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Chapter Eighth

HE exchange of prisoners occurring in the summer of 1780, Philip returned to his mother's house to recuperate; his health having been quite shattered by the rigors of his captivity. It is unnecessary to add that he carried with him a burning resentment for the ignominious and cruel treatment he had undergone. It was during these months of rest and a mother's care that he wrote the poem from which we have so largely drawn in the preceding chapter. Originally, the poem contained four cantos, and was thus printed by Francis Bailey in Philadelphia in the year 1781, entitled "Cantos from a Prison Ship." Later on, the author recast it, as was his wont with his productions, and it appeared in the Monmouth edition in three cantos, and was entitled, "The British Prison Ship;" it runs to about six hundred and fifty lines. Mr. Edward Delancey, having quoted a few lines of this poem in his "Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of America," says: "The poem was intended to rouse up American feeling, then - in 1780-excessively depressed; and it serves to show Freneau's power to arrest public attention, as well as the variety, beauty, and force of different characteristics of his verse;" and he continues: "Of course, the poem is exaggerated in its statements, but in this the skill of the true poet shows itself, for in all appeals of this kind exaggeration is a necessity if an effect is to be produced

just as the sculptor is obliged to make the figure of his hero larger than life, if his statue is to be impressive." In the accounts given by persons who were

1 Vol. ii. No. 2.

not poets, and therefore without any poetical license to exaggerate, the description falls very little, if at all, short of Freneau's. Nearly half of the British force in the vicinity of New York was Hessian, and we learn from history that in such contempt were the Hessians held on account of their brutal force and hireling character, that Frederick the Great, disgusted at the thought of any sovereign employing such a force to reduce his colonies, charged so much a head for permitting them to cross his territory; saying, satirically, that was the rate he charged for driving live stock across his kingdom. The boot now exhibited at Washington's Headquarters in Newburg on the Hudson as belonging to one of these troops, speaks volumes as to the owner of such a machine.

The year of Freneau's capture and imprisonment, as well as the succeeding one, was dreary enough for the patriots. In the north, military operations were mostly suspended; and in the south the army had met with many reverses. As we have seen in the last chapter, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney had been compelled to yield Fort Moultrie to greatly superior forces, and to reinforce General Lincoln, who was trying to hold Charleston with fourteen hundred men against Sir Henry Clinton with five thousand. South Carolina was at last obliged to surrender, and the garrison, including Pinckney, were made prisoners of war. The latter was not released until peace was declared. Meanwhile, the nation's credit was at its lowest ebb; the continental bills fell in value to two cents on the dollar, and business was paralyzed. Had not Robert Morris and a few wealthy patriots come. forward and laid their private fortunes on their country's shrine, its sun would have sunk then and there. The condition of the army was desperate; no food, no pay, no clothing. The American women came forward and did their best to provide the latter, still the army

suffered. To add to all this misery, Benedict Arnold had turned traitor. Dismissed from Virginia, where he had held supreme command after General Phillips' death, he returned to New York; and, receiving from Clinton a second detachment, he entered the sound, landing at New London, and captured the town. Colonel William Ledyard,' who was doubly related to Philip's wife, held command of forts Griswold and Trumbull which protected the city, but finding his force inadequate to hold them both, he withdrew all his force, amounting to one hundred and fifty militia, to the former, and held it for about an hour against eight hundred British troops. The works were carried after severe fighting, but not until the two superior officers and two hundred men had been killed or disabled on the British side. Upon its surrender, Major Bromfield, upon whom the command now devolved, asked who commanded the garrison. Ledyard replied, "I did command it, but you do now," and handed him his sword. Bromfield, taking it, ran it through the body of Colonel Ledyard up to the hilt, and a general massacre ensued. About one hundred men were killed and wounded. A monument has been erected near the spot to commemorate the massacre.

Miss Fannie Ledyard, a niece of Colonel Ledyard, was on a visit to Groton, Conn., while Arnold was carrying on his butcheries there, and she devoted her whole time to caring for the wounded and dying. She became quite a heroine during the war, and her name is honorably mentioned amongst the devoted and self-sacrificing women of the Revolution. She afterwards married R. L. Peters of Southold, and her remains rest in the old cemetery near the historic home of her ancestors. This family, being so nearly related to Philip, and its history a romantic one, it will not do to pass over.

1 Colonel Ledyard was at the time thirty-one years of age.

At the eastern extremity of Long Island is a quaint old town called Southold; and one of the oldest and most interesting landmarks of the place is the Case House, which was erected in the year 1647, at which time the only communication with it was by water. A writer, in speaking of the house, has said: "Around this old building cluster many romantic legends and quaint stories, interwoven with the names of men and women who have figured in the early history of Suffolk County."

In those early times this house was considered quite an aristocratic affair. It stands about a mile south of Horton's Point, where the settlers of Suffolk landed in 1640. In 1673 the Dutch commissioners, supposing themselves, like Crusoe, monarchs of all they surveyed, paid a visit to this town for the purpose of making Thomas Moore high-sheriff; but, unlike Crusoe, they found they were not so, for the settlers, indignant at the idea of being made Dutch whether they would or not, protested against this aggressive measure and desired the authority of the commissioners to act in their regard; and they immediately voted to connect themselves with the commonwealth of Connecticut.

John Ledyard, a son of this old house, married the daughter of Judge Young, and afterwards removed to the township of New London, Conn.; the place near Groton is named Ledyard after him. His eldest son, also named John, returned to Southold and married the famous beauty of the time, Abigail, the daughter of Robert Hempstead.1 Mr. Ledyard engaged in the West Indian trade, but died at the early age of thirty-five years; Mrs. Ledyard retained much of her former beauty, and afterward married Dr. Micah Moore, the beloved physician of that section.

Her eldest son, John, afterwards known as Ledyard 1 The city of Hempstead is named after this family.

the Traveller, upon the second marriage of his mother, went to reside with his paternal grandfather in Connecticut. After making his studies he attempted law, but his mother, desirous of having him become a missionary to the Indians, had him placed at Dartmouth College with that intention. During his stay there he absented himself for several months, and upon his return he excused his absence as arising from a desire to visit the Six Nations and study Indian life. Whether it was the experience he had with them or a disinclination for the ministry that caused him to abandon the project, is not known; but he soon after presented. himself at his mother's house, having sailed down the Connecticut River and across the sound, master of his own vessel; this original affair being a dug-out, or canoe made from the trunks of a tree hollowed out in Indian fashion. Soon after, his adventurous spirit caused him to run away from home and embark on a ship bound for the Mediterranean.1 Arriving in London as Captain Cook was preparing for his third voyage around the world, Ledyard was introduced to him and produced such a favorable impression upon the bold navigator that he readily accepted him as an assistant. Ledyard was with Captain Cook when he was killed by the cannibals. Although Ledyard remained in the British service, he refused to bear arms against his native country. In 1782 the manof-war to which he belonged arrived off Huntington, and, obtaining leave of absence, he paid a visit to his mother. Finding some British officers in her parlor, he did not make himself known; and he had changed so much during his eight years of absence that he was not recognized. During the visit some familiar ex

1 According to the Records of the Genealogical Society, Ledyard had "just cause" for leaving his relatives. A commentator remarks that the fact that people sometimes retain the property belonging to others is not calculated to keep those who are wronged around the ancestral home.