Corporal Thomas Storace, trumpeter, stands at attention during the memorial service at Center Church on the New Haven Green during last year’s Powder House Day, April 26, 2014.
in the unit’s formation, and was elected the first commandant, with the rank of Captain. Records from the first meeting mention hiring a man to instruct them in military procedures. But these volunteers could hardly compare with the battle-hardened European armies of the time. “These weren’t professional soldiers,” says Richard Greenalch, who has served in the Foot Guard for 34 years and is the unit’s public affairs representative. Instead of the common farmer-soldier of that era, Greenalch says these men from New Haven were more like merchantsoldiers and businessmen. Arnold, for instance, owned a profitable pharmacy and shipping business in town. The 58 members of the Foot Guard who left New Haven reached Cambridge on April 29, 1775, one week after Captain Arnold had seized the keys. Their duties included returning bodies of British officers who died at Lexington, and they impressed the enemy with their professional appearance. They were, in fact, some of the only uniformed Americans, wearing ornate scarlet coats with white pants, not unlike what the British wore. Arnold and a few members stayed in Massachusetts to become part of the first national contingent of soldiers, the Continental Army. The remaining New Haven men marched back to their hometown. The 2nd Company Governor’s Foot Guard continued on while Arnold found action on the frontlines of Quebec and Saratoga. Though not tested in battle as a unit, many former members later saw combat with the Continental Army. The situation changed in 1779 when the British launched a string of attacks against Connecticut port towns, known as Tryon’s Raid, and New Haven was the opening act. “It was never intended to turn the fates of the war,” McDaniel says. “It was intended to be disruptive to the people of Connecticut so they could provide less aid to the Patriots in New York.” It was a pincer movement, Greenalch says, when the British landed one force east of New Haven near modern-day Lighthouse Point, and the second force west of town in what became West Haven, closing in on New Haven from both sides. In the East Shore district, they burned down Black Rock Fort after capturing it and set fire to the original Morris House. Both were rebuilt; Fort Nathan Hale was built over the remains of the old fortification, and reconstruction of the Morris House, which is still standing, began in 1780. McDaniel says the indiscriminant raiding and burning “helped turn those undecided against the British.” James Hillhouse, newly elected as commandant, supervised the Foot Guard’s resistance to the British advance along with a collection of Yale
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