Background
The son of John Douglas (1703-1766) and Olive Spaulding (1709-1752), he was born in Plainfield, Connecticut, Douglas began his military career as a soldier in the French and Indian War, rising to the rank of sergeant.
The son of John Douglas (1703-1766) and Olive Spaulding (1709-1752), he was born in Plainfield, Connecticut, Douglas began his military career as a soldier in the French and Indian War, rising to the rank of sergeant.
Following the war, he became a shipmaster and worked in the maritime trades until the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, when he raised the 6th Company of the 1st Connecticut Regiment and became its captain. Douglas took part in military campaigns along Lake George and Lake Champlain commanding ships in upstate New York and was stationed in Montreal. In 1776, he was promoted twice, first to major and then on June 20 as colonel of the Connecticut State Regiment, also known as the "Connecticut 5th battalion".
Douglas and his regiment also participated in the Battle of White Plains on October 28, 1776.
On January 1, 1777, he was commissioned as a colonel of the 6th Connecticut Regiment. However, his health deteriorated during the course of the war and he was forced to return to his home at Northford, Connecticut, where he died on May 28, 1777.
Colonel Douglas married, 5 July 1767, Hannah, daughter of Stephen Mansfield, of New Haven, where she was born 17th November 1747, dying in Northford, 22 May 1825. Douglas" grandson Benjamin Douglas was a manufacturer, Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, and lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1861-1862.
General George Washington, encountering the retreating troops, reacted angrily by flogging some of Douglas’ troops with his riding cane and declaring: “Are these the men with whom I am to defend America?”.