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The French 
 
 Boston During the Revolution 
 
 PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE FRENCH FLEETS AND 
 THE FORTIFICATIONS IN THE HARBOR 
 
 FITZ-HENRY SMITH, JR. 
 
 boston 
 privately printed 
 
 1913 
 
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 "2 6r 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I913 
 
 FITZ-HENRY SMITH, JR. 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 EIGHTY COPIES REPRINTED FROM THE 
 PUBLICATIONS OF THE BOSTONIAN SOCIETY 
 
 Ji^a 12 n 
 
 314 
 
THE FRENCH AT BOSTON DURING THE 
 REVOLUTION 
 
 With Particular Reference to the French Fleets and the Fortifications 
 in the Harbor 
 
 A Paper read before the Bostonian Society, Council Chamber, 
 Old State House, February i8, 1913, by 
 
 FITZ-HENRY SMITH. Jr. 
 
 WITH additions BY THE AUTHOR 
 
 )0R a number of years before any set- 
 tlement was effected, adventurous men 
 from the seaports of Western Europe 
 made voyages to the coast of New 
 England to fish and trade with the 
 Indians. Among the first to embark 
 in this enterprise were the French. Capt. John Smith 
 in the account of his first voyage to New England, 
 undertaken in 16 14, mentions two French ships which 
 " 40 leagues to the westward of Monhegan " had made 
 "a great voyage by trade." And when he reached 
 Massachusetts Bay, Smith made no attempt to explore 
 
4 The French at Boston 
 
 it, notwithstanding that the region seemed to him the 
 "Paradise" of all New England, because, as he says, 
 the French had secured all the trade, " having remained 
 there near five weeks." So he passed on to the south- 
 ward. 
 
 A few years later a French ship was wrecked on 
 Cape Cod, and those of her company that the natives 
 did not kill outright were made prisoners. About the 
 same time another French vessel anchored off Peddock's 
 Island in Boston Harbor.* The fate of the crew of 
 this vessel was even more tragic. The story is told by 
 Phineas Pratt, in what is sometimes termed his " Nar- 
 rative," as related to him by the Indian Pecksuot, and 
 one cannot do better than to repeat Pratt's quaint ver- 
 sion of the account given by the wily savage. | 
 
 Said Pecksuot : — 
 
 Another ship came into the bay with much goods to truck. 
 Then I said to the sachem I will tell you how you shall have 
 all for nothing. Bring all our canoes and all our beaver and 
 a great many men but no bow nor arrow, clubs nor hatchets, 
 but knives under the skins that [are] about our loins. Throve 
 up much beaver upon their deck ; sell it very cheap and 
 when I give the word, thrust your knives in the Frenchmen's 
 
 * The authority for this statement is Thomas Morton's New English 
 Canaan (Prince Soc. 1883), p. 130. And Morton says that the island 
 was "called Peddocks Island in memory of Leonard Peddock that 
 landed there." 
 
 t A Declaration of the Affairs of the English People that First In- 
 habited New England. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (4th Ser.), IV: p. 479. 
 
Durifig the Revolution 5 
 
 bellies. Thus we killed them all. But Monsieur Finch, mas- 
 ter of their ship, being wounded, leaped into the hold. We 
 bid him come up, but he would not. Then we cut their cable 
 and the ship went ashore and lay upon her side and slept 
 there. Finch came up and we killed him. Then our sachem 
 divided their goods and fired their ship and it made a very 
 great fire. 
 
 Such was the reception accorded the French visitor 
 to Boston by the aborigines.* A short time thereafter 
 a strange plague carried off almost the entire native 
 population living on the islands in the harbor and in 
 the neighboring country ; and of the French we hear 
 nothing more until after the founding of Boston. Mean- 
 while they were endeavoring to maintain the settlements 
 they had established farther east. 
 
 In January of 1632 word was received at Boston 
 "that the French had bought the Scottish plantation 
 near Cape Sable." Whereupon the governor "called 
 the assistants to Boston and the ministers and captains 
 and some other chief men to advise what was fit to 
 be done for our safety in regard they were like to 
 prove ill neighbors (being Papists)." f It was agreed 
 that a fort should be begun at Natascott (or Nantasket), 
 as Hull was then called ; and on the 21st of the month 
 
 • S. A. Drake in The Making of New England (p. 113) refers to 
 the incident as " A Legend of Peddocks Island." 
 
 t The History of New England from 1630 to i64g, by John Win- 
 throp (Savage's Ed. 1825), I : pp. 98, 99. 
 
6 The French at Boston 
 
 the Governor with four of the assistants, three min- 
 isters and other worthies of Boston, in all a company 
 of about twenty-six, started down the harbor in three 
 boats. They arrived at Hull towards evening, and, a 
 storm coming up, were forced to spend the night there 
 in a broken-down shanty with no covering over them 
 other than the straw in which they lay. This experi- 
 ence seems to have put an end to what little enthusiasm 
 they had for the project — for it was not anticipated 
 that the fortification would prevent a vessel from enter- 
 ing the harbor — and in the morning, " upon a view of 
 the place it was agreed that to build a fort there would 
 be of too great charge and of Httle use." 
 
 From this time on, and so long as the French remained 
 in power, the attitude of the English colonists of Mas- 
 sachusetts to their northern neighbors, when not that of 
 actual hostility — as during the cruel wars in which the 
 two peoples became engaged — was, to say the least, one 
 of suspicion. And that curious episode in the history of 
 Massachusetts, when its rulers were induced to take sides 
 with La Tour in his row with d'Aulnay, is probably 
 not an exception. With the British masters of Canada, 
 France ceased to menace the colonies. Frenchmen were 
 then looked at in a different light, and upon the outbreak 
 of the Revolution the whole American people turned to 
 them for aid. 
 
 The French king was quite willing to assist the rebels 
 of his enemy, but hesitated to do so openly until the 
 
During the Revolution 7 
 
 battle of Saratoga made it evident that there was a real 
 opportunity to deal England a blow. Then he entered 
 the contest as an ally of the colonies, and on April 1 3th, 
 1778, a splendid fleet of twelve ships of the line and 
 five frigates (one of which was subsequently sent back 
 with dispatches) set sail from Toulon for the Capes of 
 the Delaware. The fleet was commanded by the Count 
 d'Estaing and carried as passengers Gerard de Rayne- 
 val, the first ambassador of France to the United States, 
 and Silas Deane, one of the American agents in Europe. 
 
 D'Estaing did not reach his destination until July 8th, 
 and meanwhile a solitary French frigate, the Nymphe, 
 on a " mission de surveillance " to the banks of New- 
 foundland, dropped anchor in Boston Harbor, where she 
 remained a fortnight — from May 5th to May 19th. 
 
 This vessel, wrote her commander, the Chevalier de 
 Sainneville, was '* the first warship of the King of France 
 that they had seen in Boston," and she was the cause 
 of a great commotion. The authorities invited the 
 Chevalier and his officers to a grand dinner, at which 
 they remained seated for four hours and drank nine 
 healths. When he went about, the Frenchman was 
 followed by the townspeople " of all ranks and ages," 
 eager to know of the intentions of France and pressing 
 him with questions, which he said he answered as pre- 
 cisely as he could "but without saying anything." The 
 flag of France flying in their midst, he declared, was 
 looked upon by the inhabitants with the greatest satis- 
 
8 The French at Boston 
 
 faction, " the most interesting spectacle " the discreet 
 captain "had ever enjoyed." * 
 
 In the so-called "Recollections of Samuel Breck/'f 
 it is said : — 
 
 Before the Revolution the colonists had little or no com- 
 munication with France, so that Frenchmen were known to 
 them only through the prejudiced medium of England. 
 Every vulgar story told by John Bull about Frenchmen 
 living on salad and frogs was implicitly believed by Brother 
 Jonathan, even by men of education and the first standing 
 in society. When, therefore, the first French squadron ar- 
 rived at Boston the whole town, most of whom had never 
 seen a Frenchman, ran to the wharves to catch a peep at the 
 gaunt, half-starved, soup-maigre crews. How much were my 
 good townsmen astonished when they beheld plump, portly 
 officers and strong, vigorous sailors I 
 
 The '• Recollections " further state that while the 
 townsmen became convinced that they had been de- 
 ceived, they " knew " that the French " were no better 
 than frog eaters, because they had been discovered 
 hunting them in the noted Frog-pond at the bottom of 
 the Common." Then follows an account of a dinner 
 
 * Quoted by Lacour-Gayet, "Zo Marine Militaire de la France sous 
 la rlgne de Louis XVI." (Paris, 1905), p. 147. 
 
 Price agrees that the frigate was " the first French Kings Ship ever 
 in this port." (Items From an Interleaved Boston Almanac /or 1778, 
 Being a Diary of Ezekiel Price. N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg. XIX, p. 332.) 
 And he says that the dinner to the commander and his officers was held 
 " at Marstons," May 9th. {Ibid., p. 333.) 
 
 t H. E. Scudder Ed. (Philadelphia, 1877), p. 24. 
 
During the Revolution 9 
 
 given to d'Estaing and his officers by Mr. Nathaniel 
 Tracy of Cambridge, at which in the soup plate of every 
 Frenchman was placed a full-grown frog, — a story 
 which surely lost nothing in the telling. 
 
 Breck was but seven years old at this time, and while 
 his assertion doubtless contains much truth, it does not 
 wholly account for the interest of the people on the 
 arrival of the Nymphe, or of d'Estaing and his fleet.* 
 
 Much has been said about the extraordinary length of 
 d'Estaing's voyage — almost three months — at least a 
 third of which was required to get the fleet out of the 
 Mediterranean. The commander complained of the great 
 difference in the sailing qualities of his ships, referring 
 especially to the slowness of the Vaillant and Guerrier.f 
 The author of a modern French work| has explained 
 that the fleet was short of seamen, so that inexperienced 
 soldiers had to be employed to handle the ships. On 
 the other hand it has been stated that d'Estaing wasted 
 time in useless drills. § But whatever the cause, the 
 
 * The Boston Gazette of May 11, 1778, says that the frigate brought 
 " very important dispatches for Congress, which were immediately sent 
 off by express to that august body." 
 
 t Chevalier, Histoire de la Alarine Frangaise Pendant la Guerre de 
 L' Independence Americaine (Paris, 1877), p. 108. The Guerrier must 
 not be confused with the ship of similar name defeated by the 
 Constitution in the War of 1812. The Guerrier of d'Estaing's fleet 
 was a seventy-four, whereas the Constitution's opponent, though origi- 
 nally a French vessel, was a frigate of forty-nine guns. 
 
 X De Noailles, Marins et Soldats Fran^ais en Amirique Pendant la 
 Guerre de U Independence des Etats-Unis, (Paris, 1903), p. 33. 
 
 § Cf. Mahan, Influence of Sea Power, p. 359. 
 
10 The French at Boston 
 
 fleet took so long to cross the Atlantic that news of its 
 coming reached America in season for the British to 
 prepare to receive it. And this Howe did with com- 
 mendable energy, abandoning Philadelphia and station- 
 ing his weaker force at New York in such a way that 
 the task presented to the French was anything but easy. 
 For learning that the enemy had moved, d'Estaing 
 detached a frigate (La Chim^re) to take G6rard to 
 Philadelphia and proceeded with his fleet to Sandy 
 Hook. 
 
 Then followed a series of unfortunate incidents fam- 
 iliar to all. The attack on New York was given up, 
 because, it is said, the pilots hesitated at taking the 
 larger French vessels into the harbor, and the fleet was 
 dispatched to Narragansett Bay to assist General Sulli- 
 van in his operations against Rhode Island. Howe 
 followed, and d'Estaing put to sea to meet him. The 
 fleets manoeuvred for an advantage without a general 
 engagement until on the night of the 1 1 th of August 
 there arose a violent gale which dispersed both. A 
 number of the French ships were badly damaged,* and 
 d'Estaing, despite the intervention of both Greene and 
 Lafayette, declined to operate further, and assembling 
 his ships as best he could, on August 23rd headed for 
 
 • D'Estaing's flagship, the Languedoc, was completely dismasted 
 and lost her rudder, the Marseillais lost rudder and foremast, and 
 the Protecteur was otherwise crippled. " So fierce was the storm," 
 says Fiske, "that it was remembered in local tradition as lately as 1850 
 as ' the Great Storm.' " ( The American Revolution, II : p. 93.) 
 
During the Revolution 1 1 
 
 Boston to refit. Only temporary repairs were made at 
 Newport, and the French admiral said, on leaving, that 
 if he found at Boston the material he so urgently needed, 
 he would be ready to start anew to fight "for the 
 glory of the French name and the interests of America." 
 Nevertheless Sullivan felt that he had been left in the 
 lurch, and he did not hesitate to say so, and much bit- 
 terness was engendered. 
 
 The American general was happily able to withdraw 
 in safety from the difficult position in which he found 
 himself, and the tendency of historians has been to sus- 
 tain d'Estaing, as he seems to have been sustained by 
 those in authority at the time. A council of his officers 
 advised the course he took, and undoubtedly he was 
 acting under explicit orders given him for just such an 
 emergency.* Dr. Hale has shown that the destruction 
 by the British of some twenty of their vessels when the 
 French fleet appeared against Newport, taken into con- 
 
 * See Fiske, p. 94, and cf. Lacour-Gayet, p. 169. Sullivan wrote 
 the Executive Council of Massachusetts to urge upon d'Estaing to 
 return with at least a part of his fleet. The Count replied that he 
 was ready to march at the head of his land forces and place them 
 entirely under the American's directions. But he pointed out that it 
 would scarcely be judicious for him to send back a part of his fleet, 
 as Howe might beat it with superior numbers, and it was impossible 
 to consider returning with the whole French fleet until the necessary 
 repairs had been completed. The Council apparently agreed with this 
 reasoning. (Mass. Archives, Doc. C. C, pp. 26, 29 and 32.) And in 
 this connection I wish to express to Mr. Tracy and his assistants in 
 the Archives my appreciation of their kind help and interest in my 
 search for the material of this paper. 
 
12 The French at Boston 
 
 sideration with the other effects of d'Estaing's arrival 
 on the American coast, made his exploits by no means 
 inconsiderable.* But a view so dispassionate could not 
 well be expected of the American people of 1778, and 
 their disappointment over the abrupt termination of the 
 Rhode Island campaign, from which so much had been 
 anticipated, must be borne in mind when we come to 
 consider events which afterwards took place in Boston .f 
 
 It is now time for us to take note of the vessels that 
 put into Boston harbor and of some of the commanding 
 officers in the fleet. 
 
 The vessels were the Languedoc of 90 guns ; the 
 Tonnant of 80 ; the seventy-fours, C6sar, Hector, Z616, 
 Marseillais, Protecteur, and Guerrier ; the Vaillant, Pro- 
 vence and Fantasque, sixty-fours ; the Sagittaire, 50 guns, 
 and the frigates Aimable, Alcm^ne and Engageante of 
 26 or 30 guns each. The Languedoc was d'Estaing's 
 flagship, except that when she was dismasted in the 
 storm he went aboard the Hector, and on the arrival of 
 the fleet in Boston he transferred his flag to the Zd6 
 when he thought he was about to be attacked.^ 
 
 * Rev. E. E. Hale, The Naval History of the American Revolution, 
 in Narrative and Critical History of America, VI : pp. 580, 581. 
 
 t See the interesting Extract du Journal d'un Officier de la Marine 
 de VEscadre de M. le Comte d'Estaing (1782), p. 38, upon the effect of 
 Sullivan's charges. 
 
 X The three flagships, together with the Cesar and Marseillais, all 
 under other commanders, afterwards took part in the campaigns of 
 de Grasse. And the Zel^ w^as in a large measure responsible for Lord 
 Rodney's defeat of the Frenchman in 1782, for, being injured by col- 
 
During the Revolution 13 
 
 The rise of the commander-in-chief of this powerful 
 force had been very rapid.* He was only thirty-three 
 when made a lieutenant-general and rear admiral, and 
 thus given high rank in the navy as well as in the army, 
 notwithstanding that he had been bred a soldier and 
 had seen no naval service other than to participate in 
 several commerce-destroying undertakings. In 1777 the 
 title of third vice-admiral was created for him, and the 
 next year he received the important command of the 
 expedition to America. At this time he was forty-nine 
 years old and had been in the navy but fifteen years, 
 so a French writer has said that " perhaps the least 
 known at Toulon among the general officers of the fleet 
 was the commander-in-chief himself." f 
 
 As might be expected, in the light of his inexperience 
 d'Estaing did not have the confidence of his officers, 
 among whom were some of the ablest in the French 
 navy ; % ^^^ though " brave as his sword " and the idol 
 
 lisions with two of her companions so that she had to be taken in tow, 
 de Grasse was forced to accept battle at a disadvantage. The C^sar 
 and Hector suffered terribly in this fight and were among the five ships 
 captured by the British, but they proved of little worth to the con- 
 querors, the former being accidentally burned the night of the battle 
 and the latter lost on the way to England. The frigate Aimable was 
 captured after the battle. 
 
 * Charles Henri Theodat d'Estaing Du Saillans, called the Count 
 d'Estaing, was born at Auvergne 1729, and died at Paris April 28, 1794. 
 
 t Lacour-Gayet, p. 139. 
 
 X Chevalier, p. 154: Writing anonymously, one of these officers said, 
 " We will finish the portrait of this; commander by saying that he is 
 not really profound upon anything, but superficial upon everything." 
 Quoted by Lacour-Gayet, p. 229: "Suffren wished that d'Estaing's 
 seamanship had equalled his courage." {/bid., p. 230.) 
 
14 The French at Boston 
 
 of his men, he did not succeed as a naval commander. 
 But he did have at least one qualification for the work 
 assigned him, namely, an intense hatred of the English, 
 which he manifested throughout his life, and he told the 
 judges who condemned him to the guillotine in the French 
 Revolution to send his head to the English, as they 
 would pay well for it. 
 
 First among the other officers may be mentioned 
 d'Estaing's chief of staff, the able Chevalier de Borda, 
 " major-general " of the fleet, but better known to the 
 world as a scientist and geometrician.* Pleville Le 
 Peley, of the Languedoc, " lieutenant de port " in the 
 fleet, after an active service, retired in 1788, and was 
 minister of marine under the Directory. f And Count 
 Barras de Saint-Laurent (usually referred to as Barras), 
 captain of the Z61^, who later succeeded to the com- 
 mand of the squadron of Ternay, will ever be grate- 
 fully remembered by Americans for his timely arrival 
 before Yorktown with the siege train of the French 
 army. 
 
 In command of the Guerrier the French admiral had 
 with him an officer who, like himself, had first served 
 
 * Jean Charles de Borda was bom at Dax May 4, 1733, ^'^^ di\&A at 
 Paris February 20, 1799. 
 
 1 Le Peley had a remarkable history. Early in his career he lost 
 his right leg, which was replaced with a wooden one, and twice there- 
 after this wooden one was shot away. As will be noted later, he was 
 one of the victims of a riot in Boston. For his life see Balch, The 
 French in America, II : p. 200. 
 
During the Revolution 15 
 
 in the army, but who, unlike the commander-in-chief, 
 obtained distinction upon the sea, — Bougainville, the 
 celebrated circumnavigator of the world.* 
 
 The captain of the Fantasque was Suffren, perhaps 
 the greatest naval officer that the French nation has 
 produced, whose fierce encounters with Sir Edward 
 Hughes have won for him the admiration of our Captain 
 Mahan.f And on the Sagittaire was d' Albert de Rions, 
 in Suffren's estimation the foremost officer in the French 
 navy4 D'Estaing's opinion of de Rions was no less 
 laudatory. Indeed, of all the officers of the fleet who 
 were with him at Boston, he recommended but two — 
 de Rions and Suffren. For them he solicited the title 
 
 * Louis Anloine, Count de Bougainville, was born at Paris, Novem- 
 ber II, 1729. Brought up to be a lawyer, and a mathematician of no 
 mean ability, he entered the army in 1754, went to America as an aid 
 to Montcalm, and served with distinction at Quebec and in 1761 in 
 Germany. Upon the conclusion of peace in 1763 he left the army for 
 the navy, and three years later, having failed in an attempt to found a 
 settlement on the Falkland Islands, sailed around the world. (Dec. 15, 
 1766, to March 16, 1769.) He commanded under both d'Estaing and 
 de Grasse, and afterwards seems to have received in turn the titles of 
 field marshal and vice admiral. On the outbreak of the revolution in 
 France he retired from public service to devote himself to scientific 
 pursuits, but was a senator under the Empire. He died at Paris August 
 31, 1811. 
 
 \ Pierre Andre de Suffren de Saint-Tropez, called the Bailli de 
 Suffren, was born at Saint-Cannat, July 13, 1728, and died at Paris 
 Dec. 8, 1788. (See Influence of Sea Power, Ch. 12.) 
 
 X Francois Hector d'Albert, Count de Rions, was bom at Avignon 
 in 1728, and died October 3, 1802. Chevalier says that after the death 
 of Suffren, de Rions was regarded as the officer most capable of com- 
 manding a large fleet. 
 
l6 The French at Boston 
 
 of brevet "chef d'escadre," meaning " commodore " or 
 "flag officer." * 
 
 All of d'Estaing's vessels did not reach Boston at 
 one time, for the Cesar being separated from the fleet 
 by the storm, made no attempt to rejoin it, but pro- 
 ceeded alone to Boston, where she arrived on the after- 
 noon of August 22nd. She had a terrible fight with an 
 English fifty -gun ship, the I sis, in the course of which 
 her captain, the Chevalier de Raimondis, lost his right 
 arm. General Heath went to see him as soon as the 
 Cesar arrived, and expressed regret at the Frenchman's 
 misfortune, to which the latter replied "that he was 
 ready to lose his other arm in the cause of the Ameri- 
 cans." " Remember this," writes Heath, "ye Americans 
 in future times." | 
 
 The other vessels arrived in Boston on the morning 
 of the 28th, and d'Estaing at once disposed of the fleet 
 so as to be able to meet an attack. The Languedoc, 
 Marseillais and Protecteur, which were most in need of 
 
 * Suffren was made fourth vice-admiral of the French navy, April 4, 
 1784, a special office created for him, which ceased at his death. D'Es- 
 taing was made admiral, Bougainville and Barras vice-admirals, and 
 de Rions rear-admiral, in 1792. And there were other officers in the 
 fleet that afterwards attained high rank. For a roster of the fleet see 
 de Noailles, Appendix II, p. 365, and Lacour Gayet, Appendix V, 
 p. 629. 
 
 t Memoirs of Major-Genl. Heath, N. Y. 1904, p. 204. De Raimondis 
 was granted two pensions, but the captain asked in addition for the 
 order of Saint Louis, " le cordon rouge," on the ground that he was 
 the first officer to lose an arm during the campaign. He left for France 
 with Lafayette on the Alliance, January 6, 1779. 
 
During the Revolution 17 
 
 repairs,* were anchored in the inner harbor ; f and the 
 exigency was considered so great that the French were 
 permitted to work upon the Sabbath "with as little 
 disturbance .... as possible, during the time of divine 
 Service." % 
 
 The remaining ships-of-the-line were stationed in Nan- 
 tasket Road, and to make their positions more secure 
 the fortifications at Hull were appropriated and manned, 
 and George's, Lovell's and Gallup's Islands, together 
 with Long Island or Peddock's Island, were occupied 
 and put in a state of defence, § To accomplish this the 
 
 * In addition to the damage done by the storm, the Languedoc had 
 been attacked by the Renown, of fifty guns, and the Marseillais by an- 
 other fifty-gun ship, which Lacour-Gayet (p. i68) says was the Preston. 
 
 t Cf. Chevalier, p. ii8. Lacour-Gayet says (p. 171) " Quincy Bay," 
 but adds in a note that d'Estaing wrote " King's Road." September 
 8, 1778, the French were given leave to land sick sailors on Governor's 
 Island, " which lyes next the Marseillais, the Ship the nearest to the 
 Town." (Mass. Archives, Doc. CLXIX, p. 151.) 
 
 X Council Records XXII, p. 435. Lacour-Gayet speaks of the trouble 
 which the French experienced in refitting their vessels in America be- 
 cause of the lack of arsenals. And d'Estaing wrote that they had to 
 send to Portsmouth for the masts needed by the Languedoc, and could 
 not find any suitable for a vessel larger than a sixty four. So they 
 took the masts out of the Protecteur, 74, and gave them to the 90-gun 
 flagship. The Protecteur was fitted out -vvith the masts of the Vaillant. 
 64, and the new masts placed in the Vaillant. Report of d'Estaing to 
 the Secretary of Marine in H. Doniol, Histoire de la Participation de la 
 France d. V Etablissement des Etats-Unis, ill (1888), p. 459. Heath 
 notes that the work on the flagship was completed October 5, and that 
 she then "fell down to Nantasket Road and joined the squadron." 
 Memoirs, p. 208. 
 
 § D'Estaing wrote " Pettik." (Doniol in, p. 458.) Lacour-Gayet 
 includes all but Long and Peddock's Island, and the documents in the 
 State Archives mention only George's and Long Island. 
 
i8 The French at Bostofi 
 
 three frigates were taken into Hull Bay and almost 
 completely dismantled ; * and Chevalier says that by 
 Sept. ist they had thirty i8 and 24-pounders mounted at 
 Hull and on George's Island, two batteries and six mor- 
 tars, one battery containing eleven 24's, and the other 
 eight i8's and 24's. Whether this statement is entirely 
 accurate may be doubted, and it is probable that the 
 rush on the defences did not begin until the presence of 
 an English fleet was reported on August 3ist.| 
 
 The "fortifications" at Hull consisted of a fort on 
 Telegraph Hill and two batteries on Gushing Hill, and 
 it is a question as to just what the French did there. 
 It is assumed in some French accounts that the works 
 were built by d'Estaing, and the impression has existed 
 in this country that their design at least was attributable 
 to his engineers. But this is an error. The fortifica- 
 tion of Nantasket Head was undertaken shortly after 
 the British evacuated Boston, and as early as July, 1776, 
 a committee of the General Court reported the work 
 
 * In 1848 an immense anchor, said to have weighed " about 8,000 
 pounds," and presumably belonging to one of d'Estaing's ships, was 
 grappled off Peddock's Island. Notes on ike South Shore by the '■'■Shade 
 of Alden" (Boston, 1848), p. 21. 
 
 t Sept. ist the Board of War was directed to supply d'Estaing with 
 " ten Gundoloes or flatt-bottomed boats .... for transporting of Can- 
 non," and Heath informed the Council, Sept. 2, that the Count was 
 "fortifying some of the Islands with the utmost dispatch & has got a 
 considerable number of cannon on shore mounted in the works which 
 he has thrown up." Sept. 5, application was made to the Council for 
 two beds for 13 inch mortars which d'Estaing "proposed" to place on 
 George's Island. 
 
During the Revolution 19 
 
 "about half finished." In November, 1776, and again 
 in January, 1777, other committees reported it "well 
 constructed and nearly finished," and each referred 
 specifically to the fort and the two batteries. The re- 
 port of the last-mentioned committee is signed by Joseph 
 Palmer, and describes the defences at Hull as including 
 a "pentagonal" fort and two batteries, one west of the 
 fort with eight embrasures, and the other to the north 
 with five, the fort itself having sixteen embrasures. 
 And in the State Archives there is a plan with Palmer's 
 name, dated February 27, 1777, showing the fort, which 
 it is interesting to note is called " Fort Independence," 
 and a " draft " of the batteries. 
 
 In an undated committee report, indexed in the Ar- 
 chives as June, 1777, it is said, "That the works now 
 at Hull, tho' pretty well constructed are far from being 
 compleat, or Sufficient if made so, at that place." But 
 another undated report shows that when the committee's 
 investigation was made, probably in August of 1777, 
 they had found at Hull a fortification " called the Eight 
 Gun Battery," containing four 42-pounders and two 9- 
 pounders, and " nearer the Waters Edge the three Gun 
 Battery so called," with three 42-pounders, together with 
 a large fort mounting nine 9's and two i8's. 
 
 This clearly indicates that the fortifications at Hull 
 had progressed well toward completion long before the 
 arrival of d'Estaing ; and considering the fact that their 
 earthwork mounds, as they remained until very recently. 
 
20 The French at Boston 
 
 were, in design, precisely as drawn on Palmer's plan — 
 except that the northern battery had openings for but 
 three guns — there is little foundation for the tradition 
 about their French origin.* 
 
 So far as Hull was concerned, d'Estaing's efforts 
 were devoted largely to supplying a deficiency in men 
 and arms. The committee of the General Court which 
 reported in November, 1776, had doubted whether the 
 place could be made tenable, and had suggested in con- 
 sequence that few guns be risked there, and the troops 
 in the harbor forts had been dismissed in April, 1778, 
 on the arrival of the transports for the Convention 
 prisoners. Not until the end of July does the Council 
 seem to have again considered these defences. Then 
 they directed General Heath " to retain one commis- 
 sioned officer, one Serjeant, one Corporal & one Gunner 
 .... to be stationed at the Castle and at Hull for the 
 Purpose of hailing vessels, examining Passes, making 
 Signals, etc." Very likely this small guard was all that 
 d'Estaing found upon his arrival. The other defences 
 of Nantasket Road were unquestionably begun by the 
 French admiral, though he was not the first to realize 
 
 * The three-gun battery which was near the edge of Gushing Hill, 
 facing Boston Light, gradually disappeared as the bluff washed away. 
 But it was not until the modern fortifications were begun after the 
 Spanish War that any considerable destruction of the fort and eight- 
 gun battery took place. And the late Lewis P. Loring of Hull informed 
 the writer a few years since that " seventy-five years ago one could drive 
 in front of the three-gun battery with a horse and wagon." Now all 
 that can be seen are the tips of the crescent. 
 
During the Revolution 21 
 
 the importance of some of the positions,* and he had 
 to land the cannon for them because, he says, " we could 
 not obtain any from the Americans." 
 
 A well-known member of this Society, Mr. John W. 
 Farwell, owns a chart of Boston Harbor, which he picked 
 up in Paris and which may have belonged to a member 
 of d'Estaing's force. It is a French reproduction of 
 the familiar Des Barres chart, somewhat smaller than 
 the original, and written with a pencil upon it, in French, 
 is the note, " Defense of Boston by the French fleet 
 under d'Estaing 1778 August or [?] April." The chart 
 shows, in pencil, a fort on Telegraph Hill and one on 
 George's Island. Stretching in line from Windmill Point, 
 Hull, to Rainsford Island, are represented four three- 
 masted square-rigged vessels, and in the same line, north 
 of Long Island, five more such vessels. Anchored off 
 Long Wharf, Boston, in two lines heading south, is 
 shown an American flotilla as follows : the Independence, 
 Tyrannicide, and Speedwell, in line near the wharf, and 
 the Warren, Raleigh, Deane, Sampson, Hancock, and 
 Massachusetts,, farther away. 
 
 The chart thus accounts for the nine battleships 
 which d'Estaing left in the outer harbor, but it differs 
 with all records of the episode in placing more than 
 half of these ships in what was then "King Road."f 
 
 * Cf. Committee Report, Jan. 31, 1777, printed at the end of this paper. 
 
 t Now called President Roads. The plural Roads is also commonly 
 used today in respect of the anchorage at Nantasket, but I have kept 
 to the old singular form in this paper. 
 
22 The French at Boston 
 
 D'Estaing reported that the nine serviceable liners were 
 "left at Nantasket," and that they were arranged broad- 
 side in a semi-circle, so that a hail of shot could be dis- 
 charged at a central point. He explained that he chose 
 Nantasket in preference to — as he wrote it — "King's 
 Road " for the reason that, although the latter was 
 larger and safer, an enemy occupying Nantasket Road 
 could blockade it. He recalled that the English had 
 moored at Nantasket without risk after Boston had passed 
 out of their possession, and it seemed to him " indispens- 
 able " that they should not be permitted to do so again. 
 
 It is to be observed, however, that Mr. Farwell's chart 
 shows two courses into the harbor, — one from the sea 
 south of George's Island, and the other from Broad 
 Sound into King Road. The disposition of the battle- 
 ships as marked on the chart may have been made at 
 some time during the Count's stay at Boston, and in 
 either situation we can probably agree with d'Estaing 
 that in the offing his ships presented " a most imposing 
 order." * 
 
 Nantasket Road has seen many fleets since the com- 
 ing of the white man. It was the starting point of many 
 of the expeditions against Canada, such as Sir William 
 Phips's ill-fated undertaking in 1690, the expedition of 
 
 * September 2, Ezekiel Price wrote in his Diary : " This day went 
 with the Selectmen and a number of other gentlemen to Hospital [now 
 Rainsford] Island, had a view of the French fleet then in the harbour, 
 as well as those stationed in Nantasket Harbour ; they made a very 
 formidable appearance, and were so disposed as to protect us from any 
 approach of the British Navy." 
 
During the Revolution 2$ 
 
 171 1, and the Louisburg expedition of 1745 ; and a part 
 of Lord Amherst's huge force seems to have stopped 
 there in September, 1758. With the War of Indepen- 
 dence, however, began a great era in the history of 
 sailing men-of-war. From 1759 to 1770 under Choiseul 
 there was a tremendous revival of the French navy. 
 Frenchmen were the master builders of the ships of the 
 period, and we like to imagine the picture which an 
 artist might make of the scene which d'Estaing has 
 described.* 
 
 The Council helped on the new fortifications by fur- 
 nishing tools, materials and other necessaries, and in 
 response to d'Estaing's request for someone to oversee 
 and direct the work, sent him on August 31st a fellow- 
 countryman, then in the service of Massachusetts, " Lewis 
 de Maresquelle, Colonel of Artillery and Inspector Gen- 
 eral of the Founderies of the State." 
 
 '^zraa^ 
 
 This officer was one of the many foreigners who 
 sought employment with the colonists during the strug- 
 gle with the mother country. His full name was Marie 
 Louis Amand Ansart de Maresquelle, but he ordinarily 
 
 ♦ "The hull of the Constitution was modeled after the best French 
 practice." (HoUis, The Frigate Constitution, p. 38.) 
 
24 The French at Boston 
 
 signed himself in this country Lewis de Maresquelle, 
 using the English spelling of Louis.* He arrived in 
 I Tj6, being then thirty-four years old, and on December 
 6th of that year proposed to the General Court of Mas- 
 sachusetts to establish furnaces and provide the State 
 with all the iron cannon that it might need. 
 
 In the " Proposal " Maresquelle described himself as 
 " an old Captain of Infantry " who had " been brought 
 up in the Forges of France (his Father & the Marquis 
 of Montalembert, his relation, having furnished, for 
 many years, all the Iron Cannon in the Service of the 
 French King)." He then went on to say that at one 
 time all cannon were cast with a cylinder, but that 
 this process always left little holes or cavities, frequently 
 the cause of bursting, and that in 1750 his father "cast 
 many solid Cannon, and found them superior to those 
 cast with a Cylinder," with the result that at the time 
 of the proposal none but solid cannon were cast in 
 French forges. He said his father had invented a 
 machine to do the boring, and that with it a twenty-four 
 pounder could " be bored, polished & the spruce cut off 
 in twenty-four hours." And he agreed that if the State 
 would supply the place, machinery, and materials, he 
 would construct the furnaces, and when the mills were 
 
 * Due apparently to the fact that Maresquelle was employed by the 
 State of Massachusetts ; his name does not appear in the recent pub- 
 lication of the French Government entitled Les Cojnbattants Fratifais 
 de la Guerre Amiricaine (Paris, 1903). Nor have we found him men- 
 tioned in Stone's Our French Allies (Providence, 1884), nor in Balch 
 or the other works on the French in America during the war. 
 
During the Revolution 25 
 
 ready for boring would " furnish one Cannon ready for 
 Service every twenty-four Hours out of the common 
 Iron Ore within this State." He also agreed to dis- 
 close to such persons as the State might select all his 
 knowledge upon the subject, which included a " peculiar 
 method of softening the Iron by a mixture of Ores & 
 Minerals," and he stipulated that if he did not fulfill his 
 promises he would not only waive all claims against the 
 State but would forfeit the sum of a thousand pounds. 
 
 In return, Maresquelle asked from the State three 
 hundred dollars in cash to reimburse him for the ex- 
 penses of his trip to America and one thousand dollars 
 a year until the end of the war, " and after that time 
 the Sum of Six hundred Sixty-Six and two-thirds Dol- 
 lars yearly during his life." He also stated that he 
 "expected" the ^^ honor of a Colonel's Commission to 
 give him Rank," but without pay or command as such.* 
 
 The Court accepted the proposition, and besides 
 granting Maresquelle a colonel's commission made him 
 Inspector of Foundries. Indeed, it is probable that 
 they were only too glad to avail themselves of the op- 
 portunity. P'or Drake says that "in the beginning of 
 the Revolution cannon was the most essential thing 
 wanted," and he quotes a letter dated at Boston, Sept. 
 I, 1776, telling that the demand for guns to fit out 
 privateers was so great that they were taking up the 
 
 * The text of this interesting contract may be found in the Court 
 Records, XXXVI, p. 298. 
 
26 The French at Boston 
 
 "old things" that had been stuck in the ground at 
 street corners and restoring them to service.* 
 
 That the Frenchman made good his part of the con- 
 tract is evident from the fact that the State paid him 
 the salaries agreed to, to the fraction of a cent, until his 
 death in 1804.! During the war, to be sure, the pay- 
 ments were not always made promptly, but thereafter 
 with ever-increasing regularity and exactness. His pay 
 was figured at the rate of ;^300 a year — which was 
 agreed to be the equivalent of the ^1,000 voted him — 
 until the 5th of May, 1783, when "the peace establish- 
 ment," so called, went into effect. Then his salary was 
 fixed at ;^200 a year, and paid sometimes quarterly and 
 sometimes semi-annually until April 5, 1795, from which 
 date he received regular quarterly payments of ^166,66.07, 
 with the milles left off at intervals. 
 
 Further the State showed no disposition to drive a 
 hard bargain. In June, 1779, when Maresquelle in- 
 formed the Court that, owing to the high price of pro- 
 visions and the depreciation of the currency, his agreed 
 
 * Historic Mansions and Highways Around Boston (Boston, 1900), 
 
 PP- 33. 34. 
 
 t The last warrant authorized by the Council in this matter was on 
 Aug. 28, 1804, "for Eighty seven Dollars three cents and two milles in 
 favor of the legal representative of Lewis Ansart Esqr., late Inspector 
 of the Founderies, now deceased, in full of the balance of his salary 
 due at the time of his death." 
 
 In April, 1780, a committee of the General Court reported that 
 Maresquelle had fulfilled his contract "in part and he has ever dis- 
 covered a Readiness to perform the Whole had the State Enabled him 
 to do it." 
 
During the Revolution 27 
 
 salary was not adequate for his support, they voted him 
 an additional allowance of ;^3 a day. Ten months later, 
 as the value of the currency further declined, they gave 
 him ;^9 more in order to make his pay commensurate 
 with "the original contract." Both orders were re- 
 dated back several months, and the additions were paid 
 him until October of 1780, when it seems to have been 
 thought that the " new emission " would restore the 
 balance between the currency and his pay. The next 
 month the Court made up all discrepancies by a lump 
 sum payment ; but the people did not take kindly to the 
 new bills, and although hard money became more plenti- 
 ful Maresquelle appears to have experienced continued 
 financial embarrassment, and in January, 1 781, he asked 
 for a nine months' leave of absence " to visit his friends 
 & family in France " (from whom he had not heard for 
 some time), and to secure the necessaries suitable to his 
 rank which his pay had not enabled him to purchase in 
 this country. At the same time he offered to under- 
 take any commission which the State might have for 
 him in France. The request was promptly granted, 
 with the sole condition that he first settle his accounts. 
 This he did after some bother in ascertaining the proper 
 board to account to, and he was given his pay to the 
 date of the accounting and upon his return for the 
 period of his absence ; further evidence, if any be needed, 
 of the good faith of the State and the high regard of 
 the authorities for the man. 
 
28 The French at Boston 
 
 Notwithstanding that Maresquelle had stated he ex- 
 pected no command, he could not resist the longing for 
 active service, and when the Rhode Island campaign was 
 organizing he sought an opportunity to go to the front. 
 July 31st, 1778, the Board of War sent him to Sullivan 
 with a letter in which they described the Frenchman as 
 one " Glowing with Ardor to signalize himself in the 
 intended Expedition," who "comes to offer himself with 
 Chearfulness to any service for which you may think 
 him qualified." And they stated that " from the long 
 personal knowledge and acquaintance we have had with 
 him we can recommend him as a brave and worthy man, 
 and flatter ourselves he will so acquit himself as to de- 
 serve that Approbation from his General for which he 
 is so eagerly panting" — certainly a splendid tribute. 
 He served as an aide to Sullivan, and a month later was 
 dispatched to d'Estaing, as has been noted. 
 
 December 9th, 1781, Maresquelle married at Boston 
 Catharine Wimble, and after the war moved with her to 
 Dracut, Mass., where there were born to them, so far 
 as the records show, eight children, — three sons and 
 five daughters. Probably there were others born before 
 this. In 1793 he petitioned the Legislature for author- 
 ity to drop the de Maresquelle from his name, inasmuch 
 as he was about to take out naturalization papers and 
 wanted to be naturalized as Lewis Ansart, "his Christian 
 & Family name." This was granted, and the French- 
 man lived out his life at Dracut, a prominent and re- 
 
LEWIS ANSART OE WARESQUELLE 
 
 (From a Portrait in the Town Library, Dracut, Mass.) 
 
During the Revolution 29 
 
 spected member of the community,* and was buried there 
 in the " Old Woodbine Cemetery," where his grave is 
 marked with a stone bearing the inscription : 
 
 ERECTED 
 
 In memory of 
 
 COL. LEWIS ANSART 
 
 Who departed this life 
 
 May 22 AD 1804 
 
 iEt 62 
 
 Col. Ansart was a native of France : he arrived in this country 
 in 1776, and by the Authorities of Massachusetts was immediately 
 appointed a Colonel of Artillery & Inspector General of the Found- 
 eries, in which capacity he served until the close of the War of 
 the Revolution. 
 
 That the French manned the new defences is certain. 
 Fiske states that d'Estaing had with him 4,000 troops, 
 but de Noailles and Lacour-Gayet mention only a thou- 
 sand, of the regiments of Hainaut and of Foix ; and in 
 his reply to Sullivan, the French admiral intimated that 
 his available land force did not amount to more than 
 800 raen.f 
 
 * His widow, who was not quite twenty at the time of their marriage, 
 died Jan. 27, 1849, at the age of 86 yrs. 10 mos. ; one son, Felix, rose to 
 the rank of lieutenant of artillery in the regular army in the War of 1812. 
 
 Mrs. Sara Swan Griffin has collected considerable data about 
 Maresquelle in a paper read before the Lowell Historical Society May 
 II, 1904. See Contributions Lowell Hist. Soc. I, No. i, p. 54 Cf. also 
 the pamphlet In Memoriam Citizen Soldiers of Dracut, Mass., published 
 by the Old Middlesex Chap. S. A. R. 1904. She says that Maresquelle 
 was a large man, standing six feet and weighing 200 pounds, and that 
 he occupied the " Old Ministree " house (so called) at Dracut, and 
 entertained there Lafayette, with whom he was well acquainted. 
 
 t The American Revolution, II, p. 88 ; Marins et Soldats Frangais 
 en Amerique, p. 372; La Marine Militaire sous Louis XVI, p. 143; 
 Mass. Archives, Doc. C. C, p. 32. 
 
30 The French at Boston 
 
 Referring to d'Estaing's report, we find that the 
 " detachments of Hainaut and of Foix became the gar- 
 rison of the peninsular of Hull," under the command of 
 Bougainville, and that the Count de Broves (of the 
 Cesar, chef d'escadre) had charge of Gallup's, and the 
 Marquis de Chabert (captain of the Vaillant) of Ped- 
 dock's. The arrangement in respect of George's is not 
 so clear, but it seems that the mortars there were in 
 charge of Captain Duchatelet of the "regiment de Foix," 
 and that marines were given to de Rions and placed in 
 the other batteries on the same island. And d'Estaing 
 wrote that Lovell's had "only the appearance of defence, 
 a camp etendu without soldiers to occupy it." * Heath 
 also says that Bougainville had charge at Hull, and he 
 tells of witnessing there the manoeuvres of a "squadron" 
 of marines who had been trained by Major M'Donald, "a 
 Scotchman whose father was in the rebellion in England, 
 and with his son fled to France." 
 
 It is manifest, therefore, that the largest force was 
 landed at Hull. Indeed, the French so completely over- 
 ran the little town that the American general wrote 
 that the inhabitants were "really to be Pittied," adding, 
 " and such ever will be the case of those whose Lot it 
 is to have Troops Quartered among them."f The towns- 
 people registered their protest in a vigorous petition to 
 
 * Doniol, III, p. 458, but cf. Lacour-Gayet, p. 171. 
 t Heath, Letter to Council, Sept. 8, 1778. (Mass. Archives, Doc. 
 C. C, p. 69.) 
 
During tlie Revolution. 31 
 
 the Council. The petition was presented in behalf of 
 the town by Captain Daniel Souther, " an old sea com- 
 mander " then residing at Hull, whom the Council 
 had previously recommended to d'Estaing because of 
 his knowledge of "the Ground in Nantasket Road." 
 Souther's petition was dated Sept. 5 th, and represented : 
 " That the Troops of his most Christian Majesty burn 
 and destroy the Fences of the Inhabitants of the Town 
 of Hull. That they take from them their Wood, their 
 Hay from the Cocks, open their Barns and waste their 
 Grain. That they take up their Spread Flax and con- 
 vert it to beds. That they take their Cooking Utensils 
 from their Houses, take from [them] their Fruit and 
 their Poultry. That they destroy their Potatoe Yards 
 and their Cornfields." And he prayed for " such relief 
 as Justice and Humanity require." * The Council trans- 
 mitted the petition to d'Estaing, and the Count took 
 steps to make payment for the harm done. Nevertheless 
 in November we find the town voting to petition the 
 General Court " to make good the Dammiges the Town 
 received by the french troops." 
 
 D'Estaing was very anxious to have a redoubt on 
 Point Allerton, which in fact had been proposed by more 
 than one committee of the Legislature. He thought 
 that fifty men would be sufficient to construct and gar- 
 rison the place, but stated that he had already supplied 
 
 *Mass. Archives, Doc. CLXIX, p. 144. 
 
32 The French at Boston 
 
 so many posts he was unable to furnish any more men. 
 This was on September 8th, and four days later the 
 Council gave instructions for Colonel Burbeck to be de- 
 tached with the force mentioned and to undertake the 
 work. 
 
 Washington became interested in the defence of Bos- 
 ton to such an extent that on September 29th he directed 
 Brigadier-General du Portail to proceed to the town and 
 " form a plan from a view of the whole local situation 
 of the place which shall appear to give it the most 
 effectual security that circumstances will permit," keep- 
 ing in mind a co-operation with the French squadron.* 
 The Chief Engineer of the American Army arrived in 
 Boston October 6th, and made an examination of and 
 report on its defenses, which report Heath sent to the 
 Council, with a letter, on the 21st of the month, but 
 what has become of it does not appear. 
 
 It early was made evident that the fortification of the 
 headlands at the entrance of the harbor had not been 
 undertaken with undue haste. August 30th the Select- 
 men of Plymouth sent word to the Council "that a 
 fleet of twenty sail of ships, some of them very large," 
 had been "discovered in the Bay," This resulted in a 
 meeting of the Council at five o'clock the next morning. 
 Steps were taken to convey the news to d'Estaing ; the 
 militia were ordered to assemble with three days' rations, 
 
 * Mass. Archives, Doc. CC. p. 124. 
 
During the Revolution 33 
 
 and a spy boat sent out, in command of one Peter Guyer, 
 to verify the report. 
 
 The report was so generally known as to be printed 
 in the Boston Gazette of August 31st; and Heath says 
 that on that day he, together with " the President of the 
 Council, Gen. Hancock and others, went down the har- 
 bour to confer with the Count D'Estaing." One is, 
 therefore, surprised at the Count's charge that " Gen- 
 eral Heath and the Americans, following their usual 
 custom, denied the existence of the British force, and 
 they advised me in writing that there was not a vessel of 
 the enemy in the bay, when the whole fleet had been 
 there for four days." * Perhaps the communication to 
 which he refers had been written before the arrival of 
 the express from Plymouth. In any event d'Estaing 
 came up to town September ist, and was about to sit 
 down to dinner with Heath when signal guns were heard 
 and the alarm was given by a Mr. John Cutler, who 
 seems to have been on watch from the steeple of the 
 Old South Church, that the fleet was off the harbor. f 
 
 The Count immediately left for his ships, and the 
 militia were ordered in ; but whether the French seemed 
 to be too strongly posted, or the wind was unfavorable, 
 the enemy did not attempt to enter the harbor, and the 
 
 * D'Estaing's Report, Doniol III, p. 458. 
 
 t Heath, Memoirs, p. 205. The Gazette of September 7 says that 
 the appearance of the fleet "was announced by signals and the dis- 
 charge of cannon on the heights of Hull, which were answered at the 
 other posts." 
 
/ 
 
 34 The French at Boston 
 
 next day had disappeared,* Nor did the British again 
 menace Boston until the end of October, and just as 
 d'Estaing was preparing to leave. Then word was re- 
 ceived that Admiral Byron, who had succeeded Howe, 
 was planning an attack upon the town. This time, 
 however, the elements elected to maltreat the English. 
 A tempest sent their vessels into port, many of them in 
 no shape for combat, and d'Estaing slipped away to the 
 West Indies. 
 
 In this storm was lost a now famous vessel, the sixty- 
 four-gun ship Somerset, that "British man-of-war" so 
 picturesquely described by the poet Longfellow in " Paul 
 Revere's Ride : " 
 
 A phantom ship, with each mast and spar 
 Across the moon like a prison bar. 
 
 She was wrecked on Cape Cod November 3, 1778, and 
 all of her crew that survived were captured by the local 
 militia,f 
 
 * As described in the newspapers of the time : " The militia turned 
 out with their usual ardor. The regiment of this town [Boston] im- 
 mediately paraded, making a very respectable and r^artial appearance ; 
 gentlemen of the first character and fortune being under arms." (See 
 the Gazette and Independent Ledger of September 7.) 
 
 In the assignments made by the Council on August 31, Colonel 
 David Cushing's regiment was ordered to Hull, but the next day the 
 various commanders were directed not to proceed to their posts at once 
 but to hold themselves " in readiness to march on the shortest notice." 
 And the immediate disappearance of the enemy seems to have ren- 
 dered unnecessary any fulfillment of the assignments. 
 
 t The prisoners gave the State no little trouble, and it was not 
 known exactly what to do with them. The services of some were ac- 
 
During the Revohition 35 
 
 The authorities in Boston extended to the French 
 every consideration. D'Estaing or some of his officers, 
 as we are told, sat almost every day at General Han- 
 cock's table, much to the discomfiture of Madam Hancock. 
 And there is the story that on one occasion they came 
 down upon her in such force that, in order to meet the 
 situation, she was compelled to send out and milk all 
 the cows on the Common, — an incident which, be it 
 related to the credit of the owners, is said to have 
 amused rather than have angered them. The Count 
 reciprocated by holding a banquet on one of his ships.* 
 But there were other people in Boston to be reckoned 
 with, and on the night of September 8th, 1778, a riot 
 occurred which ended seriously and threatened still more 
 disastrous consequences. 
 
 It seems that the French had set up a bakery for the 
 fleet in the town, and as a result of a refusal to deliver 
 bread, the Frenchmen in charge got into a row with some 
 outsiders and a fight ensued. And two officers of the 
 squadron, Pleville Le Peley and Lieutenant the Cheva- 
 
 cepted on the Alliance, which took Lafayette to France in January, 1779. 
 The frigate was short-handed, the Marquis eager to be on his way, and 
 the course seemed a partial solution of the difficulty. As might have 
 been expected, a mutiny was planned before the ship reached her des- 
 tination, but being seasonably warned, the passengers and officers 
 united were able to quell the mutineers. 
 
 * For an account of this dinner see Magazine of American History, 
 XIX, pp. 507, 508, and Sears, /c7-4« Hancock, p. 260 (note). Mrs. Adams 
 tells of dining with d'Estaing on the Languedoc, and is particular to 
 note the abstemiousness of the French officers. Familiar Letters of 
 John and Abigail Adams (Boston, 1876), p. 342. 
 
36 The Frerwh at Boston 
 
 lier de Saint-Sauveur, who attempted to intercede, were 
 wounded, the latter mortally. Bad enough in itself, the 
 affair was magnified by the rank of the officers concerned, 
 for Saint-Sauveur, who was attached to the Tonnant, 
 was not only an adjutant of the fleet but the first cham- 
 berlain of the King's brother and brother-in-law of the 
 Count de Breugnon, one of d'Estaing's two flag officers.* 
 It was felt that the very existence of the alliance with 
 the French might be at stake, and the authorities were 
 greatly troubled. Guards were ordered to patrol the 
 streets to prevent further disturbance, and the Council 
 promised a reward of three hundred dollars to anyone 
 who should give information against the rioters. But 
 nothing came of it, and it has never been determined 
 just who was responsible for the affray. The morning 
 after, Heath notified the Council that the disturbance 
 was ** between a number of French officers and a num- 
 ber of Sailors or Inhabitants." Later in the same day, 
 when he must have had more detailed information, he 
 wrote d'Estaing that the participants were "a number 
 of Frenchmen belonging to your squadron and a number 
 of American sailors." And he made a similar report to 
 General Washington. 
 
 The situation was one calling for calm judgment, and 
 whatever d'Estaing's qualifications as a naval commander 
 may have been, he exhibited on this occasion a restraint 
 
 * De Breugnon had his flag on the Tonnant, the other " chef d'es- 
 cadre " being de Broves of the Cesar. 
 
During the Revolution 37 
 
 and good sense which will ever make Boston and the 
 whole country his debtors. In his letter to the French 
 admiral, Heath had stated that " some of the hands be- 
 longing to the Marlborough privateer are suspected of 
 being concerned in the riot." The crew of the priva- 
 teer was said to contain British deserters, and d'Estaing 
 was quick to make use of the intimation that the riot 
 was excited by British sympathizers. In his reply to 
 Heath (written on the loth of September) he declared 
 that "our common enemies hesitate at nothing," and 
 Heath was able to write Washington that the Count had 
 assured him that he was " fully satisfyed the Inhabitants 
 had no hand in the affray," much to the relief of the 
 American commander-in-chief, who sagely advised that 
 "all possible means should now be taken to cultivate 
 harmony between the people and seamen, who will not 
 be so easily reconciled as their officers, not having so 
 much sense to direct them." 
 
 The newspapers of the time contain surprisingly little 
 about the incident, but the following communication in 
 the Independent Ledger of September 14 shows how 
 thoroughly the conduct of the French was appre- 
 ciated : — 
 
 The riot which occasioned the issuing a proclamation by 
 the Council of this State, offering an high reward for the 
 discovery and apprehension of those concerned therein, was 
 begun, it's said, by seamen captur'd in British vessels and 
 some of Burgoyne's army who had inlisted as privateers just 
 
38 The French at Boston 
 
 ready to sail. A body of these fellows demanded, we are 
 told, bread of the French bakers who were employed for the 
 supplying the Count D'Estaing's fleet ; being refused, they 
 fell upon the bakers with clubs, and beat them in a most 
 outrageous manner. Two officers of the Count's being ap- 
 prized of the tumult, and attempting to compose the affray 
 were greatly wounded ; one of them is a person of distin- 
 guished family and rank 
 
 We are well informed that his Excellency the Count D'Es- 
 taing, upon hearing of the violence that had been committed 
 .... though much grieved considered the matter in the 
 calmest and most prudent light, and was thoroughly satis- 
 fied that it was highly disagreeable to the inhabitants and 
 that every proper method would be taken for finding out and 
 punishing the offenders. Such prudence and moderation 
 mark this great man and must disappoint the hopes of our 
 enemies, who would be glad that every such incident might 
 prove the means of creating dissentions of a more extensive 
 and important nature. 
 
 A correspondent observes, that there is a striking contrast 
 between the behavior of the British military of this town, 
 and that of the French. The former, though coming from 
 what we formerly regarded as our mother country, and with a 
 professed design to support law, and protect us, yet in a 
 wanton and butcherly manner fired upon the inhabitants of 
 Boston, without any just provocation, before they received 
 any assault that might afford even a pretence to so bloody a 
 procedure ; the latter now become by the oppression and 
 cruelties of Britain our allies and protectors when assaulted 
 themselves by unknown ruffians, have left their protection and 
 
During the Revolution 39 
 
 satisfaction entirely in tlie hands of the civil magistrate. Nay, 
 we have it from good authority, that the General, the Count 
 D'Estaing, has desired that should any inhabitant appear to 
 have been concerned in this affray, he might not be punished, 
 and the centuries at the French baking house were prohibited 
 from using any violence in defending even so necessary an 
 article as bread for their fleet. 
 
 Saint-Sauveur died at Boston on the 15th of Septem- 
 ber. The next day the General Court of Massachu- 
 setts, expressing its detestation of " the Perpetrators and 
 Abettors of this horrid Deed," voted as a mark of 
 respect to the memory of the deceased to attend his 
 body to the place of interment and to " provide a monu- 
 mental Stone to be placed in the burial Ground where 
 his Remains shall be deposited, with such inscription as 
 his Excellency the Count D'Estaing shall order." Col. 
 Thomas Dawes was made a committee to see to the 
 erection of the stone. 
 
 D'Estaing was much affected, but seems to have 
 thought it wiser to have the funeral less public, and the 
 unhappy victim of the brawl was buried at night — it is 
 said in the crypt of King's Chapel, — "dite chapelle du 
 roy," as the secretary of the fleet has it in his account 
 of the burial, quoting which, de Noailles* says that the 
 ceremony exactly conformed with the last wishes of 
 the deceased. 
 
 * Marins et Soldats Fran^ais de Amirique, pp. 47, 48. 
 
40 The French at Bostoti 
 
 Eight sailors of the Tonnant bore the coffin on their shoul- 
 ders. I preceded them with the sexton and grave-digger; 
 the recoUet, M.M. de Borda, de Puysegur and Piervbres fol- 
 lowed ; the servant of the deceased and perhaps two or three 
 Frenchmen closed the procession ; we started in this order 
 at ten o'clock, and arriving at the church called King's 
 Chapel, found the basement of the church illuminated 
 with many candles, without ostentation. The vault was 
 opened and the Reverend Father deposited the remains 
 without ceremony ; the door of the vault having been closed 
 and padlocked, we returned to sign a certificate of interment 
 which I had already drawn up. In fine, what we had been 
 charged to do could not have been done with more precision 
 and exactness.* 
 
 " Could one read anything more cold and lugubrious ? " 
 says the French writer. " What a sad end for a young 
 officer 1 " 
 
 The funeral having taken place, the leaders of the 
 allied parties then apparently endeavored so far as pos- 
 sible to forget the incident and to remove all traces of 
 ill feeling which it may have left. On September 22nd 
 d'Estaing and his officers appeared publicly in Boston 
 in full dress. They were saluted in the harbor and were 
 met upon their landing by a committee of both houses 
 
 * The recollet was a Franciscan monk and de Puysegur an ensign 
 attached to the Languedoc. The " vault " referred to in the account 
 has been thought to be the " strangers' tomb," so called, underneath 
 the porch of King's Chapel. But the Church seems to have no record 
 of the interment, and Foote's Annals of King's Chapel (Boston, 1882 
 and 1896), makes no mention of Saint-Sauveur or of his burial. 
 
During the Revolution 41 
 
 of the Legislature and conducted to the Council Cham- 
 ber. After the reception there they breakfasted with 
 Hancock, and before returning took punch with Heath 
 at headquarters. Perhaps this was the occasion when 
 Madam Hancock made her famous attack on the cows 
 on the Common. 
 
 Three days later the French were given a grand public 
 dinner in Faneuil Hall, which was attended by " up- 
 wards of 500 guests," and at which no less than twenty- 
 three toasts were drunk " under the discharge of cannon." 
 A list of these toasts, taken from Lacour-Gayet, is given 
 below* : — 
 
 1. America. 
 
 2. The King of France. 
 
 3. Congress. 
 
 4. The French Fleet. 
 
 5. Genl. Washington and the American Army. 
 
 6. The Independence of America. 
 
 7. The Alliance between France and America ; may it never be 
 
 broken. 
 
 8. The French Minister to Congress. 
 
 g. Franklin, the American Minister at the Court of France. 
 
 10. Liberty and the Friendship of France. 
 
 11. Commerce, Art, and Agriculture. 
 
 12. M. d'Orvilliers and all his Army. 
 
 1 3. The Count d'Estaing and all the Officers of the French Fleet 
 
 in Boston Harbor. 
 
 14. (By d'Estaing.) The President of the Council and all Amer- 
 
 cans here present. 
 
 * La Marine Militaire sous Louis XVI, p. 173 note. 
 
42 The French at Boston 
 
 15. Monseigneur, the Duke de Chartres. 
 
 16. The Queen of France. 
 
 17. M. Du Chaff ault. 
 
 18. The Marquis de La Fayette. 
 
 19. American Ships and Sailors. 
 
 20. All the Women and Young Girls who have lost their Hus- 
 
 bands and Sweethearts in the Good Cause. 
 
 21. The Duke de Choiseul. 
 
 22. M. de Sartine. 
 
 23. M. de Maurepas.* 
 
 D'Estaing prepared an inscription for the monument 
 to Saint-Sauveur,f and thus, through the wisdom exer- 
 cised by both sides, was closed, for the time being at 
 least, a most unfortunate event. Here is the inscrip- 
 tion : — 
 
 This monument has been erected in consequence of a 
 resolution of the State of Massachusetts Bay the i6th Sept. 
 1778 in memory of Chevalier de St. Sauveur, First Cham- 
 berlain of His Royal Highness, Monseigneur Count d'Artois, 
 brother of His Majesty, the King of France. 
 
 This officer, an Adjutant of the French fleet and a Lieu- 
 tenant of the Tonnant, after having had the glory of risking 
 
 * The dinner was authorized by a vote of the General Court passed 
 on September 22, and the next day the Council directed the Board of 
 War to supply the dinner committee with such articles as it might ap- 
 ply for. The Board seems to have furnished little more than the wines 
 and liquors and the nails for the tables ; and Hancock's biographers 
 have asserted that although Boston got the credit, the dinner was paid 
 for by John Hancock. (Cf. A. B. Brown in John Hancock, His Book 
 (Boston, 1898), p. 229, and Lorenzo Sears, John Hancock The Pictur- 
 esque Patriot (Boston, 1912), p. 260.) 
 
 t As contained in the so-called Log Book of the Languedoc, it is 
 dated Sept. 28, 1778. 
 
Dtiring the Revolution 43 
 
 his life for the United States, became in the performance of 
 his duty the victim of a tumult caused by the evil minded. 
 Dying with the same devotion to America, the ties of duty 
 and sympathy which bind his compatriots to the City of 
 Boston have thus been drawn tighter. May all efforts to 
 separate France and America end thus. Such will be the 
 prayer in the centuries to come of all Frenchmen and Amer- 
 icans whose eyes shall fall upon this mausoleum of a young 
 man taken from his friends who may be consoled at his loss 
 by seeing such funeral flowers spread upon his tomb. 
 
 This inscription proposed in Council by the Count d'Es- 
 taing, commanding the first squadron sent by the King of 
 France to his allies, has been engraved on this stone by or- 
 der of Colonel Thomas Dawes, designated for this purpose 
 by the Government. 
 
 The Admiral caused copies of the inscription to be 
 distributed in the fleet, that his men might know what 
 had been done ; but Washington's advice that peace be 
 restored between the people and the sailors did not 
 prove to be easily carried out. Rows are said to have 
 occurred on the 26th and 27th of September, and on 
 October 5th there was a street fight between the French 
 and "some American seamen," followed by secret hints 
 that "a much greater disturbance" would take place on 
 the next night ; whereupon the Council ordered Heath 
 to call out the troops, and intrusted to the Sheriff of 
 Suffolk County the not very enviable duty of attending 
 the troops to see " that no unlawful measure be taken 
 in Quelling the Riot." 
 
44 The French at Boston 
 
 On the evening of October 12th the American brig 
 Hazard came into the harbor and dropped anchor im- 
 mediately alongside the schooner Dolphin, commanded 
 by M. Bouguier, an officer of the French squadron. Al- 
 though hailed and requested to move, the Americans 
 paid no attention except to reply in terms characterized 
 chiefly by force. The matter was then called to the 
 attention of the authorities by the French consul, who 
 feared the outcome, and the Council promptly told Capt. 
 Williams to move the Hazard at once, and "to order his 
 men not to treat the men on board the Dolphin with 
 any opprobrious language in time to come." * 
 
 While clashes with visiting seamen have taken place 
 even in our day, the incidents we have mentioned reveal 
 the low regard of the American sailor of 1778 for his 
 French brother, and doubtless the " frog-eater " epithet 
 played its part in the proceedings. The energetic meas- 
 ures of the authorities, however, prevented further seri- 
 ous outbreaks, and it was not long before the French 
 left for less vigorous climes. 
 
 The Saint-Sauveur incident was rediscovered, as it 
 were, a few years ago, through an inquiry made by one 
 of the founders of the French Society of the Sons of 
 the American Revolution, asking where in Boston the 
 
 * Mass. Archives, Doc. CLXIX, p. 217. The Hazard was a Massa- 
 chusetts brig of 16 or i8 guns, commanded by John Foster Williams. 
 Built in 1777 she had a short but brilliant career, and was burned in 
 the Penobscot Aug. 1779 to avoid falling into the hands of the British. 
 
During the Revohition 45 
 
 memorial to the Chevalier was located. As a result 
 Bostonians had a rude awakening. While the story of 
 the riot was not unfamiliar to local antiquarians, much 
 did not seem to be known about the final action of the 
 Court, taken out of respect to the memory of the vic- 
 tim, and less could be told about the place of his inter- 
 ment. 
 
 Upon an investigation 125 years after the resolve 
 was passed, it was found that it had never been carried 
 out. Just why, is a mystery. The writer saw nothing 
 in the State Archives to indicate that Col. Dawes ever 
 recalled the matter to the attention of the Court, al- 
 though he seems to have conferred with d'Estaing 
 about the inscription. Apparently the trying labors of 
 the authorities during the remaining years of the war 
 and at the birth of the new nation, served but too well 
 to cause them entirely to forget an affair which they had 
 every reason to hope had been ended for all time. And 
 it was not long before the Americans of 1778 found 
 themselves at war with their late allies. 
 
 Through the efforts of Capt. A. A. Folsom of Brook- 
 line, to whom the embarrassing inquiry above-mentioned 
 was addressed, the matter was brought to the attention 
 of the Legislature, and a committee was appointed which 
 made an investigation and a report,* in which may be 
 found many of the documents relating to Saint-Sauveur 
 
 * Senate, No. 336, April, 1905. 
 
46 The French at Boston 
 
 and his death, referred to in this paper. And on June 
 26, 1906, a Resolve* was signed by the Governor, au- 
 thorizing the committee " to cause to be erected on 
 behalf of the Commonwealth a monument, with a suit- 
 able inscription, in the cemetery of King's Chapel in 
 Boston, subject to the grant of a site therein by the 
 City of Boston," and at an expense " not exceeding 
 fifteen hundred dollars." 
 
 Now almost seven years have passed, none of the 
 money has been withdrawn from the Treasury, Capt. 
 Folsom has died, and the monument pledged by the 
 State has yet to be raised. It has been shown in the 
 case of Lewis de Maresquelle that Massachusetts can 
 keep a contract with the living in spirit and letter. 
 May we not inquire whether a promise made in memory 
 of the dead is less sacred ? 
 
 D'Estaing left Boston in November, 1778, a part of 
 his fleet getting away on the 3rd and the balance on the 
 4th, and no considerable French force again appeared in 
 the harbor until nearly the end of the Revolution.! In 
 
 * Chap. 104 of the Resolves of the year 1906. 
 
 t The storm of November 2 gave d'Estaing the opportunity to 
 escape the British for which he was waiting; but the departure of the 
 French fleet was not uneventful. The ill-fated Z^l^ grounded hard, 
 and the Protecteur and Languedoc behaved so badly with their new 
 masts that it was feared they would be wrecked. D'Estaing wrote that 
 the flagship was never in greater danger. She would not steer, and 
 "an irresistible current pushed her ashore." Only by immediately 
 anchoring was the vessel saved. One familiar with the tides at Hull 
 can easily believe the admiral's story. 
 
During the Revolution 47 
 
 the interval, however, the town saw not a few French 
 notables, and Breck says that the war brought so many 
 French ships to Boston, " sometimes to refit and some- 
 times to escape the enemy," that a permanent local 
 agent to collect supplies became necessary, and that his 
 father was honored with the position. Indeed, Boston 
 seems to have been regarded by the French as the best 
 place for the equipment of their vessels. 
 
 In August, 1779, the town was visited by the new 
 French minister, the Chevalier de La Luzerne, who ad- 
 dressed the Council and was introduced to the members, 
 and afterwards tendered the invariable " public dinner." 
 Not quite a year later (April 28, 1780), Lafayette re- 
 turned from France on the French frigate Hermione, 
 Capt. La Touche, bringing news of the coming of 
 Rochambeau and his army. There was a popular out- 
 burst over the young Frenchman, and he was received 
 on his landing by an escort of Continental officers, and 
 by them accompanied to his lodgings, when he had paid 
 his respects to the Legislature. But the Marquis was a 
 man of action, and he left almost immediately for the 
 American army, not to return until Yorktown had fallen. 
 After his departure the gentlemen of Boston gave a ball 
 to the French and American officers in the town. 
 
 Balch* mentions the arrival at Boston during the 
 year 1781 of several vessels bringing funds from France, 
 
 * The French hi America, I : pp. 140, 141 and 148. 
 
48 The French at Boston 
 
 — the frigates Astree (Capt, La P^rouse), January 25th, 
 and Concorde (Capt. Tanouarn), May 6th, and the two- 
 decker Sagittaire in June ;* and the Boston Gazette of 
 September 10 makes note of the entry, four days pre- 
 viously, of the Engageante frigate " with a Quantity of 
 Cash." Her commander was one of the four Kergariou 
 brothers who served in the French navy during the war. 
 
 The Sagittaire escorted a convoy of 633 recruits and 
 four companies of artillery, and there returned on the 
 Concorde the Viscount Rochambeau (son of the French 
 commander-in-chief) and Barras de Saint-Laurent, the 
 newly commissioned commander of the squadron at 
 Newport. With them came also the Baron du Bourg, 
 who wrote a description of Boston ; but the arrival of 
 these notables seems to have made little stir in the 
 town. 
 
 It must not be supposed that during this period the 
 British forgot the place; the fact is quite the opposite. 
 The ships of His Britannic Majesty frequently cruised 
 in the bay and along the coast, picking up valuable 
 prizes, to the great detriment of the town's merchants. 
 The French were sometimes asked to go out against 
 them, and in May, 1780, La Touche coasted as far east 
 as the Penobscot. Later in the same month he sailed 
 from Boston to the southward and fought a drawn battle 
 
 * The latter was de Rions' old command which had been detached 
 from the main fleet in April, 1780, to re-enforce the squadron at Rhode 
 Island, and was now commanded by Montluc de La Bourdonnaye. 
 
During the Revolution 49 
 
 with a British frigate, during which he was wounded in 
 the arm.* 
 
 September ist, 1781, an English sixty-gun ship, out 
 of Halifax, held up, at the very entrance of Boston Har- 
 bor, a French thirty-two, the frigate Magicienne, convoy- 
 ing a mast-ship from the Piscataqua. The Frenchman 
 was forced to fight, and, though he saved his convoy, 
 had to strike after an engagement of less than an hour, 
 during which he had thirty-two killed and fifty-four 
 wounded, while the British reported but one killed and 
 one wounded, — the usual discrepancy when a frigate 
 battled with a ship-of-the-line.f All the time there 
 were several French vessels lying in the harbor, but 
 they seem to have been unprepared for action, and the 
 Englishman not only took his prize but got away 
 with it. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the battle took place so far 
 within the harbor that it created no little excitement. 
 
 * In July, 1 78 1, La Touche in the Hermione, and La Perouse in the 
 Astree, fought a splendid battle with five smaller English vessels, and 
 captured two of them. Later in the war the former captain, while in 
 command of the frigate L'Aigle, was taken, with his vessel, under cir- 
 cumstances not very creditable to him. But he lived to attain the 
 rank of vice-admiral in the French navy. After the war La Perouse 
 was sent out by the French Government on a voyage of discovery. 
 His two vessels made extensive explorations for three years, when they 
 suddenly disappeared, and their fate has never been determined. 
 
 t Clowes' History of the Royal Navy, IV (1899), P- 74- T^® cap- 
 tain of the English vessel was Andrew Snape Douglas, and of the 
 French vessel, de La Bouchetiere. The ship fired a broadside of 534 
 pounds to the frigate's 174, and carried 170 more men. 
 
50 The French at Boston 
 
 and was plainly visible to the people who gathered to 
 watch it from the tops of houses and the heights in the 
 town, the stories of the affair are both meagre and con- 
 flicting.* In the local accounts the name of the British 
 vessel is incorrectly given, which, perhaps, is not sur- 
 prising. De Noailles says that the ship was the Chat- 
 ham, and in this he is borne out by the latest English 
 authority. He also says that the Marquis de Kergariou 
 pursued the British, attacked the Chatham, and made a 
 clean sweep of the waters around Boston, for which 
 service the merchants of the town gave him a " splendid 
 dinner," at which a number of healths were drunk "to 
 the noise of salvos of cannon according to the custom 
 of the country." Whether Kergariou did all this alone 
 may be questioned, for his command (the Engageante) 
 did not arrive in Boston until September 6th. The 
 Gazette of September 3rd says that the French vessels 
 which went after the English ship were the Astrde and 
 the Sagittaire. Kergariou may have joined and cruised 
 with them, and we know that on October 4th the mer- 
 chants of Boston gave an entertainment in Faneuil Hall 
 
 * Breck says {^Recollections, pp. 44, 45) that both ships were close 
 to the lighthouse, that he ran to the top of Beacon Hill to witness 
 the fight, and that it was not until four in the afternoon, and when 
 captor and captured were out of sight, that the other French vessels 
 started in pursuit, — the battle having taken place early in the morning. 
 But he had forgotten the year when the fight took place and is uncertain 
 about the vessels. That his Recollections are not always correct is 
 evidenced by the fact that he confuses Bougainville with Raimondis 
 as the officer who lost an arm on the C^sar in August, 1778. 
 
During the Revolution 51 
 
 to •* the Commodore " and officers of the French marine 
 in the harbor and to M. L'Etombe, the then recently 
 appointed Consul-General of France for the four eastern- 
 most States of America. The party, numbering about 
 one hundred and fifty, met at the Coffee House and 
 Bunch of Grapes Tavern and went in procession to the 
 Hall, where they dined at three tables. The Gazette 
 of the 8th of October has a list of seventeen toasts 
 which were given after the dinner, " at the interval of 
 5 minutes and accompanied with a discharge of Cannon." 
 One might wonder what would be the effect of so many 
 healths at such short intervals, but the account states 
 that "notwithstanding the largeness of the Company, 
 the most perfect Order and Decorum was preserved 
 thro' the whole." 
 
 The toasts were as follows : — 
 
 1 . Congress and the United States of America. 
 
 2. His Most Christian Majesty, the King of France, 
 
 3. His Most Catholic Majesty, the King of Spain. 
 
 4. Their High Mightinesses, the States General. 
 
 5. His Excellency, the Governor, and Commonwealth of Mass. 
 
 6. His Excellency, Gen'l Washington, and the Army. 
 
 7. The American Ambassadors at Foreign Courts. 
 
 8. His Excellency, the Chevalier de La Luzerne, Minister of 
 
 France, 
 g. His Excellency, Count de Rochambeau, and the French 
 Army. 
 
 10. His Excellency, Count de Grasse, and the French Navy. 
 
 1 1 . His Excellency, Count de Barras. 
 
52 The French at Boston 
 
 12. May the Brave Remains of the American Navy Rise Superior 
 
 to their Numerous Enemies. 
 
 13. The Honorable Consul General for the Eastern Department. 
 
 14. The Commodore and Officers of the King's Ships in this 
 
 Harbor. 
 
 15. May the Union between France and America be as Lasting 
 
 as Time. 
 
 16. The Immortal Memory of Those Who Have Bravely Fallen 
 
 in Defending the Rights of America. 
 
 17. May America be as Successful in her Commerce as she is 
 
 Happy in her Allies.* 
 
 The news that Cornwallis was taken had reached Bos- 
 ton when Lafayette returned in December, 1781. The 
 reception of the Marquis was a veritable ovation, and 
 well it might be, for the aid of France, for which he was 
 so largely responsible, had proven its worth. | And 
 upon the birth of the Dauphin, a few months later, the 
 American people had an opportunity to express their 
 gratitude to the French king. The event had been 
 celebrated by the American army on the 31st of May. 
 Hancock waited until he received " Official Annuncia- 
 tion " of the birth, and then (June 3, 1782), informed 
 the General Court, concluding that he would concur in 
 any measure which the members might think proper 
 
 * The evening before, Hancock had invited the Consul, the Com- 
 modore and his officers and some " Gentlemen and Ladies of Distinc- 
 tion " to a supper, before which " the Company within and the Spectators 
 without " were entertained with fireworks " exhibited on the Green 
 before His Excellency's House." 
 
 t Lafayette sailed from Boston December 23, again on the Al- 
 liance. 
 
During the Revolution 53 
 
 "for expressing in some public manner our Common 
 Joy upon this Auspicious Occasion." The Court sent 
 back word that while they shared in the Governor's 
 "lively joy," they would like his views as to how it 
 could best be expressed "in a public manner." To this 
 Hancock replied that he felt himself "under peculiar 
 Difficulties," inasmuch as he and his Council might 
 " either fall short of or exceed " the Court's expecta- 
 tions, and he accordingly left it to the Court to select 
 the mode of celebration "most agreeable to the Occa- 
 sion." After considering the merits of a public dinner, 
 the Court finally decided that " a decent Collation " at 
 the public expense would be more suitable, to be held in 
 the Senate Chamber, attended by the Governor and 
 Council, both branches of the Assembly and "such 
 Gentlemen of Rank " as his Excellency might invite, 
 and accompanied with "such Firings as are usual in 
 Similar Occasions." 
 
 The celebration took place Wednesday, June 12, 1782, 
 and the newspaper account says : — 
 
 The morning was introduced by ringing the bells of the 
 several churches, and discharging the cannon from the cas- 
 tle and ships in the harbour. At noon a collation was 
 provided in the Senate chamber, when the doors were open, 
 and the Rulers of the Commonwealth, together with a crowd 
 of citizens convened to unite their tokens jaf joy. A number 
 of toasts were given adapted to the purpose, and the whole 
 assembly notified their happiness on the bright occasion. 
 
54 The Fremh at Boston 
 
 At evening the house of his Excellency and other gentlemen 
 of character were most elegantly illuminated, and a number 
 of rockets, wheels, beehives, and other fire works displayed 
 in the common ; while the French, Continental and State 
 ships (some of which were beautifully hung with lanthorns) 
 fired in the channel. Indeed every order of men, in its own 
 way, shouted benediction to the Dauphin, which is a com- 
 pliment not only upon the patriotism, but the good sense of 
 the people, who did well to consider what importance (in an 
 hereditary kingdom) is the Dauphin ; who not only from his 
 infancy may be educated for the throne ; but (life preserved) 
 may save immense bloodshed, which so often happens where 
 the right of a crown is disputed. This alone is a reason 
 why even republicans, as far as they are friends of man- 
 kind, may rejoice when an heir to a great empire is born.* 
 
 Upon the surrender of de Grasse to Lord Rodney the 
 command of the French fleet in the West Indies fell to 
 Commodore, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, \AiO had been 
 the flag ofHcer of the rear division of the French in the 
 battle. Vaudreuil rallied his ships at Cape Francis (now 
 Cape Haitien) and on the 4th of July with thirteen ships 
 of the line, three frigates, a cutter and two American 
 brigs, sailed for North America to refit. Arriving at the 
 mouth of the Chesapeake, he detached a frigate on the 
 26th of July with a message to Rochambeau, informing 
 the Count that the fleet was on its way to Boston and, 
 
 * Boston Gazette, June 17, 1782, and a similar account may be found 
 in the Independent Ledger of the same date. 
 
During the Revolution 55 
 
 receiving the Count's reply, headed north once more, 
 and reached Boston on the 9th of August, 1782. 
 
 Of the fleet which now assembled in the harbor at 
 least four carried eighty or more guns, the other liners 
 being seventy-fours.* Some came to anchor at Nan- 
 tasket, some in King's Road, and two came up near the 
 town.f One of the latter was the flagship Triom- 
 phant, and Breck says that she was placed directly 
 opposite Long Wharf and hove down by means of two 
 brigs stationed on her starboard side. He says he played 
 around her in a sail boat when she was in that position, 
 and that from the shore her exposed copper bottom 
 looked like "a green island." The other vessel which 
 moored in the inner harbor seems to have been the 
 Couronne. 
 
 As was the case with d'Estaing, Vaudreuil had not 
 been long in the harbor when it was feared that his fleet 
 might be attacked by the British, and the fortifications 
 at the harbor's entrance once more assumed importance. 
 This time, however, the State furnished the men to do 
 the work. Vaudreuil had informed Rochambeau that 
 
 * The fleet was made up, according to de Noailles (p. 289, note) as 
 follows: The Triomphant 80, Couronne 84 (at p. 406 he says 80), 
 Auguste 80, Due de Bourgogne 80, Neptune 80 (at p. 406 he says 74), 
 and the Northumberland, Magnifique, Souverain, Brave, Pluton, Hercule, 
 Bourgogne, and Citoyen 74; the frigates N^reide and Amazone 36, the 
 Iris 32, a 14 gun cutter and two 16 gun brigs. 
 
 t Deacon Tudor' s Diary (Boston, 1896) p. 94. He mentions how- 
 ever only ten " large " ships. But the newspapers give a list of thirteen 
 ships of the line, corresponding with the French accounts. 
 
$6 The Frefich at Boston 
 
 he was short of artillery and grenadiers and, anticipating 
 the wants of the French Commodore, Washington wrote 
 Hancock to be prepared to furnish him with such militia 
 as he might call for. When on September 7th Vaud- 
 reuil urged the Governor to assist him in defending 
 "the passages to Boston" Hancock at once complied. 
 In his request Vaudreuil stated that he had established 
 batteries on Nantasket peninsular and on the bordering 
 islands, but that his engineers and artillery officers 
 thought it necessary to throw up other works to pro- 
 tect his flanks, and he asked for intrenching tools and 
 materials, and for 250 men.* 
 
 These men were stationed at Hull, and as no provision 
 was made for their keep they were supplied out of the 
 French commissary, October 21st Vaudreuil wrote 
 Sam Adams, acknowledging the help the Common- 
 wealth had rendered him and advising the Senate that 
 as it did not seem likely any movement would be made 
 by the enemy, he had concluded to suspend work on the 
 forts. Whereupon the militia were withdrawn and 
 arrangements made to reimburse the French. Probably 
 little more was done at this time than to repair and 
 strengthen the existing defences, f 
 
 * Mass. Archives, Doc. CCIV, p. 261. The State accounts mention 
 230 militia, but Vaudreuil always referred to the force as "workmen." 
 
 t Cf. de Noailles, p. 324. " Put in repair through the orders of the 
 Marquis de Vaudreuil," said a French officer, speaking of the works on 
 the islands. (Letter to L'Etombe, the French Consul, Dec. 28, 1782; 
 Mass. Archives, CLXXII, p. 266.) "Put in repair and augmented by 
 
During the Revolution 57 
 
 The vessels of Vaudreuil's fleet were new to Boston, 
 and in the list of principal officers there is but one name 
 which recalls the four years previous, that of d 'Albert 
 de Rions, who with new laurels now returned in com- 
 mand of the seventy-four Pluton, a ship which he had 
 nobly handled under the unfortunate Count de Grasse.* 
 But all of Vaudreuil's ships-of-the-line had participated 
 in the Battle of the Saints, for the most part under the 
 captains who brought them to Boston. De Grasse 
 particularly recommended the Marquis for his work in 
 the battle, and Charitte, of the Bourgogne, and Mac- 
 Carthy Martaigue,t of the Magnifique, won praise for 
 their actions. The Couronne was gallantly fought by 
 her commander, the Count Mithon de Genouilly ; and 
 the new captain of the Auguste,J the Count Vaudreuil, 
 
 Marquis Vaudreuil," wrote L'Etombe to the Court in March, 1783, re- 
 ferring to the works on Gallup's Island and Nantasket peninsular. 
 (Mass. Archives, CCXXXIX, p. 136.) These letters called attention to 
 the thefts from the fortifications which took place after the departure 
 of the fleet. Indeed, the French seemed to have felt a peculiar interest 
 in the works " erected by the Count d'Estaing." 
 
 * Captain Mahan points out that although the Pluton was the ex- 
 treme rear ship of the French line in the Count's last battle, she never- 
 theless had reached a position near the commander-in-chief before he 
 struck. {Injluence of Sea Power, p. 502.) 
 
 t This man's name is written so many ways in the accounts that it 
 is hard to say what is the correct spelling. I have adopted the form 
 used by Lacour-Gayet, the most recent authority. 
 
 X The commander of the Auguste in the battle was Bougainville, 
 whom de Grasse seriously, but unwisely, blamed for the defeat of the 
 French. The other new commanders with Vaudreuil were Puget-Bras 
 on the Hercule, and de Medine on the Northumberland. In the battle 
 the latter had commanded the Reflechi, and the Count Vaudreuil the 
 Septre. Neither of the vessels last mentioned came to Boston. 
 
$8 The French at Boston 
 
 brother of the commander-in-chief, had been in the 
 thick of it on another vessel, when de Grasse went down 
 to defeat. 
 
 Vaudreuil stayed a long time at Boston awaiting the 
 arrival of Rochambeau's victorious army, and during 
 his sojourn he was joined at intervals by other vessels 
 until, at his departure in December, the fleet under his 
 command, as given by de Noailles, numbered thirteen 
 liners and nine frigates. Among the new-comers was 
 Suffren's old sixty-four, the Fantasque, which had been 
 disarmed at Brest in November, 1779, and turned into 
 a transport, and was now used as a hospital ship. She 
 was in such a state of dilapidation as to be unable to 
 leave with the rest of the fleet, and was left at Provi- 
 dence, R. I. Whether she ever got as far as Boston is 
 questionable.* 
 
 Almost as soon as Vaudreuil arrived, the authorities 
 greeted him and his officers at a public dinner, held 
 Wednesday, August 21, 1782, the Council stipulating 
 "that Mr. Marston be contracted with to provide for 
 the Entertainment."! When the French army reached 
 
 * The following interesting advertisement appeared in September 
 (1782) issues of some of the Boston newspapers : 
 
 " The Ship of the Line Fantasque belonging to his Most Christian 
 Majesty at this Time unnecessary for his Service is to be Let with her 
 Appurtenances, Rigging and Tackling, as she now lies in the River of 
 Providence. The Consul General of France, residing in Boston, will 
 receive any reasonable Proposition on that head." 
 
 t The dinner was held at Faneuil Hall and attended by " more than 
 250 persons," and the whole celebration seems to have been a pretty 
 noisy affair. Coming up the harbor the guests were saluted from the 
 
During the Revolution 59 
 
 Boston, four months later, the vote in respect of the 
 dinner to the staff and field officers, which the Council 
 unanimously agreed " was not only expedient but neces- 
 sary," was even more explicit, viz. : that it be held " at 
 Colonel Marston's at the Bunch of Grapes in State 
 Street."* 
 
 The merchants presented Vaudreuil with an address 
 to which he graciously replied. There were dinners on 
 the Triomphant, and Due de Bourgogne and Vaudreuil 
 won the praise of the community by sending ashore 
 three engines and two hundred men when a fire occurred 
 at a " Brew-House " in the north part of the town. Only 
 one incident occurred to mar the joy of the celebrations, 
 and that took place at an early date and was happily 
 mended. On entering or moving about in the harbor the 
 seventy-four Magnifique, in charge of a Boston pilot, was 
 run upon the western end of Lovell's Island, at a place 
 since sometimes called Man of War Bar, where she re- 
 mained fast and became a total loss, though her crew 
 and stores were saved. f 
 
 At the time there was building at Portsmouth, N. H., 
 the seventy-four gun ship America, authorized in No- 
 Castle and from Fort Hill. Received by Governor and Council in 
 the Senate Chamber they " proceeded to the Hall through a croud of 
 spectators " where they were again saluted. And after the dinner there 
 were the usual toasts with more " discharge of cannon." Independent 
 Chrofiicle, Aug. 26th, 1782. 
 
 ♦Wednesday, December nth, 1782. 
 
 t Tudor enters the event in his Diary under date of August 14. 
 The same vessel had very nearly sunk off Savannah in 17791 being 
 saved only by the most prodigious efforts. 
 
6o The French at Boston 
 
 vember, 1776, the first seventy-four constructed for the 
 United States Navy, and on September 3d, 1782, Con- 
 gress presented her to Louis XVI to replace the Mag- 
 nifique. The principal sufferer in the transaction was 
 John Paul Jones, to whom Congress had voted the com- 
 mand of the vessel June 26, 1781, and who had superin- 
 tended her construction off and on from that time. Just 
 before the gift to the French King, Jones had celebrated 
 on the ship the birth of the Dauphin and the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, supplying the guns and powder 
 for the former occasion at his own expense. He was 
 somewhat put out that nothing was said of him when 
 the presentation was made,* and on November 29th he 
 requested leave of Congress to join the French squad- 
 ron. The request was readily granted, and Jones was 
 commended for his zeal and recommended to the Mar- 
 quis de Vaudreuil. He came to Boston, was received by 
 Vaudreuil with distinction, and left on the Triomphant. 
 
 The America was launched November 5, 1782, and 
 turned over by Jones to McCarthy Martaigue, who had 
 commanded the lost liner. A few of the French ships 
 — including the Pluton and the Auguste — appear to 
 have been at Portsmouth on the occasion, and to have 
 remained there for some little time ; but it was several 
 months before the new vessel was ready for sea and 
 she did not leave with the fleet. The reader will 
 
 * See his letter to Robert Morris [October lo, 1783], vn John Pattl 
 Jones CoTnmemoratio?i (Washington, 1907) at pp. 162, 163. 
 
During the Revolution 6i 
 
 doubtless be surprised to learn from Lacour-Gayet that 
 although built with great care, the first American 
 seventy-four at the end of but four years' service was 
 in such condition " because of the poor quality of her 
 wood " that the French Minister of Marine decided to 
 demolish the ship and to replace her with another seventy- 
 four of the same name.* Some say, however, that she 
 was captured by the British off Toulon, June i, i794t 
 
 The pilot of the Magnifique afterwards became the 
 sexton of the New North Church, and the story is a 
 familiar one that he more than once found this couplet 
 chalked on the meeting-house door : 
 
 Don't you run this ship ashore 
 As you did the seventy-four. 
 
 The French troops reached Boston early in December, 
 1782, and the town witnessed a real military pageant, 
 sufficiently described by Drake in his '« Old Landmarks 
 and Historic Personages of Boston." The troops in- 
 
 * La Marine Militaire sous Louis XVI, p. 417, note; Cf. Breck, 
 Recollections, p. 46. " She was built of common oak, had been long on 
 the stocks, and I think I heard it said that she never went to sea after 
 her arrival at Brest." 
 
 t See Walter H. Fentress, Centennial History, Portsmouth Navy 
 Yard (1875), pp. 27-29; Emmons, Statistical History, U. S. Navy, p. 4. 
 But Preble says this is a mistake, and that the ship captured in Lord 
 Howe's engagement was a new ship launched a short time previous. 
 Capt. George Henry Preble in N. E. Hist, and Gen'l Reg. XXII, 393, 
 at pp. 397, 398. Although an unusually large vessel, Preble says that 
 on account of her peculiar lines the America, with lower decks closed, 
 presented the appearance "of a delicate frigate." And he quotes a 
 description of her as given by John Paul Jones. Ibid., p. 399. 
 
62 TJie French at Boston 
 
 eluded the bulk of the force that Rochambeau had led 
 to victory in the struggle for the independence of the 
 English colonies, and they were the flower of the French 
 army. The commander-in-chief had parted with his 
 men at Providence, leaving it to Baron de Viom^nil to 
 accept the plaudits of the enthusiastic Bostonians. Re- 
 views, receptions, dinners and balls were the order of 
 the day, and the Baron was given an address of wel- 
 come. For the French soldiers, however, the fighting 
 was not over. France had need of them elsewhere, and 
 they were embarked on the ships as soon as possible.* 
 
 Under date of December 24th, Heath wrote in his 
 Memoirs, " His most Christian Majesty's fleet under the 
 command of the Marquis de Vaudreuil came to sail in 
 King and Nantasket Roads, and went out to sea having 
 the army under the command of General Viom^nil on 
 board." f And so ended a most interesting chapter in 
 the History of Boston. 
 
 * For the disposition of the troops on the various ships see de Noail- 
 les, pp. 407-409. The troops which were to have gone on the Fan- 
 tasque were after^vards taken by the America. 
 
 t Stone says {Our French Allies, p. 530) that the Auguste and Plu- 
 ton with the frigates Amazone and Clairvoyant sailed from Ports- 
 mouth, N. H. 
 
Dufing the Revolution 
 
 63 
 
 NOTES 
 
 The Fleet under the Command of the Marquis 
 
 DE VaUDREUIL at THE TiME OF HIS 
 
 Departure from Boston. 
 {De Noailles^ Marins et Soldats Franqais en Amirique, p. 406). 
 
 Ships : 
 
 
 
 
 Le Triomphant 
 
 80 guns 
 
 de Montcabrier 
 
 -' L'Auguste 
 
 80 
 
 (( 
 
 Comte de Vaudreuil 
 
 Le Brave 
 
 74 
 
 (( 
 
 Comte d'Amblimont 
 
 Le Souverain 
 
 74 
 
 (( 
 
 Commandeur de Glandev^s 
 
 La Couronne 
 
 80 
 
 (( 
 
 Comte de Mithon de Gen 
 ouilly 
 
 y Le Pluton 
 
 74 
 
 K 
 
 d'Albert de Rions 
 
 Le Duc-de-Burgogne 
 
 80 
 
 U 
 
 de Coriolis d'Espinouse 
 
 Le Neptune 
 
 74 
 
 (( 
 
 Renaud d'Aleins 
 
 Le Citoyen 
 
 74 
 
 « 
 
 Chevalier d'Ethy 
 
 ■^ La Bourgogne 
 
 74 
 
 (( 
 
 Chevalier de Charitte 
 
 Le Northumberland 
 
 74 
 
 <l 
 
 Chevalier de M^dine 
 
 L'Hercule 
 
 74 
 
 (( 
 
 Chevalier du Puget-Bras 
 
 Le Fantasque 
 
 
 
 de Vaudor^ 
 
64 The French at Boston 
 
 Frigates : 
 
 
 
 La N^rdide 
 
 40 ' 
 
 ' Froger de I'Eguille 
 
 L'Amazone 
 
 36 ' 
 
 ' de Gaston 
 
 L' Isle-de-France 
 
 
 Elyot 
 
 Le Clairvoyant 
 
 
 d'Achd 
 
 La Reine-de-France 
 
 
 
 L'All^geance 
 
 
 
 Le Shirley 
 
 
 
 Le Warwick 
 
 
 
 La Prudence 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 Report of the Committee on the Fortifications in 
 Boston Harbor, 1777. 
 
 {Massachusetts Archives — Documents, Vol. 137, p. 142). 
 
 State of Maffachufetts-Bay 
 
 In the Houfe of Reprefentatives, Janry 31st 1777. 
 The Comtee of Fortification, appointed by a Refolve of the 
 General Court of the 15th Inst, to make report, to this Court, of 
 the prefent State of the Fortifications & other works of Defence 
 in & near the Harbour of Bofton, & what they judge further 
 neceffary to be immediately done in order to put faid Harbour 
 into a better ftate of Defence — And alfo to Report what number 
 of Men & Guns they apprehend neceffary to defend the Same ; 
 & Report a General Plan of Defence in Cafe of an Attac ; RE- 
 PORT 
 
 Hull That at Hull, is a Pentagonal Fort, well conflrufled, 
 
 & nearly finifhed ; within the Fort is a very good 
 Well ; a good Ditch on the outfide, friezed on the 
 Berme, but the Glacis not finifhed ; in the Fort is 
 wanted a Blind, a Magazine, a Guard-Houfe & two 
 
During the Revolution 65 
 
 Barracks ; on the outfide is wanted a Bridge, Covered- 
 Way & Place of Arms; & the Fort has 16 Embra- 
 fures. There are alfo two Batteries well conftrufted, 
 open to the Fort, but well defended againft the Chan- 
 nel ; one of thefe has 5 Embrafures, but wants another 
 to be added, to rake Stony-Beach; the other has 8 ^^^^ 
 Embrafures. At Hull, is a good Hofpital, diftant on Whether 
 the outfide of the Fort, with a Guard-Houfe, & Bar- Strawberry- 
 racks sufficient for 6 or 700 Men befides barracking j^;"g^^''j7'^'^„^' 
 in old Houfes &c. — Befides thefe works, there ought the Great 
 to be a Redoubt on the Weftern Hill, containing room Brewster? 
 enough for about 100 Men, & 5 or 6 Field-Pieces in 
 it — and there alfo ought to be a Battery, on Point- 
 Alderton, of 3 or 4 heavy Canon, open to point-alder- 
 ton Hill, upon which there ought to be a Block-Houfe 
 with Barrack-room enough for 150 Men, and 8 Field- 
 Pieces in its top, with a good Breaft-Work. And 
 perhaps there ought to be at Hull another Battery, or 
 one of thefe enlarged, which may preclude the neceffity 
 of heavy Cannon in the Fort. 
 
 That on Pettick's-Ifland, upon the great Hill, there Pettick's isl'd 
 ought to be a Redoubt with 6 or 8 pieces in it & 
 Barracking enough for 150 Men: And this Should 
 command a Battery, on the Eafl-Head, of 4 or 5 
 Pieces of heavy Cannon. 
 
 That on Hoff's Neck, on the Main, there ought to Hoff's-Neck 
 be a Redoubt with Barrackage enough for 100 Men; 
 the Breaft-work to have four or 5 Embrafures for 1 2 
 Pounders to keep open the Communication between 
 the Main & Pettick's-Ifland. 
 
 That the Channel on the back of George's- Ifland channel on 
 ought to have Some Hulks funk therein, fo as to pre- ^"^^ ^^^} °^ 
 
 I.- -n •'fiorge 3 
 
 vent any large Ships paffing that way; this will jji^^^ 
 neceffarily oblige such Ships, in paffing in or out, to 
 come 14 of a Mile nearer to the Batteries at Hull, & 
 to continue much longer under their Guns ; and this 
 will alfo bring them near to the propofed Battery on 
 the Eaft head of Pettick's Ifld. 
 
66 
 
 The French at Boston 
 
 Long-Island 
 
 Moon-Island 
 
 Point Shirley 
 
 Castle-Island 
 
 Governor's 
 
 Island 
 
 Dorchester- 
 Point 
 
 Dorchester 
 Heights and 
 HUl 
 
 That at Long-Ifland there is a Fort laid out, but 
 far from being finifhed ; defigned for 30 Guns ; to 
 have 2 Ravelins, & one Battery, for outworks — Be- 
 lides thefe, there ought to be a Redoubt on the great 
 Hill, with Barracks for 150 Men, & 8 or 12 Guns in a 
 good Breaftwork. There are 3 Barracks erefted, & 
 2 or 3 more will be wanted, with a Guard-Houfe & 
 Magazine. 
 
 That on Moon-Ifland there ought to be a Redoubt 
 with Barracks for 100 Men, with 5 or 6 Ps of 12 
 Pounders, to keep open the communication between 
 this & Long Ifland : To this ought to be added, a 
 Small Redoubt upon Squantum (on the Main) with 4 
 or 5 Six Pounders to keep up the communication be- 
 tween the Main & Moon-Ifland. 
 
 That a fmall work at Point-Shirley is already 
 erefted, at which place are old buildings enough for 
 100, or 150 men: 5 or 6 Ps of Cannon, with 2 or 3 
 Field Ps ; will be Sufficient for this Port. 
 
 That at Caftle-Ifland, much is done towards puting 
 it into a good State of Defence, & much more is ftill 
 neceflary ; when the Plan is finifhed, there will be 
 about [42] Embrafures; & 16 are already opened; 
 there are 4 Barracks finiflied, & 4 more will be needed. 
 
 That at Governors-Ifland, there is a Block-Houfe 
 with a Breaftwork; & Barrackage for about 100 Men ; 
 & I Embrafure in the Breaftwork ; and the work is 
 all finifhed. 
 
 That at Dorchefter-Point is a well finifhed Fort, of 
 the Star-kind, with 13 Embrafures; a Guard-Houfe 
 within, & Barracks enough near at hand, on the out- 
 fide. At Dorchefter-Heights are two Small Forts, with 
 1 1 Embrafures in one of 'em, and 9 in the other ; 
 Thefe want one or two Ravelins. And at a Hill be- 
 tween [the] Heights & Point, there ought to be a 
 Redoubt &c. There are Barracks enough for all. 
 
During the Revolution 
 
 67 
 
 A Small Battery is already at Fox-Hill ; and another Battery 
 ought to be between that & the Fort at the Point. 
 
 That at Noddles-Ifland, is a Quadrangular Fort, Noddles- 
 well finiflied, & Barracks enough for about 400 Men 
 on the outfide: This fort has 19 Embrafures. This 
 wants one or two Ravelins to make it more defen- 
 fable. 
 
 That at Bofton is a Quadrangular Fort, well fin- Boston 
 ifhed ; but the Comtee are of opinion, that if the 
 Stockading was taken up, & the Berme Friezed, it 
 would be much better. In this Fort are 19 embra- 
 fures. 
 
 And that at Charleftown point is an irregular Fort, Charlestown 
 with 9 Embrafures. At Bunkers Hill is an irregular 
 work with 7 Embrafures. And Barrackage enough 
 for about 300 Men. 
 
 Names of Places 
 
 Hull 
 
 Petticks Ifld 
 
 Hoff's Neck 
 
 Georges Ifld 
 
 Long Ifld 
 
 Moon Ifl'd 
 
 Squantum 
 
 Deer Ifld 
 
 Caftle Ifld 
 
 Govrs Ifld 
 
 Dorchr Point 
 
 Dorr Heights & Hill . 
 
 Dorcheflier Batt 
 
 Noddles Ifld 
 
 Bofl:on 
 
 Charleftown 
 
 -0 s 
 
 00 « 
 
 S"^ 
 
 -dTJ 
 
 
 
 
 ■^ 5 
 
 « 3 
 
 ^-d, 
 
 
 30 
 
 14 
 
 43 
 
 16 
 
 51 
 
 56 
 
 24 
 
 52 
 
 
 1500 
 
 150 
 
 100 
 
 750 
 150 
 
 100 
 
 1000 
 100 
 
 150 
 300 
 
 100 
 500 
 
 500 
 
 200 
 
 5600 
 
 
 750 
 
 75 
 
 300 
 10 
 10 
 
 400 
 10 
 10 
 
 30 
 10 
 
 50 
 SO 
 30 
 
 1745 
 
68 The French at Boston 
 
 To this muft alfo be added, what is abfolutely neceffary, a Suf- 
 ficient number of Boats, efpecially at Hull, for carrying the Troops 
 &c, on or off, as occafion may require. 
 
 The Comtee further report, as their opinion. That there ought 
 to be fome experienced Perfon appointed to the Special command 
 of thefe Fortifications, whofe duty Should be pointed out as plain 
 as poffible, & (hould be particularly directed to vifit frequently all 
 thefe works & report to the Board of War (or Such others as he 
 may be directed to report to) all Such matters under his infpec- 
 tion, as he may Judge will promote the Service : This Officer 
 ought to be fuch as the Militia, when called in, will chearfully 
 Serve under ; and being Suppofed to have made himfelf well 
 acquainted with all the Works, & obtained a competent knowledge 
 of the weaknefles thereof, as well as the beft mode of defence for 
 every part, he ought not to be fuperceded without a manifefl 
 reafon, efpecially in time of adlion ; to which Should be added an 
 arrangement of Command. Suppofing an Attac from the Sea, 
 Hull muft be particularly attended to, with the works near it ; 
 further up the Harbor, few men would be fuddenly wanted ; for 
 as Hull lies moft expofed, there and near it, muft always be a 
 good Garrifon to prevent a Surprize ; but upon an alarm, all the 
 other Forts further up the harbor, will be filled with Men before 
 an enemy can force his Paffage ; and no Officer of the Enemy, 
 who knows his duty, will ever venture to force his paffage into this 
 Harbor, until he has made himfelf Mafter of Nantafkett (sup- 
 pofing it (the harbor) to be fortified as aforefaid) for there would 
 not be any chance for his Safety. An Attac on the Land-side, 
 could not take place without a general Alarm, which would foon 
 fill the Forts &c with as many Men as there would be occafion 
 for : In this cafe, Dorchefter-Heights, Charleftown & Bofton, 
 would demand the Commanders more particular attention. As 
 the mode & place of Attac will admit of a great variety of Plans, 
 
During the Revolution 69 
 
 fo the defence muft alfo vary : & this Shews the difficulty of Re- 
 porting any thing further than a General Plan. In doing this, 
 the Com**« found themfelves under a kind of neceffity to take 
 notice of the Command, which they would not have done (not 
 being explicitly in their Commiffion) had not difficulties upon that 
 head, been very apparent ; & it being almoft impoffible to contem- 
 plate a General plan of Defence, without confidering, at the fame 
 time, the tnode of Command: This the Com'ee plead in excufe. 
 
 The Com*ee having had long Service, & fome of it very fatigu- 
 ing, afk leave to refign ; & they humbly propofe that a Comt^^® be 
 appointed to fettle their accounts, pay off the outftanding debts 
 (when afcertained by the prefent Com*®®) & direct what is further 
 to be done refpecting the fortifications of the Harbor of Bofton. 
 
 J. Palmer, P' ord"". 
 In Council Feby 4, 1777 
 
 Read & Sent down 
 
 Jno- Avery, Dpy Secy 
 
THE FRENCH AT BOSTON DURING 
 THE REVOLUTION 
 
 BY 
 
 FITZ-HENRY SMITHi, JR. 
 

 iDnA..»it; 
 
--'». A