Volume XI Issue 4 Winter 2008 Heritage Library News

BIRDIES FOR CHARITY TIME Sign up now! INAUGURAL FESTIVAL WINDS UP WITH A BANG The Library finished its tenth anniversary year with a festival at Historic It’s Birdies For Charity time and Honey Horn in early October celebrating not just our library’s accomplishments we have been invited to take part since its founding in 1997, but more importantly the history of the Island and the again this year. We ask you to diverse cultures and heritage of its residents and visitors. By all accounts it was please use the form included in this greeted with great enthusiasm by those attending the Sunday Afternoon newsletter and pledge One Cent or more for every birdie scored in the festivities under the 2008 Verizon Heritage golf tourna- live oaks and on the ment to be played on The Harbour fields of Historic Town Links April 14th thru 20th. If Honey Horn. you would rather, you may pledge a The audience, fixed amount. modest but enthusi- The Heritage Classic Founda- astic, thrilled to the tion, which runs the tournament, demonstrations of sets aside approximately $100,000 military contingents from tournament distributions to representing the charity and distributes it among the Revolutionary and Birdies for Charity participants ac- Civil War periods in cording to the funds each group our history. They raises. We realized $4,354.64 last cheered on the danc- year.—$3,094.29 pledged by 41 ers and singers from (Continued on page 2) the Hilton Head Sounds of the Civil War—Ten Pound Parrot Gun in Action School for the Arts, the Barbershoppers, and the Step- Inside This Issue ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE pin’ Stones Band. The 2008 Annual Meeting of The Heri- Dr. Tay Goins, CEO of the East- tage Library Foundation, Inc. will be held at ern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois President’s Column Page 2 The Heritage Library and United Tribes of South Carolina About Our Members 3:00 PM WEDNESDAY entertained the crowd with moments And Volunteers Page 3 from the American Indian culture FEBRUARY 20, 2008 with song and story. Festival Photos Page 4 All members and friends of The Heritage Mayor Tom Peeples and his wife Library Foundation are encouraged to at- Annual Meeting Notice tend. Mary Ann were on hand for the and Proxy Page 5 Whether you are planning to attend or opening and stayed to enjoy the not, to help insure a quorum is present please day’s events. Feature Article— complete and return the PROXY form found A sampling of photographs from General David Wooster Page 7 on page 5. the festival appear on page 4. ~~~~~~~~~~

1 Volume X1 Issue 4 Winter 2008 Heritage Library News

Heritage Library Foundation, Inc. Board of Directors Officers E. W. Altstaetter—President G. Norma Harberger—Vice President Nancy M. Burke—Secretary Open—Treasurer Directors Term expiring 2008 E. W. “Bill” Altstaetter Isobel Bitner President’s Column BIRDIES FOR CHARITY TIME Robert P. Smith Iva Roberts Welton By Bill Altstaetter Term expiring 2009 (Continued from page 1) Emory S. Campbell members and friends of the library and G. Norma Harberger At the beginning of the “second $1,260.35 contributed by the Heritage Hunter Montgomery decade” for your Foundation, the Classic Foundation. This is an easy Robert E. H. Peeples year 2008 dawns bright with oppor- fundraiser for all of us to take part in for Term expiring 2010 tunity, opportunities to advance the the library—let’s do even better this Nancy M. Burke Earl S. “Smittie” Cooler level of historical knowledge about year! Feel free to copy the form and Ed Dowaschinski our island home. give it to friends so they may also take Natalie Hefter New information is rapidly com- part. ing to light by virtue of our records Please send your pledges to the ad- Operating Divisions searches at The National Achieves. dress on the form—not to the library. Hilton Head Island History Division Data on island land acquisitions dur- The Rotary Club of Hilton Head Is- Historic Preservation Projects History Research and Studies ing the years of the 1860s previously land—Sunset is the coordinator of the Fort Mitchel buried deep in the Achieves files has program. You will receive a bill after Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery surfaced and when analyzed, in- the tournament has taken place. Sites Identification and Marking dexed, and cataloged will be ex- Thanks in advance. The Heritage Library tremely valuable to residents and Norma Harberger, Chair History & Family Heritage Library visitors alike in their quest for Books, Periodicals, Microfilm & Heritage Library Birdies For CDs DSL Internet Connection “details of the past.” Charity Committee New projects are in development Heritage Library Press Specialty Book Publishing to engage the youth of the commu- the heritage of our country, we are Newsletter Productions nity in the excitement of searching again reaching the limits of our physi- Book Repair Assistance the past for glimpses of the future. cal plant. Heritage Library Workshops In the coming months you will learn We must find a permanent home, a Genealogy Classes and Workshops of opportunities to participate in, and permanent home we can afford! For History Lectures, Seminars and lead these projects. While the new Conferences some years we have been exploring year dawn is “bright,” there are options for a long term solution at an- “storm clouds” aplenty hovering other island location. But the solution Heritage Library News is a publication around. of The Heritage Library Press, a division remains illusive and at a minimum is of The Heritage Library Foundation, Inc., Storm clouds which must be four or five years in the future. Hilton Head Is., SC 29928-4640 faced with increasing urgency. They Of immediate concern are the next are the twin issues we have been fac- three to five years. Do we stay where ing in recent years, “space” and we are or do we go someplace else? “money.” Which brings us full circle to Views, opinions, and conclusions Space is the first twin. As the “money.” expressed in the feature articles are library collections grow and more “Money,” the other of the twin those of the authors and do not nec- patrons find out how valuable the essarily represent those of the man- storm clouds! Money to pay the agement of The Heritage Library resources of The Heritage Library monthly bills. Money to invest in our News or the Heritage Library Foun- are in their searching for an under- plant and equipment. Money to grow dation. standing of their personal past and (Continued on page 3)

2 Volume XI Issue 4 Winter 2008 Heritage Library News About Our Members and Volunteers

from the Membership Desk President’s Column SPECIAL NOTICE By Gwen Altstaetter HERITAGE LIBRARY NEWS (Continued from page 2) MOVES TO ELECTRONIC Happy New Year! the future. DISTRIBUTION We want to thank those of you These twin storm clouds likewise With the next issue of Heritage who participated in the 10th Anniver- present each and everyone of us Library News we will begin elec- sary Celebration week-end! Those with opportunity. The opportunity to tronic distribution in lieu of the who attended any or all of the events rise to the challenge and secure the present system of distribution by appeared to really enjoy the activi- FUTURE OF THE HERITAGE LI- special permit through the United ties. It is unfortunate that more of BRARY. States Postal Service. you could not have taken part in the In the weeks leading to the Foun- This will provide a significant celebration. dation’s Annual Meeting February reduction in the costs of printing th Since the last Newsletter we are 20 you will receive my report cov- and distributing the newsletter in happy to welcome 17 new members. ering the operations of our tenth an- the future. Ed and Kathryn Funk, Donna Waller, niversary year. It will deal in depth, When the newsletter is ready for Mike Morse, Henry Hutson, Debra with some of the actions your board release, those of you who have pro- Frieden, Walter and Corinne West, and management are taking to ad- vided us with a web mail address Margaret Pratt, James and Lucille dress our immediate operational is- will receive notice that it may be Peppers, Barbara Born, Robert sues resulting from the successes and downloaded from the Library’s Albrecht, Evelyn Sheppard, Gary failures of 2007. web site

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FESTIVAL PHOTOS

Military Heritage on display

11th SC Artillery Regt (Revolutionary War) SC Company of Historical Re-enactors Re-enactors from The National Park Service Black Powder Demonstration Team Fort Pulaski National Monument Savannah, Georgia

Special Guests of Honor Mayor Tom Peeples and wife Mary Ann

Cultural Heritage on display

Steppin’ Stones Rock Band

Pageant singers and dancers from Dr. Tay Goins—Eastern Cherokee, Southern Hilton Head Island Barbershoppers The Hilton Head School for the Arts Iroquois & United Tribes of South Carolina Chorus

4 Annual Meeting Notice and Proxy

The 2008 Annual Meeting of the Heritage Library Foundation, Inc. is scheduled for Wednesday, — February 20, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. in the Library, Suite 300, The Courtyard Building, 32 Office Park Road, —

— Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, 29928-4640. —

— All members are encouraged to attend. If you cannot attend please complete the proxy below and mail to Nancy

— Burke, Secretary, The Heritage Library Foundation, 32 Office Park Road, Suite 300, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928-4640 — prior to the meeting date. —

— ______— —

- Heritage Library Foundation, Inc.

— 2008 Annual Meeting Proxy — —

— I, We ______, the undersigned member(s)(the “member”), hereby designate

— the Secretary of the Corporation Nancy N. Burke or her designee (the “Proxy”) as proxy for the member(s), with respect

— to the member’s voting rights in The Heritage Library Foundation, Inc. (the “Foundation”). — —

— By this designation, the Member(s) hereby revokes any prior designation of proxy that the Member(s) may have given pre- – viously. — —

— This designation of proxy shall be effective for the Annual Meeting of the Members of the Foundation to be held on

— Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 3:00 p.m., and at all adjournments of such meeting. — —

— The Proxy shall have the full power, as the member’s substitute, to represent the member(s) and vote on all issues and e

n motions that are properly presented at the meeting(s) for which this designation of proxy is effective. The Proxy shall i l have the authority to vote entirely at the discretion of the Proxy. s i h t

g Provided, however, with respect to the following issue(s) the Proxy shall vote as follows: n o l a

t For ______Against ______the election to the Board of Directors as recommended by the Board of the u following individuals: C —

— For three years 2008-2011 For two years 2008-2010 For one year 2008-2009 — Iva Roberts Welton Isobel Bitner (two years) Robert P. Smith —

— Lawrence S. Rowland — — — — — —

— ______—

— ______—

— ______

— ______— — –

— Date of Signing: ______— —

— Member Printed Name: ______— —

— Member Signature: ______Fold here

From ______PlaceFirst Class ______Stamp ______Here

Nancy M. Burke, Secretary The Heritage Library Foundation, Inc. 32 Office Park Road, Suite 300 Hilton Head Island, SC 29928-4640

2008 Annual Meeting Proxy

Fold here Volume XI Issue 4 Winter 2008 Heritage Library News

Feature Article — General David Wooster—Part II By Lyman D. Wooster, Staff Feature Writer

Editors Note— The feature article in this issue concludes martial law and thus subject to his authority. As for mili- Lyman’s study of his ancestor General David Wooster, hero tary etiquette, Wooster declared that no disrespect was in- of the American Revolution from begun in the tended. Schuyler was not appeased. He demanded to Summer 2007 Issue Volume XI Issue 2. Part I may be seen know if Wooster considered himself above General Mont- on-line at www.heritagelib.org/newsletter. gomery in rank, to which Wooster replied, “I have the cause of my country too much at heart to attempt to make any difficulties.” He cooperated fully with Montgomery General Schuyler was a commanding figure: slen- and actually considered him a personal friend. der but well-muscled. He evidently The two generals, Montgomery was courteous to his equals but not to and Wooster, led their forces against men he considered to be of a lesser Canada’s St. John’s, which capitulated, station. An historian, Christopher after which they marched on . Ward, in his The War of the Revolu- Then, Wooster remained in command tion, had this to add to his assessment of the troops holding Montreal while of Schuyler: “In depth and breadth of Montgomery moved on Quebec where mind, in stability of intention, in firm he was killed during the December 31, decisiveness to plan and to execute, in 1775 assault on that city. the ability to meet a confused situa- tion, discern its essentials and expend his energies upon them only, Schuyler Montgomery’s death left Wooster in was somewhat deficient. . . . command of the American army of He was wrongly placed as a military 2,000 men, of which more than half officer; his proper place was at the were unfit for duty: many were physi- council table.” cally ailing (small pox was rampant); This apparently was the nature of most were underpaid and desertions the man who was Wooster’s immedi- were common; and winter clothing ate superior during America’s ill-fated was lacking as was equipment such as military move against Canada. Ward artillery. To attack Quebec with such states that there were no orders or di- a force was impractical so a siege was rections to invade Canada, but Con- begun. The difficult situation was made more so because gress on June 27, 1775 recommended “aggressive move- Wooster was again bedeviled by Schuyler, and acrimoni- ment if Gen. Schuyler should find it practical and not ous correspondence between the two men led them both to disagreeable to the Canadians.” Problems between the refer their grievances to Congress. two men went beyond their personality differences; there The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says that were intercolonial jealousies as well. Some of Woos- “Wooster had embarked on a series of arbitrary and ill- ter’s Connecticut men, according to Ward, refused to judged actions over the winter of 1775-76 which broke adhere to the New Yorkers’ orders until Wooster was most of Montgomery’s promises. He closed the Mass present. Houses on Christmas Eve, attempted to arrest loyalists, . . . Deming, in his oration, reported that Wooster on his and announced that all who opposed Congressional wishes way from the area to Ticonderoga had would be arrested as traitors.” Why Wooster allegedly “provoked the enmity of his immediate chief” by permit- imposed these “actions” is not evident from the account in ting some of his men to return home on furlough and by that Dictionary, but June Callwood in her Portrait of Can- ordering a general court-martial for offenses during the ada asserts that it was the anti-Catholicism of Wooster and brigade’s march. These actions Schuyler considered a his troops, a religious prejudice not uncommon among 18th presumption of his authority and he so informed Woos- Century New Englanders. Wooster was apparently criti- ter, who replied that his men were under Connecticut (Continued on page 8)

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Feature Article— General David Wooster our objective of destroying the Danbury, Connecticut Supply Depot [the depot was in fact a church] we be- came aware through intelligence sources that the Rebels (Continued from page 7) hering in militias to force a confrontation. I cized by one of the Canadian commissioners to the were gat immediately ordered a withdrawal to our ships at West- Continental Congress; and Wooster’s enemies worked port via an alternate route, but apparently some of the to prejudice others in authority. In April, however, he came aware of our changed plans and alerted assumed command of the forlorn American army be- locals be their militias by midnight rides through the countryside. fore Quebec until superseded by Thomas. It is becoming increasingly apparent that we cannot The on-going dispute between Schuyler and Woos- count on the loyalty of the locals. Indeed, in this in- ter prompted the latter to recommend to Congress that stance they went so far as to dispatch a 16-year old girl it should investigate his administration of affairs and to alert the enemy to our whereabouts, an indication of conduct in Canada and this the Congress did. In the the desperation. As we made our way down a country Genealogy of Woosters in America, it is noted that as a road we were attacked from the rear by a contingent of result of a thorough and long investigation and the ex- some 400 troops under the Rebel command of Brigadier amination of witnesses and correspondence, even General David Wooster, who has long been on our list Wooster’s enemies in Congress were forced to unite of hostile enemy combatant leaders. After experiencing with his friends and acquit him of every charge. He some casualties, several as a result of overturned wag- was now 66 years of age and, having been away from ons, our forces were able to beat back Wooster’s militia his family for nearly a year, he obtained leave of Con- and the General himself was struck by our superior fire- gress to return to Connecticut. He resigned his com- power, and we believe he will not survive the night. mission as brigadier general in the Nevertheless it was incumbent upon us to hasten our but was reappointed a major general and commander- withdrawal. in-chief in the state’s militia by Connecticut authorities. ortunately, we were blocked by a force of 400 In spite of the degrading treatment Wooster had to “Unf Rebel militia at the town of Ridgefield under the com- contend with as a result of the Canadian experience, his mand of Brigadier General . At this devotion to the Revolution remained as strong as ever. point it became obvious to us that the Rebel forces were Upon returning to his home in Connecticut he used his not as disorganized and demoralized as we had been led influence and standing in the state to recruit soldiers to believe by some of our informants. Despite three and to gather supplies and equipment; and he often cannon and the force of our coalition troops, General traveled throughout the area in his capacity as com- Arnold seriously delayed our progress He himself was mander-in-chief of the Connecticut militia. One near- twice unseated from his horse by cannon, but neverthe- by town of particular importance was Danbury where less managed to escape unharmed. (There are rumors there was stored an abundance of military provisions: afoot that Arnold may be willing to defect, depending 3,000 barrels of pork, more than 1,000 barrels of flour, upon certain conditions he has stipulated privately. several hundred barrels of beef, 1,600 tents, 2,000 Meanwhile, he continues to be a formidable foe).” bushels of grain as well as rum, wine and rice. It was The American account of what became known as the to destroy this depot’s supplies that the British chose to differs interestingly from the Brit- launch an attack on Danbury. ish. For one thing, it notes that the large quantity of Brigadier General , in a letter to King liquor among the stores in Danbury was consumed by George, gave his account of this raid. Under orders sh troops, most of whom were so intoxicated from General Howe, 2,000 troops, including some Hes- the Briti that they would have been incapable of coping with an sian mercenaries, a small contingent of Indians, and attack by the Patriots if the Americans had known of the 300 loyalists, sailed on April 25, 1777 from New York . General Tryon was concerned enough that at into Long Island Sound. The force landed at Compo situation two a.m. he ordered his troops to prepare to depart for Hill (near Westport) and then the next day in a heavy their fleet at Compo and to travel by a route different rain it moved inland arriving in Danbury in the late af- from the one they had taken from Compo to Danbury. ternoon. There, the British went about destroying the To go back in time for a few days: when the Ameri- depot’s food and other supplies and setting fire to 19 cans became aware of the British force arriving on the houses. Connecticut shore, Generals Wooster and Arnold were In a follow-up letter to the king, Tryon wrote of both in New Haven and they immediately gathered up events on April 27: “Your Majesty: Having achieved (Continued on page 9)

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source, the Wooster house as his specific target. The Feature Article— General David Wooster British troops are said to have made a bonfire in the street with the house’s furniture, and they carried off two trunks filled with early records of Yale College and (Continued from page 8) with personal papers of the Wooster’s. Without written financial accounts, which were lost by the British raid- militia forces and started for Fairfield in a heavy rain to ers in the waters of Long Island Sound, as evidence, it meet with General Silliman and his 500-man militia. was not possible for Mrs. Wooster to recover the Upon their arrival the combined force totaled 700 men. money her husband had advanced to his troops; she When Wooster subsequently learned that Tryon was was declared a debtor and forced to appeal to the state leaving Danbury, the American forces were divided: legislature for financial relief. She died in New Haven 500 men under Arnold were sent to Ridgefield where in June, 1807 at the age of 78. they were expected to intercept the British, and Woos- Several biographies note that the Continental Con- ter, taking a different route, went cross-country in the gress, upon learning of General Wooster’s death passed general direction of Ridgefield, expecting to approach a resolution on June 17, 1777 that a monument be the British from the rear. This in fact occurred, and erected to his memory. It further appropriated $500 for upon overtaking and surprising the British troops, who that purpose, but the money was never forthcoming. were having breakfast, at around eight in the morning Another biography notes that in 1822 the U. S. House of the 27th, Wooster‘s militia captured 40 men and in- of Representatives passed a resolution and appropriated flicted some damage. He then withdrew until the Brit- $500 for the purpose of constructing a monument hon- ish were on the march again. oring Wooster. The Senate, however, did not concur Wooster’s militia made their second charge about because of the numerous requests for similar expendi- two miles from Ridgefield village and were met by tures. It was the Masons, of which David Wooster had heavy musket and cannon fire that frightened his men been the founder of Connecticut’s first lodge, that had and slowed their advance. Subsequent action is de- a monument of Portland granite erected in the Danbury scribed in some detail in a History of Ridgefield. To cemetery (now called the Wooster Cemetery). It was rally his troops, Wooster turned in his saddle and unveiled and dedicated on April 27, 1854 with a crowd shouted, “Come on, my boys, never mind such random of 10,000 in attendance and with Henry C. Deming, a shots.” After that exhortation, “he was struck by the prominent political figure, delivering a biographic ora- fatal musket ball. He fell from his horse and his sash tion. was stripped from him and used to bear him from the That public ceremony suggests that the one blemish field of battle. . . . The brave general was carried back a on Wooster’s military career had been forgotten by the half mile over the line of march just passed by his foes. generation of Connecticut residents living in the mid- Upon a large flat rock on the westerly side of the road, Nineteenth Century. The blemish has not, however, the wounded patriot was laid. Dr. Turner, a surgeon been forgotten by historians The author, S.M.P. (the with the militia, dressed his wounds. The General was initials of Stanley M. Pargellis, a noted historian), of then placed in a carriage and taken back to Danbury.” Wooster’s biographic sketch in the Dictionary of Mary Clap Wooster, who was in New Haven when American Biography describes the general as tactless, notified of her husband’s condition, left immediately brutal, dull, and uninspired. SMP indicates that his for Danbury; she arrived before he died, though he was source was J. H. Smith, author of “Our Struggle for the unconscious and failed to recognize her. After suffer- Fourteenth Colony,” and notes that Smith was ing severe pain for several days General Wooster died “unsparing” in his criticism. Both Smith and SMP on May 2 and two days later, on a Sunday, his funeral were writing of Wooster more than a 100 years after was held in a Danbury church. He was reportedly bur- Wooster’s death and thus making judgments without ied in an unmarked grave in the church’s cemetery. benefit of a personal acquaintanceship. One possible Wooster died insolvent. He had sometimes paid his source of their pejorative opinions is the report of two troops with his personal funds, but the written evidence commissioners, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll, of such transactions was destroyed by the British. Two who had been sent to Canada to investigate the military years after Wooster’s death, General Tryon, the British situation there, although neither man had had any mili- officer who had set the destructive fire in Danbury and tary experience. Their report to John Hancock, Presi- whose unit had been attacked by Wooster’s militia, dent of the Continental Congress, stated that General raided New Haven in July 1779 with, according to one (Continued on page 10)

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Feature Article— General David Wooster

(Continued from page 9) Wooster is “unfit, totally unfit to command your Army and conduct the war” and they suggested that he be recalled. Without having access to the full text of that report it is not possible to know what factors of unfit- ness were found by the commissioners. Another histo- rian, James Nelson, writing in the 21st century a biogra- phy of Benedict Arnold, used such words as “crotchety,” “pompous,” and “contentious” to describe Wooster. A contemporary of Wooster’s that is a likely source of those uncomplimentary words used by Nel- son, by the views of the commissioners, and by some historians is Schuyler. He and Wooster quarreled on more than one occasion and their correspondence re- vealed Schuyler’s intemperateness, so that the New Yorker’s opinion of Wooster -- like his judgment -- was almost certain to be harsh. Historians rely on other historians when assessing the character of persons they could not have known personally, and they are attracted to those descriptions that tend to fit the views they wish to emphasize and that put the subject of their biography in the best possible light. There is little question that the assessment of Gen- eral Wooster by most historians is largely based on his role in the 1775-76 Canadian campaign, and the critics of Wooster’s generalship there were either ignorant of the conditions or their judgment colored by bias. And what has too often been overlooked in assessing Woos- ter’s conduct is the Congressional investigation of his role in the ill-fated Canadian campaign of 1776: that is the report that acquitted him of all blame, of all charges. It was not neglect or ignorance that prevented him from attempting to conquer Quebec. It was, in- stead, a proper assessment of the military situation, that Monument to David Wooster the British forces there had been reinforced, that the Patriot’s forces had been severely depleted, and that his alive when David Wooster served his country know of own forces had not been reinforced and key equipment his capacities and incapacities? Well, men who served not resupplied as requested. In short, Wooster correctly under him and who moved to Ohio after the war thought estimated that the Americans were outnumbered and well enough of him and his contribution to the Revolu- had no chance of defeating the Canadians. He was tion to name a town and subsequently a college for him, much more capable than “a general . . . of a hayfield,” and some of those at the dedication ceremony may have which is what one critic asserted. been children of men who had served under Wooster and The large crowd at the granite monument’s dedica- had learned from their parent something about Wooster; tion ceremony was in effect paying homage to David others may have been students of history; and in 1854 Wooster’s courage, his patriotism, his generosity, and the Revolutionary War was recent enough for many to his military acumen. The Dictionary of American Bi- be knowledgeable of its course and the contributions of ography, in a sketch lacking specificity, stated that its leaders. Wooster displayed “incapacities,” presumably meaning David Wooster’s record in combat was almost cer- military incapacities. What did people who weren’t tainly well known in 19th Century Connecticut. His con- (Continued on page 11)

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Feature Article— General David Wooster phy. “Wooster: Revolutionary Soldier.” Pp. 22-24. New York. 1917 Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography. Six duct in the as well as in the Revo- Vols. New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1887-1889. lution showed him to be personally courageous, and the web.cortland.edu/woosterk/Gen David04.html affection his men had for him must have paid off in creat- Callwood, June. Portrait of Canada. Doubleday & Com- ing units, whether a company or a regiment or a brigade, pany. 1981 that faced the enemy bravely. But generals are supposed Carruth, Gorton. The Encyclopedia of American Facts to be more than unit commanders. So what can we sur- and Dates. 10th Ed. New York: Harper Collins Publish- mise about his abilities as a strategist and tactician? ers. 1997. As for strategy, one can look at the group in which Wooster was a leading member that planned and financed David, Mathew L. Memoirs of . Volume 1. the 1775 attack by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold on Deming, Henry C. “Life of Gen. David Wooster.” Ora- Ticonderoga, the results of which were a major accom- tion. (Delivered April 27, 1854). Printed http:// plishment: not only had the Patriots acquired a strategi- web.cortland.edu/wooster/deming.html. Published ver- cally located fort, but the conquest yielded 100 pieces of sion has 45 footnotes, indicating that it was a well- invaluable artillery. Upon receiving the news of that researched paper. achievement, Gen. Washington dispatched Knox, then a Dictionary of American Biography. Wooster, David. colonel, to Ticonderoga with instructions to get some of Vol. X, pp. 524-525. American Council of Learned So- the cannon to the Continental Army in the Boston area, cieties. 1936. (Author was S. M. P.; or Stanley M. and that Knox accomplished by oxen-drawn sleds during Pargellis, a noted historian). the winter of 1775-76. As a strategist and tactician, there is also Wooster’s decision to resist the recommendation Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Ramsey Cook, Gen- of some Patriots to resume in 1776 the attack on Quebec; eral Editor, University of Toronto Press. he knew an attack would be futile. Then there is his tacti- Wooster, David. Genealogy of Woosters in America, De- cal decision in 1777 to divide the 700 Connecticut militia- scended from Edward Wooster of Connecticut, M. men, one group being sent to Ridgefield with the objec- Weiss, San Francisco,1885. web.cortland.edu/woosterk/ tive of intercepting and harassing Tryon’s British forces Gen David01. html. The Genealogy includes the “Public there and the other group, Wooster and his 200 men, har- Letters of General David Wooster from April 1775 to assing the 2,000 British troops from the rear. That two- 1777, The Date of His Death.” way tactic succeeded in slowing the much larger British History of Ridgefield. “The Battle of Ridgefield.” force and inflicting some casualties. pp.107-111 (Out of Print). Nelson in his book on Benedict Arnold referred to McKay, Ian Danbury Raid. The Connecticut Society of David Wooster as a New Haven merchant but Wooster the Sons of the American Revolution had had in 1775 more military experience than most other Americans serving in the War for Independence. He had National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans. had over 30 years of active military duty and with that Vol. II. Manson Bancroft New York 1835. service and the experiences of a 66 year old man, one Nelson, James L. Benedict Arnold‘s Navy. McGraw who was still physically and mentally alert, he was a good Hill. 2006. deal more than a merchant. In the Revolutionary War he Orcott, Samuel History of the Old Town of Derby, Con- was surely an asset, but one not fully appreciated by some necticut, 1642-1880. web.cortlandedu/woosterk/Gen members of the Continental Congress and some of the David02.html officers in the Continental Army -- and some historians. But the crowd that gathered in a Danbury cemetery in the Riche, Bob “Mission Accomplished.” www.lively- spring of 1854 to dedicate a monument to David Wooster arts.com. (The British Raid on Danbury, Connecticut, remembered him as a resolute patriot and a man of re- Apr. 26 1777. Document recently uncovered in archives markable character and sound military judgment of Windsor Castle.) ~~~~~~~~~~ Ward, Christopher The War of the Revolution. Vol. I. Sources Used in Researching David Wooster’s Life MacMillan and Company: New York, 1952. and Career American Historical Society. Encyclopedia of Biogra- ~~~~~~~~~~

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