History by Lewis has modern feel

FALLS VILLAGE — Chuck Lewis, with one book of genealogical research to his credit, was tracing his great-great-great-great grandfather, John Lewis, when he stumbled on to a story.

Looking through military enlistment records for a John Lewis who lived in eastern Connecticut during the mid-to-late 1700s, he found a mention of a John Lewis who “was reported among the 185 men missing in action from Colonel Jedediah Huntington’s 17th Continental (Connecticut) Regiment after the Battle of Long Island.â€

As he dug further, he got curious because “there was plenty of information in the many written histories of the battle about virtually every other American unit that fought in the Battle of Long Island, just not Huntington’s Regiment.â€

And after two years of research, the result is “Cut Off: Colonel Jedediah Huntington’s 17th Continental (Conn.) Regiment at the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776,†published by Heritage Books.

The story of the battle and its aftermath — and the missing men — has a surprisingly contemporary tone. “It was some months after the events of Aug. 27, 1776, that word began to leak out of New York City that American prisoners of war were being kept in subhuman conditions and were dying by the hundreds.â€

And readers will meet, however briefly, a cast of characters with names colorful to modern ears — and familiar to Northwest Corner residents: Surgeon’s Mate Silas Holmes, Captain Ebenezer Bissell and his cousin, Ozias; Private Rufus Cone.

“Cut Off†is $29 and is available at amazon.com.

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