War Services.— From the resumption of the government under the charter to the close of the French war in 1763, Connecticut saw much military service, for which she furnished her full quota, on other soils than her own. The short intervals of peace during this long period did not suffice to regain prosperity, and the year 1763 found the colony impoverished by contributions of men and money in the French and Spanish wars, and confronted with the odious news of the Stamp Act. The enforce ment of this measure was prevented by com pelling the stamp-master to sign a paper stating that he resigned ((of his own free In the War of the Revolution which fol lowed, the share of Connecticut forms a most important feature, still hardly appreciated by his torians. The colony was amply, though quietly, prepared in every way for the coming struggle in 1775. Perfect unanimity prevailed. It was unnecessary either to reconstruct the govern ment, as was done in Massachusetts, or to de pose the governor, as was done in all the other •colonies. Connecticut alone of all the 13 colo nies had front the beginning a governor, Jona than Trumbull, who was an ardent believer in the cause of his country. He became a trusted adviser and helper to Washington. A cherished Connecticut tradition asserts that the national nickname, ((Brother Jonathan,)) is derived from the fact that Washington had used this sobri quet in spealdng of Governor Trumbull. From recent cotnpilations of muster-rolls it is safe to assert that Connecticut furnished 40,000 men in her various enlistments in this war. In the adoption of the Declaration of Independence she was the first colony to instruct her dele gates to vote for this measure. During the war, she gained the title of ((the Provision State,p owing to the unstinted supplies which she sent to the front in an times of need, relieving, for example, the sufferings of the starving soldiers at Valley Forge by sending forward droves of live cattle -when Washington wrote Trumbull that the army must disband unless supplies were forthcoming.
As in the French, Spanish and Indian wars, so in the Revolution, Connecticut's position was, in a certain sense, altruistic, for but little fight ing was done on her soil, and it was done at times when her own fighting men were serving their country beyond their own immediate bor ders. ravages of rivo of the most savage massacres and two of the most barbarous raids of the war brought their horror and devasta tion to this little commonwealth. The Wyo ming massacre was an attack on Connecticut settlers on disputed Connecticut soil, justly claimed under grants of the charter, which ex tended the western boundaries to the "South or Pacific Ocean, whose location was majestically ignored by Charles II and his ad visers. Wyoming or Westmoreland, now in Pennsylvania, was at the time of the horrible massacre of July 1778 a county of Connecticut, having been previously a part of Litchfield County, and having been for 25 years settled by a Connecticut company after repeated re pulses which only served to strengthen resist ance and establish an apparently permanent foothold on the part of the settlers. The refugees, of whom women and children com posed a large majority, fled to their homes in Connecticut after the massacre, the terrible re sults of which did not prevent many of the former inhabitants from returning to Wyoming, and once more establishing themselves in that beautiful region from which they had been so often ruthlessly driven. The other massacre, at
Groton, occurred toward the close of the war, 6 Sept. 1781. The raid was commanded by Ben edict Arnold, to whom it is unfair to attribute the most disgraceful part of it. He was in New London at the time of the occurrence, his troops having burned a large portion of the town. The little garrison of Fort Griswold at Groton made a brave resistance against forces outnumbering them six to one. When, at last, the British entered the fort, Ledyard, the Amer ican commander, presented his sword to the officer in command of the British in token of surrender. This brute, whose name, fortunately for his memory, has never been discovered, re ceived the sword and plunged it at once through Ledyard's heart. This was a signal for in discriminate slaughter, in which hardly a man of this surrendered force was left unhurt, and but few left alive.
The raids of Gov. William Tryon on Dan bury in April 1777, and on New Haven, Fair field and Norwalk, in July 1779, resulted in great destruction of property by fire and plunder, and in the loss of many lives on both sides. It may be truly said that never but twice did these invaders remain on Connecticut soil over night, and in each case took to their ships the next morning with Connecticut troops in hot pursuit.
Notwithstanding the terrible drain which the Revolution made upon her resources, Connecti cut, through her wise financial policy, was bet ter prepared, at the close of the war, to avail of the advantages of peace than were any of the other States with the exception of Dela ware. It is hardly surprising that the War of 1812 should have been unpopular in Connecti cut as well as in all New England; but too much opprobrium has been heaped on Con necticut by giving the protesting convention for all New England the name of the Hartford Convention for the simple reason that it was held, for convenience, in Hartford. It will be found that Connecticut furnished for this war, too, a goodly number of men, though there were some disputes as to the manner and form of doing it. For the half century following this war, peace and prosperity prevailed, broken only by the comparatively insignificant, but sufficient, contribution which was made to the Mexican War.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, like the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775, found Connecticut with a governor in office who was equal to the emergency. Gov. William A. Buckingham, upon his own responsibility, called for a regiment of volunteers, 16 April 1861, when there was not a regiment of organ ized militia in the State to meet Lincoln's first call. The private citizens and the towns voted money to forward troops ; and soon, instead of one, three regiments of volunteers reported for service, making it necessary for the gov ernor to go to Washington to have three times the quota accepted under the call. At the close of the war, the official record shows that Con necticut had furnished 54,882 volunteers, which number was largely in excess of her quota.