Grey's raid

Grey's raid
Part of the American Revolutionary War
A 1779 map of Eastern Massachusetts
Date September 5–12, 1778 Location New Bedford, Fairhaven and Martha's Vineyard Result British victory
Belligerents
Great Britain	United States
Commanders and leaders
Charles Grey	Israel Fearing
Strength
4,000 regulars	150+ militia
Casualties and losses
1 killed 4 wounded 16 missing	4 killed 16 captured

Grey's raid was a series of raids carried out in Massachusetts by British forces under the command of Major-General Charles Grey in September 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. Grey, leading 4,000 troops, raided the towns of New Bedford and Fairhaven along with Martha's Vineyard as part of the northern theater of the American Revolutionary War after Saratoga. The raids were one of the first in a series of attacks executed by the British against American coastal communities.

Grey's force was originally intended as a relief force for the British garrison at

Background

In December 1776,

Rather than disembark Grey's troops at Newport, Clinton decided to pursue other objectives. His orders issued in March 1778 included instructions to raid coastal communities, destroying shipbuilding facilities and supplies.[6] Subsequently, he ordered the fleet to sail to New London, Connecticut, a potential raiding site. He found too few ships there to merit landing, however, and ordered Grey to "proceed without loss of time to the eastward" to raid New Bedford and Fairhaven on the Massachusetts mainland, as well as the island of Martha's Vineyard.^[7]

New Bedford and Fairhaven

Early on September 4, Grey's fleet sailed for

During the raid, a British raiding party also entered the village of Padanaram in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The village was then known as Akin’s Landing, and the attacks were a direct result of local resident Elihu Akin forcibly expelling three Loyalists out of the village in September 1778. The three men led the British to the village, and the raiding party focused on Akin’s properties. The raiders targeted Akin specifically as an act of revenge for his expulsion of the Loyalists from Dartmouth.^[8] After the raid, Akin moved to his only remaining property, a small home on Potters Hill - the Elihu Akin house. Elihu never financially recovered from the raid and died poor, he lived at the house all the way until his death in 1794.^[9][10] Fixing the damage to the town from the raid cost £105,960 in 1778. Which is roughly equivalent to nine million dollars in todays money.^[11] In honor of Elihu, and to commemorate his earlier shipbuilding, the village of Padanaram was called Akin’s Wharf for 20 years after the war.^[8]

A 38-man artillery garrison was manning a small fort on the Fairhaven side of the river (today known as Fort Phoenix), and they fired on the British ships during the evening, then spiked the fort's guns and abandoned it, leaving their colors flying. The British briefly returned fire and then destroyed the fort's guns.^[12] Grey's troops marched around the head of the Acushnet River and camped on the eastern banks.^[13] The following day, they embarked on their boats, but General Grey decided that Fairhaven should also be raided.^[14] Concurrently, American militiamen were beginning to arrive to defend Fairhaven, with Major Israel Fearing taking command from an elderly colonel who was reluctant to pursue an active defense. British raiding parties approached Fairhaven on the morning of September 6, and Fearing arrayed about 150 men between the village and their landing point. Raiders set fire to a few nearby buildings and then headed for the village. At this point, Fearing's men unleashed a withering volley of musket fire, and the British withdrew to their boats.^[15]

Martha's Vineyard

Grey sent his aide Captain

A deputation of three citizens came to the Carysfort to see what the British wanted, and Grey made his demands: he wanted the militia's weapons, any public funds, 300 oxen, and 10,000 sheep. He threatened to land his troops and seize these items if they were not delivered up. After two days, the islanders had driven 6,000 sheep and 130 oxen to Grey's fleet. Dissatisfied with their pace of action, Grey landed small contingents of troops on September 12 to accelerate the process and to destroy vessels found in the area.[14] By the 14th, he had received all 10,000 sheep and 300 oxen, as well as local militia weapons and £950 intended as a tax payment for the Second Continental Congress. Grey sailed from Martha's Vineyard on September 15, and reached New York City two days later.^[16]

Henry Franklin Norton provides an account of Grey's raid on Martha's Vineyard in The History of Martha's Vineyard:

September 10, 1778, General Grey in command of a transport of eighty-two sails and ten thousand British troops made a raid upon the Vineyard, carrying off all the sheep, swine, cattle and oxen that could be found. To oppose this wholesale spoliation the "Islanders" had no power so they submitted in sullen and despairing silence, at times even assisting to drive away the captured flocks, hoping thereby to prevent still greater waste and outrage. A very good idea of this period is given in the diary of Colonel Beriah Norton, which reads as follows:

"September 10th. -- Gen. Grey commanding a detachment of his Majesty's army arrived at Martha's Vineyard, when I waited on him on shipboard. Agreed to deliver him 10,000 sheep, 300 head of cattle; the General informed me that payment would be made for the same if they were not resisted. The General then required the stock to be brought to the landing the next day, which was punctually complied with.

"September 11th. - This day the troops landed under the command of Col. Sterling. Said Sterling then informed me that Gen. Grey had directed him to assure me that the whole stock would be paid for if they came down according to the conversation of the evening before. Sterling then informed me that a person must be appointed to appraise the stock before they would take any on shipboard. To which I agreed and we jointly agreed to. I did appoint proper persons to do that business; who were sworn by me to do their duty faithfully by the request of Col. Sterling. The stock was by this time coming down to the landing and was taken on board to the amount of 10,000 sheep and 312 head of cattle.

"September 14th. - Col. Sterling then informed me and other inhabitants of the island that he had a message to deliver to the people. Then he recommended them to meet in a field for there was not room for them in doors, accordingly they met to the amount of several hundred. He informed us that we were to apply to New York for payment for the stock that they had received. I asked the Colonel if we best send a man in the fleet at this time for the payment to which the Colonel replied, we might if we chose but he recommended us to wait a little time before application was made.

"September 15th. -- The fleet sailed for New York."

It must seem to the reader that this Colonel Beriah Norton was a traitor to his own people, but what could he do but give in to Grey's command! Grey had the force and the power and could have destroyed the towns on the island in half a day, and would have done so if they had resisted in any way. In the diary, September 12th and 13th are omitted. Those were the days when the British troops were ravaging the island from Edgartown to Gay Head.

A man was sent to New York to receive payment for the stock, but Grey had forgotten that he had ever stopped at Martha's Vineyard. Colonel Beriah Norton made two special trips to London for the same purpose, and at one time he was given a hearing in Parliament. Very little was accomplished in these two trips to England.^[17]

Aftermath

Grey's report on the expedition lists one man killed, four wounded, and sixteen missing. He reported that the defenders had four men killed; he also took sixteen prisoners in New Bedford to exchange for his missing.^[18] The raid was followed by others (not led by Grey): one against Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey in October 1778,^[19] and two in 1779 against communities on Chesapeake Bay and the Connecticut shore.^[20][21] In 1781 a raiding expedition led by turncoat General Benedict Arnold began the decisive Yorktown campaign in Virginia;^[22] Arnold also led another raid in September 1781 against New London and Groton, Connecticut (not far from where he grew up) that was notorious for its severity.^[23]

In New Bedford eleven houses, 21 shops, 34 ships of various size, and one ropewalk were destroyed, along with goods and naval stores.^[24] Estimates of the damage done there and at Fairhaven ranged from £20,000 to nearly £100,000, the most costly damage was to ships and goods.^[25][26] The residents of Martha's Vineyard petitioned for compensation of over £10,000 due to the losses incurred in the raid.^[27] General Clinton's successor, Sir Guy Carleton made payment of £3,000 against these claims.^[28]

The fort at the mouth of the Acushnet River was rebuilt and named Fort Phoenix.^[29] It was manned in the War of 1812, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[30][31]

Notes

References

• Alden, John (1981). South in the Revolution, 1763 to 1789. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press.
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• Dawson, Henry (1858). Battles of the United States. New York: Johnson, Fry. p. 507.
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• Gruber, Ira (1972). The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution. New York: Atheneum Press.
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• Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1883). History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Part 1. Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis. p. 56.
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• Lossing, Benson (1868). The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812. New York: Harper and Bros. p. 889.
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• Nelson, Paul (1996). Sir Charles Grey, First Earl Grey: Royal Soldier, Family Patriarch. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
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• Report on American Manuscripts, Volume 3. London: Anthony Brothers Ltd. 1907. p. 356.
  OCLC 928059
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• Ricketson, Daniel (1858). The History of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts. New Bedford, MA: self-published.
  OCLC 3768267
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• Ward, Christopher (1952). War of the Revolution. New York: Macmillan.
  OCLC 214962727
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41°38′10″N 70°56′05″W / 41.63611°N 70.93472°W / 41.63611; -70.93472