History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

near the stone church. Here there was severe fight- ' Hill, thence to the business jiart of the town, still ing, and the enemy became disconcerted, but sue- , pursued by the enemy. Nor were thcydislodged until ceedcd in gaining the summit of the first hill. Tint the junction of ( iarth's an<l Tryon's divisions north of at the foot of the second they became panic-stricken, the bridge, wdien the patriots retreated in excellent so sharp and rapid was the fire of the patriots, com- order to tlie rocks, where some hasty preparations had mandeil by ('apt. Richards, secrete<l behind the stone ' bi'cii made for the final battle. walls on the eastern .slope of the hill stretching from i ,\t ten o'clock in tlie forenoon the battle of the the main road to Round Hill. In this encounter tlie rocks on France Street conimenced, lasting till twelve enemy lost three men, and several more were wounded, noon, at which hour Tryon ordered his army to re- Here fiarth massed his trooj)S, as if expecting another treat. .\s it did so it was pursued by the Contincn- attack from the volunteers, then filed his men into j tals and a portion of the volunteers and town militia, the field formerly the homestead of the late Deacon who clung to his rear until he was in sight of the place Nash, and repeated the mameuvre, probably to eon- ; of diseniharkation the previous evening. With the ceal the place of burial <>i' his dead. Their remains , order to retreat came also the order to complete the were disinterred when excavating for the foundation devastation by fire of the remainder of the dwellings of the house now owned by L. H. Moor, Es(|. ' ' of the people, whiidi order was mercilessly executed. At this juncture of affairs a I?ritish officer appeared Six houses only were left standing on their line of ad- on the brow of Flax Hill. After surveying the situ- ' vance and retreat, — four on the east and two on the west ation a few moments he commenced to llonrish his side of the harlior. These were spare<l through tlu^ sword, as if giving orders to the enemy to advance. iiitcr]iosition of women who claimeil the protection of This he repeated several times, to the amnsement of the Briti.sh on account of the loyalty of their husbands the patriots, who with deliberate aim fired their mus- to King (ieorge. The enemy destroyed all the salt- kets, when he stretchi'd himself upon his steed's neck pans of the people along the shore, and towecl to their and gallo])ed out of sight, his cocked hat and tall fleet every whale-boat in the harbor, with the niaga- plunie appearing as if transferrcil from the head of zine and stores gathered in the town for the army. the rider to that of the horse. All the whaling and other vessels moore<l at the docks Having interre<l their dead, (iartli resiime(l liis line or in the river wire burned. of advance through the field to Sound Hill, and on its Tryon's ollieial re[iorf of the battle of Norwalk says summit |)laced a field-gun. Here he remained inac- he retired his men in two c()lunins to the place of his tive about an hour, then filed his men into (!edar first debarkation unassailed. This is not the fact. Tin- Strci't, tlienee down the hill by the old malt-house to ]iatriots who participated in tlie battle ever claimed Main Street, though some of the eye-witnesses (dainu^d that tlie J5ritish were harassed from the moment that tlie enemy passed through (iarner Street. Prol)- , of their advance until they left- our shores, and that ably both versions are correct, as in all his jirevious ; (ten. (iarth's force was beaten on Flax Hill, and the movements (iartli divided his force. i combined forces of the enemy at France Strei^t after From Main Street to the residence of Thomas Bene- two hours' severe fightin<r. This was the verdict of the 498 HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT. old people of fifty years ago, who were eye-witnesses of all that transpired on that memorable day. Barber is again in error when he says six houses only were left undestroyetl by the JJritish : thcie was only that nuinluT sjjarcd on the line of their advance and re- treat. Tryon's official report says the greater part of the dwoUing-houses were set in flames. There were more than thirty houses which were not burned, having been situated principally off the roads over which the enemy passed on the day of battle. The British and Tories burned, all told, on .July 11, 1779, eighty dwellings, two churches, cighty-.seven barns, seventeen shops, and four mills, in addition to the property heretofore enumerated. : At the date of the battle of Norwalk the town had been settled about one hundred and twenty-five years, and its ta.xabic property had increased from a few Imnilred pounds to three huiuhcil thousand dollars in 177!l. The damage done by the .s.acking of tlie town was estimated, by a committee appointed by the Gen- eral Assembly of the State, at about one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, in consideration of which the general government awarded to Connecticut a large tract of land in Northern Ohio, which was partly settled by emigrants from Norwalk. Historians tell but half the truth when they desig- nate July 11, 1779, a-s the date of the burning and i not of the battle of Norwalk. The enemy were re- i l)elled or held in check at cver>' point of attack. It took, according to Tryon's report, five hours for his troops to dislodge the patriots at the business centre. 8o far as we know, but two men were killed and but one wounded or captured on our side, while the Brit- ish, according to Tryon's ofiicial report, lost twenty killed, ninety-six wounded, and thirty-two missing or unaccounted for. Gen. Washington, at the date of the invasion of Norwalk by the British, was encamped with his army on the banks of the Hudson Kiver. On or about , July 9th he dispatched Gen. Parsons to Norwalk to I assume command of and "give confidence to the militia and guide their movements." One day's ride brought (ien. Parsons here, giving him a day or two to marshal his troops for the defense of the town. Hut, finding the force present inadc(iuate in nnmbcrs and discipline to cope with Gen. Tryon's experienced froo|»s and Hessians, he placed in position, on the hill near the rocks, the battery of six cannon brought from Salisbury by Thaddeus Betts two ycai-s previous. Gen. Parsons, witli the few troops at his command, determined to meet the enemy in andjuscade.s, the objective point being the rocks; the line of retreat of all the patriot troops engaged was in that direc- tion. There nearly all the volunteers, militia, and Continental troops united for the final conflict. The result of the fight with Tryon's troops on France Street, sent to dislodjre <ien. Parsons's and Walcott's command, shows that the jilan of battle was skillfully laid, and that it was no ordinary aftair, considering that there were less than four hundred patriot sol- diers opposed to at least three-quarters of Tryon's force of two thousand five hundred trained troops landed at Cow Pasture and Fitche's Point the night of the Utth of July. The late Dr. N. Bimton was good authority in our local historical matters. He was personally ac- quainted with all the Revolutionary sires of his time, and was verj* particular to note all the authenticated facts and incidents communicated by them. In his two hundredth anniversary discourse of the settle- ment of Norwalk he says that the militia and Conti- nental troo])s, headed by Gens. Parsons and Walcott, were on the hill near the rocks, whence they fired on the enemy at Grummon's Hill. To drive the former from their position Tryon dispatched a large body of troops, who were met by our soldiers in France Street, and greeted them with so warm a reception that their progress Wiis checked, and ere noon they were on the retreat. Gen. Walcott came to Norwalk in advance of his command. Gen. Parsons came here to direct the movements of the militia. Probably the former came to as.sume the supervision of the Continental troops of Gen. Butler's brigade stationed in the town. It is very doubtful if Gen. Walcott's command ar- rived in Norwalk after the battle. The greater prob- ability is that as soon as the British were on ship- board Gen. AValcott retraced his steps with a view of intercepting his command. If any troops arrived, they were the remainder of (ien. Butler's brigade. If there are any well-authenticated facts as to the arrival of patriot troops the day following the battle, we have to the present time been unable to find them. The following quotation from (Jen. Parsons' letter to Governor Trumbull, dated at Stamford, July 17, 1779, is conclusive on the point. The general says, "The depredations of the enemy upon the sca-coiust of th(« State Gen. Walcott has doubtless particularly informed you of;" then adds, "The destruction of Norwalk is what I have been a witness of." Those historians who have given July 12th as the date of tlic destruction of Norwalk were probably misled by Barber, I'rom the fact that he makes Tryon say that he landed on the 12th. Dr. Hall and nearly all the modern historians of Connecticut have given the same date a.s being that of the burning of the town. Even the yorwa/t (iuicllc, .Viint I'hebe, and the omniiireseut Onesimus, who waa always in the wood-pile when anything was about to transpire, and upon whose assertions much of the history of the event is ba;sed, also say that it occurred on the 12th. If Aunt Phebe and Onesimus in this instance failed to be correct, it is not impossible that other portions of their statements are also incorrect, — at least somewhat odoreil, as both liad the name of having been rather visionary and superstilitms withal. The date of the burning of the town was settled by Dr. Nathaniel Boutou in his historical discourse deliv-/ NOKWALK. 409