By Sal Lilienthal and Mary Collins

Governor Jonathan Trumbull and his wife Faith hosted visitors from America’s top brass to European allies. Their home and store in Lebanon served as a center for Connecticut’s Revolutionary operations. photo: Sal Lilienthal

In early 1775, George Washington was best known for his efforts in the French and Indian War and his marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy Virginia widow. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, 19-year-old Nathan Hale, a teacher and former Yale student, was writing letters about freedom, liberty, and drinking too much Madeira on a late-night New Haven escapade. Just across town, merchant Benedict Arnold ran a successful shipping operation.

Four short months later, everything had changed. The colonists’ collective consciousness shifted from high tension with the British to violent rebellion as news of the battles at Lexington and Concord rapidly reached Connecticut and spread quickly throughout the rest of the American colonies. Nathan Hale, Thomas Knowlton, Israel Putnam, and thousands of other Americans immediately traveled to Boston to help surround the redcoats. Benedict Arnold demanded the keys to New Haven’s powder house, accessing gunpowder and munitions for the siege in Boston. Green Mountain Boys Seth Warner, Remember Baker, and Ethan Allen from present-day Vermont started planning to capture artillery at Fort Ticonderoga.

Footprints of American Revolution history still mark Connecticut’s landscape. Yet few residents know about the complex role Connecticut—the Provisions State—played in the battle against the British as a supplier of food, clothing, livestock, wagons, munitions, and tents for the Continental Army. Northwestern towns mined iron and produced more than 800 cannons. General George Washington certainly understood the importance of these key suppliers, visiting the state nine times as a private citizen, general, and president.

By car or bike, or on foot, travelers can see, imagine, and even touch parts of this multifaceted story by following any of the routes accessible via links at

Anna Hyatt Huntington, one of the most accomplished American sculptors of the 20th century, completed this dramatic sculpture of General Israel “Old Put” Putnam at the entrance of Putnam Memorial State Park. She and her husband donated 400 acres to Redding, which now make up Collis P. Huntington State Park. photo: Sal Lilienthal

CTAmericanRevolution.com or joining the Connecticut Revolutionary War Spy Trail—Culper Ring Bike and Kayak Tour planned for August 2025 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (see box for details). Touch a three-pound British cannonball from the Battle of Ridgefield still lodged under a Keeler Tavern shingle. Visit a replica of the Turtle, America’s first submarine, an innovative one-person vessel designed by David Bushnell to blow up British ships. The tours showcase farmers, Yale students, and merchants who transformed themselves into historic figures under the intense heat of the Revolution. Contemporary travelers who follow the tour through Wethersfield can see the Webb House, where Washington met with his French allies to plot the decisive attack on Yorktown, Virginia.

Learn more about all that Connecticut gave to the fight for independence and engage in your own personal commemoration of the 250th by following some of the themed Revolutionary Connecticut tours or scheduling a custom guided outing for your family, friends, school, or corporate group.

Follow nine Revolutionary Connecticut–themed tours with historical narratives featuring Ethan Allen, Nathan Hale, Israel Putnam, and American hero-turned-traitor Benedict Arnold at CTAmericanRevolution.com. image: ©Sal Lilienthal, Bicycle Tour Company

Bike and Kayak Spy Tour: August 2025

The memorial at the entrance to the Old Judea Cemetery lists provincial soldiers who served in the American Revolution (1775–1783) and are buried within the cemetery. Jeff Liberty is listed on the top right side of the marker. Thousands of African Americans, many enslaved, served in the war, and some gained their freedom afterward. photo: Nick Bellantoni

Most of us know the tale of Nathan Hale, a young Yale student and America’s first spy, who was captured and hanged by the British. Still, Connecticut’s spy history has many layers, more than just dead drops, invisible ink, and coded messages, all of which the Connecticut Revolutionary War Spy Trail—Culper Ring Bike and Kayak Tour will commemorate in August 2025. The adventure travel trip features stories of Thomas Knowlton, commander of Washington’s first intelligence unit, classmates Nathan Hale and future spymaster Benjamin Tallmadge, friends and acquaintances Austin Roe, Anna Strong, Caleb Brewster, Abraham Woodhull, and field operative Robert Townsend, along with Benedict Arnold and his Loyalist second wife Peggy Shippen, who conspired with Major John André, head of the British Secret Service. Even if you do not recognize all the names, many of whom were featured in AMC’s historical drama TURN: Washington’s Spies, you will connect to their stories.

In some instances, there is an eerie immediacy lingering in the landscape: traces of the violence, fear, rage, and heroism experienced during the war. For example, those willing to walk short distances can visit the gravesite of Benedict Arnold’s family. After Arnold betrayed the Continental Army and then commanded the British assault on New London and the brutal massacre at Groton Heights, the enraged townsfolk rushed to the cemetery and smashed his family’s headstones. The pieces may still lay buried in the adjacent grassy area. The locals admired Arnold’s mother, Hannah, so her marker remains intact, physical evidence of who was revered and who was loathed during the fight for our democracy 250 years ago.

For more information, please email Explore@RevolutionaryBattles.com.

Sal Lilienthal is the author of Revolutionary Battles: Experience America’s Roads to Independence, a travel guide connecting hundreds of historical sites from Quebec, Canada, to Savannah, Georgia, with extensive in-the-field research and detailed routes. Sal operates the Bicycle Tour Company based in Kent.

Mary Collins is a professor of nonfiction writing at Central Connecticut State University, former editor and writer for National Geographic and Smithsonian, and author, most recently, of A Play Book: Creating Writers, Creating Citizens.