Page 223 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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accompany another officer along with several of his men from the Continental sloop Provi-
dence into Newport for a prisoner exchange. However, this mission was actually a cover for
him to see what was going on inside occupied enemy territory. Allowing his beard to grow
and dressing up along with several of his Providence Marines as sailors, Trevett sabotaged
the water supply of the boat he was traveling in and thus made the need to replenish their
water supply as the reason for going ashore. Once in town, Trevett noted that the British frig-
ate HMS Diamond undergoing repairs after having run accidentally aground and being at-
tacked by small American flotilla. He observed that the Diamond was “stoping up her Bruzes
we Gave her the Week before at Warrick Neck.” Looking for a funnel to fill the water cask,
Trevett was soon recognized by a local woman named Mrs. Batte. Earlier in the war, Trevett
believed that Mrs. Batte was a Tory. But fortunately for him, her son was apparently in the
American army as she asked Trevett if he had any news about how he was doing. She did
nothing to reveal to the British that trevett was walking about the town. trevett strolled past
the home of Peleg Barker and noted Hessian sentries and a guard detachment had been quar-
tered there. Finding several trusted pre-war friends, Trevett got them to give him the “What
and Whare and What Name of Trupes ware on the Island and Whare they ware stationed.”
Trevett stopped by a local tavern and noted the room was “Crowded with Some British &
Heshen officers.” He soon saw several locals who were opposed to the American cause and
concluded that he needed to get back to his boat before he was recognized by one of them. In
fact, one such person thought he had recognized Trevett and called him by name. However,
Trevett ignored the man and hurried back to the wharf. It was not long before he was able to
report his intelligence to the Commanding Officer of the Providence, abraham Whipple. 7
The first few weeks in Newport were clearly difficult ones for the occupying forces.
Several storms battered the Hessians quartered in tents on the heights above the town so that
their canvas was soon in shreds. as a result, the Hessians were ordered back into town and
told to find shelter in the numerous now empty wooden homes of Newporters who had fled
before the invasion. The rule of thumb for quartering troops in Newport was that a minimum
of seven empty houses were needed for each company. Officers might obtain an empty house
or more likely, board with a family who had elected to remain in town. Captain John Peebles,
a Scottish officer with the Grenadiers noted in his diary that soon after landing, the “Troops
Canton’d in Houses and Barns as most convenient some better & some worse, less moroding
[marauding] than usual only a few pigs &c suffer – orders on that head more strickly attended
to on account of the Scarcity on the Island.” Peebles himself boarded with a Newport fam-
ily and paid rent. He believed that most of the population had fled the city and stated that
“scarcely one third of the whole remaining & most of these very ill provided for the win-
ter….” Just a month later, when Peebles and his unit was ordered to return to New York City,
he stated that he “Clear’d with my Landlady this morning & tho I over paid her she did not
seem to be satisfied, greedy & cunning like the rest of the Yankees.” 8
Due to a shortage of wood needed for fuel to keep warm, empty houses not used as
temporary barracks were occasionally pulled down so that the wood could be used by the

7 Captain John Trevett diary entries, in Smith, 327-328.
8 Ira D. Gruber, ed. John Peebles’ American War: The Diary of a Scottish Grenadier, 1776-1782, (Mechanics-
burg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1998), 72-73, 82.