Page 230 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

230 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

Baptiste, comte d’Estaing and was somewhere in the Atlantic. Moreover, French privateers
were now capturing British shipping in the English channel, thus forcing the recall of many
Royal Navy ships to home waters.
Perhaps taking the advice of Major Mackenzie that the cause of many administrative
problems was idle soldiers in Newport, on 25 May 1778, General Robert Pigot ordered a
large 600 man raid to be conducted on the towns of Warren and Bristol, located immediately
to the north of Aquidneck Island and largely believed to be the primary base for American
raiding parties on the island. Burning numerous boats and skiffs found gathered along the
shoreline, the soldiers also set fire and pillaged the two towns at will. Believing that the
house of Mrs. Peleg Anthony had been set on fire by militia as a signal the soldiers attacked
townspeople who arrived to put out the fire. According to Newport diarist Fleet Greene, “the
inhabitants, without respect of persons, were greatly abused, knocked down and beat. Wear-
ing apparel of all sorts, necklaces, rings and paper money, taken as plunder at Bristol and
Warren, were offered for sale by the soldiers” in Newport. 27
But the true revelation of the raid was not the plunder. Rather it was the large amount of
barges and other landing craft that had been gathered by the Americans for a possible assault
to retake the town of Newport. It was feared that with the help of the French fleet, Newport
might become more of a liability than asset to the British.
And indeed on 29 July 1778, d’Estaing and the French fleet sailed into Narragansett Bay
and quickly forced their way past the British batteries at the harbor entrance. Anchoring just
out of range, d’Estaing’s force waited in the bay to consult with their American allies, now
under command of Continental army Major General John Sullivan. Local Newport resident
Mary Almy, a women of Tory sympathy, stated that most townspeople assumed that the fleet
in sight must be Lord Howe. However, by 10 that morning it was determined that the ships
were French and said that the news “threw us into the greatest consternation.” She added
that now “the merchant looks upon his full store as worth nothing. The shopkeeper with a
distressed countenance locks and bars his shop, not knowing what is for the best….Heavens!
with what spirit the army undertook the old batteries; with what amazing quickness did they
throw up new ones….” Mrs. Almy spent the night comforting her frightened children and
was busy burying her “papers and plate in the ground.” 28
Two days later, Mrs. Almy was shocked to see the British burning their now trapped
frigates and observed at Coddington’s Cove the HMS Kingfisher and two galleys furiously
ablaze and stated that she spent this day, “trembling, crying and hiding.” By 4 August, she
noted that American troops were being gathered opposite Howland’s ferry on the north end of
the island. The next day she observed that “at night [the British] had ordered all sailors into
town, if possible to keep some order with them.” But apparently this did not take place as she
noted that “every sailor was equipt with a musket that could get one; he that could not, had a
billet of wood, an old broom, or any club they could find. They all took care to save a bottle of
spirits, which they call kill grief; some fiddling, some playing jewsharp….By dark the bottles

27 Fleet Greene, “Journal of Fleet Green, 1777-1779,” Newport Mercury, (30 November 1861 – 5 April 1862),
unpaginated.
28 Mary Almy, “Mrs. Almy’s Journal,” in Newport Historical Magazine, Vol. I, (July, 1880), 17-36.