01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 22, 2006

BY GERALD M. CARBONE
Journal Staff Writer

How Nathanael Greene envied John Sullivan, a fellow major general in George Washington's Army. Washington had given Sullivan the command of troops gathering to attack the British on Rhode Island, a command that Greene was dying to get.

Although history has not been kind to Sullivan -- he died an addled alcoholic in his native New Hampshire -- Greene liked him. In July 1778, Greene wrote to Sullivan:

You are the most happy man in the World. What a child of fortune. The expedition going on against Newport I think cannot fail of success. You are the first General that has ever had an opportunity of cooperating with the french forces belonging to the United States, which was true -- Sullivan would be fighting at Rhode Island in concert with French Marines and the French Navy.

I was an adivsear to this expedition and therefore am deeply interested in the event, Greene wrote to Sullivan from the main camp at White Plains, N.Y. I wish a little more force had been sent. . . . Every thing depends almost on the success of this expedition. Your friends are anxious, your Enemies are watching. I charge you to be Victorius. Greene whish[ed] most ardently to join the attack on Rhode Island. It is going on four years since I have spent an hour at home, save one that I stopt on my march from Boston to New York, he wrote to Henry Marchant, now a Rhode Island congressman. There is no man gone through more fatigue or been more attentive to duty than I have since I belonged to the army.

At first Washington would not let Greene go to Rhode Island; he wanted his quartermaster general to remain with him and the main Army of 12,000 troops at White Plains.

On July 24, 1778, Washington relented, writing to Congress that he: "judged it advisable to send Genl. Greene" to Rhode Island "being fully persuaded his services, as well as in the Quartermaster line as in the field, would be of material importance in the expedition against the Enemy in that Quarter. He is intimately acquainted with the whole of the Country, and besides he has extensive interest and influence upon it."

The French fleet arrives

A fast-moving fog swept up Rhode Island Sound after noon on July 28, 1778, putting an end to a fine day by cloaking Newport in a cloud.

Late that night lightning flashed, thunder echoed down the Bay, and a hard rain fell, squeezing out the fog. At daybreak the sun shone clear, lighting the furled sails of a fleet that had dropped anchor off Block Island in the fog. The French fleet had arrived for the battle.

Col. John Laurens, son of the president of the Continental Congress, observed the "appearance was as sudden as a change of decorations in an opera house."

All that day the tall ships stood for Newport Harbor, their masts crowded with sail. As they drew near, the ships projected power: 12 ships of the line (ships with 74 or more cannon), each with three masts, the lead ship flying the French colors; they stood two tiers high, iron anchors dangling from their bows, their gun ports open, brass cannon glinting in the sun.

The arrival of the French fleet caused commotion on the streets of Newport. British troops outside the city withdrew into it, leaving their tents standing in the fields; all day long oxen drew carts heaped with barrels of food and ammunition, withdrawing them from the piers where they might be taken by the French.

American militiamen gathering at Tiverton saw these ships as saviors; what they could not see, below decks, was a beaten, scurvy-wracked crew that had not touched shore in three months. Provisions of all kinds had run low on these ships, and the tanks were nearly drawn of fresh water.

General Sullivan sailed out to meet the leader of this impressive-looking fleet -- Adm. Charles Hector Theodat Count d'Estaing -- and to give him an update on when the Americans might be ready to launch the invasion. Sullivan was welcomed aboard with a 15-gun salute.

D'Estaing was shocked to learn that Sullivan had gathered only a few thousand troops. "Sullivan's troops are still at home," he complained in a note to a colleague, then to Sullivan he confided: "the position in which I find myself cannot be ended too soon."

Getting ready for battle

Nowadays you can ride the Acela train from Providence to New York in under three hours; in 1778 it took Nathanael Greene two nights and three days of hard riding to trek the 170 miles from White Plains to Coventry.

On July 30 he dismounted at the Coventry iron works, saddle sore and worn, as darkness settled in around 9 p.m. He had not seen his wife since she'd left Valley Forge in May; her belly was swollen and round as she was seven months pregnant. Greene saw for the first time his baby daughter, Martha, more than a year old now. She had not been a well child, suffering from what his brothers believed to be rickets. His son, George, a talking toddler at 2 1/2, was a virtual stranger to him.

The next morning, July 31, Greene dashed off a quick note to Gen. John Sullivan, who was gathering troops in Providence for an attack on Newport:

I arrivd at this place least Evening about 9 oClock, and being a little fatigued, haveing rode from Camp in three days, I propose to refresh myself today and wait upon you tomorrow, unless there should be something special that renders my attendance necessary immediately, in which case I will set out without delay.

I have forty Ship Carpenters and Boat builders coming on to put things in readiness in the Water department for the expedition. . . .

Working in an open field, perhaps on India Point, the ship's carpenters banged out 86 flat-bottomed boats, each capable of carrying 100 men; they chiseled and sawed even on Sundays, caulking the last of the boats by candlelight just before the attack.

Greene's time at home was brief, just that one day with his pregnant wife and their children. He wrote a few days later from Providence: I am here and as busy as a Bee in a tar barrel, to speak in the sailors stile. He was writing to Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth, a friend and a commissary in charge of securing goods for the Army at White Plains. Will you want a quantity of Rum? . . . My brothers has some [for sale]; any services you can render them consistent with your trust will be duly acknowledged.

Gathering storm

From all over New England, men with muskets marched and rode for Rhode Island. From New Haven, the new president of Yale University, Ezra Stiles, observed: "There's an amazing spirit for rushing toward Rhode Island spread 100 miles round. Militia have gone thither from beyond New Haven."

On Aug. 3, 1778, the teenage Marquis de Lafayette arrived on the outskirts of Providence with 2,000 troops peeled off from Washington's main army at White Plains. These were some of Washington's best troops, including the Rhode Islanders under Col. Israel Angell.

From north of Boston -- Gloucester, Newburyport and Marblehead -- came 265 fishermen to ferry the troops across Sakonnet Passage under the command of the stocky redhead, John Glover.

With the French fleet bottling up Narragansett Bay and a formidable force of infantry gathering in Providence, the British and Loyalists on Aquidneck Island began to feel afraid.

gcarbone@projo.com / (401) 277-7434

A continuing series.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sources for today's installment:

Boatner III, Mark M. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1994.

Dearden, Paul F. The Rhode Island Campaign of 1778. The Rhode Island Bicentennial Foundation: Providence, 1980.

Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, Vol. 2. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1930.

Showman, Richard K., ed. The Papers of Nathanael Greene, Vol. II. The University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1980.