Continental Navy

The Pension Application of Andrew Campbell W-20,828 indicates the Private of Marines was residing in Delaware at the time of his entering on board the Andrew Doria on 14 December 1775. This date of enlistment is substantiated in the “Account of Officers and Men belonging to the Andrea Doria 1776” appearing in Volume 9, Part 5 of Naval Documents of the American Revolution. Despite Campbell’s testimony indicating that he entered under the command of Captain of Marines Dorren or Dawson, the ship’s muster rolls reveal that Isaac Craig served in that capacity. Based on his pension records, Campbell’s birth year is estimated to be 1752. The 190-ton merchant brig Defiance was purchased in mid-November 1775 by the Continental Congress and refit as a 14-gun warship and renamed Andrew Doria. Placed under the command of Captain Nicholas Biddle, the “Black Brig” as she was popularly known, and her complement of 112 officers and men departed Philadelphia on 4 January 1776 among Commodore Esek Hopkins’ small fleet of Continental Navy warships.  Originally bound for the Chesapeake, Hopkins directed the squadron instead to New Providence in the Bahamas. Commodore Hopkins initially intended to assault Fort Nassau there by surreptitiously landing troops in the main harbor on two captured prize sloops on 3 March 1776, however they were discovered and fired upon. As a result, Hopkins landed his sailors and marines- including no doubt Andrew Campbell- further down the coast and marched them to Fort Montagu, which surrendered without resistance. The following day, American forces captured Fort Nassau and the town. The commodore’s fleet tarried for almost two weeks, loading the captured guns and war materials for Continental use. During this time, an outbreak of virulent fever and smallpox struck the ships crews. Owing to Captain Biddle’s earlier insistence on inoculation of his crew against smallpox, the Andrew Doria was designated as a hospital ship serving the others. Departing Nassau on 16 March 1776, Hopkins’ fleet returned to New London on Wednesday morning 8 April 1776- but not before several of his warships unsuccessfully engaged the British ship of war Glasgow in a bloody action two days earlier. A “List of the People on board the Andrew Doria” appearing in Volume 4, Part 4 of Naval Documents of the American Revolution dated on that day Captain Biddle landed his men at the hospital in New London includes Marine private Andrew Campbell among those sick.

Between 9 April and 17 September 1776, when Captain Nicholas Biddle left the brig at Chester in order to take command of the frigate Randolph then under construction, the Andrew Doria patrolled the Atlantic coast taking a number of British vessels. Former commander of the Continental Navy sloop Sachem, Captain Isaiah Robinson then took command of the Andrew Doria, sailing for Sint Eustatius on 17 October 1776. When the vessel arrived at the ostensibly neutral Dutch island to load her cargo of munitions and military supplies on 16 November 1776, the Andrew Doria received a 13-gun salute marking the first time an American flagged warship was recognized in a foreign port. One week after leaving on the homeward bound voyage, on 8 December 1776 the brig engaged the 10-gun British sloop-of-war Racehorse in a hot action of two hours before the prize was taken with a loss of two killed and two wounded on the Andrew Doria. Andrew Campbell’s pension testimony recalls forty-four years later only that he was “in a battle with a sloop.” Upon both vessels’ return to Philadelphia on 23 December 1776, the Racehorse was taken into Continental Navy service as the sloop Surprise. Andrew Campbell’s service as a Marine on the Andrew Doria ended soon after in February 1777, totaling about 13-1/2 to 14 months. The “Account of Officers and Men belonging to the Andrea Doria 1776” appearing in Volume 9, Part 5 of Naval Documents of the American Revolution notes that Marine private Andrew Campbell was advanced 15 pounds on the ship’s books, seven pounds ten shillings each for monies advanced on the Account of New Providence and on Account of Prizes taken by the brig [Andrew Doria] alone. Additional documentation of Andrew Campbell’s service on the Andrew Doria can be found in “A List of Officers, Seaman and Marines on board the Andrew Doria appearing in Volume 5, Part 4 of Naval Documents of the American Revolution dated 25 June 1776 and on page 397 of Marines in the Revolution (1975) by Charles Richard Smith.

According to the pension testimony of his wife Naomi, Andrew Campbell “was with the troops that suffered in the woods on their way to Canada” after his discharge from the Andrew Doria, having served the American cause for more than two years overall. No record of Campbell’s army service was included in his own pension testimony or yet been identified to substantiate his wife’s claim. However, a deponent in Campbell’s pension application, Frederick McCutcheon (1751 -1844) testifies that he knew Andrew Campbell at the time of his marriage to Naomi Bulger in Pembroke, NH in March 1781 and that the couple lived in his house at Pembroke, NH “soon after they were married and through the summer.” A close friend of the same age, Frederick McCutcheon’s pension record S-13,884 indicates that he served in the Army from the fall of 1775 until at least November 1776. The later tour of duty was in Captain Barnes’ Company of Col. Wingate’s Regiment of New Hampshire troops. McCutcheon’s pension testimony indicates that he served both at the siege of Boston and at Ticonderoga, which occurred in early July 1777. It is likely the two privates met in militia service and marched together to join Northern forces at Ticonderoga opposing British General John Burgoyne’s campaign that originated in Canada and ended with Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga on 17 October 1777. Frederick McCutcheon is noted in a published source as relocating from Pembroke to New Hampton- Andrew Campbell’s place of residence- in 1814.

According to the family Bible quoted in pension records, Andrew Campbell was married to Naomi Bulger on 29 March 1781 by the Reverend Zaccheus Colby (1749-1822) of the Congregational Society in Pembroke. Both were about 29 years old. By that time, Rev. Colby had only preached in Pembroke for fourteen months. By the time his original pension application in 1818 was granted in the sum of eight dollars per month, Andrew Campbell was living at New Hampden, NH. In 1838, Lydia Waite testified that she “nursed Andrew Campbell in his short sickness and was present at his death” on 7 September 1832. Furthermore, Waite testified that she resided in the family of Andrew Campbell “most of the time for 40 years past.” Lydia is most probably the second daughter of William Waite (1754-1840) and Sarah or Sally Cummings, born on 9 February 1783 in Sutton, MA. It is not known why she would have joined the Campbell household at the age of nine, but it is likely that like McCutcheon, Andrew Campbell was associated with her father William through their shared military experience during the Siege of Ticonderoga in 1777 outlined in Waite’s pension application S-29,530. Andrew Campbell’s widow Naomi would receive her husband’s pension until her death at the age of 98 on 23 November 1850.