Lt. John Griffin served in Colonial Parson's Regiment in the fall of 1776, which was part of the 10th Continental Army. After the siege of Boston, it marched under Washington to New York by way of New London and the Sound in vessels, and continued in that area from April until the close of the year. The regiment assisted in fortifying New York City and was ordered on August 24 to the lines around Brooklyn, and engaged in the Battle of Long Island on August 27 and in the retreat from Long Island on the night of August 29, 1776. The regiment was caught in the panic of the retreat from New York on September 15th of that year. The regiment was with the army at White Plains, October 28, and remained on the Hudson, in the vicinity of Peekskill New York, under General Heath until the term of service expired on December 31, 1776.
    However, Griffin was released from this tour of duty in November of 1776 and served in Col. Exp. Storr's regiment of militia in New York before spending time in a hospital in Stamford. There is no record of whether he was hospitalized for war injuries or the illnesses which were common in the Colonial armies.
    Griffin, having already established a pattern in the French wars of serving, returning home, and then going back for more military service, followed his usual pattern, and after recovery re-enlisted in the Continental army.
    In April 1778, he signed up for eight months service in the Third Regiment of the Connecticut line formation of 1777-81. It is interesting to note that this regiment took part in repelling the enemy at Danbury in April 1777.
    In the summer of 1778, with Griffin in service, the regiment encamped at White Plains with Washington's main army, and wintered the 1778-79 season at Redding. Griffin was discharged on December 31, 1778, and returned to Oxford.
   There is also a record of a John Griffin, who enlisted as a Marien on the State Man of War, the Oliver Cromwell on December 15, 1777, but no address is given for this sea-going individual, and it appears unlikely it was the Oxford man. From his discharge of December 31, 1778, until after the American Revolution, there appears to be little information concerning the local man. If we take the Lounsbury deed seriously - and there is no reason to doubt it - it would appear