Photo By Lori Stewart | A July 1780 map showing French encampments in Newport Harbor and ship firing lines in...... read more read more
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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
FRENCH FLEET LANDS SAFELY AT NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
On Jul. 11, 1780, a squadron of French warships arrived in the harbor near Newport, Rhode Island, to provide military assistance to the Continental Army. With timely information about British intentions to harass the French as they disembarked, the French were forewarned of the potential attack while General George Washington conducted a deception operation to ensure the enemy remained in New York City.
Secretly, the French had been providing equipment, funds, and military experts to the Continental Army since early in the war. The relationship solidified with the signing of a treaty of alliance in February 1778. Six months later, in August, a French fleet had attempted to assist the Continental Army in pushing the British out of Newport, but poor weather had scuttled their attack plans. Another attempt at combined operations failed at Savannah in 1779. In early May 1780, King Louis XVI sent another fleet, under the command of Adm. Charles Henry Louis d’Arsac, chevalier de Ternay, on a ten-week voyage to Newport. The fleet carried Count de Rochambeau and his nearly six thousand soldiers and an equal number of sailors and marines. It arrived in Narragansett Bay on Jul. 11.
News of the coming French fleet could not have been better timed for Washington. Positioned in the highlands outside New York City, the American commander had lamented in April, “We are at the end of our tether….” Reinforcements of French troops would breathe new spirit and strength into the beleaguered and undermanned Continental Army. While the British had abandoned Newport in October the previous year, Washington feared Sir Henry Clinton, commanding all British forces in America from his headquarters in New York, would harass the French fleet as it arrived in the predominantly loyalist town.
On Jul. 11 July, unaware the French fleet had already dropped anchor in the Newport harbor, Washington appealed to the Culper Spy Ring in the New York area, a group he had nearly severed ties with just two months earlier: “As we may every moment expect the arrival of the French fleet, a revival of the correspondence with the Culpers will be of very great intelligence.” Washington encouraged Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge, leader of the ring, to contact its members for any information about British intentions and movements toward Newport. The Culper Ring gratefully swung into action.
The Culper Ring quickly learned Clinton was already amassing ground forces on the north side of Long Island to march for Newport, while nine British warships were prepared to leave New York for the Rhode Island harbor. The ring dispatched this urgent information to Washington’s headquarters in Preakness, New Jersey, where it arrived on Jul. 21 and was immediately forwarded to Newport to warn the French.
As the Culper Ring’s dispatch made its way to Newport, a flurry of corroborating reports from local individuals also swirled into Newport. On Jul. 25, Rochambeau and the commander of American troops in Rhode Island, Maj. Gen. William Heath, received their first warning of the British intentions. In response, General Heath requested the Rhode Island governor send two thousand men to Newport, and Rochambeau rushed to improve the positions of his artillery and troops.
Meanwhile, Washington considered Clinton’s movement of troops to Rhode Island an opportunity to attack what would be a lightly defended New York. Convinced by his advisors that he had neither sufficient time nor artillery and ammunition for such a venture, Washington instead personally drew up fake plans for such an attack and then leaked them to British sympathizers. Ultimately, Clinton called off his attack on Newport, perhaps partly because of Washington’s deception, but also because of a delay in the arrival of transports needed to move the ground troops. Regardless of the reason, the French, already fully alerted to the danger, had the necessary time to safely disembark and organize their defenses in Newport. The French were now prepared to provide full military support to the Continental Army’s efforts to defeat the British.
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| Date Taken: | 07.03.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.03.2025 13:27 |
| Story ID: | 510977 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 8 |
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