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This week episode 226, Connecticut Coastal Raids of 1779.

Last week I discussed the fighting at Stony Point, New York in July of 1779.

At the same time the British and Continental's were struggling over New York.

The British also launched a series of coastal raids against Connecticut towns.

Part of the reason was to attack towns that supported the private

ships that continually harassed British shipping in and out of New York and

throughout the region. Both Stony Point and the Connecticut raids were part of a larger strategy by British General Henry Clinton

to draw out the continentals from their defenses in the mountains of Northern New Jersey and New York, the British still hope to draw

the Americans into a general action on favorable terms to the British.

As I mentioned last week, Secretary of State Lord Germain in London

continued to put pressure on the British commander to defeat the

Continental's despite the fact that he had taken away much of the army to fight in other parts of the empire.

Germain also wanted to see many more coastal raids in New England to weaken American morale for the continuing war effort.

Germain had promised to send Clinton another 6,000 reinforcements in the summer of 1779,

but those were still just promises. Clinton had to make do with the force he had, the majority of which were Heshins and local loyalist regiments.

While Clinton was focused on taking stony point, he left Major General

William Tryon in command of the force that would be raiding Connecticut. Tryon, who I've discussed before, had been a colonial governor before the war and

remain governor of New York, although Marshall Law left him with little to do in that capacity. Of course, before his career as a royal

governor, he had been an experienced regular officer in the British Army and still retained

a commission and was in fact promoted to Major General in America to

command troops. This raid would not be Trion's first attack on Connecticut.

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