The Mount Hope Bay Raids

The Battle of Fall’s river or as it referred to today as, the Battle of Freetown took place in May 1778 - in what was called “Lower Freetown” but present day Fall River MA. The heat of the battle occurred in the  Main, Pocasset and Ananwan street areas, and  down to the waterfront in the area of the mouth of the Quequechan river. The date is not clear as there are competing  thoughts  and reports with some records stating May 25th and others May 30th  and by Col Durfee own account stating on on  ‘the Sabbath” meaning Sunday, May 31st*. This was part of military action by the British stationed in Newport RI under the command of General Sir Robert Gigot -commonly referred to as the Mount Hope Bay raids.

During this time the British sent forces into Mount Hope, to “harass” the rebels sympathizers on raids. The Regulars were said to have conducted several raids and up and down the Taunton River, scavenging for supplies and weapons in Freetown MA,  Warren, & Bristol RI and Swansea MA since the summer of 1777 after the  successful Col Wm Barton mission to kidnap General Richard Prescott. The objective of theses raids was to destroy any defenses in the area, including supplies that had been cached by the Continental Army in anticipation of an assaults on Newport and Aquidneck Island Rhode Island occupied by the British since December 1776.  And as a related earlier there was a likely a touch of revenge to an area that supported and even cheered the kidnapping of General Prescott in the summer of 77.

On May 25 the1778 Warren and Bristol RI was raid and suffered extensive damage. General Pigot hands sent 500 hessian and Regulars up the coast. Homes, government and town buildings as a well as places of worship were destroyed and ravaged in these raids. The towns of Warren & Bristol RI were hit especially hard ,Warren was pretty much raised and plundered and Bristol savagely attacked with 22 houses being destroyed in a church set aflame. But the village of Fall’s river-lower Freetown,  up the Taunton River- now know as Fall River was able to muster the militia to repel the advance.

On or about May 25th -31st  (as stated the record is not clear) in the early hours of the morning 150 British Regulars came up river and were hailed by the sentry Corporal Samuel Reed, placed there by the command of the local militia Major Joesph Durfee. When the whaleboats the Regulars were traveling in did not countersign Cpl Read fired upon them setting of the alarm for the militia.

The Regulars came ashore at the mouth of the Quequechan River and burnt the homes of Thomas Borden and his father Richard as well as several small boats, 15,000 feet of planking, a saw mill, a grist mill, several small boat and other buildings.

As report by Mr. S.A. Chace, in an article on the Military History of Fall River previous to 1824, published in the Fall River "Evening News," March 24, 1897

“ On Sunday morning May 25 (or May 31),1778, a British force of about 150 soldiers landed at Fall River and began burning the houses of Thomas Borden and Richard Borden and several other buildings. Major Joseph DURFEE, who was stationed at Fall River, with a hastily gathered force of 20-25 men that included his brother Benjamin, successfully drove off the British, killing three and wounding several others in the process. The size of Joseph's force increased as more men, hearing the noise of the battle and seeing the smoke of the burning buildings, rushed to the scene. In August 1778, he went on the Sullivan Campaign in Rhode Island. “

 

*May 31, 1778 was the 151st day of the year 1778 in the Gregorian calendar. The day of the week was Sunday. 25th was a Monday - Durfee says the events occurred on the Sabbath-Sunday?