Tim Jerman
The Montpelier and East Montpelier Historical Societies, representing what was one community until 1848, have identified 49 local soldiers who fought in the American Revolution. Most of them had enlisted in other states and moved to Vermont in the 1780s to 1810 in the land rush following the war. The names of those identified are included at the end of this article, which focuses on the human drama of two soldiers who survived their service, twin brothers Joseph and Ziba Woodworth.
Their story begins in Bozrah, Conn., a small town outside New London and Groton near the Thames River. Joseph and Ziba were twins with 17 siblings, born on April 4, 1763. In 1777, at 14, Joseph joined the Continental Army in Gen. Poor’s regiment, part of Gen. Benedict Arnold’s division at the two battles of Saratoga, New York, on Sept. 19 and Oct. 9.
Service in Connecticut was compulsory, but recruits were supposed to be 16 years old. That requirement was honored in the breach as many younger boys were accepted as drummers, fifers, and chore-doers. Joseph’s specific role is unknown, but the Connecticut soldiers took heavy casualties and were commended for their bravery after Burgoyne’s army surrendered.
After the war, in 1794, Joseph married, had five children, and moved with his wife Elizabeth to what is now East Montpelier. He bought land from Jacob Davis and Allen Carpenter on the northwest end of Lyle Young Road. Joseph was known as a man of ability and a community leader. He served on the selectboard for 10 years, and as a town lister and a three- term state legislator. One of those one-year terms in 1803 was in Westminster, because Montpelier was not yet the state capital (1808). Travel for the three-week session in October would not have been easy. Joseph worked hard on the farm, died in 1817 at age 54, and left a modest estate for his family.
His twin brother Ziba had a very different route to Vermont. He joined Col. William Ledyard’s militia for the defense of Fort Griswold in 1781 with his older brother Asahel; he was 17 when called to action. Fort Griswold guarded the Thames River in Groton, Conn., not far from his home. Col. Ledyard had married his aunt, so there was a family connection.
On Sept. 6, the fort was attacked by British troops and loyalists led by the man that Montpelier historian Daniel Thompson called “that revengeful and conscience-chafed devil incarnate, Benedict Arnold,” the same hero of Saratoga under which Joseph had proudly served.
Times had dramatically changed; Arnold had defected to the British in 1780. The British high command knew that the decisive Battle of Yorktown was coming, and they were desperate to score a major victory in the northeast to draw Washington’s troops away from the siege in Virginia to allow Cornwallis’ army to escape.
The attack on Fort Griswold was initially repulsed by Ledyard’s men, but the superior numbers of attackers turned the tide. Then, in a confusion which has been argued about for two centuries, the hundred or so Americans in the fort surrendered but were set upon by British troops, who slaughtered most of them. Colonel Ledyard himself presented his sword to a British officer, who ran him through and killed him instantly.
In a family memoir, Ziba’s niece described a moment after he was both shot and bayoneted at Fort Griswold in which he made the decision to devote the rest of his life to God should he be spared.
He wrote: ”My uncles, Asahel and Ziba Woodworth, were only boys of nineteen and seventeen years of age when both were in the action at Fort Griswold, and both were wounded. Asael was wounded in the neck and was taken to the hospital. Ziba was shot in the groin, and fell among the dead and dying. He was so weak from loss of blood he could not move as much as a finger, nor so much as groan. When men came to take away the dead to bury them, he was thrown upon the cart among them. He was perfectly conscious all the time, and he prayed for strength to make some sign. He said he made a vow, a promise to God, if He would spare his life he would devote it to His service. And he groaned aloud.”
Ziba was saved, fulfilled his vow, and became a Freewill Baptist preacher. Eighty-five other soldiers were not as lucky.
It took Ziba months to recover, and he never recovered full use of his leg.
Fortunately, the British victory did not accomplish its mission, and the war effectively ended soon after at Yorktown.
Ziba eventually married and lived in Connecticut after the horror of his experience. His first wife Lucretia died shortly after he returned from a trip to Vermont. He married again, Lucy Palmer from New Hampshire. Sadly, of their five children only their son John lived past childhood.
Ziba moved to Vermont in 1790, before Joseph did. He was one of the first 27 inhabitants of Montpelier, settling first on the Onion River about a mile east of the village, then about a mile and a half above the village near Cummings Road off North Street. He died in 1826; both brothers are buried in Green Mount Cemetery in Montpelier.
Ziba was ordained in 1806 after preaching in public meetings, but he never held an official church position.
According to historian Thompson, “Elder Woodworth was a man of small stature, limping in gate, but of a wonderfully animated manner and conversation. His heart seemed ever absolutely overflowing with the gushing feelings of his love and benevolence. He was quite energetic in all he did or said, and the ardor of his temperament often led him into some extravagance of speech or action. But, take him all in all, he was a man of the kindest of impulses, a hearty friend, a charitable opponent, a good neighbor and a good citizen.”
In 1812, political passions ran high as Vermont debated whether or not to join the war effort against the British in Plattsburgh. All of Vermont was evenly split between those wanting to punish Great Britain again for a series of grievances, and those who wanted to be able to continue the lucrative trade with British Canada, which was crucial to Vermont’s emerging economic development. Thomas Jefferson’s embargo of 1807 had a serious impact on cross-border trade in Vermont, and many did not want to go to war. A public meeting was held at the new statehouse to debate the issue.
When the expected clergyman declined to participate in the opening prayer, a cry arose from the crowd, “Uncle Ziba, Uncle Ziba!” Apparently Ziba’s convening “prayer” turned into a rousing political speech supporting the coming war and against British tyranny.
Daniel Thompson, age 17, witnessed the meeting and later wrote “We have seen some rather piping political times since that period, but none, which, for intense excitement and party animosity, could at all compare with those that were everywhere exhibited on the approach of the war of 1812.” His description of the meeting and Ziba’s role in it makes for a great read in his 1860 “History of Montpelier.”
Two years later, in 1814, an aging Joseph Woodward joined a group of Montpelier militia who marched to Burlington and crossed to Plattsburgh, New York, but arrived too late for the famous battle won by the Americans.
The stories of Joseph and Ziba are compelling, but stories of all Vermont’s Revolutionary War soldiers remind us of their sacrifice to the cause which gave us our freedom and democracy 250 years ago as described in the Declaration of Independence and enshrined years later in the U.S. Constitution.
Tim Jerman lives in East Montpelier and is a member of the Montpelier and East Montpelier Historical Societies. In 2025 he helped coordinate the 200th anniversary celebration of General Lafayette’s 1825 Vermont visit.
Honoring Our Revolutionary War Soldiers
Soldiers of the Revolution who lived and died or were buried in Montpelier or East Montpelier, which were the same town until 1849.
Montpelier
- Jacob Davis
- Parley Davis
- Roland Edwards
- Micah Hatch
- Timothy Hatch
- Luther King
- Iram Nye
- Richard Paine
- Eliakim D. Persons
- Stephen Rich
- Daniel Russell
- David Russell
- Ziba Woodworth
- Timothy Worth
East Montpelier
- Timothy Bigelow*
- Enoch Cate
- Theophilus Clark
- Amos Cutler
- Solomon Dodge
- Barnabas Doty
- David Edwards
- John Gould
- John Gray
- Aaron Griswold
- Estes Hatch
- Ebenezer Holmes
- Eseck Howland
- Nathaniel Jacobs
- Job Macomber II
- John Mellen
- Elias Metcalf
- Samuel Patterson
- John Putnam
- Reuben Russell
- Joshua Sanders
- Phinehas Slayton
- Samuel Southwick
- Clark Stevens
- Prince Stevens
- James Taggart
- Hezekiah Tinkham
- John Tuthill
- Samuel Upham
- Edward West
- Thomas West II
- Samuel White
- David Wing, Sr.
- Joseph Woodworth
- Duncan Young
*Timothy Bigelow likely never came to Vermont but is included as he was the first buyer of land that became the town of Montpelier.
—compiled by the East Montpelier and Montpelier Historical Societies
