or Hussars, encamped in North Stratford, now Trumbull. The Legion was commanded by Colonel Armand Louis de Gontaut-Biron, duc de Lauzun, and marched to the south to protect the flank of the main French army encamped in Newtown. The army was marching in the Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route south to reinforce American troops under the command of General George Washington at the Siege of Yorktown. Benjamin Silliman was born in the Eliakim Beach tavern, built by mill owner Ebenezer Hawley in 1765, a few months after his mother Mary (Fish) Silliman (widow of John Noyes) fled from their Fairfield home to escape 2,000 invading British troops ordered to burn Fairfield. The British forces had taken Silliman's father, General Gold Selleck Silliman, prisoner in May 1779. A Great Jubilee Day to commemorate the end of major fighting in the Revolutionary War was held on May 26, 1783, at the grounds of the North Stratford meeting house. This celebration included feasting, prayer, speeches, toasts, and two companies of militia performing maneuvers with cannon discharges. American Civil War During the American Civil War, Company C of the 8th Connecticut Infantry Regiment of the Connecticut National Guard was formed in Trumbull under the command of Capt. Charles E. Plumb and was disbanded in 1871 after the war ended. Municipal development In May 1725, the farmers of northwest Stratford at Nickol's Farms, desiring to have their own meeting house, asked for permission to form their own parish or village. The legislature approved their application in October 1725 and named the new village "Unity". The Unity Congregational Church was established in 1730. The Reverend James Beebe was the parish leader from 1747 to 1785. The Unity Burial Ground still exists, its last burial being in 1935. In May 1740, upon the petition of Jonathan Edwards, the farmers gathered at Stratfield's winter parish on Long Hill and were granted their own individual parish and funding for education by the legislature. In 1744, Unity parish and the Long Hill parish of the Stratfield section of Stratford asked permission to combine and become the Society of North Stratford. The General Assembly referred to the eastern boundaries of Unity, at the time, as "ancient" when they approved the new town called North Stratford in 1744. North Stratford remained as a village under the control of the town of Stratford for a period of 53 years until it became a part of