Joseph Bucklin fired a musket and hit a British Navy
captain, in the first American intentional and planned attack on English military forces. The
captain thought he was going to die, and surrendered his ship and crew. In
short: Joseph fired the most important shot in the capture and burning of the
boat "Gaspee". Not only was Joseph's shot the most important part of the
capture events, Rhode Island celebrates it as the first shot in the American
Revolution, claiming the shots in Lexington and Concord may have produced more
carnage, but were not the first shots of the revolt by the Americans.
|
 [From
the account written by Epraim Bowen.] In about a minute Dudingston mounted
the starboard gunwale in his shirt and hailed, "Who comes there?" No
answer. He hailed again, when Capt. Whipple answered as follows: "I am
the sheriff of the county of Kent, G... d ..n you. I have got a warrant to
apprehend you, G.. d..n you; so surrender, G.. d..n you."
I took my seat on the main thwart,
near the larboard row-lock, with my gun by my right side, facing forwards. As
soon as Dudingston began to hail, Joseph Bucklin, who was standing on the main
thwart by my right side, said to me, "Ephe, reach me your gun and I can kill
that fellow."
I reached it to him accordingly,
when, during Capt. Whipple’s replying, Bucklin fired and Dudingston fell, and
Bucklin exclaimed, "I have killed the rascal."
[From the
account written by Dr. John Mawney.] I then directed [Joseph Bucklin] him
to place his hands as I had mine, which was, the ball of my left hand on the
orifice of the wound, and giving him the word to slip his hand under mine and
to press hard to prevent the effusion of blood; which being done, I
....[prepared a bandage compress].... All being prepared, I told Bucklin
to raise his hands, when I instantly placed the compresses on the orifice, and
placing the bandage round the thigh over the wound and crossing it above, drew
tight, so that the effusion of blood was stopped.
|
Biographical Facts About "Joseph Bucklin"
Go to Joseph Bucklin
4th Biography for biography of one of
the two candidates for being the celebrated Joseph.
Go to Joseph Bucklin 5th Biography for
biography of the other of the two candidates for being the celebrated Joseph.
Read the conclusion to
who was the "Joseph
Bucklin" on that eventful night of June 10th, 1772 --- Who fired the first
shot of the American Revolutionary War?.
Summary of the Gaspee Affair
The Gaspee was an English revenue cutter, preventing smuggling and collecting
taxes. When the "Gaspee" went aground, a number of men of the Providence
area rowed out, wounded the captain, took the rest of the crew off the ship, and
burned the ship.
We have a
full account of the silent approach of the Americans, in the
dark of the moon, and the drama of the capture and destruction of the Gaspee.
When the news reached London, the English Attorney General called the Gaspee
capture five times as serious as the Stamp Act protests.
Lord Hillsborough
ordered Admiral Montague to go to Rhode Island and arrest the persons involved. Parliament quickly passed an act specifically providing that the burning of
the Gaspee was treason, and the men involved were to be brought back and tried
in England. A reward of 1000 pounds - plus full pardon - was provided for anyone
giving information leading to the arrest of the person who shot the English ship
captain.
The Bucklins obviously had reasons for hoping that the American Revolution
did not end in failure with the instigators of the Revolution being hanged as
traitors.
The Rhode Island patriots sought the expert counsel of Samuel Adams. A group
of men, including the deputy governor, wrote to ask him what to do next. Adams
agreed with Thomas Hutchinson that the Gaspee's burning should open eyes to the
seriousness of the growing rebellion. But Adams wrote that it was the American
colonists, not the British, who had been "too long dozing upon the brink of
ruin." Adams took the position that the Gaspee affair should unite the colonists
against the English government. In a second letter, Adams
wrote to Darius Sessions : "I have long feared this unhappy contest between
Great Britain and America would end in rivers of blood. Should that be the case,
America, I think, may wash her hands in innocence."
Read full account of the capture and destruction of the Gaspee.
