Maj. Thomas Y. SeymourThis plaque and the renaming of this bridge honor the Revolutionary War hero and distinguished citizen of Connecticut, Thomas Y. Seymour. Seymour, who later rose to the rank of Major in the Continental Army, was born June 19, 1757, the eldest child of the Hon. Thomas Seymour, the first Mayor of Hartford. After graduating from Yale in 1777, the son was given a commission in the Second Continental Regiment of Light Dragoons. Under the command of General. Horatio Gates and acting as an aide on the staff of field general Benedict Arnold, Seymour participated in the historic battle against the British near Saratoga, New York. A portion of the regiment commanded by then-Lieutenant Seymour constituted the sole Continental cavalry engaged in the fighting. The American victory at Saratoga proved to be a turning point in the Revolutionary War, for it prevented the British from cutting off New England from the rest of the colonies. Upon the surrender of Britain's General. John Burgoyne on December 17, 1777 at Freeman's Farm, Lt. Seymour was selected to escort the captive general to Boston and performed this delicate duty so much to Burgoyne's satisfaction that at the end of the trip, Burgoyne presented him with a magnificent saddle, leopard skin saddle cloth, and a brace of silver mounted pistols. In following years, Seymour was elevated to the rank of Major, served as one of the original members of the Governor's Horse Guards, and in 1788 became its second commander. Whenever he commanded the Horse Guards he used with pride the gifts that Burgoyne had so graciously given him.
After resigning from the army in 1778, Seymour returned to Hartford (in 1780) and began the practice of law. He acted as State's Attorney for Hartford County from 1796 to 1807, and represented Hartford in the Connecticut General Assembly between 1795 and 1806. Among his many marks of honor was also the fact that in 1791 he served as an active member of a Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society.
In John Trumbull's painting, "Surrender of Burgoyne, " hanging in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Maj. Seymour is represented in the foreground mounted on a black charger.
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