Why is there a road called Barrack Hill? Did an Army stay here?
Yes, but long ago.
Barrack Hill Road was named for the cavalry barracks built for members of Col. Charles Armand’s Partisan Legion of French troops, who spent time in Ridgefield in the Revolutionary War.
More formally known as Charles Armand Tuffin, Marquis de la Rouerie, Colonel Armand was a wealthy French nobleman who fought with the colonists during the Revolution.
In the summer of 1779, Armand established a barracks for his Partisan Legion near the intersection of Barrack Hill Road and Old West Mountain Road. From there his men went on sorties into Westchester and Putnam Counties, attacking the British and protecting patriots.
Some of his cavalrymen also acted as a sort of police force, patrolling the area to apprehend marauders, deserters, rioters, stragglers, and other soldiers found guilty of violating the General Orders.
Ridgefield historian Silvio Bedini says the barracks operated here for about a year. Armand then headed south, serving with Johann von Robais, Baron de Kalb, in North Carolina and finally participating in the surrender of the British at Yorktown.
In 1783, Congress appointed Armand a brigadier general, indicating his service to the country was much appreciated. He had also become a friend of General George Washington, and the two corresponded for some time afterward.
On his return to France, Colonel Armand became involved in the Revolution there, initially supporting the revolutionaries and winding up in the Bastille for a while.
But as attacks on the aristocracy increased, he began defending the monarchy and eventually became an outlaw from the revolutionary government. He died of pneumonia in January 1793, just after learning of the death of King Louis XVI.
Ridgefield has recognized the existence of the barracks in a road name since at least 1857 when its first recorded use — misspelled Barac Hill Road — occurs in a land deed. (The road had earlier been known as the Toilsome Path, probably reflecting the rocky nature of the land in the area — it took a lot of work by the settlers to clear for fields and pastures.)
Armand was recognized much later, in the names Armand Road and Armand Place at the Eleven Levels neighborhood, which was developed in the 1970s and 80s.