November 29, 1776: Waterbury, CT

From volume 3 of American Archives, edited by Peter Force:

"Volunteer Company at Waterbury, Connecticut"
Saw-Pitts, in Rye, Connecticut, 29 Nov. 1776:

"When his Honour Governour [John] Trumbull recommended it to the householders in the State of Connecticut, who are not obliged to do military duty, to form themselves into companies, choose their own officers, and equip themselves for the defence of these States, a number of aged gentlemen, in the first society in the town of Waterbury, Embodied themselves and nominated their own officers, who were honoured with commissions; and when the regiment of Militia to which they belong were ordered to New-York, agreeable to a late resolve of the General Assembly, this company was the first in the regiment that marched and reached the place of rendezvous. It is now at this place, and consists of twenty-four men; their ages, added together, are a thousand years. They are all married men, and when they came from home, left behind them their wives, with a hundred and forty-nine children and grand children. One of them is fifty-eight years of age, has had nineteen children and twelve grand children; fourteen of his own children are now living. A worthy example of patriotism. Let others go and do likewise."

After the fall of Fort Washington (Nov. 16, 1776) and the British captured of the soldiers there, Gen. George Washington, the Continental Congress and the state governors appealed for recruits. These admirable recruits risked falling into the hands of vindictive captors.

November 25, 1776

After the Fall of Fort Washington (Nov. 16, 1776) and the capture of nearly 3,000 prisoners by the British, the Continental Army and the state militias try to recruit new soldiers, or spark reenlistment.

On Nov. 25, 1776, a Committee of Congress resolved "That the council of safety of Pensylvania [sic] be requested immediately, to call forth, all the associators in the city of Philadelphia, and its liberties, and in the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, Bucks, and Northampton, to continue in the service of the United States six weeks from the time they join the army, unless sooner discharged by Congress:

"That the volunteers who shall enrol [sic] to serve the United States till the tenth day of March next, shall, nevertheless, be discharged as soon as the situation of public affairs will possibly admit of it; it being the intention of Congress to detain them no longer than the present emergency shall render it absolutely necessary...."

David Hackett Fischer described the Philadelphia Associators in his book, Washington's Crossing. Founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1747 as a voluntary association because Pennsylvania had no militia, the Association elected its own officers and furnished its own weapons.

In 1775, Pennsylvania residents revived the wartime Association as the "Associators of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia." Associators elected their own officers and had a "Committee of Privates" that debating political issues and cared for the families of men at war. Nevertheless, Associators tended to elect the wealthy and socially prominent as their officers. Artist Charles Willson Peale, for instance, was a battalion commander who equipped some of his men and supported their families from his own money.

Fischer's opening chapter features the stories of several distinctive units that rushed to their country's defense in 1775-1776. It is an account worth reading.

Worthington Chauncey Ford, editor, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789: Volume 6:October 9-December 31, 1776 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906), 979

David Hackett Fischer, Washington's Crossing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 25-28

November 24, 1775

Several American newspapers reported that an Address (dated Cambridge, Massachusetts, 24 Nov. 1775), containing the following statement, "has been communicated to the Soldiery of the grand Continental Army:"

"The ministerial army, with three of their most esteemed Generals at their head, have been able to effect nothing. Instead of over-running and ravaging the continent from North to South, as they boasted they would do, they find themselves ignominiously cooped up within the walls of a single town (and even that they possessed themselves of by treachery) suffering all the distresses of a siege."

Consult, for instance, The Boston News-Letter (28 December 1775).

November 23, 1774

Lieutenant Governor William Bull of South Carolina, a royal appointee, wrote to Lord Dartmouth (William Legge, Second Earl of Dartmouth), the British secretary of American affairs, "Without giving your Lordship the trouble of another letter upon the result of the late Congress at Philadelphia, which doubtless hath long since reached your Lordship's hands, I beg leave only to add, that the disposition of this Province, in their political discontents, remain the same; that the people of the Province are, in the beginning of next January, again to choose Deputies to repair to the Philadelphia Congress by the 10th of May; and that I have farther prorogued the General Assembly to the 24th day of January, before which time we expect to receive some accounts of the measures that shall be adopted by the new Parliament relative to American affairs."

November 22, 1774

Extract of a Letter Received in London from a Gentleman in the British Army dated Boston, November 22, 1774, "The inhabitants of this Colony retain the religious and civil principles brought over by their forefathers in the reign of Charles the First, and are at least a hundred years behindhand with the People of England in every refinement. With the most austere show of devotion, they are void of every principle of Religion or common honesty, and reckoned the most arrant cheats and hypocrites upon the whole Continent of America."

The British officer (as this "gentleman" likely was) speculated, "As to what you hear of their taking arms to resist the force of England, it is mere bullying, and will go no farther than words; whenever it comes to blows, he that can run fastest will think himself best off: believe me, any two Regiments here ought to be decimated if they did not beat, in the field, the whole force of the Massachusetts Province; for though they are numerous, they are but a mere mob, without order or discipline, and very awkward at handling their Arms."

The officer's impressions must have been common even after the sad and shocking events at Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775) for in May 1775, Joseph Barrell wrote, "O my Dear Sir, the Yankees will fight; they are averse to begin; but when they once draw the Sword, they throw away the Scabbard...& Depend upon it they will prove that they have a true sense of that freedom wch. the God of nature gave & by whose Assistance they will Defend it."


Please consult Joseph Barrell to Unknown, Salem, Massachusetts, 24 May 1775, Correspondence and Journals of Samuel Blachley Webb: Volume 1: 1772-1777 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Wichersham Press, 1893), 60.