|
The Battle of Groton Heights (also known as the Battle of Fort Griswold, and occasionally called the Fort Griswold massacre) was a battle of the American Revolutionary War fought on September 6, 1781, between a small Connecticut militia force led by Lieutenant Colonel William Ledyard and the more numerous British forces led by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold and Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Eyre. In an unsuccessful attempt to divert General George Washington from marching against Lord Cornwallis's army in Virginia, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton ordered General Arnold to raid the Connecticut port of New London. Although the raid was a success, the Connecticut militia stubbornly resisted British attempts to capture Fort Griswold, across the Thames River in Groton. New London was burned along with several ships but many more escaped upriver. Many received land grants in New York and Ohio after the battle as they lost property. Originally there was little resistance on the New London side but it has been discovered through first hand reports that resistance as the regulars landed was stiff, similar to that at Lexington and Concord in 1775. More than 400 militia organised during the raid on the New London side from as far as Lyme and Stonington but had no leadership as Col.Harris reportedly felt ill and rode off. Several leaders of the attacking British force were killed or seriously wounded, and much of the defending garrison was either killed, mortally wounded, or captured when the fort was stormed. High British casualties led to criticism of General Arnold by some of his superiors. The battle was the last major military encounter of the war in the northern United States, preceding and being overshadowed by the decisive American victory at Yorktown, Virginia, in about six weeks. At the battle of Yorktown Marquis Lafayette reportedly yelled "Remember Ft. Griswold!" as US and French forces stormed the redoubts. ==Background== With its history dating back to 1655, Groton, Connecticut was originally a part of New London, its larger counterpart on the other side of the Thames River on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. Groton was an important maritime port, and became one of the largest along the New England coastline.〔Burgess, p. 3〕 Groton officially separated from New London and incorporated as a separate town in 1705.〔Caulkins, p. 414〕 During the American Revolutionary War, the port was a major center of rebel naval operations, including highly successful privateering operations against British shipping.〔Caulkins, p. 545〕 The port, however, was comparatively poorly protected: Fort Trumbull, on the New London side, was little more than a redoubt open on the inland side, while Fort Griswold in Groton was a more substantial, roughly square, bastioned stone fort surrounded by a ditch and some outer earthen defenses.〔Ward, p. 627〕 They were typically garrisoned by small companies of militia, including a few artillerymen, and overall command of the area's defenses was directed by Lieutenant Colonel William Ledyard.〔 The forts suffered from continuous shortages of provisions and equipment.〔Powell, p. 44〕 In the case of Fort Trumbull, the fort itself was unfinished. Although Fort Griswold's infrastructure was complete, it lacked sufficient gunpowder, cannonballs, food, and troops to conduct an effective stand against the British.〔 In August 1781, Continental Army Major General George Washington realized there was an opportunity to strike at the British army of Lieutenant General Charles, Earl Cornwallis, in Virginia. Using a variety of stratagems to deceive the British Commander-in-Chief and head of the British forces in New York City, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, Washington began moving his forces south from the New York area. General Clinton realized on September 2 that he had been deceived. Unable to mobilize quickly enough to assist Cornwallis, and unwilling to detach a large percentage of his forces in the face of the Continental forces Washington had left around New York, Clinton decided to launch a raid into Connecticut in an effort to draw Washington's attention.〔Allyn, p. 12〕 Though Clinton only planned it as a raid, he also believed that if a permanent British occupation of New London could be established, it could be used as a base for further operations into the interior of New England.〔Allyn, p. 13〕 He gave command of the forces for the raid to Norwich, Connecticut native Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, who had changed sides the previous September.〔Allyn, p. 14〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Groton Heights」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|