Capt. Nathan Stoddard is my 5th great-grandfather and my DAR Patriot (the Revolutionary War soldier through whose lineage I am a member). Nathan was born 8th August 1742 to Gideon and Olive Stoddard. He lived in Woodbury, Connecticut, married Eunice Sanford around 1767 and had seven children.
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| Certificate for Pension for Captain Nathan Stoddard |
The following is an excerpt about Capt. Nathan Stoddard from the book, “Ancestors of Rodman Stoddard, of Woodbury, CT and Detroit, MI” written in 1893.
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| My copy of Ancestors of Rodman Stoddard that includes the birth of my great grandmother, Florence Mary Stoddard |
“In 1775 the air was full of rumours of war, the martial spirit of his father was inherited by the son, and as if preparing for the coming fray, Nathan, who had undoubtedly served ere now in the ranks, was in April of this year commissioned Ensign of the first Company or trainband of Woodbury which was known as the 13th Regiment of the Colony.
What service, if any, he saw in this capacity does not appear, but hostilities soon afterwards breaking out, a few months later he entered the army as a private in the 4th Regiment which was ordered by General Washington to join the troops opposed to the British near Lake Champlain and to garrison Fort Ticonderoga. In a skirmish with the enemy he was taken prisoner and carried to Quebec. Before he was ordered to jail he was concealed through the kindness of a French landlady, and was fed by her for a considerable time, and aided to escape, which it is said he did by swimming the St. Lawrence.
He finally returned to Woodbury and there and in the adjacent towns raised another Company of which he became Captain and was in all of the engagements near Danbury, Conn. and Horse Neck, NY in April and May 1777.Revolutionary War Rolls, compiled 1894 - 1913,
documenting the period 1775 - 1783
Record Group 93, page 137
After the success of the northern Army under Gates and the surrender of Burgoyne in October, Captain Stoddard prepared to join the army of Washington on the Delaware. Early in November Captain Nathan Stoddard and Lieutenant John Strong who had been sent to Woodbury on Military service, sent forward blankets and military stores to the amount of (pound sign) 46. 13 s. 5d. And then joined their command, which was stationed opposite Fort Mifflin on Mud Island. Here they were opposed to Lord Howe who proposed to force the passage of the Delaware which was commanded by Fort Mercer at Red Bank on the Jersey side, and Fort Mifflin on Mud Island. By the 10th they had completed their batteries within 500 years of the American fort and began an incessant fire from heavy artillery.
Map of the Delaware River, Fort Mifflin,
Philadelphia and vicinity, 1777
Lieut. Colonel Samuel Smith of Maryland, who was in command, was wounded the next day and went to the mainland, and on the 13th the brave garrison of 286 men and 20 artillerists was confided to Major Simeon Thayer of Rhode Island, who now volunteered to take the desperate command. On the 15th surrounded by 6 large British ships of war and a large Indiaman armed with 24 pounders with the land batteries, now five in number, playing from thirty pieces at short distances, the ramparts and block-house on Mud Island were honeycombed and their cannon silenced. In this desperate attack Captain Stoddard was instantly killed by a cannon shot which severed his head from his body as he was sighting a piece to fire on the enemy. In the evening the garrison evacuated, and when the British entered the fort they found nearly every cannon stained with blood.
A 1777 British Map of Fort Mifflin
Captain Stoddard left one son, Nathan Ashbel, aged 9 years and six young daughters. He died intestate and his death is recorded in the Register of Woodbury. He was aged 35 years.
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| Connecticut Casualties |
From the Record of Service of Connecticut Men published by authority of the General Assembly, under direction of the Adjutant General. Hartford, 1889”
Other Accounts
There are other accounts that have been published elsewhere. The earliest was written in 1830 by an old man who was a young private in 1777, Private Joseph Plumb Martin. The book was called, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier: Some Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of Joseph Plumb Martin
In it, he provides a very descriptive account of the battle at Fort Mifflin and on page 69, is an account of a man killed which has been proffered (although unnamed in the memoir) to be Capt. Nathan Stoddard.
Another account of the battle was written by Major Amos Stoddard in an 1812 account prior to his death named The Autobiography Manuscript of Major Amos Stoddard. Both accounts were used to provide the memorial of Capt. Nathan Stoddard's Find-a-grave Memorial.
An account published in the 1896 Yearbook of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution on p. 120 describes Nathan Stoddard's military service drawn on the Connecticut Men in the Revolution and Heitman's Historical Register.
A more recent wonderful writing in 2017 by blogger Curtis Meckemson provides contemporary photos of Fort Mifflin and an account which draws on many of these resource. And in 2010 a blog by Daniel Segelquist. And finally, my mother's 2nd cousin, Peter Stoddard (1957-2024) had devoted much of his life to investigating the Stoddard family line and contributed a speech he had written as part of his SAR induction in 2016, which can be found in the comments of both of the blogs above.
This is the first of over 20 Revolutionary War Veterans I plan to highlight this year, who were ancestors of either me or my husband.
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