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Show j g. -T Famous Forts in U. S. History By ELMO SCOTT WATSON t, 1924. Western Newspaper Union.) Monument to Shame of Benedict Bene-dict Arnold In Connecticut history the name of Fort Grlswold stands as a monument to the Infamy of Benedict Arnold. Late In the Revolution, after Washington Wash-ington had made his clash south to capture Cornwallis, Sir Henry Clinton Clin-ton attempted a counter move by sending a force to ravage Connecticut and attack New London, the home port of the American privateers, who had been harassing the British shipping. ship-ping. The command of this expedition was given to Benedict Arnold, as though the measure of his lufamy could best be completed by his carrying carry-ing the sword and torch into his native na-tive state. New London was defended by two, forts on the Thames river, Fort Trum-' bull on the west side nnd Fort Grlswold on Groton hill on the east. Arnold had an army of about 1,200 men, composed of a few British soldiers, but mostly Tories and Hessians. Sending Colonel Eyre with a part of this force to take Fort Grlswold, Arnold led the remainder remain-der against Fort Trumbull on September Septem-ber 0, 17S1. The 'militia, 157 In number and commanded by Col. William Led-yard, Led-yard, immediately evacuated Fort Trumbull and crossed over to Gris-wold. Gris-wold. Although poorly armed, many of them having nothing but spears for weapons, they were steeled to a desperate des-perate resistance by the knowledge that some of the Tories in Arnold's army were old neighbors of theirs. : So determined was their resistance that they repeatedly hurled back the assaults which Eyre launched on three sides of the fort. The British commander com-mander was mortally wounded, as was Major Montgomery, who took his place. Finally Major Bromfleld, the next in command, succeeded in carrying carry-ing the walls at the point of the bayonet. bayo-net. By this time the fighting wa3 virtually over. Colonel Ledyard or dered his men to lay down their arms, but the Tories and Hessians, infuriated infuri-ated by the stubborn resistance of the Americans and the loss of their leaders, began a slaughter of their conquered foes. To the credit of the British officers it must be said that they tried in vain to stop the massacre. mas-sacre. Of the 157 brave defenders of Fort Griswold, 71 were killed, 60 badly wounded and only 20 succeeded in escaping from the place of slaughter unharmed. The British loss was 48 killed and 1-13 wounded. Ledyard's sacrifice was In vain, for Arnold continued con-tinued his march to New London and reduced it and Its shipping to ashes. But Sir Henry Clinton's expedition failed In its main purpose for Washington, Wash-ington, grieved though he was at Connecticut's plight, kept on to York-town York-town and to victory. Where "Star-Spangled Banner" Ban-ner" Was Born It is doubtful if ever America had known a darker dawn than the morning morn-ing of September 11, 1814. Washington Washing-ton had been captured and burned by the British ; our small navy had been driven to port by superior numbers; our army in Maryland had been defeated, de-feated, and on that morning a British fleet sailed into the Patapsco river, headed for Baltimore, which the enemy en-emy hoped to capture. The only obstruction to this scheme was a little fort three miles below Baltimore at Whetstone point on the Patapsco. Fort McHenry was its name. A small fortification had been built there in 1775 and a more pretentious pre-tentious structure erected on the site In 1794. The only defensive force It could muster was a body of untrained troops, who would be called upon to defend their post against British veterans vet-erans fresh from the continental wars Wellington's Invincibles and Nelson's Nel-son's marines, winners at Trafalgar and the Nile. So the outlook was gloomy enough, for if Fort McHenry fell. Baltimore fell, and the whole country lay at the mercy of the invaders. in-vaders. Early on the morning of September 12 the battle began with an attempt by the British soldiers to storm the earthworks which had been hastily thrown up to aid In tlie defense of Baltimore. That attack was repulsed by a storm of shot, slugs, scrap iron and nails from the American guns, which killed or wounded more than 600 British. The next morning the i fleet advanced to bombard Fort McHenry. Mc-Henry. All day long the battle raged, but the defenders of the fort under Col. George Armistead held their own. Among the many who watched the progress of the battle was Francis Scott Key, who had gone to the British Brit-ish fleet to obtain the release of a friend, a civilian, arrested by the British Brit-ish on a charge of firing on them. All day long and far into the night he followed the fortunes of the fighting forces with painful Intensity. He did not believe that Fort McHenry could possibly hold out. Then "at the dawn's early light" i Key looked toward the fort and 1 through the smoke and mist of morn-j morn-j lng he saw that "our flag was still ! there." With a heart overflowing with Joy he sat down and wrote the wordi of the song which a nation has evei I since been singing "The Star-Span j fcled Banner." |