USA > Connecticut > New London County > New London > History of New London, Connecticut, From the First Survey of the Coast in 1612 to 1852 > Part 51
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Capt. Elisha Hinman was the youngest of three brothers who came from Woodbury, Conn., before or about 1760, and established themselves in New London. He was a veteran of the sea, before the commencement of the Revolution, and took an early part in the contest. He commanded the Cabot, a continental brig in the squad- ron of Commodore Hopkins, and afterward succeeded Paul Jones in the ship Alfred, which he was unfortunately obliged to surrender to the Ariadne and Ceres, on a return voyage from France, March 9th, 1778. Being carried a prisoner to England, after a short confine- ment he found friends who aided his escape to France, from whence he returned home, and engaged for a time in private adventures. In 1779, he went out in the privateer sloop Hancock, owned by Thomas Mumford, and had a run of brilliant, dashing success. In 1780, he took command of the armed ship Deane.
Peter Richards, Charles Bulkley, and John Welsh, the lieuten- ants of Capt. Hinman in the Alfred, were confined in England for several months in Fortune Prison, near Portsmouth, from whence they escaped by digging under the outward wall, and reaching the coast of France in safety, returned home in the spring of 1779. These all went out subsequently in private armed vessels.
William Havens, Nicoll Fosdick, Samuel and Lodowick Champlin, . William Leeds, Daniel Deshon, Nathaniel Saltonstall-seamen more brave and skillful than these to harass an enemy or defend a coast, can not be found at any period of our country's history. The merchant service was not wholly abandoned during the war. Several of the commanders that have been named, and others, made occasional voy-
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ages to French ports, thoughi in general with some armature. Capt. William Rogers made a safe voyage to France and back again in 1779. Several cases occurred in which vessels that sailed before the war, unarmed, were long detained in foreign ports, and even laid up till the return of peace. Capt. John Lamb, sent by Nathaniel Shaw, in the ship America to Gibraltar, in 1774, was absent three years, the owner in the mean time receiving no remittances.1 Capt. James Rogers, arrested by the war in a foreign port, suffered a deten- tion of six years, but arrived in safety with his vessel, in September, 1781.
New London Harbor was the recruiting ground of the state schoon- er Spy, Capt. Robert Niles-a fortunate vessel with a skillful com- mander, which performed good service during the whole war, and closed her accounts in neat and beautiful style, by carrying safely to France the first copy of the ratified treaty of peace. This vessel was of fifty tuns burden, carried six guns, (four-pounders,) and from twenty to thirty men. Her cruises were short, but she was contin- ually upon the look-out ; ever ready, ever serviceable ; alert in dis- covering smugglers, intercepting unlawful communications, taking, prizes, and giving notice of the movements of the enemy. She sailed from Stonington with a copy of the ratified treaty, and arrived at Brest in twenty-one days, having passed undiscovered through a British fleet that lay off that port; owing her safety, probably, to her diminutive size, which prevented her character from being suspected.
The brig Defence, fourteen guns, built by the state in 1775, at the ship-yard of Capt. Uriah Hayden, in Connecticut River, was brought round to New London to be equipped, and to enlist her crew of one hundred and twenty men. She sailed on her first cruise in May, 1776, under Capt. Seth Harding, and in the course of it took two transport ships and a brig, all bringing Highland recruits to the Brit- ish army. The Defence enjoyed a couple of years of prosperity, often dropping into New London Harbor to recruit. Three of her lieutenants, Leeds, Angel and Billings, had been sea-captains, sailing from the Thames. In 1778, this vessel was altered into a ship at Boston, and the command given to Capt. Samuel Smedley ; but her career was closed March 10th, 1779, on Goshen Reef, within sight of New London. She struck, bilged, overset and went to pieces, as
1 Lamb arrived at Boston, from Martinico, in Dec., 1777, in a brig called the Irish Gimblet. Among his lading were seventeen brass cannon, with other warlike stores, for Congress, shipped by William Bingham, of St. Peters, Martinico.
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she was about to enter the harbor from a successful cruise. Several of her crew perished in the hold.
Another state brig, called the Old Defence, under the command of Capt. Daniel Deshon, was taken in January, 1778, by the enemy, and carried into Jamaica.
The Oliver Cromwell, a twenty gun ship, built at Saybrook in 1776 by the state, was also fitted out from New London. Her first commander was Capt. William Coit, and she was expected to sail in October, but difficulties existed among her people, and the British kept a constant watch over the harbor, so that she was detained through the winter. The next spring, Capt. Harding was transfer- red to her from the Defence, and she succeeded in getting out in May, 1777.1 In June, she took a merchant brig, called the Med- way, and in July the brigantine Honor, which sold, with her cargo, for £10,692. In September, she captured the Weymouth Packet, a brig of fifteen guns, which was fitted up for a cruiser, and called the Hancock. The Cromwell, after two and a half years of faithful re- publican service, was destined to pass into the ranks of royalty .. She sailed from New London in May, 1779, in command of Capt. Timo- thy Parker of Norwich, a seaman of tried gallantry and experience, She was absent twelve days-sent in four prizes, two of them armed vessels, and touched in herself to land her prisoners. She sailed again the first of June, and on the fifth, off Sandy Hook, had a sharp engagement with the British frigate Daphne. Her mainmast being shot away, three men killed, and another ship coming up to the aid of the Daphne, Capt. Parker surrendered his ship. She was soon cruising again under the royal ensign, and bearing the new name of Restoration.2
The Continental armed brig Resistance, ten guns, (fours,) Capt. Samuel Chew, was fitted out at New London at the suggestion, and under the orders of Nathaniel Shaw.3 The officers were mostly New
1 In March, 1777, on the day of the marriage of Capt. Elisha Hinman, the officers of the Oliver Cromwell ordered a complimentary salute to be fired from the ship. Some mischief-lover among the crew, charged the cannon with a hand grenade, which " whistled through the town the like was never known." The terrified inhabitants caused the offender to be arrested and put in irons.
2 From a New York (royalist) paper of July 24th, 1779. " The frigate Restoration (formerly the Oliver Cromwell) is now fitting for sea, and will be ready in six days to join the associated refugee fleet, lying in Huntington Harbor, and intending soon to pay a visit to the rebel coast."
3 " It gives me pleasure to hear of Capt. Chew's success, as the fitting him out was a plan of my own." Letter to the marine committee of Congress, Feb. 2d, 1778. (MS.)
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London men. On the fourth of March, 1778, in a desperate conflict in the West India seas, with a letter-of-marque, carrying twenty guns, Capt. Chew and Lieut. George Champlin, of New London, were killed.1 The two vessels parted, and the brig was carried into Boston by Lieut. Leeds. She was taken by the British in Novem- ber, and burnt.
The Governor Trumbull, a privateer ship of twenty guns, built in Norwich by Howland and Coit, was considered a very fine vessel. She went to sea, on her first cruise, in March, 1778, Capt. Henry Billings commander, and left the harbor for the last time in Decem- ber of the same year. In March, 1779, while cruising in the West Indies, she was captured by the Venus frigate, which had formerly belonged to Massachusetts, and was originally called the Bunker Hill.
Early in 1779, three privateers lying in New London Harbor, de- termined to attempt the capture of the brig Ranger, a refugee priva- teer of twelve guns, that infested the Sound, and had taken many prizes, and plundered the coast in some instances. The brig Middle- town, and sloops Beaver and Eagle, under Captains Sage, Havens and Conkling, fell upon her as she lay by the wharf at Sagharbor, cut her out and came back with her in triumph. This was on the thirty-first of January. The next day, the same associated trio made a bold but unsuccessful attack on seven vessels which had put into Sagharbor. In this affair, the Middletown grounded and was aban- doned to the enemy.
May 27th, 1779, Capt. Richard McCarty, of New London, in a sloop bound for the West Indies, was wrecked in a snow-storm, on Plum Island, and himself and crew, six persons, all lost.
The Confederacy, a continental ship of thirty-two guns, built in the Thames, near Norwich, and equipped at New London, sailed on her first cruise, May 1st, 1779, under Capt. Seth Harding. This ship was popularly said to have been built of tory timber. Most of the wood for her hull was cut in Salem, Conn., on the confiscated estate of Mr. Brown, a royalist ; and the trunnels of the ship were from locust trees that grew on land near the harbor's mouth, New Lon- don, which had belonged to Capt. Oliver, a former officer of the king's
1 Capt. Chew was a brave and skillful officer, an emigrant from Virginia to New London, and brother of Joseph Chew, heretofore mentioned. The two brothers, like many others in that day of divisions, took opposite sides in the contest. Joseph Chew had been obliged to leave the place on account of his adherence to the royal cause.
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customs. To make up the complement of men for her crew, it was necessary to have recourse to the odious practice of impressment.1 Able-bodied men were becoming scarce upon the coast, through the constant drain for army and navy. The call for " gentlemen volun- teers," which was the customary soothing address of the recruiting officer, had been so frequently reiterated, that it had ceased to be answered with alacrity.2
The privateering business was at no time so active, so daring in exploit, and brilliant in success, as in 1779. Both parties, the pat- riots and the refugees, pursued it with eager rivalry. Between the 1st of March and 13th of June, nine New York or tory privateers, were captured and brought into New London. One of them, the Lady Erskine, a brig of ten guns, was taken within sight of the har- bor, by the sloops Hancock and Beaver, Captains Hinman and Ha- vens, who cut her off from a fleet of twenty-one sail, which was pass- ing toward Rhode Island, under convoy of the Thames frigate of thirty-six guns.
A vivid illustration of the life and bustle which this fitful business created at intervals in the town, is furnished by Green's Gazette, of June 3d. In that paper were advertised for sale at auction on the 8th instant, the following prizes : brig Bellona, one hundred and sixty tuns, sixteen guns ; schooner Mulberry, seventy tuns ; sloop Hunter, ninety ; sloop Charlotte, sixty ; sloop Lady Erskine, sixty, ten guns-all prizes to the Beaver and Hancock : schooner Sally, fifty tuns, ten guns : sloop Despatch, fifty, eight swivels ; schooner Polly, forty-prizes to the American Revenue : also, three other prize sloops, with all their cargoes and tackle.
In the court of admiralty, held at New London a week later than the above, (June 10th,) eighteen prizes were libeled, all taken in the month of May.
The refugee adventurers from New York and Long Island, if less enterprising, were far superior to the Americans in number and re-
1 " Monday night last, about fifty seamen and landsmen were pressed by a gang from the ship Confederacy, now lying in the harbor, and carried on board-a part of them have been since released." Green's Gazette, of April 29th.
2 The last advertisement of the Oliver Cromwell, will serve as a specimen of this alluring style :
" The ship Oliver Cromwell, Timothy Parker, commander, ready for a cruise against the enemies of the United Independent States. All gentlemen volunteers that have a mind to make their fortunes, are desired to repair immediately on board said ship in the port of New London, where they will meet good encouragement."
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sources. If unsuccessful in one undertaking, they had means to urge forward another. Capt. Samuel Rogers, the most noted privateers- man on that side of the Sound, was three times captured, brought to New London, and confined in jail, between March and October, 1779. It was said that during this summer, forty refugee privateers had their rendezvous in Huntington Bay. In the end, they swept the Sound as with a besom, of every thing American ; at the close of the year scarcely a sail was left on the Connecticut coast. Everything in this line was to begin anew at the keel.
The fate of Capt. Edward Conkling was peculiarly heart-rending, Cruising off Point Judith, in the sloop Eagle, he captured and man- ned six prizes in succession, which left the number of his crew less than that of the prisoners on board. The latter, seizing a favorable opportunity, rose upon their captors, and obtaining command of the vessel, exhibited the most savage ferocity. The brave captain and several of his men were cut down after they had surrendered, and their bodies brutally mangled. Only two boys were spared. This was on the 9th of May. The Eagle, before the close of the month, while preparing for a cruise against her former flag, was destroyed by an accidental explosion in the harbor of New York. . " Several persons on board at the time," says the newspaper notice of the event, " lost their lives, and among them the infamous Murphy, who mur- dered Capt. Conkling."
In October, 1779, three large French ships, the Jonatas, Comte d'Artois, and Negresse, came into the harbor, under jury-masts, with valuable cargoes of West India produce. They had sailed with the usual autumnal fleet of merchantmen from Cape François, for Eu- rope, but on the 15th of September, were dismasted in a violent hur- ricane, and so much damaged that they bore away for the American coast. By singular good fortune, they escaped the British cruisers, but were obliged to sell their damaged cargoes at a low rate, and to winter at New London. In the Negresse, which sailed for France early in May, went passenger Col. John Trumbull, the son of the governor, and since well known as an historical painter. The Jona- tas was purchased of the French owners, and fitted out by individual enterprise as a private cruiser. She carried twenty-nine guns- twenty-four nines and five fours-and sailed on a cruise June 1st, 1780, under the command of Capt. Hinman.1
1 She was called the Deane, but must not be confounded with the continental frig- ate Deane, which had previously taken the name of the Hague. Cooper's Naval Hist., vol. 2, p. 190.
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The extreme severity of the winter of 1779-80, is well known. On the 2d of January, a violent storm commenced; the tide and wind together raised the waves, till they dashed over Beach or Water Street like a flood, filling the lower stories of the houses, and damaging the shipping and goods. To this succeeded about five weeks of extreme cold. The Thames was closed up as far down as the light-house-a sight which the oldest natives do not see more than twice, and seldom but once in their lives. A storm on the 7th of February opened the harbor at the mouth, but opposite the town it remained shut till the second week in March. The day previous, a barbecue had been served upon the Isle of Rocks, midway between New London and Groton ; but at night a furious south-east storm broke up the ice, and the next morning a dashing current was run- ning where sleighs had crossed and people had feasted, the day before.1
The Putnam was built on Winthrop's Neck, by Nathaniel Shaw, in 1778. Her armament consisted of twenty nines; Capt. John Harman was her first commander. In the spring of 1779, she was fitted for a six months' cruise under Capt. Nathaniel Saltonstall. After being out three months, and sending in six prizes, she went into Boston Harbor, and was there impressed into the continental service, with her crew and equipments, and sent with the fleet under Com- modore Dudley Saltonstall, of the ship Warren, against the British post at Penobscot. The issue of that expedition was extremely dis- astrous. The Putnam was one of the vessels driven ashore and burnt to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy. The officers and crew fled to the woods and escaped capture.
The frigate Trumbull, twenty-eight guns, built by order of Con- gress at Chatham, in Connecticut River, during the winter of 1779- 80, was brought into the Thames to be equipped and to enlist her crew. Capt. James Nicholson was her commander. On the 2d of June, 1780, she had an action with the letter-of-marque Watt, thirty- four guns and two hundred and fifty men, which is judged, all things considered, to have been the best contested, the most equally matched,
1 Thomas Mumford, of Groton, was then recently married, and the night before the thaw gave an entertainment, which many guests from New London attended, cross- ing the river in sleighs. The banquet and dance continuing late, and the storm com- ing on suddenly and furiously, the party were not able to return as they went; and the next morning the swollen river, full of floating ice, rendered crossing in any way a hazardous attempt. Some of the guests were detained two or three days on that side of the river.
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equally well fought, and equally destructive battle during the war. In this engagement, several from New London and its vicinity were among the killed and wounded. Daniel Starr, second lieutenant, Jabez Smith, (of Groton,) lieutenant of marines, died of their wounds. Gideon Chapman went overboard on the maintop and was drowned. Gilbert Saltonstall, captain of marines, Pygan Adams, purser, David Pool and Samuel Hearn, boatswains, were wounded. Three of the midshipmen were of New London-one of these, Capt. Richard Law, who died Dec. 19th, 1845, was the last survivor of the crew.
In concluding this account of naval affairs, it may be observed in general terms, that during the whole war, New London was as a den of serpents to the British-constantly sending out its sloops and schooners, well manned by skillful and daring seamen, to harass the boats and tenders along the shore, or to cut off merchant vessels on the high seas. Rich prizes, in spite of their vigilance, would run into this open port, and if pursuit was apprehended, they might be hurried up to Norwich, entirely out of reach.
The year 1777 forms, indeed, an exception to the universality of this assertion. So great was the vigilance of the British squadron on the coast, that between the summer of 1776 and that of 1778, not a single prize was brought into the harbor of New London.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Expedition of Arnold against New London .- Flight of the inhabitants .- A large portion of the town burnt .- Groton fort taken by storm .- Massacre of Col. Ledyard and the garrison .-- Incidents after the departure of the enemy .-- Estimate of the loss .-- The anniversary celebration .- Groton Monument erected.
ALTHOUGH New London had been repeatedly threatened, no di- rect attack was made upon the town till near the close of the war in 1781. Gen. Arnold, on his return from a predatory descent upon the coasts of Virginia, was ordered to conduct a similar expedition against his native state. A large quantity of West India goods and European merchandise brought in by various privateers, was at this time collected in New London ; the quantity of shipping in port was also very considerable, and among the prizes recently taken, was the Hannah, (Capt. Watson,) a rich merchant ship from London bound to New York, which had been captured a little south of Long Island, by Capt. Dudley Saltonstall, of the Minerva privateer. The loss of this ship, whose cargo was said to be the most valuable brought into America during the war, had exasperated the British, and more than any other single circumstance is thought to have led to the expedi- tion. At no other period of the war could they have done so much mischief-at no other had the inhabitants so much to lose.
The expedition was fitted out from New York, the head-quarters of Sir Henry Clinton and the British army. The plan was well conceived. Arnold designed to enter the harbor secretly, in the night, and to destroy the shipping, public offices, stores, merchandise, and the fortifications on both sides of the river, with such expedition as to be able to depart before any considerable force could be col- lected against him. Candor in judging forbids the supposition that the burning of the town and the massacre at Groton fort, entered into his original design, though at the time, such cruelty of purpose
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was charged upon him, and currently believed. As flowing from his measures and taking place under his command, they stand to his ac- count ; and this responsibility is heavy enough, without adding to it the criminal forethought.
Late in the evening of the 5th of September, information was re- ceived in town that a British fleet was lurking under the shore of Long Island, nearly opposite the mouth of the river. So many false demonstrations of attack had been made during the war, that this in- telligence caused but little alarm. No public notice was given of it, and no unusual precautions were taken against surprise ; soldiers and citizens alike retired to rest. As soon as it was dark, the hostile fleet got under way, and arriving on the coast at one o'clock, would undoubtedly have accomplished their design and made themselves masters of the town and forts, without opposition, had they not been counteracted by Providence. The wind suddenly shifted to the northward, blowing directly out of the mouth of the river, so that the larger vessels were obliged to stand off, and the transports to beat in.
According to the uniform testimony of eye-witnesses, the British fleet consisted of thirty-two sail of all classes of vessels ; and the troops were landed from twenty-four transports-eight hundred on the Groton side, and nine hundred or a thousand on the New Lon- don side. Arnold, in his report of the expedition, says :
" At ten o'clock, the troops in two divisions and in four debarkations, were landed, one on each side the harbor, about three miles from New London ; that on the Groton side consisting of the 40th and 54th regiments, and the third bat- talion of New Jersey volunteers, with a detachment of yagers and artillery, were under the command of Lieut. Col. Eyre. The division on the New Lon- don side, consisted of the 38th regiment, the loyal Americans, the American Legion, refugees, and a detachment of sixty yagers, who were immediately on their landing, put in motion."
In the mean time, confused and hasty preparations had been made to receive them. At early dawn the fleet had been discovered, lying off becalmed, but the transports making preparations to beat in to the mouth of the river. Col. Wm. Ledyard was the military command- er of the district which comprised the two forts, the harbor, and the towns of New London and Groton. Capt. Adam Shapley com- manded at Fort Trumbull and the Town Hill Battery ; Capt. Wil- liam Latham at Fort Griswold. An alarm was immediately fired from Fort Griswold ; it consisted of two regular guns at fixed inter- vals-this was the signal to call in assistance from the neighboring country, while three guns was the signal of rejoicing, to give notice
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of a victory or a prize. It was evident that these signals had been communicated to the enemy, for when the two distress guns were fired, one of the large ships in the fleet added a third, so as to alter the import. This stratagem had some influence in retarding the ar- rival of militia.
In the town, consternation and fright were suddenly let loose. No sooner were the terrible alarm guns heard, than the startled citizens, leaping from their beds, made haste to send away their families and their portable and most valuable goods. Throngs of women and children were dismissed into the fields and woods, some without food, and others with a piece of bread or a biscuit in their hands. Women laden with bags and pillow-cases, or driving a cow before them, with an infant in their arms, or perhaps on horseback with a bed under them, and various utensils dangling at the side ; boys with stockings slung like wallets over their shoulders, containing the money, the pa- pers, and other small valuables of the family ; carts laden with fur- niture ; dogs and other household animals, looking strange and panic- struck ; pallid faces and trembling limbs-such were the scenes presented on all the roads leading into the country. Many of these groups wandered all day in the woods, and at night found shelter in the scattered farm-houses and barns.
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