The conduct of Sullivan in this brief campaign has been much criticised, and Thomas C. Amory attempts his defence in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. (Sept., 1879), vol. xvii. p. 163; and Mag. of Amer. Hist. (1879), vol. iii. pp. 550, 692. Cf. Amory's Sullivan, p. 70, and his papers in the R. I. Hist. Mag., 1884, p. 106; 1885, pp. 244, 271. Sullivan's general orders are in the Sparks MSS., no. xlvii., and in Upham's John Glover, p. 46. Letters of Sullivan are in Sparks MSS., no. xx., including his correspondence with Pigot; others are in the Trumbull MSS.; some to Laurens, Aug. 6th and 16th, in the Laurens Corresp. (ed. by F. Moore), pp. 116, 120. One of the miscellaneous volumes of MSS. in the Mass. Hist. Soc. library (Letters and Papers, 1777-1780) is mostly made up of the papers of Meshech Weare, President of New Hampshire, and they include various letters from Sullivan, Whipple, and others during this campaign.
The French side of the controversy with D'Estaing is given in Chevalier's Histoire de la Marine Française pendant la guerre de l'Indépendance Américaine, and in a Journal d'un officier de la Marine (1782). The correspondence of D'Estaing is in the Archives de la Marine at Paris, and copies of much of it are in the Sparks MSS. (lii. vol. i.) Arnold (Rhode Island, vol. ii.) used papers from these French archives.
Note.—This view of the action of August 25th, taken from Mr. Brindley's house, is from the Gentleman's Mag., 1779, p. 100. The key is wanting. Cf. Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 83, and Drake's New England Coast.
Note.—The map on the preceding page is sketched from a colored map belonging to the Lafayette copies in the Sparks collection at Cornell University, called Carte des positions occupées par les troupes Américaines après leur retraite de Rhode Island, le 30 août, 1778.
The contemporary English engraved maps of Narragansett Bay of the most importance are those published by Des Barres and Faden. That of Des Barres is called A chart of the harbour of Rhode Island and Narreganset Bay, published at the request of the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Howe, by F. F. W. Des Barres, 20 July, 1776, in two sheets, which subsequently made part of the Atlantic Neptune. It bears the following "Notes and references explaining the situation of the British ships and forces after the 29th of July, 1778, when the French fleet under the command of Count D'Estaing appeared and anchored off the harbour. The same day two French frigates went up the Seakonnet Passage. July 30th two French line-of-battle ships anchored in the Narraganset Passage, on which the king's troops quitted Connanicut Island. Aug. 5th the French ships came towards Dyer's Island where the British advanced frigates were destroyed and the seamen encamped. 8th, the rest of the French fleet came into harbour and anchored abreast of Gold Island [small island south of Providence Island], upon which the king's troops withdrew within the lines [north of Newport]. 9th, the enemy's forces landed." It places the sinking and burning of the "Alarm" (10 guns), "Cerberus" (28), "Juno" (32), "Kingfisher" (18), "Lark" (32), "Orpheus" (32), "Pigot" (8), "Spitfire" (8), "Flora" (32), and "Falcon" (18).
The Faden map was published July 22, 1777, and is entitled A Topographical Chart of the Bay of Narraganset, in the Province of New England, with all the Isles contained therein, among which Rhode Island and Connonicut have been particularly surveyed ... to which have been added the several Works and Batteries raised by the Americans, taken by order of the Principal Farmers on Rhode Island, by Charles Blaskowitz.