History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

" Sunday, the 4tli of July, was a warm, calm day. Our peojile were in their churches, and the vessels could scarcely have iijipcared in view be- fore tlie night came on. Tlie light bree/.e had no power to move them swiltly on their course. There were two large men-of-war, the 'Camilla' and 'Scorjiion,' and forty-eight row-galleys, tenders, and transpoits. Sir George Collier commanded the fieet and Gen. Tryi-n the land forces, about liGtlO in number. Brig.-Gen. Gartli had sjiecial charge of the Hessian regiments, the Landgraves and Yaegeis. The English forces consisted of two Inidies of Fnsileers, the Guards, the Fifty-fourth regi- ment of foot and tlie King's .\niericafi regiment refugees enlisted in the British army. Early on Monday morning the squadron came to anchor near New Haven, where, on tliat day and Tuesday, the troops pursued their desolating work. On the evening of Tuesday the fieet left New Haven, and during that niglit was moving toward Fairfield. About four o'clock of Wediicsilay a gun from the fnrt on (irovei's Hill announceil its approiich, lait it seemed to be pa.'^sing by, ami about seven o'clock th« people who were anxiously watihing it were rejoicctl to sec that it was steering westward, proceeding, as they thought, to New York. Soon after a very thick fog c^ime on, duiing which the vessels were obscureil from view, but when this dispersed, between nine and ten o'clock, it was sc-en wi.h consternation that the whole fleet was under our western shore, where they came to aiuduu- at the Pines, which havi; since dis- appeared, a little to the cast tif Mclun::u'ft Point. From Gen. Tryon's report it appears that he, with the m:iin itortion of tin- trocps, landed there, and that the Hessians, uruU-r Gen. Garth, made their disemliarka- tion at the water front of Sasco Hill, over which tlu-y marched to take possession of the western section of the town. "Tryon, with the troojis immediately under his command, marched along the beach and turned up the Beach Lane, somewhat galled by the guns of Grover's Hill. They pursued their way to this point where we are now assembled, and where, on the site of our town-hall, the court- house was then standing. " Tiie Biitiali general Wiis guided by George Hoyt, who wav hrother-in- law i}{ Mr. Benjamin Bulkley. "His liouse, since demolished, stood on the ground where Mr. John Glover has liis home, and Gen. Tryon ma<le his headiiuarters while here With this, the dwelUt>g8 of Capt. ^L^llthie, Justin Holiart, and Nathan and Peter Bulkley were saved from the fire. These are now in the possession of Edmund Holart. Miss Hannah Hobart, and the Denison estate. "The line of the cunthigiaticui e.\ti-ndr<I from Mrs. Gould's house to Mill River, in the viiinity of Peny's Mill, including hotli tlie streets and their immediate neighborhood, and extended westward thi'ough the lower roail at Green's Farms. " To silence the guns at the fort where Lieut. Is;uic Jai vis hnd a gai- rison of twenty-thiee men, a galley had been di.spalched. but although there was constant firing thnaiglanit the night of Wednesday, and sev- eral detachments of troops trit^d to take the furt by assault, it was gal- lantly defende<l and heUl uut to the etid. " As the troops marched up toward the centre of ttie town young Sam. Rowland, then ten years of age, saw them from tlie steeple at the Epie- coiMil church, but he w;us soon sent honte from his dangerous position, and his grantl-idiildren to-day repeat the stoiy they heard in their child- hood from his lips. Mrs. Gen. Silliman. from the home uf her temporary widowhood on Holland Hill, heard the fiitt guns of the contliit and set out (or a safe asylum in Trumbull, where a few weeks later her second Son, the distinguished Yale professor, wjis born. "Before the hiudiug was effected. Mrs. Esther Jennings, the young wife of Peter Buir, went eai ly hi the pasture fields near McKenzJe's Point and ilrove the cattle tliere feeding to a safe refuge oti Greenfield Hill. Thither and to Faiifield Woods many of the little children, with much fumitui'e, were remjved in carts and chaises, while some of the 282 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. women roniaincd to gunrd (he dwellings. Tho company who had charge of n Rcld-picco whcclfd it ton good poHitiou (iii Iliin's highway. Tho men ill the vitlagx iitnl funn-huui^cs gi-u;i|K-(l their iiuiiiUot!' itiitl uniniu- nltion, and rulliud under cununund of Cul. M'hiting itt tho rt'itdczvons un Runnd Hill. "Tr.vun'ii march to the green was tho signal of their resistance, and a small rompiiiiy, under Ciipt. T)iiimas Nnsti, made u brilliant attack upon the English trunjM, hring from Wdiind the fences, and killing a few who were hud in »Iiiillt)w graves hy thoir comrades on the meeling-hoiiso grounds. Thi'so afterwards wore roniovod to permanent rest in our ancient comoteiy. " About this time it wouKl appear that the fiittt house was fired, the one belonging to Isaac .Icnnings, on whoso site Mrs. Ksther Huntington nuw lives. Then came the ling from Gen. Tryon and tho reading of that address of wliicli I have siK)kon. Col. AVliiting sent back this spirited reply : " ' Oinnecticnt having nobly dared to take up arms against tho cniol despotism of Britain, and as the tinntes have now preceded tho answer to yonr Ihig, they will peivist to oppose to tho utmost that iwwer exerted against injured innocence.' "In resistance of an organized army who held possession of the town, it woti impossible for tho militia to concentrate an efTectnal force. Tlie night was coming on, — that Wednesday night of tho 7th, whicli wit- nessed scenes of ih-l anehery and cruelty such us Fairfield has never known at any othor iteriod of her history. The Hessian general held the western portion of the town, and his regiment of Yaegers are do- scribed as skulking nn<I yelling like the wild savages of the forest. The detacliments broku nj) into snuttt sijunds, and »oiiie of tho governor's guanis engaged in a dame in the .Sun Tavern on the gn>en. Most of the soldiers were piu^ing in little companien from house to house, pil- laging and wasting provisions, breaking up ghiss, earthenware, and fur- niture, stealing the watches, jewelry, and slioe-buekles fmni tlie persons of women, taking from them even their aprons and handkerchiefs, and with o:ith» and ribaldry grossly insnIlUig Ihem. Many sohiicrs wore drunk with liipior or strong rider they had stolen. Tryon reports that they lay on their arms during the night, and Dr. Dwight. wlio was not un eye-wiincHs to those scenes, desjiibes in eloijuent langiuige a terrific thunder-storm. Knou^h it is for us to hear the •;iins thundering through nil its dark hours in tho dehMise and attack of the littht fort, and to see one after another of the pillngeil houses full before the llnnies whirh the Jhilish geneml's troops hud kliidleil. The burning cinders that fell that night, wet with the Ivats of women then made homeless, nnitt ever in the record of history blacken Tryou's name. "Tlie militia <!id all they wore able to accomplish, keeping up a run- ning fire, and more were on their way to join them. So the signal of retreat wns sounded early on Thursday, and in the course of timt morn- ing of tho Sth of duly the squadron wiw otT for Huntington, only to rross the Sound again, and on the sul 8tM|uent Sunday repeat their ter- rible work at Norwalk. H was on the morning of the Htli that the ro- mnining private edifices and all the puMic buildings were consumetl. Moro destniction wonhl doubtless have been ofleclcd but for the whole- some fear of the ambiiHh of the watchful militia. *• Tho enemy dreaded tho stone walls, fences, and shnihborj'. On this account the idd mill of Peter Perry, which had gnnind the corn of tho '. [Mjople for a hundred years, was still h>ft to do ii<i unrk. Thnmgh tho exorlioiiM of the wonieu who kept watch'somo fires that had been kindled j were put out. This whm diuie four times by Mnt. Lucretia Redfield during j that Wetlnesday ni|£ht. and the house she then saved standi tiMJay a ; pleasant abode occupied by Btmie of the name name. The Nichols family, always jiroverbiitl for notable housowifer)*, employod large hanksof yarn then s>»ukiug In prepnnvtioii for tho dye, and with it extinguished tho I fianu's that had lK>gun to commme their home. j "There were burne<l acourt-housi? and jail, three churches, two schooj- \ houses, ninety-seven dwellintcn, Mixiy-seveu barns, forty-<i^ht wtores and ^ho|«— In all, two hundred and i-ighti en bnitdlngM. The gathered labors of the field, the liookn, pajK-rH, pictures, the widl-itrcsiTved proilucts of tho splnnfng-wheel and needle, the pnvlous lielrhMmis, tokens uf love ' and menmrlals of frioudithiii, how were thoM' brought Into destruction as J in a moment I " The siNirks, cindem, and half-bumetl feathers floating In the summer air, — what sicknetw mnint tliey have Itnnight to many heart*! " Some things had l>een removi'd to wife places In-yond the n-ach of the fire. IwuM- Ihirr. tlie jeweler, hi I the watcheit left for repair nt his shop within the stone tlsHures of hi;* well, and placed hi^ Dlhle and some of his own prtH-iouH goo^ls with thenft " Pnident Phillls, servnnt of Judge Sturges, took the wet linen from the wush-tub and hid It among the currant buihc*. Pewter dishes, kept bright by constant scouring, wore thrown into the Iwttom of wells, to he recovered when the danger was past. One hxiking-gtass is still as re- flecting as over. It was hid<ten in an uncnoHed rye-field, and when, a few days later, a black nuui cut tlie swath that revealed it standing there upright, ho saw his own figure in tho sunshine, ond mistaking it for Satan, whom he feared, he threw down his sickle in terror and ran away.