The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-18
SON OF REVOLUTION.
RELIEVED TO BE THE oNLE
 ONE LIVING.

| OSI kA F4NHs
 Father was Captain of Artillery in | the war for Independence--Surviv | is Eighty-one Years of Age, and a Brother Died Recently at Seventy | seven.
 1 In Main Street. New London, few blocks from the busiest part of State Street, which in turn is the busiest thoroughfare of the hustling little city at the mouth of the Thames, stands an old white house. The paint is time worn now, the dilapidated green blinds are always closed and the building has a i. general air of aloofness from the swirling eddies of traffic which, back 1 ing up from the citys principal street. drive sounds of active life through the window of the old house An ancient lelm keeps watch over the dwelling.
 The atmosphere of the white house with the closed blinds is almost forbid dong, after the manner of some war Iworn veteran; who has outlived his Contemporaries. It was never a pre- Itentious mansion, nor laid claim to a Ireputation for elegance, for it's archi- lecture is of the simplest. It is not even the oldest house in New London, lalthough of a respectable antiquity, unique to entitle it to consideration; it lshelters the only living son of a Revo-. Ilutionary officer so far as is known. IUntil Thursday of the past week two brothers lived there, sharing pride in their ancestry. On that day the under taker attached to the doorknob the bow Iof crepe which showed that one. of the lpair had passed away, and William Henry Burbeck remained the only man in the country, so far as is known, who can remember father who commanded troops in Americas fight for independ- Ience
 This sole survivor is the son of Hen lry Burbeck, captain of artillery dur ling the Revolution, and later briga- dier general, who is credited in bio graphical sketch, written by Asa Bird lGardiner, with being the father of West Point Military Academy inasmuch las he was the first to propose such an Institution. The suggestion was made Ito Secretary of War Samuel Dexter, ISeptember 2S, 1900. In his letter to the lSecretary of War Gen. Burbeck recom lmended the establishment of military lschool and an ordnance laboratory, and lout of his recommendation grew the in lstitution on the Hudson, which now G.. t@ TT-,f+ f+oa Cto4 4oe, Army
 It seems strange that two lives should lbridge the span between the year of our lLord, 1904, and the battle at Bunke Hill where the British received their first lreal taste of American mettle. To un- lderstand how this can be a sketch of Gen. Burbeck's life is necessary. The lgrandfather of William H. Burbeck of New London was born at Boston in i1715 and died two years after the close of the Revolutionary War. At the time of the uprising in America he was in lcommand of Castle William in Boston
 Harbor, post for which he had fitted himself by the study of gunnery, which lied to the position of civilian official lin the ordnance department of the Royal Artillery. When the war for in dependence actually broke out the l British officer cast his lot with his |countrymen left Castle William and lentered upon active service with the IContinentals. He took part in famous campaigns, receiving a commission as lieutenant colonel of the Provincial
 Train of artillery. The son, Henry Bur iI>ao1y rroc i11ct ct h ic 11oio hax ling been born in 1764, when fighting be-
 gan between the British regulars and
 the American volunteers. When the battle of Lexington was fought he es- caped from Boston and joined the
 volunteer artillery under Capt Jotham Horton. On May 19, 1775, he was com
 missioned lieutenant of artillery, doing lduty near Boston, He witnessed the Ibattle of Bunker Hill, although not participating, and served through the lsiege of Boston. On New Years Day of I1776 he was commissioned a first lieutenant and in April of that year marched to New York, where stirring levents were about to takes place. He
 played his part in the battle of Brandy
 wine and Germantown, shared with Iothers of Gen Washington's army the
 terrible privations and sufferings of the
 winter at Valley Forge, accompanied the troops on the memorable retreat
 through New Jersey and was present at
 the battle of Monmouth. In TIT he
 was promoted to captaincy, served
 through the war, and entered the ser
 vice again as a captain fartillery in 17S6, after which he was for some time lon duty under Gen. Anthony Wayne, lighting the Indians on the Western
 border. Several promotions eventually
 made him colonel and in 1913 he was
 brevetted brigadier general While a
 colonel he had command of the army
 along the Atlantic seaboard and in the
 eastern and central states. In 1915 he
 retired from the service "a poor citi- zaf1 :, as ha Inf if and ha1Ipht the