OVER HERE - FOES IN ARMS BROTHERS IN DEATH - INDEPENDENCE DAY REFLECTIONS
Friday, July 4, 2008 at 11:52AM I live in a small town on the border of New York State and Connecticut, about an hour north of New York City. A touch of suburbia here and there, but still maintains its rural elements. An area also rich in the history of the American Revolution. Some of the roads I drive on were the road the Continental Army, the American militia, British soldiers, Tories and French troops marched on centuries ago. Their ghosts still haunt the oldest trees and fields.
Sybil Ludington, a sixteen year old girl and the eldest of 12 children, rode her horse one night in 1777 through the surrounding villages and farms to muster her father Colonel Ludington's militia. Her statute sits up on a lake in Carmel New York, I drive by it weekly. Her fathers troops marched over the same road I take to go shopping, and 400 of them went to meet the British Troops at Danbury, Connecticut. Dirt roads then, paved roads now, they marched with musket to meet the foe, I drive with credit card to buy diapers and baby formula in bulk at the Costco store.
In nearby Ridgefield, Connecticut if you go to 25 Main Street you'll see the Keeler Tavern which still stands. In April 1777 it received a British cannon ball in its wall during the Battle of Ridgefield. Firing on an establishment that serves alcohol is of course the greatest of all war crimes. The Cannon ball is still there, lodged in the wall if you want to take a look.
On April 27, 1777 the Battle of Ridgefield was fought up and down mainstreet. Among the American heroes of that Battle was Benedict Arnold. Arnold, also a hero of the Battle of Saratoga where he received a crippling leg wound, would later turn traitor and try to turn West Point overto the British. He escaped capture and would later lead British raids in Connecticut that burned several towns to the ground. Since he was a native of Connecticut you can imagine the adverse effect this had on his popularity ratings in his home state. He died in petulant obscurity in England. On the Battlefield of Saratoga there is a monument to his leg, considered the only Patriotic part of him. I kid you not.
There is a small monument in Ridgefield, a marker really, in a stone wall and surrounded by small flags where several of those killed in the battle are buried. The inscription reads that buried here are "eight Patriots companioned by sixteen British soldiers, living their enemies, dying their guests". I think the idea of them being companioned now is quite touching, foes in arms and brothers in death. We know the two great nations, foes in two old wars and natural companions since, have by separate roads perhaps sought the same destination, a world in which freedom and liberty are not just words but deeds. We stumble along those roads, at times venturing in the wrong direction, but we return to them and we continue onward.
On this Fourth of July, with its pagentry of fireworks, baseball, hot dogs, pinics, parades and flags, I find myself reflecting on that simple marker in Ridgefield, these men who died for the words we cherish today. The Declaration of Independence whose signing we attribute to Juy 4th 1776, is in the end an expression of liberty and freedom, crucial yet incomplete. Its failure to account for slavery would result in a bloody Civil War in less than one hundred years. Its promise was often unfulfilled for many of its citizens for decades after. It is by our deeds, not our words that we are measured.
To my fellow Yanks, have a happy and safe Fourth! To our friends across the sea, let us remind ourselves of the companionship inscribed on the stone marker, theirs in death and ours in life. Now, this Yankee Doodle Dandy is off to get gas for the grill, beer for the cooler and some more fireworks.
America 
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Reader Comments (29)
Fantastic post Mahons. Happy 4th to you!
Lucky man. Over here, local Govt authorities are trying to ban any show of patriotic sentiment, so I've forgotten when they are.
Good idea though to choose Independence Day in July when it's hot and summery.
Have a lot of fun you lot! (Lucky bastards).
>>"eight Patriots companioned by sixteen British soldiers, living their enemies, dying their guests". <<
I don't know if Alistair Cooke' series "America" (I think it was called) was televised in the States, but when we were kids in Dublin everyone watched it.
Very strange perhaps, but Cooke quoted exactly those words - and even showed the inscription - in the programme about the US war of independence.
He also used it to illustrate how close the US and the UK remained despite that war. Although it was not inevitable (did not some Congressmen want to join with Napoleon in his war again the British shortly afterwards?)
Funny, but I watched all the programmes in that series all those years ago and that scene is the thing I remember most clearly (as well as the quoted complaint of a British officer about his opponents: "They are country boys and hunters, and the worst of them can put a ball into man's forehead at 100 yards".)
And now those words appear again...
I don't think the spirit and ideals of pursuing freedom was even really as robust at the point it was all fought as was embodied in the documents which followed. A large part of the population was more or less neutral, swaying to this side or that or else remaining inert in the struggle, which was a civil war in all but name - with a large portion of loyalists. So it was to remain to the end. To me the most fascinating thing was that George Washington's son was a loyalist. There was way too much rooted and drawn from here for it to have ever been some kind of real hatefest much as people love to tout the Empire, it remained largely benevolent and force for good. And its always fascinating to me to see how this revolution inspired a more blood thirsty and barbaric one in France and inspired revolutionists in Spain's American colonies. And what a difference there was in the result of lauded independence in South America. What a lasting and unmitigated disaster that all turned out to be.
Alison
The revolutions in south america you mean ? Yes I would agree - simply a swapping of one bunch of brutal elitist rulers for another. I think that was foreseen at the time. Simon Bolivar foretold that "Tyrants would rise" from what he had sown.
The American War of Independence and the constitutional changes that followed were truly fed by enlightenment values. I supose hence the discussion had yesterday about natural rights etc. Pity I cant think of too manyother revolutions fed by the same values.
Obviously their treatment of slavery was outrageous
but it was done for matters of supreme expediency (otherwise they may never have formed a nation).
By the way I heard somewhere that German was very nearly voted in as the national language of the USA. Does anyone know if there is any truth to that?
Noel - What a memory you have. It was televised in the U.S., and we all watched it too.
Andy, i don't know about that vote, which seems unlikely, but German was the second language of the colonies. Many Germans settled in the Delaware valley and Pennsylvania-Dutch (deutsch) country. They came here as Quakers or similer societies.
Call me the myth buster today - Andy that is a bit of an urban legend, but an oft heard one. It had soemthing to do with the languages of official documents as opposed to a national language.
Alsion - Washington's son was actually his stepson, but he was on the revolutionary side, serving in the Virginia House of Delegates and on Washington's staff at the siege of Yorktown. You may be thinking of Ben Franklin's son who indeed was a loyalist - if I recall correctly the franklins may never have spoken again.
The Revolution was indeed quite a civil conflict, and my area had numerous loyalists as well as revolutionaries.
Mahons,
Great tale! I'd never heard of this female Paul Revere.
A splendid Fourth of July to you and yours, and to all ATW's other Yankee Doodles. Hooray for the red, white and blue!
Mahons, Franklin's son was the royal govn'er of New Jersey and indeed stayed loyalist. They never spoke again.
Also, I assume you have been to Fraunce's Tavern in lower NY where Washington took leave of his officer's?
Dawkins - Cheers. Every time I play play El Condor Passa I'll think of your good work.
Charles - Yes, another good memory, and when I went to the tavern I tried to get my drinks put on his tab.
Thank you Dawkins. I envy you both for your choice of cool clime and really making a difference!
Staten Island, part of what is now New York City, was a loyalist stronghold.
See link, some still remember.
May I at this point brag that my great-g-g-g-g grandfather served in the Penn militia in 1777. I don't think he saw combat, as the British were much too smart to come into his neck o'the woods!
Where in PA would this have been?
Was he called Charles in Pennslyvania? Good for him. So long as you aren't related to Charles in Charge.
I think Cumberland County, although I don't know too much about Penn. His name was James Endsley, and his son James Jr moved to Georgia. James Jr's daughter Sarah moved to Tx in 1860, and she was the grandmother of my grandfather Andrew. Voila!
You should come up one of these days to visit. That part of Pennsylvania is still pretty rural, and its pretty. And its not farm from Harrisburg, where you can pop in and see Three Mile Island!
Indeed Phantom. It would be neat to see a place where my family fought for America, before we fought against it.
And I think that any Revolutionary Mahons was probably to be found guarding the tavern!
Changing the subject a bit, but my favorite part of NYC is the Battery, with it's jumble of colonial streets, Fraunce's, Wall and Broad, and Trinity Church. Not only is that church the burial place of Alexander Hamilton, but has held the wounded from the revoluntionary burning and bombing of New York by the British, but also from 9/11.
When one thinks about the fact that paper debris from the WTC covered Hamilton's grave on 9/11, one realizes that our Revolution is still actively fought by some in this world, and that we, the sons and daughters of the Patriots, are still here to defend it.
Have a great 4th July folks!
Charles
Well said. I walk past the Trinity Church. cemetery, which contains the graves of Alexander Hamilton, and of Robert Fulton, nearly every work day.
A cool, green little place in the middle of the city.
Me. I am just proud that so many countries around the world have an Independence Day from Britain (as it then was). Think about it you might have nothing to celebrate if it wasn't for us. BTW do we have a day of celebration on the day the Romans left?
Maggie
No, you can't celebrate, as you let the "Romans" ( in the guise of the EU ) back in!!
Charles - No doubt revoluntionaries, but in Ireland at that time.
Paitriots? Unfortunately the paitriots of America were rounded up into reservations and now run squalid casions.
Anyone for a tea party?
oh yes the poor indians boo hoo
You must be a fan of genocide Grizzly, not exactly an attractive trait.