Patriot Namesakes

Captain Stephen Betts | Mary Bush | Captain Joel Cook | Captain David Hawley | Sarah Whitman Hooker | General David Humphreys | General Ebenezer Huntington | Charles Merriman | Captain Charles Pond | Sgt. David Thompson

Charles Pond was born in 1744 to Peter and Mary Pond of Milford, Connecticut. Not wishing to learn a trade he followed the sea at an early age and prospered. Around the age of 24 or 25 he fell in love with and married Martha Miles. In 1775 when the news of the Battle of Bunker Hill reached Milford, Pond quickly enlisted with many other Milford men to march to Boston in aid of the colonists. He was commissioned an ensign in Captain Peter Perit's company of Colonel Charles Webb's regiment, the 7th line. On the 14th of September 1775 the regiment was ordered by Washington to the Boston camp where it formed a portion of General Sullivan's Brigade at Winter Hill and he remained there during the Siege of Boston.

In January, 1776 he was promoted to First Lieutenant in the same company which was in the same regiment where Nathan Hale was a captain. In May of 1776, Pond, who was a skillful sailor was probably detached for temporary service at sea, took command of the sloop Schuyler at Norwalk. During the summer the Schuyler and the sloop Montgomery cruised from Sandy Hook to Montauk Point. On June 19th Pond reported to Washington the capture off Fire Island of an English merchantman with a valuable cargo which Washington in turn was gratified to report to Congress. The Montgomery and the Schuyler at time cruising in company, slipped by the British watchdogs and about September 3rd slipped into New London Harbor. A few days later both reported at Norwalk. Nathan Hale would find them there on his arrival. It was from the Schuyler that Hale landed on the Huntington, Long Island shore on the secret mission that resulted in Hale's execution as a spy.

Pond was with General George Washington when he crossed the Delaware River on December 25, 1776. He was at the Battle of White Plains and at the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777. He received a commission as a captain dating from January 1, 1777. He was then with Return J. Meigs. This regiment was at Peekskill in the summer of 1777 under General Putnam's command from August to October and wintered at West Point assisting there in constructing redoubts. During the summer of 1777 Pond was with Washington at White Plains.

He resigned his command in the army April 20, 1779 for the purpose of taking command of the war vessel New Defense that Connecticut was building for defense of its coast. Soon engaging the enemy, a large English brig of war off the coast of Sandy Hook, New York, the smaller New Defense her captain, officers, and crew fought determinedly at close quarters for more than an hour. The sails and rigging were so cut by the round and grape shot of the enemy that the little brig became unmanageable and was forced to surrender. A few days later, she arrived in New York where the captain and first lieutenant were soon exchanged.

Captain Charles Pond continued to annoy the enemy in the "whale boat service" as it was termed until the close of the Revolution and received the approval of his superiors for his activity and persistence. On his gravestone in Milford Cemetery he is inscribed as "Liberty's Friend".

When a Children of the American Revolution society was being formed in Milford, they did not deliberate long in the choice of a patriot to honor. Thus on October 23, 1922 the Captain Charles Pond Society was born!