title: Yale and her honor-roll in the American revolution, 1775-1783;
text: *tV C/^ o t///>iK\\>r ^> C-/j. o M//>bC<\Vw ■ClV C/a '^ '7// «» wr a. »Y" i '*^' " '=\.^^ '.* .^^ ■■=*■ "vV 0°^.:^^'.% ^°^i;^^% <f.^\':^'o^<^. < •<^ c5 ^ <. "^^o^ ./ <H a. - <H Q C> *y N*^ °- =; %/• ' » (. s «:i %> ^^c^ Q. %. -0.^0,.-^^^^ ^ '""^■'a^ 9x ^o,x- v^ ^-^ V™\/ V^o^^^\/ v^£^^\/ < ', 'Si ^-r^ w » A \ y rv . u o ,v "^- .^ 0^ -^ 1. oils " ♦'^ ^ ^ ^i#2 " .=> ^ /^- ^ «^^^ '. ^ v- % "i ./ '*<^ YALE HER HONOR-ROLL AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1775-1783 INCLUDING ORIGINAL LETTERS, RECORD OF SERVICE, AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES HENRY P^ JOHNSTON NEW YORK PRIVATELY PRINTED 1888 ET^i V 0. 7l COPYRIGHT BY HENRY P. JOHNSTON Press of G. P. Putnam's Sons New York S'^ L iy PREFACE. '"^Any one familiar with the personal history of the leaders of the Revolution must have remarked upon the large representation of college-bred men among \. them. This was not only a suggestive fact in the experi- ence of a provincial population, but in part explains the method and reasonableness of the revolutionary movement itself. No similar revolt in history was grounded less in bitterness and hate, or developed more naturally from discussion and conviction. As the public controversy — the issue in documentary form — turned upon the constitutional relation of the colonies to the mother country, it required a certain amount of general learning and familiarity with colo- nial history to engage in it intelligently. The ques- tion appealed to the educated and professional element, which included not only lawyers, ministers and orators, but many merchants as well whos^ dis- gust at England's restrictive commercial policy in- tensified their opposition. The speeches in assem- blies and town-meetings, the sermons and pamphlets iv Preface. on the issues of the day, the petitions and protests which British statesmen admired for their dignity and breadth of views, were in many, probably in most instances, the efforts and product of trained minds. " The colleges of the day could count among their alumni such men as Otis, Warren, Hancock, the Adamses, Hawley, Trumbull, Wolcott, Jay, the Livingstons and Morrises, Hopkinson, Rush, Jefferson, Harrison, Gerry, Wythe, Lyman Hall, and others whose names are interwoven with the history of that period. Their influence in the earlier and more important Congresses is indicated in the fact that very nearly one half of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence were graduates. The colonist was proud of such leadership. It proved the wisdom of his policy in encouraging edu- cation, especially the higher education, from an early date. The nine colleges he had founded before the Revolution were : Harvard in 1636 ; William and Mary, 1693 ; Yale, 1701 ; Princeton, 1746; Columbia, 1754; University of Pennsylvania, 1755; Brown, 1765; Dartmouth, 1769; and Rutgers, 1770. The aggregate number of their alumni living at the out- break of the war was about two thousand five hundred, which may be regarded as a fair proportion of the population in those colonies which supported the colleges ; and they had their full weight in the com- munity, for in addition to those who took a dis- Preface, v tinguished part in the larger political field, others became judges, legislators and governors, and filled many of the minor civil offices. As a revolutionary soldier, the graduate is less familiar to us. That he made a notable record, however, is quite certain, and its revival would not only be a happy act of remembrance, but the material itself a valuable contribution to the personal history of those times. All the colleges were represented in the field, and in larger numbers than they are gener- ally credited with. The four oldest in the list, having many more graduates and graduates of longer stand- ing than the rest, were conspicuously represented. There was somethino- in the aim and couraofe of those alumni " Continentals " we cannot very gracious- ly forget. Not only could they shout as vigorously against the Stamp Act and talk of their rights as earnestly as any others, but they clearly foresaw that if the sword were once drawn, it would not be simply to decide the limit of ministerial or parliamentary authority, or even to establish their independence as the only remedy of their wrongs. It is remarkable how, after the fighting began, the colonists as a body lost sight of the original issue and dropped all thought of returning to their former allegiance. They were looking to the future. We may say that they fought in the line of destiny. What sustained them through the struggle was largely the inherited conviction that vi Preface. though nominally or politically they were subjects of Great Britain, in another sense and in a more natural way they were the true proprietors of the soil and founders of new communities whose prospective as well as immediate interests it was their first duty to consult. In the case of that portion of the revolutionary soldiery to which the writer's attention has been called in the present work, it may be stated that with few exceptions the graduates were descendants of fami- lies which came to this country before the year 1690. At the opening of the war they represented the fourth, fifth, and sixth generation from the first immi- grant, and were members of what might be called the patrician element in colonial society. It was the element which instinctively considered itself entitled to the control of the continent, as against the mother country, in all matters of vital concern. The best men among them kept referring to the possibilities of the future as being theirs to mark out and develop ; such men, for example, as Dr. Stiles, who both be- fore and after he became President of Yale impressed this idea of destiny upon his hearers, or such men as Dr. Dwight, who when tutor at the college deliv- ered an address to the students in 1776, in which he reminded them of the wide field and the great duties before them. " Remember," he said, " that you are to act for the empire of America, and for a long sue- Preface. vii cession of ages. . . . Yourwishes, your designs, your labors are not to be confined by the narrow bounds of the present age, but are to comprehend succeed- ing generations." The graduate of '76 and men like him took up the sword for the new America. Deep- ly interested in the movement for himself, he also had a sense of the greatness his descendants would enjoy through his efforts, which in turn places us under a very real and personal obligation to him. In the following pages I have ventured to compile this missing record, so far as Yale's part is concerned. An examination, at intervals of leisure, of manuscripts and printed material has been more or less successful, furnishing at least sufficient facts for something in the way of a memorial. The first part includes an out- line of the operations in each year of the war, showing the situation wherever graduates were present, and in connection with which some original letters written by them from field and camp are inserted. In the second part will be found the Roll of Honor, or list of all known to have been engaged during the war, with biographical sketches added. Authorities and sources of information are indicated in foot-notes, and in an introductory note to the second part. I am under obligations to librarians and others for assistance, but especially to Prof. Franklin B. Dexter, Secretary of the University and Professor of American History, who has favored me with many data ; Dr. Samuel Vlll Preface. A. Green, Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Hon. Charles J. Hoadley, Librarian of the State Library, Hartford, Conn., and Mr. William Kelby, of the New York Historical Society Library. New York City, January, i888. CONTENTS. I. Preface iii II. Distribution of the Alumni in 1775 . i III. Events in 1775-76. The Alarm at the College — Young Huntington — Chipman's Epic — Washington and the Students' Company — Noah Webster — Graduates in the General Uprising — Bunker Hill — Letters from Chester, Grosvenor, Sherman — Dr. Stiles in Camp — Ticonderoga and Quebec — Wooster, Brown, Coit, Babcock — Boston Evacuated — Col. Gay .... 8 IV. Events in 1776-77. The New York Campaign — List of Alumni Soldiers — Declaration of Independence — Joseph Hawley — Battle of Long Island — Colonel Silliman — Retreat to New York — Tallmadge's Account of It — Loss of New York — Nathan Hale — Bushnell's Torpedo — White Plains — Trenton and Princeton — Letter from Capt. Hull — Hitchcock's Gallant Conduct — Death of Graduate Officers .... 36 V. Events in 1777-78. The New Continental Army — Graduates in Its Ranks — The Danbury Raid and Death of General Wooster — Events in Pennsylvania — Battle of Germantown — Lieut. Morris, Pris- oner — The Burgoyne Campaign — Graduates Engaged — Let- ters from Gen. Wolcott and Capt. Seymour — Col. Brown's Exploit — The Surrender — Washington's Congratulations — Letters from Gens. Scott and Silliman .... 64 VI. Events in 1778-79. Valley Forge and Its Discipline — General Paterson — Alumni in Camp — Letters from Lieuts. Chipman and Selden — Devo- tion of the Army to Washington — The French Alliance — General Scott to Gates — Battle of Monmouth — Camp at Contents, PAGE White Plains — Battle of Rhode Island — Notice from the College Steward ........ 83 VII. Events in 1779-80. Short Commons at College — Letters from Commis- sary Colt — Yale Loyalists — General Silliman and Judge Jones — Storming of Stony Point — Sherman, Hull, Selden — Invasion of New Haven — Ex-President Daggett and the Students — Major Huntington Complimented — Death of Col. Russell 94 VIII. Events in 1780-81. The Morristown Huts — Severe Winter of 1780 — Letters from Major Huntington, Commissary Flint, and Others- Battle of Springfield, N. J. — David Humphreys, Aid to Washington — Letters from Gov. Livingston and Gen. Paterson — Dr. Stiles in the French Camp — Death of Col. Brown — Major Tallmadge and His Services — Letter on Andre — Humphreys' Attempt on Clinton — Lieut.-Col. Gray ii2 IX. Events in 1781-82. Situation at the North — Colonel Hull's Affair at the Out- posts—Lafayette's Virginia Expedition — Major Wyllys — Letters from Capt. Welles and Others — The Yorktown Cam- paign — Graduate Officers at the Siege — Humphreys and the Captured Flags — Rejoicings — President Stiles to Washing- ton 129 X. Events in 1782-83: Peace Negotiations — Military Affairs — Letters from Welles, Wyllys, and Silliman — Tallmadge's Third Attempt on Long Island — The Major's Report and Washington's Reply — Letters from Sill and Humphreys — Evacuation of New York by the Enemy — Disbandment of the Revolutionary Army — Letter from Hull ....... 141 XI. Washington. Humphreys' Visit to Mt. Vernon in 1786 — Letter to His Brother — Is Urged to Write a History of the Revolution — Personal Items — The " Father of his Country " at Home — President Dwight's Eulogy on Washington — An Estimate of His Character — Personal Qualities, Riblic  In the Regular Army — Wyllys, Senior Major — Stationed in the Ohio Country — Recommended for a Colonelcy — Letter from Harmar — First Indian War — Harmar's Defeat, and Death of Wyllys — Letters — Heart Promoted Major of the Second Regiment — St. Clair's Defeat and Death of Heart. XIII. Roll of Honor, Sketches. XIV. Index. with Biographical 163 177 351 DISTRIBUTION OF THE ALUMNI IN 1775. / Of the nine hundred or more Yale graduates known to have been living in 1775, much the larger proportion, approximately two thirds, resided in the colony of Connecticut, the home of the college. The remainder were distributed throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey, with a limited number scattered at widely distant points ..^north and south. In Connecticut the college exerted an appreciable influence. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull recognizes this fact in his history of the colony, where he states that as early as 1743 the alumni constituted a " numerous and respectable " body, and adds, somewhat flatter- ingly, that not a few had become "pillars" and "stars of distinguished lustre " in both church and common- wealth ; and this may be accepted as equally true in 1775, when the relative increase of graduates had very nearly kept pace with that of the population. It may be doubted, indeed, whether at any time, be- fore or since, the college has filled so large a place in the eye of the community at home as during the period of the Revolution. 2 Yale in the Revolution, The crisis itself would partially explain this, so far as it called upon men of acknowledged ability, integ- rity, and public spirit to engage in the management of affairs ; for it happened that an exceptional num- ber of the alumni then living throughout the principal towns were citizens of this stamp. Events gave them increased prominence. But a further explanation may be sought in the relation of the graduate to the society of the time, in which the professions as such had not assumed their modern importance. While the pulpit, it is true, was a power in itself, neither law nor medicine were the attractions then that they are to-day. Apart from the ministers who often attended the sick in their parishes, com- paratively few graduates became physicians, de- voting themselves exclusively to their calling ; nor were many more lawyers, or regularly entered "bar- risters at law" as they were styled, as litigation appears not to have been as general or lucrative as in the period after the Revolution. College men, accordingly, more frequently then than now, dropped into the active life of the community, sometimes combining business with a profession. They kept stores, cultivated farms, acted as agents, owned ships and traded along the coast and with the West Indies. The lay graduate of that day, being less the professional man than increasing wealth and diversity of interests have enabled him to become in later times, engaged in every honorable occupation, and wherever he established himself per- manently he exercised a certain neighborhood in- fluence, which, in numerous instances, is known to The Ahtmni in 1775. 3 have been neither slight nor transient. Sometimes he became the local dignitary as probate judge or colonel of militia, again as town clerk and justice of the peace, or, perhaps, more often than not, he was moderator of the town-meeting, or chief spokes- man on town affairs. When, finally, the war came, his views and example had weight. As illustrating the influence and distinction, ac- corded to the college element in the State, it may be (^C^tvtw^"* noticed that while the honored governor, Jonathan Trumbull, was a graduate of Harvard, the house of " Assistants," a body of twelve eminent citizens elected at large, contained in 1775 eight Yale graduates. The secretary of state, one of the five superior court judges, all the county court and many of the probate judges were also graduates. So also were several of the prominent members of the General Assembly, fre- quently the Speaker, nearly one half the field officers of the militia for 1774-75, a majority of the impor- tant State revolutionary Council of Safety, and six of the twelve members who at different times, from 1 775 to 1 783, attended the Continental Congress at Phila- delphia. At the beginning of the struggle graduates took the lead in the principal town and county war meetings, in some cases presiding over them, as at New Haven, Hartford, New London, Norwich, Windham, and Lyme, and in other cases acting on the committees of correspondence ; while during the progress of the contest it is to be remarked how fre- quently they figured on legislative committees charged with the active and responsible duties of the hour. In Massachusetts, the Yale representation, was to 4 Yale in the Revolution. be found mainly in the central and western parts of the State, in Hampshire and Berkshire counties, in the towns of Springfield, Westfield, Pittsfield, North- ampton, Stockbridge, Lenox, and neighboring places. The tide of emigration, or removals, had been setting in that direction for some years before the Revolution, and graduates, with others, sought the advantages of new localities. Several of the Ashleys and the Wil- liamses named in the triennial catalogue lived in that section, as well as Hawley, Hopkins, Brown, Dickin- son, Sedgwick, and Paterson, who will reappear in the military record. Including the few who resided in Eastern Massachusetts there were at that time not far from one hundred and seventy of the alumni in the State. The great majority of these were in the fullest sympathy with the course of events, and some, like Joseph Hawley, of whom further mention must be made, proved towers of strength. Their influence in Berkshire was not inconsiderable if one may judge from the fact that at the important county convention held in July, 1774, for the declaration of views on the crisis, the chairman, secretary, and three of the five members of the committee to draft the resolu- tions, were graduates. What is more, they followed up their patriotic expressions with active service in the field. In Rhode Island the number of graduates at that period was small, probably not more than twenty, three or four of whom entered the military service. Three attained some distinction at home in earlier years or during the war as deputy-governors, namely, Darius Sessions, Paul Mumford and Jabez Bowen. The Alumni in 1775, 5 /Of the soldiers two were colonels. The most prom- inent graduates there in 1775 were Hon. Joshua Babcock, formerly Chief-Justice of Rhode Island, and Rev. Dr. Ezra Stiles, Congregational pastor at New- port, who was to become president of Yale in 1778. In New York we meet with some names that are closely identified with the history of the colony and ^ the State. ,' Our earliest graduate here, and the earliest lay graduate from any college, was William Smith, of the class of 1719, who became the first of the many distinguished lawyers who have adorned the bar of New York City from that day to this. By his contemporaries he is described as a man of pro- found learning, unimpeachable character and " the most eloquent speaker in the province." At the time of his death in 1 769 he was one of the judges of the supreme court. That he kept up a warm interest in the college would appear from the statement made by his son, Judge William Smith, of the class of 1745, the historian, that it was upon his recommendation that Philip Livingston, the second proprietor of the manor on the Hudson by his name, was induced to send his sons to the " Academy " at New Haven. These four Livingston brothers, Peter Van Brugh, John, Philip, and William, with some others, continued the succession of Yale graduates in the city down to the war. The first three became merchants, the last a lawyer. Peter was president and treasurer of the first New York Provincial Congress. Philip and William were sent as delegates to the Con- tinental Congress. Philip signed the Declaration of Independence, and William, moving into New r 6 Yale in the Revolution. Jersey, became the "war governor" of that State. Richard and Lewis Morris, John Sloss Hobart, and Ezra L'Hommedieu went to Congress or became judges. Another name is that of John Morin Scott, an eminent advocate, who threw himself heartily into the cause. Chancellor Kent, who was to keep up the college representation in legal circles in New York after the war, speaks of him as " one of that band of deep-read and thorough lawyers of the old school, who were an ornament to the city at the commencement of the Revolution." In all there were about seventy graduates in the State in 1775, most of whom lived in the city or on Long Island. As a body they suffered from the war more than any others. Philip Living- ston, Lewis Morris, and Scott, were nearly ruined — their fine mansions and estates, in or near the city, being confiscated and despoiled by the enemy. The house of Dr. John A. Graham, class of 1768, was burned by the British after the battle at White Plains. Some were fugitives from their homes during the entire contest ; and some were Tories who will be briefly noticed in the operations of 1779. In New Jersey we had about twenty graduates, several of whom were settled pastors. Three or four of the younger alumni were prospecting in Wyoming Valley, Westmoreland County, Penn., which Con- necticut then claimed as her territory. Others were to be found in the tracts which afterwards became the States of New Hampshire and Vermont. Lyman Hall, the " Signer," had made his home in Liberty County, Georgia. Very few, if any, were then living in either Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, or the Carolinas. The AUtmni in 1775. 7 ^' The college in 1775 numbered one hundred and / sixty-four students, who graduated with their respec-. \ tive classes. .Rev. Dr. Naphtali Daggett was Presi- dent and Professor of Divinity ; Rev. Nehemiah Strong, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Phi- losophy. Timothy Dwight, Joseph Buckminster, Abraham Baldwin, and John Lewis were Tutors, the first three of whom subsequently became chaplains in the army. Three buildings were then standing on the grounds, two of which remain to-day — old South Middle and the Athenaeum, which served both as a chapel and a library. These graduates and students, we may repeat, were typical colonists. Barring the few who were either avowed loyalists or assumed a neutral attitude where they could, they belonged to the class which formed the soul of the Revolution. Most of them doubtless felt with Dr. Stiles in July, 1774, that : " If oppression proceeds, despotism may force an annual Congress ; and a public spirit of enterprise may originate an American Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, supported by such intrepid and persevering importunity as even sovereignty may hereafter judge it not wise to with- stand. There will be a Runnymede in America." ■fiTSTT EVENTS IN 1775-76. The Alarm at the College — Young Huntington — Chipman's Epic — Washington and the Students' Company — Noah Webster — Graduates in the General Uprising — Bunker Hill — Letters from Chester, Grosvenor, Sherman — Dr. Stiles in Camp — Ticonderoga and Quebec — Wooster, Brown, Coit, Babcock — Boston Evacuated — Col. Gay. Turning first to the college, when the war opened, we are quite prepared to find that little community as deeply agitated as any other, and responding as quickly to the popular sympathies. There is this reference to the situation in the journal of one of the students, which expresses much : " Friday. April 21, . To-day tidings of the battle of Lex- ington, which is the first engagement with the British troops, ar- rived at New Haven. This filled the country with alarm and rendered it impossible for us to pursue our studies to any profit." The student was Ebenezer Fitch, of the Sophomore class, who was to become the first president of Wil- liams College. It is fortunate for our purposes that his journal has been preserved, as the extract quoted appears to be, with an item in the diary of President Stiles, the only contemporary record we have of the effect produced by the Lexington news at Yale. And startling news it was, no doubt. One may readily picture the scene of excitement around the old halls that evening as the students and townsmen alike dwelt upon the details of the encounter and can- vassed the probability of having a war at their very 8 Events in 1775-76. 9 doors. What shows that they were all profoundly moved, is the fact that on the next day class exercises were suspended and college "broke up." The stu- dious Fitch himself could not keep to his books, but went home to Canterbury, and soon after visited the camps then forming around Boston. It was not until June ist that he returned to college.' So too, Ezra Stiles, of the same class, surprised his father at Newport, by arriving on the 26th with word that the students were dispersing.^ Clearly, with drums beating, rumors flying, and serious speculation going on over the consequences of a general conflict with the mother country, there could be little attentive studying for a time. It was something more than an ephemeral excitement or interruption. Three or four of the students, as tradition goes, closed their studies at once and fell into the line of volunteers marching northward. It is certain that Ebenezer Huntington of the Senior class was one. His father, the Hon. Jabez Huntington, of the class of 1741, then a mem- ber of the Upper House of Connecticut, and his elder brother, Jedidiah, graduate of Harvard, and after- wards general in the Continental army, had both stepped forward unhesitatingly in the earlier stages of the crisis, which may go to explain young Ebenezer's enthusiasm. The tradition in his case, sufficiently supported by the record, is to the effect that failing to obtain permission from the college authorities to 'From the diary in "Sketch of the late Rev. Ebenezer Fitch, D.D.," by Rev. Calvin Durfee, Boston, 1865. ^ Dr. Stiles, in his diary for April 26, 1775, Newport: "About sunset Ezra arrived from Yale College, which broke up last Saturday. The news of Lexington reached New Haven on Friday night." lo Yale in the Revolution. leave immediately, he decamped that Friday night with some of his companions, went to Wethersfield, and then pushed on to the front at Boston, where he found his brother before him. His own home was at Norwich, but at Wethersfield lived his brother-in-law, John Chester, class of 1766, captain of an alarm com- pany, and of whom we shall presently hear again, which would account for his hurrying directly to that town. While the faculty were evidently dis- pleased at this breach of discipline, they could not but have quietly admired his prompt decision in the case, especially when we recall that the patriotic Daggett was then president, and at the graduation of his class they gave him his diploma ; so that Hunt- ington's name appears both upon the college catalogue and upon the roster of those officers who served un- interruptedly and with honor from the beginning to the close of the war. The names of the other irrepressible students, who are said to have been Huntington's companions in his flight, do not appear. That class of '75 furnished some fine young officers for the army, several of whom began their service on graduation. Belden, Bushnell, Daggett, Judson, Mix, Morris, Peck, Sill, and Welles became old campaigners, and it is possi- ble that one or more of them left with Huntington in April, and then returned to graduate in regular course. Daniel Lyman, of the Junior class, may also have been among the number, as, according to recollections in his family, he joined the expedition against Ticonderoga, in May, and was engaged in the surprise of that important fortress. But in those first Rvents in 1775-76. n days of alarm and muster we will remember all the students — the great body of them, certainly — as spirited and true, without distinction. If preference is to be given to any one of them, as being bolder than the rest, it should be perhaps to the Sophomore, Nathaniel Chipman, Vermont's future Chief-Justice, who dared to fan the flame of resistance by writing some martial poetry, and publishing it in the town newspaper. An extract from it must have a place here : " America, where freedom held her reign, Now first is doomed to wear the galling chain. Oppressed, she groans beneath a lawless power, And quakes to hear the gathering tempest roar. Rise ! sons of freedom ! close the glorious fight, Stand for religion, for your country's right. Resist the tyrant, disappoint his hopes, Fear not his navies, or his veteran troops. Think on those heroes who resigned their breath To tools of tyrants, ministers of death. Who firm, the rage of tyranny withstood, And seal'd the cause of liberty with blood. Let their example patriot zeal inspire. And every breast with martial ardor fire. O Heaven ! be gracious ; save our sinking land. Crush our proud foes with thine avenging hand." ' By the first of June, the students had generally re- turned to the college, their war spirit evidently still high. One of their number, Abiathar Camp, show- ing Tory proclivities, was made the subject of a class meeting, and denounced as an " enemy to his coun- try," which meant that all social intercourse with him was to be withheld. Meantime many of them fell to 1 " Life of Hon. Nathaniel Chipman, LL.D.," Boston, 1846. 12 Yale in the Revolution. drilling. A company was organized, either then or at an earlier date, which soon attracted attention by- its military bearing. Who the members or who the officers were we do not know, but either among the drummers or fifers one would have seen, upon his own statement, a Freshman by the name of Noah Webster. Stout young Whigs, as nearly all these collegians were, and not a few of them the sons of public leaders in the colony, they seem to have an- ticipated a protracted struggle and the necessity of their own participation in it at no distant day. It requires no effort of the imagination to picture them, dressed in the long coat of the period, knee breeches, and cocked hats, and armed with weighty flint-lock muskets, marching up and down the campus with the air of veterans and a buoyant confidence that they could at least defend that favored spot against the king's minions. One event soon occurred which must have been long remembered, and perhaps settled the course of some of the graduating class who may have wavered as to their duty to join the army. This was Wash- ington's presence in the town, June 28th, for the first time as the American Commander-in-Chief, when the college company and the two local companies turned out to do him the honors of the occasion. The New Haven journal of the day, noticing the troops and the throng of people who were out, mentions in particu- lar "■ a company of young gentlemen belonging to the seminary in this place, who made a handsome appear- ance, and whose expertness in the military exercises gained them the approbation of the generals " ; but a Events in 1775-76. 13 more satisfactory account is the following, which Noah Webster himself gave some years later in an address before a gathering of young people : "In the year 1775 General Washington passed through New Haven on his way to Cambridge in Massachusetts, to take com- mand of the American army. He was accompanied by General Charles Lee, who had been an officer in the British service. These gentlemen lodged in New Haven at the house of the late Isaac Beers, and in the morning they were invited to see a mili- tary company of students of Yale College perform their manual exercises. They expressed their surprise and gratification at the precision with which the students performed the customary exer- cises then in use. This company then escorted the generals as far as Neck Bridge ; and this was the first instance of that honor conferred on General Washington in New England. It fell to my humble lot to lead this company with music. I was then a Fresh- man in Yale College." * The day's incidents proved a pleasant reminiscence for both town and college, and doubtless for Wash- ington, but the impression upon his memory would have been more vivid could he have then known that of the youthful students whom he saw that morning, more than forty were, sooner or later, to join his Con- tinentals, and most of them pass with him through all the varied experiences of the war. Of the college company we hear occasionally after this. At a New Haven town meeting, held Novem- ber 5, 1775, it was voted " That the Governor be de- sired to permit one hundred stands of arms to be lodged in the library for the use of a company in Yale College " ; and again, " That should a company in college be formed and accoutred, they draw half a ' From the original MSS. in possession of Paul L. Ford, Brooklyn, L. I. The Beers' house stood on the site of the present New Haven House. 14 Yale in the Revolution. pound of powder to each man." This action would indicate that the company which Washington re- viewed had broken up in the fall, owing probably to the graduation of the class of 1775 ; but as New Haven was an exposed place, some sort of an organi- zation was kept up, and in 1779 the students will be heard from again. Beyond the college, there was the general uprising. The Lexington alarm prompted a spontaneous march of trainbands and volunteers from all points to the help of the Massachusetts people. " Our neighbor- ing towns," writes some one, " are arming and mov- ing. Men of the first character and property shoulder their arms and march off for the field of action." College graduates were among them, and in respecta- ble numbers, — the number increasing during the sum- mer and fall as war became an accepted fact. Of the Yale alumni, John Paterson, class of 1762, was very early at the front. He lived at Lenox, Mass., was a member of the provincial Congress, then tem- porarily adjourned, and commanded a regiment of Berkshire County militia. The alarm reached Lenox on the evening of the 20th, and early the next morn- ing the regiment was on the march. It took post about a mile and a half beyond Cambridge, and threw up one of the first redoubts on the line which was to turn Boston into a besieged town. Moses Ashley, class of 1 767, was an ensign in the same regi- ment ; and Rev. David Avery, class of 1 769, chap- lain. Another militia regiment of Worcester and Hampshire County men, stationed at Roxbury, was commanded by Col. Timothy Danielson, of the class Events in 1775-6. 15 of 1756. When the alarm reached Wethersfield, Conn., John Chester, class of 1766, already men- tioned, started off at the head of a fine company of one hundred young men, equipped by the town with twenty days' provision and sixty-four rounds of am- munition each. From New Haven, Jesse Leaven- worth, class of 1759, went as lieutenant of volunteers, under Benedict Arnold. Jabez Hamlin, class of 1769, was ensign of Captain Meigs' Middletown train-band. Isaac Sherman, class of 1770, son of Roger Sherman, the "Signer," commanded a Massachusetts company. Ebenezer Moseley, class of 1763, led a company formed of "the Gentlemen Inhabitants of Canada Society, in Windham County, Conn., to the number of sixty able-bodied, effective men," who engaged " immediately to equip themselves with arms and war- like stores, and be in readiness to march against and oppose any enemy that may attempt the destruction of our lawful rights." Presently, as better organization became necessary, we get more complete records and more names. Connecticut raised several regiments to serve for the year at different points. David Wooster, of the class of 1738, a name closely associated with New Haven in Wooster Street and Wooster Square, and more closely associated with the names of revolutionary heroes in his brave death in 1777, was made a general of militia with a regiment also under his personal command. During the summer of 1775 he was posted at and near New York, where upon his arrival he was entertained by the City Military Club with a public dinner. In June Congress made him a Con- 1 6 Yale in the Revolution. tinental brigadier, and in September he joined the Northern Department, where he had served in the French and Indian War. Among graduates in his command were Lieut. Jesse Leavenworth, who had returned from Massachusetts, Lieut. Robert Walker, James Lockwood, Chaplains Cotton Mather Smith and Benjamin Trumbull, and Surgeons Jared Potter and Samuel Whiting. The greater part of the Con- necticut troops, however, were sent to the Boston lines, where before the close of the siege in March, 1776, there might have been found, in addition to the officers already mentioned, such others as Colonel Samuel Wyllys ; Lieut-Colonels Experience Storrs and Fisher Gay; Brigade-Major John Palsgrave Wyllys ; Captains William Coit, William Hull, Nathan Hale, the " Martyr Spy," Ebenezer Craft, and Theophilus Munson ; Lieutenants Thomas Grosvenor, Andrew Hillyer, Richard Sill, Ebenezer Huntington, Simeon Newell, Ebenezer Gray, William Peck, John Elderkin, Enoch and Joshua Lamb Woodbridge ; En- signs Jonathan Heart and Ezra Selden ; Chaplains John Cleaveland, Benjamin Boardman, Stephen John- son, Oliver Noble, and William Plumbe ; and Surgeon Josiah Hart. Three graduates from Rhode Island were Colonels Daniel Hitchcock and Henry Babcock, and Lieut.-Colonel James Babcock. This list is neces- sarily incomplete, as the rolls of several regiments and companies which encamped around Boston at dif- ferent times during the siege do not exist ; but there cannot be many names missing. The college may be said to have been represented by fifty-five or more graduates at Boston and other points in the opera- tions of the year 1775. Events i7i 1775-76. 17 After Lexington, the signal events of the year were the capture of Ticonderoga, the battle of Bunker Hill, and the attempt upon Quebec. Bunker Hill claims attention first as the natural conclusion of Lexington. It was towards Boston that the New England provincials hurried to prevent the repetition of incursions, and they hemmed the British in by blockading the highways and fortifying the country around. On the night of June i6th, Putnam and Prescott pushed matters to an issue by fortifying the hill above Charlestown, and on the following day, the 1 7th, occurred the historic battle. The American line of defence consisted of a redoubt on the hill, with breastworks, barricades, and a post-and-rail fence on the left. Six or more of our graduates took part in this bat- tle, all of them belonging to the Connecticut detach- ment, which is credited with particularly good con- duct on that day. They were Captains John Ches- ter, William Coit, and Ebenezer Mosely, Lieutenants Thomas Grosvenor and (probably) Ebenezer Gray, and Jonathan Heart, whom tradition puts there as a private soldier. Their position was at the breastwork and rail-fence, where, as all accounts agree, a stout resistance was made. It was a good test of their resolution and their nerves — to face the disciplined redcoats as they moved up the hill in deep lines, — and all the provincials concerned were justly praised for fighting so well before retreating. Lieutenant Grosvenor was slightly wounded and lost about one third of his soldiers. Captain Coit, whose company was composed largely of New London sailors, is i8 Yale in the Revolutio7t. described as being in "stature and intrepidity," next to McClary, the herculean major of Stark's New Hampshire men, who was killed in the action. Cap- tain Chester and his company did not reach the hill till late, but they went into the fight at once and took their places behind the fence, where every man, as Chester says, loaded and fired as fast as he could. The hill and the earthworks fell to the enemy, but the battle belonged to the provincials. It was also a valuable experience for our soldiers, and we shall hear from them all again. Grosvenor, Gray, and Heart, for instance, fought through the war and rose to the rank of field-officers. There was much to be done after the battle to secure the retreat and prevent the enemy from pursu- ing beyond Charlestown Neck into the open country. Lieut.-Colonel Storrs, of Putnam's regiment, was up nearly all night with his men working on a redoubt to command the Neck road. Colonel Paterson's regiment with others stood under arms to defend Cambridge. All were alert ; but the enemy had suffered too heavily to make any further demonstra- tion. Then came letters, accounts, and affidavits respecting the battle, many of which long since found their way into print, but they have their interest, and for the present record some things the graduates said will bear repeating. Chester's letter for one, fresh from the scene, dated Camp at Cambridge, July 22, 1775, is as follows, the last part unfortunately lost : "... Just after dinner, on Saturday, 17th ult., I was walking out from my lodgings, quite calm and composed, and all at once the drums beat to arms, and bells rang, and a great Events ii^ 1775-76. 19 noise in Cambridge. Capt. Putnam came by on full gallop. What is the matter ? says I. Have you not heard ? No. Why, the regulars are landing at Charlestown, says he ; and father [Gen. Putnam] says you must all meet, and march immediately to Bunker Hill to oppose the enemy. I waited not, but ran, and got my arms and ammunition, and hasted to my company (who were in the church for barracks), and found them nearly ready to march. We soon marched, with our frocks and trousers on over our other clothes (for our company is in uniform wholly blue, turned up with red), for we were loath to expose ourselves by our dress ; and down we marched. I imagined we arrived at the hill near the close of the battle We were very soon in the heat of action. Before we reached the summit of Bunker Hill, and while we were going over the Neck, we were in imminent danger from the cannon shot, which buzzed around us like hail. The musquetry began before we passed the Neck, and when we were on the top of the hill and during our descent to the foot of it on the south, the small as well as cannon shot were in- cessantly whistling by us. We joined our army on the right of the centre, just by a poor stone fence, two or three feet high, and very thin, so that the bullets came through. Here we lost our regularity, as every company had done before us, and fought as they did, every man loading and firing as fast as he could. As near as I could guess we fought standing about six minutes." ^ Grosvenor describes what he saw of the fight as follows : " Our detachment, in advancing to the post, took up one rail- fence and placed it against another (as a partial cover), nearly parallel with the line of the breast-work, and extended our left nearly to Mystic-river. Each man was furnished with one pound of gunpowder and forty-eight balls. ... In this position our detachment remained, until a second Division of British ' From Frothingham's " Siege of Boston." Chester's lieutenant, Samuel B. 