Fort Griswold

The day before Memorial Day, we discovered Fort Griswold in Connecticut.

To say we were shocked is an understatement. The internet site under Fort Griswold showed a different fort structure so we were driving around and around looking for this huge stone building and we only found the earthen remains of one.

Turns out, there are two forts and both share a tragic and important part of history.

Fort Griswold is the scene of a massacre.

Turns out, the British annihilated nearly every last person in this fort. Some that survived were treated brutally.

Seems the commanding officer surrendered and told his men to lay down arms, after fighting long and hard. Unfortunately, the succeeding British officer, a lesser man promoted because the original leaders were killed, didn't care about honoring the terms of surrender and proceeded to cut down unarmed men.

The jerk.

This is the monument erected to honor the men who died. It has 170 steps no bigger than 20 inches across. If someone is coming up, no one is coming down. There is NO room to pass, no room to comfortably place two feet side by side. If you're claustrophobic in any way, don't attempt this.

Me? Um... I was winded by the time I got to the top, sure. But what I didn't expect was a panic attack. I posed for a picture on the top just to show that I wouldn't let it beat me. My DH was more than willing to let me go back down, to not force me to continue. But I'm stubborn. I was not going to let the feelings overtake me. Oh sure, I had to put my head between my knees at the top but who cares? I did it. HA!

The City of Groton has this nice memorial honoring the fallen..

This is another memento honoring this place of courage and death.

Sorry about all the shadows hiding some of the letters. I couldn't get an angle where my body shadow didn't obliterate the words. There was a lot of history to share from this one place.

Like I said above, I refused to let my panic/anxiety attack defeat me. I stood p and looked out the tiny window for a spectacular view. See?

Not much left of this fort. Heck, the town of New London across the river was burnt to the ground by none other than troops under Benedict Arnold. You must remember HIS name from our history. The British troops who massacred the soldiers and people at Fort Griswold were a part of Arnold's contingent... they think 800 men all told were involved in the whole mess. They split up and attacked Fort Griswold, Fort Trumbell and New London. I have pics of Fort Trumbell but that will be for another day.

See the ferry? What a view!

All that's left is the earthen structures.

I took a very shaky (sorry) video clip of one of the trenches of Fort Griswold.

So that was the first day of our mini vacation. It was beautiful, it was informative and it was memorable.

Hope your Memorial Day was memorable too.