A Connecticut Soldier Under Washington

E LISHA Bostwick (I749-i834) of New Milford, Connecticut, enlisted in the Seventh Connecticut Regiment in I775 and saw active service in the early campaigns around Boston and New York, and in New Jersey.' His memoirs of the first years of the war are valuable for their very lively sketches of the men and events of that period. Bostwick was among those making the now famous crossing of the Delaware on Christmas day, 1776, and among other things, he has recorded that Washington's commands which he heard at that time, were Spoke in a deep & Solemn voice. The Seventh Connecticut was Nathan Hale's regiment and he and Bostwick were members at its activation. After leading his reader through a maze of detail on the regiment's organization, Bostwick adopts a wider perspective and presents the part played in the war by this and subsequent military units with which he served. The early fight around Boston occupied these troops for a time and Bostwick describes the British evacuation and his own visit to the city very shortly thereafter. He was present at the battles of White Plains, Trenton and Princeton and his colorful detailed description of the Hessian prisoners taken at Trenton is particularly interesting. The capture of General Charles Lee by the British and the burial of Sir William Leslie are among the topics which he mentions briefly in passing. Scotch prisoners

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