6th Connecticut Regiment
The 6th Connecticut Regiment was raised on May 1, 1775, at New Haven, Connecticut, as a provincial regiment for the Continental Army. It then became a regiment of the Continental Line on January 1, 1776, designated the 10th Continental Regiment, and a regiment of the Connecticut Line on January 1, 1777, again designated the 6th Connecticut. The regiment saw action at the siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, the New York Campaign, and its colonel and company of light infantry served in the Corps of Light Infantry at the Battle of Stony Point. The regiment was merged into the 1st Connecticut Regiment on January 1, 1783, at West Point, New York, and disbanded on November 16, 1783. History The 6th Connecticut Regiment, a provincial regiment, was raised on May 1, 1775, under the command of Col. Samuel Holden Parsons. In June, under the "1st establishment" of the Continental Army, it joined Gen. George Washington at the Siege of Boston. In August, to promote cohesion among the various colonial units, regiments were given precedence by Washington and the 6th Connecticut was also designated the "13th Regiment of Foot." In September, in the "2nd establishment", Congress re-authorized the Continental Army for the year 1776, with Connecticut allocated to supply five regiments, to be numbered in the "Continental Line" as of January 1, 1776, and to serve until December 31, 1776. The 6th Connecticut became the 10th Continental Regiment on January 1, with Parsons as its colonel. On August 9, 1776, Parsons became a brigadier general in the Continental Armyand John Tyler, who had been appointed lieutenant colonel of the 10th Continentals on January 1, became its colonel. During this period another regiment known as the "Connecticut State Regiment" was authorized by Connecticut on June 20, 1776, for home defense with William Douglas, then a captain of the 1st Connecticut Regiment, appointed as its colonel. The state regiment was raised at New Haven by Douglas and in Middletown by Return Jonathan Meigs, a major of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment then on parole after being captured during Arnold's Invasion of Canada. The Continental Army was authorized under the "3rd establishment" on January 1, 1777, with enlistments to last for the duration of the war. Connecticut was now allocated to supply eight regiments of infantry. The 10th Continental Regiment became the 6th Regiment of the Connecticut Line on January 1, with Douglas appointed as it new colonel. Meigs, then lieutenant colonel of Sherburne's Additional Continental Regiment, returned to take command of the 6th Connecticut on May 12, 1777, when Douglas became ill. Douglas died on May 28 and Meigs was commissioned as colonel of the 6th Connecticut on September 10, with his date of rank retroactive to May 12. The Raid on Sag Harbor was launched on May 21, 1777, but due to a storm and rough seas the raiding party put back to shore at Guilford, Connecticut to wait out the storm. Then on May 23, 1777, three weeks after the Battle