General Wooster's indomitable courage, however, led him amidst the thickest of the fight, and while he was endeavoring to rally his men a musket ball passed through his body, and he fell from his horse mortally wounded. General Wooster was attended by Dr. Turner, a surgeon in the American service, who probed the wound, and finding it was mortal informed the general. He received the intelligence with unruffled calmness; as rapidly as convenient he was removed to Danbury, where, after lingering several days, he died and was buried. He was one of the eight brigadier-generals appointed by Washington in July, 1775, and at the time of his death held the first commission as major-general of militia of the state of Connecticut. The Continental Congress on June 17, 1777, resolved, "That a monument be erected to the memory of General Wooster with the following inscription: In honor of David Wooster, brigadier-general in the army of the United States. In defending the liberties of America and bravely repelling an inroad of the British forces to Danbury, in Connecticut, he received a mortal wound on the 27th day of April, 1777, and died on the 2 day of May following. The Congress of the United States as an acknowledgment of his merit and services have caused this monument to be erected. Resolved, that the executive power of the state of Connecticut be requested to carry the foregoing resolution into execution, and that five hundred dollars be allowed for that pur. pose." The money, however, was never paid. No tombstone or mark of his last resting place was ever erected, and the grave of this hero was soon unknown. His dust mingled with the earth neglected and forgotten. In 1854, a handsome monument was erected to his memory in Danbury. The shaft is of Portland granite, and bears the following inscription: David Wooster First Major General of the Connecticut troops Brigadier General of the United Colonies. And nobly died at Danbury With General Wooster's fall this part of the conflict ended. Stephen Rowe Bradley, then an aide-de-camp to General Wooster, assumed command, and gathering his scattered troops together retired from the field in good order. By his cool judgment and pluck the remnant of this small force was saved from being routed. Bradley served with distinction throughout the Revolution, and rose to the rank of colonel. He was one of the first pioneers who went to Vermont and aided in obtaining its recognition as a state, and which he represented for sixteen years in the United States Senate. It was to his bold action in the caucus that arbitrarily assumed the nomination of Madison, that the latter became President. The sound of Wooster's onslaught was reverberated from West Mountain's rugged cliffs along the valley. Arnold and his men awaited the approaching storm with breathless anxiety. At about noon the British, advancing in three columns, came within range, when General Agnew ordered the artillery to attack.* When within musket-shot the engagement became general and continued for nearly an hour. Being unable to dislodge the Continentals in front, a strong body of Hessians under Agnew finally turned the left of Arnold's position. A column of infantry suddenly ap * The gold inkstand which General Agnew carried in his pocket on this occasion became the property of his granddaughter, Mrs. Harman Blennerhasset, of Blennerhasset Island, in the Ohio River, and is now in the possession of her descendants.-EDITOR. peared over the ledge of rocks and deliberately discharged a volley at General Arnold at a distance of not more than thirty yards. He miraculously escaped without a scratch, but his horse fell under him pierced by nine musket balls. As his horse went down General Arnold's foot became entangled in the stirrup. A soldier eager to take advantage of his embarrassed position rushed forward to bayonet him exclaiming: "You are my sprioner!" "Not yet!" replied Arnold; "One live man is worth ten dead ones!" and quickly drawing a pistol from its holster he shot the soldier dead. It has always been the tradition that the soldier was a Tory from Milford by the name of Coon. This fortunate shot saved Arnold's life and enabled him to make a hasty retreat, which he did by vaulting over a gate and seeking the shelter of the thick undergrowth of a swamp. He was repeatedly fired at but marvelously escaped being hit. The fact that Arnold's horse received nine bullets was vouched for by a farmer who with some boys skinned the horse the following day. The heroism of General Arnold on that day excited the admiration of his countrymen, and on May 20, following, Congress directed the quartermaster-general to procure a horse and present the same, properly caparisoned, to Major-General Arnold in the name of Congress, as a token of its approbation of his gallant conduct in the action against the enemy in its late enterprise to Danbury. The fight at the Stebbins house was stubborn and bloody. Between forty and fifty Americans were killed. Colonel Abraham Gould was shot about eighty yards east of the Stebbins house and his body carried on his horse to his home in Fairfield, where he was buried. His sash and uniform are now in the Trumbull Gallery at New Haven. Lieutenant Middlebrooks and Lieutenant William Thompson were also killed. Colonel John Benjamin was seriously wounded in the neck by buck-shot. Lieutenant De Forest was shot in the leg, and Captain Ebenezer Coe was painfully wounded in the head and right eye. Several of the dead were buried underneath an apple-tree, long since decayed, back of the house now the residence of Mr. Abner Gilbert. At the time of the battle Benjamin Stebbins occupied the Stebbins house. He was a cripple and could not get away. His son, Josiah Stebbins, sympathized with the cause of the Royalists, and happened to accompany the British force from Danbury. The old house was several times set on fire, but the young man succeeded in putting it out, and in this way the house was saved. His crippled father, however, had a narrow escape. In the midst of the conflict he sought seclusion in a little bedroom with a window looking out on the meadow to the east, as the bullets were rattling through the gable end of the old homestead on the roadway. The window was open. All at once a mus ket ball whizzed close by his head and ripped a long ragged hole through the bedroom door. The room still remains in the same condition and the door still swings on its rusty hinges. The house was riddled with bullets and struck several times by solid shot. There are three cannon balls yet to be seen at the house, two twelve and one six pounder. Many others have been lost or carried away. During the battle the Stebbins house answered the purpose of a hospital for the wounded, and blood stains, which are said to have flowed from the wounds of a young British officer who died there, are to be seen on the seasoned oak floor of the long west room. The old well now stands as it then stood and supplies the best of waters, as it did on that April day to the suffering men who lay in agony within its kindly aid. It has been thought that the battle ended with the attack by Wooster and the fight at the Stebbins house. This is probably incorrect. There are strong reasons for the belief that as the British advanced their progress through the town was contested with stubborn bravery. Had this not been so they would not have had to employ their artillery after dislodging the patriots from behind the barricade; and that artillery was used throughout their progress through the village is beyond controversy. Besides, the cannon balls at the Stebbins house a solid six-pound shot was unearthed a few years ago by Mr. Hoyt while repairing the highway opposite the residence of Governor Lounsbury. It was three feet below the surface, and had rusted away considerably., Then there is the famous shot embedded in the Keeler tavern; and a quarter of a mile beyond, Mr. Benedict, while excavating for the purpose of erecting a barn, dug up another cannon ball together with several bullets. The recovery of these cannon balls at different places, covering a distance of over a mile, and along a street running in diverse directions, indicates a continuous engagement. The fight was maintained through the town, the Redcoats pressing steadily forward, and the patriots falling stubbornly back. Several cannon balls passed through the Keeler tavern. One four-pounder struck a solid hewn oak timber and firmly embedded itself in the hard wood, where for over a century it has been, and is to-day an object of the greatest interest. This side of the house is in deep shadow, but by means of a mirror a ray of sunlight was thrown into the opening in the shingles and a photograph thus obtained of the cannon ball as it rests deep in the timber. A short distance beyond Mr. Benedict's lies the ridge where the British encamped for the night. Until recently it has been used as a fair ground. Mr. Northup, who lives opposite, picked up, some thirty years ago, a lead button, evidently one of the very first used on the Continental uniforms, with the monogram U. S. A. in relief. After burning several houses and destroying considerable property the British, on the morning of the 28th, struck their tents, and resumed their march towards the Sound. The town of Ridgefield was laid out by the original proprietors in 1709. The houses are dotted along a street over a mile in length and one hundred and twenty feet in width. Two continuous rows of lofty elm, maple and sycamore trees line the road. On each side of the drive is a footpath cut from the green sod that lies under the majestic trees. This quaint old village may have larger and richer rivals-it certainly has none fairer. That Ridgefield was the birthplace and early home of Peter Parley (S. G. Goodrich) should alone give the place an interest to those persons who remember how, as children, they read and wondered at his delightful stories, and whose illustrated and attractive books of education were the first relief experienced from the daily drudgery of school life. When but four years of age, in 1794, his family removed from the old house to the new, now the residence of John Alsop King, Esq., and it was there that the days of his boyhood were passed. The original house still remains, although an addition has been put on, and the house painted. It is the |