tnessed,--only three or four who participated in it, survive. In
this day of great events, when armies and navies are gathered on a scale
of magnitude of which our fathers never dreamed,--when from the heights
of modern science, we look back to the guns and the ships of war of the
last generation, as to the toys of childhood,--when we are in the very
crisis of a war greater in itself, and waged for a grander issue, than
the world has hitherto witnessed,--it is not surprising that so few find
leisure or inclination to look from the present to the past, or to
recall to memory the heroism of their fathers.

Yet there are some for whom the story of _The Attack_ has not yet lost
its interest. They learned it in childhood, from the lips of those who
shared the perils and the glory of the action. They grew up, amid
associations which could hardly fail to kindle an honest pride in their
birth-place. To them, the "Tenth of August" was not merely a
school-holiday, but an anniversary entitled to equal honors with
Independence Day itself. They have helped draw the "old Eighteens,"
through the streets of the Borough, in solemn procession to the site of
the demolished Battery. They have seen the cherished Flag--pierced and
torn in a dozen places by the enemy's shot,--float again from the
flag-staff, in honor of the day: and some of them were standing by when
"Old Hickory" bared his head to salute it, and bade the citizens
preserve, with all care, this precious memorial of the courage and
patriotism of their townsmen.

It is for these--the companions of my own school-days,--and in honor of
the volunteers of 1814, that I have reproduced some of the contemporary
accounts of the attack and defence of Stonington. The first (pp. 9-20)
was written by Col. Samuel Green, the publisher of the _Connecticut
Gazette_, who visited the Borough during the action, and obtained his
knowledge of facts of which he was not an eye-witness, from the actors
themselves and from official sources. This account, printed in the
_Gazette_, of August 17th, was copied into many of the newspapers in the
northern states, and appeared in Niles's _Weekly Register_, November
5th, with some additional particulars.

Following this, are copies of the muster-roll of the Borough company of
militia; the official account furnished for publication by the
magistrates, warden and burgesses (pp. 24-32); and a letter from Capt.
Amos Palmer, chairman of the citizens' committee of