Litchfield enquirer., 1872-08-08
GUnFoRD CENTRE, \. Y.. ! Y,alu IA 1QTO


 I July 16, 1872. t
 MR. EDIToR:-As 1 was born and raised Tn one of the rural towns of New England,
 have had for many years past an anxiety to sec tls cityraf Boston, the cradle of American liberty, the place connected with so many interesting and important events in our country's history, and made famous by being the residence of many of our illustrious men-such as the Adams, the Everett's, the Webster's, &c sas l. THE JUBILEE
 1 But to come to the point, went with I all ''the world, and the rest of mankind" to Boston, to attend the great Boston Ju- bilee, and should have. been tolerably paid for all my pains, with only an inside view of the Coliseum, covering nearly five I acres I shall not attempt to describe it, others have already done that; but on en- tering it and taking view of it's vast 1 proportions, it's galleries, its decoration with the flags of all nations, it's rural fin l ish, its steam power organ, and its one hundred chorus anvils, strike the behold CT with admiration and astonishment. The music by the foreign bands was ad- mirable, and their uniforms and instru- ments were of the richest materials. But none of the musical performers brought down more tempestuous applause of the vast assembly, than the singing of the "Star Spangled Banner" by Madame Peschka Leutner." Her single voice fill ed the vast space, and the tens of thous- ands would not be satisfied till they cyu- ely and tunaultuousy called her back to repeat it.
 But, MT. Editor, cannot longer dwell on the subject of the great Coliseum as I wish to reserve some space to give my old friends in Litchfeld county some facts in relation to the Bunker Hill Monument perhaps all have not seen it. / went to top of it while the mercury stood at 98. I spent half day there looking oyer the battle grounds and was doubly interested from the fact that I had so often heard my father speak of the battle of ':Bunker Hill, and the burning of Danbury more than sixty years ago.
 THE DANBURY RAID OF 1777.
 Suffer me, MT. Editor, to digress little from the subject, as I wish to state some things perhaps interesting to some friends. My father was born in North Guilford. ] Conn.,, Ill 176O, became an orphan boy at | four years of age, afterwards owned and | occupied the old farm lying in North Go- shen more than fifty years now owned by Elisha Baldwin the youngest of six brothers and two sisters, all born and | raised on that farm. He was distantly 1 related to Gov. Oliver Wolcott of Litch- l field, and was living with him at the time Danbury was burnt by 8 detachment of -t.o o1,y,,ssssuu DrIG1sn soId1ers under Fry on, on the 26th of April 1777. I will re- late the story nearly in his own words, which he often repeated to us boys more than sixty years ago: "On the night of | April 24th, at midnight, post-rider' rode rapidly up to the house, hailed it, enquir- ed if Gov. Wolcott lived there. he an- swer was 'yes.' He said his orders were to inform him that the British had landed l and wero rapidly marching on Danbury, and wanted him to raise all the men he | could and start them as soon as possible. | Litchfeld was all astir in few moments. | Riders were dispatched in all directions with orders to the men to meet on Litch- | field Green at sunrise next morning Git l was Sunday April 25th At sunrise about one hundred men were ready for a | start under the command, think, of one | Capt. Buel. My father then boy of | seventeen, shouldered his gun and went. It was rainy day; they marched rapidly, drenched to the skin, slept in barn, I 1 think, some ten miles short of Danbury Monday morning they resumed the march at daylight. It was beautiful moring, the sun shone bright, and every heart beat high for the approaching contest. Here were deposited the army stores But ere they reached it, Danbury was smouldering in ruins-the enemy had done his work and was just on the retreat. There had been some fighting, for he saw nineteen British soldiers dead, lying in their gore. They pressed On in pursuit, and soon met Gen. Wooster, mortally wounded, carried on litter by four sol diers with two poles. At l2, they came in view of the rear guard of the the Brit ish, manouvreing on distant hill. They pursued on and fired upon them from be- hind stone walls, hay-stacks, &c., until they reached thelr boats" So much for the Litchfeld boys of HIT. s5e sz
 -tE}~s PoMP aes *t s
 Let me here relate an anecdote which my father used to repeat to us boys: The Gov. had colored man by the name of Pomp. One day as Pomp and hired man were at work in the field, the Gov. took walk out to them. While standing about there, Pomp remarked to the man that ''he wished he could live as easy as Masser did" The Gov. replied that his labOrs were hard, that he worked every day, &c. Pomp straitend up and said to the hired man: s'I guess Massa's work is mostly head work" The Gov laughed heartily and left The Gov. had law students who were in the habit of sport ing with Pomp. They went into the field one day; Pomp was digging potatoes; one I asked him how much he would ask to let him fling one potato at him at sucha dis tance; Pomp named the sum. The dis. I tance was measured, the preliminaries
 agreed upon, and Pomp took his station The student selected his potato, stepped l in line, maneuvred several times to see if Pomp would finch; at last he let drive,
 hitting him square in the forehead and