Fort Griswold Battlefield

The earthworks of Fort Griswold still rise above the town of Groton, their grassy parapets largely unchanged since the Revolutionary War. This hilltop site has overlooked the mouth of the Thames River and the approach to New London Harbor for centuries, and it has never stopped being a place where people come to remember.

The fort was built by the Connecticut Colony in the seventeen seventies to guard the Thames River approach, one of the most strategically important coastal passages in New England. New London across the river was an active privateer port, and its harbor sheltered American vessels raiding British supply lines up and down the coast. Fort Griswold, with its cannon overlooking the river mouth, was the cork in that bottle.

The British understood what it protected. When Benedict Arnold raided the coast in September of seventeen eighty-one, destroying much of New London, a separate force was sent specifically to neutralize Fort Griswold. What happened next, as American accounts tell it, was a massacre of surrendering men. The fort fell, its commander was killed after offering surrender, and scores of wounded defenders were slaughtered.

The monument that stands on the heights today was erected in eighteen thirty, making it one of the earliest Revolutionary War memorials in the United States. It rises one hundred thirty-five feet and bears the names of the men who died here. Near its base, a smaller stone marks the spot where Lieutenant Colonel Ledyard fell.

Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park is open to visitors. The earthen walls, though softened by two and a half centuries of weather and growth, are still recognizable as military works. Standing inside them on the heights, with the river below and Long Island Sound visible in the distance, you can feel why this ground was worth fighting for, and why the cost of losing it still stings.