Burning of Fairfield to be Remembered on Wednesday

Beach Road in Fairfield is idyllic today - wide and lined with trees, historic homes and white picket fences.

But 231 years earlier, what is now Beach Road was a source of chaos and terror for Fairfield residents as thousands of British troops invaded the town and burned most of it to the ground.

"It was a very terrible, terrible event," Marcia Miner, the town historian, said of the British invasion. "I was always upset we never acknowledged this very important day in our town's history, so when the historical society decided to have a re-enactment and do it every year, I was really excited about it."

The Fairfield Museum and History Center held a re-enactment last year to mark the burning of Fairfield on July 7, 1779, and another event will be held on Wednesday to commemorate the event.

Miner said about 90 structures were destroyed when British troops in the late afternoon on July 7, 1779 came ashore from ships on Long Island Sound and invaded Fairfield, ransacking, stealing and setting homes, churches, barns and stores ablaze. The destruction was so widespread that it was still evident when President George Washington visited Fairfield in 1789 and wrote in his diary: "The destructive evidences of British cruelty are yet visible both in Norwalk and Fairfield, as there are the chimneys of many burnt houses standing in them yet."

Miner said her house on South Benson Road was burned to the ground but was rebuilt later that year. She said four houses in the Old Post Road historic district survived the burning, but that was because loyalists to Britain lived in them.

First Church Congregational on Beach Road and Trinity Episcopal Church, which was then on Old Post Road by what is now the YMCA, were destroyed, as was the courthouse in town, which was where Old Town Hall is now, and a jail, which is where St. Paul's Episcopal Church is now. The Burr Mansion on Old Post Road wasn't supposed to be touched because British General William Tryon had been a guest of Thaddeus Burr's and had been in Burr's house. But the Burr Mansion was invaded and looted, Eunice Burr, Thaddeus' wife, was roughed up, and the house was burned, Miner said. The Burr Mansion was rebuilt in 1790.

"Most of the houses were right here, on the Old Post Road. This is where most of the houses were," Miner said of Fairfield in 1779. "Most of the houses were burned, pretty much all of them were burned."

"There was no Fire Department, no hoses. You basically had buckets," Miner said.

Many men in Fairfield had left to help fight the British in Lexington, Boston and New York, so the town was mostly inhabited by women, children and the elderly when British troops invaded it on July 7, 1779, Miner said.

Many residents who lived in the center of town fled to Greenfield Hill and could see the flames and destruction from that higher elevation, Miner said. The invasion and burning of Fairfield was basically from late afternoon on July 7, 1779 through the following day, Miner said.

"People in the town wrote diaries. That's how we got the information about what happened on that day," she said.

Miner said Fairfield was considered a rebellious town and that was one of the reasons British troops invaded it. Residents and their ancestors had fled Britain to get away from religious persecution and start a new life, but they stayed under British control in America and didn't like how heavily Britain taxed them.

"We were very involved and very much a rebel community, which is why a lot of people think they stopped here," Miner said.

A narrative on the Fairfield Museum and History Center's Web site says British troops also were incensed that Fairfield residents had destroyed Ash Creek bridge, thwarting Tryon's plan to combine his troops with troops under the command of British General George Garth and invade Black Rock from Fairfield. German mercernaries who had been ordered to cover the withdrawal of British troops after the invasion also set fire to buildings, according to the narrative.

Fairfield had been the county seat at the time but lost that distinction to Bridgeport after the British invasion, Miner said, noting that the town lost not only a courthouse but also a jail.

The Burning of Fairfield Twilight Walking Tour will take place at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday from the Fairfield Museum & History Center, 370 Beach Road. The fee is $7 for members; $10 for non-members, and pre-registration is required. For information, e-mail info@fairfieldhs.org