Editing Connecticut (section)

====American Revolution====

{{Main|American Revolutionary War}}
[[File:LowsCTmap.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.15|A 1799 map of Connecticut which shows [[The Oblong]], from ''[[Low's Encyclopaedia]]'']]

Connecticut designated four delegates to the [[Second Continental Congress]] who signed the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]: [[Samuel Huntington (statesman)|Samuel Huntington]], [[Roger Sherman]], [[William Williams (Continental Congress)|William Williams]], and [[Oliver Wolcott]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_signers_gallery_facts.pdf |title=Signers of the Declaration of Independence |website=Charters of Freedom |publisher=National Archives |access-date=May 16, 2014 |archive-date=July 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160714194721/http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_signers_gallery_facts.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Connecticut's legislature authorized the outfitting of six new regiments in 1775, in the wake of the clashes between British regulars and Massachusetts militia at Lexington and Concord. There were some 1,200 Connecticut troops on hand at the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] in June 1775.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wpi.edu/academics/military/hillprelim.html |title=Battle of Bunker's Hill Preliminary Study |website=Military Science, Cadet Resources |publisher=Worcester Polytechnic Institute |access-date=May 18, 2014 |archive-date=May 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518174520/http://www.wpi.edu/academics/military/hillprelim.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1775, [[David Bushnell (inventor)|David Bushnell]] invented the [[Turtle (submersible)|''Turtle'']] which the following year launched the first submarine attack in history, unsuccessfully against a British warship at anchor in New York Harbor.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Roland|first1=Alex|title=Bushnell's Submarine: American Original or European Import?|journal=Technology and Culture|date=1977|volume=18|issue=2|page=159|doi=10.2307/3103954|jstor=3103954|s2cid=112333776  |issn = 0040-165X }}</ref>

In 1777, the British got word of [[Continental Army]] supplies in [[Danbury, Connecticut|Danbury]], and they landed an expeditionary force of some 2,000 troops in [[Westport, Connecticut|Westport]]. This force then marched to Danbury and destroyed homes and much of the depot. Continental Army troops and militia led by General [[David Wooster]] and General [[Benedict Arnold]] engaged them on their return march at [[Battle of Ridgefield|Ridgefield]] in 1777.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/accountoftryonsr00case#page/n3/mode/2up |last=Case |first=James R. |title=An Account of Tryon's Raid on Danbury in April, 1777 |location=Danbury, Connecticut |date=1927 |access-date=October 24, 2015}}</ref> For the winter of 1778–79, General [[George Washington]] decided to split the Continental Army into three divisions encircling [[New York City]], where British General Sir [[Henry Clinton (American War of Independence)|Henry Clinton]] had taken up winter quarters.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Poirier|first1=David A.|title=Camp Reading: Logistics of a Revolutionary War Winter Encampment|journal=Northeast Historical Archaeology|date=1976|volume=5|issue=1|pages=40–52|doi=10.22191/neha/vol5/iss1/5|doi-access=free}}</ref> Major General [[Israel Putnam]] chose Redding as the winter encampment quarters for some 3,000 regulars and militia under his command. The Redding encampment allowed Putnam's soldiers to guard the replenished supply depot in [[Danbury, Connecticut|Danbury]] and to support any operations along Long Island Sound and the [[Hudson River]] Valley.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://putnampark.org/park-history/ |title=Park History |website=Putnam Memorial State Park |access-date=April 27, 2014 |archive-date=January 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150129021812/http://putnampark.org/park-history |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of the men were veterans of the winter encampment at [[Valley Forge]], [[Pennsylvania]], the previous winter. Soldiers at the Redding camp endured supply shortages, cold temperatures, and significant snow, with some historians dubbing the encampment "Connecticut's Valley Forge".<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Keefe |first1=Thomas C. |editor1-last=Johnson |editor1-first=James M. |editor2-last=Pryslopski |editor2-first=Christopher |editor3-last=Villani |editor3-first=Andrew |title=Key to the Northern Country: The Hudson River Valley in the American Revolution |date=August 1, 2013 |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |chapter-url={{google books|NfADAAAAQBAJ|plainurl=yes|page=241}} |access-date=February 17, 2015 |chapter=George Washington and the Redding Encampments}}</ref>

The state was also the launching site for a number of raids against Long Island orchestrated by [[Samuel Holden Parsons]] and [[Benjamin Tallmadge]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Charles Samuel |title=Life and Letters of Samuel Holden Parsons: Major-General in the Continental Army and Chief Judge of the Northwestern Territory, 1737–1789 |year=1905 |publisher=Otseningo Publishing |location=Binghamton, New York |page=110 |url={{google books|llssAAAAMAAJ|plainurl=yes|page=10}} |access-date=February 17, 2015}}</ref> and provided soldiers and material for the war effort, especially to Washington's army outside New York City. General [[William Tryon]] [[Tryon's raid|raided the Connecticut coast]] in July 1779, focusing on New Haven, Norwalk, and Fairfield.<ref>{{cite book |last=Townshend |first=Charles H. |title=British Invasion of New Haven, Connecticut |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publisher=Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Printers |date=1879 |url=https://archive.org/stream/britishinvasiono00towniala#page/n3/mode/2up |access-date=May 17, 2014}}</ref> New London and Groton Heights [[Battle of Groton Heights|were raided]] in September 1781 by Benedict Arnold, who had turned traitor to the British.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.hogriver.org/issues/v04n04/benedictarnold.htm |last=Baker |first=Edward |title=Benedict Arnold Turns and Burns New London |journal=Hog River Journal |date=Fall 2006 |volume=4 |issue=4 |access-date=May 17, 2014 |archive-date=July 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713150615/http://www.hogriver.org/issues/v04n04/benedictarnold.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

At the outset of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress assigned [[Nathaniel Shaw|Nathaniel Shaw Jr.]] of New London as its naval agent in charge of recruiting [[privateer]]s to seize British vessels as opportunities presented, with nearly 50 operating out of the Thames River which eventually drew the reprisal from the British force led by Arnold.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nlchs.org/about/shaw-mansion/ |website=New London County Historical Society |title=The Shaw Mansion |access-date=April 18, 2020 |archive-date=July 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728223349/https://www.nlchs.org/about/shaw-mansion/ |url-status=live }}</ref>