Founder’s Brook is one of those touchstones where we come in contact with Portsmouth’s past. As I walked by the brook yesterday morning, I was aware that this site might have been lost to us without the effort of local people to preserve it.
In the early days of the town this site served as the “Watering Place.” It was a center of activity for the small community of settlers who stayed in Portsmouth in 1639 instead of moving south to the Newport area. A spring here provided drinking water, a location for washing (both animals and clothing) and a central location around which the house lots of the town were laid out. As the townspeople abandoned the idea of house lots in a village and migrated to homes on their larger farm lots, the area lost importance. The small lots here were absorbed into bigger farms.
It took the celebration of Rhode Island’s tricentennial in 1936 and Portsmouth’s tricentennial in 1938 to bring this location back into focus. Sometime after 1910 the Town of Portsmouth acquired the strip of land along the brook. The tricentennial organizers recognized the importance of the location and bought a chunk of land adjacent to the brook to serve as a central location to honor the town founders. Celebrations were held, a plaque honoring the Portsmouth Compact was placed on the puddingstone rock, and members of founding families added stepping stone rocks leading to the area. Founders’ Brook was saved as a treasured spot.
Founders’ Brook needed to be saved once again. In 1960 the state planned to construct a cloverleaf for Route 24 which would have obliterated Founders’ Brook. This time it was the Portsmouth Historical Society and the Route 138 business association that pressured the State Department of Public Works to make the changes to preserve the site.
With the celebration of Portsmouth’s 350th Anniversary, new efforts came to preserve and highlight the site. Memorial stones were added, new signage and a parking lot made it easier for visitors, and special events were held.
Preserving this beautiful site took vigilance, effort and passion. Hopefully we have the vigilance, effort and passion to preserve other historic landscapes in our town. Preserving Butts Hill Fort is another effort that will take vigilance and passion. We are richer as a community when we have these historic landscapes to remind us of our past.
Portsmouth men who fought in the War for Independence risked losing their lives and sustaining serious injuries. They also risked imprisonment if they were captured and that is the story of Enoch Butts and his fellow seamen from the Swallow. I came across Enoch’s story in an old Butts family genealogy, but I wanted to know more about what happened to him and those who suffered with him.
Enoch Butts was born in October 17, 1762 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. His father was named Enoch Butts as well and in 1767 served as a Deputy from Portsmouth to the General Assembly of the Colony of Rhode Island. His grandfather, John Butts, was in the shipping business and owned a number of vessels before the war. When Rhode Island went to war, It may have been natural for a teenage Enoch to become a seaman on a Rhode Island privateer. Enoch’s older brother Coggeshall Butts (named after his mother’s side of the family) served in the Rhode Island Navy as well.
In searching for military service records, I found Enoch’s name on a list of “prisoners confined in Forton Prison near Portsmouth in England, belonging to this station November 29, 1778. R.I.” The listing of prisoners goes on to say: “Matthew Cogshall and Enoch Butts had made their escape.” Enoch is listed as being from the American privateer Swallow.
How did Enoch become a prisoner? A description of the Swallow gives us more information. The Swallow was an armed sloop – a Rhode Island privateer sloop. She had 6 cannons. She was commissioned in July of 1777 and John Murphy was listed as Commander. First Lieutenant David Gray was an officer.
“Swallow sailed from Acoaxet (near Dartmouth), Massachusetts, probably in August 1777, bound for Cape François, Saint-Domingue with a cargo of fish, oil and lumber. On 12 September 1777, some twenty-four miles northeast of Turks Island., Swallow was sighted, at 0700, by HM Frigate. Aeolus (Captain Christopher Atkins). A brief chase began, involving much gunfire from Aeolus. Murphy threw his guns overboard to escape, but Swallow surrendered at 1145. Murphy and his crew, totaling twenty-eight men, were taken in to Jamaica. … Murphy and the officers and most of the crew were sent to England, nineteen being committed to Forton Prison on 23 January 1778.” * The prisoners were charged with treason and did not fall under the usual rules for prisoners of war.
Now Enoch Butts was a prisoner in England. What were the conditions at Forton Prison? There are some records of American concern for the prisoners and Benjamin Franklin sent emissaries to look into their situation. John Thornton visited Forton Gaol between December 28 and 30. In his memorandum to the American Commissioners he stated that on the first day he had “to bribe the Invalid centries to permit [me] to speak to the prisoners”
Thornton writes: “There is not the least distinction made between the Officers and common Sailors, and the Prison having no glazed windows, they can not have any light without having the Northern and Westerly Winds, their provisions are but scanty at best … There are now in the Infirmary 20, and few days ago 27 in the black hole … the 27 were confined on 2d December and till lately were not let out at all … these men have only the half allowance of provisions. **
Lack of clothing was one of the great concerns and most of the prisoners were half naked in the winter’s cold.
There were 119 prisoners at Forton Gaol at the time; he implied that similar conditions existed for the 289 American prisoners at the Mill Gaol. The Reverend Thomas Wren of Portsmouth was a member of the British relief committee. Throughout the Revolution, Wren helped the prisoners and even protected those who escaped.
Franklin tried to get a prisoner exchange, but that didn’t come to pass. The prisoners, Enoch Butts among them, were not about to stay and wait for diplomatic negotiations. Forton was known for its prison breaks. They dug tunnels, bribed guards, pretended to be ill so they could get to the infirmary where there was less security. Once out they had to worry about the Englishmen looking for the five pounds they would get to return a prisoner to jail. If they were lucky enough to get away, a man named Thomas Digges had set up safe houses and provided escaped prisoners with clothing, food and money to make the trip to France and safety.
Besides Enoch Butts, Mathew Cogshall and a number of Rhode Island Swallow crew members are listed at Forton prison: George Smith, Benjamin Hicks, David Gray, James Two, Robert Wilcocks. Philip Corey.
Enoch Butts, Jr. made it back to Rhode Island. Census records list Enoch and his brother Coggeshall in the Bristol Warren area. Enoch died in Warren in 1823,
Sources:
*https://awiatsea.com American War of Independence – At Sea.
In general, the Portsmouth residents during the Occupation were farmers, Quakers and over 90% white. Some Portsmouth residents held slaves, but they were beginning to release them from bondage.
Farmers
Portsmouth was always a farming community. Portsmouth farmers fed the more cosmopolitan port town of Newport. Most of those who suffered with the British Occupation were farmers. Portsmouth men and women worked in other trades as well. Millers and blacksmiths supported the needs of the farms. Others were involved in the hospitality trade as tavern keepers, innkeepers, shop keepers and ferry operators around the routes to the ferries. The road to the Bristol Ferry was perhaps the most commercial part of Portsmouth. Population was centered around the other ferry routes of Glen Road for Fogland Ferry and Howland’s Ferry for Tiverton. Once the ferries were stopped, those relying on travelers for their income lost their business
During the Occupation, many of Portsmouth’s farms were damaged. The Occupation was harsh and civilians were killed and injured. Not even children were safe. In 1776 a fourteen-year-old boy, Darius Chase, was killed when the British destroyed his family farm. British soldiers were quartered in farmhouses throughout the island. In the early days, families were allowed to leave the island with some of their possessions, but many who had property to defend stayed and endured the hardships. Portsmouth lost about 10% of its population. The cattle and sheep had been ordered off the island so they couldn’t be taken by the enemy for food. What livestock remained on the farms was confiscated to feed the British and Hessian forces. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the British chopped down most of the trees on Aquidneck Island and burned many houses. They also burned fencing, wooden tools and wooden vehicles like wagons. It was almost impossible for the farmers to go through the process of planting and reaping. The citizens were given an opportunity to help feed themselves. They could keep one gun to hunt birds and they could keep a boat for fishing. During most of the Occupation the British were particularly careful not to damage the mills on the island that ground corn because the corn meal fed the occupation soldiers as well.
Quakers
Quaker Meeting House
circa 1700
A majority of Portsmouth residents were Quakers. Their community centered around the Friends Meetinghouse on Quaker Hill and that building still exists today.
British soldier Frederick Mackenzie wrote in his diary:
Sept 15, 1777 – “In consequence of the General’s summons to the Inhabitants of the township of Portsmouth, to assemble in order to be employed to work on the Redouts, 17 only appeared this morning at the place appointed. The Majority of the Inhabitants being Quakers, they informed the General that it was contrary to their principles to assist, in any manner in matters of War, and that therefor they could not appear. They even refuse to be employed in constructing Barracks for the accommodations of the troops.”
Portsmouth’s Quakers had difficulties with helping the Rebels as well. Captain Jonathan Brownell, a Quaker, raised and organized a Portsmouth troop for the defense of the Island. That troop marched off to the Battle of Bunker Hill. Brownell, a Quaker, was dismissed from the Society of Friends. * A Quaker publication states that after he returned to Rhode Island at Providence, he contracted smallpox and to pay off his bills he was a substitute soldier for famed Quaker Moses Brown.
White
The census records help us understand who the people of Portsmouth were as a whole. Whites made up to 90.5% of the town residents in 1774 and 93.5% in 1782. In 2020 the white population is about 95%. There may have been more slaves on some of the gentlemen farms of Newport merchants in Portsmouth. Samuel Elam, who dressed in simple Quaker garb despite his rich lifestyle, is such an example. His Portsmouth estate was named “Vaucluse” and it was situated off of Wapping Road. This was no rustic rural retreat. Elam had enlarged the house to resemble a temple and he developed elaborate gardens on the grounds. One French visitor described Elam as “the only farmer in the island who does not personally labour upon his own ground.” ** He would be in need of workers for his estate. In most cases one or two slaves were owned.
Elam and other Portsmouth Quakers were finding a conflict between their faith and their slaveholding traditions. In earlier days Quakers could justify their slaveholding by saying they treated them well and educated them. Especially after the American Revolution, Quaker leaders were preaching that ownership of slaves contradicted their fundamental idea of equality of all human beings. In 1774 Quakers were told to give up their slaves or leave the Society of Friends. Portsmouth Quakers began to free their slaves.
Among Portsmouth citizens who freed their slaves for religious reasons were William Anthony (1 slave 1775), Thomas Brownell (1 slave 1775), James Coggeshall (3 slaves 1775), Cornell Walter (2 slaves, 1775). Weston Hicks (1 slave 1775), Isaac Lawton (1 slave 1775), James Sisson (3 slaves, 1775).
Blacks and Native Americans are among those who fought on the Rebel side. Among the Portsmouth enlistees in the war was Thomas Collins, age seventeen. He was listed as an Indian born in Narragansett. The records show he enlisted in July of 1780 as part of the Rhode Island Six Months Continental Battalion. I’m not sure if he was a Portsmouth resident. Perhaps, like Captain Brownell he was substituting for someone else. Portsmouth was supposed to send seven soldiers and two among them were black. Joshua Dick (age 17) born in Portsmouth, is listed as a “negro”. In April 1779 he joined Ensign Benjamin Wilcox’s Company as a Private. He was discharged early in 1780. Bristor Peck is also listed as a soldier from Portsmouth. He was in born Guinea and is listed as a “Negro.” Some sources show him in Bristol.***
Native Americans and Blacks are listed among those of military age and in Portsmouth they did serve.
1774 Census: 343 white males above 16 years old.
341 white males under 16 years old,
400 white females above 16 285 white females under 16,
1,369 whites (90.5%)
21 Indians 1.5 %
122 Blacks 8.0%
1,512 total
1782 Census: 1,265 Whites (93.5%).
7 Indians. .5%,
11 Mulattos 1.0%
67 Blacks 5%
total 1,350
Military age 16-50
261 Whites(94%)
1 Indian .05%
3 Mulatos 1%
13 Blacks 4.5%
total 278
Sources:
Cadbury, Henry J. “Briefer Notices.” Bulletin of Friends’ Historical Association, vol. 28 no. 1, 1939, p. 53-56. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/469457.
**So Fine a Prospect: Historic New England Gardens.
***Popek, Daniel. They “..fought bravely, but were unfortunate. The True Story of Rhode Island’s Black Regiment. Bloomington, Indiana: Authorhouse, 2015.
Two thousand people came to Butts Hill Fort on August 29, 1923 to celebrate the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Rhode Island and the dedication of the fort. The Newport Artillery Company led the procession up Butts Hill followed by the Naval Training Station Band, the Bristol Train of Artillery and the Fort Adams Band. The ceremonies began with a recitation of the events in the Battle of Rhode Island. Roderick Terry, who purchased the land and gave it to the Newport Historical Society, talked about his long dream to preserve this site. He hoped it would be a reminder to future generations of what past generations had done to win our independence. He stated that the land was given to the Newport Historical Society as a trust which they held for the community.
After the raising of the flag there was a reenactment of the Battle of Rhode Island. Two detachments of troops were stationed at Mill Lane. Another detachment was at Union Street and East Main Road – by the headquarters of the Portsmouth Historical Society today. The U.S.S. Antares was stationed in the Middle Passage. The August 30th edition of the Fall River Herald gave this account of the reenactment.
“Mortars from a concealed redoubt below the ramparts hurled bombs high over the old fort, while deeper detonations of the bombing squadron in the channel off Prudence Island mingled with the staccato sputtering of rifle fire and the discharge of field pieces. ”
Sources:
Fall River Herald, August 30, 1923
Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society, November 1923
Photo from Pierce Collection of the Portsmouth Free Pubic Library
The Sons of the American Revolution from Rhode Island and Massachusetts traveled by trolley and boat in August of 1902 to remember those who fought in the Battle of Rhode Island. The first order of business was a call to assembly and raising a large American Flag at the top of the hill. One speaker shared a letter written by Col. Sidney Coleman on the day after the battle. This letter was passed down in the family of St. Paul’s rector Rev. J. Sturgis Pearse.
Tiverton, Aug. 31, 1778
“The day before yesterday about 7 o’clock in the morning, we were alarmed that the enemy were advancing upon us, as the night before we had retreated from near the enemy’s line to the north end of the island. They began to fire upon our advance parties, who retreated, as was intended. As soon as they came in sight of our army they formed a line in order for a general attack, but seeing we were formed and our artillery playing warmly upon them they altered their disposition and a part of them moved as though they intended to attack our left flank. Our regiment was ordered out to check their approach, which I believe was only a feint to draw our attention, as very soon afterward they advanced upon our right and made three attempts to gain a small eminence on which was a redoubt, but were as often repulsed.
The fire continued from about 8 o’clock til 1 o’clock, a great deal of the time being pretty warm. Then again they moved to our left, when the other three regiments of our brigade were ordered to move forward in a line with us, and General Tyler’s brigade of militia upon our right. Whether they were tired of the business, which I believe to be the case or whether they disliked our disposition, I cannot tell; at all events they did not see cause to advance, but retired to the top of Quaker Hill, about one mile in front of outline. The cannonade continued until dark. Yesterday we made sundry attempts by small parties to draw them into action, but could not. Last night the general ordered the army to retreat across the river, which we did with the greatest regularity, and completed the crossing of the troops by 2 o’clock in the morning without the enemy discovering the least of our intentions. Tomorrow morning we march for Providence.”
At the end of festivities “Everyone then scattered about the fortifications and viewed the surrounding country from all sides.” They marveled at the engineering required in the building of the fort.
The celebration moved to Island Park and the feast of a clam bake.
There would be no Butts Hill Fort to preserve and restore if the Reverend Roderick Terry hadn’t bought the site and the lands around it in the early 1920’s. Insurance maps were printed showing the 200-lothousing development and the Newport Mercury ads touted the site as “the most desirable place for a country home in the north end of the island.
Rev. Roderick Terry
Who was Roderick Terry and how did he come to buy the Butts Hill Fort land? Terry was born in Brooklyn in 1849. His father was a wealthy businessman active in the railroad and telegraph industries. He graduated from Yale in 1870 and then he went on to study for the ministry earning a doctor of divinity from Princeton in 1881. He served as a minister in New York City for 24 years before retiring to Newport in 1905. Terry and his wife settled in a home owned by his wife’s family on Rhode Island Avenue. He had an active retirement. He volunteered his services (and his money) to organizations such as the Red Cross, Redwood Library and the Newport Historical Society. In 1918 Roderick Terry became the president of the Newport Historical Society and he was a dominant force in a renewal of that organization. His generosity rescued Butts Hill Fort, Fort Barton and the Sherman Windmill. Bu
Terry donated Butts Hill Fort to the Newport Historical Society, but he did so with strings attached.
1. The Newport Historical Society and its successors were to forever “preserve, keep and maintain” the property as a monument to those who fought in the Revolutionary War.
2. That the property will always keep the name “Butts Hill Fort.”
3. That the property should never be used for monetary gain.
Terry went on to stipulate that if the Newport Historical Society did not maintain the property, the State of Rhode Island had the right to step in and take it over. Terry turned over tracts of the Butts Hill land in 1923, but by 1968 the State of Rhode Island took over the land and placed it in the hands of the Town of Portsmouth. The town is still required to “preserve, keep and maintain” the property, to call it “Butts Hill Fort,” and to not use it for monetary gain.
The Butts Hill Fort Restoration Committee of the Portsmouth Historical Society is making an effort to follow through with Terry’s desires. Hopefully Portsmouth residents can see the value of restoring and maintaining our historic sites and landscapes. We may not have the resources that the Reverend Terry had, but we can contribute to the work and the funds to make Terry’s dream for Butts Hill Fort a reality – a place where families can come and remember the sacrifices others made for us to have a free country. It can be a place where families can enjoy walking the trails around the earthenwork fort and appreciate that in Portsmouth we still have history we can see.
Are you interested in applying your time and talents to the effort to preserve and restore Butts Hill Fort?
Volunteering/further info can be addressed to Seth Chiaro
In 1779, when the town meetings began again, Portsmouth citizens sent a message to the Rhode Island General Assembly asking that their taxes should be lowered because the town was in a “Distressed Situation.” Unfortunately the state still wanted its taxes and in May of 1781 threatened to confiscate the property of those who did not pay even though they had supported the war and suffered from the hardships of occupation. Portsmouth people were so concerned about their local issues, that it was hard for them to sacrifice anything more for the state or national government. The citizens preferred the more decentralized Articles of Confederation to the new Constitution that was proposed. Portsmouth Freemen voted twelve to sixty to not adopt the Constitution in a vote held May 24th, 1788. Portsmouth military leaders Cook Wilcox, David Gifford and Burrington Anthony were among those who voted against adoption of the Constitution. As an agricultural community, Portsmouth people were concerned about war debt repayment and “paper money” issues as well as waiting for the adoption of the Bill Of Rights. Portsmouth townspeople began to favor the new constitution when it seemed that the national government would start putting heavy fines on Rhode Island trade with other states. That would not be in the best interest of the Portsmouth farmers. Portsmouth voted for the Constitution and Rhode Island finally became the thirteenth state in 1790.The 1790 census showed a thousand, five hundred and sixty residents – 243 families and 19 slaves.
Resources: Localism in Portsmouth and Foster during the Revolutionary and Founding Periods by WILLIAM M. FERRARO. Rhode Island Historical Society, August 1996.
The occupation had taken its toll and right after the War for Independence, Portsmouth farmers needed to focus on their own interests. To make good their losses, Portsmouth families petitioned the state for compensation for the damages suffered during the War. Among the documents in the collection of the Portsmouth Historical Society is such an inventory of losses dated around 1780. Robert Binney (Benney) and Elizabeth Heffernan were “in laws” who shared a home and a 26-acre farm just north of the Quaker Meeting House. The household inventory that they prepared can give an idea of what Portsmouth residents lost in the War. Among the items destroyed were five acres of orchards, a mare and 5 hogs. They lost their corn crib, four acres of corn, 12 loads of hay, twelve goats, two cows and one calf, a jackass and a ox cart among other household items.
To read a transcription of the whole inventory of household losses, click the manifest link.
The Portsmouth Historical Society has a rich collection of documents dating from the 1600s and 1700s, but we have very few documents from the Revolutionary War Era. War came to Portsmouth on December 8, 1776 when the British forces landed at Weaver Cove and they occupied the town until their forces left on October 25, 1779. Among the few documents that we do have, the name “David Gifford” is prominent. Gifford was a local ferry man and tavern owner. He took a leading role in the pre-war militia activity, he served as a Deputy from Portsmouth during the war, and state records show that he participated in military and naval activities during the war.
From its start Portsmouth traditionally had a militia. As war threatened in 1774, the Rhode Island General Assembly ordered monthly drills of all militia companies with full preparations for war. Since 1772, David Gifford had already been transporting town records and other items to and from Providence with his ferry boat. As the threat of war increased, the town records show that on August 29, 1775 the town voted “that David Gifford Draw the sum of Eighteen shillings out of this Town Treasury . . . for bringing . . . this Town’s Proportion of Powder & Balls from Providence.”
In the opening stages of war in 1775, Portsmouth raised a company of around sixty men to march to the support of Boston with a regiment raised in Newport County. A group of militia remained on guard at the town while the others were gone. Portsmouth created the fourteen-member volunteer “Artillery Company,” and provided it with 115 pounds of powder, 184 pounds of lead and 739 flints (spark making rocks). These local minutemen were to “March out to Action” when needed, and when they became part of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment in 1776, the Colony of Rhode Island provided cannons on carriages. In August of 1775 its leaders were Captain John Earl, Lieutenant James Peckham, and Ensign Cook Wilcox. Later artillery company leaders were David Gifford and Burrington Anthony. By the end of the Revolution almost all Portsmouth men from ages sixteen to sixty had served in the military.
The assembly in Providence called for additional troops and David Gifford was appointed to dole out the bounty of forty shillings to be paid to those who enlisted. Portsmouth was receptive to the calls for additional troops. Town records show that on September 17, 1776 the freemen voted that “seventeen able bodyed men be Enlisted into the servis of this State being the Town’s proportion, and that forty shillings Lawful Money be paid for every such person so Inlisted if they provide themselves with Arms & Accoutrements and that Capt. David Gifford provide the Money for said use & that he be Repayed out of this Town’s Treasury as soon as possible.”
By February 1776 the town meeting ordered their town council to draw up a list of people in town who could not provide their own firearms. The freemen voted 240 dollars or 75 pounds lawful money to purchase firearms. A committee of four men was assigned to get the money and purchase twenty small arms. David Gifford, one of the committee was selected to receive the weapons.
When the British and Hessians arrived in December of 1776, there were citizens who fled to Tiverton or Bristol. It is likely that David Gifford and his ferry boat left the island. In December of 1776 Rhode Island Records state “It is voted and resolved that Capt. David Gifford be permitted to proceed with a flag of truce to Rhode Island, under the direction of His Honor the Governor, upon his procuring three prisoners of war to exchange for three soldiers lately belonging to his company, and now detained as prisoners on said island.” It would be interesting to know which three of his Portsmouth militia company were part of the exchange.
By August of 1777 he was a member of the General Assembly and he was appointed a Lieutenant in Major Munroe’s Company. Being a ferry man, he took part in naval operations as well. The April 6, 1778 journal entry of Captain Joseph Crandall of the Rhode Island Navy Schooner-rigged Armed Galley Spitfire notes that Gifford and his ferry boat took part in a raid to Bristol Ferry on Aquidneck Island where they set fire and destroyed a British sloop. This daring raid was conducted while the Americans were being fired on from the British fortifications at Bristol Ferry.
We don’t have records of Gifford being in military service during the Battle of Rhode Island or during the remainder of the war. In 1780 and 1781 he was appointed Deputy from Portsmouth. He continued to receive recruits and handle bounties for the enlisted.
David Gifford led a full life. He was active in the Portsmouth community as a tavern keeper and ferry man at Bristol Ferry. He was a militia leader who was essential in recruiting soldiers and getting the militia armed and ready for war. He was trusted with a prisoner exchange. He used his skills as a ferry man on a daring raid to burn an enemy ship. He served Portsmouth as a Deputy. David Gifford died May 17, 1790 and is buried at St. Paul’s Cemetery. He was only in his forties, but he had lived a full life of service to Portsmouth.
We are fortunate to have eyewitness accounts of the Battle of Rhode Island. One of those accounts is by Lieut.-Colonel Samuel Ward, the son of Rhode Island Governor Samuel Ward. He was born in Westerly on November 17, 1756. He graduated from Brown University in 1771. He was the grandfather of Julia Ward Howe.
Ward received his commission as Captain on May 8th, 1775. Ward was promoted to major of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment on January 12, 1777 and became a lieutenant colonel on 5 May 1779 (with date of rank retroactive to May 26, 1778). When the First Regiment arrived on Aquidneck Island, there were changes in leadership. Major Samuel Ward was given command of the First Rhode Island Regiment. The regiment was assigned to guard the abandoned British redoubt that was part of the American line. This location was to the southwest of Butt’s Hill. Ward and the Black Regiment are credited with driving back three waves of Hessian troops.
Ward’s published diary is more of an account of his military career with just a few quotations with his actual words. Fortunately the description of the Battle of Rhode Island is among the quotations.
The August 30, 1778 diary entry provides an eyewitness account: “The army retreated the evening of the 28th. Early yesterday morning, the enemy moved out after us, expecting that we were leaving the island, and took possession of the Heights in our front. They sent out parties in their front, and we made detachments to drive them back again. After a skirmish of three or four hours, with various success, in which each party gave way three or four times, and were reinforced, we drove them quite back to the ground they first took in the morning, and have continued there ever since. Two ships and a couple of small vessels beat up opposite our lines, and fired several shots, but being pretty briskly fired upon from our heavy pieces, they fell down, and now lay opposite the enemy’s lines. Our loss was not very great, it has not been ascertained yet; and I can hardly make a tolerable conjecture. Several officers fell, and several are badly wounded. I am so happy to have only one captain slightly wounded in the hand. I believe that a couple of the blacks were killed and four or five wounded, but none badly. Previous to this, I should have told you our picquets and light corps engaged their advance, and found them with bravery.”
We can make some comparisons between the diary accounts of Ward and Angell. Each was with a different Regiment – Ward RI First and Angell RI Second – so they had different skirmishes to fight.
Looking at the Movements of the Rebel and British forces:
Ward reports that the army began to retreat on the evening of August 28th. Angell reports that his troops struck their tents and marched north on August 29th.
Both Ward and Angell show fighting back and forth between the Rebels and the British. Ward reports that one such skirmish lasted three or four hours “in which each party gave way three or four times.”
Both Angell and Ward tell us that the British ships were firing on the Rebel forces, but Americans fired on them and the vessels retreated.
Looking at casualties:
Ward comments “our loss was not very great” and Angell seems to report that the British had considerable losses but there were only three or four of the Rebels killed.
Looking at the retreat:
Angell tells us that the Americans retreated because of Washington’s warning about British ships heading in.
Angell also tells us more about the retreat via Howland’s Ferry. The soldiers had little sleep and little to eat. They had to “lie in their lines” that night and the crossing happened in the early hours of the morning. After encamping near the ferry they went to an area between Bristol and Warren.
Sources:
A Memoir of Lieut – Colonel Samuel Ward, First Rhode Island Regiment, Army of the American Revolution; John Ward, New York, 1875. (available on Kindle)
Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe, Florence Howe Hall, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, in two volumes, with portraits and other illustrations: volume 1
Geake, Robert. From Slaves to Soliders. Yardley, Pennsylvania, Westholme Publishing, 2016.
