Elisha Bostwick’s Pocket Watch
Elisha Bostwick marched with General George Washington across the icy Delaware River, during the Battle of Trenton, on December 25, 1776. He carried this watch.
Bostwick was born in 1749 in New Milford, CT. He enlisted as a sergeant and clerk in the Seventh Connecticut Regiment on July 12, 1775, and served in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, before marching to New Jersey to participate in the important American victory at the Battle of Trenton. Bostwick’s term ended in January 1777, but he accepted a ten-dollar bounty to remain a soldier for six more weeks. He then returned home to care for his parents in New Milford, where he served for 55 years as town clerk.
When he retired, Bostwick wrote a memoir. Among many details that reveal what life was like for enlisted men during the Revolutionary War, Bostwick recalled hearing Washington giving orders in 1776. Washington spoke, Bostwick wrote, “in a deep & Solemn voice.”
The pocket watch is in the Museum of Connecticut History at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford.
Credits
Elisha Bostwick’s pocket watch is in the Museum of Connecticut History at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford.