_Captain Silas Talbot, the Soldier-Sailor._
At one period of our naval history none connected with it enjoyed a
higher reputation for patriotic and headlong valor than Captain Silas
Talbot, one of the earliest commanders of that renowned frigate Old
Ironsides.
He came naturally by his adventurous disposition and high standard
of courage. He was a lineal descendant of that Richard de Talbot who
witnessed the grant that Walter Gifford, Earl of Buckingham, made
to the monks of Cerasir, in the reign of William the Conqueror. The
earldom of Shrewsbury was bestowed, in the fifteenth century, upon John
Talbot for his skill and prowess in war. It is remarkable that one of
his ancestors was the antagonist of the Maid of Orleans, and another
had the custody of Mary Queen of Scots.
Silas Talbot was left an orphan at 12 years of age, at the town of
Dighton, and went to sea as a cabin boy. He also learned the trade of
a stonemason, acquired property, and married at the age of 21. The
first notes of the Revolution found Talbot with his companions drilling
under the guidance of an old Scotch drum-major. Finding an opportunity
to join the American camp near Boston, he accompanied the army to
New York, when his knowledge of nautical matters obtained for him the
command of a fireship. Three of the enemy’s ships were anchored near
the mouth of the Hudson, the largest being the Asia, of sixty-four guns.
Singling this vessel out as the object of his attack, Talbot, at 2
o’clock in the morning, dropped down with the tide, and threw his
grappling irons on board as the Asia opened fire. In an instant the
flames of the fire-ship were leaping above the lower yards of the huge
vessel, and Talbot, who had lingered on board until the last moment,
suffered terribly from the injuries received. His skin was blistered
from head to foot, his dress almost entirely destroyed, and his
eyesight for the time destroyed. His companions succeeded in carrying
him clear in a fast-pulling boat, finding shelter in a poor cabin,
where medical aid was at last procured for the sufferer. Meanwhile the
Asia, by strenuous efforts, had cleared herself from the blazing craft,
and, badly injured, had dropped down the river.
For this service, Congress, on October 10, 1777, passed a resolution
of thanks, promoting him to the rank of Major, and recommending him to
Gen. Washington for “employment agreeable to his rank,” and he shortly
after found an opportunity to gain further distinction and a severe
wound in the hip, in an attack on the enemy. Under Gen. Sullivan he
gathered eighty-six flatboats for transportation of the army on Long
Island, which was instrumental in preventing disaster when a retreat
was ordered.
The English, while in possession of Newport, moored a stout vessel off
the mouth of the Seconset River, providing her with twelve 8-pounders
and ten swivels. Strong boarding nettings were attached, while a crew
of forty-five men under Lieut. Dunlap, of the Royal Navy, commanded
the craft, which had been named the Pigot.
Upon this vessel Maj. Talbot had his eye for some time, but could
obtain no suitable means of getting a party afloat. He finally gained
possession of a sloop, equipped her with two 3-pounders, manned by
sixty men. On a dark and foggy night Talbot embarked with his men,
allowing the old sloop to drift under bare poles, until the loom of the
great boat was seen through the fog. Down swept the coasting sloop; the
sentinels hailed, but before one of the Pigot’s guns could be used the
jibboom of the opposing craft had torn its way through the boarding
nettings, affording an opportunity for the attacking party to board,
sword in hand. The vessel was quickly carried, the commander fighting
desperately, en dishabille, and when compelled to surrender wept over
his miserable disgrace. Not a man had been lost in this affair, and the
prize was carried safely into Stonington.
For this exploit Talbot received a handsome letter from Henry Laurens,
President of Congress, and was promoted to a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in
the army. The Assembly of his native State presented him with a sword,
while the British termed him, “One of the greatest arch-rebels in
nature.”
In 1779 he was commissioned a Captain in the navy, but with no national
vessel for him to command. He was instructed to arm a naval force
sufficient to protect the coast from Long Island to Nantucket. Congress
was too poor to assist him, and only by great efforts was he able to
fit out the prize Pigot and a sloop called the Argo. Humble as this
craft was, Talbot assumed command without a moment’s hesitation and
proved what a man of valor and determination could achieve with meagre
means. The sloop was an old-fashioned craft from Albany, square, wide
stern, bluff bow, and steered with a tiller. Her battery consisted of
ten and afterward twelve guns, two of which were mounted in the cabin.
With a crew of sixty, few of whom were seamen or had seen service, the
gallant Captain sailed from Providence on a cruise in May, 1779.
Exercising and drilling his men, he soon had them in fair shape,
enabling him to capture one vessel of twelve guns and two
letter-of-marque brigs from the West Indies. The prizes, with their
cargoes, were greatly needed by the authorities, while the successes
attending the efforts of the men greatly increased their confidence.
There was a Tory privateer of fourteen guns called the King George,
commanded by a Capt. Hazard, manned by eighty men, whose depredations
along the coast had made the craft a terror to the inhabitants. For
a meeting with this craft Capt. Talbot ardently longed, but was
baffled for quite a while. But fortune one clear day smiled upon the
Continental craft, the lookout espying the King George about 100 miles
off shore from Long Island. The Argo ran the enemy aboard, clearing her
deck with one raking broadside, driving her crew below hatches, and
capturing the privateer without the loss of a man.
Shortly after the sloop met a large armed West Indiaman, who fought
desperately for over four hours. Talbot had the skirts of his coat shot
away, losing a number of men by the well-directed fire of the enemy,
and only succeeded in making his antagonist strike when his main-mast
went by the board.
The career of the sloop was brought to an abrupt termination by the
owners’ demanding her return, but not before Capt. Talbot had secured
six good prizes and 300 prisoners.
Capt. Talbot was now informed by Congress that “the government had
every desire to give him a respectable command, but absolutely lacked
the means to do it.” Succeeding to the command of a private armed
ship, Talbot made but one prize, when he found himself one morning
in the midst of a large fleet of English men-of-war. Resistance was
impossible, and as a prisoner the Captain was transferred to the
notorious Jersey prison ship, from which he was in time removed to the
jail in New York, ruled by the cruel and infamous Cunningham.
In November, 1780, in company with seventy other prisoners, they were
marched to the ship Yarmouth, driven into the hold, destitute of
clothing and bedding, making the passage to England amid such suffering
and misery that beggars description. Talbot seemed to bear a charmed
life, passing unscathed through the horrors and death about him, and
was finally placed in the Dartmoor prison, out of which he made a
daring attempt to escape, and was confined in a dungeon forty days as
punishment. On three occasions he incurred the same penalty for similar
attempts, meeting his disappointments and hardships with characteristic
fortitude and courage.
Talbot gained his liberty through exchange for a British officer in
France, finding himself destitute and half-naked in a foreign land. He
landed at Cherbourg in December, 1781, after having been a prisoner
for fifteen months. At Paris Capt. Talbot was assisted by Franklin and
sailed for home in a brig, but fifteen days only after leaving port
she was captured by the Jupiter, an English privateer. But Talbot was
treated with kindness and courtesy by the captain, who transferred him
to a brig they encountered on her way from Lisbon to New York.
He now retired to a farm, where he remained with his family until
1794. He had served his country faithfully, both on land and water,
bearing on his person more or less of British lead, which he carried
to his grave. He had been specially mentioned by Congress on several
occasions, and occupied a high place in the estimation of Washington
and the principal officers of the Continental army. But with the dawn
of peace he was allowed to remain in his place of retirement without
further acknowledgment from the government he had served so well.
In 1794, when Congress enacted a law to enlarge the naval force in
order to check the depredations of the Algerians, among the six
experienced officers selected to command the frigates was Capt. Talbot.
After hostilities with France had commenced, one of the squadrons in
the West Indies was placed under his command, and he flew a broad
pennant on board Old Ironsides in 1799, on the St. Domingo station.
Isaac Hull, as First Lieutenant, was Captain of the frigate, and other
officers served under Talbot’s command who afterward became famous on
the rolls of fame.
It was while Old Ironsides had Talbot for a commander that she captured
her first prize. This vessel had been the British packet Sandwich, and
only waited to complete a cargo of coffee to make a run for France.
Capt. Talbot resolved to cut her out, and a force of seamen and marines
were placed on board an American sloop and the command given to the
gallant Hull. The Sandwich was lying with her broadside bearing on the
channel, with a battery to protect her. But so well was the movements
of the sloop conducted that the Sandwich was carried without the loss
of a man. At the same time Capt. Cormick landed with the marines and
spiked the guns of the battery.
[Illustration: THE “MIANTONOMOH” (DOUBLE-TURRETED MONITOR).]
[Illustration: GUN-BOATS ON WESTERN RIVER.
(Destruction of the Confederate Ram Arkansas.)]
The Sandwich was stripped to a girtline, with all the gear stowed
below; but before sunset she had royal yards across, her guns sealed,
and the prize crew mustered at the guns. Soon after she was under
way, beat out of the harbor and joined the frigate. Hull gained great
credit for the skill with which he had carried out the object of the
expedition, and at the time the affair made quite a sensation among the
various cruisers on the West India station.
Talbot was jealous of his rank and the dignity attached to his station
in the service. His courage, ability, and devotion to his country were
all beyond question. A question arose relative to the seniority of rank
between himself and Commodore Truxton, in which the Secretary of the
Navy gave the preference to Truxton.
This led the old veteran to tender his resignation and enjoy the fairly
earned repose of honorable age. President John Adams wrote to Talbot
requesting him to remain in the service, but the old sailor replied,
“Neither my honor nor reputation would permit me to be commanded by
Capt. Truxton, because he was, in fact, a junior officer.”
Commodore Talbot, in withdrawing from the service, took with him
his two sons, who were following in their father’s footsteps, and,
purchasing land for them in Kentucky, alternated between New York and
the home established by his sons.
He was thirteen times wounded and carried five bullets in his body.
In his intercourse with others, his hospitality and social duties, he
carried himself with rare dignity and grace, and was one of the finest
specimens of a self-made American officer the country produced. He died
in the city of New York on June 30, 1813, and was buried under Trinity
Church.
His name and deeds of valor are enrolled among the proudest of patriot
heroes of the country.