Connecticut Feeds the First Continental Soldiers
Woodbridge and Bull Pay Orders
Posted on August 23, 2025
Connecticut Feeds the First Continental Soldiers
As the Siege of Boston began in April 1775, there was no overarching American military. Militia units from the individual colonies responded to the crisis, and colonies raised their own regiments for longer-term service than the militia could provide. The New England colonies collaborated with each other, with Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut all contributing troops to the New England Army of Observation, but nothing had yet been organized at the continental level.
Things changed on June 14, 1775, when the Continental Congress passed a resolution ordering “that six companies of expert riflemen, be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia”, to march to Boston and serve alongside the New England troops. Each rifleman who enlisted would sign a form acknowledging that they had enlisted to serve “in the American continental army”. With this resolution, the Continental Army came into being.
250 years ago this week—August 23 and 29, 1775—the colony of Connecticut worked to reimburse Connecticut residents who had taken care of these first Continental troops on their way to Boston. In an August 23 pay order, the Connecticut Committee of the Pay Table ordered that Captain Russell Woodbridge be paid “for Victualling & other necessaries” provided to three of the Pennsylvania companies as they traveled through Hartford. The August 29 order directs that David Bull, owner of the Bunch of Grapes tavern in Hartford, be paid for the same service.
These rifle companies weren’t in the direct employ of Connecticut, and they were on their way to defend another colony, but Connecticut contributed to their welfare, feeding, lodging and supplying them as they passed through. The riflemen continued on to Boston and the Continental Army, and the colonies took another step towards becoming a united body.
View the Woodbridge pay order (MS.7668) and the Bull pay order (MS.7665, both property of Robert Nittolo) and learn more on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/31571 & https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/31568