Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 50

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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MONMOUTH-Howe resigned, and Clinton, his successor, evacuated Philadelphia on June 18, retreating across New Jersey toward New York. Washington hastened from Valley Forge to intercept Clinton, and forced a battle at Monmouth. General Charles Lee, com- manding the American advance, ordered a retreat under circumstances that suggested cow- ardice or treachery on his part, and was rebuked on the battlefield by Washington. The latter called on General Greene, who commanded the right wing, and Greene sent Varnum's brig- ade, including the Rhode Island regiment, into the fray to stop the British advance, as Wash- ington himself rallied Lee's troops and led them back into action. Threatened disaster was turned into decisive victory. Clinton abandoned the field, and continued to retreat, precip- itately, toward New York. Victory rested with Washington, Greene, Varnum and the brave Rhode Islanders. Lee was suspended for disobedience of orders.

Greene had been one of the first Americans to measure Lee accurately; the latter, with Gates, had been overrated because of their experience in the French and Indian War. Early in January, 1777, Greene wrote to Governor Cooke, referring to Lee: "I must confess I have not the highest veneration for the General's recommendation. His temper scarce admits of a proper medium to form a just estimate of people and things. His approbation and execra- tion depend often upon trifles ; besides, the General doesn't know the power he has over the Americans, and consequently is not cautious enough in his recommendations not to abuse it."

General Greene, Varnum and the Rhode Island troops returned to Rhode Island for the R. I .- 19

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battle of Rhode Island, in August, 1778 .* Nathanael Greene had been appointed Quarter- master General, May 2, 1778, accepting reluctantly, at the earnest request of Washington. The Rhode Island troops spent the winter of 1778-79 at Warren. Through 1779 and 1780 they were engaged in the operations about New York, where Clinton and the British lay practically under siege by land, although still commanding waterways because of the fleet. Captain John B. Hopkins, of Rhode Island, commanding the "Warren," ship, built in Narra- gansett Bay, and as senior captain also the squadron including the "Warren," "Queen of France," Captain Joseph Olney, and "Ranger," Captain Simpson, brought into Boston on Feb- ruary 16, 1779, as prizes seven British vessels, including one armed ship and six transports, which they had captured off Cape Henry.

SPRINGFIELD-General Greene won a brilliant victory over Clinton at Springfield, New Jersey, on July 23, 1780. In this battle 170 Rhode Island soldiers, under Colonel Israel Angell, repulsed an attack by 1500 British and Hessians, and saved the First Rhode Island Regiment, Colonel Christopher Greene, from capture. Colonel Greene held Springfield with 1000 men; Kniphauser and Clinton advanced from Elizabethtown with 7000, their objective the capture of Greene and Springfield. Colonel Angell and his detachment guarded the bridge over the Rahway River. After a sturdy resistance, in which he held the British and Hessians at bay, Colonel Angell withdrew his men skilfully, having lost forty. Clinton had been so severely punished, however, that he retreated and returned to his base at Staten Island. For this distinguished gallantry in action General Washington complimented Colonel Angell and the Rhode Island regiment in general orders. Washington also wrote to Governor Greene of Rhode Island as follows: "The gallant behavior of Colonel Angell's regiment reflects the highest honor upon the officers and men. They disputed an important pass with so obstinate a bravery that they lost upward of forty men, killed and wounded and missing, before they gave up their ground to a vast superiority of forces. The ready and ample manner in which your state has complied with the requisition of the committee, both as to men and supplies, entitles her to the thanks of the public, and affords the highest satisfaction to your excellency's most obedient servant." At Springfield, New Jersey, on the bridge across the Rahway River is a tablet, inscribed: "To the memory of Colonel Israel Angell, who com- manded the Second Rhode Island Infantry at the battle of Springfield, June 23, 1780." In July, 1781, the two Rhode Island regiments were consolidated as one, and Colonel Angell retired from service.

DEATH OF COLONEL GREENE-Colonel Christopher Greene was killed near Croton Bridge, New York, on the night of May 13, 1781. After the battle of Rhode Island he had remained with his division in Rhode Island until the British evacuated Newport. Surprised in his quarters by British and Tories while assigned to duty at Croton Bridge, Colonel Greene was as little inclined to surrender as he had been at Red Bank. Instead he cut down several of his assailants with his sword. He fell finally, horribly wounded and mutilated. His left arm had been cut off, his right arm was slashed in two places, his left shoulder was wounded, his stomach was pierced by a sword, his right side was torn by a bayonet, and his head was clubbed and mangled. He was dragged from his tent to a wood a mile distant, and there left to die. Colonel Greene was every inch a soldier. Aged thirty-eight when he volunteered for the expedition against Quebec, his persistence on the terrible march through Maine and Can- ada was the dogged courage of a man of settled life. His answer to Colonel Donop at Fort Mercer, "We shall defend the fort or make it our tomb," still rings true and is as eloquent as the epitaph of Leonidas and the Spartans at Thermopyla, "Stranger, tell the Lacedemonians that we lie here at their command." He met death, resisting vigorously overwhelming force, as indicated by his wounds and the circle of assailants who fell before his sword. Democ-

*Chapter XIII.

queene

CHRISTOPHER GREENE, HERO OF RED BANK

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racy will be safe in Rhode Island while her sons and daughters recall the story of Christopher Greene and his valiant effort to protect liberty and to win Independence.

GREENE ORDERED SOUTH-To stem the tide of British successes in the South, which included restoration of the royal governor in Georgia and almost the conquest of South Caro- lina, Congress sent Gates to South Carolina, against the advice of Washington, who had sug- gested General Nathanael Greene. Gates was summarily defeated at Camden August 16, 1780, and was superseded by General Greene on December 2. The advance of Cornwallis, who commanded the British, into North Carolina had been checked by the defeat of Fergu- son at King's Mountain, October 7 .. Greene found an army of 800 American soldiers still fit for service, and made his camp at Cheraw. Greene sent Morgan to Ninety-Six, and Corn- wallis then tried to take advantage of the division of Greene's forces, sending Tarleton against Morgan, who defeated the former at Cowpens, January 17. Cornwallis then tried to prevent a reunion of Greene's army ; Greene sending his own division north, rode 100 miles across country to join Morgan, whom Cornwallis was pursuing vigorously. Thence ensued one of the most masterly retreats in the history of war, Greene leading Cornwallis ever further away from his base. At Guilford Courthouse the American divisions were reunited, but Greene crossed the Dan River, awaiting reinforcements and an opportunity to reorganize his troops. Greene recrossed the Dan to met Cornwallis, who had become wearied of the pur- suit. The armies met at Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781, in desperate battle. Corn- wallis was dismounted thrice as horses were killed under him. Near the field stands a tree known as Battle Ground Oak, to which, tradition records, Greene tied his horse during the fight, as he undertook to lead and direct his men in person. With fresh and final reserves Cornwallis drove Greene from the field of battle, but the retreat was in good order and Greene's army was intact and undefeated. Cornwallis dared not pursue; instead, fearing Greene's return, Cornwallis fled precipitately two days later, abandoning his wounded. The evacuation of North Carolina was thus begun on March 17, the anniversary of the evacuation of Boston. Another such victory, said Fox in the British Parliament, referring in the course of debate to the battle of Guilford Courthouse, would mean the destruction of the British army in America. The wisdom of Fox recalls the remark of Greene after the battle of Bunker Hill, "I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price." Cornwallis, though awarded a technical victory for possession of the field at the end of the day, had been so thoroughly defeated that he stayed not his flight until he reached Wilmington and the coast, where a fleet awaited him.

The entire battlefield of Guilford Courthouse is preserved as a public park. The battle- field is marked by a group of monuments commemorating various episodes or the heroes concerned in them. The outstanding monument is a splendid equestrian statue of Nathanael Greene, erected by the United States Government. A granite boulder, with four sides facing the cardinal points of the compass, bears on its east face the inscription, "No South-Greene," and on the west face, "No North-Washington." As the soldier from the Old Dominion had saved the northern states, the soldier from Rhode Island had rescued the South from control by the British. The Greene monument at Guilford Courthouse carries also an inscription recording a generous appreciation of Greene by Cornwallis: "Greene is as dangerous as Washington. I never feel secure when encamped in his neighborhood."

Greene had no doubt of the thorough demoralization of the British at Guilford Court- house ; instead of following Cornwallis to the coast, he disregarded the beaten foe and returned to the major purpose of his campaign, which was the destruction of British and Tory power in the South. With Cornwallis out of the way the task involved a systematic campaign to drive the remaining British out and to suppress the Tories. Rawdon lay at Camden with his base at Charleston; sending Marion, Lee and Sumter to isolate Rawdon from Charleston,

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Greene advanced to Hobkirk's Hill, where Rawdon attacked him on March 25. Greene retired from the field with his army intact and in good order; Rawdon burned Camden and retreated. Rawdon raised the siege of Ninety-six undertaken by Greene, but burned the town and again retreated. At Eutaw Springs, September 8, Greene attacked Stewart, who rallied his troops and fled with the loss of 700. Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs were all technical victories for the British; but Greene had won the campaign and saved the South. The British had lost Georgia and South Carolina, except Savannah and Charleston, which were held practically under conditions of siege.

YORKTOWN-Cornwallis left Wilmington on April 25 and marched through North Caro- lina north ward into Virginia, where he met Arnold on May 20. The united British army then numbered 5000 men and Cornwallis marched toward Richmond, where Lafayette had 2500 soldiers. Lafayette skilfully avoided battle, leading the British a merry chase, and Cornwallis, with reinforcements that brought his army to 7000, fortified Yorktown. Washington ordered Rochambeau, with 5000 French, from Newport to New York, deceiving Clinton, who believed that Washington planned a movement to retake the city. Leaving a detachment to worry Clinton and continue the deceit, the combined American and French armies marched over- land to Chesapeake Bay, where they boarded transports for the James. A French fleet sailed into the roads, and Cornwallis found himself in a trap at Yorktown, surrounded by an army of 16,000, nearly half of whom were French, and half Americans. The Rhode Island troops were with Washington. Siege operations were conducted until the American parallels were close to the British lines. Two redoubts held tenaciously by Cornwallis, remained; their capture would open his lines to fire, and the task of taking them was assigned on the night of October 14 to a joint attack by Americans and French. The movement was effective and decisive. The Rhode Island troops, Colonel Jeremiah Olney's regiment, Captain Stephen Olney's company, led the American column, and were first to cross the British outer works. Captain Stephen Olney, leading his company reached the parapet, and commanded "Captain Olney's company, form here!" Six or eight bayonets were thrust at him by the defenders ; one pierced his thigh, another stabbed him in the abdomen above the hip-bone. He was struck in the arm by a bullet from a musket, but, in spite of his wounds, continued to fight on and encourage his men. The latter reformed and charged, and drove out the British. After reforming his troops inside the fort, Captain Olney was carried from the field with what were then believed to be mortal wounds. Withal he recovered quickly and shortly thereafter returned to his regiment. Thus the Rhode Island regiment completed at Yorktown the defeat which Nathanael Greene had begun to fashion for Cornwallis at Guilford Courthouse. Corn- wallis surrendered on October 19, 1781.

In the struggle beyond the borders of the colony and state Rhode Island's sons had played their part valiantly and with distinction. The Rhode Island regiments had won enduring fame at Boston, Quebec, Long Island, Harlem, White Plains, Princeton, Trenton, Brandywine Creek, Germantown, Red Bank, Mud Island, Valley Forge, New Brunswick, Monmouth, Springfield, and Yorktown. Nathanael Greene, conspicuous throughout the war for brilliant achievement as constant, never-failing auxiliary of Washington, had saved the South and driven Cornwallis on to Yorktown. Historians rate him second only to Washington in those qualities, which, additional to military genius of the highest order, mark the great command- ers of men. No state produced finer soldiers than those of Rhode Island in the Continental army, and none a group of military officers so brilliant as Nathanael Greene, James M. Var- num, Christopher Greene, Simeon Thayer, Israel Angell, Daniel Hitchcock, Stephen Olney, John Topham and Jeremiah Olney; an amphibian equal in daring and ingenuity to Silas Tal- bot ; and sailors rivaling Esek Hopkins, John B. Hopkins and Abraham Whipple. Of these and others, too, we shall read more in the chapter that tells the story of Rhode Island in the Revolution, at home.

CHAPTER XIII. RHODE ISLAND IN THE REVOLUTION (AT HOME).

M EASURES intended to place Rhode Island in a posture for military defence against aggressive action by the British to enforce obnoxious laws were taken as early as October, 1774, when several independent military companies were chartered, including the Kentish Guards, from whose membership were drawn subsequently Nathanael Greene, James M. Varnum and Christopher Greene. The cannon, lest they be taken by the British navy, were removed from Fort George in December. Other independent military companies were chartered, and the General Assembly ordered the pur- chase of powder, lead and flints in large quantities, and the distribution to other counties of the colony arms, theretofore stored at Newport. Simeon Potter was appointed Major Gen- eral, in immediate command of all the armed forces of the colony, and he, with the Governor as Captain General, and the Deputy Governor as Lieutenant General, were authorized to mobilize the militia, and to march, if need be, to the assistance "of any of our sister colonies when invaded or attacked." To Jeremiah Hopkins a lottery was granted to assist him in raising money wherewith to procure tools and instruments and establish a factory for setting up "the business of a gunsmith." More ammunition was purchased in April, 1775, after the battles at Lexington and Concord, and an "army of observation" for service in or out of Rhode Island was authorized. The "army of observation" was actually in service, whereas the militia for the time being was subject to call for service. Reprisals by the British for overt acts of war already committed in Narragansett Bay* were anticipated, and the seat of gov- ernment was removed to Providence from Newport, which was exposed to capture easily. The Secretary had removed the colony records from Newport earlier, and the Treasurer was ordered to remove the colony treasury in May, 1775. For the first time since the granting of the Charter of 1663, the annual election meeting of the General Assembly was held, in May, 1775, in Providence instead of Newport. To obtain the credit and money necessary for arm- ing, equipping, and paying the 1500 soldiers in the "army of observation," and for the purpose of meeting other extraordinary expenditures incidental to wartime preparedness, the colony had recourse to issuing paper money, £40,000 of which was printed by John Carter early in 1775.1 A committee of safety was appointed, with drastic military authority, extending prac- tically to substituting martial for civil law, should occasion arise. Two vessels for the defence of Narragansett Bay were armed and ordered on patrol duty. In measures of resistance short of actual war Governor Wanton and others, who were determined to maintain the Charter rights of the colony, but who recognized an allegiance to Great Britain paramount to that which they owed to Rhode Island, acquiesced or participated. The issue of colony or imper- ial sovereignty was reached and could no longer be evaded when Rhode Island undertook to raise and support an army. In spite of his protest against this action of the General Assembly, Governor Wanton was still popular enough to be reelected in 1775, although the disposition to continue him in office might be interpreted as a gesture on the part of the war party in Rhode Island, intended to maintain a semblance of unanimity and union within the body politic, or to unite in the common cause all except the small group of loyalists who never ceased from the early days of the colony to foment opposition to the Charter government. As a matter of fact, the war party controlled the General Assembly in 1774, was stronger in

*Chapter XI.

¡These notes carried 21/2 % interest and were not legal tender.

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1775, and was overwhelming in 1776. When it became clear that Governor Wanton would not join with the patriot cause, he was deposed and superseded.

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR-That the General Assembly interpreted the situation in Rhode Island in 1775 and the relations then existing between Rhode Island and Great Britain as constituting war is unquestionable, in view of two resolutions adopted, additional to many measures of a warlike nature. A resolution of August, urging Congress to build and equip "an American fleet as soon as possible," declared: "This colony will most heartily exert the whole power of government, in conjunction with the other colonies, for carrying on this just and necessary war, and bringing the same to a happy issue." The same resolution declared that the British Ministry, "lost to every sentiment of justice, liberty and humanity, continue to send troops and ships of war into America, which destroy our trade, plunder and burn our towns, and murder the good' people of these colonies." This resolution is noteworthy also for the use of the words "America" and "American" with exactly the connotation common in the United States since the Revolution, and also for the use of the words "Justice, Liberty and Humanity" in the manner in which the French revolutionists subsequently acclaimed "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity"; indeed, both usage and meaning are almost exactly sim- ilar. At the October session, 1775, the preamble of an act establishing penalties for "holding traitorous correspondence with the Ministry of Great Britain or any of their officers or agents; or of supplying the ministerial army or navy that now is or may be employed in America against the United Colonies with provisions, cannon, arms, ammunition, warlike or naval stores, or of acting as pilots on board any of their ships and vessels," accused the min- istry of having "for several years last past steadily pursued a plan for subjecting the inhab- itants of the British colonies in America to an absolute, unconditioned state of slavery," and of having "proceeded at length to the burning of our towns, and spreading desolation and slaughter, as far as it hath been in their power, through the country, in a manner totally inconsistent with the practice of civilized nations, and unworthy of the reputation formerly sustained by British troops," and declared that the colonies had "been reduced to the fatal necessity of taking up arms in defence of those inestimable rights and liberties which they derive from the unerring laws of nature, and the fundamental principles of the British Con- stitution, and which they cannot resign but with their lives." An even more fundamental justification for the Revolution than the violation of the Charter of Rhode Island and the British constitution was alleged in the violation of "the unerring laws of nature."

The form of enlistment of soldiers for the Continental and colony armies indicated a gradual shaping of an attitude reflecting the change from subject of the King to free citizen of the Colony. The soldiers for the "army of observation" were enlisted in his majesty's service, thus : "I, the subscriber, hereby solemnly engage and enlist myself as a soldier in his majesty's service, and in the pay of the colony of Rhode Island, for the preservation of the liberties of America." Reference to his majesty was omitted from the forms of enlistment used later in 1775. Minutemen enlisted under authorization of the General Assembly in mid- summer subscribed to an engagement as follows: "We, the subscribers, voluntarily enlist our- selves to serve as minutemen, in the service of this colony, to be under the immediate command of our superior officers, and subject to the law of the colony for regulating the minutemen." The minutemen thus engaged comprised one-fourth of the militia; the militia included all men capable of bearing arms. The independent companies chartered in 1774 and in 1775 were encouraged to enroll themselves as companies of minutemen. Later in the year, at the session of the General Assembly at Providence, opening on October 31, a regiment of 500 men was ordered raised, armed and equipped, in the pay and service of the colony. The form of enlistment for this regiment follows: "I hereby solemnly engage and

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enlist myself as a soldier, in the pay of the colony of Rhode Island, for the preservation of the liberties of America, and the defence of the United Colonies in general, and of this colony in particular ; .... and I hereby promise to submit myself to all the orders and regulations of the army, and faithfully to observe and obey all such orders as I shall receive from time to time from my officers." Rhode Island had four types of soldiers enrolled, and in service or subject to call, late in 1775, as follows: The "army of observation," engaged in service out- side the colony, and then with the Continental army besieging Boston, and under the "com- mand and direction of the commander-in-chief," George Washington, by order of the General Assembly ; a regiment of 500 men, actually in the active service of the colony, stationed on the island of Rhode Island, and commanded by Colonel Esek Hopkins; minutemen, consisting of one-quarter of the able-bodied men of the colony, and the independent companies, all organ- ized in companies and under officers, and subject to call into active service without previous notice ; the militia, all able-bodied men, not actually in service or enrolled as minutemen. The Rhode Island navy, two sloops and two row gallies, was manned by Rhode Island sailors.

To be effective, soldiers must be armed and supplied with ammunition. An inventory of arms and ammunition was ordered by the General Assembly in June, 1775, the information when collected to be transmitted to the Continental Congress. At the same session of the General Assembly, a committee was directed to collect all the saltpetre and brimstone in the colony and send it to New York, for use in manufacturing powder. Officers were author- ized to purchase for the colony all powder that might be imported from beyond the seas, and particularly to buy from John Brown all the powder he had to sell. That enterprising mer- chant had seized upon opportunity, and had not only imported powder in quantity as cargo for his vessels returning from trading voyages, but had even ventured to send his ships to rob the British warehouses of ammunition in the West Indies !

The same difficulty of distance and communication that defeated ultimately the British plans for suppressing the Revolution were compelling with reference to preparedness and supply in the colonies; the Rhode Island General Assembly was prompt to recognize the inconvenience and hazard of dependence upon other colonies for supplies of any sort during a period in which effective British control of the sea and harbors interfered seriously with commerce, and to take measures for home production and manufacture of the necessities of war. To encourage the manufacture of saltpetre in the colony a bounty was offered in August, 1775, and in October Joseph Brown, Jabez Bowen and Joseph Snow, Jr., were authorized to manufacture saltpetre at the risk of the colony ; in this instance the colony itself undertook an industrial enterprise as a war measure. Eight field pieces were ordered cast in Rhode Island foundries in August, 1775, and later in the year the Governor, John Jenks and Colonel William West were appointed as a committee to inquire "at what price good muskets for the Continental army can be made in this colony," and also to inquire "at the neighboring furnaces at what price the cannon proposed to be procured for the use of the colony can be got." The iron industry in Rhode Island, severely restricted during the colonial period by measures intended to monopolize it so far as possible for Great Britain, was thus stimulated. Out of these inquiries and favorable answers to them arose the activity in Rhode Island fur- naces and foundries that made the colony throughout the war one of the most significant con- tributors of muskets and cannon to the Continental armies. In 1774 Captain Stephen Jenks had patented improvements on firearms and begun the manufacture of them extensively. Several of the independent companies raised in Rhode Island were armed with muskets manufactured in the colony. Muskets of the Jenks pattern were of superior quality, and Captain Jenks and his employes worked energetically in order to supply these weapons in quantities for the revolutionary armies. Sixty heavy cannon, the first made in America, were cast under the direction of Captain Jenks ; and other field pieces were made at the Jenks iron

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 50

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716