Gaspee
Virtual Archives
Did a Cannon
Fire on the Gaspee?
By Dr. John Concannon
From 1885 Smith's
History of Cortland County we find the following biography
of Gaspee raider Nathan Salisbury:
Nathan Salisbury, sen., was Lieutenant under Capt.
Burgess
of the company which, from Warwick Neck, fired into, captured, and
burned
the British schooner, Gaspe in 1772. He resided in Cranston until
1795, when he moved to Providence, R.I. In March, 1803, he moved
his family to Hartford, Washington county, New York, where he purchased
a farm and remained until 1806, when he again moved his family to
Cazenovia,
Madison county, New York. At this place he only remained through
the winter, and in March, 1807, came with his family to Homer, then in
Onondaga county (450).
In 2005, Nathan Salisbury's descendant, and fellow Gaspee researcher Earl Salisbury discovered an account of the Gaspee Affair as told by
Nathan Salisbury to his grandson, James Salisbury, and which included
the following excerpt [edits of illegible words are by Earl Salisbury]
In the meantime the people of
[Cranston &] Warwick were [posted] in the matter and before the
expedition from Providence had [started] the military had collected
under the Command of Capt. Burgess and Lieutenant Nathan Salisbury (my
Grandfather) armed with the notorious “Long Red Nose” 18
Pounder. [They disguised, proceeded] at once to the Eastern
Extremity of Warwick Neck, which was within a short distance of the
frigate Gaspe. The [frigate] lay [careened] on her side, so that
her guns [pointing] landwards, were elevated at an angle of nearly 45
degrees and of course they were quite harmless to [an] attacking
[party]. Capt. Burgess and Lieut. Salisbury at once opened
fire and the second shot [tore] a hole in the her side below water mark
several feet square. [They were at] the fire till dark doing
great damage to the frigate. The fire from the frigate passed
over their heads.
Earl remains confident in James Henry Salisbury's letter because of
"his
recognized skills as a historian", and has promised us more research on
other documents he has found.
The big issue is the contention that there was an artillery company in
Warwick that fired on the Gaspee,
prior to the boats arriving from
Providence that attacked it later.
Warwick Neck is about 5 miles South of Gaspee (Namquid)
Point
where the ship was aground; a distance much too far for the cannons of
1772 vintage. In order for this account to be
true, we have to assume that Nathan Salisbury was confused as to, at
least, the present day geographical naming of places in Warwick,
RI.
The writer seems to confuse both Namquid (Gaspee Point) and Pawtuxet
Village by
referring to these locations as 'Warwick Neck'. Earl Salisbury
relates that, "This seems typical in many historical accounts. Bunker
Hill is a distance form Breed's Hill and not within musket range.
Therefore nobody died at the Battle of Bunker Hill."
The large 18 pound shore
battery that supposedly fired on the Gaspee
would have been much too
large to transport to a closer location on short notice, which suggests
that the cannon (if any) had been positioned nearby all along, probably
on Namquid (Gaspee) Point itself, and perhaps as a defensive shore
battery to protect the approach to the city of Providence upriver. Earl
Salisbury notes that such cannons "were very typically located at
narrows (such as Gaspee Point) and entrances to harbours for defense of
the harbour. They would be part of what today would be called "Civil
Defense" and not part of a stationed traveling artillery unit."
My conjecture would be that the battery (if it did exist) would've been
built during the French & Indian War of 1755 - 1763 to defend
against invading French fleets. The cannon would probably be of
British manufacture; American iroworks were only in their infancy, and
probably incapable of the complex manufacturing process involved for
such a large cannon. A defensive shore battery, such as the 18 pounder
that Salisbury refers to, would have required the construction of an
accompanying gun emplacement or fort of some type. It would've been a
massive gun that would not be transportable on field artillery
carriages. I doubt it would've been left out unprotected. So if
it did exist on Gaspee Point in 1772, I would've expected some
recollection of someone finding some remains of a fort.
Noted historian Benson Lossing made a field trip to Gaspee Point in
1848. His extensive site report details nothing about finding any
remains of a gun emplacement (see http://gaspee.org/Lossing.html).
Local historian Henry A. L. Brown, who happens to own the land around
Gaspee Point, did not turn up any evidence of a cannon or gun
emplacement ever being at that location. Henry's not finding
anything to recollect about a fort at Gaspee Point deals a serious blow
to the credibility of Salisbury's
story.
There are other factual errors as related in the Salisbury account as
well. The date of the attack is given as June 17th rather than
June 9/10, 1772. We know that Gaspee
attack leader Abraham Whipple took
Lt. Dudingston's silver goblet
as plunder from the ship. His descendants later had it engraved
with the erroneous date of June 17th, etc. But perhaps the error of
date is some other historian's error. We suspect that, perhaps,
James Fenimore Cooper got the date wrong in his influential 1839 work, History of the Navy of the United
States. Nathan Salisbury also claimed that both the Lieutenant Dudingston's testicles had
to be amputated after he had been shot in the groin, but we know he
went on to father children upon his return to England. Salisbury
also gave doubtful information with respect to the Gaspee being a frigate (it was a
schooner), and the house wherein prisoners from the Gaspee were kept (William vs Joseph Rhodes). Technically, it would've
probably been impossible for the Gaspee
to fire any of her cannon whatsoever if lying aground at a 45°
angle The recoil from even the 4 pounder swivel cannon would
probably have promptly sent it over the starboard gunwhale.
The biographical sketch was written by the
Cortland
County historian in 1885 and it is doubtful he had access to other
sources.
He was probably quoting Nate Salisbury's grandchildren and the family
history
was .... shall we say .... embellished a bit. No other reliable
first
person account of the Gaspee incident (and there are many, both
British and American) tell of any artillery firings. Any loud
cannon fire would have undoubtedly drawn the unwelcome attention of the
other Royal Navy ship on station, the HMS Beaver. Salisbury's claim to
have been part of a 'Burgess's Company' that from Warwick Neck fired
onto
the Gaspee is also totally unknown in any other published
references,
although
a British map of the Revolutionary period does depict an artillery
battery
at that location (see
Blaskowitz map [1.5
Mb]).
As fellow Gaspee researcher Leonard Bucklin, a noted trial
lawyer,
relates:
The letter from James H.
Salisbury to Steven Salisbury, President of the American Antiquarian
Society, dated February 25, 1869, appears to be a genuine document
and indeed written by J. H. Salisbury. However, it seems only be
a recording by James in 1869 of events in 1772 as related by the his
grandmother to him "when I was just a boy". Since James was born
in 1823, in New York, and his grandmother was born ca. 1747, it means
that when James was 13 years old (in 1836) his grandmother would have
been 89 years old. These are not ideal years of age for exchange
and recording of exact information. James does not claim any written
record existed for what he recalls and recites in the 1869 letter.
James only claims that his grandmother was a resident of Providence in
1772 and not that she had any first hand knowledge of events.
In an earlier, separate e-mailing on the topic, Bucklin said:
I really think what we have is why lawyers do not
rely on hearsay.
I suspect he was in a battery of artillery and that he was in the
boatload
of persons that may have rowed over ..... and were at the attack on the
Gaspee. Persons hearing him
talk could have heard him say, on separate occassions:
1. I was in an artillery battery
2. Some of us fired the Gaspee, and we sunk
her
and duly recorded him as being in an artillery group that fired upon
the Gaspee
We can only surmise that perhaps Nathan Salisbury served with Capt.
Burgess'
Company, at some time during the pre-Revolutionary or Revolutionary
times,
but that he happened to be near the Providence docks the night of June
9/10, 1772, and was invited along for the 'ride', so to speak.
Click here to see more info about Nathan Salisbury.
Originally
Posted
to Gaspee Virtual Archives 2005 Last Revised
11/2005 Cannon.html
