Glimpses of the Revolutionary War Through the Eyes of an Ancestor

Picture thousands of American and French soldiers lined two deep on either side of the Hampton Road near Yorktown, Virginia on a magnificent warm October day in 1781: "Few, if any of them, could have understood the magnitude of what they had achieved, which was not only to ensure the independence of the United States, but, eventually, to change the history of the world." (Richard M. Ketchum, in "Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution") The proud French soldiers were relatively new to the American battle scene and had on their best military uniforms. The brave American soldiers wore the best uniforms, too: stained and torn hunting shirts or bits and pieces of filthy remnants of their original uniforms. All exhibited great dignity as they, in complete silence, watched the defeated British army - the superior military force in the world at that time - march out of their battlements and lay down their arms in that awesome Surrender Field. One of those American soldiers was my great, great, great, great grandfather, Hezekiah Betts. This is an account that presents biographical information about Hezekiah Betts (1760-1837) of Norwalk, Connecticut as a Sergeant in the Continental Army at Monmouth Courthouse and the Siege of Yorktown. He also witnessed the hanging of Major Andre, co-conspirator of Benedict Arnold, and the Battle and Burning of Norwalk in 1779. This book is full of first-hand accounts of this very extraordinary time in the history of the United States and, indeed, the history of the world.