Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

TO THE READER.

FOR a number of years past the Author has been engaged in the prosecution of claims growing out of the war of the Revolution, and has collected, in consequence, a large number of documents. Some of these will be found in the following pages, as published for the first time. Among the more important of this class are the following :

1st. Dr. Benjamin Church's traitorous letter, as decyphered in 1775. This relic was found among the papers of a deceased officer.

2d. Extracts from the Journal of Major Simeon Thayer, relative to the storming of Quebec, Dec. 31st, 1775.

3d. The proceedings of the New England Committees, at Providence, in December, 1776.

4th. Correspondence between Gov. Cooke and General Washington, relative to the raising of the Rhode Island Brigade, in 1777. 5th. The proceedings of the Springfield Convention, in 1777. 6th. The Report of the Committee of the Legislature of Rhode Island, in 1785, appointed to ascertain the amount of depreciation due the officers and soldiers of the R. I. Brigade of State Troops.

N. B. This depreciation is still due from the U. States, amounting to more than sixty thousand pounds! The names, and the sum due each individual, is published. The Author has done this especially for the benefit of claimants, whether for depreciation or pensions. A brief history of these claims is also added, &c., &c.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

HISTORY has rendered but partial justice to the efforts of Rhode Island during our Revolutionary struggle. No state made greater sacrifices-no state furnished more men in proportion to its population-none more money in proportion to its wealth; and she had the honor of furnishing a General, second only to the immortal Commander-in-Chief. Next to Washington stood General Greene, in all those traits of character deemed so essential in a commander of an army.

This little state was the seat of war for nearly three years. From December, 1776, to November, 1779, the enemy held possession of Newport and the greater part of the island of Rhode Island; and during all that time his ships-of-war had the command of our beautiful bay, and he landed his men on its shores whenever plunder and devastation was an object. Night and day incursions were made from the ships-towns near the shores were bombarded and burnt, and on one night alone, as the writer was told by an old soldier, when on guard on an eminence near "Updikes Newtown," he counted five fires in various directions, which afterwards were ascertained to have been the burning of houses and barns by the enemy. Nor was this the worst part of the picture. The tories would furnish the necessary information where there was a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep, and in many cases act as guides to the enemy in their marauding excursions. With such an enemy had the men of Rhode Island to contend!

From December, 1776, to the summer of 1777, almost every man liable by law, or not liable, to perform military duty, was called out to guard the shores until troops from other states

could come to their relief, when their duty became less arduous. Permanent regiments were also raised in this state for the defence of "Rhode Island in particular."

[ocr errors]

The women also of Rhode Island, with all the sympathies peculiar to their sex, took an active part in sustaining the great cause," and a more noble race of women never existed. History can furnish but few instances of greater sacrifices and efforts than were made by them to aid their country. Mothers and daughters not only performed all the necessary work in-doors, but much of the out-door labor on the farms was done by them while their husbands and brothers were at the camp. We could fill a volume with what we have been told by them of their efforts, their sacrifices, their anxieties, their feelings and sufferings, in the great struggle for Independence, since the first act of Congress was passed, granting pensions to the widows of officers and soldiers of the Revolution. We will mention a few specimens of female efforts, and add their names as a tribute to their memory.

DORCAS MATTESON.

Dorcas Matteson, of Coventry, widow of David, was the mother of nineteen children, was married in 1770, and, at the time she made an application for a pension, was ninety-one years of age, yet her mind and memory were as bright as if she had been only thirty. This lady informed the writer of some of the efforts she made, and privations she endured, to sustain the "glorious cause." Among other things, she said: In Sullivan's memorable expedition in 1778, in "hay time," she went into the meadow, pillowed her baby on some hay in the shade, and went to work; and, with the help of a lad not old enough to bear arms, raked together and loaded hay, and put it in the barn, while her husband was at the "camp," and this business she followed for some days. But this was nothing in comparison with her suffering and anxieties during the battle on Rhode Island in August following. She could distinctly hear the roar of the cannon, and could

« AnteriorContinuar »