Vol XLI No.4 the Journal of the Brigade of the American Revolution Winter 2011 The Brigade Dispatch

Journal of The Brigade of the American Revolution Vol. XLI No.4 Winter 2011

THE BRIGADE OF HfE AMERICAN REVOLUTION IN THIS ISSUE NATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT PAST PRESIDENT Mark Hurwitz Jack Rogers VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY "This Very Respectable Corps of His Bob Winowitch Robert Traver INSPECTOR GENERAL TREASURER Majesty's Troops": Henry Cooke Tom Castrovinci BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE The Royal Welch m New John Cronin Cathleen Crown Barbara DeAngelis Sean Dermond York, 1773-74 Ken Siegel Gregory J. W.Urwin ...... 2

NORTHWEST DEPARTMENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Young Gentlemen of Mathematical PRESIDENT PAST PRESIDENT Robert Cairns Jack Rogers Genius" VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY David Miller Robert Kashary W. Scott Breckinridge Smith ...... 11 TREASURER INSPECTOR William_Dibbern Howard McDaniel BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE Kurt Ayers John Conklin Features Mary Jo Lucas Joe Forte

SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS Reviews ...... 22

PRESIDENT PAST PRESIDENT Gregory Ehrmann Todd Post VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY © 2011 Tlte Brigade of the American Revolution TREASURER INSPECTOR Press, Tlt e Brigade of tire American Revolution. Walter A. Vanderbeek Jay Callaham BOARD MEMBERS AT LARGE All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this Journal in Todd Dickinson any form whatsoever.

FAR WESTERN REGION COORDINATOR PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. David Weidner ISSN 1534-1690

MARITIMES REGION COORDINATOR Address all editorial correspondence and materials for publication to Owen Hamlin the Editor, Norman Desmarais 467 River Rd. , Lincoln, Rl 02865 (Email: [email protected])

Address all general correspondence and inquiries about subscription and distribution to the Adjutant, Brigade of the American Revolution, 41 Collamer Drive, Ballston Spa, NY 12020-4348 Phone: 888-GO REV WAR The Brigade of the American Revolution on the World Wide Web: http://www. brigade.org "This Very Respectable Corps of His Majesty's Troops": The in New York, 1773-74 I . Gregory J. W. Urwin Corporal, Colonel's Company, Royal Welch Fusiliers in America

The 23rd of Foot (Royal by then a major, was serving as a deputy Welch Fusiliers) fought through the American adjutant general at the 's main War of Independence from the beginning to the American base at New York.) Additional end at Yorktown. It is particularly remembered information on the 23rd Foot's Boston sojourn for the conspicuous part it played in the events can be found in the journal of Lieutenant that triggered the conflict in and around Boston, Richard Williams, who joined the regiment at Massachusetts. The regiment's and the Massachusetts port on June 12, 1775, but light companies joined the flank left for on August 22? companies from the other British in What is often forgotten is that the Royal the Boston garrison to form the 800-man Welch Fusiliers served in the thirteen colonies expedition that Lieutenant Colonel Francis for nearly two years before the outbreak of the Smith led on April 18-19, 1775, in a bungled American War. Aside from a letter that the attempt to seize Whig war supplies at Concord. ubiquitous Lieutenant Mackenzie wrote his The 23rd Foot's eight battalion companies father describing the regiment's voyage across belonged to the brigade under Brigadier the Atlantic to New York, little is known about General Hugh, Lord Percy, which succeeded in this period in the regiment's history. A review relieving Smith's beleaguered and of colonial newspapers, however, reveals light infantrymen during their homeward march several mentions of the 23rd Foot during the on April 19. 1 thirteen months it spent in New York City. The This dramatic period in the 23rd Foot's regiment also appeared regularly in the history is a major reason that its incarnation in surviving orders issued by British Army the Brigade of the American Revolution, the headquarters in New York in 1773 and 1774. Royal Welch Fusiliers in America, normally Though brief and somewhat fragmentary, these dresses as if it belonged to the Boston garrison sources reveal something of the regiment's in 1775. This phase in the regiment's history character, duties, and the esteem in which it also enjoys substantial documentation. A was held by its American friends and future reliable and detailed source on the 23rd Foot's enemies.3 activities exists in the diary kept from January 5 The 23rd Regiment of Foot sailed from to April 30, 1775, by the regimental adjutant, Plymouth Sound on April 25, 1773, as part of a Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie. (Mackenzie seven-ship convoy led by the ungainly HMS reportedly kept a diary throughout his active Fox, an old East Indiaman. (This was probably military career from 1756 to 1791 , but only the eight-gun ketch launched at the Bombay eight volumes survive. Four of these cover dockyards in 1766 and not the 28-gun sixth­ events on Long Island and Rhode Island from rater of the same name captured by the September 4, 1776, through July 12, 1778. He Americans in 1777.) The fusiliers found berths filled three more with entries written between on four of the six transports that followed the January and December 1781 , when Mackenzie, Fox.

The Brigade Dispatch 2 XLI No.4 Winter 2011 dispatched to Cornwall and south Devon to suppress unemployed tin miners driven to desperation by poverty and hunger. According to a report to the War Office, these unhappy people had grown "very Riotous and Outrageous in plundering the Maltsters, Millers and Farmers" and "committed many Robberies on the High Roads." After the 23rd Foot received orders for New York, it was relieved by the 33rd Foot.5 These two regiments would meet again and serve closely together in the American War, especially in the South in 1780 and 1781. On Monday, June 14, 1773, the New­ York Gazette; and the Weekly Mercury announced the arrival of the Friendship, the first of the Royal Welch Fusiliers' transports to complete the crossing:

Captain Rescot, m 6 Weeks from Plymouth, arrived Fig. 1. Thirty-eight-year-old William Blakeney here last Wednesday, with Part came to New York in the spring of 1773 as a of the Royal Welch Fuzileers; captain in the 23rd Regiment of Foot, Royal having parted from the other Welch Fusiliers. He later led the regiment's Transports with the Remainder grenadier company at Lexington, Concord, of the Regiment on board the and Bunker Hill in 1775, falling wounded at 23d of May in Lat. 40, 53, and the latter engagement. Promoted to major on left the Transports for Quebec, November 24, 1775, Blakeney sat for this ten Days before. portrait miniature by Thomas Hill while on Capt. Rescot spoke with leave in England in 1778. Battalion company the following Vessels, viz. The and field officers in ordinary British infantry 51 21 of May, Lat. 40, 51, Lon. regiments wore a single epaulette on the right 4 7, with the Ship Watson, Capt. shoulder, but their counterparts in Philips, from Jamaica for regiments wore two epaulettes. Note also that Bristol; the 3d Instant, with a the buttons on Blakeney's lapels are set in Whaler from Rhode Island, in pairs. (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Lat 38, the th following, Lat., #2010-90) 39, 40, with a Schooner from Philadelphia, for Newfoundland. A trans-Atlantic voyage on a troop ship was usually an unpleasant experience in the eighteenth century. Bad weather could make Lieutenant Mackenzie, one of the Friendship's the trip even more uncomfortable and passengers, noted that the transport tied up to transform it into a terrifying ordeal.4 a wharf in New York harbor by 11 :00 P.M. Nevertheless, some of the 23rd Foot's on June 9. 6 personnel may have welcomed a change in British Army headquarters at New station. Early in 1773, the regiment had been York heralded the Friendship's appearance the

The Brigade Dispatch 3 XLI No.4 Winter 2011 following day with these orders: "Captain Master will attend to rece1ve the barrack [Edward] Evans with the part of the 23 rd , or utensils from them on the upper barracks, and Royal Welch Fusileers under his Command, deliver their utensils in their new quarters." will disembark this Afternoon at 5 o'Clock. The 23rd,s additional companies went ashore Sergeant Dixon attending the Quarter Master two days later at 9:00 A.M., and Barrack General will be in waiting to conduct them to Master Bancker supervised the men's room the upper barracks." For some reason, assignments and furnished their "barrack ... 8 ' headquarters postponed the disembarkation of utensils. " Evans' detachment until the following With more personnel on hand, the 23rd morning. The fusiliers received little time to Foot's responsibilities increased exponentially. recover their land legs before they were put to On June 14, Lieutenant Colonel Bernard work. On June 11, Evans received these received instructions to provide guards for orders: "The Royal Welch Fusileers to mount three installations. One subaltern, one [guard with] 1 Serjeant, 2 Corporals, and 10 sergeant, one corporal, and twenty fusiliers Private Men at the Fort Guard to Morrow."7 took post at the Upper Barracks. One sergeant, The Pallas and the Henry, two of the two corporals, and ten fusiliers stood guard at 23rd,s three remaining transports, reached New the fort overlooking New York's waterfront. York on June 12, as Rivington 's New-York Finally, one corporal and six fusiliers occupied Gazetteer reported on Thursday, June 17 : the guard room and sentry boxes at the Lower Barracks. "The other Guards will report to the On Saturday last two of the upper barrack Guard," more of the transport squadron headquarters specified, "and he will report to arrived here from Plymouth, the General. "9 having a considerable part of The Brudenell, the last of the 23rd' s the Royal Welch fuzileers on transports, did not limp into New York harbor board, under the command of until Wednesday, June 16. As the New-York Lieut. Colonel Benjamin Gazette; and the Weekly Mercury noted on Barnard [Bernard]: They landed Monday, June 21: "The last Transport with on Monday morning, and prove the 23d Regiment on board, arrived here a well appointed body of Wednesday last." healthy, effective young Colonel Bernard received only two soldiers. There 1s still a weeks to whip his Redcoats into shape. On transport wanting, she had Monday, June 28 , Lieutenant Mackenzie spring her mast early in the handed him the following order: "The voyage. Commander in Chief will review His Majesty's 23rd or Royal of It is worth noting that the Royal Welch Fusileers, on Wednesday Morning at half past Fusiliers did not strike the Gazetteer as being 5." 10 It should be noted that the "Commander any worse the wear for nearly two storm-tossed in Chief' mentioned in the preceding months at sea. communique was not Lieutenant General Headquarters moved immediately to Thomas Gage. Gage had returned to England provide living space for the newly arrived for an extended home leave, and his place was Redcoats. An order issued on the twelfth filled from June 1773 to May 1774 by Major specified: "The Royal Regiment of Artillery General Frederick Haldimand, who was also 1 will evacuate the upper barracks this afternoon the colonel-commandant of the 60 h Regiment at 6 o'Clock, and take up their Quarters, in the ofFoot. 11 lower barracks; Mr Bancker, the barrack Haldimand took every precaution to

The Brigade Dispatch 4 XLI No.4 Winter 2011 ensure that the newest unit in the New York Friday Morning last his garrison conducted its evolutions without Majesty's Royal Regiment of civilian interference. "The Royal Regiment of Welch Fusileers, and the 4th Artillery to take the Guards to Morrow," he Battalion of the Royal Regiment decreed, "and all their Men off Duty are to of Artillery, now in this march to the review Ground on Wednesday Garrison, were reviewed by his Morning to assist in keeping off the mob. Excellency the Commander in They will receive their orders from Lieutenant Chief, in a Field on the Right of Colonel Barnard." 12 his Excellency our Governor's The 23rd Foot reappeared in the New House, on the Road to York newspapers toward the end of October Greenwich, facing the North 1773. By that time, word had gone out that the River: The Troops went regiment and elements of the 4th Battalion, through many new Manoeuvres, Royal Regiment of Artillery (which also much to the Satisfaction of a belonged to the city's garrison), were prodigious Multitude of scheduled to stage a formal review. The event Spectators, who were highly was postponed at the last moment, however, pleased with every Part of their due to the threat of rain. As Rivington 's New­ Performance. York Gazetteer reported on Thursday, October 28: Rivington 's New-York Gazetteer expressed similar sentiments three days later on The rev1ew of his November4: Majesty's troops in garrison in this city, which was fixed for On Friday last his yesterday, has been put off, on Majesty's Royal Regiment of account of the rainy weather, Welsh Fusileers, under the until Friday morning, 9 o'clock; command of Lieutenant Colonel when his Majesty's Royal Barnard, and the Royal regiment of Welsh Fusileers, Regiment of Artillery, and the fourth battalion of the commanded by Lieutenant Royal regiment of Artillery, Colonel [Samuel] Cleaveland with four six pounders, will [Cleveland], were reviewed by perform many manoeuvres his Excellency Major General before his Excellency the Haldimand, commanding in Commander in Chief; which chief his Majesty's forces in will not fail to attract a vast North-America. These were concourse of Spectators. A field present his Excellency the on the right of his Excellency's Governour and his Lady, house, in the road to together with all the principal Greenwich, facing the North inhabitants of this city and Its river, is chosen for the purpose. vicinities, who returned full of the most perfect satisfaction The 23rd Foot finally held its review on afforded by the brilliant Friday, October 29, and the event attracted appearance, and animated some laudatory notices. This one appeared in manoeuvres of these two gallant the New-York Gazette; and the Weekly and finely appointed battalions. Mercury on Monday, November 1:

The Brigade Dispatch 5 XLI No.4 Winter 2011 General Haldimand also expressed his flame on account of the tea satisfaction in orders read to the entire New exportation. The New Yorkers, York garrison: as well as the Bostonians and Philadelphians, are, it seems, The Commander in Chief determined that no tea shall be is highly pleased with the landed. They have published a review of part of the 4th paper in numbers, called the battalion of His Majesty's Royal Alarm. It begins first with

Regiment of Artillery: likewise "Dear Countrymen," and then ) with the performance of His goes on exhorting them to open Majesty's Royal Welch their eyes, and like sons of Regiment of Fusileers, at their liberty throw off all connection field day this morning: and with the tyrant their mother returns his thanks to Lieut. country. They have on this Colonel Cleveland, the Officers occasion raised a company of and men of the , artillery, and every day almost and to Lieut. Colonel Barnard, are practicing at a target. Their the Officers and men of His independent companies are out Majesty's Royal Welch at exercise every day. The Regiment for their attention and minds of the lower people are alertness. 13 inflamed by the examples of some of their principals. They What neither General Haldimand nor swear that they will burn every the newspapers deigned to mention was the ship that comes in; but I believe 23rd Foot did not demonstrate its martial our six and twelve pounders, prowess to merely entertain the populace. By with the Royal Welch Fusileers, that time, the thirteen colonies were seething will prevent any thing of that over the Tea Act, and rumors were rife that kind. Whig activists in the major American ports would take radical action to prevent tea ships Whether the 23rd Foot's efforts had belonging to the Honorable East anything to do with it or not, New York Company from unloading their cargoes. The weathered this cns1s without serious military evolutions performed by the Royal disturbances. (That happy result may have had Welch Fusiliers near the royal governor' s more to do with the fact that the captains of house were meant as a show of force to the tea ships that stopped at New York and intimidate New York's would-be rabble Philadelphia prudently decided to leave with rousers. their cargoes to avoid provoking a This was confirmed by a letter that a confrontation.) Boston staged its famous tea British officer stationed at New York party on December 16, however, and that act (probably with the Royal Artillery) wrote a of violent resistance to British authority friend in London on November 1. That letter prompted George III and his ministers to first appeared in a British newspaper and was sanction a military response. The Royal Welch subsequently reprinted on January 31 , 177 4, Fusiliers eventually received orders to join the I by the Pennsylvania Gazette in Philadelphia: 4,000 Redcoats that would be stationed at Boston to enforce the Coercive Acts. 14 All America is in a

The Brigade Dispatch 6 XLI No.4 Winter 2011 Fig. 2. This engraving from the October 1776 issue of Town and Country Magazine shows British infantry battalions drilling on open ground on the southwest side of New York City. The Royal Welch Fusiliers would have made a similar appearance- albeit on a smaller scale- when it staged a review for New York's populace on Friday, October 29, 1773. This print was actually based on a 1768 engraving by Pierre Charles Canot who drew his inspiration from a circa 1763 drawing by Captain Thomas Howdell of the Royal Artillery. (Private Collection)

Until those orders arrived, however, evening, June 2, Colonel Bernard shared this the 23rd Foot continued to try to awe New summons with his company commanders: Yorkers with more demonstrations of British "Saturday being the Anniversary of His power. The regiment staged a review without Majesty' s birthday, The Royal Regiment of any assistance from the Royal Artillery on Welch Fusileers, with a detachment of the May 16, which elicited more compliments from Royal Artillery and two field pieces, are to be General Haldirnand: "The Commander in under arms at half past 11 o'Clock on the road Chief is much pleased with the fine appearance near Vauxhall leading to Greenwich. The and soldierlike performance of His Majesty's Artillery will fire a Royal salute at twelve, 23rd or Royal Welch Regiment of Fusileers, which will be followed by three Vollies from reviewed this morning; and returns his thanks the Regiment." No one knew it at the time, 1 to Lieu • Colonel Bernard, Major [Harry] but those three blasts of musketry represented Blunt, & the Officers and men, for their the 23rd Foot's final major performance in steadiness, Alertness, and attention." 15 New York. 16 The Royal Welch Fusiliers paraded to On Monday, July 25, 1774, the New­ celebrate as well as intimidate. On Thursday York Gazette; and the Weekly Mercury

The Brigade Dispatch 7 XLI No.4 Winter 2011 informed its readers: the ever memorable Victory at Mend in [Minden] was Thursday last three gloriously acquired the 1st of Transports arrived here from August, 1759; and where a Boston; they are now taking in French Army of 80,000 Men Ordnance, and a Proportion of was worsted and put to Flight Military Stores, among which by the Allies (not above half are 500 Barrels of Gun-Powder; their Number) where the British and we hear the Royal Welch Infantry and a Few Hanoverian Fuzileers, now here, are to Battalions alone were engaged.) embark this Week on board the They are encamped on Fort­ said Transports, with a Hill. Detachment of the Train of Artillery, and to sail directly for In view of such sentiments, it seems Boston. astounding to realize that the Royal Welch Fusiliers and many of the Boston News­ The same newspaper paid the recently Letter's readers would engage less than a year departed 23rd Foot this handsome compliment a later in a war in which they would attempt to week later (August 1): shed each other's common British blood with harrowing ferocity. Wednesday Morning the Royal Regiment of Welch Notes Fuzileers, under the command of Colonel Barnard, embarked 1. The copious literature on the first day of the on board the three Transports American Revolution includes such high points that arrived here a few Days as Arthur Bemon Tourtellot. William ago from Boston.-----The Diamond's Drum: The Beginning of the War Harmony, which, ever since of the American Revolution. London: their Arrival in New-York, has Hutchinson & Co., LTD, 1960 and David subsisted betwixt the Citizens Hackett Fischer. Paul Revere 's Ride. New and this very respectable Corps York: Oxford University Press, 1994. of his Majesty's Troops, cannot be exceeded in the Chronicles 2. The surviving portions of Mackenzie's of any other Garrison. diary are available in two published versions. On August 11, the Boston News-Letter See Allen French, ed. A British Fusilier in heralded the arrival of the 23rd Foot at its new Revolutionary Boston: Being the Diary of post with an equally gracious tribute: Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie, Adjutant of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, January 5-April 30, Sunday last arrived in 1775. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, this Harbour, the Transports 1926 and Frederick Mackenzie. Diary of from New-York, having on Frederick Mackenzie: Giving a Daily board his Majesty's Royal Narrative of His Military Service as an Officer Regiment of Welch Fuzileers, of the Regiment of Royal Welch Fusiliers under the Command of Colonel during the Years 177 5-1 781 in Massachusetts, Barnard (one of the s1x Rhode Island and New York. 2 vols. renowned British Corps, to Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930. whose Valor and Intrepedity, See also Richard Williams. Discord and Civil

The Brigade Dispatch 8 XLI No.4 Winter 2011 Wars: Being a Portion of the Journal Kept by 10. "Head quarters New York," June 28, Lieutenant Williams. Buffalo, NY: Easy Hill 1773, Ibid. Press, 1954. 11. Despite Gage's importance and the 3. A recently published popular history of the availability of his papers at the William L. Royal Welch Fusiliers in the American War Clements Library at the University of makes only fleeting reference to the regiment's Michigan, he has been the subject of only one time in New York. . Fusiliers: full-length biography: John R. Alden. General The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the Gage in America: Being Principally a History American Revolution. New York: Walker & of His Role in the American Revolution. Baton Company, 2007, 17. Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1948. For a more critical evaluation, see John 4. Frederick Mackenzie to "Dear Father," Shy. "Thomas Gage: Weak Link of Empire," June 29, 1773, in French. Op. cit. 3-23; in George Washington's Opponents. George Gwynfor Jones, "The Transport of the Royal Athan Billias, ed. New York: William Welch Fusiliers to America 1773," Maritime Morrow and Company, Inc., 1969, 3-38. 3 (1978): 33-41. 12. "Head quarters New York," June 28, 5. J. A. Houlding. Fit for Service: The 1773, "Extracts of orders." Op. cit. Training of the British Army 1715-1795. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981, 68. 13. "New York," October 29, 1773, Ibid.

6. Frederick Mackenzie to "Dear Father," 14. Detailed treatments of this crisis and its June 29, 1773, in French. Op. cit., 7-8. impact on the course of colonial history can be found in Benjamin Woods Labaree. The 7._ "HeadQuarters at New York," June 10, Boston Tea Party. New York: Oxford 1773; After Orders, June 10, 1773; and "Head University Press, 1964; Benjamin L. Carp. quarters at New York," June 11, 1773, all in Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party "Extracts of orders given to the British Army and the Making of America. New Haven: Yale in America," W.O. 36/1, American Rebellion University Press, 2010; Harlow G. Unger. Entry Books, Public Record Office, London, American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party microfilm at the David Library of the Sparked a Revolution. New York: Da Capo American Revolution, Washington Crossing, Press, 2011. Pennsylvania. 15. "New York," May 15, 1774, and "New 8. "Head quarters New York," June 12, 1773, York," May 16, 1774, both in "Extracts of Ibid. orders." Op. cit.

9. "Head quarters New York," June 14, 1773, 16. "New York," June 2, 1774, Ibid. Ibid.

Fig. 3 (next page). This "Plan of the City of New York in North America: Surveyed in the Years 1766 & 1767" published by Thomas Jefferys and William Faden in London in 1776 was the handiwork of cartographer Bernard Ratzer and engraver Thomas Kitchen. It shows the city that the Royal Welch Fusiliers knew so well in 1773-74. The waterfront fort the regiment guarded can be seen at Manhattan Island's southwest tip. (The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Funds donated by Mrs. Anna Glen Victor for purchase, in memory of her husband, Alexander 0. Victor, the Acorn Foundation, #TC2000-591).

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The Brigade Dispatch 10 XLI No. 4 Winter 2011