01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, June 24, 2006

BY GERALD M. CARBONE
Journal Staff Writer

Gen. John Sullivan decided to press on with the attack on Newport, even though a key component of the assault -- the French fleet and its 4,000 marines -- had sailed from Narragansett Bay in pursuit of British warships.

Sullivan finished ferrying all of his 10,000 troops, their cannon, draft horses, and baggage across the East Passage from Tiverton to Portsmouth, and prepared to march on Newport. Barrels of rum came across too, as the troops were then receiving rations of one gill (4 ounces) per man per day, a daily rum consumption of 700 gallons.

While a hard wind shook tents in the field on the night of Aug. 11, 1778, Sullivan, himself a fan of the rum, wrote long and floridly: "the Commander and Chief on Rhode Island having issued orders for the Army to move on Newport tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock -- takes this opportunity to return his cordial thanks to the Brave officers and Soldiers and Volunteers who have with so much alacrity repaired to this place to give their assistance in exterpating the British Tyrant from this Country, the zeal to which they have discovered are to him the most pleasing presages of VICTORY and he is happy to find himself at the head of an Army far superior in number to that of the Enemy, Activated by a sacred regard for the life of their country and fired with just resentment against the Barbarians who have Deluged with Innocent Blood a[nd] Spread Desolution on every part of the Continent where they have been suffered to march. . . ."

He went on in this way.

At 6 a.m., when the troops were supposed to be under way, they were instead hunkered down, trying to survive a tempest. Rhode Islanders called these storms "equinoctials," under the belief that the autumn equinox brought on strong storms. This storm -- a month before the equinox -- was stronger than most, blowing at least a gale for two days, lashing Rhode Island with cold rain, tearing tents and laying the corn fields flat.

The troops in the field huddled on the lee side of stone walls. Men died in the fields of exposure, though for the most part, they fared better than the horses; one witness wrote: "I saw for the first time that men were more hearty than horses."

On the first day of the blow, General Sullivan wrote in his orders:

"The General sees the Difficulties his brave officers and soldiers are exposed to by the violence of the weather and storm and sincerely wishes that anything in his power could contribute to their relief -- he however flatters himself that they will bear with a soldierly patience a misfortune of war which must frequently happen and hopes that in a few days they will be rewarded for all their toyls and hardships and after a compleat conquest of our enemies, to look back upon all the toyls and dangers we surmounted might afford us the greatest satisfaction," and so on. He finished the entry by upping that day's rum rations from a gill to a gill-and-a-half -- 6 ounces, enough to get most men drunk.

Where are the fleets?

The clouds finally lifted after 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 14; five dead bodies -- the corpses of French sailors -- part of a captain's wheel and a tiller rope washed ashore on Brenton's Neck.

The next morning, Aug. 15, 1778, the American Army marched south for Newport, some 10,000 strong. Drummers beat a march while Maj.-Gen. Nathanael Greene led the troops, horses and heavy guns on carriages down West Main Road, and the Marquis de Lafayette led the columns and guns rolling down East Main. The men dressed in uniforms of different styles -- Greene's Black Regiment, in their uniforms of white topped by blue-feathered plumes; the New Hampshire volunteers, in thick green coats with buff white facing; most of the men, being militia, wore shirts of homespun stuff; all carried muskets, canteens and canvas knapsacks.

They camped on the east side of the island, about 2.5 miles from the British lines outside Newport. Then, they began to dig in for a siege of the city.

For days, both sides fired cannons at each other -- mostly without effect, though British Lt. Frederick Mackenzie noted that one ball struck a hut "in which a Soldier was mending his shoes, unfortunately it took off one of his legs."

While they dueled with artillery, both sides kept an anxious eye on the sea, wondering what had happened to the naval fleets that had slipped away from Newport to do battle just before the storm. "It is probable that the late Storm drove the fleets far to the Southward, and that we shall not see any part of either for some days," Mackenzie wrote. "The Officers of the Navy differ much in opinion as to the probable fate of the two fleets. However, they all agree that both must have suffered considerably from the effects of the Storm alone."

Whose sails would appear on the horizon?

Damaged French fleet

Fog shrouded Newport on the morning of Aug. 20, so thick it was difficult to see 50 yards; it wetted everything, as if it had rained. As the fog burned off around 9 a.m., a frigate and two large sails emerged outside the harbor.

When the skies cleared, after noon, the sails of 12 large ships appeared, standing for Newport. They drew nearer and nearer, for about an hour, until a look through field glasses resolved the French tricolor flying from their masts.

The black-hulled ships stood on for Newport till about 6 p.m., when they dropped anchor off Brenton's Reef.

The ships had been a good deal damaged. Winds had sheared off the three masts of the fleet's flagship, Languedoc, and the British had poured a broadside of cannon balls into the crippled ship.

Early next morning, Adm. Count D'Estaing sent an aide ashore to tell Sullivan that he would bring his ships no closer. His fleet had been crippled by the gale, and the count now intended to sail into Boston for repairs.

This news made Sullivan apoplectic; he had 10,000 men exposed on an island, and he needed ship support. Sullivan ordered Lafayette and Greene to sail out to the flagship and beg D'Estaing to reconsider.

The sailing skiff that would carry them down Sakonnet Passage to the flagship was skippered by big John Brown. As he stepped into the skiff, Greene told Lafayette, "If we fail in our negotiation, we shall at least get a good dinner."

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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.

Greene, George Washington. The Life of Nathanael Greene, Vol. 2. New York: Hurd and Houghton. Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1871.

"Order Book of the American Forces in the Battle of Rhode Island." Original manuscript, Redwood Library: Newport, 1778.

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

A continuing series.