Groton ― Wearing his 18th century attire, David Rose asked the more than 30 people gathered at noon Monday at the gates of Fort Griswold to turn around and gaze at the landscape to the south and west.

Instead of the paved roads, trees, the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, houses, Electric Boat, Bill Memorial Library or even the tall granite monument that towers above the fort, Rose asked that they look out with 1781 eyes.

On Sept. 6, 1781, the lightly manned fort, perched on a hill overlooking the Thames River, was surrounded by treeless farmland, the river teeming with ships and flat New London landscape clearly visible.

“You’ll see why it was so important to build a fort here,” said Rose, 78, a volunteer tour guide for Friends of Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park. He then began an hourlong tour of the fort and described in detail the Battle of Groton Heights that raged on Sept. 6, 1781. The guided tour was one of 17 First Day Hikes held at state parks across the state to celebrate the New Year.

Attendees came from neighborhoods nearby, from surrounding towns and elsewhere in Connecticut, pleased that the sun had emerged after several gray, gloomy days. Most had been to the fort before. Some said it is their favorite vantage point to watch the annual Sailfest fireworks.

Susan Cenotti of West Haven said she had not been to Fort Griswold before. She saw a story on the First Day hikes on televison news.

“We like to hike, and we like history,” she said.

Rose said he has been leading formal and informal tours of the fort for the past 20 years, sometimes even just to people he sees reading the plaques as they meander through the grounds.

He told Monday’s group he bases his telling of the battle on accounts from survivor Sgt. Stephen Hempsted of New London, also a veteran of the battles of Bunker Hill and Harlem Heights.

British general and infamous traitor Benedict Arnold, a Norwich native, had ordered 800 of his troops to take the Groton fort, while Arnold accompanied 1,000 others to take what Arnold mistakenly anticipated to be the stronger Fort Trumbull in New London.

Sentries at Fort Griswold sent word of the pending attack, and 166 militia from across the region soon arrived, commanded by Col. William Ledyard. Promised that 300 more troops would be coming imminently, Ledyard rejected British Col. Edmund Eyre’s demand to surrender the fort or face annihilation.

The defenders repulsed two initial attacks, Rose said, but at one point, a musket ball severed the line on the flagpole, and the flag fell in what seemed to the attackers as a symbol of surrender.

As they approached, American militia fired, enraging the attacking troops, who then breached the walls and gate. Col. Ledyard ordered his troops to lay down their arms and surrender.

Rose said accounts differ on the battle’s fateful conclusion.

Evidence shows that Jordan Freeman, a freed former slave of Col. Ledyard, wielded a 10-foot-long pike and killed commanding British Maj. William Montgomery as he attempted to climb over the wall. The Friends of Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park erected a granite marker to honor Freeman last year. It stands in front of a 19th-century brass plaque depicting Freeman’s action, but with no narrative.

Rose said Col. Ledyard handed his sword to a British officer, who abruptly slew Ledyard, triggering a massacre of the fort’s survivors until some sought shelter in the powder magazine, prompting a British officer to order a cease fire, lest the entire fort be blown up. The spot where Ledyard fell bears a granite marker surrounded by a square iron fence.

The American wounded were treated roughly, Rose said. Those who could walk were marched off as prisoners. The severely wounded were left to lie in the sun with no water and then loaded onto a large wagon. Again, accounts vary, Rose said, but the wagon broke free as it descended a steep hill and crashed into a tree.

A cousin of Col. Ledyard offered himself as a prisoner in exchange for the wounded survivors, who were left at the nearby home of Ensign Ebenezer Avery. Sgt. Hempsted was among them, Rose said. Hempsted’s own house was destroyed by the fire that ravaged New London that day. He lived at his brother’s house, one of the few surviving structures, spending a year in bed recovering from his wounds, Rose said.

Standing on the modern wooden deck overlooking the river, Rose took questions from tour attendees. One asked his opinion of Benedict Arnold.

Rose called Arnold “the best soldier we had,” in the early years of the Revolutionary War.

“The fact that he turned, there’s no excuse,” Rose said. “He’s done for me.”

c.bessette@theday.com