Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 15 of those read), 1888 (part 1 of 2)

Miilitary History By Charles A. Benjamin

Unlike many cities of equal historic importance, Salem is fortunate in her inability to point to a record of battles fought within her limits or sieges sustained by her. No turreted walls have enclosed her, nor, with one exception, since the precautions takeu in the earliest life of the infant settlement, have her streets been watched by sentinels or, except in peaceful parade, echoed to the tread of armed men or rumble of artillery. As her name imports, she has indeed been a city of peace, and her citizens for nearly two centuries, have, within her borders, enjoyed immunity from the scourge of war. Her fame rests upon the success of her people in the paths of commerce and manufacture ; their devotion to science and art and a charity and large-heartedness that, accompanying wealth, have prevented want and made her ever the abode of comfort and plenty. But although thus given to peaceful pursuits and preserved in herself from the devastation and ruin of war, this by no means implies that Salem has not indirectly suflered from its effects, or that her men have been slow to respond to the demands of their country upon their patriotism and courage ; for they have manfully borne their full jiart in the wars of the nation, and sustained its honor and that of their native town on all occasions. In every Indian skirmish, and on every smoke-wreathed field known in our history, from the taking of "Sassacus his fort" to Bunker Hill and Gettysburg, or fighting their guns on the ocean in all latitudes, have stood the men of Salem, patriotic, brave and enduring. Their blood has wet the sod from the chapparal of Mexico to the shores of the great lakes, and their shattered bones lie fathoms deep in every sea.

This, then, is the military history of Salem - not that of a Saragossa or Leipsic, shaken in her own territory with the thunder of cannon, the crash of falling walls, and the groans of the wounded and dying - but steadfastly enduring in almost every cycle of her existence the departure of numbers of her best and bravest, and keeping green the memory of those who never returned, with tears, but in great honor and gratitude.

Within the limited space necessarily given in a county history to a monograph of this character, it is impossible to render full justice to all those whose services constitute the military record of the city, and if any for themselves or their ancestors or kindred shall feel neglected in this particular, their indulgence is requested on this account, and because of the sometimes scanty sources of information existing, with relation

The first settlers of Salem, in common with their neighbors, landing in the wilderness and surrounded by a race of savages not numerous, but singularly active and enterprising, to whose keen, though uni.aught comprehension, their habits appeared objectionable and their civilization a menace, soon found that a conciliatory attitude was ineffectual to remove the suspicions of the Indians and enable the colonists to rely upon their good faith. The Indian, once fairly committed to a friendship upon a sound basis, may be expected to keep his engagements, and is a steadfast ally. When, however, as has usually been the case in our history, treaties and alliances were forced upon him as the weaker party, he fully realized the moral weakness of these compacts, and felt justified by his simple code of ethics in evading them upon the least sign of bad faith on the other side, or by simple treachery, followed by such violent efforts to as far as possible restore the proper equality of numbers between himself and his antagonist, as made the Indian wars extremely destructive and cruel.

Our ancestors therefore found it essential to their continuance here, to organize for defense. At the meeting of the Court of Assistants in September, 1630, the first step was taken in this direction by the appointment of Captains Underbill and Patrick, doubtless old English soldiers, as military instructors (probably charged also Avith the early organization of the forces), and an assessment Avas levied upon the various settlements for their maintenance. Salem's share toward this comfortable billet for these old veterans was three pounds.

In the following April the same authority directed that the companies should be drilled by their officers on each Saturday : Captain Underbill or Patrick no doubt superintended the operation, and with the latitude presumably allowed to the military hope of the pious colonists, were doubtless sometimes permitted to be well sustained with strong waters and to swear freely at both officers and men, after the fashion of military instructors in all ages. Every man was at this time required to bear arms, and the colony seemed to be establishing itself on a sound military basis. Several cannon were brought to Salem about this time.

In August of the same year (1631), a considerable hostile body of Tarrentines or Eastern Indians, - probably from Maine, - made their appearance in the vicinity of Salem, and caused much alarm to the settlers, as they were reputed to be puissant in warfare with the unpleasant habit of eating their captives. The people, however, fell in at once, and dragging out their six pounders, discharged them into the woods in the supposed direction of the enemy : whereat the Tarrentines, being unaccustomed to the sound of heavy ordnance, and apparently finding it disagreeable, took themselves off without further de-

About this time Captain John Endicott commanded an expedition composed of Salem men and other colonists to the number of ninety, to beat up the Indians who had gathered about Block Island with mischievous intent and had committed some depredations. The Fabian policy of the gentle savage prevented any general fight, although a few Indians were picked off by some accurate long-range pi'actice, and the general effect of this energy and promptness appears to have been salutary.

While bearing a hand generally upon the simple fortifications and block-houses built for the safety of the colony, the Puritan w-arriors of Salem kept up their military habits by frequent drills, though they do not seem to have been engaged with the Indians again until 1636. It was on the occasion of a parade of the Salem company during this interval that the Cross of St. George was cut out of its colors by the pious sword or command of Capl. John Endicott, whose military and religious instincts seem to have been quite equally developed. This a-sertion of the puritan dislike of papistical emblems, raised a considerable breeze on both sides of the Atlantic, and the oflense to the authority of the Crown was only condoned after suitable apologies. In August, 1636, hostilities having broken out with the Pequod Indians, a force of four small companies under Captain Endicott, one of which comprised the Salem contingent and was commanded by Ensign Davenport, of this place, was sent out against the enemy. Marching westward they had some skirmishes with the Indians, and returned September 14th, after inflicting on them considerable loss, while themselves losing but two men killed and a i'ew wounded. The military officers appointed for Salem that winter were. Captain William Trask, Lieutenant Richard Davenport and Ensign Thomas Reade.

The following year Salem furnished two officers, Captain Trask and Lieutenant Davenport, and twentyeight men as a part of the quota of one hundred and sixty from the Massachusetts Colony, who, under the general command of Captain Stoughton, marched to join the Connecticut forces in the campaign against the Pequod chief, Sassacus, who had assumed a hostile attitude. Before the arrival of the Massachusetts reinforcement, Colonel Mason had severely defeated the Indians, but they gallantly rallied, and the forces of the colonists having united, nearly exterminated them in a second engagement where Lieutenant Davenport and a party of his Salem men particularly distinguished themselves. Lieutenant Davenport was pi'omoted, and in 1644 was appointed as captain to the command of the castle in Boston harbor. Later on he became a colonel, but had then removed from Salem.

the settlers were not harassed by the Indians to any great extent; but realizing their constant danger, their vigilance was not relaxed and the military were kept in a good and increasingly efficient condition, with numbers continually augmenting, while the garrison and outpost duty they were required to perform was arduous and constant.

The discipline of the colonial soldier seems to have been carefully looked after at this time, for we read that it was enacted that " any disobeying his officer should be set in the bilboes or stocks, or be whipped." Military officers also directed the arms that men should carry in going from home, and particularly when attending church. The sight of a stalwart citizen of Salem of to-day, heavily armed and marching up and down the sidewalk in front of the First Church door narrowly watching every approach, while Sunday morning service was in progress; and the subsequent exit of the congregation at its close, each man with a heavy matchlock carrying a bullet of fifteen to the pound, on his shoulder, would strike us as rather odd ; but it was quite the correct thing in the sixteen-forties at the very same place.

As a sample of the good fighting stuff of which the ancient Salemite was constructed, it might not be out of place to draw attention to the military talents of that distinguished Salem divine, the Rev. Hugh Peters, who officiated in the First Church at about this time, and who doubtless imbibed some of the belligerent spirit of his colonial parish : for, some time later being in England, he served as chaplain of one of the " Ironsides " regiments of Cromwell's army, and on one occasion in Ireland, we are told, took command of the regiment, and handled it in action like a born soldier. It is to be regretted that the active part he took in the affairs of the English Commonwealth ultimately cost him his head.

In the summer of 1645 war was declared by the colonists against the Narragansett tribe, and the Salem military marched with other troops against them. The Indians, however, do not seem to have laid in sufficient ammunition or had their tomahawks properly sharpened, for they " weakened," if the expression may be permitted, and sued for peace, which was concluded before the combatants came to blows. In October of that year the officers appointed for the Salem company were: Captain William Hathorne; Lieutenant William Clark and Ensign William Dixey, while John Endicott, who had previously held that commission, was continued as sergeant-majorgeneral, which, though now an obsolete title, was then given to the commander-in-chief of the forces of the colony.

Fifteen years later we find the military establishment of what had now become the County of Essex, well organized and containing two troops of cavalry, one of which was composed of men of Salem, Manchester, Lynn and Riverhead, under Captain

Captain Thomas Lathrop of Salem, though he may afterwards have been of Beverly, was, in 1663, appointed to command the Eastern foot company of the town. It would appear that at this early date there were two standing companies of infantry and part of a companj^ of cavalry furnished by the town of Salem, which, considering the probable population of the settlement, must have comprised a large part of its able-bodied men.

Quiet continued to prevail until in 1675 the sudden uprising of Philip, Chief of the Warapanoags, with his tribesmen and allies, dispelled the fancied security of the colonists and called into immediate action their well-appointed and trained forces. Nevertheless, so well had this astute warrior laid his plans and so carefully had they been kept from the knowledge of those whom it was his purpose to annihilate, that his preconcerted attack was a complete surprise and for a time it seemed as if the accomplishment of that purpose was by no means impossible.

Towns were destroyed in an hour, large numbers of the people were massacred and the outlying settlements were abandoned by the inhabitants who flocked toward the larger towns to the eastward. In the hasty muster and advance of the troops to succor their hard-pressed brethren, their eagerness in some cases outran caution, and in the first contact with the insidious foe they had difficulty in holding their own and met with some severe reverses.

Captain Lathrop, before mentioned, while in command of a picked body of young men of the Essex companies, called by contemporaneous writers "the flower of Essex," was convoying a supply train, and being ambuscaded in Deerfield while crossing Muddy Brook, was killed with seventy of his men - nearly his entire force. Hearing the noise of the firing. Captain Mosely hastened from the upper part of Deerfield with his company, and finding the Indians engaged in scalping Lathrop's men, attacked them without hesitation, though greatly outnumbered, and drove them off" with severe punishment. The company of Captain Mosely seems to have contained many Salem men and his lieutenants, Savage and Pickering, both of Salem, did much in aid of his victory by their resolution and gallantry. As in Lathrop's company there were also a number of Salem young men, this town shared in the general mourning of the county over the disaster that befell them.

The powerful Narragansett tribe, having at length allied themselves with Philip, the colonists determined to avail themselves of the inclement weather of approaching winter that would draw the Indians together, and, with a very strong force, to deal this tribe a crushing blow that should render them powerless for future harm. Thirty-one men, under Captain Gardner, were drawn from the Salem companies and joined the force that marched southward to attack the stronghold in Rhode Island, where a large part of the Narragansetts were gathered. In the attack upon this palisaded fort in a morass, which was signally successful and utterly broke the power of that formidable tribe, Captain Gardner and six other men of Salem were killed and eleven wounded, which would indicate that the men from this town were not shirking their work to any great extent.

Hostilities continued during the following year and while the enemy had been much weakened and the military had begun to get hold of their work and were equal to the Indians when they could find them, yet with such subtle foes and in a country full of difficulty for moving columns, constant vigilance had to be exercised, and the troops had little rest. More men were impressed from Salem for active service. Those remaining strengthened the main fort here and built "garrisons" (block-houses), for the protection of the farm people outside of the town. These were all garrisoned, and the military of Salem must have been neaidy all on duty during this time, at home or with the active forces. Lieutenant John Pierce and Ensign Gardner were appointed in the winter of 1670 to the foot company lately commanded by Captain Gardner, who fell at the Narragansett Fort.

In the spring of this year Captain George Curwen, of Salem, who was commanding a troop of cavalry in the field, had a difficulty with a Miijor Henchman, his superior officer, and the General Court, - which useful body, by the way, seemed to be available for any service from expounding doctrine, to sitting as a general court-martial - sentenced the gallant captain to dismissal and a fine of £100. As, however, he seems to have been too good an officer to lose, and quite likely the General Court finding that they had blundered about the evidence, he was presently restored to his rank. Although the record is silent on this point, it is also to be hoped that he got back his hundred pounds.

In September of that year, Major William Hathorne, with jDart of the Salem contingent bore a hand in the final surprise of Quecheco, where the greater number of the Indians remaining in arms were captured and King Philip's war ended ; that gallant chief having been killed the previous month.

Civilization has its advantages, and looking at the question practically, it is perhaps best that its onward march should not be obstructed by a few savages. Nevertheless it is difficult to withhold admiration for this man Philip and his brave followers, who, believing that the English were driving them from the land of their fathers, died in the effort to preserve their inheritance as gallantly as did Leonidas or Winkelreid. As to the Indian methods of warfare, if they made more cruel work of it than the pious Puritan did on several occasions, the chroniclers have much misled us.

Early in 1677 some Eastern or Maine Indians rather disgusted the Salem ship-owners by capturing a number of their vessels that were on that coast, probably engaged in fishing. Exactly how it was done is not clear, and the fact is leather surprising ; for while dashing fighters on land, the red man has rarely gone in much for naval distinction. However, in some way or another in this case they managed to pick up " no less than thirteen ketches and captivate the men," so goes the record. The ketch was a small schooner-rigged vessel which was much used in those days. As was quite customary, on receipt of this intelligence, a fast was immediately ordered, while an armed ketch with a crew of forty men and doubtless the destructive big guns that had proved so noisily effective on a previous occasion, was dispatched as aman-of-war to the rescue. " The Lord gave them success," is the brief and pious record of this first of Salem's long list of maritime victories. Matters rather calmed down after this naval exploit for a dozen years or so, and the good Puritans of Salem in the absence of war's alarms, were able to improve their material condition and to indulge in those fierce doctrinal squabbles in which their souls took stern enjoyment. But their military matters were not neglected, and in 1689 Jonathan Walcott was appointed captain, and Nathaniel Ingersoll and Thomas Flint, respectively lieutenant and ensign of the new company formed at Salem village, afterward the town of Danvers. Samuel Higginson, of Salem, was about this time serving as lieutenant-colonel of the South Essex regiment that embraced the Salem companies and those of adjacent towns.

The Indians in this year, instigated by the French, gave signs of restlessness, and in July seventy men were told off from the Essex lower regiment of foot, that included the Salem companies, to join in the defence of the frontier towns. Captain B. Geduey, who declined, and subsequently Captain S. Sewell, Lieutenant Robert Kitchen and Ensign Edward Flint were appointed officers of the West Salem company.

The companies of Salem seemed to have been well filled, for Capts. Sewell and John Price were presently ordered to organize four companies from their commands. The names of the new officers commissioned in consequence of this mobilization do not appear. As the savages became more threatening in their demonstrations and things were looking rather blue, a fast was now ordered in Salem. It is pleasant to observe the practical military preparations that in each emergency accompanied the prayers of our excellent ancestors. They were ever buckling on the sword, as it were, even while they were in the act of bending the knee.

In August Captain Simon Willard marched with a contingent from Salem and vicinity to Casco Bay, while the Essex lower cavalry troop, possibly still under the efficient command of our old friend Captain Curwen, were ordered to Newichevvannock.

Late in the fall Captain Willard writes to the governor for supplies for the Casco Bay outpost, and takes occasion to say that " the parents of his soldiers " are much displeased because they have not already "returned as was promised." What effect this statement had upon the governor does not appear, but it is to be hoped that the displeasure of their parents was not visited upon the unhappy young recruits themselves when they ultimately turned up in Salem.

In 1690 war was declared against the French by the Colonists, who were much harassed by them in the fisheries and by their Indian allies in the Eastern settlements. Great military activity prevailed and while a few Salem men form part of the one hundred and sixty from Massachusetts reporting at Albany, four companies under Maj. John Price, Capts. Sewell and Walcot, and other officers whose names are not given, join the larger New England force preparing to attack Port Eoyal, the French stronghold in Nova Scotia. Benjamin Gedney, of Salem, now a colonel, and apparently held in high estimation, was appointed to command this expedition, but he declined the honor in favor of Sir William Phipps, who this year captured the place.

No especial mention is found of the conduct of the Salem portion of the beleaguering force, but it requires little penetration to feel quite assured of their gallantry on eveiy opportunity, and it is pleasant to observe that Colonel Gedney is upon his return, placed upon the committee to divide the plunder obtained from Port Eoyal, which was very valuable. Let us hope that he saw to it that Salem received her just share thereof.

The cavalry (Essex lower troop) now under command of Captain Brown, of Salem, are in the field again this year, though the direction of their service is uncertain - probably to the eastward - while three hundred and eight men of Colonel Gedney's regiment, doubtless then under his command, from Salem and vicinity, rendezvous late in the year, and take part in the unsuccessful expedition against Montreal and Quebec, Captain John Curwen being one of the officers, with no doubt others from Salem.

A desultory warfare was continued with the French and their Indian allies for a long period, during which there is little to be gleaned in the chronicles, of the doings of the Salem soldiery. In fact little actual fighting was done by any body in this part of the country, though the scouts and Indians had no end of quiet amusement in the depths of the forest, bushwhacking and scalping each other to their heart's content.

In 1092 Colonel Gedney went down to Wells, Me., with an escort of thirty troopers (probably of the Essex lower troop) and made a peace with the Maine Indians, independently of the French, which appears to have endured until 1695, when, by the bad faith, according to Colonel Gedney's account, of one Captain Chubb in command at Kittery, the Indians again took up arms, obliging the colonel to march on that place with four hundred and sixty men. We presume that this imposing force, combined with Colonel Gedney's diplomatic abilities, restored the broken peace, for there do not seem to have been any further difficulties in that region for some little time thereafterwards.

In 1703 we find the Governor ordering the impressment of twenty men for the " Flying Horse," an armed cruiser of Salem. As the good people of the town with solemn pleasure watched the fitting out of this vessel, how little did they realize the very large number of armed cruisers that were, in later times, to be sent from their harbor ! It appears that the buccaneers of the Spanish main, who had for many years been making things very unpleasant for treasure-ships and settlements in the vicinity of the equator, now began to extend their operations to the northward and appeared occasionally off the New England coast. Hence arose the necessity for this incipient naval force.

In the year 1704 a party of pirates, in a vessel commanded by one Quelch, remained off and on the coast for a time, having a secret rendezvous in a house near the entrauce of Marblehead harbor. Where the armed cruiser was at the time is not clear, except that she was out of the way. However, the good people of Salem got along without her very well, according to the record ; for, the character of the gang developing itself by some depredations, they were tracked to Gloucester, and Major Stephen Sewall, with one party, and Judge Samuel Sewall (who, by the way, was the chief promoter of the expedition), in personal charge of another, followed them down and carried their vessel by boarding, killing or capturing the entire lot after a rattling fight. The survivors were promptly hanged as a suggestion of the insalubrity of the New England climate to gentlemen of their profession. The hint was not lost upon the unhanged residue, and it was not until eighteen years later that the exploit of the notorious Capt. Low in Marblehead harbor, indicated that these lively sea-rovers must have learned of the demise of the belligerent Salem justice, and had good hope of the immunity that they actually enjoyed on that occasion.

During the interval of comparative repose that ensued for Salem and vicinity, in common with the rest of the colony, between King William's and Queen Anne's War, there is nothing to record. But this afforded but a brief breathing-space, and soon the border towns were again suffering from Indian attacks, and the Colonists involved in expensive and abortive expeditions in the effort to conquer Canada, so much desired by England. The pressure of danger was not severely felt in Salem just now, since we find the town indulging in a rather acidulous controversy in 1706 with the Governor, as to whether Fort Anne, in Salem should be repaired by the town or the Province.

tains John Gardner and Walter Price and a Salem contingent, join with other troops in pursuit of a party of French and Indians that had threaded the wilderness in one of their numerous raids and suddenly appeared near the northern towns. A sharp action, in which the enemy were discomfited and driven off, and John Gyles, of Salem, lost an arm, with a few others killed and wounded, was the net result.

There is little to record in the next few years of a military character that concerns Salem. Although until the peace of Utrecht, in 1711, there was constant warfare on the border.

In 1714 the town petition the General Court - having evidently had enough of the Governor in this matter - to repair and garrison Fort Anne. We are not told the result.

The peace of New England began to be again disturbed in 1720 by French intrigues among the Eastern Indians whose depredations on the border recommence, although it is uncertain as to what part Salem took in the Norridgewock episode and other border afiairs that succeeded.

Soon after the opening of the French War, in 1745, we read that Capts. Grant, King, White and Covell, all of Salem, embarked with the troops bound for Cape Breton and the siege of Louisbourgh. Capt. George Curwen also took part in that brilliant and successful campaign, for an extract from a letter from him to his wife says "young Gray (of Salem) is killed, June 2d, in the attack upon a battery, and three more of Grant's men missing." The officers mentioned were doubtless in command of men from Salem and vicinity.

In the spring of 1746, a French fleet being reported off the coast with an army, preparing for an attack upon Boston, the Salem companies march to its protection. Perhaps this circumstance may have come to the knowledge of the French commander ; at any rate the force made no landing: as a matter of fact it never got very near Boston, if it were, as is probable, the one commanded by the Duke D'Anville.

In 1755 the final war between the French and English on this continent was formally opened, so to speak, although, as usual, the Indians instigated by French officers and jiriests, had precipitated actual hostilities for a year or more before, and in the early part of the spring of this year Salem sends twenty-eight men, her quota of reinforcements to Col. Johnson's army operating towards Crown Point. To refresh the spirits of these men before their deimrture, the Rev. Mr. Clarke preaches them a sermon entitled, "a word in season to soldiers." We trust that in their conduct at the ensuing battle of Lake George, the good effects of Mr. Clarke's exhortations were made manifest. Captain Samuel Flint on September 25th (1755) marches with his company to join the same army.

General Court for the scalps of any Indians of all ages and both sexes, and a fast is ordered in Salem to I^ray for victory over the French and Indians.

In the spring of the following year (1757) a force of eighteen hundred men was drafted in Massachusetts, and under command of Col. Joseph Frye, of Andover, marched to reinforce the garrison of Forts Edward and William Henry. Captains Goodhue, Plaisted, Clarke and Pickman, of Salem, commanded companies in this force. Other Salem officers may have been with it, and some, at least, of the men in these companies were volunteers from Salem. King George promised £10 to every man who should enlist this year, and in the case of these men he failed to pay up. The old gentleman doubtless having considerable paper maturing about that time, may have been a little lehort. At any rate they got no money out of him, and a number of loyal citizens of Salem made it up to them by private subscription. The names of the men receiving this bounty were, -

The record gives none of the names of the men in Capt. Pickman's company, who received this money, although it indicates that there were some. It will be remembered that Lord Loudon, this year, withdrew a large part of his army from the Champlain country and elsewhere for his abortive attempt upon Louisbourgh, which by the peace of Aix la Chapelle had been returned to the French. The astute Montcalm saw his opportunity and reckoning, with reason, upon the probability of Loudon's failure in the east, marched straight south with a strong army of French troops and Indians, and suddenly appeared before Fort William Henry. In the short siege of the place, followed by its surrender and the subsequent shocking Indian massacre, Richard Butraan, Daniel Robertson and possibly others of Salem were killed, while six Salem men were captured and carried to Canada. These things had a depres,:iing influence upon Salem, and another fast was ordered.

In 1758 General Abercrombie's bloody repulse before Ticonderoga was hardly calculated to raise the spirits of the people, but there was hardly time to have a fast ordered in Salem, before the very different news of General Amherst's recapture of Louisbourgh that followed almost immediately after would seem to have obviated the necessity for it.

Whether any Salem men were with Abercrombie cannot be stated with certainty, but as his force contained over nine thousand provincial troops there can be little doubt of it ; some also were presumably serving under Amherst.

There is extant a journal of one Gibson Clough, of Salem, a i^rivate of Captain Giddings' company, in the Fourteenth Provincial Regiment, that under Colonel Jonathan Bagley, was sent to reinforce the garrison of Louisbourgh after its capture.

Captain Giddings and a considerable portion of his company were evidently from Salem as well as Clough, whose running account of his experiences gives a fair idea of the life of the New England soldier of that day. Some of his comments are rather amusing. Speaking of certain disciplinary jsroceedings he remarks that "there is no spair of whip here ; " and further on in an apparent fit of disgust with the service, he says, " if we get clear this year, I think we shall be unwise if we come here again to serve our King and country.''

As the severe weather of a Cape Breton October approaches, Mr. Clough observed that they would soon stand in need of winter clothing and good liquors . ..." for to keep up our spirits ;"...." But," he dryly adds, '' we are not likely to get liquors or cloathes I "... . He describes, in his odd manner, the dismantling of the fortifications of Louisbourgh and the daily incidents of garrison and outpost duty ; tells of the news of the taking of Quebec by General Wolfe and of the subsequent operations of General Amherst against Montreal and the French lake forts, all of which is filtered through the usual camp rumors and gossip. For the most part our friend writes in very low spirits, until his final description of his return home with Amos Hilton, Jonathan Buxton, Robert Picket and Daniel Butman, of Salem, and other comrades whom he does not name, which is marked, to use his own words, by " great joy and content."

At the capture of Quebec Captain John Tapley, of Salem, took part, with no doubt other Salem men, although it is probable that a larger number of them were serving with General Amherst's army, that failed to reach Quebec in time to co-operate with Wolfe, but performed signal services the following year in the reduction of Montreal and the remaining French posts that finally ended the dominion of that people on this continent.

Lemuel Woods, a soldier in this army, believed to be from Salem, wrote a fragmentary journal that has been preserved. No doubt his soldierly qualities were superior to his scholarship ; for his style, even for a diary, must be regarded, in whatever light we view it, as very slovenly. He speaks of Lieutenant Granger and Ensign Peabody having obtained permission to look at the works of Fort Ticonderoga after its surrender, naively adding, .... "I accidentally went with them and viewed the fort," etc. (we decline the reproduction of his spelling). When the journal, in describing the accidental death of a man of his regiment, says, .... "a heavy stick slipped and stove him all to mash, and they brought him over and buried him," .... we must admit a conciseness of expression that in a measure redeems Mr. Woods' manuscript ; but when, in another place he speaks of the camp being .... "all in a combustion a raging things up for a sudden push when called for," ... .it seems hardly worth while to quote more although the diary is of much interest as illustrating the life of a soldier of the time in active service.

The French wars were now ended. The people of the colonies while impoverished by the aid rendered the mother-countrj'', had nevertheless learned their strength ; and the presence among them of a large body of trained soldiers, just returned from efficient service in the field where they had often proved themselves fully the equals of the British regulars, did not tend to make them tolerant of any tyrannical measures of the Crown. So for the next fifteen years the people of Salem, in common with their neighbors, were warming up in their quarrel with the mother-country.

The General Court meeting in Salem in 1774, Governor Gage brought down two regiments as a display of force that should overawe the court and the people. But upon his return to Boston the troops were withdrawn, fortunately without any collision with the exasperated people.

It was in Salem that the Revolution really began, when the General Court, the same year, formed itself into a Provincial Congress, and subsequently, after adjourning to Concord, appointed officers independently of the crown and proceeded to procure arms and ammunition. Here also occurred the first actual collision with the British troops, which, though without bloodshed, resulted in their retirement without the accomplishment of their purpose.

For on Sunday morning, February 26, 1775, Colonel Leslie in command of a battalion of infantry, sailed around from Boston and debarking at Marblehead, marched rapidly to Salem, with the purpose of seizing some cannon and munitions collected and stored at a point across the North River. A draw bridge that was there had been raised by the people, who shrewdly guessed their unlawful object. In endeavoring to push across in batteaux moored near by, some resistance was made by the crowd, and one man received a slight flesh wound from a soldier's bayonet. The number of people increased, and some prominent citizens warning Colonel Leslie that with the present temj^er of the peojjle he would never take his command back alive if he persisted or fired upon them, he said that if, as it was a matter that concerned his honor.

they would permit him to pass the bridge, he would immediately withdraw. This was agreed to, and the bridge being lowered, he led his men across and at once countermarching, returned to Marblehead and re-embarked for Boston. This bloodless expedition was the first military movement made by the English in the Revolutionary War. On April 18th, Colonel Pickering, with three hundred men from Salem, marched in pursuit of the British troops retreating from Lexington, but failed to come up with them. Captain Hiller commanded one of his companies. Some others from Salem were in the engagement, however, and Benjamin Pierce was killed at Lexington village.

Just previous to the Lexington affair Salem had been getting in order for the coming war. A general muster was held March 14th, of all persons liable to military duty in the town armed and equipped. The new pine tree flag was raised, perhaps for the first time, on this occasion.

The Provincial Congress had recommended the tactics and manual of 1764 (probably English) for the provincial troops, but very shortly after, the system prepared by Colonel Timothy Pickering, of Salem, was, it appears, adopted.

No compromise seemed possible after Lexington. Men arranged their affairs and joined the army, now gathering near Boston. A lady writing from Salem, June 10, 1775, says : " The men are listing very fast ; 3 or 400 are gone from here." Many of those who were able to do so, now sent their families back into the country, to Nantucket and other inaccessible places, believing Salem to be too near the scene of hostilities for safety.

lu the historic engagement of Bunker Hill that naturally followed the prompt erection of works commanding Boston, a few Salem men took part, and Lieutenant Benjamin West, of Salem, a gallant young officer, was killed at the breastworks. As has been stated, many Salem men now joined the fighting force as minute-men, militia or Continentals, Colonel Timothy Pickering, who seems to have had a genius for military matters, made " a plan of exercise " or tactics, already spoken of, that the Congress ordered to be used by officers of the Massachusetts Militia. He was, in 1776, appointed quartermastergeneral of the army, and served as such and as adjutant-general, with distinction throughout the war. In an interesting diary of one Lieutenant Craft, from Manchester, kept while serving with the army in the environs of Boston, are many allusions to officers, whose names indicate that they may have been from Salem. His regiment, at any rate, was raised in lower Essex County, and doubtless largely in Salem, and Colonel William Mansfield, who commanded it, was a Salem man. The pay of the army was not excessive at this time, captains receiving six pounds per month, and lieutenants four and three pounds; sergeants forty-eight shillings, and privates forty

The same year (1776) Fort Lee was built to command Salem harbor, and a company of men, under Captain John Symonds and Lieutenant Benjamin Ropes, Jr., stationed as its garrison. In 1777 fortyfour men were raised in Salem as her quota for the army, presumably under a Captain Greenwood, for we read that he marched from Salem on public service with his company, on November 11th, 1777. Fifty-four men additional were also drafted to act as guards for Burgoyne's surrendered army, under Captain Simeon Brown. Another company, under Captain Benjamin Ward, also marched to join the army at New York December 17, 1777, This was doing pretty well for a little town in one year, and in 1778 we find the town still promoting enlistments by voting bounties to the men who should volunteer for the army. This would indicate that even in that day of intense patriotism, it was necessary to use extraordinary means to induce men to be steadily food for powder, while they might be quite ready to dodge about as minute-men for a few days' fun.

In July of this year Captain Samuel Flagg commanded a small company raised for special service in Rhode Island. Captain Flagg's lieutenants were Miles Greenwood and Robert Foster. Major Hiller, of Salem, also had a command in this expedition, which, under General Sullivan, attempted, with the co-operation of the French fleet under the Count D'Estaing, to wrest Rhode Island from the English, who held it under Sir Robert Pigot. Owing to the failure of the French fleet to render the promised assistance, the objects of the expedition were not attained. Considerable mention is made of the services of the Salem company in the accounts of this campaign.

The same year the town had to proceed with the additional task of raising forty-two men for the Continental army, and some others for some special short enlistment not particularly described.

In 1779 a committee are appointed in Salem to raise thirteen more men for the Rhode Island service and twenty-eight for the Continental army, in which they no doubt had difficulty ; for it is stated that in October large additional pecuniary inducements, in addition to Continental and State pay, were voted to recruits to serve three months in the army. On December 11th Captain Addison Richardson marched with his company to join the army.

Early in 1780 the town voted a very large sum for those days, to devote to the raising of sixty-two men to serve for six months in the army.

These records bear continual testimony to the baneful practice so prevalent in that war of enlisting men for short terms of service. It was a constant cause of complaint by the officers of the Continental Army, and did much to destroy its efficiency.

Major Samuel King, of Salem, an aide to General De Kalb, was killed in action this year in South Carolina, and Captain Nathan Goodale, of Salem, is also reported as made prisoner by the enemy.

A letter dated in camp near West Point, on the Hudson, February 12, 1782, to Joshua Ward, from a Salem soldier of the Continental Army, whose signature does not appear, asks to have sent him certain articles on credit, and speaks of the hardships endured by the army without supplies or money. Captain Flint, killed this year in the first day's battle at Saratoga, is believed to have been from Salem. Mention should be made of Colonel Samuel Carleton, of the Continental line, who was from Salem, and who so distinguished himself that Washington declared him to be one of the most intrepid officers who served under him.

Of the special part taken by Salem and her soldiers in the succeeding years of this war, there is too little trace. There is evidence, however, that her record in point of numbers and service was quite up to the average, though it is to be regretted that so little can be written of the gallant deeds of her officers and men in an army where all were so brave and steadfast, and that, though in the appendix a list is given of the names of those who served from Salem, there is some doubt as to its accuracy, and it tells nothing of the actions in which those men took part, or of the character of their service.

But in the record given of the part borne by Salem and her citizens in our revolutionary armies, though, it were much more complete, but a small part of her services to the country can be fully comprehended. Long before the colonies took the first decisive action that resulted in their independence, Salem had been steadily increasing her commerce, and in 1775 she had become an important port of entry, her merchants were becoming wealthy and a large part of her people followed the sea. Very soon after the war broke out, it became evident that a navy was almost as necessary to our success as an army. Congress fitted out a few armed vessels, but the resources of the young nation were inadequate to equip any sufficient number to cope with the powerful navy of Great Britain, or even to be of much use in the destruction of her commerce.

Here, then, was the opportunity of Salem, with her ships lying idle at her wharves in fear of English cruisers, and her fine seamen idling about her streets. Procuring commissions for private armed ci-uisers and letters of marque and reprisal for her trading ships, she fitted out her ablest and swiftest vessels with heavy guns and iDowerful crews well officered, and sent them over the sea in quest of the enemy's merchantmen. Nor did they neglect her smaller men-of-war, but, as eager for glory as plunder, promptly attacked any armed ship whose weight of metal was not absurdly disproportionate to their own, and in the majority of cases with success ; while her trading vessels made their voyages well armed, and with double complement of men, and showed their teeth when interfered with or when falling in with a vessel whose chances of capture were sufficiently good to justify the risk to their owners. Our privateer navy was intensely active and successful, and played an important part in that contest, severely crippling the enemy's merchant marine and keeping her navy busy in every part of the world to protect it.

It is impossible to give more than a glance at the exploits of the gallant officers and men who ranged the seas in the Salem privateers, sending in a rich return of captured vessels to their owners.

And it is not to be understood that in the capture of these merchantmen no fighting was involved. Many of the English trading vessels were letters of marque, and nearly all carried guns and had strong crews well armed, and, defending themselves with true English courage, they were often only taken after a severe struggle. The actions between our privateers and British men-of-war or privateers were of the most sanguinary description, and were only finally determined by boarding and a hand-to-hand fight on the deck of one or the other of the vessels.

The Salem privateers and letters of marque formed a large part of those sailing from American joorts during that war, and, indeed, the principal business of the town became that of privateering, the results of which laid the foundation of many fortunes that are but now being dissipated.

Some of the regulations governing the crews of Salem privateers in the Revolution were curious. The owners of the vessel, after deducting outfit and expenses, took one-half of the value of the prizes, and the officers and crew the other half, divided in certain proportions according to rank. A prize of $500 was given to the man first sighting a sail, and $1000 and best firelock to the first man to board the enemy. For the loss of a leg or arm in action $4000 was paid as compensation, $2000 for an eye and $1000 for a joint. If one of the crew were detected in thieving, he suffered the loss of all prize money, which, to judge by the liberal schedule above given, must have been in some cases a severe penalty.

As illustrating the work of these gallant little vessels, it is related that the ship "General Pickering," sixteen guns. Captain Jonathan Harraden commanding, on May 20, 1780, engaged and whipped an English man-of-war of twenty guns; on June 1st fought and took a schooner of fourteen guns and fifty-seven men, and on the 4th boldly luffed up and sustained the attack of the " Arguilles," thirty-four-gun frigate, and though quite unable to take a vessel of such size, beat her off after an engagement of nearly two hours. The " Julius Caesar," of Salem, a small schooner, the same year, simultaneously engaged two vessels, both of heavier metal than herself, and made it so warm for them that they were glad to make sail and leave their plucky little antagonist in possession of the field.

In June, 1782, it took a British sloop-of-war four hours to capture the little privateer "Jack," of Salem, and she did not strike until her captain, David Ropes, and more than half her crew were killed or wounded.

The "Jack" was a small ship that had the peculiarity of having a mizzen mast that could be taken down at sea and as easily put up again. By this expedient she constantly deceived the enemy and escaped capture, appearing alternately as a ship and a brig.

Captain Perkins, of Salem, commanding a small privateer, had on one occasion manned two prizes, and was making the best of his way home with only four men left before the mast, when an English privateer quickly hove in sight. Instead of running away, he immediately made all sail for her, and she, not liking his apparent readiness for a fight, wore around and sailed away. A rather amusing incident occurred to the jirivateer Oliver Cromwell, Captain James Barr, when cruising in the West Indies in 1779. Sighting a vessel with low top-masts and apparently no guns in a fog off the coast of Cuba, one morning, she supposed it to be a large merchantman and was ranging up alongside, when in a trice up went a string of painted canvass that covered her ports, and the " Oliver Cromwell " narrowly escaped being blown out of water by the discharge of a frigate's full broadside. She was much crippled, but managed to get away in the fog and light breeze.

The letter of Marque "Ranger" twenty men, when anchored in the Potomac, the night of July 5, 1782, was attacked by sixty tories in boats. The captain, Lucum, was shot at the first volley and Joseph Peabody, of Salem, second ofiicer, springing to the deck in his night clothes, drove the enemy off by the clever expedient of directing the crew to drop cold shot into the boats. One was sunk and the others pulled away.

Many more incidents of this character might be given did space permit ; suffice it to say that these are but a sample of the adventures of the Salem fighting marine during these years.

It would be interesting reading could we follow the adventures of Captain John Leach, who commanded at diff'erent times the privateers " Brutus," " Franklin," " Eagle," " Dolphin " and " Greyhound ; " Capt. Nathan Brown the first commander of the "Jack" and also of the ship "Hunter;" Capt. Joseph Robinson, who commanded the ship " Pilgrim " and also the " Franklin ; " Capt. Sam'l Masury of the schooner " Panther ; " Capt. John Donaldson, who sailed the brig " Cai^tain ; " Capt. John Mason of the brig " Lion ; " Captain Jacob Wilds, who sailed in the privateers " Greyhound," " Hawk " and " General Greene ; " Capt. William Patterson, who commanded the ship " Disdain " and brig " Favorite ; " Capt. Benj. Dean of the strong sloop "Revenge;" Capt. Benj. Moses, another commander of the ship " Oliver Cromwell ; " Captain Anthony Diver, a former officer of the English Navy, who was a lieutenant on several vessels, and later ably commanded the privateers "Civil Usage" and "Sturdy Beggar;" Capt. Ebenezer Pierce of the schooner " Liberty ; " Capt. John Gavett of the brig "Flying Fish;" Capt. John Brooks, also a commander of the " Junius Brutus; " Capt. Edward Rolland, also of the brig " Sturdy Beggar;" Capt. William Carleton, who sailed the heavily armed and manned sloop " Blacksnake ; " Capt. Benj. Hammond of the schooner '"Greyhound;" Capt. Charles Hamilton commanding the ship " Jason ; " Capt. John Fearson of the ship " William ; " Capt. Thomas Benson who had the schooner "Dolphin," and later the ship " Hendrick ;" when he was captured in the latter in 1782, a petition to the General Court asked that an exchange be arranged forthwith for Capt. Benson, his services being so valuable to the country. There were also Captains John Revell, Forrester, Mascoll (killed while boarding an enemy's ship in 1777), McDaniel, Daniel Ropes, John Buffinton, John Carnes, John Turner, Samuel Tucker, Joseph Lynde, Pratt, Briggs, Cook, Baker, Brookhouse, Gray, Neheniiah Buffinton, Dunn, James Cheever, Neili, John Felt, Ingersoll, Crowell, Baldwin and many others, all Salem men, commanding Salem ships with good Salem officers and crews, and handling them with great seamanship and bravery. It is impossible to give a list of the other officers and crews of the vessels sailing as privateers from Salem during the Revolution. Their aggregate would be little, if any, under five thousand men, first and last, and would comprise a large majority of the ablebodied men of the town who did not join the army. They were largely sea-faring in their training, and took to this rough and tumble naval experience as naturally as ducks to water.

A fairly accurate register of the privateers of Salem in this war, will be found in the appendix; and the following copy of the commission of a Salem privateer commander in the Revolution may be of interest:

"The Delegates of the United States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhoilo Islaml, Connecticut, Now York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. To all unto whom these presents shall corae, send gieeting - know ye, that we have granted and by these presents do grant license and authority to Samuel Cruel Mariner, Commander of the Schooner called the 'Greyhound' of the Imrthen of forty tons or thereabouts, belonging and others - mounting sis carriage guns and navigated by eleven men, to fit out and set forth the said schooner in a warlike manner, and by and with the said schooner and the crew thereof, by Force of Arms to attack, subdue and take all ships and other vessels whatsoever carrying Soldiers, Arms, Gunpowder, Ammunition, Provisions, or any other Contraband Goods to any of the British Armies or ships of war employed against these United States. And also to attack, seize and take all ships or other vessels belonging to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, or to any subject or subjects thereof, with their Tackle, Apparel, Furniture and Ladings on the High Seas or between high and low water marks (the ships or vessels, together with their cargoes belonging to any Inhabitant or Inhabitants of Bermuda, Providence and the Bahama Islands, such other ships and vessels bringing Persons with intent to settle and reside within any of the United States, or bringing Arms, ammunition or warlike stores to the said States for the use thereof, which said ships or vessels you shall suffer to pass unmolested.

tlie commanders thereof permitting a peaceable search and giving satisfactory information of the contents and lading and destination of the voyages, only excepted). And the said ships or vessels so apprehended as aforesaid and as prizes taken, to carry into any Port or Harbor within the dominions of any neutral State willing to admit the same, or into any Port within the said United States in order that the Courts there instituted to hear and determine Causes Civil and Maritime, may l)roceed in due form to Condemn the said captures, if they be adjudged lawful prizes, or otherwise according to the usage in such cases at the port or in the State where the same shall be carried. The said Samuel Oroel having given Bond with sufficient sureties that nothing be done by the said commander of schooner or any of his officers, Marines, or company thereof contrary to or inconsistent with the usage and Customs of Nations, and that he shall not exceed or transgress the Powers and Authorities contained in this Commission. And we will and require all our officers wliatsoever iu the Service of the United States to give succor and assistance to the said Samuel Croel in the Premises. This commission shall continue in force until the Congress shall issue orders to the contrary. Dated at Boston, 14th day of October, 1779, and in the 4th year of the Independence of the United States of America.

After tlie Revolution the new nation being nominally at peace with other countries, there is nothing to record until the War of 1812, though Salem shipping, which had vastly increased in value since the independence of the country had been established, suffered considerably from the depredations of the French navy, which, had we been a little stronger, were a quite sufficient casus belli.

Subsequently, that government frankly recognizing their fault in this matter, paid over a large amount to the United States as an indemnity fund for the shipowners who had suffered loss. Our government, with a calm dishonesty for which an individual would have been promptly punished, put the money in its coffers, and no part of it has, up to date, been paid to those to wdiom it properly belonged. As it is difficult to get a government indicted and put into States prison, or even to force it to file an answer in a civil proceeding, the unhappy people who were swindled in this matter were obliged to die without getting their money, and their heirs have since hung around the steps of the capitol at Washington or caught the members of Congress in the lobbies iu the hitherto vain attempt to recover their own.

A little later, when the Barbary corsairs began to pick up our merchantmen, with some Salem vessels among them, we felt that if we could not make it convenient to quarrel with France, we did not propose to have Algiers or Tripoli tread upon us, and promptly whipped those people into the belief that we were something of a naval power, after all.

What part was taken by such Salem men as were serving in the United States navy, in that quite creditable little war, we cannot say, but it was doubtless, as usual, efficient and valuable.

In 1798, it being obvious that the United States needed a navy, and the government having no facilities for ship-building, a request was made that the citizens of certain maritime localities loan funds to aid in the equipment of the navy. In Salem a large sum was subscribed, and the frigate " Essex," afterward to become a very famous vessel, was built by Salem ship-builders on Winter Island, rigged and turned over to the government. It was a patriotic task for a little town of nine thousand inhabitants to undertake. The " Essex " proved a very fast sailer, and had a noted career.

The following are the names of the subscribers to this loan, on which the government paid only six per cent, while borrowing other moneys at eight percent., a fact well known to these gentlemen :

During the years that preceded the War of 1812, the Salem merchantmen in common with others lost men by the high-handed impressments of the British men of war, that exercised a pretended right to take from the ship of any nation met on the high seas, such seamen as their officers chose to consider English subjects; and as they were in need of sailors they were by no means nice in drawing distinctions. Therefore, while opposed on general principles to the embargo and subsequent declaration of war against England, these unwarrantable acts had left sufficient sting in the minds of the Salem merchants and seamen to render them very ready to again sweep the seas with their privateers to the serious detriment of the British merchant marine. Again it may be said, without much exaggeration, that from commerce this became the principal business of Salem, and if it were possible to give a list of the men who at some time during this war, served on her privateers and letters of marque, it would give a very fair idea of the seafaring portion of the town's population.

In writing of the exploits of the privateers of Salem in this war, it is difficult to know how to begin and where to end. For three years forty vessels, practically men of war, cruised from this port heavily armed, and officered, and manned by as skillful and brave navigators and seamen as were then afloat. And this does not include over one hundred letter of marque trading vessels, that kept the sea and did some fighting as well as trading. Of these, as their warlike character was merely incidental, we shall be unable to make more than this passing mention.

With regard to the privateers, the records of the time are more or less imperfect : some of the deeds performed by them are recounted while others are unnoticed, and the history of their actions and captures is imperfect and unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, it is impossible to turn this remarkable page in the history of the town without glancing at the careers of a few of these notable vessels, and recalling some of the incidents of their warfare.

The daring with which these fine vessels were fought and the brilliant seamanship that so fully utilized their admirable sailing qualities, were the wonder and exasperation of the English navy, and caused British merchants many hours of painful reflection.

These qualities of vessel and crew were never better illustrated than in the ship " America," twenty guns, and carrying a crew of one hundred and fifty men, more or less. She was owned by George Crowninshield, and was the largest privateer sailing from this port. Admirably commanded by Captains Joseph Ropes, John Kehew and John W. Cheever at different times, she was considered by some to be the fastest vessel afloat during that war. Her success in capturing prizes was phenomenal, and the amount realized by her owner was very large; her captures up to March, 1814, were estimated at the value of $1,100,000. Unlike the greater number of privateers, she escaped capture by the enemy, and may be said to have died peacefully in her bed, long subsequent to the war.

A smaller full-rigged ship, called the " Alfred," sixteen guns and one hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty men, was an effective cruiser. She was built in Salem in 1805, and at her launch the rudder, which, against the remonstrance of the builder, was already hung, struck the bottom and was thrown out, falling immediately across the stern-post and stopping the vessel, so that she lay aground one tide. When floated she was found to be badly "hogged." She was brought to the wharf and large blocks of wood placed under her stern-post and forefoot, and he>- weight brought upon the extremities, which caused her to settle in the centre and resume her original lines. She was never apparently the w'orse for this severe test of her elasticity, but proved a good ship and fast sailer. When fitted as a privateer she sailed less well than previously and was altered into a brig. She seemed under both rigs to have had bad luck with her spars in heavy weather. As a brig she was probably over-sparred, but that had not been the case when ship-rigged. She was well commanded by Captains Stephen Williams and Philip Bessom, under both of whom, if the vessel lost a few sticks, she never failed to send in prizes enough to fully atone for this one foible. Two of her prizes alone sold for one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. She was ultimately captured in February, 1814.

The ship "' Alexander," eightef^n guns and about one hundred and forty men, was commanded on her first cruise by Captain Well man, and gave promise of a successful career, which was lully borne out by her performances on the next cruise under Captain Benjamin Crowninshield, when, with the greater part of her crew away in seven prizes just previously taken, she was, on May 19, 1813, crowded on shore in Wells' bay by two English men-of-war, and captured. So closely was she pressed by the enemy that only twenty men of her crew succeeded in reaching the shore and escaping.

The other full-rigged privateer sailing from Salem, the ship "John," sixteen guns and a strong crew of one hundred and sixty or more men, was commanded by Captains Fairfield and Crowninshield (who afterwards commanded the Alexander), and after a short season of great usefulness, in which she picked up some twenty English merchantmen, more or less, was in her turn picked up by an English frigate in February, 1813, and Salem saw her no more.

Of the privateer brigs of Salem, perhaps the most profitable and fortunate was the "Grand Turk." She was large for the time, carried eighteen guns and one hundred and fifty men, and became noted for her good qualities as a sailer and her audacity and uniform good fortune. At one time, in 1813, under one of her two gallant commanders. Captain Breed or Greene, she stood off' and on at the mouth of the English channel for twenty days, capturing a number of vessels almost in sight of their home ports; finally eluding all pursuit and making off in safety. She was never captured.

The smaller brig, "Montgomery," twelve guns, commanded in turn by Captains Holton J. Breed (who was also in the " Grand Turk"), Joseph Strout (who had been a naval officer), and Benjamin Upton, was almost as fortunate a vessel as the "Grand Turk."

She made many prizes and distinguished herself by some hard fighting. On one occasion she had a desperate action with a large, heavily-armed ship, which she captured after losing many men, her then captain, Upton, being severely wounded. At another time, falling in with a British tronp ship, near Surinam, full of soldiers and carrying eighteen guns, a man-of-war to all intents and purposes, she attacked without hesitation, and after two hours' hot work, drew off for repairs, intending to "resume business at the old stand," as it were, as soon as she could splice up some of her rigging and plug two or three troublesome shotholes. But the Englishman had had quite enough of her, and crowding all sail made good her escape. After a very successful series of cruises, the " Montgomery " was ultimately obliged to succumb to superior force, but it took the British line-of-battle ship, " La Hogue,'' seventy-four guns, to bring her to terms. The "fore and aft " rig seems to have commended itself to those engaged in privateering, doubtless from the fact that by pointing higher, a schooner could more easily work to windward of a large merchantman, while, in case of pursuit by a man-of-war, she could go off dead before the wind, still holding one of her best points of sailing. At all events, the greater number of our privateers in this war, from all ports, were top-sail schooners, twenty-three of this class sailing from Salem. These vessels were, some of them of fair size for the time, others very small, but nearly all were good sailers and were always well handled. They carried but few guns, but one of these was usually a large one, and their strong crews of daring seamen, eager for the chance of boarding, rendered them exceedingly formidable to everything they met, short of an enemy's frigate. They chased, fought and ran away, as the occasion required, with equal bravery and address. Most of them met their fate sooner or later, but this resulted usually from their own temerity, and not before the English had paid for them many times over, in their prizes taken.

Room can be given to the notice of but few of these gallant little vessels, though a book might well be filled with the record of their exploits. There was a little pink-sterned fishing schooner changed into a privateer, called the " Fame," of only thirty tons, and carrying two six-pounders, that had wonderful luck and was never captured, though finally lost in a storm. She sailed fast, and her excellent reputation did not seem to suffer under any of her numerous commanders, for she changed them, apparently, at almost every cruise; being commanded successively by Captains Webb, Upton, Poland, Greene, Chapman, Endicott, Brookhouse and Evans.

The "Frolic," a much larger schooner, carrying one twenty-four pounder and a smaller gun and commanded by Captains Green and Odiorne, proved a very lively vessel in more senses than one, sweeping the sea like a broom during her short life, though her captures were not of great value. She was built on

Salem Neck, and was very fast, but had the peculiarity of being unduly sharp aft; so much so, indeed, thatshe was unseaworthy, and on her second cruise, being taken aback in a slight squall, ran stern under as far as the main hatch, and was only saved from swamping by great exertions. So little did her crew enjoy this particular phase of her frolicsomeness, that they came aft in a body and offered the captain to give up all advances if he would abandon the cruise. The British man-of-war " Heron," happening around about this time, saved the officers from any embarrassment on this score by capturing and burning the vessel, in spite of her desperate endeavors to escape through a long stern chase.

Dr. Benjamin F. Browne, well remembered by our citizens, was taken on board of the " Frolic," and many are familiar with his experiences in Dartmoor prison, where he and his shipmates were confined until the peace. He narrowly escaped being shot in the savage suppression of restlessness among the prisoners, by Colonel Shortland, commanding the guard. Dr. Browne, in those days, of course, a mere boy, took also a short cruise on the ship " Alfred," already spoken of.

The " Dolphin " was a still larger schooner, carrying more men, though less weight of metal, than the "Frolic." She was built in Baltimore, before the war, and altered to a privateer, and under Captain Jacob Endicott, made, perhaps, as good a record as any privateer schooner sailing from Salem in proportion to the time of her service ; for she was captured in September, 1812. A single vessel and cargo taken by her brought the large sum of sixty thousand dollars. A lady passenger, on one of the prizes taken by the " Dolphin," in a published letter, bore pleasant testimony to the politeness of Captain Endicott, who caused her to be landed at the port most convenient to her destination and scrupulously secured to her all her money and baggage. Judging from the batteries carried by some of the ships taken by the " Dolphin," she must have done considerable fighting, first and last.

The vicissitudes sometimes attending the career of a privateer were well illustrated by the "John " and " George," a fine American-built schooner, captured early in the war by an English man-of-war, and for some reason turned adrift. She was found off Cape Sable by the American privateer " Regulator," August 13, 1812, and sent in to Salem, where, being found to be fast, she was turned into a privateer. She made one short cruise under Capt. Sinclair, in which she was successful. Her name was then altered to the "Revenger," though it would seem as if the name she already bore had given her sufficiently good luck. Certainly the new one brought her none, for she was captured on her very next cruise. The Englishmen who bought her continued her as a privateer, again changing her name to the " Retaliation." Subsequently a Portsmouth privateer retook her, but she was lost to Salem, and

The " Dart," a small schooner of but forty tons and two small gnus, commanded successively by Captains Davis, Symonds, Green and Poland, under each of whom she was admirably handled, was a profitable little vessel. She sailed well and took some valuable prizes. One in particular, a large armed merchantman, heavily manned and carrying six guns, she gallantly took after a most determined resistance. She was never captured, though, as if the elements conspired with the enemy against these plucky little vessels, both she and the " Fame " already spoken of, were wrecked in the Bay of Fundy.

The "Fair-Trader," another little schooner, of the same tonnage as the " Dart," seems to have been a good cruiser, and under her Captain John R. Morgan took a number of prizes before her capture in September, 1812.

The largest privateer schooners that sailed from Salem during the war were the " Diomede," commanded by Captain J. Crowninshield ; the " Enterprise," Captain Morgan; and the "Growler," Captains Graves and Lindsay. They were all built for this purpose on the " Baltimore Clipper" model, and were all ultimately captured by the enemy after a more or less fortunate service. The " Diomede " was a very fast sailer. On one short cruise of a few weeks she sent in six vessels, and among others of her captures was one large ship carrying sixteen guns; while among the "Growler's" captures, one vessel and cargo are mentioned as valued at one hundred thousand dollars.

Four sloops figured as privateers from Salem in this war, of which the little " Jefferson " was very successful considering her size, which was that of a mere pleasure boat, for which purpose, indeed, she was originally built in Salem. She carried one gun and twenty men, and managed to escape capture.

The sloop "Wasp," rather larger, was also built in Salem, carried two six pounders and twenty-five men. Upon her first cruise after making some captures, she was herself taken, but in a manner that reflected honor upon her captain and crew. Attacked by the British schooner-of-war " Bream," of ten guns, she only surrendered, after a close fight of half an hour, and a running fight of nearly nine hours, most of the time at musket range, during which Captain Ervin in vain tested the fine sailing qualities of his little vessel to the utmost, in the effort to escape. So great was the gallantry displayed in the defence of the " Wasp," that Captain Ervin and his crew were treated with the greatest consideration by their generous captors, after the surrender of the sloop, and when walking in the streets of St. John on parole Captain Ervin was pointed out as the Salem captain who defended his vessel with such heroism.

it was ascertained that she sailed better by shortening her mast. She kept the sea as well as vessels of any class, and could go to windward of anything she was after, while no English ship could catch her in the open sea. She was not taken until April, 1814, and then only by being cornered and driven ashore by an English corvette. This, by the way, seems to have been a favorite manoeuvre of the enemy in dealing with our swift and sometimes audacious little privateers. The English man-of-war " Indian," twenty-two guns, had previously tried to come it over the "Polly'' in a different style, and failed most signally ; for both vessels being becalmed off Cape Sable, she sent in her launch and other boats to board her, but the "Polly'' beat them off with such slaughter that it was with difficulty that they could get back to their ship, which made no further effort to molest her antagonist, and made off when a breeze arose. Captains Samuel C. Hardy and Eobert Evans successively handled this wonderful little vessel with great skill, and with her one twelve pounder and eight sixes, and a strong crew of sixty men, she was for nearly two years a most effective sea rover.

A large number of the privateers were captured by the enemy, as will be seen by the list given in the appendix ; but so great was the aggregate value of their prizes that the pecuniary loss to the owners was of little consequence, although many good men of their crews lost their lives or languished long in English prisons.

There were a number of small craft, launches and open boats that ran out on occasion, and made some captures, being, in the hands of desperate men, no mean antagonists. Mention should be made of the schooner " Helen," loaned by the Messrs. White and Knapp, Salem merchants, at their own rick, and fitted out and manned by a volunteer crew of seventy men, gathered by fife and drum in Salem streets, all within the space of about four hours. It appears that news was received Nov. 12, 1812, in Salem, that the " Liverpool Packet," a well-known and very active British privateer, had been seen inside of Halfway Rock, and this sudden expedition was organized for her capture. The Englishmen had sailed for St. John in time to avoid the " Helen," but the incident sufficiently indicates the high spirit of the time and the courage of the men, who, at a moment's notice, were ready to attempt the capture of a strong and wellarmed vessel.

It would seem that many English prisoners came this way, for in '1814, and perhaps previously, the government maintained the prison-ship "Aurora" in the North River, in which many were confined, principally sea-faring men.

During the war, in addition to the ordinary militia and the volunteer companies of the town there was a company of sea-fencibles, so called, organized and composed entirely of masters and mates of merchantmen who were idle, to serve as artillerists or otherwise, as

The venerable William H. Foster, now living, was a member of the cadet company of that day, and was also acting as assistant to the United States provost marshal of the district, in which capacity he took the parole of three English officers, who had been taken in Maine, and reported to be paroled until exchanged. Mr. Foster's youthful appearance, and the easy absence of ceremony in dealing with them, rather astonished the Englishmen, one of whom, a colonel, remarked that it would have taken several British officers to manage such a matter with them, instead of one young boy. Young Foster looked after them that night, and in the morning they were sent to Audover, where, with others, they enjoyed for a time the good air and ample religious and literary privileges of that hill town, if any there were there then. We were economical of men and means in the prosecution of that war.

Mr. Foster also remembers various alarms, musterings and marches hither and thither on various occasions. When the frigate " Constitution " was forced to take refuge in Marblehead harbor from a pursuing squadron of the enemy, the company of fencibles dragged their twenty-four pounders over to the shore of that town to play on the enemy in case they should follow her. The English vessels, not being acquainted with the shore and depth of water, did not venture in, and an attack with boats ujion a formidable frigate was out of the question, of course.

The next day the "Constitution" was brought around to Salem by Joseph Perkins, the harbor pilot, who died but a few years since, and anchored under the guns of the fort. With the crowd of others from Salem and Marblehead who lined the headlands, Mr. Foster a year later shared in the intense excitement and bitter disappointment of witnessing the combat of the ill-fated "Chesapeake" with the "Shannon," in which our ship was taken but a mile or two off shore.

It is to be regretted that a list of those who served in the army during the war of 1812 from Salem cannot be given, as in that existing at the State house the residences of the men are not given. The number was, it is understood, not large, as the war was not over-popular in this neighborhood, and the tastes of a maritime people led them to seek the enemy on their proper element.

It may not be considered out of place to allude to the services of General Miller, who held a command in this war, and who, though not' originally from Salem, was long identified with the town by his residence here. His modest but determined answer to General Scott, at the battle of Lundy's Lane, when asked if he could carry a certain position with his brigade, followed by his gallant and successful attack, will ever live in the memory of his countrymen.

names of the few from Salem who served in the Massachusetts regiment of volunteers, commanded by Col. Caleb Gushing, of Newburyport, are to be found in the appendix. This regiment served in the army commanded by General Scott, and took part in the engagenients that signalized its resistless march from Vera Cruz to Mexico. If any men from this place joined the so-called New England regiment, it has been impossible to obtain their names.

It is proper to speak of some volunteer militia organizations that have been identified with the history of the town; for without a hearty recognition of the long existence of some of them in the face of many difficulties, and of the services they have directly and indirectly been able from time to time to render, no military record of Salem would be complete.

Incidentally, it may be stated that under the system adopted soon after the Eevolution, the entire male population of the State, within certain ages, was enrolled as a militia, and were liable to be called out by the Governor for service within the State upon any emergency. Meanwhile thej^ were required to attend at certain stated times and places for musters or trainings in companies, regiments and brigades of local establishment, under officers chosen and commissioned by the Governor. With the heterogeneous mass of raw material that, under this system, were, within the memory of man, annually formed upon Salem Common, under officers for the most part quite ignorant of the simplest requirements of military duty, it is not necessary to trouble ourselves in an article that assumes to treat of things military. These gatherings served to amuse the people, and the vanity of many excellent citizens was tickled by military titles that often as ill-fitted their characters as their uniforms did their persons.

Here and there in the State, however, from the beginning, there were a few, who, having a real desire to learn the duties of soldiers and to be of some use in case of need, formed themselves into volunteer companies by permission of the State, elected men of military instincts and application as their officers, and in neat uniforms and equipments steadily labored to be as far as possible real and not caricatures of soldiers. They kept alive the germs of the military spirit sown in the different wars, and furnished tactical schools that proved of value when the State or nation required trooj)s for actual service. The superiority of these organizations over the mob of enrolled militia, became ultimately so apparent that Governor Banks, some years before the war, remodeled the entire military establishment of the State upon the volunteer plan that has endured to this day, and furnishes us with two brigades of fairly instructed militia.

Of the original volunteer companies the Salem Light Infantry, the Mechanics' Light Infantry and the Salem Cadets were among the best in the State.

set a select body of men, numbering in its ranks in every period some of the most substantial citizens of the town, and actuated always by a strong esprit du corps that told in its invariable excellence in drill and discipline.

It did some slight service as coast guards during the War of 1812, and at the breaking out of the civil Avar in 1861, went to the front with the Eighth Regiment Massachusetts Militia, and served three months. One incident of this service was its voyage from Annapolis to New York as guard for the old frigate " Constitution,'' which relic of our former naval prowess, the government was determined should not fall into the hands of the enemy. It subsequently served nine months, in 1862-63, as part of the 50th Mass. Militia, in the service of the United States, seeing plenty of warm work in the Department of the Gulf. And in 1864 it again volunteered for another three months' service. Throughout the war the company was constantly sending from its ranks large numbers of men, in the aggregate nearly three times the number it contained in 1861, many of whom held commissions.

The war record of this company is remarkable. Doing much service as an organization, and repeatedly, when at home, filling its ranks and as often depleting them in the manner alluded to, it seemed a never failing conduit for the augmentation of our armies in the field. The company still endures with good numbers as a part of the Eighth Regiment Massachusetts Militia, and is a credit to the city.

Older than the organization just described, by over twenty years, the Second Corps of Cadets, originally formed as a company in 1781, under Captain Stephen Abbott, constantly vied with the other in the high character of its membership and in the maintenance of a good state of drill and efficiency. During the War of 1812 it performed similar duty at intervals, and during the War of the Rebellion did three months' duty in the service of the United States. From its ranks went only less officers and men to the active army than from those of its rival. Organized at present as a small battalion of two companies, it presents a fine appearance when on duty, and is justly regarded as one of the crack military bodies of the State.

The Mechanics' Light Infantry first paraded under Capt. Perley Putnam, July 4, 1807. As its name implied, it was composed originally of young mechanics and was always a most excellent company, as it is to-day, although its numbers are somewhat reduced from what they should be. It went to the front with the Fifth Militia Regiment in April, 1861, for three months; and few companies have ever had fuller ranks than it showed on that occasion.

The Salem City Guard, organized about 1848, was said to be a good company in its prime, though it no longer exists. Certainly its old members may feel that though dead, it is on the field of honor, as it is the only militia company of Salem that enlisted as such for the three years' service in the War of 1861. It died as a militia company, to become a part of the Fortieth Massachusetts Infantry Volunteers, where it saw plenty of service.

The Salem Artillery, a company organized in 1787, and two juvenile organizations formed of boys under eighteen, the Washington Rangers and the Washingington Blues, both first parading about 1807, were short-lived, neither surviving after about 1815.

The three companies of militia above spoken of as now existing in Salem, do not stand merely as relics of the past, like the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston, but are essentially military in character, and to be relied upon for any necessary service. In the case of the Light Infantry and Cadets, the commemoration of their past glories, - their historical department, if it may be so described, - is well cared for by their respective veteran corps, that turn out in large numbers on all anniversaries and other festive occasions with side arms and impressive chapeaus, and in the customary closing exercises of the day, indulge in much jovial reminiscence and display convivial talents of the highest order.

Before considering the part taken by Salem in the war fought for the preservation of the Union, mention should be made of the defensive works that have from time to time been erected within her limits.

The harbor and town of Salem have never been specially well fortified, and a word will dispose of the history of her defences of this nature.

There is some mention of an early structure, probably a block-house, within a stockade that stood on the highest point in the present city limits, which would be that now occupied by the Sewall Street Methodist Church. This work, strengthened from time to time, was no doubt the one alluded to as Fort Anne, and was presumably the main reliance of the place against Indians. Another work of equal antiquity was the Darby Fort, erected in 1629, on the Marblehead Side, probably on Naugus Head, where the jiresent earth work is located.

During the Indian wars, block-houses were erected at various points on the outskirts of the settlement to guard the plantations, and were in times of danger furnished with garrisons, though probably unprovided with cannon.

In 1643 a considerable fort was built on Winter Island, originally styled Fort William, which was maintained at intervals, until the Revolutionary War, when it was strengthened and mounted with a few guns. The land and fort were ceded to the United States in 1794, and in 1799 its name was changed to Fort Pickering ; it has, since that time, been in an alternate condition of grassy dilapidation or neat effectiveness, according as peace or war has prevailed in the land. The work on the hill on the neck to the north of Winter Island, is the successor of a breastwork existing on that spot at a very early day, that has from time to time been restored. In the Revolu-

Away on the point the builders of cottages may have found traces of an old battery that commanded the islands and Beverly harbor during the Eevolution, under the name of Fort Juniper. It has now disappeared, and the yachtsmen and cottagers flirt and make merry, where once the sad-faced patriot sentinel looked out over the bay in the moonlight and wondered at the inscrutable providence that kept him out there in the cold instead of suffering him to slumber in his comfortable bed in the town, but a mile away.

This is no place to discuss the causes that led to the Civil War. The long strain imposed upon our institutions by Negro Slavery, that anomaly in a nation founded upon the theoretical equality and freedom of allmen, was not to be relieved longer by hollow compromises, in which both parties felt defrauded. And yet at the North there prevailed an optimistic feeling of security - a reluctance to believe that their brethren of the South were willing to sever a Union of States baptized with the blood of their fathers, and presenting, with all its defects, such a grand illustration of a successful government by the people for the people_ To the last they hugged the hope that the Southern bluster would evaporate and, in some manner, the differences between the sections be healed.

The sound of the first gun fired upon Fort Sumter awakened the North from this dream, and with a determination that the Union should remain inviolate quite as strong as that of the South for its disseverment, it arose and bent its great strength and vast resources to the task of defeating the aims of the secessionists. Handicapped by want of preparation, its purpose was firm, and in spite of traitors at home and false friends abroad, it finally and most thoroughly accomplished this work.

Salem shared with other Massachusetts towns in her sudden anger at the attack of the batteries of Charleston. On the evening of April 17th, the Wednesday after the firing upon Fort Sumter, an earnest meeting of citizens was held in Mechanics' Hall, at which the mayor, Hon. S. P. Webb, presided and read a strong address, which was subsequeTitly published, in which the people were called upon to forget party differences and uphold the government in its effort to preserve the country. Patriotic speeches were made and resolutions, prepared by a committee made up without regard to the previous party affiliations of its members, were unanimously adopted. They expressed the determination to stand by the government, pledged life and fortune to the preservation of the Union, and to the protection and care of the families of those about to go into the field. Several thousand dollars were subscribed on the spot for this purpose, and a permanent committee chosen to secure more funds, composed of the following well-known gentlemen : S. P. Webb, John Bertram, R. S. Rogers, W. D.

Meanwhile the first call of the President for State troops to be sent for the defence of the capital, had been promulgated, and some of the military companies being under orders to march, the town was sim- ^ mering with the excitement of their approaching departure.

On the following day the Salem Light Infantry, called the Zouaves, under Captain Arthur Devereux, numbering sixty-two muskets, left Salem for Boston, where, though on the militia rolls as Company A, Seventh Militia Regiment, they were attached to the Eighth Regiment, and were at once sent forward. Two days later, April 20th, two other companies, the Mechanics' Light Infantry, under Captain George Pierson, and the City Guard, under Captain Henry Danforth, left Salem and went direct to the City of Washington as part of the Fifth Militia Regiment. Upon the departure of each of these companies they were addressed at their armories by the mayor and other prominent citizens amid a gathering of their friends. They were bid God-speed, and urged to remember the high duty they were called upon to perform, while at every step of their march through the streets they were cheered by enthusiastic crowds, many of whom only regretted that circumstances pre. vented their being also in the ranks. The city was a unit in its enthusiasm, and while there was j^lenty of "gush," if the word may be pardoned, and an exaltation of sentiment greater than our national temperament has been usually given to, the occasion justified it, and it was hearty and genuine to the last degree. In these companies over two hundred men left Salem for Washington within five days from the call of the President.

But the Governor of Massachusetts, and other farseeing men in the State, were fully persuaded that the immediate and pressing need for soldiers would not be confined simply to the protection of the National Capital ; that the South was making no mere demonstration, and that to preserve the integrity of the nation there might be required another and different army from the militia regiments now hastening to Washington. The tread, therefore, of the marching troops was still sounding in Salem's streets, when recruiting offices were opened at the suggestion of prominent citizens, to provide for the unknown contingencies of the future.

Captains Coggswell and Fitzgerald began at once to enlist men for three years' service, and had but little difficulty in doing so. At an Irish patriotic meeting forty men were enlisted on the spot. The City Council of Salem had, meantime, voted $15,000 at its first

April 24th, the past members of the absent Light Infantry organized under the style of the Veteran Light Infantry, for such duty as might be required of them about home.