Daniel Eldredge

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF STONINGTON, county of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900, by Richard Anson Wheeler, New London, CT, 1900, p. 596

Volunteer, Age 22, left a wife & 1 child.

Gravestone Inscription:

In Memory of Mr Daniel Eldredge son of Mr Charles & Mary Eldredge he Departed this Life Novr 18th 1781 in ye 23d years of his Age _____

Daniel Eldredge who was born December 24 1758, was a brother of Ensign Charles, being also wounded was carried away a prisoner and returned home December 3rd, sick, starved and near dead. His family tried by careful feeding to restore him to health but in a moment when they were off guard he reached a bowl of cider and suppawn which he drank at a draught, though the physician's orders were a spoonful only at a time. This meal was too much for his exhausted system and he died almost at once, December 11, 1781, leaving a widow Lucy (Stanton).

It seems highly probable there were two of this name in the battle (Fort Griswold / Groton Heights) since the above account is from the lips of a granddaughter of Charles Eldridge a most interesting lady over ninety years old who remembers the incident as a part of her earliest recollections of the family history of their sufferings from the battle.

In the list of paroled wounded left at home we find "Daniel Eldridge shot through neck and face;" and the signature of Daniel Eldredge first appears in a petition of the wounded, addressed to the Legislature of January, 1782, whose committee's report on his case is given elsewhere.

In the list of recipients of fire lands we find "Sergnt Daniel Eldridge" and "Daniel Eldridge" with losses of about the amount of others who we know were in the battle, whose loss consisted of the property they had with them. No list of prisoners carried away has ever been made. I think Daniel Eldridge, the brother of Charles, was one of these; and the Daniel Eldredge who is on the list of paroled and in the report of the committee is one with the man who I learn by another family history was wounded in the fort, but recovered, and afterwards died in the United States Naval service at Washington D C, and whose wife was Phoebe Franklin"

source: The Battle of Groton Heights: A Collection of Narratives, Official Reports ...By William Wallace Harris p. 243-4 _____

"Serg Daniel Eldridge a volunteer wounded in the fort with a musket ball in the arm which entered between the wrist & elbow and pairing nearly parallel with the bone came out between the elbow & the shoulder whereby his arm is weakened"

source: The Battle of Groton Heights: A Collection of Narratives, Official Reports ...By William Wallace Harris