Latest / Classic Drama Audiobooks / Capture of Fort William and Mary - Charles Lathrop Parsons

Transcript

Capture of Fort William and Mary - Charles Lathrop Parsons · Classic Drama Audiobooks

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Capture of Fort William and Mary
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: by Charles L. Parsons. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Robert Morrel, The Capture of Fort William and Murray, December
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: fourteenth and fifteenth, seventeen seventy four. Few events in the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: history of New Hampshire have excited more interest or caused
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: more controversy than the successful attack upon Fort William and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Mary into Port Smith Harbour on December fourteenth, seventeen seventy four,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the removal of the powder contained in its magazine on
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the same afternoon, and the second capture of the fort,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: together with the small arms and other stores, on the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: night of the following day. Too much has been written
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: that is not history, and many statements concerning these events
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: are generally accepted as facts which have had their rise
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in the fertile imagination of some writer. Many articles have
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: appeared in the public press, but only a few really
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: scholarly attempts have been made to determine the actual facts.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Throughout the year seventeen seventy four, the people of Portsmouth
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and Vicinity shared in full measure the unrests that was
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: felt throughout the entire country. Much sympathy was expressed for
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the people of Boston, and the populace were beginning to
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: show signs of resisting the odious domination of the British ministry.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: The Assembly had shown a disposition to refuse to vote
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the necessary supplies and men for Fort William and Mary.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: In May, a message was sent from the Committee at
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Portsmouth to the Committee at Boston, promising assistance in anything
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: agreed upon by the colonies. On June eighth, Governor Wentworth
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: dissolved the Assembly, which he had from time to time
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: adjourned to prevent action toward the appointment of delegates to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a provincial Congress. On July uy four, twenty seven, chests
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of tea had been quietly brought into Portsmouth. A town
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: meeting was immediately called. The consignee was forced to export
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the tea, and the vessel carrying it was kept under
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: guard until it finally sailed for Halifax. On July sixth,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth ordered the sheriff to direct the committee of correspondents,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: who had met to choose delegates for a General American
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Congress to disperse and keep the King's peace. This they did,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: but only to beat privately later in a tavern, where
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: they chose delegates to assemble in Exeter. On August twenty nine,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth wrote the Earl of Dartmouth that the Assembly
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: had met in Exeter, and adds, I think this province
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: is much more moderate than any other to the southward,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: although the spirit of enthusiasm is spread and requires the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: utmost vigilance and prudence to restrain it from violent excess. Again, later,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth reported the arrival of a second cons assigmon
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of Tea, with the results similar to the first. On
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: November fifteenth, he reported continued discontent through the province and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: fears that disturbances will continue unless quiet is restored in
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay. On December second, he wrote that there is
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: a growing unrest and a disposition on the part of
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the people to follow all the resolves of the Congress
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and to approve them fully. Thus, it will be seen
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that when Paul Revere brought his message on December thirteenth,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, from the Committee in Boston to mister
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Samuel Cuttz, of the Portsmouth Committee, announcing that troops were
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to be sent to reinforce the fort, and bringing information
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: also of the removal of the military stores in Rhode Island,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and of the King's order in Council prohibiting the exportation
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: of gunpowder and military stores to America. The people were
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: in a state of mind ready for revolt. Mister Cutts
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: immediately called the committee together, and they proceeded to plan
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: for the capture of the powder upon the following day.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth seems to have had some intimation of what
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: might happen, for he sent word to Captain Cochrane, commanding
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: at the fort, to be upon his guard. In Wentworth's
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: report on the affair, however, he states that before any
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: suspicion could be had of their intentions, about four hundred
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: men were gathered together. Certain it is that about twelve
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: o'clock on Wednesday, December fourteenth, all secrecy ended for members
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: of the Committee, accompanied by Drum and Fife, paraded the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: streets of Portsmouth and called citizens together by order of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth. The Chief Justice of the Province, made proclamation
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: that what they proposed was open rebellion against the King.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: But they did not waver, and having finally gathered together
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a company of their townsmen and such others as could
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: be obtained from the adjoining towns of Newcastle and Rye,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: in all about four hundred men, they proceeded to Fort
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: William and Murray. There they were warned by Captain Cochrane
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: not to enter, and were fired upon both by cannon
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and small arms. No one appears to have been injured, however,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and they immediately stormed the fort and easily overcame such
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: resistance as the one officer and five effective men could offer.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Having captured the fort, they proceeded to haul down the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: King's colors and then removed all of the gunpowder in
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the magazine, with the exception of one barrel. About one
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: hundred barrels of powder were so obtained, and these were
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: sent up the Pascatawa to Durham that same evening with
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: a letter to General Sullivan, who had not been in
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Portsmouth that day. On the following day, Thursday, December fifteenth,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, a party of men came from Durham
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: to Portsmouth, and that night, together with other citizens, under
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the leadership of John Sullivan, they again took the fort
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and carried off the lighter cannon and all of the
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: small arms. On Friday, a party under command of Captain
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Nathaniel Folsom of Exeter came to Fort Smith and remained
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: on guard all day until in the afternoon, on the
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: rising tide, the arms were sent up the river. They
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: finally reached Durham, but only after many weary hours of
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: cutting through the ice which had just formed in the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: branch of the Piscatawa which leads up to that town.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: The main details of the proceedings of the three days
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: may easily be gathered from the following official documents and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: letters of the time, which have fortunately been preserved to us.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: On Wednesday, December fourteenth, seventeen seventy four, Governor Wentworth wrote
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to Governor Gage as follows Portsmouth, New Hampshire, December fourteenth,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four. Sir, I have the honor to receive
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: your Excellency's letter of the nineteenth incident with the letter
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: from the Secretary of State, which were both delivered to
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: me on Monday evening last by mister Whiting. It is
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: with the utmost concern I am called upon by my
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: duty to the King to communicate to Your Excellency a
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: most unhappy affair perpetrated here this day. Yesterday in the afternoon,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Paul Revere arrived in this town, expressed from the committee
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: in Boston to another committee in this town, and delivered
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: his dispatch to mister Samuel Kutts, merchant in this town,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: who immediately convened the committee of which he was one, and,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: as I learned, laid it before them this day before
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: any suspicions could be had of their intentions. About four
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: hundred men were collected together and immediately proceeded to His
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Majesty's castle William and Mary at the entrance of this harbor,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and forcibly took possession thereof, notwithstanding the best defense that
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: could be made by Captain Cochrane, whose conduct has been
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: extremely laudable, as your Excellency will see by the enclosed
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: letter from him, and by violents carried away upwards of
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: one hundred barrels of powder belonging to the King, deposited
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: in the castle. I am informed that expresses have been
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: circulated through the neighboring towns to collect a number of
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: people tomorrow or as soon as possible, to carry away
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: all the cannon and arms belonging to the castle, which
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: they will undoubtedly affect, unless some assistance should arrive from
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Boston in time to prevent it. This event, too plainly
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: proves the imbecility of this government to carry into execution
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: his Majesty's Order in Council for seizing and detaining arms
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and ammunition imported into this province without some strong ships
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of war in this harbor. Neither is the province or
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: custom House treasury in any degree safe if it should
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: come into the mind of the popular leaders to seize
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: upon them. The principal persons who took the lead in
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: this enormity are well known. Upon the best information I
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: can obtain. This mishift originates from the publishing of the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Secretary of State's letter and the King's Order in Council
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: at Rhode Island prohibiting the exportation of military stores from
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Great Britain, and the proceedings in that colony in consequence
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of it, which have been published here by the forforementioned
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: mister Revere, and the dispatch brought before which all was
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: perfectly quiet and peaceable. Here I am, etc. Signed Jay Wentworth,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the report of Captain Cochrane to Governor Wentworth, referred to above,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: dated the fourteenth of December seventeen seventy four, reads, May
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: it please your Excellency, I received your Excellency's favor of yesterday,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and inobedience thereto kept a strict watch all night and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: added two men to my usual number, being all I
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: could get. Nothing material occurred till this day one o'clock,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: when I was informed that there were a number of
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: people coming to take possession of the fort, upon which,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: having only five I have effective men with me. I
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: prepared to make the best defense I could, and pointed
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: some guns to those places where I expected they would enter.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: About three o'clock the fort was beset on all sides
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: by upwards of four hundred men. I told them, on
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: their peril not to enter. They replied they would. I
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: immediately ordered three four pounders to be fired on them,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and then the small arms, and before we could be
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: ready to fire again, we were stormed on all quarters,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and they immediately secured both me and my men and
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: kept us prisoners about one hour and a half, during
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: which time they broke open the powder house and took
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: all the powder away except one barrel, and having put
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: it into boats and sent it off. They released me
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: from confinement, to which I can only add that I
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: did all in my power to defend the fort, but
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: all my efforts could not avail against so great a number.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I am your excellencies, et cetera, Signed John Cochrane. On
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Thursday the fifteenth of December, Governor Wentworth ordered thirty effective
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: men to be enlisted or impressed for the protection of
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Fort William and Mary without result, as the following will
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: testify Province of New Hampshire. To Captain John Dennett and
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the Commissioned Officer of the First Regiment of Militia in
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: the Province of New Hampshire. Gentlemen, you are, without delay,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: out of your several companies, to enlist or impress thirty
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: effective men to serve His Majesty as a guard and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: protection to his Fort William and Mary at Newcastle, and
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: make return immediately to me of your doings therein, with
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: the names of the person so enlisted, et cetera, that
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: provision may be made for their being regularly placed in
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: the said garrison. For all which this is your warrant.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I am, gentlemen, your friend et cetera. Theodore Atkinson, Major General,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: dated at Port Port Smith on the fifteenth of December
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, twelve o'clock at noon. Endorsed on the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: back of the foregoing order, is the following. Pursuant to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the within warrant. We have paraded the streets, caused the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: drums to be beat, in proclamation to be made at
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: all the public corners, and on the place of parade,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: no person appearing to enlist. We wait for further orders.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: John Dennett, James Stooley, Commanding Officer, Portsmouth, fifteenth December, six
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: o'clock PM. On Friday. Governor Wentworth wrote to General Gage
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: a further report, dated Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the sixteenth of
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: December seventeen seventy four. On Wednesday last after twelve o'clock
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: and insurrection suddenly took place in town and immediately proceeded
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to His Majesty's castle, attacked, overpowered, wounded and confined the captain,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and thence took away all the King's powder. Yesterday numbers
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: were assembled, and last night brought off many cannons et
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: cetera and sixty muskets. This day the town is full
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: of armed men who refused to disperse but appeared determined
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to complete the dismantling of the fortress entirely. Hitherto the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: people have abstained from private or personal injuries. How long
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: they will be so prevailed on? It is impossible to say.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I most sincerely lament the present distractions which seemed to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: have burst forth by means of a letter from William
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Cooper to Samuel Kuttz, delivered here on Tuesday last PM
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: by Paul Revere. I have not time to add further
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: on this lamentable subject. On December sixteenth, a gentleman in
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Portsmouth wrote to a gentleman in New York the following letter, Portsmouth,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire, December sixteenth, seventeen seventy four. We have been
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: in confusion here for two days on account of an
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: express from Boston informing that two regiments were coming to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: take possession of our forts. By beat of drum. Two
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: hundred men immediately assembled and went to the castle, and
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: two gondolas, who on their way were joined by one
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty more, and demanded the surrender of the fort,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: which Captain Cochrane refused, and fired three guns, but no
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: lives were lost, upon which they immediately scaled the walls disarmed.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: The captain and his men took possession of ninety seven
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: barrels of powder, put it on board the gondolas, brought
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: it up to town and went off with it some
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: distance into the country. Yesterday the town was full of
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: men from the country who marched in force. Chose a
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: committee to wait on the governor, who assured them he
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: knew of no such design as sending troops, ships, et cetera.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: This morning I hear there are a thousand or fifteen
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: hundred men on their march to town. The govern Diven
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and the council sat yesterday on the affair, and are
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: now meeting again. The men who came down are those
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: of the best property and vote in the province. Another
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: gentleman in Portsmouth, writing on Saturday December seventeenth, gives also
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the main facts in the case, but he states that
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the powder was sent up to Exeter, which may have
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: been reported at the time, but which is shown to
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: be incorrect by the letter of General Sullivan published in
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the New Hampshire Mercury of May seventeen eighty five. He
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: also magnifies some of the other facts. The letter, however,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: adds its testimony to the main occurrences of the week. Portsmouth,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire, December seventeenth, seventeen seventy four. On Wednesday last
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: a drum and fife pervaded the streets of Portsmouth, accompanied
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: by several committeemen and the Sons of Liberty, publicly avowing
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: their intention of taking possession of Fort William and Murray,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: which were was garrisoned by six invalids. After a great
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: number of people had collected together, they embarked on board
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: scows boats et Cetera, entered the fort, seized the gunpowder,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: fired off the guns, and carried the powder up to Exeter,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: a town fifteen miles distant. The quantity was about two
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: hundred to two hundred and twenty barrels. The day after,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: while the Governor and Council were assembled in the council chamber,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: between two and three hundred persons came from Durham and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the adjoining towns, headed by Major Sullivan, one of the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: delegates of the Congress. They drew up before the council
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: chamber and demanded an answer to the following question whether
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: there were any ships or troops expected here, or if
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the Governor had wrote for any they were answered that
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: his Excellency knew of no forces coming hither, and that
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: none had been sent for, upon which they retired to
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: the taverns. And about ten or eleven o'clock at night
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: a large party repaired to the fort, and the Dia
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: said they carried away all the small arms. This morning
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: about sixty horsemen accoutered came into town by eleven o'clock.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Their intention, it is suspected, is to dismantle the fort
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: and throw the cannon, consisting of a fine train of
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: forty two pounders, into the sea. In a letter to
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the Earl of Dartmouth, dated Portsmouth, twentieth December seventeen seventy four,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth gives most complete account and says, on Thursday,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the thirteenth Instant, in the afternoon one Paul Revere arrived,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: expressed with letters from some of the leaders in Boston
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: to mister Samuel Kutt's merchant of this town. Reports were
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: soon circulated that the fort at Rhode Island had been
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: dismantled and the gunpowder and other stores removed up to Providence,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and an extract of the circular letter directing the seizure
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: of gunpowder was printed in a Boston newspaper of the
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: twelfth in consequence, as I have been informed of the
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: said letters having been commute unicated to the House of
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Assembly at Rhode Island, and it was also falsely given
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: out that troops were embarking at Boston to come and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: take possession of William and Mary Castle in this harbor.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: These rumors soon raised an alarm in the town, and
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: although I did not expect that the people would be
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: so audacious as to make any attack on the castle,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: yet I sent orders to the captain at the fort
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: to be upon his guard. On Wednesday the fourteenth, about
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: twelve o'clock, news was brought to me that a drum
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: was beating about the town to collect the populace together
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: in order to go and take away the gunpowder and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: dismantle the fort. Immediately sent the Chief Justice of the
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: province to warn them from engaging in such an attempt.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: He went to them where they were collected in the
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: center of the town, near the townhouse, explained to them
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the nature of the offense they proposed to commit, told
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: them it was not short of rebellion, and entreated them
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to desist from it and disperse. But all to no purpose.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: They went to the island, and being found there by
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the towns of Newcastle and Rye formed
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: in all a body of about four hundred men, and
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the castle being in too week a condition for defense.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: As I have in former letters explained to your Lordship,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: they forced their entrance in spite of Captain Cochrane, who
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: defended it as long as he could, but having only
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the assistance of five men, their numbers overpowered them. After
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: they entered the fort, they seized upon the captain, triumphantly,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: gave three huzzahs, and hauled down the King's colors. They
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: then put the captain and men under confinement, broke open
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the gunpowder magazine and carried off about one hundred barrels
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of gunpowder, but discharged the captain and men from their
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: confinement before their departure. On Thursday the fifteenth, in the morning,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: a party of men came from the country accompanied by
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: mister General John Sullivan, one of the the New Hampshire
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: delegates to the Congress, to take away the cannon from
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: the fort. Also, mister Sullivan declared that he had taken
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: pains to prevail upon them to return home again. And said,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: as there was no certain intelligence of troops being coming
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: to take possession of the castle, he would still use
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: his utmost endeavors to disperse them. While the town was
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: thus full of men, a committee of them came to
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: me to solicit for pardon or a suspension of prosecution
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: against the persons that took away the gunpowder. I told
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: them I could not promise them any such thing, but
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: if they dispersed and restored the gunpowder, which I earnestly
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: exhorted them to do, I said, I hoped his Majesty
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: may be thereby induced to consider it an alleviation of
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the offense. They parted from me in all appearance perfectly
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: disposed to follow the advice I had given them, and
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: having proceeded directly to the rest of their associates, they
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: all publicly voted about five o'clock in the afternoon near
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the townhouse to return home, which it was thought they
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: would have done, and it was also further expected that
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: the gunpowder would have been restored by the morning. But
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the people, instead of dispersing, went to the castle in
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the night, headed by mister Sullivan, and took away sixteen
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: pieces of cannon about sixty muskets and other military stores,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: and brought them to the out borders of the town
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: on Friday morning, the sixteenth. Mister Folsom, the other delegate,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: came to town that morning with a great number of
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: armed men, who remained in town as a guard till
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the flow of the tide in the evening, when the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: cannon were sent in gondolas up the river into the country,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: and they all dispersed without having done any personal injury
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: to anybody in town. They threatened to return again in
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: order to dismantle the fort entirely, and to carry off
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: or destroy the remaining heavy cannon about seventy pieces, and
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: also to seize a upon the province treasury, all of
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: which there was reasonable ground to fear they would do
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: after what they had already done. But on the gunpowders
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: being taken away, I wrote to General Gage and Admiral
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Graves for assistance to restrain the boisterous temper of the people,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: upon which the Admiral ordered the armships Canso and Scarborough here,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and they arrived, the former the seventeenth and the latter
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: on the nineteenth, in time to prevent the further dismantling
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: of the fort. Further On, Governor Wentworth says, the government
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: has no power to bring the offenders to punishment, no
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: jail would hold them long, and no jury would find
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: them guilty. For by the false alarm that has been
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: raised throughout the country. It is considered by the weak
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and ignorant who have the rule in these times and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: act of self preservation. Again, he says, I tried to
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: dissuade them by the civil authority sheriff, magistrates, etc. And
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: did all I could to get the militia raised, but
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to no purpose. Under date of December twentieth, seventeen seventy four,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: a gentleman in Boston, writing to a mister Rivington of
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: New York, says, on Monday the twelfth instant, our worthy citizen,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: mister Paul Revere, was sent express from only two or
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: three of the committee of correspondents at Boston, as I
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: am creditably informed of whom no number under seven are
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: empowered to act, to a like committee at Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: informing them as it is said that orders have been
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: sent to the governors of their provinces to deliver up
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: their several fortifications or castles to general gage, and that
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: a number of troops had the preceding day embarked on
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: board transports with a designed to proceed and take possession
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: of said castles, that in consequence thereof the House of
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Assembly of Rhode Island had caused the fort to be
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: dismantled and the guns, ammunitions, etc. To be removed to Providence.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Upon receiving this until diligence, the Committee at Portsmouth was
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: called together to advise what was to be done in
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: so alarming a crisis. But not having a full meeting,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: nor able to determine upon any measures proper to be taken,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: they concluded to defer the matter till the next day,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: when a fuller meeting of said committee was expected. But
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: two or three warm zealous members, having the good of
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: their country at heart more than the others, in thinking
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: any further deliberation on so important an affair unnecessary, gave
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: out their order early the next morning for the drums
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: to be beat to raise volunteers to go and take
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the King's fort. With difficulty, a number of men were
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: persuaded to convene, who proceeded to the fort, which is
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: situated at Newcastle, an island, about two miles from the town,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and being there joined by a number of the inhabitants
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of said newcastle, amounted to near four hundred men. They
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: invested the fort, and, being refused admittance by the commander
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: of it, who had only five men with them, and
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: who discharged several guns at them, scaled the walls, and
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: soon overpowered and pinioned the commander. They then struck the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: King's colors with three cheers, broke open the powder house,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and carried off one hundred and three barrels of powder,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: leaving only one behind. Previous to this, expresses had been
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: sent out to alarm the country. Accordingly, a large body
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: of men marched the next day from Durham, headed by
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: two generals, Major Sullivan and one of the worthy delegates
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: who represented that province in the Continental Congress, and the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: parson of the parish, who, being long accustomed to apply
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: himself more to the care of the bodies than the
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: souls of his parishioners, had forgotten that the weapons of
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: his warfare ought to be spiritual and not carnal, and
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: therefore marched down to supply himself with the latter from
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: the King's fort, and assisted in robbing him of his
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: warlike stores. After being drawn up on parade, they chose
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: a committee consisting of those US persons who had been
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: most active in the riot of the preceding day, with
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Major Sullivan and some others, to wait on the governor
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: and know of him whether any of the King's troops
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: or ships were expected. The Governor, after expressing to them
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: his great concern for the consequences of taking the powder
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: from the fort, which they pretended to disapprove and be
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: ignorant of, assured them that he knew of neither troops
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: or ships coming into the province, and ordered the Major
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: as a magistrate, to go and disperse the people. When
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: the committee returned to the body and reported what the
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Governor had told them, they voted it was satisfactory and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: that they would return home. But by the eloquent harangue
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: of their demosthenes, they were first prevailed upon to vote
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: that they took part with and approved of the measures
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: of those who had taken the powder. Matters appeared then
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to subside, and it was thought every man had peaceably
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: returned to his own home. Instead of this, Major Sullivan,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: with the out seventy of his clients, concealed themselves till
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the evening, and then went to the fort and brought
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: off in gondolas all the small arms with fifteen four
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: pounders and one nine pounder, and a quantity of twelve
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and four and twenty pounds shot, which they conveyed to
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Durham et cetera. The day following, being Friday, another body
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: of men from Exeter, headed by Colonel Folsom, the other
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: delegate to the Continental Congress, marched into Portsmouth and paraded
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: about the town, and, having passed several votes expressive of
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: their approbation of the measures that had been pursued by
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the bodies of the two preceding days in robbing the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: fort of guns Powder, et cetera, retired home in the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: evening without further mischief. Thus, by this false alarm was
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: a great part of that province, which, though staunching the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: cause of liberty before, in a state of peace and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: good order, kept for three days in the greatest confusion,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and the good people that persuaded by a few flaming
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: demagogues to commit a most outraging, agious overt act of
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: treason and rebellion. No history, I believe will furnish us
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: with an instance of a king's fort being taken and
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: his color struck by his own subjects, in time of
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: peace and without any cause or provocation. In the New
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Hampshire Gazette of Friday, December twenty third appeared a letter
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: which is somewhat humorous in its nature, directed to mister Printer,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and signed a lover of order. This is interesting to
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: us chiefly because it shows that the King's order prohibiting
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the exportation of arms was the cause here, as it
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: had been in Rhode Island, of the seizure of the powder.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: This letter says, among other things, alarmed with the tendency
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of the Quebec Act, with the accounts that the Canadians
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and Indians were to be called forth to enforce the
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: acts of Parliament, so disagreeable to all the colonies, long
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: inured to defend themselves in the wide extended frontiers of
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: this province by their valor against the restless savages of
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the wilderness, without any other aid, and while destitute of
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: arms necessary for such defense, Finding that His Majesty, not
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: knowing their peculiar defenseless state, had been pleased to prohibit
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the exportation of powder arms and other warlike stores to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: the colonies without special license. Some of the good people
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: of this province, in the wonted honesty and simplicity of
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: their hearts, imagined that no one would have just reason
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to complain of their too great forwardness if they seasonably
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: removed some of the warlike stores from the fort, which
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: they then accordingly affected without any great tumult or opposition. Again,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: in the same paper, the following notice appears, since our
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: last arrived here his Majesty's ships Kencaeus, Captain Moat and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the Scarborough Captain Barclay, both from Boston, with eighty or
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: one hundred soldiers aboard. On the twenty sixth of December,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Governor Wentworth issued the following proclamation. A proclamation by the Governor,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: whereas several bodies of men did, in the daytime of
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: the fourteenth and in the night of the fifteenth of
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: this instant December, in the most daring and rebellious manner,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: invest attack and forcibly enter into His Majesty's castle William
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and Mary in this province, and overpowering and confining the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Captain and garrison. Did, besides committing many treasonable insults and outrages,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: break open the magazine of said castle and plunder it
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: of above one hundred barrels of gunpowder with upwards of
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: sixty stand of small arms, and did also force from
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: the ramparts of said castles and carry off sixteen pieces
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: of cannon and other military stores. In open hostility and
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: direct oppunation of His Majesty's government, and in the most
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: atrocial contempt of his crown and dignity, I do, by
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: advice and consent of His Majesty's Counsel, issue this proclamation,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: ordering and requiring in His Majesty's name, all magistrates and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: other officers, whether civil or military, as they regard their
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: duty to the King and the tenor of the oaths
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: they have solemnly taken and subscribed, to exert themselves in
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: detecting and securing in some of His Majesty's goals in
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: this province, the said offenders, in order to their being
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: brought to condign punishment, and from motives of duty to
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the King and regard to the welfare of the good
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: people of this province, I do, in the most earnest
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: and solemn manner, exhort and enjoin you His Majesty's leege
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: subjects of this government, to beware of suffering yourselves to
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: be seduced by the false art and menaces of abandoned men,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: to abet, protect or screen from justice any of the
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: said high hundred offenders, or to withhold or secrete His
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Majesty's munition forcibly taken from the castle. But that each
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: and every of you will use your utmost endeavor to
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: detect and discover the perpetrators of these crimes to the
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: civil Magistrate, and assist in securing and bringing them to justice,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: and in recovering the King's munition. This injunction, it is
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: my bound and duty to lay strictly upon you, and
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: to require your obedience there too, as you value individually
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: your faith and allegiance to His Majesty, as you wish
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: to preserve that reputation to the province in general, and
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: as you would avert the most dreadful but most certain
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: consequences of a contrary conduct to yourselves and posterity. Given
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: at the Council Chamber in Portsmouth, the twenty sixth day
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: of December, in the fifteenth year of the reign of
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and King Defender
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: of the Faith, etc. And in the year of Our
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Lord Christ seventeen seventy four j Wentworth, by his Excellency's command,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: with advice of Counsel Theodore Atkinson, Secretary God Save the
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: King again, Governor Wentworth wrote to Lord Dartmouth under date
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: twenty eighth December seventeen seventy four. He says, it is
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: with the greatest concern I perceive the unlimited influence that
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: the popular leaders in Boston obtain in this province, especially
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: since the outrage of the fourteenth Instant, insomuch that I
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: think the people here are disposed to attempt any measure
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: required by those few men, and in consequence thereof are
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: arming and exercising men as if for immediate war. And further,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: in a letter to George Irving Esquire, dated Portsmouth five
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: January seventeen seventy five, referring to the fourteenth of December
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: when the castle was seized, he says, the powers of
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: magistracy have been faithfully and repeatedly tried. Governor, Council, Chief Justice,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Sheriff and Justices of the Peace personally appeared. Proclamation made
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: according to law for all to disperse and desist. The
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: militia ordered out, drums, beat, et cetera. Yet all of
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: no avail. Not one man appeared to assist in executing
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: the law. And it was impossible for me, with four councilors,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: two justices, one sheriff, mister McDonough, and mister Benning wentworth
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: to subdue such multitudes, for not one other man would
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: come forth, not even the revenue officers. All chose to
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: shrink in safety from the storm, and suffered me to
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: remain exposed to the folly and madness of an enraged multitude,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: daily and hourly increasing in numbers and delusion. He says,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Captain Cochrane and his five men defended a ruinous castle,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: with the walls in many places down, at length, knocked down,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: their arms broken, and taken from them by above one
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: hundred to one. The captain was confined, and at last
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: would not nor did give up the keys, notwithstanding every
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: menace they could invent. Finally they broke the doors with
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: axes and crowbars. Jeremy Belknap, whose History of New Hampshire
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: was written some years before its publication, and who was
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a contemporary and friend of Sullivan and Langdon, gives us
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the following account, which, in spite of criticisms upon it,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: will bear the closest scrutiny, and is essentially accurate, as
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: are most of the accounts of that first historian of
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire, Belknap's History of New Hampshire, Volume two, page
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: two eighty eight. In order having been passed by the
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: King in Council prohibiting the exportation of gunpowder and other
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: military stores to America, a copy of it was brought
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: by express to Portsmouth at a time when a ship
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: of war was daily expected from Boston with a party
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: of troops to take possession of Fort William and Mary.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: At the entrance of the harbor, the committee of the town,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: with all possible secrecy and dispatch, collected a company from
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: that and some of the neighboring towns, and before the
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: governor had any suspicion of their intentions, they proceeded to
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Newcastle and assaulted the fort. The captain and his five men,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: which was the whole garrison, were confined, and one hundred
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: barrels of powder were carried off. The Next day another
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: company went and removed fifteen of the lightest cannon and
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: all the small arms, with some other warlike storage, which
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: they distributed in the several towns under the care of
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the committees. Major John Sullivan and Captain John Langdon distinguished
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: themselves as leaders in this affair. It was transacted with
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: great expedition and alacrity, and in the most fortunate point
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: of time, just before the arrival of the Scarborough Frigate
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: and Canso sloop with several companies of soldiers, who took
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: possession of the fort and of the heavy cannon which
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: had not been removed. The governor put the five men
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: who belonged to the fort on board the ship of war,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: to be reserved as evidence in case of a prosecution
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: of the offenders for high treason, and, having consulted counsel
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: in this and the neighboring province, thought it his duty
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: that he might prevent any charge of misprison of treason
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: against himself, to dismiss from public trust all those persons
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: concerned in the assault of the fort, who held any
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: office under the government, and concerning whose proceedings he had
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: authentic testimony. He also issued a proclamation commanding all officers
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: civil and military, to assist in detecting and securing the offenders,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: and exhorting all the people to beware of being seduced
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: by the false arts and menaces of abandoned men. This
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: closes the list of documents of the immediate period bearing
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: upon the affair, and they seem to be sufficiently clear,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: and to agree so closely as to leave little room
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: for the controversies that have taken place. It is true
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: that they mentioned but few names and give few details.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: From the patriot's standpoint, neither do they state anything authentic
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: as to the disposal of the military stores, nor of
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: the influence this uprising had upon the future course of
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: the revolution. The main questions in dispute have been one
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: the disposal of the powder and military stores. Two the
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: names of the leaders in the affair, and such of
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: their men as could be determined. Three whether the tradition
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: of the use of this powder at Bunker Hill is
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: founded on fact, and four whether or not this was
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: the first real uprising of the revolution. A study of
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: some of the later documents that bear upon these questions
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: will will help our conclusion, and where tradition aids, it
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: will be considered as tradition and not as history, giving
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: weight to the traditional statements in accordance with the nearness
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: of their origin, to the date of the occurrence or
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: to the actor concerned Therein end of Chapter one, Chapter
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: two of the Capture of Fort William and Mary by
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Charles L. Parsons, this LibriVox recording is in the public
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: domain one the disposal of the powder. Among the more
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: important data to which we can give unquestioned weight is
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: an article heretofore unnoticed in the New Hampshire Mercury of
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty five and in the New Hampshire Spy of
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine. In one of these, General Sullivan refers
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: to an anonymous attack made upon him in the New
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Hampshire Mercury of April nineteenth, seventeen eight, of which no
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: copy appears to be in existence, although diligent search has
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: been made. It is probable, however, that the article was
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: the same as one appearing in the New Hampshire Gazette
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: of about the same date and signed on Estes, which
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: contains nothing new except that the author speaks of the
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: powder as having been sent to Exeter, where eventually much
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: of it was undoubtedly stored. General Solvent also refers to
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: an Act of Congress of Tuesday, July thirty first, seventeen
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: eighty one, when the Continental Congress ordered that the Board
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: of Treasury passed to the credit of General Sullivan the
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: following sums in specie viz. One hundred dollars as a
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: compensation for the expenses incurred by him in securing the
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: military stores and ordinances at Fort William and Mary, New Hampshire,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: in the year seventeen seventy five, and distributing them in
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: various parts of the country for the use of the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: United States, one thousand dollars for the extraordinary expenses necessarily
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: incurred by him as the commanding officer in a separate department,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: for which no provision or compensation has been made, and
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: four hundred dollars as a reimbursement of the expense incurred
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: by him after his resignation for the recovery of his health,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: which he had lost in the service, and was thereby
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: induced to retire. The article of General Sullivan above referred
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: to appeared in the New Hampshire Mercury of May third,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty five, and was addressed to the impartial public
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: and is as follows. Although I have no desire to
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: satisfy or even to answer a malicious, false and cowardly writer, who,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: under a feigned and very unproper signature, has endeavored to
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: wound my reputation by a publication in the New Hampshire
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Mercury of the nineteenth Ultimo, Yet inasmuch as I am
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: conscious of having acted with uprightness in every part of
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: my political conduct, I shall, for your satisfaction, answer the
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: three charges which his malice has suggested, and which his
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: knowledge of their falsity has prevented being signed by his
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: proper name. The first charge is obtaining a considerable sum
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: from Congress by false representations respecting the taking powder from
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Fort William and Mary, secondly giving up the fishing ground,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: and thirdly receiving a bribe in my office of Attorney General,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: which prevented my complying with my duty in endeavoring to
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: confiscate a valuable estate, by which I suppose he means
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Colonel Boyd's. To answer the first, it will be necessary
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: to relate the manner of taking the stores from the
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: fort when I returned from Congress in seventeen seventy four,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and saw the order of the British King and Council
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: prohibiting military stores being sent to this country. I took
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the alarm, clearly perceived the designs of the British Ministry,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: and wrote several pieces upon the necessity of securing military stores,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: which pieces were published in several papers. On the eighteenth
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: of December. Date is evidently given from memory and is wrong.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Some gentlemen belonging to Portsmouth went to the fort and
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: took sundry barrels of powder and sent in a gondola
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: one hundred and ten barrels to my care, which myself
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: and others deposited in places of security. The next day
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: a report was spread that two vessels of war were
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: coming from Boston to take possession of the fort and harbor.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I went down with a large number of men, and
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: in the night following went in person with gondolas, took
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: possession of the fort, brought away the remainder of the powder,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: the small arms, bayonets and cartouche boxes, together with the
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: cannon and ordnance stores. Was out all night, and returned
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: to Portsmouth next day. I might here add that I
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: bore the expense of all the parts the gondolas with
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the stores were brought to Durham after several days spent
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: in cutting the ice Durham River, then being frozen over.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: The canon et cetera, was then deposited in places of security.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: These are facts known to almost every person in the state,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: and to all them concerned, that almost the whole expense
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: was borne by me, notwithstanding which I never applied for
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: a single farthing to Congress or any other body for
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: this service. And when a committee of Congress, who were
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: appointed to report what was due for my allowance its
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: separate departments where I commanded, reported one hundred dollars for
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: this service, I warmly opposed it and told Congress I
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: never expected or desired a single farthing for it. For
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the truth of this, I appealed to the Honorable Judge Livermore,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: who was with me in Congress at the time and
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: knows every fact relating to it. He is now on
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: the circuit through the state. Consequently, any gentleman and may
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: satisfy himself by asking him whether these facts are true
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: or false. But to prove whether Congress has been generous
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: to me in their grants, I beg leave to mention
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: that by a resolve of Congress of the fifteenth of
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: June seventeen seventy five, general officers in separate departments were
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: to be allowed one hundred and fifty dollars per month
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: over and above their wages. I served thirty months in
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: separate departments, and Congress made me a grant of thirteen
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars only in lieu of four thousand, eight hundred,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: which was my due. It is true one hundred of
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: it was reported for the above mentioned service, but upon
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: my objecting to it was not in reality granted in
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: that light. And further to prove the generosity of Congress
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: to me, I now say that, for near five years service,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: I have never received only the nominal sum in paper
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: money for my services, and am the only officer in
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: America that has received no debt, proprecation or allowance. Therefore,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: John Sullivan, Durham, April twenty third, seventeen eighty five. Among
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: the many political feuds early existing among the prominent men
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: of the state of New Hampshire, one had broken out
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: between Judge Ebenezer Thompson of Durham and General John Sullivan.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: This had been fanned into open warfare from the fact
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: that a quarrel had taken place between their sons, in
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: which the fathers afterwards took sides. Lawsuits were begun and
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: appeals made to the public through the press. Fortunately for
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: our purpose, one of the points in controversy between them
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: was the respective parts each had taken at the capture
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: of Fort William and Mary. As many of the participants
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: were alive who knew all the facts, both were naturally
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: careful to have their statements accurate. The first number of
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: this series appeared in an article in the New Hampshire
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: Spy of Friday, March sixth, seventeen eighty nine, and signed
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: an Enemy to Deceit, in which an unnamed gentleman, Judge
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Ebenezer Thompson is accused of appearing at Exeter at town
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: meeting to work against the election of General Sullivan as
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: President of the state, and of keeping back a number
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: of votes in the election of seventeen eighty six. The
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: only statement of interest to us is the following. It
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: surely cannot be forgotten that this gentleman, in company with
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: a number of others, went from Durham to Portsmouth in
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: December seventeen seventy four to assist in securing the stores
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: at Fort William and Murray, and when Governor Wentworth suspended
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: him and sundry others on that account, he was restored
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: by making oaths before George Atkinson Esquire, then Deputy Secretary,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: that he was not concerned. In the New Hampshire Spy
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: of Friday, May thirteenth, seventeen eighty nine, Judge Ebenezer Thompson
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: defends himself from the attack of an enemy to deceit,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: whom he assumes to be General Sullivan, and among other things,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: says that I ever was concerned directly or indirectly in
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: taking the stores from Fort William and Mary in seventeen
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: seventy four is absolutely false. But had it been the case,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: I should not have thought of applying to or receiving
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: from Congress a large pecuniary reward by single service. But
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: what a gentleman did who assisted in the matter will
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: appear by the following extract from a resolution of Congress
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: printed in the Journal, Volume seven, page one fifty nine,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: ordered that the Board of Treasury passed to the credit
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: of John Sullivan in specie one hundred dollars as a
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: compensation for the expense incurred by him. In securing the
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: military stores and ordinance in Fort William and Mary, New Hampshire,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: in the year seventeen seventy five. It is a well
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: known fact that the Honorable John Langdon Esquire and a
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: number of other persons took the powder from the aforesaid
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: fort and sent it into the country before the gentleman
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: who received the reward knew anything about it. Signed Ebenezer Thompson, Durham,
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: March eleventh, seventeen eighty nine. In the New Hampshire Spy
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: of March seventeenth, seventeen eighty nine, General Sullivan addresses a
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: reply to Ebenezer Thompson Esquire, and, after refusing to affirm
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: or deny his authorship of the article, signed an enemy
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: to deceit. He discusses the Exeter affair and the seventeen
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: eighty sixth election, and then the following appears. As different
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: ideas may be affixed to the words directly or indirectly.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: I shall not assert that you were directly or indirectly
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: concerned in taking the stores from Fort William and Mary
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy four, but will relate facts as they
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: are In the night of the eighteenth of December seventeen
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: seventy four. Again he has the date from memory incorrect.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: A messenger came to my house from the Honorable Colonel Long,
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: and I think also signed by President Langdon, informing that
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: one hundred barrels of powder were sent to my care,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: that they had been to the fort and secured as
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: much of the powder as they could, and desired me
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: to come down with a party to secure the remainder
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: with the cannon and munitions of war, as they were
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: in danger of being seized by the British ships. I
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: musted hands took care of the powder, part of which
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: was lodged in your house. The next morning we mustered
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: and you went to Portsmouth in company with about thirty
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: or forty, among whom was the Reverend mister Adams, Deacon Norton,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Durgen, Captain Jonathan Woodman, and mister Aaron Davis, and
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: I think mister Footmen of Dover, and many others. I
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: think you did not go down to the fort. That
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: was at night, when a number of us mustered what
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: gondoles we could went to the fort and secured as
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: much as our vessels could bring away. When the gondoles
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: arrived in Durham, it was froze far down, and we
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: were about two days in sawing the icing, getting the boats,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: and one more day in storing and distributing the stores.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: In this you were obliging enough to assist us. But
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: whether that was being directly or indirectly concerned, I shall
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: not determine. Nothing can be more unjust than your calling
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: up again the matter of Congress voting me one hundred
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: dollars for assisting to take the cannon, et cetera from
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: the fort, when it was so fully discussed in the
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: public prints about four years since, and the malicious charge refuted.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: The Honorable Judge Livermore, who was in Congress with me,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: publicly declared that all the then members of Congress will
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: attest that the vote was passed in my absence, and
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: upon a petition from my allowance in separate departments, in
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: which it was incidentally mentioned my being one of the
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: first opposition and amongst those who first dared to attack
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: a king's fort, the committee reported to me one hundred
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: dollars and cut me off three quarters of my allowance
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: in separate departments. The vote passed before I returned into Congress.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: I was the person who rose and violently opposed the measure.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Told them I was so far from asking or wishing
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: such a grant that, as it would open the door
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: for similar grants, I could not from principle accept it.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: But Congress, finding how much I was cut short in
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: my allowance for separate commands, advised me to a compromise
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: to take the sum voted in full and release my
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: demands in separate departments. Thus, by a compromise, I had
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: one hundred dollars voted for, releasing more than a thousand.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: Any person who wishes to be satisfied of these facts
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: may apply to the Honorable Judge Livermore, or to any
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: member then in Congress, or may, by having recourse to
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the statement of facts by me and the proofs adduced
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: in my answer to letters signed candidates in the beginning
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: of seventeen eighty five, be fully convinced of the injustice
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: of the accusation. John Sullivan, Durham, March fourteenth, seventeen eighty nine.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: The trouble between General Sullivan and Judge Ebenezer Thompson, arising
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: out of this and other disputes, seems to have been settled.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: The following year by a letter from General Sullivan, the
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: original of which is now in the possession of mister
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Lucian Thompson of Durham, and of which the following is
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: a facsimile. Reader's note. I am unable to translate the letter,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: which is illegible, and no transcripts are available to dictate
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: from the contents, however, are explained as follows by the author.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: These letters leave absolutely no doubt that, in the first instance,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: the powder and other military stores were brought to Durham
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: to be from there distributed. Whether or not part of
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: the powder was lodged under the pulpit of the Durham
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: Meetinghouse must remains, as heretofore, a matter of tradition. But
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: the fact that the Reverend mister Adams was of the party,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: and that, with the exception of General Sullivan's own house,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: it was one of the nearest buildings to the landing
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: where the powder was unloaded, lends probability to the report
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: we know positively, as the family tradition has always held
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: that some of the powder was stored in the house
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: of Ebenezer Thompson, which is still standing in Durham and
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: is still occupied by a descendant of the judge in
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: the person of mister Lucian Thompson. There is little doubt too,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: that in the subsequent distribution a considerable portion of the
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: powder was left with Major John Demerit of Madbury. Such
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: has been the unvarying tradition in Durham. Powder and balls
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: from Fort William and Mary, which had been kept in
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: the original magazine built in the Madbury home, are now
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: in the possession of the New Hampshire Historical Society, donated
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty seven by mister John de Merit, now
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: also Major of Madbury, New Hampshire, a direct descendant and
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: namesake of Major Demerit, Miss Mary P. Thompson, writing for
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: The Independent Statesman of November seventeenth, eighteen eighty seven, states
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: that the wife of Major Demerit's grandson, who had charge
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: of Major Demerit during the last six years of his life,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: related to her the accounts of the capture of the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: fort and the preservation of this powder, as she had
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: heard it from Major Demerit. Also in Brewster's Rambles about Portsmouth,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: it is asserted that Daniel P. Drown calling upon Major
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Demerit in seventeen ninety nine or eighteen hundred was given
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: two charges of this powder for his rifle, with the
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: statement that it was taken from Fort William and Mary.
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: It is certainly true that a large part of the
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: powder was afterwards distributed among the several towns. This is
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: indicated by General Sullivan's letter and by the Journal of Congress,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: and has also been well brought out by Honorable John G.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: Crawford in an article read before the New Hampshire Society
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: Sons of the American Revolution. Several documents quoted in the
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire Provincial Papers, Volume seven also show this to
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: have been afact. The arms brought from Portsmouth were repaired
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: and put in order at Durham. For in the Durham
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: Town Records it is recorded that at March thirty first,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty three Town Meeting it was voted that the
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: Selectman be directed to allow Thomas Willie twenty nine in
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: full for repairing the guns brought from Fort William and
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Mary end of Chapter two, Chapter three of the Capture
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: of Fort William and Mary. This LibriVox recording is in
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: the public domain. The participants it is unfortunate that so
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: little is known about the actual leaders and those who
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: joined with them in the attacks upon the fort. The
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: newspapers of the time were silent upon the question, and
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: even the official reports contained scarcely a reference, simply saying
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: that the leaders were well known. The act was one
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: of open treason to the King, and as it was,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: the almost unanimous act of the community, but little was
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: written or published that might injure their participants. A few
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: names only are preserved to us. Governor Wentworth says that
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: the first attack was carried out by citizens of Portsmouth,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: Rye and Newcastle. No individual is named. General Sullivan says
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: the powder was sent to him by messenger from Colonel Long, and,
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: if he remembered correctly, signed also by John Langdon. John
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: Sullivan was the unquestioned leader of the second attack. Jeremy Belknapp,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: who wrote during the lives of both Langdon and Sullivan,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: was a close friend of the latter, credits the leadership
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: to those two prominent New Hampshire men. Judge Ebenezer Thompson
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: in The New Hampshire Spy says Honorable John Langdon and
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: others took the powder. John M. Whitton is the first
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: to claim Thomas Pickering as a leader. No previous mention
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: of his name in this connection has come to light,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: and Witton does not give his authority. The History of
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Manchester eighteen fifty six, Report of the Adjutant General for
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire eighteen sixty six, and Brewster's rambles about Portsmouth
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: speak of Thomas Pickering as being the leader in the
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: first attack. All three take their authority from Daniel P. Drown,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: a nephew of Pickering, who had received his version of
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: the affair from his father Samuel Drown, whom he stated
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: as a participant. Brewster, obtaining his information from the same source,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: states also that Sullivan, Langdon, George Frost of Durham, and
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: doctor Bartlett of Kingston were present. The account by Drown
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: is so inaccurate in many particulars that it is doubtful
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: if his memory of his father's story was correct in
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: regard to the others. Brewster also states that Pierce Long
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: assisted in the removal of the powder, which General Sullivan's
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: article before quoted confirms. From the New Hampshire Spy we
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: learned that Judge ebanez Er Thompson went with the party
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: as far as Portsmouth, but was not present at the Fort,
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: and that the Reverend mister Adams, Deacon Norton, Lieutenant Durgan,
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: Captain Jonathan Woodman, Mister Aaron Davis, and probably mister Footmen
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: of Dover were actively engaged in the second attack. Mister
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Elizir Bennett of Durham, who was probably the last survivor
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: of those who took part in the affair, gave a
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: full description to the Reverend mister Toby of Durham, who
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: published it in an obituary notice of mister Bennett in
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: the Congregational Journal of February eighteenth, eighteen fifty two. It
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: is unfortunate for our purpose that mister Bennett was one
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: hundred years old at the time mister Toby took down
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: his statement, for his account is very inaccurate, and, with
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: the exception of adding several names of those present, contains
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: nothing of value. He enumerated John Sullivan, Wynborne Adams, Ebenezer Thompson,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: John Demerit of Madbury, Alpheus Chesley, Jonathan Chesley, Peter French,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: a law student in Sullivan's office, John Spencer, Mika Davis,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: Edward Sullivan, Isaac Small, Benjamin Small, and himself as members
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: of the party. It is worthy of note that he
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: makes no mention of Alexander scam although in the narrative
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: as quoted in Amory's Life of Sullivan as coming from
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: the same source, his name is included. It is probable
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: that Amory copied this account from the highly imaginary article
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: in Harper's Monthly of July eighteen eighty six, rather than
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: from the original publication. However, in a letter to the
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Senate of New Hampshire of February fourteenth, seventeen eighty five,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: General Sullivan says that he was assisted by his three
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: clerks in bringing the stores up the river, and this
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: leaves but little doubt that Alexander Scammell, Peter French, and
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: James Underwood, who were at that time in his office,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: were with him at the second attack. Another account, by
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: a survivor of the Exeter party, and published by Governor
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: Bell in his History of Exeter, also differs so much
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: from the known facts that little credits can be given
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: to any part of it. It does not seem wise
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: to further quote either of these accounts. End of chapter three,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Chapter four of the Capture of Fort William and Murray.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain the powder
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: at bunker Hill. It has always been the tradition in
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: southeastern New Hampshire, founded upon the statements of persons who
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: claim to have the facts from the actors themselves, that
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: Major John de Merit took a cart load of the
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: powder captured at Portsmouth from the magazine at his house
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: to Cambridge and reached there just in time for its
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: opportune use at bunker Hill. No inhabitant of Madbury or
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: Durham doubts the story, but it cannot, with our present
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: knowledge be proven. On the other hand, there is nothing
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: to render it improbable. The official documents of the time
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: are silent upon the question. On the fly leaf of
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: an application dated April twenty first, seventeen seventy five from
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the Committee of Correspondence in Portsmouth to a like committee
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: and Exeter, a statement made at the time is given
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: of the quantity of powder stored in Exeter and vicinity.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: It states that at the time there were twelve barrels
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: at Kingston, eight at Epping, four at Popland, eight at Nottingham,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: with Major Silly, six at Brentwood, one at Londonery, four
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: at Portsmouth, and twenty nine at Exeter. It is quite
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: probable that this represents part of the powder from Fort
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: William and Mary, but there is nothing to indicate the fact,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: except perhaps that Major Scilly's name appears as a custodian,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: and he was directed by the Exeter Committee of Safety
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: on the seventh of the following August to apply to
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: the selectmen of the several towns in this colony with
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: whom was lodged the powder taken last winter from Fort
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: William and Mary, taken account of what is now in
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: their custody, respectively, and requests them forthwith to convey the
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: whole of it to Colonel Nicholas Gilman at Exeter. This
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: request to Major Silly was the result of a letter
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: from General Sullivan to the Committee of Safety under date
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: of August fourth, at winter Hill, stating that the army
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: was in sore straits for powder and asking that at
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: least twenty barrels be sent at once. There is no
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: doubt that Major Silly carried out his instructions, and that
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: much of the powder from Fort William and Mary was
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: carried to winter Hill for General Sullivan, in a subsequent letter,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: claims to have supplied the troops at winter Hill when
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: in sore need with powder. On June's second, the Committee
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: of Supplies had been ordered to apply and obtain the
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: quantity and quality of the powder brought from the fort.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: William and Mary also take it into their possession and
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: lay the state of it before the Committee of Safety,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: but there is no record of their having carried out
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: their orders. In fact, the latter instructions to Major Silly
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: would seem to indicate that this order was not carried
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: into effect. Now. Although much of this order was probably
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: sent to General Sullivan at winter Hill, there is nothing
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: to indicate that the portion retained in Durham was not
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: previously used at Bunker Hill. There are two facts apart
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: from tradition, which seemed to show the truth of the statement,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: and that the tradition was not of recent birth. C. E. Potter,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: in his History of Manchester eighteen fifty six, page four ten,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: states in a footnote that Major Demerit took the powder
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: to Bunker Hill, and further says that a gentleman is
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: now living in Portsmouth, to whom he gave some of
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: it for squirrel hunting. After relating the taking of the fort,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: remarking as he gave it here, try this powder. This
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: is the kind we killed the Redcoats with at Bunker Hill.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Still earlier, on May twenty first, eighteen twenty three, at
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: the Portsmouth By Centennial Anniversary celebration, the following toast was
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: printed on the program. Major Sullivan and Captain langdon Our
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: delegates to Congress in seventy five, who supplied Bunker Hill
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: with powder from His Majesty's Fort at Piscatterquak end of
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: chapter four of the Capture of Fort William and Murray.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Was the
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: capture of Fort William and Murray the first overt act
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: of the Revolution. There is no question that previous to
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: December fourteenth, seventeen seventy four, bodies of men had destroyed
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: private property owing to their disapproval of British methods, and
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: in a few cases had even assaulted the Royal power.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: But the capture of Fort William and Mary was the
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: first organized fight of the Revolutionary War, and on December fourteenth,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, the first gun of that war was fired.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: It is true that on December fifth, seventeen seventy four,
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: the Assembly of Rhode Island ordered the powder and shot
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: in Fort George to be removed to a place of safety.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: And it is further true that it was done with
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: the same intent and purpose, and undoubtedly influenced the subsequent
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: action at Portsmouth. It was accomplished without opposition, simply the
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: confiscation of stores already in their possession. The taking of
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: the schooner gasby eight guns, commanded by Lieutenant Dunnington at
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: Gaspy Point, Rhode Island, on June ninth, seventeen seventy two,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: has been held to be the first assault against the Crown,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: but erroneously, for it in no wise differs in principle
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: from the act of firing upon the schooner Saint John
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: in July seventeen sixty four, the seizure of the Maidstones
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: Boat at Newport in May seventeen sixty five, or the
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: scuttling of the British Armed Liberty at Newport in seventeen
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: sixty nine. All were directed against the vessels of the
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: British Navy carrying the King's colors. But they were directed
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: against the particular vessel that suffered on account of real
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: injuries to the participants or to the community, and not
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: from any uprising against the general authority of Great Britain.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: Arnold states in his account of the destruction of the
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: gasby that Lute Jennet Dunnington, the commander had practiced every
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: arrogance upon vessels in the bay, detaining them, often without
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: a colorable pretext, stopping even market boats, and in some
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: cases plundering people on shore. The Battle of Alamance in
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: North Carolina on May sixteenth, seventeen seventy one was entirely
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: of a local nature, and was fought between a band
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: of so called regulators and volunteer militia of their own province. Also,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: according to Hildreth History of Us, Volume two, page five
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: seventy the regulators themselves became staunch supporters of the royal authority.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: The three and one half years intervening between this affair
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: and that of William and Mary is sufficient in itself
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: to separate it from the revolutionary period. The opinion of
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: Reverend Alonso H. Quint d d in regard to the
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: capture of Fort William and Mary is often well quoted
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: in the words, the daring character of this assault cannot
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: be overestimated. It was an organized investment of a royal fortress,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: where the King's flag was flying and where the King's
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: garrison met them with muskets and artillery. It was four
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: months before Lexington and Lexington was resistance to attack, while
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: this was embittered assault. While the King heard of this capture,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: it so embittered him that all hope of concessions was
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: at an end. It made war inevitable. End of the
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: capture of Fort William and Mary