USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Chelsea > Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 2 > Part 42
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" Colonel John Nixon, who commanded a regiment enlisted in Middle- sex and Worcester Counties.
436
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. XLII
not A man kild: But fore wounded but we hope all will Recover. one of the fore was A tounsing [ Townsend] man belonging to our Company the bulet went throu his mouth from one Check to the other. thanks be unto God that so little hurt was 'Done us when the Bauls Sung like Bees Round our heds.
" Sunday May 28 Left Winnisimit ferry About ye middle of ye fore noon And Came to Chelsea And About two in ye afternoon Reeeved ordars to mareh and Came to Cambridge, By ye way of Penny ferry.6
" Thursday June ye 1 thare was Sheep And Catel and horses we hear to ye Amount of fore or five hundred Sheep twenty or thurty Cattel And A number of horses brought along that our Peopel took from the Regulars of noddles island. Blesed be God for the interposition of his Provedence on our Side in that He has Delivered into our hands So much of thare goods or Substanee And in Saving of us in ye late Battle when in Such Ement Danger Suerly God fote the Battle And not we"
General Sumner's Account
" Saturday, the 27th of May, 1775, a small party of the American army at Cambridge received orders from Gen. Ward to drive the stoek from Hog and Noddle's islands. Advantage was to be taken of the ebb tide, when the water would be fordable from Chelsea (Revere) to Hog Island, and from Hog Island to Noddle's Island, it there being about knee-high. This detachment, composed of Massachusetts and New Hampshire men, numbering from two to three hundred, by some accounts, and six hundred by another, was led by Col. John Stark of New Hampshire, afterwards of Bennington fame.
" Col. Stark, with his detachment, first erossed from Chelsea (Revere) to Hog Island, and took from it four hundred sheep, represented, erroneously, we think, as stolen by General Gage and deposited there for safe-keeping. They then passed over to Noddle's Island, to reseue the eattle there from their British keepers. The party had killed a few horses and 'divers horned cattle,' and taken away alive a few more, when a signal gun was fired from an armed schooner, lying at anehor near Winnisimmet ferry ways. The British admiral hoisted a red flag at mainmast- head, and sent the sehooner, which mounted four six-pounders and twelve swivels, an armed sloop, and a large number of marines
" Penny Ferry, established in 1640, between Charlestown and Malden.
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437
REMOVAL OF LIVE STOCK
CHAP. XLII]
from different men-of-war, up Chelsea creek (river), to cut off our return to the main land. The barges conveying these marines were eleven in number, and all were mounted with swivels.
" A heavy fire was now opened from the sloop and schooner, under cover of which the marines advanced upon our men, who were busily engaged upon the Island, in the prosecution of their object. In the meantime, General Gage sent over from the city, four hundred regulars to reinforce the marines previously sta- tioned on (Noddle's) Island. The provincials, under this heavy fire, retreating to a ditch in the marsh, kept themselves undis- covered, until they had opportunity to fire with effect upon the enemy; thus early adopting a practice, for which they were so celebrated during the war, of reserving their fire until sure of their aim, and which, in this instance, resulting in killing some and wounding others of the unsuspecting regulars. They then re- crossed to Hlog Island, where they were joined by the remainder of the party from Chelsea (Revere), the regulars, who remained upon Noddle's Island, firing upon them at the same time very briskly by platoons.
" Having cleared Hog Island of all the stock, and a sharp fire still continuing between them and the schooner, sloop, boats, and marines, the provincials drew up on Chelsea (Revere) Neck, and sent for a reinforcement. General Putnam 7 with three hundred men and two four-pounders, came to their aid, and, being the highest in rank, he took command of our united forces, which now amounted to about a thousand men. The gallant and patriotic Warren, also, too ardent to remain at a distance, hastened to the spot as a volunteer, and by words and deeds encouraged the men. Putnam reached the ground about nine o'clock in the evening, and took in at a glance the true state of things. Perceiving Noddle's Island occupied by a large body of the enemy, and that a galling fire was kept up by the schooner, sloop, and boats, he with his customary coolness went down to the shore and hailed the schooner,
7 " I informed them (Congress of 1775), of the arrangement made by our Assembly (Connecticut) which I thought would be satisfactory, to have them (the major-generals) continue in the same order; but as Gen- eral Putnam's fame was spread abroad, and especially his successful enterprise at Noddle's Island, the account of which had just arrived, it gave him the preference in the opinion of the Delegates in general, so that his appointment was unanimous among the colonies. But from your known abilities and firm attachment to the American cause we were very desirons of your continuance in the army, and hope you will accept the appointment made by the Congress." Roger Sherman to General David Wooster, Philadelphia, June 23, 1775. Bontell's Life of Sherman, 86.
438
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
ICHAP. XLII
which was within speaking distance, offering the men good quarter, if they would surrender. The schooner answered with two cannon shot, which was immediately replied to by two discharges from the cannon of the provincials. A heavy fire ensued from both sides. The armed sloop, and a great number of boats sent from the ships, came to the aid of the schooner, and at the same time a large reinforcement of marines, with two twelve-pounders, was sent to Noddle's Island. For two hours the engagement was severe, until the firing from the schooner ceased. The fire from the shore was so hot that her men found they must perish on board their vessel, or make their escape from it. The love of life conquered, and they hastily took to their boats, leaving the schooner, and all she contained, as booty for the provincials. The barges attempted to tow her back to her station through the sharp fire of Putnam's men; but, unable to endure the severe fire, they were compelled to quit her. The battle now becoming more general, continued through the whole night; and during the action, a large barn, full of hay, and an old farm-house, on the Island, were burned.
" The schooner drove ashore on the Winnisimet ferry-ways, [then westerly of Chelsea Bridge] and a party, consisting of Isaac Bald- win and twelve others, of the provincials, after taking from her whatever was valuable, rolled bundles of hay under her stern, and set her on fire and burned her up. The reason for burning the schooner, of course, was the fact, that, the harbor being in the possession of the British, they would not be able to keep the vessel in their own hands.
" The provineials took from the schooner '4 double fortified four-pounders, 12 swivels, chief of her rigging and sails, many clothes, some money, &e., which the sailors and marines left be- hind.' The account honestly adds, 'they having quitted in great haste.' . . .
"The sloop still continued her fire, which was vigorously re- plied to from the shore, and a heavy cannonade was commenced upon the provincials with the twelve-pounders from a hill upon Noddle's Island, called West Head, near to, and directly opposite, the Winnisimet ferry-ways. But Putnam, inspired with the same dauntless courage with which he entered the den of the wolf, heading his men, and wading up to his middle in mud and water, pourcd so hot a fire upon the sloop, that, very much crippled and with many of her men killed, she was obliged to be towed off by the boats. It is a striking illustration of the courage and impetu- osity of Putnam, that he and his brave followers attacked and erippled this sloop with small arms; that, leaving their cannon, they waded within musket distance, and there fought the heavy
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439
CHAP. XLIII REMOVAL OF LIVE STOCK
armed vessel, heedless of the great disparity in weapons and of their dangerous position. ..
" Soon after the disabling of the sloop, the firing ceased, ex- cepting a few scattering shots between the marines on Noddle's Island, and the party at Chelsea. During the whole of the follow- ing forenoon, however, the Somerset man-of-war, of sixty-eight guns and 520 men, was continually firing upon the people on the Chelsea side, who had gathered together in great numbers to see what had occurred upon the Island. It is remarkable, that in this long and well-contested engagement, not a man belonging to the provincial army was killed, and but three or four were wounded, and one of these by the bursting of his own gun; while the loss of the enemy in killed and wounded was very severe. . . .
" The different reports of the battle give various estimates of the number of the enemy killed and wounded. The account of it by General Gage is similar in character to his report of the battle of Lexington and Coneord; the following extract from the Lon- don Gazette (No. 11,579) gives its purport : -
"' Whilehall, July 18, 1775. Lieutenant-General Gage in his Letters to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated June 12, 1775, gives an Account, That the Town of Boston continued to be surrounded by a large Body of Rebel Provineials, and that all Communication with the Country was cut off; that the Rebels had been burning Houses and driving Sheep off an Island that has easy Communi- cation with main land, which drew on a Skirmish with some marines who drove the Rebels away; but that an armed Schooner, that had been sent between the Island and the main land, having got on shore at High Water, there was no possibility of saving her, for as the Tide fell, she was left quite dry, and burned by the Rebels. Two men were killed and a few wounded.'
" As an offset to this obvious underestimate of the British gen- cral, we quote a paragraph from that reliable historian, Gordon. Says he: 'The regulars were said to have suffered very much, not to have had less than two hundred killed and wounded. The loss was probably greatly exaggerated; that, however, had a good effeet on the provincials. The affair was a matter of no small triumph to them, and they felt upon the occasion more courageous than ever.' " 8
A skirmish with no loss of life on the American side, and with small loss on the British, has been magnified as a battle; and that part of it which took place at night, - favorable to rumors, -
8 Sumner's East Boston, 371-377.
440
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. XLII
after General Putnam took command of the forces drawn up on the Revere side of Chelsea Creek, gave him great reputation, and is said to have promoted his selection by Congress as one of the major-generals of the Continental Army. (Sherman, anle, 437 n.) Nevertheless, the purpose of the provincials, the removal of the sheep and cattle from Hog and Noddle's Islands was fairly suc- cessful and appears to have been planned with judgment and prosecuted with skill. It was also useful in giving them some acquaintancee, not with a pitched battle in the field, but with such skirmishing as often precedes it.
I have sought traditions, but have found only two. One of these is that of Elizabeth Hasey, to be given later; and the other, that of the late Isaac Pratt, a man of intelligence and good memory; but, like most very aged people, who have a story to tell, he told his well, though cross-examination disconcerted him, and no valuable results followed. His narrative, so far as it relates to the matter in hand, I give in his own words :
" After the battle of Lexington a good many sheep and cattle were sent to Chelsea by Gen. Putnam. [There is no evidence of this, nor is it probable.] The companies there were quartered, in part, in the Carter House, and in part in the Cary House. [I think this was not before the winter of 1775-6.]
" Gen. Putnam directed the troops to go to East Boston, May 27th, and steal all the cattle there. They went by night, and crossed Chelsea Creek, at the Salt Factory, where Magee's foundry now stands; hard beach there; a man there to hoist a light when they should come back. [There may have been a small affair of this kind, but it was not the principal affair.] Cattle driven to Powderhorn Hill, where the trees are. [Since cut down, but then and recently a little southeasterly of the Soldiers' Home.] Had orders to burn the houses on Noddle's Island.
" British schooner had eight cannon, with swivels on a sloop and barges. They sailed up Chelsea Creek, near to the Rubber Works. Fought all night. Schooner could n't get back. Our folks went to the marsh. British tried to tow her with the barges; we tried to kill the barge-men. Sam. Batchelder lives where Sam. Pratt fought. [Ncar the foot of Pearl street.] Ben Brintnall fired sixty times on the men in the barges, which had to come close to the Salt Works. Gen. Putnam sent down two cannon, and Dearborn, of New Hampshire, came over with them. The Lion ran quartering on the Ferry Ways, turned over a little, and still fired her shot which came up to Mt. Washington, and were found between the Cheever and Hawes houses. I have one, and a piece of one of the masts of the schooner, split into rails. [Which he exhibited on
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411
REMOVAL OF LIVE STOCK
CHAP. XLII]
patriotic occasions.] Sam Pratt carried down hay with which to burn her. Shot came from East Boston. Only three or four houses in Prattville at that time."
Besides the traditions given to me by the late Isaac Pratt, in 1885, referred to on page 440, he made statements in re- spect to other persons, some of whom I never heard of, and none of whom may have any connection with Chelsea history; but lest it may be otherwise, I preserve them for the present, without comment.
IIenry Newhall died in 1822, in the house of the widow of Sam. Pratt.
Robert Lash, father of old Mr. Lash of Chelsea, and De Cart- wright, were of the Tea Party, and their descendants lived in Chelsea.
Henry Newhall was employed in the French War to go to Lake George to build a vessel. He went through Mohawk Valley. He was grandfather of Isaac Pratt, [the narrator ] who was born in 1796, March 25. H. Newhall was a master builder, and learned the Mohawk language, and so they [the Tea Party] took the name of Mohawks. His daughter married the father of Isaae Pratt. [ His father. ] He conld sing in the Mohawk language. [The narrator gave me a specimen. ] It is said that the Tea Party in the Old South painted themselves as Mohawks.
Newhall was with Waters, Manley, and Ayer, in the Privateer. Commodore Manley's second wife died in Chelsea, lived there, and boarded in the house of my mother.
After the battle of Lexington, a good many cattle and sheep were sent by General Putnam to Chelsea. Regiments were quar- tered, part in the Carter honse, and part in the Cary house. Samnel Watts owned the Carter honse, farm, and marsh, and Deacon Harris's estate in Revere.
This tradition, so far as it relates to the 27th of May, is of little vahie. It mixes incidents of that date with those of as late as the middle of June. He makes Putnam, who came up late, instead of Stark, the prime leader; but what he says of Sam. Brintnall and Benj. Brintnall, who appear on the scene after the schooner had drifted down to Winnisimmet, near which they lived, he may have had from their own lips, and it is quite probable, since it agrees with well-known facts.
442
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. XLII
I now give what I believe to have been a true outline of the affair, omitting some things already told. In its investigation for some time I was perplexed with two difficulties: whether Colonel Stark crossed from the Chelsea shore to East Boston, or from the Revere shore to Hog Island, as the accounts varyingly state. After a personal examination of the creeks and bordering marshes, - once made with danger of engulfment, - I found no point between the westerly East Boston bridge and the Revcre Beach Railroad, where the creeks were fordable at low water, or the marshes pass- able in the driest season. Where then did Colonel Stark cross either to Hog or Noddle's Island? This was the first difficulty. The second was to find " Chelsea Neck," where the provincials drew up on their retreat and sent for reinforcements. I found no one in Revere who ever heard of "Chelsea Neck." Nevertheless the name is old, for, in 1632, the General Court ordered, " that the necke of land betwixte Powder Horne Hill and Pullen Poynte shall belonge to Boston." And from an elevation to which William T. Hall, Esq., of Revere, kindly led me, the whole region was visible, and we easily traced the ridge of upland lying between the north and south marshes, from the westerly foot of Powder Horn Hill, by the way of Washington Avenue, Fenno, and Beach streets, down to the sea, and thence over the beach to Pulling Point. This upland is the " necke of land " of 1632, and over it, in 1699, Boston directed a committee, of which Deane Winthrop was chairman, to mark the course of a road, then old, and now substantially the Beach street road to Winthrop.º It was somewhere on this " Chelsea Neck," that Colonel Stark, when hard pressed by the British, " drew up," and sent for reinforcements. At that time, the greater part of the people of old Chelsea lived at what is now Revere, and there were the chief interests to be protected, and there was the guard which John Pratt entertained. (Ante, 429, n.)
With these explanations, a tolerably clear account of the affair is possible.
At the time when General Ward at Cambridge, on the morning of May 27, 1775, sent a body of troops to remove the live stock from Hog and Noddle's islands, the only practicable route was from Medford, turning the Malden marshes, by following the foot of the uplands to Revere, near the meeting-house, where Stark's party was probably joined by the Chelsea company, under Captain Samuel Sprague. These forces then followed the old road, now Beach street, down to the Sale farm, from which the Creek was fordable at low water, to the easterly end of Hog Island.
Having sent to the main land the sheep and cattle collected on
" Boston Rec. Com. Rep., vii. 233.
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THE GREEN HOUSE.
HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON.
413
CHAP, XLIII
REMOVAL OF LIVE STOCK
that island, they crossed to Noddle's Island, where they gathered stock and destroyed property which might be serviceable to the British. But before they had completed their work, the British appeared in force, and after some skirmishing, the provincials re- treated by the road they came, to "Chelsea Neck," and there waited for a reinforcement. Meantime, probably late in the after- noon, the British had sent a schooner with a sloop and several barges np Chelsea Creek, to cut off Stark's retreat. At 9 o'clock, P. M., it is said, General Putnam with. 200 men and two four- pounders, and accompanied by Dr. Joseph Warren, appeared on the scene. With his artillery drawn up in front of the Newgate, or Yeaman honse, he arrested the advance of the schooner and made her retreat impracticable from the point she had reached, - a little above the Rubber Factory. That the principal fight with the schooner was at this point, was the testimony of Elizabeth Hasey, an eye-witness, repeatedly given to William T. Hall; and this was confirmed by the fact that he had often dng up small cannon balls in front of the Newgate house.
From that point Chelsea Creek in front, and the deep marsh southerly, would have prevented further attack on the schooner, until she had drifted down to near the foot of Highland street, where from the bluff on the northerly side of Marginal street she would again come under the fire of the provincials ; and probably here Benj. Brintnall fired the shots, as told by Isaac Pratt.
In this sketch I have omitted everything told by others not es- sential to the understanding of my ontline; and with a few obser- vations I leave the subject. That Revere was the guarded point, is evident from John Pratt's bill. He lived in that part of Chel- sca. That " Chelsea Neck," from which our forees proceeded and to which they retreated, was in Revere, is also elear from the peti- tion of Joseph Green | whose house is still standing on the northerly side of Winthrop street just casterly of the railroad]. This house stands within the bounds of the farm of William Hasey, the first of the name at Romney Marsh, and may have been his. Tradition assigns it to that family : but as William Hasey had three sons, all of whom lived on the Hasey Estate, it is impossible to assign it to either with certainty. " A petition of Joseph Green, of Chelsea, praying allowance of his account for a dinner provided for a com- pany of soldiers, who were sent to take the stock off IIog Island, in May, last." March 15, 1776, Honse Jour., 8. January 24, 1776, the House passed several Resolves on account of losses at Bunker Hill; Jour. 1775, Nov. Sess., 51; and March 16, 1776, Joseph Green, perhaps the same, as above, was allowed £1. 4. for losses, June 17th. Ibid., 14. Sec Jour. 1775, August 18, 59. May 1,
444
HISTORY OF CHELSEA
[CHAP. XLII
1776, Thomas Pratt was allowed, £1. 18. 6, for same. Ibid., 228. Had I carlier seen the map in Gordon's History, vol. ii., showing a road from the Sale farm to Hog Island, and thence over Crooked Lane to Noddle's Island, it would have saved me much trouble. It confirms my conjecture, and settles the question as to Stark's route. For Frothingham's aecount of this affair, see Siege of Boston, 109.
In the Revolutionary archives at the State House is a paper bearing the names of seventeen men who on the day, when their brothers at Concord " fired the shot heard round the World," and inspired by the same love of liberty, performed their duty at the beginning of the War of the Revolution by standing guard over the northerly part of Boston Harbor, in that part of the then town of Chelsea, called Pullin Point. One side of the sheet of paper referred to reads as follows :
" A Rool of the men that keept Guard att Pullin Point in Chelsea by order of Capt. Saml. Sprague from April 19, 1775, till Discharged by there officer.
Men's names.
When Discharged.
Term of service.
The amount of wages.
Andrew Tewksbury,
May 16,
1 mo.
2. 0.0
John Sargent,
2. 0.0
Jonth. Belcher,
2.0.0
Nath. Belcher, jr.,
66
2. 0. 0
Josiah Gleason,
2. 0.0
John Tuksbury,
66
2.0.0
Seth Whood,
66
2. 0.0
Wm. Brown,
2.0.0
Charles Bill,
2.0.0
Jonth. Belcher, jun.,
2.0.0
Nath. Belcher, 3rd,
66
66
2.0.0
John Tukesbury, jr.,
66
2.0.0
Joshua Gleason,
66
66
2.0. 0
James Tukesbury,
2. 0.0
34. 0. 0
" This may Sertify that the above parsons was ordered to keep a Guard att Pullin Point in Chelsea being part of my company.
By me SAMUEL SPRAGUE, Capt."
On the other side of the paper is endorsed the action of the Gen- eral Court as follows :
"The Committee apointed to consider the petition of Capt Sprague together with the Rool accompanying the same beg leave to Report - " In the House of Representatives,
" April 30, 1776.
66
2.0.0
Job Worrow,
2. 0.0
Nath. Sargent,
£sd
2. 0. 0
Thos. Cleavery,
445
REMOVAL OF LIVE STOCK
CHAP. XIII]
" Resolved, that their be paid out of the public Treasury of this colony the sum of thirty four pounds in full to the seventeen men bourn on the Rool exhibited by Captain Sprague for one months sarvis for keeping guard at Pullin Point in Chelsea each man to draw his own weagers or by his order upon his giving oath that he performed the sarvis mentioned in said Rool."
A part of the service by the 17 men above mentioned was prob- ably performed at Point Shirley in the old fort, the earthworks of which were clearly defined up to a few years ago. A paper is still preserved signed by some military authority of the time, granting leave to Mr. Joseph Belcher, the ancestor of many of the present Winthrop Belchers, to pass and repass to Point Shirley. Captain Sprague had 28 men belonging to his company from the section of Chelsea, in which he lived, now the town of Revere, and under his command they served 15 days, following the Lexington alarm. The company assisted in removing the live stock from the islands on May 4, 1775, and on May 27 of the same year burnt a British armed schooner somewhere in Chelsea Creek. Under Captain Cheever of Chelsea the company took part in other engagements during the Revolution. It is not probable that the Pullin Point members of the company took part in these operations.
As near as we can ascertain the men above mentioned comprised nearly the whole male population of the territory now called Win- throp, and it is quite likely that some of them were inhabitants of Deer Island. There were probably only seven or eight houses here outside of Point Shirley, where there were perhaps as many more. The old church shown in Pelham's map of 1777 was built at the time of the establishment of the fishing industry in 1753, but there is no record of how long it was used for worship or what became of the building.
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