The Battle of Fall River
By WILLIAM MONIZ, Fall River Spirit Correspondent
The Redcoats, 150 strong carrying 60 pound knapsacks, marched up the steep hill expecting little resistance, they got plenty. Warned by sentry Samuel Read that British boats were landing troops at the foot of what would become Anawan and Pocasset Streets, Colonel Joseph Durfee and his 16 volunteer militiamen were waiting. Establishing a defensive position behind a stone wall on the high ground of the ridge, they rained down withering musket fire on the advancing infantry. The battle of Fall River had begun. On its 231st anniversary, historian David Jennings vividly recounted the 1778 skirmish at a May 20th, Fall River History Club presentation. As true "Minutemen", Col. Durfee's irregulars had formed on a moment's notice. "Unlike today," said Jennings, "everyone had to own a weapon, it was expected." "These men were courageous" added Jennings, "they were greatly outnumbered but they were defending their village." In 1778, operating from an established naval base at Newport, the British were regularly raiding the nearby coastal villages and towns expropriating food and provisions and generally harassing the population. Only a few days earlier, on May 25th, a force of 500 British and Hessian troops had marched on Warren, Rhode Island, burning the town's grist mill and many boats and taking several townspeople prisoner. Under the Command of a Major Ayres, the company attacking Fall River had come up the bay on three ships; Juneau, Kingfisher, and Pigot, a 14 gun galley. The Pigot had the misfortune of running aground in the Bristol Passage and took a pounding from the town's shore batteries. Before the Royal Navy managed to kedge and tow the Pigot free, two of its sailors had been killed. Ayres' regulars, approaching in formation two ranks deep, were towing a small 3 pounder artillery piece. The gun began firing grapeshot at the rebels causing Col. Durfee to order a withdrawal across the Quequechan River taking up the plank bridge as they went. According to the 1902 Old Home Festival History of Freetown, Massachusetts; "Here he made a determined stand, and so valiantly was he supported by the loyal volunteers of old Freetown and Tiverton, who had rallied around him, that the enemy soon sounded the retreat." "The British felt it was uncivilized to shoot at a single enemy, said Jennings, "instead they fired general volleys from their two rank formation." The rebels had no such compunction. "The militia routinely used flanking tactics," said Jennings, "they would attack the enemy's rear using bayonets to stab individual soldiers." In his hasty retreat to the boats, Major Ayres would leave one dead and one dying on the battlefield. Redcoats Charles Brigham and William Danks were buried by Col. Durfee's men at a spot near what is now South Main and Anawan Streets. In the early 19th Century, they were reburied in the North Burial Ground. The exact location of their unmarked graves is unknown. Although the colonial forces suffered no casualties in the battle, upon landing the British burned 1,500 running feet of whaleboat lumber, put the torch to a sawmill and a grist mill, and set fire to the home of Thomas Borden. According the 1902 Freetown Old Home Festival History: "On their retreat they set fire to the house and other buildings of Richard Borden, an aged man, and took him away prisoner. Col. Durfee followed closely with his men, who kept up an annoying musketry fire upon the retreating troops. He also saved the latter burning buildings from destruction." As the British rowed down the bay to their troop ships with Richard Borden as captive, another of their men was hit by musket fire. A few days later in Newport, Mr. Borden was released and he returned to the village. The Battle of Fall River was over. David Jennings, along with Herb Tracy the program's coordinator, teach an afternoon session for transitional children at the Doran and Greene schools. Jennings tells of a young immigrant girl who after listening to an account of the battle exclaimed, "Those men were heroes." "She's right", says Jennings, "unless we keep teaching these things we'll lose our sense of history." (Although called the Battle of Fall River, the encounter actually took place in what was then known as Freetown. In 1803 Freetown became Troy and would not become incorporated under the name Fall River until 1834. British military history still refers to the action as the Battle of Freetown.)
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Source: Moniz, William. SouthCoast Today southcoasttoday.com, 2009 Web. 4 June 2009