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Valley Forge

Connecticut Mystery: The Unsolved Murder of Jerusha Brewster

Amos and Jerusha Brewster of Norwich, Conn., married in 1761, and would both die famously: he in a battle that helped turn the American Revolution toward victory and she in a murder that remains unsolved to this day.

For Amos, life ended in 1777 on the battlefield at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia.

The British army sought to finish off the Americans. British general William Howe was ensconced in Philadelphia while George Washington and his army retreated toward Valley Forge.

A Hero’s Death

British naval ships proceeded up the Delaware River with needed supplies. A force of 200 to 400 Americans stationed at Fort Mifflin, including Amos Brewster, had orders to prevent them from reaching Philadelphia.

For nearly six weeks, this small contingent of men succeeded in stopping the British Navy from completing its mission. Bombarded daily, the American soldiers rebuilt their fort each night. Then on November 15, a force of six British ships armed with more than 200 cannon approached the fort, which had only 10 guns.

Jerusha Brewster lived in Canterbury, Connecticut with her daughter and son-in-law.poison

At one point, more than 1,000 cannon shots an hour poured down upon the fort. That night the Americans, with no remaining ammunition, had to torch the fort and evacuate. Their contribution to history: delaying the British advance while Washington dug in at Valley Forge.

Amos, however, died in the action.

The Brewster genealogy proudly notes: Amos Brewster served in the Revolutionary War and died of wounds received at Fort Mifflin, he being one of the heroic three hundred who defended the fort so valiantly when besieged by the British. The old New England valor was in Amos and he fell with his face toward the foe.

Jerusha Brewster

Jerusha Brewster, now a widow and living at the couple’s Canterbury, Conn., home, raised the couple’s four children alone. And by 1800 she was living with her daughter and son-in-law, Lovisa and James Morse.

Jerusha Brewster had a difficult relationship with her son-in-law. Early in 1802, Jerusha left home for several weeks, and upon returning in April her fortunes took a turn for the worse.

Newspaper accounts say that the morning after she returned home, Jerusha made pancakes for her daughter and three grandchildren:

“She had been absent from the family for more than a fortnight; she left a bowl of flour in her cupboard; and the morning after her return she made some pancakes of the flour,” reported the newspaper. “While she was preparing her breakfast, two of her grandchildren came into her room, to whom she gave cake. Soon after, her daughter, Mrs. Morse, who always treated her mother well, came in with her child of nine months old; she ate two, giving the child a piece, and went out.”

According to the newspaper, Jerusha Brewster then began her breakfast. She had nearly finished when the children and the mother were taken with puking.

“The daughter, Mrs. Morse, sent word to her mother not to eat any more of the cakes; she came into her daughter’s room, and in about five minutes was taken with the most violent and racking vomiting.

“The physician was called and by proper antidotes arrested the fatal progress of the poison in Mrs. Morse and her children, but had no efficacy upon the old lady.”

Poison

A jury at the inquest subsequently gave a verdict of ‘poison, and by design.’

“The body was opened and a considerable quantity of arsenic taken out,” reported the newspaper. “The cakes that remained were examined, and pieces of poison were found in them. “

Suspicion immediately fell on her son-in-law James, for it was well known that James and Jerusha Brewster had lived together ‘quite unhappily.’ James had also served in the Revolutionary War; and some sources say he served as a teen under General Washington.

With no proof against James in the murder, the authorities could do nothing more than question him and let him go. He and Lovisa would move to Centerville in western New York, where they passed away, she in 1841 and he in 1845.

At the funeral of Jerusha Brewster, the minister, Rev. Waterman, chose to deliver a sermon aimed at her killer. He spoke on the Biblical passage from Corinthians: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.”

This story about Jerusha Brewster was updated in 2022.

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Tobias Gilmore Wins Freedom From Slavery Fighting for the Colonies

Tobias Gilmore, an African-American soldier in the American Revolution, left a legacy that includes a cannon left to the Town of Taunton, Mass., and some very surprised descendants.

Glover’s Regiment crossing the Delaware with Gen. Washington

He came to America as a slave and then earned his freedom by serving in the Continental Army for five years. Local lore links him and his cannon to George Washington, which he fired 14 times on the Fourth of July. Thirteen shots went off for the original colonies and one for Washington.

He was born sometime around 1745 in coastal West Africa. The son of a chieftain, he was named Shibodee Turry Wurry. In about 1757, slave traders kidnapped him while he gathered coconuts.

The slavers shackled him below deck on the slave ship Dove, bound for Virginia. A storm battered the vessel, so the slave traders changed course for Rhode Island. There they auctioned off some of the captives as slaves to pay for repairs to their ship.

A Raynham, Mass., a sea captain named John Gilmore purchased Shibodee Turry Wurry. He then gave him a new name: Tobias Gilmore.

Private Tobias Gilmore

As the Revolution approached, patriotic rhetoric about securing the natural and inalienable right of liberty no doubt inspired Tobias Gilmore.

Continental soldiers at Yorktowns; on the left, an African American soldier of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment

Continental soldiers at Yorktown; on the left, an African American soldier of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment

When war did break out, each colony had to supply a quota of troops for the Continental Army. New England regiments recruited slaves by promising them their freedom. Massachusetts sent 1,535 African-American soldiers to the Continental Army, while the other New England colonies sent 2,278. Historians count 9,000 black Patriot soldiers, including the Army and Navy, state militias, privateers, wagoneers, servants and spies.

African Americans, in fact, made up about a fifth of the Continental Army. By the Siege of Yorktown, an officer in a French regiment estimated that one-quarter of the northern army was African American.

African Americans joined the British cause as well, but in far fewer numbers.

The Taunton Flag, adopted by the people of Taunton in 1774

Tobias Gilmore began his military service on Dec. 8, 1776, as a private in Capt. Jonathan Shaw’s company, part of Col. George Williams’s Regiment.

Gilmore fought three tours of duty and saw action in the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga. He was at the Battle of Monmouth, Battle of Forts Clinton and Montgomery, Battle of White Plains and West Point. He also suffered through the Continental Army’s winter encampment at Valley Forge.

According to local lore, Toby Gilmore rose through the ranks to bodyguard or servant to George Washington. That can’t be proved or disproved. Some claim the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware pictures him as the African-American soldier, but probably not.

Freedom

Tobias Gilmore received his discharge in December 1781 and returned to Raynham a free man. He had won his freedom during his first enlistment – which lasted eight days. He married Rosanna Hack, and they had eight children: Toby Jr., Nancy, Delia, Timothy, Esquire, Selina, Rosina and Seabury. Toby senior went to work for his former master, and then he and his wife set up a housekeeping business.

Gilmore bought land in Raynham confiscated from a Loyalist and auctioned off. People liked Toby so much that few bid against him.

He was a frugal businessman and built a house in Raynham about 1784. It still stands. He then built a second house in 1798 bigger than his former master’s.

At some point he obtained a cannon. He told the story that Washington gave it to him.

The cannon, nicknamed Old Toby, served with him in the Raynham militia to help put down Shay’s Rebellion. The Old Colony Historical Society noted in 1879 that Tobias Gilmore gave “Old Toby” to the town. Gilmore,

…the colored revolutionary veteran ancestor of the colored villagers in North Raynham, well known as industrious and worthy citizens. It was given by Tobias to the citizens of Taunton for firing sallies on Washington’s birthdays and Fourth of July, or revert to his descendants.

Tobias Gilmore died April 19, 1812 at age 70. He lies buried at the Hall and Dean Burial Ground in Raynham.

Family Detective

In 1921, the Taunton Daily Gazette noted the passing of Caroline Gilmore, Tobias Gilmore’s last living descendant.

Ninety years later, Miloh Pasto came to the Old Colony Historical Society to research her 3^rd great-grandmother, Elmira Sullivan. She turned out to be Tobias Gilmore’s great-granddaughter. Further research then revealed Gilmore had at least 100 living descendants through his daughter Delia and her husband, Thomas Davis.

One of those descendants was a surprised North Carolina firefighter named Chaz Moore. Moore, a Sturbridge, Mass., native, learned in 2012 of his revolutionary roots. North Carolina’s Sons of the American Revolution then inducted him as the first black member.

“Growing up, I wasn’t even certain that African-Americans even fought in the Revolutionary War,” Moore told the Associated Press in 2012. “It’s not something that’s talked about. Then to say, ‘Well, yeah, they did, and you’re a direct descendant of one’ was unbelievable, humbling. I had to redefine patriotism for myself.”

The cannon today resides at Old Colony Historical Society. So do Tobias Gilmore’s mitre, rundlet and other personal effects.

* * *

Coming soon from the New England Historical Society. Click here to pre-order an ebook; paperback version will be available soon.

This story was updated in 2024.

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R.I. Sgt. John Smith Determines To Fight or Die in the Battle of Red Bank

Sgt. John Smith of the 1^st Rhode Island Regiment expected no mercy from the Hessian troops that would soon attack his garrison at Red Bank on the Delaware River.

It was Oct. 21, 1777, and Smith was holding Fort Mercer on Red Bank Plantation in New Jersey. The British had captured Philadelphia less than a month earlier. George Washington intended to starve the enemy out of the city. He ordered two forts built on either side of the river to block supply ships from reaching Philadelphia.

Continental Army soldiers. The soldier on the far left is from the First Rhode Island Regiment.

John Smith had enlisted for three years in the spring of 1777. His regiment consisted of Rhode Islanders from Kent and King counties, and it would later recruit African-American soldiers. The 1^st Rhode Island Regiment was part of Gen. Nathanael Greene’s brigade.

The Continental Army, though outnumbered, would defeat the Hessian troops during the Battle of Red Bank on Oct. 22, 1777. The victory boosted the Americans’ morale when their outlook for the war was bleak.

View of the battleground at Red Bank. Courtesy New York Public Library.

Sgt. John Smith Writes

John Smith recorded the battle preparations in his diary:

we were Inform’d that a Party of Regulars had Landed at [blank] ferey to attacke our fort — we Remov’d all our tents & baggage into the Citidale & Every man was Employd at worke on the fort to fortify the same — between 3 & 4 o Clock 300 more troops Came here to Reinforce us — we Cut Down an orchard by the fort & hald trees Round the fort to Keep off the Enemy — we had no Disturbance from the Enemy this Day — this is tusday 21st of October — Mr. Henery holden [departed] for home by whome I sent a Letter to my wife

The next day the Hessians advanced to the woods next to the fort. Smith wrote the Hessian commander sent a flag and demanded surrender – or else they’d show no mercy and ‘put all to death.‘

18th century Hessian soldiers

An American captain answered. “We’d asked no mercy nor did we expect any.”

“We was determined to fight or die in defence of the Garrison,” wrote Smith.

The Battle of Red Bank

The flag returned and the enemy attacked, beginning with a brisk fire. The Hessians advanced with knives spades, pickaxes and saws to cut through the trees surrounding the fort. The American troops responded with a smart fire from artillery and small arms for 47 minutes – ‘as smart as Ever was Known,’ wrote Smith.

The firing continued until dark, when the Hessians retreated.

The Hessians reported more than 300 killed and wounded with 60 missing or captured, while the Americans reported 14 killed and about 25 wounded. The Hessian commander, Col. Karl von Donop, was mortally wounded.

John Smith, along with everyone in the garrison, then stayed up all night dressing the wounded.

Smith went on to survive the winter at Valley Forge.

The Red Bank battlefield is now a part of the Gloucester County parks system.

This story last updated in 2022.

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