Fort Griswold
|
Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park
|
||
 Fort Griswold and Thames River |
||
| location | Colchester , New London County , USA | |
| surface | 0.73 km² | |
| Geographical location | 41 ° 21 ' N , 72 ° 5' W | |
|
||
| Setup date | 1949 | |
| administration | Connecticut State | |
Fort Griswold is a former military base with an associated state park , Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park in the US state of Connecticut in the area of the municipality of Groton . It is named after the then Deputy Governor Matthew Griswold . The fort played a key role in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War . Together with Fort Trumbull on the opposite side of the harbor, Griswold served to defend the port of New London . This was an important supply center for theContinental Army and a haven for pirates supported by Connecticut who hunted British ships.
Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park
Today the State of Connecticut owns and operates the Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park ground memorial . The area includes the rebuilt outer works, gun emplacements and an iron furnace, as well as powder magazines from later times. There are various memorials and monuments to the heroes of various wars on the site:
- The Groton Monument , a granite monument to the fallen defenders who perished during the Battle of Groton Heights. It was built between 1826 and 1830. It is 41 m (135 ft) high with 166 steps.
- Immediately next to it is the Monument House Museum , which exhibits exhibits from the War of Independence. It is run by the Daughters of the American Revolution . The monument can be visited from Memorial Day through Labor Day .
- The Ebenezer Avery House , which housed the wounded after the battle, is a historic house that can be visited during the summer.
history
In September 1781, British troops under Benedict Arnold attacked New London and burned the city to the ground in the Battle of Groton Heights to stop piracy. Fort Griswold held a key strategic position above the Thames River , but the British knew it from the knowledge of the renegade Arnold, who disclosed various secrets of American defense. Arnold, who knew the structure of Fort Griswold, approached the harbor at an angle where Griswold's cannons could never fire an effective shot at the British fleet. He landed under the resistance of the garrison . Gunfire and musket shots claimed heavy casualties on both sides, and the fight continued out of control. The British eventually boarded the fort and attempted to destroy it, but the plan was foiled because a patriot put out the matchfire before it could reach the powder dump. When the British had finally entered, Colonel William Ledyard surrendered and presented the commanding officer with his sword. He was killed with his own sword. The remaining crew, 85 militiamen, were massacred. Few were able to escape. Arnold himself only commanded a raiding party. When Arnold set New London in flames, Fort Griswold was abandoned as well.
Further use
The fort was re-used, rebuilt and occupied by troops in various other conflicts. In the War of 1812 , for example, there was a base for US Navy sailors under the command of Commodore Stephen Decatur . On this occasion, Decatur's squadron was surrounded by a superior British force in 1814. After the Civil War , the fort's lower battery was rebuilt and fitted with 10-inch Rodman cannons . It was an outpost of Fort Trumbull for most of its US Army use . After the American Civil War, it was never permanently manned and was under the command of an ordnance sergeant . From 1863 to 1879 Fort Griswold was under Ordnance Sergeant Mark Wentworth Smith , a veteran of the Mexican-American War who was wounded in the Battle of Chapultepec . Sergeant Smith was 76 years old when he died and was probably one of the oldest soldiers on active service at the time. After the Spanish-American War , Fort Griswold became useless because Fort HG Wright was built on Fishers Island in Long Island Sound .
See also
Web links
- Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
- Friends of Fort Griswold
- Ebenezer Avery House Avery Memorial Association
- Hali Keeler: Fort Griswold . Groton CT: Bill Memorial Library. November 20, 2003.
- Michael Meals: Fort Griswold Home Page . October 4, 2005.
Individual evidence
- ^ Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey.
- ^ State Parks and Forests : Funding, Recruiting, and Referrals. (PDF)
- ^ National Register of Historic Places Inventory