William Ledyard

William Ledyard (December 6, 1738, Groton, Connecticut – September 6, 1781, Groton) was a lieutenant colonel in the Connecticut militia who was killed in the American Revolutionary War.

Fort Griswold
Ledyard was in command of Fort Trumbull and Fort Griswold on September 6, 1781, when the latter fort fell to the British under Benedict Arnold in the Battle of Groton Heights. Ledyard had refused a British demand to surrender the fort.

According to American accounts of the battle, in Fort Griswold, with 157 hastily collected and poorly armed militia, Ledyard resisted for nearly an hour the attack of a British force of 800 men led by lieutenant colonel Eyre. This attack was made on three sides, and, although there was a battery between the fort and the river, the Americans could spare no men to work it. The British made their way into the fosse and scaled the works in the face of a severe fire from the garrison. Eyre was wounded, and died twelve hours afterward on shipboard, and his successor, Major Montgomery, having been killed while mounting the parapet, the command devolved upon Major Bromfield, a Tory, who effected an entrance into the fort after nearly 200 of his men had been disabled, including 48 killed, the Americans having lost only about twelve men.

After the British stormed Fort Griswold, Ledyard ordered his men to cease firing and to lay down their arms. Bromfield demanded to know who commanded the fort. Ledyard replied "I did, sir, but you do now," and offered his sword. The British officer took the sword and stabbed Ledyard to death, initiating a massacre of some eighty captive Americans.

Arnold, in a despatch to Henry Clinton two days afterward the following account of the battle: “I have inclosed a return of the killed and wounded, by which your excellency will observe that our loss, though very considerable, is short of the enemy's, who lost most of their officers, among whom was their commander, Col. Ledyard. Eighty-five men were found dead in Fort Griswold, and sixty wounded, most of them mortally. Their loss on the opposite side (New London) must have been considerable, but cannot be ascertained.”

The town of Ledyard, Connecticut, is named for William Ledyard.

William Ledyard's nephew was noted explorer John Ledyard.