8 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



The capture of the father was- soon followed by 

 the retreat of his wife to a place of greater safety. 



My mother had secured an asylum in the house of Mr. 

 Eliakim Beach at North Stratford, now Trumbull, and had 

 made all necessary arrangements for her own removal and 

 that of a part of her family. A British fleet and army, 

 which had paid a hostile visit to New Haven between July 

 4th and 7th, sailed from New Haven on the evening of 

 the 7th, and on the morning of the 8th disembarked at 

 Kinsey's Point on the beach at Fairfield. My mother and 

 family from the top of our house witnessed the disembarka- 

 tion of these troops, and that was the signal for their own 

 retreat to North Stratford, a distance of seven or eight 

 miles, where, with several members of her family, she was 

 comfortably established and kindly treated. 



In their progress on their pilgrim journey the cannon 

 began to roar, and the little boy Gold Selleck, amused with 

 the sound that brought sorrow to many hearts, at every 

 report cried, bang ! bang !! 



u To our ears," writes my mother, " these were doleful 

 sounds ; " and she adds : " Oh, the horrors of that dread- 

 ful night ! At the distance of seven miles we could see 

 the light of the devouring flames by which the town was 

 laid in ashes. It was a sleepless night of doubtful expecta- 

 tion." " I returned," says my mother, " to visit our house, 

 and found it full of distressed people whose houses had 

 been burned, and our friend, Captain Bartram, lay there 

 a wounded man." 



My mother's cheerful courage contributed to sustain her ; 

 and I ought to be (I trust I am) grateful to my noble mother 

 and to my gracious God, that the midnight surprise, the 

 horror of ruffians armed for aggression, and the loss of her 

 husband, as perhaps she might fear, by the hands of assas- 



I'ntiinm, in a letter d.ited May 7, 1779. (Sparks' Correspondence of 

 tiie American Revolution, II. 2U4. P.) 



