01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 23, 2006

BY GERALD M. CARBONE
Journal Staff Writer

For the entire month of August 1778, Rhode Island was the fulcrum for freedom and democracy versus the tyranny of kings. Gen. George Washington believed that if the Americans succeeded in capturing Newport, the British would quit their claim on the Colonies and the country would be free to invent a new government unfettered by kings.

Washington wrote: "If the garrison of that place (consisting of nearly 6,000 Men) had been captured, as there was, in appearance, at least a hundred to one in favor of it, it would have given the finishing blow to British pretensions of sovereignty over this Country; and would, I am persuaded, have hastened the departure of the Troops in New York as fast as their Canvas Wings could convey them."

Trapped in Newport between the French fleet and an army of thousands growing daily at Providence, the British began sinking and burning their own warships so the French could not capture and use them. Tall ships crackling in flames created some dramatic scenes in Narragansett Bay. On the morning of Aug. 5 the British torched four large frigates including the Lark, which until recently had lain at anchor near Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene's homestead.

In his daily diary British Lt. Frederick Mackenzie wrote:

"The Explosion of some of our Frigates was very great, particularly that of the The Lark, which had 76 barrels of powder in her Magazine."

When it blew "some of the burning pieces of wood" ignited a house that was "totally consumed in a short time," Mackenzie wrote; other timbers of flaming wood flew into a fort atop Windmill Hill.

"Some of the books and papers belonging to the Orpheus, [a frigate of 32 guns] were found three miles from the place she blew up," Mackenzie wrote.

"It was a most mortifying sight to us, who were Spectators of this Conflagration, to see so many fine Frigates destroyed. . . ."

A most mortifying sight to Mackenzie maybe, but to Greene and other Rhode Islanders who heard the explosions echo along Narragansett Bay, the sights and sounds of frigates burning brought feelings of sweet revenge not felt in these parts since the Gaspee affair.

Tightening the noose

Nathanael Greene did double duty at the Battle of Rhode Island, serving both as quartermaster general and as a major general commanding half the troops in the field -- including the First Rhode Island Regiment, a segregated unit of about 130 blacks, Narragansetts and men of mixed race. The First Rhode Island Regiment wore uniforms of cream-colored pants and jackets, with tall white hats emblazoned with blue anchors and topped with big blue feathers.

Greene marched his troops from Providence to Tiverton on Aug. 4, 1778, followed a day later by 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette and his half of the troops. When they linked up at Tiverton, they had more than 10,000 troops that included an all-star cast of officers of the American Revolution: Greene; Lafayette; John Glover of Marblehead; John Hancock, in command of the Massachusetts militia.

Paul Revere wrote home to his girlfriend, "It seems as if half Boston was here."

When the French looked out on the American troops gathered at Tiverton, they were none too impressed. Lafayette's aide, Chevalier de Pontgibaud, wrote: "I have never seen a more laughable spectacle; all the tailors and apothecaries in the country must have been called out, I should think; -- one could recognize them by their round wigs. They were mounted on bad nags, and looked like a flock of ducks in cross-belts."

Newport's core looked in 1778 a lot like it does now, with Trinity Episcopal Church's white spire thrusting above the tombstones in the churchyard, the White Horse Tavern serving sailors, the same clapboard houses with their 12-over-12 windows, the stone Redwood Library on a hill above town.

On Aug. 8, 1778, the black hulls of French warships reflected in the harbor; from the waterfront came flames and a great plume of smoke from the 20 houses that the British torched to clear firing lines for their cannon. A large sailing ship, the Grand Duke Transport, had been deliberately run aground near the Goat Island wharves to keep the French from seizing it; someone had set it afire and it too burned, threatening the wharves and storehouses.

In town, Mackenzie wrote: "The burning of the houses and the ship, the sinking of our only remaining Frigates, the sight of the Enemy's fleet within the harbour, the retreat of the Troops within the lines, and the dismay and distress so strongly impressed upon the Countenance of the Inhabitants . . . formed altogether a very extraordinary Scene."

The noose was tightening around the British garrison on Newport: that day the French dropped 4,000 marines on Jamestown, while on the eastern side of Rhode Island the Americans had gathered 10,122 troops. The combined force planned to attack the next day: the French marines would hit the west side of the island, the Americans would come from Tiverton to strike the east, and the French fleet in Newport Harbor would mercilessly bombard the town.

The British garrison held 6,706 men; the capture of that many soldiers would break England's will to prosecute the war, resulting in victory for the American Revolution.

Attack plans called for an assault on Sunday, Aug. 9, but John Sullivan, the New Hampshire general in charge of the whole expedition, wrote early that morning to the French admiral that he wanted to postpone for one day, to adequately train what he called his "Motley and disarranged Chaos of militia" in the finer points of boat boarding and discipline.

An hour after Sullivan sent his note of postponement to Admiral D'Estaing, word came into his camp that the British had abandoned their fortified posts on hills on the north end of the island.

Sullivan immediately launched about 2,000 of his troops across the East Passage to secure those abandoned works. Militarily, this was a smart decision; diplomatically it was dumb, for in landing his troops on the island before the French landed theirs, Sullivan had upstaged and insulted his allies.

Col. John Laurens wrote to his father, the president of Congress, that the French "conceived their troops injured by our landing first, and talked like women disputing precedence in a country dance, instead of men pursuing the common interest of two great nations."

Plea to the French

From the British perspective, Shakespeare could not have written a more thrilling script: They were surrounded on Rhode Island by marines, a militia and a fleet of warships, with their own fleet burnt or scuttled to the floor of Narragansett Bay.

And then at noon on Sunday, Aug. 9, 1778, they spied sails on the horizon. For the next 90 minutes, more and more sails crested the horizon -- 10 ships, then a dozen, then 20.

"At 1 o'clock it became certain that the fleet in sight was that under the Command of [British Admiral] Lord Howe from New York," wrote Mackenzie. " . . . The spirits of the whole Garrison were at this period elevated to the highest pitch. . . ."

By 1:30 p.m. the sun lit the sails of 35 large ships sailing to the garrison's rescue; American spirits dropped in inverse proportion to the rise of the garrison's.

D'Estaing, who had been ashore to consult with Sullivan, withdrew all of his marines from Jamestown. He watched uneasily as Howe's British fleet came on till 5 p.m. when it dropped anchor between Point Judith and Beavertail Light.

Neither admiral, Howe nor D'Estaing, liked their positions. Howe was outgunned by the larger French fleet, 846 cannon to 772. He could not afford to force the issue.

D'Estaing knew that another British fleet was due to arrive off America any day, and if that fleet linked with Howe's, his destruction was certain. With summer southwesterly winds blowing up the Bay, he felt trapped; he had to get out.

Late that Sunday, D'Estaing sensed a shift in the weather: the wind began to blow northeast, giving his ships a chance to slip their collars and sail dead on for the British fleet. Sullivan practically begged him not to leave, not now, with victory so close.

Sullivan's plea reached D'Estaing on the morning of Aug. 10; the only reply was the steady movement of the French fleet away from Newport Harbor.

"The French ships kept up a prodigious fire as they passed our batteries," Mackenzie observed. "I am certain that they did not fire less than 2,500 Cannon shot, but it was done with so little judgment or effect, that not a drop of blood was drawn on our side. Many of their shot fell into the town, and ship elevated her guns so high as to throw a shot of 48 lbs 200 yards beyond the [Redwood] library which is situated on the highest ground above the town."

Lord Howe saw the French fleet sailing straight for him; he gave the order for his ships to slip their cables, and they too receded toward the horizon with the French fleet after them, both sides ready to battle in the Atlantic.

Mackenzie wrote: "I believe there never was a Naval engagement on which so much depended, [as] that which is now likely to take place."

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sources for today's installment:

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

Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, Vol. 1. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1930.

Hattendorf, John B. Newport, the French Navy, and American Independence. The Redwood Press: Newport, 2005.

Scheer, George F., and Rankin, Hugh F. Rebels & Redcoats. Da Capo Press Inc.: United States of America, 1987. copyright The World Publishing Company, 1957.

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

A continuing series.