On this day 250 years ago, late in the evening the 16-gun sloop HMS Canceaux arrived from Boston off Portsmouth. The sloop carried a small contingent of Royal Marines intended to relieve Fort William and Mary but arrived too late to protect the fort from its capture by the Patriot militia or to recover the arms and munitions removed from the fort by the militia. Moreover a local pilot from Portsmouth guided the Canceaux onto on sandbar in the Piscataqua River on which it remained stranded for days.
On this day 250 years ago in New Hampshire, during the early morning hours New Hampshire militia commanded by Major John Sullivan removed 16 cannon (15 four-pounders and a nine pounder), 10 carriages, approximately 50 damaged muskets in need of repair, 42 serviceable muskets with shot, one barrel of gunpowder and other miscellaneous military supplies from the newly-captured Fort William and Mary. The Patriots were unable to remove 70 heavier cannon and left them behind in the fort along with the fort’s 6-man Royal Army garrison. The militia loaded the captured arms and supplies into boats and rowed them up the Pascataqua River to try to get them out of reach of the Royal Navy. The Patriots were expecting Royal Navy ships to arrive at any moment to relieve Fort William and Mary and to protect the Royal Governor. By nightfall the flotilla of boats had rowed upriver from Portsmouth to safety, and the Royal Navy had still not arrived. Although most of the militia were rowing the cannon and arms up the Pascataqua River, more than 100 men from the Exeter militia commanded by Colonel Nathaniel Folsom and the militia from Portsmouth and other towns patrolled the streets of Portsmouth. They intimidated Royal Governor Wentworth, the sheriff and other Loyalists officials and guarded the town against the expected attack of the Royal Navy.
Governor Wentworth had written General Gage in Boston on the 14th about the initial assault on Fort William and Mary, but delivery of the letter was delayed so General Gage did not learn until late on this day that the Patriots
by violence carried away upwards of one hundred barrels of powder belonging to the King, deposited in the castle. I am informed that expresses have been circulated through the neighboring towns, to collect a number of people to-morrow, or as soon as possible, to carry away all the cannon and arms belonging to the castle which they undoubtedly will effect, unless some assistance should arrive from Boston in time to prevent it. This event too plainly proves the imbecility of this government to carry into execution his Majesty’s order in Council, for seizing and detaining arms and ammunition imported into this Province, without some strong ships of war in this harbor
General Gage immediately ordered two ships to sail to Portsmouth, one of which, the HMS Canceaux, was already scheduled to sail there and would be ready to go first thing in the morning.
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.
On this day 250 years ago in New Hampshire, 400 Sons of Liberty from the towns of Portsmouth, New Castle and Rye, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine, led by John Langdon and Thomas Pickering attacked and captured Fort William and Mary on Castle Island at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. The fort was guarded by only a retired British Naval Captain and 5 British soldiers plus the Captain’s wife and 2 civilians, but the British defended the fort with cannon fire, a volley of muskets and hand to hand combat before being overwhelmed by the Patriots. No one died in the battle but the British captain and a British soldier, as well as one American, were wounded in the assault. The Patriots briefly detained all the defenders, cut down a huge British flag flying over the fort and removed one hundred barrels of gunpowder for safekeeping inland. That evening the raiders made plans to return to the fort the next day to remove the fort’s cannon.
Although little remembered outside of Portsmouth today, the capture of Fort William and Mary should be considered the first battle of the Revolutionary War. John Langdon would later have a distinguished career as a Founding Father, serving in the Second Continental Congress, outfitting ships for the Continental Navy, commanding New Hampshire militia at the Battles of Saratoga and Rhode Island, signing the Constitution of the United States and being elected as one of first United States Senators from New Hampshire and is widely recognized as a Founding Father. Thomas Pickering would command a naval ship in the War but die in combat against the Royal Navy. Pickering and the other Patriots who seized Fort William and Mary deserve recognition for their contributions to the cause of American Independence.
New Hampshire was not the only colony on this day 250 years ago where Patriots were busy keeping artillery out of British hands. In New London, Connecticut, Patriots removed cannon from a battery guarding the harbor four miles inland so the crew of the HMS Rose could not seize the cannon when it returned from the unsuccessful attempt to seize cannon from Rhode Island. Newly formed militia regiments in Providence, Rhode Island were guarding the 44 cannon they had removed from the fort in Newport Bay in case the British made another attempt. And in occupied Boston, the Sons of Liberty were guarding four cannons hidden under the noses of the British army until the Massachusetts Committee of Safety could arrange for them to be smuggled out of the city.
Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution, New York: Vintage Books, 2021 at p. 249-50.
On this day 250 years ago, Paul Revere was riding the 60 miles from Boston on the Old Bay Road through Ipswich, Massachusetts to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Revere met at 4:00 pm with Samuel Cutts and the Portsmouth Committee of Correspondence at Stoodley’s Tavern and at Cutts’ waterfront home to deliver the warning that General Gage was expected to send troops on ships from Boston to Fort William and Mary to remove the cannon and ammunition in the fort.
Also on that day in Virginia, the Loudoun County Independent Company — a militia company organized with no authority from the British government — was conducting drills.
On this day 250 years ago in Fairfax County, Virginia, George Washington purchased 1168 acres of land west of Four Mile Run from the brothers George and James Mercer. The purchase was very complicated and involved agents representing George Mercer, who was then in England, and Washington’s bond to pay off certain debts of George Mercer. Washington was not able to survey the property to close the purchase before the Revolutionary War broke out and Washington was appointed commander of the Continental Army a few months later. As a consequence, Washington did not close on the purchase and receive title to the property until 1787.
This transaction had multiple connections to the Revolutionary War. George Mason, author of the Fairfax Resolves and organizer of the Fairfax Militia, was a cousin of the Mercers and wrote Washington to inform him that they were interested in selling the property. James Mercer would go on to serve in the Continental Congress. His brother George, however, had agreed to be the Stamp Act collector for Virginia in 1765 and was ostracized as a Loyalist for that decision. George Mercer had fled to England a few years earlier and would die there without ever returning to Virginia.
On Saturday, December 14, 1774, I will be leading a walking tour of Washington’s property in what is now Arlington County, Virginia to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of his purchase of the land.
On this day 250 years ago, the H.M.S. Rose commanded by Captain James Wallace arrived at Newport, Rhode Island and discovered that the cannon had been removed from Fort George. Wallace met with Governor James Wanton and Watson reported that the Governor “very frankly told me, they had done it to prevent their falling into the hands of the King, or any of his Servants and that they meant to make use of them, to defend themselves against any power that shall offer to molest them.”
Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution, New York: Vintage Books, 2021 at p. 249.
On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress adjourned. Before adjourning, the Provincial Congress prepared an address “To the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Towns and Districts of Massachusetts Bay” that requested that the militia prepare for war:
The improvement of the militia in general in the art military has been therefore thought necessary, and strongly recommended by this Congress. We now think that particular care should be taken by the towns and districts in this colony, that each of the minute men, not already provided therewith, should be immediately equipped with an effective firearm, bayonet, pouch, knapsack, thirty rounds of cartridges and balls . . . [that], as the security of the lives, liberties and properties of the inhabitants of this province, depends under Providence, on their knowledge and skill in the art of military, and in their being properly and effectually armed and equipped, it is therefore recommended, that they immediately provide themselves therewith; that they use their utmost diligence to perfect themselves in military skill.
For the previous two months the Massachusetts Provincial Congress had acted as the government of all of Massachusetts outside of Boston. After the adjournment, the Executive Standing Committee and Committee of Safety would continue until the Provincial Congress was scheduled to reconvene in the next year.
On this day 250 years ago on an island off Newport in Narrangansett Bay, Rhode Island, militia were working around the clock since10:00 pm the previous night to remove cannon and military stores from Fort George. The militia loaded the artillery onto boats to carry them away to Providence where the British could not reach them. By the next night 44 cannon from Fort George would be removed to Providence.
Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution, New York: Vintage Books, 2021 at p. 249.
On this day 250 years ago in Providence, the Rhode Island General Assembly received and considered a copy of British Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Dartmouth’s Order to Royal Governors and the Royal Navy to intercept and seize all arms and ammunitions shipped to the American Colonies. Out of concern that General Gates or the Royal Navy would execute the Order by seizing the Colony’s cannon at Fort George in Narrangansett Bay, the Assembly
voted and resolved, that all the cannon now at Fort George (excepting two eighteen-pounders and one six pounder) and all the powder, shot and stores, thereto belonging (excepting so much powder and ball as are sufficient for the cannon to be left at said fort) be immediately removed to the town of Providence; that Col. Joseph Nightingale, be, and he is hereby, appointed to see the same done.
. . .
It is voted and resolved, that the copies of the letter from the Earl of Dartmouth, to this colony, and of the order therein enclosed, now lying before this Assembly, be immediately sent to . . . the provincial congress [of Massachusetts.]
Col. Joseph Nightingale would go on to lead Rhode Island militia in combat under the overall command of the Continental Army during the Siege of Newport in the Revolutionary War. He would also become a major importer of arms and ammunition for the Continetnal Army during the War.
On This Day In The Revolution 