CT, USA
Professor Daggett Takes Up Arms
July 5, 1779
During the British raid on New Haven, Yale professor Naphtali Daggett — a sixty-two-year-old professor of divinity — grabbed a musket and rode out on horseback to join the militia defense. He fired at the advancing British from behind a stone wall before being captured.
British soldiers beat and bayoneted the elderly professor, leaving him seriously wounded. Daggett survived the assault but never fully recovered and died the following year. His defiance became a symbol of the town's resistance: even Yale's theologians were willing to fight.
People Involved
Yale's professor of divinity who grabbed a musket and joined the militia defense during the British raid on New Haven in July 1779. Captured by British soldiers, he was beaten and bayoneted but survived. His defiance became a symbol of Yale's wartime spirit.