"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men… [no] controls on government would be necessary." — James Madison

Fort Griswold: The Revolution's Alamo

“Remember Pearl Harbor!” “Remember 9/11!” How many of us“Remember Fort Griswold”? This stronghold was the scene of awe-inspiring bravery when 160 Americans fought against an overwhelming British attack led by Benedict Arnold.

The Continental Congress in 1775 ordered that NewLondon, Connecticut— located on the Thames River and between the British-occupied ports of New York City andNewport, Rhode Island—be fortified as the major naval station. Fort Griswold was the most important of three fortifications guarding the harbor. It perched on a ridge that towered some 200 feet above and 200 feet from the eastern shore of the Thames River, near the town of Groton, and sported 23 cannons.On the western shore of the river sat Fort Trumbull, a water battery armed with ten cannons, but with no rear fortifications to guard it from a land assault. Fort Town Hill—nicknamed Fort Nonsense and Fort Folly—was a small, negligible earthen worklocated on a modest hilltop west of New London.

No enemy ship could assault New London’s harbor without taking a shellacking from the big guns dominating the river.Still, the town was an important target for the British, in part because most of the 500 ships seized by Connecticut privateers during the war were taken back to New London.

By the summer of 1781, Benedict Arnold, an aggressivecommander with the urge to wage total war, beseeched Britain’scommander-in-chief in America, Lieutenant General Henry Clinton, to fight his former countrymen. After leading a successful British expedition to exploit Virginia’s vulnerability,Arnold was replaced by General William Phillips in April and recalled to New York. He chafed at the inactivity of Clinton,pushing for an expedition against New England, particularly that nest of privateers, New London. Who better to command such an expedition than Arnold, a native son of the area and a seasoned sailor who knew the Thames River?

Clinton demurred, fixated by the possible assault againstNew York by Washington and his French allies. But then, Patriotprivateer Captain Dudley Saltonstall of the brigantine Minerva seized the Hannah on July 31, 1781 with its fabulous cargo of luxuries worth £80,000 intended for the British officers’ corps in New York. The Hannah’s paroled captain loudly complained about the cursed rebels in New London, where the prized luxuries awaited sale and distribution. After Clinton learned that a French fleet had landed troops in Virginia, he listened toArnold’s argument that perhaps a raid on New London might make the rebels think twice about venturing far from New Yorkand New England. On September 2, Clinton authorized Arnoldto take some 1,732 troops and 24 vessels on a punitive mission.

Expedition

Arnold brought three veteran regiments of British regulars:the yellow-faced 38th, the green-faced 54th, and the illustriousheroes of the Battle of Germantown, the buff-faced 40th. Clinton added four Loyalist units: the green-coated Loyal Americans,Arnold’s own American Legion, Upham’s Refugees, and the3rd New Jersey Provincial Battalion made up of Bergen CountyDutch descendants in their blue-faced red uniforms, along withassorted Loyalist volunteers. To screen the landings and theapproach of the line troops to their target, Clinton sent along100 Hessian Jaegers—bicorne-wearing, dark green-coated, crimson-faced riflemen from the forests of Germany.Three dark blue-coated, red-faced Royal Artillery gun crews manned three cannon.

Each British regiment had ten companies optimally at60 men each. Eight of the companies were composed of regular soldiers distinguished by the ubiquitous cocked hat. The remaining two companies were the grenadiers and light infantry(light bobs).These highly trained grenadiers were distinguishedby their greater height and tall bearskin caps; in the case of the light infantry, distinguished by their short cut-down coats, red waistcoats, black straps and belts, and usually some short leatherhelmets with feathers.

The light bobs were generally younger, more agile men highlytrained for irregular combat.These elite grenadier and light infantry companies did not serve with their parent regiment’s battalion companies; instead they converged with other regiments’ elite companies to form shock battalions. The 40th had recently returnedfrom several years of service in the disease-ridden West Indieswhere their ranks were seriously depleted.To bring up their numbers, the flank companies were added and replacements destinedfor other regiments diverted to swell the 40th’s hat companies.

Arnold’s task force departed from Whitestone, New York, on September 4. Patriot spy Captain David Gray departed from New York City to arrive at Fort Griswold on the evening of September 5 to warn the regional commander, Colonel William Ledyard, of Arnold’s attack. The fleet was spotted off the mouth of the Thames around 3 a.m. on September 6 by Sergeant Rufus Avery, on duty at Fort Griswold. Avery immediately fired off the two “alarm guns” in succession to signal attack and to call for the militia. Knowingthat three cannons fired in succession meant a prize was being brought into the harbor, Arnoldfired one of his own cannons. Many hearing thethird cannon blast went back to bed, so Colonel Ledyard dispatched riders to neighboring townsand outlying farms to rouse the militia while heassembled and readied the garrisons of Trumbulland Griswold. Meanwhile, Arnold was immobilized off the coast and unable to unload for six hours due to the wind and the tide.

Defense

Colonel Ledyard went down to the harbor to beseech privateer captains and crewmembers to help man the forts’ cannons. Woefully undermanned, Ledyard needed sailors who weretrained gunners. Instead, many captains andtheir crew frantically tried saving their ships by sailing upriver. Only a few, including Captain Peter Richards and Captain Elias Henry Halsey,stayed to help.

Confusion and panic reigned in New Londonand Groton as residents packed or hid their fewvaluables, sent their families out of town, or hunkered down. Ledyard sent his family away and thencrossed the Thames with his African American orderly, Jordan Freeman, and ascended the hillto Fort Griswold. His nephew, Captain YoungsLedyard of the Groton militia, arrived with somevolunteers from neighboring New London andStonington. Some of these men were as young as12, and some were as old as 75. Altogether the volunteers numbered just over 110. Even when combined with the regular garrison, Ledyard did notGriswold and Trumbull, and the approaching British fleet have nearly enough men to defend the fort’s cur-Library of Congress tain wall, its three bastions, and fire all the cannons.

Taking Town Hill & Trumbull

The wind changed about 9 a.m. and the British debarked their troops on both sides of the Thames.

On the western shore, Arnold led a force comprising of the 38th Regiment, three Loyalist regiments (the Loyal Americans,Upham’s Refugees, and the American Legion), about 60 Jaegers,and a Royal Artillery company with a six-pounder field cannon.Their landing was met by a scattering of unorganized militia andvolunteer Patriots, but their resistance was ineffectual in slowingArnold’s approach on the straight road to New London. Addingto the disarray, the local militia colonel commanding Fort TownHill, which covered the rear approach to Fort Trumbull, rode off after complaining that he felt sick.

Once the Royal Navy bombarded the coast, the Americans atthe landing sites withdrew and the British completed their landing. Arnold detached several companies of the 38th Regiment and an American Legion company to attack Fort Trumbull fromthe rear while the vanguard of the column continued up the road to assault FortTown Hill.The Americans abandoned Fort Town Hill, and the British and their Loyalist allies began looting and burning New London. Before the British overran Fort Trumbull, its commander fired his cannons at the British, spikedhis guns (disabling cannon by hammering a special splittingnail into the touch hole at the gun’s breach) and led his garrison in three rowboats across the Thames to Groton.The British quickly fired volleys at the departing boats. One was forced to surrender after the oarsmen were hit, while the 17 men in the two remaining boats made it to the eastern shore just beneath Fort Griswold. They were greeted with cheers.

Meanwhile, British Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Eyre landedthe rest of the expedition on the eastern shore of the Thames River. This force consisted of the 40th and 54th Regiments,the 3rd Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers, a company of Jaegers, and two guns of the Royal Artillery.The Jaegers rowed in first and easily secured the beach. Although Patriot Captain Amos Stanton wanted to clash on the beach and conduct a fighting retreat, Colonel Ledyard declined to contest the British.He needed every man in the fort.

The roads and paths to Fort Griswold were rougher andmore circuitous than the western shore road to Fort Town Hill. Due to the difficulty of pulling the field pieces without horses oroxen, Eyre decided to rush up with the two regiments of regulars and leave the smaller 3rd New Jersey Battalion (150 men) to accompany the guns. The Jaegers covered the flanks andthe front, and would later be stationed north of the fort on the road to Stonington to intercept any possible relief column.Eyre pushed his force two miles for two hours and arrived at Avery Hill, about three-quarters of a mile to the southeast of Fort Griswold. This natural barrier ledge of rocks shielded the invasion force from the fort’s destructive fire.

While Arnold had been attacking the rear of Fort Trumbull,he saw American ships in the harbor escaping upriver. Thus,Arnold had sent orders to Eyre to attack Fort Griswold assoon as possible. After Arnold took Fort Town Hill, he looked through his telescope at Griswold. He was shocked when he saw that the fort was in much better shape than he had been ledto believe. Complete and intact, it appeared to be fully manned.He knew that it was far too late to prevent the ships in the harbor from escaping. There was nothing of strategic worth to be gained in storming the fort that would merit the incurrence of the high casualties. Arnold immediately countermanded hisearlier attack order. This took some time because an aide had to go down and secure a boat to cross the river.

Meanwhile, Eyre sent out Captain Beckwith of the 54thwith a white flag and written summons to demand surrender of the fort. When Beckwith came within 200 yards of the fort,a musket shot rang from the fort. Ledyard dispatched Captains Amos Stanton, Elijah Avery, and John Williams with their ownflag. The captains returned to the fort and deliberated withLedyard in a council of war.

Ledyard knew that most of his men were untrained, that his numbers were insufficient, and that stretching his meager force to cover the walls would be impossible. Parts of the protective ditch were caving in, there were gaps in the abattis, the gun platforms were rotting, and there were no prepared artillery cartridges.

Benadem Gallup of the 8th Regiment of militia based in Groton, Stonington, and Preston was in the fort. The greater parts of his regiment of 200–300 men were outside and visible a few hundred yards to the north. Gallup told Ledyard thathe would bring his men into the fort in due course. Ledyard understood that he had the good chance of holding the post with such added numbers, so he authorized Gallup to do so.

Meanwhile, Ledyard exchanged cannon fire with the Britishat Fort Trumbull. Captain Shapley had not had time to properlyspike all of Trumbull’s guns, and the British were able to retract the nails from the touch holes. However, with their elevated position on Groton Heights, the 12-pounders of Fort Griswoldeasily reached Trumbull, whereas the heavier 18-pounders at Fort Trumbull could not elevate to return the fire.

Ledyard sent the captains back out with his rejection of thecall to surrender. The British were prepared to storm the fortand, if they did, martial law applied and the garrison would beput to the sword. To this British threat, Ledyard’s final replyleft no doubt that he was determined to hold the fort: “We will not give up the Fort, let the consequences be what theymay.” Beckwith signaled Eyre to commence to attack.

Assault

Unfortunately for Ledyard, the 8th Regiment militia didnot budge, and so the commander had to make do with the 160men he had. He detached a few men to work the three guns at the redoubt, 120 yards outside the eastern wall of the fort.

From behind the rocks and ledges of Avery Hill, Eyre hatchedhis plan of assault. The 54th Regiment would attack the southwestern corner while Major Montgomery and the 40th would assault the northeastern corner. The intent was to reduce the troops’ exposure to the fort’s guns.The troops had no scaling ladders for walls and no axes to cut through any abattis, ditch stockade, or fraising. Eyre would run the gauntlet of an 18-poundercommanded by Stephen Hempstead and privateer CaptainHalsey who aimed the piece. The 18-pounder was loaded withtwo bags of grapeshot.

Major Montgomery approached the eastern brow of theridge upon which the fort was situated. Here sat the redoubt containing three four-pounders. All of the Patriots sent out to load the pieces had already retired to the fort except for CaptainElijah Bailey and a soldier named Williams. The 40th came up in a run to the fleche. The two Americans fired a cannon and Williams hightailed back to the north gate. The cannon inflicted significant casualties on the assaulting columns butdid not appreciably slow down their assault.

The British were close when Bailey completed spiking the gun and abandoned the fleche. By the time he rounded thenortheast corner of the fort, the gate was shut. He rushed past the closed gate, past the northwest bastion, down the slope of the ridge towards the river, and into a cornfield. There he lay,hidden and undisturbed for the rest of the day.

American reinforcements continued to trickle in to Griswold. Joseph Moxley and his 19-year-old son entered last throughthe north gate. After the gate was closed, militiaman AndrewBillings entered by climbing up a rope thrown to him over thewestern wall, which was not covered with fraising. VolunteerJohn Clark laboriously rowed across the river from New Londonwith a bag of musket cartridges andascended the hill to continue the fight.A rope was likewise thrown to him, butas he climbed up he was shot downby the British—the first defender atGriswold to fall.

Meanwhile, the 54th was funneling through a gate to begin theirassault on the south side of the fort. The fort’s only 18-pounder gun wasstationed in the southeast corner. Seasoned soldiers under SergeantStephen Hempstead and sailors under Captain Halsey manned thegun. Halsey redirected it, waiting forthe enemy column to appear in position for maximum impact. That firstshot struck the column with devastating affect: at least 20 Redcoatswere mowed down, and the column left in disarray. The defenders on theramparts stepped up to fire upon the enemy over the parapet when they got within effective range(75–100 yards) of their inaccurate smoothbore muskets.Theseweapons were like giant shotguns—devastatingly effective atshort range, especially when the musket ball cartridge includedtwo or three pieces of buckshot.

As the 54th now ran to the southwest bastion, they experienced the gauntlet of the fort’s musket fire and that of the 18-pounder. The 40th ran into similar heavy fire as theyapproached the east and north walls. The abattis and remaining stockade slowed them down, making them more visibletargets. As the British attacked the north and south walls, they faced the two nine-pounders placed in the two bastions.

After a half hour, the British momentarily pulled back apparently in response to the serious wounding of their division’scommander, Lieutenant Colonel Eyre. Major Montgomery ofthe 40th moved to the south to assume overall command. He took some 40th companies but not the lights and grenadiers.

During this short lull, Montgomery considered calling off the assault. New London and the ships captured in the harbor were on fire.Taking the fort no longer served any vital purpose.A random British shot hit the halyard on the fort’s flagstaff,causing the 13-striped flag to fall to the ground. Patriot Luke Perkins retied the flag to a pike and planted it on the bastion’s ramparts so the enemy would know that the fort was not being surrendered. However quickly he may have acted, it was not fastenough. The dispirited British soldiers saw the flag was down and concluded that the Americans had had enough.

When the stunned and dismayed defenders saw the British jubilantly advancing, they fired ferociously. Surprised, the Britishconcluded that the rebels had perpetrated a dirty trick: lowering the flag to entice the British into coming within range.The British and Hessian response to such perceived perfidywas to refuse any surrender and instead to skewer their captives on bayonet points. Here the enraged men of the 54th and 40th regiments pressed their assault with a bitter resolve that the Americans should face full retribution.

Attack Renewed

The assault’s strongest effort pushed on the south sidewhere there was no ditch. Here, some of the 40th’s hat companies and Major Montgomery joined the 54th. The Britishencountered fierce resistance as they advanced beneath thewalls.The attackers fought their way through the abattis andstockade to get to the ground before the north, east, and southwalls. The men faced the deadly enfilade from the bastion’s two nine-pounders. Every 20–30 seconds a blast of canisterat point blank range could take out a dozen or more of theBritish regulars.

Patriot gunners could not maximize their rate of fire forwant of prepared charges. Bombardiers in the magazine had tomeasure out the gunpowder and attach the projectile (grapeshot or canister) as they went. Young boys would then run thecartridges up to each of the operating cannons. At least six different calibers of cannon slowed this time-consuming process.

To mount the walls without scaling ladders and axes, theBritish soldiers paired up with one soldier supporting another’s attempt to dislodge the 12-foot pointed stakes protruding from the walls (fraising), all the while being fired upon bythe defenders’ cannons and muskets. Other British soldiers stood and fired at the defenders.

On the wall near the southeast corner, Sergeant StephenHempstead further maneuvered the big 18-pounder. Everytime the cannon fired, the recoil pushed the gun back a fewfeet, which enabled the crew to reload the piece from themuzzle. The cannon then had to be moved forward so as to insert the muzzle back into the embrasure, or opening,to fire. As this was being done, a British soldier managedto fire a one-ounce musket ball through the embrasure,which sliced one of Hempstead’s ears. The sergeant had tostop and tie a handkerchief around the wound to staunchthe profuse bleeding. This veteran of Bunker Hill exhibitedcool determination as he continued to fire and load his cannon. He saw the head of a British soldier poking throughan opening in the fraising in front of the cannon to his left.The Redcoat cried out to the American gun crew, “My bravefellows, the enemy are breaking in behind you.” Hempsteadgrabbed a pike and thrust it at the soldier’s protruding head.At that very moment he was shot in the arm bearing thepike. He quickly switched to the right arm and thrust thepike at the Redcoat.

The British 54th concentrated many men against theenfilading cannon in the southwest bastion and discovered the fort’s weakness: a large boulder embedded duringconstruction on its western side. This boulder (which canbe seen today) disallowed the placement of fraising and byits angle shielded an attacker from the musket fire of thedefenders. One by one the British soldiers climbed onto theparapet by means of the boulder and swarmed into the bastion, attacking the men at the cannon. At least one Britishsoldier made it all the way to the front gate and tried to openit, but was slain in the process. As the fire from the southwest bastion slackened, the 40th renewed their assault on the south wall. They dislodged the pickets thereby creatingopenings in the fraising where one man at a time squeezedthrough the gap with a boost provided by his fellow soldiers;then up to the embrasures where no cannon was placed.One Samuel Edgcomb grew frustrated with the inabilityto fire often enough on the attackers. As a result, he hurled18-pound cannonballs at the heads of the attackers, but waswounded in the hand.

Andrew Gallup continued to operate his southeast cornercannon until the powder monkey, 15-year-old Daniel Williams, failed to return with new rounds for the gun. Gallup lookedaround for Williams but saw that he had been shot on his wayto the powder magazine. Staring at Williams’ body, Gallup wasstruck in the hip, disabled by a shot through the embrasure.

Breakthrough

Cannons in the southwest bastion were silenced, and more openings in the fraising were made and widened on the south wall. As British musket fire cleared the embrasures of defenders, Major Montgomery seized the moment to lead his battalionthrough the central or third embrasure in the south wall. As he climbed into the open embrasure and beckoned his soldiers to follow, he was impaled on a pike wielded by Jordan Freeman,Colonel Ledyard’s African American orderly. Montgomery waskilled by the thrust. Command shifted to Major Bromfield of the 54th Regiment.

Concurrently, the light and grenadier companies of the40th managed to climb through the embrasures in the northeast corner and overwhelm the garrison on that part of thefort.The Patriots defended stubbornly and vigorously. CaptainWilliam Latham and his slave, Lambo, loaded and fired as quickly as they could until Lambo was slain and CaptainLatham was wounded in the thigh. Lieutenant Parke Averyfought side by side with his 17-year-old son. He urged his sonto do his duty and watched him die—one of nine Averys tobe slain that day. One British soldier climbed onto the parapet from the fraising and thrust down with his bayonet intothe lieutenant’s forehead, exposing his brain and taking outone of his eyes. Left for dead, he survived and lived to theripe old age of 81.

In all the confusion, a British soldier made it to the north entrance to open the gates. A tide of Redcoats swept ontothe fort’s parade ground and mounted the parapet on thewestern and northern walls. Sergeant Rufus Avery said theyturned as one and fired at the Americans on the ramparts.They then began to sweep the platform of defenders fromthe western wall. Avery was standing only five feet away, when he saw the British knock them down and bayonetCaptain Edward Latham. When a soldier went to bayonet asailor named Christopher Latham, the seaman grabbed theman but was shot in the forearm, and then knocked senseless by another soldier.

Sergeant Avery, with a bullet hole in his coat and a rip from a bayonet thrust, fled the southwest bastion for the supposed safety of the barracks.The British were now advancing towards the south end of the parade ground in three platoons, firing volleys indiscriminately at every Patriot in their path. In response to the British breakthrough, some of the garrison had fled into the barracks and were firing at the British from its windows.Colonel Ledyard knew the situation was hopeless and ordered his men to put down their weapons. He and Jordan Freeman made their way to the north end of the parade ground towards a British officer identified as Captain Beckwith in order to surrender the fort.

Avery reached the barracks’ door only to witness the British firing into the windows of the barracks. As he turned around to flee, he saw Colonel Ledyard’s body lying at the feet of the British officer.

According to Sergeant Hempstead, Colonel Ledyard had surrendered his sword to the officer, who grabbed it and thrust Ledyard through the body with it, killing him. Freeman and Ledyard’s 30-year-old nephew, Captain Youngs Ledyard, had rushed into the fray either to defend or avenge the colonel and had in turn been bayoneted. Freeman was killed and the captain mortally wounded.

Before Avery could run from the barracks’ door, he wascaught by a soldier who yelled that he would “skipper him bejesus.” Avery begged for his life but the soldier tried three times unsuccessfully to stab him with his bayonet before quitting.Avery watched as British soldiers killed the regular garrison’s second-in-command, Lieutenant Enoch Stanton, just a fewfeet from him.

Carnage & Slaughter

Men desperate for safety fled into the powder magazine andbolted the door. Stephen Whittlesey, who had escaped across theriver with Captain Shapley when Fort Trumbull was attacked,was trapped in the magazine when the British swarmed into the fort. The magazine provided no real protection from the British. A bayonet thrust through an opening in the outer doorskilled Stephen.

A platoon marched up to where the two outer doors of themagazine made a space wide enough for 10 soldiers to stand. Atpoint blank range, they volleyed into the magazine killing andwounding many of the men seeking refuge inside. LieutenantWilliam Starr, the town’s blacksmith, felt a musket ball hit his breastbone that traveled down his left arm and out his elbow. Joseph Moxley had been stabbed in the stomach by a British bayonet and would not survive the night. A musket ball cut throughhis son’s waistcoat, ripping it to shreds and grazing his abdomen.

It was said the volley could have ignited a fire inside themagazine that would have blown up the fort, but the bloodof the dead and wounded extinguished the sparks and flames.Another British platoon made ready to also fire inside the magazine. Major Bromfield of the 54th ran up with sword raisedand screamed: “Stop firing! You’ll send us all to hell together.”

Elsewhere the slaughter continued. As the Patriots realized no quarter was being given, some of them feigned death amongthe deceased and wounded. Others on the western wall jumpedfrom the fort and ran.

Charles Chester witnessed his brothers being bayoneted afterthey had surrendered. Unlike his brothers, he did not let go of hismusket but remained on the platform and reloaded it. He drew backwhile a British soldier advanced against him. He leapt onto the barracks that bordered the eastern wall.The soldier pursuing Charlesattempted to shoot him but his musket misfired.Charles respondedby discharging musket ball and buckshot into the unlucky Redcoat.Seeing this, a British officer called up to Charles and asked if heintended to surrender.To which Charles retorted,“Yes, if I can be protected, but not without.” The officer promised that he wouldbe protected if he came down from the barracks. Charles could seethat the officer had some prisoners gathered around him for protection, so he climbed down and gave himself up.

Ensign Charles Eldridge, who had sought shelter in themagazine, was badly wounded in the knee but bought offa would-be killer by giving the soldier his gold watch. Hisbrother, Daniel, was spared and carried off as a prisoner.Private John Daboll of the 8th militia regiment, who hadbeen wounded in the hand while waging an unsuccessfulduel with a British soldier, was knocked down by the butt ofa musket. John begged for his life while the soldier threatened to run him through with his bayonet. A British officer,hearing his pleas, stepped forwarded and knocked the musketaway from Daboll’s body and declared: “There you damnedrebel, I have saved your life!” Daboll would be paroled laterto return to his wife.

Major Bromfield of the 54th ordered one of the drummers tobeat the ceasefire. Drum beats could be heard above the din of confused battle to convey the commander’s orders.The Crown officers slowly gained control over their rampaging men and stopped the slaughter.

More than half of the fort’s garrison was dead and another quarter wounded—some mortally. Nearly 200 casualtiesamounted to the one-third loss of the British attackers.

Aftermath

The British gathered their wounded and located them to a part of the fort’s parade ground sheltered from the sun, while ordering the rebels to move their wounded to the shadelessnortheast section. American prisoners used barrack doors as litters for bearing the incapacitated British. Otherwise, the prisoners were ordered to sit on pain of death and forbidden from fetching water from the fort’s well just 11 yards away. Sergeant Rufus Avery persuaded the British to give him some water for the wounded and dying.

Eventually the British buried their dead beneath the fort’s redan, inventoried the munitions and ordnance, and prepared to blow up the fort.

Fit American prisoners were eventually marched down the steep hill to the riverbank to be embarked on a prison ship or taken to the Sugar House prison in New York City. Severely wounded Patriot prisoners were taken into Ensign Ebenezer Avery’s home at the foot of the hill and left to fend for themselves. American dead were left where they fell.

Later that night, after they looted and set fire to Groton homes and stores, and even to the Avery house (it survived the night and remains today).The British lit the slow match fuse toset off the magazine and destroy the fort. Colonel Peters from Norwich rapidly entered the fort to search for survivors and extinguished the lit fuse.

Families feared to approach the fort to recover the bodies of their loved ones until they knew that the British haddeparted. When Mrs. Hempstead arrived at Ensign Avery’shouse, she did not recognize her husband and went to the fort to search for him. The wife of Fort Trumbull second-in-command, Lieutenant Richard Chapman, sent her three sons tolearn the fate of their father. They turned over many bloodied and deformed bodies but could not be sure which bodywas their father’s. It was only by pulling off dozens of stockings that they found his body with the missing toe that their mother had described.

Benedict Arnold returned to New York where he was praised for wiping out a nest of privateers but widely criticized for having lost so many men of the 54th and 40th regiments. Arnold would not be trusted again to lead men intobattle. To his former allies, his treachery and betrayal overWest Point became coupled with a searing hatred born fromthe post-surrender slaughter of their beloved family and friendsat Fort Griswold. The widespread destruction of their homes and property required years for the towns to recover. In NewLondon, 143 buildings were destroyed and 97 families madehomeless. Groton lost 19 buildings including 12 homes andthe schoolhouse.

Petitions circulated to the General Assembly to properlyrestore and adequately man the fort, but the Revolution was coming to a close. The citizens of Groton dedicated in 1830 a giant obelisk to commemorate the Fort Griswold Patriots. It stands 135 feet high with 165 spiral steps. The fort lived on as a military base into the early 20th century, then a state park.What remains of the fort are the walls, the bastions and the sally port—silent sentinels to the sacrifice.

Jerry Hurwitz is the President of the Princeton Battlefield AreaPreservation Association who practices law in NJ when not savinghistoric Revolutionary War sites. jeraldphurwitz@aol.com