History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 70

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 70

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In May, 1755, Col. Plaisted leaves Salem to assume his command at Crown Point; probably in the expe- dition about to move under Col. Winslow.

A liberal bounty is offered about this time by the

General Court for the scalps of any Indians of all ages and both sexes, and a fast is ordered in Salem to pray for victory over the French and Indians.

In the spring of the following year (1757) a force of eighteen hundred men was drafted in Massachusetts, and under command of Col. Joseph Frye, of And- over, marched to reinforce the garrison of Forts Ed- ward and William Henry. Captains Goodhue, Plaisted, Clarke and Pickman, of Salem, commanded companies in this force. Other Salem officers may have been with it, and some, at least, of the men in these companies were volunteers from Salem. King George promised £10 to every man who should enlist this year, and in the case of these men he failed to pay up. The old gentleman doubtless having considerable paper maturing ahout that time, may have been a little short. At any rate they got no money out of him, and a number of loyal citizens of Salem made it up to them by private subscription. The names of the men receiving this bounty were,-

In Capt. Goodhue's Company.

Peter Stokey.

John Elkins.

Jacob Verry.

John Baley.

David Morrill. John Ward, Jr.

David Phipen, Jr.

Eleazer Sy monds.

Barnahas Herrick.

Joseph Sands.

James Gould.

John Collins.

Thomas Symonds.

Moses Townsend.

Aphanis Seavy.

In Capt. Plaisted's Company.

John Swasays.

John Leaman, Jr.

Robert Elliot. Edward Ross.

In Capt. Clarke's Company.

Thomas Kneeland.

Sam'l Merritt.

John Webb. Jos. Eborn.

Jo. Symond.

Jos. Silshy.

John Osgood. John Dowst.

The record gives none of the names of the men in Capt. Pickman's company, who received this money, although it indicates that there were some. It will be remembered that Lord Loudon, this year, withdrew a large part of his army from the Champlain country and elsewhere for his abortive attempt upon Louis- bourgh, which by the peace of Aix la Chapelle had been returned to the French. The astute Montcalm saw his opportunity and reckoning, with reason, upon the probability of Loudon's failure in the east, marched straight south with a strong army of French troops and Indians, and suddenly appeared before Fort Wil- liam Henry. In the short siege of the place, followed by its surrender and the subsequent shocking Indian massacre, Richard Butman, Daniel Robertson and possibly others of Salem were killed, while six Salem men were captured and carried to Canada. These things had a depressing influence upon Salem, and another fast was ordered.

In 1758 General Abercrombie's bloody repulse he- fore Ticonderoga was hardly calculated to raise the spirits of the people, but there was hardly time to

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have a fast ordered in Salem, before the very differ- ent news of General Amherst's recapture of Louis- bourgh that followed almost immediately after would seem to have obviated the necessity for it.

Whether any Salem men were with Abercrombie cannot be stated with certainty, but as his force con- tained over nine thousand provincial troops there can be little doubt of it; some also were presumably serv- ing under Amherst.

There is extant a journal of one Gibson Clough, of Salem, a private of Captain Giddings' company, in the Fourteenth Provincial Regiment, that under Col- onel Jonathan Bagley, was sent to reinforce the gar- rison of Louisbourgh after its capture.

Captain Giddings and a considerable portion of his company were evidently from Salem as well as Clough, whose running account of his experiences gives a fair idea of the life of the New England sel- dier of that day. Some of his comments are ratli- er amusing. Speaking of certain disciplinary pro- ceedings he remarks that "there is no spair of whip here ; " and further on in an apparent fit of disgust with the service, he says, "if we get clear this year, I think we shall be unwise if we come here again to serve our King and country.".

As the severe weather of a Cape Breton October approaches, Mr. Clough observed that they would soon stand in need of winter clothing and good liquors " for to keep up our spirits; " . . . " But," he dryly adds, "we are not likely to get liquors or cloathes ! " He describes, in his odd manner, the dismantling of the fortifications of Louisbourgh and the daily incidents of garrison and outpost duty ; tells of the news of the taking of Quebec by General Wolfe and of the subsequent operations of General Amherst against Montreal and the French lake forts, all of which is filtered through the usual camp ru- mors and gossip. For the most part our friend writes in very low spirits, until his final description of his return home with Amos Hilton, Jonathan Buxton, Robert Picket and Daniel Butman, of Salem, and other comrades whom he does not name, which is marked, to use his own words, by " great joy and content."

At the capture of Quebec Captain John Tapley, of Salem, took part, with no doubt other Salem men, although it is probable that a larger number of them were serving with General Amherst's army, that failed to reach Quebec in time to co-operate with Wolfe, bnt performed signal services the following year in the reduction of Montreal and the remaining French posts that finally ended the dominion of that people on this continent.

Lemuel Woods, a soldier in this army, believed to be from Salem, wrote a fragmentary journal that has been preserved. No doubt his soldierly qualities werc superior to his scholarship; for his style, even for a diary, must be regarded, in whatever light we view it, as very slovenly. He speaks of Lieutenant Gran- ger and Ensign Peabody having obtained permission

to look at the works of Fort Ticonderoga after its surrender, naively adding, .... " I accidentally went with them and viewed the fort," etc. (we de- cline the reproduction of his spelling). When the journal, in describing the accidental death of a man of his regiment, says, . . . "a heavy stick slipped and stove him all to mash, and they brought him over and buried him," .

. . . we must admit a con- ciseness of expression that in a measure redeems Mr. Woods' manuscript ; but when, in another place he speaks of the camp being . , "all in a combus- tion a raging things up for a sudden push when called for," .... it seems hardly worth while to quote more although the diary is of much interest as illus- trating the life of a soldier of the time in active ser- vice.

The French wars were now ended. The people of the colonies while impoverished by the aid rendered the mother-country, had nevertheless learned their strength ; and the presence among them of a large body of trained soldiers, just returned from efficient service in the field where they had often proved themselves fully the equals of the British regulars, did not tend to make them tolerant of any tyrannical measures of the Crown. So for the next fifteen years the people of Salem, in common with their ncigh- bors, were warming up in their quarrel with the mother-country.

The General Court meeting in Salem in 1774, Gov- ernor Gage brought down two regiments as a display of force that should overawe the court and the people. But upon his return to Boston the troops were with- drawn, fortunately without any collision with the exasperated people.

It was in Salem that the Revolution really began, when the General Court, the same year, formed itself into a Provincial Congress, and subsequently, after adjourning to Concord, appointed officers independ- ently of the crown and proceeded to procure arms and ammunition. Here also occurred the first actual collision with the British troops, which, though with- out bloodshed, resulted in their retirement without the accomplishment of their purpose.

For on Sunday morning, February 26, 1775, Colonel Leslie in command of a battalion of infantry, sailed around from Boston and debarking at Marblehead, marched rapidly to Salem, with the purpose of seizing some cannon and munitions collected and stored at a point across the North River. A draw bridge that was there had been raised by the people, who shrewd- ly guessed their unlawful object. In endeavoring to push across in batteaux moored near by, some resist- ance was made by the crowd, and one man received a slight flesh wound from a soldier's bayonet. The number of people increased, and some prominent citizens warning Colonel Leslie that with the present temper of the people he would never take his com- mand back alive if he persisted or fired upon them, he said that if, as it was a matter that concerned his honor,

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they would permit him to pass the bridge, he would immediately withdraw. This was agreed to, and the bridge being lowered, he led his men across and at once countermarching, returned to Marblehead and re-embarked for Boston. This bloodless expedition was the first military movement made by the English in the Revolutionary War. On April 18th, Colonel Pickering, with three hundred men from Salem, marched in pursuit of the British troops retreating from Lexington, but failed to come up with them. Captain Hiller commanded oue of his companies. Some others from Salem were in the engagement, however, and Benjamin Pierce was killed at Lexing- ton village.

Just previous to the Lexington affair Salem had been getting iu order for the coming war. A general muster was held March 14th, of all persons liable to military duty in the town armed and equipped. The new pine tree flag was raised, perhaps for the first time, on this occasion.

The Provincial Congress had recommended the tac- tics and manual of 1764 (probably English) for the pro- vincial troops, but very shortly after, the system pre- pared by Colonel Timothy Pickering, of Salem, was, it appears, adopted.

No compromise seemed possible after Lexington. Men arranged their affairs and joined the army, now gathering near Boston. A lady writing from Salem, June 10, 1775, says : " The men are listing very fast ; 3 or 400 are gone from here." Many of those who were able to do so, now sent their families back into the country, to Nantucket and other inaccessible places, believing Salem to be too near the scene of hostilities for safety. .

In the historic engagement of Bunker Hill that naturally followed the prompt erection of works com- manding Boston, a few Salem men took part, and Lieutenant Benjamin West, of Salem, a gallant young officer, was killed at the breastworks. As has been stated, many Salem men now joined the fighting force as minute-men, militia or Continentals. Col- onel Timothy Pickering, who seems to have had a genius for military matters, made "a plan of exer- cise " or tactics, already spoken of, that the Congress ordered to be used by officers of the Massachusetts Militia. He was, in 1776, appointed quartermaster- general of the army, and served as such and as adju- tant-general, with distinction throughout the war. In an interesting diary of one Lieutenant Craft, from Manchester, kept while serving with the army in the environs of Boston, are many allusions to officers, whose names indicate that they may have been from

Salem. His regiment, at any rate, was raised in lower Essex County, and doubtless largely in Salem, and Colonel William Mansfield, who commanded it, was a Salem man. The pay of the army was not ex- cessive at this time, captains receiving six pounds per month, and lieutenants four and three pounds; sergeants forty-eight shillings, and privates forty

shillings. Captain John Felt commanded a com- pany of artillery in service this year, his lieutenant being John Butler, both of Salem.

The same year (1776) Fort Lee was built to com- maud Salem harbor, and a company of men, under Captain Johu Symonds and Lieutenant Benjamin Ropes, Jr., stationed as its garrison. In 1777 forty- four men were raised in Salem as her quota for the army, presumably under a Captain Greenwood, for we read that he marched from Salem ou public ser- vice with his company, on November 11th, 1777. Fifty-four men additional were also drafted to act as guards for Burgoyne's surrendered army, under Captain Simeon Brown. Another company, under Captain Benjamin Ward, also marched to join the army at New York December 17, 1777. This was doing pretty well for a little town in one year, and in 1778 we find the town still promoting enlistments by voting bounties to the men who should volunteer for the army. This would indicate that even in that day of intense patriotism, it was necessary to use extraor- dinary means to induce men to be steadily food for powder, while they might be quite ready to dodge about as minute-men for a few days' fun.

In July of this year Captain Samuel Flagg com- manded a small company raised for special service in Rhode Island. Captain Flagg's lieutenants were Miles Greenwood and Robert Foster. Major Hiller, of Salem, also had a command in this expedition, which, under General Sullivan, attempted, with the co-operation of the French fleet under the Count D'Estaing, to wrest Rhode Island from the English, who held it under Sir Robert Pigot. Owing to the failure of the French fleet to render the promised as- sistance, the objects of the expedition were not at- tained. Considerable mention is made of the ser- vices of the Salem company in the accounts of this campaign.

The same year the town had to proceed with the additional task of raising forty-two men for the Con- tinental army, and some others for some special short enlistment not particularly described.

In 1779 a committee are appointed in Salem to raise thirteen more men for the Rhode Island service and twenty-eight for the Continental army, in which they no doubt had difficulty ; for it is stated that in Oc- tober large additional pecuniary inducements, in ad- dition to Continental and State pay, were voted to recruits to serve three months in the army. On De- cember 11th Captain Addison Richardson marched with his company to join the army.

Early in 1780 the town voted a very large sum for those days, to devote to the raising of sixty-two men to serve for six months in the army.

These records bear continual testimony to the baneful practice so prevalent in that war of enlisting men for short terms of service. It was a constant cause of complaint by the officers of the Continental Army, and did much to destroy its efficiency.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Major Samuel King, of Salem, an aide to General De Kalb, was killed in action this year in South Caro- lina, and Captain Nathan Goodale, of Salem, is also reported as made prisoner by the enemy.

A letter dated in camp near West Point, on the Hudson, February 12, 1782, to Joshua Ward, from a Salem soldier of the Continental Army, whose signa- ture does not appear, asks to have sent him certain articles on credit, and speaks of the hardships endur- ed by the army without supplies or money. Captain Flint, killed this year in the first day's battle at Sara- toga, is believed to have been from Salem. Mention should be made of Colonel Samuel Carleton, of the Continental line, who was from Salem, and who so distinguished himself that Washington declared him to be one of the most intrepid officers who served under him.

Of the special part taken by Salem and her soldiers in the succeeding years of this war, there is too little trace. There is evidence, however, that her record in point of numbers and service was quite up to the average, though it is to be regretted that so little can be written of the gallant deeds of her officers and men in an army where all were so brave and steadfast, and that, though in the appendix a list is given of the names of those who served from Salem, there is some doubt as to its accuracy, and it tells nothing of the actions in which those men took part, or of the char- acter of their service.

But in the record given of the part borne by Salem and her citizens in our revolutionary armies, though, it were much more complete, but a small part of her services to the country can be fully comprehended. Long before the colonies took the first decisive ac- tion that resulted in their independence, Salem had been steadily increasing her commerce, and in 1775 she had become an important port of entry, her mer- chants were becoming wealthy and a large part of her people followed the sea. Very soon after the war broke ont, it became evident that a navy was almost as necessary to our success as an army. Congress fitted out a few armed vessels, but the resources of the young nation were inadequate to equip any sufficient number to cope with the powerful navy of Great Britain, or even to be of much use in the destruction of her commerce.

IIere, then, was the opportunity of Salem, with her ships lying idle at her wharves in fear of English cruisers, and her fine seamen idling about her streets. Procuring commissions for private armed cruisers and letters of marque and reprisal for her trading ships, she fitted out her ablest and swiftest vessels with heavy guns and powerful crews well officered, and sent them over the sea in quest of the enemy's merchantmen. Nor did they neglect her smaller men-of-war, but, as eager for glory as plunder, promptly attacked any armed ship whose weight of metal was not absurdly disproportionate to their own, and in the majority of cases with success; while her trading vessels made

their voyages well armed, and with double complement of men, and showed their teeth when interfered with or when falling in with a vessel whose chances of capture were sufficiently good to justify the risk to their owners. Our privateer navy was intensely active and snc- cessful, and played an important part in that contest, severely crippling the enemy's merchant marine and keeping her navy busy in every part of the world to protect it.

It is impossible to give more than a glance at the exploits of the gallant officers and men who ranged the seas in the Salem privateers, sending in a rich re- turn of captured vessels to their owners.

And it is not to be understood that in the capture of these merchantmen no fighting was involved. Many of the English trading vessels were letters of marque, and nearly all carried guns and had strong crews well armed, and, defending themselves with true English courage, they were often only taken after a severe struggle. The actions between our privateers and British men-of-war or privateers were of the most sanguinary description, and were only finally deter- mined by boarding and a hand-to-hand fight on the deck of one or the other of the vessels.

The Salem privateers and letters of marque formed a large part of those sailing from American ports during that war, and, indeed, the principal business of the town became that of privateering, the results of which laid the foundation of many fortunes that are but now being dissipated.

Some of the regulations governing the crews of Salem privateers in the Revolution were curious. The owners of the vessel, after deducting outfit and expenses, took one-half of the value of the prizes, and the officers and crew the other half, divided in certain proportions according to rank. A prize of $500 was given to the man first sighting a sail, and $1000 and best firelock to the first man to board the enemy. For the loss of a leg or arm in action $4000 was paid as compensation, 82000 for an eye and $1000 for a joint. If one of the crew were detected in thieving, he suf- fered the loss of all prize money, which, to judge by the liberal schedule above given, must have been in some cases a severe penalty.

As illustrating the work of these gallant little ves- sels, it is related that the ship "General Pickering," sixteen guns, Captain Jonathan Harraden command- ing, on May 20, 1780, engaged and whipped an Eng- lish man-of-war of twenty guns; on June Ist fought and took a schooner of fourteen guns and fifty-seven men, and on the 4th boldly luffed up and sustained the attack of the " Arguilles," thirty-four-gun frigate, and though quite nnable to take a vessel of such size, beat hier off' after an engagement of nearly two hours. The " Julius Caesar," of Salem, a small schooner, the same year, simultaneously engaged two vessels, both of heavier metal than herself, and made it so warm for theni that they were glad to make sail and leave their plucky little antagonist in possession of the field.

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In June, 1782, it took a British sloop-of-war four hours to capture the little privateer "Jack," of Salem, and she did not strike until her captain, David Ropes, and more than half her crew were killed or wounded.

The " Jack " was a small ship that had the pecu- liarity of having a mizzen mast that conld be taken down at sea and as easily put up again. By this ex- pedient she constantly deceived the enemy and escaped capture, appearing alternately as a ship and a brig.

Captain Perkins, of Salem, commanding a small privateer, had on one occasion manned two prizes, and was making the best of his way home with only fonr men left before the mast, when an English privateer quickly hove in sight. Instead of running away, he immediately made all sail for her, and she, not liking his apparent readiness for a fight, wore around and sailed away. A rather amusing incident occurred to the privateer Oliver Cromwell, Captain James Barr, when cruising in the West Indies in 1779. Sighting a vessel with low top-masts and apparently no guns in a fog off the coast of Cuba, one morning, she snp- posed it to be a large merchantman and was ranging up alongside, when in a trice up went a string of painted canvass that covered her ports, and the " Oliver Crom- well " narrowly escaped being blown ont of water by the discharge of a frigate's full broadside. She was much crippled, but managed to get away in the fog and light breeze.

The letter of Marque "Ranger" twenty men, when anchored in the Potomac, the night of July 5, 1782, was attacked by sixty tories in boats. The captain, Lncum, was shot at the first volley and Joseph Peabody, of Salem, second officer, springing to the deck in his night clothes, drove the enemy off by the clever ex- pedient of directing the crew to drop cold shot into the boats. One was suok and the others pulled away.

Many more incidents of this character might be given did space permit; suffice it to say that these are but a sample of the adventures of the Salem fighting marine during these years.

It would be interesting reading could we follow the adventures of Captain John Leach, who commanded at different times the privateers " Brutus," "Fraok- lin," "Eagle," "Dolphin " and "Greyhound ;" Capt. Nathan Brown the first commander of the "Jack " and also of the ship "Hunter ;" Capt. Joseph Rob- inson, who commanded the ship "Pilgrim " and also the " Franklin ;" Capt. Sam'l Masury of the schooner "Panther ;" Capt. John Donaldson, who sailed the brig " Captain ;" Capt. John Mason of the brig "Lion ;" Captain Jacob Wilds, who sailed in the privateers "Greyhound," "Hawk" and "General Greene;" Capt. William Patterson, who commanded the ship "Disdain" and brig "Favorite; " Capt. Benj. Dean of the strong sloop "Revenge ;" Capt. Benj. Moses, another commander of the ship " Oliver Cromwell;" Captain Anthony Diver, a former officer

of the English Navy, who was a lieutenant on several vessels, and later ably commanded the privateers "Civil Usage" and "Sturdy Beggar ;" Capt. Ebe- nezer Pierce of the schooner " Liberty ; " Capt. John" Gavett of the brig "Flying Fish;" Capt. John Brooks, also a commander of the " Junins Brutos ; " Capt. Edward Rolland, also of the brig "Sturdy Beg- gar;" Capt. William Carleton, who sailed the heavily armed and manned sloop " Blacksnake;" Capt. Benj. Hammond of the schooner "Greyhound; " Capt. Charles-Hamilton commanding the ship "Jason ; ". Capt. John Fearson of the ship "William ; " Capt. . Thomas Benson who had the schooner "Dolphin," and later the ship " Hendrick ;" when he was captured in the latter in 1782, a petition to the General Court asked that an exchange be arranged forthwith for Capt. Benson, his services being so valuable to the country. There were also Captains John Revell, Forrester, Mascoll (killed while boarding an enemy's ship in 1777), McDaniel, Daniel Ropes, John Buf- fintoo, John Carnes, John Turner, Samuel Tucker, Joseph Lynde, Pratt, Briggs, Cook, Baker, Brook- house, Gray, Nehemiah Buffinton, Dunn, James Cheever, Neili, John Felt, Ingersoll, Crowell, Bald- win and many others, all Salem men, commanding Salem ships with good Salem officers and crews, and handling them with great seamanship and bravery. It is impossible to give a list of the other officers and crews of the vessels sailing as privateers from Salem during the Revolution. Their aggregate would be little, if any, under five thousand men, first and last, and wonld comprise a large majority of the able- bodied men of the town who did not join the army. They were largely sea-faring in their training, and took to this rough and tumble naval experience as naturally as ducks to water.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 70

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538