AMERICAN REVOLUTION: JANUARY 8th to 28th, 1776

With the July 4th holiday fast approaching, Balladeer’s Blog offers readers another seasonal post regarding overlooked military actions.

JANUARY 8th, 1776 – In Charlestown, Massachusetts, British troops and American Tories were attending a performance of General John Burgoyne’s play The Blockade of Boston. The play was a farce ridiculing the supposed inadequacies of the American rebels. An unknown number of American soldiers carried out a raid on the town, panicking the theater audience, capturing 5 British soldiers and destroying 8 Tory buildings.

JANUARY 12th – At Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, the HMS Glasgow and HMS Sloop Swan landed 250 British soldiers and Marines. The Brits clashed with approximately 50 American men of Richmond’s Regiment and forced them to retreat. Throughout the night the Redcoats pillaged supplies, stole livestock away to the two ships and burned down homes and barns.

JANUARY 13th – After daybreak, Captain William Barton led 60 men from Richmond’s Regiment in an attack on the British. Gunfire was exchanged for over 3 hours, with several men from other Rhode Island units crossing the bay to reinforce their fellow rebels. Ultimately, the Brits were forced to end their pillaging and burning and to retreat to the two warships, having suffered at least 14 dead and an unknown number of injured.

JANUARY 17th – In Johnstown, New York, Major General Philip Schuyler’s American forces, numbering roughly 3,000 outmaneuvered and forced the surrender of Sir John Johnson and his Loyalist forces, numbering hundreds of American Tories and unknown numbers of Mohawk allies of the British. Weapons were seized and the soldiers taken prisoner, thus ending organized Tory actions around Albany for the rest of the war.

JANUARY 23rd – William Alexander and Elias Dayton led rebel forces in an attack on the HMS Blue Mountain Valley, roughly 40 miles off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The ship was taken with all surviving hands.

JANUARY 26th – The HMS Cruizer and HMS Scorpion shelled American rebels in Fort Johnson near the Cape Fear River, North Carolina. The Americans returned fire and ultimately forced the Scorpion to retreat and the Cruizer to break off their attack and pull back.

JANUARY 27th – The HMS Cruizer was sent up the Cape Fear River but refrained from attacking after a recon of the defensive breastworks the Americans had constructed. A landing party was attempted but was met by rebel fire from both sides of the river. The party fled back to the Cruizer.

JANUARY 28th – American forces in the area continued subjecting the HMS Cruizer to fire as the ship withdrew back down the Cape Fear River and out to sea. 

FOR MORE REVOLUTIONARY WAR BATTLES PRIOR TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE CLICK HERE.