portsmouthhistorynotes

I am always on the look out for primary sources related to the Rhode Island Campaign. I recently came upon two such sources. One is a letter to home from the Portsmouth camp and the other is an orderly book that records orders, events, etc. for a militia regiment from Connecticut. A conversation at a reenactment of the Bristol and Warren raid led me to a letter home from a soldier in the Massachusetts militia. Thankfully the owner of the letter shared both the image and the transcription. The orderly book is in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum, and the museum graciously sent me scans. Historian John Robertson had already transcribed the book so I benefited from his work. The letter was written on a date covered by the orderly book and the two sources together can give us some added details of the early days in the camp before the Siege of Newport.

The auction advertised that the letter was written by John Bettey of Chelmsford, Massachusetts to his father, on August 11, 1778, from the American camp near Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

Bettey wrote:  “We march onto Rhode Island on Sunday last about at 11 oClock and we remain on the island yet..” The Sunday would have been August 9th. He is hopeful that they can remain on the island “as long as we please for Continental State Regt. Militia and Volunteers are very numerous on the island.” …”But we have not had a site at them (the enemy) yet.”

Conditions were very poor. Bettey says he is “well at present” although “I have nothing to lay on but the ground and the open heavens to cover us but I am in hope we shall fare better before long.” He complains that it is very expensive at camp and he could like some money. He also wanted his family to send some shoes. 

The Orderly Book of Col. Samuel Chapman’s Connecticut Militia Regiment gives us a similar view. From headquarters on August 10th General Sullivan had “Directed to send over all the spare Tents and Destribute them among the Troops that are destitute of Covering also the Volunteers…. Those men that cannot be furnished with Tents are to build Huts and Bush houses …..Comders of Regts and Corps who have Tents on the other side of the River will Immediately send a Detachment from their Companies to bring them over.”

It is hard for me to imagine the soldiers having to build huts and bush houses around Butts Hill just to have shelter. When the storm (hurricane like) hit over the next several days, that lack of shelter would be a major issue.

The letter and the orderly book are small pieces of the puzzle of what happened during the Rhode Island Campaign. However, these small pieces bring the events to life. I will continue to gradually share the events listed in the orderly book as time goes by.