Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 113

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America. > Part 113

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Thus, though no separation from the mother country had been de- clared, the towns assumed self-government ; and the more thoroughly to do that, on the 23d September, 1774, they elected a committee of safety and correspondence, to consist of thirty of the most influential and patriotic men in the town, with Benjamin Greenleaf and Jonathan Greenleaf at their head. This committee reported in November that the town was fully armed ; and, in addition to the four companies named, independent companies were formed, - one of which was from members of the Marine Society, consisting of seventy-six persons, under Capt. James Hudson, whose banner, with the insignia of the State, bore a blue anchor on a red field, supported by a pine-tree and an olive-branch.

In 1775, anticipating the war, the town obstructed the harbor with sunken piers, which no hostile craft could pass ; and kept men there to give the alarm on the appearance of an enemy, and to prevent any strangers sounding the river. A fort was built on Salisbury shore, called the Merrimac. The harbor defences cost £2,500. These were followed shortly by a fort on Plum Island, at a cost of £4,000. A building was erected by Frog Pond for the manufacture of saltpetre ; persons were forbidden to make unnecessary use of gunpowder ; mili- tary stores and provisions were collected ; heavy cannons purchased ; small arms provided for those who enlisted in the Provincial service and needed such assistance ; and the committee of safety were author- ized to incur " any expense which the safety of the town or county required." Then they voted to pay their minute-men for the time employed in drill, as much as any other town paid, and to provide for the families of those who were in the Provincial army : and, finally, anticipating Congress, and to urge on its action, Newburyport herself passed a quasi-Declaration of Independence on the 31st of May, 1776, thirty-four days before Congress at Philadelphia ; voting, without a dissenting voice, that " if the honorable congress should, for the United Colonies, declare them independent of Great Britain, this town will with their lives and fortunes support them in the measure."

Few are the towns in human history more ready to sacrifice, or manifesting a more determined spirit in resisting the wrong and assert- ing the right. How well they maintained their ground will appear in their subsequent acts. Thus far Newburyport indicates the important part the towns acted at this period. In fact, owing to the peculiar organization of the towns in New England, it happened that in Mass- achusetts they contributed more effectually to the advancement of the American Revolution than the feeble authorities of the Province ; and, in this respect, no town in the Province manifested a more patriotic spirit than our own.

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CHAPTER III.

NEWBURYPORT IN THE REVOLUTION.

The time which was to try men's souls had now been reached. The war had begun before the declaration by Congress. Two companies had gone on the news of the battle of Lexington, April 19th ; and again there was a lull, - the quiet that precedes the storm for which all were making ready. War was inevitable. If there had been any period for conciliation, that was past. The earth had been wet with blood : the air had caught the groan of the dying patriot and borne it to the hearing of Heaven ; the people, with suppressed breath, in sub- dued tones, whispered one to another, We must do and dare and die for our country. Jonathan Parsons, pastor of the Old South, whitencd by the snows of seventy years, had lost none of the ardor of younger days. His voice was still for war; and as the Crosses, Johnsons, Greenleafs, Lunts, Titcombs, - the brave men brought face to face with the issue, - heard him, their blood thrilled, and their spirits rose with the occasion. It was just after Lexington, when Mr. Par- sons had pictured the situation and their duty, that he closed with an appeal to those of his hearers who were ready to form a volunteer company to step into the broad aisle. In Revolutionary times there were no Sundays that forbade acts of patriotism. Ezra Lunt, who had been one of the publishers of the "Essex Journal," the first man who ever drove a four-horse coach to Boston, was on his feet and in the aisle almost before the words were out of the mouth of the vener- able man of God, and by his side was Paul Lunt; the former was chosen captain, and the latter first lieutenant of the company then and there raised ; and of more heroic blood than the Newbury Lunts went not a man to all the battles of the Revolution, on land or sea.

In all there were sixty men of this, the first volunteer company which joined the Continental Army. On the 9th of May, they received the arms which they knew so well how to use, and which responded so accurately a little after at Bunker Hill, when Gen. Putnam rode up after the first volley and said : " Men you have done well, but next time do better ! Aim at the officers." On the 10th of May, they were away, hastening to the bloody scenes at hand. As wrote Hon. George Lunt, the poet-lawyer, sprung from the Lunts above-named :

" They left the plough in the corn, They left the steer in the yoke. And away from mother and child that morn, And the maiden's first kiss they broke."

May 12th they reached Cambridge. May 14th, writes Paul Lunt, some ships arrived in Boston, with 200 horses and 3,000 royal troops ; 16th "our men went to Charlestown, the enemy firing from ships and from Copps Hill"; 17th they participated in the victorious defeat that most fully inaugurated the Revolution. Capt. Lunt's company was in Col. Moses Little's regiment, and not having expended all their ammunition they were in the rear guard, covering the retreat of the exhausted soldiers and dealing death to the enemy.

Capt. Lunt, with his company, continued in the army under Col. Little, in Gen. Greene's brigade, and rendered good service in the defence of Long Island and New York City, and in the battles in New Jersey, he being promoted to the rank of major, and remaining in the service during the war. He was in the battle of Monmouth, where occurred the oft-quoted words between Gen. Washington and Gen. Lee. "Why this disorderly retreat ?" cried Washington to Lee. The latter passionately replied, " By God, sir, American soldiers can't fight British granadiers." Washington provoked, at the top of his voice retorted, "By God, sir, they can fight any soldiers on the face of the earth," and, rising in his stirrups, he ordered -" About face ! " and instantly they wheeled about, and defeat was turned to victory, disgrace to glory. The standard borne by this company was inscribed, " Appeal to Heaven," and was presented by Washington July 3d, following the battle of Bunker Hill, when he reviewed the army.

Another Newbury company at Bunker Hill, which had entered for ten days, though most of the men re-enlisted, was commanded by Capt. Benjamin Perkins, subsequently a colonel under Washington in New York and New Jersey. It had full ranks, numbering seventy- nine men, including officers. It lost two killed and several wounded at Bunker Hill. When they would march to Charlestown, on the morning of the 17th, Capt. Perkins found the Neck commanded by the guns of a war-ship and two floating batteries. It was a hot day, and rendered no more comfortable by the danger threatening.

Excitedly he caught his wig from his head, and giving it a throw he exclaimed, " Single file ; follow, men !" and led the way without loss. The position of this company in the fight is learned from the testi- mony afterwards rendered relating to Gen. Putnam, which shows that. they were on the most exposed part of the field. First Lieut. Joseph Whittemore said the company belonged to Little's regiment, and that, with part of the men, he was down the left of the redoubt, near some trees which were standing, and there received the attack. He was wounded in the thigh at the very moment Gen. Warren was shot, and they fell within six feet of each other; but his life was saved by his being carried off the field on the back of a comrade. Philip Johnson said he was near Gen. Putnam, by " the rail fence," and heard him distinctly say, " Men you know you are all good marksmen ; you can take a squirrel from the tallest tree. Don't fire till you can see the whites of their eyes." Two Newburyport men, Halliday and Dutton, took one of the cannon deserted by the British, and fired it a number of times, cheering loudly at each discharge. Little's regimeut lost seven killed and twenty-three wounded. In the report of the com- mittee of Massachusets on this battle, they were called "the brave Essex troops who, with resolution and deadly aim, poured the most destructive volleys into the enemy." The gallantry of Newburyport was most conspicuous in this early battle of the Revolution, even where all acted so bravely.

Soon after Washington planned the expedition against Quebec, which rendezvoused in this town ; the three rifle companies, on what is now Ocean Avenne, at the extreme south end, and the others in the rope-walks, which were improvised barracks. Benedict Arnold, - as brave a soldier as this continent ever knew, - then a colonel, was in command; and, during his stay, was entertained at the resi- dences of Tristram Dalton and Nathaniel Tracy, on State Street, and was the welcome guest at the houses of the chief men of the town. Christopher Greene, of Rhode Island, was lieutenant-colonel ; Timothy Bigelow, of this State, major ; and Daniel Morgan, of Virginia, com- manded the rifles. Among other persons in the expedition was the Rev. Samuel Spring, chaplain, who was so popular with our people that they gave him a call to settle over the North Church, of which he subsequently became the distinguished pastor. Also, with Arnold wasthe young and gallant Aaron Burr and Matthew Ogden, of New Jersey ; John I. Henry, afterwards judge, of Pennsylvania ; and Henry Dearborn, afterwards general, of New Hampshire. One of the com- panies was raised here, commanded by Capt. Ward, in which was Lieut. Paul Lunt, and some twenty of the men who had fought with him at Bunker Hill. No labor or expense was spared by our citizens in assisting their preparations ; and on the 10th of September, they had a grand review, at which the whole town and the whole country around assembled. The force consisted of ten companies of mus- ketmen, and three companies of rifles, in all 1,100 men, aud better soldiers were nowhere to be found, or more gallant officers. Sep- tember 19th, they sailed on ten transports for the Kennebec, and the army was landed at Gardiner. The whole squadron was under the direction of Capt. James Clarkson, of Newburyport, to whom Arnold says he was under great obligations for his "activity, vigilance, and care of the whole fleet." This army suffered great hardships in march- ing through the wilderness from the Kennebec to the St. Lawrence, which they reached with only 700 men. There, on the last day of 1775, which was also the last day of that noble soldier, Montgomery, who was chief in command, they make the attack on Quebec. Benedict Arnold was wounded in the leg ; but, for his great bravery, he was promoted to be a general. This was not the only connection of Arnold with Newburyport. Later, in 1780, when he passed to the enemy, and to the shame and disgrace which has since attached to his name, two of the bargemen who rowed him to the British ship " Vulture," were Samuel Pillsbury and John Brown of this town. They were in the Newburyport company commanded by Richard Titcomb. When he left them, he used enticing words and promises of promotion to induce them to desert ; but, scorning him and his words, they rowed back to the shore, preferring the fate of their country, whatever that might be.

Aug. 11, 1776, the Declaration of Independence, published July 19th, the same day on which died the patriot preacher, Jonathan Parsons, was read in all the churches. September 2d, Nicholas Pike, town clerk, indorsed the following on the call for a town meet- ing : "This meeting was illegal because the venire for calling it was in the name of the British tyraut, whose name all America justly excerates."

The General Court had been dissolved by Gov. Gage in June, and till July the next year Massachusetts was without legal government, and

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for years without a governor. In May, 1776, Michael Hodge, being chosen town clerk, was sworn into office by the selectmen, " there being," says the records, "no justice of the peace in the town." The representatives to the Provincial Congress were chosen in July '76, on writs issued by James Warren, who had been president of that body.

Somewhat in detail have we given the events initiatory of the Revo- lution, but we may not follow in this manner to the end of the war, to enumerate all the town was called to do, and all that it was forced to endure for independence, freedom, and nationality. The requi- sitions for meu and money were frequent, almost continuous. At one time, in August, 1777, Newburyport was required to raise for the Continental Army one-sixth of all her men capable of bearing arms ; and under these orders many men were drafted. They were in the battles to defend cities, and in the conflicts of the wilderness, by lakes and by the rivers. Amos Pearson, a Bunker Hill soldier, afterwards at the surrender of Burgoyne, gives a vivid sketch of what many endured. He was in a company drafted in Angust, 1777. He left on the 23d, and marched twenty successive days without halting except at night, sleeping sometimes in the woods, in barns, in log- houses, till at sunset they were within ten miles of Gen. Gates's army. He, a lieutenant in command, had orders to join the army before he slept ; and did so near Saratoga, N. Y., at three o'clock, A. M. Soon after he was sent out on a scouting party, and brought in thirty pris- oners. Five days later he was in the memorable engagement of October 7th, of which, he says : "The field-pieces began at four o'clock, and the musketry at five - very hot some of the time - drove the enemy within the lines, killed and wounded and took a great number of them, and ten field-pieces." This engagement, which Lieut. Pearson compresses into three lines, was Burgoyne's brave fight for the safety of his army before he retreated to the heights of Saratoga, where he was obliged to surrender. Of that, Lieut. Pearson says : "At twelve o'clock the general marched into our lines, and in the afternoon, all the troops, after laying down their arms, supposed to he six thousand, surrendered."

On the 23d, Lient. Pearson marched with a fatigue party to Still- water . after the enemy's wounded, and on his return drew three days' rations and went down the river, reached White Plains after a tedious march and exposure in open boats, during soaking rains, wading ereeks, and over flats. Thus marching and fighting and walking through four months of enlistment, he reached home in December. This was the story of many thousands, and all the worse was it because the enlistments were very short, which kept the soldiers going and coming at great expense.

It was the next year that Capt. Thomas Thomas led the artillery - now Cushing Guard - to their first battle in Rhode Island, under Sul- livan. The manner in which Gen. Sullivan's men went home, when they learned of the failure of French co-operation, indicates the state of discipline, yet does not justify the assertion that the Revolution was fought by "a mob." The Newburyport company remained to the end of the campaign, and have seen much service since.

While the town readily responded to all calls of men and money to prosecute the war on the land - in her own defence sacrificed every material interest, and on her own account purchased so liberally of ammunition, cannon, and other stores, that they had munitions of war to sell in 1779 - still more conspicuous was she on the waters, and more brilliant is the record of the exploits of her sons in the navy and on board privateers. Newburyport being a maritime town, aud all her energies having been directed to the building and sailing of ships, no sooner did the war begin than a thousand active men turned their eyes seaward, seeking the means of attacking the "mistress of the seas " in her own realm on the deep. The very first capture of a British vessel was by John O'Brien, a Newburyport man, who after- wards commanded the " Hibernia" and made several successful cruises. On his first cruise, the " Hibernia " captured a ship, three brigs, and two schooners, in four weeks, and had a two-hours' battle with a six- teen-gun ship, from which she finally escaped, with a loss of three men killed and several wounded. Capt. O'Brien was engaged in many enterprises and battles, and was never taken.

The first privateer from the United States was fitted out by Nathan- iel Tracy ; and his operations were more extended than those of any other person. It scarcely seems possible that a private citizen should have done so much ; more would his action seem to belong to some prince or the chief of some small state. His first vessel went to sea in 1775, and from that time to 1783 Mr. Tracy was the principal owner of 110 merchant ships, in the total of 15,660 tons, which, with their cargoes, were valued at $2,733,300. Twenty-three of these vessels

were letters-of-marque, mounting 298 guns and registering 1,618 men, and only 13 were left at the end of the war, 97 having been taken by the enemy or lost. During the same period, he was also the princi- pal owner of 24 cruising ships, of 6,330 tons, carrying 340 guns of 6, 9, and 12-pounders, and navigated by 2,800 men. Here are 47 ships, of naval character, carrying 638 guns and 4,418 men, owned by one person - a merchant prince and a naval prince. Of the 24 cruis- ers, only one survived the war, leaving but 14 out of 134 vessels. But they did their work, capturing 120 sail from the enemy, of 23,360 tons, which, with their cargoes, sold for $3,950,000 in gold, and on which 2,225 men were made prisoners of war. Nor was this all the service for the independence of this country rendered by Nathaniel Tracy, but for the army and other public demands Mr. Tracy donated $167,219 from his own private purse. If that had been all that was done by the town, it would have been no ignoble record ; but he was only one of the many - the foremost of all, it is true, but not with- out worthy imitators. He was the opulent and enterprising son of a father, Patrick Tracy, who also filled a large place in the history of the town. Nathaniel Tracy's education was the best the country could afford. He was graduated at Harvard in 1769, and was in the vigor of his early manhood during the Revolution. His residence was the building on State Street now used for the Public Library, and, with his means and cultivated taste, it was one of the most attractive places in the Commonwealth. It abounded in all that heart could wish. His slaves - for that was the era of negro slavery in Massachusetts - served the guests at his tables, and they were not unfrequently the most dis- tinguished men of this and foreign lands. His carriages, with liveried drivers, six in hand, and outriders, were such as have never been seen in the town since his day. He owned several country seats, summer retreats, hunting-grounds, and fine fish-ponds, with other conveniences and attachments such as would have become a British lord; but, in after years, in financial distress, the government failing to pay and his debtors failing to pay, he experienced reverses of fortune and became relatively poor, when he should have had millions. Now the name of the family has disappeared from the town, and only the tomb where he sleeps, in the eastern section of Old Burying Hill, reminds us that he ever lived ; but the story of what he was and what he did can never pass from our local annals. He stands there, as a merchant withont a peer, a patriot unsurpassed, and a gentleman and a scholar who honors the place of his birth and active life, whose heart and hand were ever open to his country, and who was ready to give all for her freedom and prosperity.

The first prize brought to this port was the brig " Sukey," Capt. Engs, from Ireland, loaded with provisions for the British in Boston. Capt. Engs made his home here, and was master of a privateer. That was Jan. 5, 1775 ; and the same day, a more important prize was captured in a singular manner. The ship "Friends," Capt. Bowie, from London, for Boston, with coal, cattle, and provisions, fell into our bay, and, ignorant of the situation, lay off the bar for a pilot. She had five guns and 17 men. Capt. Offin Boardman, in a whale-boat, with 16 other men -- William Bartlet, Enoch Hale, John Coombs, Joseph Stanwood, Gideon Woodwell, Johnson and Cutting Lunt, and others whose names have not come down to us - rowed within hail, and, learning her destination, offered his services as a pilot. Reaching the ship's deck, he walked to the quarter-deck, unarmed, and inquired the news from London, while his men, with their trusty mus- kets in hand, rushed up the gangway. He then threw off his dis- guise, and ordered the English flag hauled down. The captain was surprised ; but as it was too late for resistance, and discretion was the better part of valor, he quietly submitted, and on the flood-tide the ship soon reached town. Other prizes were brought in before inde- pendence was declared, among them a barque of 300 tous and the brig " Nelly," loaded with coal and provisions, of which the English army was in great need. They were prizes of the " Yankee Hero," of 18 guns, which had a short career.

In June, James Tracy, a relative of the merchant Nathaniel, before named, her commander, encountered the frigate " Milford," of greatly superior force, and, after a gallant fight of two hours, she was obliged to surrender. Being exchanged shortly after, Capt. Tracy returned home, and at once put to sea in another privateer of the same name, mounting 20 guns, and carrying 170 men, fifty of them being volun- teers from the first families of this vicinity ; and, after leaving port, neither vessel nor crew ever reported again. Twenty-three of the lost were sons of widows. The high character of Capt. Tracy and the hope and promise of some of his crew, caused this loss to be severely felt. But like losses became mournfully common. The brave men in this branch of warfare knew how to fight better than retreat, and in

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shattered hulks they went to their watery graves. The " America," 20 guns, owned by Joseph Marquand, - a very wealthy merchant who built Commercial Wharf, - commanded by Capt. William Coffin, went the same way. In her was Cutting Lunt, who had acted as third lieutenant on the " Bon Homme Richard," under Paul Jones, and who was twice captured and confined in the famous Mill-prison at Plymouth, Eng. He was a cousin to Ezra, Daniel, and Henry Lunt, all of whom distinguished themselves in the Revolution. Other vessels shared the same fate : as the brig " Wexford," Philip Trask, commander, 18 guns ; a letter-of-marque, Jonathan Jewell, captain ; brig "Benning- ton." Capt. Hart ; schooner "Civil Usage," Capt. Hibbard, 80 men ; a schooner, commanded by Capt. Springer ; and others, - in all 22, owned at Newburyport, with crews numbering more than a thousand men, sailed to return no more ; and even the manner of their disappear- ance is unknown to this day. They went down to the bottom of the sea by wreck or battle's fortune, carrying the flower of many a house- hold. It is a sad tale -the loss of more than a thousand men in this way, additional to those killed in battles on land or sea,.and the many who died from exposures and sufferings in camp and on shipboard ! A sad tale is it for a town of only 4,000 people, in seven years ! Of course, they did not all helong to Newburyport, for that would be impossible ; it would have taken all her male population over fifteen years of age : but most of them were from the immediate vicinity ; and we can have but a faint conception of the enthusiasm which then pervaded the country, and without which the losses of that period could not have been horne.

Some of the privateers were very small, insignificant ; but that does not appear to have entered into the consideration of the men who sailed them. They acted as though they could conquer the seas, as their fathers did on the land when they rushed to battle on Bunker Hill without ammunition. One, the " Gen. Ward," Capt. William Russell, carried only thirteen men and one cannon, and she shortly captured two brigs and a schooner. Another, and one of the earliest privateers, called the "Game-cock," probably from her readiness to fight anything, was a sloop of twenty-five tons, carrying four swivels ; and when she sailed the captain sent a note to his minister desiring prayers that God would preserve him in his attempt "to scour the coast of our unnatural enemies."

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Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 113

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett Number of Pages: 450

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450