USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 33
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After consuming two months in this romantic pastime, Vernon and Wentworth set themselves busily to the task of subduing Carthagena. They began the attack on the 10th of March, by assailing the forts and castles that guarded the harbor, and succeeded at length in demolishing them so that the admiral could effect an entrance. Wentworth now made a demonstration upon the town, but was driven back with the loss of about five hundred men. Discouraged at this rebuff, Vernon and Wentworth appear to have joined in the conclusion that it was idle to look any longer for laurels at Carthagena. About the 1st of April, therefore, the army and fleet were withdrawn, and spent some time in the plea- sant recreation of beating about the islands in quest of Span- ish ships. Six Spanish men of war, eight galleons and some smaller vessels were thus caught while fluttering between their respective ports .; But the assailants soon tired of such profitless amusement.
* Trumbull, ii. 267.
+ Trumbull, ii. 268; see also, Holmes, ii. 15; Univ. Hist. xii. 429, 445.
394
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
In July, fired with a new passion for glory, they made an attack upon Cuba, and without much resistance appropria- ted to the fleet one of the fine harbors with which that noble island abounds. But misfortune followed hard upon them in the shape of a sudden and mortal disease that, in the burning tropical air, preyed frightfully upon the vitals of the army and the seamen who had been accustomed to the invigora- ting influences of a northern climate. The ravages of this enemy were like those of the plague, or of that more mod- ern disease, cholera. For nearly a week, every day offered up its sacrifice of one thousand men ; and at the height of the malady, during forty-eight hours, three thousand four hundred and forty men fell victims to it. Of the thousand athletic soldiers who went from New England, not one hundred returned .*
Thus ended this inglorious scheme, but the war still con- tinued ; and it was resolved that it should never be brought to an end until some treaty stipulations could be forced from Spain, that would place the southern colonies upon a safer footing and would prevent the future interruption of British trade.
Thus, year after year, war, like a slow and poisonous humor in the blood, continued to waste the vitality of the American colonies. In vain did Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia rally the brave men under his command, seconded by Virginia and the Carolinas, and countenanced by the fickle favors of the few Indians that could be induced to
* Though few had perished by the enemy, it was computed, on a moderate calculation, that before the arrival at Jamaica 20,000 English subjects had died since their first attack on Carthagena. To this desolating mortality the poet, Thompson refers, in his admirable description of the " Pestilence :" ["SEASONS" -SUMMER, I., 1040, 1050.]
"Such as, of late, at Carthagena quench'd The British fire. You, gallant Vernon ! saw The miserable scene, you heard the groans Of agonizing ships from shore to shore ; Heard nightly plunged, amid the sullen waves, The frequent corse."
Admiral Vernon, who seems to have been held in high esteem by the oppo- sition in England, died suddenly, 29th of October, 1757, aged 73.
[1744.]
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 395
follow him. Without the help of the mother country, and with the savages that lurked in the hideous swamps of the south, malignant as the serpents that are generated in the hot air of these latitudes, skulking upon his trail, he still did what human valor could do to deliver the south from the commercial interference and arbitrary exactions of Spain. But for want of a sufficient naval force he was unable to take possession of St. Augustine, and with the exception of two Spanish forts that he succeeded in taking, the expedition failed .*
France, meanwhile, though affecting to maintain her neu- trality, did every thing that she could to assist Spain in pros- ecuting the war ; secretly at first, and at last more openly, until, on the 4th of March, 1744, she had the frankness to make a formal declaration of war against England. Soon after England made a like announcement.t
Before the tidings of either declaration reached the shores of New England, an expedition had been prepared by Duvivoir, a French officer of some merit, who sailed from Louisbourg, and on the 13th of May, surprised and took pos- session of Canso.I He then made a similar attempt upon Annopolis, (formerly Port Royal,) and would doubtless have succeeded there also had not the place been just before rein- forced by troops from Massachusetts. Louisbourg was also the central point whence there radiated a large number of French privateer ships and men-of-war, that hovered along the New England coast and seized upon our trading and fishing vessels in great numbers. It thus became impossible for the eastern colonies to carry on any maritime business whatever, without a convoy, and such a necessity involved an expense that amounted to a prohibition. The fishermen must renounce their employment, and the coasters must keep within port, or run the risk of captivity and a forfeit- ture of their goods and vessels.§
With one consent the people of New England resolved
* Holmes, ii. 14, 15. + March 31.
¿ Holmes, ii. 23 ; Hutchinson, ii. 364. § Hutchinson ; Trumbull.
396
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
that Louisbourg must be taken ; yet at first no one appears to have thought that it could be done without the coopera- tion of a naval force from England. But as the summer and fall passed away, and as winter drew on, it began to be whispered at Boston, that Louisbourg might be taken by surprise, and by New England valor alone. These intima- tions at last began to take some definite form, and it was believed by many that the fortress might be successfully besieged at a season of the year when the garrison was pro- bably but poorly provisioned, and when it could not hope to be relieved by any large supplies from French ships, that would hardly venture in great numbers to commit them- selves to the rough handling of the Atlantic coast winds in the stormy months. It was suggested, too, that a naval force adequate to keep off such few ships as might attempt to bring supplies for the relief of the garrison, could be found to cruise off the harbor, until the enterprise was completed.
Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, meanwhile, did what he could to learn what was the condition of the fortress, and how long it would be likely to withstand a siege. Those who had traded at that post, and those who had been con- fined there as prisoners, were alike consulted for informa- tion. Shirley had also written to England, begging that armed sloops might be sent to protect Annapolis ; and should these arrive in season, he hoped to avail himself of them to defend the provincial troops while they were employed in besieging Louisbourg. Commodore Warren, who was at the West Indies with a little squadron, might also reasona- bly be expected, either to arrive with his whole force, or to send a portion of it to the relief of New England, when once he had been made acquainted with the wants of the colonies.
The design was to send four thousand troops, in trans- ports, to Canso, and as soon as practicable land them in . Chapeaurouge Bay. This army was to be provided with cannon, mortars, and whatever else was necessary for the siege. As soon as the winds had subsided so that the small
397
GOVERNOR SHIRLEY'S PLAN OF ATTACK.
[1745.]
vessels that the colonies could muster might be expected to live in the coast waters of the Atlantic, a number of them were to be sent to hover near the harbor of Louisbourg, and cut off all supplies or reinforcements from the fortification. A minute calculation was made of the probable naval force of New England. It was found that the aggregate of their armed vessels could not exceed twelve, and the largest of these only mounted twenty guns. Yet with such a force it was believed that there was more than an even chance for suc- cess. If the ships from England, or those from the Indies, should arrive, the result might be regarded as almost cer- tain.
Early in January, 1745, Governor Shirley made known this plan to the General Court. The most solemn secresy was enjoined upon all the members of the two houses .* Although most of the principal men of the colony were doubtless aware of the scheme, and although the necessity that Louisbourg should be taken, was a common topic of discourse throughout New England, yet the details of the plan, and the hurry with which it was proposed to attempt it, without the help, and even without the sanction of Eng- land, was appalling to the minds of the country representa- tives. With dispassionate calmness they debated the matter for several days.
By those who favored the measure it was argued, that if this fortress should remain in the hands of the French, it would be the Dunkirk of New England ; that the French were already tired of attempting to compete with the colo- nies in fishing, and that if this stronghold was allowed to remain in their possession, it would soon be the rendezvous of a knot of pirates and privateers, who would find it easier to rifle the fishing vessels of the English than to trouble themselves with the details of a business they did not find congenial to their habits of life.
In addition to this calamity, it was quite probable that Nova Scotia, won with such toil from the dominion of
* Holmes, ii. 28; Hutchinson, ii. 366.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
France, and still inhabited in part by disaffected French- men, would be liable at any time to make a successful revolt, so long as the garrison at Louisbourg continued to give countenance to such a project. This reprisal, could it be effected, would of itself add at least six thousand to the num- ber of active enemies, that were already so powerful and so unscrupulous.
Besides, it was urged that the garrison, ill-provisioned as it was, could not be expected to make a very vigorous resistance ; that the walls of the fort were dilapidated, its barracks out of repair and scarcely tenantable, and its gov- ernor an old and infirm man, unused to the arts of war. If a favorable blow was to be struck, it must be done then. Such were a few of the arguments made use of by the advocates of the expedition .*
In reply, it was urged with great force, that the rumors so freely circulated, of the condition of the works and the garrison at Louisbourg, could not be safely relied on ; that appearances were not to be trusted ; that the garrison, though small, was made up of well disciplined soldiers, who were a match for many times their number of raw provin- cial troops ; that the chances were as great, to say the least, that ships of war would arrive from France to relieve the fort and augment its garrison, as that armed vessels would come from England or the West Indies to protect the pro- vincial army ; and that at the best such a calculation, based upon probabilities and contingencies, was too vague and speculative to be made the basis of a military campaign, that might involve the dearest interests of the colonies. It was said that prudent men should look at both sides of the question, and estimate the chances of failure as well as those of success ; that if, while the siege was in progress, there should appear off the harbor a single French man-of-war, it could put to flight the whole naval force of the colonies, small as were their crafts, and unaccustomed as their sailors were to the dangers of naval warfare. Further than this,
* Hutchinson, ii. 366, 367.
399
THE MEASURE IS APPROVED.
[1745.]
who could vouch for the cooperation of the other colonies, or even for their ability to furnish the men and the ships that were admitted by the most enthusiastic advocates of the scheme to be requisite to carry it on ? More than all, who but the ruler of the wind and the storm could foresee or guard against the treacherous dangers of the deep, at a sea- son of the year when the coast was white with breakers, and the caps of the waves towered above the masts of the little vessels that were expected to contend with them? Finally, even should the attack result favorably, would it not redound to the glory of England, while it proved a thankless labor for the colonies, which might ask in vain to be remunerated for the heavy expenses that they had incurred in the war .*
Such arguments as these prevailed, and the measure was lost in the house. In this decision the council acquiesced, and for some days the project appeared to have been forgot- ten.t Governor Shirley himself seemed to have been con- vinced of his error by the cogent reasoning of the opposi- tion. But Shirley was a man not easily baffled. He secretly set himself at work to bring external influences to bear upon the recusant members. All at once, as if by a spontaneous movement, the merchants and other rich and influential men of Massachusetts began to petition the Gen- eral Court to revive and pass the defeated measure. The petition set forth all the reasons that could be suggested in favor of the expedition. The flagging of commerce, espe- cially the destruction of the fishing and coasting business, were the main considerations that were pressed upon the court.
A committee was appointed to investigate the matter anew, and was finally prevailed on to recommend the mea- sure. For another day the subject was debated, and when the question was taken in the house, it was carried by a single vote .¿ Entire unanimity prevailed in both houses as soon
* Hutchinson, ii. 367, 368. + Hutchinson, ii. 368 ; Holmes, ii. 25.
# Holmes, Hutchinson, Trumbull, Bancroft.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
as the determination of the court was made known, and all parties now addressed themselves with vigor to the work of preparation. Dispatches were sent to the neighboring colo- nies, soliciting their assistance. All the colonies, except those of New England, refused to participate in the dangers of the undertaking. It was determined that Massachusetts should raise three thousand two hundred and fifty men ; that Connecticut should be required to furnish five hundred ; and Rhode Island and New Hampshire, each three hundred.
As soon as this request was made known to Governor Law, he called a special session of the Assembly, which convened at Hartford on the 26th of February, and immediately voted to raise five hundred men for the service. A bounty of ten pounds was voted to each soldier who should provide him- self with arms, knapsack, and blanket. These troops were divided into eight companies. Roger Wolcott, the Lieu- tenant Governor, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Connecticut forces ; Andrew Burr, colonel ; Simeon Lathrop, lieutenant-colonel ; and Israel Newton, major .* It was ordered that the sloop of war, Defense, should sail as the convoy of the regiment. New London was to be the place of embarkation. The most liberal measures were taken to furnish supplies and munitions of war, under the direction of commissioners, while Jonathan Trumbull and Elisha Wil- liams, Esquires, constituted a separate board, who were to repair to Boston and treat with the gentlemen whom they should find there representing Massachusetts or the other New England colonies, as to the general plan and details of the undertaking.t Only three days were spent in this most important matter.
The mildness of the weather, so unusual in March, made the task of getting the men together, and furnishing them with necessaries, remarkably easy.
The popularity of colonel, afterwards Sir William Pep-
* Elizur Goodrich, David Wooster, Stephen Lee, Samuel Adams, and John Dwight, were appointed captains at the same session.
t Colony Records, MS.
401
TIDINGS OF COMMODORE WARREN.
[1745]
perell, commander-in-chief of the army, and of Roger Wol- cott, the second in command, induced the better sort of people to enlist. Massachusetts and Connecticut sent out some of their best freeholders, and the ranks were filled with the sons of wealthy farmers. The merchants of the principal towns, the clergymen, and other educated gentle- men, made great sacrifices to render the armament as com- plete as possible. The whole naval power of New England that could be made available in this emergency, consisted of only twelve vessels, viz., the Connecticut sloop of war, ano- ther fine sloop of war belonging to Rhode Island, a privateer ship of two hundred tons burthen, a snow belonging to Newport, a new snow under the command of Captain Rouse, another commanded by Captain Smethurst, a ship under the command of Captain Snelling, a brig under Captain Fletcher, three small sloops under Captains Saunders, Donehew, and Bosch, and a ship of twenty guns, under Captain Ting, who commanded the whole force .*
All that New York could be induced to do in aid of the enterprise, was to yield a very tardy assent to the solicita- tions of Governor Shirley for the loan of ten eighteen- pounders.
The special assembly of Connecticut, that had been con- voked by Governor Law on the 26th of February, stood adjourned until the 14th of March, when it met and appointed five more captains, whose names were James Church, Daniel Chapman, William Whiting, Robert Denison, and Andrew Ward. The Rev. Elisha Williams, who had been rector of Yale College, was selected to accompany the Connecticut troops as chaplain.t
By the 23d of March, the other Massachusetts troops were all embarked and ready to weigh anchor. The express boat from the West Indies arrived with tidings from Com- modore Warren. The purport of his answer was, that he had lost one of his ships, and was thereby much disabled ; and, further, he did not deem it prudent for him to intermed-
* Hutchinson, ii. 369 ; Trumbull, ii. 275.
t Colony Records, MS.
26
402
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
dle in a matter that seemed to want the sanction of the British government. This discouraging information was not made known, however, by Governor Shirley to the army, and the fleet immediately sailed. About the same time the Con- necticut troops and those from the two other colonies set sail.
The New Hampshire forces arrived at Canso on the 1st of April ; those from Massachusetts, on the 4th, and those from Connecticut, on the 25th. The land army consisted of four thousand able bodied men, well officered and in excel- lent spirits .*
Scarcely had the Massachusetts express boat taken leave of Commodore Warren, when dispatches from England reached him, commanding him to sail for Boston with such ships as could be spared, to assist Governor Shirley in con- certing and carrying out measures for the king's general ser- vice in America. Relieved from the restraints, that had before embarrassed his mind. Warren sent out an express to such ships as were to be found in the western seas, to join him as speedily as they could, and with joy hastened to fulfil the king's commands. On his passage he learned that the fleet had sailed for Canso, and without putting in at Boston harbor, he made all haste to reach Canso, where he arrived in the Su- perb, a ship of sixty guns, in company with the Lanceston and Mermaid, of forty guns each. On the same day, the Eltham, of forty guns, from Portsmouth, reached the same port. The pulses of the provincial soldiers beat quick and high, like the waves of that northern sea, when the British flag was seen floating from the mast head of those five sturdy ships. Com- modore Warren, after a short conference with Colonel Pep- perell, sailed for Louisbourg harbor.t
Already the few colonial ships and vessels, that had been cruising there, had rendered important services by seizing several vessels bound to Louisbourg with provisions. They had also fallen in with the Renomme, a French ship of
* The three hundred soldiers from Rhode Island did not reach Louisbourg until after its capture.
+ Hutchinson,
403
LANDING OF THE TROOPS.
[1745]
thirty-six guns, bearing dispatches. She kept up a running fire for awhile with the cruisers, that resisted her entrance into the harbor, and then giving up the attempt as hopeless, she commenced her return voyage. As the Connecticut and Rhode Island troops, having farther to sail than those of the other colonies, were yet on their passage, the Renomme met them under convoy of their two small sloops, either one of which a single broadside of her metal might have sunk; yet, after saluting with a few coy shots at a distance, and doing some damage to the Rhode Island sloop, she prudently resumed her regular course. She must have easily divined that something besides the coasting trade had set in motion the sails that swarmed along the coast in such defiant array.
The fleet and army followed the men-of-war, and arrived safely in Chapeaurogue Bay on the 30th of April.
All this time the enemy had remained in ignorance of the attempt that was about to be made upon the garrison. Even the cruisers had not alarmed them, as they sup- posed them to be engaged in the old business of privateering for fishing and trading vessels. But when early on the morning of the 30th of April, they looked off from the heights that commanded the town, and saw the transports beating into the bay, their eyes were opened. The governor immediately sent out Bouladrie, with one hundred and fifty disciplined troops, to oppose the landing of the enemy. Gen- eral Pepperill with much address kept him employed while he was effecting a landing at another point. This small detachment of brave men was sadly cut in pieces at the first fire. Bouladrie soon found himself a prisoner, and the remnant of his men flying, from the invaders easily effected a landing .*
Four hundred men, on the following morning, screened by the hills, marched to the north-east harbor, laying in ashes the houses and stores that they found in their way, until they had arrived within a mile of the general battery. From this
* Trumbull, ii. 279.
404
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
indiscriminate conflagration such dense volumes of smoke arose, enveloping the soldiers who kept close beneath its shadow, that the enemy, who could only be aware of the advance of the English by the line of fire and vapor that was gradually lengthened out below them, and who believed that the whole invading army was approaching, hastily threw their powder into a well and fled in dismay from the bat- tery. With steady hands and bold hearts, this handful of undisciplined provincials moved forward, and took possession of it without the loss of a man. They soon brought the cannon that the enemy had left, to bear upon the town, but as the guns were forty-two pounders and consumed too much powder, the firing was soon discontinued .*
Thus far every thing had been easy ; the labor was now to begin. The heart of the fortification was still sound and secure. In order to bring guns to bear upon the main works, it was necessary to drag them a distance of two miles, before they could make them available by means of fascine batteries. To add to the almost unsurmountable diffi- culties that attended this task, a deep morass that would not sustain the weight of oxen or horses, stretched like a Serbonian bog between them and the spot where it was necessary that these temporary batteries should be erected. Ignorant of the ordinary approaches of a besieging army, untaught, except in the rude way that nature teaches her hardiest sons, the provincial troops set themselves about the work with surprising energy, performing, under cover of darkness, the drudgery fit only for beasts of burden, drag- ging heavy forty-two pounders, mortars, and timbers over the trembling surface of the swamp, carrying shot and shells along difficult places, with the same persistency that had leveled the forests of their fields and committed them to the crackling fire, and with as little military education as they had been in the habit of employing in erecting cedar palis- ades around their border houses.
Under such discouraging auspices, waging against nature
* Hutchinson, ii. 374 ; Trumbull, ii. 277, 278; Holmes, ii. 26.
405
ARRIVAL OF ENGLISH SHIPS.
[1745.]
and struggling against a fortified and disciplined enemy, in less than twenty days they had erected five fascine batteries, one of which mounted five forty-two pounders.
While this almost unheard of labor was going forward on shore, the fleet was by no means inactive. While cruising off the harbor, the Vigilant, a French sixty-four gun ship, was met by the Mermaid whom she engaged. As the Mermaid was a forty-four gun ship, Captain Douglass suffered himself to be chased until he had drawn his adversary within the range of the commodore's guns. As soon as the Vigilant discovered her hopeless condition she struck her colors without firing a shot .* Her fate was decisive of the fate of Louisbourg. She was under the command of the Marquis de la Maison Forte, a very gallant officer, and had on board five hundred and sixty men, with stores that would have enabled the fort to hold out until a sufficient naval force could have arrived from France to have made it impregnable. This easy victory, while it emboldened the provincial army, discouraged the garrison and hastened the capitulation.
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