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The Real Redding Ridge, CT. Where the British Soldiers halted in front of Anglican Church. T he "empty field" Tim Meeker describes in the book. This field is north of the Anglican Church and likely where the English Troops rested when they marched through Redding Ridge. Putnam Park.
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Where the British Soldiers halted in front of Anglican Church
The "empty field" Tim Meeker describes in the book. • This field is north of the Anglican Church and likely where the English Troops rested when they marched through Redding Ridge
Putnam Park • Can tour Putnam Park • Reenactments • This building is where ammo was stored
The stones are the only remains visible where the barracks used to be. • They were long huts with dirt floors. • Each barracks house 8-12 men.
Tavern • Most cases a house was turned into a tavern. • The living room turned into the dining room. • The bedrooms upstairs turned into guest rooms. Similar to a bed and breakfast today. • Roughly $2 per night (current money) • This was the center of life in the Revolutionary War era. • Tavern owners were respected and oftentimes influential. • Taverns were located on major roads.
In Real Life – Chapter One • The novel - Tim: "Mr. Beach, lived in Newtown but spent Saturday night here in Redding so he could preach in our church early Sunday morning." • In Real Life: From 1733 to approximately 1760, The Rev. John Beach lived in a house just south of the Christ Church on the west side of what is now Black Rock Turnpike on Redding Ridge. Shortly after his first wife, Sarah, died in 1756, Mr. Beach moved to Newtown full-time. His son Lazarus, lived about a mile east of the Christ Church, so in *poor weather it is possible Mr. Beach stayed with Lazarus overnight to be at service on time. However, Newtown is not all that far from Redding Ridge so Rev. Beach could have made the ride without too much difficulty in good weather.
In Real Life – Chapter One • Tim: "Tom Warrups was the last Indian we had in Redding. He was the grandson of a famous chief named Chief Chicken…" • In Real Life: Tom Warrups, was a Native American Indian, and said to have been one of General Israel Putnam's most valued scouts and messengers in the Revolution. He was the grandson of Chickens Warrups, whose tribe resided in Redding at the time of first settlement. It was Chickens Warrups' name that appeared on land deeds to John Read in 1714, and Samuel Couch in 1724, indicating he was a chief or leader of the tribe at Redding. • Tom was not the last Indian in Redding, members of his family continued to work for the Read family in the Lonetown section of town. Eunice Warrups, for example, is noted in town records as late as 1814.
In Real Life – Chapter 2 • Tim: "Redding Ridge being a small place I knew everybody there - all the kids, and Tom Warrups and Ned, the Starr's black man." • In Real Life: I'd call it a stretch to see Tom Warrups in church but it plays well in the story. Charles Burr Todd, author of Redding's only published history, described Tom as "a worthless, shiftless fellow, who lived chiefly by begging" Kind of rough but he did preface it with "except in war". • The Rev. John Beach does write that he has converted a good number of slaves in Newtown and Redding so it is plausible that Ned would attend church. Ned was the property of Redding resident, Samuel Smith, and was killed by British soldiers during the 1777 raid of Danbury. Apparently, Ned was among four patriot defenders who stayed behind and opened fire on British troops from a house in Danbury owned by Major Daniel Starr. The house was set ablaze and all inside were killed. There are no official accounts of Ned being beheaded before the house was put to flame. That resulted from an investigation after the raid had taken place, at the request of Samuel Smith. Mr. Smith was required to provide a report of Ned's death with witnesses in order to be compensated for his lost "property". It is in this petition that the accounts of Ned's decapitation surface and provide the view point and events that Tim witnesses in my brother Sam is dead.
In Real Life – Chapter 2 • Tim: "Her grandfather was Colonel Read, Her father was Colonel Read's son, Zalmon Read." • In Real Life: Colonel Read was John Read #2. Captain of Redding's first militia organized in 1739, he was Major of the 4th Connecticut Regiment in 1753, Colonel of the 4th Connecticut Regiment of Horse in 1757. He resigned his militia commission in the Revolution due to advanced age, but served as Justice of the Peace in cases of confiscated loyalist properties. • Zalmon Read was Captain of the 10th Company, 5th Connecticut Regiment in 1757, which marched to Canada and engaged in battles at St. Johns and Montreal during the French and Indian War. Capt. Zalmon also assembled and led Redding's militia to Weston to unsuccessfully challenge Tryon's British troops as they marched toward Danbury on April 26, 1777. Zalmon and his brother Hezekiah later converted to the Anglican faith; Zalmon moved to Bedford, New York after the Revolution, Hezekiah remained in Redding and was a major landholder.
In Real Life – Chapter 3 • Tim: "…the war didn't affect us much around Redding in the summer of 1775." • In Real Life: The summer of 1775 was actually an eventful one for Redding. As noted above, several members of both militias' (East & West) comprised The 10th Company, 5th Connecticut Regiment, which joined other colonial militias for the Invasion of Canada in June/July 1775.
In Real Life – Chapter 4 • Patriot: "Your all Tories here, We want your gun." • In Real Life: Patriotic soldiers did disarm and harass known Loyalists in this manner. In some cases, Loyalists were tarred and feathered, arrested, even murdered.
In Real Life – Chapter 5 • Tim: "He'd (Mr. Heron) been elected to the General Assembly in Hartford, but he'd been pushed out of it by the Patriots for being a Tory." • In Real Life: A publication entitled Sir Henry Clinton's Secret Service Record of Private Daily Intelligence, which surfaced in 1882, revealed the truth about William Heron's role in the Revolutionary War…he was a double-agent. • Heron provided information to both American and British commanders during the war. The British received information of little importance, while the Americans received reports that were far more significant and useful.
In Real Life – Chapter 5 • Mr. Heron: "I have a little job I thought Tim might do for me. I need a boy to walk down to Fairfield for me." • In Real Life: One of the ways Heron gained access to the British lines was to ride to Fairfield, leave his horse with a Tory there named "Bradley", cross the sound to Huntington on Long Island, or an adjacent part, and thence make his way into the enemy's lines at New York. • It is very possible that messages from Heron to the British commanders in Long Island were also sent from Fairfield via loyalists like "Bradley" who received them from unsuspecting messengers who passed through Patriot country undetected.
In Real Life – Chapter 5 • Life: "They've been killing children in this war. They don't care. They'll throw you in a prison ship and let you rot." • In Real Life: • Children of patriots were killed in the war. Relating to Redding, British General, William Tryon, was said to have an ill-natured propensity for women and boys. The latter especially he made prisoners of, and consigned to the horrible prison ships, holding them as hostages, on the justification that they "would very soon grow into rebels."
In Real Life – Chapter 7 • Tim: "I knew they were cow-boys. I pulled the wagon's long brake lever and whoa-ed the oxen." • In Real Life: • Americans invented a new meaning for the term during the American Revolution. Cowboy became the name used in reference to pro-British raiders who harassed and plundered the rural districts of Westchester County, New York. Westchester County, was the so-called "Neutral Ground" seeing the British were in New York City and the Americans were in the Hudson Highlands.
In Real Life – Chapter 9 • Tim: "…I was worried the cow-boys would get me first." Whether these men are Cowboys or Skinners is a bit confusing. Tim has good reason to fear either one. • In Real Life: Cowboys and Skinners were one-in-the-same in terms of their conduct, it was their allegiance that defined them as one or the other. Seeing Life dies in a British prison ship they are likely Cowboys, which is ironic seeing Life is loyal to the British cause.
In Real Life – Chapter 10 • Tim: "As a matter of fact, we weren't suppose to pray for the King and Parliament anymore…But Mr. Beach was pretty brave…and he went on praying for them anyway." • In Real Life: Shortly after the Declaration of Independence (i.e., July, 1776) the Anglican clergy of the colony fearing to continue the use of the Liturgy as it then stood-praying for the kings and royal family-and conscientiously scrupulous about violating their oaths and subscriptions, resolved to suspend the public exercise of their ministry. • All the churches were thus for a time closed, except those under the care of the Rev. John Beach…He continued to officiate as usual during the war.
In Real Life – Chapter 10 • Tim: "The British column was disappearing around the bend, but a couple dozen troops had stayed behind. They were kneeling on the road in a line firing at Captain Starr's house…" • In Real Life: Captain Daniel Starr's house was located in Danbury not Redding and Ned was the property of Redding resident, Samuel Smith. Ned was killed by British soldiers during the 1777 raid of Danbury. Apparently, Ned was among four patriot defenders who stayed behind and opened fire on British troops from a house owned by Major Daniel Starr. The house was set ablaze and all inside were killed. There are no official accounts of Ned being beheaded before the house was put to flame.
In Real Life – Chapter 12 • Susannah: "You mean your troops are stealing from your own people?" • In Real Life: Given the conditions, it is difficult to blame the soldiers that took matters into their own hands and ventured out of camp in search of provisions. The citizens of Redding, did not see things this way, those who initially felt quite honored by the selection of their town for the army's winter quarters, soon grew tired of soldiers looting their livestock. The soldiers position was that they were the one's fighting the country's battles and plundering the neighboring farms was within their rights as men of war. To them a well-stocked poultry yard, a pen of fat porkers or field of healthy heifers offered irresistible cuisine when compared to the horse-beef they were being offered back at camp. After a time, however, the wary farmers foiled the looters by storing their livestock over night in the cellars of their houses and in other secure places. Others butchered their stock as Sam urges his family to do.
In Real Life – Chapter 13 • Tim: "The trial was set for February 6th," • In Real Life: To put a stop to soldiers deserting camp and spies infiltrating camp it had been determined that the next offender of either sort (deserter or spy) captured should suffer death as an example.
In Real Life – Chapter 14 • Sam's character takes the place of John Smith in the executions. Which are very close to the real-life events that occurred that day. • http://www.historyofredding.com/HRmbsd.htm
