French Soldiers did not Shoot Holes in our Weathervane

According to local folklore, some of the thousands of French soldiers who marched through town during the final phase of the Revolutionary War nearly 230 years ago used the rooster weathervane on the Congregational Meeting House — currently our town seal — for target practice.

That would account for the several bullet holes that still penetrate the bird's side. But what that folk story fails to consider is that these were professional and disciplined soldiers under strict orders not to damage American property. There also would have been severe penalties for discharging a firearm without orders to do so.

It is therefore most unlikely a French musket ball disturbed the peaceful rooster, and most probable the wounds resulted from the challenge of one obstreperous local youth to another while they were out hunting with squirrel guns.

Still, the march of 4,000 French soldiers through town must have been a memorable sight.

By 1781 the war was about to wind down although it may not have looked that way at the time. The French, having seen that the Americans could actually hold off a British army in Battle and always looking for a way to annoy the British, committed four regiments of troops to aid George Washington.

These troops under the command of the Compt d'Rochambeau, landed in Newport RI, in 1780 and languished there until Washington devised a use for them against the British in New York at the beginning of the fighting season a year later.

The problem was getting the French force from Rhode Island to his headquarters, then in the Hudson Highlands. The solution was to march them across the middle of Connecticut where they were away from the coast and thus not subject to British attack.

Marching across the middle of the state brought them into Newtown, and it was here that they planned to make their 10th camp and rest for a couple of days before joining Washington.

On June 28th, the first of the four regiments consisting of 1,000 men arrived in Newtown and camped on Church Hill Road about where St. Rose Church is today. For protection, they placed their artillery park on top of Castle Hill where it commanded the southern approach against the possibility of approaching British soldiers.

The next day the second regiment of 1,000 troops marched in and also camped on Church Hill Road across from the entrance to Walnut Tree Hill Road. The third division arriving on June 30th, set out their camp on the plain alongside the Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook.

Even before the fourth regiment could arrive, Washington received word that the French fleet was in a position to bottle Lord Cornwallis in the Chesepeake Bay and so a fast messenger was sent to have Rochembeau hasten his march to New York. 

The poor fourth regiment had just arrived in Newtown where they were scheduled to stay and rest for two days when they were told they had to move out immediately.

And so on July 1st, the French in their splendid white uniforms and blaring French martial music, marched out of Newtown to join the American forces as they headed to the resounding victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown that effectively ended the war.

A year later they marched back and again camped in Newtown as a single unit that stretched from St Rose for a half mile to the north along the Boulevard.