Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Daniel Sullivan's Visits, May and June, 1781, to General John Sullivan, in Philadelphia: To Explain Declarations in Sir Henry Clinton's Secret Journal
Magazine of American History, is an important contribution to the material of our Revolutionary annals. Such journals are liable, from their character, to convey erroneous impres sions; and regard for the memory of the dead and the happi ness of the living imposes a duty upon societies like our own, to set right what may affect reputation. Present generations, more familiar with events comparatively recent, may be better able to prevent mistakes creeping into history than those that follow them.
Daniel Sullivan, the elder brother of General John Sullivan of the Continental army, and of James, one of the founders and the first president of this Society, during the War for Independence commanded a force of minute-men, about one hundred in number, raised near his home in Sullivan, on the east shore of Frenchman's Bay, Opposite Mount Desert. They protected the neighborhood from depredation, became aggres sive when there was cause, and formed an excellent school for recruits for the army. They took part in the attack on Cas tine in 1779, and rendered on other occasions efficient service. Soon after, the execution of André provoking a feeling ofresentment and a disposition to retaliate, the frigate Alle giance, in February, 1781, landed a party at night on the shore near Daniel's dwelling, at Waukeag Point. They sur rounded his house while he was sleeping, cast into the snow his wife and children, burnt the buildings, and carried him prisoner to Castine.
Declining the usual proffers of rank and reward if he would swear allegiance to the crown, he was sent to New York, and committed to the Jersey Hulks. These prison ships were noted for their foulness, and few came out from them alive. Daniel, accustomed to the pure air and freedom of his farm, anxious for his family left shelterless, their home in ashes, lost health and spirits, and was naturally eager for deliverance. While thus confined, Stephen Holland, at one time clerk of the Hillsborough County Courts in New Hampshire, who had left the State in 1778 under suspicion of disaffection, who had then gone to New York, and was now a major in the British army, went to see him. As before the war he had known General Sullivan, whose extensive professional practice carried him into the different counties, he visited Daniel, perhaps of his own motion, or he may have been sent by his superior ofii cers. Having heard Daniel's story and witnessed his distress, he procured for him, from Clinton, permission to visit his brother John, then a member of Congress at Philadelphia, to effect his exchange.
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