STORIES OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS

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Jonathan Return Meigs

" Jonathan Return Meigs was a native of Middletown, Connecticut At the commencement of the struggle for freedom he had his military lamp trimmed and burning brightly with the fire of patriotism. He was in command of a splendid company of infantry volunteers in beautiful uniform, well armed and eager for service. He marched to Cambridge immediately on receiving intelligence of the battle of Lexington. He was soon raised to the rank of major and endured the fatigues of the expedition to Quebec under Arnold. In the desperate attack on that fortress he commanded a battalion and was among the first who scaled the walls and entered the city where he was taken prisoner and was not exchanged until near the close of 1776. In 1777, he was made a Colonel and performed many astonishing feats of valor. On the 23d of May of that year he proceeded to Sag Harbor, Long Island, with 170 men,destroyed 12 British vessels fully laden with supplies for the Army then in New York and killed six of the enemy, taking 90 prisoners and returned to New Haven without the loss of a man. For this bold and successful enterprise Congress voted him an elegant sword. In 1779 he commanded one of the regiments under General Wayne at the storming of Stony Point. He was a reliable man on all occasions and under the most trying circumstances. In 1787, he was one of the pioneer colony that located at the mouth of the Muskingum river on the Ohio. He was their esteemed governor until the officers of the territory arrived. He formed a code of regulations which were subscribed and placed upon a venerable oak where they were as frequently and more usefully consulted than the oracle Apollo at Delphi. He was a man of great philanthropy; a warm friend of the injured red men and accepted the agency of the Cherokee station. He gained the confidence and love of that noble nation who named him "the white path." With them he lived usefully and died peacefully on the 28th of January 1828 strong in hope, rich in faith with a full assurance of a glorious immortality."

Source: The Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll Judson