Lebanon of the cedars lay on the direct road to Boston, and was connected with the principal Connecticut towns. There was sounded the Lexington alarm. The Connecticut Assembly delegated great powers to a committee of public safety. Governor Trumbull, who was the leading spirit of it, and three other members, resided in Lebanon, and held the early sessions of the committee there. This committee continued its sessions here during the war.
The [house] occupied by Governor Trumbull still stands, as we have said, but the tavern is gone.
“Brother Jonathan’s” [war office] and [residence] in Lebanon, Connecticut.
The writer dined in the house a few months before beginning this story, and was shown the part of the house where the alarm-post, as we call the guard’s room, and overlook, were.
We give a picture of this most interesting house, one of the most significant in the country. The spirit of the Revolution dwelt there, and from this place it exercised a wonderful but unseen power.
The Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the winter of 1890–’91 made provision for the preservation of the war office, as a notable relic of the Revolution.
The building was repaired. The oak framework was found to be sound, and the decayed sills were replaced by new timber, and the chimney was restored and furnished with colonial firepieces from old houses in Lebanon. Andirons made in the Revolution, old iron cranes, and primitive utensils were brought to the council room, and the place of the meetings of the Committee of Public Safety was thus made to resume the aspect of a bygone age of the farmer heroes.
The celebration of the restoration of the war office by the Sons of the Revolution took place May 14, 1891, on Flag-day, when there waved a flag with the motto of “Brother Jonathan” in company with the Star-Spangled Banner.
On that occasion the modern American flag was raised over the old war office for the first time, where