#5 Melted Majesty

 As America gets ready to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year, Litchfield is starting to erect signage around town describing significant events. One of the more interesting ones is entitled Melted Majesty.

In 1770, the New York assembly paid to have a 4 ton statue of King George III sculpted out of lead by British sculptor Joseph Wilton and erected in what is now the financial district of New York. On the evening of July 9, 1776, General George Washington read the declaration of independence to a crowd in New York, and after hearing it, the crowd marched down to lower Manhattan and   toppled the statue after several attempts. Among the crowd was General Oliver Wolcott  who  was leading  the Connecticut militia  and who happened to own a foundry in Litchfield. It was decided to have  large pieces of the statue brought to Litchfield and melted into musket balls for the American militia. As men were off to war, the women and  children of Litchfield produced 42,088 muskets balls that were supplied to the patriots. So in  a twist of fate, some unlucky British soldiers were shot with musket balls formed out of their king’s  statue. 

Interesting note: During the trip to Litchfield, wagons carrying the  pieces stopped for the night in Wilton, CT ( ironically the same name as the sculptor of the statue) and during the night some of the pieces were taken as souvenirs. Over  the years pieces have been found in various places throughout the town, including in the ground during construction excavation. 




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