Tag: Connecticut

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This Week on Dispatches: Selden West on a Whaleboat Fight off Connecticut

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Selden West on her research into a fight between Patriot whaleboat crews and the British Navy off Stamford, Connecticut in 1778. New episodes of Dispatchesare available for free every Saturday evening(Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatchescan […]

by Editors
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Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Who Supplied Washington’s Suffering Army . . . and the French

Jonathan Trumbull, Senior is the most important governor in Connecticut’s long history. This is not only because of the many key contributions he made as a patriotic leader to his beloved state of Connecticut during the American Revolution, but just as importantly, what he contributed to help ease the suffering of soldiers under Gen. George […]

by Damien Cregeau
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Again the Hero: David Wooster’s Final Battle

David Wooster’s part in the American Revolution began in a slightly embarrassing manner. Wooster commanded the militia at New Haven, Connecticut. On April 22, 1775, just days after Lexington and Concord, hotheaded young Benedict Arnold was demanding the keys to the storehouse where the local company kept its gunpowder. The leaders of the community had […]

by Jeff Dacus
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Jedediah Huntington of Connecticut

Brigadier General Jedediah Huntington is an overlooked yet very interesting patriot leader from Connecticut who grew up with Benedict Arnold, fought in several battles, and became close to General Washington toward the end of the war. Huntington was born in 1743 into a wealthy merchant household headed by Jabez Huntington, who owned a fleet of […]

by Damien Cregeau
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General Samuel Parsons and the Tory

During the Revolutionary War, there were numerous attempts to entice leaders of the American rebels to return to their British heritage. Members of Congress were the objects of British efforts to entice America’s leaders to join the British side.[1] Benedict Arnold and Col. Rudolphus Ritzema turned traitor, Robert Howe was accused of treason,[2] Philip Schuyler […]

by Jeff Dacus
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The Setauket Raid – December 1777

On the 1st of December 1777 Colonel Samuel B. Webb noted in his journal,[1] … At Horseneck [Greenwich, CT].  This day my Regiment marched in to this place. An expedition is intended on Long Island…. We expect to cross tomorrow evening. Sgt. Simon Giffin of Webb’s Regiment was a busy man that day. At North […]

by Phillip R. Giffin
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Deserter a Day 1 (of 5)

Newspapers are among our favorite things at Journal of the American Revolution, providing endless information and insight about America’s Revolutionary era. In addition to news, notices, and opinion pieces, newspapers carried advertising that reveals important aspects of the people who placed ads and read them. Some of the ads were actually about people. When soldiers […]

by Editors
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Anything But Monotonous: Nine Months of Garrison Duty at Fort Griswold

New London’s harbor was the center of Connecticut’s wartime naval activity for the duration of the eight-year American Revolution.  Because of its recognized importance, its provincial government, as early as 1775, sought ways to protect it.   Sending a military commission to the harbor area, they would eventually order the construction of three earthen fortifications on […]

by Matthew Reardon
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A Dragoon a-Wooing

Even as late as the spring of 1783, there was still a war on. A substantial number of British troops were in New York City and the surrounding area, and Continental troops continued to hem them in. But peace and disarmament were near at hand. Among the soldiers with peace on his mind was a […]

by Don N. Hagist
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Burr Mansion: A Love Story

In April 1775 the Fairfield, Connecticut, mansion of the Honorable Thaddeus and Eunice Burr was a-bustle. Preparations were being made to welcome a contingent of key patriots: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Lydia Hancock and Dorothy Quincy. Word had reached Burr (who was High Sheriff of the County), Colonel Gold Selleck Silliman (he hadn’t yet been […]

by Cathryn J. Prince
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Gallows Hill: The 1779 Executions of Edward Jones and John Smith

During the winter of 1778-1779 General Israel Putnam and about 3,000 troops of the Continental Army encamped in Redding, Connecticut. The harsh winter brought a rash of problems, from illness and low food supplies to the more problematic issues of desertions and theft.[1] Indeed Tory spies frequently penetrated Putnam’s lines, carrying information to the British. […]

by Cathryn J. Prince
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Samuel Smedley and Prize Division

“I never Emplored my pen in writing more Disagreeable News than at this time,” wrote Samuel Smedley, captain of the Connecticut state ship Defence, to Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull in March 1779. “According to your Excellencys Orders I got the ship Defence in Readiness for Sea & having no men Belonging to the ship it […]

by Jackson Kuhl
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Taking to Devil’s Den

The crevices and stony outcroppings of Devil’s Den, a 1,756-acre nature preserve in Weston and Redding, Connecticut, can provide shelter for hikers during an unexpected rainstorm. Or, as was the case for some women and children 236 years ago, the perfect place to hide during a British invasion. It was shortly before sunset on April […]

by Cathryn J. Prince
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Mary Silliman’s War

In January I made a list of the 10 best, in my opinion, Revolutionary War films.  I neglected to include a film that deserves to be in the top half of that list; Mary Silliman’s War. This 1994 film is based on the true story of Mary Silliman and her husband, General Gold Selleck Silliman […]

by Hugh T. Harrington
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General Gold Silliman: Snatched from Home

Sometime around midnight on May 1, 1779, British soldiers smashed through the wooden door of General Gold Selleck Silliman’s Fairfield, Connecticut home. They snatched him and his eldest son, William, from their beds. The soldiers, accompanied by eight armed Tories, confiscated the general’s fusee, a pair of his pistols, his sword, and three hats (one […]

by Cathryn J. Prince
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Tory Stories from the Simsbury Copper Mine

To be a Tory in the northern colonies was to understand and fear the consequences of confinement at the infamous copper mine of Simsbury, Connecticut.  Although already in use as a Loyalist prison, the mine gained official approval for use by the Assembly early in 1776.  It quickly gained a reputation as a dismal environment […]

by Wayne Lynch
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Spring Break Road Trip – Day 2 (CT, NY, NJ)

After sleeping in a bit, today’s first stop is “Ye Most Ancient Towne” in Connecticut – Wethersfield (see video below), which was founded in 1633-34 and boasts 300 historic homes (50 built before the American Revolution)!  The highlight of our stop is sure to be the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum:  “The 1752 Joseph Webb House served as […]

by Editors
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Nathan Hale: A Hero’s Fiasco

Dear Mr. History: What’s the story on Nathan Hale?  Like countless American schoolchildren, I was taught that he was executed for spying and said “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”  A spy who gets caught seems like a dubious distinction to me.  Was Hale an effective spy?  […]

by Michael Schellhammer