TheBattle of Ridgefield was a series ofAmerican Revolutionary War skirmishes inDanbury, Connecticut andRidgefield, Connecticut.

On April 25, aBritish force under the command of the Royal Governor of theProvince of New York, Major GeneralWilliam Tryon, landed atCompo, Connecticut betweenFairfield andNorwalk in what is present-dayWestport, and marched from there to Danbury. There, they destroyedContinental Army supplies after chasing off a small garrison of troops. Connecticut militia leaders Major GeneralDavid Wooster, Brigadier General Gold S. Silliman, and Brigadier GeneralBenedict Arnold raised a combined force of roughly 700 Continental Army regular and irregular local militia forces to oppose the British, but could not reach Danbury in time to prevent the destruction of the supplies. Instead, they set out to harass the British on their return to the coast.

On April 27, the company led by Wooster twice attacked Tryon's rear guard during their march south. In the second encounter, Wooster was mortally wounded and died five days later. The main encounter then took place at Ridgefield, where several hundred militia under Arnold's command confronted the British and were driven away in a running battle down the town's main street, but not before inflicting casualties on the British.

The expedition was a tactical success for the British forces, but their actions in pursuing the raid galvanizedPatriot support inConnecticut. While the British again made raids on Connecticut's coastal communities, they made no more raids that penetrated far into the countryside.

Troops left to defend New York were to include a brigade of 3,000 provincial troops under the command of New York's former royal governorWilliam Tryon, who was given a temporary promotion to "major general of the provincials" in spring 1777.^[3] Howe's plan included authorizing Tryon to operate on theHudson River or to "enter Connecticut as circumstances may point out."^[3] Tryon was given one of the early operations of the season, a raid against aContinental Army depot atDanbury, Connecticut.^[4] Howe had learned of the depot's existence through a spy working for British Indian agentGuy Johnson,^[5] and he had also met with some success in an earlier raid against the Continental Army outpost atPeekskill, New York.^[6]

A fleet was assembled consisting of 12 transports, a hospital ship, and some small craft, all under the command of CaptainHenry Duncan.^{[citation needed]} The landing force consisted of 1,500 regulars drawn from the4th,15th,23rd,27th,44th, and64th regiments, 300Loyalists from thePrince of Wales American Regiment led byMontfort Browne, and a small contingent of the17th Light Dragoons, all led by Generals SirWilliam Erskine andJames Agnew.^[4][7] Command of the entire operation was given to General Tryon, and the fleet sailed from New York on April 22, 1777.^[4]

The Danbury depot had been established in 1776 by order of theSecond Continental Congress, and it primarily served forces located in the Hudson River valley.^[8] In April 1777, the army began mustering regiments for that year's campaigns, and there were about 50 Continental Army soldiers and 100 local militia at Danbury under the command ofJoseph Platt Cooke, a local resident and a colonel in the state militia.^[9]

The British fleet was first spotted when it passed Norwalk. When the troops landed messengers were dispatched to warn Danbury and local militia leaders of the movements. Generals Wooster and Arnold were in New Haven when messengers reached them on April 26. Wooster immediately sent the local militia to Fairfield. When he and Arnold reached Fairfield, they learned that General Silliman had already departed forRedding, with orders that any militia raised should follow as rapidly as possible; they immediately moved in that direction.^[10] The forces assembled at Redding moved toward Danbury in a pouring rain, but had only reachedBethel, about 2 miles (3.2 km) short of Danbury by 11 pm, where they decided to spend the night rather than press on to Danbury with wetgunpowder.^[11] The forces consisted of about 500 regular militia members and about 200 volunteers.^[12]

• List of American Revolutionary War battles

• 1777 in Connecticut
• 1777 in the United States
• Battles involving Great Britain
• Battles involving the United States
• Battles in the Northern Coastal theater of the American Revolutionary War after Saratoga
• Battles of the American Revolutionary War in Connecticut
• Conflicts in 1777
• Organized events in Fairfield County, Connecticut
• Ridgefield, Connecticut

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