On this day 250 years ago, New Hampshire militia commanded by Major John Sullivan of Durham and Colonel Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter marched with their men to join the militia in Portsmouth who had raided Fort William and Mary the previous day. Sullivan and Folsom had been New Hampshire’s representatives in the First Continental Congress and were the leaders of the Patriots in the colony. Sullivan and his men joined militia led by John Langdon and Thomas Pickering of Portsmouth, Irish immigrant Andrew McClary of Epsom, Thomas Tash of Newmarket, Josiah Bartlett of Kingston, Nathaniel Peabody of Plaistow, and Captain John Demerit of Madbury, as well as militia from New Castle and Rye and Massachusetts militia from the towns of Kittery and Berwick in Maine. Among the militia who assembled in Portsmouth were Captain Thomas Palmer of Portsmouth, Lt. Winborn Adams, Ebenezer Thompson and John Griffin of Durham. Col. Folsom and the Exeter militia including Col. Nicholas Gilman, James Hackett and John Giddings (or Giddinge) would not arrive in Portsmouth until the next morning. By the end of the day on the 15th, about 1600 Patriot militia had gathered in Portsmouth to prepare for another assault on Fort William and Mary.

All of these men would continue in the service of America in either elected office, or in combat, or both during the Revolutionary War. Thomas Pickering, Andrew McClary and Winborn Adams would all be killed in combat fighting for American Independence.

Governor Wentworth met in the morning with eight Loyalist officers including the colonel in charge of the New Hampshire militia and ordered them to assemble a unit of 30 militiamen to accompany Wentworth to reinforce the 6-man guard of Fort William and Mary. Although one of the Loyalist officers marched through the streets of Portsmouth banging a drum in an attempt to recruit volunteers, no one agreed to join the Governor, and the Governor’s bargemen also refused to row him and his officers to the fort.

Major John Sullivan and the other militia leaders negotiated with Governor Wentworth and then Captain Cochran in command of the fort throughout the afternoon and evening of December 16 for the surrender of arms in the fort. In the late evening more than 1000 militia had landed on the island to surround the fort. Finally about midnight Sullivan tricked Captain Cochran into opening the gates of the fort, and the Patriot militia poured into to capture the fort without firing a shot.

Sources: https://nhsar.org/the-raid-on-fort-william-and-mary-in-1774/#[72]; https://archive.org/details/captureoffortwil00pars/page/12/mode/2up; https://archive.org/details/memoirofjudgeebe00thom/page/24/mode/2up