Among those who fell in the final struggle, was an old man belonging to Litchfield named Paul Peck, long renowned throughout his native state, as the most expert hunter and the best marksman of his times. When news came that the British troops were in possession of Danbury, he immediately prepared for service a large and favorite gun, that carried balls an unusual distance. At the advanced age of seventy-five, he then joined the Litchfield volunteers, and marched against the enemy. It was eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the 28th when this company overtook the British rear-guard at Wilton, but it was actively engaged during the residue of

122 THE MCDONALD PAPERS

the day, under the command either of Lamb or of Huntington. When Colonel Lamb advanced up Compo Hill, the Litchfield volunteers were among the foremost of his followers, and fired upon the enemy from the cover afforded by the stone wall. Paul Peck finding a more favorable position somewhat nearer the hostile ranks, left his companions. Thenceforward he continued to fight on his own account independent of any superior. The extraordinary execution effected by his long firelock, upon the King's troops, at length aroused their attention, and they marked the spot where he lay. When soon afterward the volunteers were charged and driven from the wall, Archelaus Buel, his nearest comrade, called upon Peck to escape. But waiting, as was supposed, for another shot, the intrepid old man was surrounded by the enemy, and the exasperated soldiers refusing quarter, contended fiercely with each other who should give him the greatest number of mortal wounds. Another of the most distinguished among the Litchfield volunteers, was the late Oliver Wolcott, then a youth of sev-enteen, who as a public servant was destined to occupy high positions in after life.