Benedict Arnold - Battle Of Ridgefield Monument

"In Defense of American Independence
At the Battle of Ridgefield
April 27, 1777
Died
Eight Patriots

Who were laid in this ground
Companioned by
Sixteen British Soldiers
Living, their enemies, Dying their guests,
In honor of service and sacrifice
This Memorial is Placed
For the Strengthening of Hearts."


The Battle of Ridgefield
By Keith M. Jones

At the outbreak of Revolution, sleepy, out-of-the-way Ridgefield consisted of only about fifty dwellings, for most of the community's 1700 residents were scattered in outlying farms that dotted the twenty-three square miles purchased from Ramapoo tribal sachem, Catoohnah in 1708.

Chartered by the Connecticut General Assembly a year later, the village itself was distinguished primarily by its remarkable mile-long, eight-rod-broad (132 feet) Main Street, then known as "Town Street." Like most of Fairfield County, not all Ridgefielders were of one mind when it came to revolution, but ties of religion, marriage and commerce, together with a complex network of barter obligations, bound Patriot and Loyalist together.

On April 27, 1777, the full fury of Revolution arrived at the head of Town Street, as the village became host to Connecticut's only inland battle of the eight-year war.

Shortly before noon, American Generals Benedict Arnold (yes, that Benedict Arnold!) and Gold Selleck Silliman arrived with about five hundred men hastily mustered Fairfield County militia, old men and patriotic farm boys. They were greeted by Colonel Philip Burr Bradley and a handful of Continental troops of his Ridgefield-based 5th Connecticut Line, together with a company of Continentals from nearby Salem, New York under Captain Samuel Lawrence, plus a few dozen raw recruits raised by Captain Ebenezer Jones of the recently formed 1st Ridgefield Militia.

Under Arnold's command the little army erected a barricade of timbers, carts, carriages, stones and earth at the northern end of Town Street and waited for the British column advancing southward from Danbury.

After burning the Colonial supply depot in nearby Danbury, 1900 British troops under General William Tryon were in trouble. Expecting much of the countryside to rise up in support of the Crown, Tryon had two days earlier disembarked 1500 handpicked regulars, a six-piece artillery unit, and a small mounted contingent of resplendently-garbed elite mounted dragoons from a fleet of 26 ships anchored at Compo Beach off the mouth of the Saugatuck River (present-day Westport).
Tryon's force was augmented by a 300-man regiment of Loyalist irregulars, drawn from Long Island and Fairfield County, known as the Prince of Wales Provincial Volunteers. Because he truly believed that his army would be warmly received if it refrained from looting and pillage, Tryon excluded the unruly Hessian mercenaries from his expedition...

(continued in video entry "Benedict Arnold - Battle Of Ridgefield Barricade"

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• benedict
• arnold
• ridgefield
• connecticut
• revolutionary
• war
• saratoga

[TheAirsoftMarine]

@longbow1415 no u dumbass

[longbow1415]

Can somone put a British Union Flag here too, for my people.

[ryanlock2u]

Is that near Danbury?

[Teddy015]

hey i live in ridgefield

[atlast23]

In Defense of American Independence At the Battle of Ridgefield April 27, 1777 Died Eight Patriots Who were laid in this ground Companioned by Sixteen British Soldiers Living, their enemies, Dying their guests, In honor of service and sacrifice This Memorial is Placed For the Strengthening of Hearts.