At a railroad crossing in downtown New London, where a broken signal bell rang like a fatigued fire alarm, Victor Chiburis stood with a wagon carrying a portable party speaker and a fire extinguisher. He waited for a police officer to wave him through.
Dressed in colonial-era brown breeches and a puffy shirt, Chiburis, was not exactly dressed out of the norm as a number of people in the crowd who were waved through with him were dressed in similar attire.
Chiburis’ walk through the cool evening air of New London’s waterfront was a to a short pier where soon a life-sized Benedict Arnold puppet – made of papier-mâché, burlap and cloth, dressed up in a red coat – would be set ablaze.
Nearly 250 years ago, Arnold – one of this country’s most notorious traitors – burned New London to the ground. Each September, hundreds of people gather on the streets of New London to return the favor, by burning him in effigy.
Chiburis is the associate artistic director for Flock Theatre, which hosts the annual Burning of Benedict Arnold Festival.
He calls the event “the original Burning Man festival.”
It’s part festival, part history lesson.
“The reason why we do this is so that we can really educate people about our local history that they might not have any idea about,” Chilburis said. “Why certain streets are named after certain figures, why all of this history, why what buildings survived the burning of New London.”
The burning of Benedict Arnold effigies dates back to 1780 when a two-faced Arnold puppet was followed by a devil through the streets of Philadelphia before being set on fire. That’s after Arnold, a Connecticut native and a major general in the Revolutionary War, defected to the British.
In 1781, Arnold led the Redcoats on an attack on New London that burned most of the city while another attack across the Thames River at Fort Griswold killed 83 Americans.
After New London was destroyed, “Remember New London” became the battle cry of soldiers fighting for the colonies and Arnold’s effigy was burned in the town every year until the middle of the 19th century.
In 2013, New London’s Flock Theatre restarted the tradition of burning an Arnold effigy.
“Usually people from the restaurants and the bars down Bank Street look out the window and say ‘What the heck is going on?’” Chilburis said. “And they just flood into the streets and then follow us all the way down.”
This year, hundreds of people lined the streets of New London as a life-sized Arnold puppet, followed by a devil, were marched through town. The Colchester Continental Fife and Drum Corps performed colonial-era marching songs and blanks fired from Kentucky long rifles marked the beginning of the parade.
“We’re the boys that bring the noise,” said Wayne Seidel, one of the participants.
Shouts of “traitor” and “burn him” rose from the thick crowd on the waterfront as the effigy was set ablaze by Gov. Ned Lamont.
“I hope they don’t get any ideas for the governor,” Lamont joked afterward.
And, in near unison to Arnold’s ignition, a train passed behind the shouting crowd blowing its horn as if to signal that not only was the railroad crossing repaired, but so too was the town.
