More of the Semiquincentennial Exhibition

Patriots of Hudson in the Revolutionary War, the exhibition commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country, continues at the Hudson Area Library until the end of the month. In the meantime, Gossips will continue to share samples from the exhibition. Today, we share the panels that tell about Alexander Coffin, Jr., the son of one of the founders of Hudson, and the artist John Trumbull. (Click on the images to enlarge. The main text of each panel is transcribed below the image.)

Alexander Coffin, Jr.

In His Father's Footsteps: A Life of Adventure,

Heroism, and Patriotism

In 1781 Alexander Coffin, Jr., began serving as a midshipman on an American Navy frigate, the South Carolina, which captured several British ships while sailing to Havana. He was captured by the British in 1782 and was held on the notorious prison ship Jersey in Wallabout Bay, Brooklyn. Conditions on prison ships were horrendous and death from starvation and disease so common that General George Washington wrote letters to British commanders imploring them to afford the prisoners better treatment. Coffin described the horrid conditions in a narrative published in American Prisoners of The Revolution by Danske Dandridge:

When I reflect how many hundreds of my brave and intrepid countrymen I have seen, in all the bloom of health, brought on board of that ship, and in a few days numbered with the dead, in consequence of the savage treatment they there received, I can but adore my Creator that He suffered me to escape; but I did not escape, Sir, without being brought to the very verge of the grave.

When Coffin and the other men on board were given a choice of being released and serving in the British Army or staying prisoner, they stayed on the prison ship. Coffin writes:

And I must mention...to the everlasting honor of those unfortunate Americans who were on board the Jersey, that notwithstanding the savage treatment they received, and death staring them in the face, every attempt which was made by the British to persuade them to enter their ships of war or in their army, was treated with the utmost contempt...and if there be no monument raised with hands to commemorate the virtue of those men, it is stamped in capitals on the heart of every American acquainted with their merit and sufferings, and will there remain as long as the blood flows from its fountains.

After the war Alexander, Jr., continued in maritime trade and, quite unfortunately, was again captured while on a merchant ship during the War of 1812. After the war, he worked as a whaling master on several voyages; out of New Bedford, 1820 and 1822, and then three voyages out of Hudson, 1832-1836 (on the Meteor, the James Munroe, and the Edward). 

 

Letters to James Madison

In 1805, Alexander Coffin, Jr., wrote four letters to then Secretary of State James Madison to protest the seizure and condemnation of his ship Penman by British naval authorities during a lawful commercial voyage. In these letters he details a complex trading journey that began in New York in 1803, carrying legally imported tea and European goods, with the ultimate intention of trading in Asia and returning profitably to the United States. He asserts that the seizure was arbitrary, unlawful, and damaging not only to himself and his co-owners but also to the U.S. government, which lost substantial customs revenue of $73,000. Coffin appeals to Madison for diplomatic support. The Department of State returns the papers concerning the ship Penman as requested, however explains that providing financial assistance to support an appeal would violate established executive practice.

After the War of 1812, Coffin again writes the President Madison requesting an appointment as U.S. Marshal for the District of New York. He is in urgent financial need, with a wife and seven children to support. Coffin recounts the earlier British seizure and condemnation of his ship Penman and the severe personal losses he suffered under British actions. However, he does not refer directly to his time as a prisoner of war on the ship Jersey. He professes he would "be serviceable to my beloved Country, which I had the honour of serving as an officer in the Revolutionary war & to which, & the present Government of which I am & have been devotedly attach'd."

John Trumbull (June 6, 1756--November 10, 1843) was a veteran of the American Revolution, who later became an artist. His historical renderings of the American Revolutionary War are displayed in the Rotunda of the U. S. Capitol. Trumbull served in Boston and witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was appointed second aide-de-camp to George Washington, and in June 1776, deputy adjutant general to General Horatio Gates.

Trumbull was a prominent New Englander who was well-connected to the Founding Fathers and other Revolutionary War veterans. Trumbull knew Alexander Coffin, Jr., as a Midshipman on the frigate South Carolina, the largest warship under American command during the war. In 1832, Trumbull signed and testified in Coffin’s pension application to Congress, a common practice for veterans to receive pensions due to the lack of record keeping in the colonies at the time of the American Revolution.

Panels from the exhibition previously published on Gossips can be found here, here, here, here, and here.