Connecticut honors American Revolution hero Thomas Knowlton  with a statue on the grounds of the state capitol.
The statue, near the corner of Trinity Street and Capitol Avenue, honors Knowlton, a Massachusetts native whose family moved to Ashford, Connecticut, when he was a child.
At the age of 15, Knowlton fought in the French and Indian War. During the Revolution, he led Connecticut troops during the Battle of Bunker Hill and was killed during the Battle of Harlem Heights.
Knowlton led a group of scouts that gathered valuable intelligence before the battle. His troops included Nathan Hale, who was captured and executed by British forces after volunteering to serve as a spy.
The statue, dedicated in 1895, depicts Knowlton with a drawn sword. A dedication on the east side of the monument’s base reads, “In memory of Colonel Thomas Knowlton of Ashford Conn. who as a boy served in several campaigns in the French and Indian Wars, shared in the siege and capture of Havana in 1762, was in immediate command of Connecticut troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill, was with his commands closely attached to the person of Washington, and was killed at the Battle of Harlem Heights, September 16, 1776, at the age of thirty-six.”
The statue was created by Enoch Smith Woods, whose other works include a Hale statue at the Wadsworth Atheneum, a bust of Hale in East Haddam, and a Hartford plaque honoring anesthesia pioneer Horace Wells.
Tags: Hartford