William Heron

General Parsons, in a letter to George Washington, dated April 6, 1782:

"I forgot to mention the name of Mr. William Heron of Redding, who has for several years had opportunities of informing himself of the state of the enemy, their designs and intentions, with more certainty and precision than most men who have been employed.

He is a native of Ireland, a man of very large knowledge and a great share of natural sagacity, united with a sound judgment, but of as unmeaning a countenance as any person in my acquaintance. With this appearance he is as little suspected as any man can be.

An officer in the department of the Adjutant General is a countryman and a very intimate acquaintance of Mr. Heron, through which channel he has been able frequently to obtain important and very interesting intelligence. He has frequently brought me the most accurate descriptions of the posts occupied by the enemy, and more rational accounts of their numbers, strength and design than I have been able to obtain in any other way.

As to his character, I know him to be a consistent national Whig; he is always in the field in any alarm and has in every trial proved himself a man of bravery. He has a family and a considerable interest in the measures of the country. In opposition to this his enemies suggest that he carries on illicit trade with the enemy, but I have lived two years next door to him and am fully convinced he has never had a single article of any kind for sale during that time.

I know many persons of more exalted character are also accused; none more than Governor Trumbull, nor with less reason. I believe the Governor and Mr. Heron as clear of this business as I am, and I know myself to be totally free from every thing which has the least connection with that commerce."

When the army lay in Redding in the winter of 1778-9, General Parsons' headquarters were at Esquire Stephen Betts' tavern, on Redding Ridge, diagonally across the street from William Heron's modest dwelling.

It was then in all probability that the two men first met and formed those intimate relations which led Parsons later to recommend Heron to Washington (see letter above) as one of the most promising of their secret service emissaries.

Together during that winter the two men concocted a plot to outwit the British Commanders. To the Whigs Heron was to remain a Whig. To the Tories, then very numerous on Redding Ridge, he was to go privately and acquaint them with the fact that he was an emissary of the British Commander, and secretly acting as such. An occasion offered he was to slip down to the British camp in New York, see and hear all that Parsons and the patriot chief would wish to know, return and report. When he could not go himself, he was to send, his favorite messenger being it said, the gigantic Mohawk Tom Warrups. The way he gained the British lines was to ride to Fairfield, leave his horse with a Tory there, cross the sound to Huntington on Long Island, or an adjacent part, and thence make his way into the enemy's lines at New York.

For more on William Heron and other real people fictionalized in the historical fiction novel- My Brother Sam is Dead, visit my website: http://mybrothersamisdead.historyofredding.com/