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EXPOSITION PARK

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PAPERS AND ADDRESSES

Society of Colonial Mars

STATE OF CONNECTICUT

TOGETHER WITH NECROLOGIES AND TWO UNPUBLISHED DIARIES OF
SERVICE IN THE OLD FRENCH WAR, FORMING

VOLUME I

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY

LOS ANGELAS MUSEUM
EXPOSITION PARK

BY VOTE OF THE COUNCIL AT A MEETING HELD ON MARCH
FOURTH NINETEEN HUNDRED AND THREE THIS VOLUME OF
PROCEEDINGS WAS, ORDERED PRINTED. ARRANGED AND
EDITED BY A SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION THEN
APPOINTED

ARTHUR REED KIMBALL

WILLISTON WALKER

THEODORE SALISBURY WOOLSEY

CONTENTS

Report of Committee on Plan and Scope, ... i
The Capture of Louisbourg, ...... 7

Uncas, . . . . . . . . . . 21

The Distribution of the Pequot Lands, . . . . 49

Old Newgate Mine and Prison, . . . . . . 61

A Popular Colonial Poet, . . . . . . . 73

The Hiding of the Charter, .... .89

Presentation of the Charter Oak Ballot Box, . . . 117

Description of the Charter Oak Gavel, . . . . 123

William Brewster, . . . . . . . .127

The Judges Cave Tablet, . . . . . . .145

A Foreign Invasion, . . . . . . . .163

On Genealogies, . . . . . . . .175

A Sketch of the Life and Military Service of Major-

General William Buel Franklin, . . . .185

Daniel Cady Eaton, ........ 241

Necrology, .255

Services of Members of the Connecticut Society in the

War with Spain, ........ 295

Journal of Joseph Smith of Groton, .... 303

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble, . . . . . .311

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PLAN AND SCOPE

To THE COUNCIL OF THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY OF THE
COLONIAL WARS.

The Committee on Plan and Scope desires to present the
following Report :

GENTLEMEN : The duty has been laid upon us of defin-
ing the most rational and suitable field for the activities of
this society and of tracing the line of policy which will
enable it to occupy that field. In attempting this, we
desire first to differentiate our ideal from that of the His-
torical Societies ; and second to point out — though not
exhaustively — the specific kinds of things which it is desir-
able that our society should devote itself to.

The Historical Societies should be considered a founda-
tion upon which we can build. They have a wider scope
than we. They stimulate and demand original research.
.They have peculiar facilities for such work, and being local
in character usually, can explore the history and antiquities
of their particular field, to great advantage. Moreover
they require far different qualifications for membership,
and are not primarily social in character.

Our aims should be somewhat different. While not
discouraging original research, we should, rather, refresh
and renew knowledge already existing.

We should popularize the facts which the historical
societies discover ; breathe life into their personages ; give
to their history a local habitation and a name.

How can this be done !

LOS ANGELES MTJSTOT
EXPOSITION PARK

4 Report of Committee on Plan and Scope.

We suggest that it can be done through biographical
sketches of the men of our heroic period ; by studying
their portraits, their letters, their habits and manner of life.

It can be done too by marking sites and events, — the
birthplaces of men, the scenes of battle, spots connected
with historical facts — with such commemorative tablets, as
to call proper attention to them.

It can be done by connecting men and events with
localities so that either will suggest the other, as Washing-
ton does Mt. Vernon.

Our medium would be addresses, papers, leaflets, meet-
ings in various parts of the state to identify or trace out
scenes, to honor men or places, to inaugurate monuments.

If this is to be our peculiar work, it may be added that
apart from the social and ancestral qualifications of our
members, their capacity and readiness to assist in this
work, in one way or in another, must also be considered.

In this same direction your Committee ventures to
remark that a society of moderate size, homogeneous in
its make-up, emphasizing the social qualities, earnest in its
aims, can better attain the objects for which it exists than
one much larger which might prove unwieldy and destruc-
tive of sociability. Hence some form of limitation in our
numbers is desirable. Not all of those who are otherwise
eligible, would make proper members for us.

And now to specify and illustrate somewhat more fully
the channels through which we may do our work :

I. There should be, annually or oftener, papers, prepared
by members of the Society, to be read before it, and when
practicable to be printed in its proceedings.

Report of Committee on Plan and Scope. 5

2. There should be selected each year for special com-
memoration, some event, some place, or some person, con-
nected with the colonial history of this commonwealth,
e. g., the Regicides and Judges' Cave.

3. A careful list should be drawn up by a committee, of
those memorable objects, houses, churches or sites, which
are worthy of recognition and honor. These, in time, as
means and opportunity are offered, could be commem-
orated by inscribed tablets of brass or of stone, or even by
some more elaborate and artistic monument. Thus, the
site of the Charter Oak, the tradition of the phantom ship,
fa.cts in regard to Connecticut's Long Island possessions,
might be suitably marked out and recalled. The Center
Church of New Haven bears its history written upon its
walls, and inscribed tablets testify to the virtues of its
godly ministers, all lending a real and living interest to a
comparatively modern structure.

• 4. Again, and more in line with the military character of
this society, we should seek to preserve and to publish all
those diaries of service in the colonial wars, with sketch
maps of campaigns, which occasionally come to light.

5. We may expect in course of time and should be pre-
pared to care for and to exhibit, the portrait, original or
copied, painted or engraved, of the noteworthy men of the
past, and particularly our owTn ancestors, and citizens of
this colony.

6. The same may be said of weapons, powder horns,
uniforms and military equipment of any sort, or even the
dress and furniture of the period, for the housing of which
together with our banners, our records and the library we

6 Report of Committee on Plan and Scope.

shall accumulate, we shall need a room and in time a build-
ing. Towards this end a building fund should be allowed
to accumulate.

In so extensive a programme as this there is room for
talents and activities of every kind. As in the fable of the
bundle of sticks which together could not be broken but
easily one by one, so little by little we may fairly expect
to gather, to celebrate, to dignify and to permanently
mark out, the objects, the men, and the events of the past
of this old commonwealth. And thus should we prove
our reason for being.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

JAMES J. GOODWIN,
FREDERICK J. KINGSBURY,
CHARLES SAMUEL WARD,
THEODORE S. WOOLSEY.
MARCH 17, 1896.

THE CAPTURE OF LOUISBOURG

BY

REV. GEORGE LEON WALKER, D.D.

ADDRESS DELIVERED MAY i, 1895.

UST a hundred and fifty years ago, to-day, in the
fading light of that afternoon of May ist, the
last boat-load of a squadron of thirty-two hun-
dred and fifty men — some of them lineal ancestors of quite
a number of us sitting here in this comfortable room-
scrambled ashore over the stones and seaweed of Fresh-
Water Cove, in Chapeau Rouge Bay, about four miles
from the fortress of Louisbourg.

They had begun the debarkation in the afternoon of the
day before, April 30, under some small fire from a scouting
party from the fort, having a couple of their number
wounded, but on the other hand killing six of their assail-
ants and capturing as many more. To-day they completed
their transference to the inhospitable shore, encountering
no further difficulty, for the moment, than the plunge
through the tumultuous surf which wet them to the skin,
and the scrabble for footing on the slippery shingle of the
beach. Behind them, at anchor in the bay, was a motley fleet
of sloops and transfers, eighty or ninety in number, contain-
ing the provisions of the expedition, five hundred barrels of
powder, and the twenty cannon and three mortars which
had, by the wild genius who planned the expedition, been
deemed sufficient for the undertaking. One hundred men
and eight small cannon had been left behind a few days
before at Canso, fifty miles away, where the miscellaneous
fleet had rendezvoused ; and four hundred men with a
small armament had been sent to capture St. Peters, a set-
tlement intermediate between Canso and Louisbourg.

io The Capture of Louisbourg.

But here was the great bulk of the expedition, more or
less safe and sound, on the stony and boggy island of Cape
Breton, almost within gun range of the most formidable
fortress ever built on the American continent, as sunset
fell down on them that first day of May, 1745, a hundred
and fifty years ago.

How came they there, and how did they get on once
being arrived ?

As to what brought them to the spot — this was, perhaps,
as conspicuous an instance as the turmoils of mankind
anywhere afford of the disastrous results of what we fre-
quently hear of, — " a woman in the case." For fifteen years
following 1725, a reasonable degree of peace had prevailed
along the American frontiers. Pioneer settlements on the
Massachusetts and New Hampshire borders and out along
the New York lakes and rivers thrived and multiplied.
The shipping merchants of the coasts sent out their vessels
to Europe or the West Indies with a tolerable degree of
hopefulness, and mothers in the new inland settlements
went to sleep at night with a reasonable measure of con-
fidence that they and their babes would not be scalped
before morning.

But alas ! on the 2oth of October, 1 740, died Charles
VI., the emperor of Germany. But what was there about
the death of this estimable Austrian gentleman, at 55 years
of age, of a gall-stone in his liver, at a remote European
town, to affecl; the course of New England story ?

Why, everything to affecl; it. The canny old fellow left
a daughter — Maria Theresa by name — a very presentable
young woman by all accounts, but whose right of succes-

The Capture of Louisbourg. \ i

sion to the Austrian throne under former usages of that
Hapsburg family were rather dubious ; succession being gen-
erally limited to the male line. Considering which fact the
emperor, her father, while in the full vigor of his swash-
bucklering health, had secured the pledge of most of the
crowned heads of Europe, including George Second of
England, but not including, of course, the king of France,
that they would stand by the girl and see her safely through.
But no sooner was the father dead than several of the par-
ties to what was called the " Pragmatic Sanction," forgot
their agreement. Frederick of Prussia proceeded to slice
off a province of Austria and annex it to his own territory.
Spain repudiated the Pragmatic agreement in favor of her
sovereign. George Second stood by his pledges and made
the woman's cause his own, first against Spain, and later
against France. France, always the foe of England and
often of Austria, declared war upon both ; and the quarrel
of the Hapsburg woman on the Danube became by 1 744
the fight of Frenchman and Englishman along every water-
course and coast line of Canada and North America.

Massachusetts had at this juncture an enthusiastic, wide-
awake lawyer for governor, William Shirley by name ; a
man of very many creditable abilities and virtues ; but
exceedingly ambitious and possessed with the idea that he
was a great military strategist as well. Stirred up by a
sanguine frontiersman from Damariscotta, Me., one Wil-
liam Vaughn by name (and by the way, what terrible fire-
eating fellows these Maine statesmen are, both in ancient
and modern times) who told the governor that the snow
often fell so deep about the Louisbourg fortifications that

1 2 The Capture of Louisbourg.

men could walk straight across the walls into the town,
Governor Shirley conceived the idea of taking Louisbourg
by surprise. Winter was well along. The great military
stronghold of North America, which had been twenty-five
years in building ; which had been laid out on the plans of
Vauban ; which had cost thirty million livres, equal, per-
haps, to as many dollars now ; which was garrisoned by
about seventeen hundred regular troops ; whose walls were
supplied with ninety heavy cannon and with many swivels
and mortars ; whose defences were supported by two out-
lying battery forts, mounting each thirty heavy guns, was
to be captured, so Vaughn and Shirley planned, while the
garrison was asleep. Shirley communicated his plan to the
General Court of Massachusetts on January 9, 1745, first
exacting an oath of secrecy about the communication he
was about to make. The General Court sat down on the
scheme. But Shirley persisted. He got up petitions for
a reversal of the unfavorable decision. He did get it
reversed by a single vote, a vote which would have been
neutralized, however, if a certain deputy had not broken his
leg in hastening to the House to record his dissent. But
once having secured his majority for the enterprise Shirley
kept his couriers flying on his errands of incitement and
solicitation. New York and Pennsylvania declined co-
operation. None of the colonies south of Connecticut
showed interest in the scheme, save that Governor Clinton
lent ten eighteen-pounders after it became clear that Mas-
sachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire were bound
to go ahead.

Massachusetts did nobly, raising and equipping 3,300

The Capture of Louisbourg. 13

men. New Hampshire raised four hundred and fifty-four,
of whom, however, a hundred and fifty were to be paid by
Massachusetts. Connecticut contributed five hundred and
sixteen to the enterprise. As the preparations went for-
ward enthusiasm grew. Something of religious zeal
mingled with patriotic loyalty. Were not the Louis-
bourgites Roman Catholics as well as Frenchmen ? Par-
son Moody of York, Maine, who went as chaplain to the
Massachusetts contingent, carried his private axe with him
to hew down the images in the papistic church at Louis-
bourg. William Pepperell, a generous-hearted merchant
of Kittery, who had been selected by Governor Shirley as
commander-in-chief of the enterprise, solicited the advice
and co-operation of the celebrated evangelist George White-
field, then on his second visit to New England, and who
had been offered a chaplaincy to the troops. Whitefield
declined the chaplaincy ; rather discouraged Pepperell
about the undertaking ; but, being entreated, gave a motto
for the flag, "Nil desperandum Christo duce," suggesting
at once a certain religious quality and the quixotic char-
acter of the crusade.

Here in Connecticut a special session of the Assembly was
held from the 26th to the 2gth of February, at which it was
voted to co-operate with the Shirley enterprise. In pursu-
ance of this resolve, Lieutenant-Governor Roger Wolcott
of Windsor was appointed major-general, second in com-
mand under Pepperell, and received Governor Shirley's
commission, as well as Governor Law's. Andrew Burr of
Fairfield was designated as colonel ; Simon Lothrop of
Norwich lieutenant-colonel ; Israel Newton of Colchester

14 The Capture of Louisbourg.

as major. Captains' commissions were issued to Elizur
Goodrich of Wethersfield, David Wooster of New Haven,
Stephen Lee of New London, Daniel Chapman of Ridge-
field, William Whiting of Norwich, Robert Denison of
Stonington, Andrew Ward of Guilford and James Church
of Hartford. The Rev. Elisha Williams of Wethersfield,
retired from the rectorship of Yale College, was designated
as chaplain to the Connecticut troops, and Dr. Normand
M orison of Hartford surgeon-in-chief.

The colony sloop Defence, built at Middletown three
years before, was put in order, and placed under command
of John Prentiss of New London. Transports were hired ;
soldiers enlisted under offer of eight pounds in old tenor
bills a month, with certain increased allowances when they
furnished their own guns, cartridge boxes and blankets ;
and promise of " equal share in all the plunder with the
souldiers of the neighboring governments."

The Massachusetts contingent got away from Nantasket
for the port of Canso, where the whole expedition were to
rendezvous, on the 27th of March. Connecticut's followed
from New London Sunday, April 14. Good Governor
Wolcott wrote a hurried letter back to his wife, dated the
loth, in which he says: "Dear heart, excuse my hurry
which has engrossed my whole time since here, and
engrosses every day. But my heart is the same toward
you as before, and hope to have a time to pour it out into
your bosom, recounting the Toils and dangers I have born,
or meet you in endless happiness when our conversation
will be upon a better subject and more pleasing. Farewell,
sweet heart. Give my love to my family and friends."

The Capture of Louisbourg. 1 5

On their way to their rendezvous at Canso the com-
manders of the flotilla had leisure to study their instruc-
tions for the campaign, carefully drawn up by Lawyer
Shirley. It is safe to say a more extraordinary document
was never compiled for the directory of a military enter-
prise. Too long by far to quote, its general quality is well
enough indicated in a letter written by Shirley to Governor
Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire, a few sentences
of which it may be worth while to recall: "The success
of our enterprise," Shirley says, "will entirely depend on
the execution the first night after the arrival of our forces.
For this purpose it is necessary that the whole fleet should
make Chapeau Rouge Point just at the shutting in of day,
when they cannot easily be discovered ... so as to have
all the men landed before midnight ; the landing of whom
it is computed by Captain Durell and Mr. Bastide will
take up three hours at least. After which the forming of
the four several corps to be employed in the scaling the
walls of Louisbourg, near the east gate fronting the sea,
and the west gate fronting the harbor, to cover the retreat
of the two before-mentioned parties in case of a repulse,
and to attack the Grand Battery (which attack must be
made at the same time with the two other attacks) will
take two hours more at least. After these four bodies are
formed, their march to their respective posts from which
they are to make their attacks will take up another two
hours, which, supposing the transports to arrive at Chapeau
Rouge Bay at nine o'clock in the evening and not before
(as it will be necessary for them to do in order to land and
march under cover of the night) will bring them to four

1 6 The Capture of Louisbourg.

o'clock in the morning, being daybreak, before they begin
their attack, which will be full late for them to begin."

That is to say, nearly a hundred vessels, of all sailing
capacities and sizes, are to arrive simultaneously at nine
o'clock in the evening, at a specified point in a bay into
which probably not one of them ever sailed before, disem-
bark their troops, who are to march from two to four
miles through bogs and over rocks, in the darkness, cross
a fortress ditch of two to ten rods in width, scale the walls
in two places, as well as the walls of the Grand Battery
two miles away, and do it in four hours from landing, and
seven hours from casting anchor at precisely nine o'clock.
It must have been a relief to Pepperell and Wolcott to
find at the end of the long minute documents a postscript
in these words : " Notwithstanding these instructions you
have received from me, I must leave you to. act, upon
unforeseen emergencies, according to your best discretion."

The "unforeseen emergencies" developed right away.
The New Hampshire flotilla arrived at the rendezvous at
Canso, April i. The Massachusetts vessels dropped in
along from the 5th to the loth, and Connecticut got there
by the 25th. But Chapeau Rouge Bay was frozen solid.
Massachusetts men had been fretting a fortnight over the
ice and Connecticut's tardiness. But the delay had been a
great blessing.

Commander Peter Warren, who from his station in the
West Indies had sent his refusal to Governor Shirley to
take part in the Louisbourg expedition on the ground that
it was a mere provincial enterprise, unauthorized by the
Home Government, had two days after that refusal,

The Capture of Louisbourg. 1 7

received dispatches ordering his fleet to Boston, for gen-
eral co-operation with Governor Shirley, in any service
which might seem important. Arriving off Boston, he
learned from a pilot of the sailing of the provincial flotilla,
and without pausing for conference with Shirley set sail
after them. By the 23d of April he was off Canso with
four frigates of from forty to sixty guns each, an unex-
pected and wholly amazing reinforcement ! The ice broke
up in Chapeau Rouge Bay on April 27th. The fleet
sailed the 2gth, intending to reach the directed landing-
place at nine in the evening. But another "unexpected
emergency " developed. The wind fell to a calm, and in
the morning the whole armament, with the big frigates in
the offing, was full in view from the ramparts of Louis-
bourg. Shirley's fine scheme for taking Louisbourg by
surprise had clean gone overboard. Fortunately the " dis-
cretion," to which the governor in the case of " unexpected
emergencies" commended the provincial commanders,
remained still with them on deck.

Left to their own resources, the men got ashore, as I
have said, a hundred and fifty years ago this afternoon, and
they went straight at their daring and indeed almost fool-
hardy enterprise.

Into the details of the forty-nine days struggle which
followed I have no time to enter. I cannot pause to
describe how the very next morning after landing, a detach-
ment of men under Vaughn, the Damariscotta pioneer, set
fire to an extensive range of storehouses, filled with
important supplies, naval and military, out beyond the
Grand Battery, or how under the excitement and alarm of

1 8 The Capture of Louisbourg.

the smoke and fire from this combustion the garrison of
the Grand Battery itself most unaccountably and most dis-
astrously evacuated that indispensably important part of
the defences, and left its thirty heavy cannon to be turned
by the provincials against the town. I cannot narrate the
story of the dragging of the cannon from the vessels by
men often up to their knees or thighs in mud, across bogs
and hillocks, first to Green Hill, a mile from the King's
Bastion at Louisbourg ; then, successively, by toilsome
stages to a second, third, fourth, and finally to a fifth point
of vantage, all the while under fire from the fortress and
all the while keeping up an answering fire from their own
guns. I cannot tell how, over on Light-House point, the
gallant provincials erected a battery, digging ten heavy
cannon out of the sand where the Frenchmen had con-
cealed them, to make it of and turning its destructive fire
against the formidable Island Fort which held the entrance
to the harbor. I have no time to enlarge on the disap-
pointment of the beleaguered garrison when they learned
that Warren's fleet outside had captured on the iQth of
May the French ship of war Vigilant of sixty-four guns,
which was approaching for their relief, and which now only
afforded, as the Grand Battery fortress and the Light-
House point guns had done, a new agency of assault
against them. I cannot tell what heroic, though futile,
efforts were made on the 26th of May to capture the
Island Fort under cover of night, in doing which the pro-
vincial forces lost more men than in all the rest of the
siege ; nor can I allude to the occasional glimpses we got
of the employment or divertisements of the men in off

tbe Cape Breton .EapwAWw is atfrtfent the SufyeS of mo/1 Converfation, wt lop ttt
vring Draught • (roigb as it is, for want of go»/d Engraven bert) will be acceptable to our
Readers ; ai itivillfer-ve to give them an Lite of tbe Strength and Situation of tbeTortn now h
our Forces, and render the Newwe receive 'from tbence mere in'.tUigible.

'

• PLAN of the Town and Harbour of L OUISBUR G.

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EXPLANATION. v

I; Tbfe Ifland Battery^ at the Mouth of the Harbour, mounting 34 Guns, — Pounders. This ,
Battery can rake Ships fore and aft before they come to the Harbour's Mouth, and take t
them in the Side as they are pa fling in.

>. Th* Grand Battery, of 36 Forty two Founders, planted right againft the Mouth of the Har- ,
hour, and can rake Ships fore and aft as they enter. -. -

3. The Town N.Eaft Battery, Which mounts 1 8 Twenty four Pounders on two Faces, which. •
; : - can play on- the Ships as foon as they have entered th'e Harbour.

fa- The Demi- Lone or -Circufer Battery, which mounts 1 6 Twenty four Pounders, ftands on high {
.Ground, and overlooks all the Works. This, Battery can alfo gaul Ships, as foon as they j
. • enter the Harbour. ._. ,

§» Three FJank?^, mounting 2 Eighteen Pounders each.

6, A ftaall Battery, whichmoontsS Nine Poundew; All thefe- Guns command any Shirj in the
• Harbour.

^. The Fort or Citadel, fortified 'difiinaiy from the !f own, in which .the Governor lives.
8. A Rock, 'called the Barfe.L

T- The Center of the Town. L The Light Houfe,

. Every Baftion of the Town Wall has Embrafures or Ports for this Number of Guns' to defend the
Land Side. The black Strokes drawn from th'e feveral Batteries,. . lhexw-«he Lines ia which*
the Shot may be directed.

•

FACSIMILE FROM THE NEW YORK WEEKLY POST BOY. JUNE 1 Oth 174S.
SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS. 1895

The Capture of Louisbourg. 19

hours of duty ; how they caught trout and lobsters ; how
they raced, wrestled and pitched quoits ; or how some of
them, wandering too far from the camp, lost a scalp or two
at the hands of the Indians lurking in the camp rear. I
cannot tell how Captain Moody exhorted ; how Roger
Wolcott (doubtless for lack of Warner's Safe Kidney
Cure) was doubled up with "nephritic pains," or how the
enemy within the town had their share of sufferings also
from houses riddled with shots, from discordant counsels,
and from prevalent sickness.

I can only say that on the i5th of June, in immediate
prospect of a combined assault by sea as well as land (the
crippled condition of the Island Fort now for the first time
permitting the attempt of the fleet to enter the harbor), a
flag of truce with proposals for surrender came from
Duchambon, the Louisbourg commander, to the tattered
and wearied but tenacious provincials. The next day was
consumed with negotiating the terms. But on the i7th
the English fleet sailed quietly into the harbor, and the
keys of the city and the fortress were presented to Pep-
perell by the French general. Louisbourg was captured.
The joyful army held a banquet to celebrate the victory.
Captain Moody was to say grace. Remembering his Sun-
day prayers, the officers felt a little nervous as to the
length of time they should be detained from their repast.
The chaplain surprised and gratified them by praying :
" Good Lord, we have so much to thank Thee for that
time will be too short and we must leave it to eternity.
Bless our food and fellowship on this joyful occasion, for
the sake of Christ our Lord, Amen." Governor Wolcott

2O The Capture of Louisbourg.

could not attend the dinner for still continued lack of
Warner's Kidney Cure.

The news of Louisbourg's surrender reached Boston at
one o'clock on the morning of the 3d of July. It reached
Hartford on the 5th. Everywhere it was received with
tumults of rejoicing. Guns were fired, bells rung, con-
gratulations exchanged.

And well they might be. An expedition which, by all
laws of probable reasoning, was doomed from the outset
to certain defeat, had by the good " discretion " of the
commanders in the " unforeseen emergencies " which arose,
and (it must not be forgotten, for those commanders most
distinctly recognized it), by a series of incalculable and
astonishing conspiring circumstances in their behalf, which
no wit of man could have anticipated, much less provided
for, been turned into a triumphant success. The scheme
for the reduction of the American Gibraltar drawn by a
lawyer, to be executed by a merchant, at the head of a
force of farmers and mechanics, was nevertheless in result
a triumph. What the cool and careful Parkman calls a
" mad scheme " proved in the issue one of the most
splendid achievements of the century. Well may any of
us who are fortunate enough to have had ancestors in that
memorable event feel proud of being among the sons of
the captors of Louisbourg.

llf. ,v ttii. \f. ^ 4,

DEACON EDWARD COLLINS.

He was born in England, 1603 and he came to Massachusetts Bay with
his wife Martha, at an early date. In 1 636 he was the owner of large tracts
of land in and around Cambridge. Fie was made a Freeman May 13, 1640,
and he was appointed Clerk of the Writs, October 7, 1 64 1 . He was Deacon
of the church before 1 658, and he represented Cambridge in the General Court
from 1654 to 1670.

In 1 636 he was a member of the Military Company of Cambridge com-
manded by Captain George Cooke, and in 1641. he was enrolled as a mem-
ber of "The Military Company of the Massachusetts," which subsequently as-
sumed the title of "The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company." He
bore the following Arms and Crest:

ARMS:

Argent, a dexter hand gauntleted, in sinister base, grasping a sword in bend,
all proper, pommel and hilt, or:

CREST:
An Owl, Argent:

MOTTO :
Nostra Tuebimur Ipsi.

He took an active part in the protection of the regicides Gofle, Whalley
and Dixwell. He died 1689.

HOLDRIDGE OZRO COLLINS.

REV. NATHANIEL COLLINS, 3RD.

He was born 1 709 in Enfield, Connecticut, the son of Rev. Nathaniel
Collins, Jr., by his wife Alice Adams, great-grand-daughter of Governor Will-
iam Bradford. Nathaniel was the third generation in descent from Deacon
Edward Collins of Cambridge.

On October 15, 1744, Governor William Shirley commissioned him a
Lieutenant in the First Regiment of Massachusetts troops, commended by
Colonel "The Hon. William Pepperrell, Esq.," for service in the Cape_Breton
Expedition. He went to Louisbourg and participated in the_siege and capture of
that Fortress. His older brother, John Collins, was also a Lieutenant in the
same Regiment and was killed during the siege. After his return he was or-
dained a Minister at Enfield.

On July 1 7, 1 735, he married Abigail, daughter of James Pease and
Hannah Harmon. He died in 1 785.

HOLDRIDGE OZRO COLLINS.

tns

t, a hexter fyanh garmtletefr m
sinister tase, gra0phtg a s&jor& tti henb,
all proper, pomntei atth {jilt, or

, argent.

jKotto:

Rostra

UNCAS

CHARLES FREDERIC CHAPIN, ESQ.

HE story of Uncas is the history of Connecticut
for the fifty years that followed the coming of
the first white man to stay. Not more than two
or three native figures stand out as conspicuously as his,
and no Indian is so plainly and persistently visible in the
moving piclure from 1630 to 1680 as he. During that
time, it may be said almost literally, he was engaged on
the side of the white men in all the wars they waged
against his red brethren. Leaving out of consideration at
this time all dispute as to motive, that fa6l is the measure
of his faithfulness and consistency.

* * -#

He was a Pequot. The Pequots came traditionally
from farther west, and with power enough to have their
own way and settle where they pleased, they had the good
sense to choose the fertile lands of Connecticut, and to
pick the richest parts of them — the banks of the Con-
necticut river, the country eastward to the Thames and
beyond, and the shores of the Sound from Saybrook to the
Pawcatuck.

It was a blessed country, even then. The catalogue of
its natural beauties, produces and capacities makes one of
the finest chapters of Trumbull's noble history of the state.
The elaborate enumeration of trees, vegetables, fruits,
berries, plants, flowers and roots of varied virtues satisfies
the love of plenty and stimulates the desire of appetite.
Of the incredible number of wild animals, supplying food
and fur, of the vast variety of fowl inhabiting the air and

24 Uncas.

water, and of the multitude of fish that populated the
rivers, an historian has said "It passeth credit, if but the
truth were written." The forests stood primeval, untrod-
den except by the narrow trail traveled by those most
unsociable of pedestrians, Indians in single file, and
unmarred except by the spread of the deserted camp-fire,
or by fires purposely kindled to beat up game. Silent and
serene they pointed heavenward through a pure air into
which now a thousand chimneys pour their defiling smoke.
Their roots grew strong and deep in the matted decay of
ages, storing up the water that now pours down our hill-
side streets, washing away the clumsy work of tax-eaters
and roadmakers. The rivers that civilization has turned
into sewers were clean and wholesome, the fit home of
trout and salmon, and the first white man could lie down
and drink from their bright waters without fastidious shock
except from the prophetic reflection in their pure depths of
the unsolved sewer problem behind him. Along the salt
shores where now legislation is sought to protect the
decreasing store, there was shell-fish far beyond the needs
of all, and vast heaps of shells testify to this day to the
Indian's appreciation of Nature's bounty and of food that
was easy to get and all ready to eat.

* * -55-

Such was the land of Uncas when the white man came
in 1633 and 1634. At the time when tradition ends and
history begins the different tribes and divisions of tribes
were more or less definitely located, though there is uncer-
tainty or disagreement as to exact boundaries and as to
relationship of tribes in respect to each other. The Pequots

Uncas. 2 5

were the most numerous and most warlike of all. The
name of Sassacus, their chief sachem, was enough to excite
the fear, if not to compel the submission, of every Indian
in Connecticut. Sassacus had twenty-six sachems under
him, and the chief seat of the tribe was about Pequot (now
New London) harbor, and in what are now the towns of
New London and Groton. Their principal fort was on
an eminence overlooking the surrounding land and water
not far from Fort Griswold. A second fort was eastward
on the Mystic river.

When this strong tribe of fighting men came into Con-
necticut, at some recent time before the arrival of the
English, they found Indians already here. The strangers
proved too much for the occupants of the places they
wanted. The Niantics they split in two — and forever after
there were the Western Niantics, who lived along the shore
west of Thames mouth, and the Eastern Niantics, who
were forced eastward under the protection of the Narra-
gansetts, the only tribe capable of holding its own with the
Pequots. There were various small tribes along the Con-
necticut river — the Podunks near Hartford, Sowheag and
his clan at Middletown, the Machemoodus at Moodus,
the Quinnipiacs at New Haven, and there were other
tribes on Long Island. All these the Pequots had con-
quered but had not assimilated. They had an existence
independent of the Pequots, but were continually terrorized
and oppressed by them. The tribes west of the Connec-
ticut river — the Paugussets at Stratford and Derby, the
Tunxis at Farmington, and tribes still farther west — have
little to do with the field of our investigation. They were

26 Uncas.

persecuted by the Mohawks from New York, and paid
tribute to buy peace from that powerful nation.

Then there were the Mohegans. They were a faction
which under the leadership of Uncas had rebelled from the
Pequots. Uncas inherited the royal blood of the Pequots
from both his father and his mother, and acquired a new
claim to power and sachemship through his wife's royal
connection. Tradition tells of the repeated revolts of this
faction under his command, of repeated defeats and
repeated submissions, and attributes them to his restless
ambition, disappointed of the power to which he laid claim.
The English found Uncas and the Mohegan tribe located
mainly where the Shetucket, Quinnebaug and Yantic rivers
flow together to form the Pequot or Thames river at Nor-
wich. The fact that Uncas was able to establish and
maintain independence of the all-ruling Pequots, and dared
to defy the dreaded Sassacus, is proof of his courage,
enterprise and strong individuality. Note needs to be
taken at the beginning of his career of the exhibition of
these qualities, since the development of shiftiness and
diplomacy, called out by the difficulties of the unnatural
policy which he followed consistently throughout his life,
as the ally of the enemies of his people, has obscured the
elements of character originally revealed. He set up for
himself when it required native force to do so, and was
self-reliant before ease and safety taught him to rely on the
English.

Uncas. 2 7

As to the number of all the Indians in Connecticut at
the time of the first English settlement, there is wide dif-
ference of opinion. Trumbull estimates them at from
16,000 to 20,000, with ability to put 3,000 or 4,000 fight-
ing men in the field. To the Pequots alone he gave a
total of 3,000 or 4,000 people, of whom seven hundred
were fighting men. DeForest subjects these figures to
thorough analysis and reaches the conclusion that they are
greatly exaggerated. He does not allow the Pequots more
than five hundred or six hundred warriors at the most, and
reduces the other tribes in much larger proportion. He
would divide the totals in Connecticut apparently by two.
At the opening of the Pequot war Trumbull estimates
the whites at about eight hundred, divided into one hun-
dred and sixty or one hundred and seventy families, and
the men at about two hundred and seventy-five. This
estimate does not seem to be disputed.

* * *

The tribes which the Pequots oppressed welcomed the
English as protectors. The Pequots at first, having a
capable enemy in the Narragansetts already on their hands,
desired to make a treaty with the new-comers. But their
real feeling was unfriendly and their hostility found fre-
quent expression in murder and pillage. Captains Stone
and Norton were killed on the Connecticut river in 1634.
John Oldham was murdered in his vessel near Block Island
in 1636. Captain Endicott came from Massachusetts to
avenge these crimes. He managed to stir up the hornet's
nest without destroying it, to exasperate the Pequots with-
out subduing them. After his departure the Indians made

28 Uncas.

swift and savage reprisals wherever cunning and cruelty
could find opportunity. Wethersfield was attacked in April,
1637. Things became unendurable and Connecticut took
things into her own hands. Captain John Mason sailed
down the Connecticut river on May 10, 1637, with ninety
Englishmen and seventy Indians, chiefly Mohegans. They
stopped awhile at Saybrook fort and went on past Pequot
harbor to Narragansett bay. Then they marched back by
land to the Mystic fort without waiting for a Massachu-
setts force near at hand. Some of the Narragansetts
accompanied them. They surprised the fort at daylight of
May 26, 1637, and with fire and sword destroyed, Mason
says six hundred, others say three hundred or four hun-
dred, men, women and children. It was a horrible deed,
executed with business-like energy and dispatch. Then
they went back home to their families and their spring
work, carrying their two dead and twenty wounded with
them. It was the first real taste any Connecticut Indians
had of the stuff of which the men who settled Connec-
ticut were made. It was one of the swiftest, boldest, most
effective exhibitions of superior courage, energy, wit,
resource and strength that the pages of early New Eng-
land history contain.

* * *

The Pequots were destroyed, Sassacus deserted his
remaining fort and set out westward. He and his follow-
ers were chased and harried across Connecticut by English
and Indian enemies until few were left together. For
months after, men of the weaker tribes bought favor of
the white conquerors with the heads and hands of Pequots

Uncas. 29

whom they had hunted out of hiding and killed. Sassacus
himself reached the Mohawks almost alone, and was by
them treacherously murdered. His scalp came back to
Connecticut to be hung up and derided by native cowards
who had trembled at his voice and quailed beneath his eye.
The survivors of his tribe were divided among the Narra-
gansetts, Niantics and Mohegans. Uncas acquired a
material addition to his force and new power and import-
ance by the part he had played in the tragic destruction of
his blood relatives. What had his part been ?

# # *

As between the English and Pequots the position of
Uncas at the beginning of the war can be inferred. He
was at variance with the latter and the ties of blood had
been irrevocably severed. Alliance with the English prom-
ised gratification of hate and ambition. He joined Cap-
tain Mason's company at Hartford. Gov. Wolcott (gov-
ernor of Connecticut from 1751 to 1754), in his poetical
story of the times, says :

" 'Twas here that Uncas did the army meet,
With many stout Mohegans at his feet,
He to the general goes and doth declare
He came to our assistance in the war.

He was that sagamore, whom great Sassacus' rage
Had hitherto kept under vassalage,
But weary of his great severity
He now revolts and to the English fly.
With cheerful air our Captain him embraces
And him and his chief men with titles graces ;
But over them preserved a jealous eye,
Lest all this might be done in treachery. "

3O Uncas.

Uncas may have noticed this distrust of him, for on the
way down the river, going ashore with a few of his follow-
ers, he attacked and captured a party of Pequots, killing
all but one, who was brought in a prisoner. Him the
Mohegans tortured and burned, eating part of his flesh.
This was accepted as a guarantee of permanent loyalty.
After such an acT: Uncas could never be received into the
Pequot tribe again except " with bloody hands to a hos-
pitable grave." When the Narragansetts joined the expe-
dition on its march to Mystic they were at first loud in
their professions of eagerness to fight the hated Pequot.
They affected to doubt the courage of the whites and to
discredit their declared purpose to go and engage the
enemy without the Massachusetts reinforcements, and even
without the Indians if they hesitated to follow. As they
came nearer the dreaded fortress of Sassacus they fell
farther behind, until the English sent messengers to tell
them to come along and see the white men fight, if they
didn't dare fight themselves. To quote Gov. Wolcott
again :

" After long waiting for the same,

Up trusty Uncas and stout Wequash came,
Of whom the general in strict terms demands,
Where stands the fort and how their judgment stands
About the enterprise ? and what's the cause
They left their post against all martial laws ?"

The two were almost alone of the Indians at hand when
the fight began, but when the result became clear the rest
came in and were of considerable assistance. Although
the details of his individual condu6l are not recorded,

Uncas. 3 1

Mason testifies that " Uncas did us great service. I shall
never forget him," and it is the general agreement of his-
torians that he a<5led throughout with fidelity and courage,
and earned the gratitude which Connecticut felt for him
and of which there was always a balance to his credit, even
after he had tried the patience of his friends by deceit and
evil doing. A traditionary story represents him as joining
in the pursuit of the Pequots westward. At Guilford he
overtook and killed a great sachem, whose head he cut off
and stuck up in a large oak tree near the harbor. The
skull remained there for many years, and gave to the place

the name, which it still bears, of Sachem's Head.

* * *

Following the Pequot war there were several years of
struggle among the remaining tribes to get the most favor-
able place in the readjustment of things. Uncas waxed
strong and gave considerable trouble. He was accused of
several a<5ls of wrong-doing and called before the English
several times to give an account of himself. He was gen-
erally able to do it. He had a faculty of convincing the
English that he was right, or that, if he was wrong, they
would do best not to be hard on him. On one of these
ceremonial visits to Boston to explain matters, in 1638, he
made the famous pledge which is quoted in every record
of the times. Putting his hand on his heart, and address-
ing the governor, he said: "This heart is not mine: it is
yours. I have no men : they are all yours. Command
me any hard thing and I will do it. I will never believe
any Indian's word against the English. If any Indian
shall kill an Englishman, I will put him to death be he

32 Uncas.

never so dear to me." Whatever guile may have been in
his heart (and he has been accused of much and suspected
of more), the spirit of this profession is the principle that
governed his relations with the English always. If it was
inspired by craft it served the practical purpose as well as

conscience.

# # •*

During the period of restless struggle between ambi-
tious chiefs and envious tribes, the Mohegans and the Nar-
ragansetts came into collision, the outcome of which was
the romantic rivalry and tragic duel between Uncas and
Miantonomo. Miantonomo was a nephew of Canonicus,
the great chieftain of the Narragansetts. In the latter's
old age Miantonomo shared his power and authority and at
this time was recognized as the acting head of the nation.
At the opening of the Pequot war Sassacus tried to make
an alliance with this his strongest enemy, but Mian-
tonomo took sides rather with the English. This act
deserves to be noted, because it is similar to conduct which
has been termed unnatural in Uncas, in contrast with
whom Miantonomo has been exalted by his partisans in
history as loyal to his race. Miantonomo received Mason's
party in a friendly spirit and sent a strong band of Narra-
gansetts along with him to attack the Mystic fortress.

After the Pequot war the rapid rise of Uncas in power
among the Indians and in influence among the English
excited the envy of other sachems and especially of Mian-
tonomo. The irritation that broke out frequently between
the two led to English intervention and the signing, Oct.
i, 1638, of a tripartite treaty by Gov. Haynes for the

Uncas. 33

Connecticut colonists, Miantonomo in behalf of the Nar-
ragansett sachems and Uncas for himself and the Mohegan
sagamores under him. It provided for perpetual peace,
and for the reference of all quarrels between the two chiefs
to the English for arbitration and decision. The quarrels
began at once. It is impossible to detail the numerous
incidents of provocation and retaliation, or to more than
mention some of the charges and counter-charges. In
1640 Uncas complained that Miantonomo was trying to
bring all the Indians into a great conspiracy against the
white men. The Narragansett chief was summoned to
Boston and made so favorable an impression by his dignity
and apparent frankness that he was acquitted. He charged
Uncas with lying and asked to be brought face to face
with his accusers. One evening, not long after, Uncas was
wounded in the arm by an arrow while passing from a wig-
wam to his fort. The would-be assassin fled to Mianto-
nomo, who was summoned to Boston again. He took the
culprit with him, and the latter declared that Uncas had
tried to get him to swear that Miantonomo had hired him
to murder Uncas, and that Uncas had wounded himself.
The story was not believed, and Miantonomo, while taking
the assassin back to Connecticut to hand him over to Uncas
for punishment, killed him on the road, which was regarded
as a confession of connivance in his crime. Uncas was
soon after waylaid on the Connecticut river and shot at
with arrows. He took satisfaction out of Sequassen, a
Connecticut river sachem, a kinsman and ally of the Nar-
ragansetts. Miantonomo complained to the English and
they replied that they could not interfere. He then

34 Uncas.

marched down on Mohegan with a band numbering several
hundreds. Uncas went out from Norwich to the Great
Plain to meet him, with perhaps half as large a force. On
the enemy's approach he asked a parley and the two
chiefs met between the lines.

It was a moment for the writer of romance and the
painter of historic event. They were great men in their
day and generation. Both were large of frame, and power-
ful in physique, courageous beyond question, seasoned in
war and familiar with the civilization of the time. They
had been to Hartford and Boston many times, and had sat
often in the counsels of the leading men of New England
and, in a way, had held their own there. Uncas was
treated with consideration by Gov. Haynes, Gov. Win-
throp, and Gov. Winslow. Miantonomo had Roger
Williams for friend and adviser, a return for his generous
hospitality when Williams was driven out of Massachusetts
and fled to Rhode Island.

The two men stood face to face on Norwich plain, full
of that jealousy and hate which the English could always
count on to prevent a combination of the Indians and an
union of native forces, which could have deferred English
supremacy indefinitely. Only rarely could a genius, like
Philip, aided by time and conditions, suppress it tempo-
rarily, and work up a widespread conspiracy by an appeal
to a common interest in the destruction of a common
enemy.

Uncas challenged Miantonomo to a personal duel on
the spot, to settle their differences and save their men.
Miantonomo refused, not probably from fear, but because,

Uncas. 35

perhaps, he suspected his enemy's insincerity. On receiv-
ing his reply, Uncas, by a preconcerted signal, dropped
flat on the ground and his followers sent a cloud of arrows
into the surprised Narragan setts. The latter fled, and the
flight became a rout. Uncas himself captured Mianto-
nomo, who was hampered in flight by a steel corselet, and
interfered with by two Mohegans who withheld their
hands that their chief might have the glory of capture.

Mindful of his obligation under the treaty, Uncas
referred his prisoner to Hartford. Thence the case was
carried before the court of commissioners of the United
Colonies at Boston. The court asked the advice of a
committee of ministers, who decided that Miantonomo
ought to die. He was therefore handed over to Uncas, at
Hartford, and taken away for execution, two Englishmen
accompanying the party to see the acl: done. When they
arrived at the border of Uncas's territory, the brother of
Uncas, walking behind the prisoner, sunk his tomahawk
in his skull, and Miantonomo died probably without know-
ing that he had been struck. For many years the dramatic
completeness of this story was sustained by the belief that
this final acl: took place on the scene of Miantonomo's
defeat and capture, the Great Plain of Norwich. Up to
recent times a pile of stones there marked the supposed
spot, and Narragansett Indians going by would contribute
to the pile and cry out in lamentation. But it is now
generally conceded that Miantonomo was killed near
Windsor, the boundary of Uncas's dominion, almost as
soon as the line was crossed, and that the resting place of
the Narragansett is not known. The pile of stones was

36 Uncas.

appropriated by a thrifty Yankee not so very long ago to
build the foundations of a barn. But on the Fourth of
July, 1841, a few citizens of Norwich erected a monument
there — a cube of granite, five feet square at the base, placed
on a pedestal that raises the whole eight feet above the
ground. It bears the simple inscription :

"MIANTONOMO

1643."

It is called the Sachem's Monument, and the place on
which it stands is called Sachem's Plain. It marks the
scene of his capture, not of his death.

Had his conqueror killed him there it would have saved
the expenditure of a vast amount of sentimental eloquence
and argumentative sophistry in deciding the right and
wrong of Miantonomo's fate, and in apportioning to
Uncas, the Connecticut authorities, the commissioners of
the United Colonies and the clergy assembled in convoca-
tion at Boston, their due award of condemnation or justi-
fication.

In my own case, the pursuit of truth through many vol-
umes of Indian chronicles and historical collections, and of
later histories in which the old straw has been threshed
over and over, leaves my heart and my judgment in con-
flict. Miantonomo's appeal to war involved the penalty
of failure. Had Uncas killed him in hot blood at the time
of his capture, he would have been justified without possi-
bility of question. He was released from the agreement
to refer every difference to the English by his enemy's
attack. But humanity revolts from the approval by white

Uncas. 3 7

men, magistrates and Christian ministers, of the murder of
a prisoner, handed back to the savage hands which at first
had spared him, with permission to kill him in a savage
way. It made a martyr out of a man who should have
been merely a victim of the fortunes of war. It surrounded
Miantonomo with a halo of sentiment which would not
have fitted the fate which he challenged and deserved.
His death was necessary to the peace of the English and
the safety of Uncas. He was chief of the most powerful
and troublesome tribe then disturbing New England, and
there is explanation if not justification for the English in
the belief, for which there is evidence, that he was plotting
to destroy them, and trying to unite the other tribes to
this end. The bitterest condemnation of Uncas, of which
the literature of the time is full, comes from the defenders
and eulogists of Miantonomo. But on the whole he seems
to have acted, for an Indian, a natural part, and, by con-
trast, a creditable one.

# -3f %

Uncas was at this time between forty and fifty years of
age. The date of his birth is unknown. In one place it
is stated as 1588, but that is apparently too early and would
have made him considerably over ninety at his death,
instead of a little over eighty, as the usual calculation has
it. A convenient way of writers seems to have been to
date his birth near the beginning of the century, so that
his age at any time practically corresponded with the year.
By this reckoning he would have been forty-three at the
time of Miantonomo's death.

For nearly forty years after this the English in Connecti-

38 Uncas.

cut were engaged in no general Indian war. Uncas had
established himself as their permanent friend and ally and
the story of their relations is an exasperating record of
complaints, investigations, explanations, petty fines or for-
giveness, restoration of confidence, and the same order of
things over again. He was a picket on the outpost, a spy
among the enemy, and as he ran to the English with warn-
ings of danger to them, so he cried out to them for help in
time of danger to himself. The services he rendered in-
volved protection in return. He was hated by all the other
tribes and sachems, and was constantly engaged in disputes
or wars with them. Strong as he had grown to be, he was
not able to cope with the united bands, and experience
seems to have taught him that it was easier and safer to
fall back on the English than to fight alone. For fifteen
years after Miantonomo's death the Narragansetts sought
every opportunity of revenge. Three times and probably
more Uncas was besieged in his fortress on the bank
of the Thames below Norwich. Twice he was in dire
extremity and rescue came at the last moment. On one
occasion his warriors were starving, and a swift-footed mes-
senger was able to slip away in the night and make his
way across country to the garrison at Saybrook. Thomas
Lefringwell managed skillfully to bring a boat-load of pro-
visions up the Thames and relieve the besieged. The
emotional romancer and poet has made an affecting picture
of the chieftain sitting night after night in the recess in the
rocks which commanded a view of the river, straining his
eagle eyes to catch the first glimmer of oars bringing the
hoped-for relief :

Uncas. 39

" The monarch sat on his rocky throne,

Before him the waters lay ;
His guards were shapeless columns of stone,
Their lofty helmets with moss o'ergrown,

And their spears of the bracken gray.

His lamps were the fickle stars, that beamed

Through the veil of their midnight shroud ;
And the reddening flashes that fitfully gleamed
When the distant fires of the war-dance streamed,
Where his foes in frantic revel screamed,

'Neath their canopy of cloud," etc.

The alleged place of this lonely vigil two centuries and a
half ago still bears the name of "the Chair of Uncas."

His troubles were not alone with his principal enemies,
the Narragansetts. He was involved also with other tribes
in many difficulties, sometimes amounting only to depre-
dation and outrage and sometimes to fierce fighting. In
1646 a plot was made to slay Gov. Haynes and lay the
crime to Uncas. The assassin weakened and confessed.
In 1649 an assassin wounded Uncas in the breast, the third
of many attempts to kill him, which nearly succeeded. At
another time he was accused of hiring an Indian to wound
another and charge it to a third. For twenty or thirty
years the pages are full of these plots and conspiracies.
On the other hand, he was by no means idle or innocent.
He was proved guilty of debauching the wives of two
sachems, of abusing and plundering those too weak to
resist his brutality and rapacity, of robbing a man of his
corn and beans, of embezzling wampum that had been
given to him to deliver to the English, of exceeding jeal-
ousy toward other chiefs whom the English might take

40 Uncas.

into favor, of making false charges and plotting to arouse
prejudice against them. Some of these crimes, it must be
admitted, seem to have been common among the Indians,
and they are made to count against him because especially
unbecoming in a good Indian such as he pretended to be,
and such as his biographer is unavoidably persuaded to try
to make him appear to be. He occasionally had oppor-
tunity to show that the old spirit was still in him and that
he could be a help as well as a care — as when he went to
Stamford, when other efforts had failed, and apprehended

the Indian murderer of John Whitmore.

* * *

The forbearance of the white men with Uncas during all
these years, and their prompt response to his calls for
aid in troubles for which he was often responsible, are
accounted for by the conditions which existed. His
wrong-doing was almost invariably against other Indians.
He was as considerate and peaceable in his relations with
his white allies as he was mean and quarrelsome toward
his native neighbors. The English could forgive him
because they needed him, knew that he would not fight
against them and were not afraid of him. They treated
him as a spoiled child. The restrictive laws which re-
strained other Indians in their goings and comings were
not enforced against him. The gravest charges against
him, made by Indians who were distrusted and feared,
were heard with a strong predisposition in his favor. At
the worst he was rebuked and warned, perhaps fined a little
wampum and dismissed. His utility was the measure of
his deserts in English estimation and by the security which

Uncas. 41

he afforded he earned perpetual sympathy and aid. Any
theory which attempts to explain this uninterrupted alli-
ance of half a century on grounds of unreasoning senti-
ment loses sight of the essential condition of mutual
necessity and reciprocal helpfulness.

•fc -55- %

At the breaking out of King Philip's war in 1675, one
of the first thoughts of the colonists was to see that Uncas
was in the right temper. He was summoned to Boston
in August, and a satisfactory understanding was reached.
He was too old to take the field in person, though glimpses
are obtained of him in active efforts, but a considerable
body of Mohegans under command of his son Oneco
played a useful if not a conspicuous part in the war.
Drake, in a note to Hubbard's Indian Wars, expresses
impatience with the inadequacy of contemporary chronicles
in recording the actual services of the Mohegans, declaring
that if they had been given, the narrative would have been
" much more perfect." Referring to an important episode,
he says : " All or nearly all of the execution done upon
the enemy during this pursuit was undoubtedly done by
them." Hubbard himself, whose record Drake edited,
said : " They proved very faithful in our service." By
reason of their faithfulness, another chronicler declared,
not a drop of English blood was shed on Connecticut soil
during the war. If this is not literally true (and it is not),
it is near enough to prove the value of their friendship.

* * *

In his latter days Uncas suffered the inevitable degen-
eracy of his race under the influence of civilization.

42 Uncas.

Gookin calls him "an old and wicked, wilful man, a
drunkard and otherwise very vicious ; who hath always
been an opposer and underminer of praying to God."
This was a religious view. Although he is sometimes
spoken of as the "only Christian sachem," this could
justly have referred only to his friendship to Christians
and not to Christianity. The Rev. Mr. Fitch once suc-
ceeded in effecting his temporary conversion by a quasi-
miracle. It was a time of great drouth, and the Indian
pow-wows had failed utterly to induce their gods, by their
prolonged and extravagant performances, to send rain.
Mr. Fitch, with an experienced eye to the weather signs,
seized a favorable moment to ask Uncas if he would admit
the superiority of the Christian God, should he (Fitch)
succeed in bringing rain by prayer. Uncas agreed, the
prayer was effectual, a refreshing rain fell, arid Uncas gave
utterance to some acknowledgment of divine power which
has been made much more of by those desirous of claiming
the old sachem as a Christian convert than the issue war-
ranted. It was not long before he was again acting as
" an opposer and underminer of praying to God." He is
on record as making indignant and effective protests
against the efforts of those who were trying to do mission-
ary work among his people, and Mr. Gookin said in 1674,
when Mr. Fitch was sent to preach among the Mohegans :
" I am apt to fear that a great obstruction unto his labors
is in the sachem of those Indians, whose name is Uncas."
Hubbard is inclined to accept the conversion as genuine,
and narrates in detail the story of the rain following prayer,
but before telling it said : " I add in this place that it is

Uncas. 43

suspected by those that know him best, that in heart he is
no better affected to the English or their religion than the
rest of his countrymen, and that it hath been his own
advantage that hath led him to be thus true to those who
have upheld him." Drake, in a note, protested that Hub-
bard " did not make due allowance for the peculiar circum-
stances of the Indians." But Drake himself, who was a
passionate partisan of Miantonomo, in another place said :
" There is no more detestable character in all our Indian
history than that of Uncas. But affairs were so condi-
tioned that it appeared all important to the English of
Connecticut and Massachusetts to espouse the cause of
that miscreant."

Unfriendly judgments like these might be just without
detracting from the credit given to him by Mason, and
others who tested him in time of stress, and without
diminishing the honor and gratitude earned by a life of
consistent loyalty and faithful service to the whites. His
vindication is found in the record of forty years of com-
parative peace following the Pequot war.

* * *

I have made no attempt to investigate and report on the
complicated legal difficulties growing out of the lavish
deeds of lands which Uncas and his descendants gave to
the whites. Commissioners, legislatures, and courts have
failed to settle the disputes that have arisen so that they
will stay settled, and their failure deters me from under-
taking the gratuitous task. His descendants are still able
to hire counsel and even, I believe, to engage the assistance
of lobbyists — an evidence, perhaps, of the persistence in

44 Uncos.

the stock of some of his original qualities. In his days of
decrepitude, Uncas begged back a small piece of land to

spend his closing years and die upon.

# •* •*

His death occurred in 1682 or 1683. Two hundred
years after his first service to the English, in 1833, Presi-
dent Jackson assisted in laying the corner-stone of a monu-
ment to Uncas in Norwich, and in 1840 it was completed.
It is a granite obelisk of respectable height and proportions,
and bears the chieftain's name. The ladies of that city
were chiefly instrumental in raising the funds for this
patriotic object, and on the occasion of its dedication
expression was given to their grateful sense of obligation
to him whom, as the historian of the day said, "their
ancestors found so true a friend, so faithful a protector."

•x- * *

The record of the life of Uncas and the judgment of
his character have gone through the ordinary vicissitudes
of historical and biographical writing during the past two
hundred and sixty years. First came the simplest record,
nearest the events, with judgment biased by prejudice or
passed on separate incidents. There was no perspective,
no chance to estimate the whole life. Then followed the
period of analysis and criticism, the material being gone
over at one time by the hero-worshipper and at another by
the idol-breaker. Perhaps we have come to the time when
an unprejudiced examination may give an idea of the real
Uncas. Writing as neither his eulogist nor his detractor,
I give perhaps a less positive, perhaps less interesting, view
of him than others have done who have written with

Uncas. 45

stronger feeling and more definite purpose. If I have
made you see Uncas as he has gradually revealed himself
to me, you find not a saint, not a hero, nor yet a villain,
but an Indian with most of the qualities of his race and
one in addition that seems almost peculiar to him among
Indians — call it calculation, prudence, what you will — the
instinctive mental power that takes the larger view of self-
interest.

# # *

If we could attribute to him foresight into the inevitable
outcome of the contest, his course would be easily ex-
plained. But he only saw a few Englishmen, not the irre-
sistible race of conquerors. He dealt with incident and
accident as they met him one by one, not with the current
of forces rushing upon his people now so accurately meas-
ured in the retrospect. Surrounded by Indian enemies, he
attached himself to the white men for self-protection.
That might be but craft leading feebleness to a refuge, but
his superiority of mind is proved by working out the les-
son of the moment into the policy of a lifetime. He
seems to have solved with acute appreciation the problem
of his environment. If the English had not come he
would have been compelled, in order to maintain himself,
to make alliances with native tribes. Their fickleness
would have made these alliances short-lived and necessi-
tated frequent rearrangements. He found the English to
be a stable reliance and he proved in return to be to them
a reliable dependence. Not because he was honest, but

because he was wise.

* * *

46 Uncas.

If a modern schoolboy should be asked "Who was
Uncas ? " he would be apt to reply in characteristic sim-
plicity of description, "A good Indian." If the average
reader of historical tales and biographical anecdotes were
asked the same question, he might answer " The White
Man's friend." (He might answer quite differently. I met
a man the other day who talked confidently as one who
knew Uncas because he had seen his monument and been
told that when Miantonomo was killed he cut off a piece
of flesh and ate it, declaring it to be the sweetest morsel
he ever tasted. Thus the unsupported tradition, if graphic,
fixes itself easily in popular memory and forms the basis
of popular judgment of character. And yet Uncas may
have done it. He was an Indian and he hated with Indian
constancy. He had come near to losing his prey that
time, and he must have felt when he got Miantonomo
back into his hands, something of the ferocious wanton-
ness with which a cat recaptures an escaping mouse.) If
a studious cynic were asked "Who was Uncas?" he
might say : "A bird that fouled its own nest, a traitor to
his own people." This would be an Indian's judgment
too. We get the measure of Uncas's unnatural position
by trying to imagine the inconceivable. What would
Uncas's standing be had his people conquered the white

men and written the history and meted out the judgment ?

* * #

All of these answers may be interesting, but they are
not comprehensive. Who then, and what WAS Uncas ?
He was a man who acted, within his limitations, as though
he foresaw what was to be ; a sachem who built up a tribe

Uncas.

47

out of nothing, and left it at his death the chief native
body in Connecticut, with greater possessions than any
other, and whose posterity still survives in Connecticut
respectable in numbers, character and property ; an Indian,
unique among his kind, who formed a consistent theory of
conduct and pursued it through life ; a warrior whose per-
sonal courage never faltered, who never reached the limit
of his resources, and who survived all his rivals ; an ally of
our fathers whose faithfulness mingles with their enterprise
and piety in the enduring foundations of our common-
wealth. This is the large view with a perspective of more
than two centuries. Why narrow the sweep of vision and
with microscopic eye discover the spots that undeniably
exist? As many of them as are Indian characteristics call
for absolution, and as many as are universally human are
not exceptional.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PEQUOT LANDS

MAJOR BELA PECK LEARNED.

d -^ V ^

H&i /Lud

n>

w-

WO hundred and sixty-five years ago this ist of
May, in the year 1637, the Colony of Connec-
ticut asserted its sovereignty by formally declar-
ing war against the Pequot nation of Indians. This is
the date and the event which we celebrate as the Connec-
ticut Society of Colonial Wars. I say the Pequot nation,
because the Pequots were divided into several clans ; the
northernmost of these residing some twelve miles up
the Pequot river — now the Thames — who were afterward
known as the Mohegans. It is stated that Sassacus, the
last grand sachem of the Pequots, had twenty-six saga-
mores, or inferior chiefs, under him, and could muster
from all his clans some seven hundred warriors. The
territory held by the Pequots as their own possession may
be roughly estimated at thirty miles or more in length at
the seacoast, by about ten or twelve in breadth or depth ;
and it embraced the country on both sides of the Thames,
from the Niantic river to some ten miles east of the Paw-
catuck river (dividing Connecticut from Rhode Island),
along Long and Fisher's Island Sounds, running north-
ward, as I have said, some ten or twelve miles from the
Sound. The Pequots undoubtedly came from the banks
of the Hudson, driven by war or by insufficient supply of
game for so large a hunting population, and like the Goths
and Vandals of old, they swarmed over the eastern part of
Connecticut, driving the Nehantics, the former Indian
inhabitants, in rout and confusion over the Pawcatuck river
to be absorbed by and mingled with the Narragan setts.

52 The Distribution of the Pequot Lands.

According to the Pequot traditions, this migration was but
a short time before the arrival of the English in Connec-
ticut, in 1633, when Holmes established his trading post
on the Connecticut river, followed in 1635 by the coming
of the colonists from Dorchester, Massachusetts. The
Pequot title therefore was one of recent conquest rather
than of permanent possession.

The new Connecticut colony was at once in peril from
the Pequots. The usual routine of negotiations and
treaties was pursued with no success, — purchases were
made from the Indians of parts of the land, to be repudi-
ated and ignored by them ; in short, the experience of our
forefathers was so much like that of our government in
recent years, that we have very little reason to congratulate
ourselves on our advancement in this branch of diplomacy.
Good Roger Williams was sent by the General Court of
Massachusetts to try to prevent the union of the Narra-
gansetts with the Pequots against the colonists, and suc-
ceeded, but the trouble continued. Captain Stone of
Virginia was murdered by the Pequots, John Oldham of
Massachusetts also ; Sassacus, the grand sachem, planned
to exterminate the whites, and succeeded to the extent of
some thirty victims, including women and children. The
settlers near Wethersfield were attacked, and seven men,
two women, and one child killed, and two women carried
off. It is needless to recount the revolting barbarity of
all these murders ; Mr. Mitchell, brother of the minister
at Cambridge, was roasted alive, and other similar atroci-
ties perpetrated. The question before the colonists was,
whether they or the Pequots should be exterminated.

The Distribution of the Pequot Lands. 53

They had sought the aid of the mother colony, -but the
General Court of Massachusetts was far off, and moved
very tardily. Connecticut must either submit to entire
destruction or strike a decisive blow, not only as punish-
ment for past but prevention of future outrages ; she had
no alternative but to undertake the hazardous and bloody
enterprise alone. And so the Colony of Connecticut
declared war against the Pequots. The campaign was
short and conclusive. Captain John Mason with his little
army of ninety men left Hartford May loth, and arrived
at Saybrook May i;th (I presume that the Connecticut
Valley branch of the Consolidated railroad did not run its
trains quite as conveniently then as now). At Saybrook
Captain Underbill, with nineteen Massachusetts men,
joined them, relieving the same number from Connecticut.
They sailed east, past Pequot river (Thames) to the Narra-
gansett country, and marched west to within two miles of
the Pequot fort, near what is called the " Head of Mystic,"
in Groton. On Friday morning, May 26th, 1637, the fort
was attacked and taken. The battle has been often
described. Beset on all sides in the maze of wigwams
in the fort, Mason set fire to them, and the flames soon
forced the savages from their hiding places. Some threw
themselves into the fire, many were slaughtered by the
troops, and many pierced by the arrows of the assisting
Mohegan and Narragansett Indians, who stationed them-
selves around the fort at a safe distance from the immediate
attack. In this complete rout, from four to six hundred
Pequots were killed, according to the different accounts,
which vary widely ; some escaped, and seven were cap-

54 The Distribution of the Pequot Lands.

tured. Two of Mason's party were slain and about twenty
wounded.

Some relief from the gloom of this narrative is offered
by the accounts of the " special providences." Underbill
says, " Myself received an arrow through my coatsleeve,
a second against my helmet on the forehead ; so as if God
in his providence had not moved the heart of my wife to
persuade me to carry it along with me (which I was
unwilling to do) I had been slain. Give me leave to
observe two things from hence ; first — when the hour of
death is not yet come, you see God useth weak means to
keep his purpose unviolated ; secondly, let no man despise
advice and counsel of his wife, though she be a woman /"
Then there was the case of Lieutenant Bull, who received
an arrow in a hard piece of cheese in his pocket, of which
Captain Mason says : " A little armor would serve if a
man know where to place it." May we not imitate Cap-
tain Underbill, and " observe two things from hence."
First, we are left in doubt as to just where the Lieuten-
ant's pocket was located, — secondly, his system was thus
saved the extraordinary strain of trying to assimilate the
hard cheese in his next day's ration, unless indeed he was
so provided with the "dura ilia messorum " that he could
digest it, arrowhead and all. In four days, from the morn-
ing of Wednesday, May 24th, to Saturday night the 2 7th,
this little band of seventy-seven men, from a colony num-
bering not more than two hundred and fifty fighting men,
had marched sixty miles through an unbroken wilderness,
surrounded by warlike and hostile Indians, and had won
undoubtedly the most decisive victory, considered in all its

The Distribution of the Pequot Lands. 55

bearings and results, to be found on record in the whole
history of the Indian wars with the British colonies. The
remnant of the Pequots were pursued to the west, and the
final struggle occurred in the Fairfield swamp, which vir-
tually ended their existence as a nation, or even as a formid-
able tribe. A fine monument, erected by the efforts of
the New London County Historical Society, marks the
site of the fort. It is a shaft of granite, surmounted by a
spirited figure of a colonial soldier. It was dedicated in
1889.

And now, like the great Artemus Ward in his lecture
on "the babes in the wood," I am about to come to my
proper subject, "The Distribution of the Pequot Lands."
I fear I have resembled him, too, in his great Fourth of
July oration, in which he says, " I was ninety-six minutes
in passin a given pint."

Of the remnants of the Pequots, some were absorbed
by the Nehantics, some fled to Long Island, and some to
the banks of the Hudson. Uncas, sachem of the Mohe-
gans, added many of them to his tribe and as Pequots and
Mohegans were really one people it was difficult to distin-
guish between them. The Pequots who remained inde-
pendent, at last become tired of their outlaw condition,
and made formal submission to the Colony. Their land
was held to be conquered territory, the property of the
vi6lor, and as I have indicated, comprised the ancient
townships of New London, Groton, and afterward, Ston-
ington. A treaty was signed October ist, 1638 by John
Haynes, Roger Ludlow and Edward Hopkins for the
English of Connecticut, by the sachems of the Narra-

56 The Distribution of the Pequot Lands.

gansetts, and by Uncas for himself and his people, by
which the Pequot territory was not to be claimed by the
sachems, but was to be considered the property of the
Colony by right of conquest. No one ever disputed this
title, and therefore the land was never purchased of any
one. Gradually the Pequots began to gather again in
their former haunts, and they became generally divided
into two bands, one living near the Thames, on the east
side of it (now Groton) — for the settlers of Nameaug or
New London on the west side made a friendly agreement
with the Indians by which they removed to a considerable
distance from that settlement, — and the other band near
the Pawcatuck river in the present township of Stoning-
ton. Up to the year 1655 there were constant quarrels
and accusations of tyranny and bad faith between them
and Uncas, the nearest sachem. On September 24th of
that year, on their petition, governors were appointed for
them and laws were made. Cashawashet, (or Hermon
Garrett) was set over the Pawcatuck Pequots and Robin
Cassasinamon over those of Groton. In the early records
of the intercourse between the Pequots and the settlers
Cassasinamon is repeatedly mentioned as "Robin, Mr.
Winthrop's man." He was a sort of spicy assistant, I sup-
pose, to his Excellency. From this time the Pequots
became wards of the Colony. The jurisdiction over their
territory lying in Stonington was warmly contested by
Massachusetts and Connecticut during the years from
1655-62, when the Charter of Connecticut confirmed to
her the eastern boundary as claimed. Most of the land
now covered by Stonington (then called Southertown)

The Distribution of the Pequot Lands. 57

was granted by Massachusetts to Captain George Denison
and others who settled there and founded the town. Be-
tween the Stonington and Groton Pequots constant fric-
tion arose on account of the apparent disproportion of the
lands alloted to each band to their numbers ; the former,
the smaller band, had about two hundred and eighty acres,
while the later had some two thousand acres, and their
complaints were the annual grievance of the General Court.
In 1667, however, the Court, on the report of a commis-
sion created to adjust their differences, removed Cassasin-
amon's band from Nawayunk on the seashore (now Noank
in Mystic) about which location they had lived, and planted
them at Mashantuxet in the present town of Ledyard, on
a reservation of about two thousand acres, with fishing
rights still at Noank. Ledyard was until 1836 a part of
Groton and until 1705 both were parts of New London,
so that the same band have been called New London,
Groton and Ledyard Pequots. In 1683 the Pawcatuck or
Stonington Pequots were granted a tract of about two
hundred and eighty acres now lying in North Stonington
near Lantern Hill and near the other reservation. The
usual bickerings still continued between the Indians and
their governors, till it was enacted that for the future these
should be under the immediate direction of the Governor
of the Colony with power of removal and appointment.
The Governor, however, never used this prerogative, and
the whole control seems to have somehow gradually drifted
into the hands of white overseers, who appear to have been
of little service to their charges. One of these however,
James Avery, exerted himself considerably, encouraging

58 The Distribution of the Pequot Lands.

them to memorialize the General Court that lots on their
reservation were, being fenced off and claimed by the Eng-
lish. Committees were appointed and prosecution threat-
ened against the intruders. But all these measures were
defeated by the result of an examination and resurvey in
1 728, which was concurred in by the Assembly. Only one
encroachment was found, and one mistake made by the
County Surveyor. The actual extent of the Indian land
in the Mashantuxet reservation was declared to be 1,737
acres. (You see it was shrinking.) Somewhat before
this, in 1712, the title to all the Noank district, after con-
siderable proceedings, was declared to be no longer in the
Pequots, so they lost even their fishing rights there. To
James Avery succeeded his son in conjunction with John
Morgan. They constantly quarreled, each accusing the
other of personal interest in the encroachments on Indian
lands. The General Assembly settled the case by dismiss-
ing them both. Settlers bought privately from individual
Pequots and hired lands for cultivation, until finally the
town clerk of Groton was forbidden, under penalty of
;£io, to record a transaction by which any Indian trans-
ferred possession of land.

In 1758 a suit was brought against one Williams, who
held eighty-three acres and nine rods of the reservation.
At first it was decided in his favor, as the plaintiffs could
not prove a title in fee simple, but on appeal the right pre-
vailed and Williams was ousted. This alarmed all those
who had possession of Pequot lands by tenancy, and they
united in a memorial to settle the question of ownership
and divide the lands between the contending parties, as it

The Distribution of the Pequot Lands. 59

was doubtful whether the Pequots had more than a right
to cultivate. This dishonest proceeding was very like that
of a tenant who should claim title to a house which he
had rented, because he had paid rent regularly and kept
the property in good repair. It was a question between
right and expediency, and with the Assembly expediency
triumphed, and the land was divided again. Nine hundred
,and eighty-nine acres were confirmed to the Indians, and
the remainder, about six hundred and fifty-six acres, was
granted to the tenants. This should have ended the en-
croachments, but it did not, and again in 1773 complaint
came before the Assembly. It dragged along through the
term of the Revolution, until a new survey was made, and
in 1800 the Indian overseers were empowered to convey
by deed the disputed trails to such white claimants as
would pay the prices as appraised. This was in effect a
confirmation of the Pequot claims of ownership — none of
the whites chose to pay for the land, and the Indians
retained possession.

The reservation has remained practically the same until
now. Such sales as have been made have inured to the
benefit of the Pequots, the purchase money forming a
fund of about $6,000, the income of which is used for
their relief. They presented the usual spectacle of a sav-
age and vagrant race living among a civilized community,
subject to all the diseases and vices of civilization without
the defence of its virtues and its thrift. Their later his-
tory has little that is interesting. They were visited early
in the last century by President Dwight, whose report of
their condition may be summed up in the famous apothegm

60 The Distribution of the Pequot Lands.

" morals none, manners nasty." Their badness has been
mostly of the negative kind with an occasional dramatic
episode like that of the old squaw offering to jump from
the high bluff at Lantern Hill for a pint of rum ; it is said
that she jumped, but like the unfortunate member of the
Society on the Stanislaus described by Bret Harte who en-
countered the argument of a chunk of old red sandstone,
"the subsequent proceeding interested her no more."

The annual deaths have been more than the annual
births, some wandered to other parts of the country and
joined other bands, and thus slowly and painfully they
have faded away, until now there are less than thirty per-
sons left on the reservation, with no full Indian blood
among them; they are humble and mostly respectable
people.

OLD NEWGATE MINE AND PRISON

CHARLES HOPKINS CLARK, ESQ.

ADDRESS DELIVERED MAY 4TH, 1898

E all in a general way know the wealth of some
of the great copper mines of this country. The
Calumet & Hecla up at Lake Superior has paid out
in dividends since 1871 the enormous sum of $52,850,000,
and, instead of being exhausted by this distribution of its
contents, it is in higher favor than ever. Its shares, upon
which $12 cash has been paid in, sell for about $520 each.
The great Professor Agassiz discovered this ... wonderful
deposit, and the story of his unworldly zeal in the matter
has passed into history. "If any of you want to get rich,"
he exclaimed one day, "just go out to Lake Superior and
mine the copper there. But, as for me, I have something
more important to attend to."

By a happy accident of fate the wise professor made this
pregnant remark in the presence of his son, who took the
hint ; and so these riches not only were bestowed upon the
world, but also were not lost to the Agassiz family.

Another famous and successful copper mine is the
Anaconda, located in Arizona. This has paid out in a few
years more than $5,250,000 in dividends. But, above that
sordid fact, it has the reputation of being the basis of the
great family fortune which has been drawn upon to build
up the yellow journalism of the present day. Perhaps that
is not surprising, when we recall the scientific fa6l .that
brass is made up as largely of copper as yellow journalism
is made up of brass.

These are perhaps the two great copper mines of the
country. But there are others. I own one myself, the

64 Old Newgate Mine and Prison.

old Newgate mine, in this state, and, while I am here to
tell about it, I do not come in any spirit of self-exaltation,
but frankly would rather be a member of this society than
to be the owner of the mine, if forced to choose between
the two. It is in compliance with the request of our
excellent governor that I occupy your time at all with this
matter. I take it his will is law here, and you are to hold
him responsible for my appearing, and for my subject, too.

In one very essential respect, my mine is different from
those I have alluded to. However those were at the start,
they have been depleted to just the extent that copper has
been taken out of them. A mine is a mere deposit. The
metal doesn't grow, like a tree or a herd of cattle. Take
out what is there and your business is done. Out of
Calumet & Hecla they have taken already along toward
$60,000,000. Now at Newgate more money has gone
down the shaft than has been taken out, and, by clear
logic, it should be worth more than it was originally. The
problem in the case might be to determine what it was
worth originally.

Copper was discovered there in 1705. The territory,
then unclaimed land in Simsbury, has since been trans-
ferred to Granby and then to East Granby, where, after
these several moves, it has rested since 1 858. The mines are
up on a beautiful site, commanding a magnificent outlook,
within whose sweep is the glistening dome of the state
house. The picturesque ruins of the old prison, of which
I shall speak later, crown the hill and cover some of the
shafts over which buildings were constructed. The copper
was discovered by the white settlers. Our Connecticut

Old Newgate Mine and Prison. 65

Indians had no knowledge of smelting ore, and such bits
of the metal as they had came from hand to hand across
the country from the Lake Superior beds of native copper.
They had done no mining in this state. The discovery in
1705 was followed by the starting of a company in 1707
to work the mines upon the land then held in common by
the people of Simsbury. The town was to be allowed a
percentage of the copper secured, and of this amount two-
thirds was to go to maintain an able schoolmaster there,
and one-third to the collegiate school in New Haven. It
may be remarked that fortunately the collegiate school has
had other benefactions than this gift of copper under-
ground. The colony records contain many references to
these mines, and also to copper mines at Wallingford,
Farmington, now Bristol, and Kent. A trouble at Sims-
bury was to secure concordant action among the persons
interested. There were many legislative acts for this pur-
pose. The preamble of one passed in October, 1718,
admits that

"At the present time they (the mines) be of small
advantage to anybody and a fruitless expence of money
to the proprietors and undertakers."

Again in 1730, answering the queries of the English
Board of Trade and Plantations, Governor John Tallcott
sent the statement of Secretary Hezekiah Wyllys, which
said :

" There are some copper mines found amongst us, which
have not been very profitable to the undertakers."

This failure to profit the undertakers does not, of course,
refer to any failure on their part to kill an occasional

5

66 Old Newgate Mine and Prison.

employe". These undertakers were trying to unbury, not
to bury, and were the operators of the mines. One of the
chief of these was Governor Jonathan Belcher, of Massa-
chusetts, whose published letters make such an interesting
volume from many points of view. In the course of these
he alludes frequently to the mining enterprise at Simsbury.
In 1731 he wrote to his son, who was being educated in
London, that he had shipped eleven "tuns" of ore, and
was about to ship nine more, and he valued these at fifteen
pounds the ton. In 1732, "fully perswaded that the men
have stole and conveyed away the richest and best of the
ore," he forbade Joseph Pitkin sending any more to Bos-
ton. But later the shipments must have been resumed,
for he notes in June, 1733, the receipt of twelve tuns of
very ordinary ore, but expects soon to have a " parcel "
worth thirty pounds the ton. In March, 1734, he wrote
that he was "prodigiously straitnd," but "the copper
mines are likely to be of great service to me on that hand."
In 1735 he admitted having put 15,000 pounds down the
mine.

It is altogether uncertain how much copper was mined
or, indeed, how much work was done there. There are a
good many shafts, closed by debris and neglect, and a
number probably are below the water level in the mine,
while there are tunnels and chambers enough open to the
explorer of to-day to show that the mining must have been
extensive for its time. It is the tradition that hostile
Indians forced the abandonment of the mines. The
famous Higley coppers of 1737 were mined near but not
at Newgate, and as these penny coins sell as curiosities for

Old Newgate Mine and Prison. 67

ten or twenty dollars each, that circumstance does not
argue the abundance so much as the scarcity of copper
thereabouts. In 1773 there was still some life in the lease
by which the property was held, but this was valued at
only sixty pounds, a slight figure beside the 15,000 that
Governor Belcher had planted there.

At this time a " public gaol and workhouse " for the
colony was needed and a committee of the General Court
reported that the old mines at Simsbury could be had and
put in suitable order for $370, including the $300 for the
lease. The preparations therefore could not have been
really elaborate. The recommendation was adopted and
in December of that year the first inmate was received.
The place was called Newgate after the famous London
prison. The prisoner was named John Hinson. He tar-
ried just eighteen days. On the night of January 9, 1774,
a lady friend lowered a rope down the shaft to him and he
rose to the opportunity.* It is estimated that more than
half of the prisoners sent to Newgate were out before
their terms were. The block house over the mine was
burned in 1776 and again in 1777, and there was a still
more extensive fire in 1782. From then till 1790 the
prisoners were kept in Hartford jail. Then new buildings
were put up, which were added to at various times up to
1824. The last contained the tread-mill, in which tramps
were such under compulsion and to a useful purpose.

Swift's " System " of the laws of Connecticut, published
in 1795, has one chapter on the crimes punishable with
imprisonment in Newgate. Among these was perjury,
and it was prescribed that, if the prisoner was " unable to

68 Old Newgate Mine and Prison.

pay the forfeiture of 20 pounds, he shall be set in the pil-
lory and have both ears nailed." It is easy to see how a
man's ears could be nailed to the posts of the pillory, but
not so easy to see how to unnail them when the hour was
up. This it appears was done with a sharp knife, which
led to a fashion of long hair among some persons. The
man lost his ears but kept his record.

The prisoners at first worked the mines, but this
amounted to arming them and had to be abandoned.
Then they made wrought nails from Salisbury and Canaan
iron, and later they made wagons and shoes. While at
work they were fettered and chained to blocks, and some
of the more refractory had also chains from their necks to
the beams overhead. It took a lieutenant, a sergeant, a
corporal, and twenty-four private soldiers to guard the
prison, nor did they guard it effectually. Beside the fre-
quent escapes of individuals there were several successful
uprisings, and the fires were probably set by the prisoners.
Yet in spite of three fires and the escapes of half the men,
the prison had the reputation of being one of the strongest
in the country. Washington designated it in 1777 as the
best place "for flagrant and atrocious villains." Many
Tories were shut up there.

A report made in 1826 puts the number of prisoners
received there up to 1824 at six hundred and fifty-four.
The next three years averaged about one hundred and
twenty each, so the total of compulsory visitors there was
about 1,100. These included the very worst of the popu-
lation, and in with them were thrown first offenders and
boys new to crime. The humane spirit of the people

Old Newgate Mine and Prison. 69

began to take note of this. In 1826 a committee consist-
ing of John Russ, Martin Welles and John S. Peters
reported : " We feel assured that no legislator, no man,
can, after visiting this pit, ascend from it and say this,
either in a physical or moral point of view, is a fit and
proper place for the confinement and lodging of his fellow
man." The moral contention was far the stronger, for it
is a curious fact that the prisoners living down in the
chambers and tunnels had very good health. Lung
troubles were much relieved. The great wrong was in the
herding inhumanly of these degraded creatures together
like cattle. The committee found that counterfeiting,
making bills and the manufacture of false keys was fre-
quent among the prisoners. That does not sound very
strange even in the year 1898. The report was full of
kind intentions but somewhat hopeless except as to the
finances. It came out that Newgate had cost the State
about $200,000 to run above its return. Sites were offered
with quarries for the men to work in at Middletown,
Haddam and Saybrook. But the decision was to build at
Wethersfield, and the having cells was reckoned a great
advance in humane treatment. The removal was accom-
plished October i, 1827. All did not favor the plan for a
new and better prison, and it was claimed that the terrors
of Newgate acted as a deterrent force among criminals.
It is an interesting fa<5l that the legislative act which
authorized the purchase of land in Wethersfield, prescribed
that it should be " for a site for Newgate." I have never
heard the name applied to the prison to which the language
referred.

70 Old Newgate Mine and Prison.

This is, in brief, though perhaps not so brief as you
might wish, the story of old Newgate. To-day the
deserted and crumbling buildings, the scraps of ore lying
about, the shafts and tunnels, and the general ruin, dis-
turbed only by merry picnic parties, are all that mark the
site of so much early activity. The tread-mill went to
pieces years ago. An iron bar, in the grating of one of
the underground windows, shows the mark of being sawed
half through, and you can guess whether the poor fellow
who worked at it lost his chance and was punished, or,
like Mr. Hinson, found a lady friend to lower a rope to
him and save him further labor.

You look down the well shaft, the same that Hinson
ascended, and think of all that has happened in those few
feet of space. Prisoners have climbed up. Visitors have
fallen down. Guards have fired their guns down there
with fatal effecl:. On the very last night that the place was
a prison one man climbed nearly to the top, when his rope
broke and he was killed by the fall. Now you hear the
water splash when you throw a stone down. For the rest,
it is as still as any of its old-time inmates are to-day. Birds
nest in the walls and sing from the trees that have grown
up within the grounds. Flowers bloom where the weary
feet of wicked men long wore the way between the shops
and the shafts. The sentry-box is empty, not to say
unsafe. The single sentinel on duty is vigilant and charges
you, not with a bayonet, however, but with the price of
admission. You give the countersign, which is twenty-five
cents, and all is peace.

It is a quiet and interesting spot, stimulating to any

Old Newgate Mine and Prison. 71

imagination ; and, as I have ceased to have any slightest
interest in the receipts, I can, without being misjudged,
advise those of you who have never been there to go and
see, and feel the curious influences of a place whose horrid
past and picturesque present are in such suggestive con-
trast— where picnics are held in deserted cells, and where
the occasional cheerful voices of pleasure-seekers are all
that wake the echoes among walls that once rang with
curses and groans all day and all night. Some parts of the
back country are said to be dying out. Not so with New-
gate. It has finished the process and can never be any
deader than it is to-day.

A POPULAR COLONIAL POET

ARTHUR REED KIMBALL, ESQ.

(HE first popular literary success of the earlier
colonial period of New England was "The Day
of Doom." Prof. Moses Coit Tyler describes it
as "a realistic poem of hell-fire." The author was the
Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, a New Havener, who was
graduated at Harvard, who just missed being the successor
of the renowned Thomas Hooker as a "teacher" or assist-
ant pastor of the First Church of Christ in Hartford, who
was thought of for President of Harvard, who was for
the greater part of his life pastor of the church at Maiden,
in Massachusetts, but who, incapacitated by a long period
of ill-health, maintained himself as a doctor. The Rev.
Michael Wigglesworth may be summed up in the phrase
that his avocation was poetry, his vocation theology, and
his occupation medicine.

To speak of "The Day of Doom" as a great popular
success is quite within bounds. " It achieved a popularity,"
says Prof. Tyler, " far exceeding that of any other work
in prose or verse produced in America before the Revolu-
tion." Eighteen hundred copies of the first edition were
sold in one year. That is, a copy was bought by at least
every thirty-fifth person then in New England, whose pop-
ulation at that time (1662) was not far from 55,000. Of
what modern book can that be said ? There have been
nine editions in all — one in England and eight in America,
the last in 1867. Is it an indictment of New England
that a poem to us repulsive in sentiment and rude in form,
" a chant of Christian fatalism," as Prof. Tyler describes
it, should have had this popular success ? Hardly, when

76 A Popular Colonial Poet.

we remember that it is the poem of an ethical or religious
character whose appeal is widest. What poems of our
own day can compete in popularity with Kipling's "Reces-
sional," and Markham's "The Man with the Hoe" — the
former religious, the latter ethical ? Such pictures as Wig-
glesworth draws depend for their impressiveness upon the
popular conception of Deity and the universe. For exam-
ple, the late John Fiske says that as a boy he imagined a
narrow office, just above the zenith, with a tall, standing
desk running lengthwise, upon which lay several open
ledgers bound in coarse leather. There were two persons
at the desk. One of them, a tall, slender man, wearing
spectacles, was God ; the other an attendant angel. Both,
he says, "were diligently watching the deeds of men and
recording them in the ledgers. To my infant mind, the
picture was not grotesque, but ineffably solemn." In the
same way, the pictures of Wigglesworth's " Day of Doom "
were, to author and reader, not grotesque, but ineffably
solemn. There is a curious thing about the prelude.
Although the only book of poetry found in Wiggles-
worth's library was Horace, he exclaims:

" Oh, what a deal of Blasphemy and Heathenish Impiety,
In Christian Poets may be found, where Heathen Gods with

praise are crowned.

They make Jehovah to stand by till Juno, Venus, Mercury,
With frowning Mars and thund'ring Jove rule Earth below

and Heaven above."

The opening of the poem pictures the condition of the
world, its heedlessness and sensual ease just before judg-
ment:

A Popular Colonial Poet. 77

" Still was the night, serene and bright,

When all men sleeping lay ;
Calm was the season, and carnal reason
Thought so 'twould last for aye."

Then suddenly bursts upon the scene of security the world's
doom. By a dreadful noise, all the sleeping ones are
rudely awakened. In appalling state appears Christ the
judge. The trump sounds, the dead are raised, the living
are changed, and all are summoned to the Great Assize :

" His wing-ed hosts fly through all coasts,

Together gathering
Both good and bad, both quick and dead,

And all to judgment bring.
Out of their holes those creeping moles

That hid themselves for fear,
By force they take, and quickly make

Before the Judge appear."

The sheep are parted from the goats; the saints receive
their final reward ; and then is pronounced the doom of
hypocrites, the civil honest men, those who pretend want
of opportunity to repent, those who plead the examples of
their betters, the heathen, and even the reprobate infants —
in fact, all the classes so well known to the distinctions of
Calvinistic theology receive in turn the word to depart.
A curious concession, proving that sentiment is stronger
than logic, is made in the oft-quoted lines regarding these
unbaptized infants. To them the Judge says :

" You sinners are, and such a share

As sinners may expect ;
Such you shall have, for I do save
None but mine own elect.

78 A Popular Colonial Poet.

A crime it is ; therefore in bliss

You may not hope to dwell,
But unto you I shall allow

The easiest room in hell."

The final horror of it all is set forth unsparingly

" With iron bands they bind their hands

And cursed feet together,
And cast them all, both great and small,

Into that lake forever.
There must they lie and never die,

Though dying every day ;
There must they dying ever lie

And not consume away."

The last stanza of the poem celebrates the felicity of the
saints who rejoice to see judgment executed upon the
wicked world. By the side of every stanza are proof texts
to attest the truth of every horror which it contains.
Accepting the truth of Wigglesworth's premises as did his
readers for generations, it is no wonder that his pictures,
rude as they are in poetical construction, but strong in
their sincerity, made an impression of indelible horror.

Wigglesworth was also the author of " Meat Out of the
Eater," which is full of quaint, far-fetched conceits, famil-
iar to the readers of Herrick, Vaughan and Quarles and
the other religious poets of the Commonwealth. As Pro-
fessor Henry A. Beers has noted, he had in him the possi-
bilities of genuine poetry. William Cullen Bryant was
once challenged in the Century Club to name a line of
true poetry which had ever been written by Watts, the
hymn writer. He cited the lines :

A Popular Colonial Poet. 79

" Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witnessed the fervor of Thy prayer."

So if one were obliged to cite a poetical stanza out of
Wigglesworth, one might, with Prof. Beers, choose the
lines :

" Endure awhile, bear up, and hope for better things ;
War ends in peace, and morning light mounts upon
midnight's wings."

In another of Wigglesworth's productions, "God's Con-
troversy with New England," there speaks the physician.
Unheard-of diseases had appeared, owing to the degen-
eracy of the time, amongst which was that frightful malady,
the croup. Wigglesworth writes :

" New England, where for many years you scarcely heard

a cough,
And where physicians had no work, now finds them work

enough ;
Now colds and coughs, rheums and sore throats do ever

more abound,
Now ague sore and fever strong in every place are found."

Wigglesworth the man may be of more interest to us
to-day than Wigglesworth the poet, except so far as his
poetry is interpretive. A phase of life is outgrown, but
man is always interesting. Michael Wigglesworth was
born in 1631 in England, probably in Yorkshire. His
father was Edward Wigglesworth, who came to this coun-
try when the boy was only seven. After a few weeks'
stay in Charlestown, he joined the colony established that
year in New Haven. The trip was made by boat, as it
was more often made at that time. The prayer " for those

8o A Popular Colonial Poet.

who travel by land or by water," though not in that phrase,
was oftenest offered in the churches of the Connecticut
and New Haven colonies for those who were bound from
New London to Boston. Of this particular voyage Wig-
glesworth wrote in his autobiography that " in our passage
thither we were in great danger by a storm which drove us
upon a beach of sand, where we lay beating until another
tide fetched us off ; but God carried us to our port in
safety." The boy's introduction to New Haven was
almost as unpropitious as the voyage. "The winter ap-
proaching," he writes, "we dwelt in a cellar partly under-
ground, covered with earth the first winter. But I remem-
ber that one great rain broke in upon us and drenched me
so in my bed, being asleep, that I fell sick upon it ; but the
Lord in mercy spared my life and restored my health."

Wigglesworth speaks of his father as a poor man, who
made many sacrifices to give him an education. As a boy
of eleven, he was taken out of school, apparently to help
his father, who was stricken by a severe lameness that in-
capacitated him for labor. The estate of Wigglesworth,
one of the original planters, is, however, reckoned in the
records of New Haven at ^300. His allotment of land
was 1 06 acres. This certainly did not place him among
the poorest. At any rate, when the boy was fourteen, his
father, "not judging him fit for husbandry," sent him to
school again, "where he made rapid progress and was soon
prepared for Harvard." Here, a curious social distinction,
his name heads the list of the class of 1651, though it con-
tained the sons of colonial magnates and clergymen. On
the other hand, the name of the elder Wigglesworth never

A Popular Colonial Poet. 81

appears in the records as " Mr." Wigglesworth. He is
always called " Goodman " Wigglesworth — in other words,
a farmer who employed laborers, but not a gentleman.

Whatever else the father may have been, he was devot-
edly religious. It is noted in the records that he was the
first man to reach church on Sunday morning, having to
start early because of his lameness. He had the fourth
seat from the front in the old meeting-house on the market-
place, now known as the Green. It was not a long walk,
even for a lame man, as the Wigglesworth home stood
near the corner of Chapel and High streets, about where
the Yale Art School now stands. After the beat of the
second drum in the tower of the meeting-house and
through the streets of the town on a Sabbath morning, the
little Michael was perhaps the first child to lead the groups
church-bound from all directions. He followed respect-
fully behind his father, and was not permitted to sit with
him, but was banished to a gallery. The boy's teacher
was Ezekiel Cheever, one of the characters of earliest New
Haven, a member of the Court of the Plantation, and one
year, a deputy to the General Court of Jurisdiction. Dis-
senting from the judgment of the church in a case of dis-
cipline, he commented upon the action taken with such
severity that he himself was censured, and in indignation
removed to Massachusetts. There, in the towns of Ipswich,
Charlestown and Boston, he won high esteem as a teacher
and was the author of the first Elementary Latin Gram-
mar used in New England. Wigglesworth writes that in
a year or two (he was then about ten years old) " I profited
so much through the blessings of God that I began to

82 A Popular Colonial Poet.

make Latin and go forward apace." It was at that time
that lameness befell his father, who needed the services of
the boy and removed him from school.

Of Wigglesworth's undergraduate life at Harvard we
know nothing, but of his life later as a tutor — he had both
Increase Mather and John Eliot among his students — we
catch curious glimpses. Cotton Mather says of him :
" Unto his watchful and painful essays to keep his scholars
close under their academical exercises, he added serious
admonitions about their interior state." This statement is
confirmed by Wigglesworth's diary. In it he speaks of
wrestling with the Lord "for myself and for my pupils,"
and adds : " But still I see the Lord shutting out my
prayers and refusing to hear, for he, whom in special I
prayed for, I heard in the forenoon with light company,
playing music, though I had so solemnly warned him but
yesterday of letting his spirit go after pleasure ; and again
I saw light and vain carriage in him just at night." But it
was not only music and " light and vain carriage " which
troubled Tutor Wigglesworth. He writes again : " My
pupils all came to me yesterday and desired that they might
cease learning Hebrew." With worldly acuteness Wiggles-
worth adds : " I expect the bottom is their look to com-
mence (to graduate) within two years." President Eliot's
scheme for enabling students to secure a Harvard degree
in three years seems to have been a popular proposition in
that college two and a half centuries ago. To this acute-
ness Tutor Wigglesworth added common sense. One
morning he records : "I had been much perplexed with
the light carriage of one of my pupils. I had some

A Popular Colonial Poet. 83

thoughts of admonishing him openly. I besought the
Lord beforehand, and he guided me to act in a fairer way
and issued my trouble to my good satisfaction."

Wigglesworth's mature life may be summed up as a
series of struggles with bad health, for which he took a
voyage to Bermuda, varied by occasional preaching, doc-
toring, writing poetry, and matrimony. On the death of
Thomas Hooker he just missed being called as associate
pastor to the First Church of Christ in Hartford, because,
for some reason, which even Dr. Walker could not dis-
cover, the Rev. Samuel Stone, Hooker's associate, refused
to put the motion extending the call. The issue of
authority thus precipitated grew into the liveliest sort of
church quarrel, involving New England Congregationalism
itself, and raising an issue that was never really settled.
As a result, Mr. Wigglesworth became pastor of the less
important church at Maiden. He was unable for more
than twenty years to take full charge of the parish, and
had various assistants. But from 1687 to the time of his
death in 1 705 he was almost by a miracle restored to health
sufficient to be sole pastor. In 1686 he preached the elec-
tion sermon, and Judge Sewall speaks of it in his diary as
a case of bringing him forth " as 'twere a dead man to
preach."

In matrimony, Wigglesworth was not a "record-breaker,"
for, though he lived to be seventy-four, he was married but
three times. At twenty-four he married his first wife, a
kinswoman, the daughter of Humphrey Reyner of Row-
ley, Mass., but not until his doctor gave his permission, a
curious anticipation of a proposed Populist law. She lived

84 A Popular Colonial Poet.

only four years, and Wigglesworth actually waited twenty
years before contracting his second marriage. This was
the occasion of " uncomfortable reflections." Increase
Mather wrote to him : "The report is that you are design-
ing to marry with your serving maid, and that she is one
of obscure parentage, not twenty years old, and of no
church, not so much as baptized. If it be as is related, I
would humbly entreat you before it be too late to consider
of these arguments in opposition"-— of which arguments
he gives six, in true sermon style. They made but little
impression upon Wigglesworth, for he and his maid,
probably a daughter of Thomas Mudge of Maiden, were
married soon afterward. They lived together about ten
years, when she died, leaving six children. A little later
Wigglesworth married his third wife, the widow of a Dr.
Jonathan A very, a Dedham deacon, who lived to survive
him. His last courting seems to have been done princi-
pally by letter. He closes one epistle, in which he asks
for permission to call, by saying: "If you cannot con-
veniently return an answer in writing so speedily, you may
trust the messenger to bring it by word of mouth, who is
grave and faithful, and knows upon what errand he has
been sent." The widow still being coy, he writes her a
second time, spreading before her ten considerations
"which possibly may help to clear up your way before
you return an answer under the motion which I made to
you." These "considerations" are ticketed off like the
points of a sermon, with firstly, secondly and thirdly, not
to omit the sub-heads. Probably the consideration that
had the most weight with the widow was an aside, " that

A Popular Colonial Poet. 85

so little acquaintance could leave such impressions behind
it as neither length of time, distance of place, nor any
other objects could wear off, but that my thoughts and
heart have been toward you ever since." This shows that
there was genuine romantic sentiment in Wigglesworth,
despite his matter-of-facl: way in making love. And the
widow consented. Wigglesworth gave as a love-token to
his second wife, the serving-maid, a locket not larger than
a fourpence, curiously wrought with a heart on the front
and wings on each side, inscribed "Thine forever." The
locket descended through one branch of the family, and
the curious little box in which it was enclosed through
another branch, and finally remote descendants of the two
branches married, bringing the locket and box again
together.

It should be remembered that during the period of
Wigglesworth's life the Thanksgiving Day feast was almost
the one widely recognized holiday. Work and religion
divided the waking hours. Life was serious, earnest, grim.
The wearing of the periwig, which came in later, was
denounced by all the stricter Puritans, and the case of the
drunken barber in Boston, who met a horrible death by his
periwig catching fire, is classed by Judge Sewall almost as
a deserved judgment. There were training days and some
fairs, but the observance of Christmas was frowned upon,
and dancing was almost a device of the devil. The custom
of calling on Sunday evenings (the Sabbath of course
began at sundown on Saturday) was almost the sole social
occasion of the week. One has to search for the most
trivial incidents to find any break in the monotony of lives

86 A Popular Colonial Poet.

that, naturally enough, imbued as they were with Calvin-
ism, constantly turned inward. How far this scrutiny
went may be seen from the morbid importance Wiggles-
worth more than once in his diary attaches to a minor
neglect of duty, as in failing to shut a neighbor's barn door
when the wind was slamming it. Yet, insane as Wiggles-
worth at times appears, he had his more than lucid inter-
vals, compared with his neighbors. In the great contro-
versy over witchcraft in the last decade of the century, he
indeed seems to have taken small, if any, part. But just
before he died he wrote to Increase Mather : " I fear that
innocent blood hath been shed, and that many have had
their hands defiled." He understands that not a few
families of the victims have been ruined by the confiscation
of their estates, and says : " I believe the whole country
lies under a curse for it to this day, and will do till some
effectual course be taken by our honored Government at
the General Court to make them some amends and repara-
tion." After considering the objection that the country
was too impoverished to do anything, he adds : " I have
with a weak body and trembling hands endeavored to
leave my testimony before I leave the world."

Less than a year after writing this letter Wigglesworth
died. "A learned and pious divine, a faithful physician,"
he was styled, referring to his practice of medicine during
the years others did the work of his pastorate, thus supple-
menting the small income his books brought in. It
remains but to quote Cotton Mather's " appreciation," as
we should call it, from his funeral sermon on Wiggles-
worth : " It was a surprise to us to see a little feeble shadow

A Popular Colonial Poet. 87

of a man, beyond 70, preaching usually twice or thrice in
a week, visiting, comforting the afflicted, encouraging the
private meetings, catechising the children of the flock and
managing the government of the church, and attending
the sick, not only as a pastor, but as a physician, too ; and
this not only in his own town, but also in all those of the
vicinity. This he did unto the last ; and he was but one
Lord's Day taken off before his last.

" His pen did once ' Meat from the Eater ' fetch.
And now he's gone beyond the Eater's reach.
His Body, once so Thin, was next to None,
From thence he's to Unbodied Spirits flown.
Once his rare skill did all Diseases heal,
And he does nothing now uneasy feel.
He to his Paradise is joyful come,
And waits with joy to see his ' Day of Doom.' '

THE HIDING OF THE CHARTER

HON. MORRIS WOODRUFF SEYMOUR

lOUR EXCELLENCY :— One of the aims of
this Society is to perpetuate the memory of the
events of American Colonial history and of the
men who participated in those events. It seems to me
that we cannot be better or more profitably employed than
in trying to carry out, as fully as possible, those aims.
Surely no state society could have a richer field within
which to labor than have we.

The Colonial history of Connecticut is one which is not
only replete with dramatic incidents, but full of events
which may well excite our veneration. Our little Com-
monwealth has justly been denominated "The Birthplace
of Political Freedom." The Constitutional history of
our State, as yet alas unwritten, challenges the admiration
of the world. To her belongs the admitted credit of hav-
ing formed the first written constitution for the govern-
ment of man.

This is not the time or place to dwell at length upon
this subject, but the fact that for over one hundred and
fifty years, namely, from 1662 to 1818, Connecticut was
governed as a corporation under a charter granted to her
by King Charles II., supplemented by the ordinance of
1639, *s one °f transcendent interest, especially when we
recall that for over forty years of that time she governed
herself as a free and independent state ; denying the
authority of all foreign governments ; allying herself with
the other colonies in forming the United States ; partici-
pating in foreign and domestic wars, and yet, during all

92 The Hiding of the Charter.

that time, had as the only laws by which she was restrained
and the people governed, those enacted under the authority
of that charter.

Immediately after the Declaration of Independence, to
wit, at a General Assembly held at New Haven, on the
second Thursday of October, 1776, the following resolution
was adopted :

" Resolved by this Assembly : That they approve of the
Declaration of Independence, published by said Congress,
and that this Colony is and of right ought to be a free and
independent State, and the inhabitants thereof are absolved
from all allegiance to the British crown, and all political
connections between them and the King of Great Britain
are, and ought to be, 'totally dissolved.

" And be it enacted by the Governor, Council and repre-
sentatives in General Court assembled, and by authority of
the same, that the form of civil government in this State
shall continue to be as established by charter received from
Charles II., King of England, so far as an adherence to
the same will be consistent with an absolute independence
of this State on the Crown of Great Britain, and that all
officers, civil and military, heretofore appointed by this
State, continue in the execution of their several offices,
and the laws of the State shall continue in force until other-
wise ordered."

Such a unique state of affairs is without a parallel in
history, and speaks volumes for that orderly conduct on
the part of our forefathers which well entitled our State
to be called " The Land of Steady Habits."

A writer in "The Hartford Courant " of December n,

The Hiding of the Charter. 93

1797, under the name of " Gustavus," says: "It is an
acknowledged fa6l in all our sister States, that in Connec-
ticut there is, and not only is, but uniformly has been, the
most peaceful, the most orderly, the best, intrinsically the
best, state of society of any in America. This is invariably
ascribed to the wisdom and righteousness of our rulers.
Saying this is saying much in our favor, for in New Eng-
land may be found the happiest state of society of any in
the world, and of all the New England States, Connecticut
holds the acknowledged pre-eminence."

But as much as it would please and profit us to dwell
upon the constitutional history of our State, the subject is
too large to be properly treated upon such an occasion as
this : we must pass on to a consideration of the subject
which we have immediately in hand.

That subject is "The Hiding of the Charter," and I
am the more willing to review the records, facls and tradi-
tions regarding that event, because within a short time
one of the most erudite and learned writers, and the one
who by taste and occupation is perhaps the best fitted to
speak with authority on any subject relating to the early
history of our State, has seen fit to express the opinion
that no such incident ever occurred, or at least to throw
doubts upon the truth of the legend that has for so many
years been current in our midst, that on a certain night in
October, 1687, Captain Joseph Wadsworth seized and
secreted the charter of our State in the hollow of an oak.

I have never had the pleasure of hearing or reading the
views of this gentleman, and all I know of them is what I
have learned from quite a lengthy report of his paper

94 The Hiding of the Charter.

before the Connecticut Historical Society in the news-
papers, and what I have been told by persons who did hear
them, and if the objections and doubts, as herein set forth,
are in reality others and not his, they are not so stated to
misquote him or hold him responsible for them, but in
order to refute all the objections that have been or possibly
can be made — and unfortunately they are many and
weighty — that they may be fairly examined, and, if possible,
answered.

If I rightly apprehend the reasons of this gentleman for
doubting the historic verity of this statement, they rest
mainly upon the absence of a full and complete record of
the transaction. As pleasing as it would be to us all to
have the full and exact details of it verified by the oath of
the actors, it seems to me that the absence of any such
record in no way disproves the fact, and it is not in itself
a circumstance that should create doubt.

The theft of the charter, if not a felony, was an act
capable of being construed as treasonable, and liable to be
punished as treason against the home government. We
submit that people who are engaged in transactions that
may land them in prison or on the scaffold are not accus-
tomed to provide the public prosecutor with evidence over
their own hands and seals for their conviction.

Again, it is urged that the act could not have been suc-
cessfully carried through, as described in the meagre details
handed down to ' us. This criticism fails, because it is
founded on the assumption that Captain Wadsworth was
alone engaged in the transaction, an hypothesis which, it
seems to us, cannot be true. What are the facts in refer-

The Hiding of the Charter. 95

ence to this incident that are incontrovertible ? Let us
briefly and fairly state them.

Sir Edmund Andros had been appointed Governor of
the New England colonies. He had been deputed by
James II. to take the government of the several colonies
into his own hands, and had arrived at Boston, December
1 9th, 1686, for that purpose. He actually assumed the
government of Massachusetts. He had sent a messenger
to Hartford to notify Governor Treat, that he was coming
to Connecticut to take control of its affairs, and to take
possession of the charter of the colony. On the 3ist of
October, 1687, he arrived at Hartford accompanied by a
troop of horse of about one hundred in number, rather late
in the afternoon ; he had, in fact, ridden from Norwich
that day. The General Assembly, in anticipation of his
coming, had been convened and was in session. Upon his
arrival he was introduced to the Assembly, and immedi-
ately afterwards a charter was brought in and placed upon
the table, presumably near, and perhaps immediately in
front of, the presiding officer's desk.

Governor Treat thereupon made a long and elaborate
speech, setting forth the attachment which the Colonists
had to their charter, the sufferings and privations they had
endured in procuring it and maintaining the government
under it, and deprecating the taking of it away.

This speech was continued into the evening, so that
lights had to be brought in, in order properly to transact
the business of the meeting. Suddenly those lights were
extinguished, and in the confusion which followed some-
body removed the charter, and Governor Andros left

96 The Hiding of the Charter.

Hartford and the Colony the next or following day with-
out taking the charter with him.

These facts, as we have heretofore said, will be con-
ceded. Whether the charter that was- placed upon the
table in Governor Andros' sight was that which has com-
monly been denominated " the original," or "the dupli-
cate," charter is not certain, nor is it certain that both were
not there, as we shall presently see, nor does it seem to be
of any particular consequence which it was. As a matter
of fact, it was the custom in those times, as indeed it is
to-day, especially in England, to execute important docu-
ments in duplicate or even triplicate, so that if one should
be lost in transmission across the ocean, the other might
be preserved.

In legal contemplation, each becomes an original, pos-
sessing the same signatures and seals, and the terms " orig-
inal " and " duplicate " in fact having no other significance
than one of identification.

As a matter of fact, a comparison of the charter which
we have been accustomed to call the duplicate charter and
which is in the possession of the Connecticut Historical
Society, with the original, the one in the office of the Secre-
tary of State, as shown by several copies of the duplicate,
for unfortunately it is largely illegible and has been muti-
lated, discloses that the only difference that any one has
ever been able to discover, lies in the insertion before the
signature of " Howard " of what seems to be a memoran-
dum that a certain sum of money was to be paid for the
duplicate, whereas no such memorandum appears upon
that which is ordinarily denominated the original. The

The Hiding of the Charter. 97

precise entry on the document is, " By writ of Privy Seal.
Howard. Per fine five pounds." Then follows the great
seal of Great Britain. This sum may have been a fee for
copying, or a stamp duty on the paper used for the copy.
Indeed there is in the archives of the Connecticut Histori-
cal Society a copy of the charter certified to be a correct
copy by George Wyllys, Secretary, on October 3oth, 1782,
in which the " per fine five pounds " appears ; conclusively
proving one of two things : either there was such an entry
on the so-called original, or that the duplicate was so fully
regarded as an original, as to be used by the Secretary,
even when certifying officially, as an original. That this
duplicate itself has played an important part in the history
of our State will appear by examining the instruction given
by the Colony to Mr. William Whiting, its agent in Eng-
land, " for his better direction in the management of our
affairs in the quo warranto proceedings " in which he is
instructed " to have ye duplicate of our charter ready to
be exhibited in Court, if need be (which by Governor
Winthrop was left with Mr. James Porter of London, and
since by us he was ordered to deliver it to you)."

Whether the General Assembly intended to perpetrate
a trick upon Governor Andros, and purposely brought in
the duplicate, instead of the original charter, if any such
distinction existed, it is impossible at this late day to state ;
but we submit that had Governor Andros gotten posses-
sion of it and taken it away with him, such a trick, though
successfully carried out, would not have benefited the
Colony. Whether it was the " original " or the " dupli-
cate" that was hidden on that 3ist day of October, 1687,

7

98 The Hiding of the Charter.

or both, practically made no difference, since whichever it
was, its successful hiding saved to the Colony its charter.

These are briefly the facts as tradition has handed them
down to us since the earliest days of the Colony, and the
fact that tradition so narrates them is of itself no small
proof of their existence. If they rested upon tradition
alone, that fact ought not to militate against their accept-
ance especially in a Christian community like ours, when
we remember that some of the dearest and most cherished
beliefs connected with the religious life of each and all of
us rest solely upon tradition. Not a word of the Gospels
or Epistles of the New Testament was reduced to writing,
so far as we have any evidence, until many years in some
instances after the death of our Saviour, and it is by tradi-
tion alone that His blessed deeds and words are preserved
to us.

It is to be noted next that all the historians of our State
agree substantially in the facl; that the charter was hidden
by some one.

Peters, writing in 1775, gives the history of these events
substantially as set forth, except he says that the charter
was hidden in an ancient elm.

Mr. Trumbull, who began the preparation of his H istory
of Connecticut before the Revolutionary War, in his pre-
face acknowledges the assistance rendered him by Mr.
George Wyllys, the then Secretary of State, who had
given him access to the official records and assisted him in
their examination, and gives the account which has always
been accepted as the true version of the affair.

Subsequent historians, Barbour, Goodrich, Hollister,

The Hiding of the Charter. 99

Johnson and Sanford, in their histories repeat the same
story, as do Holmes and all others who have incidentally
narrated the event. Is it not too much to assume that all
these authors have simply copied from each other without
making any independent examination of the facts ?

There is an entry in President Stiles's Itinerary, a man-
uscript in possession of Yale College, as follows : "Nathan
Stanley, father of the late Colonel Stanley, took one of the
Connecticut charters, and Mr. Talcott, late Governor Tal-
cott's father, took the other from Sir Edmund Andros in the
Hartford meeting house, the lights blown out. This from
Governor Wolcott." On July 12, 1759, Roger Wolcott
wrote, at the request of President Clap of Yale College,
his memoirs, relating to affairs in the colony, in which he
had taken part, and in that " Memoir " he says as follows :
"In October, 1687, Sir Edmund Andros came to Hart-
ford; the Assembly met and sat late at night; they ordered
the charters to be set on the table, and, unhappily or
happily, all the candles were snuffed out at once, and
when they were lit the charters were gone ; and now Sir
Edmund Andros being in town and the charters gone, the
Secretary closed the Colonial Record with the word
' Finis,' and all departed."

Of this statement, it is to be especially noted that Mr.
Wolcott speaks of the charters, using the plural, and say-
ing that both disappeared.

The Rev. Thomas Ruggles, minister in Guilford from
1729 to 1770, and who succeeded his father, who was
ordained as minister in that town in 1695, in his History of
Guilford, written in 1769, says of Andrew Leete : "That

ioo The Hiding of the Charter.

is said and believed that he was the principal hand in
securing and preserving the charter when it was just upon
the point of being taken," and again, "That it was in his
(Leete's) house that it found a safe retreat until better
times." A statement that might in every respect be true
without robbing Captain Wadsworth of any just credit.

It is hardly conceivable that the charter was allowed to
remain any great length of time in the oak, a place where
it would be exceedingly liable to injury and decay, and
when removed, what so likely as that it would be removed
as far from Hartford as a safe place of concealment could
be found with some loyal friend of the charter govern-
ment.

Gershom Bulkeley in his " Will and Doom " gives this
account. He says: "On Monday, October 3ist, 1687,
Sir E. A. (with divers of the members of his Council and
other gentlemen attending him, and with his guard) came
to Hartford, where he was received with all respect and
welcome congratulation that Connecticut was capable of.
The troops of horse of that county conducted him honor-
ably from the ferry through Waterfield [Wethersfield] up
to Hartford, where the train bands of divers towns (who
had waited through some part of the week before, expect-
ing his coming there, now again, being convened by their
leaders) united to pay him their respects at his coming.
Being arrived at Hartford, he is greeted and caressed by
the Governor and assistants, (whose part it was, being the
heads of the people, to be most active in what was now to
be done), but some say, though I will not confidently
assert it, that the Governor and one of his assistants did

The Hiding of the Charter. 101

declare to him the vote of the General Court for their
submission to him.

However, after some treaty between his Excellency and
them that evening, he was the next morning waited on
and conducted by the Governor, Deputy Governor and
assistants and deputies to the Court Chamber, and by the
Governor himself directed to the Governor's seat, and
being there seated (the Governor, assistants and deputies
being present, and the chamber thronged as full of people
as it was capable of), his Excellency declared that his
Majesty had, according to their desire, given him the
commission to come and take on him the government of
Connecticut, and caused his commission to be publicly
read."

Regarding this account, it is to be noted that Bulkeley
was a Congregational minister settled in Wethersfield,
whose writings show that he was very much out of conceit
with the then condition of affairs in the Colony, and
exceeding desirous that Governor Andros should take
upon himself the government of the Colony. The
account was written by him subsequently to its taking
place, and he knew nothing of the particulars of it except
what he was told, for in a pamphlet entitled "The People's
Right of Election or Alterations of Government in Con-
necticut Argued in a Letter," by Gershom Bulkeley, Esq.,
published in Philadelphia, 1689, speaking of the King
taking in hand the government, he says, " I was not per-
sonally acquainted with these transactions, and therefore,
cannot undertake much in this."

The argument, therefore, that has been attempted to be

**"--"—
I-OS

^EXPOSITION PARK

IO2 The Hiding of the Charter.

drawn from the absence of all allusion to the charter-
hiding incident by Bulkeley must fail.

Again, Mrs. Anstes Lee of Wickford, Rhode Island,
describing in a letter a visit which she made to Hartford
on Election Day, 1791, states the fact that the next day
she took tea at Colonel Wyllys' with President Stiles of
Yale College and other distinguished individuals, and
says : "We all went out after tea to see the Charter Oak,
and stood under it. I felt anxious to stand under the
celebrated old tree, where the old colony charter was hid
by the ancestor of the present occupant. President Stiles
gave us (we standing around him) a minute and detailed
account of all the transaction of its seizure and conceal-
ment. His manner was very eloquent, and the narrative
was precise and particular, and it made a deep impression
on me."

A family tradition in the Wadsworth-Cook-Catlin-
Hungerford family, and which has never, as I am aware,
appeared in print, is a little different from any of the
existing traditions, but seems to be entitled to very great
weight owing to the following facts :

Joseph Wadsworth had a daughter Hannah, who was
certainly born about the time of Governor Andros' visit
to Hartford, and who died at the advanced age of ninety-
seven years, retaining her faculties until the very last.
She married Lieut. Aaron Cook. They had a son Joseph,
named for his grandfather, who was born in the town of
Harwinton, February 3d, 1735, and died there May 8th,
1821. This Joseph Cook and his wife Martha had a son
Allan Cook, who was a man grown when his grandmother,

The Hiding of the Charter. 103

Hannah Wadsworth 'Cook, died, and himself lived until
November 27th, 1862, being ninety-eight years of age,
and being at the time of his death in perfect possession of
his faculties. At least the first fifteen years of his life and
the last fifteen years of Hannah Wadsworth Cook's life
were passed together as grandparent and grandchild, in
the same or adjoining houses in the town of Harwinton.

The Rev. R. Manning Chipman, who wrote the History
of Harwinton, and who was the minister of the Congre-
gational Church of that town for a great many years,
reduced to writing the account given him by Allan Cook,
who related it as told him by his grandmother, Hannah
Wadsworth Cook, which she in turn learned as a child
from her father, Joseph Wadsworth, and other members
of her family, of his connection with the hiding of the
charter. This account was given by the Rev. Mr. Chip-
man to the Hon. Abijah Catlin, late of Harwinton,
deceased.

The substance of that statement is that Captain Wads-
worth and Captain Cyprian Nichols, of Hartford, agreed
together that they would try to save the charter ; that
Captain Wadsworth gave Captain Nichols the choice of
whether he would undertake to extinguish the candles or
hide the charter. Captain Nichols chose the former, and
upon receiving a pre-arranged signal, personally and by
others extinguished all the lights in the Council Chamber ;
that Captain Wadsworth seized the charter, secreted it in
the oak, coming back as quickly as possible. Late that
night, or very soon thereafter at the dead of night, Captain
Wadsworth brought the charter to his own house with the

IO4 The Hiding of the Charter.

intention of secreting it there, without anyone knowing of
that fact. Upon his arrival home, to his dismay, he found
that his wife had been suddenly taken ill with the colic,
and he had to impart to her or some other member of the
family the nature of his employment, and thereupon the
charter, placed in an old candle-box, was secreted in the
corner of Captain Wadsworth's cellar, and the earth
replaced in such a way as to thoroughly conceal it. His
injunctions to the person to whom his secret had to be
disclosed were that if anything should happen to him, they
should communicate to Captain Cyprian Nichols the secret
of its hiding-place.

Regarding these various traditions and accounts it is to
be noted that they all agree in the statement which accords
with the unquestioned facts of history, that the charter in
some way disappeared and was never surrendered to Gov-
ernor Andros. Different hiding-places are described, differ-
ent actors mentioned, but every one save Bulkeley speaks
of the fact of its disappearance and that, too, at night.

Turning now from tradition, oral and written, let us
examine the records, so far as they have any reference to
this matter.

At a meeting of the Council, held May 25th, 1678, it is
recorded as follows : "A duplicate of the charter by order
of the Governor and Council being brought by Captain
Joseph Wadsworth, he affirmed that he had orders from
the General Assembly to be keeper of it, and the Governor
and Council concluded it should remain in his custody
until further order."

Under date of June I5th, 1678, appears this entry:

The Hiding of the Charter. 105

" Sundry of the Court desiring that the patent or charter
might be brought into the Court, the Secretary sent for it,
and informed the Governor and Court that he had the
charter, and showed it to the Court, and the Governor bid
him put it into the box again and lay it on the table, and
leave the key in the box, which he did forthwith."

And here for thirty-seven years, so far as the official
records disclose anything that bears upon the subject matter
of our search, we, too, must let it lie with the key in the
box, until the May session of the General Assembly, 1715.

At that session the lower House of the General Assem-
bly passed an a<5l giving four pounds to Captain Wads-
worth for his services in connection with the charter. This
resolution was defeated in the upper House, and a com-
mittee of conference was appointed. As the result of their
conference the General Assembly passed the following
resolution : " Upon consideration of the faithful and good
services of Captain Joseph Wadsworth of Hartford, espe-
cially in securing the duplicate charter of this Colony in a
very troublesome season when our Constitution was struck
at, and in safely keeping and preserving the same ever
since unto this day, the Assembly does, as a token of their
grateful resentment of such his faithful and good services,
grant him out of the Colony treasury the sum of twenty
shillings." Here the records end.

It has been argued from the facT: that the upper House
refused to concur in the appropriation of four pounds to
Captain Wadsworth, that, in their opinion, the services
that he rendered were of such a character as not to require
any great amount of remuneration, but the facl remains

io6 The Hiding of the Charter.

that it did finally concur in the payment to him of a sum
of money, as a token for his good and faithful services in
securing the charter to the Colony in a very troublesome
season.

Let us turn now to a consideration of the life and char-
acter of this Captain Joseph Wadsworth. Let us examine
his history to see what manner of man he was, and what
he had done to commend himself to the consideration of
his fellow-citizens of the General Assembly ; what he had
done that had not commended him to at least the upper
branch of that august body.

Such an examination will, we think, throw a flood of
light on this particular vote, and explain the reasons and
motives that actuated the several parties participating
therein. Let us see if this doughty captain was in truth a
man of personal courage, a man of daring, a leader of men,
a man trusted by those in authority, a man honored and
believed in by his neighbors and fellow-townsmen ; or, on
the other hand, was he a mean-spirited man of sordid dis-
position, a man who would be likely to receive a sum of
money as a reward for doing a thing that he did not do, a
man who would be willing to seek praise and recognition
for doing a thing that he knew he did not do, and knew
that at least some of his friends and neighbors must know
that he did not do.

He was propounded for a freeman at the May session
of the General Assembly, 1676, and admitted at the
October session of that year. He had, for a number of
years before, been an officer in the Train Band. The year
previous, by order of the General Assembly, he was

The Hiding of the Charter. 107

commanded to take twenty men and go to the assistance
of Westfield in Massachusetts to defend it against an
Indian attack.

In 1689 ne was appointed by the General Assembly,
first Lieutenant, and in October, 1697, Captain of the
Hartford Train Band. At the date of the Fletcher
incident, to which your attention will presently be called,
he was the senior commanding officer of the troops of the
Colony. As an Indian fighter he had not only risked his
own life, but had successfully led the troops of the Colony
against the Indians and defended it against their savage
attacks. In 1678, as we have seen, when the General
Court wanted to look at the charter, it was this same
Captain Wadsworth who had it in his keeping by order of
the General Assembly. From 1685 to 1715 he was fre-
quently elected by his fellow-citizens to represent the town
of Hartford in the General Assembly. His brother, John
Wadsworth, of Farmington, was one of the foremost
citizens of the State, and represented Connecticut as one
of its Commissioners at a meeting of the United Colonies,
and was for many years a member of the General Court,
and there has always been a tradition in the family that he
was sitting at the council board when the charter was
taken.

Quite late in life Captain Joseph Wadsworth studied
law, and was admitted to practice his profession in 1709,
among the first dozen lawyers admitted to practice in this
State. He was a man of means. After his death his will
was probated here in Hartford and is on record in the
Probate Office, as well as the inventory of his estate.

io8 The Hiding of the Charter.

This latter shows that he died seized of nearly four
hundred acres of land lying mostly in and around Hart-
ford, in addition to a considerable personal property.
After making sundry devises and bequests to his children
and grandchildren, he gives to his daughter Hannah the
sum of nine hundred pounds, a sum of money that may
fairly be said to be the equivalent to-day of many thousand
dollars. If the land and property given to his other chil-
dren, and there certainly were three others living, was any-
thing like in proportion, it shows him to have died a rich
man for those times.

He was one of the original proprietors of the town of
Winchester, and although the town was not in facl settled
until after his death, the land records of that town disclose
the fa<5t that Aaron Cook and his wife Hannah released by
a quit-claim deed " all her right, title and interest in certain
land in said Township of Winchester, which was originally
the right of our honored father, Captain Joseph Wads-
worth, late of Hartford, deceased, to her brothers, Joseph
Jr., Daniel and William Wadsworth."

It can safely be said of him without fear of contradic-
tion that he was a bold, fearless man and no respecler of
persons. When Governor Fletcher in October, 1693,
demanded the submission of the militia of the State to his
authority, Captain Wadsworth, who was in command of
the Connecticut troops, it is said, ordered the drums to
beat so that the Governor's commission could not be read,
or if read, not heard, and when the drumming was inter-
rupted by the command of Governor Fletcher, Wads-
worth, as you all remember, in language more forcible

The Hiding of the Charter. 109

than polite, said to his Excellency : "If I am interrupted
again, I will make the sun shine through you in a
moment."

He was a great personal friend of the Hon. Mr. Wyllys,
the then Secretary of the Colony, and a welcome visitor
in his house. Shortly after Captain Wadsworth had
returned from an expedition against the Indians in the
neighborhood of Farmington, a Wethersfield gentleman,
who was privately hostile to him, had occasion to call on
Mr. Wyllys at his house. The late expedition soon
became the subject of conversation, and the Wethersfield
citizen took the opportunity of saying that Captain Wads-
worth had behaved like a coward in the affair. A few
minutes later Captain Wadsworth happened to drop in.
Coming in unannounced, his presence was at first unnoticed.
As soon as Mr. Wyllys, who was a great friend of his,
noticed the Captain's presence, he said as if not seeing
Captain Wadsworth : " So you say that Captain Wadsworth
behaved like a coward in the fight." The Wethersfield
gentlemen, who at that instant discovered Captain Wads-
worth, turned pale and tried to stammer out some sort of
an apology. As soon, however, as Captain Wadsworth
comprehended what had been said, he then and there in
the front parlor of Mr. Wyllys' house, and in the presence
of the Secretary, who evidently anticipated such a result,
administered a severe and exemplary thrashing to his
accuser.

But leaving tradition, let us turn again to . the records
and see if in them we cannot find some reason why the
upper House of the General Assembly might not have

no The Hiding of the Charter.

had what it at least considered a good reason for not
honoring- Captain Wadsworth any more than it could
possibly help. Such an examination will show that at the
October session of the General Assembly held in 1703,
when the Assembly was the Court of Appeals to which all
parties aggrieved had the right to apply to redress their
wrongs, Captain Wadsworth, then a deputy, appeared for
a Mr. Paine, who complained against the Hon. Mr. Pitkin,
who was also one of the Assistants and Judge of the lower
Court, by reason of a judgment rendered by Pitkin in the
Superior Court. In the debate Captain Wadsworth
severely criticised Judge Pitkin, saying in the presence of
the entire Assembly that his (the Judge's) proceedings in
the case were altogether unjust and illegal, and " also did
cast forth reproachful expressions against divers other
members of the Assembly, for which misbehavior this
Assembly do sentence the said Wadsworth to pay a fine of
ten pounds to the public treasury." To the credit, how-
ever, of the Colony be it said that at its October session
of the next year this fine was remitted, "he (Captain
Wadsworth) having made reflections upon himself."

Again on May 27th, 1708, the Court of Assistants also
admonished him because he had said to the sheriff of
Hartford county, he being in the meeting house over the
court chamber, where the Governor and Council were sit-
ting, that if he (the sheriff) would come there, he would
break the sheriff's head or knock him down.

Again at this very May session of the General Assembly,
1715, at which this vote rewarding him for preserving the
charter was passed, Captain • Wadsworth having used

The Hiding of the Charter. 1 1 1

language in the Assembly of both Houses which was
considered as of a seditious nature and tendency, as declar-
ing against the validity of the a6ls of the Assembly, a bill
was introduced in the upper House to bring Captain
Wadsworth to the Bar of the House for his disorderly
and mutinous speeches. This bill was at first negatived in
the lower House, but after the appointment of a con-
ference committee the two Houses concurred in the bill,
and although he practically apologized for his language,
the General Assembly resolved, "that this acknowledg-
ment shall be read in the hearing of both Houses, the
doors being open, and that after the reading thereof the
said Captain Wadsworth publicly own the same and a
proper admonition be given him, and thereafter his affair
passed by." This was strictly carried out, though the
journal of the lower House says "the admonition was a
gentle one."

The conclusion from these records, we submit, is irre-
sistible, that though a favorite with the people at large, and
with their representatives in the popular branch of the
General Assembly, Captain Wadsworth was far from being
so with the upper House.

Turning now to the vote of May, 1715, as we have
before stated, the bill originated in the lower House
"giving Captain Wadsworth four pounds for his services
at a very troublesome time when our Constitution was
being struck at." This resolution was defeated in the
upper House. A committee of conference being insisted
upon, one was appointed consisting of Matthew Allen,
Roger Wolcott and John Clark. After consideration this

112 The Hiding of the Charter.

committee reported the resolution heretofore quoted at
length, making no substantial change in the same, except
substituting the sum of twenty shillings for the four pounds
originally in the resolution.

It has been argued from the smallness of the remunera-
tion that the Legislature could have had no very exalted
idea of the services rendered by Captain Wadsworth ; but
does not the very smallness of the sum, and his willingness
to accept the same, show that he was seeking a recognition
of his services rather than a reward for them ? Does not
the very character of the man, as he has stamped it on the
pages of history, preclude the idea that he was one who
would willingly take pay and receive honors for doing a
thing which he did not do, and is this not especially true
in view of the fact that he was, as we have seen, a man in
comfortable circumstances, if not of abundant means ?

There are, however, other facts connected with this
resolution which seem to us still more to show that it was
not passed as an idle ceremony. Four members of the
General Assembly of 1715, to wit, Lieutenant Abraham
Bronson of Lyme, Colonel Ebenezer Johnson of Derby,
Lieutenant Jonathan Bell of Stamford and John Hall of
Wallingford, had all been members of the General Assem-
bly of 1687 at the time the charter disappeared. Major
Nathaniel Gold, who was Deputy-Governor in 1715, was a
member of the Assembly in 1687, and three others, Roger
Wolcott, Samuel Talcott and John Munson, were sons or
brothers of gentlemen who were members of the General
Assembly in 1687.

It is hardly possible that none of these gentlemen should

The Hiding of the Charter. 1 1 3

have known enough of the secreting of the charter, and
who took the principal part in it, not to have prevented
them from voting to pay a man money for doing that
which he did not do. And this was particularly true of
Captain Cyprian Nichols, who was Captain Wadsworth's
associate as a member of the General Assembly from
Hartford that year, and his associate in the charter-hiding
incident, as we have already seen if the Harwinton tradition
is true. Even if we assume that a man of the character of
Captain Wadsworth would be willing to accept such pay-
ment, they certainly had it in their power, by reason of
their personal knowledge, to defeat the passage of any such
resolution. To accuse them of permitting it to pass,
unless it was right that it should pass, is to accuse them of
a breach of their oath of office and an open dereliction of
their duty, such as was not common in those times.

We have all the evidence here that can be produced in
this matter ; time can probably never add anything to it or
change it ; that the charter was taken and hid is proved
beyond question ; whether original or duplicate is of little
consequence, since, whichever it was, it saved to us our
charter; and as much address, promptness and zeal were
required to conceal the one as the other. Some human
hand was the instrument through which it disappeared ;
some human agency secreted, preserved and restored it,
and we to-day, my friends, are enjoying the fruits of its
teaching and influence.

In this connection permit me to quote one sentence
from Prof. Johnston's History of Connecticut, which shows
how the matter struck the mind of one of the most phil-

H4 The Hiding of the Charter.

osophical, and at the same time accurate and analytical,
minds that ever wrote on the subject of Connecticut
history. After detailing the facts at length he says :
''Although the account of the affair is traditional, it is
difficult to see any good grounds for impeaching it on that
account. It supplies, in the simplest and most natural
manner, the blank in the Hartford proceeding of Andros,
which would otherwise be quite unaccountable. His plain
purpose was to force Connecticut into a position where
she must either surrender the charter, or resist openly ; he
failed ; that charter never was in his possession ; and the
official records assign no reason- for his failure. The
Colony was too prudent, and Andros too proud, to put the
true reason on record. Tradition supplies the gap with an
exactness which proves itself."

It has been suggested that too much has been made of
this charter-hiding incident ; that it was a matter of little
moment; that King James had in fact abrogated the
charter by the very act of sending Andros to take upon
himself the government of the Colony ; that this had
rendered the charter void and of no value ; but the fact
remains that immediately on receipt of the news of the
abdication of James II. and the accession of William and
Mary, the news of which did not reach Hartford until
the Winter of 1688-89, Connecticut resumed her own
government with her old officers, under her old charter.

At the General Assembly held at Hartford during the
month of May, 1689, the following preamble and declara-
tion was passed :

" Whereas, this Court hath been interrupted in the man-

The Hiding of the Charter. 115

agement of the government in this Colony of Connecticut
for near eighteen months past ; and our laws and Courts
have been disused : That there may be no damage accrue
to the public hereby, it is now enabled, ordered and
declared, that all the laws of this Colony formerly made
according to charter and courts constituted in this Colony
for administration of Justice, as they are before the late
interruption, shall be of full force and virtue for the future
and till the Court shall see cause to make further and
other alterations and provisions, according to charter."

The charter granted to Connecticut by Charles II. of
no value ? Forgetting all that has been well said and still
truthfully can be said of its priceless value not only to
Connecticut but to the world at large, as the source from
whence has sprung our religious and civil liberty; as a
matter of prosaic dollars and cents it has been in the past
and is to-day worth millions of dollars to you and me, my
fellow-citizens.

That charter was not only a grant of corporate rights,
permitting the corporation thus created to select its own
officers, and empowering them to pass laws for their own
government, but it was a deed of land as well. It " Gives,
grants and confirms unto the said Governor and company,
and their successors, all that part of our dominions in New
England, in America, bounded on the east by Narragansett
River, commonly called Narragansett Bay, where the said
river falleth into the sea, and on the north by the line of
the Massachusetts plantation, and on the south by the sea,
and in longitude as the line of the Massachusetts plantation
runs from east to west : That is to say, from the said

1 1 6 The Hiding of the Charter.

Narragansett Bay on the east to the south sea on the west
part with the islands thereunto adjoining."

It was the claim of Connecticut to western lands, founded
on this express grant, that gave us not only the " Gore "
but the " Western Reserve " : from the sale of one, our old
Capitol in Hartford was in part built, and the sale of the
other gives us to-day our magnificent school fund, which
has always been the pride and boast of our State.

Had we not been cheated out of part of our rights by
one of the darkest blots on American political history,
" The Decree of Trenton," Connecticut might be, as it ought
to have been, to-day, a State equalling in proportions the
size of Texas and extending from the Atlantic certainly to
the Mississippi and properly to the Pacific Ocean.

Captain Joseph Wadsworth may not have been the
moving spirit in saving us that charter, but all the evidence
points to that conclusion, and points to no one else.

Thank God there were many other men at that time
who were wise enough and brave enough to have done
this deed ; men too generous to have denied credit and
praise where credit and praise were due, and yet there is
practical unanimity in ascribing to this one man the credit
of this deed. If we are right in our delineation of his
character, their love of the man himself did not prompt
them to do this, for he was not altogether lovable, but they
were just ; and let us, too, be just until some other hero
presents a better claim. Let us not reject his at this late
period without substantial proof. Let us not deprive our
State and our Charter Oak of the glory that all these years
have surrounded them with by reason of this incident.

PRESENTATION OF THE CHARTER OAK
BALLOT BOX

GIVEN TO THE SOCIETY BY
CLARENCE CATLIN HUNGERFORD, ESQ.

REV. DR. GEORGE LEON WALKER

|N the regretted absence of Mr. Clarence Catlin
Hungerford from this annual meeting, he has
devolved on me the privilege of making a pres-
entation, in his behalf, of a beautiful ballot box made from
the wood of the Charter Oak for the Society's use. Mr.
Hungerford's absence is occasioned by the necessity, some
weeks ago encountered, of sustaining a critical surgical
operation ; a necessity which he faced with becoming forti-
tude and from which we are glad to know he is success-
fully, though indeed slowly, rallying.

It is needless to dilate to a Connecticut audience upon
the place the Charter Oak holds in the historic memory of
every lover of the liberties and the institutions of this
Commonwealth. The famous tree was already several
centuries old when the first founders of this Colony came
to this spot. It had already for generations been venerated
by the aboriginal inhabitants, as a kind of natural chrono-
meter, by which to time the planting of their corn by the
unfolding of its early leaves. Tradition has it that they
supplicated that it might be spared the settler's axe in
deference to a reverence already felt, long before the
crowning event in its history — the hiding of the charter in
its bosom by Joseph Wadsworth — gave it its undying
place in local and even in national remembrance.

When on the 2ist of August, 1856, the ancient tree,
which for centuries had " stood four-square to all the winds
that blew," was prostrated in the gale, a distinct sense of

I2O Presentation of the Charter Oak Ballot Box.

civic loss pervaded this community, nor did the event fail
of chronicle in all the newspapers of the land. The frag-
ments of the venerable oak were carefully gathered up and
have found preservation in museums, in articles of furni-
ture and ornament manufactured from them, and in speci-
men pieces distributed in many houses the country over.
Cherished almost like the relics of the holy places of the
Church, these fragments of the oak which sheltered the
charter from Andros are prized as a choice family posses-
sion.

It is from a handsome specimen of this historic wood
that the ballot box presented to the Society by Mr. Hun-
gerford is made. And what, after all, is so beautiful as
wood, nature's matchless handicraft ? Cover it with paint,
dull its surface with grimy wear, still when you bring it
down again to the polished grain, it shines out upon you
in coloring and texture reminiscent of the summers and
winters, the sunshine and showers of perhaps centuries
past, about the most lovely thing which can be looked
upon. This beautiful specimen, adorned and set off by
the careful skill of the silversmith's art, constitutes as a
whole an object of beauty fit for any cabinet and certainly
worthy of the grateful cherishing of this Society as
among the choicest of its possessions. No wood but that
of the charter oak enters into its composition, but it
lends perhaps a trifling additional circumstance of interest
to it, to know that the bottom of the box is a section cut
from one of the same pieces of which the governor's
chair in the senate chamber at the state capitol was also
made.

Presentation of the Charter Oak Ballot Box. 121

And it seems particularly appropriate that this memorial
should take the precious form that it does — a ballot box.
The ballot box is characteristically in American history a
New England institution. Unknown in parliamentary
usage in Great Britain till 1872 ; unused in Pennsylvania
till 1683, in Georgia till 1777, in New York till 1787, and
not fully adopted in Kentucky till 1891, it was employed
at Salem in the election of a pastor in 1629 ; adopted by
Massachusetts in civil affairs in 1634, and came with
Haynes and Hooker to Connecticut in 1636. From the
outset of our history therefore the ballot has been the
characteristic method of the choice of officers ; and it
seems a peculiarly becoming feature of the present gift,
that the form of the memento of the ancient oak which
hid the charter should be a ballot box, symbol of the
most characteristic utterance of a New England freeman's
will.

Nor can we overlook the suitableness of the offer and
the reception of this gift at the hands of a direct descend-
ant of Captain Joseph Wadsworth, whose share in the
transaction in which the oak was the " party of the other
part " was so conspicuous. Mr. Hungerford is a descend-
ant, as his name indicates, of two first-generation settlers of
Hartford, Thomas Hungerford and Thomas Catlin ; but
he is also a descendant on the Catlin or maternal side of
Joseph Wadsworth through Joseph's daughter Hannah, by
whose marriage to Lieut. Aaron Cook Mr. Hungerford is
also related to and descended from another first-generation
settler of this Hartford town. As seventh in descent from
Capt Joseph Wadsworth, a Lieutenant in King Philip's

122 Presentation of the Charter Oak Ballot Box.

war, and Hider of the Charter in the historic Oak, I am
sure this Society will recognize the fitness of Mr. Hunger-
ford's agency in bestowing this gift of the Charter Oak
Ballot Box, which I now present to the Society in his
behalf.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARTER OAK GAVEL

GIVEN TO THE SOCIETY BY

RALPH WILLIAM CUTLER, ESQ.

|HE head of the gavel is of wood from the
" Charter Oak " tree which was obtained from
the estate of the late Governor Thomas H. Sey-
mour, who lived on Governor street in the immediate
vicinity of the tree at the time it fell. Its authenticity
cannot be questioned.

The handle of the gavel is part of an oak beam from
the house made in England, of notched and marked stuff,
and sent over to New England by George Wyllys, of
Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, England — (afterward Gov-
ernor Wyllys) — in care of his steward, William Gibbons,
and was put together and set up in 1636 on the knoll about
fifteen rods south of the oak tree (which afterward became
famous as the " Charter Oak "), and on the same lot.
This house was sometimes called, locally, the " Charter
Oak House." It was added to, from time to time, until
the original house was almost lost sight of, but one room
in the old house was kept, out of sentiment, as it originally
was put up, and this piece of wood was obtained from Mr.
William W. Havens, who took down the beam which
stretched across the top of this room and which was care-
fully saved when the entire house was torn down in 1856.

Concealed under the silver wreath around the head of
the gavel is a wrought iron nail, which passes through the
head and into the handle, and thus serves to bind together
the American oak — represented in the "Charier Oak"
and the oak of the mother country. This nail was taken
from the old house on the Cutler farm in Warren, Mass.,

126 Description of the Charter Oak Gavel.

which was purchased by Thomas Cutler in 1 750, which
has descended from father to son, through five generations,
in the one hundred and forty-six years since that time, and
which still remains in the Cutler family.

It is interesting to note the fa6l that the " Charter Oak "
tree, from which the head is made, was alive some two
centuries and a quarter after the English tree, from which
the handle is made, was felled, and yet our oak was so
large at the time the purchase was made that tradition has
it, that when the men were cutting the trees away on the
knoll to make a proper clearing for the house, the Indians,
who had a settlement in the valley to the southeast, near
the Connecticut river, came and begged them to spare this
oak, because it was one of their landmarks, and year by
year, when its leaves were large as squirrels' ears, it indi-
cated to them the proper time to plant their Indian corn.
A close examination of the woods will discover great
difference in their grain and weight, and it can fairly be
claimed that the Charter Oak wood has by far the better
and finer appearance.

Presented to the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars,
by Ralph William Cutler, tenth in descent from Governor
George Wyllys.

HARTFORD, CONN., May 6, 1896.

This is the original paper descriptive of the gavel and
Charter Oak.

Attest, CHAS. SAM'L WARD,

Secretary.

WILLIAM BREWSTER;
His TRUE POSITION IN OUR COLONIAL HISTORY

HON. LYMAN DENISON BREWSTER

PRINTED ALSO IN THE MAYFLOWER DESCENDANT, 1902, IV, 2.

HE story of the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock
is the story of the formation of a little Separatist
or Congregational Church at Scrooby, England,
its escape to Holland, its migration from thence to Ply-
mouth, and its establishment there as the first embodiment
in America of freedom in the Church and equality in the
State.

William Brewster cradled the church at Scrooby, in his
own home. He devoted his means to the support of its
ministers and the succor of its members. After suffering
fine and imprisonment and risking his life for this heresy,
he helped the little flock to Holland, where his duty as
elder intrusted him especially with the discipline and build-
ing up of the Church and the preservation therein of
soundness of do6lrine. This duty he successfully per-
formed with great gentleness and equal firmness. While
in Leyden his arrest was sought for publishing Protestant
books for circulation in England and Scotland.

He was in every respect the co-equal and colleague with
Robinson in all the measures for preparing the voyage to
America, and shares with Carver and Cushman the honor
of procuring the requisite London assistance.

That he drafted the Compact of November 21, 1620,
in the cabin of the Mayflower seems almost certain. That
he was the moral, religious and spiritual leader of the
Colony during its first years of peril and struggle and its
chief civil adviser and trusted guide until the time of his

130 William Brewster.

death, is quite certain. But for his ecclesiastical position
he would have been Governor of the Colony.

So that, while it was perhaps unfortunate, as a matter of
good taste, that Rev. Ashbel Steele entitled his valuable
biography " Chief of the Pilgrims : or The Life and Time
of William Brewster" — unfortunate, since the modest
Elder of Plymouth was the last man in the world to insti-
tute comparisons with his brethren, it is nevertheless true
as a matter of history that he was indeed in the fullest
sense "The Chief of the Pilgrims." And it is also true
that having the rare felicity to be both the founder of the
first free Church in America, and also the founder of the
first free Colony in America, he was in a sense in which
no other man, not even Roger Williams (as I shall show)
can claim the honor — the first Apostle of both civil and
religious liberty on this continent.

In the light of recent research he stands out more
clearly than ever, the leading figure of the Mayflower and
of Plymouth. In the prime of his intellectual vigor, in
the 54th year of his age, the only reason why the Elder
was not chosen the first Governor of the Plymouth
Colony, ^says Hutchinson in his History, was that "He
was their ruling elder, which seems to have been the bar
to his being their Governor — civil and ecclesiastical office,
in the same person, being then deemed incompatible."
Perhaps an equally cogent reason was that an outlawed
exile would hardly be "persona grata" to the officers of
the Crown.

Some subsequent historians, not realizing that, as Judge
Baylies says, " the power of the church was then superior

William Brewster. 131

to the civil power," or the true reason of the apparent but
not real subordination of the Elder to the Governors
(Carver and Bradford), have failed to give to the heroic
Elder the supremacy he deserves over each and all, as the
heart, brain and soul of the new Plymouth enterprise,
without whom it could hardly have been attempted, with
whom it became the most memorable and successful pioneer
colonization on the American continent after its discovery
by Columbus.

Let me mention some of the admirable qualities of his
leadership. Not intending in the least to suggest a word
in derogation or depreciation of the good qualities, nay
the grand qualities, of those superb fellow Pilgrims, Brad-
ford, Winslow, Carver and Standish, I will state briefly
what he was, what he accomplished.

Of gentle birth, educated at Cambridge, a courtier before
he was twenty years of age, in high esteem with Her
Majesty's Secretary of State, treated by him more like a
son than a servant, soon a member of the English Embassy
to Holland, after loyally and faithfully serving his patron
Davidson who was deposed from his high position by the
perfidy of the Queen, he, after suffering years of persecu-
tion in building up the Mayflower church at Scrooby, left
his native land, his position and his fortune, to be an exile
in Holland and a pilgrim in America.

A word each on his scholarship, his statesmanship, his
saintliness and his standing among the Founders of
States.

First, as to his scholarship and ability as a lay preacher.
It was always known that he was a trained scholar of the

132 William Brewster.

greatest of English Universities, but it remained for the
late Dr. Dexter to show the depth and breadth, the fulness
and ripeness of his learning and wisdom. Dr. Dexter
wrote to me that he regarded him as the ablest man of the
first generation of New England colonists, and no man
was better qualified to give that judgment. While a per-
secuted refugee in Leyden he published and in some
instances himself printed and edited both popular and
erudite theological treatises in Latin and English. While
living in his log house in Plymouth, built by his own
hands, he yearly received supplies of newly published
books in Latin and English, and his library was inventoried
at his death in 1644 at four hundred volumes.

Dr. Dexter took the brief headings of the inventory
deciphered by Mr. Winsor and tracing out the books
through the leading libraries of England and Europe,
restored the full titles. Sixty-two were in Latin and
ninety-eight commentaries on or translations of the Bible.
Dr. Dexter says :

"It is my strong impression that it is very doubtful
whether, for its first quarter-century, New England any-
where else had so rich a collection of exegetical literature
as this."

With such a scholar to explain the Scriptures, which
was the chief function of the pulpit in those days, it is no
wonder that when a minister who came over in 1629 was
chosen to be the Plymouth pastor, the people " finding
him to be a man of low gifts and parts, they, as providence
gave opportunity, improved others as his assistants." And
this scholar worked with his own hands to build his house

William Brewster. 133

in Plymouth, and afterwards in Duxbury, and up to the
age of nearly eighty helped to cultivate his own farm.
And there is nothing to show, says one biographer, in the
records that he ever asked for or received any salary.

But the crowning glory of this wealth of learning and
knowledge was this. For thirty years it was devoted con-
stantly, utterly and superbly to the people with whom he
had cast his hazardous lot. All he could learn he freely
imparted to those he taught.

He was a scholar and preacher from the people, with
the people, for the people and to the people, and in their
close companionship of toil and danger the people did
indeed hear him gladly. Of their place of worship and
order of assembling De Rasiere, a wise observer from
Holland in 1627, gives this often repeated but always
interesting sketch :

He says : " Upon the hill they had a large square house,
with a flat roof, made of thick sawn planks, stayed with
oak beams, upon the top of which they have six cannons,
which shoot iron balls of four and five pounds, and com-
mand the surrounding country. The lower part they use
for their church, where they preach on Sundays and the
usual holidays. They assemble by beat of drum, each
with his musket or firelock, in front of the captain's door ;
they have their cloaks on, and place themselves in order,
three abreast, and are led by a sergeant without beat of
drum. Behind comes the Governor, in a long robe ;
beside him on the right hand comes the preacher with his
cloak on, and on the left hand the captain with his side-
arms and cloak on, and with a small cane in his hand ; and

134 William Brewster.

so they march in good order, and each sets his arms down
near him. Thus they enter their place of worship, con-
stantly on their guard night and day."

How much Governor Bradford, the excellent governor
of the colony for over thirty years, owed not only to the
guidance, but to the training, teaching and companionship
of his old neighbor, comrade and life-long friend, his grate-
ful words bear full witness. He says of Brewster that
" he was foremost in our adventure in England and in
Holland and here." John Brown of Bedford calls him
"The Great Heart of their pilgrimage." Dr. Griffis says
" from the first Brewster was the soul of the Plymouth
colony."

The devout Elder was regarded with the utmost venera-
tion and reverence in his later years by the colonists of the
eight towns into which the little settlement of 1620 had
grown. Hence I think the popular impression of the old
patriarch pictures him with the austere severity and rigid
narrowness of an old Ironsides, rather than with the
"sweetness and light" of Hampden and Milton. Noth-
ing could be further from the truth. Humblest and gen-
tlest of men, his flock almost worshipped him because
they loved him and had reason to love him, while that love
was returned in full measure, and the chronicle says of his
death in which he "so sweetly departed this life unto a
better " : " We did all grievously mourn his loss as that of
a dear and loving friend."

Of his personal qualities Bradford says : "He was wise
and discreet and well spoken, having a grave and deliberate
utterance, of a very cheerful spirit, very sociable and pleas-

William Brewster. 135

ant amongst his friends, of an humble and modest mind,
of a peaceable disposition, undervaluing himself and his
own abilities, and sometimes overvaluing others ; inoffen-
sive and innocent in his life and conversation, which
gained him the love of those without, as well as those

within He was tender-hearted, and compassionate

of such as were in misery, but especially of such as
had been of good estate and rank, and were fallen unto
want and poverty, either for goodness and religion's sake,

or by the injury and oppression of others In

teaching, he was moving and stirring of affections, also

very plain and distin6l in what he taught He had

a singular good gift in prayer, both public and private. . . .
He always thought it were better for ministers to pray
oftener, and divide their prayers, than be long and tedious
in the same."

"He taught twice every Sabbath, and that both power-
fully and profitably, to the great contentment of his
hearers, and their comfortable edification ; yea, many were
brought to God by his ministrie. He did more in this
behalf in a year, than many that have their hundreds a
year do in all their lives." Bradford's whole eulogy of his
beloved friend and pastor is the most pathetic and beauti-
ful passage in his History of New Plymouth so lately
restored to the State of Massachusetts.

Next as a statesman. If the acorn is judged by the oak
it produces, he had no superior in that age of great states-
men. How far-reaching the policy that foresaw that the
refugees must leave Holland, if they would preserve their
English morals with their English freedom ! How tersely

136 William Brewster.

in the short Social Compact which we believe he penned,
impromptu apparently, in the cabin of the Mayflower, is
the whole genius of " Liberty, Equality and Fraternity "
put in a few lines ! Well has it been called the "germ of
all our American Constitutions and Declarations of Right"
— " Magna Charta reinforced by the spirit of the Dutch
Commonwealth. "

Professor Goldwin Smith, in his brilliant little book
called "The United States Political History 1492-1871,"
tells us that the recital, in the Compact signed on the
Mayflower, of the colonists' allegiance and fealty to King
James was a great and serious mistake and "created a
relation false from the beginning," that in it "lay the fatal
seeds of misunderstanding," etc. On the contrary, the
mistake is all on the side of the Professor. Not to have
acknowledged that fealty and allegiance would have been
false and if interpreted as seriously intended would have
been suicidal. It was because they intended to be English
colonists and English freemen that they left Holland. In
all the business of procuring their charter that fealty is
assumed and this allegiance and fealty is reiterated and
reaffirmed in the Plymouth Code of 1636, of whose
drafters the Elder was one.

How superior the wise, peaceful, just and courageous
policy of the Plymouth Colony in its treatment of the
Indians and its fellow colonies ! And the man who
always had the last word in these important matters — the
Joshua and Nestor of the plantation, was Elder William
Brewster. Here again see the crowning glory of his
success as a political philosopher. He put his glorious

William Brewster. 137

theory of Equality and Fraternity into pra<5tice, and Liberty
could not help being the result. The first Plymouth town
meeting of equal citizens with equal rights had in it the
seeds of Yorktown and Gettysburg. It was the first clear
prophecy of the Republic which was to extend from ocean
to ocean.

Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh in his recent work on Puri-
tanism, cool and judicial Scotchman as he is, sums up the
consensus of historians when he says : " It is not too much
to say that in a very real and profound sense the Mayflower
carried with her the destinies of the world. Her crew
(evidently the doctor means her passengers) were not only
the pioneers of civil and religious liberty, they were the
heralds of a faith which tested by the heroic men it has
formed and heroic actions it has produced may indeed
challenge comparison with any faith by which men have
been moulded and inspired. The struggle they were
called upon to wage was a struggle for liberty not only in
the New World but in the Old, and but for the planting
of Puritanism in New England the victory of Puritanism
in the Mother Country would have been short lived, and
shorn of its most characteristic features and products. '*
And in spite of all criticism Bancroft states but a fact
when he says that "in the cabin of the Mayflower human-
ity recovered its rights and instituted government on the
bases of equal laws for the general good."

Dr. Gregory, in summing up the influence of the May-
flower and Plymouth Rock, wisely and justly, it seems to
me, merges and blends the Pilgrim Separatist and the
Massachusetts colony Puritans as exerting essentially the

138 William Brewster.

»

same influence after 1630 on subsequent history, since all
the Puritans of New England soon became Separatists.

Better than all, he was a saint in a church where saint
worship was abolished. Of his own sincere, devout,
spiritual, religious faith and practice every day of his
exiled life bore witness. But what especially distinguished
him as a religious leader in those days was his breadth,
toleration and charity. When that sturdy and heroic
heretic Roger Williams in Plymouth denounced the
Mother Church in England as Anti-Christ, pronouncing it
sinful to attend its worship or to fellowship with it, the
more charitable Leader of the Pilgrims refused to go with
him or to hold to any such nonsense. In fact, the spiritual
descendants of William Brewster and John Robinson
were not more Jonathan Edwards and the New England
Calvinists than Phillips Brooks, Horace Bushnell, Henry
Ward Beecher and Charles Briggs. "The Pilgrims were
neither Puritans nor Persecutors " was the motto I saw
some years ago written over the spot across the street
from which Elder William built his house. But in reality
the Pilgrim was, as Dr. Dexter says, "The Puritan in the
superlative degree."

John Robinson and Roger Williams are justly praised
as the fathers and apostles of religious toleration in their
age. But William Brewster was more catholic and toler-
ant than either, at an earlier date.

" Paget," according to Powicke in his recent Life of
Henry Barrows, "says that Robinson had 'tolerated' his
fellow elder ' for this long time ' in this practice," and " this
practice " was the custom of hearing ministers of the Church

William Brewstcr. 139

of England, and it is a touching evidence of the Elder's
influence on the life and belief of his beloved pastor that
there was found in the study of John Robinson after his
decease a treatise on "The Lawfulness of Hearing of the
Ministers of the Church of England." We have already
seen how on this very point the Elder of Plymouth was
more tolerant than Roger Williams in the new colony.
The sturdy leader who surpassed both John Robinson and
Roger Williams in true catholicity and toleration before
1620 may well stand for the Pioneer of Religious Liberty
in New England and America.

The claim that the Elder was in the slightest degree
blameworthy in advising the Plymouth Church to accept
Roger Williams' petition for a dismissal from that church
to the church in Salem, will hardly pass muster with any
student of history thoroughly conversant with the "chip
on the shoulder" characteristics of the great Founder of
Rhode Island, or who has thoughtfully read Bradford's
words of tender regret at the parting — words which un-
doubtedly echoed the sentiments of the Elder.

It seems to me that Dr. Gregory's criticism of the
unstinted laudation of the intrepid Baptist by Mr. Strauss
when he puts him on a level with Luther and Cromwell is
fully justified. There seems to be a lack of historical
perspective.

Easily first among the Pilgrims (for Robinson, the mas-
ter mind of all, was not a Pilgrim, as he stayed on the other
side of the seas and is out of the comparison), how does
the scholar, teacher and sainted father of the first colony
of New England stand among the founders of states?

140 William Brewster.

Lord Bacon put the founders of states in the first rank of
the Great Men of the world. It seems to me that depends
on the motive and method of their achievements. Where
conquest and greed are the motives and treachery and
bloodshed the methods, I see nothing to admire or respect.
But what colony was ever founded on loftier aims, with
more devoted sacrifice and by more honorable methods,
than that which was started in possession at Plymouth two
hundred and eighty-two years ago. Its free spirit has taken
possession of the continent. The man whose thought
originated, whose spirit pervaded, whose presence stimu-
lated, whose counsels preserved that colony in its infancy,
can well bear comparison with any of the famous colonizers
of the continent.

It was no accident that made William Brewster the
planter of a great church, and pioneer of a great state.
The long schooling in Holland after the sharp persecution
in England seems to have educated the Pilgrims and their
great leader to a more gracious spirit, a more Christian
sense of the relations of man to man, than was possessed
by the subsequent New England colonists. There was less
bigotry, no persecution and little of the superstition and
narrowness that darkened the history of most of the other
New England colonies. The bond that kept together that
immortal band through flood and famine, pestilence and
peril, was not commercial or primarily political. It was
religious and spiritual. It was faith in God and the Gos-
pel of the Christ. And their spiritual leader, full of that
faith himself, inspired his flock with his own zeal and
moulded the colony not only during his own life but for a

William Brewster. 141

whole generation after. The very symmetry and perfection
of William Brewster's character have in a sense prevented
a full and just recognition of his services to church and
state.

But to my mind the entire sanity, moderation, self-
restraint, the grand common-sense of the founder of
Plymouth, constitutes one of his most attractive character-
istics. Too often, alas, have the reformers of the world,
the founders of states and systems, had the one-sided
vehemence of a John the Baptist instead of sharing some-
thing in the serene dignity and repose of the Master.
Patience, humility, indomitable fortitude, unquenchable
hope, purity of life and purpose, kindliness of heart, sym-
pathy for the weak and poor, fidelity to the death for all
that is right, absolute abhorrence for all that is wrong, are
they not worthy human qualities although their possessors
forsooth be termed Puritans ? But these pilgrims, although
puritans of the puritans in their moral steadfastness, were
also free in a large degree from the narrowness, intolerance
and vulgarity that have elsewhere sometimes characterized
those who held the name. How much of this freedom
must we fairly attribute to their leader and teacher ? See
the effectiveness as well as the quality of his work ! In
England he not only made of his home a Meeting-house,
but he provided its pastors and devoted his means and his
life to his brethren who sought to reform what he and they
believed the unscriptural practices of the Church established
by law. When the little flock had gathered again after
their hazardous flight to Holland, not only did his printing
press at Leyden furnish to Scotland and England exactly

142 William Brewster.

the English Protestant literature which the Reformation
most needed, but his wise eldership contributed no less
than the genius of Robinson to preserve and shape a church
worthy of being the pioneer church of New England.

In Plymouth — elder, adviser, Nestor of the little band,
Dr. Dexter tells us there is every reason to believe the
English books of his library were openly accessible to all
and formed in reality the first Public Library of New
England. A preacher who never had been a priest, a pas-
tor who had never been an ordained clergyman, he was the
fitting leader of a band of Independents who were to
found a Church without a bishop as well as a State without
a king. Opposed to all ritualism and formalism, to any
ceremonials not in their opinion plainly enjoined by the
word of God, the Plymouth Colony, under the Elder's
wise and able guidance, preserved a moderation, sanity' and
freedom from extravagance and superstition not always
prevalent in the other Puritan colonies.

There have been many saints in Old England and in
New England well beloved, we may believe, of God and
man, but how many of his energy and of such influence
on the future, who were so free from asceticism, fanaticism,
ignorance and superstition ? How many unembittered by
such persecution, unnarrowed by such isolation ? This
" Chief of the Pilgrims " was a Puritan of the Puritans
in all that makes puritanism a power for good, for purity,
for piety, for valor, and a terror to evil doers, but in
nothing else. The sourness, the barrenness, the vulgarities
of puritanism seemed left out of Elder Brewster's com-
position.

William Brewster. 143

And it is a pleasant thought, I am sure, for every mem-
ber of our society to realize that the more the records are
searched, the more clearly it appears that the spiritual
leader of our Pilgrim ancestors — the transplanter of the
first New England Meeting-house, the suggester of the
first New England town-meeting, was in everything
throughout his life, in everything we know of his thought
and action, a noble Christian gentleman.

THE JUDGES CAVE TABLET

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, ESQ.

INSCRIPTION ON THE TABLET
JUDGES CAVE

HERE MAY FIFTEENTH 1661 AND FOR SOME WEEKS
THEREAFTER EDWARD WHALLEY AND HIS SON-IN-LAW
WILLIAM GOFFE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT GENERAL
OFFICERS IN THE ARMY OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND
SIGNERS OF THE DEATH WARRANT OF KlNG CHARLES
FlRST FOUND SHELTER AND CONCEALMENT FROM THE
OFFICERS OF THE CROWN AFTER THE RESTORATION

" OPPOSITION TO TYRANTS is OBEDIENCE TO GOD "

1896

I PON the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars
has fallen the duty of setting up a memorial
tablet at the Judges Cave on West Rock, New
Haven. The reasons for this action are found in the con-
stitution and purposes of this patriotic society.

One of its chief objects is to cultivate the historic con-
sciousness of the Republic, by studying and elucidating
our colonial era, by tracing the influences which made us a
nation, and by honoring the men and by marking with
enduring monuments the places and the events which are
significant in our colonial career.

It is fitting that this American society should honor the
memories of Edward Whalley and William Goffe, two of
the judges who signed the death warrant of Charles I. of
England, because their exile in New England was in itself
one of the most picturesque and legend-creating events in
this country in the seventeenth century, and was attended
by a popular sympathy with the principle of resistance to
tyrannical and irresponsible monarchy, and because from
the Restoration down to this year of grace their names
have been held in obloquy and contempt in the land to
which their efforts largely contributed to give a free and
parliamentary government. It is time that their names
were publicly honored in New England.

But why on the pile of stones on West Rock ? I shall
answer this question by a very brief statement of the
admitted facts in the career of Whalley and Goffe. Much
has been written about them ; many legends were current

148 The Judges Cave Tablet.

in the generation after their death. Many controversies
have arisen in regard to their several hiding places, their
adventures to escape capture, the time and place of their
death and their final resting places. There is no contro-
versy as to the essential facts that justify this tablet. His-
tory agrees as to the part they played in England in the
Parliamentary wars, in the execution of Charles, in the
Commonwealth. Of their adventures in this country we
have an undoubtedly true account in the History of Massa-
chusetts by Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson. He had
in his possession the journal of GofTe kept from the time
he left Westminster, May 4, 1660, until the year 1667,
together with several other papers belonging to him. In
writing his narrative he makes use of these documents and
of the contemporary information in the colonies regarding
these men. These valuable papers were lost when the
governor's house was demolished in the tumults of the
Stamp A61 in 1765. The governor's account of the
sojourn of the regicides in New Haven and in Hadley is
abundantly certified and fixed in important details by local
evidence.

Edward Whalley was of an ancient and respected family,
which figured in England in the reign of Henry Sixth.
His ancestor, Richard Whalley, of the county of Notting-
ham, was a man of great wealth and a member of Parlia-
ment in the time of Edward VI. His eldest son, Thomas,
had seven children, among others, first, Richard, who mar-
ried Oliver Cromwell's aunt. Richard was a member of
Parliament. He had three wives, but issue only by his
second, Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell, Knight,

The Judges Cave Tablet. 149

grandfather of Oliver. His second son by Frances, Oliver
Cromwell's aunt, was Edward, the Judge. Being a second
son he was put to business in London, but when the con
test broke out between Charles and his Parliament, he
took up arms on the popular side with a zeal inflamed by
his Puritan principles. He won such distinction for splen-
did soldierly qualities at Naseby and elsewhere that Parlia-
ment voted him to be a Colonel of Horse, then gave him
the thanks of the House, and in 1647 the Commons
granted him the manor of Flamburgh, a part of the estate
of the Marquis of Newcastle, at the rate of fifteen years
purchase. This was redeeming a part of his father's estate
which the Marquis had purchased for a small part of its
value. He was greatly trusted by Cromwell for his ability
and his high religious character. The King when he sur-
rendered to the Scotch commissioners was confided to his
care ; he was appointed by Parliament one of the Tribunal
to try the King ; he was one of the signers of the death
warrant. During the Protectorate he had important mili-
tary commands, was made Commissary General, and then
Major General, sat in Parliament, and was one of the
members of Cromwell's Upper House.

William Goffe was the son of Stephen Goffe, a Puritan
minister, rector of Stanmer in Sussex. He was put to
business with Mr. Vaughan, a dry-salter of London, a
zealous Presbyterian and a partisan of Parliament. Dislik-
ing business he joined the Parliamentary army, where by
his merit he rose to be quartermaster, colonel and major-
general. He sat in Parliament, was on the Tribunal to
try the King and signed the warrant for his execution.

1 50 The Judges Cave Tablet.

Him also Cromwell greatly trusted. He stood by Colonel
White when Cromwell's soldiers purged the Parliament.
He was one of the Protector's members of the Upper
House, and he signed the order for proclaiming the
Protector Richard. He married a daughter of Edward
Whalley.

Both Whalley and Goffe were known to be incorrupti-
ble opponents to the restoration of Charles II. They
were personages of the first eminence in the great actions
of their day. They were intimately associated with Crom-
well and the commonwealth. Their conspicuous services
and their high character both for piety and executive
ability marked them as special enemies to the returning
Stuart. Whoever else might be forgiven, it was known
that they could expect no mercy at the hands of Charles.
Accordingly they fled and were on their way to New
England before the proclamation of Charles. They landed
in Boston July 27th, 1660, without disguise, and were well
received by Governor Endicott and the principal persons
of the town. Taking up their residence in Cambridge,
they had the entire freedom of the colony, visited the
principal towns and were frequently in Boston, attended
and took part in religious services, and were respected on
account of their rank and their grave and devout appear-
ance. But affairs changed when the act of indemnity
came over in November and they were not excepted in it.
The government officials became alarmed and the Court
was summoned. It did not act, but the situation was so
threatening that on the 26th of February, 1661, they left
Cambridge, passed through Hartford, where they called

The Judges Cave Tablet. 151

upon Governor Winthrop, and reached New Haven the
7th of March. They were doubtless induced to go to
New Haven on the intimation that the Rev. Mr. Daven-
port would be a friendly protector. Their co-religionists
in New Haven received them with kindness. But shortly
after their arrival circumstances occurred which compelled
them to go into hiding, and to remain hunted and trem-
bling fugitives until their release by death. A hue and cry
was out for them from England, a reward of one hundred
pounds was offered for their capture dead or alive, and the
Governor and Assistants of Massachusetts issued a war-
rant for their apprehension which was sent to the western
towns of the colony. Whalley and Goffe disappeared from
public observation.

For a history of their fortunes thereafter we have to
rely upon the History of Massachusetts published in 1 764
by Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, who had in his pos-
session the diary of Goffe and other important papers ;
the local researches of President Ezra Stiles, called A
History of Three of the Judges of Charles I., published
in 1794, and the "Mather Papers," partly no doubt derived
through the Rev. Mr. Russell of Hadley, and published
in 1868 by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series,
vol. 8. The best resume* of the whole subject is in a paper
by Franklin B. Dexter, Esq., published in Vol. II. of the
New Haven Historical Society. It is not likely that any
fresh information will ever substantially alter this lucid
narrative. But the incidents may have different interpre-
tations and the legends which have grown up will doubtless
show the common persistent life of legends. The contro-

152 The Judges Cave Tablet.

i

versies of the past may be renewed, but they do not con-
cern the Society of Colonial Wars in the duty they have
in hand.

The indisputable facts are that Whalley and Goffe were
in hiding in New Haven and vicinity for about three years
and a half, during which time, however ignorant the general
public may have been of their presence, they were screened
by Lieutenant Governor Leete and Minister Davenport
and by other officials, and were hidden and fed by sympa-
thizers, and that the emissaries sent out from England by
way of Boston were baffled by many delays and subterfuges.

On the 1 3th of May, 1661, there arrived at New Haven
Thomas Kelland and Thomas Kirk, loyalists sent over
from London, with an order from Governor Endicott to
take Whalley and Goffe. They were baffled at every turn.
August i, 1 66 1, a General Court was held at New Haven
which sent a letter to the Council in the Bay. This letter
is a charming exercise in the rhetorical art of substituting
ingenious verbiage for information. It does assert that
the fugitives had gone before the warrant was received in
the colony (a statement difficult to reconcile with the fact
that they removed from Milford to Hadley October 13,
1664), and then it says: " But only there was a gainsaying
of the Gentlemen's earnestness who retarded their own
business to wait upon ours without commission, and also
out of scruple of conscience and fear of nonrfaithfulness
to our people, who committed all our authority to us under
oath by owning a general Governor, unto whom the war-
rant was directed, as such, implicitly, and that upon misin-
formation to His Majesty given, though other magistrates

The Judges Cave Tablet. 153

were mentioned, yet (as some thought) it was in or under
him, which oversight (if so it shall be apprehended) we
hope upon our humble acknowledgment his Majesty will
pardon, as also that other greater and bewailed remission
in one, in not securing them till we came and knew their
place out of overmuch 'belief of their pretended reality to
resume upon themselves according to their promise to save
their country harmless, which failing is so much the more
to be lamented, by how much the more we had used all
diligence to press for such a delivery upon some of those
that had showed them former kindness, as had been done
otherwhere, when as none of the Magistrates could other-
wise do anything in it, they being altogether ignorant
where they were, or how to come at them, nor truly do
they now, nor can we believe that they are hid anywhere
in this colony, since that departure or defeatment."

There is much more of this. Charles II. had a fine
sense of humor, and if this letter ever came under his eye,
he must have been amused, while he cursed the slyness of
the canting Puritans. When this pursuit was hot the two
Judges did offer to surrender themselves in order to save
from search and suspicion Davenport and others who had
befriended them. But their staunch friends refused to
permit them to do so.

For three years and a half, then, Whalley and Goffe
were in hiding in and about New Haven. For two years
of this time they were immured in the house of Mr.
Tompkins, in Milford, not so much as walking in the
orchard for two years. It is related that while they were
housed there a ludicrous cavalier ballad came over from

154 The Judges Cave Tablet.

England satirizing the Judges, and naming Whalley and
Goffe ; that a spinster inmate of the house had learned it
and used sometimes to sing it in a chamber over the
Judges ; and that the Judges used for their diversion to
get Tompkins to set the girls, who knew nothing of the
matter, to sing it.

President Stiles goes into minute details as to the several
hiding places of these Judges before they went to Milford,
especially at and behind West Rock, and searches out all
the surviving traditions. These places of concealment are
many, and the fugitives shifted their refuges frequently.
No doubt they were for many days hid in the cellar of the
store of Governor Leete, in Guilford. While they were
in these harbors or refuges, in none of which did they pass
more than a few days or nights at a time, they were fed
and looked after by Mr. Daniel Sperry, and other farmers
of the neighborhood. There are many stories of their
pursuit by officers and spies, and of their opportune escape
by the aid of quick-witted women and sympathetic men.

But the hiding place that took most hold upon the
popular mind and entered most largely into traditions was
what is known as the "Judges Cave" on the southern
extremity of West Rock. There is no doubt that they
were hidden there for several days and nights at one time,
and that they resorted to it more than once. The legend
is that their first stay there was shortened by the appearance
of a catamount one night, whose glowing eyes at the
mouth of the cave had more terrors for them than the
more exposed house of Mr. Sperry to which they fled.

The Cave, as a cave, has now practically disappeared,

The Judges Cave Tablet. 155

only three large standing stones marking the site of the
refuge of the hunted generals. But it presented a very
different appearance as late as 1785, when the mountain
was still covered by trees and bushes, and ascent to it was
difficult. I quote the paragraph which President Stiles
devotes to a description of it. He says :

" In 1785 I visited aged Mr. Joseph Sperry, then living,
aged 76, a grandson of the first Richard, a son of Daniel
Sperry who died 1751, aged 86, from whom Joseph received
the whole family tradition. Daniel was the sixth son of
Richard, and built a house at the south end of Sperry's
farm, in which Joseph now lives, not half a mile west
from the Cave, which Joseph showed me. There is a
notch in the mountain against Joseph's house, through
which I ascended along a very steep acclivity up to the
Cave. From the south end of the mountain for three or
four miles northward, there is no possible ascent or descent
on the west side, but at this notch, so steep is the precipice
of the rock. I found the Cave to be formed, on a base of
perhaps forty feet square, by an irregular clump or pile of
rocks, or huge broad pillars of stone, fifteen and twenty
feet high, standing erect and elevated above the surround-
ing superficies of the mountain, and enveloped with trees
and forest. These rocks coalescing or contiguous at top,
furnished hollows or vacuities below, big enough to con-
tain bedding and two or three persons. The apertures
being closed with boughs of trees or otherwise, there
might be found a well-covered and convenient lodgment.
Here, Mr. Sperry told me, was the first lodgment of the
Judges, and it has ever since gone and been known by the

156 The Judges Cave Tablet.

name of the Judges Cave to this day. Goffe's Journal
says, they entered this Cave the i5th of May and continued
in it till the nth of June following. Richard Sperry daily
supplied them with victuals from his house, about a mile
off ; sometimes carrying it himself, at other times sending
it by one of his boys, tied up in a cloth, ordering him to
lay it on a certain stump and leave it : and when the boy
went for it at night he always found the basins emptied of
the provisions, and brought them home. The boy won-
dered at it, and used to ask his father the design of it, as
he saw nobody. His father only told him there was some-
body at work in the woods that wanted it. The sons
always remembered it, and often told it to persons now
living, and to Mr. Joseph Sperry particularly."

President Stiles accompanies his description with two
diagrams. One is of the elevation or erecl; view on the
southeast front of the clump of seven triangular rocks
twenty-five feet high, fifty feet base, and one hundred and
fifty feet round. The other is the horizontal section or
base of the seven rocks with the aperture of residence two
to three feet wide and four to six feet high.

It is upon one of these standing historical rocks that the
Whalley and Goffe tablet is affixed, in the certainty that it
commemorates one of the most romantic and pathetic
episodes in our Colonial history. If these two noble
promontories, East and West Rock, guardians of the
beautiful University town and landmarks to the mariner,
had been in the Greece of Aeschylus and Pericles, they
would have been full of the haunts of the personifications
of religion and of poetry, the home of tradition and legend,

The Judges Cave Tablet. 157

beautified with the monuments of art, alive with sculpture
and conspicuous from afar with splendid architecture.

On the 1 3th of October, 1664, Whalley and Goffe fled
to Hadley. They traveled by night and went by the way
of the Meriden Pass, which is called Pilgrims Harbor.
Their friends in Hadley were the Rev. John Russell and
Mr. Peter Tillton, a magistrate and a member of the
assembly. They dwelt in Mr. Russell's house. Whether
their presence was known to any in Hadley except the
families of" Russell and Tillton is unknown. They dwelt
there in close hiding for from thirteen to fifteen years,
until Whalley died a superannuated and decrepit old man,
probably about the year 1674 or 1676, and Goffe disap-
peared about the year 1678. Tradition says that Whalley
was buried in Russell's cellar, and in 1795 the bones of a
large man were found in the cellar wall, which it is reason-
able to suppose were the remains of Whalley. The last
known letter from Goffe is dated April 2d, 1679, at
" Ebenezer " (the usual designation of his hiding places)
and supposed to be in or near Hartford, and under the
protection of Thomas Burr and family. A letter from
Mr. Tillton shows that Goffe was in Hartford in July,
1679. Mr- Dexter surmises that he died and was privately
buried there and that his diaries and papers were sent to
Increase Mather. Hutchinson supposes that both Whalley
and Goffe were buried in Hadley. It is possible that
Goffe returned there to die, far there is a tradition that one
of the Judges was buried on the fence line between Mr.
Russell's lot and Mr. Tillton's. The place of Whalley's
burial admits of no doubt from the evidence. The burial

158 The Judges Cave Tablet.

of Goffe is open to wider conjecture, as there is not a par-
ticle of evidence as to the place or time of his death,
though Hartford and the year 1679 are strongly indicated.
To suppose that the two tombstones, with their obscure
inscriptions, in the burying ground at New Haven indicate
the final resting places of the two Judges, is to raise innu-
merable difficulties. One of these difficulties is that it
would have been practically impossible to remove the
remains of Whalley from Hadley to New Haven, seventy-
five miles through country that was largely a wilderness,
and bury them in New Haven, without observation. The
same may be said of Goffe wherever he died. Had he
died in New Haven as late as 1679 or '8°> ^ would have
been to incur a foolish peril to place his remains in a public
burying ground where any new interment would have been
noticed, no matter how misleading might be the inscription.
His bones might not have been safe from the desecration
of Edward Randolph, who came over first in 1676, and
haled the colonies in pursuit of the Judges and of all who
had befriended them. Randolph went home carrying accu-
sations, and repeatedly returned to New England, in 1678,
1679, 1 68 1, making diligent search for the fugitives, and
again in 1 683, when he came again with new instructions to
inquire for Goffe and Whalley, not knowing that they
were both dead at that time. Not for years after in the
colonies was it safe to own any knowledge of them. The
instinct of self-preservation would lead their friends to
bury them and let them lie in absolute obscurity. They
had before their eyes the fate of Lady Alicia Lisle, the
venerable widow of one of the Judges who died abroad,

The Judges Cave Tablet. 159

who was beheaded at Westminster in 1685 for sheltering a
dissenting minister. All the evidence of the time points
to the fact that Whalley and Goffe were buried in obscurity,
and the argument of the situation is against any other con-
jecture. But the consideration of these questions is unnec-
essary to the purpose of this tablet.

A third Judge, Colonel John Dixwell, appeared at Had-
ley in 1664 and remained some time with his companions.
Afterwards, under the name of James Davids he settled
and married in New Haven, died there undisturbed, and
was buried in 1688. He was a man greatly respected, as
was his son, who resumed the family name when by the
revolution of 1688 it became politic to do so. That
Colonel Dixwell was undisturbed was owing to the fa6l
that he was not so conspicuous a friend of Cromwell as the
other Judges, that he came to New England unknown,
and took an assumed name.

It is evident that Goffe and Whalley until their deaths
were in expectation of a change in England that would
permit their return. They eagerly sought information of
affairs in England and on the continent, and never abated
their trust in Providence and in the emancipation of the
people from monarchical tyranny. These hunted fugitives,
who had borne so great a part in the struggle for England's
liberty, watched with intense interest the European drama.
They were not without friends, who, however, could not
show any open sympathy. Between Goffe and his wife
there were carried on a timorous and secret correspondence,
under assumed names, so worded as to convey no informa-
tion to spies who might intercept it. The Judges received

160 The Judges Cave Tablet.

from time to time money from England, and there were
friends in New England who did not let them want for the
necessary means of living. But for about seventeen years
they lived in hourly terror of betrayal, seizure, and of the
headsman's axe. For men of action and warm sympathies
with the progress of their times, to be obliged to skulk in
hiding, without occupation, secluded indoors without exer-
cise, wearily waiting through the idle days and long nights,
theirs was a most dismal fate. There is no record, however,
that they did not bear it with a cheerful, soldierly courage.
Death relieved them from suffering, but not from obloquy,
and the mystery of their hiding in the colonies was deep-
ened by the mystery of their departure into personal
oblivion.

Here are wanting none of the elements of romance.
The simple facts in their careers would answer all pur-
poses of the most imaginative novelist. But it was natural
that a host of legends and myths should spring up about
their lives, that these should grow from one narrator to
another and finally become elaborated as facts in grave
histories. Their manufacture was natural in an age that
had a lingering belief in witchcraft, and was in expectation
of apparitions. The most famous, and one that was used
by Scott and Southey and by other novelists and poets,
was the alleged appearance of Goffe in rescue of the inhab-
itants of Hadley from an attack of the Indians. There
was no such attack at that time and no rescue by GofTe or
any other venerable apparition. Another story illustrates
the popular impression of the personal prowess of the
Judges, and their skill in fencing. The incident occurred

The Judges Cave Tablet. 161

in Boston, presumably on the Common, where a braggart
fencing-master was giving an exhibition. One of the
Judges, who was lounging about in rustic dress, at length
mounted the platform and confronted the boaster. He
was armed with a broomstick, and in his left hand carried
a cheese wrapped in a napkin for a shield. The fencing-
master was speedily discomfited, and exclaimed : " Who
can you be ? You are either Goffe, Whalley or the Devil,
for there was no other man in England who could beat
me." And so it became proverbial in New England to
say of an athletic champion that " none can beat him but
Goffe, Whalley or the Devil."

I wish these stories were true. But we do not need
them. The careers of Goffe and Whalley are romantic
enough without any popular inventions. Their sufferings
move our pity, their endurance excites our admiration ;
their service in the cause of human freedom, in relieving
the world from the superstition that somehow one man or
one family can acquire a divine right to tyrannize over the
mass of humanity, is sufficient to enroll them among the
martyrs and heroes who have perished in the evolution of
constitutional government.

ii

A FOREIGN INVASION

THEODORE SALISBURY WOOLSEY

" The King of France, with forty thousand men,
Marched up a hill and then marched down again."

|T is the year 1690. A few months earlier the
French and their Indian allies had descended
upon the northern colonies at Scheneclady, Sal-
mon Falls and Portland, massacring, burning and taking
captive. And now the colonies, at a Congress held in New
York, planned a counter stroke. While one expedition
followed the familiar lake and river route by Champlain
and menaced Montreal, the other was to proceed by sea,
ascend the St. Lawrence, and attempt no less an exploit
than the capture of Quebec. Seventy years were to pass
before that should be consummated, years of poverty and
misery and alarm. But this our forefathers could not
know. The French were weakened by the attacks of the
Iroquois, their forces scattered, the moment seemed propi-
tious and success not impossible. The attempt upon Que-
bec, and its failure, is my theme : a tragedy, but also a
farce.

An expedition by sea appealed to Eastern New England.
The commander-in-chief, Sir William Phipps, was a son of
that rugged soil. A shepherd boy on the Maine coast,
bred to the trade of a ship's carpenter, unable to read until
twenty-two, his life was a brief romance. With tremendous
energy and unusual address, he located and recovered the
treasure of a sunken Spanish plate ship, and was enriched
by a twentieth of its spoil. Knighted and made high sheriff
of New England, this very year of 1690 he had captured

1 66 A Foreign Invasion.

Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Two years later he was made
first royal governor of Massachusetts, and five years later
he died.

Even before Phipps' triumphant return from Port Royal
the preparations against Quebec began. Money was bor-
rowed, the mother country appealed to, and a motley force
of twenty-two hundred men enrolled. Long, too long, they
waited aid from England, but it never came. Finally, in
August, from Boston Harbor the fleet of thirty-two little
ships set sail, an inexperienced young militiaman, John
Walley, one of my propositors in this society and the
annalist of the expedition, being in command of the land
forces. Slowly the expedition sailed to the Gulf, and
slowly it ascended the river. The wind was adverse, and the
fleet had no pilot. Late in September it reached Tadousac,
rather more than half way to Quebec, where a council of
war was held to consider information given by a captured
vessel. This news was not very recent, but most favorable.
The defences of Quebec were reported to be very defective,
the cannon dismounted, and barely two hundred soldiers in
the city. But Phipps would not make haste. Walley says
the expedition lay for three weeks within three days' sail of
Quebec, part of the time the wind being favorable. This
fatal delay gave the Frenchmen time. Frontenac came
back from Montreal ; Prevost hastily completed and armed
the defences of the upper town. Two batteries were
planted near the river in the lower town, and twenty-seven
hundred men, regulars and militia, had been collected. So
a surprise was out of the question, and the besiegers were
outnumbered by the besieged.

A Foreign Invasion. 167

" Upon the 5th Oct.," says Walley, "we came up with
the Isle of Orleans ;" on the 6th the city was summoned to
surrender, on the 7th landing of the forces was prevented
by the weather (to which the expedition seems to have
been very sensitive), but on the 8th it was accomplished,
at Beauport, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, but
separated from the fortress by the St. Charles River, a
fordable yet considerable stream. This further delay
brought the governor of Montreal into the city with seven
or eight hundred regulars.

Walley was well satisfied with the landing operation.
" The next day being the 8th 061., as soon as the bad
weather was over, and the tides suited, wee landed our
men, which considering how farr many of our vessels
were from the shoar and the helps wee had, never more
men were landed in less time ; but the flatts lay off soe we
were forced to goe into the water, some up to the knees
and some near as high as their waists upon the flatts."
With nearly thirteen hundred men wet from the knee to
the "wast" in mud, Walley next "caused four companies
to be drawn off as forlorns," and they evidently looked
so. They led the advance, which was opposed by three
hundred sharpshooters and a few peasants and Indians.
The landing army made a disorderly rush for the upland,
driving these skirmishers back with such impetuosity " that
it was hard to say which company went up first or fastest."
The enemy retreated toward the town, losing a few, but
firing back from every bit of swamp and thicket and
from a barn, which Walley seized and fired, "judging there
were some in it." " We come up with a house where was

1 68 A Foreign Invasion.

a hogshead of claret sett at the door, and seeing our
souldiers gather about it, least it were poisoned or might
otherwise harm our men, or hinder our march I ordered
the head to be knocked out."

Thus they neared the city and lay for the night near the
bank of the St. Charles, where a " House, barn, hay and
straw " helped to keep them comfortable as they counted
up their losses — four killed and sixty wounded.

A few words now as to their plan of attack. The
citadel of Quebec, as every one knows, is protected on
the river side by a lofty escarpment of rock, but may be
reached from behind by a long slope of smooth ground.
Here, if anywhere, it seemed vulnerable. The plan then
was to ford the St. Charles under cover of the fire of a
few of the smaller ships which could push up that stream,
and thus to attack the city in the rear, while the main fleet
bombarded from the river side and landed a few soldiers
there as a diversion. If the Champlain expedition had
been serious enough to detain Frontenac and his regulars
at Montreal, or if Phipps could have reached Quebec
before him, the plan might have worked. But in point of
facl: it altogether miscarried. Instead of waiting until
Walley's force was in position, Phipps began a furious
cannonade of Quebec, which only wasted his powder, and
failed to send ships to protect the crossing of the St.
Charles. These latter were relied upon also to bring
ammunition and provisions which the land force lacked.
It spent a cold, wet, hungry night in consequence, and felt
no stomach for fighting next morning.

That night, through a prisoner, the facls that Quebec

A Foreign Invasion. 1 69

bristled with troops and that Frontenac was there in
person, were learned.

The next morning their position was difficult. Without
the supplies and help which the vessels were to bring, the
army could not go forward, but all that was landed for
their use was a barrel of gunpowder, a biscuit apiece for
the soldiers, and sixty gallons of rum. Truly, says Wai-
ley, " our provisions being so much in the masters of
the vessels power, and not in the commissary general's
order and dispose, proved a great damidge." (We -heard
something like this in the expedition against Santiago
also.)

All day long the land force waited for the coming of
the small vessels, in a good defensive position. " But the
vessels not coming, we stood upon our guard that night,
but found it exceeding cold, it freezing that night soe
that the next morning the ice would bear a man. That
night I called a council, demanded their opinion what was
to be done, for it would be to no purpose to lye there :
one in behalf of sundry others said, that they had been
together considering thereof, and that for as much as we
had not suitable supplys of provisions ashore, little or no
ammunition to recruit if there should be occasion ; that
our men were many sick and wearied ; that they had the
difficultys of the river to deal with, neither boats nor
vessels to help us in our going over ; that we had 8
great guns and 1,000 men at the river side that were ready
for us, after that a steep bank and narrow passage to win,
up or through which wee should not a been able to have
carried our great guns, neither could wee have carried

170 A Foreign Invasion.

them ever where wee might have had them for use without
the help of our boats or vessels ; after all this a well forti-
fied town with three times our number of men within to
encounter with ; having but one chirurgeon ashore though
three were ordered ; the increasing cold weather ; the
enemy being capable and had a fair opportunity had we
gone over by reason of their men on our backs and guns
by Charles River to cut off all supplies and preventing
our sending off soe much as a wounded man." Truly a
discouraging outlook. It was folly to try a dash across
the river without supports in the face of the enemy.
Their present position was untenable, the men were sick-
ening fast, and re-embarkation the only alternative. This
the council agreed upon, sweetening the dose by adding
"that the army should get aboard that night or before
day, and that they should rest and refresh themselves a
day or two, and if they found they had ammunition suita-
ble they were ready to land at any other place or under
the guns of the town if the counsel should soe conclude."

Next morning Walley went aboard the admiral's ship to
acquaint Phipps with the decision of the council. The
fleet had fared no better than the land force, for its bom-
bardment had been futile, while one of the larger ships
had been so disabled by the fire from the town that she
cut her cables and drifted away. Nearly all the ammuni-
tion which had been brought was wasted in this ill-timed
and ill-judged cannonade.

Meanwhile, with its commander away, the land force
skirmished along the St. Charles, suffering some loss, but
killing Saint Helene, one of the French officers.

A Foreign Invasion. 171

As the boats for their embarkation did not arrive, the
troops again spent an anxious, trying night in the open.
They had the luck next day, however, to find some cattle
as they scouted the neighborhood, which they killed and
ate instanter. All day they stood at arms, holding at bay
several detachments of the French who had crossed the St.
Charles. The boats came after dark, and in floods of rain
they went aboard, stupidly leaving five cannon in the mud.

The French testified that the New England men did not
lack courage, but discipline.

Walley described the embarkation in language which
shows this plainly. " It growing very dark, notwithstand-
ing I had ordered the officers to keep the souldiers to their
arms, many precipitately and disorderly drew down to the
beach, four times more than had leave, and a very great
noise was made, which I was much troubled at, and was
willing to go down to see if I could still them ; I called to
Major Ward, ordered him he should do what he could to
keep the souldiers to their arms, and not to move without
order, which he soon found too hard for him to doe ; I
ordered some souldiers to keep the rest from crowding
down until those were gone off that were upon the flatts ;
I called to them to be silent, but either of these were little
regarded, for the crowd and the noise both increased ; the
seamen calling out for such souldiers as belonged to their
vessels, and the souldiers for such boats as came from the
vessels they belonged to, hundreds in the water up to the
knees and higher, pushing into boats, the seamen and they
contending, by reason whereof I see boats were like to be
five times longer a loading than they needed." And so

172 A Foreign Invasion.

the poor distracted commander spent the night, preventing
the seamen from throwing overboard soldiers who were
not of their ship. Believing the guns safely cared for,
and all his troops embarked, he says, " I went to my cabin
to take my rest having had but little for three days and
nights before," when some one routed him out with the
news that the five wretched guns were still ashore, in spite
of his careful orders ; " that they had been under the water
but appeared when " the informant came away. And so
they were lost, for next morning it was too late.

At the council next day there was still talk of renewing
the attack, though the officers reported many sick. " How-
ever it was agreed that the men should have a day or two's
time to refresh themselves, and to inquire what capacity
wee were in for a further attempt, and some time should
be spent on Monday in prayer, to seek God's direction but
the weather prevented our meeting, and wee necessitated
to weigh and fall down to Orleance. Many vessels drove
from their anchors, and were in danger of being drove on
upon the town ; wee then sent ashore about our captives,
but winds and weather after proved such, as wee had
never opportunity to come together, but the whole fleet
were scattered, and such exceeding hard cold and windy
weather sett in for three weeks or a month together, as I
never was in so much together." And so the return began.
No wonder that Quebec's deliverance was ascribed to the
intervention of the heavenly powers. A Te Deum was
sung, the image of the Virgin carried in procession, and a
medal struck in France to commemorate the victory.

Even descending the St. Lawrence evil fortune pursued

A Foreign Invasion. 173

the colonists. They chased the three ships bringing annual
supplies from France up the Saguenay, and still failed to
reach them on account of fog, snow and wind. The fleet
reached Boston late in November, battered and beaten,
but some ships never returned at all.

" You will without doubt," wrote Thomas Savage, who
was with the expedition, to his brother, " hear many reflec-
tions upon Lieutenant-General Walley ; but he is not guilty
of what they charged him with ; but there are some who
to make themselves faultless, lay the fault upon him,
which might be easily evinced to a rational man." Which
was probably a slap at Phipps. And Savage piously adds,
"if we had gone over the river, we had certainly been
destroyed, so that I look there was a Providence of God
in it ; yet if they had sent ammunition and provision we
had certainly been with them," which meant Phipps also.

The sequel of this failure interests the economist rather
than the warrior, for, staggered by a war debt of 50,000
pounds, Massachusetts first laid heavy taxes, then issued
paper money for the first time in its history, the colony
being pledged to " satisfie the value of the said bills as the
Treasury shall be enabled. But," wrote Sargent, "they
will not pass in trade between man and man, nor can these
poor soldiers and seamen get anything for them to above
half their value, they being only used to pay rates with."

I close in John Walley's words in his narrative "given
into the honorable council of the Massachusetts this 2/th
Nov., 1690:" "The land army's failing, the enemy's too
timely intelligence, lyeing 3 weeks within 3 days sail of
the place, by reason whereof they had opportunity to

174 A Foreign Invasion.

bring in the whole strength of their country, the short-
ness of our ammunition, our late setting out, our long
passidge and many sick in the army, these may be
reckoned as some of the reasons of our disappointment.
Some question our courage, that wee proceeded no further ;
as things were circumstanced others would a questioned
our prudence if wee had : were it a fault it was the act of a
council of war ; wee must undergoe the censures of many.
In the meantime our consciences doe not accuse us, neither
are we most, yea allmost, all of us, afraid or ashamed to
answer our actions, before any that can or shall call us to
an account for the same, nor unwilling to give any farther
satisfaction to any reasonable men that shall desire it."

John Walley's sentences are a little like his troops,
courageous, but somewhat undisciplined.*

* Walley's Report may be found in Hutchinson's Massachusetts Bay, 2 ed., p.
554-

For Savage's letter, see Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d series, vol. 3, p. 256.

ON GENEALOGIES

EDWARD HOPKINS JENKINS, ESQ.

|T is the genealogist, no less than the patriot ances-
tor, who has spread this table before us. We have
a right to be numbered in this company, not only
because an ancestor of ours took part in the French and
Indian wars and helped to save this continent to the
Anglo-Saxon race, but also because the faithfulness of the
church clerk and of the keepers of the town records and
the labors of the family genealogist make it possible for us
to trace back our own blood to that which was once freely
offered for a public good.

This, then, is not a time when an apology or defence of
family genealogies is desirable.

There are, however, one or two thoughts on the value
of genealogies and certain defects which might in some
measure be corrected in future records which I wish to
notice.

Some of us, no doubt, like myself, grew up in com-
munities where the daily reading aloud and in turn of some
portion of scripture was a part of the family and school
education.

It was held that all scripture was given by inspiration
and was profitable for doctrine, for reproof and in fact for
quite a list of things. The genealogies of the Old and
New Testaments were scripture, therefore profitable, and
therefore they were read aloud in due course without flinch-
ing. Some skeptics doubted or denied their value, but
looking at the matter broadly it seems to me clear that as

12

178 On Genealogies.

an exercise in reading aloud, "at sight," they had a distinct
value. There was in them, it is true, little which was
really succulent for young minds, but just as a yeoman gets
skill and confidence by plowing stump land, so we lost fear
of hard words and got confidence in ourselves by tearing
through the crabbed and unpronounceable names of those
antediluvian saints and sinners.

One who could do that could read aloud any English
prose. He might not read it with understanding, but he
would not break down. He might jump the track and
bounce along over the sleepers as it were, but he would not
be ditched.

And the way in which a pupil took his genealogical
" stent " revealed in a way his nature and showed how he
would be likely to meet the hard things of life.

For instance, among my own mates there was Sylvanus
Starbuck : who, halting, hesitating, so afraid he should do
wrong that he generally did it, with his eye on what was
coming and not on what was there, read,

"And Abraham fergot Isaac, and Isaac fergot Jacob
and Jacob fergot the twelve partridges."

Now you would know that such a boy would make a
mess of life — and he did.

But, on the other hand, there was Jehiel Fish the master-
ful, who bounded and pranced through his verses, not
missing or dodging a single hard name, 'knocking the top
rails off from all polysyllables, — he made only two syllables
out of Jerusalem, — but somehow he always finished in
style. It is clear that such a boy would make a Boanerges
of a man — and he did. A few years later he finished in

On Genealogies. 179

style at Port Hudson, with empty cartridge box, face to
the front and a little ahead of the line.

Yet he had no ancestors, — to speak of — no heirs, no
genealogical record, nothing even to mark his grave ;—
excepting a fluttering, weather-beaten flag.

I have alluded to the lack of succulence in these scrip-
ture lists, but now and then even in the dreariest parts of
them one finds some green spot which is refreshing or
suggestive. For instance : Who cares whom Esau married ?
Interest begins perhaps when you read that he had two
wives, Adah and Aholibamah ; interest quickens when it
appears that both were Hittites, and the climax is the record,
"which were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah." In
Genesis, the book of beginnings, we find account of the
first undutiful daughters-in-law, the Hittite girls.

Just one other illustration. Does any one care who
Anah was ? He was begotten by Zibeon and he begot
Ajah. If that were all, Anah would be of no possible
use except as a connecting link, perhaps, between some
far-off descendant and the antediluvian wars.

But there is more, — a single line, a paragraph — which
gives to Anah a very warm, personal interest. It tells of
his discovery and, I take it, of his end. "This is that
Anah," says the record, " this is that Anah who found mules
in the wilderness."

How brief ! How sufficient ! Anah was the discoverer
of that ugly mixture of equininity and asininity, He
found a mule in the wilderness and the mule " found "
Anah, perhaps in the region of the solar plexus, and
Anah was not. At all events, the story of Anah's life
stops abruptly right there in the wilderness.

1 80 On Genealogies.

Every one who regards the real significance and value of
family records must regret, I think, that he has not two
of them : the one for the public, the other for himself.

This last should be weighted with lead, perhaps, and
have a celluloid binding so that it could be quickly sunk
or burned, like a naval signal code, if there was danger of
its falling into an enemy's hands.

But it should contain a correct statement of some of the
prominent personal traits and an estimate of the character
of each of his direct ancestors — if only such statements
were possible.

It would be a mightily interesting and profitable book
for the owner to study when the fit for introspection was
upon him. It might show him where he was likely to be
strong and where his special dangers were most likely to
be. It would temper his pride of ancestry with humility
and when he hated himself it might lift him up. We keep
such records of our domestic animals : — they are far more
complete than any human genealogies, they extend over
a vastly greater number of generations. Moreover they
are not like so many human genealogies, which merely
trace very commonplace human life " in the shrunk chan-
nels of a great descent." But they are records of real
merit — merit measured by minutes and seconds or by
quarts of milk and pounds of butter.

If only human achievement admitted of numerical
expression, this plan would perhaps be more feasible than
it seems.

How thankful we are for any trifling fact about any one
of our forbears which accident, mainly, has preserved for

On Genealogies. 1 8 1

us, and how we long for more. We had rather know a
fault than nothing.

May I refer to my own genealogical tree for illustration,
although I believe in societies like this any talk of one's
own illustrious progenitors is unusual, if not unknown.

One of my ancestors was John Robinson, the separatist
and pilgrim pastor at Leyden — " the most learned, modest
and polished spirit," says Baylie, "that ever separated him-
self from the Church of England." Of his words, written
and spoken, and of his life, we know a good deal. Some
things John Robinson said, I am persuaded he would not
have said, if he had known all those who were to repeat
them afterwards. It was he who wrote, " The Lord
hath more truth and light ready to break forth from His
Holy Word." A noble text, but one which has been
quoted by almost every social tinker since his day who
seeks to found his grotesque doctrines or heinous practices
on some tag of scripture.

Of his son Isaac we know but two things of real interest.
He was sent by the Plymouth authorities to convert the
Quakers. He did not know that they were loaded. There
was an accidental discharge of doctrinal ammunition, Isaac
was himself converted by the Quakers and was promptly
disfranchised by his employers. The other relic of Isaac
was a rose bush, which he set out in my native town and
which lived till within my memory, when a neat person,
who owned the land, destroyed it in straightening a fence
line.

But from the time of Isaac down to the time of my
grandparents we know absolutely nothing regarding our

1 82 On Genealogies.

line of descent except the dates of birth, baptism, marriage
and death — and the single verdict of a coroner's inquest
who found, concerning a son of Isaac, that "the means of
his death was by going into the pond to fetch two geese,
the pond being full of weedy grasse, which we conceive to
be the instrumental cause of his death, he being entangled
therein." Fetching geese in my family has been more
fatal than fetching Quakers.

But surely there were other Robinsons who were worthy
descendants of the Pilgrim pastor — men who bore arms in
the Colonial wars, in the Revolution and the war of 1812,
men who had some share of John Robinson's wisdom in
council and powers of leadership.

The genealogists are at fault. About the small things
like birth and death they are particular, but about the
weightier matters of life they are silent.

Now some of us are likely to be makers of genealogical
records and not readers only. For the sake of the genera-
tions to come, I beg of you not to omit to put on record,
whenever possible, something of truth and not of eulogy
regarding the work and the character of each one included
in the record. Small and commonplace it will look when
written. Quaint and full of interest and very precious it
will be to the reader a century or two hence, if the fortunes
of time shall preserve it.

What is, after all, the real thing of which we have any
reason to be proud in societies like this ? Is it not in this ?
That, by right of inheritance at least, we are numbered with
those in all ages who have not been afraid of death, who
in comparison with a great public good have counted not

On Genealogies.

183

their own lives dear unto them, and who have, in so far,
earned for themselves the reproach of the Master, " He
saved others, Himself He could not save."

And with this in mind we shall not forget those others,
a greater number, who are not enrolled in any order, who
had no family genealogist, who hark back to no great
ancestor, but who, in a great public crisis, in their own
hearts heard the call and did the duty. By comparison all
else is trivial.

" That things are not so ill with you and me as they
might have been," says George Eliot, "is half owing to the
number who have lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in
unvisited tombs."

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND MILITARY SERVICE

OF MAJOR-GEN. WM. BUEL FRANKLIN,

U. S. A,

LATELY MEMBER OF THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY
OF COLONIAL WARS.

BORN 1823. DIED 1903.

COL. JACOB LYMAN GREENE.

Brevet Major- General, late U. S. A. Major-General U. S. V.
Elected August i, 1866, resigned December 6, 1882, restored
April 4, 1888, ist class. Insignia 789.

U. S. Army:

Cadet, U. S. Military Academy, July i, 1839.

Brevet Second Lieutenant, Corps of Topographical Engineers,
U. S. Army, July i, 1843; Second Lieutenant, September 21, 1846;
First Lieutenant, March 3, 1853; Captain, July i, 1857.

Colonel, i2th U. S. Infantry, May 14, 1861; resigned, March
15, 1866.

Brevet First Lieutenant, U. S. Army, February 23, 1847, "for
gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Buena Vista,
Mexico."

Brevet Brigadier-General, U. S. Army, June 30, 1862, "for
gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles before Richmond,
Virginia."

Brevet Major-General, U. S. Army, March 31, 1865, "for gal-
lant and meritorious services in the field during the war."

U. S. Volunteers:

Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, May 17, 1861. Major-
General, July 4, 1862; resigned, November 10, 1865.

Survey of Northwestern Lakes. General Kearney's Expedition
to South Pass of Rocky Mountains. Assistant in Topographical
Bureau at Washington, D. C. Survey of Ossabaw Sound, Ga.
Mexican War, battle of Buena Vista. Assistant Professor of
Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Military Academy.
Survey of Roanoke Inlet, N. C. In charge of Oswego (N. Y.)

1 88 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

Harbor Improvements. Lighthouse Inspector, First District.
Superintending Engineer of Portland (Me.) Custom-house and
Marine Hospital. Lighthouse Engineer, First and Second Dis-
tricts. Engineer Secretary of Lighthouse Board, Washington,
D. C. Member of Board to construct bridge across the Missis-
sippi at Rock Island, 111. Charge of Extension of Capitol and
General Postoffice, Washington, D. C. Chief of Construction,
Bureau of U. S. Treasury Department, and Treasury Building
extension. Manassas Campaign; battle of Bull Run, Va. In
command of Alexandria, Va., and a division in the defenses of
Washington, D. C. Peninsular Campaign; commanded a divi-
sion, and Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac. Maryland and
Antietam Campaigns. Rappahannock Campaign; commanded
Left Grand Division (First and Sixth Corps), Army of the Poto-
mac. Department of the Gulf. Commanded troops in and about
Baton Rouge, La. Expedition to Sabine Pass, Texas. Nineteenth
Army Corps, and Western Louisiana. Red River Expedition.
Captured, July n, 1864; escaped July 12, 1864. President of
Board for Retiring Disabled Officers, at Wilmington, Del.
Wounded, April 8, 1864, at Sabine Cross Roads, La.

O stands the bare record in the archives of the
Loyal Legion of one of its most distinguished
members, of one of the country's most gallant
and competent soldiers, of one of her noblest sons ; a mere
memorandum as it reads, but each item of which he, in the
doing, filled with his own rare intelligence, accomplish-
ment, integrity, bravery and devotion, and made it a story
of a worthy deed well done, and the whole a history of
great services, in great exigencies.

William Buel Franklin was born at York, Pa., February
27, 1823. His father, Walter S. Franklin, was clerk of
the House of Representatives in Congress ; his great-
grandfather was a soldier in the Revolution, and his great-
grandmother, Mary Rhoads, was the daughter of Samuel
Rhoads, a Pennsylvania member of the first Continental
Congress. His mother was the daughter of Dr. William
Buel of Litchfield, a descendant of Peter Buel of Wind-
sor, Conn. All the heritable virtues of such stock met in
this descendant.

WEST POINT AND MEXICAN WAR.

In 1839 ne was appointed a cadet at the Military Acad-
emy at West Point, where he graduated in 1 843 at the
head of his class and with unusual distinction. He was
assigned to the Topographical Engineers, and entered at
once upon the field work of that department on the lakes
and in the Rocky Mountains ; after two years of this duty
and a year in the topographical office at Washington, he

190 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

was made second lieutenant, having hitherto held only
brevet rank, so small was the army organization and so
slow the promotion. The Mexican war brought him the
serious duties of topographical engineer on the staff of
General Taylor, in the discharge of which he distinguished
himself, as he also did on the field of battle, being breveted
for gallantly at Buena Vista. For two years after the
Mexican war he was assistant professor of natural and
experimental philosophy at West Point. For the next
two years he was engaged in the construction of coast
defense works ; then followed four years of constructive
work for the lighthouse and customs services. In March,
1857, he was appointed secretary of the lighthouse board,
and in October following he reached the grade of captain
in the corps of topographical engineers. In November,
1859, he was charged with the superintendence of the capi-
tol and post office buildings, and in March, 1861, he was
assigned to duty as supervising architect of the treasury
department. ,

CIVIL WAR.

The outbreak of the Civil war laid such accomplishment
as his under instant contribution, and on the 1 2th of May,
1 86 1, he was made Colonel of the Twelfth United States
Infantry, and on the i4th was appointed brigadier-general
of volunteers. He was assigned to the command of a
brigade in Heintzelman's division of the army under
McDowell's command, which first came into collision with
the enemy at Bull Run, which Sherman says was the best
planned and worst fought battle of the war. Beauregard

Major -General William Buel Franklin. 191

with his forces menaced Washington in front ; Johnston
at Winchester threatened its rear. Patterson was relied
on to keep Johnston busy, while McDowell dealt with
Beauregard, whom he found in position at Manassas on
the line of the Run. McDowell's plan of attack was to
first demonstrate so strongly against the enemy's right as
to lead to his concentration there, and then strike his
weakened left with a heavy column from his own right
which should turn his position and take it in rear. Johns-
ton had, however, eluded Patterson and added his force to
Beauregard's just in time, and by one of these curious
coincidences not infrequent in military operations and
occurring several times in our Civil war, the two were
preparing and had actually began the movements for an
attack by their right on McDowell's base at Centerville,
which was in rear of his left as his lines were formed.
Franklin's brigade had consisted of four regiments of short
term men. The term of enlistment of one Pennsylvania
regiment expired at midnight before the battle, and they
marched to the rear to the sound of the enemy's guns.
Their gallant Colonel, Hartranft, reported to Franklin and
served as an aide during the day — a presage of his devoted
service during the war. Franklin's brigade, with the
famous Ricketts battery attached, was a part of the turn-
ing column, and came upon the position on the Henry
House plateau on the Sudley new road, which was the
critical point in both the actions of the day. It was at
this point McDowell's flanking force struck the Confed-
erate left, and made an entirely successful attack in which
Franklin's command was heavily engaged at the center of

192 Major -General William Buel Franklin.

things. As soon as this attack was well under way,
McDowell ordered the troops in front of the Confederate
center to attack with all vigor, which would at least have
revented any assistance being sent to the defeated left.
But the attack was tardy and feeble, the only real fighting
being done by Sherman's brigade, which crossed the Run
and got to McDowell. But as soon as the heavy firing
warned Beauregard and Johnston of what was going on,
they had promptly abandoned the movement on Center-
ville, and sent their troops to the left, undelayed by the
faint federal attack on their center, and effected the changes
of position which enabled them in the action of the after-
noon to bring their combined weight to bear so unexpect-
edly and effectively on McDowell's right. The center
of this later action also was at the Henry House, and
Franklin's command bore its full part of the brunt of this
as of the morning's battle and lost very heavily. The
desperate fighting of his artillery by the gallant Ricketts
was one of the brilliant features of the day.

REORGANIZING.

When the army fell back on Washington, Franklin
rendered especially valuable services in the reorganization
and preparation which followed, and was assigned to the
command of a division in McDowell's Corps in the defense
of Washington. An interesting incident of this long
period of much necessary preparation and of much hesita-
tion, was a conference between President Lincoln and
Generals Franklin, Meigs and McDowell. The delays
in action of the general-in-chief were followed by his ill-

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 193

ness, and to be prepared for action in the contingency of
his death, Mr. Lincoln called together Franklin and
McDowell as among the most competent commanders
and Meigs as quartermaster-general and a most competent
officer, and submitted to them a statement of the essential
facts of the situation as known to him, the forces in hand,
their positions, the state of public sentiment and the polit-
ical conditions, and asked their judgment as to the plan of
movement which could be most speedily undertaken and
the time at which they could be prepared to move if
ordered. The next day they submitted a written recom-
mendation embodying a plan which, unknown to them
then and until long afterwards, Mr. Lincoln had already
suggested to General McClellan and which had been by
him set aside.

PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.

During the winter of 1862 it was decided that McClel-
lan should operate against Richmond by way of the Penin-
sula, his troops being moved by water to Fortress Monroe.
From this point there were two lines of approach : the
one by the James River (afterward taken by Grant, and
preferred by McClellan, but then closed by Confederate
gunboats and batteries) and the other by the York and
Pamunkey rivers as a line of supply. On the 6th of April
he had landed on the Peninsula over 102,000 men present
for active duty. McDowell's Corps, in which Franklin
had a division, was at Fredericksburg en route by land, but
here it was halted to avoid uncovering Washington. At
McClellan's urgent request Franklin's division was put on
13

194 Major-General William Buel Franklin,

transports and sent him, arriving April 22, but it was left
chafing on board until May 5, when, getting his orders at
last, Franklin moved up to the mouth of the Pamunkey,
and landing at Eltham, received a fierce attack by Long-
street's troops, where he was covering Johnston's left in
his deliberate withdrawal from Yorktown to Richmond.
This attack he repelled, and firmly established himself on
the Confederate left, near the point which was to become
the base of supply for the Army of the Potomac, whose
movement up the Peninsula had been very gradual. On
the Qth of May the Confederate ironclad Virginia, or
Merrimac, had been destroyed by her commander, leaving
the James River open to the Federal navy ; but its line of
advance was not available to McClellan, even if he still
desired it, since the authorities at Washington would not
hear to the uncovering of that city and required that
McDowell's strong corps should, if McClellan were to
have it at all, so move as to keep in its front, and, connect-
ing with McClellan, form his right to the north of Rich-
mond and menacing the enemy's left. It was also neces-
sary for McClellan to place his main force on the westerly
or Richmond side of the Chickahominy, which was the
only considerable natural obstacle to his approach. This
compelled him to advance along and astride the Chicka-
hominy, with a strong force on its easterly side both to
reach out toward McDowell and also to protect the base
at the White House. He now formed his troops into pro-
visional corps, and Franklin was placed in command of
the sixth corps on the i8th of May with Smith and Slocum
as division commanders. The corps of Franklin and Por-

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 195

ter formed McClellan's right on the northeasterly side of
the Chickahominy, and after some righting took positions
reaching north of Richmond to await the arrival of
McDowell, when they were expected to cross by bridges
to the southwesterly side and join in the attack on that
city. On the 24th of May McClellan was thus in position
waiting for McDowell, without whom he did not consider
himself strong enough to attack, and McDowell had been
ordered to march from Fredericksburg on the 26th, and
on that day he did march out eight useless miles.

AT FAIR OAKS.

For Johnston was in command at Richmond, well
understanding the situation and the man he was dealing
with. Jackson was in the upper part of the Shenandoah
valley with a strong force, and early in May he began to
move. After a series of long marches and several engage-
ments, on the 24th of May, just when McClellan's
plans seemed at last going to his mind, Jackson appeared
at Winchester ; Washington was alarmed ; McDowell's
advance from Fredericksburg was countermanded, half his
troops sent up to the valley to help catch Jackson, and
thenceforth McClellan must get on without him. It
behooved him to fight Johnston before Jackson could
come to his help. But only two of his five corps were on
the fighting side of the Chickahominy, and only Bottom's
bridge was available for crossing. By the 28th Sumner,
who lay nearest the river and was the center of the army,
had built two bridges for his command, but the two bridges
prepared for Franklin and Porter, who were at Mechanics-

196 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

ville and Games' Mill, were not yet laid, and the army was
divided by a treacherous stream, without crossing which
it could not sustain such an attack as could be delivered,
and in rear of its cut off right wing was its vast accumula-
tion of supplies which must be protected. Johnston con-
sidered that it behooved him to strike the left wing of
McClellan's army while yet it was divided, and on the 3oth
of May his preparations were made. That night came the
torrential rain which put the Chickahominy in flood and
made its borders a morass. Early next morning Johnston
attacked at Fair Oaks or Seven Pines, and pressed the
Federal troops back, until Sumner, hearing the guns, with-
out waiting for his orders, marched his columns to his
bridges, which were kept in place in the torrent by the
weight of the men, crossed, and struck the blow which
saved the day and recovered the lost positions. Johnston
was wounded, and Lee took his place, which he kept till
Appomattox.

GAINES* MILLS.

And now came a month of delay in which McClellan
seems to have halted between two opinions, calling, on the
one hand, for more troops, and promising to cross the
Chickahominy and attack as soon as the waters fell and
the mud dried ; on the other, he meditated transferring his
army and supply line to the James ; but nothing decisive
was done until Lee settled the question. This great gen-
eral planned to leave Magruder and Huger with about
twenty-five thousand men between McClellan's left wing
and Richmond while he took the rest of his force to the

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 197

north side of the Chickahominy, called Jackson to join
him, and then swept down the bank of the river, crushing
McClellan's right, and planting himself in his rear and on
his line of supply. To deceive all concerned and keep any
reinforcements to McClellan from the front of Washing-
ton, he ostentatiously sent a division from Richmond to
Jackson, but at the same time ordering him to move
secretly and swiftly by interior lines to the proper point
on the Federal right. He left Port Republic on the i yth
of June, and not a Federal officer knew of his march until
on the 25th he reached Ashland, twelve miles from Rich-
mond, the very day McClellan was advancing his pickets
on the Williamsburg road. On the 26th Lee struck Por-
ter's corps at Beaver Dam Creek. Porter kept Long-
street in check, but Jackson turned his flank. And now
McClellan decided to transfer Porter, as he had done
Franklin, to the south side of the Chickahominy and his
whole army to the James. But it was necessary to gain
time to move guns and supplies, and for this Jackson must
be held in check. Porter with his corps of twenty-seven
thousand was assigned the task, and next morning the
battle of Games' Mills began ; but it presently appeared
that he had two-thirds of Lee's army pressing him, and
Franklin sent Slocum's division of his corps to his aid.
That day saw one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
During the day Franklin also sustained and repulsed an
attack on Smith's division at Golding's farm. During the
night the troops were crossed over, the bridges destroyed,
and the march to the James began. The day before the
battle of Games' Mills Franklin occupied the right of the

198 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

Federal line on the Richmond side of the river, at Gold-
ing's farm. Besides sending Slocum to Porter's aid, when
the latter fell back to the bridges, Franklin placed his
artillery in position to command the opposite bank and
used it with such effecl: that the enemy fell back to find
another line of attack. The day following Games' Mills,
the enemy made a furious assault on Franklin's right, where
Hancock of Smith's division was posted, but was hand-
somely repulsed.

On the 2 8th the retrograde movement began and Frank-
lin was its rear guard. During the day he was again
attacked by some Georgia regiments, many of whom were
captured, among them Colonel (afterward Justice) Lamar.
The day following, June 29, Franklin ascertained that the
enemy had repaired some of the bridges across the Chicka-
hominy and was advancing in strong force on Savage's
Station. Slocum's division, having suffered severely at
Games' Mills, had been sent across White Oak Swamp.
By some misunderstanding, Heintzelman's corps had gone
on, leaving a gap of a mile between Franklin and Sumner,
neither of whom knew of its departure until the enemy
began to appear where it should have been. Franklin
promptly put his remaining division, Smith's, in position
and notified Sumner, who formed for his support. At
four in the afternoon the Confederates attacked and fought
stubbornly until night fell, but were completely driven
from the field. That night Franklin crossed the White
Oak Swamp by the one road then known, and took posi-
tion to prevent its passage by the Confederates. The next
day, June 30, was a critical one in this movement to change

Major-General William Biiel Franklin. 199

base. The trains were still on the way to Harrison's Land-
ing, and the marching columns were converging on Mal-
vern.

LONGSTREET HELD IN CHECK.

Lee, perplexed at first, had discovered the true charac-
ter of McClellan's movement, and now sought to concen-
trate his whole force on the latter's line of march while it
was yet in progress. Longstreet, Magruder and Huger
were sent hurrying south from Richmond by the several
roads leading thence. Jackson was making for the pass of
the White Oak Swamp. The natural meeting point of
Lee's columns was at or near Glendale, in Franklin's rear
and directly on McClellan's route. Could Longstreet
have established himself at Glendale or on the neighboring
roads, he would have cut McClellan's line and compelled him
to fight at great disadvantage, and would probably have
compelled Franklin, placed between two fires, to let Jackson
through. Could the latter have crossed the White Oak
Swamp in force, he would have forced a junction with
Longstreet and Magruder, and Lee's army would have
been united and in a position to make trouble. And this
was what he strenuously essayed to do. With nearly half
the Confederate army and a great number of guns, Jackson
came to the crossing. With Smith's division of his own
corps and Richardson's division of Sumner's and Nagle's
brigade, Franklin was ordered to defend it to the last, he
having already put Slocum's division in position at Glen-
dale, where it was heavily engaged in that most important
action by which Longstreet was held in check until Frank-

2OO Major-General William Buel Franklin.

lin should be ready to fall back after seeing all the rest
safe. Under screen of the forests lining the swamp, Jack-
son massed his troops and his artillery, and opened a heavy
bombardment on Franklin's position ; but he could make
no impression. As often as he tried to push across Frank-
lin swept him back, and stood immovable throughout the
day and until the last of his great rear guard work was
done and the rest of the army was already in its wisely
chosen position at Malvern Hill, where it was necessary to
give battle to the Confederates who had concentrated upon
this point, both to give them the severe check which Mc-
Clellan was now fully prepared to do, and also under its
cover to allow the last of the trains to reach the new base
on the James. To this position Franklin now fell back
by a short road General Smith had explored during the
day, and took his station on the right, where he bore his
part in the great battle that followed ; the weight of which,
however, fell on the center and left of McClellan's lines.
And here ended the serious fighting on the Peninsula.

MAJOR GENERAL AT SECOND BULL RUN.

While McClellan had been operating on the Peninsula,
the troops disposed for the defence of Washington espe-
cially and in West Virginia were collected, and formed a
second army under the command of General John Pope,
who, at the time McClellan's troops were transferred from
the Peninsula north, was fronting toward Richmond and
toward the passes of the Shenandoah with his base at Cen-
terville. As McClellan's troops came north they were
ordered to report at once to Pope, and became a part of

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 201

his command. Early in July Franklin had been made a
major general and in the reorganization of the Army of
the Potomac, he was assigned to the command of the sixth
corps, with which he landed at Alexandria July 26, 1862.
Pope was at this time making that confused series of
movements which preceded the second battle of Bull Run,
in his attempt to ascertain the precise whereabouts of Lee's
forces, which were rapidly pushing north with Jackson in
the valley, of whose whereabouts there was no doubt when
he struck Pope's rear and line of supply at Manassas
Junction. Halleck ordered Franklin to camp and refit,
expressing the opinion that no apprehension need be felt
regarding Pope, and doubting if Franklin's corps would
be needed by him ; but on the 27th, parties of the enemy
having appeared at Centerville, Franklin was ordered to
prepare with all haste for a forward movement, for which
he required animals for his artillery and trains, and on the
2 Qth he started with his entire corps for Centerville, soon
meeting fugitives from Pope's command. With a correct
apprehension of the possible developments of Pope's retro-
grade movement, he sent a brigade and battery under Col-
onel Torbert to take position at the intersection of the
Little River and Warrenton pikes. He passed through
Centerville, and three miles out he met Pope falling back,
who ordered him to return to Centerville, where he
remained through the 3Oth, and from the time of meeting
Pope was his rear guard until two days later his forces
were in the defenses of Washington. On the night of the
3Oth Stuart with his cavalry made an attempt to strike
Pope's trains in the neighborhood of Fairfax Court

2O2 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

House, destroy them, and plant himself between Pope and
Washington. But here he came upon the brigade and
battery under Torbert which Franklin had posted at the
right point, and after a brisk night fight was driven off, and
an all-important position was saved and held. On the 2d of
September Franklin with his corps re-entered Alexandria.

Lee moved steadily northward, and on the 3d of Sep-
tember crossed the Potomac, Jackson in advance, near
Leesburg. Pope had been relieved and McClellan placed
in command, and on the 5th he started to locate Lee and
bring him to stand and fight. He moved out from the
defenses of Washington upon five parallel roads covering
both Washington and Baltimore, and giving a front which
was reasonably certain to touch Lee's line of march at some
point.

Franklin moved on the road nearest the Potomac, and
his command constituted the left wing of McClellan's force.
The latter fully believed that Lee intended to strike into
Pennsylvania, but Halleck feared that his advance in that
direction was a mere ruse to draw McClellan far from
Washington, and then turning his left, slip in behind him.
The movement, and especially that of Franklin's column,
was much hampered in its progress by this apprehension.
Lee was moving steadily north behind the screen of the range
of South Mountain, toward which McClellan was cautiously
advancing with a constant lookout to his left and rear.

WINS LINCOLN'S THANKS.

The principal passes through this North and South
Range were Turner's Gap at the north and Crampton's at

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 203

the south, both strong positions and strongly occupied.
Reno's column was directed against Turner's Gap, which
he carried after a severe and brilliant action. Franklin's
column was directed against Crampton's Gap, and about
noon of September 14 his advance came upon the enemy
strongly occupying a most advantageous position. He
immediately made his dispositions and attacked in a most
brilliant manner, and won the " completest victory gained
up to that time by any part of the Army of the Potomac."
A distinguishing feature of Franklin as a commander
was his broad grasp and thorough comprehension of the
nature and of the magnitude of the work he found before
him, and then the unhesitating employment of enough
force, acting at once and together, to accomplish his pur-
pose. He studied his conditions carefully and with pro-
found military intelligence, calculated the necessary weight
of his blow and delivered it in all its instant might. Per-
haps nothing will convey a more complete illustration of
the man in free and wholly responsible action, of his sol-
dierly qualities, his mental clearness, his modest reserve,
and his lucid conciseness of style, than the following
extract from his official report of this engagement : —

" The enemy was strongly posted on both sides of the
road, which made a steep ascent through a narrow defile,
wooded on both sides and offering great advantages of
cover and position. Their advance was posted near the
base of the mountain, in the rear of a stone wall, stretching
to the right of the road at a point where the ascent was
gradual and for the most part over open fields. Eight
guns had been stationed on the road and at points on the

204 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

sides and summit of the mountain to the left of the pass.
It was evident that the position could be carried only by an
infantry attack. Accordingly, I directed Major-General
Slocum to advance his division through the village of
Burkittsville and commence the attack upon the right.
Wolcott's ist Maryland Battery was stationed on the left
and to the rear of the village, and maintained a steady fire
on the positions of the enemy until they were assailed and
carried by our troops. Smith's division was placed in
reserve on the east side of the village, and held in readiness
to cooperate with General Slocum or support his attack as
occasion might require. Captain Ayres's battery of this
division was posted on a commanding ground to the left
of the reserves, and kept up an uninterrupted fire on the
principal battery of the enemy until the latter was driven
from its position.

"The advance of General Slocum was made with admir-
able steadiness through a well-dire6led fire from the bat-
teries on the mountain, the brigade of Colonel Bartlett
taking the lead, and followed at proper intervals by the
brigades of General Newton and Colonel Torbert. Upon
fully determining the enemy's position, the skirmishers
were withdrawn and Colonel Bartlett became engaged
along his entire line. He maintained his ground steadily
under a severe fire for some time at a manifest disadvan-
tage, until re-enforced by two regiments of General New-
ton's brigade upon his right, and the brigade of Colonel
Torbert and the two remaining regiments of Newton's on
his left. The line of battle thus formed, an immediate
charge was ordered, and most gallantly executed. The

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 205

men swept forward with a cheer, over the stone wall, dis-
lodging the enemy, and pursuing him up the mountain side
to the crest of the hill and down the opposite slope. This
single charge, sustained as it was over a great distance, and
on a rough ascent of unusual steepness, was decisive. The
enemy was driven in the utmost confusion from a position
of strength and allowed no opportunity for even an attempt
to rally, until the pass was cleared and in the possession of
our troops.

" When the division under General Slocum first became
actively engaged, I directed General Brooks's brigade, of
Smith's division, to advance upon the left of the road and
dislodge the enemy from the woods upon Slocum's flank.
The movement was promptly and steadily made under a
severe artillery fire. General Brooks occupied the woods
after a slight resistance, and then advanced, simultaneously
with General Slocum, rapidly and in good order, to the
crest of the mountain. The victory was complete, and its
achievement followed so rapidly upon the first attack that
the enemy's reserves, although pushed forward at the
double-quick, arrived but in time to participate in the
flight and add confusion to the rout. Four hundred pris-
oners, from seventeen different organizations, seven hun-
dred stand of arms, one piece of artillery, and three stand
of colors were captured."

Franklin fully earned the personal thanks so cordially
given him a few days later by President Lincoln. Had
Franklin's advance to this point been unhampered by the
apprehensions of the authorities in respect to matters on
his left and rear, he would have been in abundant time to

206 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

relieve Harper's Ferry ; but this was now out of the ques-
tion. While he was breaking through to its relief it was
surrendered.

AT ANTIETAM.

West of the wall of the South Mountain range Antietam
Creek runs southerly into the Potomac, and here Lee was
brought to a stand by the Federal successes at Crampton's
and at Turner's Gaps. Taking his defensive position on
the west side of the creek, which was crossed in his front
by four bridges, McClellan on the east side made his dis-
positions for attack, placing strong commands in position
to cross at each of these bridges, Burnside being at the
lower bridge opposite Lee's right. The plan of battle
involved Burnside's strong attack at that point, while
Sumner and Hooker were to move up the stream and
cross at the fifth bridge above Lee's left, which was under
Jackson. Sumner and Hooker executed the movement
assigned them and came upon Jackson near the Dunker
church, and here the fight raged heavily and long. In
spite of repeated and peremptory orders, Burnside did not
attack for many hours, and so long was his movement
delayed that Lee, becoming confident, moved a consider-
able force from his right, which Burnside had not engaged,
to his left under Jackson, so that at this point he was able
to quite hold his own against Sumner and Hooker.
Meantime Franklin, moving with great promptness and
rapidity, had come up from below McClellan's left from
Crampton's Gap, and was ordered to cross by the upper
bridge and reinforce Sumner and Hooker. When he

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 207

reached their position their troops were exhausted by their
long struggle, had suffered heavy losses, were somewhat
disorganized, and matters were at a standstill. Franklin
sensed the situation and at once put his entire command
in a better position on commanding ground, in formation
for attack with his whole force, and placed his artillery
where it most effectually commanded Jackson's position.
As Sumner ranked Franklin, and McClellan was not on
that part of the field, Franklin was necessarily under his
orders, and when he reported that he was ready to advance
and expressed his confidence of promptly and thoroughly
routing the enemy, Sumner, from the severity with which
he had been made to suffer, had become so doubtful of the
result of any attack that he forbade Franklin's advance.
The latter at once sent to McClellan, stating his readiness
to attack and his belief in its success, and urging McClel-
lan to come in person and examine the situation for him-
self. McClellan came ; but no urgency or assurance on
Franklin's part availed to secure him the magnificent
opportunity which he clearly saw, and which from his posi-
tion and from the at least equal exhaustion of Jackson's
troops with that of Sumner's, he felt certain must be suc-
cessful, and he had the chagrin to be condemned to com-
parative inactivity during the remainder of the day, with
victory, as he believed, at his hand.

DESIRED TO PURSUE LEE.

Meantime Burnside had finally gotten into action, and
effected a lodgment opposite Lee's right on the west side
of the stream, but after severe fighting he practically only

208 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

held the position. His advances had been thrown back.
Lee's troops from Harper's Ferry arrived. The next
morning Franklin was urgent to be allowed to make his
proposed attack, but McClellan was apprehensive that he
was much outnumbered, and, hoping for a reinforcement
of Pennsylvania militia next day, ordered Franklin to wait,
promising that on the arrival of the expected reinforce-
ments he should make his attack. The troops did not
arrive, but "next day" Lee had gone. It was never
Franklin's fashion to send in his troops in driblets, and his
plan here was to mass his forty guns on a commanding
ground, thoroughly sweep Jackson's position with their
sufficient fire, and then to deliver his blow with his whole
force at once. Later knowledge fully justified his appre-
hension of the situation and the undoubted efficacy of the
attack as he proposed to make it. When it was ascer-
tained that Lee had retired, Franklin again urged that he
be allowed to pursue with all vigor, as his troops were all
in good condition ; but here again he was overruled.

Lee fell leisurely back across the river and moved south-
ward, McClellan followed, and the two armies maneuvered
for position until McClellan had his headquarters at War-
renton with his army massed so as to threaten both the
Shenandoah passes and the more easterly lines to Rich-
mond. Lee was uncertain of McClellan's design, and kept
Jackson in strong force in the Shenandoah, while Long-
street was at Culpepper, his two wings being thus divided
by long marches. McClellan's view was that Lee's army
was the proper objective, and that its destruction or com-
plete defeat was of far greater importance than the capture

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 209

of even Richmond. Nothing could be sounder. It was
the theory which, applied by the always ready fighting
qualities of Grant and his generals, won the day at last.
Richmond was important to them mainly because Lee had
to care for its safety. McClellan was now in position to
place himself between Lee's wings and strike each in turn
with his whole force before it could be helped by the other,
than which no better plan could be devised. But while
preparing for this movement, he was again relieved from
the command of the Army of the Potomac, which was
turned over to Burnside, who turned his back upon
McClellan's line of a6lion and began to consider what line
of advance he would take on Richmond. His views were
not in favor at Washington, but he was allowed to take
his way, and he began his movements for an advance
by way of Fredericksburg. McClellan's plan ultimately
included an advance on Richmond, after he should have
delivered a crushing blow to Lee's army, either by way of
Fredericksburg or by transfer again to the Peninsula if the
Fredericksburg line proved bad for supplies. Burnside
took command the 7th of November. For the purposes
of his campaign, he organized the army into three grand
divisions. The right grand division, under Sumner,
marched to Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, where it
arrived November 1 7. There was but a slight force of the
enemy posted near the town, and Sumner could easily
have crossed, and desired to do so. His orders did not
contemplate it, and on asking permission he was ordered
to remain on the north side of the river until all the troops
were in their positions — an inaction of which Lee took the
14

2io Major-General William Buel Franklin.

promptest advantage. Hooker commanded the center
grand division, and moved to take position at Sumner's
left. Franklin commanded the left grand division, com-
posed of the first and sixth corps, commanded by Reynolds
and W. F. Smith, and took position at Hooker's left below
the town and opposite the heights, which, curving forward
toward their right, end at the Massaponax. And here
they waited for the pontoons to arrive for bridging the
stream, which was now rising from recent rains. Pres-
ently Longstreet's corps occupied the heights back of
Fredericksburg and to the right, where he had abundant
leisure to completely fortify chosen positions until they
were no longer assailable in front. Jackson was moved
down to Longstreet's right, and occupied the heights
below the town to Massaponax river. After some con-
sideration of a crossing at Skinker's Neck, some twelve
miles below, Burnside gave up any idea of flanking Lee
out of Fredericksburg, and determined to attack in front,
in the alleged belief that his attack would be unexpected,
the enemy surprised and unprepared, and his positions
readily carried — a view in which few competent soldiers
concurred.

FREDERICKSBURG.

On the loth of December Franklin was ordered to have
his command at a point a mile and a half below Fredericks-
burg, ready to begin crossing at daylight on the nth on
bridges to be already prepared. Smith's sixth corps being
the strongest, was to take the advance. The heads of his
columns promptly reached the river before daylight ; but

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 211

only a few pontoons of each bridge had been placed.
They were not finished until afternoon. Smith's corps
was crossed rapidly, but the bridges directly opposite Fred-
ericksburg for the crossing of Sumner's troops not having
been completed, Franklin was ordered to draw back all of
his force but one brigade to keep the bridge heads, and
await the completion of the arrangements in front of the
town. The last hope of a surprise was gone. What was
to be gained now must be fought for against 78,000 men
admirably posted in strong and well fortified positions.
On the 1 2th of December Franklin crossed his entire force
and disposed it most judiciously. He at once made a
careful personal examination of his entire front, and he
knew the impossible work cut out for Sumner. Franklin
soon perceived the one reasonable possibility of the situa-
tion : to wit, that the only chance of Burnside's success lay
in such an attack on Lee's left and in Franklin's front as
should break through and take him on the hills in his rear,
Franklin had Jackson in front of him with 30,000 or more
men and good artillery. But if he could have his bridges
properly cared for, so as to have free use of his force, he
could prepare his attack with the fire of eighty guns and
launch his mighty blow with 40,000 men. It seemed the
plain common sense of the situation, if the battle must be
delivered. Smith and Reynolds, than whom were no
better corps commanders, wholly agreed with his view.
At five o'clock that day, Burnside rode with Franklin over
his lines, and then in presence of Smith and Reynolds,
Franklin carefully explained his plans and urged his attack
as the one hope of success. He asked that two divisions

212 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

from one of Hooker's corps, which were on the north side
near his bridges, should be sent at once to relieve Smith
in guarding the bridges, leaving him free to attack with
his entire corps. Smith and Reynolds both fully under-
stood that Burnside fully assented. Franklin meant to
attack at daylight, and it was necessary that the additional
troops asked should be crossed and placed as early as
possible during the night, that his formations might be
duly made. He was urgent for immediate orders. Burn-
side promised he should have them in two or three hours,
as soon as he returned to his headquarters, or at any rate
before midnight, but forbade action until he had received
them in writing. Franklin at once gave the necessary
preparatory instructions to Smith and Reynolds, notified
Hooker's divisions of the orders they were about to receive,
and to be prepared to move, and then awaited his promised
orders. But Burnside went to bed and wrote no orders
till morning. Franklin was " sleepless with anxiety," and
sent repeated requests for his orders. No orders came,
and at midnight he sent an aid to Burnside asking for his
orders ; he was told they were in preparation and would
be sent forthwith ; other messages were sent, but none of
them reached Burnside until morning, although their due
receipt at headquarters was properly acknowledged. At
7.30 next morning, Franklin received at the hand of Gen-
eral Hardie of Burnside's staff — not an order to put Stone-
man at the bridges, and in support, and to hurl his whole
force at a chosen point in front and go through, but :
" Keep your whole command in position for a rapid move-
ment down the old Richmond road, and you will send out

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 213

at once a division at least, to pass below Smithfield, to
seize, if possible, the heights near Captain Hamilton's on
this side of the Massaponax, taking care to keep it well
supported and its line of retreat open." Franklin was tied
up. Smith's corps was in line on his right and guarding
the bridges, which it could not leave until relieved or Lee's
center and left had retreated. He was to send one division
to attack, support it and keep its retreat assured, and yet
hold his " whole command in readiness for a rapid move-
ment down the old Richmond road." There was no
smashing of Lee's right in these directions. Franklin and
both his corps commanders could construe this order as
directing nothing more than a reconnoissance in force, and
in this General Hardie agreed. There was nothing for it
but to leave Smith in his position, send a division out of
Reynolds' corps at his left to seize Hamilton's heights,
support it, keep its way out open, and wait for that
unknown event which was to require his rapid movement
on the road, all of which is explicable only on the theory
that Burnside believed or hoped that instead of more than
half Lee's army, Franklin had in front of him no force that
would undertake to disturb him ; that therefore after seizing
Hamilton's heights with a division, his whole command
would remain disengaged and ready to move swiftly down
the road. It would seem as if Burnside expected to rout
Lee's left out of its position on the heights in rear of the
town, and then to have Franklin pass his right and fall
upon his rear and his retreating troops, seizing a point
meantime which should put him in a position to make this
rapid movement the more readily and speedily.

214 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

CONFUSION.

Franklin's troops were necessarily in the extended order
in which Burnside had found and left them the day before ;
the only order which was at once defensive and from which
any formation could readily be made for attack or move-
ment in any direction. The divisions of Stoneman's corps
of Hooker's grand division which he had asked to have
ordered over the evening before to replace Smith's corps,
which was to be formed for the grand attack, were still on
the north side of the river, and Smith could not leave his
position without uncovering the bridges over against which
lay the fiery Hood. Reynolds' corps was in line at
Smith's left, and in his front were Jackson's divisions, and
to his left and formed across his flank was Stuart. Frank-
lin promptly obeyed his orders. Meade's division of Reyn-
olds' corps, being nearest the point indicated, was ordered
to make the attack, supported by Gibbon's division on his
right and Doubleday's on his left. At 7.40 General Hardie
wired his chief that the enemy was advancing to attack
the left. As Meade moved toward the heights where
Jackson lay waiting in the woods, Stuart's artillery opened
upon his left so severe an enfilading fire with eighteen guns
that he had to halt until Doubleday deployed his division
to the left, to face Stuart, silence his fire and prevent a
threatened assault from that direction both on the flank
and on the bridges. Advancing again until near the
slopes, Meade suddenly received the crossing fire of
twenty-one guns on the heights on his right and five
batteries on his left front. And now every one under-
stood that the woods in front were full of waiting infantry

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 2 1 5

holding their fire for close range. Therefore the batteries
must be silenced, the enemy's lines pounded with the guns,
and re-enforcements brought up to closely support his
thrust into the strong lines in front. Gibbon's division
deployed for attack on Meade's right, Smith's left being
advanced to connect ; Birney and Stoneman, for whom
Franklin had asked in vain the night before, were at last
ordered over the river. After a severe artillery duel of an
hour and a half, Franklin silenced the Confederate bat-
teries, and Meade at once advanced in most gallant style,
under a tremendous fire, broke the first line after desperate
fighting, and would not be denied until his men had struck
the second line and were being pressed on both flanks by
the mass into which they had ploughed. Doubleday to the
left was holding Stuart off, Gibbon to the right had made
a gallant attack, but was unable to advance as far, Smith's
corps at his right was deployed against the enemy, covering
his entire front and pressing to find a weak spot to cut the
army in two and destroy its bridges, the re-inforcing troops
from over the river were not yet up and available to take
Meade's place and carry on the attack, and Meade had to
fall back. And now the Confederates took the offensive
and made a vigorous onslaught, but were checked after
stubborn fighting.

IF HIS PLAN HAD BEEN FOLLOWED.

Meade's attack and its results clearly demonstrate several
things ; the success he gained showed that had Franklin's
plan of the day before been adopted and executed as
planned, Stoneman's and Birney's divisions brought over

216 Major-General William Bud Franklin.

the night before and so placed that Franklin could put both
his corps in formation for a simultaneous attack prepared
by his well-placed batteries, he would probably have broken
and turned Lee's right. Accidents aside, this seems reasona-
bly certain. The desperate fighting of the divisions em-
ployed, the failure of the attack as ordered by Burnside,
and the number of the Confederate troops making the
counter attack, and the stubborn fighting necessary to
repel it, showed that no less an attack and in no other
manner than that proposed by Franklin had a chance of
success. The smashing of Lee's right of near half of his
army required something very different both in the disposi-
tions of troops and the weight of attack from sending one
division to seize a point if it could, keeping its line of
retreat secure and the "whole command" in readiness for
a rapid movement on the road. And the ordering an
attack by but one division, with instructions to support it
and keep its line of retreat open, meant and could mean
only one of two things ; that the man ordering it wanted
a reconnoissance in force, to find a weak spot if he could,
and then act according to circumstances ; or else that he
believed the enemy's line so weakly held that no greater
force would be necessary ; and it also indicated that in
case the assault were unsuccessful he should not employ
more of his forces at that point, but depend for results on
operations elsewhere. Sumner, who was assaulting Fred-
ericksburg directly in front, had been ordered to seize a
similar position in his front by a similar force. The occu-
pation of the one by Franklin and the other by Sumner,
Burnside hoped would " compel the enemy to evacuate the

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 217

whole ridge between these points." But the attack as he
ordered it could have succeeded only against a compara-
tively weak force. Certainly the attack as he ordered it
must have been a purely tentative operation, subordinate
to and while waiting for other chief operations, to wit, the
direct attack on Fredericksburg.

General Hardie of Burnside's staff, who brought Franklin
his order at 7:45 in the morning, remained on the field with
him throughout the day, sending his chief frequent messages
by wire completely descriptive of the situation, and getting
no reply, no order or suggestion, until the middle of the
short winter afternoon. At 2.15 p. M., he wired Burnside
that Meade and Gibbon had been driven back, that Jackson
was attacking, that "things do not look well on Reynolds'
front, still we'll have new troops in soon." At 2.25, while
engaged all along his lines, Franklin received a message
from Burnside saying : " Your instructions of this morning
are so far modified as to require an advance upon the
heights immediately in your front." What was the situa-
tion ? Franklin, in the extended order in which Burnside
had left him the day before, and in such formation that he
could have put his troops in column for the "rapid move-
ment down the old Richmond road," had made the attack
ordered and as ordered, which had been repulsed after long
and hard fighting, and was now fully engaged in repelling
a counter attack.

BURNSIDE'S COURSE.

Burnside had made his main great assault on the
heights in rear of Fredericksburg and been utterly
defeated. Division upon division, under the most experi-

218 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

enced and gallant soldiers of the army, had flung them-
selves against that position with devoted bravery, simply
to be swept away. Just at the moment when Franklin's
attack with Meade's division had failed and he was stopping
Jackson's rush, the survivors of that fearful slaughter had
fallen back from their impossible task in utter exhaustion.
Any competent man would have known that what these
men and their dead comrades who lay so near the goal
could not do, could not be done. But Burnside was
determined to repeat the trial. He ordered " Fighting Joe
Hooker," commanding his center grand division, to take
Butterfield's corps and carry the heights. He promptly
formed for the attack, but when he saw his work before
him, the difficult line of approach, and learned from
Hancock and French the nature of the ground over which
they had led their men that morning, he knew any attack
was doomed. He sent a staff officer to Burnside to state
his views and to ask a counter order. Burnside refused.
And now Hooker did one of the bravest acts of his brave
life ; so sure was he of the useless slaughter, he imperilled
his reputation for courage by going in person to Burnside
to dissuade him from the further attempt. His only reply
was, "That height must be carried this evening." Hooker
returned, and the scenes of the morning were repeated;
the same gallant assault, the same desperate struggle, the
same annihilating fire from positions which could not be
reached, until Hooker having, in his own words, lost
" about as many men as he was ordered to sacrifice," drew
back from the slopes where in a few hours had been lost
7,620 men.

Major-General William Buel Franklin, 219

It was when Burnside ordered Hooker to the second
assault that he sent Franklin the order at 2:25 to advance
on the heights in his immediate front. Franklin's experi-
ence of the morning had shown that no advance on his
part could succeed unless made in the manner he had asked
and been denied ; an effective advance required an entire
new disposition of his troops and a proper formation of
those told off for the attack ; but they were all engaged in
fighting as they stood. If Burnside meant his order to
initiate any such effective attack as Franklin had planned
the day before, it was too late by many hours. Such an
attack required time and freedom from the pressure of the
enemy to prepare. If he meant it for a general advance
of Franklin's line to exert a general pressure, he was
already pressing against or being pressed by an out-
numbering force strongly posted. Only ten minutes
before receiving this order General Hardie had wired his
chief of Meade's and Gibbon's defeat and of Jackson's
counter, and that "things do not look well on Reyn-
olds' front." But on receipt of the new instruction
he wired, " Dispatch received. Franklin will do his
best. New troops gone in — will report again soon."
Franklin at once conferred with his corps commanders,
and they were unanimous that under the conditions of time
and the sharp pressure of the enemy no effective attack
could be then organized, and all that could be done was
being done, and that their hands were full. At 3.00 P. M.
Hardie wired, " Reynolds seems to be holding his own.
Things look somewhat better." About the same time an
aid came from Burnside saying Sumner was hard pressed

22O Major-General William Buel Franklin.

on the right, and requesting Franklin to make a diversion
in his favor if he could. Franklin replied that he would
do his best. At 3.40 Hardie wired, " Gibbon's and Meade's
divisions are badly used up, and I fear another advance on
the enemy on our left cannot be made this afternoon.
Doubleday's division will replace Meade's as soon as it can
be collected, and if done in time of course another attack
will be made. The enemy are in force on our left towards
Hamilton's and are threatening the safety of that portion
of our line. . . Just as soon as the left is safe, our
forces here will be prepared for a front attack, but it may be
too late this afternoon. Indeed we are engaged in front
anyhow." At 4.30 he wired, "The enemy is still in force
on our left and front. An attack on our batteries in front
has been repulsed. A new attack has just opened on our
left, but the left is safe, though it is too late to advance either
to the left or front." At this moment Jackson had deter-
mined to put in his whole force against Franklin in the hope
of driving him back on his bridges, and had already put
Stuart and D. H. Hill in motion against Doubleday, which
was the new attack on the left referred to in General
Hardie's dispatch, and began advancing his artillery, but
the late hour and Franklin's heavy fire caused Jackson to
countermand his orders : " A wise determination," says
the Count de Paris. And soon the night ended the day.
Franklin had lost 4,962 men, and had inflicted on Jackson
a loss of 5,364.

WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

Franklin's plans, the orders under which he acted, his
actions and Burnside's constant knowledge of them have

Major-General William B^iel Franklin. 221

been given in so much detail because of what followed
some weeks later, and also because they give a clear picture
of a great force, an important part of an army, set against
a greater force of the enemy, with a commander who
wholly understood his situation and also the controlling
part his force might and should have had in the whole
day's work, who thoroughly planned the only possible and
fully adequate attack, which he was not allowed to make,
and in executing the orders he received, was compelled to
attempt with an inadequate force, a single division, the
real substance of what he had planned to do with no less
than six divisions, supported by at least two others, com-
pelled to keep to his original extended line and ready to
move rapidly at any moment down the road. This man,
who in his own way, properly supported, could probably
have broken Lee's right, and sent him out of Fredericks-
burg, was made to stand ready for something else all day,
and his real use was to prevent Lee from swinging his
right around, and perhaps from sending troops from his
right to Marye's heights had they been needed — as they
were not. Longstreet's artillery, and four brigades of
his infantry sufficed to hold them against Sumner's and
Hooker's grand divisions successively.

Shortly after the battle General Burnside said to Generals
Smith and Reynolds, Franklin's corps commanders : " I
made a mistake in my order to Franklin ; I should have
directed him to carry the hill at Hamilton's at all hazards."

Burnside was still determined to carry Marye's heights,
and ordered an attack by the ninth corps on the same stone
walls the next day, to be led by himself in person. But

222 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

he was fortunately dissuaded by his grand division and
corps commanders,* and the army fell back. Franklin
recrossed his command on the night of the i5th. Burn-
side brought back to the north side of the river a
defeated and despondent army ; men who had done
the utmost of human endeavor against impossible posi-
tions and seen life sacrificed to no reasonable purpose.
He was not long in being made to feel the want of con-
fidence in his ability to command which ran through from
highest to lowest — the same want which he had felt in
himself and avowed at the outset. He projected a move-
ment to turn the Confederate left by crossing some seven
miles below Fredericksburg, and had already sent a cavalry
column to cut their communications, when the Washington
authorities, advised of the distrust, which they doubtless
appreciated if they did not share, ordered him to make no
movement without advising the President. The raid stop-
ped and the scheme was abandoned. Feeling the distrust
on the one hand and the pressure of the public demand for
results, he resolved on another wager of battle, crossing
Bank's Ford, six miles above Fredericksburg, and taking
it in rear. As all the fords were well watched and the
ground open, secrecy was impossible, and to conceal his
intended point of crossing he feinted on several others both
above and below. On the igth of January, 1863, the
grand divisions of Franklin and Sumner took position near
Bank's Ford, the artillery was put in position, the pon-
toons brought up, Couch with his corps was sent to
demonstrate below the town, and all was made ready for

* Colonel Rush Hawkins was one of the first to protest against this proposal.

Major-General William Bud Franklin. 223

the attempt. But on the night of the 2oth a furious storm
came on, and the physical conditions brought matters to
a stand. Lee had not been deceived, and stood waiting in
order on the other side. The army floundered back to its
camp, and the " Mud Campaign " was over.

BURNSIDE'S STRANGE CONDUCT.

And now it would seem as if, all hope of successful
action in the near future being gone, the consciousness of
distrust and the demoralization of the army made the posi-
tion of the commanding general intolerable to himself,
and he resolved upon a step so extraordinary under the
circumstances as to indicate a condition bordering on des-
peration. For six weeks he had accepted the responsibility
for the ill-planned, ill-managed, desperate attack at Fred-
ericksburg, and recognized the undoubted ability and
faithfulness with which his subordinates had executed his
orders, and the magnificent courage and steadiness of his
troops in their repeated hopeless assaults. He had assured
Franklin of his confidence and expressed his gratitude
for his soldierly loyalty; he declared that he alone "had
held up his hand;" that he was going to resign the com-
mand and recommend Franklin as his successor. Sud-
denly all was changed. His first acl; on getting back to
camp was to prepare an order dismissing from the army Gen-
erals Hooker, Brooks, Cochrane and Newton, and relieving
from their commands Generals Franklin, W. F. Smith, Stur-
gis, Ferrero, and Colonel Taylor. He took this in person
to the President and demanded its approval or the accept-
ance of his resignation. He made no charge of incom-

224 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

petency or disobedience or failure in duty, but only of their
lack of confidence in himself ; a reason which would have
dismissed or relieved pretty much all the officers of the
Army of the Potomac. His resignation was accepted,
and Hooker, whose name led the list of dismissals, was
put in his stead ; but as he was junior in rank to Franklin,
the latter was, as a matter of course, relieved from his
command.

The day after the Mud campaign ended, General Franklin
and his close friend and one of his corps commanders, Gen-
eral W. F. Smith (" Baldy"), addressed a most interesting
letter to the President, pointing out in the clearest manner
the great difficulties of the plan of advance on the Fred-
ericksburg line, the great length of the route, the great
numbers of troops required for its protection, its vulnera-
bility at every point, the scattering of forces for guarding
the enormous trains should the line be abandoned as the
army advanced, carrying all its supplies with it ; then the
essentials of a successful advance : —

"i. All the troops available in the east should be
massed.

2. They should approach as near to Richmond as possi-
ble without an engagement.

3. The line of communication should be absolutely
free from danger of interruption.

A campaign on the James River enables us to fulfill all
these conditions more absolutely than any other, for,

i. On the James River our troops from both north and
south can be concentrated more rapidly than they can be
at any other point.

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 225

2. They can be brought to points within twenty miles
of Richmond without risk of an engagement.

3. The communication by the James River can be
kept up by the assistance of the navy without the slightest
danger of interruption."

Then follows the outline scheme of details, all with an
equal clearness, comprehensiveness and simplicity.

It is refreshing to find amid all the confusion of mind
and method of those days a piece of work so thorough, so
sound, so completely thought out. It is a study by a
master not only of theory but of practice.

HERO'S MISFORTUNE. t

And now befell General Franklin one of those cruelties
born of many motives, weaknesses, afterthoughts, preju-
dices, partialities, personal and political, from which such
times are never free.

The congressional committee on the conduct of the war
appeared to investigate the causes of the defeat at Fred-
ericksburg, summoning before them General Burnside and
many of his officers.

Six days after the battle Burnside had written Halleck a
description of his plan of the action as it was fought :
" I discovered that he (the enemy) did not anticipate the
crossing of our whole force at Fredericksburg, and I
hoped, by rapidly throwing the whole command over at
that place to separate, by a vigorous attack, the forces of
the enemy on the river below from the forces behind and
on the crest in rear of the town, in which case we could
15

226 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

fight him with great advantage in our favor. For this we
had to gain a height on the extreme right of the crest
which commanded a new road lately made by the enemy."
This "height on the extreme right of the crest" was
Marye's Heights, which were exceedingly difficult of
approach and had been made impregnable. They were
separated from the line of heights below the town by
Hazel Run ; these latter heights were occupied by Long-
street's men as far as Deep Run, below which and down
to the Massaponax Jackson's divisions were massed, with
Stuart formed across the left of Franklin's line of battle.
The plan given General Halleck by Burnside is the plan
on which the battle was fought, and it accounts for his
order of 7.30 A. M. to Franklin as a subordinate feature of
the plan. In order to divide the enemy's troops on the
crest in rear of the town from those on the hills below, he
delivers a tremendous assault on Marye's Heights, and
orders Franklin to send one division to seize Hamilton's
Heights at the extreme left of these heights, in the hope
that the seizure of these two points would " compel the
enemy to evacuate the whole ridge between these two
points." It was in view of this hoped for contingency
doubtless that he ordered Franklin to keep his entire com-
mand in readiness for a rapid movement down the old
Richmond road, which would have brought him on the
rear of the dislodged enemy. The two series of heavy
assaults on Marye's Heights failed disastrously. The
division sent to seize Hamilton's Heights was met with
overwhelming force, while the rest of Franklin's divisions
were held in place alike by the constant pressure of the

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 227

enemy and by his orders to have all in readiness for a rapid
movement down the road.

WHAT BURNSIDE SAID.

But to the Committee on the Conduct of the War Gen-
eral Burnside said : " The enemy had cut a road along in
the rear of the line of heights where we made our attack,
by means of which they connected the two wings of their
army and avoided a long detour around through a bad
country. ... I wanted to obtain possession of that new
road, and that was my reason for making an attack on the
extreme left. I did not intend to make the attack on the
right until that position had been taken, which I supposed
would stagger the enemy, cutting their line in two ; and
then I proposed to make a direct attack on their front and
drive them out of their works." General Palfrey well says
of this statement, "It cannot be true."

From 7. 30 in the morning until night fell General Burn-
side knew constantly from his own staff officer, who carried
the order to and remained all day with Franklin, observing
and reporting every act done by him, everything going on
in that part of the field. If he did not mean to attack on
the right until Hamilton's Heights were carried, why did
he attack ? If he meant to cut the enemy's line in two
and stagger him before trying Marye's Heights, why did
he not allow Franklin to do precisely that thing which he
had begged to be allowed to do : mass his own men for the
assault, supported by Stoneman's divisions and Hancock,
and deliver the blow which Meade's attack showed would
have gone through so delivered ?

228 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

But the letter to General Halleck was not shown to the
committee, nor known to them until long after.

ORDER DID NOT APPEAR.

When Franklin was summoned before them, he asked
Burnside if they were aware of his order of 7.30 A. M. of
the 1 3th, or if he should give them a copy. Burnside
replied that he had already given them a copy of that order
and it was then in their hands. Franklin relied, as he had
a right, on the word of his commander and of the man who
had assured him that he was the only one of all his generals
who had held up his hands ; and he was betrayed. The
Committee never heard of the order until months after-
ward. Between the new plan of the battle, which none but
the Committee had ever heard of and the success of which
was made to hinge on Franklin's attack, and the suppression
of the orders under which he acl:ed, he was in an utterly
false light and false position before the Committee, and he
was in complete ignorance of the mischief and how it had
been wrought. He became conscious of a great prejudice,
but was unable to fathom it or its cause. The Committee
refused to hear some of his witnesses, General Hardie among
them. He was not confronted with Burnside's statements.
But the Committee published to the world their verdict
that Franklin was responsible for the loss of the battle
through disobedience of orders.

This most undeserved blow could have fallen on no man
more sensitive to its fullest import. To use his own words :
" If this be true, I have been guilty of the highest crime

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 229

known to military law, for the commission of which my
life is forfeit and my name consigned to infamy."

And so, without a trial, without that responsible judg-
ment of his companions in arms and his peers to which
every man charged with military default is entitled, this
man of oft tried ability and proven strength, to whom honor
and loyalty were the breath of his life, and upon whom
every superior had relied as on a rock, stood charged by an
irresponsible, Star-Chamber Committee, "of the highest
crime known to military law." No court martial was ever
even suggested. To all men who knew men and facts the
charge was preposterous.

FRANKLIN'S REPLY.

Franklin at once published a Reply to the Committee's
Report, which was a complete refutation, and by which they
were first made aware both of the real plan on which the bat-
tle was fought and which Burnside had already given in his
letter to Halleck, and also of the order under which Frank-
lin acted during the day. Not until the Committee had
received his Reply quoting that order, was Franklin aware
that they had never before seen it. Not until a second edi-
tion of the Reply was published with additional notes and
correspondence, was the full iniquity of the matter made
clear.

His Reply and the correspondence which followed fully
cleared his record with the War Department and left the
responsibility where it belonged. But the poison of the
Committee's charge, caught up and exploited by the press
with a public eager to fix final blame somewhere, wrought

230 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

him great prejudice, and Hay in his life of Lincoln says :
" Franklin's undoubted talents never again had an oppor-
tunity for exercise in a field worthy of them." His great
talents, his professional skill, his judgment, his courage,
his methods, his services and his rank, pointed to him as
the proper commander of the Army of the Potomac. But
the cloud overshadowed him. Smarting under the great
wrong and "in perfect darkness of soul," Franklin asked
for any assignment whereby he might in some way serve
his country. And in July he was sent to New Orleans to
take command of the nineteenth corps, which had formed
a part of Banks' command at Port Hudson.

WITH -BANKS.

After Grant captured Vicksburg, he proposed to use his
entire army at once for the capture of Mobile, using that
point as a base for new operations on the heart of the
enemy's country, and began his arrangements accordingly,
a part of which was the concentration of an army at New
Orleans. But Halleck, who was still General-in-chief, sent
away a strong force under Steele to Little Rock, and set a
new task for the New Orleans contingent. Maximilian,
supported by a French army, was emperor of Mexico, and
it was deemed necessary to cut off Confederate traffic in
supplies across the border and keep watch over the new
comers. These operations were in charge of General Banks,
who decided on Sabine Pass as his advanced base. This
point was occupied and fortified by the Confederates.
Franklin was ordered to proceed thither with 5,000 men
on transports, escorted by four gunboats which were to

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 231

reduce the batteries and prepare the landing. The outfit
of the expedition was miserably unfit and inadequate, but
no time was allowed to remedy deficiencies or to provide
necessities. The transports carrying the troops arrived out-
side the bar, the gunboats entered the channel and engaged
the batteries with disastrous results. Two of the vessels
were immediately disabled and surrendered, the third ran
aground, and the fourth and last put to sea, returning, how-
ever, to convoy the transports back to New Orleans, where
they arrived September nth.

The next day Franklin, with the nineteenth and
two divisions of the thirteenth corps, took up his march to
ascertain if it was practicable to reach the Sabine River on
a line parallel to the coast. He skirmished his way to Ver-
millionville, when Banks abandoned further attempt on
that line. Here he made demonstrations in aid of the
naval expedition sent by Banks to the western coast,
and, on the success of the latter, moved to New Iberia.
Several engagements took place, but the enemy avoided
serious conclusions. And now came the Red River expe-
dition.

Kirby Smith, with the troops of Price and Taylor, occu-
pied the Red River Valley with headquarters near Shreve-
port. Halleck was determined to rout him out of the valley
and take possession. To which end he designed to send
Banks against him on the south while Steele supported him
from the valley of the Arkansas on the north. But it took
at least two weeks for these widely separated commanders
to communicate. At this juncture, the winter weather
having put a stop to Grant's operations, Sherman lent

232 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

Banks 10,000 men under A. J. Smith for a month, escorted
by the best part of Porter's fleet and Ellet's Marine brigade,
to report to Alexandria, which was the rendezvous, March
1 6. Franklin was in command of the troops of Banks'
army proper, and Banks commanded the joint forces.
Steele was expected to proceed down the Washita until
within communicating distance. The troops of Franklin
and Smith were to proceed on roads parallel with and near
the river, accompanied by the fleet. On the 2 7th of March
they set forth with Franklin in the advance. On the 3ist of
March his cavalry occupied Natchitoches, the enemy retir-
ing, and two days later his infantry arrived. Here, in order to
give his columns better roads, Banks diverged so far from
the river as to be entirely out of touch with the fleet an
without its invaluable support. In place of supplies from
the transports he had to organize a large wagon train, and
to weaken his forces by detaching a division to guard the
fleet, whose progress up the narrow and shoaling river was
becoming more difficult. The route chosen led through
Pleasant Hill, a strong position with good water where the
enemy was in some force, to Sabine Cross Roads and Mans-
field, a point commanding several important routes and
where Taylor was concentrating. While awaiting the
supply trains, Franklin's cavalry reconnoitered the roads
and by several spirited skirmishes located the enemy. On
the 6th of April Franklin resumed his march to Pleasant
Hill, where his cavalry had taken position. On the 7th, his
cavalry under Lee advanced, fighting steadily and pressing
back a brigade of Taylor's cavalry, uutil at a branch of the
Bayou St. Patrice he was brought to a stand by the entire

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 233

cavalry force of the enemy under Green. The same day
Franklin reached Pleasant Hill and made his dispositions
for an advance with a brigade of cavalry in front to clear
the way until the main body of the enemy was reached.
Banks joined him during the day and overruled his dispo-
sitions, and ordered a combination advance guard of cav-
alry, infantry and artillery, which with their large trains
made, as events proved, an awkward force to handle.

SABINE CROSS ROADS.

Taylor decided to make the fight at Sabine Cross Roads,
three miles from Mansfield, and made his dispositions. On
the morning of the 8th the advance guard moved slowly
forward. Franklin followed with his advance division to
the Bayou St. Patrice and halted to allow his columns to
close up and concentrate. Banks joined the advance guard,
and soon sent back for another brigade of infantry. Frank-
lin sent the division commander, Ransom, with it, with
orders not to allow both brigades to become engaged ; his
purpose being to keep in touch only with the enemy until
Emory's division could close up and A. J. Smith's 10,000
should have come in supporting distance, a matter of some
time with so large a body in column on a single road. But
Banks was at the front and assumed the command, and,
forgetful of the conditions in rear, determined to push
ahead. Lee's first attempt to advance on Taylor's position
was met in such fashion that he at once realized the situa-
tion and urged Banks to wait until proper concentration
could be had. But Banks sent orders to Franklin to push

234 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

forward his thirteenth corps, and ordered Lee to maintain
his position until it arrived. When Ransom's second
brigade arrived, he put the two in line, and hearing that
Franklin was coming in person with the advance division
(Cameron's) of the thirteenth corps, he decided to attack
at once in spite of Lee's endeavor to dissuade him. But
Taylor, having made thoroughly ready, now did the
attacking himself in such force at all points and with such
vigor that he swept Banks back with heavy loss and with-
out check until he reached the woods where Franklin met
him at the head of Cameron's division, which had double-
quickened nearly the entire distance from Bayou St. Patrice.
There were but fifteen hundred with him, and these he put
in at once, but they were powerless to check the attack.
Lee's batteries, unable to fire or maneuver in the woods,
were abandoned by their drivers, who took to the trains
which vainly endeavor to flee. The Confederates reached
the rear of Banks' right, and the retreat was general.
Franklin and Ransom were both badly wounded while try-
ing to rally the troops, but the retreat was not stayed until
it reached Emory's division.

When Franklin started with Cameron's division for
Sabine Cross Roads, he sent back an order to Emory to
come forward in all haste. As soon as he discovered that
Banks had gotten the advance guard into an unsupported
fight with Taylor's army, he sent an order back to Emory
to halt immediately as soon as he could find a good defen-
sive position and establish himself. Emory reached a
stream just in time to form while the retreat went by, and
here he received the assault so firmly and with such a

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 235

heavy fire that it was repulsed, and could not be renewed
until the lines were reformed, and it was now night. The
defeated troops halted in Emory's rear; but the position
was too precarious for an offensive movement, and during
the night the whole force fell back to Pleasant Hill, where
it joined A. J. Smith's 10,000 on the morning of the gth.
Careful preparation was at once made on advantageous
ground to receive the renewed assault of Taylor's troops,
which did not come until four o'clock, and resulted in their
complete defeat and their retreat.

Banks no longer felt himself able to pursue his great
undertaking, and retreat was decided upon. Franklin, dis-
abled by his wounds, was unable to exercise any further
command, though his professional skill and judgment were
in frequent requisition, and especially in the extrication of
Porter's fleet from the shallow water of the Red River at
Alexandria. But for his advice Bailey's dam would proba-
bly never have been built.

GRANT'S PLAN.

Franklin now returned to Washington. While still weak-
ened and suffering from his wound, he was summoned to
City Point to confer with Grant, who proposed to con-
solidate the four departments of the Susquehanna, Middle,
and Western Virginia and Washington, in which Early
was already threatening the Capital, and put Franklin in
command. His strength did not then permit it, and the
arrrangement was never consummated.

On his return from this visit, landing early in the morn-

236 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

ing at Baltimore, he found that city in great excitement in
the momentary expectation of an attack by Early's troops.
It was thought that an early train to Philadelphia would
have time to pass the danger point undisturbed, and General
Franklin boarded the train. Not far out, however, the train
was stopped by a cavalry force under the famous Harry
Gilmore, and Franklin was made a prisoner. That night he
managed a shrewd escape and hid himself for two days and
nights in woods and cornfields, so near the parties searching
for him as often to. overhear their conversation, but unable
to move any distance because of his wound. Toward the
last, from pain and weakness and from want of food he
became delirious. He found his cornfield filled with war-
riors clad in armor and carrying ancient weapons. Although
fully realizing that he was the victim of illusions, he could
not dispel his feverish fancies until he grasped their pikes
and found them cornstalks. He finally reached the house
of a Union man, who hid and fed him until he could send
word to General Lew Wallace, then in command at Balti-
more, who sent out a squadron of cavalry and two regi-
ments of infantry to escort him to the city.

In the following autumn General Franklin was assigned
to duty as President of the Retiring Board, in which
capacity he served until he resigned and took up his resi-
dence in Hartford.

In 1889, General Franklin was appointed United States
Commissioner to the Paris Exposition held that year. He
discharged his duties with singular efficiency. The French
Government testified its appreciation of his services by
making him an officer of the Legion of Honor.

Major-General William Buel Franklin. 237

LIFE IN HARTFORD.

Less conspicuous, perhaps, in the public eye, but of
great value to the disabled soldiers and to the country
which cares for them, was the service rendered in the man-
agement of the National Soldiers' Homes throughout the
country as President of the Board since 1880 until his
resignation in January, 1900, and for many years its Treas-
urer as well ; a work for which he was especially fitted by
his wise sympathy for the men and his prudence, sound
judgment, careful economy, and strict and thoroughly
intelligent attention to the multitude of details, involving
the expenditure of many millions.

The State of Connecticut profited very largely by his
professional knowledge and skill and his fearless integrity
in the construction of its present capitol.

ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER.

There are men whose influence upon their times and
whose impress on men's memories come from the unusual
development and activity of certain specific but limited
abilities, or from special traits of character. An unusually
energetic exhibition of even a moderate amount of these
may make their possessor strikingly prominent under
favorable circumstances, the more so perhaps for their
onesidedness. There are those, again, whose mark is
made, not by a few strong points of either mind or char-
acter standing out from the background of an otherwise
commonplace personality, but by mental powers of unusual
breadth and force and traits of character of unusual value,

238 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

and yet all so full rounded and balanced, so harmonious in
blending and in exercise, so free from defect in structure
and from noise in action, that not until by long oppor-
tunity men have measured them and their work with other
standards of being and doing, do their strength and beauty
stand revealed in full and impressive majesty.

General Franklin was distinctly of this type. Physi-
cally, intellectually and spiritually, he was built upon a
magnificent model. As a scholar of the first order in his
chosen lines of study, and sympathetic with all intellectual
life and effort ; as a man of action, clear in insight and in
thought, broad and strong in his grasp, certain in judg-
ment, definite, direct, prompt and vigorous in action, pecu-
liarly diligent in attention to duties of whatever magnitude ;
pure and highminded, with an integrity that never left his
vision at fault and a courage that never hesitated ; wise,
prudent and strong ; simple, kindly, of perfect but uncon-
scious dignity, he presented a rare balance of great gifts.
He graduated from West Point at the head of a class
remarkable for its membership of men who made them-
selves famous later on. Among those intimate with his
professional capacity and attainments there was never a
question that these were of the highest grade. He was
one of the few men deemed entirely competent to the
highest military command, while his character as a man
rendered complete the trust reposed in him. All his qual-
ities marked him for a great commander. Added to those
already mentioned, he had — what so few possess — coupled
with a perfect sense of responsibility, that confidence which
is not born of conceit nor of any undue consciousness of

Major-General William .Bud Franklin. 239

power and often goes with the humblest spirit ; the confi-
dence that, having done all possible to prepare for the
issue, one can trust his own courage and integrity to spend
might to the uttermost and life itself, and to face defeat
unflinching, in its final hazard : the calm intelligence
that knows when the hour of supreme trial has fully come,
and the courage that rises to its entire responsibility and
to take and, if need be, suffer all consequences. Less
happy in his assignments to duty than many lesser men,
his was often the hard honor of saving their wreckages
instead of leading them to the victories they knew not
how to win. Jealousy, intrigue and complaint were each
alike impossible to him. His great soul was patient and
steadfast. His patriotism was untouched by any personal
considerations. And so he took the duties which the
ambitions of others and the diverse influences of the
troubled times left for his employment, and went his
straightforward way, true man, true knight, and true lover
of his nation. Few men of his time could have contributed
more from a military point of view to its inner history of
influences, measures and actions. It must be always a
matter of profound regret that he has not left such knowl-
edge behind him.

So quietly and unostentatiously was all his work done
that only upon a full and detailed survey can the great
magnitude of it all, and the great importance of its many
parts and the invariable high standard of its excellence, be
appreciated. But those who knew the strength and
uprightness of his mind and character, the kindliness of
his heart, his noble simplicity and personal dignity, his

240 Major-General William Buel Franklin.

ready devotion to every patriotic interest and duty, the
loyalty of his nature and the purity and unaffected piety of
his life, know that one of the bravest of gentlemen, one of
the purest of patriots, one of the most cherished of friends
and one of the knightliest of men, has answered to his
name.

DANIEL CADY EATON
A SKETCH

PROFESSOR THEODORE SALISBURY WOOLSEY

16

|N a secluded valley among the Californian hills
there stood ten years ago the newly built cot-
tage of a friend. It was bare and rough, and
scanty in its furnishing, not much more than a wooden
tent. A few years passed ; the angel of death twice
stopped at its door ; a wife entered it ; children were born
in it ; and how differently one looks upon the cottage now.
Already it has a past ; it speaks of the living and the dead.
Associations, subtly blended, have covered its walls, like
the network which the passion vine and the ivy have
thrown over them ; it is no longer a mere house, it is a
family home.

So is it with the fair structure of this society of ours.
Raw and untried and characterless at first, the lives and
labors and the death of its first and best are fast weaving
about it a web of memories, of sacrifices, of good works
patiently wrought, which shall endure. To learn to appre-
ciate these labors, to follow these ideals, to make out of
our organization something which shall not merely minister
to pride of ancestry or set up a trivial distinction between
men, but which shall emphasize the qualities of courage
and honor, of patriotism and high breeding, as we see
them in our fathers and as we need them in our civic and
social life, — such is the lesson we would gladly learn from
him whose memory and services we recall to-day.

One of my earliest associations with Professor Eaton
was in the sport of archery. He grew skillful at this and
won the prizes of the club and was its captain. And as I

244 Daniel Cady Eaton.

used to watch him notch and draw and loose, to notice his
vigorous frame, his kindling eye, his striking profile, to
me he seemed the very type of an old Saxon bowman. Is
it too fanciful to imagine that the traits of some far away
ancestor were really shadowed forth in him ever so faintly ;
that he was of the warrior type by heredity as well as by
enlisting under our banner ; that the fathers of the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries who fought for faith and
fireside and life itself in the bloody Indian Wars, and
whose exploits are written on our records, were but a con-
necting link between this dim Saxon bowman of our fancy
and his descendant, who also knew how to strike for
righteousness, who could shoot and speak the truth ?

We are all pedigree hunters in this society of necessity,
but for years, from love of the pursuit, our late Governor
had studied the history of his race.

To this day the South of England has remained conserv-
atively true to the traditions of the past. Almost within
sound of London bells you may find quaint villages and old
manor houses where a hundred years seem but as yesterday,
while the bustling north country has grown apace. That
the Eatons should have come from the South of England,
helps out my fancy of the sturdy conservative character of
the stock. The definite thread of connection in England,
however, was never found. How elusive such searches are,
we know too well. But this much was proven, that the
emigrant ancestor of the Eatons had lived and married in
Dover, County Kent, and probability points to a certain
John Eaton of Dover who was christened in 161 1, received
a small bequest by his stepmother's will dated 1635, and

Daniel Cady Eaton. 245

then disappeared leaving no trace of his death upon records
otherwise complete. This, or some other, John Eaton
established himself at Watertown and then in Dedham in
the Massachusetts Bay, and plays that important role in
every American family, of emigrant ancestor. He appears
first with certainty in 1636, and died in 1658. In the sev-
enth generation in descent from this John Eaton was born
Daniel Cady Eaton, on the i2th of September, 1834, at
Fort Gratiot, in Michigan. From Massachusetts Bay to
Michigan ; this is one little rill in the torrent of that migra-
tion which has conquered this continent, the westward
march of our race, irresistible and yearly gathering strength
until now it is culminating. The grandson of the settler
removed to Woodstock, Conn.; his grandson to Columbia
County, New York, and his grandson in turn- — our Gov-
ernor's father — in the service of his country pitched his tent
in what was then the distant West. Through these seven
generations run apparently the same characteristics of
sturdy common sense, of truthfulness, of patriotic devotion
to the state. One ancestor was a Captain in the Revolu-
tionary War, and in after life a Deacon, a combination
quite Puritan and entirely admirable. But, in the later gen-
erations of the family, to these qualities have been added
another — the very marked taste for scientific research. The
grandfather of Professor Eaton, Amos Eaton, a graduate
of Williams College in 1 799, was a man of genius and an
early explorer in the field of natural science. As early as
1810 he had published an elementary treatise upon Botany.
Perfecting himself in his chosen pursuits by study at New
Haven under Professor Silliman and others, in 1817 he

246 Daniel Cady Eaton.

issued a Manual of Botany which did very much to popu-
larize and make available, knowledge in this science. Eight
editions and twenty-three years' labor expanded this work
into an important volume of " North American Botany,"
containing descriptions of over 5,000 species of plants. His
lectures at Williamstown, Northampton, Albany and many
other places, mark an epoch in the scientific development
of this country, popularizing such knowledge and stimu-
lating the general interest in it. His range of study and
teaching included Chemistry, Geology, Zoology and Engi-
neering. He was the first to organize popular scientific
excursions to study phenomena upon the spot. Serving as
Professor of .Natural History in the Medical College at
Castleton, Vt, in 1820, he also engaged in several geo-
logical surveys in New York State which involved the
description and determination of strata hitherto unclassi-
fied. From 1824 until the close of his life in 1842, he was
Senior Professor in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at
Troy. He is described as having a " large frame, some-
what portly and dignified," with a striking person and
intellectual face. His portrait indicated, in addition, a
lofty brow, picturesquely curling hair and features of
strength and character. His scientific tastes were shared in
remarkable degree by his children. One son, an Assistant
Professor of Chemistry in Transylvania University, was a
scholar of promise, but died at twenty-three. A daughter
was a teacher of the natural sciences in a Female Seminary
in Illinois. Another son, entering the service of the United
States, was a man of decided scientific attainment, and par-
ticularly versed in Botany. He was the father of our Gov-

Daniel Cady Eaton. 247

ernor. To his career I ask your attention for a few
moments, for in him I seem to find accentuated the family
type. Born in 1806, he graduated at West Point with
credit in 1826, and served in Florida, Maine and Louisiana
and the unsurveyed region of the upper Mississippi as
Second Lieutenant in the Second Infantry. He was pre-
eminently a Christian soldier. With a sensitive con-
science and keeping aloof from the dissipations of army
life "he was yet no milksop, but a robust man, full of all
natural forces and with the courage to do anything except
what was wrong." I quote from an obituary notice writ-
ten by Samuel Wilkeson. In 1831, while stationed at
Fort Niagara, Lieut. Eaton married a sister of the two
Judge Seldens of Rochester, a leading family in Central
New York. Then for thirty years, until the Civil war,
he served in every portion of this country. In the Sem-
inole war, in Florida, where, according to his biographer,
" we catch a glimpse of this soldier's passion for natural
history, see him busy and happy with the flora of the
region, and making a collection of sea shells. * * * In
the Everglades he began praying and talking against human
bondage in America." He served in the Mexican war,
being Commissary of Subsistence on General Taylor's
staff, and was brevetted Major for gallantry in action in
the battle of Buena Vista.

He served in California, as Chief of the Commissariat of
the Department of the Pacific, for three years soon after
the gold excitement began, and was a power for order, for
morality and religion in San Francisco. Then for five
years, with light duty in New York, he lived in New

248 Daniel Cady Eaton.

Haven, intimate with the best minds in the College, and
indulging his passion for Botany.

Then came the war, and for four years, as purchasing
Commissary, he fed the armies of the Union. His labor
was tremendous. He expended over fifty-eight millions of
dollars, and accounted for every penny. Entering the war
as Major, he came out of it Brigadier General and Com-
missary General of Subsistence.

For ten years afterwards the duty was laid upon him of
examining and disposing of the claims of loyal citizens
for subsistence furnished to the government, an enormous
task of calling for high judicial capacity. Then he was
retired, travelled abroad, returned to New Haven and
died, not quite seventy-one years of age. Integrity,
honor, courage, patriotism, such were the qualities of the
man ; from such qualities our friend, his son, was sprung.

The wandering life of an army officer entails many
sacrifices ; not the least of these is that separation from
his children which their education demands. In Roches-
ter, in Troy and in New Haven at General Russell's
school, young Eaton got his preparatory training, and
entered Yale in 1853. From the first, the family passion
for Botany cropped out in him. As a Junior in college,
he published an article " On three new ferns from Cali-
fornia and Oregon," ferns which possibly his own father
had gathered. There is to me something most attractive
in the record of so complete, so homogeneous an intel-
lectual life as that thus begun. One overmastering taste,
and that taste gratified ; one ambition, and that realized ;
a simple life, a happy life, a useful life — these are the

Daniel Cady Eaton. 249

features of his career which impress the mind. Not that
he was a man with a single interest. He had the widest
sympathies in religion, in politics, in literature. He fore-
shadowed the athleticism of our day. He loved nature
and a life out of doors. He was a sportsman in the truest
sense.

This is not the time for a particularized account of
Professor Eaton's professional and scientific career. Two
sketches of his life have been published by his colleagues,
by Professor Brewer in the American Journal of Science,
and Mr. Setchell in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical
Club, which give these details. They show that he had
the amplest opportunities of training. For three years
after graduation in 1857, he studied under Professor Gray
of Harvard. During the Civil war he worked with his
father in New York in the Commissary Department, but
intimate even there with botanists like Professor Torrey,
and never swerving in heart from his chosen path. With
peace came the realization of his desires. Some friends
of his father endowed a chair in Botany in Yale College
and he was called to fill it. Amongst my father's papers I
have found his reply to this announcement. " It is my
most pleasant duty to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter notifying me of the action of some friends of mine
and of the College, in reference to an appointment which
I have long hoped for, and have endeavored to prepare
myself to fill with honor to both the College and myself.
I must also thank you for the exceedingly kind and com-
plimentary tone of your letter. I accept the terms of the
offer, and will go abroad to study as soon as I can fairly

250 Daniel Cady Eaton.

leave my present place as chief clerk to my father. * * *
In the hope of future usefulness, I am very respectfully
yours, Daniel C. Eaton."

He was first assigned to duty in the Sheffield Scientific
School, with which during his life he was most closely con- *
needed, being a member of its governing board ; later he
was appointed University Professor, and gave instruction
in both departments. " As a teacher," writes Professor
Brewer, who entered the service of the College the same
year, " he was intensely conscientious, sympathetic, courte-
ous, kind and helpful in the extreme to those who wished
to learn." The students' idea of him is also given us in
this bit from one of the old College magazines, extracted
by Mr. Porter in his "Sketches of Yale Life." A
botanist in embryo is gossipping about his suburban ram-
bles when he recalls a water-lily and the flower reminds
him of our friend. "There is a name connected with
water-lilies and all pleasant things, that cannot die with
some men, I know. A generous man with a generous
enthusiasm for flowers, and not only an enthusiasm for
flowers, but a skill and progress in botanical science that
has won encomiums from its masters — a man of genial
soul and a large heart. He gave all of us our first lesson ;
he breathed into us something of his own spirit. Who
doesn't know Cady ? You would, if you had seen him
stalk proudly into a mill-pond to take possession of a
Nympha advena till the water poured into his tin knap-
sack, as Balboa, ' clad in complete steel,' long time ago
waded into the Pacific at Darien and claimed the billowy
sea for Spain and for the Cross. Were we prophets we

Daniel Cady Eaton. 251

might predict the culmination of his rising star. But the
memory of his generous good fellowship is written for all
of us in

' Those bright mosaics that with storied beauty
The floor of Nature's temple tesselate.' '

A true lover of plants he was, and a lover of his fellow
men, and he knew both. The families and species of each
he catalogued with accuracy and patient care. He had a
genius for orderliness. He became a great botanist, and
what is better, a loving botanist. But of this I cannot
speak now, of his great work on ferns, of his many notices
and reviews, of the forty more formal publications, and of
his work as secretary of his class. It was through his con-
nection with this society that we here knew him best, and
we must pass on to this, the closing chapter of his life.
About twenty years ago Professor Eaton became interested
in the history of his own and allied families; in 1877, he
published a short account of his mother's stock, the Sel-
dens, then he took up the Batons, gathered much material
for a genealogy, was the mainspring of the Eaton family
association^ and by natural transition became an early
member of the Connecticut Society of the Colonial Wars
and its Governor. How painstaking and thoughtful and
successful his work for it was, our records show. No
slovenly, inaccurate papers passed his criticism unchal-
lenged. Some descents he made out for members himself.
He set the example of( a strict adherence to rule. Our
Constitution he worked over with Dr. Ward, until that
instrument has become a model, and other societies have

252 Daniel Cady Eaton.

fashioned theirs after it, or copied it entire. He gave us a
character and a reputation. His addresses, with their
happy phrasing, his dignified, effective conduct of business,
did honor to the office he held. Abroad he made us
favorably known. At home, with wise counsel and clear
judgment of men and things, he marked out for this
society the line of successful development which it must
follow. Every line of his correspondence on our business
shows his conscientiousness and his common sense.

There came a year of weakness and of suffering, borne
with the courage of a Christian and a gentleman, and then
the end. Shall we ever forget his appearance, or the
words he spoke, too feeble to rise though he was, when he
accepted the flags for this society and explained the fitness
of their emblems. "The cross of St. George is every-
where an appropriate emblem of a Christian soldier."
" The vine ... is the emblem of our state, chosen by the
faith of our forefathers that He who transplanted will
sustain." Then recalling the discovery of Vinland the
good, given in one of the sagas of the Northmen, he went
on "Just where Vinland was, the geographers have never
agreed. Why may not we of Connecticut claim that it
was just here, where the valleys are still yellow with corn
and the purple clusters still hang on the hillsides. Let us
then have for our peculiar emblem the vine of Vinland the
good, and of Connecticut the trustful ; let us bear the ban-
ner of St. George because we celebrate the wars fought
under its red cross ; and with it let the stars and stripes
float and shine in their ever increasing glory." May I
recall also his final message to us, assembled for our annual

Daniel Cady Eaton. 253

meeting of last year, in the language which he loved and
knew so well,

"Societas pia majorum veneratione condita in aeternum floreat."

On the last day of June he died. He had fought a
good fight ; he had finished his course ; he had kept the
faith. There is much that has been left unsaid. I had
intended to speak of his propositors in this society, those
sturdy old Indian fighters, John Clark, John Beebe,
William Pratt and Thomas Stanton, all serving in the
Pequot or King Philip Wars, and of John Webster, a
founder and Governor of this colony. I had intended,
too, to trace the maternal strains of blood which brought
each its own contribution of trait or feature or racial
characteristic towards the make-up of the man, the Cadys,
the Beebes, the Seldens, the Hurds, the Lords, the Lees,
all of old Connecticut stock. But my sketch has worked
out differently. The personality of our friend has been
too strong. As in a good portrait, the background, the
accessories, are felt rather than seen, because so strictly
subordinated to the real features which live and glow on
the canvas ; so it is here. We feel the shadowy back-
ground of ancestral figures, but we see and lovingly would
study the strong and kindly features of our first Governor.
An honest gentleman, an unselfish friend, a learned man
of science, true to his name, to himself, to the duties laid
upon him, to his God, he has passed before us into the
silent land,

" Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

t*M,t
Y$

NECROLOGY

REV. PROFESSOR WILLISTON WALKER, D.D.,
THE HISTORIAN OF THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY

JHE first member of the Connecticut Society of
Colonial Wars to be called from its fellowship by
death was Nathan Gillette Pond of Milford, our
first Secretary and one of the founders of the General
Society as well as of the association in this State. To no
one more than to Mr. Pond is this Connecticut Society of
Colonial Wars indebted for its organization and for the
zeal and interest with which it began its work, and his
death, after a brief illness, on July 29, 1894, was justly felt
by all his fellow-members, to be not merely a personal, but
a corporate, loss.

Mr. Pond was born in New York City on May 31,
1832 ; the son of Charles Hobby and Martha (Gillette)
Pond. He traced his ancestry to Charles Pond of Revo-
lutionary days ; to Theophilus Eaton, the first Governor of
New Haven Colony ; to Sir Charles Hobby, Colonel of
the Massachusetts Regiment in the Port Royal Expedition
of 1710; and to Captain John Miles, who distinguished
himself in the Great Swamp Fight. When twenty-one he
engaged in the ship-chandlery business in New York, and
later was a Wall Street broker for a short time. The
financial crash of " Black Friday" involved his fortunes to
a considerable extent, and Mr. Pond soon after removed to
Milford, Conn., where his father had a home. Here he
engaged in the breeding of thoroughbred cattle, making a
specialty of Jerseys and Short Horns ; and at Milford he
continued to live with the exception of a brief sojourn in
Woodstock, Conn., till his death, dwelling, from 1879
17

258 Necrology.

onward, in the historic home "The Farm," which had been,
in Indian times, the first dwelling outside the palisades by
which the Milford community was then defended. Under
his enthusiastic zeal as a collector of all that appertained
to Indian and Colonial history, "The Farm" became
almost a museum of antiquities, especially of those illustra-
tive of Indian life. Here Mr. Pond broadened and
strengthened that interest in Colonial history and gene-
alogy which he had always felt, but which now made his
later days eminently serviceable to the maintenance of
patriotic memories.

His interest in the foundation of this Society has already
been mentioned. The revival of the Connecticut " Society
of Cincinnati " enlisted his attention no less, and its re-
establishment was largely his work. He served as Treas-
urer of that Society and he was a member of the Execu-
tive Committee of the General Society. In both positions
of trust he proved himself of high value.

The preservation of the memorials of Milford and the
present welfare of the community interested him no less.
The strikingly ornamental Memorial Bridge, visible to all
who journey to and from New York by the New York,
New Haven and Hartford Railroad, was due to his initia-
tive, and spans the Wepowage, where the founders of Mil-
ford crossed the stream at their settlement and where the
first mill was built. It serves as a perpetual monument,
not merely to commemorate the early history of the town,
at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the begin-
nings of which it was dedicated, but to bring to mind the
indefatigable zeal and antiquarian enthusiasm of Mr. Pond.

Necrology. 259

A similar interest in all that had to do with the history of
his home led him to publish volumes on "The Old Tomb-
stones at Milford " and " Ye Story of ye Memorial." The
town library of Milford, though built by Colonel Henry
A. Taylor, owed much to Mr. Pond's initiative.

Mr. Pond married, on November n, 1856, Miss Sophia
M. Mooney, who survived him. Of his eight children five
were living at the time of his decease.

A sketch of Professor Daniel C. Eaton, who died on
June 29, 1895, the first Governor of the Society, and the
second to be removed from us by death, may be found in
another part of this volume.

The third of our fellowship to be taken from us, was
Reverend Edward Alfred Smith, of Hartford, who died
on October 26, 1895. Mr. Smith was born in East Wood-
stock, Conn., on July 22, 1835, the son of Isaac E. and
Emily (Walker) Smith. He entered this Society as ninth
in descent from Captain Richard Walker, one of the early
settlers of Lynn, Mass., a member of the Ancient and
Honorable Artillery Company, and a soldier in the Indian
wars which accompanied the colonial beginnings of New
England. Mr. Smith graduated from Yale University in
the Class of 1856, and after a year spent in the Yale
Divinity School, further studied theology at Andover
Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1859. On
completing his seminary course, he spent two years of
additional study in Germany at the Universities of Got-
tingen and Halle. His return to America, in 1861, brought
to him, as it did to many another young man, the question
of how he could best serve his country in the great strug-

260 Necrology,

gle of the Civil War, and his strong sympathy with suffer-
ing and desire to help the wounded and the sick led him to
join the United States Sanitary Commission, in the service
of which he was stationed at Alexandria, Va., till he was
stricken down with an attack of typhoid fever that sent
him to his home and entailed upon him a long period
of invalidism. While thus recuperating his health at
his home in New York City he entered the militia
service of the State, and as a militiaman bore his part
in the suppression of the Draft riots in 1863. At the
conclusion of the war he determined to enter the active
work of his chosen profession and was ordained to the
ministry at West Springfield, Mass., on November 13,
1865. Some months before that he had begun his first
pastorate over the Congregational church at Chester, Mass.,
and on March 3, 1865, nearly eight months previous to his
ordination, he married Melissa E. Knox of Chester. Here
his pastorate was continued until the spring of 1874, when
he became pastor of the church at Farmington, Conn., a
post which he occupied till the autumn of 1887. In that
year he transferred his residence to Hartford, Conn., which
remained his home until his death. Two years after tak-
ing up his residence at Hartford he was chosen a member
of the Corporation of Yale University and served his
alma mater in that capacity for the remaining years of
his life. He was also, for several years, a director of the
Home Missionary Society of Connecticut, in the work of
which organization he was greatly and generously inter-
ested. He was survived by his wife and two sons.

All who knew Mr. Smith must have felt the charm of

Necrology. 261

his simple, kindly and earnest Christian character. A man
of much natural shyness and reserve, he was of warm
affections also, a loyal and devoted friend, a good citizen,
generous and unsparing in the bestowment of his services
and of his means to help the interests of the community
in which he lived, and the religious and social welfare of
the State which was the home of his later years. Without
a particle of cant or of pretense in his nature, Mr. Smith
carried with him everywhere an atmosphere of unaffected,
simple, manly and natural piety, and no one can have
known him without being impressed with the excellence
of his character, his generous and unselfish spirit, and his
sincere interest in all that made for the welfare of his
fellowmen.

The next break in the ranks of our Society was caused
by the death of James Mason Hoppin, Junior, of New
Haven, on January 23, 1897. Mr. Hoppin, the son of the
well known professor of Yale University whose name he
bore, was born in Salem, Mass., May 18, 1857 ; and, after
preparatory study at the Hopkins Grammar School in
New Haven, entered Yale University in the class of 1880.
His health was even then far from vigorous, and after
about a year at Yale, he went to Oxford, believing that the
climate of England would be better adapted to enable him
to stand the strain of his studious years. Here he was
admitted with high honor to Christ Church College,
Oxford, and graduated from that University with the
degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1880. Two years later he
received his second degree, that of Master of Arts, from
the same venerable seat of learning. His years of study

262 Necrology.

in England brought him many pleasant acquaintances, by
whom he was held in cordial friendship. After graduation
he returned to New Haven, which was thenceforth his
home, though his attachment to Litchfield was so warm
and constant that he might well be considered a citizen of
both Connecticut towns.

In 1892 he made a journey to Greece, and on October i,
1895, he married Miss Susan Pringle Mitchell, daughter of
Donald Grant Mitchell, Esquire, who survives him. Mr.
Hoppin was a man of singularly lovable personal qualities,
who won and kept the warm affections of his friends. The
following minute entered on the records of the Connecticut
Society of Colonial Wars at the time of his death, bears
witness to the esteem in which he was held, and the rare
qualities of the man as they impressed those associated
with him in this country :

" Few members of this Society were more widely and
favorably known than the subject of this notice. In the
hurry and rush of our American life, it seldom happens
that gentle birth, ample means and abundant opportunity
unite in any person, giving him both time and inclination
for that thorough education which rounds out a complete
character, mentally, morally and physically. This Society
perpetuates the names and deeds of his ancestors. To us
was given the privilege of knowing the man. Born in and
reared under influences intensely educational, he fitted for
Yale, leaving that institution before graduation for what
he deemed the ampler opportunities for broader culture at
Oxford. He studied and received his degree from that
institution in 1880. That training stamped its impress

Necrology. 263

upon him, making him a broad-minded, earnest thinker,
catholic in his opinions, firm in adhering to them, quiet
and gentle in the expression of them. He was a true
lover of nature ; the silver silence of the snow was music
to him ; the fierce driving of the storm gave him rest ; the
companionship of his dog and horse, keen delight. He
was a welcome guest in every circle where he brought
naught of discord or strife, contributing only the pleasant,
gentle things of life. No member of this Society had a
wider circle of friends, for with him acquaintances were
well-wishers, sympathizers, friends. He took a deep
interest in the affairs of this Society, and gave promise of
being one of its most useful members. To us it seemed
that he had everything to live for, and yet by a mysterious
Providence he was removed not only from our midst, but
from a family circle which loved him devotedly, from
friends and acquaintances who must ever miss him. As a
deserved tribute to his worth, this minute is entered upon
the records of the Society."

He was no less appreciated by the friends whom his genial
qualities and kindly spirit had won during his sojourn in
England. On receiving news of his death the Oxford
"Times" thus spoke of him in its issue of February 20,
1897:

" A very large circle of friends and members of this
University will hear with painful feelings of the death of
James Mason Hoppin, M.A., of Christ Church, eldest son
of the well known Professor of Pastoral Theology, of the
same name, at Yale, which sad event took place at the
residence of his parents at New Haven, Conn., U. S. A.,

264 Necrology.

on the 23d of January last, in his 4oth year. On coming
into residence at Christ Church in January, 1877, he at
once became beloved by all the members of the House, at
that time numbering several Americans. Few men have
excelled Mr. Hoppin, as a member of the House, in the
purity of his life, and his devotion to study, — no one can
have left more sunny memories behind him in the Univer-
sity societies of Yale and Oxford."

On February 19, 1897, death took from the Society
Frederick Plumb Miles, of Lakeville. Mr. Miles was
born in Goshen, Conn., on June 3, 1854, the son of Fred-
erick and Emily (Plumb) Miles. He was descended from
Captain John Miles, of the Great Swamp Fight. When
but three years of age his parents removed to Chapinville,
Conn., where his boyhood was spent. On February 24,
1 88 1, he married Miss Clara Gray, of Goshen, Conn., and
four years later, in 1885, he removed to Lakeville, in the
same State, where he had a handsome home. In connection
with his brother, William Miles, he owned and managed
the Iron Works in Copake, New York, to the development
of which the energies of his business life were principally
devoted. The welfare of the town of his residence also
much enlisted his sympathy and effort, and whatever had
the good of Lakeville as its object was, to him, a matter
of concern. He was president of the Lakeville Water
Works, and was chairman of the Society's committee of
the Congregational church of which he was an adherent.
In politics he was a hearty supporter of the Republican
party, but never a seeker for office. He was survived by
his wife, a son and a daughter.

Necrology. 265

Mr. Miles was rather a silent man, warmly interested in
our Society, of which he was one of the earliest members.
He was always present at its meetings, the companionship
of which he greatly enjoyed, and was devotedly loyal to
the aims and ideals which we seek to perpetuate.

The next break in the ranks of the Society of Colonial
Wars was caused by the death, on March 31, 1897, of Dr.
Jonathan Strong Curtis, of Hartford. Dr. Curtis was
born in Epsom, N. H., on June n, 1821, — the son of
Reverend Jonathan and Elizabeth (Barker) Curtis. He
traced his ancestry to John Alden, of Mayflower fame, and
Captain Moses Curtiss. After preparatory studies in his
home town, Dr. Curtis entered the Medical School of
Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1844. He
then studied for a time at the University Medical College
of the City of New York, where he also graduated. After
completing his medical education he engaged in his pro-
fession for two years at Abington, Mass., from which place
he removed to Lawrence in the same State, and built up an
extensive practice. The gold fever of 1849 seized him, as
it did many other young men of New England, and in that
year he emigrated to California ; but the desire to practice
his profession in the quieter surroundings of the east was
strong upon him, and, in 1852, he removed to Hartford,
Conn., at the advice of his brother, Mr. G. W. T. Curtis,
then principal of the Hartford High School. From
thenceforward, till his death, Hartford was his home; and,
from the first, he took an honored and distinguished posi-
tion in his profession. During the Civil War he served as
surgeon of the 22d Connecticut Volunteers.

266 Necrology.

Dr. Curtis married Miss Lucy Branscombe of New-
market, N. H., and, after her early death, Miss Susan
Brandt of Belleville, N. J. Of his three children, two, a
son and a daughter, survive him. Dr. Curtis was a man
of lovable and attractive qualities, popular, tactful and gen-
erous ; a good friend whose traits of head and heart
endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. Of
charitable nature, he was much interested in the " Chil-
dren's Aid Society," which he did not a little to foster, and
he was warmly attached to Christ Church, Hartford, of
which he was a member. His death brought to many in
Hartford, and in the State at large, a sense of personal
loss.

On April 16, 1897, William Allyn Hungerford, of New
York City, died. Mr. Hungerford was born in Water-
town, Conn., on March 2, 1850, the son of Allyn Merriam
and Emily (Platt) Hungerford, and traced his descent
from David Hungerford, a soldier in Captain Eldad
Lewis's Company of the Second Connecticut Regiment in
the Old French War.

The business interests of Waterbury, Conn., strongly
enlisted Mr. Hungerford's activities, and he was long a
director and the treasurer of the Benedict & Burnham
Manufacturing Company of Waterbury. The care of the
New York branch of this company took him to that city,
and it was for years the place of his residence, his home
being at the time of his decease at No. 121 West 6gth
street. Mr. Hungerford was director of the Waterbury
Watch Company and of the Waterbury Gas Engine and
Power Company. A successful manager and a strong

Necrology. 267

man in whatever he undertook, his attractive personality
made him many friends and led to his association, not merely
in this Society, but in the Sons of the Revolution, the
Colonial, the Union League and Hardware Clubs. His
wife, two sons and a daughter survive him.

The next of the members of the Society of Colonial
Wars to be called from its companionship was Dr. William
Freeman French, of Noroton, who died on January 27,
1898. Dr. French was born in Sharon, Conn., August 18,
1856, the eldest son of Reverend Louis and Martha
(Beach) French. He traced the descent by which he held
membership in the Society to such Connecticut worthies
as Governor John Webster, Reverend John Whiting,
Major William Whiting, Thomas Buckingham and Major
Moses Mansfield.

Dr. French was educated at Trinity College, Hartford,
where he graduated A.B. in 1879, an^ from which institu-
tion he received the decree of A.M. in 1882. His college
course accomplished, he entered the University Medical Col-
lege of the City of New York, from which he graduated
in 1884. The completion of his medical studies was fol-
lowed by a service of eighteen months on the staff of St.
Catharine's Hospital in South Brooklyn, N. Y. He then
returned, in 1886, to Noroton, the home of his parents,
and devoted himself assiduously to his practice, in which
he was conspicuously successful. In addition to the duties
which thus came upon him, he served on the hospital staff
of the Soldiers' Home at Noroton, and as coroner's medi-
cal examiner of the town of Darien ; and his interest in
the larger aspects of the profession of which he was so use-

268 Necrology.

ful a member, is evidenced by his association with the
American Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia.

Dr. French was a man of enthusiastic devotion to out-
door sports, and was one of the founders of the Wee Burn
Golf Club, serving on the Governing and Greens Com-
mittees of that very successful organization. His interest
in patriotic societies led him not merely into the associa-
tion with the Society of Colonial Wars which is now com-
memorated, but into membership in the Sons of the Revo-
lution, of which he was an officer, and of the Society of
the War of 1812. In all these relations he showed himself
eminently companionable, helpful and warm-hearted in his
concern in all that made for their welfare.

Dr. French was unmarried, but was survived by his
parents, a brother and three sisters.

On May 19, 1898, Nathan Adolphus Baldwin of New
Haven, one of our charter members, died. Born in Mil-
ford in 1824, Mr. Baldwin enjoyed a long and successful
business career, being early interested in the manufacture
of straw goods. With slight ambition for public office, he
was chosen to the State Senate of Connecticut in 1862.
In 1892 Mr. Baldwin laid aside active business cares. A
disease of the heart, which ultimately cost him his life,
developed, and rendered him a sufferer for some months.
His death occurred at his home, "Ivy Nook," in New
Haven ; and he left a memory not merely of respect for
his uprightness, business enterprise and personal worth,
but of affection for his friendly and generous sympathy and
his unfailing charity in judgments and in deeds.

The news of the death, on July 31, 1898, of Dr. Charles

Necrology. 269

Samuel Ward, of Bridgeport, brought a sense of personal
loss to every member of the Society. Born in New York
City, October 28, 1842, the son of a physician, he inherited
his father's tastes and took up in his turn the study of
medicine, graduating from the medical department of Yale
University in 1863. The great Civil war enlisted his ener-
gies, as it did those of so many other young men ; and
from his graduation to the end of the conflict he served as
a medical cadet. The year 1868 saw him established in
New York, where he achieved much more than ordinary
success in his profession, and had obtained an enviable
repute, when ill health compelled him to lay down the
cares of a6live practice in 1891. Upon this release from
arduous labor he retired to Bridgeport, which thenceforth
was his home till his death. His interests during the con-
cluding years of his life are well nigh the story of this
Society. Attracted by our Colonial history, studious of
genealogy, cordial in friendship, interested in his fellows,
he was in every way a leader of this Connecticut Society.
On our roll his name ranked the .first ; and no one would
have questioned his right to that position, not merely by
priority of membership but by interest in all that apper-
tained to our welfare. The character and weight of our
body to-day is in no small degree due to his selective judg-
ment ; our documents bear witness no less to his taste.
Unsparing of labor or of pains to advance the welfare of
this Society, he has left us all his debtors, and it is with no
common feeling of sorrow that we record his death.

On October 25, 1898, Thomas Rutherford Trowbridge,
of New Haven, passed away at his summer home at Litch-

2 7O Necrology.

field, after a protracted illness. Born of a family long and
honorably identified with the commercial interests of New
Haven, on March 3, 1839, he naturally grew up into the
New Haven-West India trade, in which his father, Thomas
Trowbridge, had been conspicuous. At nineteen he went
to the West Indies and lived for five years in Barbadoes
and in Trinidad. On his return he was admitted to part-
nership in the firm of H. Trowbridge's Sons — a firm
founded by his grandfather. Changing methods of trade
and of transportation leading ultimately to a modification
of the West India business, induced Mr. Trowbridge in
later life to devote his attention largely to real estate and
to banking. At his death he was president of the Mercan-
tile Safe Deposit Company of New Haven and a director
of the Mechanics Bank. His devotion to the interests of
the city of his birth was conspicuous ; he served in both
boards of its government, and in its Chamber of Commerce.
He preserved the memories of its ancient maritime trade
and of its antique buildings. He had a marked taste
for historic study, and served the New Haven Historical
Society as secretary and as president. In his death our
Society lost a valuable member and New Haven one of its
foremost and most public-spirited citizens.

Bishop John Williams, who died at Middletown on Feb-
ruary 7, 1899, belongs not to Connecticut alone, but to
the history of American Christianity. Born in Deerfield,
Mass., on August 30, 1817, he graduated at Trinity College
in 1835. After teaching in his alma mater, and pastoral
experience in Middletown and Schene<5tady, he was chosen
president of Trinity in 1848, when only thirty-one years of

Necrology. 271

age. In 1851 he was consecrated to the Episcopate as
assistant to Bishop Brownell in the care of the Connecti-
cut diocese. Since 1887 he has been the Presiding Bishop
in the American Episcopal Communion by seniority of
consecration, and since 1 894 the eldest in Episcopal service
in the whole Anglican body. Of his lofty personal char-
acter, of the scholastic and ecclesiastical honors paid to
him, of the veneration with which he was regarded in his
own Church, and of the respect always paid to him by
those not of his communion, it is unnecessary to speak.
These are matters fresh in recollection. Though years and
duties forbade his taking a very active part in the work of
our Society, we felt honored to have him of us, and to
obtain his permission to choose him by successive elections
our chaplain.

A week after the death of Bishop Williams occurred
that of Edward Simeon Hayden, of Waterbury — February
14, 1899. Mr. Hayden was born in Waterbury on Octo-
ber 20, 1851, and after a period of study at the Riverview
Military Academy at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., he entered the
employ of the Waterbury National Bank in February,
1869. Ten years later, February 1879, ne became secre-
tary and treasurer of the firm of Holmes, Booth & Hay-
den. His tastes were naturally scientific, and he early
developed an acquaintance with metallurgy, especially that
of copper. The invention of a process of electric refining
was the fruit of these studies, and led to his connection
with the Bridgeport Copper Company in September, 1886,
and the Baltimore Electric Refining Company in March,
1891. The extensive plant of the last-named corporation

272 Necrology.

was erected under his plans and supervision. Mr. Hayden
was for many years actively interested in the Connecticut
National Guard, being commissioned First Lieutenant on
September 30, 1878, and Major on January 23, 1883. He
resigned his command in April, 1890. Mr. Hayden,
though reserved and quiet in manner to a marked degree,
was always found to be an accomplished and agreeable
companion, and he impressed all who came in contact with
him as a man of force and character.

On May 2, 1899, a fresh name, that of Clarence Catlin
Hungerford, of Hartford, was added to the roll of those
commemorated in our necrology. Mr. Hungerford was
born in Harwinton, Connecticut, on October 2, 1844, but
his early life was spent at Monticello, Georgia, and at
Albany, N. Y. In 1863, at the age of nineteen, he came
to Hartford, and was employed for the next fifteen years
in the offices of the Connecticut Mutual Life and Aetna
Fire Insurance Companies. An attack of typhoid fever
in the autumn of 1878 shattered his health to such a degree
that he was never able thereafter to engage in any active
business, and had to lead a sheltered and semi-invalid life.
Shy and reserved by nature, he was debarred by illness
from much social contact with his fellows, but those who
were familiarly acquainted with him knew him to be a man
of unusual refinement of taste, of the utmost and most
painstaking accuracy, and of an unaffected but deep and
genuine Christian character. The ballot box, made of the
wood of the Charter Oak, which we owe to his gift, is a
witness to his interest in this Society.

Just a month later, on June 2, 1899, Rodney Dennis, of

Necrology. 273

Hartford, one of the earliest members of this Society, was
called from us. Mr. Dennis was born in Topsfield, Mass.,
on January 14, 1826, of honored New England ancestry,
his descent being from Thomas Dennis, a soldier in King
Philip's War. His father, Rev. Rodney Gove Dennis,
fulfilled a useful ministry in Massachusetts and Connec-
ticut, and the son inherited from him the sterling qual-
ities of character by which he was always conspicuously
marked.

Mr. Dennis early entered upon a mercantile career at
Hartford, beginning as an apprentice in the grocer's trade,
at the age of sixteen, and establishing the house of Dennis
& Ives just as he reached his majority. It was character-
istic of his scrupulous sense of honor that he himself
assumed all the obligations of this firm, paying them all
after they had become outlawed, when the young firm had
met with business reverses and his partner was incapaci-
tated through illness. After a comparatively brief early
experience in business in Hartford, Mr. Dennis entered
the firm of Hand, Williams & Wilcox, at Augusta, Georgia.
Two years later he removed to Albany, and in 1855 he
returned to Hartford, which continued his home as long
as he lived. In the year last mentioned he entered the
employ of the Phoenix Bank, in whose service he con-
tinued till 1864, when he became first secretary of the then
just established Travelers Insurance Company. To that
company was thenceforth given the greater part of his
business service.

Any mention of Mr. Dennis would be, however, inade-
quate which did not speak of his untiring and largely

18

2 74 Necrology.

unrequited efforts in behalf of those in need and suffering,
whether his fellows of the human race or members of the
dumb creation. Mr. Dennis held himself at the service of
all those whom he could in any way relieve. That they
were in need was sufficient claim upon him, and his labors
in connection with the Morgan Street Mission School,
with the Connecticut Humane Society, of which he was
long president, with the Hartford Charitable Society,
where he held the presidential office, with the Hartford
Retreat for the Insane, the Connecticut Industrial School
for Girls, the American Missionary Association and the
Young Men's Christian Association, were incessant and
self-sacrificing and eminently characteristic of his broad,
charitable and kindly nature. Few men in Hartford could
be more sincerely mourned than Mr. Dennis, for few have
ever given themselves so fully as he did to the community
of which he was an honored citizen.

The next member of the Society to be removed by
death was John Calvin Day, whose demise occurred on
June 24, 1899. Like Mr. Dennis, Mr. Day was long a
citizen of Hartford, but unlike Mr. Dennis, a native of
that city. Mr. Day came of honored Hartford ancestry,
his father, Calvin Day, having been one of Hartford's
most valued citizens, and his mother, Catharine Seymour,
being a representative of a family conspicuously identified
with the city's welfare.

Mr. Day graduated from Yale College in the class of
1857, and received the degree of Master of Arts from that
institution of learning in 1865. In 1864 he became asso-
ciated with Connecticut's honored War Governor, Gover-

Necrology. 275

nor Buckingham, as private secretary. Attracted by the
study of law, Mr. Day became a member of the Hartford
County Bar and practiced his profession for a number of
years in Hartford. In 1888 he retired from legal practice,
and from thenceforward to the time of his death resided
much abroad, returning to Hartford for at least one pro-
longed period of residence. He died in Dublin, New
Hampshire, at the age of sixty-three.

Mr. Day was a man of attractive personality, of thorough
culture, of a decided taste for art and literature, and of
much accomplishment as a linguist. His name was one
which our Society was glad to bear upon its rolls.

On March 14, 1900, another member of our Society
passed from our earthly fellowship to the larger companion-
ship beyond, Rev. George Leon Walker. Dr. Walker was
of sturdy New England ancestry, being eighth in descent
from Richard Walker, a member of the Honorable Artil-
lery Company, both of London and of Boston, a soldier
of the Pequot war, and an early settler of Lynn, Massachu-
setts. In his later ancestry, a great grandfather, Phinehas
Walker, had served as a soldier in the old French war and
an officer in one of the Connecticut Regiments in the
Revolutionary struggle. Dr. Walker was born in Rutland,
Vermont, April 30, 1830, the son of Rev. Dr. Charles
Walker, for fifty years a minister in the State of Vermont.
The boy's health was delicate, and his physical disabilities,
which he never fully overcame, prevented his undertaking a
college course as he had hoped to do. He early developed,
however, a marked interest in English literature, and a
farniliarity with the poets and the great prose writers of the

276 Necrology.

English classic period, which was of life-long assistance to
him in the formation of a literary style.

An appointment as clerk in the Secretary of State's
office in iSsotook him to Boston in opening manhood,
and for three years he was a resident of that city, engaged
during such time as he could take from his duties at the
State House in the study of law, for he intended to make
the legal profession his own. A severe illness sent him to
his father's home in 1853 and left him with a determination
to enter the ministry. But continued invalidism so limited
his strength and his opportunities for study that it was not
till four years later, in August, 1857, that he received
licensure to preach. The year 1858 he spent at Andover
Theological Seminary, and at the close of that year he was
called to his first pastorate at Portland, Maine, where he
continued till ill health compelled the relinquishment of
his charge in 1866. From his coming to Portland he took
a prominent part, not only in the religious affairs of the
State, but in the interests of the city in the stirring days
immediately preceding and accompanying the Civil war.
In 1868, with only partially restored health, and compelled to
preach sitting in a chair, he entered upon the pastorate of the
First Church in New Haven, a position which he occupied
till 1873, when ill health once more laid him aside. Several
years spent in travel in Europe and in residence and partial
ministerial service at Battleboro, Vermont, so far restored
his health that he was able in February, 1879, *° undertake
the pastorate of the First Church in Hartford, in the
active service of which he remained till 1892, and as Pastor
Emeritus of which he continued until the time of his

Necrology. 277

death. In 1896 he suffered a severe shock of paralysis,
which left him speechless and partially helpless, but men-
tally unaffected and interested in all current events till his
death.

Dr. Walker was a man of many interests. Conspicuous
as a preacher, respected and beloved as pastor, he found
time for much historical study, some fruits of which he
was able to publish. He had a decided interest in all that
had to do with the Colonial story of New England. The
larger concerns of the community in which he lived, espe-
cially the preservation of its memories, greatly interested
him, and, though not a native of Hartford or even of
Connecticut, few citizens of the State have more thoroughly
identified themselves with its interests or have felt a deeper
affection for its memories, its traditions and its welfare
than did Dr. Walker.

On September 14, 1900, Elisha Turner died suddenly, at
the ripe age of seventy-eight, in Torrington, where he had,
for many years, made his home, and of which place he had
long been a foremost citizen.

Torrington was not Mr. Turner's birthplace. He was
born in New London on January 20, 1822, and received
there in that then active seaport, his first business training.
From New London he removed to Waterbury in 1846 to
engage in manufacture, and there, in 1848, he formed the
Waterbury Hook & Eye Company. In 1864 he removed
to Torrington, and organized the Turner & Clark Manu-
facturing Company, now known as the Turner & Seymour
Manufacturing Company, of which he remained president
till his death. The business interests of western Connecti-

278 Necrology.

cut found in him a most efficient supporter and counsellor.
For a quarter of a century previous to his death he was
vice president of the Coe Brass Company ; he was a direc-
tor of the- American Brass Company, the Torrington
Manufacturing Company, the Miller Manufacturing Com-
pany, the president of the Torrington Savings Bank, a
director in the Torrington Water Company, to the organi-
zation of which he contributed more largely than any other
resident of Torrington, a director in the Brooks National
Bank, and the president of the Torrington Club.

Mr. Turner's interest in all that went to develop the
religious and moral forces of the community in which he
was a foremost citizen was conspicuous. All the churches
of Torrington were the beneficiaries of his generous and
broad-minded liberality, and the Young Men's Christian
Association and the Public Library equally attracted his
benevolences. Sincerely desirous to advance the interests
of the place of his residence in every way in his power, he
was a leader in the maintenance of every instrumentality
for the betterment of the community in which he lived,
and no less ready and eager to support with his counsel
and with his means all worthy enterprises that looked
toward its industrial and commercial development.

Mr. Turner's interests outside of the town of his resi-
dence led him to become a member of the Union League
Club of New York, of the American Geographical Society,
of the Connecticut Historical Society, of the New London
Historical Society, and of the Sons of the American
Revolution, as well as of the Society of Colonial Wars.

A conspicuous evidence of the esteem in which he was

Necrology. 279

regarded in the town of his residence was the memorial
service held in commemoration of him on September i6th,
in which his fellow-citizens freely expressed their sense of
his worth and their high regard for his character and his
services.

Personally, Mr. Turner was a man of very simple tastes,
of great kindliness, of high veracity, and of intense aver-
sion to all that was degrading and impure, a lover of his
fellowmen, a lover of books, of pictures, and of the simple
pleasures of social intercourse, and a strong, useful citizen,
who did much to build up the community in which he
lived, and whose loss there is sincerely mourned.

A little more than a month after the death of Mr.
Turner, on October 20, 1900, another member of our
Society, Charles Dudley Warner, of Hartford, greatly
honored and beloved, was suddenly called from us. Mr.
Warner had been apparently in his usual health, and had
just left the house where he had been lunching in the
familiar circle of long-established friendship, when death
came to him, without severe struggle or distress, summon-
ing him thus from the useful activities with which his life
was so fully occupied.

Mr. Warner was born in Plainfield, Massachusetts, on
September 12, 1829. From his father, Justice Warner, he
inherited not merely a high and conscientious strenuous-
ness of character, due to Puritan heredity and conviction,
but a decided literary taste, which the meagre opportunities
of the rural New England home gave comparatively scanty
but eagerly welcomed opportunities to gratify. The early
death of his father led to his removal, at the age of twelve,

280 Necrology.

to Cazenovia, New York, where he was trained under the
guardianship of an uncle, and prepared for college at the
Oneida Conference Seminary. From that excellent fitting
school he passed to Hamilton College, where he graduated
in 1851, and at school and college he enjoyed the warm
friendship of one who was to be his life-long acquaintance
and associate, Senator Joseph R. Hawley. Mr. Warner's
literary tastes were already conspicuous by the time of his
graduation, and he had already begun to write for the
magazines, but for over a year, in 1853 and 1854, he served
as a surveyor in Missouri, then on the western frontier of
civilization. These experiences, which brought him into
contact with men and life amid sturdy pioneer conditions,
were followed by a course in law at the University of
Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1856, and by his
establishment as a lawyer in Chicago. From Chicago he
was summoned by his friend, Mr. Hawley, in 1860, to take
part in the editorial con duel: of the Press, an active repub-
lican paper which Mr. Hawley had established in Hartford;
and when the Civil war took Mr. Hawley from Hartford
in the military service of his country, Mr. Warner assumed
full charge of the paper and conducted it successfully
through the trying years of that great conflict. In 1867
the Press was merged in the Hartford Courant, and a
connection with that ancient Connecticut newspaper was
established which Mr. Warner continued until his death.
In 1884 Mr. Warner became one of the editors of Har-
per's Magazine, a service which he continued for a number
of years. His first conspicuous contribution to literature,
aside from the articles which have already been mentioned,

Necrology. 281

was a series of sketches which he prepared for the Courant
in 1870 and published that year in a volume under the
title of " My Summer in a Garden," a book so attractive,
humorous and every way delightful that it brought its
author immediate recognition. The literary activity thus
begun, Mr. Warner continued until his death, with what
success is known to us all. A mere mention of the titles
of a few of his books — his " Saunterings," his " Backlog
Studies," his " Baddeck and That Sort of Thing," his
" Winter on the Nile," his " In the Levant," " In the
Wilderness," his "Captain John Smith," and "Washing-
ton Irving," his "Roundabout Journeys," his volumes
entitled "Their Pilgrimage," and "On Horseback," his
" People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote," and " Relation
of Literature to Life," and his novels : " The Golden
House," the "Little Journey," and "That Fortune," are
among the most delightful and promise to be among the
most permanently cherished contributions to American
literature that New England has offered during the last
thirty years.

But no one who has known Mr. Warner as has been
our privilege in this Society of which he was a member,
can fail to have been impressed with his character as a
man. Cordial, genial, friendly, sincere, he carried with
him always the weight of an earnest, impressive person-
ality. One felt in meeting him not merely the charm of
his urbanity, the geniality of his friendliness, and the
refreshing stimulus of his wit. One felt that one was
touching a nature interested profoundly in the deep things
of life, anxious to advance the welfare of his fellowmen,

282 Necrology.

and weighing moral values at their true worth. Mr.
Warner, one felt instinctively, with all his kindness, had
no tolerance for sham or pretense, or mere frivolity ; but
he looked at the world, of which he was so charming a
citizen, with very kindly eyes, and with an earnest desire
to pierce through its shows and its seemings, and to wel-
come and cherish all that was good within. The reforma-
tory and humanitarian impulses, conspicuous in Mr.
Warner, were well illustrated in his interest in Prison
Reform, an interest which led him to give labor and
painstaking effort for the betterment of our methods of
treating criminals, and the improvement of prison admin-
istration to secure the moral advantage of those under-
going punishment as well as the protection of the commu-
nity at large.

Mr. Warner's interest, not merely in men and literature,
but in travel, and in the study of social and economic
conditions, was marked and resulted in some of the most
valuable of his books, descriptive not merely of the
western and southern portions of our own country, but
of Mexico, Egypt and the Orient.

A broaded-minded, noble-hearted, honorable, sympa-
thetic, highly gifted man, his going from us has left not
merely the city of his residence and the State of his
adoption, but the whole circle of American letters and
philanthropy, the poorer for his loss.

The next member of our Society to be taken from us
was long an honored resident of New Haven, — Edward
Elbridge Salisbury, who died on February 5, 1901, having
reached the advanced age of nearly eighty-five years.

Necrology. 283

Professor Salisbury was a native of Boston, having been
born there on April 6, 1814, of English, Dutch and
Huguenot descent. A period of preparation for college
at home and at the famous Latin School in Boston was
followed by entrance into Yale College, as it was then
called, and his graduation in the class of 1832. The
reception of his bachelor's degree was succeeded by a year
of special studies, and by a three years' theological course
in the Yale Divinity School ; but a life of scholarly investi-
gation proved more congenial to Mr. Salisbury's tastes
than the ministry and he was never ordained. Soon after
the completion of his theological training he went to
Europe, where he spent nearly four years, and where he
commenced those studies of Sanskrit and Arabic at Paris
and at Berlin which he was to have the honor of introduc-
ing to the circle of American scholarship. In 1841 he
was invited to a professorship in Arabic and Sanskrit at
Yale, and his enthusiasm for the subjects to which he had
devoted himself led him to interest others in their pursuit,
and made him largely useful in the early history and
development of the American Oriental Society. The
nature of the topics in which he gave instruction, and,
perhaps, his own disinclination to the labors of the class
room, made his students always comparatively few in
number, but conspicuous among them were two men no
less influential in the history of Yale than James Hadley
and William D. Whitney. It was characteristic of Pro-
fessor Salisbury's generous and unselfish interest in the
welfare of the college of which he was so distinguished a
son, as well as of his own preference of the life of a

284 Necrology.

student to the labor of instruction, that, in 1854, he handed
over to his friend and pupil, Professor Whitney, the chair
in Sanskrit which had been established for him, and not
merely made a place thus for one of the most distinguished
of American scholars, but provided from his own means
for the endowment of the professorship which he thus
relinquished to other hands. Professor Salisbury's interest
in Yale was always conspicuous and was manifested in
many ways, notably by his generous gifts to the Library, to
the Art School, and to the University in many of its serious
exigencies.

For half a century past Professor Salisbury has been an
honored resident of New Haven, living the life of a good
citizen, a cultivated and scholarly gentleman. As his
friend, Professor Hoppin, well said of him, writing shortly
after his death : " Few excelled Professor Salisbury in
exquisite courtesy, both of heart and manners, a thorough
gentlemen, not of the old or new, but the best, school.
He was a cheerful and most interesting talker, using (as in
his almost perfect style of writing) not many, but well
chosen words, words long to be remembered. He was a
teacher, a counsellor, a loyal friend, his house in more than
the Castilian sense was the house of his friends, and his
hospitality was unbounded." With these words written
by one who was for years his friend and neighbor, we may
well express the character of our honored associate, whose
death has removed a striking, gifted, and original figure
from our membership.

Ezekiel Hayes Trowbridge, of New Haven, the next
of our membership to pass away, died on November

Necrology. 285

30, 1901. Mr. Trowbridge was born in New Haven on
March 22, 1841, — the son of an eminent man of business
in that city, whose name he bore. The family from which
he sprang is one long and honorably known for commer-
cial leadership in the New Haven community, and it was
as sixth in descent from a New Haven soldier of Colonial
days, Lieutenant Thomas Trowbridge of the New Plaven
Troop, who served with that command under Captain
William Russell in King Philip's war, that Mr. Trow-
bridge became a member of the Society of Colonial
Wars.

Mr. Trowbridge early entered the service of the old firm
of H. Trowbridge's Sons, of which his father was a mem-
ber. Here he was trained to familiarity with the West
India trade in which the firm was engaged ; and into part-
nership relations with the firm he ultimately entered, — a
connection continued till the expiration of the partnership
by limitation in 1886. So closely associated with his
father as to be almost identified with him in business
interests, Mr. Trowbridge shared with him in the gradual
transfer of his business undertakings from the foreign ship-
ping trade to railroad, banking and commercial enterprises
nearer home. This close association in business with his
father continued until the death of the latter in 1893 ; and
since then Mr. Trowbridge devoted himself to the manage-
ment of the large property interests which he -and his
father had jointly built up, and of which his father's demise
had left him in sole charge.

His business talents and his extensive share in the com-
mercial life of the city where he lived brought him many

286 Necrology.

positions of trust, responsibility and honor. Thus, he
served as a director of the old New Haven National Bank,
and of its younger associate the Second National Bank.
He was on the managing boards of the New Haven Gas
Light Company, the New Haven Water Company, the
Fair Haven & Westville Railroad Company, the Winches-
ter Avenue Railroad Company, and the New England
Street Railway Company. He was vice president of the
Boston & New York Air Line Railroad Company, and a
member of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce. In
these various posts he showed himself the faithful and
efficient man of business.

Mr. Trowbridge had a hearty interest in the welfare of
the city where he lived. He gave of his means to foster
its charities and to increase its attractiveness. He contrib-
uted generously to the erection of the maternity ward of
the New Haven Hospital, and he gave to Grace Hospital.
He aided in the construction of the handsome building
occupied by the Young Men's Christian Association. He
was much interested in the Center Church, of which he
had been a member since 1864, and he gave to it, in
memory of his father, the fine window over the pulpit
representing Reverend John Davenport preaching to the
first settlers on New Haven soil. He was an active and
generous member of the committee of the Society con-
nected with the Center Church, and he remembered all
these interests in his will. He built and presented to the
city the Trowbridge Drive that adds so much to the beauty
and accessibility of East Rock Park.

Mr. Trowbridge was a genial and companionable man,

Necrology. 287

and his welcome association with others is attested by his
membership in such organizations, outside the Society of
Colonial Wars, as the Quinnipiack and the Ansantawae
Clubs, the New Haven Lawn Club, the New Haven
Country Club and the Union League Club of New York
City. It was at his summer home in Litchfield in the
September before his decease that Mr. Trowbridge was
seized with the illness that proved fatal after some weeks
of suffering. His wife, who before their marriage was
Miss Catharine Allen Quincy, and three children survived
him.

The next inroad upon our number was occasioned by
the death of the Honorable John Henry Hall in Hartford
on June 25, 1902. Mr. Hall's connection with our Society
was of but brief duration, he having been admitted a mem-
ber in March of the year of his death. But during the
short time that he was with us he had shown an a<5tive
interest in the welfare of our association, and had been
one of the committee to whose labors the success of the
dinner of 1902 was due.

Mr. Hall was born in Portland, Conn., March 24, 1849.
He traced his ancestry back to John Hall, who was
admitted a freeman at Boston in 1635, an<^ became one of
the proprietors of Hartford in 1639, removing thence to
Middletown before 1654. John Flail's grandson, Samuel
Hall, settled, in 1719, in East Middletown, now known as
Portland, and the ancestors of the subject of this sketch
continued to reside there until after his birth: His father,
Alfred Hall, was a member of the first class that entered
Trinity College. After preparatory studies in the schools

288 Necrology.

of his native Portland, at Chase's School in Middletown,
and at the Episcopal Academy of Cheshire, John Henry
Hall entered the service of Sturgis, Bennet & Company, a
firm of importers of tea and coffee in New York City.
In their employ he remained for five years. But, in
December, 1877, he was once more back in Portland, and
now became associated in the firm of T. R. Pickering &
Company, manufacturers of the " Pickering governor."
For many years he was president of this corporation, the
name of which was changed to that of the Pickering Gov-
ernor Company. In 1884, he became President of the
Shaler & Hall Quarry Company, engaged in mining the
brown stone for which Portland is famous. Four years
later, in 1888, he became General Manager of the Colt
Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company of Hartford,
and removed his residence to that city. In the services of
this company he steadily rose, becoming its vice president,
and being chosen, in 1891, its president and manager, an
office which he held at the time of his death.

Mr. Hall's interest in the business enterprises of Hart-
ford was wide. He assisted in the organization of the
Hartford Board of Trade and was one of its original
directors. He was a member of the boards of control of
the Phoenix Insurance Company, the Phoenix Mutual Life
Insurance Company, the Hartford National Bank, the
Dime Savings Bank and the Fidelity Company. Before
his removal to Hartford, Mr. Hall declined political office
and was always reluctant to accept the nominations which
were offered to him by the Democratic party with which
he was actively associated. In 1894, however, he was

Necrology. 289

chosen to the State Senate and served the First District
in the Legislature for the session of 1895. In 1891 he
was appointed one of the Board of Water Commissioners
of the City of Hartford, an office which he held until
1897.

Mr. Hall's social associations were wide and varied. He
was interested in yachting, and was a member of the New
York, Larchmont and New Haven Yacht Clubs. He
belonged to the Hartford Club and to the Manhattan Club
of New York City. His devotion to Freemasonry was
conspicuous, being at the time of his death a Mason of the
Thirty-Second Degree and a member of St. John Lodge,
of the Pythagoras Chapter, of the Wolcott Council and
Washington Commandery, Knights Templar. Beside his
membership in the Society of Colonial Wars, he was one
of the Sons of the American Revolution. The advance-
ment of the Episcopal Church of which he was an adherent
also claimed his earnest interest, and at the time of his
death he was Senior Warden of the Church of the Good
Shepherd.

Mr. Hall married, on February 9, 1870, Miss Sarah G.
Loines of New York City, who survived him with two
children, a son and a daughter. His death removes one
whose association we should gladly have enjoyed and who
filled a place of eminence and usefulness in the city of his
residence and the commonwealth whose interest he had
served.

The Honorable Leverett Brainard, of Hartford, died on
July 2, 1902. Mr. Brainard traced the descent by which
he had a place in this Society to Quartermaster Nathaniel
19

290 Necrology.

Foote, of King Philip's war. Our late associate was born
on February 13, 1828, and his parents were Amaziah and
Huldah (Foote) Brainard of Colchester, a town of which
Nathaniel Foote had been one of the early settlers. The
father was a farmer, and the boy's youthful days were
spent in that good school of thrift and industry, an old-
fashioned New England farm. The practical education
thus acquired was supplemented by the teaching of the
village school, and, as he grew older, of Bacon Academy
in his native Colchester. But his father died when the
boy was thirteen,, and the added burden of responsibility
which came to the oldest son in a fatherless household
was laid on his young shoulders. Anxious, like many
another New England country boy, to go from the farm
into the larger world of business, he went to Pittsburg
about the time of the attainment of his majority and was
for two years employed in life insurance. Though he
returned to the Colchester home, the experience thus
acquired was of permanent value, and gave him a life-long
interest in insurance ; and, doubtless in part as its conse-
quence, he was given the post of secretary of the City
Fire Insurance Company of Hartford in 1853. Thence-
forward Hartford was his home. But though thus associ-
ated in one of the insurance interests of his adopted city,
the most important business relation by which he was
there known was initiated in January, 1858, when he
entered into partnership with Messrs. Newton Case and
James Lockwood. The firm of printers and publishers of
which he was the junior partner then bore the name of
Case, Lockwood & Company, — a designation which was

Necrology. 291

transformed into Case, Lockwood & Brainard in 1868, and
again exchanged for the Case, Lockwood & Brainard
Company, in 1874. It is a corporation long and hon-
orably known as one of the great printing establishments
of the United States, and Mr. Brainard's energy and
business sagacity has largely contributed to its success.

As Mr. Brainard grew into the Hartford business circle
his range of business interests constantly widened till at
the time of his death he was connected with many corpor-
ations. Thus, he was of the directorate of the New York,
New Haven & Hartford Railroad, and of the Hartford
& New York Transportation Company. His interest in
insurance was exemplified by his presence in the governing
boards of the JEtna. Life Insurance Company, the yEtna
Indemnity Company, the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspec-
tion and Insurance Company, and the Connecticut General
Life Insurance Company. He was also a trustee of the
Scottish Union and National Insurance Company. Mr.
Brainard's business judgment led to his association in the
directorate of the ^Etna National Bank, the United States
Bank, and the Security Company of Hartford; while other
business interests were illustrated in his presidency of the
Hartford Paper Company, and of the Burr Index Com-
pany, as well as his directorship in the Hartford Faience
Company, and the Western Automatic Screw Company.
Hartford recognized his business eminence by making him
a director of its Board of Trade ; and his standing in that
branch of industry in which he had made himself eminently
a leader was exhibited in his presidency of the Employers
Printers Association of Connecticut.

292 Necrology.

Mr. Brainard was a man of strong political sympathies
and was always a Republican. Though no very ambitious
seeker for political preferment, he was not averse to the
satisfactions and distinctions of public office. The people
of Hartford made him a member of the Common Council
of the city in 1866. From 1872 to 1876, when the new
Capitol was in process of erection, he was one of the
Hartford Park Commissioners. He represented Hartford
in the lower house of the Legislature in 1884, and while
thus serving the State was appointed chairman of the
Legislative Committee on Railroads. The year 1890 saw
his appointment as a representative of Connecticut on the
Committee of the World's Fair, held at Chicago three
years later, and he further served the interests of that
great exposition as chairman of the Committee on Manu-
factures. He served Hartford with credit as its mayor
from 1892 to 1894.

Mr. Brainard's long life in Hartford led him also into
connection with many social, religious and benevolent
interests. A Congregationalist in his religious preferences,
he was associated for many years with the Pearl Street
Church, leaving it for the First Church only when its
removal to its present home on Farmington Avenue ren-
dered it difficult of access for him. He was a member of
the Hartford Club, the Republican Club of Hartford, the
Farmington Country Club, the Hartford Golf Club, the
Hartford Yacht Club, the Veteran City Guard of Hart-
ford, and the Hartford Lodge of Masons. His member-
ship in the Society of Colonial Wars we now commem-
orate.

Necrology. 293

Yet with all this large variety of social connections and
interests, Mr. Brainard's tastes were essentially home lov-
ing, and his spirit modest, somewhat reserved and shy.
His home at Hartford, and in the summer at Fenwick,
was always the center of his chief interests and satisfac-
tions. He was married, on November 29, 1866, to Miss
Mary J. Bulkeley. Of his ten children, five were living
at the time of his decease, and the loss of those who had
gone before him and whose presence and promise had been
a delight to him was the keenest sorrow he was called to
endure. His kindliness of disposition shone not merely
in his home life, but in his relations to those in his employ,
and his natural generosity led to his election to the direc-
torship of the Charity Organization of his home city.
He was one of the strong, industrious, courageous, and
upright men of business that a community can ill afford
to lose.

The last of our associates to be taken from us was
Major-General William Buel Franklin, who died on March
8, 1903. Born in York, Pennsylvania, on February 27,
1823, graduated from the United States Military Academy
at West Point in 1843, at the head of a class of which
General Grant was also a member, he served with distinc-
tion in the war with Mexico, and rose to national emi-
nence in the great drama of the Civil war. Retiring
from the army in 1866, he was thenceforward identified
with the business interests of Hartford, where he was
beloved and honored till his death. But your historian
refrains from any sketch of his services and honors in this
place, since in another part of this volume a tribute is paid

294 Necrology,

to his memory by one who by participation in the great
struggle in which General Franklin bore so important a
part, by personal friendship and affectionate admiration, is
admirably fitted to bring before us the story and the char-
acter of our eminent associate.

SERVICES OF MEMBERS OF THE CONNECTICUT
SOCIETY IN THE WAR WITH SPAIN

READ BY THE

HISTORIAN OF THE CONNECTICUT SOCIETY,

AT THE GENERAL COURT, MAY 3, 1899

HE year just closed has been a very eventful one
in our country's annals. It has been in truth a
year of colonial wars, not in the old significance
which that designation bears in the title of our Society,
meaning that the wars were fought when these states were
colonies, but in the newer sense that the year has brought
us at least the promise of colonies as the spoils of war.
And in the contest of the year just closed, waged in large
part with a foe whom our Colonial ancestors encountered
in battle in their own day, fellow members of our Connec-
ticut Society have borne their honorable share. It is but
just to them and to ourselves that we should briefly recall
their names and services.

To attempt no other rating here than the familiar mem-
bership number on our roll, the first to be mentioned
among our associates who have rendered aid to this country
in the army of the United States during the past year is
Lieutenant John Edward Heaton (No. u). Lieutenant
Heaton enlisted on June 30, 1898, and was commissioned
as First Lieutenant in the company of volunteers raised
for the service of the United States by the New Haven
company of the Governor's Foot Guard. He served
chiefly as a recruiting and drill officer, and was honorably
discharged on January 25, 1899.

The second on our roll to represent us in the army is
Captain Charles Dyer Parkhurst (No. 36). At the begin-
ning of the war with Spain, Captain Parkhurst was placed
in command of Light Battery F, of the Second Regiment
of Artillery. With his battery he made the Santiago cam-

298 Services of Members in the War with Spain.

paign under General Shafter, and bore his full part in the
memorable battles of July ist and 2d ; being twice wounded
on the day last mentioned, in the struggle for the posses-
sion of San Juan Hill. As a consequence of his conduct
in this engagement he was nominated by the President to
the Senate to rank as Major by brevet in the Regular
Army from July i, 1898, "for gallantry in battle."

Third on our list of membership to share the fortunes
of our army during the past year is Colonel Augustus
Cleveland Tyler (No. 87). Colonel Tyler, as commander
of the Third Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, was mustered
into the United States service at Camp Haven, Niantic,
on July 6, 1898. There he remained on duty till Septem-
ber gth, when he was transferred with his regiment to
Camp Meade, Penn. After more than two months of
service in the Pennsylvania camp just named, the regiment
of which he was the head was sent, November 15, 1898,
to Camp Morris, South Carolina. After serving there
some weeks Colonel Tyler felt compelled to lay down his
command. His resignation was accepted, and he was
mustered out of service on January 31, 1899.

A fourth member of our Society to bear an active part
in the service of the country is Dr. Leonard Ballou Almy
(No. 101). At the outbreak of the war Dr. Almy was
Lieutenant-Colonel and Medical Director, retired, of the
Connecticut National Guard. On May 20, 1898, wholly
without solicitation on his part, Dr. Almy was commis-
sioned by the President, Major and Chief Surgeon in the
Volunteer Army of the United States, and was assigned
to duty as Chief Surgeon of the Second Division of the

Services of Members in the War with Spain. 299

Second Army Corps on the 7th of June following. In
the discharge of the duties to which he was thus designated
he served at Camp Alger, Virginia, till August 3d, when
he began a march across Virginia with his division, reach-
ing Thoroughfare Gap on August 10. Two days later he
was relieved from service with the Second Army Corps
and sent to Montauk Point, N. Y., where he reported to
the commander of the Fifth Corps for duty in the General
Hospital established in that camp to receive the invalid
soldiers brought home from Cuba. On August 20 he was
appointed Chief Surgeon in charge of the Annex Hospital
at the Montauk camp — a hospital which was built and
equipped under his command. That hospital was emptied
on September 24, and on September 26 Dr. Almy, whose
services had been protracted and laborious in the extreme,
was sent home on sick leave. He was honorably dis-
charged from the service on October 5, 1898, when the
Fifth Corps was disbanded.

Next among our associates to serve in the army is Cap-
tain Andrew Goodrich Hammond (No. 129). At the
outbreak of hostilities Captain Hammond was with the
Eighth United States Cavalry. On May 26, 1898, he was
appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the First Connecticut
Volunteer Infantry, and served with that regiment till
October 31. During this period he was in command of
the camp at Plum Island from May 28 to July 15, and was
stationed at Camp Alger, Virginia, from July 18 to Sep-
tember 7. Being honorably mustered out of the volunteer
service on October 21, 1898, he resumed his command in
the Regular Army, and has served with the Army of Occu-

300 Services of Members in the War with Spain.

pation at Nuevitas and Puerto Principe in Cuba since
January 30 of this year.

The members of this Society thus far enumerated served
in the army, but our associates have performed no less faith-
ful and honorable service in the navy during the past year.

First in date of membership with us is Lieutenant
Edward Vilette Raynolds (No. 79), who was commissioned
Lieutenant in the United States navy on June 22, 1898 ;
and after commanding the Monitor "Manhattan" from
July 2oth to September 3d, was honorably discharged on
September 8th of the same year.

Dr. Brownlee Robertson Ward (No. 158), on our roll,
saw service in widely separated waters. The outbreak of
the war found him a Passed Assistant Surgeon on the
" San Francisco," stationed in Massachusetts Bay, but he
was speedily ordered to the Ram " Katahdin," where he
served till September, 1898. In the last month mentioned,
he was transferred to the gunboat "Bennington," on the
Pacific. With her he remained at Honolulu till January
7th of this year, serving during part of his stay in port as
a volunteer surgeon in the Army Hospital ; and with the
" Bennington " he shared in taking possession of Wake's
Island in the name of the United States. From Wake's
Island the " Bennington's " cruise took her to Guam, in
the Ladrones ; and while there Dr. Ward made reports on
the stores on the Island, and on the prevailing diseases
there to be found, his attention being especially directed
to the disease of leprosy. The "Bennington's" destina-
tion, in her voyage across the Pacific, was Manila Bay,
where she is now stationed and where she has borne her
share in the recent contests.

Services of Members in the War with Spain. 301

A similar wide extent of service, with even more of the
excitement of battle, fell to the lot of our recently elected
associate, Lieutenant Roger Welles, Jr. (No. 175). Just
before the beginning of actual hostilities Lieutenant Welles
was ordered from the Coast Survey Steamer " McArthur,"
in San Francisco Bay, to the Steamer "WTasp," in New
York Harbor. On the "Wasp," which had been the
yacht " Columbia," Lieutenant Welles was executive
officer. Ordered early in May to the north coast of Cuba,
the little "Wasp" shared in the " Gussie Expedition,"
which attempted a landing near Cabanas. She made the
long voyage to Cienfuegos with dispatches for Admiral
Schley. In June she helped to convoy General Shafter's
army to Daiquiri, and did picket duty in Guantanamo Bay.
On July 21, in company with the " Leyden," she attacked
and captured the Spanish cruiser " Jorge Juan " in Nipe
Bay. This feat accomplished, the " Wasp " sailed imme-
diately to Porto Rico, where she was conspicuously instru-
mental in securing the surrender of Ponce. Thenceforward,
till September 8th, the " Wasp " was on duty in Porto
Rican waters, until, her work done, she was enabled to
return home, and went out of commission at Norfolk,
Virginia, on September 27, 1898.

Certainly the record of the representatives of this Society
during the recent war is alike honorable to themselves and
to the memory of the Colonial soldiers from whom they
trace their descent. It is a pleasure to be able to note
that, though the war brought wounds to one of them, it
cost none of them that highest sacrifice, his life.

JOURNAL OF JOSEPH SMITH, OF GROTON

BORN DECEMBER 25, 1735 DIED NOVEMBER i, 1816

COMMUNICATED BY

WELCOME A. SMITH, ESQ.
OF NORWICH

|HE following record was made by Joseph Smith,
born in Groton, Connecticut, December 25, 1735.
He married Zerviah Breed, of Stonington, Con-
necticut, March 25, 1762, and shortly after moved to
Montville, Connecticut, where he died November i, 1816.

WELCOME A. SMITH,

NORWICH, CONNECTICUT.
APRIL 16, 1896.

Groton June ye 5th. Domi. 1758 then I sot ought to go
a solgering and went to newlondon and on ye
7th. we Imbarqued on bord the Sloop Rebeckah
we tryed to go ought but could not and on ye
8th. we went ought and returned again and on
ye gth. we sailed ought and was abliged to
return and on ye i ith. we sailed ought and on
ye 1 2th. we returned again and on ye i4th. we
sailed ought and on ye i6th. we arrived at
Newyork the same day we Imbarqued on bord
another sloop and on ye i7th. we sailed for
albony and on ye i8th. at night we arrived at
Greenbush and on ye igth. we sailed acros the
river to alboney and all of us went ashore and
went into the barroks and incampt there till ye
22nd. then we marched from albony to half-
moon and incampt there that night and ye
23rd. we marched from half moon to stillwaters
and incampt there that night and on ye 24th.

306 Journal of Joseph Smith, of Groton.

we marched from Stillwaters to Scenetoge and
incampt there that night and on ye 25th. we
marched from Scenetoge to fortedward and
incampt there till ye 27th. then we marched
from fortedward to Lake George and incampt
there

July ye 5th. we Imbarqued on bord our battows and went
up the lake and toward night we went ashore
and lay there till abought ten of the Clock at
night then we went on bord our battows and
went up the lake again and on ye 6th. abought
ten of the Clock in the fore noon we all landed
well abought 5m or 6 miles on this side fort
tinondinoge and marched on with speed toward
sd fort but before we came there we met with
a Party of french and Indians and ingaged them
and kild a considarable many of them and took
about 1 60 of them Prisenors then we came
back to where we landed and incampt there
that night and the next Day till night then we
marched up to the french sawml and incampt
there that night and about nine of the Clock
in the morning on ye 8th. day a Party of men
went up upon a hill some distance from the
fort to gard an ingenear for him to take a Plan
of the ground around the fort to know where
to Place the artelery then we came back again
to the french sawmill and about noon the
rangers and the ragelars yansyblews and the
Rhodeislandars and mohex lade seeage to the

Journal of Joseph Smith, of Groton. 307

brestwork there ingagement was so hot they
Cept a Continual fireing for about two or three
hours they held the ingagement till night and
then was abliged to retreat back from the
brestwork we came down about three or four
miles on this side the fort and incampt there
that night and on ye gth. about nine of the
Clock in the morning we stove to Peeses about
150 barrils of flower and then came Down to
where we landed and imbarqued on bord our
battoes and came Down the lake to lake george
and incampt there

July ye 2oth. ten men was going from the lake to the
halfwaybrook to gard a Post and the Enemy
fell upon them and kild nine of them and one
got in at the halfwaybrook then there went
ought a Party of men from the halfwaybrook
and the Enemy beat them back then there
sallyed ought another Party of men and Drove
them of

July ye 23rd. an a Party of men went Down to the half
halfwaybrook to gard teams and waggans and I
went amongst the rest and was taken sick with
the fever and agoe and traviled up to the lake
in the rain and that night was thken with the
Pluriese and intermiting fever and hild me till
ye 28th. and then the Pluriese turned and the
fever abated

July ye 28th. a nomber of teams was going from fort
Edward to the lake and the french and Indians

308 Journal of Joseph Smith, of Groton.

fell upon them and kild 1 7 men and five women
and 137 oxen they Cut of the oxens horns and
Cut ought there tongues and went of

August ye 5th. some part of our regement marched from
the lake to fort Edward and on ye 6th. the
Rest of the regement marched Down all but
the sick and there tenders there was Sargt.
Samuel Prentis Corp. timothy Cots and I that
was sick and David hilliard and Stephen pren-
tice was our tenders

August ye Qth. I rode Down from the lake to fort
Edward in a cart

August ye 8th. majer Rogers and majer Putmon was
coming in from a scout to 10 Days and majer
Rogers and another offissor shot at a mark for
a wager upon which the Enemy Discovered
them and Enambushed them majer Putmon
being in front and majer Rogers being in the
rear with about Six hundred men with them
the Enemy fired the first they fought for about
two hours and then beat the Enemy of as soon
as the nuse came in at fort Edward our rege-
ment sallyed ought to help them in they went
ought about three of the Clock in the after-
noon and came in just before the brake of the
Day majer Putmon and Leut. trase is mising and
nobody knows what is become of them there
was about 80 men kild wounded and mising

August ye i2th. Colo Fitch received a letter from majer
Putmon which gave an account that he was

Journal of Joseph Smith, of Groton. 309

taken and carried into tinondinoge fort and
Leiut trasy with him and was both Prisinors
there

August ye 28th. there was great rejoiceing at this Place
and at the lake they fired with there Cannon
and with there small arms three rounds apeace
we had a yeal of rum a man and a barril of
bear to a Company we drank that and that
night we made a great Bunnfire and on ye
29th. we was cleard from feateags and had a
pound of flower and a pound of fresh beaf to a
man in order for to keep a thansgiving

Sept ye nth. twenty fore of our regement that was sick
rode Down from fort Edward to Albony or
Greenbush we came to Scenetoge on ye iith.
at night and stade there till ye i3th. then we
came Down the river to Stillwaters in Scows
and a few of the wellest of us came Down to
the three mile house that night and on ye i4th.
we Came Down three miles further and lay in
a hut that night and on ye i5th. we came
Down five miles further to a dutch house and
lay there that night and on ye i6th. we came
Down to the Point at halfmoon and on ye
1 7th. we came Down by water in scows to
alboney and stade there that night and on ye
1 8th. in the morning we came over the river to
Greenbush and amos marsh and Daniel Bennet
and I was stopt by the Doctor to tend the sick
we stade there till ye 22nd. Instant and the

3io

Journal of Joseph Smith, of Groton.

Doctor gave us a Pass and we came Down to
the halfway house and lay there that night and
on ye 23rd. we came Down to the Stone house
in Canterhook bounds and lay there that night
and on ye 24th. we came Down to Robutses
in Sherfield and tarried there that night and on
ye 25th. we came Down to George Palmers in
Norfork and on ye 26th. we came through the
Greenwoods and came to Incins in newharford
and tarried there that night and on ye 2 7th. we
came to harford town and tarried that night at
a tavern near the Statehouse and on ye 28th.
we came to Baldins in boltun and tarried there
that night and on ye 2gth. we Came to Liping-
wils in Norwich and tarried there that night
and on ye 3oth. and Last Day of Sept. I got
home in the year 1758

The names of the several towns or
through in my jorny from tinondinoge
these

Tinondinoge, . . i
Lakegeorge, ... 2
fort Edward, . . 3
Sceretoge, .... 4
Stillwaters, .... 5
halfmoon, .... 6
Alboney, 7

Greenbush, . .
Canterhook, . .

noblestown, . . 10
Sherfield, .... 1 1

Canaan, 12

norfork, 13

Torrinton, ... 14
Newharfort, . . 15
Simsbury, .... 1 6
Westdivition, . 1 7
Harfort, 18

Plases that I came
to Stonington are

Eastharfort, ... 19

Boltun, 20

Heborn, 21

Labanon Crank, 22

Labanon, 23

Norwich, 24

Groton, 25

Stonington, ... 26

DIARY OF EBENEZER DIBBLE,

ENSIGN IOTH Co. 30 REG'T CONNECTICUT TROOPS IN THE

YEAR 1759

ALSO

ENSIGN 4TH Co. 2D REG'T (COL. NATHAN WHITING) IN

1762

Between these dates he had been 2d Lieut, nth Co.
3d Reg't of State Militia in 1760

COPIED AND COMMUNICATED BY

T. S. WOOLSEY

[ON FRONT AND BACK COVERS.]

Ebenezer Dibble His Book Bought att
Crown Point ye 28th of Octr A D 1759
Price o: i :6

Ebenezer Dibble His Book Nowvember The
i day Ad 1759 writen at Crown Pint
By mee in our Tent

JHE original of this record of service in the Old
French War is in the possession of the village
Library of Cornwall in Litchfield Co. of this
State, and by the courtesy of the Library authorities its
publication here is permitted. The notes are most kindly
supplied by the Rev. E. C. Starr, pastor of the Congrega-
tional Church in Cornwall. The diarist, Ebenezer Dibble,
died in 1 784. A portion of the town still bears his family
name.

A D 1759.

May the 27 day — martch from Cornwall to Cannan
May 31.

to Green Bosh
June 3. on Command 6 days and nits to Gard oxen

at Sauers.
June 15. on feeteck [fatigue] 2 days from Fort Edw.

to the Lake to mend Rod.
June 20. to the Lake.

" martch from Fort Edward to Leake Gorge.

June 24. Mr Beebes* Text was Chronicals the 19 Chapt

and the 13 vers all day a fine Sermon.
June 29. Col. Whiten [Whiting] and Wostersf Ridg-

ments went to fier Platons and the Cannon was

fiered the sam day By gener. orders

* Rev. James Beebe, of Stratford, Chaplain of 3d Ct. Reg't.
f David Wooster, Col. 3d Ct. Reg't.

314 Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

July 2. on Command 5 tims at Lake Gorg.

" ye Indans fell on the Jersy Blus and kiled 7

men and wounded 2 and 18 was the party that

went out to git Bark for -
July 2. The foundasion of fort Gorg Laid this day

1759-
July 8. on Pickit with Capt. Witney*

July 10. The Reglars and Helanders went to the wods
in arms to Exersis the Jeneral led them to the
Camp at 10 a Clock the same day Lake Gorg
Ad 1759.

July 10. Capt Abram Aston a wagnor Received 36
strips at 1 1 Ridgments the hull was 396 for steel-
ing.

July 12. a Smart fite at the narows a Sir [Sargeant ?]
and one Indan wounded a Great nois with mr
Rodges.

July 13. a Reglar shot for dissarting.

" fyering a Cannan that was Beried Last fall

tok out know the chardg in all winter kild 2
horses and Brock one mans thie and sd Bol went
throw the Camp at Lak Gorg.

July 14. on Pickit 2 days.

" one of Lord hows Ridg shot for Dissertion at

Lake Gorg.

July 1 6. our Clark Jacob Kingsbery Died at Lake
Gorge and is Beryed there Ad 1759.

July 21. wee Embark for Ticonteroga

* Tarball Whitney, Capt. xoth Co., sd Reg't.

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 3 1 5

July 22. Sonday wee Landed and north (?) to the mils
and

July 22 Stephan Patterson* dyed at Lakegorg and is
Buried there.

July 23. Ticonteroga. wee martch to the mils and ye
frentch and indans came and fiered on us Briskly
and wounded som of us when wee was mak-
ing the Bridg to Bring our Cannan over to the
Brest work

July 24. wee was imployed in gitin of fashens [fascines]
to make a Battery in the Trentchs.

July 25 our Cannon Got to the front of our Ridgments
on wensday afternon.

July 26. Thirsday the frentch Left the fort and Blue up
the magzene at 1 1 a clock at night and the Can-
nan was Loded and smal arms all for a Snare.

July 26. I was on Gard Betwene the Brestwork and
the Saw mils and at 5 a Clock in the afternone
the Indans came & fel on oure Senteris and killed
one Hubbele and Shot one Dan\ throu the Shol-
der and kiled one Speak all of our Rid:gt

July 31. Crown Pint Disstroyed and Left By the
frentch they Left it sems as if they was in heast
By what they dow.

Aug 7. I got my Tent from Lake Gorg and Pitched
it this night, 1759.

Aug 8. a Teriable storm of Rane at Ticonteroga to day.

Aug 9. on Pickit at ye Lins

* Of Cornwall. f Abraham Dan, of Stamford.

316 Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

Aug 12. a smart storm of Rane at Ticonteroga 1759.
Sonday

Aug 13. on feeteck, Loving, Condutcker at the Bridg.

Aug 23. I Began to Read my Bibel throu in Corse

Aug 27 Heze ford* and william Percef went to fort
Gorg and Returnd on 29 instant

Aug 28 Last night 9 Regelers Brote up for to Goo for
Crown Pint for Triall Disart the Servus. a Party
sent out to fetch in thos that Shot the Kings —
2 offesers and 26 Sixty Privithes was 5 milsd from
ye Camp.

Aug 28 I Recived a very aboussive Letter from John
Allon this day 1759.

Aug 29. a teriable Beat for Revele this morning,
ticonteroga Col: Woster hes got his hous don
and Col Lyman his tent is Burnt this day

Aug 30. Capt Stevans of Cannan came heare this day
hes Gon for Crownpoint to see that place.

Ticonteroga August ye 30 day 1759 the fort
is in a fine way for of Repare ye Barracks is a
mending and the Sawmils Gos Exseding well the
Brig is almost don a very Lardg fort a Boulding
at Crown Pint the Dewty is very heard and is
like to be so for wee heave a Greate del to do.

Aug 30. at 7 a clock in the ater-known the Brig was
Lantch and went of well

Aug the 29 and 30 and the first day of Sept it was a
Teriabel Storm and wee Ly on Bad Ground

* Hezekiah Ford, of Cornwall. f Pierce, of Cornwall.

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 3 1 7

Sept 2. Sonday night Joseph Adams of our Company

came from Crown point & ses that he was Chased

By the Enemy unsertin sd Adams ses that they

Come within 30 Rods of the Brest work he run

well
Sept 4. a Teriabel Storm of Raine this day Griswold*

gind the Company at Ticonteroga I did not

Exspect to see him nomore when wee Left him

at Lake Gorg and came forward
Sept 6. the Skout that was with Leut. Lee of Goshen

Left him killed as the news was.
Sept 7 & 8. was Teriabel storm of Raine and wind stedy

all the time nit and day
Sept 15. Sonday Mr Bebys Tex was Hoseah 10 Chapt:

and 12 vers all day
Sept 20. Hubard and Old Cartee was flodg for steling

as follers h 30 c 24

Sept 21. our Chimnys Boult this day at Ticonteroga
Sept 23. a Storm of Raine day and night Sonday. a

spel of warm weather for the tim of yeare.
Sept 24. Cap* Whitny Got his hous don and our men

is well as common and Cros as Sin. Ticonteroga

I759-
Sept 29. Runals that taken in 1756 at Lak Gorg went

for horn this day 3 years in Captevity
Sept 30 a cold Storm of Rane
Oct i. on Gard at the Battos and Provision the Gard

that I had was Rank and fils was 23 of Lymans

and Wosters

Sin 2 and Cor 4

* Benjamin Griswold, of Cornwall.

318 Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

Oct 3. Let: Tibbels went on Bord of the Bridg this
day to goo to Sant Jons under the Command of
Cap1 Lorin Comdnt

Oct 3. very fogy and wet for ye seson

Oct 4. on Command to Rais a Store Hous - - Lentch
of it 92 fets and weth 39 and heait 34 fet

Oct 5 hot Talk of goo to Sant Jons as son as posabel
a Barracks 98 Long Breth 60 feats Stone
and one framd 173 fets Londg and 46 wide.
Le* Warker, one 190 fets Long and 50 wid
of Stons in Bes* (???) and a magezen 209 fets
Long and 30 wid all in small Roms and Cas-
ments [casemates] from End to End and Bom
prof

In the No East Corner of the fort a Lardg
Bak hous and 2 ovens sad hous is Bom prof
32 fet Long and 26 wid artch [arched] over.

Oct 7. a Remara-[kable] fodg [fog] this day as ever I
See. Mr Bebys Tex Luke 19 Chapt and 43 and
4. The vesel was Lantched this day 1 30 ton

Oct 8. orders to Goo to Crownpoint. landed at
Crown pint at 3 a clock at night

Oct 10. a fin day for work. Talk of Gooing to Sant
Jons.

Oct 1 1. the fleet set out to for Sant Jons at 6 a Clock
this morning it is a stormy day for the army is

3509
Oct 1 3. orders for all to Turn out to work it was never

Known But wee was favered with a wet Day a
Reiysing [reissueing] day it was

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 319

Oct 1 7. very cold

Oct 19. a cleare day

Oct 22. The Battows and Wheals Bots Came in this

day
Oct 24. The vesels came in this day a storm of 2 days

heare.
Oct 22. Ensn Smith of Cap* Meads Company was shot

in the hed and he dyed on the 25 day his Brans

Rin out
Oct 26. Cap* feris and Leu1 Prindel and Ens" Smith

of Magr Waterbery Company and 36 of our

Ridgm with 200 of the Provin to N° 4
Oct 27 our vesels and Bedow went out for to Rais the

vessels that the frentch Sunk that was theare
Oct 31. a Smart Cold day and som snow
Nov i. 1759. a smart Cold and a Great stire [stir] with

the Bostons Soldrs and Jersy Blus for horn and

are Stopt By orders from

Nov 2. a Cold day and Like to Snow payday
Nov 3. a Smart Storm of Raine this day heare The

Bostoner did Goo for to Leave the Camp : and

the Gard Shot on them and sad [said] disarteders

gave fier also and the Rangers are Gon to fetch

the Rodgs [rogues] Back to do to them as dis-

arters all
Nov 3. The above sd Bostoners when they went of

one was Kiled and one wonded and a Party of

Rangers sent to Bring the Rest Back.
Nov 4. a Teriable Storm of Raine Last night as Ever

I knew and wee was wet

320 Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

Nov 5. Cold and Bad for Soldiers for wee heant had
now [no] Bred 2 days past for it want com from
Ticonteroga till 4 a clock af noon. Crownpint
I was on a Cortmarshall Prisonner found Gilty
and was to heave 15 strips on his naced Body
for negleck of Dewty on the Sabboth

Nov 6. a Cold day and Snow at night, on feteec
Crownpint a Party Sent to nomber fore for to
fetch 2 disarts from theare for to Trie them for
Sad Crime and it is D Bad

Nov 7. and news for home and the Envelees (?) Trid
By Doctor Monrow and are cleard

Nov 8. Leut Right* Joned the Company this morning
and Som of the men that was with him, Chads
Roys.f

a cold cloudy day Daniel SolvanJ Trid By a
Cort Marshall this morning for steeling. Last
night our aminision was Requier of us and
Delivered in

Nov 9. I heave sent one Blue Jacit and one pare of
Trouses Checerd [checkered] and one Towell
and one Bibel and one Bag of things all Sod
[sewed] up in Sd Trouses and Put into Ensn
Buels Chist with his Things and Leu1 Pecks of
Solsbery and Griswall went the Same day with
Cap1 Whitneys Chist. Cloudy and warm. Last
night Daniel Solvant [Sullivan] had 200 Strip
for steling from Bosttons offesers at the Trane

* John Wright, 2d Lieut. f Of Cornwall. \ Sullivan, of Cornwall.

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 3 2 1

Nov 10. The Kings Bethday and it is a day of fyering
at Crownpint with all the army the Grandears
first, and follered By the Litinfantry then By the
Cannan and then By the Proventisals and then
By the Regelars 3 Rouns. at night the hull
Army fiered and wee all had flip at night the
Solders had of the Kings Stors of Rume and
Beare and a fine Corses (??) They had the
Skinacit (???) did fly Bris (??) till Late and the
Gons went fast.

Nov ii. Sonday Ad 1759. This day the Kings oxen
is sold at 2 a Clock afterknon and a fine warm
day for the Time a yeare Late yesday the
Granadears mad a fine Show as Ever I see in my
tim

Nov 12. one of the Lite Infanttry hanged at 1 2 a Clock
and one Parderned. orders to martch to morrow
morning for nomber fore at Revelee Beat, a
fine warm day and feeteck hard yet

Nov 13. martch to the wods and a fine day marched
9 mile

Nov 14. martch 14 miles South and East a fine day
for the time a yeare

Nov 15 martch down by otter Crick Bad Traviling
ing and Som men Sick on the Rod and Rany
night nothing for Shelter But the Clouds, all
is wet

Nov 1 6 Wee march By Otter Crick at 1 1 a Clock this
(day) and on the East Sid was Low Land all
from Crownpint and Good and on this Sid

21

322 Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

mountans Eaight mild and Swamps and wee
heave had a wet day and a Bad martch woods yet
and vitels short, wee past By som of Bad Cocks
Sic(k) men about 13 of them and about 8 of
Bostons and 4 of fitch whare Col Woster Left 2
of ours to Take Care of them all 30 milds from
Relef or nom fore [No. 4] no help

Nov 1 7. Wee Martch By the Black River and I skars
Ever had a wors feteck and it is as Rof Land as
Can Bee for men to march wee heave Past By
and Left a number of Sick all Sorts of Provent-
isals on the Rod sens Last night

Nov 1 8. Sonday wee martch from the Black River to
number fore and the worst Rod that can bee
mountans and Swamps Rite up and down and
men Tiered and stop; on the Rod I Got in at
Sonset and mutch feetec [fatigued] and Starve
out wee had 4 days for six

Nov 19. number 4. an account of the Skout of mager
Rodgers* at Sant fransways from Crownpint 22
day one oure and 3 quars distroying the Plase
and Takeing the Plonder 30 days in the martch-
ing Back to numr '4 The Indans that was kild

140 Savadgs and Burnt the houses and & in

them 6 Prisners and one of our Capt* Tinas (??)
and 20 lost By the way Coming Back and 20 the
Enymis disstroy(ed) one Sam1 fugard and Jos

* Colon. Records, xi. 467.

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 323

Nov 20. martch from numer (4) to Belsos* and had one
River to wead and wet martch and Encampt theare

Nov 21. martch from Belses 16 milds to a Smal fort
and as Poor as Job ever was and as Cross as
Judas it seems as if it Gros wors Tims furder wee
martch this Rod.

Nov 22 martch from fort meserry to hendesl and to
nothfeld fine Living at that Tavan and Cold

Nov 23 martch from nothfeld to Sonderland whare wee
had fine quarters a Good Landard Mr Baker
Good Traviling all wel Snow this morning a fine
Townd [Town] this is

Nov 24 martch from Sonderland a Crost the River to
notham[ton] ? 1 2 milds and found my mare and
am Glad for the Same

Nov 25. Sonday martch from nothamton to the noth
part of Bedford Good Rod and fard well and
came to this hous and Got from the Ridgment
and Past the Company and Got forward 9 milds
of Cap Whitny

Nov 26. martch from the noth part of Bedford to
number 3 and had Snow and Raine and Bad
Traviling and Came to LandLords Love money
and Eat fresh Pork

Nov 28 martch from ye noath of Bedford and came to
new molfery and to Cannan Bad Rod and out of
Soundens Some Time and then to Cornwall all

is well

The end of Camp for the yeare 1759

December i day

* Bellows Falls.

324

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

1762

May 27. Ad 1762

martch from Cornwall to Cannan to Land-
lord Larans [Lawrence]
May 28. martch to Leut Robards
May 29. martch to fitchis above the half way hous
May 30. martch to Green Bosh
June 2 to Albany and forward

to Albany on Mondy
June 4. to Still Warters
June 5. martch to the Great fly
June 6. martch to Salatodg [Saratoga]

martch to fort Edward on Sonday
June 7. martch to Lak Gorge

Tusday to Leake Gorge and campt for 2 days.
Encampt at Leak Gorge 3 day

June 8 men in Good Spirits and all is well. Then
Left at Lake Gorge with 1 7 men for to Goo to
Crown Pint as Son as may bee if wee can heave
Bots as a D (?)

June 1 1 to Sabethday Point
June 12 Came to the Landing at Ticonte Roga
June 13 to Crownpint on home the hull ??

Ebenez Dibble Ens. of ye 4 Co. [2d Reg't]
June 14. on works at the forte with 2 Si [Sargeants]

and 45 Rank and file
June 15 a fine day and Dewty is hard and men Lasy

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 325

June 1 6. Cap1 Whiting* Came and jindg us this day

and I was on dewty this day
June 17. on doty 2 days and Left Tibbalsf jindg us

this day all is well
June. 1 8. a fine Cole day --then Taken one Hidgins

of Mags Boldings Company for dissarting from

the Regarlars this morning
June 19. on works att the fort with 367 men to Gary

Stons
June 20. Sonday. my Beed was mad and in Good

order this (day) all is well

A Stormy day of Rain and a very Lardg Party

of men att work Sonday Capt Ens. and Leut.
June 21 on works with the ham Sars [hand saws?] a

wet day men Leazy General TomJ had 200

strip for Steling hee mad no nois
June 24 Sir Abbott§ went to the works this day at one

Redout under Mr Marvin
June 25 on works at the fort
June 26 " u " " "

« „ !j II « till II

3 days Going on feteege

John White Confined by Leut Benedick of
Danbery

* Capt. Samuel Whiting, 4th Co.

f Nathan Tibbals, ist Lieut. 4th Co.

J ' General Tom ' was probably the locally celebrated Indian, Tom Wanups,
who lived at Mr. Hindmans, in Cornwall, and in the Revolution was in Col.
Swift's regiment and deserted. See Gold's Hist., pp. 24, 25.

§ Sergt. Abel Abbott, of Cornwall. Served in the war of the Revolution.

326 Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

June 28 I bote my Pleate at Crownpint and Coust

£ I d

mee 0=3=6 york mony

my Pontch Bool o= 2=0
my Knife and fork o= 4=9
my Spoon o= 0=6

my Blankit 0=12=6

I bed it of Edmon fulfrend of Stamford ???

my Causter and Pepper Box and Shoger and 2
Spons and Kife and forke and a Glas Bottel the
hull Cost mee York Coranse [currency] 2=18=3
i of Tee 8 Pound of Soger and a Cake of Chaklat
and a Pound of Peper that I paid Cash for to
youse [use]

July 5 on works with Cap1 Luas ?? with 329 men at
the fort and in the Kings hasteen and Prinses
hasteen [Bastion ?]

July 6. Crownpint then Bot a Tobacker Box Cost
0=1=0

July 7. Crownpint I see Snow this day East of the
fort in the Trentch whare I was at work and
Sondey

July 10. this evening Mr Tailer of New Milford Came
heare for our Chaplin

July 31 this day Lieut Benjamen Sommers Confined
By Conn1 Whiting for attempt to Strik Mr Bon-
sell on the wals of the fort for abous yester-
day &c

Aug 5. Mr Tailer set out for Sain Jons this day for his
helth wee have words of our fleet that heave
Got to hallefax this day

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 327

Aug 5. Charles Roys* went to South Bay this day to
work and Gave mee orders to Let one of his

£ i

Tent mats have i — i and half of Shoger on his

account at fitches
Aug 23 Daniel Everst [Everest of Cornwall] Died

August the 23 day Ad 1762 and is Buried at

Crownpint
Aug 27. this day this fort was Begon to be Collered

and is Collered a Spanish Brown very hansom
Sept 7. paid to Lut Stuard for half a Small hous att

£ s d

Crownpint the Som of 0=7=9 coransy
Oct 21. Lent to Cap* Samel Whiting 5 dollers and
am to heave them againe.

Lent to Lit Nobel Benidick 3 dollers Sd dol-
lers to Be paid in a Short Time

August the 29 day Sondday Mr Tailler Came from
Cannade and hes Bin Gon 24 days from Crown-
pint

Here follow extracted various articles referred to in
Dibble's accounts and their prices :

£ s A

quart of Rume o= 3=0

}4 pd of Peper and 6 sheats of Peper = 2=0

[York Money] fore Pounds of Shoger o= 4=0

quart of Rume o= 4=0

2 Bols of Srobpontch (?) o= 7=0

a Blankit 0=15=0

* Royce, of Cornwall.

328 Diary of Ebenezer Dibble.

I759 *K lb. Chackalat
" yz Ib. Teae. 3 Ibs Tobaco

a pare of Britcses of the Government i= i 5=0
to a Chees that waid 9 pounds at 9

pens a pound o= 6=9

to half a Peck of Inyouns

a Bole of Sangree o= 2=0

Tow Pound of Shogar o= 1=3

Plock of a Sheep o= 1=6

quart of Brandy 0= 2=6

to a pound of Shogar o= 1=0

" " " " Cofy o— 1=6

" " quart of wine o= 3=0

" " pint of vinager o= 0=9

to a quarter of muten that waid 7 pounds o= 3=6

a pare of Britches out of his Stors 1=16=0

y2 lb. of Tee o= 6=6

3 Candels o= 6=0

half a quier of peaper o= 1=2

a Short Bool of Sangree o= 1=0

7^ Ibs of Chees at i8=2d pr pound o= 8=9

a Lofe of Shogar o= 9=0

1 pd. Tobacow o= 0=8

2 pounds of onians o= 1=4
2 Candels o= 1=0
i pound of CofTy o= 1=2
a Galon of Rume 0=12=0

Nov 1 5. 1 762. martch from Crownpint over the Lake

to the woods and Took 8 day provision.
Nov 1 6. martch 12 milds and Campt by a Brook

Diary of Ebenezer Dibble. 329

Nov 1 7. Wensday martch to Otter Cricks and Encampt

on the East Sid By Sd Crick
Nov 1 8. Thirsday in the wood
Nov 19. friday martch to Black River and Encampt

there a Snow a day wee had and bad Traviling

this 12 milds
Nov 20 martch to ye 13 mild post and encampt thare

a fine days martch
Oct 29. Jams Weltch Credit for Cash 0=12=0 that I

Got of Welton that Sd Weltch Lost playing

Cards ginst orders.

Zephaniah Wix [Weeks, an Indian of Cornwall]* detor
for a Knife 0=1=0

[Lawfull] 14 Butens 0=1=6

|_ mony a pare of Shews 0=7=0

Nov 10. 1762. This day I paid for Gamon to

Gary with us throw the woods 0=5=0

£ s d

a pare of Lenthar Brithes i:=o=o

1759. to oats 3 meses 0=0=6

Receive of a Dutch man half a quarter
of veale that cost 0=3=0

For the funall chardg for Daniel
Everst to Diging a Greave and Bural 0=1=6

to washing his Cloths and fiting them
for sale Aug 25. 1762. 0=2=0

a pare of wosted stockens 0=8=0

i£ Ib. of Sope 0=0=9

Daniel Everst. The hull of his Servus
was 4 months and i week Jest, wagers 8=10=0

* Served in the Revolutionary war, was taken prisoner and died in captivity.

INDEX.

PAGE

Almy, Dr. Leonard Ballou. Services in War with Spain 298, 299

Andrus, Sir Edmund. Visit to Hartford as Royal Governor at

time of hiding of charter 95, 96, 97, 99, 101

Baldwin, Nathan Adolphus, deceased charter member of the Con-
necticut Society, Sketch of 268

Battle, Narragansetts and Mohegans 34, 35

With Pequots 53, 54, 55

Beers, Prof. Henry A. Comments on Michael Wigglesworth ... 78, 79

Belcher, Gov. Jonathan, his copper mining 66, 67

Brainard, Hon. Leverett, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of • 289, 290, 291, 292, 293

Brewster, Lyman Denison, on William Brewster : his true posi-
tion in our Colonial History 127

Brewster, William 129, 130, 136, 138, 140, 141

Scholarship of 131, 132, 133

Statesmanship of 135, 136

Saintliness of 138, 139

Standing of, among founders of States 139, 140

general estimate of 141, 142, 143

Burr, Andrew, of Fairfield, Col. in Louisbourg Expedition 13

Canso, rendezvous of fleet against Louisbourg 9, 15, 16, 17

Chapeau Rouge Bay 9, 15, 16, 17

Chapin, Chas. F., paper on Uncas 23

Chapman, Daniel, of Ridgefield, Capt. in Louisbourg Expedition 14

Charter, that granted to Connecticut by Charles II 91

Continued as form of Civil Government by General

Assembly 92

Tradition of its concealment in the oak 93

Uncertainty as to the " original " or the " duplicate ". . .96, 97, 99
Tradition of its concealment in Wadsworth family . . . 102, 103, 104

References to in official records 104, 105, in, 115

Its value to civil government 115, n6

Charter Oak ballot-box given by Clarence Catlin Hungerford .119, 121, 122

History of "the" oak 119, 120

Appropriateness of the gift 121

Charter Oak gavel, description of 125, 126

Church, James, of Hartford, Capt. in Louisbourg Expedition 14

Clark, C. H., paper on Old Newgate Mine and Prison 61

33 2 Index.

PAGE

Commissioners of United Colonies refer fate of Miantonomo to

clergy 35

Connecticut, at war with Pequots 51, 52

In Louisbourg Expedition 13

Sent sloop and transports 14, 16

Endangered by Pequots 53

Copper, when found in Connecticut 64

Shipments to London 66

Copper mines, big and little 63

At Newgate 64

Early, in Connecticut 64, 65

Unprofitable in Connecticut 64, 65

Curtis, Dr. Jonathan Strong, deceased member of the Connecti-
cut Society, Sketch of 265, 266

Cutler, Ralph William. Description of the Charter Oak gavel, his

gift to the Society of Colonial Wars 123

Day, John Calvin, deceased member of the Connecticut Society,

Sketch of 274, 275

Denison, Robert, of Stonington, Capt. in Louisbourg Expedition 14
Dennis, Rodney, deceased member of the Connecticut Society,

Sketch of 272, 273, 274

Dexter, Morton G. Estimate of Elder William Brewster. . . 132, 138, 142

Diaries of Military Service : Of Joseph Smith 305

Of Ebenezer Dibble 311

Dibble, Ebenezer, Diary of 311-329

Destruction and abandonment of Crown Point

by the French 315

Bomb-proof casemates made 318

Pursuit of deserters 319

The King's birthday observed 321

The end of camp for the year 1759 323

Return to Crown Point of the Chaplain from

Canada after a 24 days' trip 327

Prices of various articles referred to 327, 328

Dixwell, Col. John, Sketch of 159

Duchambon, Commander of Louisbourg 19

Ears nailed in pillory 68

And slit 68

Eaton, Amos, An early scientist and grandfather of Governor

Daniel Cady Eaton, Sketch of 245, 246

Eaton, Brigadier General Amos Beebe, Father of Governor Daniel

Cady Eaton, Sketch of 246, 247, 248

Index. 333

PAGE

Eaton, Daniel Cady, First Governor of the Connecticut Society of

Colonial Wars 243, 245, 248, 249, 250, 251

Ancestry of 244, 245 , 246

Sketch of his father, Brigadier General 246, 247, 248

His early training and choice of a profession 248, 249

His career at Yale 250, 251

His work for the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars. 251, 252

Estimate of 253

Endicott, Capt., sent by Massachusetts to punish Pequots 27

Fairfield swamp, end of Pequot fight 55

Fitch, Rev. Mr., conversion (?) of Uncas 42, 43

France declares war upon Austria and England u

Franklin, Major General William Buel, His military career sum-
marized 187, 188

Ancestry of 189

His service in Mexican War 189, 190

His service in the Civil War — at the first battle of Bull

Run 190, 191, 192

Peninsula Campaign 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200

Victory at Crampton's Gap described by himself 203, 204, 205

At Antietam 206, 207, 208

At Fredericksburg submits his plan to Burnside (211, 212)

who overrules plan and suffers defeat. .214, 215, 216, 217, 218,

219, 220

His defence of his plan and Burnside's resignation . .223, 224, 225
Put in false light before Committee of Congress by Burn-
side's suppression of a dispatch 228, 229, 230

In action at Sabine Cross Roads 233, 234, 235

President of the retiring Board, resignation from the

Army and removal to Hartford 236

His character, estimate of 237, 238, 239, 240

Sketch of, in the Necrology 293, 294

French, Dr. William Freeman, deceased member of the Connec-
ticut Society, Sketch of 267, 268

Genealogies, on 177

In the Scriptures, value of i?7, i?8, i?9

Family, value of 180

Defects of, illustrated 181, 182

Goffe, William, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161

Ancestry of 149

Arrival of in New England 150

334 Index.

PAGE

Goffe, William, Concealment of in New Haven and attempted

arrest 152, 153, 154

Death of, surmise and probability 157, 158

Legends of 160, 161

Goodrich, Elizur, of Wethersfield, Capt. in Louisbourg Expedition 14
Greene, Jacob Lyman, On Life and Military Service of Major

General William Buel Franklin 185

Hall, Hon. John Henry, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 287, 288, 289

Hammond, Captain Andrew Goodrich. Services in War with Spain 299,300
Hayden, Edward Simeon, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 271, 272

Haynes, Governor of Connecticut 34

Plot to kill 39

Heaton, Lieutenant John Edward. Services in War with Spain. . 297

Holmes, his trading post on the Connecticut 52

Hoppin, James Mason, Jr., deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 261, 262, 263, 264

Hungerford, Clarence Catlin, deceased member of the Connecti-
cut Society, Sketch of 272

Hungerford, William Allyn, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 266, 267

Indians in Connecticut, their number according to Trumbull 27

Their number according to DeForest ... 27

Invasion, A Foreign (Expedition against Quebec in 1690) 165

Plan of attack 168

Advance prevented by failure of supply vessels 169

The reembarkation 171

Fleet scattered by weather 172

Economic results of 173

Jenkins, Edward Hopkins. On Genealogies 175

Judges Cave, Inscription on the tablet of 146

Reasons for marking with a tablet 147

President Stiles' description of 155, 166

Kimball, Arthur R. Paper on A Popular Colonial Poet 73

Learned, Major B. P. Paper on Distribution of Pequot Lands . 51

Lee, Stephen, of New London, Capt. in Louisbourg Expedition. 14

Leffingwell, Thomas, brought food to the besieged Mohegans. ... 38

Lothrop, Simon, of Norwich, Lt.-Col. in Louisbourg Expedition 13

y Louisbourg 9

To be taken by surprise 12, 17

Capture of 19

News of capture in Boston 20

Index. 335

PAGE

Maria Theresa .^ 10

Mason, Capt. John, destroys Pequot fort at Mystic, 1637 28

Campaign vs. Pequots 53

Massachusetts in Louisbourg Expedition 12, 13

Miantonomo, power amongst Narragansetts 32

Sides with English vs. Pequots 32

Treaty of peace with English and Uncas 33

Twice summoned to Boston 33

Captured by Uncas 35

Killed 35

Monument in Norwich 36

Estimate of 36

Miles, Frederick Plumb, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 264, 265

Mitchell, roasted alive by Pequots 52

Mohegans, rebels from the Pequots 26, 51

Their location 26

In English service 28,29

Collision with Narragansetts 32

In King Philip's War 41

Moody, Capt., in Louisbourg Expedition 19

Says grace 19

Morison, Dr. Normand, Surgeon-in-chief Connecticut troops,

Louisbourg Expedition 14

Narragansetts 27, 29, 30, 32, 33

Defeated by Uncas 35

Attempts on Uncas' life 38

Necrology of the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars 257-294

Newgate, copper mine at 63 sq.

Present condition of 70

New Hampshire in Louisbourg Expedition 12, 13, 16

Newton, Israel, of Colchester, Major in Louisbourg Expedition . 13

New York declined to join Louisbourg Expedition 12

Niantics, split by the Pequots 25,51

Absorbed by the Narragansetts 51

Norton, Capt., killed by Pequots 27

Objects aimed at by Connecticut Society 4

To be commemorated 5

Oldham, John, murdered near Block Island by Pequots 27, 52

Oneco, son of Uncas, aids the English in King Philip's War .... 41

Parkhurst, Captain Charles Dyer. Services in war with Spain. . . 297, 298

Pay of soldiers in Louisbourg Expedition 14

336 Index.

PAGE

Pepperell, William, a merchant of Kittery 13

Commander of Louisbourg Expedition 13

Given discretionary powers 16

Pequots, declaration of war with, by Connecticut 51

Peril to Connecticut colony from 52

Division of 56, 57

Present condition of 59, 60

Migration of 23, 51, 52

Their chief seat 25

Their conquests 25

Their numbers 27, 51

Their attitude towards the whites 27

Instruction of 28, 53

Pequot lands 51

Extent of 51

Where situated 51

Property of Connecticut colony by conquest 56

Dispute as to jurisdiction over 56

Intruders on 57, 58

Tenants of 58, 59

Phipps, Sir William, Commander-in-chief of Quebec Expedition. 165, 166

Pillory in Newgate prison, Connecticut 67, 68

Plunder of Louisbourg promised to soldiers 14

Pond, Nathan Gillette, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 257, 258, 259

Pragmatic Sanction n

Prentiss, John, of New London, Captain of the "Defence" in

Louisbourg Expedition 14

Prisoners at Newgate mines 67, 68

How employed 68

Escapes of 67, 68

Number of 68

Raynolds, Lieutenant Edward Vilette. Services in War with Spain 300

Relation to the Historical Societies 3

Report of committee on plan and scope of the activities of the

Connecticut Society Colonial Wars 3

Salisbury, Edward Elbridge, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 282, 283, 284

Sassacus, Chief of the Pequots 25, 51

Defied by Uncas 26

Driven out of Connecticut 28

Murdered by the Mohawks 29

Index. 337

PAGE

Sassacus, Tries for alliance with Miantonomo 32

Plan to exterminate whites 52

Seymour, Hon. Morris Woodruff. On the Hiding of the Charter 89

Shirley, Governor William n, 12, 13, 16, 17

Draws up instructions for Louisbourg campaign 15

Simsbury copper mine, turned into a prison and named Newgate 67

Prison reform 69

Smith, Rev. Edward Alfred, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 259, 260, 261

Smith, Journal of Joseph of Groton 303-310

Journey to Lake George 305, 306

Skirmish of French and Indians 307

Capture of two officers 308

Return honie 309, 3 10

Itinerary 310

Smith, Welcome A., Communicates Journal of Joseph Smith. . . . 303

Record attesting the Journal 305

Society of Colonial Wars in Connecticut, how it can best be made up 4

Starr, Rev. E. C. Notes to Diary of Ebenezer Dibble 313

Stone, Capt., killed by Pequots 1634 27

Swift's system of Connecticut laws 67

Treaty, 1638. English in Connecticut. Narragansetts and

Mohegans 32, 33, 55, 56

Trowbridge, Ezekiel Hayes, deceased member of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 284, 285, 286

Trowbridge, Thomas Rutherford, deceased member of the Con-
necticut Society, Sketch of 269, 270

Turner, Elisha, deceased member of the Connecticut Society,

Sketch of 277, 278, 279

Tyler, Colonel Augustus Cleveland. Services in War with Spain 298

Tyler, Prof. Moses Coit. Comments on Michael Wigglesworth's

Day of Doom 75

Uncas 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 41, 42, 43, 55, 56

Captures Miantonomo 35

His pledge to the English 31

Age of 37

Character of 45, 46, 47

Chair of 39

Land titles from 43, 56

Evil deeds of 39

Conversion (?) of 43

Monument to 44

Death of 44

338 Index.

PAGE

Underbill, Capt., joins Mason vs. Pequots 53

Narrow escape in Pequot fight 54

Vaughn, William, frontiersman from Damariscotta n, 12, 17

Wadsworth, Capt. Joseph, tradition that he hid Connecticut's

Charter in an oak 93

Tradition that he hid it in his cellar 103, 104

Reward for hiding Charter, and conclusions regarding it

105, in, 112, 113, 114, 116
Sketch of his life including his admonishment by General

Assembly 106, 107, 108, 109, no, in

Direct descendant of, presents ballot-box to Society of

Colonial Wars 121

Walker, Rev. Dr. George L., on the Capture of Louisbourg 9

Speech presenting Charter Oak ballot-box 117

Sketch of 275, 276, 277

Walker, Rev. Dr. Williston. Historian of the Connecticut Society

of Colonial Wars. Necrology 255

On Services of members of the Connecticut Society in

the War with Spain 295

Walley, John. Commander of land forces of Quebec Expedition,

and Annalist 166

Landing of forces at Beauport 167

Defense of, by Thomas Savage 173

War with Spain, Services of members of the Connecticut Society

in 295-301

Ward, Andrew, of Guilford, Captain in Louisbourg Expedition . 14

Ward, Dr. Brownlee Robertson. Services in War with Spain . . . 300
Ward, Dr. Charles Samuel, deceased Secretary of the Connecticut

Society, Sketch of 268, 269

Warner, Charles Dudley. On the Judges Cave tablet 145

Sketch of 279, 280, 281, 282

Warren, Admiral Peter, refused cooperation in Louisbourg Expe-
dition . .'. 16

Ordered to Boston 17

Captures the " Vigilant " 18

Welles, Lieutenant Roger, Jr., Services in War with Spain 301

Wethersfield attacked by Pequots 28, 52

Whalley, Edward 147, 148, 150, 152, 153, 154, 156, 157, 158, 159, 161

Ancestry of 148

Arrival of, in New England 150

Concealment of, in New Haven, and attempted

arrest 152, 153, 154

Index. 339

PAGE

Whalley, Edward, Death of, surmise and probability 157, 158

Legends of 160, 161

Whiting, William, of Norwich, Captain in Louisbourg Expedition 14

Wigglesworth, Edward, father of Michael 79, 80, 8 1

The Rev. Michael 75, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86

Poem, The Day of Doom 75, 76, 87

Boyhood of 79, 80, Si

Life at Harvard of 82

Married Life of 83, 84, 85

Ministerial life of 75, 83, 86

Death of 86

Williams, Rev. Elisha, of Wethersfield, Chaplain in Louisbourg

Expedition 14

Lately rector Yale College 14

Williams, John, Bishop of Connecticut, deceased chaplain, Sketch

of 270, 271

Williams, Roger, the friend of Miantonomo 34

Sent to prevent union of Indians vs. whites. ... 52

Wolcott, Governor, poetical account of Pequot war 29, 30

Lieut. -Governor Roger, appointed Major General in

Louisbourg Expedition 13

Letter to wife 14

111 19, 20

Woolsey, Theodore Salisbury. On a Foreign Invasion (The At-
tempt on Quebec in 1690) 163

Sketch of Daniel Cady Eaton 241

Communicates Diary of Ebenezer Dibble 311

Wooster, David, of New Haven, Captain Louisbourg Expedition 14

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