The name Banister (Bannister) still exists on a popular wharf in Newport. John and his wife Christian were wealthy landowners in Newport before the coming of the Revolutionary War. Many of the land rich class in Newport became Loyalists. John’s brother Thomas even joined a Loyalist militia. John is not included on lists of Loyalists, but he and his wife were in a peculiar position once the British occupied Newport in 1776. John would ultimately sail for England to ask for reparations from the British for the damage done to his properties, but that left Christian and her young son to face life in Occupied Newport on their own. Marian Mathison Desrosiers book, The Banisters of Rhode Island During the American Revolution, provides details of Occupation life for Christian and others in Newport.
Newport was a Loyalist leaning town, so at first British occupation was not severe. Christian would have been able to go through her normal routines of shopping and visiting. Many of the merchants and tradespeople were able to continue their work. But there were hardships. Even during the first week of occupation Aquidneck Island families found their livestock confiscated to feed British troops. Island families could catch fish and hunt birds. Normal colonial trade was cut off, so Newport residents found themselves without items like wine and liquors.
As time went by there were further restrictions. Christian was distressed that she could not make some of her normal visits to family. By June of 1777 the British enclosed the Newport area with gates and citizens were required to get passes to even visit friends in Middletown or Portsmouth. The citizens lost their freedoms and their elected government. The British military was the law.
Occupation became progressively difficult and Christian and other women left alone had to deal with property loss, destruction of their orchards and trees, loss of personal freedom and lack of food and fuel. In December of 1778 British General Prescott ordered the army to cut up wood fences, old docks and boats, and even church pews to keep his soldiers warm and cook their food.
Christian’s husband remained in London for years trying to get repayment for his losses. Meanwhile, Christian hung on in Newport. In July of 1780 the French arrived. Unlike the British, the French paid for items, restored damaged homes and brought a sense of civility to Newport.
Christian’s husband returned after four years in England. She had managed to keep things going during his absence and the family benefited from her struggles. Her Loyalist brother in law Thomas lost all his property, but John and Christian did not. Eventually the Banister’s would make South Kingston their home.
Gilbert Stuart Portrait of Christian and her son John. Original at Redwood Library
Benjamin Cowell collected the stories of Rhode Islanders who applied for pensions many years after the war. He published his stories in a book called “Spirit of 76” and he started his book with the stories of women who had to step up and take extra responsibilities with their husbands at war. Cowell commented: “The women also of Rhode Island, with all the sympathies peculiar to their sex, took an active part in sustaining the “great cause,” and a more noble race of women never existed.”
Here are a of few of the ways women contributed to the war effort in what we might think of as ordinary tasks.
DORCAS MATTESON Dorcas Matteson, of Coventry was the mother of nineteen children. She was married in 1770 to David Matteson. In the pension application she made made years after the war, she listed some of the difficulties she endured for the “glorious cause.” When her husband went to fight in General Sullivan’s Rhode Island Campaign in 1778, it was hay time. She had to cradle her baby on some hay in a shady spot in the meadow while a young lad helped her load hay and put it in a barn. She was close enough to hear the “roar of the cannon” during the Battle of Rhode Island and she imagined the danger her husband was in. He returned a few days later when his militia duty had expired. He was safe and sound, but he did have a “bullet hole about him” that was made as they retreated from the Island. The bullet was stopped from injuring her husband by a cheese that Dorcas had sent and David had placed in his backpack.
ABIGAL SALISBURY
Abigail’s husband, George, was Sergeant of the guard that was stationed nearby at Rumstick Point. She used her knitting skills to knit stockings for the whole guard. She continued to knit stockings until she was a hundred years of age.
SARAH DYER
Like Dorcas Matteson, Sarah Dyer’s husband was away. Sarah and her husband lived in Glocester. Anthony Dyer was with the “Captain General’s Cavaliers” who were chartered in 1775 to fight the British. Sarah raked and loaded lay, hoed and gathered in potatoes, and harvested corn, and she said she did it “cheerfully.” She was doing all the women’s work and the men’s work on the same day.
ANNA ALDRICH
Anna, the wife of Israel Aldrich, was from Smithfield and was another of our typical Revolutionary mothers. She carried her baby into the field and cradled him in the boughs of a tree to keep him away from reptiles. During the summer of 1777 she hoed corn and potatoes, raked hay, pulled flax, milked cows, mended fences and raised pigs. Whatever her husband would have done at home, Anna did.
Benjamin Cowell ends his chapter of Revolutionary Women by saying that “all the ladies, married and unmarried, were engaged, in one way or another, in sustaining the great cause of liberty. While some workedsp on farms, others were engaged in making clothes for the army, or administering to the wants of the sick and wounded.” Rhode Island women braved the hardships of the Revolution in ordinary ways. Women who went to war as soldiers or acted as spies are exciting, but Cowell was right to elevate the contributions of Rhode Island women who did the work of their husband as well as their own responsibilities. Down through the years and wars, Rhode Island women have been shouldering those responsibilities.
A Brief History of the United States by Joel Dorman Steele and Esther Baker Steele, 1885 Colonial kitchen with woman spinning, an engraving
Cowell, Benjamin. Spirit of ’76 in Rhode Island, Boston 1850.
I became aware of Catharine Greene’s role in Revolutionary Rhode Island when I visited the Coventry home of General Nathanael Greene. I learned more about her as I read biographies of her husband. One of my goals this month (Women’s History Month) is to tell the stories of Rhode Island women who endured the hardships of the Revolutionary War and I will start with Catharine Littlefield Greene.
Her family called her Caty and she was born on Block Island in 1755. Her mother descended from Block Island founders and her father, John Littlefield, was a member of the Rhode Island legislature. Her Block Island childhood ended with her mother’s death when she was only 10 years old, and Caty went to live with and aunt and uncle. At that time her uncle, William Greene, was a Supreme Court justice, but he went on to being Governor of Rhode Island. Under the guidance of her aunt and uncle, Caty learned how to read and write and how to manage a household.
Nathanael Greene was a frequent visitor to Caty’s household and the pair married on July 20, 1774. The couple had little time together before the battles in the Revolutionary War began. Nathanael moved quickly from commander of the Rhode Island militia to general in the Continental Army. She opened her home in Coventry as a hospital when the Rhode Island troops were inoculated for small pox.
Caty traveled to wherever her husband was stationed (New York City, Valley Forge, Carolinas), even after the birth of their first child in 1776. There were women and children were “camp followers” who served as cooks or clothes washers. Caty had more comfortable quarters than they did, and she put her efforts into organizing events for the soldiers. She became friends with Martha Washington because they were often in camp together. She gave birth to five children during the years of the Revolution, but when she travelled she often left her children in the care of others. Being away from her children and being away from her husband were heartaches for Caty
We don’t have the letters that Caty wrote to her husband because she burned them. We do have some of his letters to her and we can get a sense of what her letters were like from how he answered her. During the Siege of Newport, Nathanael wrote:
“I am sorry to find you are getting unwell. I am afraid it is the effect of anxiety and fearful apprehension. Remember the same good Providence protects all places, and secures from harm in the most perilous situation. Would to God it was in my power to give peace to your bosom, which I fear, is like a troubled ocean….” Caty, like many other spouses of Americans in the Rhode Island Campaign, must have been fearful of the battle ahead.
Caty hoped that with the end of the war she could return to life in Rhode Island, but that did not happen.
In order to care for his troops, her husband had taken out loans, but Congress later denied his petitions to help him pay off the loans. Rhode Island properties were sold off to cover debts and the Greene moved to a plantation in Georgia. By 1786 Greene died of a sunstroke and Caty was left a young widow.
Catharine GreeneSpell Hall – CoventryNathanael Greene
There is more to her story that I will tell in a later blog.
In a previous post I set the stage for the story of Talbot’s capture of the British ship Pigot. Right after the Battle of Rhode Island, Lafayette suggested a plan to remove a British schooner that had been blocking Narragansett Bay. He reached out to Silas Talbot because Talbot was a seaman who knew the Rhode Island waters. Talbot agreed to the plan, but he had profit in mind as well as serving the American cause.
As he was preparing for the attack, Talbot met with Nicholas Cooke, the Governor of Rhode Island. Cooke owned a ship called “Hawke” and with the help of local Providence merchants, the Hawke was fitted out and armed for the mission. General Sullivan gave Talbot permission to recruit Continental soldiers. Talbot was acting as a privateer. The Battlefield Trust definition of privateer is: “the term privateer refers to a privately-owned ship or sailor commissioned by a government to raid an enemy’s military and merchant shipping. Although controversial, there is a long history of privateering that dates back to the seventeenth century. The main difference between pirates and privateers is that privateers are commissioned by a specific government and can only attack ships that fly under an enemy flag, while pirates are not sanctioned by any government and can attack whomever they choose.”
Talbot had made a deal. Talbot and his men, fifty percent / Cooke and his associations, fifty-percent.
October 25, 1778, the Hawke made its way from Providence to a remote anchorage off of Bristol. The next day the Hawke sailed passed the Bristol Ferry area to Mount Hope in Bristol. Two days later she quietly made her way down the Sakonnet River. They moved toward the Pigot, but a sentry saw it and began firing from a battery on Aquidneck Island (perhaps by Fogland Ferry). Talbot took the Hawke to safety up the Taunton River and he took a small boat down to the Sakonnet River to spy on his quarry (he may have gone on horseback). He saw that the Pigot had netting to defend it from an invading party, so when he returned to the Hawke he ordered a kedge anchor lashed to the jib boom. Talbot was finding a way for the Americans to get through the defensive netting by ramming through it with their spare anchor as a point.
On the night of October 28, 1778, the Hawke sailed from the Taunton River to the Sakonnet River. The sentries at the Fogland Batteries did not see her. When the Hawke got within sight of the Pigot, Talbot positioned his craft so he could ram his jib boom and kedge anchor through the netting to shred it. The crew of the Hawke swarmed over the deck of the enemy skip. The Pigot crew stayed below deck, but the captain was the only one to resist. The prisoners were locked below while members of the Hawke crew sailed the Pigot to Stonington, Connecticut.
British Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie recorded the event in his diary – 29 October, 1778:
“The galley off Black Point in the Sakonnet with eight twelve pounders and two eighteen pounders plus swivels was surprised this morning about 02:00 by rebels, who boarded and took her with little or no resistance. They cut her cable and stood out to sea. We sent the King George privateer to chase them but they got clear off toward New London.”
This was a profitable venture for Talbot. The Rhode Island General Assembly voted him a silver sword and the Continental Congress promoted him to Lieutenant Colonel. His share of the sale of the Pigot was 500 pounds.
Silas Talbot would go on to further adventures with the Pigot. The website of Naval History and Heritage Command reports: “In the spring of 1779, the Navy Board at Boston purchased prize Pigot, and she operated under Talbot as the Argo guarding Narragansett Bay. During Argo’s cruises she alone kept these important waters open to vital American coastal shipping. Legend holds that she was subsequently burnt.”
Sketch of Pigot from Heritage of Courage.
Resources:
Fowler, William. Silas Talbot Captain of Old Ironshides. Mystic Seaport, Mystic Connecticut, 1995.
” Silas Talbot and the British warship Pigot, 29, October 1778″. Heritage of Courage. John Peck Rathbun Chapter Rhode Island Society, Sons of the American Revolution, 1992.
Diary of Frederick Mackenzie. Harvard University, Cambridge: 1930.
For over sixty years the Newport Chapter of the National Associate of Colored People (NAACP) has been calling attention to the valor of the soldiers of the First Rhode Island Regiment (called the Black Regiment). I heard the story of their efforts at last year’s commemoration of the Black Regiment’s efforts in the Battle of Rhode Island. Mrs. Fern Lima recounted all the milestones in the NAACP’s efforts to create a memorial to these soldiers and to continue to tell their story. Mrs. Lema’s presentation is from the notes of her father, Lyle Matthews, a past NAACP president and one of the earlier workers in the effort. I recently had the opportunity to talk to longtime Newport County NAACP members, Mrs. Lema and Mrs. Victoria Johnson. I had gathered a timeline from newspaper articles, but they had been participants and could give me their personal perspectives.
One of the key information sources Mrs. Lema provided was a copy of the program for an earlier monument dedicated in 1976. In the booklet for the Dedication, May 2, 1976, NAACP President William Trezvant quoted from historian Charles A. Battle’s booklet “Negroes on the Island of Rhode Island”.
“In August 1928 the one-hundred and fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Rhode Island was fittingly celebrated by the citizens of Rhode Island. At that time the suggestion was made that the State of Rhode Island honor in bronze or stone the memory of Colonel Greene’s regiment.”
The dedication of the Black Patriot’s Monument in 1976 was just one milestone in a larger effort to bring the story of the Black Regiment to the attention of Rhode Island and the nation. In an earlier letter (Nov. 12, 1975) Trezvant wrote: “The Goal is to have the Black Regiment take its rightful place in Rhode Island History and in the Nation’s fight for freedom.” Early steps toward that goal were made by historian Charles Battle and those who researched the role of the First Rhode Island Regiment. NAACP members Lyle Mathews, John Benson and State Senator Erich O’D. Taylor did the spade work in determining where the redoubt was located that the Black Regiment defended so valiantly. Mathews was President of the NAACP at the time and Fern, his daughter, remembers field trips out to the Bloody Run Brook area where the men scouted a location that would be an appropriate site for a monument. One of the men, John Howard Benson, was a noted carver and created a woodcut map of the Battle with the redoubt’s position marked with a star. This beautiful map was included in the program.
Mrs. Lima and Mrs. Johnson helped me with a timeline of the events in the completion of Patriot’s Park.
In 1967 the NAACP began an annual celebration of the valor of the Black Regiment and to call attention to their role in history. In July of that year a boulder on the property was dedicated to the Black Regiment. State Senator Taylor was master of ceremonies and he introduced Oliver Burton who knew Charles Battles and was an early advocate for recognition of the Black Regiment’s role in history.
In 1969 the remembrance was held in August and a flagpole was added to the site. Children who had learned about the regiment from Battle’s book attended and Oliver Burton spoke. Both Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Lima have their own copies of Battle’s book and having a good history of the story of the First Regiment in the battle was helpful in making the community aware of the special role they played.
In 1972 over 150 gathered at the memorial area on the anniversary of battle. Newspaper accounts state that this was the 9th annual commemoration organized by the NAACP.
In 1973 a large portion of the battleground was named a national historic site. This portion of the battlefield was called “Patriot’s Park.” At this time the site contained a small monument designating the historical site, a flagpole and simple boulder. Ceremonies celebrating the role of the Black Regiment continued to be held there.
In November of 1975 a fund drive was started to erect a monument to Rhode Island’s black patriots of Bloody Brook in Portsmouth. The Newport NAACP raised funds through the sale of commemorative pins. The plans for the monument were that it would be six feet high by 4 inches wide. The insignia of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment would be carved into the granite. The State Department of Natural Resources would prepare the landscape.
May 6, 1976 was the unveiling of a monument at Patriot’s Park. The monument was unveiled by Mrs. Oliver Burton, widow of a man who knew Charles Battle and had dreamed of erecting the memorial Battle had wanted. Plaques were presented to State Senator Erich O.D. Taylor and Dennis J. Murphy of the RI Dept. of Natural Resources for their efforts in the project.
In 1994 funding from the Federal Highway Administration for projects to improve or preserve historic sites associated with the federal highways became available. The Black Patriots Committee of the Newport NAACP and the RI Black Heritage society proposed improving the site.
In 1996 the head of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), William F. Bundy, selected the Patriot’s Park Landscape Project as the state’s first enhancement project. Paul Gaines was chosen to coordinate the creation of the memorial and he was working with designer Derek Bradford. Gaines and his committee spent 10 years on the project that created a 36-foot-long, 10-foot-high black granite memorial to the First Rhode Island Regiment.
By 1999 Bradford submitted plan for the larger monument. The design was a simple: platform with a wall that has two doorways and names of First Regiment soldiers engraved on the wall. Since no muster rolls were available for those just involved in the Battle of Rhode Island, Bradford agreed to engrave the names of all known members of the regiment.
Federally funded projects require an Environmental Impact Assessment in which groups with direct interest are given opportunity to comment. RIDOT invited 12 groups – Black organizations, Native tribes, local institutions like Rhode Island Historic Preservation and Heritage to comment on the plans. The basic list was the known black soldiers, but the list for inclusion was open to the families of indigenous soldiers and many of those names were added at their family’s request.
By February of 2000, two narratives had been written explaining the creation of the regiment. The battle narrative (written by Carl Becker and Louis Wilson) was agreed upon with corrections. It took 4 years to reach agreement on the following text:3 “And to the soldiers of the Narragansett Indian Nation who fought alongside them.”
In 2006 the Memorial to Black Regiment was dedicated. The story of the valiant efforts of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment (the Black Regiment) is engraved for all to see and the names of these soldiers are remembered.
The efforts to tell the story of the Black Regiment are not over. The cause continues because the Memorial is in need of repairs and funds must be raised to do the required work.
Through the efforts of the NAACP the story of the Black Regiment is being told and there is a dedicated spot on the battlefield to honor their valor at Bloody Run Brook.
I am working on a tour of sites in Portsmouth that saw action in the Battle of Rhode Island. The top of Quaker Hill is one such site. Some historians even use the term “Battle of Quaker Hill” because of the heavy action at this place. British soldiers converged on this crossroads from East Main, Middle Road and Hedly Street. Americans were holding their line at that position.
What Revolutionary Era sites can you still see today? The Friends Meeting House is an important landmark that was used by the British and Hessians as a hospital, barracks, and ammunition storehouse. The stonewalls are there to remind us of the American style of warfare in which the Patriots hid behind the walls in what we would call guerilla warfare aimed at harassing and delaying the British. In Legion Park across from the meetinghouse there is a cannon from the British ship Flora.
What is the story of the Flora? In researching why we have a ship’s cannon at Quaker Hill, I encountered the tale of a ship of many names and nationalities. According to an article by noted marine archaeologist D.K. Abbass, the Flora was a 698 ton, 32-gun Royal Navy frigate. Its original name was LaVestale and it was built by the French Navy in 1757. Once a ship was captured in those days, it was common practice for the vessel to be used in the navy of its captor. In 1761 the ship was captured by the British and was renamed the Flora. By 1776 the Flora was being used as a troop transport.
When the French fleet arrived in Newport in July of 1778, the British did not want the French to capture their ships. The British scuttled seven of their vessels and 13 of their transports were scuttled in the outer harbor. In Washington’s Wolfpack, the Navy before there was a Navy, author Edgar Maclay wrote that the Flora was heaved over on its side and beached for cleaning. It lay between Goat Island and Long Wharf in Newport until April of 1779 when she was raised again. The British used eight 12 pounders from the Flora on the newly outfitted HMS Pigot. The story of how American Silas Talbot outwitted the British on the Pigot is yet another story to tell. The British sank (and burned) the Flora again when they left Rhode Island in December of 1779. She was passed back and forth. 1784 – named “Reconaissance” (French), 1787 back to “Flora” (French), “Citoyenne Francaise” (a French pirate). By 1798 she was captured by HMS Phaeton and sent to the scrap heap.
Flora was not down at the bottom of the harbor, but at least one of her cannons was. In 1940 workmen repairing Long Wharf came across the cannon and the cannon is now displayed at Legion Park in Portsmouth.
A note about privateers: they are privately owned armed vessels, commissioned by a state to attack enemy ships, usually merchant ships. The privateers and their crews usually got the ship and a large percentage of the cargo they captured. Without a real Navy, Americans relied upon these privateers in maritime warfare.
Photo by Paul MurphyModel of Flora in Hamburg Museum
I have been trying to document the Black Regiment at Butts Hill, and Rhode Island historian Christian McBurney sent me a record of two soldiers who were listed as “sick, Butts Hill” in an August 22, 1778 muster roll. That led me to look into the role the fort played as a field hospital during the Siege of Newport and Battle of Rhode Island. I had come across a reference to this medical use in a orderly book for John Jacob’s Regiment of Massachusetts Militia. In this blog I will piece together what I have found so far on the Fort as a field hospital and what these field hospitals would have been like during Revolutionary War times.
Benedic Aron – Sick Butses Hill
A hospital was needed long before the Battle of Rhode Island and provisions had been made for it. The Hospital Department was created by Congress in 1775. There is a letter from Washington that made these provisions for Sullivan’s troops for the Rhode Island campaign.
From George Washington to Thomas Tillotson, 26 July 1778 To Thomas Tillotson [White Plains, 26 July 1778]Sir, You are to proceed, immediately, with two assistants to Doctor Isaac Foster Director in the Eastern department, and take his instructions for the procuring of hospital furniture, medicines instruments, and such things as may be thought necessary in the formation of a military & flying hospital for the use and benefit of the troops under the command of Major General Sullivan, at Providence, Rhode Island, in case or provided a proper hospital arrangement has not already taken place in that quarter either by the orders of Major General Sullivan or Doctor Foster. But should there be as yet no establishment of this kind you will repair to and continue with Major General Sulliva[n] in the faithful exercise of the several functions of your profession till dismissed by General Sullivan, the commander in that quarter, or the commander in chief of the army of the United States. Given at Head Quarters this 26th day of July 1778. G. W——n
There were three main types of hospitals to care for Revolutionary troops:
1. The general hospital housed in buildings and run by the Continental military.
2. The mobile “flying hospital” also manned by Continental personnel in a hut or tent (with a few emergency beds and a surgeons table. These were like the later M.A.S.H. units.
3. The regimental hospital run by the regimental surgeon for larger numbers of soldiers. From the Orderly records it seems that the General Hospital was in Providence and Butts Hill would have been a “flying hospital.” Regimental surgeons and surgeon mates may have been closer to the battle doing triage and directing the wounded to Butts Hill.
Even before the Battle of Rhode Island there was a need for care of the “invalids.” The troops suffered through a major storm and there was little protection from the elements. During the Siege of Newport there were exchanges of fire and troops were wounded.
Orders of August 12 included “A Return of all the Invalids and persons unfit for marching to be made at Headquarters Immediately that they may be properly Officered and left to man the Fort on the North End of the Island.” The “walking wounded” and sick were guarding the Butts Hill Fort area. The orders included asking the Regimental Surgeons to return their sick daily to the director general of the hospital. They also were to make an accounting of bandages and medicines “that they might be supplied.”
On August 14th the orders included a statement that “a permit from the director General of the hospital will be a sufficient warrant for any Surgeon or sick person to pass to the main(land).” August 24th the orders read that Corporal Tilson is to grant papers to the mainland “as he thinks proper he will give only to the sick and those that attend them and the surgeon.”
August 30, 1778 was a day of caring for the wounded and burying the dead. The orderly report expresses General Sullivan’s expectation the wounded and those who have care of them will not want for comfort. ”A party of 100 men from the front line are to collect and bury the dead of this Army who fell in action.” The orders from Tiverton on August 31st are ” All the sick and wounded of the Army are to be removed to Providence as soon as it may be done without endangering them.”
There were more than 100 wounded in the Battle of Rhode Island. Others would have been injured in the storm and siege warfare. Accidents and illnesses would arise among the soldiers. There was a barracks at the Fort that might have served as a hospital caring for the wounded to stabilize them and send them on to more care in Providence. Regimental surgeons and their mates would have been providing the most immediate care, but the Battle of Rhode Island was an orderly retreat and all efforts would have been made to get the wounded to care at Butts Hill.
Links to information about Revolutionary War Hospitals:
September 1st to 4th. Lafayette is in Tiverton (marked by ORANGE TRIANGLE). He has command of the Eastern Shore of Rhode Island. Lafayette writes a letter from Tiverton on 9/1.
September 5th to 20th. Lafayette is in Bristol (marked by the ORANGE STAR). His headquarters was the Reynolds House. Lafayette writes a letter from Bristol on September 5. On September 8th he writes ”the Bristol post continues to be the most exposed one, and consequently I shall remain here.” Israel Angell’s diary reports he had dinner with Lafayette in Bristol on September 6 and heard that New Bedford had been attacked by the British. He dined with Lafayette on the 12th as well. On September 8th he writes to Silas Talbot from Bristol suggesting a plot to captures the British vessel Pigot. September 13th he writes to his wife Adrienne from Bristol.
September 21st through 24th. Lafayette camps outside of Warren (ORANGE SQUARE near Warren.) He writes to d’Estaing and George Washington from Warren on September 21. In his letter to Washington he comments that in response to advice from General Sullivan, he “is in a safer place behind Warren.” On September 23rd he writes to the President of Congress from outside Warren. ”The moment I heard of America, I loved her. The moment I knew she was fighting for freedom, I burnt with the desire of bleeding for her..”
September 25th. Lafayette left for Boston and the Rhode Island Campaign is at an end. (BLUE LINES OFF TO BOSTON).
By October 5 Washington has requested that General Sullivan grant permission for Lafayette’s leave from duty.
Reynolds House, Bristol. Lafayette Headquarters
Resources: 1899, The Diary of Colonel Israel Angell Commanding Offifficer, 2nd Rhode Island Regiment, Continental Army, Edward Field, Israel Angell, Norman Desmarais
August 22. Lafayette is Major General for the Day. Lafayette and General Sullivan argue over Sullivan’s letter to D’Estaing. Lafayette refuses to agree to the letter because he finds it insulting to the French.
August 23. At counsel of War Lafayette backed an immediate retreat even though he was unhappy with the American position about the French. Lafayette is bitter about the claims the French deserted the Americans.
At Butts Hill (RED DIAMOND).
August 27. American forces decide to move to Butts Hill.
August 27. Lafayette leaves that evening to ride to Boston to talk to d’Estaing. Lafayette crosses Howland Ferry (RED TRIANGLE) to Tiverton.
August 28. Lafayette rode all night. 7 hours and 70 miles. Lafayette arrives in Boston about the same time the French Fleet Arrived. Boston is marked with a BLUE STAR.
August 29. Lafayette, John Hancock and General Heath meet with d’Estaing at Hancock’s home in Boston (BLUE STAR). The French will not return to Rhode Island.
August 30. Lafayette returns at 11 PM to Portsmouth by way of Howland Ferry (RED TRIANGLE>. He has missed the battle but has taken a role in the retreat.
August 31. Lafayette escorts the last pickets are off the Island via Howland Ferry (RED TRIANGLE) after 2 AM.
“Retreat of Rhode Island” One of the medallions on the guard of the sword presented to Lafayette by the Congress. In Recollections of the Private Life of Lafayette by Cloquet.
Resources:
Kitchin, Thomas. “A map of the colony of Rhode Island.” Map. London: Printed for R. Baldwin at the Rose, Pater Noster Row, 1778. Digital Commonwealth, https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/6t053p17c (accessed January 16, 2024).
August 14th. The storm ends. Americans begin new earthworks at Butts Hill marked with RED DIAMOND. Early morning the soldiers “examine their arms and renewed their cartridges.” (Cutler’s diary) Supplies had been damaged in the storm.
August 15th. At 6 AM the whole army proceeds to march toward Newport in three columns. Americans halt advance at between 4 and 5 PM within site of the British lines. American lines run from West Main Road to Green End in Middletown marked with a RED CIRCLE.
August 16th. Americans are building a four cannon battery north of Green End marked by RED CIRCLE. The British fire their cannons at them. A diary notes that Lafayette is camped at the Bowler Farm on Wapping Road marked by the RED STAR.
August 17th. Lafayette is Major General for the day. Siege operations (marked by RED CIRCLE) are in full force. Lafayette oversees the siege works from the top of a house. The British attacked the house and Culter’s diary entry remarks: “Stood by the Marquis when a cannon ball just passed us. Was pleased with his firmness..”
August 21. Lafayette, General Green and Col. Langdon go aboard the Languedoc marked with a BROWN CIRCLE. The French only agree to take American forces off of Aquidneck Island. Americans would not agree to that and the French fleet would sail away.
Woodcut by Howard Benson in Eric O.D. Taylor’s “The Campaign on Rhode Island.” Used with permission of Benson family.
Source: Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manassa Cutler. https://archive.org/details/lifejournalscorr01cutl
portsmouthhistorynotes 