USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. I > Part 5
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Samuel Cranston's life was one of con- stant romance. While a young man he married Mary Hart, a grand-daughter of Roger Williams, and not long afterwards he went to sea. Nothing was heard from him for several years and his family finally gave him up for dead. His wife accepted an offer of marriage from a Mr. Russell, of Boston, and arrangements were made for the ceremony. Just at this critical moment, Cranston, who had been released by the pirates who had held him captive at Algiers, arrived in Boston, on his way home. At Howland's Ferry he learned of the impend- ing wedding, scheduled for that very night, and though he traveled with all possible
speed, the guests were already assembling when he arrived in Newport. Going to the kitchen he sent word to his wife, by a servant, that "a person was there who wished to speak to her." His wife found a sailor waiting with the information that her hus- band had arrived in Boston and wished him to tell her that he was on his way to New- port.
Naturally, much upset by the man's message, she questioned him carefully to make certain he was telling the truth. The man insisted he had talked with her husband at Howland's Ferry, and that Cranston was actually on his way to New- port. To convince her further he raised his cap and pointed to a scar on his forehead which she instantly recognized, and which proved the visitor himself to be her long lost husband. That put an end to the wed- ding, and spoiled the day for Mr. Russell. Cranston, however, entertained the wedding guests with a thrilling story of his adven- tures and sufferings, explained his inability to communicate with his wife, and a happy reunion took the place of the wedding.
Then followed a career which was re- markable for many reasons. Governor Cranston probably held office longer than any other man who has had to stand the acid test of annual popular election. His great firmness under the most trying circum- stances made him beloved to an extra- ordinary degree, and his death, in office, on April 26th, 1727, at the age of 68, brought great grief to the Colony. The strength of his intellect and the courage and skill with which he conducted public affairs in every trying crisis, make him typical of the sturdy Rhode Islanders who built so substantially and so well. He guided the Colony through its most critical period, and will ever be remembered for his unequalled accomplishments. It is for him that the Town of Cranston and Cranston Street were named.
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THE COLONY SLOOP "TARTAR"
T THIRTY years before the Revolution, when the inhabitants of Rhode Island were still subjects of the King of England, it became necessary for these Colonies to aid their mother country. Spain and Eng- land were on the verge of the War of the Austrian Succession, or, as it was known in this country, "King George's War." It was no longer expedient for the enemies of Eng- land to carry on hostilities exclusively on the other side of the Atlantic, for the Eng- lish Colonies on this side had grown to con- siderable and valuable proportions. For this reason, the Colonies now began to take measures for their own defense.
Rhode Island, which has gone through American history with a fame for acting with promptness and spirit, began building a sloop. On February 26, 1740, the General Assembly of Rhode Island "Voted and Re- solved," as the records says, "That a good sloop be forthwith built for the Use of this colony and the Defence thereof, not exceed- ing One hundred & Fifteen Tons in the best Shape it can be built. " Following this are the names of the men appointed as a committee in charge of the vessel's con- struction, in which they were allowed free rein, even to the drawing of the money from the treasury.
There was very little hesitation in the matter. Within a month work was begun, and the vessel was finished in time to be launched on the 6th of May of the same year. It had been constructed, from the laying of the keel, in thirty-six working days. It was named the "Tartar" from a ship in the English navy which had visited Newport three years before. Rhode Island's new sloop was built and launched in New- port, and was presently commissioned to make a cruise.
On the 20th of June she set sail in pursuit of a French schooner that had been sighted off the coast. Both the French and Spanish
had been carrying on illegal trade along the coast, and it was to help stop this traffic that the "Tartar" had been built. Accord- ingly, she set out, and in good time returned with her quarry, the schooner "Societé." We have no record of her movements for the next two months, but in September she convoyed to New York, two Rhode Island transports, the "Marygold" and the "Grey- hound." Upon her return she was hauled up for the winter.
During the next season, she patrolled the coast from Long Island to Martha's Vine- yard; then on October 6, 1741, the General Assembly voted to send the sloop on a long cruise in foreign waters, following the de- livery of troops in a British camp in Cuba. Due to delay, however, it became necessary to suspend the cruise, and the order, when is was re-issued finally enacted that the sloop should return at once. "You are as soon as possible," reads the order, "after You have delivered the Soldiers from on board Your Sloop at the said Island of Cuba or elsewhere, to return Home with the greatest Expedition You can, And in the Prosecution of said Voyage either going or returning, If You shall happen to meet with any of the Ships Vessels & Goods of the King of Spain his Vassals & Subjects You are by Force of Arms to take and subdue the Same, 'But she returned with- out having met any "Vessels & Goods" of the enemy.
When the "Tartar" was first launched, she was, according to a contemporary de- scription, "a fine sloop of the burthen of one hundred and fifteen Ton," and its arms were "twelve carriage and twelve swivel guns," with such accessories as "small arms, pistols, cutlasses, &c." The description elsewhere calls her "a privateer able to fight a hundred men on her deck and ready for all emergencies." It became necessary later, however, to fit her out even more
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fully, for the news of the King's declaration of war reached the Colonies in 1744, and every step was taken for full preparedness.
It is interesting to note how men were obtained for service on the sea in those days. The methods employed were a modified form of those which became so odious thirty years after America had gained her liberty from England. In these days, how- ever, "impressment" was not so forceful. Men were summoned by a drummer who marched through the streets with an official. On the occasion of the "Tartar's" first cruise when she brought back the "Societé," it is recorded that John Easton marched through the streets of Newport accompanied by a drummer "making Proclamation thro the Town by Beat of Drum for Hands to go on board the Colony Sloop 'Tartar' to Cruise in Quest of the French Scooner."
It is also interesting to note the wages given to all men aboard the ship. When we consider that at that time an income of £200 a year was thought by the middle class to be very comfortable wealth, the wages and "encouragements," as they were called, seem very munificent. The captain was paid £300 per year; the lieutenant, £180; the master, £144; the gunner, the same; the mates, the boatswain, and the carpenter were paid £132; the surgeon, £180; and the sailors and other hands, £96. In 1746, when it was enacted that the "Tartar" should join in an expedition to Canada, a bounty of £10 "in old Tenor" was offered as encouragement for all able- bodied men to enlist, and sailors' wages were raised as high as £12 per month, or £144 a year.
In 1745 the "Tartar" had been in the famous Louisbourg expedition of Cape Bre-
ton. Here she met with many harrowing adventures which, contained all the horror of the close fighting which took place in those days. There was, for instance, the "Tartar's" encounter with the French schooner "Renommee," and its rumored capture. The French man-of-war was armed with thirty guns, and the encounter is de- scribed by Captain Daniel Fones in a com- munication: "This line Informs you That we got safe into this harbour Yesterday, we met with a Ship on our passage which proov'd To be a French 'man-of-war' of Near 40 Guns and after we had given him Two of our Bow Chases he Saluted us with four Broad Sides to the Number of at Least 60 Cannon the Ship went So well that we were obliged To weaken our Vessel To get Clear of him wch. we Effected after 8 hours Chase; we are this day going in Chase of him in Company with Capt. Rows: . " .
In the spring of 1748, the "Tartar," hav- ing been for some time in her home port, set out under Captain Holmes to capture a Spanish vessel which was on its way north from the West Indies. She came back with her captive, but Holmes had gone out against the Governor's orders, and was court-martialed. This expedition was the last on which the "Tartar" sailed as the Colony sloop. Somewhat, later after being stripped of her arms and warlike appurtenances, the "Tartar" was sold into private hands for £6910. The original cost had been about £2000 more.
There seems to be no record of what hap- pened to the "Tartar" after that. Two of her cannon are set up in the ground at Wash- ington Square in Newport, but besides these, nothing remains of the good sloop which has since come to be known as the "Old Ironsides of Rhode Island."
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NATHANAEL GREENE
Tr is a noble duty to keep fresh in our memories the names of those distin- guished Rhode Islanders whose lives were dedicated to the cause of liberty, peace and prosperity in America. No State does more to teach its youth the heritage of the glori- ous past, no State can point with greater pride to its hall of fame than can this little State of ours-Rhode Island. From the time of the birth of this nation, Rhode Islanders have reached the pinnacle of success and honor on the battlefield, at the helm, on the rostrum and with the pen.
One of the first figures to be enshrined forever in the hearts of his countrymen was the son of a Warwick blacksmith-Na- thanael Greene who was born May 27, 1742. Nathanael was one of eight broth- ers, and his father, a Quaker, owned a forge and mill at Warwick. None of the eight lads had the advantages of schooling, as their father considered it a waste of time. He believed that the path to success lay in laboring hard all day as he had done him- self. But the eagerness and persistence of youth overcomes all obstacles; soon the fourteen year old Nathanael was borrowing books and also buying them with money which he earned by making toys, tiny ham- mers, and anchors at his father's forge dur- ing leisure hours.
As Nathanael grew older, his father be- came more and more dependent upon him. In 1770 he gave him entire charge of a mill at Coventry. The young man was very proud of his position as mill manager. He built a comfortable house for himself on a hill overlooking the Pawtuxet River. In this house he had a special room for his library which boasted of nearly three hun- dred volumes, an unusually large collec- tion for those days. After he came to Cov- entry most of his reading was confined to books and stories about the lives of great
generals, wars and battles. Over these books Nathanael pored as eagerly as when a boy he had studied his Euclid, "Watts Ele- ments of Logic," and "Locke on Human Understanding." The great battlefields and the plans of the generals grew as familiar to him as his own house and the manage- ment of the mill.
He was a Quaker, and his great interest in war brought upon him the condemnation of those of that sect. He eagerly watched the drilling of the militia and the mobiliza- tion of colonial troops, for the cloud of war hovered over the land. Everywhere it was whispered that the time was coming when the yoke of British rule must be thrown off, and the word "independence" kindled the fire of hatred between the Whigs and the Tories. The Tories pro- fessed satisfaction with the existing British rule, whereas the Whigs were in favor of freedom and self-government. Nathan- ael Greene was a rabid Whig and he was one of the first patriots to openly advocate complete separation from English rule. His radical views on this momentous sub- ject soon caused him to lay aside the Quaker dress, and he emphatically declared himself a soldier in the cause, and joined the Kentish Guards, a local company of militia.
When the first shot at Lexington was fired, the shot that was heard around the world, the Kentish Guards were on their way to Boston to offer their services to Washington. The Rhode Island Governor at that time was a Tory, and he held up the Guards as they were crossing the border into Massachusetts. Greene and others argued in vain that the Governor's order be disobeyed, but the Guards finally dis- banded and returned home. Four men only refused to turn back, Nathanael Greene, his brother and two trusty friends. They made their way to Boston and offered their serv-
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ices to General Washington, who was grati- fied to know that four Rhode Island men, at least, were willing to fight for independence.
The return of the Kentish Guards did not deter other patriotic Rhode Islanders from enlisting in the cause of freedom, and soon a body of soldiers was mobilized under the name of the Army of Observation. Disre- garding the orders of the Governor, this little band stood ready to support General Washington whenever he should give the word. Nathanael Greene was placed in command of the unit with the commission of Brigadier-General. He immediately set to work to drill his command, and his efforts were crowned with remarkable success. General Greene's ability as a disciplinarian and executive was described in the words of Washington when he re- ferred to this brave and sturdy Rhode Island body as "the best disciplined and appointed in the whole American Army."
A very close friendship soon developed between General Greene and his Com- mander-in-Chief, and this was the cause of a great deal of jealousy on the part of many of the Army officers. But Greene's ability and wisdom overcame the criticism that was directed against him, and he stood head and shoulders above the others as a man of ingenuity and wise counsel. This ingenuousness which had been developed somewhat at his father's forge, stood him in good stead at Valley Forge in 1777-1778 when he was made Commissary-General with the duty of providing the almost frozen troops with food, clothing and arms. The suffering of the little American Army dur- ing that winter is one of the most pitiful chapters in the history of the Revolution, and it was only through the tireless efforts of General Greene to secure food from the hostile Tories that the sick and discouraged troops managed to carry on.
Soon after he gave up his commission as Commissary-General he was appointed to the command of the Army in the South, in the place of General Gates, who had been in charge. The British, under Cornwallis, were in possession of both South Carolina and Georgia, and most of the people in these States were Tories. This situation, together with the pitiful condition of the American Army in the South, forced General Greene
to face an even more difficult problem than he had at Valley Forge. He immediately reorganized his troops, established strict discipline to which they had not been ac- customed, and managed to get food when there had seemed to be none before. He taught them to forget the endless defeat they had suffered under Gates and to think of nothing but victory.
Greene's plan of action against Corn- wallis was a noble piece of generalship, and it worked even better than he had hoped it would. He divided his Army into several divisions in order to make the at- tack in different and widely scattered places. This forced the enemy to do the same, and, as a result, the British were greatly handi- capped because of their lack of efficient officer personnel. Greene had but few sol- diers in comparison, but he was fortunate in having with him many very brilliant of- ficers. After several battles, in which the British met severe defeats, Greene with all his forces retreated toward Virginia, the British pursuing him hotly. Greene was very anxious not to be caught and forced to fight. After days and nights of forced marching, the American troops reached Virginia, which was friendly territory, and there they were joined by reinforcements and their ammunition was replenished.
Choosing his own time, General Greene met Cornwallis in open battle at Guilford Courthouse, which was one of the fiercest engagements in the War for Independence. Both sides lost heavily, and the Americans were at last driven back and forced to retreat. In this instance defeat was better than a victory. The British had lost so many men and were so weakened that they dared not stay where they were, nor did they dare to try to return to South Caro- lina. Cornwallis gave up all control of the two southern States he had held and which he had tried to keep out of the Union. Greene then rejoined General Washington.
As an expression of appreciation for what General Greene had done in freeing South Carolina and Georgia from British rule, valuable tracts of land in each of these States were presented to him. Gen- eral Greene died at the age of 44 a few years after the end of the War and his death caused the whole country to mourn deeply.
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CATHERINE LITTLEFIELD GREENE
A YOUNG man of Quaker ancestry, con- demned by his strict old father, dis- missed from the communion of the Quakers, burning with patriotism-what glorious turmoil possessed his mind that last time he went across the yard, down the field and through the little wood to his forge in Cov- entry, Rhode Island? And what thought had he of the beautiful bride of less than a year, in the mansion behind him, in those last hours before the news of the Battle of Concord and Lexington reached him? What were his thoughts, indeed, when the word reached him after nightfall on the nineteenth of April, 1775, and he sprang on his horse and rode away to join the Kentish Guards at East Greenwich?
This old house, restored and guarded now by the "Nathanael Greene Homestead Association," was opened to the public some years ago, with due ceremony. Speeches were made, the band played; the Governor was present, and other digni- taries paid the occasion the tribute of their presence. But when the celebration was over, one inquiring voice was raised to ask what became of Catherine, wife and widow of the great General-what was her life after he had died of sunstroke down in Georgia?
The statement was made that she had remarried, and that her second choice was the overseer of the Greene's southern plan- tation. Perhaps this statement fell a little coldly on the ears of those who reverenced the memory of Nathanael Greene; and pos- sibly to those of us who had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" the word, "overseer," had unpleasant associations. One wondered, as one might of a contemporary, whether the
widow lost social prestige by her second marriage, whether there were children by this later union, how long Catherine sur- vived the distinguished husband of her youth, and what sort of man was his suc- cessor ?
Precious old letters, old records, and statements of the well-informed Southerners of the present day, together with our North- ern records, reveal much of interest in the life-span of this beautiful woman.
Catherine Littlefield was born on Block Island (R. I.) in 1754; was early orphaned and adopted by her aunt, the wife of the Governor of Rhode Island. It was at the home of General William Greene, in East Greenwich, that Nathanael Greene met her. 'Tis said that his heart was caught on the rebound, for he had been deeply in love with the sister of his friend, Ward, who had refused him, and he was suffering from this rebuff until Miss Catherine, the girl who loved to dance, made the "winter of his discontent" a "glorious summer."
On July 20, 1774, the lovers were mar- ried. She was twenty and he was thirty-two. He took his bride to the fine old house in Coventry-still standing in the part of the town that we call Anthony.
The mansion had eight beautiful rooms and Greene, always eager to study, had ac- cumulated about two hundred and fifty books for it.
Youth, beauty, health, ample means! Their future looked very bright; but young Greene, looking far ahead, perhaps fore- saw that which was to cut short his domes- tic happiness. He told Catherine one day : "Four of us have asked the Assembly for a charter to organize an independent com-
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pany of soldiers. We're going to call it The Kentish Guards." This was in October, 1774.
In Grace Humphrey's charming story of "The Girl with Blue-Gray Eyes," she tells us, "All that winter Catherine watched the Kentish Guards drilling, and the British deserter taught them." For Greene had not only smuggled up from Boston the muskets which he could not secure hereabouts, but a British Sergeant who knew how to train soldiers.
News of the Battle of Concord and Lex- ington reached Providence on the afternoon of the battle, but it was not until after nightfall of the nineteenth of April, 1775, that word reached Greene, in Coventry. Immediately he was on his horse and off to join the "Guards" in East Greenwich. For the next eight years Nathanael Greene had practically not one holiday from army service.
The limping private was soon made Commander of our Rhode Island troops, and he it was, who, in the name of our Army, welcomed Washington as Comman- der-in-Chief on his arrival in Cambridge.
Miss Humphrey also tells us that small- pox raged in Boston that winter, and that General Greene had been inoculated, but many of his men had not. He feared that the disease would break out in the Army, but if the men were vaccinated, where could they go until they had recovered and were able to resume service? Catherine solved that problem. She threw open her beautiful home in Coventry and gave commands to her General. "Send down your officers, first one group and then another; let one group be inoculated and then another, and each sent back in turn until all are done."
Her suggestion was followed out, and the mansion because temporarily a hospital.
Now in this same winter of 1775-1776, Mrs. Washington arrived in Cambridge to spend the winter with the General, and Greene sent for Catherine, or perhaps it was Catherine and the baby, for a son had been born to them. The boy was christened in camp and named George Washington Greene, and when a little sister followed him, she was named Martha Washington Greene.
Mrs. Washington and Catherine became great friends, and always, from that winter
on, the closest friendship prevailed between the two families.
The armies were active through the milder seasons, but in cold weather they went into camp, and the winter of 1777-8 saw our army encamped at Valley Forge. In "The Story of the Catherines" we read that the Greenes lived in a hut only a little larger than the ones the private soldiers occupied. It was bitterly cold, and snow lay on the frozen ground; men's hearts were heavy. "It's the darkest hour of the war," they said. "Darkest just before dawn," Catherine reminded them.
The wives of the officers had a busy winter. With baskets on their arms they went from hut to hut, carrying little delica- cies to the sick soldiers. They met in Mrs. Washington's two rooms to knit and patch and make new garments when they could get material. Two or three times a week the Greenes entertained in the evening. Cards were forbidden and there wasn't room for dancing, but they could serve cof- fee and sing. Catherine had learned French in Morristown the winter before, so that she could talk with the French officers. "Lafayette was there in that camp, Pulaski and Baron Von Steuben, who was drilling our soldiers. What a charming society that must have been! There was only one dress uniform, so the officers borrowed it, one by one, as they were invited to dinner at Head- quarters. Catherine said that one of the bachelors was giving a dinner and had con- sulted her about it-tough steak and pota- toes, and no guest could come who had a whole pair of breeches.
"It was at this period that Baron Von Steuben's young French secretary, Depon- caeau, wrote of our Catherine that she 'was a handsome, elegant and accomplished woman, whose home was the resport of for- eign officers because she spoke the French language and was well versed in French literature.' "
After the French Alliance was signed and the great rejoicings were over, Cather- ine returned to her home at Coventry for the summer of 1778, and in her home could be plainly heard, on the 29th of August, the sounds of the Battle of Rhode Island, and from the windows could be seen the smoke.
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