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 114
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Among the successful privateersmen, afterwards a captain in the United States navy, was Moses Brown, who first commanded the "Gen. Arnold." In 1778, returning home from a mercantile voyage, and finding the whole country in arms, he changed his vessel to an eighteen-gun privateer. The very first gun fired burst, and killed or wounded all the officers, and after trial four others proved no better. In 1779, he fell into battle with the British ship " Experiment," fifty guns, under Sir James Wallace, and was himself captured. After his return home, he commanded the " Intrepid," twenty guns, and the " Hercules," and a letter-of-marque of twenty-two guns, for which he was commissioned by the Continental Congress. But we may not attempt a detailed account of what Capt. Brown, and many others equally brave, performed.
Not a little suffered American seamen captured and thrust into English prisons. Thousands of Americans were so held, Newbury- port supplying her fall share, and there being for some years no sys- tem of exchanging prisoners. So we find the brig " Dalton," in 1777, Ebenezer Jolinson, captain, and the brig "Fanny," John Lee, master, - Jack Lee, as he was familiarly called, - a noted privateersman, fur- nishing fifty inmates to the "Old Mill Prison."
One ship, the privateer " Neptune," William Ford, master, came to a singular end. She was new, carried sixteen guns and sixty men, and had not sailed more than three miles from the bar before she found -. ered, and went down head first. The crew were rescued by fishing- boats at hand, save one drowned.
One of the last efforts of this town to aid the country in the Revo- lution, was the expedition to dislodge the British on the Penobscot River, the expense of which was largely borne by Newburyport, and the inen raised here, Portsmouth also liberally assisting with men and means. The fleet sailed July 25, 1779, and reached its destina- tion on the 15th of August; but they were pursued up the river by the English, and to prevent capture burned the ships. The men took to the woods, and many of them, with great suffering, reached their homes, others being captured, - and a most disastrous conelusion was reached. The officers were greatly blamed ; but the men were not less brave than those who otherwheres marehed to victory. This brought great loss to the town.
We elose this chapter, - our Revolutionary history, - omitting much, very mueh, that we should be glad to give. It is a period to
which we look back with pride, and which, for devotion to the com- mon interests of the country, cannot be excelled by any other town in America. The total number of men lost, the total amount of money expended, is not and never will be known. The extraordinary expenses of the town, in its corporate capacity, in providing for the exigences of the war from 1775 to 1783, - independent of ordinary town expenses, - were two and a half millions of dollars. A large part of that sum was raised in gold. And when to that is added what was done by individuals, in contributions of provisions, clothing, &c., we may count the cost of the war to this little town not less than the above-named sum in eoin. Truly, it was at immense sacrifice of blood and treasure that American liberty and nationality were gained.
CHAPTER IV.
NEWBURYPORT IN WARS SUBSEQUENT TO THE REVOLUTION.
With the recognition of our independence came the trying scenes that always follow long wars, when an attempt is made to liquidate the debts therefrom by heavy taxation, the heaviest of all which was the repudiation of the Continental money, falling with great weight ou the poor and laboring classes. In resistance of such taxes, Daniel Shays initiated an insurrection in the western part of the State, to suppress which troops were called for. A company was raised and commanded by Ezra Lunt, the same who had commanded a company at Bunker Hill, and afterwards in the Continental Army under Wash- ington ; but no blood was shed in the campaign, the rebels disbanding. This was in 1787.
Soon after, and for a full quarter of a century, our commerce was subject to many annoyances-search, seizures, confiscation-by pow- ers civilized and barbarous, from Norway and Denmark on the extreme north, to Algiers on the Barbary coast. In Africa, our citizens were enslaved ; in Europe, imprisoned and robbed. This was especially done by the French, against whom claims, even as yet unpaid, were presented the government, for the loss of eight ships, thirty-five brigs, twenty-seven schooners, and four sloops, valued at $700,000, belong- ing to Newburyport, prior to 1800. How many lives were lost, we know not ; but when the ship " Rose," belonging to William Bartlet, the most valuable of those taken, surrendered to. a French privateer, after a hard fight, two men had been killed, and the captain and fif- teen others were wounded. The Spanish, Dutch, Danes, all preyed on our merchant ships to a greater or less extent. At last, our gov- ernment being aroused to self-protection, privateers were allowed ; letters-of-marque were issued ; the plau of a national navy was con- ceived, and we were on the point of war with France, which regarded neither treaty obligations nor national or natural rights. Several vessels were built here, among them the " Hancock," "Boston," and " Protec- tion," on order of the State, by Stephen and Ralph Cross; and the brig " Pickering " was built for the United States, hy Orlando B. Mer- rill. So urgent was the demand, that only ninety days were allowed for the building of the "Pickering," from the laying of the keel to the launching of the brig.
To all measures for the redress of public wrong, Newburyport gave a most hearty approval. In an address to President Adams, which passed a legal meeting without a dissenting voice, the town concluded in these words : " and the solemn pledge of our lives and fortunes to support the measures of the legislature and administration, is all the assurance which the best of governments could desire from the best of citizens."
As the government was poor, a number of wealthy citizens pro- posed that they would build and equip a ship of 460 tons, mounting twenty-six guns, for the government, to be paid for at the public con- venience, at her simple cost, and six per cent. interest thereon. The offer was accepted, and the frigate " Merrimae " built and launched in seventy-five days, by William Harkett, of Salisbury, the same who had built the " Alliance," the first frigate of the navy, on which La- fayette returned to France after the Revolution. The "Merrimae " was placed in command of Capt. Moses Brown, who had sailed the "Arnold " privateer, and ordered to join Com. Barry's squadron in the West In- dia waters, for the protection of our commerce there exposed. In addition to prizes re-captured, she took four French ships of sixty- eight guns, carrying six hundred men ; and on the restoration of amity the " Merrimae " was sold, and Capt. Browu returned to the merchant service. He was a brave, faithful, efficient officer, and very popular
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
with his men and all who knew him. He acted as commodore of the fleet, when the " Merrimac " was sent, with others, to relieve Curacoa, and expelled the French from that island. Some years after leaving the navy, in 1804, he died suddenly, off Martha's Vineyard, aged sixty-two. After forty-seven years of sea-life, and many battles, and several shipwrecks, and two captures and imprisonments by the Eng- lish, he sleeps beneath the billows on which he had lived ; their white caps are his memorials ; their roar his requiem. As a naval officer, he was the highest in position the town ever had.
The depredations on our shipping continuing, and our losses being unendurable, Congress, in 1807, passed the Embargo Act, the first of a series of measures, under Jefferson and Madison, for the public pro- tection, which finally culminated in the war of 1812 with Great Bri- tain. By the embargo, vessels were forbidden to go to any foreign port whatever, and thereby all our lawful import and export trade was sus- pended ; and at the same time ninety men were here enlisted, in an- ticipation of war. The embargo ran to 1809, when it was repealed, and non-intervention substituted. This was a period of great distress. Hundreds of seamen were thrown out of employment, and the harbor was filled with dismantled ships. Grass grew on the wharves where trade had most flourished ; ships rotted in the docks ; and the building- yards were as silent as the burial-places of the dead. All trade came to a stand-still, because the industries of the people were suspended, and their purchasing power destroyed. The opposition to the admin- istration was intense ; nor should it surprise us that the most patriotic men, who had suffered and bled for their country, hung upon the edge of rebellion. Those who would have cheered for war, and braved the battle's fire, could not quietly sit down at home and see their families starve ; and to that, or to the soup-house for supplies, came they. They had public parades to manifest their displeasure ; they remon- strated with the president ; they petitioned Congress and the Legisla- ture ; till finally the embargo, failing of its purpose, was repealed and non-intervention substituted.
The repeal gave great pleasure : it was the lifting of the storm ; and with renewed life, in 1810, no less than twenty-one ships, thirteen brigs, and eight other vessels were built on the Merrimac. Fresh spirit was given in all directions. But the sunshine was of short dura- tion : in April, 1812, eame another embargo ; and in June of the same year war was declared. It seemed a war with all the odds against us. Chiefly it was to be fought on the seas, for the independence of the waters ; and while Great Britain had a navy of 1,041 vessels, the United States had but twenty frigates and sloops, aud 165 gun-boats of little force. Massachusetts held a public Fast ; and Newburyport, through its committee, Jeremiah Nelson, afterwards member of Con- gress ; John Pierpont, afterwards the poet-elergymen of Boston, then an ardent Federalist and lawyer; Joseph Dana, subsequently a cler- gyman in Marblehead ; William Bartlet, one of the richest merchants in the State ; and William Farris, a prominent merchant, who served under Arnold and Montgomery at Quebec, and later was in the navy, on board the frigates "Boston " and " Hancock," was captain of a privateer, and a prisoner of the enemy ;- this committee, which we describe so minutely from the character of the men who composed it, uttered its protest to the State Legislature, declaring that they would march to the war only under the orders of the governor and council, and, while they would defend their own soil, they would "not stir an inch" beyond. Much very loose and inflammatory language, and some acts performed, indicated how near to the outside of loyal citi- zenship our fathers pressed. Still troops were raised, and, quite as freely as the average of the State, the people contributed to the de- fence of the country. One company of artillery was enlisted here, and served in several battles in Canada. A few members of that com- pany still survive ; one of them, Joseph Stan ward, then a drummer-bcy, was also a drummer in the loyal army in the Rebellion a half-century later, and made a pensioner by special Act of Congress, before the law that recognized by such aid all the survivors of that war. Troops were also sent to the fort on Plum Island, and a regiment went to Cape Ann, for coast defence, under the late Col. Abraham Wil- liams. When an English ship threatened the harbor, the firemen also enlisted, and were stationed on Plum Island turnpike, where defensive works were thrown up, while a sentinel was kept constantly on the " look-out " from March's Hill.
On the sea, however, in this war, as in the Revolution, Newbury- port was most effective. Against the opposition of the Federal party, a fleet of privateers put to sea in 1812, as soon as the war was de- clared. The first to sail was the " Manhattan "; and the next year letters-of-marque were brought into service ; the "Argus," Capt. Harry Parsons, being the first. About the same date, 1813, the
sloop-of-war " Wasp" was built here by Orlando B. Merrill, the same who had built the " Pickering" in 1789. Her crew was made np from the young men of the town, and just before she sailed they cele- brated the eighty-second anniversary of the birth of Washington, by a grand ball on board. Her career opened successfully and ended mournfully. In the first three months she captured thirteen British ships, and dared to conflict several English frigates of much heavier guns, with very little loss ; but in September she encountered a frigate, towards evening, and, while the night following was one of remarkable calmness and serenity, the morning revealed upon the sur- face of the sea the British ship alone. In the darkness of the night she had gone down with all her gallant crew. They asked no quarters in the battle ; they submitted no terms of surrender; they raised no cry and set no signal of distress : but when the " Wasp " fell off from the enemy, disabled in spars, rigging, and sails, riddled in hull, she went down, leaving not a man to tell the tale. The graves of her brave crew, the pride of half a hundred families, were made in the bosom of the sea, and mourning and sorrow fell upon fathers and mothers and maidens of the town by the river-month.
The most noted privateer chief of that period was Capt. William Nichols. At the commencement of the war, the brig " Alert," which he commanded, on her passage from Bordeaux, was captured by a man-of-war, which put a prize-crew on board and ordered her to Plymouth, England. Capt. Nichols, assisted by Capt. Benjamin Pierce, then a boy, re-captured the vessel in the night, fastened four men below, put the remainder of the crew in a boat, with provisions and compass, and set them adrift. As the boat pushed off, one of the men asked the British officer, an Irishman, if he thought they would ever reach land, -the coast of France, for which they steered. "I hope not," he responded : " let us end our shame in the sea." Shortly after, the " Alert " was boarded by another English ship and carried into Portsmouth ; but Capt. Nichols escaped while being taken to London in charge of an officer, and reached home. He was at sea in July, 1812, commanding the brig " Decatur," and in that year, during which time he pursued the enemy to the very mouth of the English Channel, he captured a dozen Vessels, seven of them having valuable cargoes, and carrying more guns and men than the "Decatur." One of them, the ship "Commerce," had fourteen guns, and, before she surrendered, her captain and three men were killed, and two men wounded. Capt. N.'s mode of fighting was to board the vessel and fight hand to hand, while the more expert marksmen were stationed in the tops to shoot the men at the helm. He became known by the constant repetition of the order "Keep the helm of the enemy clear." This being done, the vessels became unmanageable and were subjected to a raking fire. It was on one of these cruises that he was pursued, for a long distance, by a ship which he supposed to be the " Guerriere," but which proved to be the "Constitution," to whose commander Capt. Nichols gave such information as led to the capture of the " Guerriere " the next day.
Finally, the " Decatur" was taken by the British frigate " Surprise," thirty-eight guns, after a gallant defence ; and Capt. Nichols, after having taken twenty-eight prizes, was put on board the " Vestal," at Bermuda, where, ou being recognized as the man who had filled the British shipping with terror, he was confined in a wooden cage, seven feet long by five wide, for thirty-four days. Thence he was sent to England and exchanged. On his return home he immediately took command of the privateer "Harpy," in which, in twenty-one days, he captured four prizes, and arrived at Portsmouth with a prize cargo, valued at $300,000. In that cruise he was twice chased by British frigates, which he outsailed. He brought in sixty-five prisoners of war, including two major-generals. One of his prizes mounted twenty guns. Capt. Nichols was a man who absolutely knew no fear. He was as cool in battle as in his counting-room ; he had few words, but the greatest energy in action. After the war he commanded merchant ships ; entered mercantile life ; for some years was collector of the port, and was highly respected by his fellow-townsmen.
But while some privateers were successful, many Newburyport ves- sels were captured ; and hundreds of our seamen were confined in English prisons, some to die there. The English pursued our coast- ing vessels to the very month of the harbor, so that the guns of the fort on Plum Island were brought to bear on them before they gave up the chase. Even one of the pilot-boats was taken and turned into a tender ; and all the transportation of merchandise between Boston and Newburyport was by teams overland. One of the enemy's ships lay off the bar for several days, apparently with the design of cutting out the " Wasp " and two of Jefferson's gunboats, just launched for the government by Stephen Coffin.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
It was a war prosecuted to our loss ; and when Napoleon abdicated in 1814, and peace came with England in 1815, there was great re- joicing. Immediately our ships went to sea, the first one to India from the United States being the ship " Indus," which first hoisted the " Stars and Stripes " at Calcutta as the "Count de Grasse." Capt. Nicholas Johnson had been the first to display the flag at London, after the Revolution.
The next war calling for troops was with Mexico, growing out of the annexation of Texas, also a very unpopular war in Massachusetts. In 1847, of the few troops furnished by this State, a full company was enlisted for the Massachusetts regiment, with which Caleb Cush- ing left as colonel, to return a brigadier-general. Gen. Cushing un- fortunately broke a leg while with Gen. Taylor near the Rio Grande, and came not into active participation till the closing events of the capture of the Mexican capital. Other Newburyport men were in the New England regiment raised by General, afterwards President, Franklin Pierce ; and some from other States, as Capt. Albert Pike, the poet-warrior, from Arkansas, who won fame; afterwards he was a general in the Confederate army during the Rebellion.
Passing to 1861, when the national flag at Fort Sumter was fired on, and the National Union endangered in the inter-State war, we find Newburyport first and foremost for the national integrity, assuming the place and action which had distinguished her in 1776. As early as January 7th, before blood had been shed, in a series of reso- lutions offered by Alderman William H. Huse, the first of their kind, says Schouler's History, adopted by any town in the State, - the city council declared that, " as Newburyport at all times had been loyal and patriotic in the support of law, order, and liberty, so she will again, if the occasion calls, pledge life, fortune, and honor in be- half of the Constitution and Union as our fathers left them "; and, as a token of loyalty to the Union, it was voted, that the national flag should be hoisted on the city hall till further ordered.
April 15th, following, the council appropriated $1,000 to aid the families of the soldiers ordered to active duty ; and this was the first town of the Commonwealth so voting money. Immediately after, the Cushing Guard - the old Artillery company of 1778, which fought under Sullivan in Rhode Island - was called to the field : and the next morning - the first by all the companies, save one from Marble- head - it camped on Boston common, under its brave com- mander, Albert W. Bartlett. who afterwards died in battle, Sept. 17, 1862, near Maryland Heights, an officer who honored himself, his town, and his country. The 8th Regiment, to which the Cushing Guard belonged, proceeded immediately to Maryland, and thence to the rescue of the capital imperilled. It was in the service nearly all the time till 1865.
So rapidly did volunteers offer, that one company, anxious for duty, joined the Mozart Regiment, of New York, when this State had an- swered all calls, that they might be early in the field. Though in the service of another State, where bravely they fought, Newburyport did not forget them, as her sons in the field, but extended constant aid and support. The quota of the city was not only full, but, with- out counting the Mozarts, there was a surplus of seventy men at the close of the war, and still the raising of men was going on. She sent 1,353 men on the Massachusetts quota, fifty-three of them commis- sioned officers. In the darkest moments, there was no hesitation. When the retreat of Gen. Banks in the Shenandoah Valley was re- ported, the bells ringing at midnight summoned the citizens to State Street, where one hundred and fifty men volunteered, and took the first train the next morning for Boston, tendering their services, which were declined. In accordance with the resolutions of the city council at the outset, " their lives and their fortunes" staked they for their country. Bounties were paid freely ; the families of the men in the army were abundantly supplied ; and constantly was going forward what would give comfort in the field and the hospitals. The amount of money expended by the city, exclusive of State aid, was $123,- 817.89. In addition, patriotie citizens raised $6,300; and the Sol- diers' Relief Association expended $30,000, and had $1,500 in their treasury when the " boys came home from the war." The amount of State aid, for which they were afterwards reimbursed, was $101,311. Thus readeth the record : full 1,500 men furnished in four years, by a town of 13,000 population. and more than a quarter of a million in money, where the total valuation was only eight millions, or one-ninth of all the population, and one-thirtieth of all the valuation of the town:
We give the summary : we may not stop for details of services rendered in every belligerent State, between 1861 to 1865, from Get- tysburg in Pennsylvania to New Orleans, -rendered by the sailor-
boys in the navy, from where the first iron-clad sent our ships to the bottom in the waters of Virginia, and Newburyport men worked the guns till they were obliged to jump from the port-holes to save their lives, all along the coast, in the bays and up the rivers, till they freed the passes of the Mississippi, and opened the " Father of Waters" for the progress of the Union Army. On the ships and on the battle-fields they gave their lives for their country, for constitutional government and human freedom. In the camps they contracted terrible diseases, and from the hospitals they were borne to warrior graves. Some sleep their last sleep in the national cemeteries ; while the headstones of our local grave-yards tell of others, who, for their country and the right, were gathered to their fathers. May their souls rest in peaec.
CHAPTER V.
NEWBURYPORT AFTER THE PEACE OF 1783.
Immediately after the War of the Revolution there was a revival of business. The merchant returned to his counting-room, the mechanie from the camp resumed his tools, and the seaman from the privateer entered upon peaceful commerce. In seven years the tonnage of Newburyport went up to 12,000,-an inerease of sixty per cent. Our streets and schools, and buildings public and private, were improved, and the town entered upon a term of inch prosperity. There was some trouble with the currency and the payment of the debts of the war; but Newburyport sustained her own honor in an address to hier representatives, adopted in 1786, expressing the hope "that injustice may not be confounded with policy in Massachusetts." Firmly she declared against any repudiation of State delegations.
In 1788 the new Constitution of the United States was adopted, to the joy of the people. The delegates to the State convention were met at Newbury Green, and escorted into the town, where they were received with the applause of their fellow-citizens. Under this Constitution, Tristram Dalton was the first senator from Massachusetts. Ile was the son of Michael Dalton, a distinguished merchant ; had graduated at Harvard when seventeen years old ; was a lawyer ; emi- nent for piety and charity ; and had previously been Speaker of our House of Representatives and a State senator. He was wealthy, had his residence on State Street, the first house above the Savings Institution, and also an elegant country seat on Pipe-stave Hill, in West Newbury. His mansion was the resort of great and patriotic men. and his library, which was one of the best in the State, was the study of scholars. Shortly after, he took up his residence in Washington, where he lived on the closest intimacy with presidents Washington and John Adams. He died in 1817, and was buried with his father in St. Paul's Church- yard, Newburyport. Under the constitutional government, Newbury- port became a customs district ; with Stephen Cross, collector, Jonathan Titcomb, a general of the Revolution, naval officer, and Michael Hodge, surveyor. The light-houses, which had before belonged to the town, were transferred to the general government. This was also the date of the Act regulating pilotage for Newburyport.
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