Assistant Education Coordinator
On New Year’s Day, 1776, Lord Dunmore’s fleet of frigates,
sloops, schooners and the flag ship Dunmore,
formerly the Eilbeck, began firing
their heavy guns on Norfolk. Their goal was to disperse Patriot militia and to
give cover to landing parties who will search for supplies for the Loyalists
onboard and burn the wharves to keep the Rebels from using them.
The Virginia militia used the opportunity to begin setting
fire to Loyalist homes. In the shelling and confusion, both Tory and Patriot
homes began burning. After a few days, more than 1300 buildings were in ashes.
If Norfolk could so easily be assaulted by water, nearly all
of Tidewater Virginia was vulnerable. The James, the York, the Elizabeth, the
Rappahannock, the Potomac—all needed to be defended. Virginia needed a navy.
Squadrons were formed for the protection of these precious waterways. In
January 1776, the Virginia Convention decided to organize a squadron for the
Potomac. Members of the Committee of Safety George Mason of Gunston Hall and
John Dalton, an Alexandria merchant, were charged with that task.
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A model of a row-galley used in the Chesapeake area
by both
Virginia and Maryland navies, currently
on display in the Calvert Marine Museum
in Solomons, MD.
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By March, they were well into the task, and they wrote to the Maryland Council of Safety for assistance in protecting
their shared waterway.
GENTLEMEN.
Virginia, Fairfax County
March 15th 1776.
Being employed by the Committee of Safety for this colony
to fit out three armed cruisers, & two row gallies, for the protection of
potomack River, we have, in consequence thereof, bought three sloops; the
largest of which (called the American
Congress) will mount 14 Carriage Guns, 6 & 4 pounders, & be man'ed
with about ninety men. We are now raising the
company of Marines, which will be compleated in a few days; she has most of her
guns mounted, the shot are now casting, at a Furnace in the Neighbourhood,
& if we had powder, she wou'd be very soon fit for action….As this
equipment will be as beneficial to the inhabitants on the north side of
potomack as to those on this side, we doubt not the disposition of your board
to promote it, and under these circumstances, we take the liberty to apply to
you for the loan of ten barrels of the powder lately imported for yr. province,
in Capt. Conway's vessel now in the eastern Branch of potomack, which shall be
replaced out of the first powder we receive from the northward, or else where:
if ten bars. cant be spared, even five or six bars. wou'd be very serviceable,
& might answer our purpose until the supply we expect from Philadelphia arrives. We
beg the favour of an imediate answer, & hope that the urgency &
importance of the Business will excuse the trouble we have taken the liberty to
give you. We are with much Respect Gentn. your most obdt. Serts.
G. MASON
JOHN DALTON.
On March 19, the Maryland Council of Safety respond with 10
barrels of powder and a promise that they would “do everything in our Power to
promote the general Welfare, and for that Purpose are now increasing our Marines.”
March 27, Lt. Thomas Boucher, of the Maryland schooner Defense, asked the Maryland Council of
Safety for permission to resign his commission to assume command of the Potomac
Fleet at the insistence of Col. Mason and Mr. Dalton “as it will be more
beneficial to me.” His flagship would be the American Congress.
The 90-man crew of the Congress
included
•
John Boucher, commander
•
Wm. Skinner, 1st Lt.
•
John Thomas, 2nd Lt.
•
Geo. Hunter, Doctor
•
Rich. Richards, Gunner
•
Robt. Cary, Boatswain
•
John Allison, Capt. of Marines
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A sloop, similar to the American
Congress, the Scorpion,
and the Liberty. The sloops of the Virginia Navy
were
probably converted merchant vessels.
|
Boucher’s Potomac Flotilla included 14 vessels of every
description. Besides the American
Congress, there were two other sloops Scorpion,
and Liberty; row galleys; tenders;
and an armed schooner also called Liberty.
The schooner Liberty captured four British
merchant-men in the Rappahannock, Oliver,
Lark Susannah, and Speedwell.
These were added to the Virginia Navy, armed and sent to the West Indies for
supplies and powder.
In April, George Mason reported Virginia’s progress to his
friend and neighbor General Washington in the field in command of the
Continental Army.
VIRGINIA, GUNSTON
HALL
April 2, 1776.
Dear Sir,
We have just
received the welcome news of your having, with-so much address and success,
dislodged the Ministerial Troops and taken possession of the town of Boston. I congratulate
you most heartily upon this glorious and important event—an event which will
render General Washington's name immortal in the annals of America, endear his
memory to the latest posterity, and entitle him to those thanks which Heaven
appointed as the reward of public virtue….
…Large ventures have
been lately made for military stores; for which purpose we are now loading a
ship for Europe, with tobacco at Alexandria. Her cargo is all on float, and I hope
to have her under sailing in a few days. Notwithstanding the natural
plenty of provisions in this colony, I am very apprehensive of a great scarcity
of beef and pork among our troops this summer, occasioned by the people's not
expecting a market until the slaughter season was past: I find it extremely
difficult to lay in a stock for about three hundred men, in the Marine
department of this river.
Ill health, and a certain listlessness inseparable from it,
have prevented my writing to you so often as I would otherwise have done ; but
I trust to your friendship to excuse it….I have, in conjunction with Mr.
Dalton, the charge of providing and equipping armed vessels for the protection
of this river. The thing is new to me, but I must endeavor to improve by
experience. I am much obliged to the Board for joining Mr. Dalton with me. He
is a steady, diligent man, and without such assistance I could not have
undertaken it…..
We have twenty barrels of powder, and about a
ton of shot ready—more is making; swivels we have not yet been able to procure,
but she may make a tolerable ship without, until they can be furnished. We have
got some small-arms, and are taking every method to increase them, and hope to
be fully supplied in about a week more. Her company of marines is raised and
have been for some time exercised to the use of the great guns. Her complement
of marines and seamen is to be ninety-six men.
We are exerting
ourselves to the utmost and hope to have her on her station in less than a
fortnight, and that the other vessels will quickly follow her, and be able to
protect the inhabitants of this river from the piratical attempts of all the
enemy's cutters, tenders, and small craft….
Dear Sir Your
affecte. & obdt. Servt.
G. Mason
In May, Capt. James Barron on the Liberty, not the sloop, not the schooner, but the brig, and his
brother Capt. Richard Barron in the Patriot
captured the transport ship Oxford,
and its cargo of 217 Scotch Highlanders who were at the time trying to make
their way to join Lord Dunmore’s troops.
Later that summer, Dunmore, his fleet, his troops, and his
Loyalist followers had proceeded to Gwynn’s Island in the Chesapeake to use it
as a base of operations as they continued to raid up the rivers of the
Commonwealth.
The Virginia Gazette reported:Williamsburg, August 2, 1776
Since our last, we
have certain advice that Lord Dunmore, with his motley band of pirates and
renegadoes, have burnt the elegant brick house of William Brent, Esq; at the
mouth of Aquia creek, in Stafford county, as also two other houses lower down
Potowmack river, the property of widow ladies, with several ferry boats; that
on Tuesday se'nnight he relanded on St George's island, but was beat off by
1200 Marylanders; that he had burnt eight of his vessels, and was seen standing
down the bay the Thursday after with all his fleet.
A week later, after smallpox and Patriot raids had decimated
his combined forces, Dunmore and his fleet weighed anchor.
August 8
John Page reported to the North Carolina Council of Safety
Lord Dunmore with his Fleet in 2
divisions has just left our capes, one of which steered to the Southward and
the other with a fair Wind to the Northward.
Lord Dunmore never returned to Virginia.
With Dunmore gone and seemingly no one else in the British
command realizing the importance of Virginia’s rivers to the nascent United
States, the Virginia Navy could turn to making a bit of profit for sailors and
the war effort. Many vessels were given permission to leave off defense and
search for ammunition by capturing British supply ships entering the
Chesapeake.
They captured a cargo of pineapples; a cargo of limes; a cargo
of gifts for British officers from their friends at home; a cargo of guns,
swivel guns, rifles, and ammunition; a cargo of salt from Bermuda; and a cargo
of ladies of the evening from Liverpool being shipped for the pleasure of
Loyalist troops in New York.
During the American Revolution
•
Eleven of the thirteen states had a state navy.
•
Only New Jersey and Delaware had no navy.
•
Virginia’s navy was the largest of the state navies.
•
Massachusetts had the most blue-water vessels.
•
New Hampshire had only one ship in its navy.
•
Connecticut had the Turtle,
the only submarine.
Coming soon to this blog space—the continued history of
Virginia’s Navy and the British attack on Mount Vernon.
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