At Elkwater, Federal troops under Gen. Reynolds made trenches in 1861. Nearby stood the two Haddan Indian forts, the scene of the Stewart and Kinnan massacres. Important features of 4-H Club work among rural youth began here in 1915. On Sept. 13, 1861, Col. John Augustine Washington, aide-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee, C. S. A., was killed here. He was the last of the resident owners of Mt. Vernon, which he had sold in 1859 to become a national shrine.