USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 50
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In March, 1778, Capt. William Ledyard was appointed to the com- mand of the posts of New London, Groton and Stonington, with the rank and pay of major. Under his direction the works were repair- ed and strengthened and additional batteries erected. William Latliam was captain of artillery at Groton, and Adam Shapley at New London. These appointments, it must be remembered, were not made by Congress or the commander-in-chief, but emanated from the governor and council of safety.
1 This incident is more minutely related in Thatcher's Military Journal, p. 123.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Early in this year, a French ship called the Lyon, Capt. Michel, came into port with a valuable assortment of West India goods. This cargo was very opportune, being mostly purchased by the naval agent for the state and continental service. She had salt on board, which was then of pressing importance to the army ; and linen and other articles useful for the clothing of soldiers. The Lyon lay about three months in the harbor.' Several privateers were in at the same time recruiting, and the collisions that took place among the seamen, soldiery and populace, kept the town in a state of riot and disorder. The jail was forced, prisoners released and recaptured, and mobs oc- casionally triumphant over the law. When a maritime war is rag- ing, what can be expected in a seaport but misrule and demoraliza- tiơn ?
Flags of truce engaged in the exchange of prisoners were often arriving and departing from New London. The return home of American prisoners excited very naturally a deep interest. Their appearance alone without a word spoken, was sufficient evidence that they had borne a rigorous confinement under merciless keepers. In July, 1777, a flag that had been sent to Newport with a band of well- fed, healthy English prisoners to be exchanged, returned with a com- pany of Americans who were actually dying from starvation and close confinemerit. "They had but just life enough remaining," said the Gazette, "to answer the purpose of an exchange." Some were wasted to skeletons, others covered with vermin, or disfigured with eruptions, or dying of fever. Early in August, two other exchanges were negotiated and some fifty more arrived in the same condition. Unwholesome and scanty fare, crowded quarters, the want of fresh air and uncleanliness, had brought them to the verge of the grave. Some indeed.died in the cartel before they reached the har- bor, and some soon after their arrival. The few that remained meager, pale and tottering, crept slowly along the highways begging their way to their homes.
In the month of December, 1778, by flags and cartels from New York about 500 prisoners arrived, released said the Gazette "from the horrible prison ships." They were sick with various diseases- they had frozen limbs-and many were infected with the small-pox.
1 The Lyon took in a cargo for Virginia and sailed June 14th. A little south of Long Island she had an engagement of four hours' duration with a British frigate and then escaped. On her voyage from Virginia to France, laden with tobacco, she was captured by an English vessel of forty guns.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
They died all along the way through the Sound, and every day after their arrival for three weeks; sixteen the first week, seventeen the next, and so on. About 200 were Frenchmen, and of these fifteen died on the passage from New York. These poor foreigners were destitute of money and suitable clothing; and the high price of the necessaries of life, the gloom of the winter season, and the loath- some diseases among them, made it no light task to render them comfortable. The small-pox and malignant fevers brought in by the prisoners, were communicated to those whose benevolent ministra- tions afforded them relief, and in this way were spread through the town. The prejudices against inoculation were so strong that not- withstanding it had a resolve of the General Assembly and a previ- ous vote of the town in its favor, it had never been allowed. Infected persons were carried apart, and shut up by themselves, with the white cloth floating over them to betoken pestilence.
With respect to the American prisoners, historic justice calls upon us to state, that those who were exchanged in later periods of the war, gave evidence of a beneficial change in the mode of treatment. The British had learned a lesson of humanity. In August, 1779, when the crew of the Oliver Cromwell were released, they came home in good health, and frankly acknowledged that though they had been confined in those odious prison ships, the Jersey and Good-hope, they had been kindly treated, provided with good food, the sick attended by physicians, and nothing plundered from them.
In the year 1778, a prison ship was fitted up at New London, by order of Congress, for the reception of British prisoners, with a guard attached to it, consisting of a lieutenant, sergeant, corporal, and twenty privates.1 It was used only a short time.
The events of the year 1779 seem like those of previous years, re- hearsed over as in a scenic exhibition, with only slight changes of names and drapery. In February, a detachment of continental troops, under the command of Col. Dearborn, was sent to aid the militia in the defense of New London. Brigadier-General Parsons had the superior military command of the district.
N. Shaw, to the Marine Committee of the Eastern Department, March 14th, 1779.
" We are in such a wretched state in this town by reason of the small-pox, fever and famine, that I can not carry on my business, and am laying up my vessels as fast as they come in, for every necessary of life is at such an extrav-
1 Council Records, (Hinman,) p. 531.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
agant price that whenever I employ persons to do any thing, they insist upon provisions, which it is not in my power to give them."
On the 23d of March, several scouting vessels came in, with the startling intelligence that a fleet of twenty sail had passed Hurlgate, and were coming east, with flat-bottomed boats, row-galleys and sloops of war in train ; that a sixty-four and a fifty gun ship had left Sandy Hook, to come south of Long Island, around Montauk into the Sound ; that twenty-six sail of vessels had previously congregated at Sagharbor, and that General Clinton had left New York, and was mustering a large body of troops at Southampton. The same day a considerable force was seen to go into Gardiner's Bay, and about sun- set the frigate Renown appeared off the mouth of the river and an- chored. To what could all these preparations tend but an attack upon New London ?
And now as on similar occasions, tlie alarm-bells were rung, and the bale-fires lighted. Families were broken up, effects removed, and the neighboring militia came straggling in to the defense. But no attack was made. It was expected the next day, and the next ; and a whole week passed of agitation and uncertainty. It was then ascertained that the transports from New York had gone to New- port ; that the fleet under convoy, which had halted in Gardiner's Bay, was bound to New York ; that a part of the other fleet had gone on a plundering expedition to the Vineyard Sound and Fal- mouth, (now Portland, in Maine,) and that on the opposite coast of Long Island, from whence the invading army was expected to em- bark, all was quiet and peaceful. No flat-bottomed boats were there, nor had been. The only force collected on that side of the island, consisted of 500 foot and fifty horse at Southold, and 100 men with two field-pieces at Sagharbor, which was a stationary arrangement to guard and assist the English vessels in taking off wood and hay. It is a little singular that the troops at Southampton had been assem- bled in consequence of unfounded reports of a similar nature, that had been flying through the British lines. It was confidently affirmed in New York that General Parsons was at New London, with a body of 4,000 men, making hasty but secret preparations for a descent upon Long Island. In consequence of this report, General Clinton had hastened from New York, with a flying force, to prepare a re- ception for the expected invader. In this manner, rumor flew from side to side, imagining evil, asserting its existence, and actually caus-
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
ing it to exist. False report, though but a breath of air, has a mighty agency in aggravating the calamities of war.
The militia on duty at this time in New London, were employed in erecting a fortification of timber, sods, &c., on Town Hill, which it was supposed would be of use in checking the advance of an enemy that might land below the harbor, and march to attack the town in the rear. Near this spot the gallows had stood on which Kate Gar- rett, the Pequot woman, had perished ; it had likewise been noted for a large wind-mill. A breastwork was here thrown up, and sev- eral field-pieces mounted. The inhabitants showed their apprecia- tion of the work, by the name which they bestowed on it, Fort Non- sense, the only name it ever received.
The next alarm was on the 25th of June, when warning guns from Stonington gave notice of an approaching fleet. Forts Trumbull and Griswold took up the notes, and echoed them into the country. In the afternoon a squadron of about fifty sail, of which seven were ships. and the others of various size and armament, down to row-galleys, came within sight of the town. They anchored near Plum Island, for the night, and the next morning, instead of turning toward the town, as had been feared, they made sail to the westward. The militia had come in, as was observed, "with even greater cheerfulness and alacrity" than on former occasions. The brigade of General Tyler was on the ground, and being paraded, was dismissed with ad- dresses and thanks.
Only ten days later, (July 5th,) a similar alarm agitated the coast. Expresses from the westward to Major Ledyard, brought informa- tion that a fleet had left New York, with preparations for a descent on the coast, and was on its way through the Sound. The point of attack at this time proved to be New Haven, but New London was closely watched. The frigates Renown and Thames, and the sloop of war Otter, were plying in the neighborhood, and it was thought an attack would soon be made. A large body of militia remained three weeks, encamped near the town, or in Groton. General Ty- ler's brigade, from Preston and Norwich, was again noted for its promptness and martial spirit. The counties of Berkshire and Hamp- shire, in Massachusetts, sent their militia to aid in the defense of the coast. No attempt was, however, made by the enemy to land, ex- cept upon Plum and Fisher's Islands, which the crews of the Brit- ish ships plundered of every thing valuable to them, and then wan- tonly set fire to the hay and buildings, which they could not remove.
The year 1780 shows but little variation of picture from the three
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preceding years. The cold months were seasons of pinching poverty and distress ; sudden outbreaks of alarm and confusion were thickly scattered over the summer. Frigates and other vessels were contin- ually passing up and down the Sound, and ships of the line were now hovering near Block Island, now anchoring at Point Judith, now running into Gardiner's Bay. On the 29th of July, the governor having received information that twenty sail of shipping, with 8,000 troops on board, were in Huntington Harbor, Long Island, immediately ordered out a body of militia to the defense of New London, but on the 31st, the much dreaded fleet made sail for New York. On the 5th of August, a fleet of fifteen vessels, under the command of Admi- ral Graves, anchored off the harbor, and there lay about twenty-four hours, before running into Gardiner's Bay. This fleet had been on watch over the French, at Newport, and came into the Sound to col- lect stock and recruit. In September, another British fleet, said to be Admiral Arbuthnot's, came into Gardiner's Bay, and there re- mained through the months of October and November.
It would be a laborious but pleasing task to go around among fam- ilies, with a talisman to gain their confidence, read private letters, inspect documents, converse with the aged, take notes of tradition, and thus gather up and revive the fading names of patriots and he- roes who assisted in the achievement of American independence. It was an era of brave and self-denying men, and even confining our attention to the limited sphere embraced in this history, the number is not small of those who performed deeds worthy of remembrance. If only a few are here introduced, let it not be deemed that injustice is thereby shown to others, who may be equally worthy, but less gen- erally known.
General Gurdon Saltonstall, and three of his sons, were employed in various grades of service, during the whole war. The elder Sal- tonstall, before the close of 1776, was raised to the rank of brigadier- general, and sent with nine regiments of Connecticut militia, to take post in Westchester county, New York. He was then sixty-eight years of age. Winthrop Saltonstall, the oldest of the brothers, held the office of register of the court of admiralty. Dudley was a cap- tain, and then commodore in the navy. Gilbert, the youngest, was a captain of marines, on board the ship Trumbull, in her desperate com- bat with the Watt.
Nathaniel Saltonstall, of another family, served in the war, both as seaman and soldier. He was captain of the old fort, on the Parade, and commander of the ship Putnam.
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
Major James Chapman, of Selden's regiment, Wadsworth's brigade, was a man of strength and stature beyond the common standard, and as a soldier steady and brave. But what avail these qualities against the aim of the marksman, or the force of a cannon ball ! He was slain in what was called the orchard fight, near Harlem, when the army was retreating from New York, September 15th, 1776. His son James, a youth of only fifteen years of age, was with him when he fell. His brother, Lieut. Richard Chapman, was slain in Groton fort. John Chapman, a third brother, was first lieutenant of the ship Oliver Cromwell, and after that was taken, of the Putnam. Joseph Chapman, a still younger brother, was an officer of the army.
Col. Jonathan Latimer, (of Chesterfield society,) had served in several campaigns against the French upon the northern frontier, and during the war for independence, was much of the time in the field.1 Two of his sons, George and Jonathan, were also in the ser- vice.1 Major Christopher Darrow (of the North Parish) fought bravely at Monmouth, and on other battle-fields during the war. The Gallops, of Groton, Ben-Adam and Nathan, were engaged in some of the earliest struggles, and both field-officers in 1777.
William and Alexander P. Adams, grandsons of the former minis- ter Adams, Richard Douglas, Thomas U. Fosdick, Edward and George Hallam, Stephen Hempstead, George Hurlbut, John and William Raymond, William Richards-these were all young men, starting forth impulsively at the commencement of the struggle, with high heroic purpose to serve their country, and if the sacrifice should be demanded, to suffer and die in the cause of liberty. William Adams served in the army during the siege of Boston, but afterward enlisting in a private armed vessel, he died at Martinique, April 4th, 1778. His brother, purser of the ship Trumbull, was cut off at sea, before the close of the war. Douglas, Fosdick, Hempstead, Rich- ards, were in the service from 1776 to the disbanding of the army. The last named, Capt. William Richards, was stationed in 1780, at Fairfield, and while there was engaged in the expedition against Fort Slongo, on the opposite shore of Long Island. They crossed by night with muffled oars, took the works by surprise, and demolished them. Major Tallmage was the commander of the party. Captain Richards led the attack upon the battery. Edward Hallam, after a
1 Col. Latimer was the father of ten sons ; himself and six of them, measured forty- two feet. An ancient Mumford family, of Groton, approached the same mark, having six members of the average height of six feet; according to familiar report, " thirty-six feet of Mumford in one family."
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HISTORY OF NEW LONDON.
tour of duty at Boston, and another at New York, was appointed commissary of troops at New London. William Raymond, taken prisoner in an early part of the contest, was carried to Halifax, and died, while immured in Mill-island prison.
George Hurlbut and Robert Hallam, with a multitude of others, shouldered musket and knapsack, and started for Boston, immediately after intelligence was received of the skirmish at Lexington. They subsequently joined Capt. Coit's company, and fought at Bunker Hill, one nineteen years of age, and the other twenty-one. Hallam's commission from Congress, giving him the rank of captain in Colonel Durkee's regiment, was dated July 3d, 1777, the very month that he was twenty years of age. He fought at Trenton, Princeton, Ger- mantown and Monmouth, but withdrew from the army at the close of the campaign of 1779.
Captain Hurlbut remained in the service till disabled by a mortal wound, at Tarrytown, in the summer of 1781. For the exploit that cost him, in the end, his life, he received the thanks of Washington, in the public orders of the army. It merits a particular relation.
A vessel in the river containing a considerable quantity of stores for the American army, had been set on fire by the guns of the enemy. Capt. Hurlbut being an excellent swimmer, volunteered his service, swam to the vessel, and amidst a severe fire from the British ships, extinguished the flames, cut the cable, that the wind might drift her to the side where the Americans were encamped, and then took to the water again. Before reaching the shore, being much fatigued, he threw himself on his back, as swimmers often do for repose, and just then was struck in the groin by a grape shot. The ball was successfully extracted, and after a long confinement, he so far recov- ered as to appear abroad. He belonged to the second regiment of light dragoons, and the first time that he was able to resume his post, the troops honored him with a salute. Unfortunately his horse be- came restive, reared and threw him. The old wound was broken up, he languished many months in severe pain, and at last was brought home to die. The commander-in-chief himself gave orders that every requisite care and attention should be used in his removal. His friend, Mr. Colfax, and the surgeon, Dr. Eustis, (afterward governor of Massachusetts,) accompanied him to New London, where he ex- pired 8th of May, 1783.1
1 Many of these particulars are taken from a certificate given in December, 1783, by General Washington, to Mrs. Welsh, a widowed sister of Capt. Hurlbut.
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In this connection another army incident may be mentioned, which, though in result a failure, illustrates the daring spirit of adventure for which the New London men of that day, whether sailors or sol- diers, were remarkable.
On the 16th of August, 1776, Commodore Tupper, lying at New York, sent two fire-vessels, a sloop and a schooner, up the river to make an attempt to burn the British frigate, Phenix, in the night. Of the eighteen men detached on this expedition, a large proportion were from New London. Stephen Hempstead and Thomas Updike Fosdick were two of the number. Fosdick, who was then an ensign in the company. of Captain Nathan Hale, had command of the sloop. Owing to accidental circumstances, the enterprise failed ; but it was well conceived, and as far as it went, executed with boldness and skill.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Letters of marque and reprisal .- Capt. Elisha Hinman .- Other sea-captains .- The Schooner Spy .- Brig Defence .- Ship Oliver Cromwell .- Brig Resist- ance .- Private ship Trumbull .- Ship Confederacy .- Privateering .- Private ship Deane .- Winter of 1779-80 .- Ship Putnam .- Continental Ship Trum- bull.
WHILE humanity, reason and religion, concur in deprecating the whole practice of war, and look forward with ardent aspiration to the time when other modes of accommodating the difficulties of na- tions shall prevail, we must not withhold from the brave soldier and adventurous seaman, that species of fame and merit, which is their due. If we would write history faithfully, we must go back to the era, and live and breathe in the scenes described. We must not look at the war of the Revolution by that light which has but just began to dawn on the Christian world in regard to the folly and iniquity of war. Men fought under an exalted impulse for their homes and firesides, their liberties and their altars. It was the way in which the age manifested its devotion to truth, freedom, law and religion. Yet blessed will be the period when these sacred principles shall find a holier expression.
It has been customary to make a distinction between the regular navy of the country and those private armed vessels, called letters of marque, or privateers, as if the former were an honorable service, and the latter but little removed from piracy. The distinction is unjust ; one was as fair and lawful as the other. Both were sanc- tioned by the custom of nations ; the object of each was the same. The continental vessels no less than the privateers seized upon peaceful merchantmen; and as much historical credit should be awarded to the brave privateersman, as to the commissioned officer.
It is a fact also, that has not been sufficiently noticed in respect to
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the seamen of the Revolution, that, often with undaunted spirit they went into battle against fearful odds, and in these unequal combats were not unfrequently successful-such power has Providence given to those who manfully contend for the right.
The British after gaining possession of New York, fitted out a host of privateers from that port and from Long Island, that infested the Sound and the whole New England coast, and in the course of a few months nearly every packet, coaster and fishing smack belonging to New London was captured or destroyed. The inhabitants were driven in self-defense to build privateers and to arm as cruisers what- ever craft they had left, or could seize in their turn from the enemy, and set them afloat to defend their property.
Aggression, leading to retaliation, and swaying back and forth over an increasing space with accelerated fury is the diagram of war.
A place, whose great and almost sole advantage consists in com- mercial aptitude, is necessarily dependant upon peace for prosperity. From the beginning to the close of the revolutionary contest a cloud of depressing gloom hung over New London. Her mariners and artisans were deprived of employment ; her shopmen and merchants were impoverished or bankrupt; religion, education and morals were at a low ebb, and the shadows grew deeper from year to year.
It may be doubted whether any two places in New England, ex- hibited a greater contrast in these respects, than those near neigh- bors, but by no means intimate friends, Norwich and New London. Norwich suffered in her commerce as well as New London ; but she was not kept in continual jeopardy : extraordinary inroads excepted, she was safe from invasion. Her growth was scarcely checked by the war, and setting aside the suffering from scarcity in the first years of the conflict, and the family privations resulting from the drain on the male population for the army, her prosperity was but little dimin- ished. It was a place of refuge for many families from Boston, Newport and other exposed situations on the coast, and this influx of residents, kept her currency easy. With a wise foresight and a prompt enterprise, favored by her situation and natural advantages, she early turned her attention to manufactures. These came in to fill the vacuum occasioned by her lost commerce.
New London had no such wholesome resource. The privateering business very naturally stepped in, and as far as bustle and excite- ment went, filled the void ; but as a path to gain, it was fraught with hazard and uncertainty. Neither merchants nor adventurers acquir- ed wealth by privateering. Even the most fortunate commanders
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barely obtained a competent livelihood, for the time being, for their families. The history of the most successful is comprehended in two or three profitable voyages, a few brilliant exploits, and then capture and imprisonment.
The alternations in this warfare succeeded each other like cloud and sunshine in an April day. The excitement of hazardous under- takings, and the sudden changes continually taking place, gave to life a romantic and vivid interest. Often when the Sound was apparent- ly pervaded by British vessels, a letter-of-marque would seize a fa- vorable opportunity, push out of port, and return with a prize. As connected with New London, sea skirmishes and naval disasters were prominent features of the war. A band of sea-captains, prompt, valiant, experienced and danger-loving, had their rendezvous in this port. Some were natives of the town ; others belonged in Groton, Norwich, Middletown and Saybrook.
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