The Women of The American Revolution, Vol. 2

The family of Dr. Channing, on their way from France to America, not long after the commencement of the war, were attacked by a privateer. During the engagement that ensued, Mrs. Channing remained on deck, handing cartridges, with encouraging speeches to the crew, and assisting the wounded. When the colors of the vessel were struck, she seized the pistols and side-arms of her husband, and flung them into the sea, declaring that they, at least, should not be surrendered to the enemy.

An anecdote is related of Mrs. Daniel Hall, who was a guest in the house of Mrs. Sarah Reeve Gibbes when the British surrounded it. It is said that having obtained permission from the authorities then in power, to go to Johns' Island on a visit to her mother, she was stopped when going on board by an officer who demanded the key of her trunk. She asked him what he wished to look for. "For treason – madam," he replied. "Then," retorted Mrs. Hall, "you may be saved the trouble of search, for you may find enough of it at my tongue's end."66

It is well known that the name of Gustavus Conyngham, the captain of one of the first privateers under the American flag, was one of terror to the British. The print of him exposed in the shops of London, labelled, "The Arch Rebel," and representing a man of gigantic frame and ferocious countenance, was one of the expressions indicating the popular fear attached to his name. He was repeatedly captured by the enemy, and treated with barbarous severity, being only saved from death by the resolution of Congress that his execution should be avenged by that of certain royalist officers then in custody. While he was a prisoner in irons on board one of their vessels, his wife made an eloquent and touching appeal in his behalf, in a letter to General Washington, which was laid before Congress. "To have lost a beloved and worthy husband in battle," she says, "would have been a light affliction;" but her courage failed at the thought of the suffering, despair, and ignominious death that awaited him. The interposition she besought was granted, and saved the prisoner's life.

A letter written from Antigua, published in the Pennsylvania Register, gives an account of Mrs. Conyngham's romantic introduction to the noted hero who was afterwards her husband. She was, with two other ladies, at sea, and shared the common fear of meeting with some American privateer – "the Revenge" in particular – cruising near the West India Islands. The Captain was pacing the quarter-deck with a glass in his hand, and was pressed with many questions as to the danger by his fair passengers, who had heard dreadful accounts of the cruelty of the Americans. Suddenly a cry from aloft – "A sail! a sail!" caused general confusion. "The captain hastened up the shrouds, gave orders to the man at the helm, and remained some minutes watching the approaching suspicious stranger; then coming on deck, said that the vessel looked d – d rakish; he had no doubt it was a privateer, probably the Revenge – the terror of those seas.' The ladies were in tears, and withdrew to the cabin half fainting from apprehension." There was no prospect of escape; the sail gradually drew near; a gun was fired, and the pursued vessel lay to. A boat put off from the stranger, and two officers and several men were soon upon her deck. The spokesman wore a blue roundabout and trow-sers, and was well armed; he was about twenty-five, of a light and active figure; his sunburnt face showed much intelligence, and was, withal, interesting from a shade of melancholy. He made some inquiries concerning the vessel, cargo, and passengers, and on being informed there were ladies in the cabin, colored, and observed to his lieutenant – that he would have to go and say to them, the passengers were not prisoners, but guests. The lieutenant replied that he had not "confidence enough to speak to them," and the other went into the cabin. The fears of the ladies were soon dispelled, and the youngest asked the officer, with much naïveté, if he was really a pirate. "I am captain of an American privateer," he answered, "and he, I trust, cannot be a pirate."

"Are you the captain of 'the Revenge'?"

"I am."

"Is it possible you are the man represented to be a bloody and ferocious pirate, whose chief delight is in scenes of carnage?"

"I am that person of whom these nursery tales have been told; whose picture is hung up to frighten children. I have suffered much from British prisons and from British calumny; but my sufferings will never make me forget the courtesy due to ladies."

During the few days the vessels were together, the chivalrous spirit of Conyngham, and his kindness towards the passengers, won their esteem, and they listened with pleasure to the lieutenant's account of his gallant achievements on the seas. The beautiful Miss Anne – , who chatted with him in so sprightly a manner, was, a day or two afterwards, with her two companions, put on board a vessel bound to one of the islands. When the writer of the letter saw her again at L'Orient, some time afterwards, she was the wife of the far-famed captain of "the Revenge."

The case of Sir Charles Asgill, a young officer of the British Guards, selected by lot for execution in retaliation for the murder of Captain Huddy, was made the ground-work of a French tragedy by Sau-vigny, represented in Paris, in 1789. The story of his imprisonment – the sufferings of his mother and family while the doom hung over him – her appeal to the King and Queen of France – their intercession, and the final relenting of Congress – is one of deep and touching interest. It is included, with the letters of Lady Asgill, in many of the books on the Revolution.

END OF VOL. II

1

This passage may be found, quoted from the MS., in a note in the Life and Correspondence of President Reed. Vol. II., p. 24.

2

Remembrancer, Vol. VIII.

3

Thacher's Journal and other authorities.

4

MS. letter, March 7th, 1778.

5

Communicated by a friend of Mrs. Berry.

6

Remembrancer, Vol. VI.

7

Manuscript letter.

8

Unpublished letter.

9

Unpublished letter, 1787.

10

Dr. Crosby, of New York.

11

It is unquestionably true that injustice has been done to this officer – his merits and services never having been properly represented before the public. In early life he was an officer in the Colonial service; fought on the field of the Monongahela and in other battles; and continuing in the army after the commencement of the Revolutionary war, was one of the most prominent patriots in New Jersey. He was at the storming of Quebec, and distinguished himself in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, etc., etc. In numerous letters and journals of the day, testimony is borne to his high character and services. Less than two years before the close of the war, he resigned his commission in displeasure at the appointment over him of an inferior officer. His death took place, probably in 1796, at the house of Colonel Stewart. He had escorted the young ladies on a visit, from which the whole party had returned early in the evening in fine spirits. The Colonel and the General had sat down to their usual evening amusement of backgammon, when Maxwell was suddenly taken ill. Supposing it to be a headache, which he had never experienced before, he rose to retire to his room. But the attack was fatal, and he expired about one o'clock the same night. Expresses were sent for his brothers, one of whom was an officer in the Revolution; but they did not arrive until some hours after his death. His remains rest in the Presbyterian church-yard, at Greenwich, Warren County, New Jersey.

12

The Rev. C. S. Stewart – of the U. S. Navy – the distinguished missionary, and author of "A Residence in the Sandwich Islands" – "Visit to the South Seas," etc.

13

Ramsay's History of South Carolina: Moultrie's Memoirs? Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, etc.

14

Simms' Life of Marion, p. 239.

15

The dates are taken from the family Bible, recorded in Mrs. Motte's own hand-writing.

16

A celebrated writer informs me that the name is French, and was originally spelled 'Mothè.

17

It was the wife of Thomas Pinckney who dressed his wounds after the battle of Camden, with her own hands, and fainted when the task was over.

18

Moultrie's Memoirs; Ramsay's History of South Carolina; McCall's History of Georgia.

19

See Notes concerning Elizabethtown, by Rev. Dr. Murray.

20

See Notes concerning Elizabethtown, by Rev. Dr. Murray.

21

The nurse also remained, and a little girl named Abigail Lennington, a soldier's daughter, whom Mr. Caldwell had taken into his family. She is still living at Elizabethtown. Immediately after the tragedy, she with the nurse, gave deposition as to the facts before a magistrate.

22

The little girl received in her face some of the glass when the two balls entered, both of which took such deadly effect.

23

Rivington's Royal Gazette, 1780.

24

The Hon. Samuel L. Southard, alluding to Mrs. Caldwell's death, in connection with a memorial presented to the U. S. Senate for the church and property destroyed, says "her children were baptized to piety and patriotism in a mother's blood."

25

Pennsylvania Journal, October 4, 1780.

26

Life of Livingston, by Theodore Sedgwick.

27

The following copy of an order sent to Nantes, rather curiously shows the precariousness of transportation in those times. It is extracted from a MS. letter of John Jay, dated Madrid, Jan. 21st, 1782, which expresses a hope that one of the parcels may meet its destination:

28

The MS. correspondence of Miss Catharine Livingston, including this note, is in the possession of Mr. Theodore Sedgwick.

29

Life of Livingston, p. 353.

30

A niece of Captain Tisdale, upon whom Robert attended in the army for some months.

31

"Resolved – That Margaret Corbin, wounded and disabled at the attack on Fort Washington, while she heroically filled the post of her husband, who was killed by her side serving a piece of artillery, do receive during her natural life, or continuance of said disability, one-half the monthly pay drawn by a soldier in service of these States; and that she now receive out of public stores, one suit of clothes, or value thereof in money." July, 1779.

32

History of Scoharie County.

33

See Life of Judge Gaston. I am indebted for these particulars respecting Mrs. Gaston to her accomplished granddaughter, Mrs. Susan G. Donaldson.

34

The reader is referred to the Sketches of North Carolina, by Rev. William Henry Foote; see also "Memorials" of that State, by J. Seawell Jones; and an article on Pichot's History of Charles Edward, in the North American Review, Jan. 1847.

35

The reader is referred to the Life and Character of Rev. David Caldwell, D. D., by Rev. E. W. Caruthers, Greensboro', N. C.

36

Sketches of North Carolina.

37

Miner's History of Wyoming, page 212, etc. See this work for notices of the women.

38

Extract from a sermon preached at the funeral of Esther Skinner, 1831.

39

See Annals of Tryon County, by William W. Campbell.

40

See History of Westchester County.

41

The reader is indebted for this sketch to the pen of Mr. H. R. Schoolcraft.

42

This name is changed to Schoolcraft in that county, in a rather too graphic allusion to the last employment of the declining days of a soldier of fortune – a pilgrim of the sword from England, and withal a man of letters.

43

See Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. It is singular that this "zealous chronicler" should have been led into the mistake of stating that Mrs. Arnold's name was Sarah, and that she died in Massachusetts in 1836, at the age of eighty-three!

44

This letter is published in the Life and Correspondence of President Reed, which see – Vol. II., pp. 272-275.

45

See Sparks' Life of Arnold.

46

MS. letter, 17th Dec., 1780.

47

MS. letter.

48

J. Fenimore Cooper.

49

A graphic account of this incident, and of "Mother Bailey," appeared in the Democratic Review for January, 1847. But as a piece of historical justice, it is due to this heroine to state that she defies having used the coarse and profane expression there attributed to her. The highly intelligent lady residing in New London, who received the particulars I have mentioned from Mrs. Bailey's own lips, also says that she has never claimed the credit of being among those who ministered to the wants of the wounded, after the massacre at Fort Griswold.

50

"Captain Leonard Whiting, of Hollis, N. H., a noted tory. He was in reality the bearer of despatches from Canada to the British in Boston. An article was some time after inserted in a warrant for town meeting: 'To see what the town will vote or order to be paid to Mr. Solomon Rogers, for entertaining Leonard Whiting and his guard.' Not acted upon."

51

This incident is related by a descendant of Mrs. Barlow.

52

See Collin's Historical Sketches of Kentucky.

53

M'Clung's Sketches of Western Adventure.

54

Judge Robertson's Address on the Fourth of July, at Camp Madison, in 1843.

55

Drake's Book of the Indians. M'Clung's Sketches of Western Adventure, etc.

56

Withers.

57

These facts were given the writer by the daughter of Mrs. Jackson.

58

This traditional anecdote is communicated by a relative of the family, who believe it entirely authentic.

59

The Hon. Judge O'Neall of South Carolina. He gives this incident and that of Mrs. Lee's exploit, in his "Random Recollections of Revolutionary Characters and Incidents," published in the Southern Literary Journal, 1838, pp. 104, 105.

60

Vol. IV., page 192.

61

Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County, by H. Onderdonk, Jr.

62

Thompson's History of Long Island.

63

This fact is mentioned by a descendent of Mrs. Munro.

64

Said by Major Garden to be Lord Cornwallis.

65

Garden, First Series, p. 227.

66

Garden's Revolutionary Anecdotes.