One of the largest carcasses partly full, was set on fire, which burnt half an hour, emitting a horrid stench; in a calm the flame would rise ten feet. Some of the rockets were sharp pointed, others not, made of sheet iron very thick, containing at the lower end some of them a fusee of grenade, calculated to burst, and if they were taken hold of before the explosion, might prove dangerous; one or two persons received injury in this way. They appear to contain a greater variety of combustibles than the fire carcasses.]
LETTER FROM CAPT. AMOS PALMER, TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR.
[From Niles's Weekly Register, Oct. 21, 1815.]
The defence of Stonington by a handful of brave citizens was more like an effusion of feeling, warm from the heart, than a concerted military movement. The result of it, we all know, and it afforded sincere delight to every patriot. But the particulars we have never seen so accurately described as in the following concise narrative from the chairman of the committee of defence, to the Secretary of War, of which we have been provided with a copy for publication.--_Nat. Intelligencer._
"Stonington Borough, Aug. 21, 1815. To the Hon. Wm. H. Crawford, Secretary of War.
The former Secretary of War put into my hands, as chairman of the committee of defence, the two 18-pounders and all the munitions of war that were here, belonging to the general government, to be used for the defence of the town,--and I gave my receipt for the same.
As there is no military officer here, it becomes my duty to inform you [of] the use we have made of it. That on the 9th of August last [year], the _Ramilies_ 74, the _Pactolus_ 44, the _Terror_ bomb-ship, and the _Despatch_ gun brig, anchored off the harbor. Commodore Hardy sent off a boat, with a flag; we met him with another from the shore, when the officer of the flag handed me a note from Commodore Hardy, informing that one hour was given the unoffending inhabitants, before the town would be destroyed.
We returned to the shore, where all the male inhabitants were collected, when I read the note aloud; they all exclaimed, they would defend the place to the last extremity, and if it was destroyed, they would be buried in the ruins.