Lynn in the Revolution
Chapter IX.
The Rhode Island Campaign
and Service at Sea

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Transcribed by Shaun Cook
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BEFORE leaving the events of the year 1777, one other service should be mentioned in which our Lynn men were from time to time engaged, that being what was commonly known as the Rhode Island service. The position of Rhode Island, half-way between the extreme northern coasts and the stronghold of the British at New York, was one which was particularly exposed and which the enemy regarded as a special point of advantage. As early as 1776 the Americans had taken pains to fortify the entrance to Narragansett Bay; but one passage, that between Conanicut Island and the western shore, had been left open, and this had been entered in December of that year by a fleet of British vessels under Sir Peter Parker, and the island of Rhode Island seized. This point, the only one with the exception of the lodgment which they gained at the mouth of the Penobscot more than two years later, was also the only one which the British ever held on the coast of New England after the evacuation of Boston. The occupation of Newport was one which caused much uneasiness in the vicinity of Boston, for there was always the fear of an overland attack from the enemy, and men were frequently called to be in readiness to march on an alarm from Rhode
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Island. In the early summer of 1777, in response to one of these alarms, a considerable number of troops were raised in Massachusetts, and among them nearly an entire company made up of men from Salem, Marblehead, and Lynn. This company was under Colonel Jonathan Titcomb and Captain Joseph Hiller, and left Lynn in the early part of June, arriving at Providence on the eleventh, where it remained until the eleventh of August, when it was discharged. On the pay-roll of the company there are some twenty names which undoubtedly belong to men who were residents of Lynn who are credited to the town of Marblehead. It is very probable that they may have enlisted in the latter town, but from the frequent appearance of their names in the Lynn companies, and in the annals of Lynn, it is quite certain that their homes were here.
     It was while this company was stationed at Providence that a small body of Americans proceeded from the mainland and surprised and took prisoner the commander on the island, Major-General Richard Prescott, who was asleep at a country house a few miles out of Newport. He had tyrannized over the inhabitants for many months, and his capture was hailed with delight by those who had suffered from his acts of brutality.
     This excursion to Rhode Island, however, was of purely local interest and effected nothing, the British retaining their hold at Newport for more than two years thereafter.
     The following is a list of the men who were on the pay-roll of Captain Hiller's company, dated Camp at Providence, July six, 1777: -

Abner Pollard, Private
Hugh Malacky, Private
John Ramsdell, Private
James Alley, Private
Joseph Breed, Private
Philip Coats, Private
Joshua Danforth, Private
John Danforth, Private
Jonathan Dunnell, Private
Benjamin Hudson, Private
Elisha Newhall, Private
Andrew Newhall, Private
Nathan Ramsdell, Private
William Watts, Private
Benjamin Tarbox, Private
Nehemiah Ramsdell, Private
James Fearn, Private
Samuel Mudge, Private
John Ireson, Private
Jacob Newhall, Private
William Newhall, Private
William Newhall, Jr., Private
Micajah Newhall, Private
Jonathan Newhall, Private
Nehemiah Newhall, Private
Onesimus Newhall, Private
Amos Newhall, Private
William Tarbox, Private
Thomas Nichols, Private
Ebenezer Lathe, Private
Burrill Potter, Private
Thomas Hudson, Private
Nathaniel Tarbox, Private
Nathaniel Tarbox, Jr., Private
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Let us turn back for a moment to the army of Washington. After the fall of Ticonderoga in July, 1777, Washington remained for a time watching the two armies under Howe and Burgoyne from his strong position at Morristown. His own movements during that memorable summer were a series of marches and counter-marches made necessary by the weakness of his army and his absolute inability to meet the enemy with anything approaching an equal force. A few battles which were fought were conducted in a masterly manner under his direction, and yet he was obliged to suffer defeat at Brandywine and Germantown, to lose the important Forts Mercer and Mifflin on the Delaware, and to see General Howe's army march into Philadelphia. In spite of his brilliant generalship and the fearful disadvantage under which he was obliged to work, Congress was inclined to criticise his conduct of the war, and there were those who expressed openly their dissatisfaction, and plotted secretly to supplant him. Abroad, however, his magnificent handling of his meagre troops roused the admiration which he merited, and in France and Germany, at least, the fact was recognized that a great general was at the head of the American forces. There followed the dreary winter at Valley Forge, enlivened somewhat by the new system of drill which Baron Steuben introduced in the camp and which helped to place in the field in the following year a better army than had yet
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faced the enemy. The next summer opened with the battle of Monmouth, so admirably planned by Washington, so miserably lost through the traitor, Charles Lee. But by this time the British army was somewhat weakened in America, for Great Britain was now embroiled in war with France, and found it difficult to keep her army here supplied with troops. Only two places were securely held by her, and one of these it was now proposed by the Americans to seize, if possible.
     Newport, now under the command of the British Major-General Pigott, was held by a force of six thousand men. Count D'Estaing, whom the French had sent with a fleet to aid the Americans, appearing off Staten Island, was requested by Washington to proceed with his ships to Newport to co-operate with General Sullivan in an attack on that place. General Sullivan was in command at Providence, and was to direct the movements of the land forces. It was an enterprise which met with immediate favor in New England, and men responded readily to the Massachusetts call for troops. A resolve passed in the council chamber on the thirtieth of July is of interest, and is as follows: -

     "Whereas an immediate attack is intended to be made upon the island of Rhode Island, and that it is of the utmost importance that sundry articles be immediately transported from said place to Providence for the supply of the army therefore
     "Ordered, that the Selectmen of Lynn, in the County of Essex, be and they are hereby empowered to procure by impress or otherwise two teams in said town for Col. Thos. Chase, Dep. Q. Master General for the purpose of conveying from the town of Marblehead two loads of lead for the use of said army, the deputy quartermaster general paying the owners a valuable consideration for said teams
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as shall be so impressed in consequence of this order, and all Justices of the Peace are required to afford all necessary aid to enable them to carry the foregoing order into execution."

     On the second of August the following petition was presented at a town meeting held in Lynn: -

     "The subscriber earnestly requests that the inhabitants of the town of Lynn would assemble at the meeting house of the Rev. Mr. Roby at five o'clock afternoon in order to determine upon the best method for raising men for Providence, as I yesterday received order by express from the Brigadier to have the men in readiness
without a moments delay.                        JOHN FLAGG."

     This was met by a resolve passed in the town meeting as follows: -

     "Agreeable to the above request the town met at the above said time and place and passed the following: To give each man that enlists or is drafted for the term of six weeks to march to Providence thirty pounds per month, including what the Court is pleased to give in said thirty pounds.
     "Voted to give said men thirty pounds before they march."

     The company was accordingly raised, and one of our own men, in speaking of the expedition, says that they proceeded to Providence by way of Taunton, and soon after went to Tiverton. This latter town was directly opposite Butt's Hill on the island of Rhode Island where the hard fighting later occurred, and where the retreat across Howland's Ferry was made. Generals Greene and Lafayette each commanded divisions under Sullivan, and were stationed at the head of the bay. General Glover with his brigade was there, having been called from his
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station on the Hudson to march with Varnum's brigade under Lafayette for Rhode Island. Upon his arrival in the East he had gathered many recruits in the vicinity of his home, in Essex County, and now stood in readiness to man the boats which were to convey the troops from the mainland to the island. Our own men were again under Jonathan Titcomb, who had led them on the occasion of the Rhode Island alarm the year before, but now he was brigadier-general, having been promoted to that rank in the previous October. His brigade consisted of Essex County militia numbering nine hundred and fifty-seven men, and in it was the regiment commanded by Colonel Wadsworth, consisting of three hundred and ninety-nine rank and file, among whom were the Lynn men. At Providence the regiment was divided, the Lynn soldiers being placed under Captain Thomas Cox and Lieutenant Harris Chadwell. Not only were the men in Glover's brigade competent to handle the boats, but the Lynn soldiers had also been chosen with this work in view, and were accordingly ordered to help in transporting the army and baggage from the mainland to the island. On the tenth of August the landing was made without opposition, and the march begun toward Newport. At about the same time the French fleet, under Count D'Estaing, arrived off Point Judith.
There was intense excitement through all the countryside. The roads toward Tiverton were reported to be filled with men going there, and the shores for miles were lined with anxious watchers. A cannonade was begun between the French fleet and the British batteries at Newport, filling the inhabitants of the city with terror. General Heath, in his memoirs, mentions an amusing
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incident in which one family, in passing from room to room of their house, not knowing where to find a safe place, discovered the black servant sitting with his back at a shot-hole in a door. Upon his master's asking him why he sat there, he answered, "Massa, you never know two shot to go in the same place!" Sullivan's advancing army found that the British had spoiled the wells along their route, and had driven all the cattle from the northern end of the island. Yet, with nothing further to hinder their progress, they had advanced on the fifteenth to within two miles of the enemy. On the nineteenth they took up a position still nearer, and began to feel the effects of the enemy's guns. Meantime the British squadron, under Lord Howe, had appeared in the sound, and it seemed that an engagement must take place between the hostile fleets which were now facing each other. A storm, however, so severe that for more than fifty years it was referred to as "The Great Storm," came on, and both commanders had much to do to look after the safety of their ships, with little thought of attacking each other. The French fleet drew out to sea, and for days no sign of it appeared again. When, at length, it came in sight off Newport, battered by the storm, its commander informed General Sullivan that before he could co-operate in any attack upon the enemy it would be necessary to go to Boston for repairs. No argument could persuade him to have these attended to in Narragansett Bay, and he sailed away, leaving General Sullivan to advance or retreat as best he could. Many of the volunteers, disgusted, returned home. On the twenty-eighth of August a gentleman, writing in Boston of the events as they were daily transpiring, reported that the French fleet was to be seen
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at Nantasket, and that General Lafayette also had come into Boston, having ridden on horseback all the way from Rhode Island in order to meet Count D'Estaing, and to beg him to return and give his much-needed aid to General Sullivan. The appeal, however, availed nothing, as the count declared his ships unfit for service, and that it would take many days to repair them. Roused, however, by the earnestness of his countryman, he promised to march his troops overland to Rhode Island. With that Lafayette galloped back to the army, arriving just at the close of a hard-fought battle at the northern end of the island. General Sullivan had been obliged to withdraw his forces to this point, as it would have been foolhardy to attempt an attack at Newport with the harbors all open to the approach of the British fleet under Lord Howe, but in the battle which took place at Butt's Hill the result was wholly in favor of the American side, and in the final retreat from the island the troops were able to proceed so quietly and safely that they lost neither men nor baggage in the transit. Our Lynn men remained after this for a short time at Tiverton, and then went around to Pawtuxet, and stayed until their term of service had expired. The British, therefore, were still left in possession of Rhode Island.

But now danger seemed to threaten Boston. With the French fleet anchored in the harbor, it was feared that Lord Howe would come up and attack it there, - an event which even Washington regarded as more than likely, for we find him writing General Heath in a letter which reached Boston on the tenth of September, that, while it was his opinion that the enemy would not attack Boston by land, he thought they might endeavor to attack the
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French fleet in the harbor, and advised him to fortify against it.
     Already the British had burned the shipping at New Bedford and Fairhaven. At different times fleets were reported off Buzzard's Bay, Barnstable, Plymouth, and Marblehead, and consequently the French fleet, "making a formidable appearance," was so arranged as to protect Boston from an attack. Then it was that the General Court passed a resolve,

     "directing that a number of men, equal to one-third part of the train band and alarm lists, should be detached from the militia of certain of the counties to serve at and about Boston or elsewhere, as directed, until January 1, 1779."

     Lynn, with its long line of seacoast so near to Boston, might well feel somewhat alarmed at these threatening rumors, and it is not to be wondered at that she began to look to her own defence; Early in October, 1778, a petition, drawn up by her representative, Holton Johnson, was presented to the General Court, to this effect: -

     "That the town of Lynn has a seacoast of nearly seven miles in extent and some parts of it very convenient for the landing of troops and any kind of necessaries for our army, and it is the opinion of many people acquainted with those affairs, that if the enemy should make any attempt this way, while the French fleet is in this harbor, that Nahant beach, within the town of Lynn, is the most likely place for them to land, and General Washington while in these parts always kept a guard at said Nahant and the neighborhood thereof. Your petitioner therefore prays that the Honorable Council may be impowered to order the men raised in the town of Lynn to be retained in said town unless necessarily called to some of the neighboring
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towns on an alarm; and your petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray."

     The request was granted, and is recorded in the following resolve : -

                                               "IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Oct. 7, 1778.
     "Whereas, it has been represented to this Court that the town of Lynn is in an exposed position, if the enemy shall make any attempt in those parts, therefore
     "Resolved that the Hon. the major part of the Council be desired to give orders that the men which the town of Lynn has raised, as their proportion of the 1200 men, be discharged.
     "In Council, Oct. 8, 1778, concurred."

     All the alarm which was felt for the safety of Boston at this time proved unnecessary, although there is no doubt that Sir Henry Clinton may have taken pains to allow it to become as wide-spread as possible in order to draw attention from his own movements at New York. There were no further operations at the North this year, although the war still dragged on at the South and on the frontiers. The French fleet remained at Boston until the third of November, when a part of it sailed away for the West Indies, the remainder following the next day. In November, also, the convention troops took their departure for Virginia, having been quartered in the vicinity of Boston for a year. Many of the regiments which had been doing guard duty in the Eastern Department now went home, and General Heath, who had long been in command here, was succeeded by Gates.
     Referring now to the individual records of our Lynn soldiers, those of the three years' men still in the service
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were in winter quarters on or near the Hudson. They were in no active engagement again until that of Stony Point in the following July. Indeed, the work which our men did in the army from this time until the close of the war was confined practically to the holding of the posts on the Hudson. This most important section needed to be jealously guarded against any sudden move of the enemy, for it still remained the strategical centre which would have been eagerly grasped, had the least opportunity offered. The great Southern campaigns, with their famous victories and defeats, were far removed from our New England men, and there were certainly few New England yeomen who followed the fortunes of the army in the South. One Lynn man has been found who must have been with the Southern army for a time, at least, but why or with whom can only be conjectured from the single letter known to be in existence which was penned
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     "Tho I have been long Silent yet it has Not proseded from any Dis Respect to you Nor any Neglect towards you. But my curstanses have been so unsettled that indead I knew not what to Write there has not pased A Day When I have not thought of you And all the Rest of my famely but My afairs have been so unsettled that I put it off from post from another In hopes to inform you where I Expet to go And I now Belive it is pretty Sertin That I Shall go to frans and Expet to Imbark in about 15 Days at the furthest. And if Should Live and Do well I hope to be home in the fall. If there is any thing Coming to me from the State pray inform yourself in the mater as well as you Can And inform Connell Newhall that I have got my Discharge when my time was out and beg the favour of him to be so kind as to See that I do not lose what Litell I have So Dearly Earned in The Servis. I have hard their was some money made a present by the State to the Soldiers in Considration of the under Valuing the paper Curency. I have now two years pay Dew in the Regement And Clothing. My Duty to my father and sister and all asking frinds.                    your Loving Brother
                                                                                           "CHARLES FLORENCE."

     While the service of our men in the army during the later years of the war probably brought few of them into the great military operations of the time, there was a goodly number, belonging to the navy, who were seeing plenty of active service. At the beginning of the war there was no navy, and that which was gradually gathered together could never have been considered a strong one, yet, such as it was, with the aid of the privateers which
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plied the ocean throughout the war, it succeeded in bringing in many valuable prizes, representing many thousands and even millions of dollars in value. The man most active perhaps, at the beginning of the war, in fitting out the vessels which sailed from Marblehead, Beverly, and Salem was Colonel John Glover, later as general so familiar to our Lynn soldiers. One statement showing the earnestness with which the business of privateering was carried on gives the fact that "in a single season there was despatched from Salem and Beverly fifty-two privateers, chiefly owned in Salem and Beverly, which mounted about seven hundred and fifty guns, and carried crews of nearly four thousand men." It is not strange, then, to find among these crews names of men belonging to the neighboring town of Lynn. The records of the Lynn sailors are very incomplete, and it is only now and then possible to even indicate the service which they performed.
In the summer of 1779 a famous expedition was undertaken against the British post which had just been established at the mouth of the Penobscot River for the purpose of keeping that region free from Boston and Salem cruisers which preyed upon British supply ships as they came into the country. The council of the state directed the Board of War to engage as many private armed vessels as were suitable to combine with the state and Continental armed vessels in an attempt to dislodge the enemy from this point, the owners of private vessels to be reimbursed by the state for any damage or loss sustained by them in the enterprise. Land forces were also gathered from York and Cumberland Counties to co-operate with this fleet. The people in New
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England were again roused to do their utmost in what promised to be an important undertaking. Nineteen armed vessels, carrying three hundred and twenty-four guns, with more than two thousand men, and twenty transports, with nearly four thousand troops, sailed for the coast of Maine, where a landing was made on the twenty-sixth of July. Commodore Dudley Salstonstall, of the ship "Warren," was in charge of the fleet, while General Solomon Lovell commanded the land forces, and Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Revere had charge of the artillery. It was found upon arrival that the British under Colonel Maclean had not completed their fortifications, and that there were but three armed vessels in the harbor, and yet General Lovell hesitated to attack, not being sufficiently supported, as he thought, by the fleet. He therefore proceeded to erect works for himself, and began a desultory firing upon the enemy's fort. This he continued for two weeks, while he sent to Boston for reinforcements. While waiting thus practically inactive, Admiral Sir George Collier at New York heard of the expedition, and sailed for the scene of action with five English vessels and an armament greatly superior to that of the Americans. The entire American fleet was captured or destroyed, and the land forces, retreating through the wilderness, after weeks of wandering, made their way home. The "Warren," a new ship of thirty guns, had on board at least one Lynn man, Onesimus Newhall, of the North Parish. During the engagement with the British Mr. Newhall was obliged to jump overboard and swim ashore to escape capture. This he was enabled to do, however, and lived to go through many other exciting experiences as a privateer.
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The unfortunate result of the expedition was said to have involved Massachusetts in a debt of seven million dollars, "not so distressing," according to General Sullivan, "as the disgrace."
     Some of the vessels which became very well known during the war, and which from time to time numbered Lynn men in their crews, were the frigate "Boston," ship "Protector," brig "Hazard," brigantine "Freedom," brigantine "Ranger," ship "Junius Brutus," ship "Thomas," ship "Pilgrim," ship "Tartar," ship "Rhodes," brigantine "Tyrannicide," brigantine "Rover," brig "Ann," and bark "Gen. Gates." The brigantine "Tyrannicide" is one which is frequently mentioned in the records of the Lynn sailors, and among those who sailed in her at various times were Surgeon Dr. Martin Herrick, Timothy Newhall, John Proctor, and James Rich. Joseph Proctor, Jr., was reported as on the "Boston" in December, 1778. This frigate, under the command of the somewhat famous Captain Samuel Tucker, of Marblehead, was the one chosen to convey John Adams on his mission to France in February of that year.
     The " Warren" was burned by her commander at Penobscot, and the "Tyrannicide" and "Hazard" were also in the unfortunate Penobscot expedition.
     With this very brief mention of the fact that Lynn had her part in the naval service of the Revolution, - that service which was so filled with excitement, adventure, and even profit to those who engaged in it, - we pass on to the closing scenes of the war in so far as her men were concerned in them.
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