“COME AND TAKE IT!”

The colony of Georgia was a late arrival to our Revolutionary War, her citizens needing British protection from hostile Creeks and Cherokees to their west.  Nevertheless, the Continental Congress authorized the construction of forts to protect Georgia’s (then) two most important coastal centers, Savannah and Sunbury.  Sunbury, on the Medway River, was a thriving export center for lumber, rice, and indigo, and the southern Georgia entry port for manufactured goods.  Fort construction began on a bluff jutting into the Medway just below the town.  Protected on three sides by impassable marsh, the unusually large earthen fort enclosed an acre-sized parade ground–large enough to accommodate most of the town’s residents.  The longest wall (275 feet) faced the river and mounted the largest of 24 cannon.  A surrounding moat further discouraged unwanted entry.  The fort was completed in the summer of 1777 and garrisoned with a newly formed company of artillery under CAPT Thomas Morris, for whom the fort was named.

It was British Florida, and its garrison at St. Augustine, that was the most immediate threat.   When MGEN Sir Henry Clinton sent a force from New York to the Carolinas in 1778, British BGEN Augustine Prevost, in St. Augustine, was ordered to push north in a coordinated attack to open an additional front and divide the southern colonies.  Prevost dutifully marched 400 troops against the Medway basin by land.  As a diversion he detached 500 men under LCOL Lewis Fuser to sail up the intercoastal waterways and “present themselves” off Sunbury.  Prevost’s march went better than expected, ahead of schedule.  The only resistance he encountered, on November 24^th, was a series of easy skirmishes with poorly organized colonials along the Savannah-Darien road (known as the “Battle of Medway”).  Not finding Fuser of Sunbury as expected, he burned the Medway Meeting House, “liberated” livestock, and turned back southward on the 25^th.

Contrary winds delayed Fuser’s arrival until this day, and when he disembarked his troops at Sunbury, he found that news of Prevost’s march had scurried the townspeople into Fort Morris.  He sent a note to the new commander, LCOL John McIntosh, demanding the 200-man garrison surrender the fort–to which McIntosh boldly replied, “Come and take it!”  When Fuser next turned and sailed away, elated Americans cheered McIntosh for his bravado against the vaunted Royal Army.

But Fuser’s mission was to link-up with his boss, and hearing that Prevost had doubled-back on his withdrawal and was returning north, Fuser had simply moved to a new rendezvous at Cumberland Island.  From there Prevost struck Sunbury again, overpowering Fort Morris on 10 January 1779 after a three-day siege.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  7-8 DEC 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Guss, John Walker.  Fortresses of Savannah Georgia.  Images of America Series, Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub., 2002, pp. 17-18.

Searcy, Martha Condray.  The Georgia-Florida Contest in the American Revolution, 1776-1778.  Tuscaloosa, AL: Univ. of Alabama Press, 1985, pp. 118-19, 165-67.

Site visit, Fort Morris State Historical Site, Sunbury, GA, 17 September 2005.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Colonel McIntosh’s full reply was, “We, sir, are fighting the battle of America… As to surrendering the fort, receive this laconic reply:  Come and take it!”

The British occupied Fort Morris for the rest of the war.  They renamed it Fort George in honor of King George III.  The fort fell into disrepair over subsequent decades, but with the War of 1812, Americans reconstructed a smaller earthen fort at the same site, Fort Defiance.  This 1812 construction has been preserved today at Georgia’s Fort Morris State Historical Site, which can be easily reached off I-95 at Georgia Exit 67.

In its heyday, Sunbury was a booming commercial center, though it is difficult to locate on modern maps.  Having been sacked in the Revolutionary War, lashed by hurricanes in 1801 and 1804, scourged with yellow fever in subsequent years, and suffered the erosion of its economic base, the town has all but disappeared.  Only a small cemetery and Fort Morris State Park mark the site today.

“Come and take it!” is a phrase also remembered from the battle of Gonzales, the first battle of Texas’ struggle for independence from Mexico on 2 October 1835.  In reply to the Mexican Army’s request that the Texas garrison surrender their single cannon, the Texans made the famous reply.

The post “Come and Take It!” appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                     SECOND FIJIAN EXPEDITION

American traders plying the Pacific in the 19^th century occasionally ran afoul of angry natives.  Such was the case in the summer of 1859 with two sailors from a US merchant freighter.  They were captured by disciples of Chief Sera Esenisa Cakobau on the Fijian island of Wayia Teegee.  The two were killed and cannibalized.  News of the event reached CDR Arthur Sinclair, Jr., of our Pacific Squadron aboard the sloop-of-war USS VANDALIA, 18.  Sinclair had completed his mission to rescue 40 merchant seamen from the shipwrecked trader Wild Wave marooned on nearby Oena Island.  He wasted no time this day in setting a course for Fiji.  There Chief Cakobau left no doubt, confirming what Sinclair had heard, “…we killed them and we have eaten them.  We are great warriors and we delight in war.”

Sinclair could not allow such an affront to pass.  He chartered the American merchant schooner Mechanic and placed aboard LT Charles Caldwell and a force of ten Marines and 40 tars.  Wild Wave’s skipper, Capt. Josiah Knowles, joined the expedition as well.  From MECHANIC, at 0300 on 9 October, Caldwell led his party ashore.  They hauled a 12-pounder howitzer on a trek inland across hilly and jungled terrain.  After manhandling the howitzer up a 2300-foot precipice the weapon accidentally broke loose, plummeting the entire height.  The party pressed onward and left the gun.  It was after dawn when they reached Somatii, the village of the offending Chief.

Three hundred native warriors met them, grouping themselves in front of the village.  Dressed in white robes and carrying clubs, spears, rocks, bows, and a few muskets, the Fijians posed a daunting threat.  Caldwell ordered a portion of his force to outflank the defenders, and a volley of Navy minié balls from this flank position startled the natives.  They broke from their lines, fleeing into the village and the surrounding jungle.  Master’s Mate John K. Barton now led his men in a boisterous chorus of the song “Red, White, and Blue,” then with three hearty cheers, charged.  The 12-pounder gun crew, having no better employment, fired the 115 huts of the village from leeward to windward.  After ninety minutes of work, Caldwell’s Marines repelled a native counterattack and withdrew.

Fourteen native warriors, including Chief Cakobau and another subordinate lay dead, and 36 others were wounded.  Two of Caldwell’s sailors had been hit with rocks, another suffered an arrow to his thigh, and two Marines were injured.  Caldwell lingered on the island for a week, insuring that further aggression by the natives was not forthcoming.  He re-embarked MECHANIC on October 16, having asserted American might and successfully avenged an attack on our sovereignty.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  12 OCT 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 74.

Naval History and Heritage Command.  “Irregular Warfare and the Vandalia Expedition in Fiji, 1859.”  AT: https://www.navalhistory.org/2010/10/09/irregular-warfare-and-the-vandalia-expedition-in-fiji-1859, retrieved 29 August 2016.

Sinclair, Arthur.  “Cruise of the U.S. Sloop-of-War Vandalia in the Pacific in 1858, under the Command of Commander Arthur Sinclair, U.S.N.”  Proceedings of the US Naval Institute, April 1889.  AT: http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1889-04/cruise-u-s-sloop-war-vandalia-pacific-1859-under-command-commander-art, retrieved 29 August 2016.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The first Fijian expedition was launched in 1855 to avenge an attack on an American commercial agent in Fiji, an attack perpetrated as well, by Chief Sera Esenisa Cakobau.

Charles Henry Bromedge Caldwell went on to command Union gunboats in the Civil War, rising to rank of CAPT shortly after the war’s end.  He died in 1877.  (USS CALDWELL (DD-605) remembers a different sailor, LT James R. Caldwell of the Barbary Wars).

Wild Wave had been shipwrecked on 4 March 1859 on the tiny island of Oena, in the Pitcairn Island group.  An attempt by several crewmen to sail for help failed when their raft wrecked on nearby Pitcairn Island.  Sinclair rescued them all on 5 August.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted by Congress as our official national anthem on 3 March 1931.  Prior to that a variety of songs praising our nation and our people were used ceremonially.  “Red, White, and Blue” above is one such song from the 19^th century.

Arthur Sinclair above was one of three sons of the better-known US Navy officer CAPT Arthur Sinclair of the War of 1812.  All three Sinclair sons “went South” to the Confederacy at the outset of the Civil War.  It is the elder Sinclair who is the namesake of SINCLAIR (DD-275) and the great-grandfather of novelist Upton Sinclair.

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                                                    MATANZAS

Spain gained a foothold in the Caribbean in the 1490s after her sponsorship of Christopher Columbus’ expeditions.  By the 16^th century she had effectively cornered the profitable Caribbean spice and sugar trade.  Spain’s Caribbean bases also became transit points for precious metal shipments from South America and the Pacific.  The lure of these riches attracted English and French privateers such that by the mid-1500s the Spanish Main fell victim to active marauding.  Concurrent religious turmoil in France between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots encouraged Huguenot leader Jean Ribault to seek colonial opportunities in the New World.  Thus in 1565 French and Spanish expeditions simultaneously descended on Spanish Florida, the Huguenots establishing Fort Caroline near modern Jacksonville, and the Spanish founding St. Augustine 30 miles to the south as a base against piracy.  A clash between the Catholic Spanish, who claimed title to Florida, and the Huguenots was inevitable.

The French took the initiative, sallying in mid-September to attack Pedro Menéndez de Avilés at St. Augustine.  But an untimely hurricane scattered Ribault’s fleet and drove it ashore along the Florida coast to the south.  Meanwhile Menéndez marched overland to successfully capture Fort Caroline.

To the south, 500 of Ribault’s shipwrecked Huguenots collected themselves in two large groups for a march up the coast.  The lead group was halted on September 29^th by an impassable coastal inlet 14 miles south of St. Augustine.  That same day 70 of Menéndez’ men reached the north side of this same inlet.  Menéndez now tricked the French into believing they were outnumbered and convinced them to surrender to Spanish benevolence.  Throughout this day Menéndez ferried the Huguenots, ten at a time, across the inlet.  As each ten arrived they were fed, then led out of sight behind the dunes.  Here they were bound and put to the sword.  All but 15 of the 126 Huguenots of this first group were thus dispatched.

Twelve days later the second group of 350 Frenchmen reached the inlet.  This time Ribault himself negotiated with Menéndez, also agreeing to surrender.  Using the same modus operandi the Spanish ferried the Frenchmen across, slaughtering 134 before their scheme was discovered.  The remaining Huguenots fled, most were later rounded up and imprisoned in Cuba.

The Spanish later built a small guardpost at this inlet, Fort Matanzas, the Spanish word for “slaughters.”  Spain held Florida almost continuously until 1819, when our own nation’s need for a base from which to counter the British in the Caribbean led the United States to purchase Florida.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  6 OCT 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

De Quesada, Alejandro M.  A History of Florida Forts: Florida’s Lonely Outposts, Cheltenham, England: History Press, 2006, p. 43.

Site visit.  Fort Matanzas National Monument, St. Augustine, Florida, July 1997.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Matanzas Inlet, into which drains the Matanzas River, represents a “backdoor” access point to St. Augustine.  Hence, the small wooden guardpost built by the Spanish to provide an early warning against a British or French attack.  This outpost was re-constructed of stone in the 1740s and stood (in marked disrepair) until 1924, when it was declared a US National Monument.  It has since been rebuilt by the National Park Service to its 1740s design and can be visited today, the Fort Matanzas National Monument, on Route A1A south of St. Augustine.

          The National Park Service was created in 1916.  Prior to that, the Antiquities Act of 1906, enacted during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, gave Presidents executive power to designate National Monuments of historic or natural significance.

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                                         DODSON/ECKES ESCAPE

On the 6^th of May 1966, USMC SGT James Dodson was surveying for a road construction team in friendly territory just south of Da Nang, South Vietnam.  While investigating a peasant hut about 200 yards from his buddies, Dodson suddenly felt a sharp blow to the back of his head.  When he came to, he was being led on a six-foot rope down a jungle path by several Viet Cong soldiers.  Four days later LCPL Walter W. Eckes was hitch-hiking south of Da Nang close to the location from which Dodson had been taken.  Three jovial soldiers in South Vietnamese uniforms approached carrying American rifles.  But as they pulled abreast of Eckes they suddenly became sullen, leveled their rifles, and led him off on a similar tether.  On May 12^th the two Marines were united in a temporary POW encampment 20 miles south of Da Nang.

Dodson and Eckes remained at this camp nearly a month, under the constant watch of their VC guards.  They were fed a steady diet of rice with fish sauce and given liberty to bathe and wash their newly issued black “pajamas” in a nearby stream.  Each noon they were forced to read Communist propaganda, and around 1700 they would be subjected to a 30-minute English language broadcast of Radio Hanoi.  Their chief captor occasionally grilled them on the propaganda they endured, taking particular interest in Dodson, an African-American.  But though they were treated better than many American prisoners of the Communists, Dodson and Eckes never abandoned hopes of escape.

One day in June, as they were being marched for several days to a new camp, the constant vigil of their guards relaxed.  As the Marines and three guards sat in a semicircle eating their evening meal, Dodson suddenly jumped up and grabbed two carbines leaning against a tree.  He tossed one to Eckes, and in a flash their three VC guards beat a retreat into the jungle.

Eckes and Dodson rummaged through the packs abandoned by their captors and quickly shed their VC pajamas for green fatigues.  Taking only the rifles, canteens, and some hard candy, the two Marines struck off in the direction of Da Nang.  Their trek was not an easy one.  They stumbled down steep mountains, fell into the paths of wild boar and water buffalo, and survived a brush with quicksand.  They endured fatigue and received numerous cuts and bruises.  One night their sleep in the underbrush was disturbed as a VC search party passed a mere three feet away.  Finally on June 22^nd, the exhausted Marines stumbled into a South Vietnamese Army camp near Da Nang, where they were sheltered and fed.  The next day the two were taken to a nearby airfield and flown to the Marine Corps airbase at Da Nang.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  27 JUN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

“Guests of the VC.”  Newsweek, Vol 68 (2), 11 July 1966, pp. 36-37.

Rochester, Stuart I. and Frederick Kiley.  Honor Bound:  American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia 1961-1973.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998, pp. 272-73.

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                                        LTJG WEEDON OSBORNE

The US entry into World War I prompted Chicago dentist Weedon Osborne to seek a commission in the Navy Dental Corps, which he received 8 May 1917.  He reported for duty 26 March 1918 with the 2^nd Battalion, 6^th Marine Regiment, 96^th Company.  This day found the 2/6 Marines entrenched on the battlefields of France before Belleau Wood.

By noon, this day was already the bloodiest in USMC history.  Hundreds of leathernecks had stepped off that morning in the direction of the German high ground at Hill 142 and Belleau Wood.  Their advance across a mile of open field had been raked by machine guns, and units supporting their flanks had lagged.  CPT Donald F. Duncan’s 96^th Company gained the edge of Belleau Wood and there became a reserve behind a US Army unit.  But the collapse of the American right flank allowed the Germans to occupy the town of Bouresches.  The 2/6 Marines were ordered to take that town, the 96^th Company in the lead.

The 96^th advanced across Triangle Farm via a ravine, but the staccato reports from German guns would not be denied.  Casualties mounted.  On the left, LT Bowling’s platoon was soon leaderless.  LT Lockhart’s platoon on the right had an easier time of it and forged ahead of the line of advance.  At this, smartly mustachioed CPT Duncan, in his pressed uniform, swagger stick, and straight-stemmed pipe, walked calmly out across the battlefield in the direction of Lockhart’s platoon.  Accompanied by First Sergeant Sissler, the two seemed oblivious to the hailstorm of German bullets.  Issuing orders and smiling all the while, Duncan halted Lockhart’s men, then moved the rest of the company into an organized line just 600 yards from the Germans.   In an instant a Maxim round caught Duncan in the stomach.  SGT Al Sheridan called for medical, and LTJG Osborne and an unnamed Corpsman came running.  Osborne had made several trips to ferry wounded Marines that afternoon, but this potential loss of the charismatic company commander would be a blow to the unit.  Osborne, Sheridan, and the Corpsman carried the gasping Duncan to shelter in a small clump of trees.  Just as he was being made comfortable an 8-inch shell screamed in.  The deafening explosion, dust, and smoke settled to reveal Osborne, the Corpsman, and Duncan lying dead.

For “extraordinary heroism under fire” in attempting to rescue his company commander and others this bloody day, LTJG Osborne was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross.  He is buried today in the Aisne-Marne American National Cemetery near the spot where he died.  Rue (street) Weedon Osborne in the town of Bouresches remembers his sacrifice, as does the US Navy Clemson-class destroyer OSBORNE (DD-295).

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  12 JUN 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Asprey, Robert B.  At Belleau Wood.  Denton, TX: Univ. North Texas Press, 1996, pp. 171-85.

Site visit.  Aisne-Marne American National Cemetery, Belleau, France, March 2002.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  When this battle started Osborne’s dental equipment had not yet arrived in France.  He had taken to assisting, nevertheless, adopting the role of a Hospital Corpsmen.

          CPT Donald F. Duncan was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star, and Distinguished Service Medal for his actions this day.

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                               “INDIA” 3/2’S STAND AT HUSAYBAH

The Marines of Company India, 3^rd Battalion, 2^nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 2, had been posted to Camp Gannon, near secluded Husaybah, on Iraq’s border with Syria.  There they became accustomed to occasional incoming mortar rounds.  But four rounds impacting a ten-yard square this morning signaled something unusual.  More heavy mortar fire screamed in, and three rocket propelled grenades (RPG) hit the combat operations center.

Amid the confusion a white dump truck rumbled up the dirt road toward the Camp’s entrance.  An RPG round simultaneously knocked LCPL’s Joseph Lampe and Roger Leyton to the floor of the forward guard bunker.  LCPL Joshua Butler in the next checkpoint watched the dump truck roll past Lampe’s bunker and toward his own.  He opened with 30 rounds of his M249 automatic weapon, peppering the cab of the dump truck and causing it to veer off the road.  It careened into an obstruction 40 yards from Butler’s position and erupted into a fireball.  The force of that blast knocked Butler against the wall and shrapnel smashed the goggles strapped to his helmet.  Stunned, Butler regained his feet in time to hear a second vehicle bouncing up the road.  A red firetruck punched through the smoke and now bore down on Butler’s position.  “I can’t believe this is happening again,” Bulter thought as he triggered his weapon.  LCPL Charles Young from a nearby position fired grenades which only bracketed the charging firetruck.  Butler could see two occupants’ faces wrapped in black cloth as he opened with this 5.56 mm rounds.  Thirty, then sixty rounds had no effect.  Not before 150 rounds did the truck veer off the road and explode 30 yards from Butler’s bunker.  In an instant Camp Gannon was engulfed in a giant concussion; windows shattered, doors were blown free, Marines were thrown from their bunks, and pieces of firetruck rained onto the compound.

Butler regained his senses in time to see Lampe and Leyton’s forward bunker under assault from several directions.  First SGT Donald Brazeal tumbled into the bunker a second later with two AT-4 anti-tank missiles.  The enemy had set up a strong point behind a wall 300 yards from the Camp, and Brazeal’s missiles cleanly took out the wall.  Now about 100 panicked school children ran from a building a block away.  The attacking insurgents used them as human shields, and the Marines had to check fire several times to avoid hitting innocent children.

After what seemed hours of intense fighting HM2 Jessie Beddia had treated only three casualties; all blast concussions, none were severe.  It was later discovered the firetruck had a bulletproof windshield and its occupants wore surplus American flak jackets.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”  15 APR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Friel, Lucien.  “Attack at Husaybah:  ‘India,’ 3/2’s Stand Against Insurgency.”  Leatherneck, Vol 88 (7), July 2005, pp. 28-29.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In retrospect, it is surmised that in this highly organized attack, the dump truck was intended to crash the main gate, clearing a path for the firetruck into the heart of Camp Gannon.  The vehicular IED’s were to be followed with the ground assault that stalled behind the wall.  Young’s grenades and Butler’s fire probably thwarted what would otherwise have been a deadly attack.

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“…TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI”

The Bey of Tripoli in 1795, Hamet Karamanli, was overthrown by his younger brother Yusuf.  Hamet sought exile in Egypt where he remained for the next ten years.  During this time the Barbary States, including Tripoli, continually harassed merchant shipping in the Mediterranean, exacting protection money and tribute from many nations transiting the area for commercial trade.  US merchantmen were among those who fell victim to these extortions.

In 1801, the outspoken US Consul in Tunis, William Eaton, advocated pressuring Bey Yusuf by allying ourselves with his exiled brother.  Four years later, after being appointed “Navy Agent to the Barbary States,” Eaton put his plan into action.  Eaton encouraged Hamet to form a motley army of a hundred Arabs, 67 “Christian adventurers” (Greek mercenaries), and 200-odd camel drivers.  This force was led by Eaton and an 8-Marine detachment from the brig ARGUS, 16, commanded by 1^st LT Presley N. O’Bannon.  On this date, Eaton, O’Bannon, Hamet and his army set out from Alexandria.  Their 600-mile trek across the North African desert, during which they fought not only inhospitable conditions but also Hamet’s continuing suggestions to call the whole thing off, ended at Derna on the Tripolitan coast.  Seven weeks later on April 26^th, with gunfire support from ARGUS, the schooner NAUTILUS, 12, and the sloop HORNET, 10, they assaulted the city.  The next day they reached the Derna fortifications where they turned the guns on the fleeing defenders.  LT O’Bannon raised the American flag–the first American ensign to be hoisted over an enemy fort outside the Western Hemisphere.  Despite several spirited counter attacks the Marines held the fort.  When news of the ferocity and determination of the US Marines reached Bey Yusuf, he capitulated.

By May negotiations with Yusuf were opened.  On 3 June a treaty was arranged under which peace was restored, the US evacuated Derna, and $60,000 was paid for the release of CAPT William Bainbridge and the crew of the ill-fated frigate PHILADELPHIA, who had been held captive since PHILADELPHIA ran aground in October of 1803.  In turn Tripoli agreed not to exact future tribute from American shipping.

The familiar phrase above from The Marine’s Hymn was first sung by our Marines in 1847 at the close of the Mexican War.  The tune is that of an old Spanish folk song and was used as a melody in the French comic opera Genevieve de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach.  The reference in the Hymn to the “Halls of Montezuma” remembers the assault on Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City in 1847.  “The shores of Tripoli” recalls the efforts of the US Marines against the Tripolitan Bey, which began 220 years ago today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 14 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Heinl, Robert Debs, Jr.  Soldiers of the Sea:  The United States Marine Corps, 1775-1962.  Baltimore, MD: Nautical & Aviation Pub., 1991, pp. 14-16.

Millett, Allan R.  Semper Fidelis:  The History of the United States Marine Corps.  New York, NY: Macmillan Pub Co., 1980, pp. 44-45.

Simmons, Edwin H.  The United States Marines, 1775-1975.  New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976, pp. 16-17.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Two of O’Bannon’s Marines died and another was injured in this action.

Following this victory O’Bannon acquired an Arab Mameluke scimitar, reportedly gifted to him in gratitude by Bey Hamet.  That blade became the pattern for the distinctive Mameluke sword currently authorized for Marine Corps officers.  Indeed, this was nearly the only reward O’Bannon received.  Upon returning to his native Virginia, he was awarded another sword by that State, but the Thomas Jefferson administration in Washington failed to recognize his achievement in any form.  After neither brevet nor promotion was forthcoming in the subsequent two years, a disgusted O’Bannon left the Corps, abandoning civilization altogether for the Kentucky frontier.

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                                              LESLIE’S RETREAT

The garrisoning of Royal troops in the private homes of Boston residents risked the discovery of weapons and munitions stores hidden by Patriot colonials.  Such stores were secretly moved out of the city, prompting periodic expeditions into the countryside by the Royal Army to search out and destroy arms caches.  It was on such foray that the battles of Lexington and Concord would occur six weeks hence in April 1775.  Then, Rebel minutemen would attempt to halt a march against an arms stockpile in Concord, Massachusetts.  But a little-known similar expedition in nearby Salem almost started the war two months earlier.

No one took much notice this morning when a Royal Navy transport dropped anchor in the harbor at Marblehead, Massachusetts.  The comings and goings of British warships had become routine.  But LCOL Alexander Leslie, RA, had strategically chosen this Sunday to launch his sortie, when the religious fervor of the colonials compelled their attendance at church.  Out of sight below decks were 240 fusiliers of the 64^th Regiment of Foot.  At the height of the Sabbath around 1430 the troops suddenly appeared.  They sought 17 French cannon their spies identified as having been purchased by COL David Mason of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, cannon that were now five miles inland at the foundry of Salem blacksmith CAPT Robert Foster.  It was Foster’s job to fashion limbers for the guns.

Leslie stepped-off toward Salem, his pipers mocking the local citizens with the tune, “Yankee Doodle.”  MAJ John Pedrick and other alarm riders spread a warning much as would Paul Revere two months later.  The cannon were quickly whisked into hiding, and the drawspan of Salem’s North Bridge was raised to block the British advance.  A stand-off developed when Leslie’s insistence upon using a public “King’s highway” fell on deaf ears.  Tempers flared, and more armed militia collected, including COL John Glover’s regiment of Marblehead sailors and fishermen.  Hundreds more minutemen mobilized from surrounding farms, and a company of Rebel cavalry in nearby Danvers mounted their horses.  When three gondolas were noticed on the riverbank west of the bridge, citizens fell upon them with axes lest the British commandeer them for a crossing.  A scuffle ensued, from which cooler heads emerged.  LCOL Leslie and the Rebel leaders negotiated a compromise.  Leslie would cross, but proceed peaceably no further than 50 yards beyond.

Having made a gesture of crossing, and aware that the cannon had been removed, Leslie turned his troops around.  Defiant colonials lined their return path to assail them with insults–far kinder than would Concord residents deliver in April.  The 64^th departed without the cannon and without a shot having been fired.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  3 MAR 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Billias, George Athan.  General John Glover and His Marblehead Mariners.  New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960, pp. 63-64.

Endicott, Charles M.  “Account of Leslie’s Retreat at the North Bridge, in Salem, on Sunday, Feb’y 26, 1775.”  Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Salem, MA: William Ives & George W. Pease Printers, 1856.

Harris, Gordon.  “Leslie’s Retreat, or How the Revolutionary War Almost Began in Salem, February 26, 1775.”  Stories from Ipswich website, 5 July 2014.  AT: http://ipswich.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/leslies-retreat-or-how-the-revolutionary-war-almost-began-in-salem/, retrieved 27 August 2015.

Segar, D.A.  “Resistance and Retreat in Salem, 1775.”  Street of Salem website, 26 February 2014.  AT:  http://streetsofsalem.com/2014/02/26/resistance-and-retreat-in-salem-1775/, retrieved 27 August 2015.

Site Visit.  Leslie’s Retreat Marker, Salem, Massachusetts, 24 September 2015.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  “Committees of Safety” were founded in many New England colonies prior to independence, their euphemistic names belying their true purpose–to organize and administer resistance to the King’s authority.  Mason, Foster, Pedrick, and Glover held office with the minutemen of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety.  Glover would go on to earn greater fame fighting with Washington’s Continental Army.

Today the city of Salem marks this event with a stone and plaque near the site of the North Bridge.

LCOL Leslie’s career was apparently unmarred by this incident.  He rose to the rank of MGEN during the course of the war, commanding British troops in the New York and New Jersey campaigns.  In 1781 he replaced Cornwallis in command of British troops in the Carolinas after the latter moved toward Yorktown, Virginia.  He died in 1794 at his home in the British Isles.

Three US Navy warships have remembered the city of Salem and her storied past, most recently our WWII heavy cruiser SALEM (CA-139).  Glover is remembered as well with USS GLOVER (AGDE-1).

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                                       NAVAL DIPLOMACY (cont.)

When Master Commandant Uriah P. Levy approached the coast of Yucatan in USS VANDALIA, 20, in March 1839 it was uncertain the degree of intimidation he would discover to which American interests had been subjected.  As it turns out, the American consul, Jack Thomas, had none but disparaging comments about the local power-monger, a militaristic would-be despot who had managed to collect a following by focusing contempt and mistreatment upon “Yanquis.”  Thomas described this half-breed as well-armed but little more than a brigand, who used insult, blackmail, and extortion against American businessmen.

Levy approached the rotund, tobacco-chewing generalissimo, sternly, explaining he would accept the general’s apology for mistreatment of Americans and the return of monies extorted.  The amused general noted the paltry number of Americans in the Commandant’s company as compared to the size of his force and added that any monies had long ago been spent.  Levy retorted with the threat to close his warship and blast the town to pieces.  The fact that the bay was too shallow to accommodate the draft of VANDALAI was lost on the land-locked general, who now reconsidered his position.  He tentatively agreed to Levy’s requests, but only in exchange for two barrels of whiskey, an American salute to his forces, and a sharp-looking uniform from Levy’s seabag.   With an eye toward diplomacy, Levy agreed.

The following day the town witnessed a ceremony the likes of which were probably unique to that time and place.  Tumbledown Mexican militia, at whose head stood the general resplendent in one of Levy’s uniforms (devices removed), faced a sharp American color guard across the square.  After an exchange of pleasantries both flags were run up and salutes by both sides rendered.  A barrel of American whiskey was cracked open, and the participants enjoyed several days of guarded camaraderie.  A substantial portion of the disputed funds was located and returned.  Levy summarized his visit to the Secretary of the Navy concluding that, “any future visit of a national vessel of the U.S…. will be hailed with great joy and delight by all classes.”

It is often noted in modern times that Army and Air Force practice allows officers to execute only those actions specifically prescribed in their orders.  Historically however, Naval officers have often operated independently, at great distances, out of ready communication.  As such Naval tradition allows the latitude to employ a variety of means to accomplish a mission, except any specifically prohibited in written orders–a subtle, but significant, cultural difference.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  21 FEB 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret

Fitzgerald, Donovan and Saul Saphire.  Navy Maverick:  Uriah Phillips Levy.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1963, pp. 153-55.

Minster, Christopher.  “The Pastry War.” ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/the-pastry-war-mexico-vs-france-2136674, retrieved 1 February 2025.

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                                 LAST EVERGLADES EXPEDITION

After our acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819, settlers came into increasing conflict with the Native Americans of Florida, collectively called Seminole Indians.  Conflicts over territory and over the sheltering of runaway slaves led to a series of Seminole wars and the decision in 1832 to re-locate the Seminoles to the Oklahoma Indian Territory.  The US Army was sent into southern Florida to round-up and deport the Seminoles.  These efforts met with mixed success, and when it was suspected that the Indians were obtaining weapons and supplies from Cuba, the US Navy was called upon.  By 1842, a “mosquito fleet” of small coastal schooners and canoes was in Florida service, under the command of LT John T. McLaughlin.  Ten years of Army persistence had pushed Seminole populations into decline.  Army COL William J. Worth, the overall area commander, estimated in February 1842 that only about 300 were left, most of whom were hiding in the impenetrable reaches of the Everglades swamp.  Worth asked that the Army suspend its Florida campaign.

Then, eager to demonstrate the value of the Navy, LT McLaughlin proposed that two Navy assault parties sweep the Everglades to clear these last holdouts.  LT John B. Marchand and a detachment of sailors from the schooners WAVE, 1; PHOENIX, 2; and VAN BUREN, 4, entered the Everglades from the southwest on this day.  Two days later another party from MADISON, 1, and JEFFERSON, led by LT John Rodgers, entered the swamp from the east.  Each party ran up streams and followed the trails they encountered in an effort to rout any remaining Seminoles.  For two months they lived in their canoes, slept at their thwarts, and hunted alligators, waterbirds, and the occasional fish that jumped into their canoes.  At times they had to drag their canoes through chest-high sawgrass–appropriately named for the wounds it inflicted!  They searched every stand of high ground, and on multiple occasions found Seminole encampments–always abandoned, usually only a day or so ahead of their arrival.  They even sighted native canoes in the distance on two occasions but were unable to overtake them.  It seemed as if the Seminoles were keeping one step ahead.  By the end of the two-month trek, the men were exhausted, hungry, and badly cut.  Most sustained wounds and infections that would fester for years in these days before antibiotics.

COL Worth’s opinion had proven correct, neither Navy party found any Seminoles.  The number of remaining Indians was indeed small enough, and the swamp large enough, that they simply faded into the environment.  Further operations were suspended, and to this day, the Seminoles still inhabit the Everglades.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14-15 FEB 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Buker, George E.  Swamp Sailors:  Riverine Warfare in the Everglades, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. Presses of Florida, 1975, pp. 127-32.

Mahon, John K.  History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. of Florida Press, 1985, p. 304.

Preble, George Henry.  “A Canoe Expedition into the Everglades in 1842.”  Tequesta magazine, Vol 5, 1945, pp. 30-51.  AT: http://www.digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1945/ 45_1_03.pdf, retrieved 20 December 2010.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  (Later) MGEN William Worth was second in command to Zachary Taylor during the Mexican War of 1846-48.  He is the namesake of Fort Worth, Texas, as well as numerous counties and townships in the eastern and mid-western US.

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