The New International Encyclopædia/Wooster, David

WOOSTER, David (1710-77). An American soldier. He was born in Stratford, Conn., graduated at Yale in 1738, and, entering the provincial army in 1739, served throughout King George's War (q.v.), acting as captain in the Louisburg expedition of 1745, and commanding for a time the sloop-of-war Connecticut. He became colonel of a Connecticut regiment in 1755, and served throughout the French and Indian War, during which he rose to the rank of brigadier-general. He was appointed collector of customs at New Haven, but resigned on the approach of the Revolutionary War, and was one of the eight brigadier-generals appointed by Congress in June, 1775. After serving in Canada, where for a time, owing to the death of General Montgomery, he held the chief command, he resigned to become major-general of Connecticut militia, and was mortally wounded (April 26, 1777) near Danbury, while defending that place against the attack of General Tryon.