Hezekiah Lee, Jr.

A Patriot of the American Revolution for CONNECTICUT with the rank of Private. DAR Ancestor #: A068561

Hezekiah LEE

REFN: 961

D.A.R. lineage book list Hezekiah Lee (1736-77) was a private in Col. Fisher Gay's regiment, 8th company, Wadsworth's brigade, 1777, Connecticut troops. He was captured at the battle of Long Island. He was among the starved prisoners landed at Milford and his name is on the monument erected to their memory.Hezekiah LEE

How Milford's Revolutionary War mass grave came to be The 200 Continental Army soldiers, sick with smallpox and abandoned by the British here on Jan. 1, 1777, were likely captured during the Battle of Long Island, or the losing fight for Manhattan.

On April 19, 1775, British and American soldiers exchanged fire in Lexington and Concord, Mass., and the next day Fisher Gay is said to have closed his store in Farmington and set out for Boston with about 100 men.

Farmington companies suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Long Island in September 1776. The number of wounded soldiers returning home increased, recruitment became more difficult, and townspeople felt the burden of heavy taxation for the war. "These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine, who was with the Continental Army during its retreat.

Sergeant in the French and Indian War, 1759, in the 2nd Conn. Regiment. In 1776, he was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, in the 2nd Battalion of Col. Foster Gay's Regiment in Wadsworth's Brigade. He was captured by the British in the retreat of Washington's Army from New York to White Plains. After Battle of Long Island, was missing 9/15/1776. He was confined as a prisoner of war on the British ship "Jersey" in New York Harbor. 1/1/1777, the British landed 200 prisoners at Milford, CT and left them. So feeble were they that 20 died in passage from New York, and 20 more died within a few weeks after landing, among the latter was Hezekiah Lee. His name is to be seen on the soldier's monument erected at Milford, CT.

Served in "early wars."

In Revolution,captured at Battle of Long Island. Confined on the Jersey (prison ship). Among the starved prisoners landed at Milford and his name is on the monument.

https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/61157/image...