The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-12
WOOSTER MONUMENT DEDICA-
TION.
An Interesting "Reminiscences Related
by Senator Lounsbury.


Hartford Times. At the supper table
State Treasurer Grosvenor had an old
times paper in his pocket that was pub
lished in his county July g. 1868, just
after the battle of Gettysburg, Sena-
tor Lounsbury was a senior at Yale at
that time, nearing the graduation day.
which came the last of July, in that
period of college life. He belonged TO
the college baseball club, and was a
good ball player. There was game on
the old college, grounds, mile and a
half or so from the campus, day or
so after the Fourth and it attracted a
large attendance, the game in those
days being as full of interest in its
way as the modern game has proved to
be. That day, however, the senator
was not on the plate. But he was
present with scores of interested pat
rons of the game.
There had been only a meagre bit of
news up to that time, from the battle
field, and everybody was under deep
apprehension as to what had been the
fate of Lees invasion of Pennsylvania.
Late in the afternoon man came hur-
rying on the grounds from the city
with newspaper giving some account
of the battle, and of Lees defeat by
Meade. The news was not of a CO.
pious character, but there was enough
of it to set the Yalensians wild with
interest and excitement. The game
was suspended, and the large
gathering of students locked about
| the man with the newspaper, and lis
tened to his reading the account of the
battle.
A. II. Byington of Norwaik was the
first war correspondent to get any defii-
mite news through from the field at Get
tysburg, giving the story of that mag
nificent engagement. 1t was Bying
tons story that was read on the ball
field out from the college campus that
July afternoon in 1868.
Said the senator, Wednesday night,
in speaking of the event, it seemed as if
it had occurred not later than yester-
day.
Senator Lounsbury was a boy of
thirteen when the monument at Dam
bury, in honor of General David Woos-
ter, the Connecticut Revolutionary
hero, was dedicated, with patriotic
ceremonial, in that ancient town. Cen
eral Wooster was mortally wounded
April &c, 1777, during the attack of Gov
ernor William Tryon's force against the
revolutionists, in the neighborhood of
Ridgefield. General Wooster led the
Americans in the assault. The man
euVer took place about mile north of
| the Stebbins house, between Ridgefield
| and Danbury. The British opened with
an artillery fire and temporarily dis
concerted the American column 1t
| was while rallying the force with the
words, Come on, my boys, never mind
such random shots" that Wooster fell,
| pierced with a musket ball. He was
removed to Danbury from the field, and
| died there a few days after the en-
| gagement. The continental congress
| passed a resolution providing for the
erection of a monument to his memory.
| The sum of $500 was appropriated, but
| the money was never expended. The
/ grave of the hero was lost sight Of for
I fifty years. In 1854, seventy years after
| General Wooster's death, suitable
monument was erected to his memory,
in the town where he died. The ceme-
| terry in which he was buried was
known, of course, but the grave was not
| located. Great effort was made to find
| the heros final resting place. After
| prOtracted research an old negro was
| found in the town, who was long past
| ninety years of age. He was asked if
he remembered General Wooster. "Oh,
| yes" said the old negro, land I know
| where he was buried I remember
| when he was killed and can point out
| the spot where they buried him" The
| old man was taken to the cemetery,
| and after going about the grounds, he
pointed to a spot and said they buried
| him there Excavations were made and
| the bones We're found. But the most
| conclusive proof that it was Wooster's
grave was the discovery of a musket
| ball, which lay with the remains. The
| bones were removed from the spot and
| reinterred by the monument which
now marks the grand old soldiers rest
ing place. The dedicatory grafton was
| delivered by Henry c. Deming, who af-
| forwards became mayor of Hartford,
and the colonel of the Twelfth Connec-
| ticut. 1t was one of the grandest ora
| torical efforts that Senator Lounsbury,
up to that time in his life, had listened
| to, and the phraseology is still distinct
| in the senator's mind. The opening
passage of the Grafton was, Conflict
ing opinions and divided sentiments are
| not to be harmonized here. One in
| gratitude, we are one in thought and
| feeling" There was no report of the
| Grafton, and it has been lost, doubt
less, except as it is recalled, passage
| by passage, by Senator Lounsbury,
! who has one of the most tenacious of
| memories.
| A thunder storm set in before the
conclusion of the ceremonies, and was
succeeded by a two days rain, occa-
sioning one of the most disastrou
floods that had been known in south
| western Connecticut. Every bridge on
the Danbury and Norwalk road was
| swept away.
Senator Lounsbury graduated from
| Yale college in the class of 1863. His
| classmates included Professor William
| G. Sumner ex-Secretary of the Navy
William C. Whitney, General Erastus
| Blakeslee of the First Connecticut cav
| airy, and President David Brainerd
| Perry of Doane college.