From Diary of the American Revolution, Vol I. Compiled by Frank Moore and published in 1859.
February 3. –A number of men from a distant town having heard of the seizure of the powder at Stamford, went in a body to that town; proceeded in an orderly manner to the house where the powder was lodged, which they entered without opposition, and having found it, rode off with the casks, without any bad consequences, saving a plentiful discharge of Billingsgate1 from the mortified disappointed faction, and the no small consternation of the informers, who upon the first news of the company’s approach, ran off with great trepidation, and hid themselves until all was over. 2
1 A slang term for profanity.
2 Holt’s Journal, Feb. 16.
Rivington, in his Gazette of the 9th Feb., publishes the following:
One day last week, seven half barrels of gunpowder were seized by William Hubbard, Esq., at Stamford, in Connecticut, on its way from New York to New Haven, over land.
We have just received advice, that the house of the collector of Stamford was, the day after the seizure of the gunpowder, attacked by a number of Liberty lads, who took possession of the powder, and carried it off on horses to Fairfield. They were headed by one Bartram, a quondam sergeant in the provincial service. A party from Hartford, with Colonel Wyllys, Captain Alcott, two of the Messrs. Bull, thirty of them in all, marched to Fairfield, took possession of the powder, and lodged it in the loyal town of Hartford.