Litchfield enquirer., 1874-02-26
2 GUmFoRD CENTER, N. Y.
 A February. 19. 1874. <


 EDITOR I4rrcHF1ELp ENQUIRER, Dear Sir:-Iread in the Enquirer, of lassweek, the proceedings at the meeting of the Fairfield County Bar at Bridgeport upon the retirement of Judge Seymour, of the Supreme court of Connecticut, with no little degree of interest: My recollections were at once carried back to fifty years ago when was Q resident of Litchfield county. The names of Tapping Reeve. James Gould and Origen Seymour, have alWay sbeenheld in veneration by the peo- pie of Litchfeld county and the state; and at that day no young student of the law could locate in any part of the state with any hopes of success, ,unles he had taken lee lures at the Flaw school in Litcbfe1d of Tapping Reeve and James Gould. And at that day. no school teacher was consid- cred qualified to teach a common school, unless he or. she had been. one term, ct least to o"Morris academy" in Litehfeld South Farms. ..---.--....
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 In the beautiful response of Hon. C.. H. Hollister for the bar of Litchfeld county, l was more than interested The names he recited were as familiar to me as household words; but I was 8 little pained to have him leave out the names of Judge Augustus Pettibone of Norfolk, William Burral of Canaan, G. r. Sedg- wick of Cornwall, and d-Theodore North of Goshen, a townsman of mine fifty years ago, and delegate to the Hartford con- vention inSthe war of 1812-all honored names. As the speaker made allusion to Col Kirby of Litchfeld, and to wounds he received in the war of the Revolution, l will here take the liberty to relate a thrilling reminiscence of him which have heard my father tell scores of times, as far back as nearly sixty years. At what place and at what time this event took place, however, Iscannot remember.
 Col. Kirby, with troop of Horse on a raid in the Revolutionary war, came to a secluded barn in an ont meadow and stop ped at noon to bait their horses and take lunch. As 1t was an exceeding hot day they unsaddled their horses, opened their knapsacks and ate their lunch, lounging on the grass. Some went to sleep; some began scuff1ing; others washed off their jaded horses, ,allin supposed security. Sud, denly, like a clap of thunder in clea1 sky, sentinel cried out, "The British Light Horse Every man to his saddle! some few saddled their horses and escap. ed, some were unhitching them, and some buckling up the girths, when the enemy were upon them. Kirby had saddled his horse and put his foot in the stirrup an6 was in the act of mounting, when a troop CT cut him down. think they were mostly slaughtered. After finishing thei, bloody work, the brutes spurred theil horses back and forth over the field, crush. ing the dead and dying under their hoofs. Kirby lay in pool of blood, at the sight ofwhich troopers horse leaped clean over him both ways, which providentially say. ed his life. The number of cutlass wounds on his head and body were fourteen o1 seventeen, I cannot recollect which. My father, then sixteen years of age, was living with Gov. Oliver Wolcott, of Litch field, and was volunteer in the battle when Tryon burnt Danbury in 1775. ] think he could not have been mistaken in this matter. The noble old town oi Litchfeld may we'll feel proud of being the birthplace of such men as Col Ephra i'm Kirby. Yours truly,
 @|i w. BALDWIN.