Connecticut SAR

Celebrate the Season at the New London Nathan Hale Schoolhouse

2011-11-25T16:12:17Z

New London is always merry during the holidays, but this year marks the start of an extra-special holiday tradition: the grand opening of the new seasonal skating rink at Parade Plaza, across from the Nathan Hale School House's new location.

Skating is an ancient pastime; the oldest known pair of skates date back to about 3000 BC, and were discovered at the bottom of a Swiss lake. These amazing artifacts were made of leg bones from large animals with leather straps to tie them onto the feet. By the 1300s, the Dutch were using iron blades on wooden platforms. We don't know exactly when ice skating was introduced to the New World, but the sport was popular in both the Netherlands and England by the 1600s, so it's possible New Londoners were skating on ponds and rivers in 1775 when Nathan Hale was living there.

On December 3, 2011 at 3:00 p.m., join us as we celebrate the grand opening of the New London Parade Plaza skating rink. And be sure to stop by the Nathan Hale School House, which is hosting a special holiday visitor! Here's a hint: he's a right jolly old elf, so be good for goodness' sake!

Communities Asked To Honor Black Soldiers Who Served In The Revolution

2011-05-11T20:43:20Z

A years-long effort to win recognition for the thousands of black soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War is coming to Connecticut.

Eighty Connecticut municipalities are being asked to adopt resolutions recognizing the contributions of those black soldiers and sailors. They are also being asked to support efforts to build a monument in Washington, D.C., honoring the black men who fought against the British in the war for independence.

U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation May 4 that would allow the monument to be built on a parcel adjacent to the National Mall. There are many more steps to be taken, though, before the monument can be built.

The bill must be passed by Congress and signed by the president, and after that supporters will have to raise money to get it built.

The man behind the movement is Maurice Barboza, a resident of Virginia who grew up in Plainville. He has worked as a public relations and communications consultant but has devoted much of his time and energy in the past 30 years to get the monument built.

Barboza said his goal in reaching out to cities and towns is to build awareness for his project. In 2008, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution published "Forgotten Patriots," which listed 5,000 black soldiers and 1,600 Indian soldiers who served in the war, some from Connecticut. Barboza said the research gives the state special insight into its history.

"I want to put this resource to good use so that residents of Connecticut know that these patriots served," Barboza said. "I want to get this to the grass roots, and I'm hoping for more grass roots research that might uncover more black soldiers."

The DAR's book was prompted by a 1984 settlement between the organization and Barboza's aunt, the late Lena Ferguson, also of Plainville. Ferguson, like Barboza, was African American. She was rebuffed when she tried to join a DAR chapter in the Washington, D.C., area. As part of the settlement she was allowed to join the DAR and agreed to do the research that lead to the book.

Historians believe that of the approximately 250,000 soldiers who fought against the British, at least 5,000 were black.

Of those, 820 were from Connecticut, and of that number, 562 have been connected to a community through records, either because they were born there, lived there or enlisted in the army there. The role of black soldiers in the Revolution has long been known, but Barboza wants individual soldiers properly identified.

Barboza sent his resolution request to 80 communities where there is a proven connection to known soldiers. A few are getting ready to take up the matter. For instance, John Elsesser, town manager in Tolland, said the council there will consider Barboza's resolution May 16. According to the DAR records, two black soldiers from Tolland served in the Revolutionary War.

Barboza's native Plainville had not been incorporated as a town when the war broke out and it's unclear if any black soldiers from the town served. But Barboza sent the resolution to Plainville and Town Manager Robert Lee said in an e-mail to Barboza that the town council may consider it May 16.

In Norwich, the resolution will be incorporated into events the city has planned to mark the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln's directive giving slaves their freedom during the Civil War.

"It's a significant part of history and needs to be celebrated and incorporated into what we are doing," Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said about the resolution. He said Lincoln campaigned in Norwich in 1860 and that the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation is a way of celebrating the city's ties to Lincoln.

According to records, 32 black Revolutionary soldiers came from Norwich, the second largest number in the state. The largest contingent of black soldiers, 33, came from Colchester; Stratford sent 32. Other large groups include 28 from Stonington, 24 from Groton and 20 from Wallingford.

Barboza is the founder of Liberty Fund D.C., an organization dedicated to getting a monument on the National Mall honoring black soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War. The effort has had numerous setbacks in recent years as it tries to clear legislative and bureaucratic hurdles. But Barboza said he's confident that Congress will approve Lieberman's and Grassley's bill.

"Chris Dodd took on the effort, but now that he is not in the Senate anymore, Sen. Lieberman felt it was something that he could do," said Whitney Phillips, Lieberman's press secretary, "and we were assured by the relevant committees that they would welcome the bill."

By KEN BYRON, kbyron@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

Even a School House Needs Friends

2010-10-26T17:04:52Z

by Jennifer Eifrig

The Nathan Hale School House in East Haddam was built sometime prior to 1750, and has survived the centuries thanks to a chain of people who believed in its historical significance since the 18th century. Moved from its original location in 1800, the School House nevertheless is a tangible link back to its namesake, and continues to remind us of the enduring values upon which our nation was founded. It supporters worked hard to ensure its survival, and now the job lies with all of us.

This Sunday, October 31, 2010 the School House needs volunteers to help prepare it for additional restoration work. We're looking for friends who would like to give some time, and continue the tradition of community stewardship for this little building, now a museum and a matter of Connecticut pride. Please join volunteers from Connecticut SAR, East Haddam, and the Coast Guard Academy as we forge another link in the chain connecting the present to the past. It's easy and fun, and you'll make friends with other history-minded people. We look forward to seeing you there!

Laying Wreaths at the Gov. Trumbull House and the War Office

2010-10-14T15:19:54Z

CTSSAR Ceremonies Commemorated the 300th Birthday of Revolutionary War Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. on October 12, 2010 in Lebanon, CT. Beginning at 2:00 PM. The wreaths were placed at the Gov. Trumbull House and the War Office.

Leaf Peeping in East Haddam

2010-09-29T18:06:50Z

by Jennifer Eifrig

After learning that East Haddam tied for #11 on Yankee Magazine's list of Top 25 Foliage Towns, we wondered how long people have been traveling for pleasure to look at autumn's annual festival of color. "Leaf peeping," as we in New England affectionately call this pastime, has certainly been a fixture of the travel and tourism industry throughout the 20th century to the present, but when did it start?

Some quick research on the Internet leads us to guess that leaf peeping has its origins in the 19th century. Until about 1790, the roads in New England were few and very rough, and people generally tended to stay put unless they needed to go somewhere for business. Visiting family was often reserved for the winter, when those who could afford it rode in horse-drawn sleighs, which offered a much smoother ride, and when smaller rivers and lakes were frozen and more easily passable. Around the turn of the 19th century New England went on a road-building binge, constructing or improving thousands of miles of road. All of a sudden travel became easier and more affordable, and when the steamships and railroads took hold in the 1840s, nobody needed to stay put any longer. By 1858 there was a guidebook to the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and presumably others appeared as well. The mid 1870s seem to be when back-country pleasure travel really became popular, for the guidebook industry burgeoned then. This was the era of Winslow Homer's visits to the Adirondacks, the construction of the Great Camps there, and an intense interest among the wealthy and cultured in rustication. Now that civilization had conquered the American wilderness, the elite felt nostalgic.

Most Americans, however, couldn't afford to take the summer off. But - and we're guessing here - it might have been possible to enjoy a picnic at a scenic location on a Sunday (until 1940 the six-day work week was very common). For a few pennies one could ride the trolley to a town or state park and enjoy the view. Summers being hot and humid in Connecticut, our mythical siteseers might have opted for the cooler weather of fall to sit outside in the sun, and enjoy whatever foliage display there might have been.

Remember, Connecticut at the turn of the 20th century was much less densely forested than it is today. We're guessing that "leaf peeping" didn't become much of a hobby until the forest conservation movement really got started around 1895. Most of the trees that we admire today are less than 80 years old.

For foliage viewing in East Haddam, there isn't a better spot than the Nathan Hale School House. You have a 360-degree vista atop the ridge lying parallel to the Connecticut River, encompassing the Valley and the town. It's gorgeous. Connecticut SAR has thoughtfully provided numerous picnic tables, and it's all free. We'll continue posting photos as the foliage peaks. So, plan your trip today!

On the Hunt for Nathan Hale in East Haddam

2010-09-10T18:11:33Z

By Jennifer Eifrig

When we decided to dedicate blog posts to the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in East Haddam, one topic was high on the list to cover: What was Nathan's time here like?

This is what we in the museum business like to call a Big Question, one of "history's mysteries," because we really don't know the answer. And we wondered why. Nathan Hale, after all, is one of the most written-about figures of the Revolutionary period. His first biography was written in 1776, in the form of a broadside ballad commemorating his ill-fated spy mission. He continued to be celebrated by biographers, playwrights, and historians throughout the 19th century, and was arguably more of a "name" than even such luminaries as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (whose biographies were published after Nathan's).

However, the authors who have written Hale biographies barely mention his time in East Haddam, or not at all. Those that do, tell us he was a schoolteacher at the First Society school house from October 1773 to about March 1774, and generally bored. While some Hale scholars will grudgingly acknowledge that East Haddam in the 1770s was a place of "much wealth and business activity (Jean Christie Root, Nathan Hale, p. 30, pub. 1915)," they focus on Nathan's apparent dissatisfaction with his first teaching post. His friend and Yale classmate William Robinson wrote to him in January 1773, saying, "I am at a loss to determine whether you are yet in this Land of the living, or removed to some far distant & to us unknown region; but thus much I am certain of, that if you departed this life at Modos [East Haddam was often referred to as Moodus or Modos], you stood but a narrow chance for gaining a better." M. William Phelps, in his biography Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America's First Spy (2008), surmises that Hale must have been sleeping on the floor of the school house, "no bigger than a toolshed" (p. 35).

If Nathan really were sleeping on the floor of the school house, East Haddam must have been a wilderness indeed. It's hard to imagine a Yale scholar agreeing to take a job that left him a step above vagrancy, when he could simply return to his family's home in Coventry and live in relative comfort while he looked for suitable employment. Something did not ring true to us.

So we began a summer of exploration into the topic. Admittedly, there is a lot more to be done, and we could turn this into a lifelong pursuit of Nathan Hale as so many before us have. But what we've learned, and surmised, is enough to yield a clearer picture of Nathan Hale in East Haddam.

We started by formulating three specific questions: How did Nathan land the East Haddam teaching job? Where did he live? And, what was East Haddam like in 1773-74? The second question, surprisingly, turned out to be the easiest to answer. The third was a little more difficult, and the first is a matter of conjecture, since we've found no documentary evidence, but we have a viable working theory. To conduct our research, we relied on known documentary sources, such as George Dudley Seymour's Documentary Life of Nathan Hale, and on primary and secondary information, particularly from the Rathbun Free Memorial Library in East Haddam, as well as Google books. (Have you discovered Google books yet? They have an amazing digital library of rare and out of print books, with more being added daily.)

In our next post, we'll tell you about how we learned where Nathan Hale was living in East Haddam. Stay tuned for more!

Connecticut SAR's Collections Catalog Project

2010-08-30T15:31:39Z

Since 1891, Connecticut SAR has collected artifacts, documents, imprints, images, and ephemera relating to Connecticut's Revolutionary War history, genealogy, patriotic service, and the activities of the organization. It's hard to say exactly how many items we have, but probably several thousand. When we add the growing collection of digital images, that number grows even larger.

Keeping track of "the stuff" is the job of every museum and historical society. It's always been a challenge, but thanks to a grant from the Middlesex County Community Foundation, Connecticut SAR is getting some help. We received funding in 2010 to purchase collections cataloging software called PastPerfect, which is used by thousands of small and large museums worldwide. With input from our museum consultant and hard work by a summer intern from Central Connecticut State University's Public History program, we now have the start of our first professional, accessible collections catalog.

Why is this important? First, a catalog allows Connecticut SAR members and outside researchers to find items of interest. Second, we can keep track of what we have, where it is, and what condition it's in. We can also link particular items together, and relate them to other resources inside and outside our collections.

This last point refers to what historians call "context." Let's look at an example. When we started cataloging manuscripts material, we found a crumbling newspaper account of the dedication of the Minute Man statue at Compo Beach, Westport CT, a separate photo of the statue, and some handwritten notes. The newspaper account was undated and unattributed (please, when you save newspaper clippings, either save the whole page with the title of the publication and date, or note on the piece where it came from and when!), but with a little research we were able to figure it that it was written in 1910, sometime after the dedication of the Minute Man statue on June 17, 1910, and contained the text of a speech delivered on that day by then Westport Historical Society president and Connecticut SAR member William H. Burr. It turns out that Burr had asked Connecticut SAR to raise the money for the statue, and they contributed $2,100 (the State of Connecticut added $700). The statue, commissioned from sculptor Harry Daniel Webster, commemorates the battle between local "minute men" militia with Gen. William Tryon's troops returning from the Battle of Ridgefield on April 28, 1777. So why did Connecticut SAR choose June 17, 1910 to dedicate the statue? Turns out that the Battle of Bunker Hill took place on June 17 - and there's no denying that the weather on the Connecticut shoreline is much nicer in June than in April.

By linking the newspaper clipping and photo of the statue in the catalog record, we'll always know that they're connected. And by linking both to outside information about the statue, Compo Beach, and William Burr, everything takes on a larger historical meaning.

Given our funding, our current priority is to catalog the collections relating to the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in East Haddam. We're looking for volunteers to help with this project. Please contact us if you're interested and willing to come to East Haddam. We'll highlight other interesting items that we find as we continue delving into what we've got!

Welcome to the East Haddam Nathan Hale Schoolhouse blog!

2010-08-24T14:50:09Z

When does the past become history? When someone writes about it.

History is the act of thinking about the past and analyzing it in written form, for others to learn from and enjoy. As much as possible, historians use contemporary accounts, called primary sources, such as journals, letters, newspapers, images, account books, and others, to build their understanding of what was happening in a particular time and place, in a particular individual's life, or to a group of people. Letters and journals, especially, have been the cornerstone of historical research.

So what happens when there are no letters or journals to look at? Really, when was the last time you wrote a letter, other than perhaps a business letter? There are still plenty of people who keep handwritten journals, but increasingly the blog is the most popular form of recording and transmitting personal interpretations of events and ideas. Our goal for this blog is to provide you with regular information about the East Haddam Nathan Hale Schoolhouse, the activities of Connecticut SAR, and how we're continuing to further our understanding of the past. Someday, perhaps, historians will look to this digital record as a primary source for information about the East Haddam Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in the first quarter of the 21st century.

Support for this blog has been provided in part by the Middlesex County Community Foundation. Please visit their Web site and consider contributing to their Give Local campaign. And please let us know what you think, and suggest topics for future posts.

Independence Day Weekend Encampment Update

2010-07-08T13:49:35Z

Compatriot Members of the Connecticut Line CTSSAR,

I just wanted to report on the Independence Day Weekend Encampment at Mount Washington, NH. and the Independence Day Parade in Columbia, CT. Both were very successfull. We had a total of 12 members at the Mt. Washington Event, and 10 at the Parade in Columbia. In Columbia, we were presented a 3rd Place Ribbon for Adult Marching Unit for the 2009 Parade last year. So we have a 2nd place for 2007, 1st Place for 2008, and 3rd place for 2009.(we did not have many members march last year)

Colonel's Compliments to the members of the Line who took part in the Battle scenarios at Mount Washington on Saturday and Sunday. GREAT Job!!! Looking around us after the battle, and seeing all the spent cartridges, there was no doubt, we fired more cartridges then anyone on the field, particularly on Sunday. Speaking for myself, I threw my empty wooden block on the ground and was grabbing reserve cartridges kept below. We also received very nice compliments from the Event Commander. We also had the opportunity to see some wildlife up there, including a Gray Fox and a bear.

We have 1 MORE encampment this year, October 1 - 3, 2010 in Lebanon, CT., to commemorate Gov. Jonathan Trumbull's 300th Birthday. We want to make sure that we are ALL there for that.

Also, compliments to Major Michael Juhase who commanded the skirmish line in the Columbia Parade. The Line looked Good!!! The public really liked the musket firing, and it was good practice for the Veterans Day Parade coming up in November.

Our next event is Sailfest this weekend at the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in New London. Bring your muskets, but NO cartridges. Per city orders, we will NOT be firing. I will be there on Saturday, from around 8:00 AM to most likely closing at 5:00 PM. Major, bring the box of wooden muskets, we may have the opportunity to demonstrate 18th c. drill with visitors.

If you are on the Connecticut SAR Facebook Page, event photos are posted, if not, photos will be posted this week at: www.ConnecticutLine.org.

Put your faith in God and keep your powder dry,

Todd Gerlander, Colonel Commanding

Marksmanship in 1775: Myth or reality?

2010-06-17T19:19:00Z

Some historians have perpetuated myths about the men and guns of the American Revolution, taking aim at American marksmanship. But recent scholarship shows that the citizen soldiers who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill were far better shots than the "professional" British soldiers who faced them. Just how good were they? Read on.

A now forgotten Prussian artillerist of the 19th century, one Col. Schlimmbach, devoted many beetle-browed hours to calculating precisely that during the Napoleonic Wars (c.1799-1815) the enemy needed to fire "a man's own weight" in bullets before scoring a hit. Assuming, then, that he survived both disease and cannon shot, the typical soldier who fought in just a few battles could be fairly certain of enjoying a peaceful, pensioned retirement.

The same could not be said for those British troops fighting the American militia in the early stages of the War of Independence. They stood a dismayingly good chance of being shot by the end of a single engagement. The marksmanship of the American fighting man has a long and storied tradition in our nation's history. Since the Revolutionary era, Americans have assumed that they are, shot for shot, the finest marksmen on the planet.

It was only in the decade preceding World War II that the "myth" of American marksmanship first received incoming fire from historians, especially as it pertained to the War of Independence-the hammer and anvil of the American character. In 1934, Allen French's otherwise magisterial The First Year of the American Revolution claimed that owing to "poor American guns, and the men's lack of practice ... too much has been made of American marksmanship" in the critical year of 1775, when the militia fought at Lexington/Concord and Bunker Hill.

French's dismissal of American expertise was echoed by Christopher Ward in his popular War of the Revolution of 1952. He concluded that at Lexington/Concord, "only one bullet out of 300 found its mark," so demonstrating "the fallaciousness of the belief so often expressed that the Yankees were superior marksmen, dead shots in fact."

Through time, this once-radical view has become conventional wisdom, even among the most painstaking of historians. In his detailed Battle of Bunker's Hill (1975) John Elting went so far as to assert that "at best the average New Englander [in 1775] ... could load and fire a musket with a fair chance of hitting an easy target at short range. But this made him probably as good a shot as the average French or Prussian veteran."

More recently, Michael Stephenson's Patriot Battles (2007) asserted that in 1775 the militia were "indifferent shots when one considers the number of militia involved, the time available to them, the vulnerability of the target, and the relatively low ratio of British casualties to the shots fired."

Now, good history-writing hinges on debate and reinterpretation, but in this case political axe-grinding has begun to intrude. Michael Bellesiles, a Second Amendment critic whose best-selling manifesto, Arming America, has been severely discredited for a multitude of sins, argued that "a total of 3,763 Americans are known to have participated [at Lexington]. Not all of them held guns, and not all fired, but among them they hit 273 British. Expert marksmanship requires training, good equipment, and a regular supply of ammunition for practice. These farmers rarely practiced, generally had no ammunition, and owned old muskets, not rifles, if they owned a gun at all." The implication is that "these farmers" could not hit their own barndoors, such atrocious shots were they.

Before moving on to the real meat of the matter-the issue of marksmanship-let's clear up a few errors in the conventional wisdom. First, the American militiamen were not "out of practice" in the lead-up to war. From the fall of 1774 onward, most New England militia companies were assembling for serious target practice at least twice and more often thrice a week. If anything, it was the British who rarely practiced. Lieutenant Williams of the 23rd Regiment caustically observed that his troops "foolishly imagine that when danger is feared they [should] secure themselves by discharging their muskets, with or without aim." As late as three days before Bunker Hill, most British infantrymen still had not been taught how to "fire ball," take aim, and stand properly, let alone been put through target practice.

What about the "old" and "poor" American guns? Absolutely, the muskets they brought to the fight had seen better days. One veteran remembered, "Here an old soldier carried a heavy Queen's arm, with which he had done service at the conquest of Canada twenty years previous, while by his side walked a stripling boy, with a Spanish fuzee not half its weight or calibre, which his grandfather may have taken at the Havana [1762], while not a few had old French pieces, that dated back to the reduction of Louisburg [1758]."

Yet the antiquity of the militiamen's pieces should not obscure their lethality. These were working, effective, well-maintained arms. In an era when guns were expensive and difficult to make it was common for even regular soldiers to use hand-me-downs. The British, for instance, were using muskets-still perfectly serviceable-dating as far back as 1742. It is not the gun that matters, we should remember, but the man behind it, and in 1775 the American militias were packed with veterans blooded in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and boasting plenty of firefights (and scalps) under their belts. These were hard men who knew their business, not green innocents plucked from the fields panicked into firing harmlessly into the air.

As for not owning guns in the first place, this claim too can be discounted. Virtually every man at Lexington/Concord and Bunker Hill brought a firearm. Deducing exact figures for gun ownership in 1775 is extremely difficult. However, an analysis of the returns of 30 New England militia companies finds that the overall rate of private ownership was about 75 percent, and probably significantly higher. Any man who wished to fight either carried his own gun, used one provided by his township or, in a pinch, borrowed a piece from a neighbor.

Their "unfamiliarity" with shoulder arms is another baseless myth. The militias' arms were treasured tools used every day for hunting and protection. Israel Litchfield, a Massachusetts militiaman, keenly maintained his musket and its accoutrements. According to his diary, he prepared for the worst on March 10, 1775, when he "scoured up my gun" to clear the fouling in the barrel (from shooting at targets) before taking it to Hezekiah Hutson, the local gunsmith, to "put in a new main-spring into my lock." On March 21, Litchfield fine-tuned the amount of gunpowder he needed to be effective at 100 yards by spending the whole day "cleaning the lock and fixing her. After I had cleaned and oiled the lock I put in a good flint and tried her to burn three corns [grains] of powder. I cocked her and snapped and she burned them. I told out just three corns and tried her again and she burned it so I tried her eleven times successfully and she burnt three corns of powder every time and did not miss. The 12th time she missed them but I overhauled and cocked her and she burnt them the next time."

These are not the actions of a man unfamiliar with firearms. But did he and his brethren know how to use them accurately? It is undoubtedly true that not all the Americans were "dead shots," in Ward's words, but a significant number were highly proficient shooters by the standards of the time.

Put simply, the modern criticisms of the militia stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of 18th-century marksmanship and musketry. The error is compounded by unfavorably comparing yesteryear's standards to those of today, a categorical mistake that is like complaining how on a racetrack the Model T Ford cannot even keep pace against the latest Ferrari.

Today, a military-grade rifle, such as the FN SCAR, will group five shots at 100 yards within a 1.29-inch circle. Then, however, the British officially believed that shooters were exhibiting a "high degree of precision" when one of every five or six rounds from a Brown Bess musket hit a three-foot wide target at that distance. In other words, when at least 80 percent of their shots missed a yard-wide bullseye at what was regarded as the optimal combat range, contemporaries praised such performance as extraordinarily good. It is against this standard, not the FN SCAR's, that we must contrast American marksmanship.

There are many reasons for this relatively poor performance. Essentially, it was exceedingly difficult to hit the same specific place more than once with any predictability. Muskets were each hand-made, entailing that one was not identical to another-even when manufactured by the same gunsmith. Quality of construction, the type of wood and iron, the length of the barrel, the placement of the sights, the tightness of the screws, the solidity of the firing mechanism, the pull of the trigger and the weight of the gun: All varied immensely and all exerted an influence on performance.

So too was there no universal standard for gunpowder and projectiles. Different weights and faulty casting (which caused air pockets in the lead) made it impossible to predict how far the ball would fly and along which particular vector, as did improper measuring and mixing of the powder.

Moreover, in order to ease loading, the barrel's bore was larger than the ball, meaning that when the gun was fired, the projectile would exit erratically from the point of last contact at the muzzle.

All things considered, then, even if one's last shot hit the target square on, there was no guarantee that the next would not end up three feet away. As a saying sorrowfully beloved of musketmen went, "One went high, one went low, and where in Hell did the other one go?"

American shooting, however, somewhat overcame these disadvantages by dint of long experience, a lot of practice, and personal knowledge of a gun's idiosyncrasies. Thus, during target practice Capt. Samuel Stockbridge (according to Litchfield) calmly "shot at a mark about 12 or 14 rods [about 70 yards away] and hit it exactly within an inch." He, like Litchfield, knew every inch of his gun.

Stockbridge's talents were evidently not uncommon. Licking their wounds, the British were staggered by the relative precision of American shooters. Sergeant Roger Lamb of the Fusiliers judged that "the generality of the Americans were good marksmen; the whole of their previous military knowledge had been derived from hunting, and the ordinary amusements of sportsmen. The dexterity which by long habit they had acquired in hitting beasts, birds, and marks, was fatally applied" during 1775.

Accordingly, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, American commanders were so confident in their troops' marksmanship that "every platoon officer was engaged in discharging his own musket and left his men to fire as they pleased," trusting them not to waste their shots. Which was why, as veteran Henry Dearborn recalled, his comrades never fired "without a sure aim at some particular object."

That "particular object" happened to be enemy officers, the intention being to disrupt and demoralize the foe. Colonel Prescott-who was defending the redoubt from British assaults-ordered his militiamen to "take particular notice of the fine coats" and concentrate on them. They must have, for after the battle the British noticed that among their hit officers "few had less than three or four wounds," indicating that each was the reluctant subject of several Americans' attention. Only men who could be counted on to hit their targets would be granted the leeway to aim at individuals rather than firing into the mass. Indeed, at Bunker Hill, every one of the 12 staff officers escorting the British commander Gen. Howe was either killed or wounded.

Anecdotally, then, it is clear that the Americans were deemed to be fine shots. But is there any statistical evidence of this fact? To a degree, yes. Let us assume that there were, as the most authoritative estimates have it, 3,500 Americans at Bunker Hill, each of whom began the battle with his official allotment of 15 rounds. As we know that the powder and ball more-or-less ran out near the end, we can posit that the militiamen expended 52,500 shots (3,500 men multiplied by 15 rounds each).

Almost certainly this figure is too high-not every man fired half as many times-but some militiamen fired much more often than that using extra rounds brought from home, scavenged from the wounded, or borrowed from a friend. So, for the sake of simplicity, we can accept these two factors as canceling each other out.

The British totaled up their casualties as 228 killed and 826 wounded, or 1,054 in total. Dividing the number of casualties by the number of shots needed to inflict them gives us a ratio of one for every 50 rounds. Expressed differently, two percent of the Americans' shots hit the enemy.

On the face of it, that may not sound too impressive, let alone provide evidence of superior marksmanship, but comparatively speaking, it was a truly remarkable performance. If we take the average estimate of seven 18th- and 19th-century European military experts of how many balls hit their targets in battles during this period, we arrive at a figure of 0.17 percent, or fewer than one out of every 500 fired. Sir Richard Henegan, for instance, a senior officer serving under the Duke of Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars, calculated that just one out of every 459 British bullets hit an enemy soldier at the 1813 Battle of Vittoria.

Extrapolating from the 0.17-percent average, we can surmise that the Americans were nearly 12 times as effective at hitting their foe than British or European soldiers. Even if we accept Christopher Ward's censorious-and heavily flawed-computation of one hit in 300 (0.33 percent) at Lexington/Concord, militia marksmanship was still twice as good as that of the Redcoats.

Militiamen were not perfect. They were citizen short-term irregulars, not long-service professional troops, and they neither took orders kindly nor could face an infantry assault in the open field. But in 1775 they did know how to shoot. Given their achievements, it is time, surely, to stop heaping calumnies upon their heads and take to heart instead the advice given by the Revolutionary soldier Col. Grayson. He likened the boys of Lexington and Bunker Hill to the "price of a wife: Be to their faults a little blind, And to their virtues very kind."

Alexander Rose is the author of American Rifle: A Biography and Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring. His website is www.alexrose.com

Introducing New Book About Signers of Declaration of Independence

2010-06-04T15:21:20Z

Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence (Quirk Books) by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D'Agnese

Dear friends and colleagues,

We want to make sure you're aware of our new book about the signers of the Declaration of Independence: SIGNING THEIR LIVES AWAY: THE FAME AND MISFORTUNE OF THE MEN WHO SIGNED THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (Quirk Books, $20). The book is a light-hearted retelling of the signers' stories in bite-sized, engaging chapters that appeal to most adult and teen readers. We have also undertaken the creation of a separate, (nonprofit) documentary film about the signers and their legacy. You can watch trailers of the film-in-progress at the website below.

We've had a wonderful response from the historic sites and museums that have carried the book. Clearly, the public has been hearing about the book via coverage we've received in Reader's Digest, Library Journal, AAA Go Magazine, as well as various national and local radio stations and newspapers. The book received a starred review from the School Library Journal, a key influencer of library purchasing. If you run a museum or gift shop, we hope you'll consider featuring it on a table display during the summer's "Independence Season." Shops can it order via Hachette/Chronicle Books at 1-800-759-0190 (ISBN #9781594743306). Individuals can find it in most large bookstores and online.

Several events are planned to promote the book this summer.

"56 Days of Signers" Twitter Event:
From June 7 to August 2, 2010, we'll be tweeting daily short bios about the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Why 56 Days? Because the major events of that historic summer in 1776 took place between June 7 (the day Congress first motioned to break from Great Britain) and August 2 (the day the majority of Signers put their names on the historic document). We'll focus on one Signer per day during this period, posting multiple tweets about them during the day. You can read our daily updates at www.Twitter.com/56Signers. We will of course mention the historic sites we've met in our travels; if you work with a site associated with a Signer and want us to mention any special events coming up this summer, just drop us a line and we'll try to get it into one of the posts occurring throughout your Signer's day.

Events:
We are always interested in speaking or signing at shops, or addressing school groups. Here are current dates and locations where we'll be signing during the summer of 2010. If you're in the area, please stop by to say hi.

June 27: American Library Association Conference, Washington, DC
July 1: National Archives Gift Shop, Washington, DC
July 2: Independence Hall Visitor Center, Philadelphia.
July 3: Old Colony House, Newport, RI
July 4: Old State House, Boston

Signers Fan Page:
If you are on Facebook, we hope you will choose to "like" our page (http://www.facebook.com/SigningTheirLivesAway). We could use the company! We use the Fan page to share news of our events and news that pops up about the Signers. It's been an interesting year, what with the discovery of a long-lost copy of the Declaration and the recent sale of a letter signed by Button Gwinnett--the rarest autograph of all the Signers. Again: If you run a signer historic site and have some news to share, send it to us. We are happy to help you get the word out to our readers.

T-shirts:
We have Signer T-shirts available via our website, and plan to add ones for every single Signer by Fourth of July.

Every year at this time, email in-boxes are crowded with the same old email about the sacrifices of the Signers. Much of the information contained in that email is exaggerated or just plain false. (Example: No Signer was ever "tortured by the British until he died." Preposterous.) If someone sends you an email to this effect during the summer, tell them to get the facts. We enjoy setting the record straight.

Thank you, and enjoy the summer.

Joe and Denise

Joseph D'Agnese
Denise Kiernan
phone: 917.464.3517
"Signing Their Lives Away"
The book: www.signingtheirlivesaway.com
The film: www.revolutionaryroadtrip.com
Twitter: @56Signers
Facebook.com/SigningTheirLivesAway

Memorial Day Events Report

2010-06-01T14:58:43Z

Dear Compatriots of the Connecticut Line CTSSAR,

I just wanted to put out a brief report on Memorial Day Activities. Yesterday the Connecticut Line CTSSAR marched with the Connecticut DAR and the Lebanon Business Association in the Memorial Day Parade in Lebanon, CT. We marched in front of the float, which was decorated to look like Gov. Jonathan Trumbull, Sr.'s Store. Russ was dressed as the Governor, and Bob Lasprogato was a soldier purchasing supplies.

When I returned home last night, there was a message on my answering machine from Mary Brown, stating that WE had WON one of the PARADE AWARDS!!! She mentioned that Compatriot Wayland had picked up the award, and had dropped it off at the War Office. She also mentioned that it was a beautiful award/plaque, looking forward to seeing what it looks like!

Great job everyone, THREE HUZZAHS!!!

Following the parade, we drove down to New London to participate in the Captain Nathan Hale Branch's Patriot Grave Marking Ceremony where we fired a three volley musket salute. Again, GREAT job everyone.

Our next event will be the SCHOOLDAYS AT THE SCHOOLHOUSE Event this Friday at the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse in East Haddam. Major Michael Juhase will command the Line that day. Then on Saturday, PARADE PARADE, the dedication of the NEW Parade in New London, and the re-dedication of the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse. Stephen Shaw will need Color Guard members to participate, and to fire the musket salute. The Schoolhouse Re-dedication Ceremony will take place between 2:00 PM and 2:30 PM.

I will send out another e-mail this week with MORE details on our upcoming events.

Put your faith in God and keep your powder dry,

Todd L. Gerlander
Colonel Commanding

Patriot's Day Parade

2010-04-20T15:14:10Z

Dear Compatriots of the Connecticut Line CTSSAR,

Just a quick report on the 2 Patriot's Day Parades that we marched in today in Concord and Lexington, Massachusetts. We had 19 marching in the parades today, HUZZAH!!! 17 in Concord and 10 in Lexington.

Wayne Bickley - Putnam
Geoffrey Colby - Putnam
Dan Dudley - Hale
Lee Gerlander - Putnam
Todd Gerlander - Putnam
Randy Gerlander - Putnam
Howard Greene - Putnam
Bob Lasprogato - Sherman
Harry Orcutt - Putnam
Walter Reddy - Sherman
Tyler Smith - Hale
John Towle - Putnam
Allan Van Wert - Putnam
Russell Wirtalla - Putnam
Richard Wright - Putnam

Bonnie Burke - Camp-Follower
Lillie Rose Campbell - Camp-Follower
Liisa Colby - Camp-Follower
Gina Gerhard - Camp-Follower

Put your faith in God and keep your powder dry,

Todd L. Gerlander, Colonel Commanding

BIG 3 Report

2010-04-13T13:22:58Z

Dear Compatriots of the Connecticut Line CTSSAR,

Just a quick report on the BIG 3 last Saturday, good thing for e-mails, I can still barely talk.

We had beautiful weather, and a good turnout of public. This year we were able to get in all three parades:

The Liberty Pole Capping and Parade, Bedford, MA.

Meriam's Corner Ceremony and Parade, Concord, MA.

Paul Revere Capture Site Ceremony and Parade, Lincoln, MA.

Good Show!!!

Three Huzzahs!!! to the following members for helping to usher in the Start of the month long events honoring Patriot's Day (April 19, 1775), the Start of the American Revolution.

Wayne Bickley - Putnam
Geoffrey Colby - Putnam
Dan Dudley - Hale
Lee Gerlander - Putnam
Todd Gerlander - Putnam
Randy Gerlander - Putnam
Bob Lasprogato - Sherman
Harry Orcutt - Putnam
John Towle - Putnam
Allan Van Wert - Putnam
Russell Wirtalla - Putnam
Richard Wright - Putnam

Bonnie Burke - Camp-Follower
Gina Gerhard - Camp-Follower

I believe that was everyone, if not let me know ASAP, and I will make corrections.

Put your faith in God and keep your powder dry,

Todd L. Gerlander
Colonel Commanding

War Office Restoration

2010-03-31T15:13:00Z

Last Sunday five compatriots and four Coast Guard cadets helped to finish the prep of the plaster walls to get ready for painting.

We need your help to finish the interior work in the War Office for the new exhibits being installed in April. Any and all help is appreciated.

The schedule has change for the upcoming weeks, so we can get more help from the Coast Guard cadets.

Saturday, April 3rd, 9am - 3pm
Sunday, April 11th, 9am - 3pm
Sunday, April 18th, 9am - 3pm
Sunday, April 25th, 9am - 3pm

On Friday, I spent 1 ½ hours for meetings with the paint supplier and Rudy from the salvage yard.

Yesterday, we had the following people for this many hours:

Stephen Shaw - 7 ½
Stephen Marshall - 7 ½
Matt Davis - 5 ½
Todd Gerlander - 8
Cadet Felpe Martinez - 6
Cadet Rachel Rychthmex - 6
Cadet Stephen Taylor - 6
Cadet Chris Shivock - 6
Tim Curtis - 7

More this coming Saturday. Nice to know we can get cadets as long as we provide transportation.

To view more photos, please visit our War Office Facebook page.

Patriotically,
Stephen P. Shaw