BEN'S DRAGOONS

Benjamin Thompson's Dragoons "were the toast of Charleston, where people could for a moment forget that the war they were fighting had already been decided." ~ Todd W. Braisted

an exile for all time

We wrote of our cousin Benjamin Thompson (3C7X) in our "A Loyalist and a Patriot, two famous relatives from Woburn" and "Ben and Loammi. . .continued" posts. Immediately after the British evacuation of Boston in March of 1776, Ben had set sail for London to "report directly to King George III on the situation in America."

According to Sir John Meurig Thomas of Cambridge University in his article on Ben, "[t]his self-assured, 23 year old expert on the American Army around Boston, holding the rank of major in the New Hampshire Militia, was made private secretary to the (British) Secretary to the Colonies. He ingratiated himself to the aristocracy, and he was soon dining and relaxing in the stately homes of England."

For Ben, there was no looking back. He had been taken under the wing of Lord George Germain, Secretary of the State for the Colonies and the man basically in charge of running the war. Benjamin flourished under his care. While life in England was very good to him, there remained one unfulfilled desire for Ben He was enamored of the military and dearly yearned for a commission and an assignment. The King's Dragoons fit the bill for him and he was accordingly granted command of the corps. So, it was back to America for Ben, this time as a staunch enemy to his former country.

While Ben was having fun playing at war with his Dragoons, his estate had yet to be settled. In 1781, two of our cousins Noah Eaton (3C8X) and Bartholomew Richardson (4C7X), along with Ben's cousin Abijah Thompson, were given the authority to take care of Benjamins's estate. In the list of Ben's creditors was his pal Loammi Baldwin (3C7X) who was owed about £5. Ben's brother-in-law claimed that he was owed a whopping £127.

in South Carolina

Benjamin set out with his troops for the newly formed United States of America in September of 1781 when the possibility of England winning the war was still on the table, if just barely. According to Todd W. Braisted in his article "Such as are Absolutely Free: Benjamin Thompson's Black Dragoons," Ben took with him on the ship "four trumpeters, all recruited by Thompson that September. . .Each was a former Black slave. . ." Braisted maintains that British companies like Ben's Dragoons "provided opportunities, albeit limited ones, for Blacks to serve in an important function and be armed at least with a sword and perhaps a brace of pistols."

Ben's original destination had been New York, but those plans quickly changed as the Dragoons could be of more service in the south. By the time they reached America in October, however, Cornwallis had already surrendered at Yorktown, VA and the British efforts were now just a last dying gasp. Once settled in South Carolina, Ben was given command of various Loyalist companies including the Provincial South Carolina Royalists, a troop of New York volunteers and an armed Black cavalry unit known as the Black Dragoons.

The state of the war didn't seem important to Ben. He was a commander of Dragoons and he intended to command them. He spent the first few months in America training his men with maneuvers twice a day and then went looking for action. While there were no significant battles in the Revolutionary War after the surrender at Yorktown, some minor skirmishes took place and Ben was able to find one of those. In February of 1782 he located a company of South Carolina Patriots at the Wombaw Bridge near McClellanville, SC. As Ben's Dragoons charged, "the enemy fired their pistols, broke in confusion, and were pursued with great slaughter.” The next day, another thoroughly unnecessary battle followed at Tidyman's Plantation.

When Benjamin and his men returned to town, they "were the toast of Charleston, where people could for a moment forget that the war they were fighting had already been decided." Continuing with the charade, the British commander in Charlestown had the following commendation published:

Lieut. General LESLIE desires Lieut. Colonel THOMPSON, and the officers and soldiers of the Cavalry and Infantry who served under his command, will accept his best thanks for the service performed by them on the late expedition.

Below is a portrait of Benjamin in his British uniform:

in New York

Riding high, Ben wasn't done with America or his Dragoons. In March of 1882, he and his men sailed for New York where the British were still ensconced. On April 11, he arrived in Sandy Hook, NY along with "his Excellency the Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, Colonel [John] Small. . .and several other Gentlemen of high Rank.”

Though the war was effectively over, Ben still reveled in his command. His first order of business was to enlarge the corps. “I mean to Recruit in good Earnest” he wrote to Deputy Muster Master Ward Chipman. He also made sure that each of his six companies had at least one Black man. According to Braisted:

These men came from quite diverse backgrounds. Peter Moses had been a slave in Virginia who had joined Lord Dunmore in 1775. Joseph Kelly was a twenty-four-year-old mulatto from Setauket, Long Island, while Andrew Hilton and Charles Allen were from Maryland, each described as “part Indian.” Edward Hill and Joseph Williams were former slaves from New Jersey and North Carolina respectively but Gabriel Dickenson was a freeborn Black from North Castle, New York. Thompson not only added the Black trumpeters he brought from England, but replaced any white trumpeters already serving with newly recruited former slaves Charles Ferrell, Hector Munro, Edward Lloyd, and Dick Jackson.

By July of 1782, Ben's Dragoon numbered 388 men. This was at a time when "other Provincial units at New York were struggling to replace losses from death and desertion." Not counted among the soldiers were Black servants hired by each officer. Ben explained his policy in a letter to Germain:

I Permit no man to be taken from the Ranks to be made a servant of. All our Officers have Black Servants, they are all Dressed in the same Uniform, except the feathers in their Turbans, which are of different Colours according to the Troops their Masters belong to. At Reviews and on all Field Days they Parade with the Regiment and assist in managing the Guns. They get no pay from the King, but they draw Rations, their Masters paying for them at the usual rate.

He also bragged on the skills of his Black soldiers:

I have tried our Guns & find them to answer admirably and have lately astonished all the world by taking them up on Horse back. . .I have promised to show the Commander in Chief one of them taking a flying leap at a five Barr’d Gate; and I have little doubt, but I shall be able soon to show him one swimming over a River. I have contrived a Breast-Plate for the Horse, which will effectually prevent his sinking with the weight of the Gun on his back. Our men are already so expert that they take the Gun with all its apparatus from the Horses backs, put it together and fire it in the space of one minute and a Quarter, and in one minute more it is on Horse back again.

dreaming big

So enamored of his Dragoons was Ben that he envisioned carrying on with an expanded force once American Revolution finally came to a close. He even sought the approval of the new commander in chief of the British army, Sir Guy Carlton, for his scheme of fighting the French in India and the West Indies. Carlton gave his permission with the stipulation that “care is to be taken not to permit any Negroes but such as are absolutely free, to inlist in this Corps.”

Peace, however, put an end to Benjamin's big plans. The new treaties between America, England and France called for a cease of hostilities between all three nations. A disappointed Ben wrote to Germain that “[I]t is a thousand pities so fine a Regiment should be anihilated. . .” In April of 1783 he requested that his beloved corps "be dismounted and turn in their cavalry appointments, then to do duty in Nova Scotia till further Orders.”

On the 23rd of April, Benjamin set sail from New York bound for Nova Scotia with his 408 Dragoons and their families. His company included 45 Black trumpeters, soldiers and servants. The Black men were questioned before the boat set sail insuring that they were legally allowed to leave the United States. According to Braisted, "[w]hile the Americans were anxious to reclaim what they considered property lost to the British (and not legally allowed to be removed under the treaty of peace), the British were equally insistent in fulfilling Sir Henry Clinton’s 1779 proclamation promising freedom to all Blacks joining them

. . . All would now be off to new lives in what remained of British North America."

Leaving his Dragoons in Nova Scotia, Ben returned to continue his duties with Lord Germain. But military duty for his Dragoons in Nova Scotia didn't turn out to be feasible. Simply taking up space, they were "eventually shunted further up the river" and then directed to disband. Braisted maintains that "[f]or those of color in the corps who had left bondage and slavery, it was a chance of a free life, one shared with some 3,000 others in Nova Scotia. While old struggles were behind them, new ones lay ahead, with never-ending challenges to life and liberty."

Even though Ben's Dragoon dream had fizzled, new and bigger adventures awaited him in Europe. We'll have more of Benjamin in England, Bavaria and France in a future post.