Post by Herb on Sept 29, 2008 14:44:39 GMT -5
The assault on Fort Griswold in September, 1781, came up on Alamo Sentry and I thought there were some interesting parallels.
Here's what I posted:
"I don't know too much about the burning of New London, other than this was Benedict Arnold's last action in the Revolutionary War and was mounted by Clinton as an attempt to divert Washington from his movement against Cornwallis at Yorktown. As such Arnold led an 800 man expedition with the specific task to destroy the Colonial privateer base. Arnold divided his command with the main body (I don't know exactly what portion of the 800) under his personal command marching directly on New London and burning the town. The remainder of the 800 were led by a Lieutenant Colonel Eyre on the opposite side of the river to attack Fort Griswold.
Eyre twice demanded that the fort surrender, and per the norms at the time, threatened that the garrison would be put to the sword if they forced the British to take the fort by storm. The garrison refused to surrender. At 10:00 AM, the British attacked, capturing a cannon and turned it on the defenders, has well as seizing the main gate. When the Main Gate was seized the Colonial Commander, Col Ledyard, ordered his troops to cease fire (an order that was at least partially ignored) and attempted to surrender. The Colonials suffered 80 men killed including Col Ledyard, and about 35 men wounded. The British lost 51 killed and 142 wounded. The action lasted about 40 minutes.
Very clearly some maybe most of the killed Colonials (probably including Col Ledyard) were killed and mutilated after Ledyard's attempt to surrender. BUT, the surrender attempt was made in the midst of close combat after the British soldiers rage was up after having been made to assault a fortified position and suffering intense causalities, further many of the Colonials refused to obey Ledyard's order to cease fire and surrender. The fact that about 35 defenders escaped unscathed, and about another 35 wounded survived the battle shows that discipline and order was restored relatively quickly.
PS: BTW, there is the usual discrepancies in numbers between the two sides. The British official report lists that 90 men were captured unwounded and paroled - along with the 80 killed and 35 wounded."
Here's what I posted:
"I don't know too much about the burning of New London, other than this was Benedict Arnold's last action in the Revolutionary War and was mounted by Clinton as an attempt to divert Washington from his movement against Cornwallis at Yorktown. As such Arnold led an 800 man expedition with the specific task to destroy the Colonial privateer base. Arnold divided his command with the main body (I don't know exactly what portion of the 800) under his personal command marching directly on New London and burning the town. The remainder of the 800 were led by a Lieutenant Colonel Eyre on the opposite side of the river to attack Fort Griswold.
Eyre twice demanded that the fort surrender, and per the norms at the time, threatened that the garrison would be put to the sword if they forced the British to take the fort by storm. The garrison refused to surrender. At 10:00 AM, the British attacked, capturing a cannon and turned it on the defenders, has well as seizing the main gate. When the Main Gate was seized the Colonial Commander, Col Ledyard, ordered his troops to cease fire (an order that was at least partially ignored) and attempted to surrender. The Colonials suffered 80 men killed including Col Ledyard, and about 35 men wounded. The British lost 51 killed and 142 wounded. The action lasted about 40 minutes.
Very clearly some maybe most of the killed Colonials (probably including Col Ledyard) were killed and mutilated after Ledyard's attempt to surrender. BUT, the surrender attempt was made in the midst of close combat after the British soldiers rage was up after having been made to assault a fortified position and suffering intense causalities, further many of the Colonials refused to obey Ledyard's order to cease fire and surrender. The fact that about 35 defenders escaped unscathed, and about another 35 wounded survived the battle shows that discipline and order was restored relatively quickly.
PS: BTW, there is the usual discrepancies in numbers between the two sides. The British official report lists that 90 men were captured unwounded and paroled - along with the 80 killed and 35 wounded."