Decoding Connecticut Militia 1739-1783

People

July 27, 2016
by John K. Robertson Also by this Author

WELCOME!

Journal of the American Revolution is the leading source of knowledge about the American Revolution and Founding Era. We feature smart, groundbreaking research and well-written narratives from expert writers. Our work has been featured by the New York Times, TIME magazine, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, NPR, and more. Journal of the American Revolution also produces annual hardcover volumes, a branded book series, and the podcast, Dispatches

In May 1665, the separate colonies of New Haven and Connecticut joined to form the colony that later became the State of Connecticut. Each colony had laws requiring military training.[1] The oldest book of Connecticut laws I have been able to view is that of 1715, a reprint of the 1702 Acts and Laws.[2] These laws as amended were still in effect in 1774 and remained in force until 1782. In 1702, all men between sixteen and sixty, except magistrates, justices of the peace, the secretary, church officers, allowed physicians, surgeons, school-masters, representatives or deputies, one miller for each grist mill, constant herdsmen, mariners, sheriffs, constables, constant ferrymen, lame persons, Indians, and negroes were required to participate in regular training exercises and to bear arms.[3] Connecticut, due to its location south of Massachusetts, was one of the few colonies that did not have a border on the frontier with the Indians. The populous perceived danger as low and the militia became a social institution. By 1774, the age range for mandatory militia participation had narrowed to sixteen through forty-five.[4]

Local militiamen organized as trainbands (companies). The size of companies varied. Twenty-four men was the smallest number that could constitute a company and entitled the trainband to two sergeants as leaders; with thirty-two men, the trainband rated a lieutenant, ensign, and two sergeants. A captain, lieutenant, ensign, and four sergeants led companies of sixty-four or more men.[5] There was no upper bound specified on how many men could be in a company, but the area of the towns and distance necessary to travel to train caused companies split to minimize distance travelled. Each company or trainband drew its membership from a designated area of the town. These areas were often the same as those of an ecclesiastical society. As state population grew, new towns formed and within existing towns, societies split. Thus as population increased, so did the number of companies or trainbands. This article maps the towns from which each regiment drew its companies. The maps use a modern depiction (ca. 2000) of town boundaries as a base. Since there are many more towns today than during the Revolution, town histories were used to work back in time to approximate the boundaries of the period towns. The towns named on my maps agree with period documents, but boundaries are only an approximation.

Map 1. The Original Thirteen Connecticut Militia Regiments and Their Constituent Towns. See full size.
Map 1. The Original Thirteen Connecticut Militia Regiments and Their Constituent Towns. See full size.

 

In 1739, to cope with the increasing numbers of companies and to raise the quality of the militia, the Assembly created regimental staffs responsible for the companies within a multi-town area. Each regiment had a single company of horse.[6] The original thirteen regimental areas are shown on Map 1. The area marked with a * is the parish of Southington, and that marked by # is the parish of Kensington. When population growth warranted, a group wanting to form a new company would petition the Assembly to create a distinct company. As part of the approval by the Assembly, new boundaries were set within the town, and the new company elected officers. The Assembly approved the names of newly elected officers before commissions were issued.

Map 2. See full size.
Map 2. See full size.

Between October 1739 and October 1767 the thirteen regiments continued with only minor changes of a company here or there switching regiments, or new companies being added. Connecticut annexed the four border towns of Enfield, Suffield, Somers, and Woodstock from Massachusetts in 1749.[7] The first two towns were added to the 1st Regiment; Somers to the 5th Regiment; and Woodstock to the 11th Regiment. In 1762, the colony reported 20,264 men in the militia.[8] Between 1767 and 1771, the Assembly formed three new regiments: the 14th, 15th, and 16th Regiments.[9] The resolution forming the 15th Regiment says Town of Farmington, and since Southington and Kensington (as part of Berlin) later broke off as separate towns from Farmington, I have put them in the 15th Regiment in Map 2. Redding incorporated as a separate town in 1767 and it is not mentioned in the order creating the 16th Regiment, so I have shown it remaining in the 4th Regiment.

In May 1774, the Assembly formed the 17th and 18th Regiments.[10] The census of 1774 showed a population of 191,392 whites (men, women and children)[11] of which 26,260 were in the militia.[12]

Table 1 – Connecticut Militia Regiments and their Colonels – May 1774[13]

Regiment Date Regiment Created Colonel Appointed Horse Companies[14] Foot Companies[15]
 1st Oct 1739 George Wyllys Oct 1762 1 ~21+
  2nd Oct 1739 Leverett Hubbard Oct 1773 1 18
  3rd Oct 1739 Gurdon Saltonstall Oct 1739 1 ~20
  4th Oct 1739 John Read Oct 1757 2  ~11+
  5th Oct 1739 Shubael Conant Oct 1752 1 19
  6th Oct 1739 Jabez Hamlin Oct 1771 1 18
  7th Oct 1739 Aaron Eliot May 1766 1 14
  8th Oct 1739 Samuel Coit May 1768 1 ~11+
  9th Oct 1739 Abraham Davenport May 1768 1 ?
10th Oct 1739 Elihu Chauncey May 1773 1 17
11th Oct 1739 Ebenezer Williams May 1771 1 19
12th Oct 1739 Joseph Spencer May 1766 2 20
13th Oct 1739 Benjamin Hinman Oct 1771 1 ~10+
14th Oct 1767 Charles Burrell May 1774 1  ~8
15th Oct 1769 John Strong Oct 1769 1 16
16th Oct 1771 Joseph Platt Cook Oct 1771 1 10
17th May 1774 Oliver Wolcott May 1774 ?
18th May 1774 Jonathan Pettibone May 1774 ?
Map 3 -The Organization of the Connecticut Militia at the Start of the Revolutionary War. See full size.
Map 3 -The Organization of the Connecticut Militia at the Start of the Revolutionary War. See full size.

At the October 1774 Assembly the 19th through 22nd Regiments were created.[16] Map 3 portrays the organization of the Connecticut militia just before the American Revolution started. The asterisk in the 21st Regiment signifies the south company of Killingly.

Connecticut recruited its first regiments for service at Boston from the militia, in the spring of 1775, which the Continental Congress later adopted into the Continental Army. These first Continental regiments were only in service until early December 1775. In the spring of 1776, eight new Continental regiments were recruited. Many of the regimental officers for both sets of regiments came out of the militia, causing much turmoil in the militia leadership. In May 1775, the Assembly added the 23rd and 24th Regiments.[17] The 24th constituted the Town of Westmoreland located in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania where Connecticut had established a settlement; this is not shown on the maps.

In May 1776, the Assembly created the 25th Regiment,[18] and at the same time, the troops of horse were stripped from the foot regiments to create five regiments of light horse.[19]

Table 2 – The Five Militia Light Horse Regiments

Light Horse Regt. Commander Period Served Foot Regiments from which the light horse were recruited No. of Troops
1st Maj. William Hart Jun 76 – 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th, 10th, 23rd   6
2nd Maj. William Hillhouse

Maj. Elijah Hyde, jr

Jun 76 –

Oct 76 –

3rd, 8th, 12th, 20th, 25th   5
3rd Maj. Daniel Starr

Maj. Jabez Hill

Maj. Ezra Starr

Maj. Benjamin Hikok

Jun 76 – May 77

May 77 — May 79

May 79 – Oct 83

Oct 83 –

4th, 9th, 16th   3
4th Maj. Ebenezer Backus Jun 76 – 5th, 11th, 19th, 21st, 22nd   5
5th Maj. Elisha Sheldon

Maj. Thomas Bull

Maj. Moses Seymour

Jun 76 – Dec 76

Dec 76 – May 84

May 84 –

13th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 18th   5
Total 24

 

By the summer of 1776, Connecticut had twenty-five militia regiments of foot and five militia regiments of light horse. In December 1776 the Assembly formed the regiments into six militia brigades, each commanded by a brigadier general.[20] This allowed the Council of Safety to deal with six men instead of thirty. The Assembly formed all males between sixteen and sixty years of age not included in the trainband or exempted from common or ordinary training into a new part of the militia called the alarm list. These men were to provide themselves with arms and accouterments and serve during an alarm. Those over fifty were not to be compelled to march out of the state, and the selectmen of any town could exempt ferrymen and millers from being marched out of their town. The alarm list could be formed into companies which were part of the local militia regiment.[21]

Table 3 – General Officers of the Connecticut Militia[22]

Brigade Rank General Officers[23] Regiments in the Brigade[24]
1st Major General David Wooster: Oct 76 – dec’d May 77

Jabez Huntington: May 77 – May 79

Joseph Spencer: May 79 – 1783

2nd Major General Jabez Huntington: Dec 76 – May 77

James Wadsworth, Jr.: May 77 – May 79

Oliver Wolcott: May 79 – 1783

1st Brigadier General Erastus Wolcott: Dec 76 – Jan 81

Roger Newberry: Feb 81 – 1783

1st, 6th, 19th, 22nd
2nd Brigadier General James Wadsworth, Jr.: Dec 76 – May 77

Andrew Ward, Jr.: May 77 – Oct 83

Comfort Sage: Oct 83 —

2nd, 7th, 10th, 23rd

28th added Jan 80[25]

3rd Brigadier General Gurdon Saltonstall: Dec 76 – May 77

John Tyler: May 77 – 1783

3rd, 8th, 20th, 25th

27th added Jan 80[26]

4th Brigadier General Gold Selleck Silliman: Dec 76 – Jan 81

John Mead: May 81 – Oct 83

John Chandler: Oct 83 —

4th, 9th, 13th, 16th
5th Brigadier General Eliphalet Dyer: Dec 76 – May 77

John Douglas: May 77 – May 84

Samuel McClellan: May 84 —

5th, 11th, 12th, 21st
6th Brigadier General Oliver Wolcott: Dec 76 – Apr 79

Selah Hart: May 79 – Jan 84

Epaphras Sheldon: Jan 84 –

14th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 24th, 26th added, May 78[27]

 

Three more foot regiments were formed between 1776 and 1780. The 26th Regiment was formed in May 1778[28] and the 27th and 28th Regiments were formed in January 1780.[29]

Henry P. Johnston interpreted the organization of the militia in Connecticut in a series of tables published in Connecticut Men in the Revolution, one for each of the twenty-eight regiments, based on some lists preserved among the Trumbull Papers.[30] His information is correct for a particular period of time, but gives the impression that the organization with twenty-eight regiments was static from 1775 thru 1783, which was not the case. Only between January 1780 and May 1780 does Johnston’s set of tables paint an accurate picture of how the militia was organized.

Map 4 – 1st Brigade (shades of yellow); 2nd Brigade (shades of red); 3rd Brigade (shades of magenta); 4th Brigade (shades of blue); 5th Brigade (shades of brown + orange); and 6th Brigade (shades of green). In October 1780, the Act forming the 27th Regiments was repealed and the area of the 27th became part of the 8th Regiment again. See full size.
Map 4 – 1st Brigade (shades of yellow); 2nd Brigade (shades of red); 3rd Brigade (shades of magenta); 4th Brigade (shades of blue); 5th Brigade (shades of brown + orange); and 6th Brigade (shades of green). In October 1780, the Act forming the 27th Regiments was repealed and the area of the 27th became part of the 8th Regiment again. See full size.

Table 4 – Leaders of Connecticut Militia Foot Regiments during the War, 1775 – 1783

Regiment formed Regiment(s) Created from Colonels[31] No. of Companies 1782-84[32] Brigade
1st 1739 Samuel Wyllys: Oct 74–May 77

Roger Newberry: May 77 – Feb 81

LTC Cmdt.Hezekiah Wyllys: Feb 81 – 1783

12 1st
2nd 1739 Leverett Hubbard: Oct 73 – Oct 75

Jonathan Fitch: Oct 75 – Oct 76

Joseph Thomson: Oct 76 – May 78

Edward Russell: May 78 – 1783

18 2nd
3rd 1739 Gurdon Saltonstall: before 74 – Oct 76

Jonathan Lattimer: Oct 76 – 1783

14 3rd
4th 1739 John Read: Oct 57 – May 75

Gold Selleck Silliman: May 75 – Oct 76

Samuel Whiting: Oct 76 – 80

LTC Cmdt. Jonathan Dimon: 80 – May 82

LTC Elijah Abel: May 82 –

16 4th
5th 1739 Eliphalet Dyer: Oct 74 – Mar 75

Jedediah Elderkin: Mar 75 – Oct 77

Experience Storrs: Oct 77 -– 1783

14 5th
6th 1739 Elizur Talcott: Oct 74 – Nov 76

Thomas Belding: Nov 76 – Jan 80

Howell Woodbridge: Jan 80 – 1783

  8 1st
7th 1739 Aaron Eliot: May 66 – Mar 75

Andrew Ward, jr.: Mar 75 – May 77

William Worthington: May 77 – 1783

  8 2nd
8th 1739 Samuel Coit: May 68 – Oct 76

John Tyler: Oct 76 – May 77

Oliver Smith: May 77 – 1783

16 3rd
9th 1739 Thomas Fitch: Oct 74 – Mar 75

Charles Webb: Mar 75 – May 77

John Mead: May 77 – May 81

Maj. Cmdt. John Davenport: May 81

12 4th
10th 1739 James Wadsworth, jr.: Oct 74 – Oct 76

Thaddeus Cook: Oct 76 – 1783

10 2nd
11th 1739 Ebenezer Williams: May 71 – Dec 76

William Danielson: Dec 76 – Jan 79

Samuel McClellan: Jan 79 – 1783

11 5th
12th 1739 Joseph Spencer: May 66 – Apr 75

William Williams: May 75 – Dec 76

Jeremiah Mason: Dec 76 – 1783

10 5th
13th 1739 Benjamin Hinman: Oct 71 – Oct 76

Increase Mosely, jr.: Oct 76 – 1783

13 4th
14th 1767 13th Charles Burrall: May 74 – 1783*

LTC Joshua Porter: May 74 – May 80 –

LTC Ebenezer Gay: May 80 – May 83

LTC Comdt. John Sedgwick: May 83

15 6th
15th 1769 1st, 6th, 10th John Strong: Oct 69 – Mar 75

Isaac Lee, jr.: Mar 75 – May 76

Fisher Gay: May 76 – Oct 76

Selah Heart(Hart): Oct 76 – May 79

Noadiah Hooker: May 79 – 1783

14 6th
16th 1771 4th, 9th, 13th Joseph Platt Cook: Oct 71 – Feb 78

Nehemiah Beardsley: Feb 78 – 1783

10 4th
17th 1774 1st, 13th Oliver Wolcott: May 74 – May 77

Epaphras Sheldon: May 77 – Jan 80

Andrew Adams: Jan 80 – 1783

15 6th
18th 1774 1st, 15th Jonathan Pettibone: May 74 – Sep 76

Jonathan Humphry: Oct 76 – May 79

Noah Phelps: May 79 – 1783

12 6th
19th 1774 1st Erastus Wolcott: Oct 74 – May 77

Nathaniel Terry: May 77 – 1783

11 1st
20th 1774 3rd Jedediah Huntington: Oct 74 – May 77

Samuel Abbott: May 77 – May 80

Zabdiel Rogers: May 80 – 1783

10 3rd
21st 1774 11th John Douglas: Oct 74 – May 77

Obadiah Johnson: May 77 – 1783

10 5th
22nd 1774 1st, 5th Samuel Chapman: Oct 74 – 1783 10 1st
23rd 1775 6th Mathew Talcott: May 75 – Oct 76

Comfort Sage: Oct 76 – 1783

14 2nd
24th 1775 PA Zebulon Butler: May 75 – May 77

Nathan Denison: May 77 – 1783

  6 6th
25th 1776 12th Henry Champion: May 76 – May 77

Dyar Throop: May 77 – Jan 80

Elias Worthington: May 80 – 1783

14 3rd
26th 1778 17th, 18th Seth Smith: May 78 – 1783   9 6th
27th 1780 8th Nathan Gallup: Jan 80 – Oct 1780**   9 3rd
28th 1780 10th Phineas Porter: Jan 80 – 1783   7 2nd
* Charles Burrall was appointed colonel of a State Regiment in January 1776 but apparently did not relinquish his militia command; Burrall was a delegate to the Assembly but no activity was detected as militia colonel in 1777 and beyond.

** Regiment was eliminated in Oct 80 and towns folded into the 8th Regiment. Since Col. Oliver Smith (8th Regiment) was senior to Col. Gallup, he would continue as colonel.

 

In May 1780 the Assembly revoked the Act forming the 27th Regiment until the rising of the Assembly in October citing difficulties in filling up “the continental Army by draft or detachment therefrom or to draw forth the militia agreeable to acts and resolves of this Assembly.”[33] At the October 1780 session, the Assembly voted to repeal and make void the Act forming the 27th Regiment.[34]

In May 1782 the Assembly passed an Act for forming, regulating and conducting the Military Forces of this State.[35] This Act was designed to correct inadequacies in the militia laws and replaced all former Acts which were repealed by this Act. Men sixteen to forty-five years of age were mandated to serve unless excepted (and a long list of exceptions were part of the Act). One new exception was that those who had enlisted (or would still enlist) into the Connecticut Line of the Army for the term of the present war would be exempt from training after their term was served. The alarm list was dissolved, but those men under fifty-five had to report on days appointed to view arms. As part of the Act the towns that constituted regiments, and the regiments that constituted brigades, were restated. The 28th Regiment was renumbered the 27th, and in Table 3 above, the 27th Regiment was removed from the 3rd Brigade and the designation of the 28th in the 2nd Brigade was changed to the 27th. Regiments of Light Dragoons continued as shown in Table 2, but the 26th Regiment and new 27th were not mentioned. Officers and NCO’s authorized changed:

Unit Commanded by
Brigade Brigadier General
Regiment Lieutenant Colonel Commandant & Major
64-man Inf. Company Captain, Lieutenant, Ensign, 4 Serjeants, 4 Corporals, Drummer, Fifer
32-man Inf. Company Lieutenant, Ensign, 2 Serjeants, 2 Corporals, Drummer, Fifer
24-man Inf. Company Lieutenant, 2 Serjeants, 2 Corporals, Drummer, Fifer
40-man Cav. Company Captain, Lieutenant, Cornet, Quarter Master, 4 Corporals, Clerk, Trumpeter

 

The militia is best regarded as a pool of manpower from which men were drawn, either by enlistment or draft, to serve the needs and obligations of the colony/state. The Continental regiments were recruited from the militia as were the ad-hoc “militia” regiments requested by the Continental Congress, General Washington, Major Generals Schuyler and Gates for Ticonderoga, and Major Generals Spencer and Sullivan for Rhode Island. When an enlistment expired the men went back into the militia pool. Connecticut had state regiments raised for the defense of the state and an almost constant force defending its seacoast from British incursions. The colonels outlined above, and their staffs, managed the training of their men and the recruitment of men to serve in the Continental, ad-hoc, and state regiments.

 


[1] The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut. 15 volumes. The first three were edited by J. Hammond Trumbull and fourth through fifteenth by Charles J. Hoadly. Printer varied by volume. The first volume appeared in 1850 and the fifteenth in 1890. The series continues as The Public Records of the State of Connecticut, 21 volumes. The first five, which cover the period of interest, were edited by Charles J. Hoadly (volumes 1-3) and Leonard Woods Labaree (volumes 4-5). These appeared starting in 1894 and completed in 1943); (hereafter Colony Records and State Records).

[2] A catalog entry from the New York State Library at Albany says that pages 1 to 119 are a reprint of Acts and Laws, 1702, followed by a reprint of laws passed at subsequent sessions (pages 120-210).

[3] Acts and Laws of His Majesty’s Colony of Connecticut in New England (New-London: Timothy Green, 1715), 78, para. 1. Early American Imprints. First Series; no. 1738 (hereafter Acts and Laws, 1715).

[4] Answers to the Board of Trade, October 1774, Question XV, Appendix to Colony Records 14:499.

[5] Acts and Laws, 1715, 82, para. 21.

[6] Colony Records 8:277-279.

[7] Colony Records 9:301, 339, 431, 481, 547.

[8] Answers to the Board of Trade, 7 September 1762, Question 11, Appendix to Colony Records 11:630.

[9] Colony Records 12:607-608; 13:238; 13:512.

[10] Colony Records 14:261.

[11] An Account of the Number of Inhabitants in the Colony of Connecticut, January 1, 1774 (Hartford: Ebenezer Watson, 1774). Early American Imprints. First Series; no. 13206.

[12] Answers to the Board of Trade, October 1774, Question XV, Appendix to Colony Records 14:499.

[13] Answers to the Board of Trade, October 1774 cited in note 12, also contains a list of the field officers for the eighteen regiments. These names can also be derived from Colony Records volumes 8 through 14. In each session’s record there is a section with officer appointments: field officers followed by company grade officers. More information is available than presented here. It should be possible to a list the company officers in each regiment. I have not presented that information here as it is inconsistent and incomplete. Some company officers are associated with a town or ecclesiastical society and some are associated with a company number, making it is difficult to provide a list of companies and their captains, and it is impossible to provide a list of companies in each town. For my purposes, I would have liked to have presented a list the companies in each town and their respective captains.

[14] Colony Records volumes 13 and 14. Officers are appointed in the troops of horse for all regiments except the 17th and 18th regiments which were formed at the May 1774 session. The 17th first appointed officers in May 1775.

[15] Colony Records volumes 13 and 14. Info derived from officer appointments before May 1774. The 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, and 16th regiments listed company numbers and I noted the highest company used; the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th, 13th, and 14th regiments used town names or directional labels (north, south, middle) and my numbers are less exact than those for the first group. Read the symbol “~” as approximately.

[16] Colony Records 14:328.

[17] Colony Records 15:12.

[18] Colony Records 15:287.

[19] Colony Records 15:284-285.

[20] State Records 1:91.

[21] State Records 1:92.

[22] Colony Records 14:422-423. In April 1775, the Assembly appointed a major general (David Wooster) and two brigadier generals (Joseph Spencer and Israel Spencer). These appointments seem to be related to the troops going to Boston, and not the Militia.

[23] State Records volumes 1 to 5, 1:34; 1:

[24] State Records 1:91.

[25] State Records 2:483. The 28th formed in January 1780 was redesignated the 27th Regiment by an Act of Assembly in May 1782.

[26] Ibid. The 27th formed in January 1780 was eliminated in May 1782 by the Assembly and thus was no longer part of the 3rd Brigade.

[27] State Records 2:13.

[28] Ibid.

[29] State Records 2:483.

[30] Henry P. Johnston, ed., The Record of Connecticut Men in the Military and Naval Service during the War of the Revolution, 1775-1783 (Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1889), 432-448. Johnston does not identify the source in the Trumbull Papers for his information, nor does he indicate whether these papers were in Connecticut or those deposited in the Massachusetts Historical Society. I have looked through the Trumbull Papers published in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society and did not find the document there.

[31] Colony Records volumes 8 through 15; State Records volumes 1-5.

[32] State Records volumes 4 and 5. Info derived from officer appointments for 1782 thru 1784.

[33] State Records 3:44.

[34] State Records 3:172-173.

[35] State Records 4:138-153.

Recent Comments

Please format these articles so that they are able to be printed...
Just a couple of corrections to my post on Bonneville. His middle...
Thanks, Jett! Always fun to see the new information that results from...

16 Comments

  • Thank you for this excellent clarifying article. Was there a point during the war at which the designation “trainband” gave way to “company”? Obviously “trainband” became obsolete; I’m wondering when. Perhaps it lasted as long as the militia?

  • Fascinating essay, thank you Dr. Robertson! A summary I have been awaiting for decades. I look forward to pouring over it in detail.

    My 4th and 5th great-grandfathers served in the CT militia, both from Woodbury.

    Capt. Gideon Stoddard, 1714-1780, was at Fort William Henry (Last of the Mohicans). He made the trek home, but nothing is recorded of his experience.

    Capt. Nathan Stoddard, 1742-1777, has an extensive bio, including capture in Quebec and escape via swimming the St Lawrence. He was beheaded by a cannonball at Ft Mifflin on the Delaware River south of Philadelphia on November 15, 1777.

    Peter Stoddard
    ar******@ao*.com
    Lake Lanier, GA
    850-585-7332

    1. I am with the 1st Company Giveners Footguard. I am looking for how the chain of command worked and how it operated on a daily basis. Loved the piece.

  • “Trainband” as used in Connecticut seems to be a legal term. You only find it used in laws and in the appointments of officers. Both of these are activities of the Legislature. I did a quick search to see if I could find the term being used by the Council of Safety and didn’t see it’s use. So the guys with operational control of the military forces in Connecticut, the Council of Safety, didn’t seem to use the term, but the assembly did up through 1784 which is as far as I have minutes. So in answer to the question, trainband was used legally in Connecticut throughout the war and into the postwar period, but operationally it appears that only company was used. I would imagine that use would vary by state.

    1. Thank you, Mr. Robertson. I am outlining a novel set in Fairfield County and had wondered. Your explanation makes sense.

  • This is a terrific contribution. My enthusiasm is dampened only by mild regret at my own impatience. Last month I waited for Interlibrary Loan to produce the crucial book I needed (Johnson 1889) to work out the Connecticut militia regiments and figure out how the light horse regiments had been detached from them and formed into separate regiments in May 1776. Had I put the task off for a month I would have found everything I was looking for in this excellent new article. My specific interest is with Hyde’s 2nd regiment, which fought at Saratoga. Many thanks for a job well done.

  • Many of the old classics from the 1880s are available as pdfs using either Google books or Archive.org. I live in Texas and the libraries down here don’t have much RevWar material, but I have been able to assemble a library of over 2000 titles (books and periodicals) to support my research. I know Johnson is among those as well as the Connecticut Colony and State Records. Google has just copied the books, but many of the Archive.org books are also OCR’d so that the pdf search function works. For those that aren’t searchable, Adobe Acrobat has the ability to create an index that allows searching.

    Glad you found the article useful. Rhode Island is already complete on JAR, and I plan to add New Hampshire and Massachusetts soon.

  • Dear Sir, not being very familiar with the internet, I am having trouble finding my Pvt. Stephen Skinner of CT (may have served while he lived in Colchester, New London Co., CT.) DAR has him as being in the 9th Co., 12th Regiment/Militia. He moved to Sherburne, Chenango Co., NY and died in 1842 with burial at Christ Church. Your article was very helpful, and I did notice that the Colchester, CT area was part of the area that made up the 12th Regiment of Militia. Thank you for any help you can offer.
    Sincerely, Linda Alcott Maples

    1. I just bought the house built by and owned by BG Timothy Skinner of Litchfield, CT. His father was Gideon Skinner of Colchester-married to Dorcas Strong, also of Colchester. BG Timothy led the CT 6th Brigade from 1794-1796. He was first appointed to the 17th Regiment as a Lieutenant in 1778.
      Just wanted to point out that the Litchfield Skinner branch began in Colchester, so your Pvt Stephen must have been a relation to Timothy (1745-1823).
      Bob Goodhouse

    2. The Colchester companies eventually broke off of the 12th Regiment and formed the nucleus of the 25th Regiment.

  • Would it have been possible that a 16 year old in Rhode Island could have been a
    Lieutenant in the colonial militia in 1757 on alarm? Trying to figure out if it is one of our local men, Amos Greene Jr, or his father Amos Greene Sr that is listed . He was later a captain in the RI Militia during the Revolution and he is list in the colonial militia later in the colonial militia after 1757 too. The confusion is that his father Amos Greene Sr would have been 40 in 1757 and we were wondering which one is listed in 1757. The 1757 listing has no Sr or Jr but the later listings all have Jr.

  • Looking for information of service during the Revolution for Capt. John Wilson 1711-1799, of Harwinton, Litchfield Co., CT, leading member of the Sons of Liberty. Did he serve in a local Militia Unit? Any documents for proof of Service?
    Thank you
    Randall Huber, GA SAR

  • The alarm list officers can be tricky to track down. After attempting to identify a few alarm list company commanders for the 3rd & 8th Regiments, I learned from the Council of Safety records, those officers received their commissions directly from Trumbull in early 1777. The records only mentions the governor sending them out to them, but never identifies the officers by name. Unless they were replaced during the war, during a time the General Assembly met, or you can find them in the pension records, most of those officers remain unknown.

  • I’m trying to learn how to locate/find information on a Capt Stephen Fuller (1730-1813) Oct 1775 apt Captain 1st company (trainband) 24th regiment , Connecticut regular militia. Buried in 1813 Sheshequin TWP Bradford co,pa Being new to this any direction info pointers would be appreciated thanks keith

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *