CONTAINING ALSO THE NARRATIVE OF RUFUS AVERY, From the Original Manuscript, AND OTHER INTERESTING MATTER. HANDSOnELY ILLUSTRATED BY FULL=PAOE ENQRA VINOS. ^^^y!wy y!yw y '» ;i' 'g <^ 'g ^y^s?rg?!rg^ y ys^ THE Battle of Groton Heights J^ STORY OF THE STORMING OF FORT GRISWOLD, AND THE Burning of :n^ew London, ON THE SIXTH OF SEPTEMBER, 1781. BY REV. N. H. BURNHANl. CONTAINING ALSO THE NARRATIVE OF RUFUS AVERY, (FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT) AND STATEMENT OF AVERY DOWNER, M. D. TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPICAL SKETCHES OF COL. WILLIAM LEDYARD AND MOTHER BAILEY, INCLUDING A POEM BY LEONARD WOOLSEY BACON, Delivered on the Centennial Anniversary of the Battle of Groton Heights, September (i, 1881. NEW LONDON. CONN.: Bingham Paper Box Co.'s Print, Mountain Avenue. 1903. The Qroton Monument. The Groton Monument. MOVED by the patriotic sentiments which the memury of such a day in our national history as September 6th, 1781, is calculated to arouse, " a number of gentlemen in Groton, in the year 1826, organized an association for the purpose of erecting a monument." This simple memorial shaft is composed of granite quarried from the same soil which those to whom it is dedicated, defended with their lives. The corner stone was laid September 6th, 1826, and the monument was dedicated September 6th, 1830, in a manner befitting the place and the occasion. During the centennial year of 1881, the height, originally one hundred and twenty-seven feet, was extended, so that the column now measures one hundred and thirty-five feet. Other important improve- ments were also made. The monument is in form an obelisk, twenty- two feet square at base of the shaft, and eight and one-half feet at the base of the pyramidion, resting on a die twenty-four feet square, and this again on a base twenty-six feet square. The top is reached by a circular stairway of one hundred and sixty-six steps, and is two hundred and sixty-five feet above the waters of the Thames. From the apex a picture of unrivaled beauty presents itself, covering the opposite bank of the river, the hills to the west of Montville, and extending far out over the waters of Long Island Sound, as well as Fishers Island Sound and Fishers Island. The original marble slab inserted in the west wall of the die contained the following insciiption : This Monument Was erected under the patronage of the State of Connecticut, A. D. 1830, and in the 55th year of the Independence of the U. S. A. /;/ Ahmory of the Brave Patriots who fell in the massacre of Fort Griswold near this spot on the 6th of September, A. D. 1781, when the British under the command of the traitor Benedict Arnold, burnt the towns of New London & Groton, and spread desolation and woe throughout this region. The visitor to the scenes of Fort Griswold should not fail to note the well, which is the same existing at the time of the massacre, and to which dying men " in fevered anguish wistfullj- turned and vainly craved of the implacable Briton its cooling draught." 4 The Groton Moftuf?ient. On the left of the entrance and enclosed by an iron fence is a granite slab marking the spot where Colonel Ledyard fell, and bearing the inscription : ON THIS SPOT COL. WILLIAM LEDYARD FELL BY HIS OWN SWORD IN THE HANDS OF A BRITISH OFFICER TO WHOM HE HAD SURRENDERED IN THE MASSACRE OF FORT GRISWOLD, SEPT. 6, I781. In the year 1893, the Groton Monument Association applied to the State Legislature for an appropriation of five thousand dollars, which was promptly granted. This appropriation was expended in needed repairs upon the monument and in extensive improvements on the adjacent grounds. A panel of white bronze bearing the same inscription as the former marble slab, which had become cracked and otherwise defaced, was inserted in the same place in the monument as that occupied by the one removed. The above repairs were com- pleted in the early part of 1 894. Recently the Anna Warner Bailey Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, through their regent, applied for the use of the stone house adjoining the monument, as a repository for such revolutionary relics and mementos as are now, or shall hereafter come into their possession, and for other purposes. Thus the Groton Monument stands today as a shrine, to which all who dwell beneath its shadow may often turn, or to which they may welcome those who, as pilgrims, shall visit it to learn or to recall the cherished names and mighty deeds of those brave men, to whom it has been erected as a constant and enduring memorial. The Battle of Groton Heights. THE Battle of Groton Heights, fought September 6th, 1 781, well deserves to be ranked with the contest at Lexington and Bunker Hill — those famous preludes to Saratoga and Yorktown. In this conflict, as in those, the heroic patriotism of our Revolutionary sires was displayed with a simple and touching grandeur that must ever awaken in the heart of every true American feelings of the deep- est gratitude and admiration. To outward seeming the battle was a defeat. In reality it was a glorious victory, whose every incident is worthy of being treasured up among the precious memorials of those revolutionary days. A small band of patriotic warriors defending their own and the liberties of thousands, yet unborn, against the forces of tyranny and oppression, such was the contest upon which the sun looked down on that memor- rable September day, more than a hundred years ago. While, on the other hand, the foes of the liberty strove with an equally clear and determined purpose. Sir Henry Clinton, greatly chagrined at the manner in which he had been outwitted by General Washington, determined to retrieve his error by striking a decisive blow that should at once and forever deliver the high seas from the hated presence and depredations of those bold and adventurous American privateers, whose daring and successful exploits had so grievously injured British commerce, and so exasperatingly insulted and persistently defied British pride and British power. And, since from its harbor there had gone forth multi- tudes of these determined and successful opponents of the royal cause, upon their return had found a ready mart for their prizes and spoil among its townspeople, it was determined to make a bold and resolute attack upon New London. And thus, at the same time, to satisfy the desire for revenge and the thirst for plunder, a plunder most rich. "The cargo of the merchant ship Hannah alone being valued at four hundred thousand dollars." For this expedition great preparations were made and the com- mand of it shrewdly given to that Judas of the Revolution, Benedict Arnold, who, in September, 1780, had "deserted the American cause and had been received into the British service with the rank of Briga- dier General." It was the fleet of thirty-two sail, bearing the troops to their desti- nation, that Sergeant Rufus Avery discovered from his lofty station in Fort Griswold at the earhest dawn of that renowned September morn- ing. Instantly informing his superior officer, Capt. William Latham, 5 6 The Battle of Grotori Heights. of the fact, the latter at once perceived the urgency of the case and sent a messenger immediately to Col. William Ledyard, under whose command Forts Griswold and Trumbull and the adjacent harbor then were. To this summons Col. Ledyard quickly responded. On em- barking to cross from New London to Fort Griswold he remarked to friends gathered around him, "If I have this day to lose either life or honor, you who know me best know which it will be." On his arrival he "ordered," says Sergeant Avery, "two large guns to be loaded with heavy charges of good powder, etc." Of one of these Capt. Latham took charge and the worthy Sergeant of the other, directing it "so as to give a 'larum' to the country in the best manner that could , be done." "Two guns," he tells us, "was the regular 'larum,' but the enemy understood that and they discharged a third gun, similar to ours and timed it alike, which broke our 'larum,' which discouraged our troops from coming to our assistance." A few hours later began that conflict destined to put the constancy and valor of both soldiers and citizens to a test as terrible as it was severe. The invading army disembarked on either side of the river. Those upon the west shore being under the immediate command of General Arnold, and proceeding on their march with no other evidence of an enemy's presence than the salute "with one volley" from the guns of the battery by Capt. Shapley and his brave men from Fort Trumbull. The latter he then abandoned, after spiking its guns, and proceeded to embark his forces in three boats, one of which was taken by the enemy. Seven of his men were also wounded before they suc- ceeded in gaining the kindly protection of Fort Griswold on the oppo- site shore. No other course was left to the patriot Captain, since Fort Trumbull was at best only "a water battery," enth'ely unable to resist the attack of an opposing military force. In the meantime another portion of the British troops hod effected a landing under their commander, Col. Eyre, upon the eastern shore, at Groton Point. After a somewhat retarded march these troops were formed m line " under the lee of a rock)^ height one hundred and thirty yards southeast from the fort." From this place "a flag of truce " was despatched demanding the immediate and unconditional surrender of the fortress. Their demand was refused as was also a second coupled with the threat that "if obliged to storm the works, martial law should be put in force." To this the instant response was returned, "We shall not surrender, let the consequences be what they may." In answer to this brave defiance the enemy at once pressed forward to the attack, " with a quick step in solid columns," eight hundred men against a hundred and fifty ! Yet this small band of patriots, animated by the justice of their cause and by the hope of promised reinforcements, prepared to offer their foes a brave and resolute resistance. " Col. Ledyard ordered his men to reserve their The Battle of Groton Heights. 7 fire until the detachment which came up first had reached the proper distance." When the word was given an eighteen pounder loaded with two bags of grape shot was opened upon them, and it was sup- posed that twenty men fell to the ground killed or wounded by that first discharge." " It cleared," said an eye-witness, " a wide space in their c6lumn." Their line now became so broken that the fields in every direction were " covered with scarlet-coated soldiers with trailed arms, in every variety of posture, bending, prostrate, dropping, half- up, rushing forward, and still keeping a kind of order." Again they attempt the assault, in order to seize upon the southwest bastion of the fort, only to be met with the same deadly and persistent fire as be- fore, while they bear from the field their commander, CoL Eyre, mortally wounded. At the same moment a still fiercer conflict is taking place on the northeast side of the fort. Major Montgomery having lead his soldiers in solid ranks through the abandoned redoubt, from whence rushing with "great fury" into the ditch below he seizes and holds it, and a moment later the rampart, defended by bent pickets and so high the soldiers could not scale it " without assisting each other." Nor was this all, for the Americans, unable to oppose the progress of the besiegers, otherwise showered upon their heads " cold shot nine pounders and every variety of missile that could be seized upon." In the language of another, " the vigor of the attack and the defence were both admirable." At this point Major Montgomery was killed, and the fury of his troops was redoubled. At last, by sheer force of numbers, all opposing obstacles were overcome, and one of the gates being forced, the enemy rushed in like a flood, "swinging their caps and shouting like mad-men." Though the patriots had surrendered and thrown down their arms, their brutal adversaries continued to " fire upon them from the para- pets and to hew down " all whom they encountered as they hastened to " unbolt the southern gate." No sooner is this done than the voice of a British officer is heard demanding in stern tones : " Who com- mands this fort.'' " " I did, sir, but you do now," is the reply of the the American Commander, at the same time presenting his sword in token of surrender. Seizing it, his military assassin, said to be a Major Bromfield, or Bloomfield, without a word, plunged it up to the hilt into the heart of his noble but too trusting foe. The attendant soldiers with their bayonets completed the bloody deed. Thus per- ished, in the forty-third year of his age, one of the most illustrious martyrs of American liberty. Like scenes were being enacted in other parts of the fort. "As the British marched in," says a recent historian, "company after company, they shot or bayoneted every American they saw standing." " Three platoons, each of ten or twelve men, fired in succession into the magazine amid the confused mass of 8 The Battle of Grotoii Heights. living men, that had fled thither for shelter, the dying and the dead," The only reason, it would seem, that an explosion did not take place was the fact that the powder scattered about was too wet with human blood to ignite. So awful was the carnage and plunder that even the British officers could no longer endure the sight. One of them is said to have been seen rushing about everywhere, with drawn sword, exclaiming: "Stop! stop! in the name of heaven, stop! my soul can't bear it! " Satiated with plunder and blood, the invaders finally began a hasty retreat from the place they had filled with so much of death and horror. Stripping the dead patriots, about eighty-four in number, paroling the most dangerously wounded, to the number of thirty-five, they drove the remaining thirty, "most of them wounded," before them as prisoners of war. But, brutal as they were, they shrank from leaving them to their fate, that of being blown up with the fort (for a train of powder had already been set from the barracks to the magazine) the defenseless men whom they had just paroled. Gathering them to- gether, therefore, with no gentle hand, they fling them into an ammu- nition wagon. Fastening a chain about it, they dragged it a short distance down the hill, and then "darting aside" allowed it to rush madly downward with its freight of wounded and bleeding men, caring neither whether it was dashed to pieces upon the stones by the way, or engulfed in the river that flowed at the foot of the declivity, which, no doubt, would have been the case but for the trunk of an apple tree near the bottom of the descent, that proved a friendly obstacle. " For more than an hour" the sufferers in the wagon remained helpless and in great agony in the place where it had been arrested in its course. They were then carried into the house of Ensign Avery — one of their number — which was near by. (The house is still standing.) But help was near at hand. Good Doctor Joshua Downer, with his son Avery, was hastening to the assistance of the heroes who needed it so greatly. In the morning he had perceived the smoke of burning New London, and at once started from his home in Preston for the scene of conflict. On his way to the Avery house, and possibly not far from it, he met and bound up the wounds of several of the slightly wounded patriots, and among them Mr. Benjamin Bill, and others. Upon the following morning Dr. Downer was joined in his work of mercy by a band of those noble women, of whom it is the proud wish of so many women in our day to be called the "Daughter." These ministered to the suffering patriots with the care and tenderness which only a woman's hand can bestow and only a woman's heart can feel. Such is the picture of the battle of Groton Heights. May it remain engraved forever in our hearts ! Captain Adam Shapley, "Immortal in his Torr.b. The Battle of Groton Heights. Names of the Heroes who Fell at Fort Griswold September 6th, 1781. Collected and Alphabetically Arranged by Charles Allyn * Lieutenant-Colonel William Ledyard, Commanding. Captain Elijah Avery, ------- Groton Captain Elisha Avery, ------ Groton Lieutenant Ebenezer Avery, ----- Groton Ensign Daniel Avery, ------ Groton Sergeant Christopher Avery, ----- Groton Sergeant Jasper Avery, ------ Groton Sergeant Solomon Avery, ------ Groton David Avery, -------- Groton Thomas Avery, -------- Groton Captain Samuel Allyn, - - - Ledyard - Groton Captain Simeon Allyn, - - Ledyard - - Groton Belton Allyn, ----- Ledyard - Groton Benadam Allyn, - - - - Ledyard - - Groton Nathaniel Adams, ^ - - - - - ^ - - Groton Captain Hubbard Burrows, ------ Groton Sergeant Ezekiel Bailey, ------ Groton Corporal Andrew Billings, - - Ledyard - - Groton Andrew Baker, - - - - Ledyard - Groton John P. Babcock, - - - - - - - Groton John Billings, -------- Preston Samuel Billings, -------- Groton William Bolton, ------- jSjew London John Brown, -------- Groton Jonathan Butler, ------- Saybrook Lieutenant Richard Chapman, ----- New London Sergeant Eldredge Chester, ----- Groton Daniel Chester, -------- Groton Jedediah Chester,^ ------- Groton Frederic Chester,3 ------- Groton * From his Battle of Groton Heights. 1 This name is Nathan in some accounts. 2 I find this name in the list prepared by Rufus Avery, and also that by Benadam Gallup, but not on the monument. 3 This name is on the monument; no trace elsewhere. lo The Battle of Groton Heights. John Clark, - - - - - - - - - New London Elias Coit,i .-....-- New London Lieutenant James Comstock, . . . - . New London William Comstock, ------- Saybrook Philip Covin, -------- Groton Daniel Davis, -------- Groton Daniel Eldredge,^ ------- Groton Jordan Freeman (colored), ----- Groton Captain Elias Henry Halsey,3 ----- Long Island Samuel Hill, ----- Ledyard - Groton John Holt, Jr., -------- New London Sergeant Rufus Hurlburt, - - Ledyard - Groton Eliday Jones, -------- Groton Moses Jones, ----- Ledyard - Groton Benoni Kenson, -------- New London Barney Kinney,4 .-.---- New London Captain Youngs Ledyard, ------ Groton Captain Cary Leeds, s ------ Groton Lieutenant Joseph Lewis, - - Ledyard - - Groton Ensign John Lester, - - - Ledyard - Groton Daniel D. Lester,^ ------- Groton Jonas Lester, -------- Groton Wait Lester, ...----- Groton Thomas Lamb, ------- Groton Lambo Latham (colored), ------ Groton Captain Nathan Moore, ------ Groton Corporal Edward Mills, ------ Groton Corporal Simeon Morgan, - - Ledyard - Groton Thomas Miner,? - - - - Ledyard - - Groton Joseph Moxley, - - - . Ledyard - Groton Corporal Luke Perkins, Jr., - Ledyard - - Groton David Palmer, -------- Groton Elisha Perkins, _ - - - Ledj'ard - - Groton Luke Perkins, ----- Ledyard - Groton Asa Perkins, - - - - Ledyard - - Groton Elnathan Perkins, - - - - Ledyard - Groton Simeon Perkins, - - - - Ledyard - - Groton Captain Peter Richards, ------ New London 1 On the monument slab as Ellis. 2 Wounded; carried away prisoner; returned sick, and died December nth. Not on the monu- ment. 3 On the monument Henry Halsey. 4 On the monument Kenny 5 This man was wounded, and died December 28th. Not on the monument. 6 On monument Taniel C. 7 On the tombstone INIinard, which seems to be an error, as his descent is from Clement Miner. The Battle of Groton Heights. 1 1 Captain Adam Shaple}^ -.-... New London Captain Amos Stanton, - - - Ledyard - Groton Lieutenant Enoch Stanton, ------ Stonington Sergeant Daniel Stanton, ----- Stonington Sergeant John Stedman, - - Led^^ard - - Groton Sergeant Nicholas Starr, . , _ _ - Groton Corporal Nathan Sholes, - - Led^-ard - - Groton Thomas Starr, Jr. ------ - Groton David Seabury, - - - . Ledyard - - Groton Captain John Williams, ------ Groton Lieutenant Henry Williams, - Ledyard - - Groton Lieutenant Patric Ward, ------ Groton Sj'lvester Walworth, ------- Groton Joseph Wedger, - - - - Ledyard - Groton Thomas Williams, -.---_- Stonington Daniel Williams, ^ ------- Saybrook John Whittlesey, - - ----- Saybrook Stephen Whittlesey, - - - - - - - Saybrook Christopher Woodbridge, ------ Groton Henry Woodbridge, ------ Groton Total, 88. NAMES OF THE WOUNDED. Paroled and Left at Home. "A particular Account of the Men that were Wounded at Fort Gris- wold, ift the Battle with the British, on the 6th of September, 1781,- tvho were Paroled by Captai7i Bloomfield , and Ebenezer Ledyard, Esq., was taken as Hostage to see them forthcoming, if called for." In the presence of Rufus Avery. Lieutenant Parke Avery, Jr., lost one eye, - Ensign Ebenezer Avery, in the head, Amos Avery, in the hand, - - - - John Daboll, Jr., in the hand, - Ensign Charles Eldridge, knee, - Daniel Eldridge, shot through neck and face, Christopher Eldridge, in the face, Samuel Edgcomb, Jr., in the hand, - Andrew Gallop,* in the hip, Robert Gallup,* in the body, Sergeant Stephen Hempstead, in the body. Corporal (Jehial) Judd, in the knee, Groton Groton Groton Groton Groton Groton Groton Groton Groton Groton New London Hebron I Not on the monument. * The name is in the original manuscript, but has never been given in any printed list. — A. 12 The Battle of Groto?i Heights. Captain William Latham, in the thigh, - - - Groton Captain Edward Latham, in the body, - - - Groton Jonathan Latham Jr.,* body, - - - - - Groton Christopher Latham, Jr., body, - . . . Groton Frederick Moore, ^ body, - - - - - Groton John Morgan, in the knee, . - . . _ Groton Jabish Pendleton, in the hand. ----- Groton Captain Solomon Perkins, in the face, - - - Groton Lieutenant Obediah Perkins, in the breast, - - Groton Ebenezer Perkins, in the face, - . . . Groton Elisha Prior, in the arm, ------ Groton Lieutenant William Starr, in the breast, - - - Groton John Starr,* in the arm, - - - - - - Groton Daniel Stanton, Jr., in the body, - - - - Stonington William Seymour, lost his leg, ----- Hartford Ensign Jos. Woodmansee, lost one eye, - - - Groton Sanford Williams, in the body, ----- Groton Asel Woodworth, in the neck, - - . . Groton Thomas Woodworth, in the leg, ----- Groton Zibe Woodworth, in the knee, - - - - Groton ADDITIONAL NAMES NOT ON AVERy'S LIST, BUT IN THAT PRINTED BY MR. HARRIS. Samuel Stillman, arm and thigh, - - - . Saybrook Tom Wansuc (Pequot Indian), bayonet stab in neck, Groton If to these we add, — Edward Stanton, in the body, ----- Stonington who is in the list of wounded reported by the committee of the legislature, we have exactly the number (35) reported by Stephen Hempstead as being paroled. The large proportion of officers among the killed and wounded is accounted for by the fact that after six years of war, many men had been in the army or militia and earned their titles. When the alarm was sounded, the same spirit which had raised them to command, at once brought them to the fort as volunteers. They were there prompt for duty. Others were officers of privateers or merchantmen lying in the harbor, whose fearless hearts prompted them to lend a hand in defence of the fort. * The name is in the original manuscript, but has never been given in any printed list. — A. I Frederick Wave first appeared in Rathbun's Narrative, before alluded to, and was copied by Mr. Harris. The original manuscript list of paroled wounded is that of Rufus Avery, in which this name is Frederick Moore. Though carelessly written, anyone can see the same reading which gave us Wave should have given us Wavgan for Morgan. Frederick Moore drew a pension. I have put him in place of Wave, who has for a century taken the honors due to Moore, who lost a house on Groton Bank by the fire. No trace of Wave can be found. He seems to have disappeared as completely as his namesakes after a gale. The Battle of Grotofi Heights. 1 3 OTHERS, BOTH UNHURT AND WOUNDED, NOT TAKEN PRISONERS. Benjamin Bill, wounded in the ankle, - - - Groton Joshua Bill, in the leg, ------ Groton Benajah Holdridge, ------- Groton Samuel W. Jacques, ------- Exeter, R. I. Amos Lester, in the hip, ------ Groton Gary Leeds, ^ died December 28, - - - - - Groton William Latham, Jr., (a boy of twelve, who was allowed to go free) -------- Groton Henry Mason, in the leg, ------ Groton Japheth Mason, -------- New London James Morgan, fifteen bayonet pricks in back and legs, --------- Groton Thomas Mallison, ------- Groton Joseph Moxley, Jr., in the body, ----- Groton Elisha Morgan, -------- Groton John Prentis, slightly wounded, ----- New London WOUNDED ON NEW LONDON SIDE. Samuel Booth Hempstead, shot in thigh. Elijah Richards, died September 20. Johathan Whaley. PRISONERS CARRIED OFF. Sergeant Rufus Avery, Walter Harris, ^ Caleb Avery, Jeremiah Harding, Peter Avery, — Kilburn, Samuel Abraham, Ebenezer Ledyard (hostage), Joshua Baker, William Latham, Reuben Bushnell, Jonathan Minor, Captain William Coit ^ (taken on Isaac Morgan, New London side), Isaac Rowley, Charles Chester, Lieutenant Jabez Stow (of Fort Nathan Darrow, Trumbull), Saybrook, Elias Dart, Corporal Josiah Smith, Levi Dart, Holsey Sanford, Gilbert Edgcomb, Solomon Tift, Daniel Eldridge, Horatio Wales, Ebenezer Fish, Thomas Welles. I See report to Legislature, page 138 1 Captain of the f rst company in New London to respond to the Lexington alarm. Afterward in the naval service, in which he boasted " he was the first man to turn King George Ill's bunting upside down." 2 Mr. Walter Harris, living on Town Hill, near Fort Nonsense, in the house now occupied by his grandson, Douglas W. Gardner, was staying by the house, and when Arnold came by he recognized him, hailed him as a traitor, and further relieved his mind regarding his conduct, for which he was taken prisoner and sent off with the rest. 14 The Battle of Grotou Heights. Of the one hundred and sixty odd men who were in the fort on that 6th of September, almost all were natives of New London and Groton, and most fought in the sight and all within the hearing of their own firesides. Their wives and children or fathers and mothers heard the guns they fired and those of the enemy by which they died. They could only imagine the bayonet stabs by which the greater por- tion of them were murdered after the surrender. When the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry ceased, and they knew by the curhng smoke of the burning town that the invaders w^ere victors, they still hoped for humanity to the vanquished. Not till the hostile flag at the mast-head of the British fleet disappeared in the darkness did those friends and neighbors gather to find their loved ones dead among heaps of slain, literall}- butchered by the barbarism of a civilized peo- ple worse than that of the savages. How easy to picture men and women, wives, mothers, sweethearts, fathers and brothers, examining the faces of the sleepers to find the dearest idols of the heart cold in death, bathed in gore, murdered by brutal enemies; led by a traitor who in other years had known every foot of the ground so bravely consecrated to a noble memory. Does not the reader see the crowd of anxious ones all that long night after the slaughter, some with lanterns, others by their hands alone, searching for their household treasures, and, having found them, tenderly and carefully as a mother lays her infant to sleep, carrying the .still bleeding body on the rude country-made , bier, raised on the shoulders of old men and boys, to the near or distant home for burial? So they went, with the AUyns northward to their century old, famil}- graveyard b}' the river bank, with the Perkinses and Starrs northeastward, with the Averys and Ledyards south, all to their final resting place — burying them with simple rites and uncovered heads among their ancestors in the almost neglected " God's Acre," where it will be an honor for the generations of all time to lie in ground which their valor defended, which their freely-given lives sanctified, and which their holy dust has forever consecrated to libert}' and patriotism. About four hundred and fifty 3'ards southeast from the fort is the grave of Colonel Ledyard, whose name has been given to the ceme- tery, which was formerly known as that of Packer's Rock, from the high ledge upon its eastern border. In 1854 the State appropriated fifteen hundred dollars for the erection of a suitable memorial to the martyr. His remains, with those of his wife and children, were removed a few yards to the west, near the centre of the ground, and a Note — No list of the wounded and prisoners has ever been made until this list of mine, which is made up from pension lists, official reports, petitions, newspaper obituaries, family letters, and traditions handed down from father to son or daughter, as it chanced to be one or the other, of a nature to be interested in the family history. — Charles Allvn. Colonel Ledyard's nonument. The Original Headstone at the left of Monument. The Battle of Gi'oton Heights. 1 5 beautiful monument, cut from native granite, was erected over his grave. It is enclosed by an iron railing supported by posts appropriately cast in the form of cannon. Within the inclosure are the remains of the slab of blue slate which originally marked the grave ; it is now nearly destroyed, and the inscription rendered illegible by the vandal- ism of the rehc hunter. On the west face of the monument, upon the shaft, an unsheathed sabre is carved in relief; below, upon the sub- base, in raised letters, is the name LED YARD, and on the die is the following inscription : — Sons of Connecticut Behold this monument and learn to emulate the virtue valor and Patriotism of your ancestors. The south face bears the following : — ERECTED IN 1854. <$>♦<§> By the State of Connecticut in remembrance of the painful events that took place in this neighborhood during the war of the Revolution ; It commemorates the burning of New London, the Storming of Groton Fort the Massacre of the Garrison and the slaughter of Ledyard the brave Commander of these posts who was slain by the Conquerors with his own Sword. <§>*^ He fell in the service of his country Fearless of death and prepared to die. On the north: — Copy of the Inscription on ttie Head-Stone originally erected over the Grave of Colonel Ledyard. Sacred to the Memory of William Ledyard Efqr Coll Commandant of the Garrifoned pofts of New London & Groton ; Who after a gallant defence, was with a part of the brave Garrifon, inhumanly Maff acred ; by britifh troops in Fort Griswold, Sep 6 1781 Aetatis suae 43 By a judicious & Faithful difcharge of the various duties of his Station, He rendered moft efential Service to his Country; and Itood confeffed, the unfhaken Patriot; and intrepid Hero. He lived, the Pattern of Magnanimity; Courtefy, and Humanity. He fell the Victim of ungenerous Rage and Cruelty i6 The Battle of Groton Heights. REFERENCES TO FORT GRISWOLD. Magazine. SalleePort. A ditch leading to battery below. Embrazine where Major Montgomery fell. Barracks. Well. 8, g. Points where the light companies of the 40th entered. Guns that harrassed the enemy. Ravelin that covered the gate. A rock not cut away, which gives an entrance into the work. From E to F round the sides D, C and B the work is fraised. On the curtain A to the angle F was ;i baibette battery. H is at the southeast corner. F is at the southwest corner. F. Monument View. ij The Monument View. North Window — Thames River; Railroad Bridge; Odd Fellows' Home; Navy Yard; Montville; Salem; Ledyard; Brewster's Neck. East Window — Mystic and Stonington ; Old Avery House ; Fort Hill ; Lantern Hill; Mystic Island and Light-ship; Latimer Reef Light-house; Wicopesset Island; Watch Hill; Block Island; Point Judith ; Gay Head. South Window — Ledyard Cemetery ; Fort Griswold House ; Eastern Point; New London Light; Pequot House; Ocean Beach; Fishers Island ; Long Island; Gardners Island; Plum Island; Montauk Point; Bartletts Reef Light-ship; Race Rock Light; North Dumpling Light ; Gull Island Light. West Window — City of New London and Harbor ; Fort Trumbull ; Water Tower ; Old Town Mill ; Cedar Grove Cemetery ; Jor- dan ; Niantic ; Waterf ord ; Lyme ; Connecticut River ; Pleasure Beach. Rufus Avery's Narrative OF THE BATTLE OF FORT GRISWOLD FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.^ AS I belonged to the garrison at Fort Griswold when Benedict Arnold's army came to New London and Groton, on the sixth of September, 1781, and made their attack on both places, I had every opportunity to know all the movements through the day and time of the battle. I am requested to give a particular account of the conduct of the enemy. I had charge of the garrison the night before the enemy appeared anywhere near us, or were expected by any one at that time to trouble us. But about three o'clock in the morning as soon as I had daylight so as to see the fleet, it appeared a short distance below the light-house. The fleet consisted of thirty-two vessels in number — ships, brigs, schooners, and sloops. I immediately sent word to Captain William Latham, who commanded the said fort and who was not far distant. He very soon came to the fort, and saw the enemy's fleet, and immediately sent a notice to Col. William Led- yard, who was commander of the harbor. Fort Griswold and Fort Trumbull. He soon arrived at the garrison, saw the fleet, then ordered two large guns to be loaded with heavy charges of good powder, &c. Captain William Latham took charge of one gun that was discharged at the northeast part of the fort, and I took charge of the gun on the west side of the fort, so as to give a " larum " to the country in the best manner that it could be done. We discharged then regular ^ A publication purporting to be this narative has been twice printed; first by one Rathbun, in 1840, who had the effrontery to put at the head of it, " In his own words," while in the story were many changes and additions (amounting to pages in his pamphlet), in places converting the simple English of Mr. Avery into bombastic nonsense; Mr. Harris, accepting the " In his own words " as a sufficient guarantee of genuineness, copied it entire in 1870. I had the good fortune to have a friend remark that he " had read the original, and thought it had been fixed up some," but was not quite sure, as it was " some years ago." I at once got the original manuscript, by the kindness of its owner, and read it with the printed copy, and now, for the first time, is the original manuscript given in print. I have taken the liberty of using the present popular spelling, rather than the somewhat " phonetic" manner of the writer, perhaps to be made popular by "spelling-reform advocates." — A. 18 Narrative of Rufiis Avery. 1 9 "larums." Two guns was the regular " larum," but the enemy under- stood that, and they discharged a third gun similar to ours and timed it alike, which broke our alarm, which discouraged our troops coming to our assistance. Col. William Ledyard immediately sent out two expresses, one from each fort, to call on every captain of a militia company of men to hurry them in to our relief. But not many came to our assistance. Their excuse was that they supposed it to be only a false alarm. The discharge of the third gun by the enemy entirely changed the alarm. It was customary, when there was a good prize brought into the harbor, or on the receipt of any good news, to rejoice by discharging three cannon, and this the enemy understood. They landed eight hundred officers and men and some horses and large guns and carriages on the beach at Eastern Point, Groton side of the river, about eight o'clock in the morning, and on New London side of the river below the light-house on the beach seven hundred officers and men at the same time. The army on the Groton side was divided into two divisions, about four hundred in each division. Col. Aires^ took command of the division southeast of the fort, about one hundred and thirty rods from the fort, behind a ledge of rocks. Major Montgomery took command of his division about one hundred and fifty rods from the fort, behind a high hill of land. The army on New London side of the river found better and more accommodating land for marching than on Groton side, and as soon as they got against Fort Trumbull they separated into two divisions : one went on to the town of New London, and plundered and set fire to the shipping and buildings, and the other division marched directly down to Fort Trum- bull. Capt. Shapley, who commanded the fort, saw that he was likely to be overpowered by the enemy, spiked up the cannon, and embarked on board his boats, which were prepared for him and his men if wanted. But the enemy were so quick upon him that before he and his small company could get out of gunshot in their boats a number of his men got badly wounded. Those that were able to get to Fort Griswold reached there, and most of them were slain. Col. Aires and Major Montgomery had their divisions stationed about nine o'clock in the morning. As soon as they appeared in sight we hove a number of shot at them, but they would endeavor to disappear immediately. About ten o'clock in the forenoon they sent their flag to demand of Col. Ledyard the surrender of the fort. The party with the flag approached within about forty rods of the fort, and we discharged a musket ball before them and brought them to a stand. Col. Led- yard called a council of war to take the minds of his fellow officers ^ Eyre. 20 Narrative of Rufus Avery. and friends as to what was to be done. They agreed to send a flag to meet theirs, and chose Capt. Elijah Avery, Capt. Amos Stanton, ^ and Capt. John WilUams. They immediately met the British flag, and re- ceived a demand to give the fort to them. Our flag soon returned with the summons, which was to surrender the fort to them. Inquiry was made of the council as to what must be done, and the answer was sent to the British flag that the fort would not be given up. Their flag went back to Col. Eyre's division, and soon returned to within about seventy rods of the fort, when they were again met by our flag, which brought back to Col. Ledyard the demand if they had to take the fort by storm they should put martial law in force; that is, whom they did not kill with balls should be put to death with sword and bayonet. Our flag went to the British flag with Col. Ledyard's answer that he should not give up the fort to them, let the consequence be what it might. While the flags were passing between us we were exchanging shots with the British at Fort Trumbull, of which they had got posses- sion of said fort before the commencement of the battle at Fort Gris- wold. We could heave a shot into Fore Trumbull among the enemy without difficulty, but they could not raise a shot so high as to come into Fort Griswold. Having obtained possession of our good powder and shot left by Capt. Shapley in the fort, they used it against us. About eleven o'clock in the forenoon the enemy found out what we were determined to do. Both divisions started ; that of Col. Eyre came on in solid column. As soon as he got on level ground we were prepared to salute them with a gun that took in an eighteen-pound ball, but was then loaded with two bags of grape shot. Capt. Elias Henry Halsey directed the gun, and took aim at the enemy. He had practiced on board of privateers, and he did his duty well. I was present with him and others near the g^n, and when the shot struck among the enemy it cleared a wide space in their solid column. It was reported on good authority that about twenty men were killed and wounded by that charge of grape shot. As soon as the enemy's column was broken by their loss of officers and men, they scattered and trailed their arms, and came on with a quick march and oblique step toward the fort inclining to the west. During this time we hove cannon and musket shot among the enemy. Col. Eyre's division came up to the south side and west side of the fort, where he was mortally wounded. Major Montgomery, who started with his division at the ^ Captain Stanton, a man of almost gigantic stature and herculean strength, on seeing the slaugh- ter continued after the surrender, is said to have seized a heavy musket by the muzzle, and exclaiming, "My God, must we die so! " sprang upon the platform on the west side of the fort, and nearly cleared it of the enemy before he was brought down by a musket-shot. — H. Narrative of Rufus Avery. 2 1 same time that Eyre did to come to the fort in soUd column, incUned to the north, until they got east of the redoubt or battery, which is east of the fort, when a large number of them came very quick into the battery. Our officers threw a heavy charge of grape shot among them, which destroyed a large number. They then started for the fort, a part of them in platoons, discharging their guns as they advanced, while some scattering officers and soldiers came round to the east and north part of the fort. As soon as the enemy got round the fort one RESIDENCE OF JAMES AVERY, ERECTED BY HIS ANCESTORS EIGHT GENERATIONS BACK, 1656. DESTROYED BY FIRE. man attempted to open the gate. He lost his life. There was hard fighting some time before the second man made the trial to open the gate, which he did. Our little number of one hundred and fifty-five officers and soldiers, most of whom were volunteers when the battle began, were soon overpowered. Then there was no block-house on the parade, as there is now, and the enemy had every opportunity to kill and wound almost every man in the fort. When they had over- powered us and driven us from our stations at the breastworks of the fort, Col. Wm. Ledyard seeing what few officers and men he had left to do any more fighting, they quit their posts, and went on the open parade in the fort, where the enemy had every opportunity to mas- 22 Narrative of Riifiis Avery. sacre us ; there was about six of the enemy to one of us. The enemy mounted the parapet seemingly all as one, swung their hats around once, and discharged their guns, and them they did not kill with ball they meant to kill with the bayonet. I was on the west side of the fort, with Capt. Edward Latham and Mr. Christopher Latham, on the platform ; had a full sight of the enemy's conduct, and within five feet of these two men. I had at that time a ball and bayonet hole in my coat. As soon as the enemy discharged their guns they knocked down the two men before mentioned with the britch of their guns, and put their bayonets into them, but did not quite kill them. By this time Major Montgomery's division, then under the command of Capt. Bloomfield^ (the other gates having been unbolted by one of the men), marched in through the gates, and formed a solid column. At this time I left my station on the west side of the fort, and went across the south part of the parade towards the south end of the barrack. Col. Wm. Ledyard was on the parade, marching toward the enemy under Capt. Bloomfield, raising and lowering his sword. He was then about six or eight feet from the British ofificer. I turned my. eyes from Led- yard and stepped up to the door of the barrack, and saw the enemy discharging their guns through the windows. I turned myself imme- diately about, and the enemy had executed Col. Ledyard, in less time than one minute after I saw him.^ The column then continued marching toward the south end of the parade. I could do no better than to pass across the parade before the enemy's column, as they discharged the volleys of three platoons, the fire of which I went through. I believe there was not less than five or six hundred men of the enemy on the parade in the fort. They killed and wounded nearly every man in the fort, as quick as they could, which was done in about one minute. I expected my time to come with the rest. One mad- looking fellow put his bayonet to my side, and swore, " bejasus, he would skipper me." I looked him very earnestly in the face and eyes, and asked for mercy and to spare my life. He attempted three times to put the bayonet into me, but I must say I believe God forbade him, for I was completely in his power, as well as others that was present ■^ Broomfield. ^ Since this transaction there has ever existed in the public mind great uncertainty as to -who was the murderer of Colonel Ledyard, the odium being divided between Major Bromfield, who succeeded Major Montgomery in command of the British troops on that occasion, and Captain Beckwith, of the 54th regiment. No person who actually witnessed the deed survived the battle,* or if any did they left no account of it behind them; and therefore the version of the manner of Ledyard's death com- * Mr. Harris is in error here, I believe, as I myself have heard this action described by three people whose fathers saw the murder, and often told of it to their children (see notes on Andrew Gallup and Caleb Avery). This being the case,, most of the ground for Mr. Harris's argument is taken away. The argument, though ingenious, is not conclusive, since no one can by reasoning be certain what positions would be taken in moments of such excitement. The most natural positions are those which agree with the popularly received account, as men of military experience and education, I think, will agree. — A. Narrative of Rufus Avery. 23 with the enemy. The enemy at the same time massacred Lieut. Enoch Stanton within four or five feet of me. A platoon of about ten men marched up near where I stood, where two large outer doors to the magazine made a space wide enough for ten men to stand in one rank. They discharged their guns into the magazine among the dead and wounded, and some well ones, and some they killed and wounded. That platoon fell back, and another platoon came forward to discharge their guns into the outer part of the magazine, where the others did- As they made ready to fire, Capt. Bloomfield came suddenly round the corner of the magazine, and very quickly raised his sword, exclaim- ing: "Stop firing! You'll send us all to hell together!" Their language was bad as well as their conduct. I was near him when he spoke. Bloomfield knew there must be, of course, much powder scat- tered about the magazine, and a great quantity deposited there, but I expect the reason it did not take fire was that there was so much human blood to put it out. They did not bayonet many after they ceased firing their guns. I was amongst them all the time, and they monly received as the correct one is but merely a conjecture, at the most. By this, the deed is ascribed to the officer who received Ledyard's surrender of the fort, supposed by the greater number to have been Major Bromfield; others at the time, and for a long time subsequent, laid the infamous transaction to the charge of Captain feckwith, supposing him to have been the officer who met Ledyard and demanded the surrender. Let us consider the matter a little, and see if we be able to reconcile the known facts and strong . probabilities in the case, with this generally received opinion. Upon the entry of the British officer to the fort, and at his demand of who commanded it. Colonel Ledyard advanced to answer, " I did," etc., at the same time tendering him the hilt of his sword in token of submission. It is obvious that in this action Colonel Ledyard must have presented the front of his person to that officer. Now, had the latter, in taking the surrendered sword, instantly (as all accounts charge him with having done) plunged it into him, is it not also evident that it must have entered in front and passed out at at the back of his person? The vest and shirt worn that day by Colonel Ledyard, preserved in the Wads- worth Athenaeum at Hartford, upon examination reveal two rough, jagged openings, one on either side, a little before and in a line with the lower edge of the arm-holes of the vest. The larger of these apertures is upon the left side; the difference in size between it and that on the right corresponds with the taper of a sabre blade from hilt to point, showing conclusively that the weapon entered from the left and passed out at the right, and that the person by whom the wound was inflicted must have stood upon the left side of the wearer when the plunge was made. These holes are marked: that on the left as " where the sword entered," and that on the right as " where the sword came out."— s6 marked, doubtless, by the person who presented these memorials to the society, a near relative of Colonel Ledyard, and who considered them as the marks of the fatal wound. These are the only marks visible upon the garment. It is a reasonable supposition that when the British officer entered and thundered his demand he carried his drawn sword in his right hand ; for we can scarcely imagine an officer rushing unarmed into a place of such danger and demanding a surrender. Now, in case he did so carry his sword, he must necessarily either have sheathed, dropped, or changed it to his left hand, in order to receive Ledyard's with his right; and this hardly seems possible. We must there- fore suppose that he received it in his left hand ; and if so, does it not appear as most unreasonable that, having a sword in either hand, he would have used that in his left with which to make the thrust ? Yet he must have done so if it was by his own sword VhsX Ledyard met his death. Neither does it appear possible that in the heat and excitement of the engagement, coolly calculating the chances, he would have passed round to the left of his victim for the purpose of making the wound more surely fatal, — the only reason for which we can suppose it to have been done. We have seen from the position occupied by the parties that the wound, if inflicted instantly on the surrender of the sword, must have been given in front ; the marks in the vest conclusively prove it to have been given in the left side. We have seen the awkward position of the officer with his own sword in his right and Ledyard's in his left hand, — a situation almost precluding the idea of his 24 Narrative of Rufus Avery. very soon left off killing, and then went stripping and robbing the dead and wounded, and also those that were not wounded. They then ordered each one of us to march out to the northeast part of the parade, and them that could not go themselves, from their wounds, were to be helped by those that were well. Mr. Samuel Edgecomb, Jr., and myself were ordered to take Ensign Charles Eldredge out of the magazine. He was a very large, heavy man, who had been shot in the knee joint. We poor prisoners were taken out on the parade, about two rods from the gates of the fort, and every man ordered to sit down immediately, and if not obeyed at once the bayonet was to be put into him. The battle was then finished, which was about one o'clock in the afternoon ; the enemy began to take care of their dead and wounded. The first thing they did was take off six of the outer doors of the barracks and, with four men to a door, would bring in one man at a time on each door. There were twenty-four men at work about two hours as fast as they could walk and deposit them on the west side of the parade in the fort, where it was the most comfortable place they could find, while we poor prisoners were put in the most uncomfortable spot on the parade, in the fort, where the sun shown down so very warm on us that it made us feel more unhappy. Some of the wounded men lay dying. Capt. Youngs Ledyard and Capt. Nathan Moore were among the number. I sat on the ground with the other prisoners, and these two fine men lay on the ground by me, Ledyard's making the stab with the latter. We have also seen that no person who witnessed it left any testi- mony regarding the affair, and that all that the commonly received version of it is based upon is really but the surmises of a people wrought almost to desperation by their losses and wrongs, who in the first moments of exasperation would naturally attribute an act of such enormity to the commander as the representative of the enemy. Now, after considering all these facts and probabilities, is it not a more rational conclusion that the wound was given by a by-standing ofiScer — a subaltern or aid, perhaps — than that it was inflicted by the officer to whom Ledyard offered his sword? It certainly so appears to us. But in case that, despite all these reasons for believing that officer innocent of the crime, he was really guilty, of the two to whom it has been charged, against but one is there any evidence to sustain the charge, and this is purely circumstantial. Captain Beckwith acted as aid to Lieutenant- Colonel Eyre on the day of the battle, and was the officer sent to demand the surrender of the fort. He, with Lord Dalrymple, was sent by Arnold as bearer of dispatches to Sir henry Clinton, and in all probability furnished the account of the battle for Rivington's Gazette, which appeared in that paper before the remainder of the expedition had reached New York. In this account, in which the details of the conference regarding the surrender are given with a minuteness with which only an eye-witness could give them, personal malice toward Colonel Ledyard is a salient feature, which the most unobservant reader cannot fail to notice. The writer appears to have considered the flag and the officers bearing it insulted in the conference; and in his references to the garrison, and to Colonel Ledyard in particular, he expresses himself in the most contemptuous and bitter terms. If he was the officer to whom the surrender was made, it is possible that on beholding the man who he fancied had insulted him he allowed his rage to supplant his manhood, and, forgetting his military honor, plunged his sword into his vanquished enemy. From Miss Caulkins' History of New London we learn that he afterward passed through New York on his way to Barbadoes. While there he was charged by the newspapers of that city with the murder, which he indignantly denied. A correspondence was opened between him and a relative of Colonel Ledyard in reference to the question, when he produced documents which exculpated him. In view of this, however, as between him and Major Bromfield, circumstantial evidence is strongly in favor of the latter, who doubt- less could have furnished as full documentary proof of his innocence, had he been called upon for it. — H. Narrative of Rufus Avery. ' 25 head on one thigh, and Moore's head on the other. They both died that night. While I was with them they had their reason, and re- quested water for their thirst. I asked of the enemy water for my brother prisoners to drink, as well as for myself. They granted my request. The well was within two rods of us. I watched them when they brought the water to me for us to drink, to see that they did not put anything in it to poison us ; for they had repeatedly said that we must all die before the sun went down, because that was in the sum- mons sent to Col. Wm. Ledyard that those who were not killed by musket-ball should die by the sword and bayonet. But happy for us that was alive they did not offer to hurt any one man, and they said that was a falsehood. They kept us on the ground in the garrison about two hours after the battle was over, and then ordered every man who was able to walk to rise up immediately. Sentries with loaded guns and fixed bayonets were placed around us, with orders to shoot or bayonet any one that did not obey the officer. I was obliged to leave two dying men that were resting on me as they lay on the ground beside me. We marched down on the bank by the river so as to be ready to embark to go on board the British fleet. Then, about thirty of us, every man was ordered to set down, and, as at other times, was surrounded with sentries. Capt. Broomfield came and took the names of the wounded that were able to march down with us. I sat where I had a fair view of the enemy's conduct. The sun was about half an hour high, and they were setting fire to the buildings, and bringing down plunder by us as were placed at the lower part of the village. At the same time a large number of the enemy between us and the fort were getting ready to quit the ground. They loaded up our very large, heavy ammunition wagon that belonged to the fort with the wounded men who could not go themselves, and about twenty of the soldiers drew it out of the fort and brought it to the brow of the hill on which the fort stood, which was very steep and about thirty rods distance. As soon as the enemy began to move the wagon down the hill, they began to put themselves in a position to hold it back with all their power. They found it too much for them to do ; they released their hold on the wagon as quick as possible to prevent being run over by the wagon themselves, leaving it to run down the hill with great speed. It ran about twelve rods to a large apple tree stump, and both shafts of the wagon struck very hard, and hurt the wounded men very much. A great number of the enemy were near where the wagon stopped, and they immediately ran to the wagon and brought that and the wounded men by where we prisoners were sitting on the ground, and deposited them in the house near by, that belonged to Ensign Ebenezer Avery, who was one that was in the wagon when it started down the hiil. Some of the enemy had set fire to the house before the wounded prisoners were placed in it, but the fire was put out by 26 Narrative of Rufus Avery. some of the others. Capt. Bloomfield paroled the wounded men who were left, and took Ebenezer Ledyard, Esq., as a hostage for them left on parol, to see them forthcoming if called for. By this time the enemy's boats came up to the shore near where we prisoners were. The officer spoke with a doleful sound: "Come, you rebels, go on board the boats." That touched my feelings more than anything that passed for the day. I realized that I should have to leave my dear wife and my good neighbors and friends, and also my native land, and suffer with cold and hunger, as I was in the power of a cruel foe or enemy ; but I was still in the hands of a higher power, which was a great consolation to me, for I am sensible that God has preserved my life through many hardships, and when in danger of losing my life many times in the wars, etc. When we prisoners had marched down to the shore, the boats that were to receive us on board were kept off where the water was about knee-deep, and we were marched down in two ranks, one on each side of the boat. The officer that had the command very harshly ordered us to "get onboard immediately." There were about twelve prisoners in a boat. They rowed us down to an armed sloop, commanded by one Capt Thomas, as they called him, a refugee tory, who lay with his vessel within the fleet. As soon as they put us on broad the sloop they shut us down in the hold of the vessel, where they had a fire for cooking, which made it very hot and smoky. They stopped up the hatchway, making it so close that we had no air to breathe. We begged that they would spare our lives, and they gave us some relief by opening the hatchway, and letting one or two of us come on deck at a time during the night, but with sentries with guns and bayonets to watch us. They did not give us anything to eat or drink for about twenty-four hours, and then only a mess made of hogs' brains that they caught on Groton bank, with other plunder. While we were on board Thomas's sloop we had nothing to eat or drink that we could hardly swallow. This continued about three days. There were a number of weapons of war where we were placed in the vessel, and some of the prisoners whispered together that there was an opportunity to make a prize of the sloop. This somehow got to the officers' ears, and they immediately shut us all down in the hold of the vessel. I felt very certain that we would have to suffer, for they seemed so enraged that they appeared to have an intention to massacre us all. They soon got ready, and began to call us up on deck one by one. As I came up they tied my hands behind me with strong rope yarns, binding them together, and winding the rope yarn so hard as to nearly bring my shoulder blade to touch each other. Then they had a boat come from a fourteen-gun brig com- manded by a Capt. Steel, by name and nature. I was ordered to get over the side of the sloop without the use of my hands, the bulwarks above the deck being all of three feet in height, and then I had to fall The Gardner Homestead, New London. The House Known as the Gardner Homestead is a Relic of a Past Generation. It was re-built after the original model by the Late Owner, Douglass W. Gardner, in 1870. Several Relics of Historic Interest Connected with this Old Place are a Belt Buckle, Bearing the Initials of King George and the British Coat of Arms, and Indian Arrow Heads and Banner Stones used by the Various Tribes as Signals. View of New London Harbor on Regatta Day. Showing the Steamer " City, of ^Worcester," of the Norwich Line. Narrative of Rufiis Avery. I'j into the boat that was to carry us to the brig, and was made to lay down under the seats on which the rowers sat, as though we were brutes about to be slaughtered. After we were put on board the brig, we were ordered to stand in one rank beside the gunwale of the vessel, and a spar was placed before us leaving about one foot space for each man to stand in, with a sentry to nearly every man, with orders to bayonet or shoot any one that offered to move. They kept us in that situation about two hours in the rain and cold with very thin clothing upon us, and then gave us liberty to go about the main deck, and were obliged to lie on the wet deck without anything to eat or drink for supper. We were on board the brig about four days, and then put on board a ship commanded by Capt. Scott, who appeared very friendly to we prisoners. He took me on the quarter-deck with him. He was apparently about sixty years of age, and I remained with him until I was exchanged. Captain Nathaniel Shaw came down to New York with the American flag after me, and four young men that were made prisoners with me that belonged to the garrison at Fort Griswold, and during the time of the battle behaved like good soldiers. General Mifflin came with the British flag to meet the American flag. I sailed with him about twenty miles in the flag-boat. He asked me some questions, but I gave him little or no information, and told him I was very sorry that they came to destroy so many good men, and cause so much distress to families and desolation in the community, by burning so much valuable property, and further, that I did not believe that they would gain any honor by it. He replied, we might thank our own countrymen for it. I told him that / should not. I then turned to the General and said, will you answer me a few ques- tions? "As many as you please, Sir," was the reply. I made many inquiries, and asked him how many of the enemy were missing that were engaged in the attack on Groton and New London, remarking, " Sir, I expect you can tell as you are the Commissary of the British Army." He said, "I find in the returns that there were two hundred and twenty odd missing, but I don't know what became of them." Here I conclude the foregoing particular account from my own per- sonal knowledge of the British attack and capture of Fort Griswold, and their brutal conduct at New London and Groton, and also of their barbarous treatment of the prisoners who fell into their hands. Attest: RUFUS AVERY, Orderly Sergeant, under Captain William Latham, who commanded the Matross Company at Fort Griswold, Sept. 6, 1781. Narrative of Avery Downer, M. D., Assistant Surgeon of the Eighth Regiment of Connecticut Militia.i ON the morning of the 6th of September, 1781, a British fleet of twenty-four sail was discovered entering the harbor of New London. Arnold, the commander, being a native of Norwich, and well acquainted with the river and harbor, which was of much service to him, and also many tories and traitors of equal infamy with himself accompanied him, which is evidence that traitors indulge more revenge than a common enemy. I performed militia military duty as rank and file, by detachment from my company and regiment at Fort Griswold, a number of times during the summer of 1779. In 1781 I served as an assistant surgeon of the 8th regiment of Connecticut militia, including Fort Griswold in its limits. I well remember the morning of the alarm, two guns from the fort in a given time was the alarm. This the enemy well understood, and they fired a third, by which we in Preston were deceived, being fourteen miles distant. Doctor Joshua Downer, my father, and surgeon of the said 8th regiment, said to me and others in the morning that the firing must be an alarm ; but it was doubted, until the smoke of New London appeared like a cloud, which I well remember. My father immediately started for the fort and ordered me to follow him. On his arrival near the meeting-house he met Benjamin Bill and others who had escaped from the enemy slightly wounded. He dressed their wounds, and proceeded to the house of James Bailey, where he found Charles Eldridge wounded in the knee. He dressed him and proceeded, by orders from the field officers of his regiment, to the house of Ebenezer Avery. The surviving British commander, Bloomfield, had ordered all the wounded to be collected on the bank of the river near the house. All that were able to go to New York were sent down to the shipping; the remainder were paroled and left. Soon after the enemy were gone my father and Doctor Prentiss went into the house and took charge of forty wounded men. I got to ^ This narrative was first prepared for use as an address on September 6, 1849, but was not used, the attendance being so small on account of a rain storm. — A. 28 Narrative of Avery Downer, M. D. 29 their assistance at about twelve o'clock at night. Capt. Youngs Ledyard and one more died before morning. By daylight all were taken care of, and we with others went into the fort. When we came to Colonel Ledyard, the friend and neighbor of Doctor Prentiss, he exclaimed, " Oh, my God, I cannot endure this!" Our dead were by the enemy mostly left on the parade in front of the barracks; their dead they buried in the ditch, of a triangular work, made to cover the gate. Major Montgomery they buried on the right of the gate as we pass out, which I well remember.^ According to Arnold's dispatches to His Excellency Sir Henry Clinton, dated Plum Island, September 8th, 1781, it appears that the forces which he sent on the Groton side of the river consisted of the 40th and 54th British regiments, and the 3d battalion of New Jersey volunteers, with a detachment of Yaggers and artillery, all under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre. Arnold landed his division on the New London side of the river, and was informed by friends that Fort Griswold contained only about twenty or thirty men. In this his good friends deceived him, for in his dispatches he says that the defence was so obstinate that he sent an officer to countermand his order for assault just as the fort was carried. Fort Trumbull, on the New London side of the river, was little more than a water battery open from behind, and the enemy coming in that direction the men spiked their guns and crossed the river and went into Fort Griswold. On the approach of the British the commander sent a Captain Beckwith, a Jersey refugee, to demand a surrender of the fort. Colonel Ledyard ordered a shot fired in front, which stopped the flag. He then sent Captain Amos Stanton and Captain Shapley with his flag ; the demand of Beckwith was refused and the flags returned. Eyre and Montgomery then advanced their columns, and the attack commenced on three sides of the fort at the same time. In about forty minutes the assailants entered the fort. According ^ The Hon. J. P. C. Mather relates that some years since, during his official residence in Hart- ford — Colonel Samuel Green, son and successor of Timothy Green, publisher of Connecticut Gazette in 1781, related to him that some years after the battle an Irish gentleman came to New London selling a patent, or appliance connected with printing. After disposing of that business, at his request, Colonel Green took him to the scene of the battle on Groton Heights, where he sought out a survivor of the fight, from whom he learned of the exact place of Major Montgomery's burial; and explained that he came from the same town as the Major, whose sisters, still living, had charged him, if his travels in America brought him near the place of their brother's death, to find his grave and if possible procure his skull and bring it home to be buried within the family circle in the old church-yard. With the assistance of the Colonel and the survivor he obtained the sought for relic and departed well pleased with the result of his visit. After the above was written, in an interview with a daughter of one of the survivors, she volunteered the same information as occurring within her own knowledge. Though not quite so full, as to the interested parties, her facts agreed with the above. — A. 30 Narrative of Avery Downer, M. D. to Arnold's dispatches, before referred to, as published in Green's paper of • New London, (Connecticut Gazette),. it appears that his loss was : — KILLED. WOUNDED. I Major, I Lieutenant-Colonel, 1 Captain, 3 Captains, 2 Sergeants, ' 2 Lieutenants, 44 Rank and File. 2 Ensigns, Since died of wounds, 3 Sergeants, I Captain, 2 Drummers, I Lieutenant, 127 Rank and File. I Ensign. Total killed and died of wounds, 51. Total wounded, deducting three since died of wounds, 137. The American loss was, killed, 84; wounded, 40. Stephen Hempstead, one of the wounded survivors of the action, went to the State of Missouri, near St. Louis, in 1811. He published there a narrative of the battle on Groton Heights — correct in some things and very incorrect in others — and particularly so in the case of Colonel Nathan Gallup. In his narrative he says : " But a militia colonel was in the fort, and promised Colonel Ledyard that if he would hold out he would reinforce him in fifteen minutes with two or three hundred men. Colonel Ledyard agreed to send back a defiance upon the most solemn assurance of immediate succor. For this purpose Colonel started, his men being then in sight ; but he was no more seen, nor did he even attempt a diversion in our favor." Almost every person knew that Colonel Nathan Gallup was meant. He was at that time lieutenant-colonel of the 8th regiment of Con- necticut Militia. The true facts in the case are these : Colonel Benadam Gallup was in the fort previous to the action. Colonel I,edyard requested him to go back as far as Captain Belton's and urge on the men, but before he had time to return the enemy were so near that he could not re-enter the fort.^ In 1782 Colonel McClellan, of Woodstock, was commander of New London harbor. At that time a court-martial was held for the trial of officers. Colonel Nathan Gallup came before said court as a ■■ Colonel Benadam Gallup, an older brother of Colonel Nathan Gallup, was an old man, of prominence in the town, but had no military ofifice at the time, his title being acquired in the time of the French War. Colonel Nathan was court-martialed and acquitted, but Benedam, not being of the military, had no tribunal but that of popular opinion, which unfortunately for him was in need of a victim, and by some mischance he became the target for abuse, as responsible for the lack of a diversion in favor of the garrison, as any old resident of Groton will remember. ^ K ,", c c tA 'E u C 3 o M M V n -c d c aj c 3 ii .2 r « S > i Descriptions of Illustratioiis. 41 This put an end to the monopoly and although the Winthrops made several attempts to regain it, the town refused their requests and disregarded their protests. THE OLD WINTHROP HOUSE. The Winthrop House, which appears in the picture, was the home for suc- cessive generations of Winthrops, down to a comparatively recent date, but is not the house in which John Winthrop lived, that having been located near the site of the house in the picture. All that remains of the Winthrop House is its counterfeit presentment. The house itself, after several years of a sort of bui'densome existence for its owners, was removed to make way for the Winthrop school building, which serves the double purpose of a school and a guardian of the historic ground from invasion for any but public uses. HEMPSTEAD HOUSE. The oldest house now standing is the Hempstead House, situated on Hemp- stead street, and in spite of its age it is still a substantial structure which bids fair to withstand the ravages of time for many years to come. There is some difference of opinion as to the date on which the house was built, the general opinion being that it was constructed in 1646. This, however, appears to be incorrect, and Miss Caulkins' history of New London, which is as good authority as can be quoted, puts the date a number of years later. In speak- ing of Robert Hempstead, one of the original settlers, who came to New Lon- don in 1645 with John Winthrop, she says : " The original homestead of Rob- ert Hempstead remains in the possession of one branch of his descendants. The house now standing on the spot is undoubtedly the most ancient build- ing in New London. It is nevertheless a house of the second generation from the settlement. The first houses, rude and hastily built, passed away with the first generation. The age of the Hempstead House is determined by the Hempstead diary. The writer occupied the dwelling, and writing in 1743, says it has been built 65 years." This would put the date of the erection of the house in 1678, and make it 218 years old. THE COURT HOUSE. New London is a half shire town and with Norv^dch enjoys the honor of being a county seat. This old arrangement, made when distances were more matters of consideration than in these days of steam, brings the courts to this city for a part of the year and to Norwich for the balance of the time. The old court house is practically the same in outward appearance as in 1784 when it was erected and the interior has been but little changed. Within its walls there have been enacted many noteworthy scenes. In the old days the court house divided with the church the dignity and responsibility of the public business, the church brooking no division in spir- itual matters, but trenching somewhat on the preserves of the law. Here were all the town meetings held, whose records read so quaintly in these days and the sessions of the court were also held in the building. Many famous trials are remembered by old people and the records tell the story of others. 42 Descriptions of Illustrations. SOLDIERS' MONUMENT. Gift to the City of New London by Sebastian D. Lawrence. The Lawrence monument to " New London soldiers and sailors who gave their lives in defense of their country" is the most beautiful object that meets the eye of the visitor wandering about this ancient town on a sight-seeing tour. Its proportions have been greatly admired by all, as well as its general design. The material used is Westerly granite than which there is no more beautiful stone for monuments to be fouiid in this wide world. In confirma- tion of this opinion may be cited the fact that Westerly granite from this same quarry was ordered for a monument to Bismarck in Germany. The shaft and surmounting figure rise 50 feet from the base. The cost of the work was about $20,000. It is the gift, as the inscription on the west face of the die informs the reader of the " Sons of Joseph Law- rence," and its erection was under the supervision of Sebastian D. Lawrence, the youngest son and sole survivor of the family. BILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY. Under the shadow of the granite monument commemorating the massacre of Fort Griswold stands the " Bill Memorial Library," the gift of Frederic Bill of Groton to his townspeople. It is constructed of Stony Creek granite and trimmed with Maynard freestone, is fifty feet long and forty feet wide, on a lot one hundred and thirty by one hundred and sixty-five feet, affording ample space for enlargement when required. The architect was Stephen C. Earle of Worcester, Mass., and Norcross Bros., also of Worcester, builders. The build- ing was dedicated June i8th, 1890. The library contains about four thousand volumes, issued to card holders free, and is maintained by an endowment fund of over ten thousand dollars, also the gift of Frederic Bill. From the vestibule aa oaken stairway leads to the historical room above, used as a museum for relics and all articles of local and historic interest. Here carefully cherished is the sword of Col. William Ledyard worn by him during the massacre of Fort Griswold, and which by the hand of a British officer was plunged to the heart of this Groton patriot. NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, Groton, Conn. This edifice, dedicated October sixteenth, nineteen hundred and two, is built of field stone taken from old homesteads of the town. Especial interest is added by there being worked into the front of the tower, over the western entrance, stones taken from localities particularly connected with the history of this church and town; including stones from the place where stood the house of Carey Latham, the first white settler in Groton, and from the farm of John Davie, Groton's first town clerk, from the old church lot where the first meeting house in the town stood, built in 1703, and from the home lot of Rev. Aaron Kinne, "The pastor of the Revolution." Also stones from the home lots of every deacon connected with the church from James Avery, James Morgan and Andrew Lester down to the present time, with many others that represent the life and history of this town as well as church from its settlement down through the dark days of the Revolution to the present day. The Bill Memorial Library, Ciroton. Old Congregational Church, Qroton. Soldiers' and Sailors' flonument, New London. New London Light House. ■ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS mil nil mil II 006 149 501 I ^^t'iyS/l p6Rmalip8«