To George Washington from Lieutenant Joseph Davison, 27 June 1776
From Lieutenant Joseph Davison
Arm’d Sloop Schuyler June 27th 1776
Since our Last1 We have In Company with Capt. Rogers of the Arm’d Sloop Montgomery Retaken 4 Prises, which was taken by the Greyhound Man of War bound for Sandy hook, 2 Brigs Belonging to Nantucket with oil one has near 500 Barrels on Board & the other 150 Also A Schooner & A Sloop the Schooner Belonging to Cape Ann Loaded with Molasses & some Sugar The Sloop Outward Bound Belonging to Rhode Island Loaded With flour & Lumber2 We have Inteligence by one of the Prisoners that A fleet of 130 Sail, Sailed from Halifax the 9th Inst. for Sandy Hook & that Genll How Is on Board the Greyhound which We Suppos’d Pass’d us 3 Days Ago We having observ’d A Ship to the Westward of us About that Time Standing for Sandy Hook, Capt. Rogers has Apply’d to the Committee for A Guard which they have Supply’d us With & Shall Send the Prisoners as Soon as Possible.
Joseph Davison, Lieut.
ALS, DLC:GW; ADS, sold by Charles Hamilton, 25 May 1972, catalog 58, item 26; copy, enclosed in GW to Hancock, 28 June 1776, DNA:PCC, item 152; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169.
1. See Charles Pond to GW, 19 June.
2. The British frigate Greyhound captured the schooner Hiram from Cape Anne on 19 June, the brig Speedwell from Nantucket on 21 June, the brig Pembroke also from Nantucket on 22 June, and the sloop Nonesuch from Rhode Island on 23 June (Journal of H.M.S. Greyhound, Captain Archibald Dickson, 19–23 June, in Clark and Morgan, Naval Documents, 5:626, 662, 680–81, 697; Libels Filed in New Haven Admiralty Court, 6 Nov. 1776, ibid., 7:62–63). Capt. William Rogers of Wilton, Conn., took command of the New York armed sloop Montgomery in April 1776 and was now stationed at Fire Island on the south coast of Long Island. During the next twelve months Rogers captured and recaptured a number of vessels while sailing the Montgomery as far as Baltimore, where he assisted in moving American troops across the Chesapeake Bay to the Eastern Shore. In July 1777 Rogers became captain of the Massachusetts privateer General Washington, and in April 1778 he captured the British ship York in the West Indies. Rogers continued commanding the General Washington until June 1781 when he and his vessel were captured by the British.