Last month Alexander Cain
laid out some new research about how
Newburyport and nearby towns worked quickly at the start of the Revolutionary War to
fortify that small harbor against the
Royal Navy:
It appears two possible events triggered the move to fortify the Merrimack River in 1775. The first was the Ipswich Fright which occured in the days after Lexington and Concord. This particular event was the result of a false rumor that British soldiers had landed in Ipswich and had killed the local populace. As the rumor spread, widespread panic set in among the residents of several North Shore Massachusetts towns and many, including those from Newburyport, fled to New Hampshire.
The second event transpired the following month when a detachment of British sailors and officers from the HMS Scarborough entered Newburyport Harbor under the cover of darkness to scout the town’s defensive capabilities. According to the Essex Journal, “last Tuesday evening (May 23) a barge belonging to the man of war lying at Portsmouth, rowing up and down the river to make discoveries with two small officers and six seamen.” Unfortunately, the mission was an utter failure as the “tars not liking the employ, tied their commanders, then run the boat ashore, and were so impolite as to wish the prisoners good night, and came off.” Upon entering Newburyport, the deserters alerted the town of the mission and the location of the officers. However, “the officers soon got loose and rowed themselves back to the ship” before they were apprehended.
The two events rattled Newburyport. Many residents realized that if a Royal Navy warship entered the Merrimack, it could easily sail down the river and not only bombard the town, wharves and shipyards, but it could also raze Salisbury and Amesbury. As a result, officials from the three towns and Newbury agreed that the mouth or the river, as well as the harbor itself, needed to be fortified.
The result, Alex Cain writes, was “an early warning network and at least three defensive lines that included coastal fortifications, physical obstructions, floating batteries, interior redoubts and two companies of
militia that were on a constant state of alert.” This made Newburyport a refuge for merchant
ships sympathetic to the American cause and a base for American
privateers. At least for a couple of years. When the war moved south, the port and its protection became less important.
2 comments:
My 4th great-grandfather, Caleb Haskell, marched out of Newburyport on April 19th, 1775 as a 20 year old fifer in Captain Moses Nowell's militia company in answer to the Lexington Alarm. There is no record of them encountering the British, but they did make it to Cambridge with the other militias. They were there only there a few days when the Committee of Safety wrote to General Ward and asked for their militia to be returned because of the panic over British invasion at the Merrimack. Nowell eventually became colonel in command of a garrison on Plum Island, and Caleb joined up with Captain Ezra Lunt's company, and marched back to Cambridge to be part of Colonel Moses Little's Regiment. According to a local story recorded in the preface to Lt. Paul Lunt's diary, Captain Ezra Lunt's company was formed in the Old South Presbyterian Church after a rousing sermon given by Jonathan Parsons. Take that as you will, because the preface goes on to say that Paul Lunt went on Arnold's Expedition to Quebec when the diary itself makes it clear that he stayed in Cambridge. Caleb's diary, on the other hand, records his own experiences on the march to Quebec, him getting smallpox, getting court-martialed after his enlistment expired, and his walk home through Vermont and New Hampshire. His son, also named Caleb, married Fanny Matilda Betts, daughter of another 4th great-grandfather, Dr. Azor Betts, who can be read about in other articles here. The kids were married in Canada in March 1815.
- Les Haskell
2025 is the 250th of the Quebec Expedition . Huzzah! Caleb Haskell and many others from Newburyport should not be forgotten!
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