“That’s better news, anyway,” said the General. “I’ve been anxious since we heard that a force had been landed there. Feared it might be a second army moving toward New York. Well, we’d better tell Washington what we’ve gathered.”
“Hostile line,” Washington learned, “is strongly extended through Rhode Island along entire railroad system from Westerly northeast almost to Providence. Enemy’s left flank at Westerly has been strengthened by successful assault on Fort Mansfield near Watch Hill whose two-company garrison was overcome before it could destroy the 5-inch guns.[72]
“The enemy holds in strength Westerly, Niantic, Wood River, Wickford Junction and Landing, River Point and East Greenwich, thus maintaining line that touches Narragansett Bay at one end and the ocean east of Long Island at the other. Extraordinarily powerful artillery supports reported along entire front.”
“No important news from the front,” said Washington, transmitting this information to the newspapers. “Providence appears to have been occupied, as all communication with that place has ceased. It is reported that two blocks of buildings in Fall River have been destroyed, but the rest of the city is intact.”
Washington had become the only source of news, for the time, after the foe had effected a base in Narragansett Bay. The coasts of New Jersey and Long Island suddenly had become as quiet again as if there were no enemy within three thousand miles. No demonstration was made against the ocean defenses of New York City. No ships threatened the defenses of Long Island Sound.
The Plight of New Bedford
Simultaneously with the severance of communication with Providence, Boston had been cut off from direct communication with southern New England, and could telegraph or telephone only by way of Worcester.
Late that night the city transmitted a dispatch that had come to it from Fort Rodman, near New Bedford in Buzzards Bay. A strong force, numbers unknown, had begun moving along the railroad out of Fall River, with evident design against the town or the fort. Trains were being assembled. “Send reinforcements,” said Fort Rodman. “No militia in the city. We have in our defenses only 63 men, Fourth Company, New Bedford Militia Coast Artillery, besides our own two companies of regulars and the two companies that were sent here from Charleston and Mobile.”[73]
The morning newspapers announced that New Bedford was in uproar and had demanded of Washington to know if the Government intended to abandon its sea-board cities utterly. The people had gone out to tear up the railroad tracks leading into the town, but one train of fifteen cars had already advanced half way from Fall River, with another of twelve cars behind it.