Program

Hometown Heritage®

Subject

Site

Location

23 Keeler Close, Ridgefield, CT 06877, USA

Lat/Long

41.287118, -73.494652

Grant Recipient

Cannon Ridge Chapter of the National Society of the Daughter's of the American Revolution

Lieutenant Colonel Abraham Gould (born 1732 in Fairfield, Connecticut) was a Connecticut militia officer who played a significant role in the Revolutionary War. He married Elizabeth Burr, with whom he had two children, Abigail and Abraham, and later joined the Continental Army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th Connecticut Militia.

Gould was killed while defending American freedom during the Battle of Ridgefield on April 27, 1777, near the site of an orchard close to present-day Grove Street. The battle was part of the Danbury Expedition, a British operation in which more than 1,800 troops under General Tryon invaded western Connecticut to destroy Continental Army supplies stored in Danbury.

After British forces burned military stores in Danbury on April 26, American militia—numbering about 600 and led by Generals Wooster, Arnold, and Silliman—organized to oppose the advance. On April 27, as the British marched south through Ridgebury toward Ridgefield, American forces constructed a barricade of wood, wagons, and other materials across the northern end of Ridgefield. Lieutenant Colonel Gould’s regiment was likely positioned at the center of the American defensive line, formed along rock ledges and the barricade.

During the engagement, the outnumbered American forces were driven back. Gould was shot and killed in the orchard, approximately sixty rods (or approximately 1000 feet) east of the Stebbins House. The Battle of Ridgefield, fought between April 25 and April 28, 1777, was the second largest battle in Connecticut during the Revolutionary War and resulted in significant casualties on both sides.