American Revolution Podcast

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Episode 139 Meigs Raid on Sag Harbor

Today we return to British occupied Long Island. The British, you will recall, occupied Long Island along with the New York City in late 1776 when General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe led an invasion force.

The British put most of their forces in New York City itself, and spent most of 1777 focused on New Jersey and the expansion of more colonial territory brought back under the authority of the King.

Occupied Long Island

Before there were any bridges between Manhattan Island and Long Island, the two communities were not as tied together. There were a great many who lived in western Long Island who regularly interacted with New York City via a ferry. Most of Long Island, at least the part that had been settled, was used for farming and grazing. I’ve not seen an authoritative census from the time, but I’d guess the population of the entire island was between 15,000 and 20,000, compared to around 3 million today.

Long Island Sound, 1776 (from Journal of Am Rev)

Many patriot residents of Long Island had fled to Connecticut after the British occupation. Those who remained, did not actively resist British rule. Most signed loyalty oaths which New York Governor William Tryon required of all subjects. For the most part, the island accepted British control and the people got back to living their lives. There are some stories about local attacks on the regulars at times. Most of these sound more like criminal attacks under the guise of war. Some, however, may have been motivated by patriotism.

Not all was back to normal though. The island remained under martial law. Tory regiments recruited young men for the King’s service. Across Long Island Sound in Connecticut, a patriot stronghold threatened to challenge British occupation at some point. Many patriots from Long Island had joined regiments in Connecticut and were eager to bring Long Island under patriot control again.

Refuge in Connecticut

In Connecticut, many refugees from Long Island found themselves with little more than what they could carry. Most farmers had little cash and relied on their land to grow crops for trade. Since they had to abandon most of their property, they came to Connecticut destitute, relying on the charity of others.

Some wanted to return to Long Island to collect some of their property. A few were able to get permission to return temporarily, but most could not. Even for those who did get permission, the risk of robbery on the roads was high. Over the winter of 1776-77, the Forage War was occupying the two armies. Because the British could not collect forage in New Jersey, collecting forage on Long Island became more critical.

Connecticut remained a patriot stronghold and Long Island a loyalist stronghold, with only the relatively narrow waters of Long Island Sound separating these two enemies.

Samuel Parsons

In command of the Continental forces in Connecticut was General Samuel Parsons. I’ve mentioned him a few times, but just as a reminder: Parsons started the war as a Connecticut patriot politician and militia officer. Way back in Episode 59, Colonel Parsons had met with Captain Benedict Arnold on the road to Cambridge just after Lexington and Concord. Arnold told Parsons about the importance of the cannons at Fort Ticonderoga. Parsons, after leaving Arnold, decided to organize and provide colonial funds for the mission to take Fort Ticonderoga, using Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.

Samusel Holden Parson
(from FindaGrave)

Colonel Parsons participated in the Siege of Boston and took a commission in the Continental Army. Some sources say he fought at Bunker Hill, but as far as I can tell, he never made it onto the battlefield. It appears he was part of the reserve forces that were held back during the battle. Colonel Parsons moved to New York with the rest of the army after the British evacuated Boston. In August, 1776 Congress commissioned him as a brigadier general. He was the Connecticut candidate who prevented Colonel Arnold from being promoted in that round.

General Parsons oversaw the failed mission of the Turtle submarine to blow up the British fleet in New York Harbor. He fought at White Plains and also joined the raid on Fort Independence in January 1777. Following the Danbury Raid, which I discussed in Episode 135, Washington gave him an independent command in Connecticut, concerned about another British invasion of the State. Parsons was eager to do more than simply wait for another raid, he was wanted a counter-raid.

Return Jonathan Meigs

To prepare for a raid on Long Island, General Parsons tapped Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs. I have to pause here for a moment to explain how this guy got a name like "Return Jonathan." According to family lore, when his father was courting his mother, she refused his proposal of marriage, so he got on his horse and rode off. Either she had a change of heart or had just been playing hard to get, but he ran after him shouting “Return Jonathan.” The couple did get married and thought it would be fun to name their son Return Jonathan in remembrance of the event. So, this wasn’t some nickname that he picked up during his life. His parents actually saddled him with the name at his birth.

Return Jonathan Meigs
(from Wikimedia)

Incidentally, Meigs passed along the name to his son, Return Jonathan Meigs Jr, who many years after the Revolution became a Senator and Governor of Ohio. It passed on to a third generation as well. Return Johnathan Meigs 3rd, grandson of this man married the daughter of a Cherokee Chief and was forced to march the Trail of Tears with his in-laws decades later. But that is getting way ahead of our story.

Meigs, Sr. had served in the colonial militia before the war. He had a thriving mercantile business and married his second wife in 1774, following the death of his first wife a year earlier.

After Lexington and Concord, Captain Meigs had led a company of militiamen to participate in the Siege of Boston. After the Continental Army formed, Meigs became a major in the Second Continental Regiment. He volunteered to cross the wilderness under Colonel Benedict Arnold to attack Quebec in 1775 and was among the minority who made it through to the Battle of Quebec. There, he was captured and held prisoner for several months. Despite the many hardships of this campaign, Meigs kept a journal of his mission, which is a wonderful primary source for the events of Arnold’s march and the battle of Quebec.

In May 1776, the British paroled Meigs and allowed him to return home via Halifax. However, under the conditions of his parole, he could not rejoin the war until exchanged for a captured British officer. It was not until January 1777 that he was formally exchanged and could rejoin the war effort. In February, Meigs received promotion to lieutenant colonel, and in May got bumped up to full colonel to take command of the sixth Connecticut regiment. Upon taking command, he was tasked with launching the retaliatory raid against Long Island.

Sag Harbor

Long Island’s Sag Harbor had been under British occupation since just after the British seized Long Island in August 1776. A force of 200 Continentals was originally sent to Sag Harbor to prevent British control of the entire island. When the British sent a larger force out to occupy the area in September, the small and isolated 200 Continentals fled across the Long Island Sound to Connecticut without a fight. The British required all civilians to take an oath of loyalty to the King. Of the thirty-five families living in Sag Harbor at the time, twenty-one took the oath. The other fourteen fled to Connecticut.

Because it was a port on the eastern end of Long Island where men or supplies could be taken in or out, the regulars kept a presence there, along with British patrol ships in the sound to make sure the patriots could not make use of it. You have to remember though, Long Island is really, well, long. It was over a hundred miles from New York City where the main British garrison was located, to the outpost at Sag Harbor. That was several days’ march at the time.

Peconic Bay, Sag Harbor (from RevWar Journal)

As the British prepared for a spring offensive, their focus was to the south. General Howe had at one time hoped he would launch multiple invasions, including one against New England. Instead, after receiving disappointing numbers of reinforcements over the winter, he focused on taking Philadelphia. Therefore, Sag Harbor became less important as a jumping off point. Howe also wanted to take most of his regulars with him to Philadelphia, leaving mostly local loyalist militia, supplemented by Hessians, to defend New York.

By May, there were only about seventy loyalist militia occupying Sag Harbor under the command of Captain James Raymond. The loyalists had an earthen works defensive line at the edge of town to use in the event of an attack. They built housing for the garrison on nearby Meeting House Hill, which also gave a good view of the area, including the bay to the north of them. According to later accounts, the British who had originally built the defensive works on Meeting House Hill, had dug their entrenchments in the Meeting House’s graveyard, resulting the desecration of many graves.

The loyalists also had a twelve gun schooner and a dozen smaller gunboats manned by about forty loyalist sailors. Their main purpose was to prevent smugglers from moving anything across Long Island Sound. These ships supplemented the British Navy, which patrolled the sound, on the lookout for any unauthorized ships.

Sag Harbor served as a depot for British forage and other supplies. Remember, this was near the end of the forage war in New Jersey, when patriots had been trying to deny forage and food for the army’s horses and men. There were tons of hay, grain, and other supplies stockpiled at Sag Harbor.

In preparation for the raid, Colonel Meigs hand-selected the soldiers from various units. Meigs picked 234 officers and men to assemble as a temporary unit for this one operation. Among those selected was a local so that Meigs was able to get intelligence about the area. Sergeant Elnathan Jennings of the first Connecticut told Meigs that he had grown up in Sag Harbor. He was intimately familiar with the area. Jennings had been among the many patriots who had fled Long Island rather than take the oath of loyalty to the King once the British arrived. The 23 year old had signed up with the Continental army and was eager to assist. He provided details about the best places for landing and about paths into the village that avoided main roads.

The Raid

On May 21, the men selected for the mission moved from New Haven to nearby Guilford, Connecticut as the launch point for crossing the sound. There, they waited for two days until the weather calmed down enough to make the crossing. Finally, on the afternoon of May 23, the stormy weather had subsided. The assault force crossed Long Island Sound in thirteen whaleboats, which are large rowboats. They were also accompanied by three small sloops with sails.

Whaleboat (from Rev War Journal)

The force landed on Southold, along the north fork of eastern Long Island. If you are not familiar with eastern Long Island, it is separated into a north and south fork divided by the Peconic Bay. Southold is on the north fork. Sag Harbor is on the south fork. If the men were to march around the bay, that would be about 45 miles of marching, far more than they could do in a single day.

Instead they carried eleven of the whaleboats overland to Peconic Bay. They rowed across the bay and landed on the south fork, about four miles from Sag Harbor, around midnight. The raiders had to leave some of the men with the ships at Southold, and more with the whaleboats that were tied up a few miles from town. Only 170 men of the original 234 continued on to the Sag Harbor to engage the enemy.

After landing, it took the soldiers about two hours to form up and make the night march to Sag Harbor, arriving around 2:00 AM on the morning of the 24th.

Meigs divided his force into two groups. The main force of about 130 men would assault the defenses at Meeting House Hill. The other 40 man team led by Captain Troop moved down to the harbor and destroy all the ships and supplies there. Meigs led the main assault on Meeting House Hill. He ordered his men to attack the guards with bayonets and avoid any gunfire that might awaken the main loyalist garrison.

According to a report compiled later by the Sag Harbor village historian, the raiders first captured a guard house, which has been the town schoolhouse before the occupation, and took prisoner the guards there. They next occupied the barracks where they surprised the sleeping soldiers and captured them without firing a shot. From there they moved on to capture the loyalist garrison commander, Captain Raymond and his staff, who were sleeping in a commandeered home on Main Street. It was only after capturing Raymond that the Continentals assaulted the main defenses on Meeting House Hill. That is where the fighting resulted in the death of six loyalists who resisted in hand to hand fighting.

Meigs, in his report, simply said that his men captured the garrison without much more detail. He noted that there was only one shot fired, so the men had been effective with the bayonet. The raiding party captured 53 prisoners with no casualties among the Continentals.

Porting Whaleboats (from Rev War Journal)

The smaller force went to the harbor where they reportedly destroyed twelve boats docked there by burning them. They also burned the warehouses containing hay, grain, and other supplies held for the British army. The fires alerted a small British twelve gun frigate that was anchored just off shore. It opened fire on the Continentals. The raiders continued destroying the ships in the harbor and the warehouses at the docks. They spent about 45 minutes completing the destruction, while under fire from the ship’s cannons. The contingent also captured another 37 prisoners from the harbor area.

Colonel Meigs, having secured the garrison on Meeting House Hill, deployed some of his soldiers to return fire on the frigate in order to give some cover to the men in the harbor. There is no record of any British casualties on the ship. Given the distance, it is unlikely they hit anyone that far away. We know the British cannons were ineffective as none of the men at the harbor were killed or wounded while going about their work. Firing into the dark from a distance was probably more an effort to scare off the enemy rather than do any actual damage.

Meigs reported killing a total of six of the enemy. It is not clear if all of those happened while capturing Meeting House Hill, or whether some or all of the casualties took place at the harbor. Given the sketchy details,we only know that there was some hand to hand fighting that night, resulting in enemy deaths. The Continentals, apparently made with through with none of their own killed or wounded.

Meigs Raid (from Wikimedia)

Within a few hours after first reaching the town, the raiders had completed their work and still before dawn marched back to their whaleboats with 90 prisoners. Some accounts note that they took 99 prisoners in total. It could be that the several escaped, and possibly that some wounded were counted who later died. It could also be that the accounts of 99 prisoners was simply mistaken. The accounts on return to Connecticut though, only list 90 prisoners.

Whatever the exact number, the raiders and their prisoners rowed back to the north fork, then across Long Island Sound, reaching the Connecticut shore safely at around 2:00 PM. The entire raid and return, which covered about 90 miles of land and water, took about 24 hours.

The Continentals captured almost all of the enemy stationed there and made it back to their whaleboats without any casualties. I guess those whaleboats were pretty large since the full contingent of raiders plus the prisoners rode back to Connecticut in them.

Aftermath

The Patriots deemed the raid was a success. The Meigs Raid was more of a psychological victory than anything else. Loyalists on Long Island were unnerved by the raid and felt less secure. It’s not entirely clear from contemporary records, but it does not appear that the British re-occupied Sag Harbor after the raid, or put any outpost so far east that could be an isolated target for another raid.

Long Island Forts (NY State Military Museum)

Instead, the British built Fort Franklin, named after New Jersey’s Royal Governor William Franklin, not his father, the traitor Benjamin Franklin. Fort Franklin was established about seventy miles west of Sag Harbor, much closer to the Main British force in and around New York City. The British properly garrisoned Fort Franklin to defend against any raids. They also maintained an armed camp at Oyster Bay, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe, as a collection point for supplies collected on Long Island for the use of the army. Again, this was many miles to the west, much closer to the city.

By all appearances, the British abandoned any permanent garrison out near the eastern tip of Long Island.

Back in Connecticut, Colonel Meigs became a hero. Congress awarded him a ceremonial sword as thanks for his efforts, one of only fifteen awarded during the war.

Next Week: General Howe attempts to provoke another fight with General Washington, in Northern New Jersey, resulting in the Battle of Short Hills.

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Next Episode 140 The Battle of Short Hills

Previous Episode 138 The Battle of Thomas Creek

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Sunday, March 1, 2020

Episode 138 Thomas Creek

A few weeks ago in Episode 130 I provided some background on the ongoing disputes between the loyalists in East Florida and the patriots in Georgia. I ended that episode in February 1777 with the loyalist having captured Fort McIntosh and leaving the border open to continuing raids by loyalists and their Creek and Seminole allies.

Border Chaos

Following the patriot loss at Fort McIntosh, local morale fell. The 400 man force of Georgia militia dwindled down to about 200.

Incident at Thomas Creek, by Jackson Walker
(from Jackson Walker Studio, used with permission)

American General Robert Howe held command of the southern theater but was up in Charleston, South Carolina. Robert Howe was no relation to British General William Howe. Robert was a North Carolinian and was spending most of his time fighting with South Carolinians over troop levels. South Carolina had recruited a bunch of North Carolina soldiers following the British attack on Charleston in early 1776. By 1777, North Carolina officials wanted their men back for the defense of their own state.

Howe was dealing with this fight and not giving much attention to the Georgia-Florida border fighting. With the desperate need for troops following the loss at Fort McIntosh, Howe managed to sent about 150 Virginia recruits and about 160 soldiers from South Carolina to supplement the 200 Georgians still trying to defend the border.

Robert Howe

Georgia forces also had five or six small military vessels armed with cannons, as well as sixteen military transports. The primary goal of these ships was to disrupt trade between East Florida and Britain's island colonies in the West Indies. At the same time, Georgia maintained its own trade with Charleston and Philadelphia, as well as several colonies in the French and Dutch West Indies. It even still covertly traded with the British-controlled Bahamas, despite trade bans.

Fortunately for the Americans, British forces in East Florida also remained dismally low. Governor Patrick Tonyn, a former British officer himself, had been trying to cobble together a defense force for East Florida. His one regiment, the 14th commanded by Colonel Augustine Prevost, received about forty reinforcements, only to be quickly followed by an order from General William Howe to send about half of the regiment to New York. British General Howe ordered Colonel Prevost to keep East Florida on the defensive and make no attempt to engage in further raids into Georgia.

Following the parole of American prisoners captured at Fort McIntosh, Governor Tonyn expected the return of British prisoners in Georgia to be returned as part of the prisoner exchange. But Georgia did not have enough prisoners to exchange.

Seminole Chief Ahaya
(from Native-Americans)

The result of all this was that East Florida’s defenses relied on militia, primarily loyalist refugees from Georgia. Colonel Thomas "Burnfoot" Brown commanded the militia. He had led the raid on Fort McIntosh and was eager to engage with the enemy. The remaining defenses came from local tribes under the control of Seminole Chief Ahaya, more commonly known to the British as Cowkeeper. Governor Tonyn had also tried to get British Indian agent David Taitt to provide warriors. But Taitt was mostly involved with the the Creek nation, which was farther from the conflict and showed less interest.

Governor Tonyn’s naval support was also almost non existent. It had dwindled down to one fourteen gun ship, the Rebecca. This allowed Georgia ships to intercept and capture a number of merchant ships trying to bring supplies to St. Augustine. To supplement this, Tonyn pressed into service three transport ships: the Meredith, the Triumvirate, and the Hawke, mounting ten guns on each ship.

Governor Tonyn and Colonel Prevost also did not agree on a strategy. Prevost wanted to pull all forces back to St. Augustine where they could fight a defensive battle from behind the city walls. Tonyn wanted a more aggressive defense where forces would remain mobile and challenge the Americans for every inch of soil.

The Plan to Capture Florida

Back in Savannah, Georgia's patriot President Button Gwinnett was eager to invade East Florida and capture St. Augustine. Remember, Gwinnett had wanted to be named a Continental general. When Lachlan McIntosh beat him out for that job, Gwinnett had to settle for delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in Philadelphia, where he signed the Declaration of Independence. After a few months, he returned to Georgia and was elected Speaker of the Assembly under the new state constitution. In February, following the loss of Fort McIntosh, President Archibald Bulloch requested and received near dictatorial power to deal with the emergency of the invasion. Two days later, he died under mysterious circumstances, leaving the controversial Gwinnett as the new dictator of Georgia.

Button Gwinnett
(from Wikimedia)

Gwinnett was eager to prove himself a leader who could bring military success. He requested that American General Robert Howe in Charleston send more Continentals to Georgia to assist with the invasion. General Howe thought Georgia needed thousands of soldiers just to defend its border, soldiers he could not spare. At this same time, General Howe was already handling a fight between North and South Carolina, which both complained they did not have enough soldiers. He was also under orders to send most of his soldiers north to support Washington’s army in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. So with all these demands for soldiers and facing only shortages, Howe was not about to deploy thousands of soldiers to attempt some crazy invasion of East Florida because some governor thought it was a good idea.

Despite not getting any additional soldiers, Governor Gwinnett remained undeterred. He and the Council of Safety proposed an invasion with the few hundred men they had at their disposal. In these desperate times with limited forces and the desire for military victory, you might think Gwinnett would put aside his personal feud with General McIntosh and work together to make the best battle plan they could. But no, Gwinnett instead had McIntosh’s brother arrested on charges of treason about this time and tried to get General McIntosh removed from command.

At first, Gwinnett tried to raise enough militia to invade without the assistance of any Continentals under McIntosh’s command in Georgia. But by late March, he realized he was not going to get the forces he needed. Gwinnett held a council of war with the Continental officers, but did not invite McIntosh to attend. Instead, the Continental's second in command, Colonel Samuel Elbert, would lead the Continental force.

General McIntosh, despite his personal issues, ordered his subordinates to cooperate with the governor if he requested their assistance. At the same time though, he objected to a civilian stepping in to hold a council of war, not include the military commander, and issue orders to his subordinates. But rather than fight this out by issuing contradictory orders, McIntosh went to Savanna. There, he would take up his complaint with the Council of Safety.

The Georgia militia would also supplement the Continentals. Gwinnett managed to raise a little over 100 volunteers commanded by Colonel John Baker. The plan was for the Continentals to move down the coast in transport ships while the militia traveled overland. The two groups would meet at a place called Sawpit Bluff, about fifty miles north of St. Augustine.

The Invasion

The two groups set off around May 1, planning to meet up twelve days later. From the beginning, things did not go well. Colonel Baker’s militia had trouble crossing rivers that were flooded thanks to spring rains. They had barely made any progress into East Florida by May 4 when a group of Native warriors supporting the British attacked the militia camp. Two militia officers were wounded in the fight and one Indian killed. The warriors fled as the militia pursued them for about twelve miles. When they could not catch up with them, they gave up the chase and returned to camp. The angry militia mutilated the body of the dead Indian and left it for his friends to find. Despite these delays, the militia made it to Sawpit bluff by the 12th, and awaited the Continentals.

Samuel Elbert (from Wikimedia)

Continental Colonel Elbert slowly made his way down the coast. He did not reach the north end of Amelia Island, about 15 miles north of the rendezvous point, until the 18th. Elbert dispatched a team of twenty soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant Ward to round up all the inhabitants of the island. The detachment had orders to capture any cattle or pigs that they could find to make salt meat for the under-provisioned army. Beyond that, they were ordered to protect civilian property and treat all prisoners, especially women and children with care.

While Ward was rounding up his prisoners, a group of loyalist resisters took a few shots at the soldiers. Two soldiers were badly wounded and Lieutenant Ward shot dead. When Colonel Elbert got the news, he ordered his soldiers to burn every house on the island and destroy all other property they could find.

With the Continentals distracted on Amelia Island, Colonel Baker’s militia sat around Sawpit Bluff wondering what happened to them. For a few days they simply waited, not moving from the rendezvous point.

Meanwhile the British received word that the American invasion was underway. Colonel Brown took a group of about 40 Rangers and Indians to make contact with the enemy. Late on May 14, Brown’s loyalists sighted the enemy camp of the militia at Sawpit Bluff. Brown dispatched some of his Indians for a night raid, with the goal of stealing the patriot horses. The force made off with about 40 horses, although a sentinel did see the attackers and fire on them.

The next morning, Baker’s patriot militia found their horses tied up near a swamp about four miles from their camp. This was an old Indian trick. The horses were bait. When the soldiers tried to retrieve them, they would walk into an ambush. Baker was aware of this and tried to avoid getting caught in a trap. He kept his main force in plain view to distract the Indians while a small group sneaked in to untie the horses. Once untied, a third group rushed in to drive the horses out of the area in a hurry.

The Indians chased after the men and horses, but gave up after a few miles. They then set the woods on fire to avoid being pursued as they withdrew. Several horses were killed. The patriots suffered two wounded. They managed to kill one or two Indians, which they again scalped, and mutilated their bodies. The Indians returned to Brown’s main force. Brown then moved his forces to meet up with a larger contingent, including British regulars.

Baker realized things were going bad for his patriot militia. There was no word from Colonel Elbert and the Continentals. The British now knew where Baker and his militia were camped and were no doubt planning another attack. Rather than wait for the attack to come, Baker started to retreat north and further inland, following along creeks to find a place to ford and move back toward Georgia.

Thomas Creek

On May 16, Baker’s patriot militia made camp along Thomas Creek. He was not aware that Colonel Brown’s British militia and Indian force had met up with Colonel Prevost’s larger force which now totaled between 200 and 250 regulars, loyalist militia, and Indians. Brown and Prevost put together a plan which they executed the following morning.

British Ranger from Florida in Georgia
(from Jacksonville Historical Society)

As expected Baker’s militia broke camp early and continued their retreat, following Thomas Creek upstream. Around 9 AM, they ran into an ambush led by Brown. The Americans got within 50 yards before the enemy rose up and fired a devastating volley into their lines. The startled patriots turned and fled, only to run into Prevost’s 100 regulars marching up behind them. To add to the chaos Indian warriors began jumping out from the sides of the road to attack anyone who came too close. The patriot militia panicked and fled into the swamps. Someone took Colonel Baker’s horse and he fled on foot. It was a total route. The fighting only lasted about five minutes. Three Americans were killed and nine wounded. Between thirty and forty were taken prisoner. The rest, who had scattered into the swamps evaded their pursuers. Several of the wounded who fled died in the swamps over the next few days. The British reported no casualties.

The Indians were angry at the patriots who had scalped and mutilated the bodies of their fellow warriors at the encounters a few days earlier. After the fighting ended, the Indians killed between 15 and 24 of the prisoners, again accounts differ, leaving only 15 surviving prisoners. This event is sometimes called the Thomas Creek Massacre.

Retreat

The scattered militia mostly made their way back to Georgia, across the Satilla river and back into patriot lines. A few of them made there way to Amelia Island where they met up with Elbert and the Continentals. The British forces, who had marched hard through several days of heat, were too tired to pursue them and allowed them to escape.

As the Continentals learned of the defeat at Thomas Creek, Elbert had to decide what to do next with his Continentnals. As his men waited, two of Tonyn’s converted war ships, the Rebecca and Hawke encountered the 16 gun American ship supporting the Continentals on May 25. The British almost took the ship, when a well placed shot took out the Rebecca’s topmast. Both she and the Hawke, which had also sustained considerable damage, had to withdraw.

Following this, Elbert attempted to move his fleet inland up a river toward the British force. They found that the flooded rivers had subsided and that that could not get their ships through the shallow water. After a week of trying, Elbert’s forces were running out of food and facing more desertions. He pulled back his small fleet to Georgia, but also deployed a land force to march overland back toward Georgia. Their mission was to destroy any farms and to drive off any cattle so that the enemy could not benefit from them. It was not until June 15 that the force finally returned to Savannah.

McIntosh - Gwinnett Duel

At the same time this whole campaign was taking place, General McIntosh and President Gwinnett were battling with each other in Savannah. As I said, McIntosh had gone there to protest Gwinnett’s interference with the army. There was supposed to be an election on May 8 to choose a new governor under Georgia’s new constitution. The Council of Safety decided it would do nothing until after the elections.

John Adam Treutlen
(from New GA Enc.)

In those elections Gwinnett lost to another political opponent, John Adam Treutlen. The wide margin indicated that voters were unhappy with the way he was running things. Treutlen, a self-made man who had arrived in the colony as an indentured servant, took office immediately after the election.

With that over, the new Assembly took up McIntosh’s complaint. The two sides argued about who did what and blamed the other for the delay in the expedition and its ultimate failure. At one point, McIntosh called Gwinnett a “a Scoundrell and lying Rascal.”

In the end, the Assembly decided that civilian control of the military was of paramount concern and that Gwinnett was within his authority as President at the time. Although Gwinnett won that political battle he was out of office and bitter at the turn of events.

On the evening of May 15, Gwinnett sent McIntosh a note saying he knew McIntosh had called him a scoundrel and that he demanded satisfaction, in other words a duel. McIntosh agreed to pistols at dawn the following morning. Both men showed up in the morning at the appointed time and place. They stepped off their distance, aimed their weapons, and both fired at the same time. Both men were hit in the leg and fell to the ground. They debated a second round of firing. However, their seconds insisted both had acted honorably. The men shook hands and left to get medical attention.

Lachlan McIntosh
(from Wikimedia)

McIntosh recovered from his leg wound. Gwinnett suffered for three days before dying from his wound. Thus he became the first signer of the Declaration of Independence to die, less than a year after signing,and at the hands of a fellow patriot. Dueling, of course, was not legal even then and McIntosh was charged with murder. He went to trial and was acquitted. I haven’t seen transcripts of the trial, but the typical defense against murder while dueling was that it was self defense. The other party was shooting at me and I shot back. Because dueling was socially acceptable at the time, the defense usually worked.

After his acquittal, many feared that Gwinnett’s friends would do something to take revenge against McIntosh. General Washington transferred him up north to get him away from Georgia. McIntosh would get to spend the next winter in Valley Forge. McIntosh’s brother, who had been forced to resign under Gwinnett’s harassment, even ended up becoming a loyalist and joining the enemy militia as a captain. Following Gwinnett’s death and McIntosh’s removal from the state, the feud between factions supporting either Gwinnett or McIntosh continued for years, even after the war ended. Beyond the personal, the two factions argued over civilian or military control of the Continental forces in the state.

Florida Improves its Defenses

The squabbling between civilian authorities and the military in East Florida did not reach the level of pistols at dawn like it did in Georgia, but it still was not good. In April, British General William Howe granted Augustine Prevost the temporary rank of general while serving in America.

Augustine Prevost (from Wikimedia)

Governor Tonyn and General Prevost, however, could not agree on who to credit with the victory at Thomas Creek. Prevost gave most of the credit to the Regulars, while Tonyn credited the militia and Indians.

Tonyn also requested that Prevost pay some of the mission expenses for the Indians out of military funds, something Prevost refused to do. Tonyn also had to foot the bill for the militia, something he also resented. Prevost wanted input on training and drilling the militia regiments. But Tonyn countered that if Prevost wasn’t going to pay for them, he wasn’t going to get input on how they were maintained.

At least the navy recognized the vulnerability of East Florida. Admiral Richard Howe deployed three frigates to St. Augustine. This freed up Governor Tonyn to return the ships he had commandeered during the emergency

Conclusion

So for all the fuss, the invasion of Florida led to no real change. The two sides still controlled the same territory. The border fighting entered a lull of minor raids on cattle. Not much would change for the next year. In both Georgia and Florida, leaders spent more time fighting with each other than with the enemy., who was planning to sell out the Polish Confederation to Russia. After the Confederation collapsed and Poland was partitioned among the European powers, Pulaski found himself on the run, dodging charges of attempted regicide. Something the kings of most countries took rather seriously. Finding his way to Franklin, Pulaski received a letter of recommendation and boarded a ship for America.

For the next nine or ten months, Franklin made little effort to push the French government into doing much more. He and the other commissioners spent most of their time winning over the French people, seeing just how much they could get away with in shipping covert military items to America, and waiting for events to unfold in such a way as to make a true alliance between France and America possible.

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Next Episode 139 Meigs Raid on Sag Harbor

Previous Episode 137 Lambert Wickes brings the war to Britain

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Further Reading

Websites

Porter, Kenneth W. “The Founder of the ‘Seminole Nation’ Secoffee or Cowkeeper” The Florida Historical Quarterly, 1949: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30138772 (free to read with registration).

Piecuch, JIm, “Patrick Tonyn: Britain’s Most Effective Revolutionary-Era Royal Governor” Journal of the American Revolution, 2018 https://allthingsliberty.com/2018/03/patrick-tonyn-britains-most-effective-revolutionary-era-royal-governor

Smith, Roger C. The Fourteenth Colony: Florida and the American Revolution in the South, University of Florida: unpublished doctoral dissertation, 2011: http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/E0/04/27/45/00001/smith_r.pdf

Button Gwinnett: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/declaration/bio13.htm

Lachlan McIntosh: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/lachlan-mcintosh-1727-1806

Gen. Lachlan McIntosh: http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/mcintosh.html

Lawrence, Alexander A. “General Lachlan McIntosh and His Suspension from Continental Command During the Revolution.” The Georgia Historical Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, 1954, pp. 101–141: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40577507.

Pennington, Edgar Legare. “East Florida in the American Revolution, 1775-1778.” The Florida Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 1, 1930, pp. 24–46: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30149717

Continental Congress committee report clearing George McIntosh of accusations of being a Tory Oct. 9, 1777: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-05-02-0182

Richard Winn: http://www.carolana.com/SC/Revolution/patriot_leaders_sc_richard_winn.html

Thomas Brown: https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/thomas-brown-1750-1825

Battle of Thomas Creek: http://www.jaxhistory.org/portfolio-items/battle-thomas-creek

Lynch, Wayne, “Button Gwinnett and Lachlan McIntosh Duel” Journal of the American Revolution, 2014: https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/09/button-gwinnett-and-the-mcintosh-duel

Video: Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Button! (rap with Lin-Manuel Miranda): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhFeQSBZUSk

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Clemens, William M. Button Gwinnett, Man of Mystery, Pompton Lakes, NJ: Self-published, 1921 (Google Books) .

Corse, Carita Dr. Andrew Turnbull and the New Smyrna colony of Florida, Florida: Drew Press, 1919.

Hawes, Lilla M. (ed) Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. 12: the Papers of Lachlan McIntosh, Savannah: Georgia Historical Society, 1957.

Jones, Charles C. Biographical Sketches of the Delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1891.

Jones, Charles C. The History of Georgia Vol. 2, Boston: Houghton & Mifflin Co. 1883.

McCall, Hugh The History of Georgia, containing brief sketches of the most remarkable events up to the present day, (1784), Atlanta: A.H. Caldwell, 1909 reprint.

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Cashin, Edward The King's Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier, New York: Fordham University Press, 1999.

Cashin, Edward William Bartram And the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier, Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2007.

Drewien, D.J. Button Guinnett: A Historiography of the Georgia Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Pittsburgh: Rosedog Books, 2007

Jackson, Harvey H. Lachlan McIntosh and the Politics of Revolutionary Georgia, University of Georgia Press, 1979.

Johnson, Daniel M. This Cursed War: Lachlan McIntosh in the American Revolution, Self-published, 2018.

Piecuch, Jim Three Peoples, One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the Revolutionary South, 1775-1782, Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2008.

Searcy, Martha C. The Georgia-Florida Contest in the American Revolution, 1776-1778, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1985.

Sharp, Colin Gwinnett Button Gwinnett: Failed Merchant, Plantation Owner, Mountebank, Opportunist Politician and Founding Father, YouCaxton Publications, 2015.

* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Episode 137 Lambert Wickes Brings the War to Britain

Last week I talked about Benjamin Franklin coming to Paris and his efforts to bring France into the war with Britain. Diplomacy and talk were not Franklin’s only tools. Franklin and his fellow diplomats also attempted to bring the war directly to Britain, or at least just off shore in the waters around Britain.

Lambert Wickes

Franklin has crossed the Atlantic on an American warship, the Reprisal, captained by Lambert Wickes. Captain Wickes had been a merchant ship captain in Maryland before the war. His first notoriety came when he refused to deliver tea to Baltimore during the disputes between the colonies and Britain that eventually led to the Boston Tea Party.

Reprisal and Lexington (from FB Naval History & Heritage)

Wickes joined the Continental Navy in the spring of 1776, after Commodore Esek Hopkins had already made his raid on the Bahamas and gotten his fleet trapped in Rhode Island. Wickes commanded a newly converted ship the Reprisal, which had been one of Robert Morris’ merchant vessels. The new 18 gun navy ship had a crew of about 130 men. Like most continental ships, it was large enough and well armed enough to capture any merchant vessel, but no match for a British ship of the line.

After patrolling in and around the Delaware River waters protecting Philadelphia, Wickes and the crew of the Reprisal saw their first action when the ship fought along with Captain John Barry and the Lexington against British warships in the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, a fight I discussed back in Episode 94. Wickes’ brother, Lieutenant Richard Wickes was killed in that battle.

William Bingham

Congress next tasked Wickes to deliver a VIP, William Bingham to Martinique where Bingham was to serve as an American agent for Congress on the French colony. Bingham is someone else I’ve failed to mention so far. He came from Philadelphia merchant family. He began school at the College of Philadelphia (today University of Pennsylvania) at age 13 and graduated at 16. His father died the following year and Bingham took over his trading business. He obviously had good political connections because in 1770, at age 18, the ministry in London appointed Bingham Consul to Martinique, a French colony in the West Indies.

William Bingham (from Wikimedia)

Despite his appointment, Bingham remained in Philadelphia, completing a masters degree. I’m not sure what his duties were with the consulship, but if he even visited Martinique, he did not stay there very long. In 1773, he took an extended trip to Europe, then returned to Philadelphia.

At the outbreak of war, Bingham stood with the patriots and resigned his consulship. Congress’ secret committee called on Bingham to go to Martinique and do what he could to help the cause.

Bingham’s status in the French colony of Martinique was essentially the same as Silas Deane’s was in France. His cover was that he was a private businessman. His secret orders from Congress were to do whatever he could to get French military supplies to America, to collect any useful intelligence, sponsor privateers to attack British shipping, and do whatever else he could to provoke tensions between France and Britain.

Since the colonies were not as closely watched as France itself, Martinique became a key depot for the Americans. France could ship all sorts of military supplies across the Atlantic to its own colony. Then, if local officials mistakenly sold some which then got shipped to America, well, that was just some bureaucratic mistake.

I didn’t really mean to get onto a tangent about William Bingham, but he does play a key role in the arms trade between France and America.

Mission to Martinique

So anyway, Lambert Wickes had to get Bingham to Martinique. On July 3, 1776, the Reprisal left Philadelphia with Bingham aboard. As the ship traveled to the West Indies, it encountered three different British merchant vessels carrying trade goods. Each time it captured a ship, Captain Wickes had to dispatch a prize crew to take control of the ship. The prize crew would sail it back to a friendly port in America so that the ship and its cargo could be sold. After sending off three prize crews, Wickes' own crew was getting rather short on manpower. Some of the crew of the captured ships had agreed to join his crew, but he was also not sure how far he could trust those men, especially if they made up the bulk of his crew.

When the Reprisal caught a fourth ship, Captain Wickes was reluctant to give up any more of his crew and could not take the ship with them. He said that since they were an Irish ship, they were not a legitimate target and he would allow them to go on their way.

Wickes would have no problems capturing Irish ships the following year. The point of this excuse was to release the ship without revealing the weakness of his own crew. The captured crew was happy not to ask too many questions and leave. They were not going to argue that they should be taken prisoner. They were happy to go on their way.

Port Royal Martinique (from Wikimedia)

On July 27, as the Reprisal entered St. Pierre Harbor in Martinique, it found the British ship HMS Shark already there delivering a protest from British Admiral James Young. Wickes put Bingham in a rowboat so that he could get safely to shore then engaged the Shark in a short firefight. The French broke up the fight by firing a few shots from their shore batteries, but not before the Reprisal had damaged the Shark. The Shark left the harbor, only to return the next day with another complaint from Admiral Young.

After the battle, Wickes received compliments and congratulations from the locals. The French authorities were equally friendly, allowing Wickes to put his ship in dock for cleaning, and allowing Bingham to take up residence and begin granting letters of marque to any privateers willing to attack British shipping. Martinique officials had no problems letting privateers attack British shipping and return to French ports for protection and disposal of captured prizes.

Promotion to Captain

Over the next few weeks, the Americans hauled in quite a number of British prizes. Wickes returned to Philadelphia in September, loaded with gunpowder and other supplies, and received commendations from Congress.

Shortly after his return Congress formalized the seniority list for its navy captains. Wickes’ recent exploits helped his standing. On October 10, Congress established the seniority of its twenty four captains. Wickes ranked number eleven.

Just like seniority among army generals, seniority for navy captains was a contentious and political issue. These captains had already been serving for many months. Rearranging seniority upset many. The most senior captain was James Nicholson. You all remember the famous Captain Nicholson, right? Of course not. He had a very undistinguished career. Some might even call it embarrassing. John Barry, who I have mentioned and who had quite a career, was number seven on the list. John Paul Jones was number eighteen.

Mission to France

Also in October, the secret committee tasked Wickes delivering another VIP. He would carry Benjamin Franklin to France. As I discussed last week, Franklin was traveling to take up his role as Commissioner to France. At this time, Franklin was probably the most well known man in America. Getting him and his grandsons safely past the British Navy was the top priority.

Congress ordered Wickes not to go looking for prizes and to get Franklin to Nantes as quickly as possible. If he came across a prize and Franklin approved, he could capture it. Once Franklin was ashore, Wickes would be free to harass shipping in the English Channel and hopefully dispose of his prizes in French ports. All money from such prizes would support the new delegation in Europe. Congress appointed Thomas Morris, brother of Pennsylvania delegate Robert Morris, to serve as the agent for all prizes. Thomas Morris was already in Europe.

Franklin attempted to slip out of Philadelphia as quietly as he could, to avoid tipping off the British that he would be at sea. He and his grandsons boarded the Reprisal at Marcus Hook, many miles downstream from Philadelphia. The ship managed to sail out to open sea without encountering any of the British warships that regularly sailed around the mouth of the Delaware.

The trip across the ocean was relatively uneventful. As the ship got closer to France, it encountered a merchant ship. With Franklin’s permission, Wickes seized the unarmed ship and forced the surprised crew of the George surrender. He put aboard a prize crew and continued with both ships toward the French coast. A few hours later, the LaVigne also came within range and was taken without a fight.

Nantes, France (from flickr)

The next day, November 28, they sighted the French coast. Poor winds prevented them from reaching Nantes. For the next four days, contrary winds prevented the Reprisal from reaching any destination. Finally, the frustrated and seasick Franklin got Wickes to pay a fishing vessel to bring Franklin and his two grandsons ashore. From there, they could make their way overland to Nantes, and then on to Paris.

With Franklin safely ashore, Wickes still had plenty of other worries. He needed to get the Reprisal and his prize ships safely to port. He still had most of Franklin's luggage. He had to sell the prizes and the indigo he brought in his own hold to fund the new American commissioners. He also still had the crews of the prize ships aboard. Due to contrary winds, it would take Wickes another few weeks to reach the port of Nantes in late December.

Normally a naval vessel would return to a friendly port where a prize court would value the captured vessels and permit their sale. A portion of the prize money would be distributed to the crew. The crews of the captured vessels could be held as prisoners of war. None of that was possible in France.

The French government was bound by the Treaty of Utrecht. That 1713 treaty had ended the War of Spanish Succession. Even though the treaty had been blown up twice by the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, both France and Britain still declared themselves bound by its trade provisions. Among them was the understanding that neither country would give safe harbor to any enemy warships.

Now I know that you are all thinking, finally we can get into an extended legal analysis of the Treaty of Utrecht and its application to 18th Century maritime law. Unfortunately, I don’t have time for all that, but I have recommended a few books on my blog if you want to read more.

Suffice it to say that unless France wanted war with Britain, which it did not, it had to arrest Wickes and return the prize ships to their British owners. Recall that in Martinique, Wickes’ experience with the French governor was that they could do pretty much whatever they wanted, since France was at least tacitly supporting the American cause. In France, the government could not get away with playing fast and loose with its treaties.

British Ambassador Lord Stormont, whom I discussed last week, would regularly threaten war if the French supported ships in open warfare with British shipping. French officials would spend the next couple of years playing a fine line of assisting American ships as much as possible, while avoiding a blatant and direct treaty violation that could lead to war with Britain. That whole dance really got its start when the Reprisal arrived in Nantes.

Wickes delivered Franklin’s luggage and the indigo to a French agent for the American Commissioners. A short time later, the two prize vessels appeared with different names written on them and new French owners. Wickes had sold the ships and cargo on the sly to new French owners who bought them at a massive discount. In doing so, they agreed to assume all risk for possible legal claims. I could not find the purchase prices for these deals, but later ones were estimated to be sold at only 15% of actual market value.

Lord Stormont
(from Wikimedia)

French merchants who had property aboard the prize ships complained to Lord Stormont. Stormont, of course, immediately went to see Vergennes at Versailles to complain. Foreign Minister Vergennes said he knew nothing about the matter but would look into it. There was no real investigation. Since the ships had different names written on them now and had new forged documentation of ownership, French officials determined that these must be different ships, and that the British must be confused. Everyone knew this was BS, but neither Britain nor France wanted to press the issue to the point where it led to war.

In the meantime, the Loire River froze, locking in the Reprisal. Wickes spent a few weeks on land, dealing with other matters, including attempts to buy new warships. He also inspected one of the merchant ships that had attempted to bring supplies to America a few months earlier. I mentioned this in Episode 115 and implied that it had returned to port because the French officer Du Coudray was being a bit of a wuss about his food and quarters. Du Coudray feared just such criticism and asked Captain Wickes to look at the ship. Beaumarchais had thrown it together in a hurry, knowing that an order to seize the ship was on its way. Du Coudray showed Wickes that the ship had only about one quarter of the food needed for the voyage, that none of the officers were familiar with American ports, and that the ship itself was not seaworthy due the way the cargo had been loaded in haste. Wickes concluded that it was appropriate to turn back. It just goes to show there is always more than one side to every story.

Wickes stay in France could not last long though. The Treaty of Utrecht barred enemy warships from using ports, except in cases of extreme emergency when they could stay for 24 hours. Lord Stormont again complained to Vergennes who again was just shocked by this new information and ordered the Reprisal to leave France and not return. Of course, it took quite a while for those orders to get delivered. Besides the Reprisal was incapable of leaving until the river thawed.

In late January, the Reprisal sailed to the open sea. Despite official pronouncements from Versailles, Franklin had written Wickes to assure him that French and Spanish ports would be open to his return, The French government just wanted it to be kept quiet and have plausible deniability. The Americans though, did not even want to do that. In addition to disrupting commercial shipping, a secret goal of the American delegation in France was to provoke a war between Britain and France. Although Britain and France hoped to avoid war, America definitely wanted to see that war begin.

Over the next few days the Reprisal captured three more merchant ships. In each case, Wickes brought the officers aboard as prisoners, then sent a prize crew to take the ships back to France for sale. A short time later, he found his real target, the Lisbon Packet. This was not a private merchant ship. This was the King’s ship, manned by the British Navy and armed, albeit rather lightly. After a 45 minute battle, the crew of the Reprisal stormed the ship, named the Swallow, and took its crew prisoner. With this prize, Wickes headed back to France. Along the way, another merchant ship, came too close and fell prey as well.

Wickes took his five prize ships to Port Louis, France. There he claimed the five ships were his, and that he was just putting into shore for some repairs. Everyone knew this was a lie, but the French policy of willful ignorance was in play here. Wickes also still had the five captains of his captured ships aboard as prisoners. He agreed to release them on parole, on their honor not to escape or reveal to anyone that the Reprisal had captured their ships. He did give them permission to lodge protests with the port intendant, but only because he knew those protests would be ignored.

Wickes tried to arrange for secret sales of his prizes and to figure out what to do with the captured crews. Britain was holding a number of American privateers in British prisons. The commissioners hoped to arrange prisoner exchanges. Franklin sent a letter to Lord Stormont suggesting just such an exchange. Stormont, however, took a different approach. He sent back the letter with a note that he would not engage in communications with rebels unless they were ready to beg for the King’s mercy. He lodged more protests with Versailles about the captured British ships.

Wickes unloaded the ships to American agent Thomas Morris for sale. The French port intendant, now feeling pressure to act, ordered the Reprisal to leave port within 24 hours. He said nothing about the private merchant ships. That was just under investigation. Wickes was not ready to leave port. Instead, he pumped water into his hold then brought aboard ship inspectors to certify that the ship was taking on water and needed repairs before it could leave port. He ended up delaying his departure for weeks.

Meanwhile in Versailles, Lord Stormont was livid, protesting these continued violations. Vergennes first denied everything. He said the Reprisal had been ordered to leave port long ago, that there had been no sale of the prize ships and that French officials were still investigating the matter. Vergennes could not discuss the matter with King Louis until he got all the facts.

Wickes had arrived with his prizes in early February. In mid-March Stormont was still complaining for action. On May 22, the French ministry finally released its report. The Reprisal had stayed in port longer than allowed due to the damage of the ship and the incompetence of local officials to enforce the order to depart. They could find no records of the prize ships. Sure, there were records of five other ships sold around that same time that seemed remarkably similar to the prize ships. But each of those had different names, were painted a different color, and had papers saying they were different ships, so those could not be the prizes everyone was looking for.

Summer Assault

Meanwhile Wickes was not done. He prepared for another voyage. This time, he added two more ships to sail along with the Reprisal. The Lexington had arrived, the same ship commanded by John Barry that Wickes and the Reprisal had fought with at Turtle Gut Inlet. Barry now had a larger ship. Captain Henry Johnson now commanded the Lexington.

Rounding out the fleet was the Dolphin under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Nicholson. Wickes’ half brother Joseph Hynson actually purchased the Dolphin, at that time called the Rochefort, in Liverpool. Hynson is a fascinating story himself. He turned out to be a double agent working for the British. Maybe I can get into his story in another episode. He got the Dolphin to France where it became the third ship in Wickes’ fleet, which set out from France on May 28, 1777.

Even getting the fleet started was a challenge. Most of the crew refused to go until they got their prize money from the previous captures, or for that matter the prizes captured on the trip to Martinique a year earlier. Wickes came up with some money for the crew, but also had to supplement his crews with French sailors.

With the fleet underway, Wickes headed for the Irish Sea. The fleet sailed up the west coast of Ireland and then into the Irish Sea from the north. Over the course of this mission the American fleet took eighteen merchant vessels. They sent most of them back to France. A few sank. A couple, which were smugglers, they let go on their way.

Reprisal escaping the Burford (from JAR)

The attacks, over the course of the next month, created panic in Britain. Insurance rates skyrocketed. Merchants chose to send their merchandise aboard French or other neutral ships. British ship owners found themselves scrambling for business. The navy deployed ships in search of what they called pirates, but could not seem to find them.

As the fleet sailed back toward France in late June, it spotted one more large merchant vessel and gave chase. Only this time, the ship turned out not to be a merchant vessel but the Burford, a 74 gun British ship of the line. There was no way the three American ships were even a contest for the Burford. As they realized their mistake and fled, the British warship turned on them. The fleet scattered in three different directions, leaving a prize ship for the British to seize and board. The Captain of the Burford did not take the bait. He continued after the largest ship, the Reprisal, letting the others go.

Aboard the Reprisal, Wickes made a dash for the French coast. With the Burford gaining on him, the crew threw over everything they could to lighten the load, including all the cannon. The Burford got within musket range of the Reprisal, but Wickes kept his ship in front, always avoiding giving the British a chance to fire a broadside. After a harrowing twelve hour chase, the Reprisal reached the French coast and the Burford gave up the chase.

Expulsion

It took a few weeks for word of the attacks to reach London, and a few more for London to instruct Lord Stormont. By early July, Stormont was threatening war at Versailles over flagrant treaty violations. France was serving as a base for enemy ships. Stormont told Vergennes that if something didn’t change, France and Britain really would soon be at war.

Comte de Vergennes
(from Wikimedia)

Vergennes was trying to avoid such a war, just as the Americans were trying to start one. Vergennes still wanted to help the Americans but realized the British were near their breaking point. He told Stormont, truthfully, that France had ordered the American fleet to leave in May and not return. Of course, no one believed those instructions. He also said they had only returned because they had been attacked by British warships. Vergennes now ordered the American ships sequestered, which gave them time to make repairs in French ports. Vergennes also seemed to have a really hard time figuring out what happened to the eight British prize ships that had entered French ports and then suddenly disappeared. Again, there was nothing to return to British authorities except the crews.

France had recently arrested another American privateer, Gustavus Conyngham, who the British had termed the Dunkirk Pirate. Conyingham’s story is another fascinating one I hope to cover in another episode. The diplomatic arguing dragged on over the rest of the summer. Meanwhile, Wickes repaired and rearmed his ships.

Finally, in September Wickes received orders from the Commissioners to return to America with supplies and important communications for Congress. The British had hoped to catch the Reprisal after leaving port, but Wickes gave them the slip. The Reprisal crossed the Atlantic with Wickes a returning national hero.

Sadly, this is where Wickes’ story ends. On his return trip, off the coast of Newfoundland, the Reprisal encountered a massive storm at sea. The ship sank and all hands were lost, except for one identified only as the ship’s cook. Captain Wickes went down with his ship, cutting short the life of one of America’s bravest and most talented naval officers.

Next week, we head south for the battle of Thomas Creek in Florida.

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Next Episode 138 The Battle of Thomas Creek

Previous Episode 136 Franklin in Paris

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