The Battle and Burning of Norwalk, July 11, 1779 Slide Lecture

Join local historian and Norwalk Historical Society Board Member, Ed Eckert, for the slide lecture "The Battle and Burning of Norwalk, July 11, 1779" on Sunday, June 23, 2019 at 2:00pm at the Norwalk Historical Society’s Mill Hill Historic Park Townhouse – 2 East Wall Street Norwalk, CT.  Tickets are $8.00 and can be purchased at https://battleofnorwalklecture.brownpapertickets.com/ or by calling 203-846-0525. A reception will follow the lecture.  This lecture is part of the Norwalk Historical Society’s “Remembering the American Revolution Lecture Series”.  Handicapped and Limited Mobility parking on site only. For general parking, please follow signs to parking across the street.

"The Battle and Burning of Norwalk, July 11, 1779" details the events of that fateful day when British Maj.-Gen. William Tryon with 2600 troops faced Maj.-Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons and his force of 1100 Continentals and Connecticut militia, in a series of spirited clashes and skirmishes conducted on both sides of the Norwalk River.  Since 2003, Mr. Eckert and wife Madeleine have conducted in-depth research on the Battle of Norwalk and have discovered many new and intriguing facts about this momentous local event, that culminated in the burning of the greater part of central Norwalk by the invaders.  By providing visual representations and incorporating the latest information, Mr. Eckert will bring to life this catastrophic turning point in Norwalk’s history.  This year marks the 240th anniversary of the conflict, most likely, the largest single battle ever fought on Connecticut soil.

Ed Eckert can trace his ancestry back to Richard Olmstead, one of the founders of Norwalk and Hartford. Ed is current VP and Historian of the Roger Sherman Branch, CT Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and is a long standing Member of the Board of Directors for the Norwalk Historical Society.  He is Past Master of both St. John’s Masonic Lodge #6 and Old Well Lodge #108, both in Norwalk. He and his wife Madeleine have given numerous slide lectures in Norwalk and throughout Connecticut. They have also led historic walking tours and cemetery tours around the Historic Norwalk Green, Mill Hill Graveyard, St. Paul’s, and Riverside Cemetery.  The Eckerts have done extensive research on the Battle and Burning of Norwalk, Nathan Hale, Black history, and Colonial history in Norwalk. For their in-depth research on Nathan Hale and his spy mission, Ed received the Meritorious Service Medal and Madeleine received the Martha Washington Medal from the CT Society, Sons of the American Revolution.  

For more information: visit www.norwalkhistoricalsociety.org, e-mail info@norwalkhistoricalsociety.org , or call 203-846-0525. The Norwalk Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  

Photo Credit: Public Domain