VOL. XIX

MARCH, 1888

No. 3

HISTORIC CANNON BALLS AND HOUSES

THE BRITISH INVASION OF CONNECTICUT IN 1777

66

N the early spring of 1777 the sound of foreign invasion thrilled the colony of Connecticut with apprehension as the expeditionary force under Governor Tryon landed at Saugatuck Harbor bent upon the destruction of the commissary stores and munitions of war which the Continentals had accumulated at Danbury. As the British landed on the beach a number of the inhabitants gathered near a house on what for many years was known as the Hazard farm. A few cannon shot, one of which penetrated the farm-house, scattered the patriots, and the invaders took up their march towards Danbury. This house, after the retreat of the British, served as a hospital for the American wounded. And it was the home in early youth of Chancellor Kent. For many years he was fond of recurring to those startling times and the recollection of Tryon's expedition. My mother sent me up stairs in the old house," he said, "for gun and a bayonet that was in the back room near the chimney. They built all the chimneys in those days of stone in the centre of the house. While I was in search of the gun there came a cannon ball from the direction of the beach in at the south side of the house between the windows of the second story. It passed through the front room and entered the chimney directly opposite the spot on which I stood. I believe my mother was the most frightened of the two when she called me down and we all retreated. I never applied for a pension for this my Revolutionary service; but I have heard the crash of a cannon ball, and the world, may be, is indebted to that old chimney for Kent's Commentaries." This house was pulled down in 1822, when Judge John Q. Wilson, of Fairfield, who had heard of Kent's narrow escape, directed that special care be taken to find the cannon shot; and a few feet above the floor of the room a nine pound solid shot was disclosed embedded in the masonry of the chimney.

It was at this time that General Benedict Arnold, chagrined and chafing

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under his imaginary wrongs and the delay of Washington and the Continental Congress to aid his promotion, happened to be visiting his sister at New Haven. Repairing at once to Redding, he there joined Generals Wooster and Silliman, the latter having hastily left his place at Fairfield, where he was plowing in the field when the courier dashed along the highroad warning the people of the landing of the enemy. Several hundred militia and patriots soon gathered from their farms and the neighboring villages. A consultation was then held between Wooster, Silliman, and Arnold. Finding that the King's troops had already completed the destruction not only of the public stores at Danbury, but of the greater portion of the town itself, all efforts to save that village were abandoned. It was determined, however, to harass and impede, if not defeat, the British invaders on their return from Danbury. An open battle between the few hundred rudely armed patriots and over two thousand Hessians and regulars with artillery, would have been madness. General Wooster, therefore, decided to hover about the rear of the retreating column, watching a favorable opportunity of attack, while in the meantime he dispatched Generals Arnold and Silliman, with about five hundred men, to intercept the British at Ridgefield. The roads and valleys had been the patriots' playground, and although they knew the enemy would endeavor to elude them, Arnold succeeded in reaching Ridgefield by following lanes and unfrequented roads, long before the sound of Wooster's attack disturbed the quiet of the peaceful village.

Arnold, on arriving at Ridgefield, hastily constructed a barricade across the highway at the north end of the street between the house then occupied by Benjamin Stebbins and a ledge of rocks to the west of the road. This is one of if not the oldest house in the town, having been built soon after the settlement. Its withered boards and shingles, dun and weather-stained by the sunshine and frosts of innumerable seasons, shaded by lofty trees and overhanging vines, speak of times now almost forgotten and of vague traditions of the past. Here it was that Arnold awaited the enemy's approach, fearless and undaunted, although the odds against him were overwhelming. The time was too short for much preparation, and only the rudest kind of a barricade was erected of wagons, logs, and carts. There was little military organization in a force gathered so hastily from different directions save in the obedience to a superior's orders. The greater portion of those who stood behind the barricade were unused to war, and had gone out to save their homes from destruction rather than to do battle with an enemy. It was Sunday morning. A thick mass of vapor hung over the earth with an occasional shower until about eleven o'clock, when

the sky lightened for a moment revealing the wooded slopes of the Danbury hills, blue and purple in the distance only again to be hidden by the sweeping masses of flying clouds. The British after leaving Danbury proceeded towards the Westchester line as far as Ridgebury, thinking thus to deceive the Continentals, when they turned abruptly to the south and took the road to Ridgefield through the ravine and across the rugged Asproom hills. When within a few miles of Ridgefield, near where the old school house stood, General Wooster, who had been following in their wake watching a favorable opportunity, fell upon the rear of the British column, and, a sharp engagement ensued, in which forty Hessians were taken prisoners. Still the enemy continued their advance. Active and alert, General Wooster followed their trail, and where the ground presented a favorable place for another assault, at a point about a mile north of the Stebbins house at the forks of the road, one of which leads to North Salem, he led his men impetuously against the unbending ranks of the regulars. Smarting under the loss inflicted by his first attack, the British were now prepared to receive him with steady volleys of musketry and artillery which soon scattered the Continental troops.