American soldier, born at Stratford, CT, on the 2nd of March 1711; graduated at Yale in 1738, and entered the provincial army as a lieutenant in 1739. In 1745 he was in command of the Connecticut, which conveyed the troops to the siege of Louisburg, at the same time serving as captain in Aaron Burr’s regiment. He became colonel in 1755 and brigadier-general in the same year, serving through the French war of 1756–63. One of the expedition that captured Ticonderoga in April 1775 and later a member of the Connecticut assembly, he was appointed a brigadier-general in the Continental army, served in Canada, and held the chief command for a short time after the death of General Montgomery. Resigning from the army, he returned to Connecticut and was made first brigadier-general of the militia; was in command of the town of Danbury when it was attacked by Tryon’s troops, April 26, 1777, was wounded in the defense, and died at Danbury on the 2nd of May 1777.
