The Battle of Fort Sullivan and Thomas Hickey’s Execution
British General Sir Henry Clinton and Commodore Sir Peter Parker led a combined army/navy attack on Fort Sullivan, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. That is, it would have been a combined attack, but Clinton was unable to get his troops onto Sullivan’s Island, and Parker was left more or less on his own. Half a dozen of his warships pummeled the fort from late morning until after dark, but to no avail. Colonel William Moultrie and his South Carolinians gave even better than they got. The walls of the fort were made of palmetto logs and earth, which absorbed most of the enemy shot; but the American cannonballs took a heavy toll on the ships. When Parker’s vessels finally limped away late that night, they had suffered over 260 casualties, as well as damaged hulls, masts, and rigging (the Americans had only about three dozen killed and wounded). The British were sorely disappointed in their plans for conquering the rebels in the South; before long, they headed north to join the British forces amassing in New York.
Here are some firsthand accounts of the battle:
Colonel (later General) William Moultrie, who commanded the American troops in the fort:
On the morning of the 28th of June…I saw the men-of-war loose their topsails; I hurried back to the fort as fast as possible; when I got there the ships were already under sail; I immediately ordered the long roll to beat, and officers and men to their posts: We had scarcely manned our guns, when the following ships of war came sailing up, as if in confidence of victory; as soon as they came within the reach of our guns, we began to fire… It being a very hot day, we were served along the plat-form with grog in firebuckets, which we partook of very heartily: I never had a more agreeable draught than that which I took out of one of those buckets at the time; it may be very easily conceived what heat and thirst a man must feel in this climate, to be upon a plat-form on the 28th June, amidst 20 or 30 heavy pieces of cannon, in one continual blaze and roar; and clouds of smoke curling over his head for hours together; it was a very honorable situation, but a very unpleasant one.
A British naval surgeon:
It is impossible to pretend to describe what our shipping have suffered. … Our ships, after laying nine hours before the battery, were obliged to retire with great loss. … This will not be believed when it is first reported in England. I can scarcely believe what I myself saw on that day — a day to me one of the most distressing of my life.
Major Barnard Elliott of the South Carolina artillery:
The expression of a Sergeant McDaniel, after a cannon ball had taken off his shoulder and scouped out his stomach, is worth recording in the annals of America: ‘Fight on, my brave boys; don’t let liberty expire with me to-day!’ … Now, my dear wife, let us not forget to whom we are indebted for this success against our enemy. Let us return God thanks for it. It is He that does all for us — He inspires our officers and men with courage, and shields their heads in the day of battle — He is the wonderful God of victory.
Thomas Hickey’s Execution
Meanwhile, the American troops in New York were watching a hanging.
A couple weeks earlier, someone had reported that American Loyalists (or Tories) in New York were plotting to help the British take over the city. The rumor was that they were also planning to assassinate George Washington and other high-ranking American officers. The report led to an investigation, and a number of people were arrested, including David Matthews, the mayor of New York, and two soldiers from Washington’s “life guard” (meaning the troops that served as his bodyguards). The rumors were doubtless worse than the reality — for example, the assassination plot may have been just talk — but there were plans to sabotage American defense efforts if and when the British attacked. But it all came to nothing, and only one man — Thomas Hickey, a member of Washington’s life guard — was executed for it.
An American army surgeon named William Eustis described what he knew of the plot in a letter to a friend:
You will be in Boston long before this [letter] can reach you, and will doubtless have heard of the Discovery of the greatest and vilest attempt ever made against our country: I mean the plot, the infernal plot which has been contrived by our worst enemies, and which was on the verge of execution: you will, I say, undoubtedly have heard of it, but perhaps I may give you a better idea of it than as yet you have obtained. The Mayor of York [New York was sometimes simply called “York”] with a number of villains who were possessed of fortunes, and who formerly ranked with Gentlemen, had impiously dared an undertaking, big with fatal consequences to the virtuous army in York, and which in all probability would have given the enemy possession of the city with little loss. Their design was, upon the first engagement which took place, to have murdered (with trembling I say it) the best man on earth: Genl Washington was to have been the first subject of their unheard of SACRICIDE: our magazines which, as you know, are very capacious, were to have been blown up: every General Officer and every other who was active in serving his country in the field was to have been assassinated: our cannon were to be spiked up: and in short every the most accursed scheme was laid to give us into the hands of the enemy, and to ruin us. They had plenty of money, and gave large bounties and larger promises to those who were engaged to serve their hellish purposes. In order to execute their Design upon our General, they had enlisted into their service one or two from his Excellency’s life-Guard, who were to have assassinated him: knowing that no person could be admitted into the magazines or among the cannon but those were of the Artillery they have found several in our Regiment vile enough to be concerned in their diabolical Designs—these were to have blown up the Magazines and spiked the cannon….Their Design was deep, long concerted, and wicked to a great Degree. But happily for us, it has pleased God to discover it to us in season, and I think we are making a right improvement of it (as the good folks say). We are hanging them as fast as we find them out. I have just now returned from the Execution of one of the General’s Guard: he was the first that has been tried: yesterday at 11 o’clock he received sentence, today at 11 he was hung in presence of the whole army. He is a Regular-Deserter [i.e., a British soldier who had deserted]….he appeared unaffected and obstinate to the last, except that when the Chaplains took him by the hand under the Gallows and bad him adieu, a torrent of tears flowed over his face; but with an indignant scornful air he wiped ’em with his hand from his face, and assumed the confident look….
That any set of men could be so lost to every virtuous principle, and so dead to the feelings of humanity as to conspire against the person of so great and good a man as Genl Washington is surprising; few of our countrymen (as you may well imagine) are concerned; they are in general foreigners: upwards of 30 were concerned, and ’tis said Govr [William] Tryon is at the bottom.
Sources
- Faden, William. Atlas of the battles of the American Revolution, together with maps shewing the routes of the British and American Armies, plans of cities, surveys of harbors, &c. [New York, Bartlett & Welford, ?, 1845] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/74175034/. Page 28: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701sm.gar00004/?sp=28
- Memoirs of the American Revolution, by William Moultrie, 1:174, 178-79.
- American Archives, 4th Series, 6:1210.
- Documentary History of the American Revolution, 1776-1782, by Robert Gibbes, 6-7.
- The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn, by Henry Phelps Johnston, Part II, pp. 129-30.