CT, USA
Every Name on the Monument Was Someone's Neighbor
The Groton Monument is 134 feet tall, and you can climb it. There are 166 steps to the top, and from the observation deck you can see across the Thames River to New London, where the companion raid burned the town on the same day. The geography makes the twin attacks immediately comprehensible: Arnold hit both sides of the river at once.
But the monument's most important feature is not the view. It is the names carved into the stone at the base. Approximately 85 names, each one representing a man from this community who died on September 6, 1781 — many of them after the fighting was over.
What visitors often do not immediately grasp is the scale of loss relative to the community's size. Groton was a small town. Losing 85 men in a single afternoon was devastating in a way that larger communities might have absorbed more easily. Nearly every family was affected. The wives, children, and parents of the dead lived in the surrounding countryside, and the grief was not abstract — it was personal and comprehensive.
Jordan Freeman's name is on the monument. He was a free Black man who fought alongside his white neighbors and died defending the same ground. His presence on the monument — in 1830, three decades before the Civil War — is significant. Whatever the racial attitudes of the era, the people of Groton included Freeman among the honored dead because he had earned that place with his life.
The hardest part of interpretation here is the massacre itself. We have to tell visitors that these men were killed after they surrendered. The conventions of warfare were violated. Colonel Ledyard was stabbed with his own sword. Wounded men were put on a cart and sent careening down the hill. These are facts, documented by multiple sources, and they are difficult to present without either sanitizing or sensationalizing them.
We try to let the monument speak. The names are there. The stones are there. The earthworks are there. The view across the river to the ruins of what Arnold burned is there. Sometimes the most powerful interpretation is the simplest: stand on this ground, read these names, and understand what happened here.
Sources
Primary & Secondary Sources
Connecticut Gazette, September 14, 1781: Account of the Groton Massacre
Connecticut Gazette (New London) · PRIMARY · TIER1
Contemporary newspaper account of the Fort Griswold battle and massacre, published one week after the event. Provides early public documentation of the death toll and the killing of surrendered prisoners.
Dear Liberty: Connecticut's Mobilization for the Revolutionary War
Wesleyan University Press (Joy Day Buel and Richard Buel Jr.) · SECONDARY · TIER1
Scholarly study of Connecticut's full Revolutionary War mobilization. Covers the Fort Griswold massacre as a defining moment in the state's wartime experience and its effect on public morale.
Deposition of Ensign William Seymour Regarding the Fall of Fort Griswold
Connecticut Historical Society · PRIMARY · TIER1
Sworn survivor testimony from an officer present during the massacre at Fort Griswold on September 6, 1781. One of the few American officers' accounts of the British assault and the killing of Colonel Ledyard.
Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park Interpretive Program
Connecticut DEEP / National Register of Historic Places · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER1
State park interpretive materials including archaeology reports and historical analysis of the fort's construction, the September 6, 1781 battle, and the monument to the slain defenders.
Fort Griswold National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER1
Federal historic preservation documentation with detailed site description, architectural analysis, and statement of historical significance for Fort Griswold as a Revolutionary War battlefield.
African American Defenders at Fort Griswold
Connecticut History (Connecticut Humanities) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Research into the significant African American presence among Fort Griswold's defenders, including Lambo Latham and Jordan Freeman who fought and died at the fort.
Colonel William Ledyard and the Defense of Fort Griswold
Journal of the American Revolution · SECONDARY · TIER2
Biographical examination of Fort Griswold's commander William Ledyard, analyzing his decision to hold the fort against vastly superior British forces and his killing after the surrender.
Connecticut in the American Revolution
Connecticut Historical Society (Glenn W. LaFantasie) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Bicentennial survey of Connecticut's Revolutionary War contributions with analysis of the state's strategic position and the significance of the 1781 coastal raids.
Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution: Fort Griswold Memorial
Connecticut Society SAR · INSTITUTIONAL · TIER2
SAR documentation and memorialization of Fort Griswold defenders. Includes compiled roster of the garrison and the monument inscriptions identifying the killed and wounded.
https://connecticuthistory.org/fort-griswold-and-the-battle-of-groton-heights-1781/
connecticuthistory.org · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Groton
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/deep/stateparks/parks/thebattleofgrotonheightsandtheburningofnewlondonpdf.pdf
portal.ct.gov · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Groton
https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1781/battle-groton-heights/
revolutionarywar.us · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Groton
https://www.fortgriswold.org/the-battle-of-groton-heights/
www.fortgriswold.org · SECONDARY · TIER2
Discovered by agentic enrichment for Groton
The Battle of Fort Griswold
New London County Historical Society (John Allyn) · SECONDARY · TIER2
Nineteenth-century monograph on the Fort Griswold battle drawing on survivor testimonies collected by local historians. Details the garrison's composition, the British assault, and the massacre of surrendered defenders.
Battle of Groton Heights -- Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation · TERTIARY · TIER3
General reference overview of the Fort Griswold battle and massacre. Good for orientation; specific casualty figures and sequence of events should be verified against primary accounts.
Visit Groton: Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park
Groton Tourism Office · TERTIARY · TIER3
Municipal tourism information on visiting Fort Griswold, including hours, the Groton Monument, and the nearby Ebenezer Avery House where wounded were taken after the battle.