History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 1620-1892, Part 11

Author: Ellis, Leonard Bolles
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., Mason
Number of Pages: 1170

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107

CAPTURE OF LUNENBURG.

Gayhead about four o'clock in the afternoon, the wind blowing east- northeast. For three days she lay at this point, until Captain Card- wile and his people grew weary and insisted that the ship should pro- ceed, the wind being fair. Pease accordingly made sail and stood be- tween Gayhead and No-Man's-Land, bringing the ship to anchor at eight o'clock. This caused great uneasiness among the people and they soon complained to Captain Cardwile, for the boats crews had refused duty and the sails remained unfurled. At 12 o'clock the wind suddenly shifted to west-northwest, blowing a gale, and the ship dragged anchor. Pease then advised the men to assist in handling the sails, but the ship continued to drag, with every prospect of going ashore unless immedi- ately put to sea. Captain Cardwile and his men, with Fish, the first- named pilot, were in favor of this plan, but Pease and two or three of his men refused to go to sea and raised such a mutiny that the ship could not be got under way. Suddenly the cable parted and the vessel was at the mercy of wind and wave. It was too late to get clear of the land. Pease then ordered the men at the helm to run her ashore, which was done, and she went crashing into the breakers on the rockbound shore. The vessel immediately went to pieces, and out of the twenty- eight persons on board, fifteen perished. Among those who lost their lives was Captain Cardwile.

Captain Noah Stoddard, of Fairhaven, was a prominent privateer commander of the Revolution and participated in many spirited con- flicts. Conspicuous among his exploits was the capture of Lunenburg, a little town on the shore near Halifax, N. S. An expedition consist- ing of four privateers, the Scammel, Captain Stoddard ; Hero, Captain Babcock; Hope, Captain Woodbury; and the Swallow, Captain Tib- bets, sailed for that place July Ist, 1782, and landed a force of ninety men under Lieutenant Barteman, two miles below the town. They marched rapidly with the intention of surprising the inhabitants, but were greeted with heavy discharges of musketry as they entered the town. They quickly burned the commanding officers' headquarters, a block-house in the northwest part of the town, spiked two 24-pounders and drove the plucky defenders into the south block-house. Here they made a stubborn resistance, opened a brisk fire on the invaders, and dis- closed their purpose to hold out to the last extremity. Their courage

108

HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.

forsook them on the receipt of several four-pound shot from the Hero, and they surrendered themselves prisoners of war. The account says that " the victorious party, with a natural and pleasing vivacity, fell to plun- dering the town and quickly emptied the stores of a considerable quan- tity of dry goods, beef, pork, flour, and twenty puncheons of West India rum." While this was being accomplished, the combined fleet ap- proached the town, and two 18-pound guns were spiked and dismounted, the royal magazine captured, and taken on board the Scammel. The town was ransomed for £1,000. Colonel Creighton, with several prom- inent citizens, was made prisoner and placed in charge of Captain Stoddard. The account says " the strictest decorum was observed to- ward the inhabitants, their wearing apparel and household furniture be- ing inviolably preserved for their use. On the side of the brave sons of liberty, three were wounded slightly or dangerously; on the part of the abbettors of oppression and despotism the number of slain and wounded was unknown, only one of the slain being found."

A remarkable capture and recapture occurred on the Massachusetts coast in the month of April, 1782. A new ship lay at anchor at Cape Ann, laden with a valuable cargo and ready for a voyage to Carracas. Early one morning a barge with fifteen men belonging to a British brig of fourteen guns, swept alongside. This audacious crew took quick possession of her, hoisted the anchor, shook out the sails, and away she went on the wings of the wind, a prize to the British crown. The news of this event reached Salem at 10 o'clock on the same morning. At I o'clock the privateer ship Marquis de La Fayette and a cutter got under way and went out in quest of her. On the same day an armed vessel sailed from Newburyport on the same errand. From Portsmouth the privateer Revolution, Captain Webb, was likewise sent out. They re- turned at night unsuccessful.

At Cape Ann there lay a ship at the wharf with neither sails, rigging or ballast on board, and with topmasts on deck. Between sunrise and II o'clock on the morning of the following day, the enterpris- ing inhabitants of Cape Ann rigged, ballasted, manned and armed this vessel, bent her sails and got under way in eager pursuit of the captured ship. The next morning they sighted her, came up with her at 1 o'clock, retook her, and that afternoon both vessels were safe at

109

INVASION OF DARTMOUTH.

anchor at Cape Ann. It is an interesting circumstance that both ves- sels were the property of the same merchant. None but thoroughbred Yankees could have performed such a daring deed. The privateer es- caped.

There were no privateers owned and fitted from New Bedford. They were mostly owned in Boston, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and ren- dezvoused here. A large sloop called the Broome, twelve guns, com- manded by Stephen Cahoone, of Rhode Island, and The Black Snake, a long, low, black schooner, frequently came into this harbor. The latter was owned in Connecticut and mounted eight carriage guns.

These authentic incidents are sufficient to give a comprehensive idea of the bold privateer of song and story, his peculiar methods of opera- tion, and to show that Dartmouth harbor was an important rendezvous for those engaged in this species of warfare. And herein lies a potent reason for the punishment administered of September 5, 1778.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BRITISH INVASION.

Dartmouth's Loyalty - Defenceless Condition of the Town -- Anticipatory Prepa- rations - Operations at Newport - The British Fleet and Forces - Terror of the In- Habitants -- Authentic Incidents of the Invasion - Burning of the Town -- Bloodshed -- Feeble Defence -- The Enemy at Fairhaven.

S ATURDAY, September 5, 1778, was a notable day in our local history. In her devotion to the country's cause, Dartmouth had sown the wind; she was to reap the whirlwind. She had proved a rankling thorn to the enemy, and was now to receive the scourging lash of the British army. No better proof of Dartmouth's loyalty is needed.

The people had ample notice that something unusual was to happen. On August 17 the selectmen and committee of safety posted a notice

IIO

HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.

in the public places ordering the inhabitants immediately to cause all goods, wares, and merchandise, that were private property, and not necessary for subsistence, to be moved into the country or to some safe place. They were informed that the selectmen and committee of safety were authorized and would move all goods, at the owners' expense, after two days had passed. If necessary they would impress teams or employ vessels to convey the goods to a place of safety. In this posted notice all persons having charge of property belonging to the State, or to the United States, the Continental agents, Board of War, were de- sired to remove such as soon as might be.

How portentous was the wording of this order, and how defenceless was the whole township should the enemy come in large numbers! True, the little fort at Fairhaven (known to the present generation as Fort Phoenix) was armed and equipped and might resist any ordinary attack from the sea. Eleven iron cannon were mounted on platforms, the magazine was full of ammunition, the fortification was well garri- soned with a company of thirty-two men under command of Capt. Timothy Ingraham and Lieut. Foster, and the barracks would accom- modate 200 men. Moreover, there were two cannon mounted and in working position on Clark's Point. Surely these defences would be sufficient to repel an attack from the sea, and would not the companies of minute men from the surrounding towns respond quickly to the alarm ? Would they not be a wall of protection from any demonstra- tion on the land ? Many of the people thought so and gained much comfort thereby, little dreaming what a mighty host would soon march through the town. The harbor swarmed with ships, sloops, boats, and prizes, either at anchor or lying at the wharf. For safety many of these were moved up the river, as if the little distance would place them beyond the reach of any possible harm.

While the people were waiting in hope and fear there was at anchor in the harbor of New London a formidable squadron of British war ships soon to sail for this port. Why they were there, and under what circumstances, it is important to consider at this point. Philadelphia was evacuated in the latter part of the month of June, 1778. Lord Clinton, with the army, departed for New York. Lord Howe, with the British squadron, sailed from the Delaware on June 28, arrived at

III

NAVAL MOVEMENTS.

Sandy Hook the next day, and worked his way over the bar into the inner harbor. Count D'Estaing, with his fleet of French frigates, after a long passage, arrived off the Delaware too late to intercept the British squadron, and he proceeded to New York, arriving at Sandy Hook July 11. It was expected that a fight would take place, but the pilots provided for the French ships declared that the large vessels could not be safely conducted over the bar, and the project was abandoned. At the request of Washington, the Count proceeded to Rhode Island, then in possession of the British. General Greene had been sent there by Washington to co-operate with General Sullivan in arranging the plans of the army. Lafayette with 2,000 French troops was to participate in this notable event.

Ten thousand troops had been gathered from all parts of New Eng- land, and when D'Estaing entered Newport harbor joy came to the hearts of the Americans and dismay to the 6,000 British soldiers who held the island and its defences. Several British warships were burned to escape capture by the French. In a few days D'Estaing sailed from the harbor to meet the British squadron that had followed him from New York. They had an encounter off Point Judith without any spe- cial advantage to either party. At this time a fearful gale arose that is still remembered in tradition among the Newport people, when the windows of the houses inland were incrusted with salt, deposited by the sea water borne on the wind. The storm continued with great violence for forty-eight hours. The fleets were scattered and separated, D'Es- taing's flagship, the Languedoc, ninety guns, losing her rudder and all her masts. When the gale had subsided, the French fleet sailed for Boston for repairs, against the earnest protests of Greene and Lafayette. The American troops that had crossed over to the island retreated and the siege was raised. The British squadron followed D'Estaing to Boston harbor, and it was thought that a sea fight would occur at this point. It was found that the French held a superior position, and it was deemed unwise to risk an attack. The British squadron left the coast and pro- ceeded to New London, where it had hoped to capture a number of privateers. Here Sir Henry Clinton left the fleet. In his dispatches to Lord Germaine, dated September 15, he says: " I left the fleet, di- recting Major- General Gray to proceed to Bedford, a noted rendezvous

II2

HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.

for privateers, etc., and in which there were a number of captured ships at the time."

And thus it happened through this singular chain of events that the British had a powerful force to send to this harbor. The detached fleet consisted of two frigates, one of them the Carysfoot of forty guns, with Rear Admiral Gambier and Major-General Gray on board, an 18-gun brig, and thirty-six transports. The troops numbered about 4,000, and consisted of the following: First Battalion, Light Infantry ; First Bat- talion of Grenadiers; Thirty-third, Forty-second, Forty-sixth, and Sixty-fourth Regiment of Foot. The Forty-sixth Regiment plays an important part in this history. It holds in its possession to-day a Bible that was taken by its soldiers from a house in Dartmouth at the time of the invasion. The book is carefully preserved in the mess-room of the regiment, and it has been carried on every campaign and expedition for more than a hundred years. The history of this remarkable book is of special interest to the Masonic fraternity. This incident will be devel- oped in its course.

On the evening of the 4th of September the squadron sailed for Buz- zard's Bay. A few days before the arrival of the enemy, a company of artillery had been sent from Boston, consisting of eighty men and four officers, Capt. James Cushing, and Lieuts. Joseph Bell, William Gordon, and James Metcalf. The men were entertained at the poor-house, then situated on Sixth street south of Spring. The garrison at the fort and the artillery company were the only armed forces stationed in the town; and unfortunately the latter was at Stone Bridge, except a de- tachment with one gun under command of Lieuts. Gordon and Metcalf, that had returned on the day of the invasion.

There must have been a large number of citizens away from their homes in the service of the army at this time, as the muster rolls indi- cate. Then there was a considerable number of Friends, who had scruples against bearing arms. It was said that aside from the above- mentioned soldiery there were not fifteen able-bodied men on this side of the river at the time of the coming of the British army.

The proclamation of the committee of safety was significant enough to carry terror into every household. From the date of this alarming document, the families on both sides of the river were transporting their

113

FLIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS.

valuables into the woods, secreting them in out-of-the-way places, stor- ing their food where it could be easily found, and using every expedi- ent to make bearable their enforced stay in the woods.

The following authentic cases illustrate what probably occurred in many a household on the Acushnet River. Mrs. Lydia T. Barnard, a woman of eighty-four years, and a member of the Society of Friends, gives the following facts : Her grandfather, William Russell, who came to Bedford with the Rotches from Nantucket in 1765, lived in a house on the southeast corner of Water and School streets. (This building was subsequently moved to Front street and is now used as a stable by A. K. P. Sawin. Denison's flour-mill stands on the old location.) Many of Mr. Russell's household goods were moved into the woods. Among the articles which he was obliged to leave in the house was a tall clock which he prized highly. So he carefully removed the works, and with grandmother, the baby (Mrs. Barnard's mother), went to Rockdale. Here he hid the clock works in a stone wall, and leaving his family in the woods, returned to the house and awaited the enemy. The house was set on fire by the British soldiers. Mr. Russell succeeded in putting out the fire after they had left, and so saved his dwelling from destruction.

Watson Ellis, jr., now seventy-nine, gives the following inci- dents related to him by Miss Betsey Tinkham, who lived to the age of ninety-five, dying in 1842. She lived in a house on the northwest cor- ner of Union street and Acushnet avenue. This was the ancestral home of the historian, Daniel Ricketson, and the building is still stand- ing. Miss Tinkham was attending a wedding at Clark's Cove on the day of the invasion. Happening to look out of the window she saw the approaching fleet far down the bay. Miss Tinkham lost her inter est in the wedding and wanted to go home. She went up the road with flying steps, not stopping until she reached the Ricketson house at the head of the Cove. Here she stopped a few minutes to rest, and then resuming her flight, she hastened to her home, gathered up what she could of her household treasures, carried them to the shore and packed them in a boat, whence they were floated up the river to a place of supposed safety. Alas, for human calculation ! They were burned, boat and all, by the enemy during the succeeding night. Miss Tink- ham, with her neighbors, spent several days in the woods.

114

HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.

Among the many interesting incidents in Mr. Ricketson's history of New Bedford, is one told of a man named Joe Castle, who was in the employ of Joseph Russell. He went over to the enemy at the time of their landing. Deeming a written notice to his master more agreeable than a verbal one, he wrote with chalk on the barn door the night he took his departure :

" I make no more stone wall For old Joe Russell."

This impolite traitor and Eldad Tupper, a Quaker Tory, were em- ployed as guides by the British in their work of destruction. Tupper's name is found in a long list of persons who had left the State and joined the enemy. These were forbidden to return under penalty of arrest and heavy fine.1

George H. Taber, of Fairhaven, now eighty-three years of age, tells a story related to him by his mother, of a woman, who, in her haste to get to a place of safety, abandoned her household effects, her wearing apparel, and all the precious articles that comprised her worldly possessions, and fled with her neighbors to the woods. Abandoned all? No, not quite all ; one precious thing she could not leave-her warm- ing-pan. And so, with this useful article swinging to even time with her fleeting steps, she sped on the wings of the wind. She might as well have had a copper drum, for it sent out ringing notes on the air as it received the thumps of nature's drumsticks protruding from tree and bush. Her companions in terror protested against its being carried farther on the journey, for fear that the martial tones would reveal their whereabouts to the enemy. Their appeals were in vain. Nobly she struggled against their importunities, and when at last they turned from her, leaving her alone and unprotected, she bravely held to her warm- ing pan and prepared to battle single-handed with the enemy. But they came not in that direction and so happily ends the story.

Mother Gerrish, a staid and matronly Friend, was busily engaged in her household duties, and was about to sand her well-swept floors (car- pets were a rare luxury in colonial days), when her affrighted neigh- bors appeared and urged her to flee with them. She quietly proceeded with her work, simply remarking to her anxious friends: " If the enemy come to my house they shall find it in good order."

1 Allen's Remembrances.

115

LANDING OF THE INVADERS.

Miss Alice Hart, now living on County street (1892), gives the fol- lowing experiences of her ancestors in those early days of trial. Her grandfather went to sea and never came back; vessel and crew were lost. At the time of the invasion, her grandmother, Mrs. Jerusha Smith, and two little children were living alone and struggling for ex- istence. When the panic came a kind neighbor offered to help them away from their house. "Taking my mother, then two years old, on his back, my grandmother with the baby in her arms, they traveled through the woods until they reached a house in which they hoped to find shelter. But to their astonishment they were refused admittance, because the children had whooping-cough. Pursuing their way, they came to a more hospitable roof, where they were taken in with a hearty welcome, their kind host remarking, 'we are in fear of enemies more to be dreaded than the whooping-cough.'"

Worth Baits was a soldier, and his name appears in the Dartmouth list of Revolutionary patriots. He went down the bay on the morning of the 5th of September, 1778, and was the first to discover the ap- proaching fleet. Landing at the fort, he communicated this important intelligence to the garrison. The boom of the signal gun carried the tidings to the inhabitants on both sides of the river.

" With a favorable wind," said the dispatches of Sir Henry Clinton, the British fleet set sail from New London on the evening of the 4th of September. A portion of the fleet worked to the eastward, and pass- ing Egg Island, landed their soldiers on Sconticut Neck, out of range of the guns of the fort. Most of the vessels however, glided into Clark's Cove, under the pilotage of a Dartmouth Tory, and reaching the deep water line about due west of the city farm, landed their contributions of armed men and military stores. What a host must have crowded the shore and adjacent fields! Yet without confusion, for everything was conducted with military discipline. By the time the barges had landed the last of this formidable foe, the day was far spent and the sun far on its journey toward the horizon.I

In the group surrounding the general was a figure, conspicuous for

1 In a letter to Sir Henry Clinton, September 18, 1778, General Grey said : "By five o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th, the ships were at anchor in Clark's Cove, and the boats having been pre- viously hoisted out, the debarkation of the troops took place immediately."

116

HISTORY OF NEW BEDFORD.

his manly beauty and martial bearing, who was to fill a pathetic page in our national history-Capt. John André, bearer of dispatches on General Grey's staff, a mere stripling of twenty-seven when he marched with the British troops through our township. Two years later he was adjutant-general, with the rank of major, on Sir Henry Clinton's staff, and purchased his death and fame by one courageous service for his king.

The lovely Acushnet, now so calm and peaceful, stretching away among the woody plains, was to be the scene of a conflagration abso- lutely consuming in its greed the prosperity, and well-nigh the exist- ence, of the town.

The British army marched up the old middle road, and sweeping across the head of the Cove, entered the forest path that led to the town. Over this highway (County street) a century before, and two centuries before our day and generation, marched Capt. Benjamin Church and his Plymouth soldiers, guarding their train of Indian captives from Russell's garrison on their way to Plymouth and to servitude across the sea.

When the troops reached the intersecting road, Union street (then called King street), the columns divided, one part marching down to the river, while the other continued onward to the Head- of-the-River, and then southward through Fairhaven to Sconticut Neck. The most important work devolved upon the former party, for to them came the duty of destroying the business part of the town.

Tradition says that the night was one of surpassing beauty, for the moon made it as light as day. It is probable that the naval forces co- operated with the troops, but just what that part was is not clear from the meager records. In the dispatches sent September 6 to Sir Henry Clinton is found the following, which certainly shows that they partici- pated in the work : " I send you an outline sketch of the scene of op- erations, the plans of execution of the naval part, with the minutes of the manner in which it was performed."

It should be borne in mind that in 1776 there were but 6,773 inhab- itants in the entire township, and that that number was probably not exceeded in 1778 ; that Bedford village was a cluster of houses border- ing the river front; that three wharves-Rotch's, Russell's and Mc-

117

THE ENEMY'S WORK.

Pherson's at Bellville-were the principal places for the fitting of ships ; that the warehouses, shops, and stores were largely situated east of Water street and between Commercial and Middle streets; that the farms and forests covered the western slopes. All this should be re- membered in order to comprehend what a disastrous affair this invasion was.

The evident purpose of the expedition was to cripple the maritime interests of the town rather than to destroy the homes of the people. However this may have been, a large number were burned, and with them much private property and household goods.

With the arrival of troops along the river front commenced the con- flagration, the distillery and two ropewalks being the first buildings burned. The exact location of the former was definitely fixed by the late Thomas Durfee. He said that it stood on the west end of land now covered by the granite building of Thomas M. Hart at the head of Commercial street. The tide ebbed and flowed at that time close up to the distillery. Mr. Durfee said his father used to send him to get clay that was found in the distillery ruins, and which was used for plas- tering the chimneys of their blacksmith shop. The ropewalks above mentioned were undoubtedly situated near the Second street cemetery, and extended to the river. According to the map of Bedford village in 1815, made by Gilbert Russell, Butler & Allen's ropewalk was im- mediately south of Rotch's ropewalk, north of this site. It is a fair in- ference that those destroyed were located in this section.

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History of New Bedford and its vicinity, 1620-1892, Part 11

Author: Ellis, Leonard Bolles Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., Mason Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Ellis, Leonard Bolles
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., Mason
Number of Pages: 1170