Today in Johnson City History, Tuesday, April 22, 2025
A murder, a Science Hill win and a great way to "Get Involved!" with Riddle Technology Services!
Saturday, April 22, 1775: Two hundred and fifty years ago today, according to
The Daily Nutmeg, a publication in New Haven Connecticut, “It was 247 years ago, on April 22, 1775—though some accounts have it a day or two later—when Captain Benedict Arnold, a Son of Liberty dressed in the scarlet red coat and ruffled white shirt of the Second Company of the Governor’s Foot Guard, reddened some cheeks and ruffled some feathers. Sparked by news of war with the British in Lexington, Massachusetts, Arnold and his men paraded to the Green, halting near the tavern where the town selectman had convened to decide New Haven’s loyalties. There the militiamen drilled to the sounds of drums and fifes, a show of revolutionary spirit intended to inspire or more likely intimidate New Haven’s risk-averse leaders into joining this budding fight for independence. Upon hearing the council’s decision to remain temporarily neutral, Arnold became enraged. With the persuasive power of some 60 trained soldiers at his back—and, as legend has it, a moment of grand eloquence: “None but Almighty God shall prevent my marching!”—he demanded and soon obtained the key to the town’s store of ammunition, or powder house; equipped his men for the march to Massachusetts, which they summarily commenced; and joined both New Haven and Connecticut to the American Revolution.
“Thus was born, among so many other things, a holiday unique to New Haven. According to Harris Elwood Starr’s 1950 “souvenir history,” the Second Company—whose duties are now largely ceremonial, even while remaining “the constitutionally authorized State Militia of the State of Connecticut”—has been marking Powder House Day with marching, drilling, demanding reenactments since 1905. A New York Times report on the 1978 celebration frames the occasion as a kind of provincial curiosity, noting spectators’ tendency to settle down on the Green with a picnic.