History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

From the above reports, and from twenty or more different account.*, some of which have been handed down by the hottest of the Ti)ries and .some by over- zealous Americans, we have arranged the following account of the expedition, as being the most consistent and reliable. It is neces.sary that we should contra- dict some accounts, and even dispute some of the facts stated by Gen. Putiutm himself. We ask all, there- fore, who would relate the matter in a different man- ner to look upon our account in a spirit of leniency. remembering that where there is so much disagree- ment all cannot be right. The headquarters at this time were at the house of Capt. John Hobby. Col. Holdridge, of the vicinity of Hartford, an officer much disliked by the Amer- icans, wa.s in command of the outpost. The house Wits .situated a few feet south of the one now occui)ied by Henry M. Benedict, Esq., and a small guard-house was erected in the corner of the yard, but a few feet south of Mr. Benedict's western entrance, close by the side of the street, of which the carriage-path ran more than its width farther south than it now docs. Some say that this outpost was at the house of the late John J. Tracy, but this was a hot-bed of Tory- ism, and I'urthcr, those giving this account say that Putnam arose from the breakfast-table, sprang upon his horse, and rode for Stamford ; in which case ho could have given no orders to the men who were drawn up by the meeting-house, which he in fact did. We therefore take this account to be a mistake. On the evening of the 2.5th of February, 1779, Gen. Putnam was at Horseneck, quartered with the picket- guard, where it was his custom to come almost every- day to gain information of the doings of the enemy below. That evening a ball was held at the house of Moses Husted, Pecksland, on the same site where is now the residence of William ,\. Husted, Esq. Put- nam attendeil, taking a lady on his horse behind liim, according to the custom of those days. This lady, afterwards Mrs. Rogers, was a daughter of David Bush, of Coscob, living in the same house now occu- pied by George J. Smith, Esq. It w;w late when he aeconipanieil her home, so that he did not leave her father's residence for Horseneck until nearly dayliglil on the morning of the 2Gth. This fact has led many to suppose that his headquarters were at Coscob, which is evidently a mistake. The day before (the 2oth) a small company of the Continental light-horsemen, under Capt. Titus Wat- son, consisting of about thirty men, had been onlered forward by Putnam to observe the doings of the ene- my. They went down nearly as far as New Rochello, where, between eight and nine o'clock in the eveninfr. they found the enemy approaching, with Delancy'> body of Tories in the van. The Continentals retiretl before them, but were discovered and come up with. By rea.son of supt^-rior numbers they were defeated, and many of them were killed. The enemy drove them from the stage-road down into Milton, whcr. they managed to keep away from their pursuers, cros.-- ing the heatls of tl'.e creeks, many of them hiding in the swamps. A few of them, with Capt. Wat-^^on, suc- ceeded in reaching Byram Bridge, which they had time to take up when their pursuers were just in sight. Watson, with one or two others, then rode directly to Horseneck, with the company of Tories in full pursuit. Five of them turned southward and were pursued by a body of the enemy, who came up with one of the fugitives in the lot recently excavated GREENWICH. 377 by the Xew York and New ]Iav(M lIiiili'oa<l Cninpaiiy, now owned by Capt. Caleb W. Meri'itt. Tlie soblier was there shot down and the horse iidm manly Vmteh- ered, from which the iiiehisnre lias sinee been known as the " Horse Lot." The other tbnr suceeeded in reaching the Myanos in salety, where they were set .across by Daniel Banks. The alarm was given to the picket-guard by ('ii]it. Watson, bnt there was little or no tinu' to prcjiare for defense. The enemy had been infirnu'il of the weak- ness of the outpost, and advanced steadily for it. Sir. Matthew Mead, then a boy of twelve, was l)ack of his fatlu'r's hon-e, where 3Ir. limli .Mead now lives, when he saw them at the top of the hill by Horseneck Brook. His father sent liini dII', v.ilh the other chil- dren and the cattle, back in the h)ts, where he reached a place of safety. The Americans, warned by Cajit. Watson, numbering, according to the various ac- counts, from one to two hundred, having no cavalry, formed in front of the meeting-house and fired a si.\- pounder three times — which was a signal of alarm — just as the Tories passed the house of Mr. Matthew Mead. They then were walking their horses, but when they came in sight of Capt. .Jolin Hobby's they saw Putnam spring on his horse at the barn with his coat on his arm and ride with full s]iee<l to the meet- ing-house, where the Americans were drawn U]i. They now gave him full chase. Jle stopped a mo- ment to order his men to retreat to a convenient dis- tance, while lie should ride on to Stamford for rein- forcements. Being nearly come up with, he dashed on, and by the time he reached the ]irccipice now known as Putnam's Hill, the commander of the Tories, Thomas Merritt, of Westchester County, was within two lengths of him. The road, before reaching the brink of the preci- pice, then ran nearly east and west, then turning a short right angle ran north about thirty rods, when it turned directly about and ran south along under the precipice to about five rods below the causeway form- ' ing the present road, wdiere it again turned eastward. ; Putnam plunged his liorsc down this steep, whi(di, being overgrown with .stunted bushes, presented a ' wild ap])earance, at a headlong pace, across the road at the foot of the hill, into the thicket which then lay between the post-road and the swamp, now known as the "Ten Acres," and pursued a sort of drift-i>ath through the thicket till he was beyond the i)resent residence of Theodore H. Mead, Esq., wdiere lie again took to the road. The hill now presents a totally different aspect from what it formerly did, and the hardest part of Putnam's descent was after he crossed the road running along the side of the- hill. Home will have it that he started down the hill from the .same point, but took a southeastern course, reaching the road at the foot of the stone steps, wdiere ' the enemy had full aim at him all the while; others, that he rushed headlong down the seventy-four stone steps placed roughly one above another for the eon- 2.5 vi'iiieiice of foot Jiasscngers, his weight being two hundred and forty pniinds. Others, again, claim that he fcillowed the road as long as it ran on the to[) of the hill, and then set olf in a northeastern direc- tion above the Ten Acre;; while the author has liecn coolly told that he \\a^ in no danger (if being taken at .•ill, ami rode slowly aruuiid the bill as <ither ])eoplc ilid. We have carefully traced aiid examiniMl tlie^c dili'erent accounts, and have the fullest evidence, by the testimony of eye-witnesses, that the account first given is correct. (_)ne of the many balls fired at him by the Tories from the brink of the hill as he passed through the buslie; passed through his hat. Olil Put on this occasion could not re!Vain from his customary exclamation when in trouble from tlie Tories, wliich he slnnited as the l)alls whistled thickly jiast him: "(iod cuss yel when I catch ye I'll hang ye to the next tree." Col. Iloldridge, who was in command of the C(ui- tinental s(jldiers, retreated in an nnsoldierlike man- ner to Stanwich, wdiile Putnam intended that he should retire only a short distance. From the ac- count by the Americans of this oliicer, who was a Hartford man, he was totally unfit to be a soldier at all, much less an officer. The citizens hung about the village as near as they dared, hiding in the swamps and by-]ilaces during the whole day, taking advantage of every opi)ortu- nity, l)v some daring feat, to secure prisoners, and even fire upon the enemy. About an hour after the arrival of the body of Tories, (iovernor Tryon, with his full force of abcmt twelve hnmhx'd men, tjok full pnss.'ssion of the town. He made his cjnarters at (he house of Mr. Henry Mead, who then kept a imblic-house on the site of the present residence of Miss Harah Lewis and Jlrs. Mason. The soldiers, meantime, separated themselves into sipiads and pillage(l every house in the neighborhood ; a large body ni' them visited Coscob, where they destroyed the salt-works, which were ujion Bush's Point, a small slooji, and a sloojj's store-lxiuse. A party of them also entered the Innisc (d' Daniel and Joshua Smith, which was situated a little way- south of the present parsonage of the iSccond Con- gregati<uial Society. They l()und this house deserted by all its inhabitants exceiiting a deaf old lady, the mother-in-law of Joshua Smith. As they entered they saw her standing at the head ai' the front stairs. As she could not hear, she disobeyed their orders to come ilown, which so enraged the soliliers that one of them sprang up stairs and cut her down with his sword. After this murder the house was set on fire and burned to the ground. This is said to have been the only lumse wdioUy burned by the P>ritish. The houses of those who held the enemy's permits were safe from these dejiredations, but the others were ransacked and plundered of every valuable. The wagons brought to carry back the ])lunder were 378 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. filled to thfir utmost capacity. After that, every- thiiiir was destroyed. The fanners made {rranaries of their jjarret-s, and the enemy, after cuttinj? holes thron;,'h the "larret and main floors, shoveled all the grain into the cellars, where the cider-barrels were knocked in and all mingled in one useless mass.