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 37
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Generals Sullivan and Pigot had a sharp correspondence concerning the prisoners taken at Bristol. Pigot declined to release them except on the usual terms of exchange. On the first of July the Landgrave regiment was marched to Ports- mouth and encamped at Windmill hill, relieving the Bunau regiment, who were marched into town and encamped on the fields west of the town near the mills. The Huyne regiment was camped on the east side of the road leading into the neck, and threw up works for a battery of two guns fronting the road. General Pigot, in July, rebuilt the forts on Brenton's point and Goat island, and also on Rose island and Conanicut. The king's stores were removed from the wharves to the rope walk at the back of the town. These operations were caused by the news of the arrival of a French squadron off New York.
On the morning of the 29th of July the signal from the ware- honse reported "a Fleet in Sight," and at a little after one in the afternoon it was known to be the French squadron of d'Estaing. At five o'clock the Newport Associators, the loyal townspeople, were in arms on the parade. The town crier summoned all the inhabitants to join them. The British frigates hauled in under the North battery. The troops on Conanient were ferried over, leaving only a few in a battery on Watch hill. The French fleet lay at anchor off the reef. July 31st Fleet Green records : "Early this morning the fleet weighed and took to sea, which revived the spirits of the people. The town still remains in confusion." Some evolution must have been made by the French, of which there is no mention in the general histories. That no British vessels got out is certain.
On the 2d of August all the live stock which had been driven in from Portsmouth and Middletown, and all carriages, carts, wheelbarrows, shovels, pickaxes, axes and saws were this day and the next taken from the inhabitants, Trees were cut down and thrown across the road to delay the march of the enemy.
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Six ships were sunk from the north end of Goat island to the town to obstruct the entrance to the harbor on that side. Three others were held ready to sink at the south entrance. The gar- rison, Green writes, was "said to consist of seventy-two hun- dred soldiers and fifteen hundred sailors." On the 5th of August four transports were sunk in the morning on the west side of Goat island, and on the appearance of the French fleet four frigates were blown up near Coddington point and two transports burned. On the 6th the army overrun the island, cutting down orchards and tearing down houses, while the work of sinking vessels went on in the harbor. On Saturday, the 8th of August, the houses on the heights of Middletown were set on fire by the general's orders, and the inhabitants were plundered by the soldiers and sailors in the streets. The houses at Easton's beach were burned the night before all this destruc- tion and pillage, and before the French had attempted to force the passage.
Fleet Green thus describes the movement : "Saturday, August 8, 1778. Two o'clock this morning the fleet appears under sail. Three o'clock they stood in for the harbor. Half past three the battery on Brenton's Point begins to fire. The ships return the fire and pass the battery under a heavy can- nonading. Four o'clock all three of the batteries continne the firing. The headmost ship is up with the North battery. The harbour is one continual blaze ; the shots fly very thick over the town. August 8. At ten this morning a fleet appears in sight, standing from the eastward, with the wind S. W., to the great joy of the army and the Tories, excess of joy and grief seen in the faces of different parties. A number of people flock on the heights on the Neck to welcome Lord Howe and his fleet to their deliverance. August 10. The French fleet passed the forts under heavy fire for over an hour, standing out to sea in pursuit of the English fleet."
THE SIEGE OF NEWPORT, 1778 .- On the 3d of May General Sullivan sent to congress a return of the troops at his post. Unfortunately Amory, in his monograph on the siege of New- port, while he quotes the letter in full, does not give the return. Sullivan, however, informs congress that three regi- ments were to leave him that day and his force would consist only of the residne mentioned in the return; " not a man from Connecticut and but part of two companies from Massachusetts
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Bay: some few have arrived from New Hampshire and abont half their quota are on the march." With this small force he had "to guard a shore upwards of sixty miles in extent from Point Judith on the west, and from Prudence to Seconnet Point on the east," against an enemy who could bring all their strength to a point and act against any point they chose. He asked the assignment to him of the two state galleys to guard the entrance to the rivers of Taunton and Warren and that Gen- eral Stark be ordered to him, as he should need two brigadiers. On the 26th he wrote that he had not five hundred men at his command and that there were less than two hundred men from the other New England states. On the 19th of June, at the instance of Sullivan and Governor Greene, congress directed Washington to send home the Rhode Island troops if prac- ticable and the Navy board to provide three galleys for the defense of Providence, Warren and Tannton rivers.
French assistance followed quickly the recognition of Amer- ican independence and the treaty of alliance. Marie Antoi- nette, the queen, herself persuaded the king, Lonis XVI, to or- der a naval expedition to the American coast. The squadron, consisting of twelve ships of the line, four frigates and four thousand troops of the line, was placed under the command of the Count d'Estaing, an ambitions and promising officer. He hoisted his flag on the "Languedoc " and was accompanied by Gerard de Rayneval, a diplomatic agent with power to concert a scheme of offensive war, and by Silas Deane, one of the com- missioners of the United States to the court of France.
The fleet left Toulon the 13th of April, 1778, and passed the Straits of Gibraltar on the night of the 17th to 18th of May. On the 20th the captains of the vessels opened their sealed instruc- tions and learned their destination. Hostilities were to be opened at forty leagues distance to the westward of Cape St. Vincent. It was hoped that the great secrecy with which the expedition had been organized would result in the surprise and defeat of Lord Ilowe's squadron which held the month of the Delaware to cover Sir Henry Clinton's position at Philadelphia. But the French fleet was badly composed for concerted action, the vessels being of unequal speed, and land was not seen until July. On the Sth of this month, eighty-seven days after their departure from Toulon, and forty-nine from their opening of
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orders (when two days out from Gibraltar), the French fleet anchored off the mouth of the Delaware.
Clinton, under orders from England, had evacuated Phila- delphia on the 22d of June, and both army and fleet were safe in the harbor of New York. Pilots were sent on board the French vessels by order of congress, and d'Estaing set sail and dropped anchor off Shrewsbury. The American pilots were un- willing to venture with the larger vessels which drew from twenty-three to twenty-five feet of water across the New York bar, and in spite of a very large offer of money by d'Estaing absolutely declined the undertaking. The alternative offen- sive operation was an attempt to capture the British garrison on Rhode Island. A plan was concerted between Washington and d'Estaing, and Sullivan was notified to be prepared. He was directed to form the American troops into two divisions, to the command of which Generals Greene and Lafayette were assigned.
On the 22d of July the French fleet raised anchor and set sail to the southward, but soon changed their course. The plan agreed upon was that General Sullivan should land on the north of Rhode Island under cover of the guns of the French fleet, while d'Estaing should also force the passage of the main channel and take the fortifications of the town of Newport in reverse. On the 29th of July the French fleet ar- rived off Brenton's ledge, three miles below Newport, and dropped anchor at the month of the great middle channel. The twelve sloops of the line were the "Languedoc," " Mar- seillais," "Provence," "Tonnant," "Sagittaire," "Guerriere," "Fantasque," "Cesar," "Protectenr," "Vaillant." " Zélé," " Hector;" the four frigates, the "Chimere," " L'Engagéante," " Aimable," " Alcmene ;" and with these latter a corvette the " Stanley." The next day General Sullivan, who had already exchanged letters with the French admiral, went on board the " Languedoc," and a plan of operation was agreed upon. The "Fantasque" and "Sagittaire" were ordered to watch the Narragansett or western passage while the frigates "Aimable," " Alemene " and the corvette " Stanley" should anchor in the eastern passage where the water was too shallow for the heavier ships. The retreat of the English vessels ly- ing in the bay was thus cut off.
The frigates, pushing up the eastern or Seconnet passage,
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anchored in front of the battery at Fogland ferry, but before fire opened from the guns, the British man-of-war, the "King- fisher," of sixteen guns, and two galleys were set on fire by their crews ; their shotted guns went off in all directions, and their magazines exploded to the confusion and consternation of friend and foe. A company of Ditfurth's Hessian regiment at Black point were witnesses of this strange scene.
At daylight on the 5th of Angust the "Sagittaire" and "Fantasque" sailed up the western passage, doubled the point off Conanicut island and dropped anchor in the middle channel. Four British frigates, the "Lark," "Orpheus," and " Juno," thirty-two guns, the "Cerberus," twenty-eight, and the corvette " Falcon," sixteen, were run ashore on Rhode Is- land and barned on their approach near Tammany Hill. The two Hessian regiments, Bayreuth and Prince of Wales, had al- ready been brought over from Conanicut where they were camped. Besides the men-of-war, other vessels were destroyed to keep them out of the hands of the French. The German ac- counts say eight were sunk and thirteen burned. Commander Suffren abstained from firing upon the boats which landed their crews. The "Protecteur" and the "Provence" then took the positions of the " Sagittaire " and "Fantasque" at the month of the Narragansett passage.
On the 8th of August, General Sullivan announcing himself as ready to cross from the mainland to Rhode Island, Count d' Estaing forced the middle passage with eight ships under a heavyfire from the British batteries. The English then destroyed their two remaining ships, the "Grand Duke," a transport of forty guns, burned, and the frigate "Flora,"' thirty-two, sunk. Altogether the English lost two hundred and twelve guns. A heavy fog settled on the island that afternoon; when it cleared the next morning the French were comfortablysheltered between Gould island and Conanicut, and d' Estaing began landing the troops intended for co-operation with the Americans on Conan- ient island with material of war ; for preliminary drill and or- ganization. Pigot, the English commander, had withdrawn his troops from Fogland ferry, Windmill and Quaker hills, and posted them on Bannister's hill and across the island and under the shelter of Tonomy hill. That afternoon a British fleet, thirty strong, was descried in the offing. The wind fell and they did not attempt to enter the harbor. In the night
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d'Estaing re embarked his troops and material, and the next morning, the 10th, the French fleet cut their cables and stood out for sea ; raked for an hour by the British batteries at Fort George, Goat island and Brenton's point at easy range.
Meanwhile Sullivan was in motion. He had been joined by Major-General Greene from the army, on the 31st of July. and shortly after by Brigadier General Glover, who volunteered for the expedition, and on the 2d of Angust by the Marquis de La- fayette. On the 3d two continental brigades, Varnum's and Glov- er's, and two companies of artillery, from the army at White Plains, arrived. On the the 7th, volunteers flocking into camp, and the Massachusetts contingent coming in also, General Sullivan proceeded to the American camp at Tiverton and took command. On the 8th the cannonade announced that d'Estaing had forced the passage. On the 9th, while the French troops were landing at Conanicut, Sullivan, with about ten thousand troops, began to cross from Tiverton to the north end of Rhode Island by Fogland ferry, the British fort at Butt's hill being evacuated, and Lafayette was despatched to inform d'Estaing of the move- ment. He arrived as the disembarkation was still going on, when a frigate from below signalled the arrival of the British fleet.
Sullivan, while waiting events, took possession of the de- serted forts at the north end of the island. On the 11th a detachment of light troops, with supports, under Colonel Livingstou, was pushed to within a mile and a half of the enemy, who had thrown up a new line of earthworks. On the 11th orders were given for a general advance ; the right under General Greene, the left under General Lafayette, the second line of Massachusetts militia under Major-General John Han- cock, and the reserve under Colonel West. On the night of the 12th a terrible storm arose which lasted for two days and caused anxiety as to the safety of the French fleet, of which nothing as yet had been heard. It is remembered in Rhode Island as the " great French storm." On that night the ele- ments played their parts in the war.
On the morning of the 15th the English pickets could easily descry the American camp stretching its front for nearly five miles across Honeyman hill and Peckham hill. The British lines extended from Tonomy hill to Easton's point, near the beach, The distance between the armies was about two miles.
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The American detachment which held Honeyman's hill to the right of the British was within half a mile of their front works on Bliss's hill, which it commands.
On the 17th the Americans opened fire, and Pigot threw up a second line of defense and shortened his front. The Ameri- can artillery was better served than the British, and shot and shell dropped thick and fast among the British tents and in their overcrowded line. Pigot withdrew his men into the de- fenses behind Tonomy hill on his left, but on the 20th they were driven from this shelter by two new batteries planted by the Americans. Slowly forced from position to position the English kept eager watch seaward from Brenton's neck for some sign of the fleets. On the evening of the 20th the French squadron appeared again off Point Judith, though in a shat- tered state. The British were in despair, the Americans in glee ; neither with reason. The movement of the fleets now demands attention.
THE FLEETS OFF RHODE ISLAND, AUGUST, 1788. - Large hod- ies move slowly, and it must not be forgotten, also, that the Frenchmen were in strange waters and in the first flush of an alliance with a race whom they had looked upon for centuries as their hereditary foes. They had certainly done good work between the 29th of July, when they appeared in the Newport ofling, and the 9th of Angust, when, every vestige of the na- val force of the British in the harbor destroyed, they were land- ing their men for further service, to be interrupted by the news that the enemy were at hand. Lord Admiral Howe had not wasted his time and he was certainly favored by fortune. In the July days that followed the departure of d'Estaing's fleet from Shrewsbury harbor four British men of-war reached New York from different quarters. Thus reinforced, Howe was again able to put to sea, and on the 6th of August sailed from Sandy Hook with thirteen ships-one of seventy-four, seven of sixty- four, five of fifty guns, seven frigates and a number of trans- ports, with troops, arms and provisions.
But he was hardly prepared for the sudden swoop which d'Estaing made upon him the morning after his arrival. He hastily signalled such of his vessels as were at anchor, and crowding sail, stood out to sea. He no doubt relied upon the unequal sailing qualities of the enemy and upon the superior speed and rapidity of mandenver of his own vessels. The
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French could not force him to action. The next day the wind blew to a gale, which not only separated the Frenchmen but so badly damaged the " Languedoc," d'Estaing's flagship, that on the morning of the 13th he found her bowsprit broken, her rigging down and the helm of her rudder gone. At sun- set she was attacked by the " Preston," one of the enemy's ves- sels, and badly raked from the rear. She defended herself with her stern batteries till night brought relier. In the morn- ing all the vessels except the " Cesar" rallied to the admiral's flag, the squadron was anchored and the damages repaired. The "Marseillais," also attacked, lost her mizzen mast and bowsprit.
The "Tonnant," attacked by the " Renown," had driven her off, but was herself dismasted. After the storm of the 11th the "Vaillant" took the bomb ketch "Thunder." On the 15th the "Hector" defeated the "Senegal." The "César" engaged the "Tris" of sixty-four guns, but she was rescued by two of her British companions. In the action the French ship lost seventy killed and one hundred wounded, her captain los- ing his arm.
On the 17th sail was again hoisted, and on the 20th the fleet came to anchor off Rhode Island. Here d'Estaing was informed by Lafayette of a new peril. On learning of the sailing from Tonlon of d'Estaing's squadron, the British admiralty ordered Admiral Byron to the American coast to reinforce Admiral Howe. Byron left Plymouth on the 12th of June with thirteen vessels. Heavy weather dispersed the squadron. The admiral pnt into Halifax, others made their way to New York. The British were now in superior. force in American waters, while two of the best of the French vessels were badly crippled. At a council of war called by d'Estaing on board the "Langue- doc" on hearing this news, it was unanimously agreed that there should not be an hour's delay in making the port of Boston, where damages could be securely repaired. Lafayette was present at the council and, it is said, urged the French ad- miral to land his troops at Conanieut, but he declined to sep- arate his expeditionary force in this manner. The next day, the 21st, the entire French fleet set sail for Boston, the admiral taking his ship through a channel between Nantucket and the banks. The squadron reached Boston on the 28th, whilst Lord
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Howe, after pursuing d'Estaing for a time, returned to New York.
General Sullivan, informed of this sudden change of plans, was greatly aggrieved, and at his instance the American officers drew up a protest which Lafayette declined to sign. This paper was dispatched on the 22d by a fast vessel with orders to overtake the admiral, who had already sailed. In fact the last of the French vessels had weighed anchor and was out of sight before the close of the day. Sullivan added to the im- prudence of the protest by a general order expressing the hope " that America with her own arms could achieve the suc- cess which her allies dechned to help in obtaining," but on the representations of Lafayette and de Fleury that such com- ments would give offense to France, the general modified his expressions by a general order on the 24th in which our obliga- tions to our ally were acknowledged. But the consequences of his ill-advised censure were not thus easily averted, and it may here be added that the strong feeling aroused against the French culminated in a riot in Boston, in which two of the officers of the fleet, Messieurs de Saint Sauveur and Pleville de Peley, were dangerously wounded, the former mortally.
Left to his own resources, General Sullivan asked the opinion of his officers in writing as to the future course of operations. Greene advised pressing the siege and attempting a surprise by boats from Sachuest beach upon the cliffs. Three New Hamp- shire officers, sent out as scouts to look into the feasibility of the plan, were captured, and it appears from the Hessian ac- counts, gave the enemy an exaggerated idea of the American forces. In truth, however, Sullivan's forces were already re- duced and somewhat demoralized. The thousands of volun- teers who had flocked to the camp, as was the habit through- out the war on the eve of a great action, as at Boston, at Sara- toga, and later at Yorktown, had already disappeared and left the brunt of the war to the regular continental troops. Pro- visions were scarce, bread at Providence hardly to be had at all, and corn selling at eight dollars the bushel. Three thon- sand men left within twenty-four hours and others were fol- lowing. What with the withdrawal of the volunteers and de- sertions of the militia, Sullivan's army was reduced on the 27th of August to fifty-four hundred men. The enemy's works were too strong to be stormed with this force, and at a council of
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war held the next day it was resolved to fall back on the hills at the north of the island, Butts, Turkey, Anthony's and Quaker's, which had been carefully fortified early in the movement by de Gouvion, a capable French engineer, with the aid of Crane and Gridley of the American artillery. Here it was determined to hold the army.
BATTLE OF RHODE ISLAND .- Lafayette was sent to Boston to urge d'Estaing to hurry down the French troops to the north end of the island. The army began to withdraw on the night of the 28th at ten o'clock and by two o'clock in the morning the main body was in position at Butt's hill, the right wing on the west road. the left on the east road, both with their flanks covered. Colonel Henry B. Livingston, with the light corps, held the east road, Colonels Laurens, Fleury and Major Talbot che west road, each stationed three miles in advance of the camp. Colonel Wade supported them with the picquet of the army.
At daylight the next morning the British discovered that the American front was withdrawn and a rumor prevailed that they were leaving the island. Pigot dispatched Prescott and Brown to occupy the abandoned works. Smith with two regiments, the Forty-second and Forty-third, and flank companies of the Twenty-second and Fifty-fourth, was sent up the east road. Losberg, with the Hessian Anspach chasseurs and Hnyne's Ger- man regiment. moved up the west road. At seven o'clock the converging roads brought them upon the American advance and skirmishing began. The first hot action it is said was at Wind- mill hill which Amory considers to mean Slate hill; this was on the west road. Smith, with the king's troops, struck Livingston at Windmill hill on the east road. Livingston fell back fight- · ing to Quaker hill, closely followed by Smith who, at its base, found himself confronted by two regiments, Colonels Wiggles- worth and Sprout of Glover's brigade, and one, Colonel William Livingston from Varnum's brigade. Smith attacked twice and was twice repulsed: after which the Americans fell back under orders on the main body. Smith, again pushing on, came upon Glover's command and under range of his guns, where- upon he in turn fell back and went into position behind the lines on Quaker and Turkey hills, both of which were strongly protected by bastions. Losberg moved up the west road. Contemporary accounts say that they attacked " on the road" but were beaten off with great loss by the light corps
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under Major Talbot and Laurens, who no doubt fell back after . the skirmish on the main body.
Comparing the varions reports of the day's fighting it would seem that Colonel Campbell, with his Twenty-second flank companies, moved up the east road and at the cross road con- necting the east and west roads near the Gibbs place, about five and a half miles from Newport, divided his men. The party which turned into the cross road fell into an ambush. Captain Wade had here concealed his picket guard which, rising sud- denly up behind the stone fence of the field, poured two volleys into the forces of the surprised men at close quarters, destroy- ing one-fourth of the entire force. They were quickly sup- ported by the Hessians who were moving on the west road, and Wade also withdrew his pieker to the main body, which was now drawn up in three lines; the first in front of the works on Butt's hill, the second in its rear and the reserve near a creek about half a mile to the rear of the first line.
The distance between Butt's hill and Quaker hill is about a mile, the ground between wooded and marshy. Smith's line covered Quaker hill, the Hessian line covered Anthony's hill. The skirmishing had been rapid. At nine o'clock a cannonade began which was interrupted by the arrival of two British ships of war and some light craft which began a fire on the American right and supported an attempt to turn the flank and storm a redoubt in advance of that wing which General Greene con- manded. Twice the English and Hessian columns swept down the slope of Anthony's hill, which is merely a continuation of Quaker hill, and were repulsed with heavy loss by Varuum's, Glover's, Cornell's and Greene's brigades, which also suffered severely. A third assault was nearly successful, when Sullivan put in two batallions of continentals who quickly restored the day. On this occasion the newly raised black regiment, led by Colonel Greene, behaved with great courage, repulsing three separate charges of the Hessians with great slaughter. The ships of war were driven off by the American batteries.
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