CONNECTICUT SOLDIERS DRILL IN 1774 AS TENSIONS ESCALATE WITH GREAT BRITAIN, PAY DOCUMENT PROVIDES EARLY EVIDENCE OF FORMAL MILITARY PREPARATIONS FOR WAR

Pay order signed by Ebenezer Ledyard and Thomas Mumford as Justices of the Peace for the County of New London, Connecticut. Addressed to William Pitkin, Thomas Seymour, and Oliver Elsworth Esquires, Committee of Pay Table at Hartford. Groton, [Connecticut], 8 September 1775. 1p, approx. 8 1 4 X 13 in. Mumford and Ledyard certify that they have examined the return made by "the Clerke of the first Military Company in Groton under the Commd of Capt Joseph Gallop in the Eight Regiment, by which we find the Half Day Trainings performed by the non Commissioned officers & soldiers in said Company from October to May Last amounts to Seven Hundred fifty six Half Days...the whole of which service amount to Twenty one pounds seven shillings, for which from your Honors will please to give your order on Our Genl. Treasurer to pay...." Dockets to verso on 5 February 1776 authorizing pay out of the Treasury of the Colony of Connecticut for the "Military Exercises from Octr 1774 to May 1775" and indicating receipt from Treasurer John Lawrence of the required sum. Additional docket indicates the payment was audited 13 May 1776.

The Connecticut Committee of the Pay Table was established to authorize disbursements and examine and settle accounts for supplies and services needed during the Revolutionary War. Though this pay order was penned after the opening shots of the war had already been fired at Lexington and Concord, it authorizes payment for training held in anticipation of a conflict. Connecticut's Governor Jonathan Trumbull was an outspoken supporter of the revolution and actively prepared his state for the possibility of war with the British. In October 1774 the Connecticut General Assembly passed an act "for forming and regulating the Militia, and for Encouragement of Military Skill for the better Defence of this Colony." The Assembly also created new regiments in 1774 and 1775 to enhance its defenses, often requiring able-bodied males to drill. Militia Captain Joseph Gallup (spelled "Gallop" in some period documents and histories) and his men were likely drilling in response to these developments.

Joseph Gallup (1725-1778) was born near Mystic, Connecticut, and lived much of his life near Groton, Connecticut. He was one of the first to answer the call to arms after conflict erupted with Britain in April 1775. He immediately enlisted as a private in Company 10, 6th Continental Regiment which was organized April-May 1775, and he enlisted again in May 1775 under Captain Abel Spicer serving through December 1775. He later served under Lt. Col. Oliver Smith's 8th Regiment of Connecticut State Militia at New York from September to November 1776, when the militia reinforced Washington's Continental Army under siege in New York City.

A Connecticut pay document demonstrating the state's early and decisive support of the American Revolution.

[American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]