Fort History

In the month of September 1775, just five short months after the outbreak of war at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the General Court of Connecticut, meeting at Hartford, ordered three companies of its militia troops under the command of Colonel Webb at Greenwich to remove to New Haven and there to make preparations for fortification of the approach to the harbor there.[1] A committee of local citizens was appointed to oversee the building of a fort; among the members were William Greenough, Jonathan Fitch, and David Austin.

These three men, on October 21, 1775, submitted a report indicating an expense of £110.0.6 for plank, rails, carting, and labor, and recommended payment of a remainder of the expense, £40.5.10 ½ by the colony (Connecticut).[2]

By November of the same year an additional twenty men were raised and added to the force already at work on the fortifications. Captain Joseph Thompson, 1^st Company 2^nd Connecticut Regiment, placed in command of these men, was directed to “erect a proper breastwork and battery for defense and security against any hostile attack from any ministerial ships &c.”[3] Black Rock, the site of these fortifications, had been fortified by the New Haven colonists nearly a century before, and this new defensive works was therefore named Black Rock Fort. The work was temporarily suspended late in 1775, possibly due to the severity of the winter, but in the following spring the fort was completed.

In June 1776 Captain Thompson was allowed £25 for the purchase of boards, nails, etc., for the construction of a barracks within the fort for his company.[4] Employing his own men to the labor during the summer of 1776 the new quarters were quickly built, and by October the roof was shingled and a chimney had been put up, rendering the structure complete for the use of the troops just as the winter season was about to return.

During the same month orders were issued raising a company of fifty men to serve as artillerymen or matrosses at New Haven, presumably to serve as regular garrison for the new fort.[5] In January of 1777 troops and cannons were at the ready in Black Rock Fort. No doubt there were many reasons for the order in the same month which prohibited the passage of any vessel by the fort without written permission, and later that spring when three British ships, a frigate and tow tenders, attempted to enter the harbor, the garrison at Black Rock vigorously cannonaded them, denying their entry. Thirteen Tories who had been captured on board a vessel taken in Long Island Sound were brought to the fort and held prisoner there until arrangements were made to transport them to quarters more suitable for confinement.[6]

An unfortunate incident in June 1777 saw Captain Solomon Phipps returning from a successful cruise in his privateer. His vessel and another, a vessel captured from then enemy, attempted to enter the harbor just after dark. As Phipps’ vessel approached the fort it was hailed by the commander of the garrison and ordered to drop anchor to be fired upon. Captain Phipps, indignant at the demand, chose to ignore it and continued on past the fort. Without further discussion one cannon on the fort fired a solitary but devastating ball which in its course struck Captain Phipps as he stood on the deck and carried away part of his jaw.[7]

By May of the following year it was determined that the number of men stationed as artillerymen in New Haven was insufficient to answer the needs for defense there. It was therefore ordered that Phineas Bradley, a lieutenant of the company of artillery at the town, should enlist one sergeant, on corporal, and ten privates to bolster the depleted ranks of the company. It was further noted in his directive, “that said Bradley order such number of said company as he shall judge necessary to be stationed at the fort at Black Rock in said town to garrison said fort.”[8] Throughout the war years, as enlistments expired it became the custom to enlist men into the ranks of the several militia units defending the coast of Connecticut. On several separate occasions the Black Rock Fort garrison was reinforced with fresh troops, enlisted to replace those who had been discharged.

Apparently unnoticed by all but friends, Captain Patrick Ferguson, a British officer of the 71^st Highland Regiment, during the spring of 1779 conducted an intelligence-gathering mission along the Connecticut coast. His report to Governor Sir Henry Clinton of New York, dated May 27, 1779, accurately describes the harbors along the coast, and in particular regarding New Haven he notes:

New Haven is 14 miles from Stratford. It consists of about 200 houses. The harbor is a circle 2 miles in diameter so that vessels can ride undisturbed from the shore. The entrance is formed by two tongues of land. That on the west is sandy, not above half a mile long and fifty yds. broad, but the eastern tongue is woody, one mile & a half long and from 200 to 800 yds. wide according to its distance from the extremity. There is 3 fathom of water on each side of this tongue and no commanding grounds with cannon shot, so that under cover of armed vessels a brigade of inferior troops could land and reembark in view of the most numerous and gallant army in the world, uninsulted. (Ferguson then mentions the Black Rock Fort) Two miles north of this tongue there is a meadow, and creek; lowland to the south and a gradual dissent to the east) where there is a work and guns built by the rebels ready for out troops to seize and avail themselves of to support their lodgment.[9]

This intelligence mission was a preliminary reconnaissance for the British invasion New Haven in July of the same year, as Sir Henry in his instructions to General William Tryon on July 2 paraphrases Captain Ferguson’s report somewhat:

“Sir – As New Haven is the only port in which the rebels have any vessels (except New London) it is, in my opinion, better to begin there. The landing seems good on the east side or tongue, nor can you be insulted on your retreat. You must, when landed, by rapid march get possession of the rebel works, two miles to the northward, on a bluff commanding the harbor, and then your ships may enter it.”[10]

In recording the events of July 5, 1779, the first day of Tryon’s Raid which did begin at New Haven, one British seaman noted in his journal,

The first division of troops commanded by Brigadier General Garth got on shore (under fire of the cannon from the smaller ships and galleys) about five miles from the city; the second division, with General Tryon, proceeded in the flat boats (under direction of the Commodore) to the other side of the harbor, where they were briskly cannonaded by the fort, and the landing opposed, likewise, by some companies of riflemen, who concealed themselves in the bushes.

Soon after landing, Gen. Tyron began his march toward the fort which was hastily and cowardly abandoned by the enemy at his approach, and immediate possession taken of it by the King’s troops.[11]

Tryon’s own report after the raid records his seizure of the fort: “before noon I disembarked with the 23^rd, the Hessian Landgrave, and King’s American Regt’s. and two pieces of cannon on the eastern side of the harbor (New Haven), and instantly began the march of three miles to the ferry from New Haven, east towards Branford. We took a fieldpiece , which annoyed us at the landing, and possessed ourselves of the Rock Battery of three guns, commanding the channel of the harbor, abandoned by the rebels on our approach. The armed vessels then entered and drew near the town.”[12]

The inhabitants of New Haven viewed the proceedings of the day with horror and disbelief. Ezra Stiles, President of Yale College, standing in a tower watched the red-clad troops through a spy glass as they filled boat after boat and rowed toward shore. As the residents became aware of what was transpiring, Colonel Sabin ordered his militia drummers to beat a call to arms, summoning the local militias. Unfortunately this was one day which found no regular units in the town. A scant 200 volunteers responded to the call and rushed in hastily organized groups to man the town’s meager defenses.

At the Black Rock Fort only nineteen men with three cannons stood between the large fleet of British ships and the inner harbor as the naval bombardment began. As best they could they replied to the cannonading in kind. If there was any intent to test the strength of the fort by this shelling, it was quickly found that naval fire alone would not reduce it and gain access to the harbor for the British fleet.

As the second division of the invasion force rowed toward the East Haven shore, the garrison at the fort was sustaining casualties. One after another, men began to fall at their posts under enemy fire.

Evelyn Pierpont,[13] 2^nd Lieutenant of Bradley’s Artillery Company and a group of local militiamen from East Haven brought a field gun to the beach and masked it. As Tyron’s men landed they were hit with a flurry of shot and ball. Ensign Watkins, rising from his place in a boat to lead his men ashore was instantly cut down. Heavily outnumbered, and fearing imminent capture should a stand be attempted where he was, Pierpont and his men withdrew with their guns to a place near the road behind Black Rock Fort. Here he was joined by several other men who had come over from East Haven after hearing the sounds of gunfire. Tyron’s forces reached the shore and took a while to get organized for their march toward the fort. But as they moved up they were again confronted by Pierpont with his men and their cannon. Here Tyron’s advance was briefly halted.

In the fort, Lieutenant Daniel Bishop and Sergeant Elihu Moulthrop, also members of Bradley’s Company,[14] kept their men busy at their post as best they could. Casualties continued to mount. Chandler Pardee was stricken, Jeduthan Thompson was dead, Nathan Dummer and Edmund Smith were also down, and now powder and shot were running out. They could not hope to hold the position for long, and reinforcements were not expected soon.

As Tyron arrayed his men to attack the forces before him, he signaled the fleet, whereupon the ships Camilla and Scorpion got underway and began to bombard the fort as they entered the harbor.[15] This was enough. To resist further at the fort was futile as powder ran out. The order was given and the guns spiked to prevent their use by the enemy. Pierpont’s men got off a volley or two but were again forced to give ground. This time they fell back to Beacon Hill where there were still more militiamen waiting for Tryon and his Redcoats.

Bishop, Moulthrop, and several others who were able, in the confusion of the moment attempted to get out of the fort and join the men at Beacon Hill in hopes of making a stand there. In this move both Joseph and Josiah Tuttle were captured along with several others of the garrison. The loss suffered by the New Haveners was not nearly so severe as the losses they inflicted that day. Tyron reported nine killed, forty wounded, twenty-five missing, but his losses are known to have been substantially higher, especially among the Hessian units that accompanied them.[16]

Left among the ashes and bloodshed was a printed address from Tryon and Collier to the inhabitants, which asked, “Why will you persist in a ruinous and ill-judged resistance?”[17] In the afternoon of the following day Tryon withdrew his force to the fort and prepared to sail to Fairfield.[18] As a marked act of contempt, the last British ship passing the fort at Black Rock fired one final resounding broadside as if in defiance of the resistance encountered there the preceding day. General Tyron makes note of the printed address in his report to Governor Clinton. “The general effect of the printed address from Sir George Collier and myself, to the inhabitants, recommended by your Excellency, cannot be discovered until there are some further operations and descents upon their coasts.”[19] These handbills were evidently printed in advance of the expedition, probably in New York at the urging of Governor Clinton.

President Ezra Stiles, on February 4, 1781, noted in his diary that several whaleboats manned by Tory refugees landed at West Haven. Shortly thereafter they returned to their boats and rowed toward the fort at Black Rock, across the harbor. As they rowed, the guns on the fort began firing on them and they turned off.

Wednesday, April 18, 1781, found a small company of men at the Black Rock Fort, about eleven in all. It surprisingly became the second occasion on which the fort was captured by the enemy. Captain Nathan Hubbel, in command of a force of the Associated Loyalists, estimated at about two hundred men operating out of Lloyd’s Neck, Long Island, ordered his men to their boats for a raid against the Connecticut shore. They rowed about sunset across the sound and reached the beach near the Black Rock Fort some time after dark.

We proceeded eastward to New Haven and with perfect silence landed about a quarter of a mile southeast of the Fort, and gained the center of the parade, when the sentry challenged us and immediately ran. We however secured him and surrounded the Barrack. On forcing the door one of the rebels discharged his piece and was thereupon immediately killed. The remainder, eleven in number, were secured without further trouble. We took and brought off the colors, effectually destroyed two double fortified French nine pounders, burned the barrack, cut to pieces the flag staff, took eighteen stand of militia small arms and having effected the business returned without any loss to Lloyd’s Neck. The platforms and everything in the fort which could be destroyed by fire were burned.[20]

The following month General Waterbury petitioned the Assembly at Hartford for better provisioning of the defenses on the coast, pursuant to which it was ordered that the fortifications of the Black Rock Fort should be immediately repaired, and a suitable number of guns remounted.[21] Captain Vandusen, subordinate to Gen. Waterbury, was ordered to reenlist a noncommissioned officer and eleven privates to replace those who had been taken prisoner by the Tory raiders at the fort. An appropriation of £100 was made for the purpose of rebuilding the ruined works, and making them defensible once again.

The Council of Safety thereafter provided further for the safety and security of the coast. In May of the following year they ordered Samuel Bird Jr., of New Haven, along with appointing him lieutenant with command of the Black Rock Fort, to effect repairs to the fortifications as were necessary and additionally, with his men, to cruise the Sound against “enemies of the United States.”[22]

The repairs were made and paid for by the state in the amount of £8. Lieutenant Bird’s commission was issued , no doubt, pursuant to the October 1780 resolution of the Assembly which provided for a number of men and a whaleboat to cruise about in an effort to “prevent the ravages of the enemy and their cruisers, and an illicit trade (smuggling) upon that coast.” To encourage their prompt attention to duty, the whaleboat men, in addition to their regular wages, were as captors, to be entitled to one-half of any prizes they took.[23]

The last record of the garrison in 1782 counted three officers and nineteen privates. From then on and from some time thereafter the custody of the fort was entrusted to the Governor’s Guards at New Haven, but as the end of the war came soon after and the need for defenses passed, the fort was abandoned and allowed to fall into disrepair, and at last has assumed a small but honorable place in this chapter of American History.

Every kind of service necessary for the public good becomes honorable by being necessary ~~~ Nathan Hale

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[1] Charles J. Hoadley, Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut 1775-1776, Hartford, 1890, p. 125.

[2] State Archives , Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut , Revolutionary War Series I, Vol. XIX : 52 mss.

[3] Hoadley, p. 178

[4] Ibid, p. 455

[5] Charles J. Hoadley, Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Vol. 1 1776-1778, Hartford, 1894, p. 117.

[6] Charles Hervey Townshend, Raynham, New Haven, 1900, p. 3.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Charles J. Hoadley, Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Vol. I1 1778-1780, Hartford, 1895, p. 21.

[9] Lloyd A. Brown, Loyalist Operations at New Haven, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1938, 12 pp. unnumbered. Hereafter cited as Brown, Operations.

[10] Charles Hervey Townshend, The British Invasion of New Haven, New Haven, 1879, p. 33. Hereafter cited as Townshend, Invasion.

[11] Ithiel Town, A Detail of Some Particular Services Performed in America, New Haven, 1835 (not paginated)

[12] Townshend, Invasion, pp. 35-36

[13] Adjutant General of Connecticut, Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the Revolution, Hartford, pp. 551-52.

[14] Ibid.

[15] John W. Barber and Lemuel Punderson, History and Antiquities of New Haven, 1870, p. 123. Hereafter cited as Barber, History.

[16] Townshend, Invasion, p. 40.

[17] Barber, History, p. 126.

[18] Townshend, Invasion, p. 36.

[19] Barber, History, p. 127.

[20] Brown, Operations

[21] Charles J. Hoadley, Public Records of the State of Connecticut, vol III, Hartford, 1922, p. 396

[22] Leonard W. Lebaree, , Public Records of the State of Connecticut, vol. IV, Hartford, 1942, p. 242. While commanding a whaleboat, Lt. Bird captured a small cargo-laden schooner from the British and brought it to New Haven, September 1782.

[23] State Archives, Public Records of the State of Connecticut, Revolutionary War, Series I, Vol. III: 595 c,d.

Note: This section is currently being transcribed and will be posted in sections as they are ready

are taken from the subject booklet, authored by Leonard Edward Adams (L.E.A.), published by Fort Nathan Hale Restoration Projects (FNHRP), Inc. New Haven, CT, 1981.

In recopying this history, I have chosen to skip over the Dedication to George Dudley Seymour, and the history of Nathan Hale, in order to get the history of the 1812 fortifications in place on the website.

It seems best at the outset to explain Fort Hale's place in the chronology of the historic site called Black Rock. The structure discussed in this booklet was the third of four defensive fortifications built at that location. It was immediately preceded by Black Rock Fort or Rock Fort as it was also known during the American Revolution. The Fort Hale of the 1812 period was followed by a second Fort Hale built during the Civil War.

The reader will understand that the remains of the first Fort Hale were removed to make way for its Civil War replacement and that any slight traces of it that did survive were permanently obliterated by the reconstruction of Black Rock Fort during the Bicentennial.

Since the fort of the1812 period cannot be seen, this booklet attempts to gather together accurate descriptions, illustrations and accounts of it. This is singularly important as George Dudley Seymour reported:---"• • • that the naming of this small and obscure fort actually constitutes the first and (until well into the 20th Century) only Federal recognition of the services of the martyr spy of the Revolutionary War, since the Federal Government adopted the name, if it did not originate it."

After the conclusion of hostilities and the treaty of peace declaring the end of the American Revolution, Black Rock Fort at the entrance to New Haven Harbor, was abandoned and allowed to lapse into a state of disrepair. For many years little effort was made to maintain the wooden platforms and earthworks that had served to defend New Haven during the War of Independence.

As the threat of another war with England became more serious during the early years of the Nineteenth Century, attention was again directed toward the strategic basaltic prominence at the harbor's edge with an eye toward the defense of the port.

The Congress of the United States proposed a program for enlarging and improving defensive fortifications at major strategic harbors along the Atlantic Coast in 1807. which became known as the Second System of Seacoast Fortifications of the United States (1). Typical of this system was the fort built at New Haven in 1809. Pursuant to the Act calling for the construction of a fort at New Haven, General Andrew Hull, a native of Derby, Connecticut, was appointed to act as agent for the War Department with authorization to purchase a site suitable for erecting a defensive works which would protect the vital port. The site chosen was, surprisingly enough (2), that imposing basalt prominence which had served the same purpose of defense during the Revolution and bore the deteriorated remains of Black Rock Fort.

The complete command of the channel leading to the inner harbor being strategically essential and afforded only by this particular location made the choice of the rocky point at the water's edge easy for the General. Should any enemy vessel attempt to enter the harbor once the new fort was armed, it would of necessity have to pass within easy range of cannon fire and could be quickly dispatched.

The General arranged to purchase the rock and a strip of land about forty feet wide running parallel to the shoreline. Truman Colt, acting as guardian for Bela Forbes, received $125 for the land. A second parcel of land was purchased from Kneeland Townsend for $275. The piece known as King's Island adjoined the first parcel and extended a bit farther North up the shoreline. Finally, it was necessary to cross the land of Samuel Forbes whose property lay between the other two and nearest the public road. Philemon Augur, Samuel's guardian, permitted the construction of a road and bridge across the field and creek. (A portion of this road is still in use today, and is known as Fort Hale

The purchase of these properties having been concluded in August of 1809, the new fort was built and completed during the latter half of that year.

The outer walls of the fort were constructed of large, cut stone blocks which extended beyond and about the sides of the rock base of the works. The upper sections and archway were faced with bricks. An inner retaining wall was also put up and fill placed between the walls. Gun platforms of wood were installed in such a way that the guns would fire over the top of the parapet rather than through embrasures cut into the walls. This gave great advantage to the field of fire allotted to any of the fort's six guns.

Enclosed within the fort was a small parade area about forty feet by seventy-five feet with a single flag pole at the center. A long ramp led from the roadway up to the fort's gated arch, which was flanked by two protective stonecaped sentry boxes. The barracks constructed of brick was located about two hundred yards north of the fort at a spot safely in the rear of the defenses atop the rock. The building had four rooms, two large ones for the enlisted men, and two smaller ones for the officers. Nearby stood a washhouse or "sink," the powder magazine, and a wood-frame supply house.

In a report dated December, 1811, the fort was described as being, "an eliptical enclosure, battery of masonry mounting six guns with small brick magazine, brick barracks on the outside in a field, for 50 men and officers."

(1)--A further discussion of the Second System of Seacoast Fortifications will be offered at a later late. Reference:

--"Seacoast Fortifications of the United States, An Introductory History," Emanual Raymond Lewis, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1993.

(2)--The site was proven vulnerable when it was attacked and captured twice before.