by Tim McGrath
20 LDC, Marine Committee to Eastern Navy Board, 1/26 and 2/5/79; Morgan, 152; Miller, 409.
21 Boston Post, 2/6/79.
22 Miller, 374–375; Thomas, 161.
23 LDC, Ellery to Vernon, 3/23/79; Morgan, 154.
24 LDC, Marine Committee to Joseph Olney; Seth Harding; Commissioners, Navy Board, Boston; and to Governor Jonathan Trumbull, all 2/10/78; Morgan, 157; Miller, 410.
25 Ranger log, 4/6–7/79; Morgan, 157; Van Powell, 116.
26 Pennsylvania Gazette, 4/28/79; Boston Gazette, 4/19–26/79.
27 Ibid.; Boston Gazette, 4/19–26/79; Morgan, 158.
28 Allen, 2:374; Morgan, 158.
29 LDC, Marine Committee to Eastern Navy Board, 5/20, 5/26, and 6/21/79; Charles Henry Lincoln, Naval Records of the American Revolution, 1775–1788 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, Library of Congress, 1906); “Letters of Marque,” 350 (Independence, Rhode Island, 6/3/81), 466 (Success, 4/24/81).
30 LDC, Marine Committee to Eastern Navy Board, 3/26/79; Pennsylvania Packet, 5/25/79; John H. Sheppard, The Life of Samuel Tucker, Commodore in the American Revolution (Boston: Alfred Mudge and Son, 1868), 58.
31 Pennsylvania Packet, 5/25/79; Maryland Journal, 6/1/79; Allen, 375; Morgan, 162–163.
32 Chappelle, 89–91; Van Powell, 102; Miller, 97–98.
33 LDC, Marine Committee to Eastern Navy Board, 3/26/79; to Seth Harding 4/17, 4/27, and 6/2/79; Morgan, 161.
34 Pennsylvania Gazette, 6/16/79; Boston Gazette, 7/5/79; P.C.F. Smith, 59; Sheppard, 108–110.
35 LDC, Marine Committee to Samuel Nicholson, 6/15/79; to Seth Harding, 6/15/79.
36 NYPL, Eastern Navy Board Letter Book, Board to Simpson, 6/8/79; Morgan, 166.
37 Lieutenant Horace S. Mazet, USMCR, “The Navy’s Forgotten Hero,” Proceedings, March 1937, 351.
38 Ibid., 351–352; Andrew Sherburne, Memoirs of Andrew Sherburne, A Pensioner of the Navy of the Revolution (Providence, 1831, n.p.), 21–24; Smith, 204.
39 Ibid.; Sherburne, 21–24.
40 Fowler, 102.
41 LDC, Marine Committee to Abraham Whipple, 9/11/79; to Eastern Navy Board, 8/24 and 9/7/79; Boston Gazette, 9/27/79.
42 Pennsylvania Gazette, 9/22/79.
43 APS, BFP, Franklin to Jones, 6/1/78; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Morris, 11/13/78; Jones to Chaumont, 11/18/78; Jones to de Sartine, 7/5/78, American Commissioners to Jones, 5/17 and 6/3/78; Jones to American Commissioners, 7/4/78.
44 LOC, JPJP, Jones to de Sartine, and American Commissioners, 7/5/78; Jones to Washington, 7/5/78.
45 Syrett, 41–46; Thomas, 147; Morison, 213.
46 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Bancroft, 8/21/78.
47 Ibid., Hector McNeill to Jones, 9/4/78; Jones to Whipple, 8/18/78; Jones to Nassau–Siegen, 8/24/78; Jones to Louis XVI, 10/19/78; Thomas, 145–150; Morison, 217–219.
48 Ibid., Jones to de Chaumont, 11/16/78.
49 Ibid., Jones to James Moylan, 7/7/78; Moylan to Jones, 11/3/78.
50 Ibid., Jones to de Chaumont, 12/11/78; Millar, 73–75.
51 Ibid. Thomas, 152; Morison, 214.
52 LOC, JPJP, Franklin to Jones, 3/14/79.
53 Nathaniel Fanning, Fanning’s Narrative: The Memoirs of Nathaniel Fanning, an Officer of the American Navy 1778–1783 (New York, 1806, 1808, reprinted William Abbatt, 1913), 4–23.
54 Ibid.
55 PA Archives, “Life of John Kessler,” 1–3.
56 Ibid., 2–4; HCL, Roberts Collection, Barry to Matthew Irwin, 7/16/79, Pennsylvania Packet, 6/5/79.
57 PA Archives, Kessler, 3.
58 Neeser, 170, Minutes, etc.; Francis Abell, Prisoners of War in Britain, 1756 to 1815 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1914), ch. 17, p. 9.
59 Allen, 2:642–644; PMHB, 22, “Narrative of Gustavus Conyngham,” 487; Sherburne, 91.
60 Neeser, 183, Franklin to Digges, 8/20/79; 190, Conyngham to Franklin, 11/18/79; APS, BFP, Digges to Franklin, 9/6 and 9/20/79; Brands, 586–587.
61 Abell, ch. 17, p. 9.
62 APS, BFP, Digges to Franklin, 10/12/79.
63 These accounts appear in Eleanor Coleman’s Gustavus Conyngham, U.S.N. Pirate or Privateer [sic], 1747–1819 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1982), 126–127; David F. Winkler, “Conyngham’s Great Escape,” Sea Power, October 2003, 48.
64 Neeser, 172–173, “Minutes”; 184, “List of American Prisoners committed to Old Mill Prison, England, during the War,” 8/23/79.
65 Neeser, 193–194, Conyngham to Franklin, 12/22/79.
66 Ibid., 190, Conyngham to Franklin, 11/18/79; Coleman, 127.
67 C. Smith, 205; Pennsylvania Gazette, 8/18/79.
68 Boston Evening Post, 7/10/79; Keith Scott, “New Hampshire in the Penobscot Expedition,” American Neptune 8 (July 1947): 200; Fowler, 103–104; Morgan, 169; Miller, 412.
69 Quoted from Fowler, 105; quoted from Scott, 201.
70 NYPL, ENB Letter Book, Eastern Navy Board to Marine Committee, 6/30/79; William Fowler, “Boston as a Navy Base, 1776–1783,” America Neptune, January 1982, 33; MHS, Paul Revere’s Diary of the Penobscot Expedition, 7/21–8/19/79; Morgan, 168. NYHS, Papers Relating to the Penobscot Expedition.
71 C. Smith, 207 and appendix C, “Diary of John Trevett, Captain of Marines,” 335.
72 LDC, William Whipple to John Langdon, 8/3/79.
73 Ibid., Nathaniel Peabody to Josiah Bartlett, 7/20/79.
74 The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries Comprising the Journal of the Siege of Penobscot (New York: William Abbatt, 1910); Maine Historical Society Collections, 1270, John Calef’s Journal, 7/18/79; Fowler, Rebels, 106–107; Scott, 207.
75 Abbatt, 305-06, Calef’s Journal, 7/25/79.
76 Boston Gazette, 8/9/79; C. Smith, 208.
77 Abbatt, 306–307, Calef’s Journal, 7/26/79; Fowler, 107; Miller, 414, C. Smith, 210.
78 Lieutenants and Masters to Dudley Saltonstall, 7/27/79, quoted from C. Smith, 211.
79 Maine Historical Society, Colonel Brewer’s Account of the Expedition; Miller, 415.
80 Allen, 2:425.
81 Ibid.
82 The Original Journal of General Solomon Lovell, Kept During the Penobscot Expedition, 1779 (Weymouth Historical Society, Boston, Wright and Potter Printing Company), 99, Lovell’s Journal, 7/28/79; Major General Sir J. F. Maurice, K.C.B., The Diary of Sir John Moore, Vol. I (London, Edward Arnold, 1904), 9-10; C. Smith, 211–212.
83 Ibid.
84 Lovell, Journal, 99, 7/28/79; Boston Gazette, 8/9/79.
85 Allen, 2:432.
86 Lieutenant George Little’s Deposition, 9/25/79, quoted from Morgan, 172.
87 Pennsylvania Gazette, 8/18/79; Penobscot Papers, Eastern Navy Board to Saltonstall, 8/12/79; LDC, James Lovell to General Gates, 8/9/79; Morgan, 172–173.
88 Chester B. Kevitt, General Simon Lovell and the Penobscot Expedition, 1779 (Weymouth, Massachusetts; Weymouth Historical Commission, 1976), 94-96, Hacker’s Plan of Attack, 8/8/79; Scott, 207; Morgan, 172.
89 Lovell, Journal, 101–102, 8/7/79.
90 Ibid., 8/13/79.
91 Ibid.
92 Kevitt, 108-109, A Council aboard the Warren, 8/14/79; Morgan, 170; Moran, 175.
93 Fowler, 108–109; Allen, 432.
94 Lovell, Journal, 104–105, 8/14/79; Abbatt, 316–18, Calef’s Journal, 8/14/79; C. Smith, 214.
95 MHS, Revere Family Papers, Microfilm Edition, Paul Revere’s Diary, 8/14/79; Pennsylvania Gazette, 8/25/79; Allen, 432–433.
96 Miller, 416.
97 Pennsylvania Gazette, 10/6/79; Providence Gazette, 1/22/80.
98 Boston Gazette, 12/27/79; Allen, 437; Fowler, 109.
CHAPTER TEN “DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND”
1 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
2 Quoted from Thomas, 158; Bradford, 28; Morison, 230
.
3 LOC, JPJP, Lafayette to Jones, 3/31/79 and 4/27/79; Franklin to Jones, 4/27 and 28/79; Jones to Lafayette, 5/1/79.
4 JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 5/26/79.
5 Ibid., Franklin to Jones, 6/2/79; Syrett, The Royal Navy in European Waters, 70–71.
6 Callo, 66; Van Powell, 74; Jean Boudriot, John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard: A Reconstruction of the Ship and an Account of the Battle with H.M.S. Serapis (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987), 7–15.
7 Morison, 228–229; Thomas, 157; Millar, 73; Van Powell, 74.
8 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 5/14/79; Landais to Jones, 5/27/79; Thomas, 161; Morison, 232–233.
9 HSP, Society Collection, Sarah Rodney to Sarah B. Garrette, 8/4/1825; Report on a Pension for Mrs. Joseph Brussels to Hon. Charles Ingersoll, 1/13/1843; MHS, Henry Knox to John Nicholson, Esq., 7/8/90; LOC, JPJHP, Muster Rolls, Bonhomme Richard; Kilby’s Journal, 28; Thomas, 165.
10 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Sartine, 8/11/79; Morison, 235–239.
11 Butterfield, Adams Papers 2:368.
12 Fanning, 53–54, footnote, Letter from Charles W. Stewart.
13 Quoted from Thomas, 162–163; Morison, 243–244.
14 C. Smith, 224–225.
15 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 7/1/79; Jones to Mme de Chaumont, 6/13/79; Callo, 2–73; Thomas, 164–165.
16 Ibid., Thomas, 164–165; Morison, 236–137.
17 Ibid.
18 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Richard Dale, 5/25/79; Dale to Jones, 5/27/79; Morison, 246–247.
19 “Narrative of John Kilby,” 28 (Scribner’s Magazine 38 [July–December, 1908]); Fanning, 21–22; Kilby, 28; Thomas, 165; Morison, 249.
20 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Sartine, 8/11/79; Concordat of the Captains of the Fleet, 8/13/79; Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
21 Quoted in Syrett, European Waters, 74–75; King, Harbors, etc, 192.
22 Ibid., 114–115; Neeser, 172, “Attestation of Gustavus Conyngham,” 8/7–8/20/79.
23 Miller, 406–407.
24 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Kilby’s Narrative, 29.
25 Ibid.; Ship’s log, Bonhomme Richard, 8/24/79; Kilby, 29.
26 Ship’s log, Bonhomme Richard, 8/24–25/79; Fanning, 25; Thomas, 171.
27 LOC, JPJP, Landais Memorial, 29; HSP, Dreer, Letter of Matthew Mease, 11/13/79.
28 Ibid., Jones to Landais, 9/5/79; Landais to Jones, 9/2 and 9/5/79.
29 Ibid., Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79, Fanning, 26–27.
30 Ibid.; London Evening Post, 9/6/79; Morison, 254–256.
31 Kilby, 30.
32 Ship’s log, Bonhomme Richard, 9/17/79; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Fanning, 29; Kilby, 30; Thomas, 175.
33 Ibid.; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
34 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Ship’s log, Bonhomme Richard, 9/23/79; Callo, appendix B, “Commodore Richard Dale’s Account of the Battle off Flamborough Head,” 205; Morison, 268–269.
35 Conrad, 49; Thomas, 178.
36 Callo, Appendix C, “Captain Richard Pearson’s Report of the battle off Flamborough Head,” from Sherburne’s Life and Character of John Paul Jones, 209.
37 Callo, Dale’s Account, 205–206; Pearson’s Report, 210; Kilby, 31; Fanning, 32.
38 Fanning, 34–36.
39 Freidenburg, Medicine Under Sail, 17–18; Wilbur, Revolutionary Medicine, 1700–1800, 62–63; King, Sea of Words, 129.
40 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Gerard W. Gawalt, ed., John Paul Jones’s Memoir of the American Revolution Presented to King Louis XVI of France (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), 33–34.
41 LOC, JPJP, Ship’s Log, Bonhomme Richard, 9/24/79; Morison, 273.
42 Naval Historian Dennis Conrad believes Cottineau and Landais might have been confused by Jones’s changing course.
43 Jones’s Memorial to King Louis XVI (“Jones’s Memorial”); Fanning, 36; Thomas, 181.
44 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; HSP, Misc. Collection, Matthew Mease’s Certification of Captain Landais’ Rude Behavior, 11/13/79.
45 Fanning, 33; Thomas, 182
46 Kilby, 31; HSP, Sarah Rodney to Sarah Garrette, 8/4/25.
47 Fanning, 36.
48 Ibid., 37; Kilby, 31; Callo, Dale’s Account, 205; Pearson’s Report, 210; Thomas, 183.
49 Ibid.; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
50 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
51 Fanning, 37; Callo, Dale, 206, and Pearson, 210; Kilby, 31; Morison, 274; Thomas, 184.
52 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
53 MHS, Henry Knox to John Nicholson, Esq., 7/8/90.
54 Fanning, 36; Kilby, 31.
55 Ibid., 55; London Morning Post, 10/1/79; Morison, 282; Thomas, 186.
56 Fanning, 37–38; Kilby, 31.
57 Dr. Paul Kopperman, e-mail, 10/3/13; Ranby, John, The Method of Treating Gunshot Wounds, 2nd ed. (London: Robert Horsefield, 1760), 21, 34–35.
58 Callo, Dale’s Account, 206; Thomas, 188; King, 387.
59 Kilby, 31.
60 Callo, Dale’s Account, 206; Pearson’s Report, 210.
61 Fanning, 38; Kilby, 31.
62 Kilby, 31.
63 Fanning, 38; Callo, Pearson’s Report, 210.
64 Ibid.; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Fanning, 41; Thomas, 191.
65 Kilby, 31–32.
66 Ibid.; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Conrad, 44.
67 Ibid.; HSP, Mease Certification.
68 Fanning, 39–40; Callo, Pearson’s Report, 210.
69 London Public Advertiser, 10/30/79; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Gawalt, 34–35; Thomas, 190.
70 Historians have long debated whether Landais intentionally fired into the Bonhomme Richard or not. While it was dark, the ships could be easily distinguished by their build, and the fact that the hull of the Serapis was checkered black and yellow, while the Bonhomme Richard’s was all black. Samuel Eliot Morison was convinced that the firing was no accident, while Thomas J. Schaeper believes it was. Contrast this with the action of Captain Thomas Piercy of the Countess of Scarborough, who came across the Bonhomme Richard’s stern earlier in the battle and held his fire, lest his gunners also hit the Serapis. Kilby, 32; Fanning, 42–43; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Proofs Respecting the Conduct of Peter Landais, October–November 1779; HSP, Mease’s Certificate, 11/13/79; PRO, 2305, Pearson’s Report (enclosure); and thanks again to Dr. Dennis Conrad.
71 Fanning, 40, 50–51.
72 Ibid., 41; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
73 Fanning, 41; Conrad, 45; Thomas, 191.
74 There are other attestations that Jones’s answer was both longer and more jocular. He himself wrote to King Louis that he said, “Je ne songe point à me rendre; mais je suis determiné à vous faire demander quartier”—“I have not yet thought of surrendering, but I am determined to make you ask for quarter.” By its sheer length alone, this one is a stretch. Other accounts include the equally long “Ay, ay, we’ll do that [strike] when we can fight no longer, but we shall see yours [colors] come down first: you must know, that Yankees do not haul down their colors till they are fairly beaten”; as well as “I may sink, but I’ll be damned if I’ll strike.” The most honest account comes from Jones himself; writing to Franklin after the battle, he merely states that he replied to Pearson’s question “in the most determined negative.” For his part, Pearson claimed to never have heard Jones’s reply. Let the reader decide. But, as John Ford put it in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Callo, Dale’s Account, 205; Pearson’s Report, 210; Fanning, 42; Morison, 289–292; Thomas, 192; Conrad, 47; Jean Boudriot, John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard (Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 1987), Chapter IV, “The battle,”
by Peter Reaveley, 82.
75 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Fanning, 42; Kilby, 33, Gawalt, 35; Callo, Dale’s Account, 206; Pearson’s Report, 210; Thomas, 192.
76 Fanning, 42, Gawalt, 35–36.
77 Callo, Dale’s Account, 206.
78 Fanning, 43; Kilby, 32; Callo, Dale’s Account, 207; Pearson’s Report, 210; Gawalt, 37.
79 Callo, Pearson’s Report, 210–211; Fanning, 43–44; Kilby, 32; Gawalt, 37–38.
80 Fanning, 43–44; Kilby, 32, Callo, Dale’s Account, 207; Thomas, 194.
81 Callo, Dale’s Account, 207.
82 Ibid, 211; Kilby, 32–33; Conrad, 49; Morison, 288; Thomas, 196.
83 Kilby, 32.
84 Callo, Dale’s Account, 207–208; Pearson’s Report, 211.
85 Fanning, 50.
86 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Fanning, 45–47.
87 Ibid.; Fanning, 45–47.
88 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Fanning, 50–51.
89 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Fanning, 45–47; Ship’s log, Serapis, 9/24/79.
90 Ibid.
91 Ibid.; Fanning, 49–50.
92 Fanning, 50–51.
93 Ibid.; Kilby, 33; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79.
94 Syrett, 80, and footnote 129.
95 London Sunday Post, 9/30/79; London Morning Post, 10/1/79.
96 London Evening Post, 9/28/79; Callo, 98.
97 John H. Barnes, ed., The Logs of the Serapis–Alliance–Ariel under the Command of John Paul Jones, 1779–1780 (New York: Naval History Society, 1911), ship’s log, Serapis, 10/3/79; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Franklin, 10/3/79; Jones to Morris, 10/13/79.
98 Fanning, 44, 57–58.
99 Ibid.; LOC, JPJP, Jones to Pearson, 10/20/79; Jones to Franklin, 10/11/79.
100 London Evening Post, 10/12/79.
101 Quoted from Morison, 301; quoted from Thomas, 203.
102 LOC, JPJP, Charles Dumas to Jones, 10/10/79; Thomas, 203.
103 LOC, JPJP, Dumas to Jones, 10/18/79; Fanning, 59.
104 Fanning, 57; Thomas, 207.
105 Fanning, 61; Kilby, 34; Gawalt, 74; Morison, 315.
106 Ibid., 61, 66; Ship’s log, Serapis, 11/20/79.
107 LOC, JPJP, Jones to Duc de la Vauguyon, 11/11/79; Jones to John de Neufville, 11/26/79; Jones to Vauguyon, 12/13/79; Fanning, 66.