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Tag: March 2 1776

  • The Raid on New Providence–March 3, 1776

    Cover art for March 3, ,1776: A modern-day view of Fort Montagu.

    The raid on New Providence is probably one of those situations where we couldn’t really represent everything that was going on on this particular island, because there were a lot of moving parts. We especially overlooked the part at the end.

    Two of the ships went to St. Augustine, laden down mostly with gunpowder. Of the others, they headed further north, where they encountered the HMS Hawk and then the HMS Bolton. They ended up caputuring both ships.

    Then they bumped into the HMS Glasgow off the coast of Long Island. Despite being outnumbered, the Glasgow got away while simultaneously damaging one of the Navy ships.

    Initially, the Navy was given kudos for the raid, but the failure to capture Glasgow, plus complaints about some of the captains in the fleet led to investigations and courts-martial. One ship’s captain, that of the Providence, lost his command and it was given to John Paul Jones. Division of the spoils was also disputed. The commander of the entire action, Esek Hopkins, was censured for not patrolling the Virginia and Carolina Coasts (never mind he was secretly told to do so), and he was eventually dismissed from the Navy.

    What’s more, Nassau remained poorly defended and was subject to capture several times throughout the war.

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  • The NC Royal Governor is Defiant–March 2, 1776

    Cover art for March 2, 1776: miniature portrait of Josiah Martin, artist unknown, ca. 1775. via Wikimedia

    Oh, that Royal Governor Josiah Martin. He might be defiant, he might be delusional. He might be in denial.

    What he was not, apparently, was cognizant of the effect that the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge had on Loyalist morale. Or, perhaps he did. At any rate, his order to raise the British flag anywhere a flag could be raised was more performative than anything else.

    This was Martin’s second big push to restore North Carolina to British control, but it wasn’t his last. Many months later the Carolina Campaign began. It went on for a long time and they very nearly succeeded. However, Martin finally had to leave, first for Long Island and then for Britain.

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