Page 233 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

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Hessian Brigadier General Von Lossberg agreed with Private Dohla. After three years of
occupation, he summed up the situation in Newport:
At the present time we all eat barley broth, and not much else. There
is not much we can do about it. Admiral Byron’s fleet took a lot of
provisions on board, and the provision boat which is eagerly expected
has not shown up. When it does, we will get our regular food ration.
We are on an island which allies and enemies have devastated. this is
very little cattle left, and what there is gets slaughtered by those not
entitled to do so. If a Hessian does it and gets convicted, he has to
atone for his appetite by running the gauntlet for two days. The
english are not too lenient with their men either, but it still happens.
I had a cow myself which was ready to bear a calf early next month.
Some good friends had already requested the latter. But one morning
the stable was empty and the cow was gone. At any rate I shall save
the wine that would have gone with the meat. thus we have to get
all our food from New York, regardless of what it is. Only hogs can
still be gotten out in the country. At times, too, ships arrive with
fresh meat, from where, I do not know. I suppose that those farmers
prefer our guineas to their scrip.
35
The summer and early fall was more of the same. Soldiers were tried and convicted of
petty theft, drunkenness and the more serious crime of desertion. By October 1779, even the
British had had enough of now devastated Newport. Besides, the new commander-in-chief,
General Henry Clinton decided on a new strategy and focused his attention and that of his
army in North America on the southern colonies. By mid-October 1779, it was clear that the
British were preparing to depart the town of Newport. They burned all the wooden structures
in their fortifications including the provincial lighthouse at Beavertail Point on nearby Co-
nanicut Island. The soldiers chopped up and burned the town’s commercial Long Wharf and
pulled down 160 more houses and burned them as well. Town wells were filled in and ruined.
As the soldiers departed, Private Dohla noted that they were marched to their transport ships
in silent, solid columns “and it was no the strictest orders of General Prescott that no inhabit-
ants, and especially no females, permitted themselves to be seen at any window or on the
street, and should anyone show themselves, those who were on patrol were ordered to fire at
them immediately. Therefore, in Newport it appeared as if the entire city had died. This was
done so no one could desert or be left behind.”
36

afterMath
There can be no doubt that the three year British occupation of Newport had left an indel-
ible mark upon the town. The ubiquitous preacher, Dr. Ezra Stiles returned to his home town
and estimated that at least 300 houses had been totally destroyed and many of those still

35 Major General Friedrich von Lossberg, 18 January 1779, in the Friedrich von Lossberg Letters, Redwood
Library, Newport, RI.
36 Johann Dohla, 25 October, 1779, 113.