January 24, 2025
Revolutionary War Letter
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Lately, I have been reading a lot of letters written during the Civil War, and on a whim I thought I would search the online database to see if it contained any letters written during the Revolutionary War. Lo and behold there was one. This Musings from Main showcases that Revolutionary War letter. |
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The letter, dated July 25, 1776, was written by Shem Stoughton to his father. An exhibit label was found in the file along with the original letter, and a typed transcription. It states that the letter was found in the old Elmer Stoughton House, located on Main Street, by Lena Stoughton Elmore when she inherited the house in 1947. |
Above an image of the original 1776 letter. Below a typed transcript with original spelling and punctuation.
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New York, July 25th, 1776
Honoured father these lines are to inform you that I am well and I hope that they will find you all so I have Nothing Piticular to right but the Regulars have landed Nine thousand men on longisland and our men have Intrench against them they have ingaged them three or four days and Drove them a bought half a mile killed some Last Night -- have took a bought forty head of cattle and--we had not won man killed but seven or eight wounded we are all well but Sergent Wolcott and john Newberry wich have been unwell but are getting better we are stationed about fifty rods from the grand fort in dock street god onely nowest when we shall return we ask your prayers and sow I remain your obedant son
Shem Stoughton |
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The letter is a snapshot of a brief moment in Colonial times. A letter, from a nineteen-year-old soldier to his father. A soldier, who I am delighted to say, came home from the war and lived to the ripe old age of 80. |
| Headstones for Shem and Flora Stoughton...
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| located in Wapping Old Burying Ground.
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| During those 80 years, a twenty-six-year-old Shem got married in 1783 to twenty-year-old Flora Gillette. They had eleven children together, many of them living into adulthood. The family lived in a house Shem build in 1779. |
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Image of the Shem Stoughton House date unknown.
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The house still stands in the Wapping section of South Windsor, on the original building site located on Ellington Road. According to a 2003 historical resources survey, the Colonial structure has been minimally altered with one addition, two enclosed porches. This undated image was included in the survey. |
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In the same document, local historian Doris Burgdorf goes on to note that, "The Stoughtons operated brickyards, taverns and had a blacksmith shop." With both Shem and Flora living into their 80s, one can imagine their busy lives filled with bustling children, and then grand children, in the new nation, that Shem had fought to create. |
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Image of the house dated 2021 courtesy of google street view.
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Resources used for this Musing from Main are listed below. Daley, Barney E., God's Acre, Published South Windsor CT, 1984. -
Daley, Barney E., Tobacco Parish, Published South Windsor CT, 1998.
- Historic Resource Inventory Buildings and Structures Survey, Friends of Wood Memorial Library Historic House Files, 2003.
- Stiles, Henry, The History of Ancient Windsor Vol.I and Vol. II, New York : C. B. Norton Publishing, 1859.
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