THE NAVAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
BY THE REVEREND EDWARD E. HALE, D. D.
THE battles of the Revolution were fought on the sea as often as on the
land, and to as much purpose. The losses inflicted on their enemies
by the United States in their naval warfare were more constant, and
probably more serious, than any losses which they inflicted elsewhere.
At the beginning of the war, the mercantile class of England, even
then a powerful element in her politics, were far more indifferent to
the questions at issue than they became afterwards, when the rates
of maritime insurance began to rise rapidly. These high rates had
begun long before France and Spain entered into the struggle; and the
captures which the English navy made by no means compensated England
for the losses which she sustained. In such a contest, it generally
proves that the richer combatant is he who pays the most. The loss of
an English Indiaman or a Mediterranean trader on her voyage to "the
Pool",[1222] or to Bristol, was but poorly compensated by the capture
of even a dozen American schooners laden with salt fish and clapboards.
The men of New England, after the early exodus of the Tories, were
almost unanimously engaged against England, and they were engaged with
that intensity of purpose which belongs to Puritans and to republicans.
They were then almost wholly a maritime race; and those ethnologists
who think that New Englanders have a larger share of Norse blood than
most Englishmen may well justify their theory by the fearlessness of
the genuine Yankee upon the sea and his passion for maritime adventure.
So soon, therefore, as the outbreak of hostilities began to disturb the
natural course of their commerce, the seamen of the New England coast
took up the business of cruising against their enemies, as if it were
quite normal and something to which they had been born and trained.
New England was at this moment an important factor in the maritime
interest of the world. She had special facilities for ship-building. In
that essential department of maritime commerce her artisans excelled
any in the world, and for three quarters of a century the export of
ships, which were sold abroad, had been one of the most profitable
features of New England commerce. It required two thirds of a century
after John Winthrop built the "Blessing of the Bay" to persuade the
masters of the royal ship-yards that there was any timber in America
which they could use in preference to that which they received from
Norway.[1223] But Lord Bellomont, as early as 1700, had urged that
the king should not buy his spars in the open market in England, but
should send his own vessels to New England for them. In the same
letters he pointed out to his correspondents that the effect of the
present regulations was that the Americans shipped spars to Portugal,
which were then used in the navy of France. In point of fact, when
at last, in 1778, all four parties were engaged in the Revolutionary
War, the spars of most of the vessels of England, France, Spain, and
America had all been cut in the forests of New England. It is, indeed,
quite within the memory of men now living that in the wildernesses of
Maine or New Hampshire some fine old monarch of the forest might still
be found bearing the broad arrow of the king of England. He had been
marked for the royal navy while King George yet reigned over half this
continent, and he had been spared from the axe by the Declaration of
Independence.[1224]
A people thus bred to the sea, and able to assert themselves upon
it, lost no time, when they found themselves at war with England, in
carrying their war upon the element to which they were born. They
won their first naval victory over England on the 5th of May, 1775,
scarcely a fortnight after the battle of Lexington. The "Falcon", a
British sloop of war, had, under some pretence, seized one or more
prizes from the people of Buzzard's Bay. Inspired probably by the
success at Lexington and Concord, the people of New Bedford and
Dartmouth fitted out a vessel, with which they attacked and cut out
one of the "Falcon's" prizes, with fifteen prisoners, from a harbor in
Martha's Vineyard. On the 12th of June the people of Machias, in Maine,
seized the "Margaretta", a king's sloop, and two other vessels. The
captain and his crew resisted, but he was killed, with one of his men,
and five were wounded.[1225] Her armament was transferred to another
vessel, which was placed under the command of Jeremiah O'Brien, who
received from the government of Massachusetts a commission as marine
captain. As early as the 2d of September, Washington, who was then in
command at Cambridge, issued commissions, authorizing those who held
them to cut off the supply-vessels of the English as they entered the
harbor.[1226] The provincial congress at once legalized their capture,
so far as its enactments could do so, and six vessels were commissioned
by the province of Massachusetts Bay,—the "Lynch", the "Franklin", the
"Lee", the "Washington", the "Harrison", and the "Warren."
On the 16th of October, Washington, acting under instructions from
Congress,[1227] directed Broughton and Selman, captains in the
Marblehead regiment of Continentals, to take their companies on board
the "Lynch" (six guns) and "Franklin" (four guns), and attempt to
intercept in the river St. Lawrence two English transports bound for
Quebec, with military stores. They did not find these two vessels; but
they took ten other prizes, attacked and took a fort on the Island
of St. John, and brought off as prisoners of war the governor and
one of the judges of that island.[1228] On their return in December
to Massachusetts, both officers were reprimanded for exceeding their
instructions, and both prisoners and prizes were released. The
Congress and Washington were still maintaining a friendly attitude
towards Canada and the other northern provinces, and gave up prizes
and prisoners in hopes of conciliating them. Meanwhile, on the 29th of
November, another Marblehead captain, John Manly, in command of the
schooner "Lee", took the brigantine "Nancy" from London, as she entered
Massachusetts Bay, laden with military stores for Howe.[1229] We have
the contemporary records of the joy of the Americans at Cambridge,
and the dismay of the besieged in Boston. The extemporized camp of
the besiegers read with delight from the invoice of her stores such
phrases as "two thousand muskets", "one hundred and five thousand
flints", "sixty reams of cartridge paper", "thirty-one tons of musket
shot", "three thousand round-shot for 12-pounders, four thousand for
6-pounders."
[Illustration: COMMODORE TUCKER'S ORDERS.
After original in the _Tucker Papers_, in Harvard College library,
giving him, by direction of Congress, charge of the frigate
"Boston."—ED.]
Before the end of 1775 the Continental Congress ordered that five
ships of thirty-two guns should be built, five of twenty-eight, and
three of twenty-four. This order was carried out, and these vessels are
the proper beginning of the navy of the United States.[1230] Almost
every one of them, before the war was over, had been captured, or
burned to avoid capture. But the names of the little fleet will always
be of interest to Americans, and some of those names have always been
preserved on the calendar of the navy. They are the "Washington",
"Raleigh", "Hancock", "Randolph", "Warren", "Virginia", "Trumbull",
"Effingham", "Congress", "Providence", "Boston", "Delaware",
"Montgomery." The State of Rhode Island, at the very outbreak of
hostilities, commissioned Abraham Whipple, who went with his little
vessel as far as Bermuda, and, from his experience in naval warfare
earned in the French War, he was recognized as commodore of the
little fleet of American cruisers. England had no force at Bermuda to
resist him, and he found the inhabitants friendly. A raid, directed
by Congress, had already brought from the island all the powder in
their stores, and this was one of the first supplies which Washington
received at Cambridge.[1231] Meanwhile, every maritime State issued
commissions to privateers, and established admiralty or prize courts,
with power to condemn prizes when brought in. Legitimate commerce had
been largely checked,[1232] and, as has been said, the seamen of the
country, who had formerly been employed in the fisheries,[1233] or in
our large foreign trade with the West India Islands and with Europe,
gladly volunteered in the private service. Till the end of the war
the seamen preferred the privateer service to that of the government.
This fact, indeed, materially affected the somewhat bold proposals
with which the Continental Congress began the war; and, at the time
when the war virtually closed by Cornwallis's surrender, the national
government, if it can be called such, had very few vessels in its
service.
The larger maritime States had in commission one or more vessels from
the beginning, but they found the same difficulty which the Congress
found in enlisting seamen, when any bold privateer captain came into
rivalry with them. The States of Massachusetts, of Rhode Island, of
Connecticut, of Pennsylvania, of Virginia, and of South Carolina had,
however, as we shall see, each nominally a naval force of its own,
all through the war. The general disposition of all parties being the
same, it was not difficult to unite Continental ships, state ships, and
privateers, on occasion, in the same endeavor.
In March, 1776, the English fleet in Boston Bay, with a large number
of transports, carried to Halifax the whole English army, and those
inhabitants of Massachusetts who did not venture to remain.[1234]
Meanwhile, the English government at home was sending large
reinforcements to Howe, and he was not as successful as he could have
wished in meeting at sea the vessels which brought them, and turning
them into Halifax. Among the first considerable successes of the
privateers and the armed ships of Massachusetts Bay were the capture
of several of these vessels as they came unsuspiciously toward the
harbor of Boston. The Connecticut brig "Defence", of fourteen guns,
the Massachusetts State schooner "Lee", of eight, and three privateer
schooners attacked two armed English transports off Cape Cod, and
captured them after a sharp action of an hour. The next day they took
a third, and in this way five hundred prisoners fell into the hands of
the Americans. This was on the 17th and 18th of June, 1776.[1235]
As early as the 22d of December, in 1775,[1236] Congress had appointed
Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, commander-in-chief of its navy, and had
named four captains beside, with several lieutenants, the first of
whom was John Paul Jones. Hopkins and the rest fitted a squadron of
eight small vessels, of which the "Alfred" (twenty-four guns) was his
flag-ship. Jones was with him as his lieutenant. With this force they
made a descent upon New Providence in the Bahamas, and although they
failed in obtaining a stock of powder, which they had hoped for, they
did capture a hundred cannon and a large quantity of other military
stores.
[Illustration: ESEK HOPKINS.
From an engraving in _An Impartial History of the War in America_,
London, 1780, p. 310, where he is called "Robert Hopkins, Commodore of
the American Sea-forces", in a sketch of his life which is far from
accurate, and which is cited in the _United Service_, Feb., 1885,
etc. A more common picture is given in Murray's _Impartial History_
(vol. ii.), which has been quently reëngraved. (Cf. _The Providence
Plantation for 250 Years_, Prov., 1886, p. 61; Lossing's _Field-Book_,
ii. 844 _Cyclop. U. S. Hist._, i. 844; _Harper's Mag._, xxiv. 160.)
There is a German print in the _Geschichte der Kriege in und ausser
Europa_ (1778), and a Dutch one in _Nederlandsche Mercurius_, xxiii. p.
128.
The best known picture is one published in London, Aug. 22, 1776,
by Thomas Hart, of which a reproduction is given in Smith's _Brit.
Mezzotint Portraits_, and in the _United Service_ (xii. 137, 300),
Feb., 1885, accompanying a memoir by Admiral Geo. H. Preble. (Cf.
Preble's _Hist. of the U. S. Flag_.) It represents "Commodore Hopkins"
standing on his deck, sword in hand, with two ships in the background,
one bearing a Liberty Tree flag with the motto "An appeal to God;" the
other having a striped flag with a serpent across the stripes, and the
motto "Don't tread on me." (Cf. E. M. Stone's _Our French Allies_, p.
12, and Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. p. 844.)—ED.]
On his way home, Hopkins took a tender of six guns and a bomb brig off
Long Island, and on the 6th of April, with a part of his squadron,
engaged the English ship-of-war "Glasgow", of twenty guns. He did not
take her, but the audacity of the attack, made by vessels each of which
was her inferior, pleased the country, and it was at first represented
as a great victory. When it was learned that Hopkins had five vessels,
however small, to the Englishman's one, a reaction of public feeling
took place, from which he never recovered. He was honorably acquitted
by a court-martial, but never regained full public confidence, and he
does not appear in the public naval service afterwards. This hasty
public condemnation seems to have been unjust, and to have cost the
country the service, in its national navy, of a skilful and brave
commander.[1237]
While Hopkins was undergoing his trial, on the 10th of May, 1776, Paul
Jones was appointed to the command of the "Providence", in place of
Hazard, who did or did not fight her as he should have done in the
engagement with the "Glasgow." Through the summer, Jones was engaged in
cruising. At one time he ran as far as Bermuda, and afterwards to the
eastward as far as Canso. In this summer cruise he made sixteen prizes,
and his reputation as a favorite dates from this time.
On the 10th of October a resolution of Congress fixed the rank
of captains in the navy. James Nicholson[1238] was first, Manly
second, McNiel third, Saltonstall fourth, Lambert Wickes eleventh,
John B. Hopkins fourteenth, and Paul Jones eighteenth on a list of
twenty-four.[1239]
Jones was not pleased that his rank was not higher, but eventually his
achievements were such that his reputation probably now stands higher
as a successful officer than that of any of the number.
While he was cruising at the East, Nicholas Biddle,[1240] in the
"Andrea Doria", a little brig carrying fourteen 4-pounders, took two
armed transports filled with soldiers, and captured many merchantmen.
On returning from his cruise he was appointed to the "Randolph"
(thirty-two guns), which had been built that summer in Philadelphia and
was launched in the autumn. Biddle's reputation was high in consequence
of his success, and early in 1777 he sailed on the "Randolph's" first
cruise. He captured four Jamaica-men when he was three days out, one
of which had an armament of twenty guns, but he was then blockaded in
Charleston by an English force through the summer.[1241]
In the autumn of 1776, Jones, at Newport, took command of the "Alfred"
(twenty-four guns) and "Providence" (twelve guns), and in the month of
November went to sea. He was fortunate enough to take the armed ship
"Mellish", with stores for Burgoyne's army. But while returning to
Boston with her, he met the "Milford" (thirty-two), an English frigate.
He succeeded in turning her away from his prize and brought it into
Boston harbor. The "Mellish" had ten thousand suits of uniform on
board, in charge of a company of soldiers. It was when he arrived that
Jones found that he was only eighteenth on the list of captains, and
this really meant that there was hardly a ship which he could expect in
the service, and that if he found any it would be even inferior to the
"Alfred."
On this occasion he first used Poor Richard's rule, "If you want a
thing done, do it yourself." He went to Philadelphia to urge his own
claims on Congress or its naval committee. But they could not work
impossibilities, and it was not till some months later that he was
appointed to the "Ranger." He believed that she was the first armed
vessel to display the national American flag. It was not till November,
1777, that he got to sea with her. He hoped to carry out the great news
of Burgoyne's surrender. But the government of Massachusetts had been
too quick for him. They had commissioned the brigantine "Perch", with a
special messenger, Jonathan Loring Austin, and he had arrived in France
with the news some days before Jones appeared.
Lambert Wickes, the eleventh on the list of captains, had been the
first officer to carry a national cruiser across the ocean. He was
directed to take Dr. Franklin to France in the "Reprisal", and did
so,—in a voyage which gave Franklin a high opinion of his ability.
Several times he beat to quarters when an attack from a hostile force
seemed possible, but with such a passenger he did not, of course, court
an action. When near the coast of France he made two or three prizes
and brought them in with him.
His arrival and theirs, and the arrival of some other prizes which
had been taken early in the year by other privateers, opened all the
questions regarding neutrality, which recently, in our civil war and
afterwards, made the history of the cruiser "Alabama" so important a
feature in modern international law. France made no treaty with America
until the end of 1777. Till that time—indeed, until the formal rupture
with England—she was under very strict treaty obligations with that
power. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) provided that "it shall not be
lawful for any foreign Privateers to fit their ships in the Ports of
one or the other of the aforesaid Partys, to sell what they have taken,
or in any manner whatever to exchange either Ships, Merchandises, or
any other Ladings." Wickes was annoyed and provoked at the treatment
he received from French officials, who pretended to observe the
obligations by which the French king was thus bound. But he succeeded
in going to sea again, and made a successful cruise around Ireland,
taking several prizes.[1242]
The French people looked with great satisfaction on such captures.
But war was not yet declared with England by France, and the French
cabinet knew perfectly well that the act of Wickes involved a flagrant
violation of French neutrality. The fitting out war-vessels in French
ports was not only wrong, under a fair construction of international
law, but the king of France had specially waived all right to harbor
privateers of foreign powers—unless they were in actual distress—by
these special articles in this treaty. Wickes could never understand
this. He knew that France was sending munitions of war to his
countrymen. Why should France not permit him to bring his prizes into
French ports to sell? And the temptation was great. Once and again he
slipped out to sea; and he sent in one and another prize. But at last
Vergennes, the French minister, could bear it no longer. Poor Wickes's
last letters show how strong the hand of France was, even upon her
friends.[1243]
All the diplomacy of Franklin, the good-nature of Vergennes, and the
real sympathy of the French people could not forever prevail. Wickes
was at last ordered squarely to make ready for America, and did so.
But, alas! the refitting seems to have been incomplete, and he never
reached the United States. His vessel was lost off Newfoundland, and
only one man was saved.
The other name which should rank with those of Jones and Wickes as one
of those early naval heroes who in a courageous though fitful manner
kept the stars and stripes afloat in European waters, and infested
the English shores to the annoyance of their merchant marine and the
terror of the maritime towns, is that of Gustavus Conyngham. In the
spring of 1777, before Wickes had rendered himself so utterly obnoxious
to the French ministry as he afterwards did—before the complaints of
Lord Stormont had received much attention, Silas Deane, ever on the
lookout for the accomplishment of some successful naval enterprise,
took thought with William Hodge, a Philadelphia merchant, and planned
what was to be the boldest raid yet made upon the English shipping. A
lugger was purchased at Dover and sent around to Dunkirk, that old nest
of smugglers and privateersmen. She was fitted out with an armament
and crew, and given, with the name of the "Surprise", to Gustavus
Conyngham, for a raid on the English marine. The expedition was partly
public and partly private in its nature. Conyngham was, however,
an officer in the navy, for he was furnished with one of the blank
commissions given the commissioners for that very purpose, signed by
John Hancock, president of Congress. This point was of some importance
to him afterwards, when he was accused by the English of piracy. The
charge was groundless. The commissioners had received power to create
officers in the navy of the United States, by virtue of these blank
commissions, which were to be filled out to suit the circumstances.
Conyngham sailed from Dunkirk with instructions to cruise in the
British Channel for merchant vessels, and to look particularly for the
"Prince of Orange" packet from Harwich. He was fortunate. On one of the
very first days of the cruise he came across the packet, captured her
without a blow, and then made sail with his prizes for Dunkirk. He had
also taken a brig.
But this breach of French neutrality was too shameless. A storm of
English complaint compelled the French court to take firmer measures
than they may have desired. Conyngham and his crew were put in prison,
the lugger was confiscated, the prizes were returned. The French,
indeed, went so far that the English government, quite deceived by
their great zeal, sent over vessels to bring to England Conyngham and
his crew to be tried for piracy. But to this point the French could not
quite go.
The affair caused great excitement in England. It was so unexpected,
so bold, so audacious, that no one could tell what would come next. As
a consequence, insurance rose quickly. British ships were no longer
considered safe, even in the English Channel. There were at one time
in the Thames as many as forty French vessels loading with English
merchandise, while it is said that ten per cent. was sometimes paid as
insurance for the short passage between Dover and Calais. Although the
measures of the French government tended to quiet apprehension, it was
some little time before confidence was restored.
Meanwhile, the planners of the first scheme had resolved to repeat
the outrage. Another cutter was bought, again at Dover, and equipped
with fourteen sixes and twenty-four swivels. Conyngham's release was
obtained through the courtesy of the French ministry, and that of his
crew, by the representation that they were to sail upon a trading
voyage. Mr. Hodge himself went surety for the truth of this statement.
The French court did not like the business; they would have preferred
that the expedition should be abandoned, and they offered to purchase
the cutter of its owners. But it was declared to the ministers that
the voyage was for trading purposes only, and that the owners would
suffer serious loss if it were not allowed to proceed, and they gave
way. The business is not a clear one. It seems evident that the French
suspected that all was not as it should have been, but that they were
deceived as to the real object of the expedition. It is not probable
that they desired to blind themselves to the truth, for they were at
this time in a delicate position with England through the operations of
Wickes, Johnston, and Nicholson, and there was but little in the aspect
of American affairs that would have tended to make them consider an
alliance with the United States with such seriousness as to be willing
to allow the English ministry to have more cause for complaint than
could be helped. However this was, Conyngham sailed in the "Revenge"
on the 18th of July for another cruise, by no means a trading voyage.
In this case, also, although the ship was undoubtedly fitted out
in a measure by private parties, Conyngham himself sailed with a
regular commission. His former one had been taken from him when he
was imprisoned, and sent to Versailles, and was never heard of again.
This second commission was drawn on one of the blanks with which the
commissioners were furnished.
This cruise was even more successful than the former, although no such
capture was made as that of the Harwich packet. Conyngham made prize of
several ships, alarmed the English merchant marine again, threatened
the English coast, actually refitted his vessel in an English port,
having made his way thither in disguise, and escaped with safety to
Spain in course of time. Most of his prizes were disposed of to the
benefit of the United States government as well as of the private
parties concerned. There was more English complaint in Paris, but
nothing actually came of it beyond the imprisonment of Mr. Hodge in
the Bastille. But he was shortly released on such representations by
the commissioners as seem to have satisfied the French court.
Captain Johnston does not appear among the twenty-four captains first
commissioned by Congress; but in the spring of 1777 he took the
"Lexington" across to Europe, and arrived there in April. With the
"Dolphin", under Lieutenant Nicholson, a brother of Nicholson who was
senior captain, he went to sea under Wickes's command in the cruise
which has been described. But in a second cruise fortune failed him.
He engaged the "Alert", an English man-of-war cutter of force somewhat
less than his own; but after a long action, having expended all his
ammunition, he was obliged to surrender. It is said that his little
vessel was the first to bear the American flag in an ocean victory. She
had already been taken once, and once recaptured by her own crew, after
they had been placed under an English prize crew. She had taken many
prizes, and had won for herself a reputation in both hemispheres in
only one year and eight months, which comprise all her American service.
As a consequence of her capture, Johnston and his crew were made
prisoners. At one time the English had nearly one thousand American
seamen imprisoned in Forton, near Portsmouth. But the successes of
Jones and other cruisers, after the French alliance enabled the
Americans to keep their prisoners, compelled the English administration
to assent to an exchange; and in the winter of 1779-80, most of the
Americans were released by such exchanges.[1244]
It is impossible, within the space at our command, to give any detail
of the successes of the various armed vessels, whether fitted out
by individuals, by States, or by the Congress on the shores of the
United States. A good authority[1245] says that, in 1776, 342 sail of
English vessels were captured by the Americans. Of these, forty-four
were recaptured, eighteen released, and the rest carried into port.
The same authority tells us that in the year 1777 the commerce of
England suffered a loss of 467 sail, though the government kept seventy
cruisers on the American coast alone. Such successes were not of course
without their compensations. In March the English captured the brig
"Cabot", of sixteen guns, one of the first American cruisers. When
Gen. Howe took Philadelphia the Americans were obliged to destroy the
"Andrea Doria", the "Wasp", and the "Hornet." The "Raleigh", one of the
Continental frigates, got to sea from New Hampshire. She engaged the
"Druid", an English vessel in convoy of the Windward Island fleet, and
disabled her, so that she returned to England.
When 1778 began, of the new frigates ordered in 1775, the "Congress"
and "Montgomery" had been burned in the Hudson that they might not
be taken; the "Delaware" had been captured in the bay whose name she
bore, and the "Hancock" taken off Halifax. At about the same time
the "Randolph" blew up, as has been told. In 1778 the "Washington"
and "Effingham" were burned in the Delaware by the enemy, and the
"Virginia" was captured by a squadron of theirs on her first voyage.
To supply the places of the unfortunate ships which were lost so soon
after they were built, the government had commissioned the "Alliance",
the "Confederacy", the "Deane", afterwards called "The Hague", and
the "Queen of France." Of these, the three first carried thirty-two
guns each, and the last twenty-eight. The "Alliance" and "The Hague"
were the only two, of all the seventeen, which remained in the service
when the war was over. While the American naval force, so far as it
was under Continental orders, was thus insignificant for any action
against an English fleet of more than seventy vessels, the arrival of
D'Estaing with a large French fleet off the capes of the Delaware, in
July, did much to hold that force in check and to compel it to act on
the defensive. Before describing the movements of D'Estaing's fleet,
we must return to the eastern side of the Atlantic, and continue the
history of naval warfare on the coast of England.
Such captures as those made by Wickes and Conyngham, under the very eye
of the English nation, naturally attracted more attention among those
who led the public opinion of England than did any captures made by the
navy of America on her own coast, and there were bolder movements yet
to claim their attention than any we have chronicled.
John Paul Jones was a native of Scotland, but at an early age he
removed to America, and he had been engaged there in commerce many
years before the breaking out of the war. As the reader has seen,
he crossed the Atlantic in hopes of obtaining a better vessel than
Congress could give to him on this side of the water. But he found on
his arrival that no such vessel was to be had at once. He therefore
refitted the "Ranger", the vessel in which he had crossed the ocean,
and in the month of April, 1778, he made a bold descent on the coast
of Scotland and England. In this expedition he took the English ship
"Drake", of a force quite equal to his own, and he brought her with him
as a prize into the harbor of Brest. In this voyage he made a landing
on the Scotch coast, and his men carried off the family plate from the
mansion of the Earl of Selkirk. Jones himself had been in the service
of this nobleman, and he made it a point of honor to buy back the plate
from his men and send it to the Countess of Selkirk.
The news of his exploit was of no little importance for the American
name in France. It seemed to open an opportunity for giving to Jones
the command of the "Indian", a fine vessel then upon the stocks,
and through the summer he was amused by this hope and by various
enterprises which were proposed for so energetic a leader. Of his
disappointments and of his renewed expectation full record has been
left in his letter-books. One of the plans was that of a descent on the
English coast, to be made by a French force under the command of La
Fayette. Jones was to be the naval leader of this expedition. But as
the alliance of France with America was now determined on, the French
government enlarged their plans. D'Estaing was sent to the American
coast, and La Fayette and Jones were told that their services would not
be needed. In the midst of these disappointments, Jones had given up
the command of the "Ranger", which he would have thought better than
nothing. It is at this moment that he says he adopted "Poor Richard's"
motto, which, as our reader knows, he had tried before in America,—"If
you want a thing done, do it yourself",—and went to Paris himself to
urge his claims for employment. The result of his visit was that an old
Indiaman was bought for him, which he transformed into a two-decked
frigate, and to this ship, in compliment to Franklin, his fast
friend, he gave the name of "Bonhomme Richard", that being the French
translation of "Poor Richard." She was armed and equipped in haste,
which, as it proved, was almost ruinous. The "Alliance", under Landais,
the "Pallas", hired for the expedition, and two smaller vessels, joined
the squadron. These two vessels were privateers, and the cost of the
whole expedition seems to have been borne, in part at least, by private
adventurers. The seamen were persons of all nationalities. But Jones
and his own officers on the "Richard" were Americans serving under the
American commission. With this heterogeneous squadron Jones sailed,
and the several vessels made a good many rather insignificant prizes.
They passed around the north of Scotland, and came down on the east
side of the island into the Northern Ocean. On the 23d of September
he discovered the Baltic squadron of merchantmen in the convoy of the
frigate "Serapis", and the "Countess of Scarborough." Jones's squadron
at this time consisted of the "Richard", the "Alliance", and the
"Pallas." The English squadron was commanded by Richard Pearson.
Pearson signalled to his convoy to take care of themselves, and at
once engaged the American squadron, unless we say that they engaged
him. The "Pallas" took the "Countess of Scarborough" in an action of
which we have not any such account as could be wished for. The fight
between the "Richard" and the "Serapis" was long and close, and proved
indeed to be one of the most remarkable naval duels in history. The two
vessels were of about the same force in respect to the number of guns.
But on the first discharge of the lower-deck guns of the "Richard",
two of them burst, so inferior was their metal, and the men at the
other guns on that deck refused to fight their batteries, probably not
unwisely. They repaired to the upper deck, and through the rest of this
remarkable action the lower-deck guns of the "Serapis" were served
against the main deck of the "Richard" without receiving any reply.
Jones fastened the ships together, it is said, with his own hand, as
soon as they first touched each other. Through the action their sides
were so close that not only at the moment when one party attempted to
board the other, but for most of the battle, it was easy to pass from
ship to ship. They had been for some time engaged when the firing of
the "Richard" slacked, and Pearson called to know if she had struck.
It was then that Jones made the ominous reply which has become almost
proverbial: "I have not begun to fight." When he did begin to fight he
showed all the remarkable qualities which certainly made him a great
naval commander. He was willing to serve guns with his own hands,
but he kept an eye on everything which was passing on both ships. He
succeeded in so placing one or two of his guns that he nearly raked the
enemy's deck fore and aft, and it was almost impossible for any man
to stand against his fire. This terrible action raged through several
hours of the night. The anxieties attending it for the Americans were
the more acute, because Landais, in the "Alliance", rendered no direct
assistance, but hovered around, firing occasional shots, which the
American seamen always declared were aimed at their vessel and not
at their enemies. The crisis came at last, when some sailors on the
main-yard of the "Richard" succeeded in dropping hand-grenades through
the open hatchways of the "Serapis" upon the men at work there. One
of these grenades fired some loose powder, which was followed by the
explosion of a powder-chest, which demoralized all the crew in that
part of the vessel. Pearson was obliged to surrender. But so close and
so confused had been the action that it is said that his first officer,
when he heard the cry "She has struck!" believed that it was their
antagonist that had surrendered, so confident was he still of victory.
Jones carried the prizes, the "Serapis" and the "Scarborough", into the
Texel, in Holland. The "Richard" was so damaged that she sank the day
after the battle.
It may readily be imagined that this exploit, by which two English
men-of-war were carried away in triumph under the very eyes of the
people of Scarborough, excited immense attention in all Europe. Jones
was the hero of the hour. He was literally crowned with laurel at
the theatre, and the French government made him the most flattering
proposals with a view to his taking command in their service. Jones
himself and all his officers were mad with rage at the conduct of
Landais. Nothing but the enthusiasm of the alliance between the two
nations had made him the commander of an American frigate. Franklin
and Jones would have been glad to try him by court-martial, but this
proved impossible. He was sent home in the "Alliance", and on the way
became evidently insane. All necessities of a court-martial were thus
avoided.[1246]
This ill-success of Landais was a good enough illustration of the
danger of entrusting seamen of one nation to a commander from another.
Either this danger or some other consideration prevented the French
government from employing Jones. But the hope of such service was
so constant with him that he took no command from the government of
the United States for some time. And thus his service, which might
have been of great importance, was lost, while he was dangling in
antechambers.
These conflicts on the coast of Europe attracted, as has been said,
more of the attention of Europe than the naval battles between England
and America in other seas. But the years 1777 and 1778 had not passed
without frequent naval engagements on the American coast, some of them
of considerable importance. In May, 1777, Manly took the "Hancock" and
"Boston", frigates from the port of Boston, with which he captured
the English frigate "Fox." The three vessels looked into the harbor
of Halifax, and drew into action the "Rainbow", the "Flora", and the
"Victor", a superior force. The two smaller American vessels escaped,
but the "Hancock" was sacrificed.
The "Raleigh", one of the thirteen frigates built for the Continent,
had, as the reader knows, made a successful cruise in the end of 1777.
The next year, with the "Alfred", one of the little favorites in
the beginning of the war, she sailed from France. Both vessels were
overtaken by a superior English force, and the "Alfred" was lost,
though the "Raleigh" succeeded in reaching Boston. At that time most of
the naval force of the Congress was in Boston harbor. It consisted of
but three vessels, the "Warren", the "Raleigh", and the "Deane", each
of thirty-two guns. The State of Massachusetts had in the same harbor
the "Tyrannicide", the "Independent", the "Sampson", and the "Hancock",
of fourteen guns and of twenty. But besides this little fleet, so
insignificant in itself, hundreds of privateers were afloat, many of
them of force nearly equal to the largest of the vessels which have
been named.
It had been the hope of Franklin in Paris, of Paul Jones, his naval
adviser, and of the court to which they both gave counsel, that
D'Estaing's fleet might arrive off Delaware Bay in time to shut up the
English fleet there. The same issue was feared in England.[1247] But
D'Estaing was just too late. He arrived on the 7th of July off the
capes; he only landed his passengers, Deane, and Gérard, the new French
minister, and without even watering his fleet followed the English
fleet to New York. Had he entrapped them in the Delaware, a crisis like
that of Yorktown might have come three years earlier.
But the harbor of New York was too well protected by the intricacies
of its channels to make an attack possible. D'Estaing remained in the
offing off Sandy Hook for some days, and then bore away for Newport.
His coöperation with the army of Sullivan is described in another
place.[1248]
A full letter from Cooper to Franklin exists among the Franklin
papers,[1249] which gives D'Estaing's own view of the transactions
which followed, and that view is probably substantially correct. When
he threatened the English fleet in New York Bay, it consisted of six
ships of the line, six fifty-gun ships, two of forty-four guns, with
smaller vessels. When he entered Newport Bay the English burned the
"Orpheus", the "Lark", the "Cerberus", and the "King-Fisher",—of
various force, from thirty-two guns to twenty,—and several smaller
vessels. When, in conjunction with Sullivan, D'Estaing attacked
the town, the English burned the "Grand Duke" and the "Flora", of
thirty-two guns, with fifteen transports. While he was in Newport
Bay, Byron's English fleet reinforced the fleet in New York, and they
were now strong enough to retaliate on D'Estaing and give to him
the challenge which he had so lately given to them. With a fleet of
thirty-six sail, fourteen of which were double-deckers, they appeared
off Newport.
D'Estaing was not averse to a contest. On the 10th of August, with
the advantage of a fresh north wind, he took his squadron to sea.
The English admiral, Howe, slipped his cables and went to sea also.
D'Estaing did not avoid a battle, and, in the gale which followed,
engaged the rear of the English fleet. But his own flag-ship, the
"Languedoc", was dismasted in the gale, and, after communicating with
Sullivan again, he went round to Boston to refit.
Samuel Cooper, in writing the letter to which we have alluded, is well
aware that there was some popular disappointment because the Count
D'Estaing had not done more. But he resumes the whole by saying: "The
very sound of his aid occasioned the evacuation of Philadelphia by the
British army; his presence suspended the operation of a vast British
force in these States, by sea and land; it animated our own efforts;
it protected our coast and navigation, obliging the enemy to keep
their men-of-war and cruisers collected, and facilitated our necessary
supplies from abroad. By drawing the powerful squadron of Admiral Byron
to these seas, it gave security to the islands of France in the West
Indies, an equilibrium to her naval power in the Channel, and a decided
superiority in the Mediterranean."
When it is remembered that, in the events of the summer and autumn,
the English lost twenty vessels in their collisions with D'Estaing's
fleet, it must be granted that its exploits were by no means
inconsiderable.
[Illustration]
Of the American ships which have been spoken of, the "Raleigh" was
the only one which was seriously engaged in this year. She put to sea
on the 25th of September, with a small convoy. Before night she was
pursued by two cruisers of the enemy. Barry, the commander, ran his
ship on shore and saved his officers and men; but the "Raleigh" was
floated by the English and taken into their service.[1250]
Meanwhile, in adventures which separately do not claim the dignity of
historical narrative, the public and private cruisers from New England
so swept the ocean that they sent into Boston most of the provision
ships intended for the English army in New York. D'Estaing was able
to leave Boston on the 3d of November for an expedition to the West
Indies, with a fleet provisioned with the very stores which had been
provided for his enemies. His vessels had been thoroughly repaired,
cleaned, and sailed in good condition, and well fitted for the
important duty assigned to them.
Early in 1779 the "Alliance" was fitted out for France, from Boston,
to take General Lafayette on an important mission home. She was under
the command of Pierre Landais, of whose misbehavior afterwards, in the
battle of the "Serapis", the reader has been informed. Landais was
already so unpopular that American sailors would not enlist under him,
although the "Alliance" herself was a favorite vessel. Lafayette was,
however, eager to be on his way, and at his urgent instance a crew
was made up by accepting the services of English seamen, prisoners of
war, who had been taken when the "Somerset" was shipwrecked on Cape
Cod. As might have been expected, a mutiny was planned before she
reached France; but it was fortunately revealed by an Irish seaman
who was loyal to his new country. Passengers and officers united in
confining the mutineers, and the ship was safely brought to France. She
was a fine, new, swift vessel. Seamen liked her, though they disliked
Landais. Another crew was obtained for her, and it was thus that she
sailed with Paul Jones. It has been more convenient to speak of her
after-history as we described transactions in the European waters.
In April, a squadron of three vessels, commanded by Hopkins in the
"Warren", sailed from Boston and overtook a fleet of transports and
store-ships which Clinton had sent from New York to Georgia. Hopkins
captured eight out of ten vessels, of which three were armed. By this
brilliant success the Americans took as prisoners twenty-four officers
and a large number of private soldiers.
In the same summer, Whipple, one of the old commanders, in the
"Providence", fell in with a large convoy of English merchantmen bound
from the West Indies to England. The American officer disguised his
vessel, or concealed her character, so that he boldly entered the fleet
as one of their number. As night fell, on each of ten successive days
he boarded and captured some vessel from the convoy, and eight of the
prizes thus taken arrived in Boston. Their cargoes were sold for more
than a million dollars, and the bold venture is spoken of as the most
successful pecuniary enterprise of the war.
Early in the same year, Hallett, in the "Tyrannicide", a cruiser of
the State of Massachusetts, took the "Revenge", a privateer cruiser
from Jamaica.[1251] In the same summer, John Foster Williams, in the
Massachusetts cruiser "Hazard", engaged the "Active", an English vessel
with a larger force, with success. He was then transferred to the
"Protector", a ship of twenty guns, in which he engaged the "Duff", an
English privateer, which blew up after an action of an hour.[1252]
These successes, perhaps, stimulated the State of Massachusetts to
attempt an enterprise which proved the most unfortunate in her military
history, and was the end of her separate state naval force. John Foster
Williams, who had commanded the "Protector", was very popular, and
he was placed at the head of the state squadron, consisting of the
"Tyrannicide", the "Hazard", and the "Protector", fitted out by the
State against the English post at Penobscot, which was then within
her own borders. The state authorities obtained from Congress, as an
accession to their own force, the "Warren", the "Diligent", and the
"Providence", which were nearly all that were left of the Continental
navy. Some privateersmen joined the expedition. The whole naval force
was placed under Saltonstall, who had a Continental commission. The
land force consisted of 1,500 militiamen. This little force landed near
the end of July; but Lovell, the land commander, thought his force
insufficient, and sent for reinforcements. While they were waiting,
Sir George Collier appeared with five English vessels. Saltonstall did
not dare engage them, and ran his own ship, the "Warren", on shore and
burnt her. Most of the other vessels followed his example, and the
rest were captured by the English. The crews, with the land forces,
abandoned the expedition, and returned to Boston by land.
The national navy of the United States was thus reduced to the very
lowest terms. Of the few vessels left, four were taken by the English
when they captured Charleston, namely, the "Providence", the "Queen
of France", the "Ranger", and the "Boston." Nor had Congress much
enthusiasm for replacing them. In the first place, Congress had no
money with which to build ships; and in the second place, the alliance
with France gave it the use of a navy much more powerful than it could
itself create.[1253] It was also clear enough that the great prizes
to be hoped for in privateering gave a sufficient inducement to call
out all the force the country had for naval warfare. The history of
such warfare can never be written, but the damage which the privateers
inflicted upon the enemy's commerce was such that the mercantile
classes of England became bitterly opposed to the war. On the other
hand, it has been said, and probably truly, that New England, the home
of the privateers, was never more prosperous than in the last years
of the Revolution, so large were the profits made in privateering
enterprises.
[Illustration: TUCKER'S PAROLE, MAY 20, 1780.
From the _Tucker Papers_, in Harvard College library. He commanded the
"Boston" when surrendered.]
After the fall of Charleston, the principal vessels left in the
national navy were the "Alliance", the "Hague", formerly the "Deane",
the "Confederacy", the "Trumbull", the "Saratoga", and the "Ariel."
In February, 1781, the "Alliance" crossed to France, and started to
return with the "Marquis de Lafayette", a ship of forty guns, laden
with a very valuable cargo of stores for the government. A few days
after, she took the "Mars" and the "Minerva", heavily armed privateers,
and then parted from her consort. The "Lafayette" was captured soon
after, to the great distress of the American army, which needed her
stores; but the "Alliance" completed her cruise, and, on the 28th of
May, captured the "Atalanta" and the "Trepasy", two English cruisers.
The "Atalanta", however, was subsequently taken by an English squadron.
The "Confederacy", which was launched in 1778, was captured by the
English in the West Indies, on the 22d of June. Captain Nicholson, in
the "Trumbull", after a romantic series of adventures, surrendered to
the "Iris" and the "Monk" in August of the same year. The "Congress"
in September captured the sloop-of-war "Savage." In the next year,
which was the last of the war, the "Alliance" made a cruise in which
she maintained her reputation. The "Hague", the only frigate which
remained to the nation, having been given to Manly, whose success in
the beginning of the war gave such joy to Washington and his army,
"this officer in a manner closed it", as Fenimore Cooper says, "with a
very brilliant cruise in the West Indies."
The signal success of Count de Grasse in blocking up Lord Cornwallis
in the Chesapeake, and the history of his engagements with Rodney and
others, belong more properly to another chapter of this history.[1254]
It is a misfortune for the history of this country that no intelligent
man in New England interested himself in the systematic history of the
privateer enterprises of the United States in the Revolution while
the seamen lived who engaged in them. But no such person undertook
this historical work, and the materials do not now exist from which it
could be thoroughly done. Some details noticed by authors of the time
excite attention and surprise as they reveal the magnitude and number
of the prizes made by the privateers. Such is the statement, cited
above, that the prizes sent in by Whipple in one cruise exceeded one
million dollars in value. Hutchinson, in his diary, reports the belief
that seventy thousand New Englanders were engaged in privateering at
one time. This was probably an overestimate at that moment. But it
is certain that, as the war went on, many more than seventy thousand
Americans fought their enemy upon the sea. On the other hand, the
reader knows that there was no time when seventy thousand men were
enrolled in the armies of the United States on shore.[1255]
In the year 1781 the privateer fleet of the port of Salem alone
consisted of fifty-nine vessels, which carried nearly four thousand
men, and mounted seven hundred and forty-six guns. In 1780 the
Admiralty Court of the Essex district of Massachusetts, which was the
largest of the three admiralty districts, had condemned 818 prizes. It
must not be supposed that other districts were insignificant. In the
single month of May, 1779, eighteen prizes were brought into New London.
As has been said, there seems to be no method of making any complete
computation of the magnitude of the privateer fleet at any one time.
But an incomplete list in the _Massachusetts Archives_ of those
commissioned in that State gives us the names of two hundred and
seventy-six vessels. As the reader has seen, the fleets from Rhode
Island, Connecticut, and Philadelphia were also large. It would
probably be fair to say that between the beginning and end of the
war more than five hundred privateers were commissioned by different
States. The magnitude of the injury inflicted upon the English trade
by these vessels may be judged by such a comparison as is in our
power of the respective forces. In the year 1777 the whole number
of officers and men in the English navy was eighty-seven thousand.
Although Hutchinson's estimate is probably an overestimate, it is to be
remembered that, as the reader has seen, there were at the same time
very considerable naval forces in the employ of the several States and
of the United States government. This would seem to show that, man for
man, the numerical forces engaged by the two parties were not very much
unlike. In the Atlantic Ocean, the Americans seem to have outnumbered
the English.
After the navy of the United States, which was officered and built
or purchased by Congress, the largest separate force was that of the
State of Massachusetts. So soon as O'Brien and his friends seized the
"Margaretta", as has been told, the provincial government took her into
its service, and christened her the "Liberty", keeping her at first
under the care of O'Brien.
For the first five years of the war, Massachusetts was governed by
a committee of the Council. Many of the members of this committee,
from time to time, were Boston merchants, of large experience in
maritime affairs. The State was acting as an independent sovereignty.
It contributed to the resources of its allies, the other States in
the confederation, but none the less did it carry on war against the
common enemy. It would sometimes happen that the State needed to make a
remittance to France in its purchase of military stores. If the market
were favorable, the merchants on the council boards would arrange for
the purchase or charter of a vessel on State account, and the State
bought and sent to Europe the freight by which it made its payments
to its agents. The naval archives of the commonwealth are therefore a
curious mixture of warlike operations and of commercial adventure. It
will sometimes happen that the vessel which appears in one month as a
cruiser, officered and manned for war by the authority of the State,
shall appear in another month as a merchantman, freighted for a foreign
port and intended to bring home a cargo to be sold to the credit of
the State. An interesting instance of the promptness of the government
was its readiness in taking up and fitting for use a little brigantine
which carried to Franklin, in Paris, the first news of Burgoyne's
surrender. Paul Jones hoped, as has been seen, to carry out the same
news in the "Ranger" from Philadelphia; but although his passage was
but twenty days in length, he did not arrive at Bordeaux till the same
day on which Austin, the messenger of Massachusetts, was telling the
great news to Franklin and the commissioners at Passy.[1256]
The navy of Massachusetts, between the beginning and end of the war,
numbered at least thirty-four vessels. One or two of these were vessels
which ranked in the language of that day as frigates. The finest
and largest of them was the "Protector", built on state account at
Salisbury, Mass., where the fine frigate "Alliance", which proved so
successful and popular, was also built, almost at the same time. It
may be said, in passing, that the names of the New England vessels
showed very distinctly that men had not yet lost the traditions of
their ancestry. The "Tyrannicide" was a favorite cruiser in the state
navy, and the action which has been spoken of, in which she took the
"Revenge", was one of the best fought battles of the war. The "Oliver
Cromwell" was a Massachusetts privateer, and the name of the "Hampden"
appears twice on the lists of those days. The keel of the "Protector"
was laid in 1778, and she sailed first in 1780. But she was also one of
the unfortunate squadron destroyed in the Penobscot. The failure of the
well-planned but disastrous expedition to that river resulted in the
destruction of all the important vessels belonging to the State.
We have only a partial catalogue of the privateers commissioned by the
State between 1775 and 1783. It is sometimes difficult to draw the line
between state cruisers and privateers, and it will sometimes happen
that a vessel which has one year been chartered by the State, and
officered in her commission, falls back the next year into the hands
of her owners, and is equipped and fought by them under a privateer's
commission. In this list there are rather more than three hundred names
of separate vessels. Of the privateersmen sent out from Salem there is
a separate list. Between the beginning and end of the war, the Salem
vessels alone numbered nearly one hundred and fifty. The _Massachusetts
Archives_ give a list of three hundred and sixty-five, as commissioned
and belonging in Boston. If we had lists, equally full, of the
privateers which sailed from Falmouth (Portland), from the Merrimac,
from Marblehead, from Falmouth, Dartmouth, Plymouth, Barnstable, and
the other towns on Cape Cod, it is probable that we should enlarge
the list of Massachusetts privateers so that it should include more
than six hundred vessels. It is to be remembered that all the regular
operations of the fishing fleet were stopped, and that therefore, in
every town on the coast, there were vessels and men ready for service,
and very easily commissioned if a spirited commander appeared. To this
number must be added the considerable list of what were virtually New
England privateers among the vessels commissioned in France by Deane
and Franklin.
The largest of these privateers, at starting, carried one hundred
and fifty men. Such an exploit as Whipple's, which has been already
recorded, would have been impossible unless he had as many as ten prize
crews on his vessel, of fifteen men each. With each prize sent in, the
fighting force of the captor was reduced, and in such reduction is
the reason to be found why we often find that at the last a privateer
captain was not able to fight his own ship, and, after he had sent in
many prizes, was himself taken. On the other hand, the smallest of
these vessels, equipped for short cruises, carried but few guns and few
men.
Mr. Felt's statement of the privateer force of Salem and Beverly at
the end of the war gives a total force of fifty-nine ships, carrying
four thousand men. This would give an average of about sixty-six men
to a vessel. The general estimate is higher, and we suppose that the
average crew of a Massachusetts privateer, when she sailed, was about
one hundred men.
If this estimate is correct, we must modify Hutchinson's statement so
far as to say that, sooner or later, Massachusetts alone probably sent
sixty thousand men out in warfare upon the seas. Rhode Island, New
Hampshire, and Connecticut probably sent twenty thousand more. Next
to this fleet was that of the Delaware; next to that, the privateers
commissioned in France; and to these must be added those from the
Chesapeake and more southern waters.
The number of seamen and officers employed by the Continental Congress
was probably largest in the earlier years of the war. No papers now
exist which give full returns of this force. But it would probably be
fair to estimate it as varying in different years from five thousand
to ten thousand men. The several state navies represented, perhaps, as
many more.
When one considers these forces in the privateer fleet and the national
and state navies, the English force opposed seems surprisingly small.
We have the official returns of the officers and men in the whole
English navy for every year of the contest. The number comes up to
87,000, after England was well engaged with America, France, and Spain.
But of this fleet a very considerable part was in the East Indies and
on other stations. Almon's _Remembrancer_ says distinctly that the
number of men engaged against the colonies at sea in 1776 was 26,000.
It is very sure that in that year the colonies had many more men at sea
engaged against England. There were some English privateers; but their
number was not considerable.
A comparison between the military and naval forces of America in the
Revolution shows that the navy, in its various forms, embodied almost
as many men as the army, and sometimes, indeed, more.
In a report sent by General Knox to Congress on the 11th of May,
1790, he gives the number of men actually in the Continental army
year by year, the number of militia called out from time to time,
and the number of men demanded in the quotas fixed by Congress. The
last figures are of no great importance now, though they have some
historical curiosity. The others exhibit the forces for seven years,
thus:—
_Continentals._ _Militia._
1775 27,443 37,623
1776 46,891 42,760
1777 34,820 33,900
1778 32,899 18,153
1779 27,699 17,485
1780 21,015 21,811
1781 33,408 16,048
1782 14,256 3,750
1783 13,476 _No militia._
A curiously extravagant estimate of the extent of the continental
forces engaged has been commonly set forth by adding these yearly
figures, a process which takes no recognition of the fact that a man
serving through three years, for instance, is counted in each year.
The history of this confusion is traced in a paper by Justin Winsor in
the _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, Jan., 1886.—ED.
It is to be observed that the number of militia stated here is largely
conjectural; and in no instance were the men called out in service for
any considerable time. A comparison of these figures with figures quite
as authentic, which give the number of men who were afloat year by year
for purposes of offence, either in the national or state navies, or
in larger numbers in privateers, will show that, in some of the later
years of the war, this naval service enlisted a larger number of men
than were serving in the army. Indeed, as has been shown, Great Britain
appears to have often had more American enemies afloat on the Atlantic
than she had seamen and officers of her own upon that ocean.
[Illustration]
GENERAL EDITORIAL NOTES.
THE earliest account of the Revolutionary navy was in Thomas Clark's
_Naval History of the United States from the Commencement of the
Revolution_ (Philad., 1813; second ed., 1814), in two volumes.
Chas. W. Goldsborough's _United States Naval Chronicle_, bringing the
story down to 1822, was printed in Washington in 1824.
In 1828 there appeared at Brooklyn, N. Y., a _General View of the rise,
etc., of the American Navy_,—a book of little importance.
The most important of all the accounts is the _Naval Hist. of
the United States_, by James Fenimore Cooper, first published in
Philadelphia in 1839, and in a second edition in 1840. In some
respects, relating to the war of 1812, Cooper's views have been called
in question; but his story of the Revolutionary navy is the result of
investigations that have not, on the whole, been improved upon.[1257]
Cooper gives a list of the Continental cruisers, with the fate of each;
and Lossing, in the summary of the Revolutionary naval history in his
_Field-Book_, ii. 851, copies this list. An official and authentic
record, with no attempt at a readable narrative, is found in G. F.
Emmons's _Navy of the United States, 1775-1853, with a brief history
of each vessel's service, to which is added a list of private armed
vessels, previous and subsequent to the Revolutionary War_ (Washington,
1853, published under authority of the Navy Department). The book
contains a list of captures during the Revolution, both by public and
private armed vessels.
On the British side, the earliest connected narrative is that in the
fourth and fifth volumes of Robert Beatson's _Naval and Military
Memoirs of Great Britain_, 1727-1783 (London, 1804). Among the later
books are C. D. Yonge's _Hist. of the British Navy_,[1258] and Allen's
_Battles of the British Navy_.[1259]
SPECIAL EDITORIAL NOTES.
I. PAUL JONES.—In respect to the lives of Paul Jones, Sabin's (ix.
nos. 36,546, etc.) enumeration includes many anonymous and unimportant
ones not now to be mentioned. The earliest biography of any original
authority was one issued at Washington in 1825 (second ed. 1851), _Life
and Character of John Paul Jones_, by John Henry Sherburne, register of
the U. S. navy, and this was reprinted in an abridged form at London,
the same year as _The life of Paul Jones from original documents in
the possession of John Henry Sherburne, register of the Navy of the U.
S._ This life was based upon documents in the naval archives of the
government, upon some letters contributed by Thomas Jefferson, and upon
some papers brought to light in a baker's shop in New York (_No. Amer.
Rev._, Oct., 1826, p. 292). These papers had been left by Jones, when
he went to Europe, in the hands of his friend Ross, of Philadelphia.
At Jones's death, and on his heirs' orders, these papers were handed
over to Robert Hyslop, and, upon this gentleman's death, came into
the charge of his cousin, John Hyslop, the baker, in whose shop they
were found by Mr. George A. Ward, of New York, by whom they were put
at Sherburne's disposal. This biographer, hearing of other papers in
Scotland, applied for them, but was refused, as it was intended to use
them in another memoir. This other narrative appeared as _Memoirs of
Rear Admiral Paul Jones, now first compiled from his original journals
and correspondence_ (Edinburgh, 1830, in 2 vols.; London, 1843, in 2
vols.). The author of it referred rather slightingly to the New York
MSS. as "a few fragments", and claimed that Jones took to Europe the
essential part of his papers, which by his will passed to his sisters
in Scotland, and eventually to his niece, Miss Janette Taylor, of
Dumfries, who possessed several bound volumes of them, beside other
loose papers. Some of Jones's papers are in the possession of J. C.
Brevoort, of Brooklyn; others are among the Force Papers in the library
of Congress; and others in the Lee Papers in the libraries of Harvard
College and of the University of Virginia. Franklin's letters to him
are in Sparks's ed., vol. viii. The Taylor MSS. were the original
material mentioned in the title of this Edinburgh edition, which was
reprinted, under the editing of Robert Sands, in New York (1830) as
_The life and Correspondence of Paul Jones from original letters and
manuscripts in the possession of Miss Janette Taylor_. The Sparks
Library has a copy of this book, with Miss Taylor's MS. annotations.
Based upon the same material, but with some alterations and additions,
was the _Life of Rear Admiral John Paul Jones, compiled from his
original Journals and Correspondence_ (Philad., 1845, 1847, 1853, 1858,
1869), which appeared under the editing of B. Walker. The _Life of Paul
Jones by Alexander Slidell Mackenzie_ (Boston, 1841, in two vols.) was
written at the instance of Jared Sparks, and its merit is that it has
sifted all the existing material, making a more readable and better
constructed narrative than the others. Mackenzie acknowledges his use
of the preceding lives, but says he has used guardedly a _Memoir of the
Life of Capt. Nathaniel Fanning, an American naval officer, who served
during part of the American Revolution under Commodore John Paul Jones_
(New York, 1808), which is known in another edition as _A narrative of
the Adventures of an American Naval Officer_ (New York, 1806). Fanning
is said to have been Jones's private secretary, though he is also
spoken of as a midshipman on the "Bon Homme Richard." Thomas Chase,
of Chesterfield, Va., published _Sketches of the life, character, and
times of Paul Jones_ (Richmond, 1850), which is of small extent, and
in part derived from stories told by the author's grandfather, who had
served with Jones.
A French _Mémoire de Paul Jones_ (Paris, 1798) purports to be a
translation under his own eyes, by "Citoyen André", of a narrative
written by Jones himself. _Poole's Index_, p. 695, gives various
periodical references to articles on Jones; and his career is the
subject of J. F. Cooper's novel of _The Pilot_, and of its sequel,
Dumas' _Capitaine Paul_. Cf. Herman Melville's _Israel Potter_. The
Rev. E. E. Hale gives a chapter (no. xiv.) to his career in his
_Franklin in France_.
For Jones's services in the "Ranger", see, beside the lives of Jones,
the _Annual Register_ (xxi. 176); Parton's _Franklin_ (vol. ii.); a
journal of Dr. Ezra Green in the _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, 1875,
edited by Admiral Preble (whose own copy with additions is in the
Mass. Hist. Soc.). A log of the "Ranger" is cited as belonging to a
gentleman in Greenock in 1830; and one, Aug. 24, 1778, to May 10, 1780,
is printed in the _Granite Monthly_, v. 64. The _Memoirs of Andrew
Sherburne, a pensioner of the navy of the Revolution_ (Utica, 1828;
Providence, 1831) covers the service of a lad on the ship.
Of the remarkable fight of the "Bon Homme Richard" and the "Serapis"
we have Jones's account in his letter from Texel to Franklin, also
transmitted to Congress; the narrative of Dale, his lieutenant; and
the letter sent to the admiralty by Capt. Pearson, of the English
ship. These are given by Sherburne, the Edinburgh editor, and others.
The account in Cooper's _Naval History_ passed under the eye of Dale.
The log-book of the "Richard" was in 1830 in the possession of George
Napier, of Edinburgh. The statements about the progress of the fight
are somewhat contradictory, and Dawson (_Battles_, 554) collates them.
A letter of Jones to Robert Morris, Oct. 13, 1779, is in the _N.
Y. Hist. Coll._, 1878, p. 442. Beside the accounts in the lives of
Jones and the general histories, see Parton's _Franklin_ (ii. 335);
_Analectic Mag._ (vol. viii.); Allen's _Battles of the British Navy_;
J. T. Headley's _Miscellanies_. The effect in England is depicted in
Albemarle's _Rockingham and his Contemporaries_ (ii. 381). The story of
the flag of the "Bon Homme Richard" is told by Admiral G. H. Preble in
his _Three Historic Flags_ (_N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, Jan., 1874,
and separately with additions, Boston, 1874,—the author's annotated
copy being in the Mass. Hist. Soc.). There is a contemporary print of
the fight by Peltro, after a painting by Robert Dodd (London, 1781).
Cf. Barnard's _Hist. of England_, p. 693.
Jones accused Landais, who commanded the "Alliance", of failure to
afford assistance, and of even firing into the "Bon Homme Richard."
Landais published a _Memorial to justify Peter Landais' conduct during
the late war_ (Boston, 1784), and a _Second Part_ (New York, 1787?),
being his defence against the specifications of _Charges and proofs
respecting the conduct of Peter Landais_ (New York [1787]). Landais'
quarrel with Jones and his subsequent career are traced in Hale's
_Franklin in France_, ch. xvii. For Landais' claims on government, see
B. P. Poore's _Descriptive Catal. of govt. publications_, pp. 61, 67,
82, 94; and Jones's claims can be traced in _Ibid._ Cf. _Journals of
Congress_, iv. 796.
The _Diplomatic Correspondence_ (vol. i.) shows the complications which
the harboring of Jones and his prizes in Holland caused. For titles on
this point, see Sabin (ix. 36,562, etc.) and Muller, _Books on America_
(1872), p. 187, and nos. 1,181-1,187. The difficulty occasioned by the
captures of Wickes and Conyngham, and their efforts to refit in French
ports, as well as those of Jones, are set forth in Hale's _Franklin in
France_.
* * * * *
II. PRIVATEERING.—The Provincial Assembly of Massachusetts, Nov. 13,
1775, authorized private-armed vessels to cruise, and established a
court for condemning their prizes,—the law being drawn by Elbridge
Gerry (Austin's _Gerry_, i. 92, 505; Barry's _Mass._, iii. 58, and
references; Sparks's _Washington_, iii. 155; Frothingham's _Siege of
Boston_, 261; _Gent. Mag._, Jan., 1776; Almon' s _Remembrancer_, ii.
149). For the provincial legislation, see Goodell's _Provincial Laws_,
vol. v., under "Admiralty", "Letters of Marque", "Armed Vessels", and
"Privateers", in the index.
For the early captures, see _Siege of Boston_, 269, 272, 289, 308;
Adams's _Familiar Letters_, 208, 220, 230. Abigail Adams wrote, Sept.
9, 1776, "The rage for privateering is as great here as anywhere, and
I believe the success has been as great" (_Familiar Letters_, 226).
The _Massachusetts Archives_ show how large the number of privateers
was that hailed from that State. Cf. _Mem. Hist. Boston_, iii. 118,
with references; and the _Report on the Mass. Archives_ (1885), pp.
25, 27-29, 31, 34. Cf. a letter of Thomas Cushing on the building of
armed vessels in Mass., in _Penna. Mag. of Hist._, Oct., 1886, p. 355;
and a list by Admiral Preble of those fitted out in Massachusetts,
1776-1783, in _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, Oct., 1871. After Boston,
the most activity was in Salem. Cf. extracts from _Salem Gazette_,
quoted in A. B. Ellis's _Amer. Patriotism on the Sea_ (Cambridge, 1884,
and _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, Jan., 1884); _Annals of Salem_, by J. B.
Felt; _Curwen's Journal_, 589; W. P. Upham's _General Glover_; life of
E. H. Derby in Hunt's _Amer. Merchants_, vol. ii; T. W. Higginson, in
_Harper's Monthly_, Sept., 1886.
The records of the proprietors of the New Hampshire privateer
"Gen. Sullivan" (1777-1780), showing how the business part of such
enterprises was conducted, and the instructions given to commanders,
have been printed by Charles H. Bell in the _N. E. Hist. and Geneal.
Reg._, 1869, pp. 47, 181, 289. Correspondence of Josiah Bartlett and
William Whipple on privateering is in _Hist. Mag._, vi. 73.
Concerning the Rhode Island privateers, we have William Paine
Sheffield's _Rhode Island privateers and privateersmen_ (an address,
Newport, 1883); and an account of the privateer "Gen. Washington",
in E. M. Stone's _Our French Allies_, p. 275. (Cf. Arnold's _Rhode
Island_, etc.) Newport is thought to have furnished more seamen than
any port except Boston.
For those of Connecticut, see _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, 1873, p.
101; and on the whale-boat warfare, of which a large part was on Long
Island Sound, see _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, March, 1882, p. 168; _N. Y.
Evening Post_, July 18, 1853 (quoted by Ellis); Lossing's _Field-Book_,
ii. 851; Onderdonk's _Rev. Incidents of Long Island_, i. 170-234. Cf.
also F. M. Caulkins's _New London_, ch. 31; Hinman's _Conn. during
the Rev._, 592. The British expedition to Danbury was offset by the
incursion of Connecticut whale-boats (May, 1777), under Return Jonathan
Meigs, to Sag Harbor, where captures were made and shipping burned.
Cf. Hildreth's _Pioneer Settlers of Ohio_, 532; Sparks's _Washington_,
iv. 440; _Mag. of American History_, April, 1880. Judge Jones (_N.
Y. during the Rev._) asperses Meigs's character, and Johnston
(_Observations_, etc., 23) defends him.
For those of New York, see _N. Y. City Manual_, 1870, p. 867. We know
less about the privateers fitted out south of New York; but Robert
Morris is said to have grown rich on the profits of such enterprises
(Chastellux's _Voyages_, Eng. tr., i. 199, etc.). These ventures were
far from uniformly successful, and the losses were many (cf. such
instances as are detailed in Moore's _Diary_, i. 284, 316, etc.), but
the losses inflicted by privateers on the British were vastly greater.
Lecky (iv. 17) thinks that, though the allurements of such service
helped to stay enlistments in the army, it was quite worth such a cost
in the damage which the British suffered.
Congress first authorized privateers under Continental commissions
March 23, 1776, and regulations were adopted April 2d and
3d,—Washington having made suggestions (_Journals_, i. 183, 296, 305;
John Adams's _Works_, iii. 37). A collection of _Extracts from the
Journals of Congress relative to prizes and privateers_ was printed at
Philad. in 1777 (Brinley, no. 4,112). For prize claims, see Poore's
_Descriptive Catalogue_ p. 1347; and for lists of prize cases, cf.
_Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc._, 2d ser., ii. 120.
We have various journals and narratives of cruises in privateers: the
MS. _Journal_ of Capt. J. Fish in the Amer. Antiq. Soc. (1776-77);
Timothy Boardman's _Log-book, kept on board the privateer Oliver
Cromwell, during a cruise from New London, Ct., to Charleston, S.
C., and return, in 1778; also, a biographical sketch of the author,
by S. W. Boardman_, issued under the auspices of the Rutland County
Historical Society (Albany, N. Y., 1885); Solomon Drowne's _Journal
of a cruise in the fall of 1780, in the private sloop of war Hope,
with notes by H. T. Drowne_ (New York, 1872), and reprinted in _The
R. I. Hist. Mag._, July, 1884; narrative of Capt. Philip Besom, of
Marblehead, in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, v. 357.
[Illustration: PAUL JONES.
After the medal struck in his honor by Congress, to commemorate his
victory over the "Serapis." Cf. _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, xi. 299;
Loubat's _Medallic Hist. U. S._; Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 845; Gay's
_Pop. Hist. U. S._, iii. 622; Thomas Wyatt's _Memoirs of the Generals,
Commodores_, etc. (Phil., 1848, no. 23); John Frost's _Pictorial Book
of the Commodores_ (New York, 1845). Madison called Houdon's bust
of Jones "an exact likeness." The familiar portrait by C. W. Peale
represents him full face, with chapeau, has been engraved by J. B.
Longacre, and is in Sherburne's _Life of Jones_. For a contemporary
English print, see J. C. Smith's _British Mezzotint Portraits_, v.
1735.]
Respecting the international complications occasioned by the
privateers, see the _Diplom. Corresp. of the Rev._ Capt. John Lee, of
Marblehead, carried some prisoners taken from prizes, which he had
sent home, into Bilbao in 1776, where he was put under arrest; but the
news of the Declaration of Independence arriving at Madrid, he was
discharged (George Sumner's _Oration at Boston_, July 4, 1859, p. 12;
_Dipl. Corresp._, i. 53). The Grantham correspondence, copied in the
_Sparks MSS._ (no. xxiii.), shows much on these complications. The
histories of American diplomacy in Europe at this time necessarily
cover these points; and the copies of the Lord Stormont and Sir Joseph
Yorke Papers, among the Sparks MSS., show the complications which the
ministers of England had to encounter in France and Holland. E. E.
Hale's _Franklin in France_ has a chapter on the American privateers
sailing from Dunkirk. On the participancy of Franklin and Deane in the
movements of the privateers, see Parton's _Franklin_, ii. 239. There
were instances of privateers being retaken by their prisoners and
carried into England (P. O. Hutchinson's _Gov. Hutchinson_, ii. 86).
* * * * *
III. THE RHODE ISLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1778.—In 1776 all the entrances to
Narragansett Bay had been fortified, except the westerly, or that
one lying between Conanicut Island and the western shore of the bay;
and accordingly, in December of that year, Sir Peter Parker with a
British fleet entered by this passage, and, passing round the northern
end of Conanicut, landed Sir Henry Clinton and a force of British and
Hessians on Rhode Island, and occupied Newport (_New Hampshire State
Papers_, viii. 411, 431; Bancroft, ix. 200, 357. Cf. G. C. Mason on the
English fleet in R. I. in the _R. I. Hist. Soc. Coll._, vii. 301). The
_Journals_ of Congress, ii. 233, show a proposition to send fire-ships
against the British in August, 1777. The Americans, under the direction
of a French engineer, Malmedy, completed at once the defences of all
vulnerable points round the bay, and the chart of the bay, made by the
English engineer Blaskowitz in 1777, shows what some of these points
were. The American as well as the British defences are enumerated
in Gen. George W. Cullum's _Historical sketch of the fortification
defences of Narragansett Bay_ (Washington, 1884). Cf. also his paper in
_Mag. of Amer. Hist._, June, 1884. A section of Blaskowitz's map of the
bay, 1777, given in E. M. Stone's _French Allies_, shows the defences
of Providence.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN PEARSON.]
D'Estaing, by reason of the draft of his heavier ships, had declined to
risk entering New York harbor (Sparks, _Corresp. of the Rev._, ii. 155;
_Mag. of Amer. Hist._, iii. 387). A sketch in the Montresor Papers (_N.
Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1881_, p. 505) gives the positions of the English
and French fleets, July 22, 1778, respectively, within and without
Sandy Hook. When D'Estaing sailed to Newport, it was in pursuance of
a plan contrived with Washington for the capture of that place and
the British forces there. On July 29, 1778, D'Estaing anchored near
Point Judith. Sullivan was now in command of about ten thousand men,
largely militia, and under him were Greene and Lafayette commanding
divisions, and they all were gathered about the head of the bay. Copies
of Lafayette's letters during this campaign, made by him for Sparks,
are in the _Sparks MSS._ no. lxxxiv. There were about 6,000 men under
Maj.-Gen. Pigot in the Newport defences. On Newport in the hands of
the British, see _Hist. Mag._, iv. 1, 34, 69, 105, 133, 172, and the
Journal in _Narragansett Hist. Reg._, i. 28, 91, 167, 277. There was a
small British fleet, mostly of thirty-two guns each, protecting their
water-front. When on August 5 D'Estaing began to send his ships in,
the British burned or sunk their ships. The plan agreed upon by the
joint forces was to attack the British on August 10; but Sullivan had
crossed his troops over to the island earlier than D'Estaing expected,
since he found that Pigot was drawing in his troops from the northern
end of the island, and massing them nearer Newport, while the French
troops had not yet landed so as to be ready to act in concert. This
was the condition, when one morning, as the fog lifted, the English
fleet of Howe was seen off the entrance of the bay. Some of the French
ships were outside and exposed, and so D'Estaing promptly passed out to
keep his fleet together and present his strongest front. Howe declined
battle, because the French had the weather-gauge. A gale coming
on, both fleets sought sea-room and were widely scattered, so that
little fighting took place except as opposing vessels chanced to come
together. The storm damaged both fleets equally, and each commander
sought a harbor as best he could; Howe at New York, and D'Estaing at
Newport.
[Illustration: COUNT D'ESTAING.
After a copperplate engraving of a picture by Bonneville.]
The movements of the British fleet are followed in a _Candid and
impartial narrative of the transactions of the fleet under Lord Howe_
(London, 1779). Cf. also Sir John Barrow's _Life of Richard, Earl Howe_
(London, 1838). In the _Third report of the Hist. MSS. Commission_,
p. 124, there is noted a diary on the fleet, July 29-Aug. 31, 1778.
There is an account of a participant on the French fleet, given in
Moore's _Diary_, ii. 85. Paul Revere speaks of the storm as being of
unexampled severity (_Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, xiii. 251).
[Illustration: D'ESTAING.
[Illustration]
From Andrews' _Hist. of the War_, London, 1785, vol. i. It is also
engraved in _Extrait du Journal d'un officier de la marine_ [Paris?],
1782 (two editions, but with different engravings). Cf. the portrait in
Hennequin's _Biographie Maritime_ (ii. 221); an engraving by Porreau in
Jones's _Georgia_,] vol. ii.; Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 78, etc.]
Meanwhile, on August 15, Sullivan began a movement down the island, and
the British retired behind their two lines of defences. When D'Estaing
reëntered the bay on the 20th, Sullivan had begun his approaches
against the British works, but not wisely in plan, as General Cullum
says. Sullivan urged D'Estaing to join in the attack; but that officer
thought that his first duty, under his instructions, was to make the
safety of his fleet sure, and accordingly did not dare risk, in his
shattered condition, an attack from Howe, should the English admiral
chance to have fared better in the gale, and have made ready to fall
upon him. So D'Estaing told Sullivan he must go to Boston to refit, and
on the 22d he set sail, expressing regret that Sullivan had been so
precipitate in passing over from the main. He declared that he could
not help the American general, and this purpose he insisted upon,
despite the protests of Sullivan and his officers. The predicament of
the American commander was certainly an unfortunate one, but he was
not steady enough of head to refrain from publicly casting reproach on
the French general, in an order which he found he must in part recall
after the mischief had been done (Lodge's _Hamilton's Works_, vii.
557. Cf. Lafayette's letter to Washington in Sparks's _Corresp. of
the Rev._, ii., Aug. 25; and a letter of Greene, in _Ibid._, Aug. 28;
also Greene's _Greene_, iii. 148). Sullivan thus gave the militia an
excuse for deserting him. While in front of the British works and in
this condition, Sullivan got intelligence from Washington that Clinton
had sailed from New York with reinforcements for Pigot. Beginning a
retrograde movement on the 26th, Sullivan stopped at the northern end
of the island and strengthened his position, while Lafayette made a
fruitless visit to Boston to induce D'Estaing to return. That officer
was not yet ready; his ships not yet repaired.
[Illustration: SIEGE OF NEWPORT, 1778.
From the map in the atlas of Marshall's _Washington_. Cf. E. M. Stone's
_Our French Allies_, p. 68; and the map given in Diman's address on the
capture of Prescott. A MS. plan of the attack on Rhode Island, Aug.,
1778, is among the Faden maps (no. 88) in the library of Congress.]
[Illustration: NEWPORT.
This plan, by Charles Blaskowitz, was published by Faden in 1777, and
is here somewhat reduced. Cf. fac-simile in the _Mag. of Amer. Hist._,
July, 1879. A MS. map of the mouth of Taunton River and Newport harbor,
by Charles Blaskowitz, is among the Faden maps (no. 89) in the library
of Congress. There is another plan by Des Barres, published April 24,
1776, and making part of the _Atlantic Neptune_. A plan of Newport and
the bay is in the _American Atlas_, nos. 17 and 18. The British had
contemplated founding a navy yard at Newport in 1764 (_Rhode Island
Hist. Mag._, July, 1885, p. 42). Rider (_Hist. Tracts_, no. 6) gives a
fac-simile of an old map.]
Meanwhile, on the 29th, the British, who had followed Sullivan, began
to press him, and some fighting took place. The centennial of this
action was celebrated August 29, 1878, and S. S. Rider includes an
account of it in his _R. I. Hist. Tracts_, vi. S. G. Arnold delivered
the historical address. This book has also Sullivan's Report, Aug.
31st; Pigot to Clinton; and the German account from Eelking's
_Hülfstruppen_, translated by J. W. De Peyster. Cf. also _R. I.
Hist. Soc. Proc._ (1877-78), p. 88. A letter of Col. Trumbull, Aug.
20th, is in the _Trumbull MSS._, and the fight is described in his
_Autobiography_. A letter of James Lanman, Sept. 16th, is in the
_Sparks MSS._ (xlvii. p. 29). Cf. Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 89,
and Arnold's _Rhode Island_ and other histories of the State, and of
Newport.
The British strength on the island, Aug. 22d, is given as 6,860 men;
and the loss in the action of the 29th is given at 207 in all. _Sparks
MSS._, xlix. vol. iii.
As night fell, the Americans deceived Pigot into thinking them at work
on their defences, when in fact they were crossing to the mainland
by two ferries. An hour before midnight Lafayette got back from
Boston, and found this retreat going on. He took at once charge of the
rear-guard, and by midnight the entire army was rescued.
[Illustration: GENERAL SULLIVAN'S CAMPAIGN MAP, AUGUST. 9-30, 1778.
This follows a sketch in E. M. Stone's _Our French Allies_, p. 108,
which is a reduction of the original (38 inches long,—scale, one inch
to mile), given by Sullivan, after the retreat, to the government of
Rhode Island, and discovered in the State House a few years ago.
KEY: A, "American army under the command of the Hon'ble Gen'l
Sullivan." B, "British lines." B L W, "British Lines and works." B
A, "British Army. Order of March." "Here a severe cannonading and
bombarding on both sides began Aug. 17, 1778, and continued till the
27th." C, "British Army. Order of Battle." D, "Daify Hill" is properly
Durfee's Hill. Y, Turkey Hill. A H, Almy's Hill. O, "British redoubts",
north of Easton's pond. _Windmill._ "Here the British army came up
with the Light Corps of Gen. Sullivan, which was in advance Aug. 29th,
1778, 7 o'c'k A. M., when the battle of that day began." A B, "American
batteries and covered way." R, Howland's Ferry. "Here the American army
landed Aug. 9th, 1778, beginning after 6 o'clock A. M., and retreated
the 30th in the evening."
The sentences above in quotation-marks are legends on the map at the
points indicated. A letter of Sullivan, Oct. 25, 1778, respecting this
map is in the _Trumbull MSS._, iv. p. 181.]
The conduct of Sullivan in this brief campaign has been much
criticised, and Thomas C. Amory attempts his defence in the _Mass.
Hist. Soc. Proc._ (Sept., 1879), vol. xvii. p. 163; and _Mag. of
Amer. Hist._ (1879), vol. iii. pp. 550, 692. Cf. Amory's _Sullivan_,
p. 70, and his papers in the _R. I. Hist. Mag._, 1884, p. 106; 1885,
pp. 244, 271. Sullivan's general orders are in the _Sparks MSS._, no.
xlvii., and in Upham's _John Glover_, p. 46. Letters of Sullivan are
in _Sparks MSS._, no. xx., including his correspondence with Pigot;
others are in the _Trumbull MSS._; some to Laurens, Aug. 6th and 16th,
in the _Laurens Corresp._ (ed. by F. Moore), pp. 116, 120. One of the
miscellaneous volumes of MSS. in the Mass. Hist. Soc. library (_Letters
and Papers, 1777-1780_) is mostly made up of the papers of Meshech
Weare, President of New Hampshire, and they include various letters
from Sullivan, Whipple, and others during this campaign.
The French side of the controversy with D'Estaing is given in
Chevalier's _Histoire de la Marine Française pendant la guerre de
l'Indépendance Américaine_, and in a _Journal d'un officier de la
Marine_ (1782). The correspondence of D'Estaing is in the Archives de
la Marine at Paris, and copies of much of it are in the _Sparks MSS._
(lii. vol. i.) Arnold (_Rhode Island_, vol. ii.) used papers from these
French archives.
[Illustration:
NOTE.—This view of the action of August 25th, taken from Mr.
Brindley's house, is from the _Gentleman's Mag._, 1779, p. 100. The
key is wanting. Cf. Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 83, and Drake's _New
England Coast_.]
[Illustration:
NOTE.—The map on the preceding page is sketched from a colored map
belonging to the Lafayette copies in the Sparks collection at Cornell
University, called _Carte des positions occupées par les troupes
Américaines après leur retraite de Rhode Island, le 30 août, 1778_.
The contemporary English engraved maps of Narragansett Bay of the
most importance are those published by Des Barres and Faden. That
of Des Barres is called _A chart of the harbour of Rhode Island and
Narreganset Bay, published at the request of the Right Honourable Lord
Viscount Howe, by F. F. W. Des Barres, 20 July, 1776_, in two sheets,
which subsequently made part of the _Atlantic Neptune_. It bears
the following "Notes and references explaining the situation of the
British ships and forces after the 29th of July, 1778, when the French
fleet under the command of Count D'Estaing appeared and anchored off
the harbour. The same day two French frigates went up the Seakonnet
Passage. July 30th two French line-of-battle ships anchored in the
Narraganset Passage, on which the king's troops quitted Connanicut
Island. Aug. 5th the French ships came towards Dyer's Island where the
British advanced frigates were destroyed and the seamen encamped. 8th,
the rest of the French fleet came into harbour and anchored abreast
of Gold Island [small island south of Providence Island], upon which
the king's troops withdrew within the lines [north of Newport]. 9th,
the enemy's forces landed." It places the sinking and burning of the
"Alarm" (10 guns), "Cerberus" (28), "Juno" (32), "Kingfisher" (18),
"Lark" (32), "Orpheus" (32), "Pigot" (8), "Spitfire" (8), "Flora" (32),
and "Falcon" (18).
The Faden map was published July 22, 1777, and is entitled _A
Topographical Chart of the Bay of Narraganset, in the Province of New
England, with all the Isles contained therein, among which Rhode Island
and Connonicut have been particularly surveyed ... to which have been
added the several Works and Batteries raised by the Americans, taken by
order of the Principal Farmers on Rhode Island, by Charles Blaskowitz_.
A marginal table gives the names of the farmers, and enumerates ten
batteries, mounting one hundred and twenty-seven guns in all. The map
is dedicated to Earl Percy.
A French reproduction of it. _Plan de to Baie de Narragansett_ makes
part of the _Neptune Américo-septentrional_, no. 6. It is given in
fac-simile in the _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, July, 1879.
The _Sparks Catalogue_, p. 206, shows a "Map of the Nara Gansett Bay,
by Lieut.-Col. Putnam, Jan. 7, 1776, presented to his Excellency,
George Washington, Esq.;" but it is not among the maps at Cornell
University.
There is in the British Museum a colored plan (1778) of Rhode Island
and the adjacent islands and coast, made by Edward Page, second
artillery (measuring 1 2-12 × 7 6-12 inches); and a colored view of
Bristol Neck (1765).
Modern eclectic war maps of the bay are given in Lossing's
_Field-Book_, ii. 80; Carrington's _Battles_, 456 (the last repeated in
the _R. I. Hist. Mag._, 1884, p. 106).]
The despatch of Pigot to his government is in the _Gent. Mag._, Nov.,
1778, p. 537; in Dawson; in Rider's _R. I. Hist. Tracts_, vi.; in
_Newport Hist. Mag._, ii. 253; in E. M. Stone's _Our French Allies_, p.
111. Cf. also paper of Aug. 31, to Clinton, in _London Gazette_, Oct.
15; _Gent. Mag._, Nov., 1778; Almon's _Remembrancer_; Stone's _French
Allies_. See diaries at Newport in _Hist. Mag._, 1860, and Mrs. Almy's
in _Newport Hist. Mag._, July, 1880. Stedman (ii. ch. 23, 24) tells the
story.
The loyal wits had now their chance, and some of their effusions can
be seen in Moore's _Songs and Ballads of the Rev._, p. 231. Wells
(_S. Adams_, iii. 38) traces the effect of Sullivan's retreat on the
country. Upon the general management of the campaign a committee of
Congress reported, Aug. 7, on the early stages (_Journals_, iii. 9).
An orderly-book of Glover's is in the _Essex Inst. Hist. Coll._ (vol.
v.; cf. also i. p. 112), and another is noted in the _Cooke Catal._
no. 1,897. Maj. Gibbs' diary (Aug.) is in _Penna. Archives_, vol. vi.
A diary of Manassah Cutler, who was a chaplain in Titcomb's regiment,
is in E. M. Stone's _Our French Allies_, p. xv. Lafayette gave an
account fifty years afterwards which is in the _Hist. Mag._, Aug.,
1861. His letters to Washington are in Sparks's _Corresp. of the Rev._
(ii. 181, 196). Cf. also Sparks's _Washington_, v. 29, 40, 45; vi.,
etc.; Irving's _Washington_, iii. ch. 36; Marshall's _Washington_, iv.;
Bancroft, ix. 209, 357; x. ch. 5; Greene's letter in Sparks's _Corresp.
of the Rev._, ii. 188, and Greene's _Greene_, ii. 100, etc. A long
letter of Dr. Cooper of Boston, Aug., 1778, to Franklin, defending
D'Estaing's action, in Hale's _Franklin in France_, p. 183; Heath's
_Memoirs_; John Trumbull's _Autobiog._ 51; Stuart's _Gov. Trumbull_,
ch. 32; Williams' _Gen. Barton_, ch. 3; Arnold's _Rhode Island_, ii.
419; Barry's _Mass._, ii. 150; Hamilton's _Republic of the U. S._, i.
ch. 17. There are rolls of the campaign in the _Mass. Archives_; and in
_N. H. Rev. Rolls_, ii. 500, 508. Connecticut did not respond (_Hist.
Mag._, ii. 7; cf. also iv. 145).
[Illustration: RHODE ISLAND, AUGUST, 1778.
Sketched from a colored plan among the Sparks maps at Cornell
University, which follows a plan made for Lafayette. It is called _Plan
de Rhode Island avec les différentes opérations de la flotte Française,
et des troupes Américaines, commandées par le Major Général Sullivan,
contre les forces de terre et de mer des Anglais, depuis le 9 Août,
jusqu'à la nuit du 30 au 31 du même mois, 1778, que les Américains ont
fait leur Retraite_.
KEY: The British works are solid black, their troops diagonally black
and white; the American works of open lines, and their troops shaded
obliquely. The British in Newport were protected on the water side
by batteries (3, 3, 3); on the land side by an inner line of defence
(4) and an outer line (5, 6, 7, 8), with nine guns (8) commanding the
water approach by Easton Pond. At the north end of the island they had
works (16, 18, 20,—solid black) to resist attack from the mainland.
Upon the entrance of the French fleet by the Newport batteries, the
English evacuated these advanced posts, and some frigates were sent
into the East passage (15) to protect the movements of the Americans,
who, moving over to the island, threw up redoubts (17) to protect their
first position, and erected a battery of two guns at 20 to cover their
retreat across Howland's Ferry, should that become necessary. They now
advanced, and on August 15th took position on the line 11, and began
their approaches (9). The French had landed from the ships at 22, and
joined the left wing under Lafayette. The redoubts on the extreme
left and right of the line 11 were never completed. The fire from the
parallels was kept up from the 19th to the evening of the 28th, when
the retreat began, and the Americans in the night of the 28th, erected
the breastworks (19, 19) flanking the abandoned British forts (18), and
during the night of the 30th left the island by Howland's Ferry, while
the British were at Turkey Hill (16). The position of the British fleet
was at 1.
Sparks has added to the plan these references: 12, Overing's house,
where Col. Barton captured Gen. Prescott; 13, guard-house; 14, round
redoubt thrown up by the New Hampshire militia,—skirmishing commenced
here under Col. Laurens; and 10, Bishop Berkeley's house. The broken
lines are roads.
The most elaborate of the manuscript contemporary maps is one belonging
to the Mass. Hist. Society, which is reproduced, full size, in the
_Proceedings_ of that society (vol. xx. p. 350), and is given in its
essential parts in Gen. G. W. Cullum's _Historical Sketch of the
Fortification Defences of Narragansett Bay_ (Washington, 1884). It
is on a scale of nearly an inch and a quarter to the mile, and is
signed "J. Denison scripsit." The French fleet is represented as going
out to join battle with Lord Howe's fleet, exchanging shots with the
English shore batteries, which are more numerous than in the Lafayette
map. The French ships in the East passage are shown as sailing out
to sea, to join D'Estaing on his way to Boston. In the battle of the
29th, near Butt's Hill, English ships are drawn as engaging both the
American right and a battery on the Bristol shore. The first line of
the Americans stretches across the island in this order from west to
east,—Livingston, Varnum, Cornell, Greene, Glover, Tyler. These are
without the breastworks. Behind them are Lovell at the west, Titcomb
between the abandoned British forts, with a reserve under West behind
them.]
There are general surveys in Carrington and Dawson; in _Mag. of Amer.
Hist._, by J. A. Stevens, July, 1879; in Stone's _Our French Allies_
(Providence, 1884), part iii. On the British side see the contemporary
account in _Gent. Mag._, xlix. 101; the Tory account in Jones, _N.
Y. during the Rev._, ii. ch. 12; the German in Ewald, _Belehrungen_,
ii. 249; Eelking's _Hülfstruppen_, i. 105; ii. 14, 30; epitomized in
Lowell's _Hessians_, 215, 220. Cf. J. G. Rosengarten on the German
soldiers in Newport, in _R. I. Hist. Mag._, vii. 81. Silas Talbot, a
Rhode Islander, who had gained credit in the land service, and had
managed some fire-ships against the British fleet in New York, captured
a floating battery of the enemy near Newport, and made his subsequent
record on the water as an officer of the navy. Henry T. Tuckerman
wrote the _Life of Silas Talbot_, which had been intended for Sparks's
_Amer. Biography_, but was published separately in N. Y. in 1850. Cf.
Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 849.
The next morning Clinton's reinforcements appeared, brought by Howe's
fleet. They were not needed; and so, while Gen. Grey made some raids,
with transports and light craft, upon Fairhaven and other ports, whose
privateers had annoyed the British (cf. _Harper's Monthly Mag._, 1885,
p. 823; and statement of losses in _Sparks MSS._, lii. vol. ii. 29),
Clinton took his troops back to New York, and Howe went round Cape Cod
and cruised off Boston harbor, trying in vain to allure D'Estaing to
battle. The French commander remained in port till November. As the
time for his sailing approached, another English fleet, under Admiral
Byron, appeared off the harbor; but a storm scattering his ships, the
French, on the 3d of November, left the port unmolested, and sailed for
the West Indies.
D'Estaing, while in Boston, addressed a letter to Congress (_Sparks
MSS._, lii. vol. iii.), and promulgated a proclamation (Oct. 28th) to
former French subjects in Canada, seeking to detach them from English
interests (Andrews's _Late War_, iii. 171; Niles's _Principles_, 1876
ed., p. 136, _Doc. rel. to Col. Hist., N. Y._, x. 1165).
The reports which reached Boston relative to the campaign under
Sullivan, and the impressions respecting the French, are given in
Ezekiel Price's diary (_N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, Oct., 1865, p.
334). Hancock, who had been in command of the Massachusetts militia
during the campaign, returned to Boston to do what he could by his
hospitality to prevent the general indifference of the Boston people
producing evil effects on the French (_Memorial Hist. Boston_, iii.
185; Loring's _Hundred Boston Orators_, 102; Adams's _Familiar
Letters_, 342; Greene's _Greene_, ii. 143). On the unfortunate riot
(Sept. 17, 1778) in the town, in which the French were roughly handled,
see _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, viii. 785, 856, xv. 95. Considerable
apprehension was felt lest the British, elated by success, should push
towards Boston from Rhode Island, and beacons were got in readiness
(Sept. 7th) on Blue Hill in Milton. A regiment of artillery had been
raised for the defence of the town, and an orderly-book covering
its service, June 8, 1777, to Dec. 18, 1778, is given in the _Essex
Inst. Hist. Coll._, xiii. 115, 237; xiv. 60, 110, 188. Heath (cf. his
_Memoirs_ for this period), at a time when the French were making ready
to sail, wrote from Boston, Oct. 22, 1778, to Weare, of New Hampshire,
that he feared the British were planning an attack by water (_Letters
and Papers, MSS._, 1777-1780, in Mass. Hist. Soc. cabinet).
* * * * *
IV. THE PENOBSCOT EXPEDITION, 1779.—This expedition was fitted out
in Boston by the Massachusetts authorities, with some assistance from
New Hampshire, for the purpose of dislodging a British force, which in
June, under General McNeill, supported by a few vessels under Captain
Mowatt, had taken possession of the peninsula now called Castine. The
treasury of Massachusetts issued bills to cover the cost (Goodell's
_Province Laws_, v. 1191).
[Illustration]
Solomon Lovell was put in command of 1,200 militia and 100 artillery,
while Peleg Wadsworth was second in command, and Paul Revere had
charge of the artillery. The general government lent the "Warren"
and "Providence", Continental vessels, and Dudley Saltonstall, a
Continental officer, commanded the fleet. The expedition, consisting
of nineteen armed vessels, of three hundred and twenty-four guns,
with twenty transports, and 2,000 men in all, left Boston harbor
July 19th. Quarrels between Lovell and Saltonstall prevented prompt
action, and before success could be insured the expedition was
overcome by a naval force which Clinton had sent from New York when
he heard of the undertaking. Our main sources on the American side
are _The original Journal of General Solomon Lovell, kept during the
Penobscot Expedition, 1779, with a sketch of his life by Gilbert
Nash_, published in 1881 by the Weymouth (Mass.) Hist. Society; the
_Boston Gazette_, March 18, 25, April 1, 8, 1782; journal on board the
Continental sloop "Hunter", July 19-Aug. 11, in _Hist. Mag._, viii.
51. Further on the American side Thacher's _Military Journal_; Heath's
_Memoirs_; Thomas Philbrook's account in Cowell's _Spirit of '76 in
Rhode Island_; Pemberton's journal in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, ii.
172; letters of Artemas Ward, Peleg Wadsworth, and Charles Chauncey;
a letter of James Sullivan, saying that it had involved Massachusetts
in a debt of $7,000,000, "which is not so distressing as the disgrace"
(Amory's _James Sullivan_, ii. 376; _Sparks MSS._, xx.); Wheeler's
_Pentagoet_, p. 36; Kidder's _Military Operations in Eastern Maine_,
p. 265; Williamson's _Maine_ (ii. 471) and _Belfast_, ch. 12; Willis's
_Portland_, ch. 19; William Goold's _Portland in the Past_, p. 374;
Barry's _Mass._, ii. ch. 14; J. W. De Peyster in the _N. Y. Mail_, Aug.
13, 1879.
The _Revolutionary Rolls_, in the Massachusetts Archives, give the
_personnel_ of the expedition; the orders, vessels, etc. (vols.
xxxvii., xxxviii., xxxix.)
On the English side we have John Calef's _Siege of Penobscot by the
Rebels_ (London, 1781,—Sabin, iii. no. 9,925), which is copied in
Wheeler; the journal, July 24-Aug. 12, in the _Nova Scotia Gazette_,
Sept. 14, 1779, which is reprinted in the _Maine Hist. Soc. Coll._,
vii. 121, and that in the _Particular Services_, etc., edited by Ithiel
Town. There is a Tory view in Jones's _N. Y. during the Rev._, i. 297.
[Illustration: SIEGE OF PENOBSCOT, 1779.]
Lovell's troops and the seamen struggled in disorder through the Maine
wilderness, and the general himself reached Boston about Sept. 20th.
A court of inquiry, under Gen. Artemas Ward, exonerated Lovell, and
blamed Saltonstall. Nash prints its report, which is preserved in the
_Mass. Archives_, vol. cxiv. It is examined by Eben Hazard in a letter
printed in the _Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc._, iv. 129, in which he intimates
that the blame was not all the naval commander's, and that it was a
part of the plan to throw the responsibility on a Continental officer,
in order to force the cost of the expedition upon Congress.
The annexed sketch is a combination of the two maps on a much larger
scale in Calef's _Siege of Penobscot_ (London, 1781). On the approach
of the American fleet up the river, the British garrison was encamped
on the peninsula of Maja-big-waduce (the modern Castine) at Q, and
their main fortification, Fort George (A), was not completed. Capt.
Mowatt, the naval commander, placed his three vessels in line (L) to
defend the harbor. The Americans were first seen July 24th. On the
25th the American transports passed up the river and anchored, while
nine armed ships in three divisions at K attacked the British ships
at L; the American land forces, meanwhile, attempting to land at R,
were repulsed. On the 26th, towards night, the Americans placed some
heavy guns on Nautilus Island, whereupon the British ships moved back
to a position at M. On the 27th the American ships engaged the British
battery D with little result. On the 28th the Americans succeeded in
landing at R, captured the battery D, and established the lines C.
The battery on Nautilus Island disturbing the ships at M, they moved
farther up to N. On the 29th the Americans opened their batteries along
the lines C, and the British moved some guns from the half-moon E to
the fort, and the ships sent ashore some cannon to be mounted at E. On
the 31st the American seamen and marines attempted a landing between D
and E, but were repulsed. On August 4th the Americans opened a battery
at G, annoying the ships at N, and endangering their communications
with the forts. The American batteries at F and H were not completed,
and the one at H was abandoned on August 9th. On August 5th the British
naval commander began the battery B to protect his communications with
the fort; and while building it, the Americans planted, on the 8th, a
field-piece at F to annoy the men working.
On the 13th arrangements were making for a vigorous attack, when the
reinforcing British fleet appeared in the offing. During the night
the Americans reëmbarked, and all their vessels fled up the river.
Only the "Hunter" and "Hampden" attempted to escape down the river,
and these were captured. Night coming on, the British anchored; while
the Americans landed their men, and then blew up their vessels. The
commodore's ship, "Warren", of thirty-two guns, was burned at Oak Point.
Calef's map is given in Wheeler's _Pentagoet_. A MS. plan of the
operations of the English fleet is among the Faden maps (no. 101), in
the library of Congress. As a result of their success at Penobscot,
the British government, the next year, attempted to erect Maine into
a province under the name of New Ireland (Bancroft, x. 368; Barry's
_Mass.; Me. Hist. Soc. Coll._, vii. 201).