Excerpt from The Battle of Groton Heights: A Story of the Storming of Fort Griswold, and the Burning of New London, on the Sixth of September, 1781
Moved by the patriotic sentiments which the memory of such a day in our national history as September 6th, 1781, is calculated to arouse, "a number of gentlemen in Groton, in the year 1826, organized an association for the purpose of erecting a monument." This simple memorial shaft is composed of granite quarried from the same soil which those to whom it is dedicated, defended with their lives. The corner stone was laid September 6th, 1826, and the monument was dedicated September 6th, 1830, in a manner befitting the place and the occasion.
During the centennial year of 1881, the height, originally one hundred and twenty-seven feet, was extended, so that the column now measures one hundred and thirty-five feet. Other important improvements were also made. The monument is in form an obelisk, twenty-two feet square at base of the shaft, and eight and one-half feet at the base of the pyramidion, resting on a die twenty-four feet square, and this again on a base twenty-six feet square. The top is reached by a circular stairway of one hundred and sixty-six steps, and is two hundred and sixty-five feet above the waters of the Thames. From the apex a picture of unrivaled beauty presents itself, covering the opposite bank of the river, the hills to the west of Montville, and extending far out over the waters of Long Island Sound, as well as Fishers Island Sound and Fishers Island.
The original marble slab inserted in the west wall of the die contained the following inscription:
This Monument
Was erected under the patronage of the State of Connecticut, A. D. 1830,
and in the 55th year of the Independence of the U. S. A.
In memory of the Brave Patriots
who fell in the massacre of Fort Griswold near this spot
on the 6th of September, A. D. 1781,
when the British under the command of
the traitor Benedict Arnold,
burnt the towns of New London Groton, and spread
desolation and woe throughout this region.
The visitor to the scenes of Fort Griswold should not fail to note the well, which is the same existing at the time of the massacre, and to which dying men "in fevered anguish wistfully turned and vainly craved of the implacable Briton its cooling draught."
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