Author: Gary Owen Green & Corey Vaughn Green
Private Luman Brownson (P-32948) in the Company commanded by Captain Abram Bradley, of the Connecticut line, and was in a regiment commanded by Lt Colonel Ebenezer Gay.

LUMAN BRUNSON: 6 Connecticut Regiment--Private. Capt. Eli Leavenworth's Co.,in the Batt'n of Connecticut Forces, commanded by Col. Return Jonathan Meigs (Company designated at various times as Capt. Eli Leavenworth's, Lieut. Col. Ebenezer Gay's and 1st Company.) Enlisted March 1, 1778. Term of Enlistement: 10 months "to serve until the first day of Jany 1779." Appears on Company Muster Roll for June-December, lst one dated Jan 5, 1779 (Roll for June is dated White Plains, July 21, 1778.) Roll for August "Remarks": On (?) Comd at Round Hill. Roll for Sept "Remarks": On duty. Roll for Oct "Remarks": On Comd Light Infantry. Roll for Dec "Remarks": Discharged Dec 31, 1778. Appears on Company pay Roll for the same period. Pay per month 40//-L (pounds?) 2 (1st pay 4 mon L 8). (Roll 286)

This, then, was the world into which Luman Brownson was born in 1756 to Stephen and Mary (Weller) Brownson. He lived in Woodbury until sometime after 1784, when, around 30 and apparently still unmarried, his inheritance from his father probably in his pocket, he left Connecticut to try his luck in Vermont, a land offering opportunities for younger sons willing to endure the rigors of turning wilderness into productive land (or determined to make money by speculating). In doing so, he started a new chapter in the Brownson migrations, the first one set outside Connecticut.

Luman Brownson, great-great-grandson of the 1635 immigrant to Boston, Richard Brownson of Earl’s Colne, Essex, was born in Woodbury, Litchfield, CT, where his great-grandfather, Cornelius Brownson, had moved from Farmington in 1690. Born in either 1756 or 1757, he lived in Woodbury until at least 1784, when he is recorded there selling land he had inherited from his father.

Woodbury was a long settled place when Luman lived there, its population stable for some time. We know nothing about him until he joined a Connecticut regiment in 1776 to fight in the Revolutionary War. He and his three older brothers-Cornelius, Abijah and Thomas-are listed in Woodbury town records among those enlisting in the early days of the war. His sister Hannah’s husband, David Rumsey, also served, at least part of the time with him, apparently. In April 1818, the two old veterans, both then living in Vermont-David in Hubbardton, Luman in Cornwall-applied for pensions only a day apart. Their descriptions of their first tour of duty differ only slightly. David testified on April 15 that he enlisted in Woodbury for nine months in the company commanded by Captain Bradley under Colonel Fisher Gay and that he was “in the battle in the retreat from Flat Bush and at Smith-Bay in the retreat from New-York at which time he lost all his clothing.” He enlisted again in March 1778, this time for ten months, joining Capt. Eli Leavenworth’s company, Col. Return J. Meigs’s regiment, then at White Plains. Luman’s sworn account, delivered when he applied for a pension the next day, parallels David’s:

Luman’s sworn account, delivered when he applied for a pension the next day, parallels David’s:

“That he the said Luman Brownson enlisted in Woodbury in the State of Connecticut in the Company commanded by Capt. Abram Bradley, of the Connecticut line, and was in a regiment commanded by Colo. Gay; that he continued to serve in the said corps, or in the service of the United States, until the 25th of December 1776, being the expiration of his term of enlistment, which was eight months, or thereabout [sic] when he was honorably discharged from service in North Castle in the State of New York; and that he was, during the above service, in the battles on long Island, and in the retreat of the American forces from New York; Unit Commander Unit Size
2nd Connecticut State Levies Colonel Fisher Gay 449

On April 19, 1775, British and American soldiers exchanged fire in Lexington and Concord, Mass., and the next day Fisher Gay is said to have closed his store in Farmington and set out for Boston with about 100 men.
Col. Fisher Gay went on to fight in Massachusetts and New York in the Second Connecticut Regiment. He died in New York in 1776.

“That early in the spring of the year 1778 or 1779, he enlisted in New Haven, in the State of Connecticut in the Company commanded by Capt. Eli Leavenworth, and was in a Regiment commanded by Colo. Meigs, of the Connecticut line; that he continued to serve in said Corps, or in the service of the United States, until the first day of Jan 1779 or 1780, being the expiration of nine months, from his enlistment, the full term thereof; when he was honorably discharged from service in Reading in the State of Connecticut; and that he was, during the said last mentioned service, in a few skirmishes with the enemy, but in no general battle.”

He married Clarissa Pingrey (Pingra) on 5 Feb 1799.

The documents in Luman’s pension file include none that could have supported his story of his first tour of duty, so we have had to look elsewhere. The pension claims of other men in his regiment along with military records in the National Archives and Records Administration, all fitted into the larger history of the Revolution, create a fuller picture of the action he may have seen during that tour. But it is a picture with many pieces missing. In part, this is because records of almost any unit, but especially a militia company or a company of “state levies,” men not militiamen, but raised for a particular campaign, as Bradley’s company was, are incomplete. To further complicate matters, the constant splitting and reassigning of regiments and companies in the Continental forces meant that parts of a unit might be in several different places at a particular time, and the components of troops under a commander were often not recorded. It was true also throughout the Revolution that at least a quarter of the American troops were too sick to fight at any one time, making it impossible to assume the presence of an individual soldier in a particular battle in which his unit was engaged. And finally, not only did Luman’s colonel die early in the New York campaign, but his successor was captured by the British and it seems that Luman’s general did not distinguish himself in that campaign. Patching together the few small pieces we have collected in order to generalize about the picture as a whole is dangerous, but there is no alternative if a narrative is our aim. We have tried to be very cautious in doing so.

In April of 1776, after dealing a decisive defeat to the British in Massachusetts, Gen. George Washington’s Continental army moved from Boston to New York, where Washington had good reason to expect the next British attack. If the British gained control of New York and the Hudson River-Gen. John Burgoyne bringing troops south from Canada to join troops in New York under the Howe brothers, Gen. William Howe and Adm. Thomas Howe-they would cut New England off from the rest of the former colonies and cut off the army’s supplies as well. On June 1, Congress sent out a call for reinforcements in New York. Those who answered (or were drafted) were state levies (also called “new levies”), men raised by a state for this campaign only and for a very short time, as opposed to the militia, who were local standing forces. (Levies too were often referred to as “militia,” a term that was-and is-used very loosely outside the military.) Even though David said he enlisted in “the fore part of April,” another man who served in Captain Bradley’s company, Eli Eastman, said he left Woodbury on June 1, the date Cothren said the men of Woodbury marched. Luman Brownson and David Rumsey were among those men. Their company was one of eight assigned to Col. Fisher Gay’s regiment, the 2nd battalion in Brig. Gen. James Wadsworth’s Connecticut brigade.

In proportion to her population, Connecticut contributed more men to Washington’s army than any other state: six Continental battalions, seven battalions of new levies, and twelve of militia; and Connecticut men made up a large proportion of the troops in New York. The Connecticut governor, John Trumbull, estimated as early as July 5 that, with still more men to come, Connecticut had sent nearly 10,000 men to New York. Then, in August, Washington sent an urgent request to Trumbull to send him “the whole of the militia west of the Connecticut River.” Woodbury historian Cothren wrote that every able-bodied man from 16 to 50 from the western towns of Connecticut, the towns’ militias, was marched to New York by Washington’s order. By the end of August, a Connecticut colonel could boast that Connecticut troops made up nearly half of the army there. Henry P. Johnson, a nineteenth-century historian, says more than half. Nearly half of them were men commonly termed “raw militia.” Their skills, like those of the state levies, not to mention their discipline, were still untried in battle, their weapons and other equipment usually whatever they were able to bring from home. They would soon be severely tested by a force made up of well-equipped men strengthened by months or years of rigorous training and discipline. For two days at the end of June, a huge armada had gathered off the foot of Manhattan, and on July 1, the ships had sailed in together to make landfall on Staten Island, just across the Narrows from Long Island. Over the next six weeks, over 33,000 men and their support arrived in 500 transports and victualing ships. They were to be reinforced in mid August by 8,000 Hessians. They met no resistance from the Americans and they came no farther; but on July 12, the British navy sailed up the Hudson River and back, demonstrating their control and their ability to attack at any place and any time.

Washington had positioned half of his troops behind batteries on lower Manhattan, the other half across the East River behind batteries in Brooklyn Heights on Long Island, defense against an enemy he believed (on the basis of faulty intelligence) would attack New York itself. Records signed by Col. Fisher Gay show his regiment in and about the city the last two weeks of July. Guard reports dated from July 30 to August 28 and signed by Gen. James Wadsworth locate his brigade at various places in the city, in those days still occupying only about a square mile at the tip of Manhattan: at the Grand Battery (now Battery Park), on both the East and North (i.e., Hudson) Rivers, at the ship yard, the commissary and the hospital and at Fort Bunker Hill on Bayards Hill and New Goal. Some men were apparently stationed as well at King’s Bridge, Manhattan Island’s connection with Westchester County to its north, since the 6th Company, headed by Capt. Simon Wolcott, spent July building Fort Independence there.

On August 1, Gay’s regiment was sent to the American fortifications in Brooklyn Heights on Long Island, just across the East River, where the troops were mostly levies and militiamen. On August 4, four of the regiment’s eight companies were assigned to an alarm post at Ft. Sterling, the other four nearby at the fort on Cobble Hill, and their officers were ordered to acquaint themselves with the area for miles around as the men were kept busy on work details, probably either building the forts or digging trenches that zigzagged between the fortified area and the rest of the island. (We have no way of knowing which post Bradley’s company was assigned to.) On August 22, the British crossed The Narrows from Staten Island to Long Island’s south shore near Gravesend Bay, moving almost immediately, as they unloaded their ships, to the island’s southwest corner, within three miles of the Continental troops, close enough for frequent shots to be exchanged between the two entrenched armies. The British force outnumbered Washington’s men three to one. Washington continued to do what he could, reorganizing his army and keeping the troops at work constructing defenses for the looming battle. He still expected the British to attack New York, so by late August he had sent only six regiments-half his troops-to Long Island as reinforcements there. A guard report dated August 24 places at least part of Wadsworth’s brigade at the Grand Battery in the city; but on August 25, as part of Washington’s reorganization, two of his regiments-one of them Gay’s-together with three regular Connecticut regiments, were formed into a brigade on Long Island under the command of Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons, who led his men in a battle there two days later.

The battle on Long Island on August 27, also called the Battle of Brooklyn and, by many of the participants, the Battle of Flatbush, where the formal battle took place, was the largest battle of the Revolutionary War, the British determined to take over the fortifications on Brooklyn Heights that would give them a commanding position over New York. Fighting was fierce, first at night, in what one writer calls “a series of separate and desperate struggles fought almost blindly in the woods and swamps of Brooklyn,” then at Flatbush in regular battle formation, for the first time in this irregular war. The men with Parsons and Gen. William Alexander Lord Stirling, and those under Gen. John Sullivan who came to their assistance, acquitted themselves well at Flatbush, but inadequate security at one of the three main passes on roads to the American fortified area had already doomed their efforts.

A little before dawn, about 1600 Americans were drawn up on a field at Flatbush, braced to take on British troops they knew were headed up toward the fortifications on their right along the west side of Brooklyn and Hessian troops just ahead to the south; and they were soon engaged with the British. When the arrival of the Hessians threatened to overwhelm them, about 300 men under General Sullivan came to their aid, all unaware that the enemy they could see was meant to occupy them until the bulk of the British force, some 10,000 men, could take a position behind them. At least five hours earlier, this enormous force, having advanced during the night to their northeast, had breached the inadequately guarded Jamaica Pass and the pass beyond it on the road to the fortifications. Their advance through the hills above the battlefield had sent all the pickets in outposts there racing through the darkness for safety, allowing the British to turn and march south to the battlefield. At 9 o’clock, a blast from two cannons to the rear of the Americans fighting there told them they were now effectively surrounded. Even with the extra troops, it was clear they could not withstand both the troops pushing from their left and front and the overwhelming force coming from their rear. By 10 o’clock, Sullivan’s men, hopelessly outflanked on the left by the troops they had wheeled to confront, were ordered to withdraw; and at 11, those on the right flank, including Parsons’ men, hit simultaneously by Hessians from the front and British troops from the rear, in the most savage fighting of the day, were also ordered from the field. Half of a Maryland unit, despite having fought since dawn, fought on until forced to surrender, allowing their fellows and others to escape across the marshy ground that separated them from the fortifications. The men led by General Parsons, the last group left on the line, had to follow as well as they could. Almost none of the men with him made it to safety. By any measure, it was a total defeat, the American troops forced to cede their outer line of defense and driven into their camp, at least 1000 of them either captured or killed. But “if it was a disaster, it was not a disgrace.” They had fought well.

Five men in Gay’s regiment went missing on Long Island, but not all the men in the regiment were with General Parsons in the battle. Some may have been sent elsewhere on the island, and some we know were kept within the fortifications. On the morning of the battle, Hezekiah Munsell was among the men in Wolcott’s company put to work “throwing up a breastwork, and . . . cutting and drawing into line before [it] a row of apple trees, the brush turned from us.” He observed General Washington giving orders to the colonel of each of the regiments as he walked along the lines. Later, he heard firing from within the fortifications, where most of the troops stationed at Brooklyn Heights remained during the battle, but never saw a British soldier on the day of the battle. Asahel Frisbie, in Bradley’s company, recollected that he “remained there [on Long Island] encamped until the army retreated from the island 29 August 1776,” and David Rumsey too made no mention of the battle. Bradley’s company, or part of it, is placed in the action, presumably in General Parsons’ brigade, by three members’ specific accounts: Elon Crampton said he “was present and engaged in the battle at Flatbush,” Eli Eastman, the company’s orderly sergeant, was severely injured by a musket shot to the head in the battle “with his regiment” and Eli Smith, the first sergeant, carried messages between Washington and General Sullivan on the battlefield. Based on Luman Brownson’s comrades’ statements, it seems quite certain that this was the battle in which he said he fought “on long Island.”

The outcome of the conflict on Long Island for the Americans was dire: perhaps 1000 Continental soldiers wounded and an equal number either killed or taken prisoner, to be confined in Dissenters’ (not Anglican) churches, especially Dutch and Presbyterian ones, and then on what quickly became notorious prison ships anchored in the East River. General Howe, for some reason, perhaps to regroup and tend to his wounded, did not press his advantage. Instead, all that night, the sounds of digging reached the men in the American trenches as British soldiers worked on trenches that would bring them within musket range in less than 24 hours. After a council with his officers the next day, Washington decided to retreat to the city; and on the night of August 29, telling none of the men why they were being rousted out and marched to the river’s edge in a raging rain storm, he succeeded in ferrying 9,500 men and supplies across the East River to New York, the small boats of Continental supporters making repeated trips until all were across, a “providential” morning fog cloaking them until they had all landed. Not until the fog lifted did the British realize they were gone.

With the British in control of Long Island, the southern half of Manhattan was exposed to invasion. In a few days, fully half of Washington’s army moved north to their camp in Harlem Heights. Another reorganization of the army, into three divisions, was meant to do the impossible: defend an island 14 miles long without the help of a navy. The strongest units were stationed in the north, where Washington expected the British to attack next, and in the city (across from the Brooklyn Heights fortifications), while the weakest ones, mostly militia and state levies, “the most indifferent units” in “the least trained and organized and most poorly equipped” division in Washington’s army, ranged in between, along the East River. For two weeks, except for a small force that on September 10 occupied Montressor’s (now Randall’s) Island, opposite Harlem, where Washington had posted a small guard for a smallpox camp, the British did not move. (A member of Bradley’s company, 2nd Lieut. Thomas Catlin, who went missing on September 10, was perhaps there.) The Howes were reluctant to abandon their hope of reconciliation between the two sides. Only after a meeting on Staten Island at which a committee that included John Adams and Benjamin Franklin refused to withdraw the Declaration of Independence did the British launch a new offensive.

Kip’s Bay, at the present 34th Street, provided the deep water the large British ships needed to get close to the shore of Manhattan. At dawn on September 15, the Americans arrayed along the shore at Kip’s Bay saw five British men-of-war lined up offshore, their guns on the ready. A brigade that included three Connecticut militia regiments, under Col. William Douglas, Wadsworth’s most experienced colonel, was at the north end of a line that extended for a mile to the south. Around the present 23rd Street was Wadsworth’s brigade-Sage’s, Selden’s, and Gay’s Connecticut levies. When the ships maneuvered closer, to only a hundred feet away off shore, just north of Douglas, he moved his men closer, to be opposite them. But, as dozens of small boats landed the British troops, under cover of grapeshot from the ships, the militia, men and officers alike, panicked and fled, leaving army equipment and supplies and their own packs behind. The rest of Douglas’s men, caught up in their panic, were close behind. Once on solid ground, the British troops immediately formed and followed them. Below Douglas on the river, Wadsworth’s men and, farther south, around 15th Street, Brig. Gen. John Morin Scott’s New York brigade realized that they too must retreat to protect themselves, and they joined the brigades above. As they ran, they collided with Brig. Gen. John Fellows’s Massachusetts militia and Parsons’ Continentals, troops that had marched up from the city as reinforcements, and sheer chaos followed. The generals, including Washington, who had galloped down from the camp at Harlem Heights when he heard the bombardment, could not restore order, even by threatening the fleeing soldiers, who now included the reinforcements. All were headed inland to the Post Road, which went north, all the way to Boston. Washington was so distraught he had to be led away from the Hessian pursuers of his retreating men. The British were now in a position to spring their trap, cutting the island in two.

Luman and David, who said that he was “in the battle in the retreat from Flat-Bush” and that he had lost his clothing, were almost certainly among the soldiers as they fled. Asahel Frisbie, in Bradley’s company, recollected being stationed about two miles north of the city at Turtle Bay, just north of Kip’s Bay. Two of Bradley’s men-Daniel Brewster Curtis and Eli Taylor-went missing on September 15, presumably at Kip’s Bay. Hezekiah Munsell, in Wolcott’s company, wrote that he was one of those who fled. He wrote too that Lt. Col. Selah Heart, in command of Gay’s regiment since the colonel’s death at least two weeks earlier, was taken prisoner there. (Heart’s place in command was then taken by Maj. Edward Mott.) The only story about Luman’s military service handed down in the Brownson family was that he made an incredible jump over a stone wall as he fled from a British soldier. Was the wall where he defied gravity one of the stone walls dividing the corn fields just inland from Kip’s Bay? Or was it instead a wall on Long Island, somewhere between the battlefield and the American fortification? We have abandoned attempts to place this incident, apparently the only story a typically reticent ex-soldier (or a man able to laugh at himself) told his family about his battle experience.

In the aftermath of Kip’s Bay, the soldiers blamed their officers, the officers blamed the senior commanders and the senior commanders blamed the soldiers (Washington wrote Congress about their “disgraceful and dastardly” conduct”)-and, says a modern historian, all were correct: “The fiasco at Kip’s Bay was a failure on every level of the American army.” And yet all the accounts of the action agreed that it was “next to impossible to remain under the fire of the men-of-war.” Joseph Martin in Douglas’s regiment voiced the soldiers’ view-the men were quite sensibly “endeavoring by all sober means to escape from death or captivity, which at that period of the war was almost certain death. The men were confused, being without officers to command them. . . . How could the men fight without officers?” Realizing that the troops in the city would be trapped, Gen. Israel Putnam and his aides galloped to all the American installations there and then led 3,500 men up along the western side of Manhattan Island to join the rest of the troops at Harlem Heights, barely missing an encounter with the British, who, instead of immediately marching across the island, had marched up the eastern side and were just crossing to the camp there.

There is no evidence that Gay’s regiment was among the units that took part in a two-hour skirmish with the British at Harlem Heights in the afternoon of the next day, September 16. At dawn, the British had attacked two brigades posted as an advance guard. After a stiff reception by Col. William Smallwood’s Maryland regiment (which had distinguished itself on Long Island), the Connecticut Rangers and the Virginia infantry, they finally retreated after about two hours, out of ammunition and with heavy losses. By that time, although it was a “relatively small battle,” Americans led by Generals Putnam, Greene and Clinton and representing all the states had been involved. It did not give the Americans a tactical advantage, but they were clearly the victors; and the victory sent soaring the spirits of everyone, even those engaged-as the men in Gay’s regiment undoubtedly were-in digging trenches.

Instead of attacking in full force, the Howe brothers moved the entire British army to Manhattan. The two armies remained close but unengaged. Guard reports and returns dated in late September and early October place Gay’s regiment among the troops stationed at various fortified places around the northern end of the island: at Harlem Heights and Kings Bridge and at Miles Square and Valentine’s Hill, just across the bridge in Westchester County. At Harlem Heights, Washington was close to despair. Half his army had disappeared. Six thousand of the 8,000 Connecticut militia alone (not the state levies, i.e., Wadsworth’s men) had gone home in the week following the Battle of Brooklyn, their one-month enlistments up. The British troops along the East River were now capable of connecting with their ships sailing up the Hudson, closing off any possibility of the Americans escaping from Manhattan. It was clear that the Americans had to evacuate. Worried that the British would outflank his army by sailing north and landing troops in Westchester County, Washington had already established small forces at Throg’s Neck and Pelham Bay on Long Island Sound, to delay them while he pushed the army 17 miles northward to the settlement at White Plains, where the governor of Connecticut had established a supply depot. Washington would establish his headquarters there. On October 12, as he expected, the British sailed up the East River and landed at Throg’s Neck, but their troops were held back by only thirty American riflemen until 1,500 foot soldiers arrived, preventing them from gaining a foothold. On October 16, Washington’s generals voted to evacuate Manhattan (except for troops left at Fort Washington on the Hudson) and to march to White Plains.

The Continentals began to evacuate Manhattan on October 18, concerned first of all with getting all their equipment and supplies over King’s Bridge, which connected the island with Westchester County, a laborious, time-consuming process that required multiple trips across the bridge, much of the baggage carried by the men themselves because of the shortage of horses and wagons. On the same day, the British sailed farther north, to Pell’s Point, on Pelham Bay, where they were again held back for some time, by a contingent of Massachusetts troops, and suffered heavy casualties, much heavier than on Long Island. This time they succeeded in holding the ground; but, as usual, they did not immediately proceed. Instead, General Howe established his headquarters near New Rochelle, nine miles from White Plains, with a detachment in Mamaroneck, some three miles closer.

Leaving Manhattan, Washington established a very temporary headquarters just north of King’s Bridge at Valentine’s Hill, where Gay’s regiment was recorded on October 20. After only a couple of days there, an advance group, followed closely by Washington and the main American army, marched north following the west side of the Bronx River, both arriving at White Plains on October 21. A division under Maj. Gen. William Heath traveled all night in order to arrive the next day, October 22. A third division, led by Gen. Charles Lee and traveling much more slowly because they were bringing up most of the army’s heavy supplies, did not join them until October 26. In yet another reorganization of the army, Wadsworth’s brigade had been made part of this division.

Washington had positioned the main army at White Plains on several high hills, a hill to the west, Chatterton’s Hill, serving as protection for its weaker right flank. On October 28, after dispersing an American contingent sent to delay their approach, the pursuing British attacked once more, fighting their way up Chatterton’s Hill. The Americans, again mostly militia, fought fiercely, but then, overwhelmed by the much greater numbers of Hessians who followed, they turned back, joining the main army on the neighboring hill. The battle was brief, over in about fifteen minutes, but losses were heavy on both sides. Again, Howe did not act on his advantage. He may have wanted to tend to his wounded and regroup, and he was waiting for reinforcements. The American soldiers in view of the British on the plain below were kept busy to mask the fact that, even before the battle, Washington had been sending his wounded and his stores onward to the even steeper hills of North Castle, the town to the north. Three days later, on October 31, the day Howe planned to attack, a torrential autumn rain made the ground impassable by his army’s heavy equipment, and the next day the British discovered that Washington had, again at night, withdrawn-to a hill in North Castle that they realized was impregnable. Recognizing that they had been “completely outgeneraled,” they withdrew to Manhattan. Although they were to hold the island until 1783, when the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war, they were never able to extend their reach to its north or west.

Cothren, the Woodbury historian, stressed the grievous wounds suffered by several men from Woodbury at White Plains; but there is no evidence that the men he named were there, and the rolls of Bradley’s company do not support his description. The November 1 roll shows 42 men in the company, only two fewer than the number shown on the roll dated October 25, taken three days before the battle. The judgment of historians is that Gay’s regiment was “with the main army” at White Plains, nothing more specific; but it suggests that they were with the large portion of troops who did not take part in the very limited action there. The pension claims of two of the men support this interpretation. Asahel Frisbie said his regiment was sent to the entrenchments and he was “not personally engaged in the battle.” Hezekiah Munsell, in Wolcott’s company, who, like Frisbie, mentioned being stationed at Miles Square, just north of King’s Bridge, before leaving for White Plains, said their regiment, entrenched behind a stone wall at White Plains, “was ordered out on fatigue the morning of the battle;” but, he said, “we . . . saw the enemy in the field, prepared for action, and they made a most splendid appearance.” Neither Luman’s nor David’s testimony mentioned the battle.

Burdened with the army’s stores and handicapped by the shortage of wagons and horses, General Lee’s division had been stretched out as it traveled, different parts traveling at different speeds. The men were laden with extra baggage. Horses had to be double-hitched to haul each wagon up every hill and then unhitched and hitched singly in order for the army to proceed. The head of the column arrived four days after the rest of the army, on the 26th, the rear not until the next day, the day before the battle. According to Asahel Frisbie, in Bradley’s company, his regiment arrived at White Plains on the day of the battle there, just before the British arrived. His memories of time long passed are not dependable-he placed the battle in the afternoon of a September day-but his recollection can be reconciled with the arrival of Lee’s division the day before the battle with only a very little nudging. By then, the British troops were scattered all over the towns of Eastchester and New Rochelle, Mamaroneck and Scarsdale, many of them within four or five miles from Lee’s column. Their loose system of guards and careless patrols tempted the marchers to leave the column for raids on British outposts, on one occasion even stealing some officers’ shirts being laundered at a Hessian outpost.

An account of a similar skirmish on the 27th by a group of men that included a detachment from Bradley’s company provides a very satisfying ending to the story of Luman Brownson’s first tour of duty. Eli Eastman’s pension claim states that, still only partially recovered from the serious head wound he had incurred in the Battle of Flatbush, he rejoined his company at White Plains. The day before the battle there, he was in an outpost, a party of 64 men, half of them from his own company under Tilly Blakesley, the company’s first lieutenant. The group became surrounded by British soldiers, but made good their escape by going through the British lines, losing only one man from his company, but several men from the other company, who were cut off as they attempted to cross a ford near a mill at high tide. For their service, he said, General Washington “excused the survivors from the fatigues of the battle on the 28th of

From Eli Eastman’s pension application, page 135
October.” Two months later, still suffering from the effects of his wound, he was “discharged at the Highlands” and then sent home to Woodbury “in the care of one Frisbee and one Brownson who were discharged at the same time for that purpose.”

“The Highlands” are the North Castle Highlands, where Washington withdrew among the steep hills after the battle at White Plains and where Luman Brownson was discharged at year’s end. We have been unable to find a mention of this skirmish in any of the accounts of Washington’s army in Westchester County. We can only suggest that Lee, aware that British troops were always only a short distance away, may have relied on outposts like Eli Eastman’s group to help protect his vulnerable column as it plodded along. Whatever the circumstances of Eli’s experience, the names of his companions on his journey home to Connecticut are unlikely to be wrong, and-according to our searches at least-Luman Brownson was the only soldier with that surname discharged at North Castle in December of 1776.

The documents in Luman’s pension file refer only to a couple of pay periods and duties during his second tour of duty in 1778, under Leavenworth and Meigs at White Plains, where General Washington was encamped for some months. This second tour provides the basis for his pension, however, probably because those records existed. They are buttressed by an affidavit by David Rumsey, who swore that he served with Luman under Captain Leavenworth of the Connecticut line for nine months in 1778. The wording here coincides with the wording of the Certificate of Pension issued May 25, 1819. Both Luman and David appear on a September 14, 1778 roll of non-commissioned officers and privates in Capt. Eli Leavenworth’s Company, 6th Battalion, Connecticut Forces, commanded by Col. Return Jonathan Meigs and on a payroll of Lt. Col. Ebenezer Gray’s Company, 6th Connecticut (another designation for the unit commanded by Captain Leavenworth). Luman Brownson is listed there as having been on command at Round Hill. A muster roll for “Lieut. Col. Ebenezer Gray’s Company, 6th Batt’n Connecticut Forces, commanded by Col. Return Jonathan Meigs,” documents that Pvt. Luman Brunson enlisted on March 2, 1778 for a term of ten months and was discharged on December 3 of the same year. In 1780, he served a third tour of duty, this one in a Six Months Regiment for which the recruits were paid bounties by Col. Increase Moseley.

Luman apparently remained in Woodbury until shortly after the war ended in 1783. His father had died in 1775, the year the war began. A document filed on June 3, 1777 in the Woodbury District Probate Court tells us that Stephen Brownson died intestate, so the court’s ruling on the disposition of his estate followed a familiar formula: one third to the widow, two equal shares of the remainder to the eldest son and one equal share to each of the other children. Luman’s share-something less than ten percent of the estate-was two pieces of land (between eight and nine acres in all) and “1/3 of 2/3” of the house. After his mother died, probably in 1797, (the probate record is dated August 14, 1797) he would inherit yet another piece of land from her dower, putting his final total inheritance at about £92, about fifteen percent of his father’s estate. Since Mary Brownson outlived her husband by some 22 years, it would be some time before he realized all his inheritance. Long before then, however, he had left Connecticut-for Vermont. {The Brownson-Pengra Link.doc, pp 134-148}

!1776: The Veterans Administration, Washington, D.C., states:
"Luman Brownson enlisted in Woodbury, Connecticut, served as a private in Captain Abraham Bradley's Company, Col Gay's and after his death Col Heart's Connecticut Regiment; he was in the battle of Long Island and retreat from New York and was discharged in December 1776 having served eight months. (2nd Battalion?)

!1778: He enlisted in the Spring, served in Capt Eli Leavenworth's Company, Col Meigs' Connecticut Regiment.
Office of the War Department shows that Luman Brunson (surname also borne as Brownson) served in the Revolutionary War as a private in Capt Eli Leavenworth's Company also designated Lt Col Ebenezer Gay's Company, 6th Connecticut Battalion, also designated 6th Connecticut Regiment commanded by Col Return Jonathan Meigs. He enlisted 1 Mar 1778 for ten months and was discharged 31 Dec 1778.
!1779: Discharged 1 Jan having served nine months.
!1780: Joined the Militia Council of Safety on 30 May
!1799: Married Clarissa Pingrey (Pingra) on 5 Feb

IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES:
Revolutionary War Military Service Records:
LUMAN BRUNSON: 6 Connecticut Regiment--Private. Capt. Eli Leavenworth's Co.,in the Batt'n of Connecticut Forces, commanded by Col. Return Jonathan Meigs (Company designated at various times as Capt. Eli Leavenworth's, Lieut. Col. Ebenezer Gay's and 1st Company.) Enlisted March 1, 1778. Term of Enlistement: 10 months "to serve until the first day of Jany 1779." Appears on Company Muster Roll for June-December, lst one dated Jan 5, 1779 (Roll for June is dated White Plains, July 21, 1778.) Roll for August "Remarks": On (?) Comd at Round Hill. Roll for Sept "Remarks": On duty. Roll for Oct "Remarks": On Comd Light Infantry. Roll for Dec "Remarks": Discharged Dec 31, 1778. Appears on Company pay Roll for the same period. Pay per month 40//-L (pounds?) 2 (1st pay 4 mon L 8). (Roll 286)

DAR RECORDS
DAR PATRIOT INDEX--CENTENNIAL EDITION, 1990, Washington, DC 1994.

Bronson, Luman: b. 11-15-1757. d. 8-31-1829 VT. m. Clarissa Pingra. Pvt CT PNSR

23215. Luman Bronson, b 15 Nov 1756 (7) Woodbury Ct., d 28 or 31 Aug 1828 (9?) "ae 69 yrs"; m 5 Feb 1799 Clarissa Pingra DAR Rev Patriot (p. 242)

Name: Luman Brownson
Page #: 213
Regiment: Militia of 1780
Regiment Command: Moseley, Increase Col.
Remarks: Bounties paid to recruits raised for six months regiment; Council of Safety May 30, 1780.

Rolls and lists of Ct. Men in the Rev. 1775-1783. Ed. By Albert C. Bates. Hartford, Ct., 1901-1909. (Vols. 8 and 12 of the "Collections" of the Ct. Hist. Soc.) (2v.):8:213

The following was sent to me by a cousin and granddaughter of Kate Palmer Reynolds, sister of William Palmer

From BRONSON (BROWNSON, BRUNSON) FAMILIES; SOME DESCENDANTS OF JOHN, RICHARD AND MARY BROWNSON OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT. Comp. by Col. Herbert Bronson Enderton, 2350 Massaglia Ave., San Jose, Calif, 95125. 1919.

Sources of compilation include books, mss, archives, family Bibles, graveyards, genealogical society records, family histories. . . . John, Richard and Mary were early settlers of Hartford and then of Farmington, CT. They arrived from England 1) with the London Co. in 1628 on the ship "Hercules," 2) in 1633 on the "Griffin" or 3) in 1635 on the "Defense." There is considerable disagreement on their parentage (pp. 2-3).

2. RICHARD BROWNSON: Accompanied his older brother John and younger sister Mary from England to Boston in 1635 and to Hartford in 1636. He married three times. (His second wife's name is unknown). Six children: CORNELIUS, Hannah (B) Sanford, Elizabeth Brownson, Edith Brownson, Mary (B) Scott-Hinman and Samuel.

23. CORNELIUS BROWNSON (I neglected to copy down his vital statistics.) married Abigail Welton. Eight children: Richard, CORNELIUS JR., Elizabeth, Abraham, Stephen, Timothy, John and Amos

232 CORNELIUS BROWNSON JR. b. 1692 Woodbury, Ct, bap 26 Dec 1692 Woodbury Ct, d. there 4 Oct 1746 ae 54 yrs; m. 6 Nov 1717 Abigail Jackson, b. 1693 or 1696, d. 2 Nov 1772 Woodbury Ct, dau of Samuel and Jedidiah? (Skidmore) Jackson of Lebanon, CT; 11 children, all b. Woodbury Ct: STEPHEN, Elijah, Gideon, Jedidiah, Anna, Abraham, John, Mary, Israel, Gideon and Patience.

2321 STEPHEN BRONSON, b. 20 Jun 1718; m. 13 Jul 1748 Mary Weller or Wheeler, dau of Thomas Weller.(I also neglected to copy down his death date, I see.) (His sister Mary was the first wife of Col. Ethan Allen, which helps account for the fact that all the boys of this family served in the Revolutionary War). Seven children: Cornelius, Abijah, Thomas, Mercy, LUMAN, Aaron and Hannah.

Generation No. 1
1.Luman BRONSON was born 15 NOV 1756 in Woodbury, Ct.. He was the son of 2. Stephen BRONSON and 3. Mary WELLER.

Generation No. 2

2.Stephen BRONSON was born 20 JUN 1718 in Woodbury, Ct.. He was the son of 4. Cornelius , Jr. BRONSON BROWNSON and 5. Abigail JACKSON. 3.Mary WELLER. Children of Mary WELLER and Stephen BRONSON are:

i. Cornelius BRONSON was born 11 JUN 1749 in Woodbury, Ct.. He married Elizabeth FRISBIE.

ii. Abijah BRONSON was born 31 DEC 1750. He married Ann HURD 17 JAN 1773. She died 17 DEC 1780. He married Ruth HURD.

iii. Thomas BRONSON was born 7 JAN 1753. He married Ann RUMSEY 12 DEC 1785.

iv. Mercy BRONSON was born 23 JAN 1754 in Woodbury, Ct..1.

v. Luman BRONSON was born 15 NOV 1756 in Woodbury, Ct..

vi. Aaron BRONSON was born 27 MAY 1758 in Woodbury, Ct..

vii. Hannah BRONSON was born 1 OCT 1760 in Woodbury, Ct.. She married David RUMSEY 1782.

Generation No. 3

4.Cornelius , Jr. BRONSON BROWNSON was born 1692 in Woodbury, Litchfield Co., CT., and died 4 OCT 1746 in Woodbury, Litchfield Co., CT.. He was the son of 8. Cornelius BRONSON BROWNSON and 9. Abigail Upson WELTON. 5.Abigail JACKSON was born 1696 in Woodbury, Litchfield Co., CT., and died 2 NOV 1772 in Woodbury, Litchfield Co., CT.. She was the daughter of 10. Samuel JACKSON and 11. Jedidah SKIDMORE

My first attempt to reach you went to garyogreen@earthlink.net , the address given for "Get a hobby - genealogy" on the site for your chapter but when it was undeliverable, I went back and found another address. I hope it works.

I have been researching some Revolutionary soldiers who passed through our towns here in the NE section of Addison Co. VT. I read the account of your ancestor Luman Brownson in and identify him with one variously named Luman BRONSON or even LEEMON BROUNSON who lived in VT after the war.
Do you know where he was buried? If it was in the article, I missed it.

I found a death date in Harvey Munsill, The Early History of Bristol Vermont, a manuscript written in the mid-1800's and printed by the Bristol Historical Society (1979), p. 156 "Leemon Brounson a private in Connecticut Continental line May 25 1819 aged 66 years $96.00 per annum died August 31 1828." Munsill was listing the various pensioners of "persons residing, or who in their lifetime did reside, in Bristol to wit under the act of March 18, 1818." Munsill gives a date of death a few days after what other researchers have as 28 Aug.

From Monkton VT, a town north of Bristol, a VR card of the marriage on 5 Feb 1789 of Luman Brownson to Clarassa Pingra was copied from the town records and sent to the state when required in the early 1900's. It can be viewed on line.

He was in Starksboro VT, another town north of Bristol and east of Monkton where Luman Bronson was elected selectman in March 1796 when the town was organized. Source: H. P. Smith, ed., History of Addison County Vermont, (D. Mason & Co., Syracuse NY, 1886), p. 635. Smith is available on line:

John Burbank, Secretary
Bristol Historical Society

Source: Pension Claim S. 49297 from Vermont Agency, Veterans Administration, executed 16 Apr 1818. Rolls and lists of Ct. Men in the Rev. 1775-1783. Ed. By Albert C. Bates. Hartford, Ct., 1901-1909. (Vols. 8 and 12 of the "Collections" of the Ct. Hist. Soc.) (2v.):8:213; FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0 North America Source Information: Film Number: 178045, Page Number: 557. Reference Number: 6957; http://community-2.webtv.net/swhitfield/TheLuebkeFamily/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_order_of_battle; Diary of Lieutenant Colonel Fisher Gay, February 2, 1776-19 February 1776