USA > Rhode Island > Newport County > History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the year 1638 to the year 1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent progress > Part 31
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Stevens was detached to the army of the north, and as major commanding in the Northern Department, was in command at Saratoga, and continuing uninterruptedly in service, was one of the three alternate officers who commanded this arm at the siege of Yorktown, as lieutenant colonel of the Second Conti- mental (New York) artillery, of which he was long the virtual commander, Colonel Lamb, an invalid, being assigned to cog- nate duties of a less active nature.
The Rhode Island assembly met at East Greenwich by ad- journment on the 12th of June. Newport was no place for a deliberative assembly. Captain Wallace, of the king's ship " Rose," was stopping vessels and his sailors were in collision with the townspeople. An affair on the 3d of June had nearly led to a serious result. Governor Wanton appeared at the first meeting of this assembly and demanded that the oath of office be administered to him. He handed in a written demand in which he quoted the charter, which directed that every gov- ernor shall give his engagement before two or more of the as- sistants, notwithstanding which they had required his appear- ance in open assembly and forbidden the deputy governor and assistants to administer the oath of office, and repeated that iudisposition had at the last session prevented his appearance. Ile now appeared to take the oath prescribed by law. In his letter he explained and defended his conduct. The proclama- tion for a fast had been begun by him and would have been published but for their divesting him of the authority to issue it. Of his refusal to sign commissions he maintained the pro- priety. His demand was considered, and the assembly re- solved "that he hath not given satisfaction." The act de- «laring all acts done by him in the pretended capacity of governor null and void was continued until the rising of the assembly at the next session, and publication was ordered in the Newport and Providence newspapers.
Nicholas Cooke, the deputy governor, was directed to address Captain Wallace, and demand of him the reason of his conduct toward the inhabitants of the colony in stopping vessels, and also to require of him the packets he detained ; and the dep- uty governor the next day wrote a sharp note, which he closed
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by saying that as long as the captain " demeaned himself as became his office" he might depend upon the protection of the laws, but that the whole power of the colony would be used to " protect the inhabitants against any lawless invader." An immediate answer being demanded, Captain Wallace made a eurt reply, in which he said he was unacquainted with Mr. Cooke or what station he was in, but supposing he wrote in be- half of some body of people, he desired to know whether or not he, or the people in whose behalf he wrote, were not in open rebellion to their lawful sovereign and the acts of the British legislature.
One of the packets detained had been armed as a tender to the " Rose." The very day of Wallace's sancy letter she was chased by a colony's sloop on to Conanient and captured. Captain Abraham Whipple commanded the war sloop, and to him, says Arnold, "is thus dne the honor of discharging the first gun upon the ocean at any part of his majesty's navy in the American revolution." Captain Wallace, hearing that Whipple burned the "Gaspee," wrote him that "he would hang him at the yard-arm." Whipple answered, "Always catch a man before yon hang him."
At this session William Potter, the late assistant who joined in Governor Wanton's protest, exensed his action as prompted by a fear that the passing of the act at that time would dis- tress the trade, particularly of Newport, which a little longer time might prevent, and lamented the unguarded expressions of the document, which he had only seen in a rough draft be- fore he signed it. Ile declared his readiness to embark with the friends of liberty in every difficulty and against every op- pression until the glorious cause was established on the most firm and permanent basis. This memorial being read, he was by vote reinstated in favor of the assembly.
In the assignment of officers to command the trained bands or companies of militia, Portsmouth is included but Newport and Middletown are omitted; the reasons for which do not ap- pear.
The American postal system having been disturbed, if not broken up, by the removal of Benjamin Franklin as the super- intendent, by the British parliament, William Goddard, the old founder of the " Providence Gazette," undertook to re-organ- ize it through all the colonies on an American basis, independ-
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ent of the aid of parliament. The Rhode Island assembly voted at this session to join with the other colonies in es- tablishing post offices and post riders and for the present to defray the expense of riders on the usual post road in the col- ony. Post offices were established at Newport, Providence, Bristol, Warren, Tower Hill in South Kingstown, and Wester- ly, and postmasters appointed: for Newport Mr. Nathaniel Otis. For post riders, Mr. Peter Mumford from Newport to Provi- dence and Mr. Benjamin Mumford from Newport to New London. Newport was the connecting point or chief station. The assem- bly was careful to provide that all letters for Boston should be postpaid and submitted for examination by the command- er-in-chief of the American forces at Cambridge or by the com- mittee of the provincial congress of the Massachusetts Bay, and all letters arriving from Boston were also to be examined.
The proceedings of this assembly were sent to the Rhode Is- land delegates in congress. On June the 15th Washington was by congress appointed commander-in-chief, and on the 22d four major generals, of whom General Nathaniel Greene was the fonrtli in order of nomination. The battle of Bunker Hill was fought on the 17th. No Rhode Island troops were in this action.
The assembly met in extra session on the 28th. The act re- stricting Wanton from assuming the authority of governor was continued and again published. For the better commandment of the army of observation it was ordered that during the can- paign. it be under the direction of the commander-in-chief of the combined American army stationed in Massachusetts. Or- ders were issued to the committees of inspection to collect all the saltpetre and brimstone in the town and forward it to the provincial congress at New York, powder mills being in opera- tion there. A baker was appointed for the army of observa- tion; the governor and all the soldiers at Fort George were dis- charged; the fort boat was to be hanled up and the cannon, some of which it seems had been stolen, were ordered over to Newport. Six companies of troops were raised to recruit the regiments before Boston and officers appointed : Ebenezer Flagg, captain; Joseph Perry, lientenant, and Noel Allen, en- sign of the Eighth company ; Thomas Grey, captain, Lemuel Bailey, lieutenant, William Sonthiworth, ensign of the Ninth company ; both companies to be raised in the counties of New-
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port and Bristol. One fourth of the militia of the colony was ordered to be enlisted as minute men to drill half a day once each fortnight. The Newport enlisting officers were the cap- tains of the companies of militia.
By the Angust assembly it was ordered to bring off and land on the continent all the neat cattle and sheep upon New Shore- ham (Block Island) except enough for the supply of the inhab- itants, and two hundred and fifty men were sent to secure the stock until it could be taken off. James Rhodes, Gideon Hox- sie and George Sheffield were entrusted with the delicate mis- sion of collecting, removing and appraising the stock. Two companies of Colonel Varnum's regiment were assigned to the duty and placed under the orders of Rhodes and Hoxsie, who were commissioned officers for the occasion. In pursuance of this order nineteen hundred and eight sheep were brought off from Block Island valued at £534, 9 shillings; from Conanicut eighty-two cattle, four hundred and forty-four sheep at £850, 9 shillings; and from Prudence fifty-six cattle and three hun- dred and eighty-four sheep at £530; the sums appraised being paid to the owners. An act was passed to punish all per- sons piloting armed vessels except American in or out of any of the waters of the colony, and one to purchase all the gun- powder imported from ports beyond sea at three shillings the pound.
A committee of Providence deputies and others named was raised to act upon sudden emergency in the recess of the as- sembly, and particularly empowered to employ the two armed colony vessels in such voyage and in such manner as they should elect. The ensigns in the forces encamped on Prospect hill were raised to be second lieutenants and their pay in- creased to bring them upon an equality with their Massachu- setts brethren. The old beacon on Prospect hill was tested, and the flames seen from Cambridge on the east and New Lon- don on the west, and as far as Pomfret. A choice of officers was made for the colony. For the regiment of militia in the county of Newport : Joseph Belcher, colonel ; John Cooke, lieutenant colonel ; William Channing, major. Two row gal- lies were ordered to be built, to carry sixty men, fifteen oars on a side, and to mount an eighteen ponnder in the bow and a number of swivel guns. These were named the " Washington " and the "Spitfire." The ships-of-war having stopped the
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post rider who crossed the bay from Newport to the mainland and stripped him of his mail, John Lasell was employed as post rider on the old post road from Providence to New London, and ordered to set out from Providence for New London every Tuesday on the arrival of the post from Cambridge, and return at once ; he to receive one hundred and eighty-five pounds a year, find his own horses and pay his own expenses ; and Mr. Benjamin Mumford was employed as a post rider from New- port to Cambridge ; that he set ont from Newport on Monday afternoon at three o'clock to carry the Newport mail for the westward to Providence and proceed immediately to Cam- bridge with the mails for that post office, and set off from thence on Thursday in the afternoon for Providence, and there take the mail from the westward and proceed immediately to Newport.
At this session, considering that, notwithstanding the hum- ble petition of congress to the king, the ministry, "lost to every sentiment of justice, liberty and humanity. continue to send troops and ships-of-war to America which destroy the trade, plunder and burn the towns and murder the good people of the colonies," it was voted that the colony "most ardently wish to see the former friendship, harmony and intercourse be- tween Britain and these colonies restored and a happy and last- ing connection established between both countries upon terms of just and equal liberty, and will concur with the other col- onies in all proper measures for obtaining these desirable bless- ings, and for self preservation."
Among other measures to bring the war to a happy issue, the assembly considered that the equipping of an American fleet as soon as possible was desirable, and therefore "in- strnoted their delegates to use their whole influence at the ensuing congress for building at the continental expense a fleet of sufficient force for the protection of these colonies and for employing them in such manner and places as will most effectually annoy our enemies and contribute to the common deľence of these colonies." This is justly held to be the first practical suggestion of a very obvious need of the colonies of a national navy. Eight field pieces were ordered to be prepared at the iron works in the colony. A bounty of three shillings a pound was voted on every pound of saltpetre made in the col- ony by the 26th of August, 1776. Stringent orders were passed
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to enforce the taking of the paper money issued by the con- tinental congress.
The entrance to Providence harbor was fortified between Field and Sassafras points, and a battery of six eighteen pounders erected at Fox point. On the 22d of Angust the British fleet was in motion and an attack on Providence was expected, but the vessels came up no farther than Conanicut point. The batteries and redoubts were manned and the mil- itary in arms; when the ships withdrew, after pillaging the island and the shores on the main near by of a quantity of live stock and the capture of a brig from the West Indies off Warwick neck.
The vessels of the British fleet were constantly occupied in attempts to procure supplies. Cut off from the interior and holding in reality only the towns they occupied and the land on which they were encamped, their only resource for live stock was the number of fertile islands along the coast. The Cork fleets, which brought their main supplies to New York, were not burthened with fresh meats. The Long Island supply was large, but precarious. The islands in Narragansett bay were a tempting field. The British navy officers were not more serupulons about foraging for their sailors than they were in the press of the sailors themselves. There is an old phrase, "all's fish they get that cometh to net." The town author- ities of Newport had made a sort of treaty with Captain Wal- lace of the " Rose," but this did not hinder the officers of many of the ships, which now began to swell the number of the fleet in the harbor, from stopping the market boats which plied their traffic between Newport and the neighboring shores. But this did not content them.
On Monday, the 2d of October, a general movement of the ships, fonr more of which had lately come in, aroused suspi- cions that something unusual was intended. Fearing an at- tempt to carry off the stock from the southern part of the is- land called Brenton's neck, a number of the people of Newport went down in the evening and brought up about one thousand sheep and from forty to fifty head of horned cattle from sev- eral farms. There still remained, however, a number of sheep und hogs on the farms of the Brentons, which it was supposed had been collected by them for sale to the men-of-war, part of which the ships took away the next day. The counties being
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informed of these matters, abont three hundred minute men came into Newport from Providence, Tiverton and Little Comp- ton under the command of Esek Hopkins and William Rich- mond, who, after refreshing themselves in the town, marched to the neck and brought off all the stock that was left, some sixty-six head of cattle, under the fire of the guns of the ships. The officers were ordered to arrest one George Roome for aiding the enemy and any British officers or men they might find on shore and send them to Providence, to be dealt with according to their deserts. So runs the commission issued by Governor Cooke October 4th, which names William West as second in command to Hopkins. They seized eighty-four barrels of flour from Roome's store on the point and carried it for safe storage to the brick market in spite of the opposition of a guard of marines.
Upon this the men-of-war assumed such a threatening atti- tnde that a great many of the inhabitants moved part or all of their effects out of the town and many of the families also left. "The carts, chaises, riding chairs and trucks were so numerous that the streets were almost blocked up with them. Thursday and Friday being rainy and muddy, the poor women and chil- dren were much exposed in looking out for some place of safety; the people continued moving out very fast all Saturday and yesterday with their effects." The ships also seized that week a number of vessels laden with wood from Long Island which went out, it was said, with Captain Wallace's permis- sion. It is not probable that they risked the loss of their ves- sels by neglecting this precaution. Governor Cooke and Sec- retary Ward at this time visited the camp at Cambridge to con- fer with the committee of congress on the army establishment.
October 7th, Captain Wallace, with the " Rose," "Glasgow" and " Swan" and several transports, in all about fifteen sail, sailed up the bay from Newport and formed a line in the har- bor before the town of Bristol. A barge was sent on shore to demand the presence of four of the magistrates or principal men on board of the " Rose." The inhabitants declined this invitation, but engaged to confer peaceably with any person that might approach the shore, and asked delay until the next morning. An hour after the ships and tenders began a heavy cannonade on the town. The night was dark and rainy and the people were in terror and confusion. For an hour one hundred
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and twenty cannon and cascades (fire guns) were discharged upon the town, and a tender near the bridge kept up a constant fire on the people who went ont. One of the inhabitants hail- ing a man-of-war, was taken on board and inquired the reason of this attack. Captain Wallace demanded one hundred head of cattle, but engaged to stop firing if forty sheep were deliv- ered, otherwise he would lay the town in ashes. The committee of inspection, in view of the condition of the town, where sick- ness was raging, consented and the sheep were delivered, where- upon the ships withdrew, Wallace sending a barge to plunder the neighboring farms of some smaller supplies. Sunday after- noon the fleet left Bristol and lay between Poposquash and Hog island, upon which they ent the corn. On Monday, pass- ing by Bristol Ferry on their return, a tender ran aground on the west muscle bed, and shots were exchanged between the ships and the minute men. On Wednesday the fleet returned to Newport.
The assembly met at Providence on the 31st of October and ordered the raising of five hundred soldiers for the defense of the colony for one year. Esek Hopkins was appointed com- mander-in-chief of this regiment and of the regiments of militia in the county of Newport, with the rank and title of brigadier- general. Later it appears that William Richmond was made colonel of this organization, Gideon Hoxsie lientenant-colonel, and Benjamin Tallman major. The troops in Jamestown were reinforced by men to be raised by John Northrup. The estates of George Roome and the Brentons were left in charge of the men whom General Hopkins had assigned to this duty. A me- morial was presented from the town council of Newport setting forth their many distresses cansed by their withholding from the ministerial fleet in the harbor their usual supplies of beef, beer, etc., in consequence of which the ferry boats, market boats, fish boats and wood vessels with provisions and fuel were prevented coming to the town, the result of which was a stagna- tion of trade and a want of the common necessaries of life. Upon which the assembly authorized them to negotiate with Captain Wallace for ship's supplies under the regulation of the commander-in-chief upon the island, to whom authority was also given to remove the troops from place to place as he should think best for the relief of the town, always with an eye and just preference to the general safety. Two hundred pounds
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was voted to the relief of the poor of the town of Newport, to be applied to those who were willing but not able to leave the town. William Vernon and John Read were added to the overseers to aid in this removal.
An act was passed for the punishment of persons found guilty of holding traitorons correspondence with the ministry or their officers or agents, or of supplying the ministerial army or navy with munitions of war or army or navy stores, or of acting as pilots of any of their ships; the negotiation between the town conncil of Newport and Captain Wallace only excepted.
The long-pending uncertainty with regard to Wanton, the governor elect of the colony, was brought to an end by a de- claration that the governor was "inimical to the rights and liberties of America, and thereby rendered totally unfit to sus- tain the said office," and a resolution declaring that he had justly forfeited the office of governor and that thereby the office had become vacant. While the governor was thus ousted, Darins Sessions, having in a memorial expressed his sorrow for his protest against raising the army of observation, craved forgiveness and declared his determination to unite with his countrymen in defending their rights, was by vote received with favor and friendship. But Mr. Sessions was no more honored as before with the high office he so long held. An ex- amination of one Cleveland for working on the king's works at Boston, and of one Wightman charged with supplying the enemy, and of one Dennis of Prudence island for giving infor- mation by imprudence or otherwise, was a notice to the inhabi- tants that trifling was a crime in war time. A number of estates were sequestered by this assembly, among which were those of the late Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts, and of Samnel Sewall, Gilbert Deblois, John and Jonathan Simpson, all of Boston, but having property in Rhode Island; and of Dr. Moffatt, Ralph Inman, George Roome and the Brentons, late residents of Newport.
The assembly adjourned on the 10th of November. The day before there was a skirmish in the bay between two privateer sloops from Providence, and a British schooner, three tenders and a bomb ketch that came ont from Newport to attack thea, but were driven off. On the 26th the " Swan," sloop-of-war, Captain Ascough, which had been to the eastward, returned to Newport from Boston together with a large armed schooner, a
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small armed sloop and a large transport scow. Besides these vessels there were that day in the harbor the " Rose," "Glas- gow," a bomb brig of ten or twelve guns, an armed schooner and two armed sloops; making in all ten sail. On the arrival of the vessels from Boston some of the officers came on shore at the Long Wharf and, bringing with them their instruments, took a survey of the harbor.
Captain Wallace, unable to obtain supplies, now threatened the destruction of Newport, but offered to spare it if furnished with provisions. His proposal was referred to General Hop- kins, who consented, under authority of the late act of the as- sembly, on condition that the supplies were to be of stated quantities, and to be made by one person. To this Wallace assented, and agreed that his men should not land "unless the rebels enter." Hopkins, under the late recruiting act, had a large force gathered at Middletown. Charles Dudley, the British collector of customs for the port of Rhode Island, took refuge on the " Rose," sloop of war.
Congress, which had already recommended privateering, now appointed a marine committee, and resolved to fit out four vessels and to put them under the command of Esek Hopkins as commodore. The committee which governed during the re- cess of the assembly gave Hopkins permission to accept the command of the continental fleet, and sent the "Katy," with Captain Whipple and one hundred men, to Philadelphia for that service. Officers were assigned to the row galley " Wash- ington," and an artillery company attached to the new regi- ment. In December Congress appointed a committee of one from each colony (Hopkins from Rhode Island) to organize a navy. They confirmed him as commander and Abraham Whip- ple as captain of the frigate "Columbus." Congress had or- dered the " Katy" to ernise on the southern coast.
On the morning of Sunday, the 10th of December, at about one o'clock the British bomb brig, a schooner and two or three armed sloops left Newport harbor and landed two hundred ma- rines, sailors and negroes at the ferry on the east side of Co- nanient, whence they marched directly to the west ferry, where they burned all the houses near the ferry place, and returning, fired the houses on the road, driving out the women and chil - dren, plundering them of furniture and even the clothes on their backs. Captain Wallace himself was in command. They
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gathered and drove off abont fifty head of cattle and some sheep and hogs. They were safe back in Newport at noon. Washi- ington, in a letter to the president of congress on the 14th, written from Cambridge, speaks of "the barbarity of Captain Wallace on Conanient Island."
Barracks were built for the American troops on Wonunie- tonomy (sometimes called Tonomy, and by corruption Tam- many) hill. The poor of Newport were, at the invitation of Providence, sent up to their charge. On the 19th of December all the minute men of the colony were ordered to the defense of the island of Rhode Island and formed into one regiment under Colonel William West and Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Lip- pitt. West succeeded Hopkins in command of the island, Intel- ligence coming in from Boston of the sailing of eight large and two small ships out of that harbor, on the 16th of December Gov- ernor Cooke wrote to Washington, then in camp at Cambridge, expressing the fears of the people of Rhode Island that these ships, which had sailed with some troops on board, were des- tined for Newport. Washington despatched General Charles Lee to point out to them such defense as he might think the place capable of. Washington wrote to the president of con- gress (25th December) : "I sincerely wish he may be able to do it with effect, as that place in its present state is an asylum for such as are disaffected to American liberty."
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