Footnotes to Long Island History
War of 1812 Quiet
Here
by
Thomas R. Bayles
The War of
1812 gave Suffolk county comparatively little trouble besides the danger
of attack that threatened at all times.
In 1813 a
British fleet occupied Gardiner’s bay, and from there made attacks at
different points. A draft was made upon the militia for three months
service at Sag Harbor, where the danger of an attack seemed greatest.
Several frigates crossed the sound and attacked the trading sloops
plying between the ports along the north shore of the county and New
York. This interfered seriously with the shipping of cordwood from
county forests to the New York market, which was in those days an
important business. The shortage of wood in the New York market sent
prices up so high that those who were daring enough to undertake risk
and fortunate enough to get through to New York with a sloop load of
wood received two or three times the regular price for their cargo.
The British
cruising frigates were on the alert and often captured a prize. Some of
the vessels captured were held for a ransom and others were burned.
Considerable property was destroyed but few, if any, lives were lost
during the war.
Port Jeff Action
During the
war at Port Jefferson, shipping was attacked and considerably damaged by
the British cruisers which sailed up and down the sound. A small
fortification was erected at the northern end of Dwyer’s neck,
overlooking the west side of the harbor and on this was mounted a single
gun throwing a 32-pound ball. At one time seven sloops were taken from
the harbor under cover of darkness by two English frigates, the
Indemnity and the Paramoon. In working them out of the harbor, one of
the sloops ran aground on the flats, and was set on fire and burned to
the water’s edge. The rest were afterward ransomed by their owners.
During the
war an American cutter, closely pursued by a British man-of-war, was run
ashore east of Baiting Hollow on the sound shore, and a determined fight
took place between the militia, which had been quickly gathered, and the
pursuing barges from the ship. The American forces kept up such a hot
fire from behind the bank that the British were several times thrown
back, and although helped by a heavy cannon fire from the ship were
forced to retreat. The ship sailed down the sound to the British fleet
at Orient and returned the next day to renew the fight. This time she
was able to capture the disabled and sinking American ship.
On one of
the trips of the schooner, Glorian, with Captain Joseph Robinson of East
Patchogue in command, which was carrying cord wood to the New York
market, Capt. Robinson found 12 other boats waiting at fire Island to
cross the bar. The British thought the schooners could be easily
captured, and manned a barge with 12 men at the oars and a cannon at the
bow. They sailed across the bar with the intention of capturing the
schooners and destroying them.
‘Yankee Trick’
The crews
of the schooners went ashore and although unarmed, swung their hats,
inviting the British to come on with their boat. They answered by
firing the cannon, and as soon as they saw the smoke from the cannon,
the schooner’s crews dropped behind a sand dune on the ocean shore and
escaped injury although the balls struck the sand near them. the
British thought this was some Yankee trick and that they might be
captured, so abandoned their attempt and returned to their ship. This
act of courage by the captains of the schooners saved their fleet and
preserved for themselves a history characteristic of men of their time.
The close
of these years brought to an end the war history of Suffolk county until
the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. For 50 years the county had a
period of peaceful prosperity.