Phineas Meigs’s Hat
Phineas Meigs was the last known casualty of the Revolutionary War in Connecticut. He died wearing this hat.
Meigs was born in 1708 in East Guilford (today’s Madison). In 1777, at the age of 69, he enlisted in the Continental Army and in 1780, he joined the Guilford militia, serving as a captain. On May 19, 1782, as peace negotiations were underway in Paris, three British frigates approached the Guilford coast. Meigs led his men to the shore and engaged the British in battle. In the ensuing fight, Meigs was shot through the head. His green wool “round hat,” a simple type commonly worn by farmers and tradesmen, bear the scars of the musket balls that killed him.
Meigs’s children and grandchildren cared for the hat until 1850, when they donated it to the Connecticut Historical Society, where it serves as a memorial to a Connecticut man who, at an advanced age, late in the war, gave his life for the Patriot cause.
The hat is in the collection of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History in Hartford.
Credits
Phineas Meig’s hat is in the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History in Hartford.