Revolutionary War Continental Army Officer, Industrialist. He built first textile mill in Fall River, Massachusetts. During the Revolutionary War, Fall River, like most of South Eastern New England was under torment by the British. English troops anchored their ships at strategic spots at key waterways and would enter towns to burn and plunder at their whim. Fall River was victim to such tactics and was to be saved from them by its own native son. Durfee, the eldest son of prominent Judge Thomas Durfee had previously served as a Lieutnenant Colonel of Light Infantry in the Battle of Brooklyn, (known also as the battle of Long Island) which took place August 27 to 30, 1776 and the Battle of White Plains (October 28, 1776), both times under the command of General George Washington against troops commanded by British General William Howe. The spring of 1778 found him back in his home town. He obtained permission from Major General John Sullivan in Providence to reorganize the local militia to stop the British. By May 27, 1778, Tensions had run high which brought the British to move across Narragansett bay and attack at the southern tip of the city of Freetown (now called Fall River). In the predawn hours a sentinel discovered a boat slowly approaching shore and fired his musket. The Town Guard, thus alarmed, formed behind a stone wall and gave battle. The enemy then opened fire, and Colonel Durfee and his men climbed up the hill until they reached a bridge that crossed the Quequechan River. The volunteer militia organized by Durfee from Fall River and Tiverton, Rhode Island fought valiantly and feverishly and soon the British sounded the retreat. Colonel Durfee was not as successful during the Battle of Rhode Island in August of 1778 but his heroic efforts in driving the British out of Fall River mark his place in the history of the township battles of New England. He later served as City Selectmen in 1780. He later built the first textile mill in Fall River. Using the same idea that industrialists such as Samuel Slater used in other areas to power weaving machines by water he built his mill on the Slade Pond (now known as Cook’s Pond) in the Globe Village section of the city which, prior to 1862 was then part of Tiverton, RI. While this very first mill, the "Globe Manufactuary", ultimately failed, it planted a seed in the industrial revolution and was the first operation of its kind in Fall River which would later be known as "The Spindle City."