Once Upon a Time in Connecticut Part 8

From Harper's Weekly, Copyright 1893. Copyright Harper and Brothers

AN OLD CONNECTICUTT INN, 1790]

"The Whip-poor-will sung notes most shrill, Doves to their cots retreated, And all the fowls, excepting owls, Upon their roosts were seated.

"The herds and flocks stood still as stocks, Or to their folds were hieing, Men young and old, dared not to scold At wives and children crying.

"The day of doom, most thought was come, Throughout New England's borders, The people scared, felt unprepared To obey the dreadful orders."

In Connecticut the legislature was in session at Hartford. It was like night in the streets of this city and candles were burning in the windows of all the houses. Men grew anxious and uneasy. As the darkness became deeper, the House of Representatives adjourned, finding it impossible to transact any business. Soon after, a similar motion for adjournment was made in the Senate, or Council, as it was then called. By this time faces could scarcely be distinguished across the room and a dread had fallen on the a.s.sembly; "men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which were coming."

Then up rose Honorable Abraham Davenport, a judge of Fairfield County and councilor from Stamford, a stern and upright man, strict in the discharge of his duty.

"I am against adjournment," he said. "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought."

His strong words held the a.s.sembly. Its members rallied from their fears and, following his example, turned steadily to the transaction of the necessary business of the hour.

"And there he stands in memory to this day, Erect, self-poised, a rugged face half seen Against a background of unnatural dark, A witness to the ages as they pa.s.s That simple duty hath no place for fear."

WHITTIER.

REFERENCES

1. Barber, J. W. Connecticut Historical Collections, J. W. Barber. New Haven, 1836.

2. "The Dark Day." New England Magazine, May, 1834.

3. Dexter, F. B. (editor). The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, 1901.

4. Cutler, W. P. and J. P. Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Mana.s.seh Cutler. Cincinnati, 1888.

A FRENCH CAMP IN CONNECTICUT

On the Green of the old town of Lebanon a mound is shown to-day on the spot where a large brick oven stood in the winter of 1781--an oven in which bread was baked for the soldiers of the American Revolutionary Army. These soldiers, who might have been seen almost any day that winter in their gay uniforms, crossing and recrossing the Green, or gathered in groups about the oven, were, strangely enough, not American soldiers, but French hussars belonging to the Duke de Lauzun's famous "Legion of Horse."

France, being herself at war with England, had recently sent an army to America to help the colonies in their struggle against a common enemy, and the French commander-in-chief, the Count de Rochambeau, wrote from Newport, Rhode Island, to Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, asking if the governor could provide winter quarters in Lebanon for a part of his forces--for the Duke de Lauzun and some of his Legion of Horse.

Governor Trumbull's home was in Lebanon. His house was near the village Green, and close beside it stood his store, which, by this time, had become famous under the name of the "War Office,"

because in this store the governor and the Council of Safety used to meet and talk over the important business of the war, and what Connecticut could do, as her share, to help the American army.

There is a story that Was.h.i.+ngton used to say when he needed more supplies, "Let us see what Brother Jonathan can do for us," and that this nickname, which is now used for the United States, belonged originally to Jonathan Trumbull. It is true that Was.h.i.+ngton often turned to him for help. He had approved the application of the Count de Rochambeau to Governor Trumbull for winter quarters for the French troops. But long before the arrival of these soldiers there had been busy times in Lebanon.

Provisions of all kinds were brought from all over the state to the governor's store to be packed and sent off to the troops in the field. The governor was usually to be found there himself, weighing and measuring, packing boxes and barrels, dealing out powder and lead, starting off trains of loaded wagons and often large herds of cattle to be driven all the way to the army at the front. Messengers came and went, flying on horseback along the country roads, and sometimes they sat on the counter in the store, swinging their spurred boots, waiting for the governor to give them their orders. A piece of that counter, with the marks of their spurs in the soft wood, can be seen now in the rooms of the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford. Although there were dark days during the war when the state's treasury was exhausted and the people discouraged and the demands of the army hard to meet, yet

"Governor Trumbull never quailed In his store on Lebanon hill."

Somehow or other the supplies were found and little Connecticut became known as the "Provision State." Was.h.i.+ngton spoke of her governor as "the first of patriots." This is one of Governor Trumbull's proclamations to the men of Connecticut:--

"Be roused and alarmed to stand forth in our glorious cause. Join yourselves to one of the companies now ordered to New York, or form yourselves into distinct companies and choose captains forthwith;... march on; play the man for G.o.d and for the cities of our G.o.d, and may the G.o.d of the armies of Israel be your leader."

Lebanon was then on one of the main roads through New England, and many distinguished men stopped there at different times to see the governor. Was.h.i.+ngton came, and Lafayette, the young French n.o.bleman whom Was.h.i.+ngton loved almost as a son, and who is, perhaps, "nearer to the hearts of the Americans than any man not of their own people." Lafayette holds this place in their affections because, before the French Government decided to send help to the colonies, he "came from France of his own accord and brought with him the sympathy of the French people," among whom also new ideas of liberty were stirring.

"From the moment I first heard of America," he said, "I began to love her; from the moment I understood that she was struggling for her liberties, I burned to shed my best blood in her cause."

Lafayette's countrymen, who spent the winter of 1781 in Lebanon, were the gallant soldiers of France. Their leader, the Duke de Lauzun, was a gay French n.o.bleman, very handsome, very fond of good living, brilliant and witty as well as brave; n.o.body like him or his men had ever been seen before in Lebanon. The people of that quiet little town opened their eyes in surprise when the das.h.i.+ng French hussars, in their tall black caps and their brilliantly braided jackets, came galloping in over the muddy country roads. Governor Trumbull had made provision for them.

Barracks were built for some on a farm which he owned just outside the town, and others camped on the village Green.

With their arrival life in Lebanon changed. At daybreak the French bugles blew the reveille. There were parades and reviews, there were b.a.l.l.s and parties. Was.h.i.+ngton held a review of Lauzun's Legion when he pa.s.sed through the place one day in March. The corps was finely equipped. Its horses were good, its men brave and handsome, and their uniforms vivid and trim. The hussars wore sky-blue jackets braided with white, yellow breeches, high boots, and tall caps with a white plume at the side. They made a great impression on the country people, who had seen their own men, dressed in homespun clothes, mount their rough farmhorses and ride away, just as they were, to the war.

The duke himself was friendly and pleasant and popular with his new neighbors. He lived in a house lent him by David Trumbull, the governor's son.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MARQUIS OF LAFAYETTE

This statue was presented to France by the School Children of the United States]

Once, early in the winter, two distinguished visitors from the French army came to see him, the Marquis de Chastellux, who wrote a book of "Travels in North America," and the Baron de Montesquieu; and he gave a dinner for them to which he invited Governor Trumbull.

In the marquis's book we can read a description of it and of Governor Trumbull as he appeared to these French gentlemen from the Old World.

"On returning from the chase," says de Chastellux (he had been out hunting squirrels), "I dined at the Duke de Lauzun's with Governor Trumbull. This good methodical governor is seventy years old. His whole life is consecrated to business, which he pa.s.sionately loves, whether it is important or not. He has all the simplicity and pedantry of a great magistrate of a small republic, and invariably says he will consider, that he must refer to his council. He wears the antique dress of the first settlers in this colony." Then the marquis goes on to tell how the small old man, in his single-breasted, drab-colored coat, tight knee-breeches, and muslin wrist-ruffles, walked up to the table where twenty hussar officers were waiting and with "formal stiffness p.r.o.nounced in a loud voice a long prayer in the form, of a Benedicite." The French officers must have been surprised; they were not used to simple country manners and to grace before meat on all occasions, but they were too polite and too well trained to laugh. "Twenty amens issued at once from the midst of forty moustaches," says the marquis, and in spite of the fun he makes of the old Puritan governor's stiff manners, we feel in reading the story that he fully appreciates his sterling good qualities.

Some of these pleasure-loving French gentlemen met a strange and sad fate, years later, in the terrible days of the French Revolution. The Duke de Lauzun was beheaded in Paris in 1793, his long and adventurous life "ended with a little spurt of blood under the knife of the guillotine"; and Lafayette spent five years in an Austrian prison.

There is another story of old Lebanon which is connected with the visit of the French soldiers. The French commander-in-chief, the Count de Rochambeau, had given to Madam Faith Trumbull, the governor's wife, a beautiful scarlet cloak, and one Sabbath day she appeared in the governor's pew in the Lebanon meeting-house wearing the French general's handsome gift. Now, in those hard times contributions for the army were often collected after service on Sundays, and the people not only gave money, but whatever else they could spare, Indian corn, flax, wood, shoes and stockings, hats and coats. Quietly the governor's wife rose in her seat and, taking the scarlet cloak from her shoulders, carried it down to the front and laid it with the other gifts.

Later, it was cut into narrow bands and used to make red stripes on the soldiers' uniforms.

All that is left of those stirring times in Lebanon to-day is the little "War Office,"--restored and kept as a memorial of the Revolution,--and the mound on the Green where the brick oven stood in which bread was baked for the French soldiers who fought for American independence.

REFERENCES

1. Stuart, I. W. Life of Jonathan Trumbull./i> Crocker & firewater. Boston, 1859.

2. The Lebanon War Office./i> Published by the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Hartford, 1891.

3. Lodge, Henry Cabot. "Address at the Unveiling of the Statue of the Count de Rochambeau," in A Fighting Frigate and other Essays./i> D. Appleton & Co. New York, 1902.

4. Chastellux, Marquis de. Travels in North America. London.

NATHAN HALE

"To drum-beat and heart-beat A soldier marches by; There is color in his cheek, There is courage in his eye, Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat In a moment he must die."

The story of Nathan Hale is the story of a short life and a brave death. Connecticut has written his name on her Roll of Honor--the name of a man who was executed as a spy in the War of the Revolution. He was born in Coventry, Tolland County, on the 6th of June, 1755. His father, Deacon Richard Hale, who, as well as his mother, Elizabeth Strong, was descended from the earliest settlers of Ma.s.sachusetts, had moved to Coventry, Connecticut, and had bought a large farm there. The children were brought up strictly, as they were in all New England families in those days, and no doubt there was plenty of hard work for them on the farm, but, as there were ten or twelve of them, we may be sure there was plenty of play, too.