Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-03-20

| Robinson, wife OF hon. moses Robin
son, said, General will take down the
last bedstead in the house and present
it to you on one condition. when all
the prisoners are tied to the rope, you
shall permit my negro man to harness
up my old mare, and hitch the rope to
the whiffietree, mount the mare, and
conduct the British and tory prisoners
out of town." The proposition was
accepted, and in this manner the left
wing of the British army was conduct
ed into Massachusetts,.
The Hon. Tristan Burgess, in a
speech in Congress, in 1928. said: SAT
the commencement of the Revolution
ary war, Rhode Island had a number
of slaves. A regiment of them were
enlisted into the Continental service,
and no braver men met the enemy in
battle; but not one of them was per-
mitted to be soldier until he had first
been made a freeman"
In relation to this regiment, Gov.
Eustis says: THE gallant defense of
Red Bank, in which the black regi-
ment bore part, is among the proofs
of their valor. In this contest four
hundred men met and repulsed, after
bloody struggle, fifteen hundred Hes
SLAMS, headed by Count Dunlop" In
the attack upon our lines near Croton
river, Col. Greene, the commander of
the regiment, was mortslly wounded,
''but the sabres of the enemy only
reached him through the bodies of his
faithful guard of blacks, every one of
whom was killed" Lieut.. Col. Barton
planned the capture of the British
Major-Gen. Prescott. Taking with him
forty picked men, with mufied oars,
they eYaded the ships of war and arri-
wing at the headquarters of the Gen.,
secured the sentinel at the door, with
out creating an alarm. A negro man
named Prince, thrust his head through
the panel of the door of the Generals
room, seized him while in bed, and he
was conveyed in safety to our lines.
A Battalion of colored troops was
formed in Connecticut, and there was
some difficulty in finding suitable Off
GERS to take charge of it. Capt. Hum
phreys. member of General Washing
toms staff. afterwards Gen. Humphreys,
distinguished as a patriot, scholar,
and poet, volunteered to take com.
mand of a company, after which there
was no trouble in finding officers for
the colored battalion.
1t is known to every one that when
the British army. under the traitor
Arnold, stormed Fort Griswold, on Gro
ton heights, the first British officer who
mounted the parapet demanded. "Who
commands this fort ?" To which the
gallant Col. Ledyard replied, al did,
but you do noW," at the same time de-
ivering up his sword, when the infa-
nous Briton Immediately thrust that
sword through his body to its hilt but
it is not generally known that colored
soldier, named Lambert, standing near
the Colonel, at once avenged his death
by thrusting his bayonet through the
body of the British officer and that
Lambert in turn fell, pierced by no less
than thirty-three bayonet wounds.
1t Is matter of history that many
colored men were enlisted or went as
substitutes in all of the Connecticut
regiments, and fought side by side with
the white patriots of the Revolution.
This is proven by the fact that large
number of names of colored soldiers
were on the pension rolls for many
years.
During the Revolutionary war the
State of New York passed an act, grant
ing freedom to all slaves who would
enlist for three years, or until regular
ly discharged. On the 22d of Janu-
ary, 1927, Stephen Martindale said in
Congress: "SlaVes. or those who had
been slaves, were enlisted as soldiers in
the war of the revolution" al saw q
battalion OF. them as fine, martial look
ing men as | ever saw attached to the
Northern army in the last war, on its
way from Plattsburg to Sackett's Har-
bor."
In New Jersey the names of a large
number of colored soldiers of the reYo-
luton were on the pension rolls for
many years after the close of the war.
Pennsylvania also furnishes the
names of colored soldiers who distin-
guished themselves in the revolution +
l have time to mention but one, Jas.
Forten enlisted as powder-boy on the
ship Royal Louis, commanded by Ste
phen Decatur, Sen. Falling IN soon
with the English ship Lawrence, a
bloody engagement ensned, in which
every man on board was wounded ex-
cept young Forten. They nevertheless
succeeded in capturing the ship, and
brought her safely into port amid the
huzzas of the populace.
Young Forten soon embarked again
on board the same ship, but falling in
with three of the ensmy's vessels, the
Emphyone, Nymph, and Pomona, was
unfortunately captured. Our young
captive soon became faTorite. Capt.
Bensley offered him passage to Eng
land, and tempted him with the allure
ments of wealth, if he would desert
the standard of his country. No, no
was the indignant reply, 81 am here a
prisoner for the liberties of my coun-
try, never, never, shall prove a traitor
to her interests p' He was soon trans
ferred to the Old Jersey prison ship,
that receptacle of filth, and disease,
and starvation, equalled or excelled
only in horror by the prison pens of
Andersonville and Salisbury. 1t is
said that over eleven thousand prison.
ers persisted while on board of that
floating hell. After seven months of
confinement young Forten was ex-
changed and was permitted to visit his
widowed mother, who had long given
him up as dead. After the close of the
war, he was apprenticed, with his own
consent, to Mr.. Rob't Bridges, sail ma
ker. Such was his skill, energy and
perseverance, that he was soon promo
ted b be foreman of the shop, on the
retiNAent of his master in 1913, be-
came proprietor of the establishment /;
where by his honesty, skill, and indus
try, he won the confidence and patron
age of the public, and accumulated a
handsome property. He was distin-
guished during his whole life for acts of
kindness and benevolence. @
John Cadwalader, in a letter to
Washington dated Annapolis, Nd,
June 5, 1871, says: "We have resolY-
ed to raise Immediately seven hundred
and fifty negroes to be incorporated
with the other troops and bill is Row
almost completed" In Virginia and
North Carolina many colored soldiers
were put IN the field. Many slavehold-
ers put in able bodied slaves as substi-
tutes for themselves or theirsons, ,choos-
ing rather to risk their property than
their own precious lives. 1t is due to
Virginia to say, that through the inhu-
ence of Jefferson, she enacted a law,
providing that all slaves who entered