Detachment/Committee of the Connecticut Line CTSSAR
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Colonel Jedediah Huntington's Connecticut Regiment Raised 1775
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Raised May 2001
This Connecticut Line CTSSAR Detachment portrays Colonel Jedediah Huntington’s Regiment during the years 1775
through 1783.
“Jedediah Huntington, 1743 – 1818. Continental General Connecticut. Reared amid wealth and great social prominence,
he graduated from Harvard in 1763 and joined the business of his father, Jabez Huntington.
He became an active Son of Liberty, was made Ensign of the First Norwich Company in 1769, and was a Lieutenant in
1771. In 1774 he rose from Captain in May to Colonel of the 20th Regiment of Connecticut Militia in October. On 26
April 1775 he reached Cambridge with his regiment to join the Boston Siege. He was Colonel of the 8th Connecticut
Continental Regiment from 6 July to 10 December 1775, and commanded the 17th Continental Infantry Regiment
(Connecticut) during 1776. . .
He commanded the 1st Connecticut Regiment Continental Line from 1 January 1777 until he was promoted to Brigadier-
General on 12 May 1777. . . . Breveted Major-General on 30 September 1783, he resumed his commercial affairs after
3 November. President Washington, a personal friend, appointed him collector of customs at New London in 1789, a
post he held 26 years.” – Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, Mark M. Boatner, III.
Regimental History and Uniforms associated with Huntington:
Huntington's Eighth Connecticut Regiment - 1775
Raised by order of the Connecticut General Assemby at the July session, 1775. Recruited mainly in New London,
Hartford, and Windham Counties. The Regiment was stationed on the Sound until September 14, 1775, when on
requisition from Washington, it was ordered to the Boston camps and took post at Roxbury in General Spencer's
Brigade. Remained until expiration of term of service in December, 1775. Adopted as Continental. Re-organized under
Colonel Huntington for service in 1776.
(Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution; Adj. Gen., Hartford, 1889)
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Seventeenth Continental Regiment of Foot - 1776
Huntington's Regiment of 1775, as reorganized for service in the Continental army for the year 1776. After the siege of
Boston, it marched under Washington to New York (by way of New London and the Sound in schooners), and remained
in that vicinity from April to the close of the year. Assisted in fortifying the City; ordered August 24, 1776 to the Brooklyn
front; engaged in the Battle of Long Island August 27, 1776, in and near Greenwood Cemetery; was surrounded by the
enemy and lost heavily in prisoners; moved with the main army until after the Battle of White Plains; disbanded under
General Heath, near Peekskill, December 31, 1776.
(Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution; Adj. Gen., Hartford, 1889)
Captain Timothy Perceval’s Company
Butternut colored coat and scarlet waistcoat.
Blue clothes. (Connecticut Courant, April 22, 1776)
Captain Abraham Tyler’s Company
Light colored coat and leather breeches. (Connecticut Gazette, April 19, 1776)
Lieutenant Jabez Fitch's Company
Regimental coats had black lapels, these were made for Lieutenant Jabez Fitch
on 14 February 1776.
(Men-At-Arms Series #273, General Washington's Army 1: 1775-1778, Zlatich & Copeland)
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First Connecticut Regiment Continental Line 1777-1781
Regiment raised from and after January 1, 1777, for the new Continental army to continue during the war. Enlisted mainly
in New London County; rendezvous at New London. Took the field in Spring of 1777 at Peekskill, New York, and
remained there in Camp until ordered under General McDougall to Washington's army in Pennsylvania, September 1777;
engaged on the left flank at the Battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777, and suffered some loss in killed, wounded and
prisoners; wintered at Valley Forge, in Huntington's Brigade, 1777-1778; present at the Battle of Monmouth, June 28,
1778; in camp at White Plains, in Huntington's Second Brigade, until ordered into winter quarters with Connecticut
Division at Redding, 1778-1779; in 1779 served on east side of Hudson and in repelling Tryon's invasion; Captain
Selden's Light Company detached to Meigs' Light Regiment and present at storming of Stony Point, July 15, 1779;
wintered at Morristown huts, 1779-1780; served along the Hudson through 1780 and wintered at camp "Connecticut
Village", above the Robinson House; consolidated in new arrangement for 1781-1783.
(Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution; Adj. Gen., Hartford, 1889)
Lieutenant David Dorrance’s Company
Scarlet coat faced with white, white jacket and breeches, small round hat.
Snuff colored coat faced with light brown, white jacket and breeches, small round
hat bound with white.
Red coat faced with white, brown vest, black breeches edged with red,
small round hat.
Red coat with blue facings, white jacket and breeches, small round hat.
(Connecticut Gazette, February 5, 1779)
Lieutenant Richard Douglas’s Company
Red regimental coat. (Connecticut Gazette, July 25, 1777)
Captain William Richards’s Company
Light colored surtout, leather breeches, pale blue stockings.
(Connecticut Journal, April 16, 1777)
Red regimental coat. (Connecticut Gazette, September 19, 1777)
Captain John Shamway’s Company
Blue coat faced with white or buff. (Norwich Packet, April 7-14, 1777)
Colors or Standards associated with Huntington and or Norwich:
1) Norwich Militia Companies – “The militia at that period used the English colors; displaying the cross of St. George
(+) in a field of red or blue, and sometimes the cross of St. Andrew (X) united with it, in reference to the union of England
and Scotland. After the troubles with the mother country commenced, objections were made to this standard, and in all
probability it was not displayed after 1774. It is said that on a certain training day, the artillery company, composed of
able men and patriots of the first stamp, had provided themselves with a banner bearing the arms and motto of the State,
while the light infantry performed their evolutions as heretofore under the old flag. In the course of the day’s exercises,
being on a march through the town street, the artillery managed to confront the infantry, and planting their cannon in the
way, refused them a passage unless they would surrender their standard. After some parleying, the royal ensign was
lowered, rolled up, and never used again.” – History of Norwich, Connecticut, Frances Caulkins
(Front) (Back)
2) The 8th Connecticut Regiment of 1775 (Colonel Huntington’s) - Orange standard bearing on one side the
Connecticut Arms and motto “Qui Transtulit Sustinet” and on the other side “An Appeal to Heaven”.
This Connecticut Line CTSSAR Detachment is composed of members of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the
American Revolution's Governor Samuel Huntington Branch Number Twelve.
Representing South Eastern Connecticut
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