The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [246]
Greene laughed.
“Not as long as he keeps his insults in French.”
AUGUST 9, 1778
The British had responded to the arrival of the French fleet by burning the few ships of their own that lay at anchor around Newport, preventing d’Estaing from making easy capture of the vessels that were so clearly outgunned. Pigott had already abandoned the few outposts beyond the main island where Newport lay, gathering his troops into the strong defenses the British had constructed months before. But even with their forces concentrated on the single island, the British were strung out in a dangerously weak position, and Pigott wisely withdrew his troops southward, concentrating them around the town itself. With the island’s northern defenses now empty of troops, Sullivan could not resist taking advantage, ordered a rapid crossing from the mainland, and placed his men in control of that part of the island. The move was concluded with precision, unopposed by any British troops. The only difficulty came from d’Estaing. Sullivan had launched into action a day sooner than the French expected. While the tactics were reasonable, the protocol was not. On the French flagship, senior officers reacted with bristling protest. But the controversy was cut short by a far more serious discovery. Beyond the mouth of Narragansett Bay, a mass of sails began to fill the horizon. The British general Pigott had accomplished much more than the strengthening of his own defenses. His dispatch had gone to New York, and Clinton and Lord Howe had responded. Strengthened by reinforcements from England, Lord Howe had assembled a fleet of his own, more than thirty warships. If d’Estaing did not remove his fleet from the confines of Narragansett Bay, the French could be bottled up and destroyed piecemeal. But more, to a navy man, the British fleet was a target that he could not resist. With Sullivan still expecting the French to land their four thousand marines, d’Estaing suddenly raised his sails, and the entire French force vanished into the Atlantic.
AUGUST 12, 1778
The winds had begun in the middle of the night, and Greene had been shaken from his bed by a screaming gale. With the dawn had come more wind and rain, and through the windows of the small house, he could see that the bay was a frenzy of foaming waves.
For two days, the armies had stared at each other along the large island, both sides eager for some word of what was happening beyond the mouth of the bay. As the storm finally cleared, Greene had a greater concern than the outcome of a naval battle. The camps of his men were a shambles, mud-soaked equipment, tents that had simply blown away. Worse, most of the army’s ammunition was ruined. He could only hope that the British camp had suffered as much from the amazing storm.
AUGUST 20, 1778
Sullivan had finally begun the fight, and for five days his troops, backed by John Hancock’s militia, pressed the British defenses. Progress was limited, and Greene began to realize that what should have been quick work, the utter destruction of a sizable British force, was instead destined to become a siege. The one element that might yet cause the breakthrough was the addition of the French marines. After so many days at sea, the French fleet began to appear again in Narragansett Bay. As the Americans huddled in their British-made trenches, they cheered the ships. Most had never seen the aftermath of a naval battle, and many stared in shock at the damage. Broken masts hung from rigging, railings were stripped away from decks, planking and gun covers were torn from the sides. When d’Estaing finally made his landing, he did not bring news of any kind of fight with Lord Howe. The two fleets had hardly begun to maneuver around each other before the storm appeared, tossing and scattering the ships, sweeping some far out to sea. Both fleets had suffered equally, neither side capable of any kind of battle. To the relief of the French, Lord Howe had limped his way back to New York.
GREENE BOARDED THE FLAGSHIP,