Gallant Old Patriot

Those of you who follow my postings on Facebook might have caught a flurry of them this week on the small  engagement that took place near Danbury, Connecticut, and the death of a "little known First Patriot, David Wooster." The American Revolution is replete with people from all walks of life who served quietly and diligently (on both sides) for the cause they believed in. This is the story of one...one of the First Greatest Generation.

Captain David Wooster

Much of David Wooster's fame came early in life during two of the many wars fought between England and France in North America.  A  Yale graduate, he had married the beautiful daughter of the president of that college but chose a life of action over books.  He took to the water (even today, Connecticut has more ports than any other state) and became an officer in that colony's coast guard.

During the War of the Austrian Succession (King George's War in America), the colonists of New England waged a bitter struggle against the French in Canada and Nova Scotia to their north. Wooster was commissioned a captain in command of a company in Colonel Andrew Burr's Regiment.  Coincidentally, Burr was the uncle of  Aaron Burr. He took part in the campaign against the mighty French fortress of Louisbourg. Captain Wooster distinguished himself enough to be named as part of the escort of prisoners back to France when the fortress finally fell.  His journey took him to Britain where his achievements were celebrated in the press. Wooster met the King and received for his service a commission in Sir William Pepperrell's Regiment (a regular British army regiment)  that included a pension for life. In 1748, the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle ended the war and Wooster returned to civilian life in Connecticut.

Jeffery Amherst at Ticonderoga,
the land between the waters

When the French and Indian War broke out, Wooster served from 1755 to the war's end in 1761, during which he was promoted to colonel and given command of the 3rd Connecticut regiment. In 1758 his regiment was at the disastrous Battle of Carillon, near the French fort of that name, at the southern extreme of Lake Champlain. There, General James Abercrombie launched a disastrous frontal attack that was torn to ribbons by Marquis de Montcalm's force of French regulars, Canadians, and Indians. This was the bloodiest battle of the French and Indian War, the British lost over  2,000 of the 3,000 casualties. But Wooster was  again in the thick of things in 1759 when General Jeffery Amherst captured the Fort Carillon and renamed it Ticonderoga, the Indian name
for that strategic place between the waters.

Rebels stopped cold at Quebec

By the time of the American Revolution, Wooster was in his mid-sixties and settled in the mercantile business in New Haven. But this First Patriot sacrificed his comfortable pension and status to serve the cause of his country at a time when most men of his age were enjoying home and hearth. Appointed general in the Connecticut militia, he planned the attack on Fort Ticonderoga that gave the newly forming rebel army its first artillery train. He was named a Brigadier General in the Continental Army and second in command of the failed rebel attack on Quebec that same year. Wooster stayed with the force during the bitter retreat to Fort Ticonderoga.  The defeat in Canada resulted in his recall from Continental command but likely his age ruled him out for further active campaigning with the field forces. But Wooster was then appointed Major General of the Connecticut Militia and commanded all militia troops in that state.

Governor William Tryon

That placed him at the center of the action for the Danbury April 1777 raid launched by New York's Governor Tryon.  At the time, an arc of territory stretching from southeast Connecticut through the Hudson Valley and Highlands was a no man's land of bitter fighting on both sides.  Danbury was a key rebel base in that struggle. Leading a force of regulars and Loyalists in a swift landing at Fairfield, Connecticut,  Tryon's column over 2,000 strong marched north towards the rebel arsenal at Danbury, looting and burning patriot homes along the way.  They reached the arsenal and destroyed it on April 26th.

 Learning of the attack, Wooster and General Benedict Arnold had rallied around 600 Connecticut militia who tried to stop the British at Ridgefield as they returned south to the coast near Compo Point. Arnold took the main body of troops to block the British advance while Wooster led a small detachment of them in the British rear. His undisciplined troops could not stand up very long against the regulars and they soon broke.  Wooster's ire was up though and he tried gallantly to rally his men.  However, a British cannon unleashed canister and a piece of metal pierced his side and struck his backbone.

Battle of Ridgefield - Arnold and Wooster
could not stop Tryon's forces

The battle continued in sporadic skirmishes as the British retreated to the coast. But they carried the gravely wounded old warrior back to Danbury. Before he died on May 2nd, his wife and son had been sent for. They arrived soon enough to receive his parting blessing. The gallant old Patriot  told them that he was dying, but "with strong hope and persuasion that his country would gain its independence."

Monument to Major General David Wooster
in Danbury, Connecticut

The Tax Man and the Revolution

This week heralds our federal income tax deadline - a time that fills most Americans with dread. And no wonder. Our nation was founded by men who resisted unjust taxes. The American Revolution was precipitated, in part, by a series of laws passed between 1763 and 1775 that regulated trade and taxes. These laws caused tensions between colonists and British officials. British unwillingness to respond to American demands for change allowed colonists to argue that they were part of an increasingly corrupt and autocratic empire in which their traditional liberties were threatened. This position eventually served as the basis for the colonial Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence was the result
of years of political turmoil and outright rebellion

After 1763, the British government emerged from the Seven Years' War (known in America as the French and Indian War) burdened by heavy debts. This led British Prime Minister George Grenville to reduce duties on sugar and molasses while enforcing the law more strictly. The colonial governments of New York and Massachusetts sent formal letters of protest to Parliament.

George Grenville

 

To ensure that the colonies did not try to pay for goods and their taxes in local currency, the British Parliament passed the 1764 Currency Act, which forbade the colonies from issuing paper currency. This made it even more difficult for colonists to pay their debts and taxes.

 

Following the Currency Act, Grenville proposed a Stamp Tax. This law would require colonists to purchase a government-issued stamp for legal documents and other paper goods. In effect, it was an indirect tax on many things colonists needed to conduct day-to-day business. Grenville submitted the bill to Parliament for debate, and only one member objected to Parliament's right to tax the colonies.

 

In response, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed resolutions denying the British Parliament's authority to tax the colonies. In Boston, tensions escalated. Colonists rioted and destroyed the house of the stamp distributor. News of these protests inspired similar actions in other colonies, and thus the Stamp Act served as a common cause that united the 13 colonies in opposition to the British Parliament. In October of 1765, delegates from 9 colonies met to issue petitions to the British government denying Parliament's authority to tax the colonies. An American boycott of British goods, coupled with a recession, also led British merchants to lobby for the act's repeal on pragmatic economic grounds. Under pressure from American colonists and British merchants, the British government decided it was easier to repeal the Stamp Act than to enforce it.

The Boston Tea Party

The repeal of the Stamp Act temporarily quieted colonial protest, but resistance to new taxes imposed in 1767 under the Townshend Acts soon returned. Tensions escalated as disgruntled colonists organized. In 1773, colonists staged more vocal, widespread protests after the British Parliament granted the East India Company a monopoly on the tax-free transport of tea. The tax-free status of the British East India Company meant that colonial tea traders could not compete. Enraged colonists responded by encouraging a general boycott of British goods. On December 16, 1773, American colonists disguised as Indians boarded East India Company ships in Boston Harbor and threw crates of tea overboard. This famous protest became known as the Boston Tea Party.

 

When news of the Tea Party reached England, British officials moved to enforce discipline and order in the colonies. The British government ordered the closure of the port of Boston until the East India Company was compensated for the destroyed tea. Parliament also passed several pieces of legislation in 1774, which Americans termed the Intolerable Acts. British control was further solidified by the appointment of General Thomas Gage as the military governor of Massachusetts. He attempted to place Massachusetts under direct British control. 

By 1774, most colonists agreed that a meeting to discuss an appropriate collective response to British actions was a good idea. Colonial legislatures sent representatives to Philadelphia, and the First Continental Congress convened in September 1774. The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Association on October 20. These Articles listed colonial grievances and called for a locally enforced boycott across all the colonies, effective December 1. The delegates also drafted a petition to King George III outlining their grievances, although by then they doubted the crisis would be resolved peacefully.

King George III

Recognizing that further coercive measures would only enrage the colonists and might lead to war, British military governor Gage wrote to London, recommending the suspension of the Intolerable Acts. Gage hoped to appease many colonists and thereby split colonial moderates from radicals. If London was not amenable to his recommendations, Gage stated that he would need significant reinforcements to crush the growing rebellion.

General Thomas Gage

As a reward for his suggestions, Gage was ordered to be removed from his post. The British government felt that further punitive measures were necessary, so Parliament passed additional trade restrictions on New England. London declared the colonies in rebellion, but to split the resistance, it also offered to stop taxing those colonies that supported the British government.

Lexington

By this time, the most astute leaders on both sides viewed armed conflict as inevitable. Gage's attempts to secure his position in Boston only brought him into conflict with local militias and a hostile populace, and it was only a matter of time before open war broke out in 1775. The opportunity for peaceful negotiation had ended, and the war for American Independence began on April 19, 1775, when British troops and American colonists clashed at Lexington and Concord.

Concord

Later this week (after our taxes are paid), we will celebrate the anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord...the shot heard round the world...