Hometown Heroes
Lt. Col. Thomas Grosvenor, Continental Army
By Michael Rocchetti
During the first year of the Revolutionary War, British forces were trapped in Boston. A rag tag force of Colonial militia, mostly from the New England States, had surrounded Boston and laid siege to the City.
 In an effort to break the siege, the British set their sights on the two hills of the Charlestown Peninsula, Breed’s Hill and Bunker Hill. From these hills they hoped to position their artillery and ultimately break the siege. The Colonial troops, alerted to the British plans, hastily fortified the two hills. When the British attacked on June 17,1775, the Colonial Militia mounted a stubborn defense until they ran out of ammunition and were forced to retreat. The British seized the hill, but at great cost in casualties.
Three local men figured very prominently in this battle – General Israel Putnam, Captain Thomas Knowlton, and Lieutenant Thomas Grosvenor, who was shot through the hand during the fighting. These three men also feature prominently in the famous John Trumbull oil painting of the battle, which is at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford.
After Bunker Hill, Knowlton was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and placed in command of a detachment of elite fighting men called Knowlton’s Rangers. One of his captains was Thomas Grosvenor, who also had been promoted. Later, Knowlton (of Ashford) died heroically while covering General Washington’s retreat from New York on Sept. 16,1776. Thomas Grosvenor survived the engagement and would eventually rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel, commanding the 1st Regiment of the Connecticut Line, Continental Army until the end of the war in 1783.
After the war, Thomas Grosvenor returned to his farm in Pomfret. He also held many important posts, as a State Senator, Chief Judge of the Windham County Court, and the Judge of Probate.
Thomas Grosvernor (1744-1825) was born Sept. 20, 1744, in Pomfret, the son of John and Hannah (Dresser) Grosvenor. He married Ann Mumford in 1785, and they had three sons and two daughters. He died in Pomfret, on July 11, 1825. From his obituary, published in the Connecticut Mirror Newspaper, is the following clipping:
“In these happy, and spirit stirring times when we are gathering in the fruits which are fathers have sown, when we are reaping the full enjoyment of those inestimable blessings of a free and happy land, won by the patriotic toils of our illustrious ancestors, such is the grateful feeling of every American heart, for the Liberty we enjoy, that to say of a man, “he has spent the bloom of his youth laboring for the salvation of his beloved country, and Bunkers consecrated Hill has tasted deep the fountains of his blood,” is enough to make his name venerated, and his death lamented. But when to the patriotic bravery of the soldier is added the character of a virtuous citizen, an upright and honored man, and an intelligent magistrate, much is that man to be revered, much his loss to be regretted. He was an honorable man, of an upright heart, undeviating integrity, a benevolent Christian, and a true Patriot.”
Hometown Heroes is a series published in the Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger with this mission: We owe it to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to make sure that they are never forgotten, and that the memory of their service and sacrifice will forever live on in the hearts and minds of the grateful people of Putnam.

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