War of 1812 Heritage Trail-- Part 2: Lewes 1812 Memorial Park

Some of the sites on the trail:

**  1812 Memorial Park.  Was a defense battery during the Battle of Lewes.  Has a granite monument placed there by the National Society U.S. Daughters of 1812.

The four cannons in the upper lumps were given to Lewes by the government.  A smaller gun by them is believed taken from a pirate vessel found abandoned in the creek.  There is also a World War I 3-inch naval gun placed at the park by the American Legion in 1930.

**  Across the street from the park is The Cannonball House, erected before 1797  It was the home of David Rowland and struck by cannonballs during the British attack on Lewes April 6-7, 1813.

--Brock-Perry

British Attack on Lewes-- Part 4: American Casualties: One Chicken and One Pig

There was damage to some buildings in Lewes as a result of the attack.  One remains today and is called The Cannonball House.  One chicken was killed and a pig lost a leg, but no humans were injured.

Legend has it that women and children dressed as men and carried corn stalks, rakes and hoes and marched like they were men in sight of the British who thought that they were an advancing American army.

--Brock-Perry

HMS Nimrod's Shot

Myrna Katz Frommer continued, "With Jim standing guard, we both went into the men's room to take a peek. And there it was, decidedly out of place behind a little door set into the blank white bathroom wall.."

The wall wasn't a bathroom back then. It was on the exterior of a small 17th century harbor-front home. Later, it was picked up and moved, hole and all, to Main Street beside a larger 18th century house.

In 1922, both buildings were put on rollers and pulled by a team of 8 horses to a two acre site on Dillingham Avenue where they were combined into a single residence. Then later it became a guest house and then a semi-private club.

In the 1970s it was converted into a restaurant named for the ship that fired the cannonball, the Nimrod.

Jim Murray bought it in 1995 and it is named the Nimrod Restaurant and Jazz Lounge at 100 Dillingham Avenue in Falmouth, Massachusetts (on Cape Cod).

Using the Bathroom By a Piece of History. --Brock-Perry

HMS Nimrod and Why There Is a Hole in the Men's Bathroom

Back on August 23rd, I wrote about the Nimrod House in Falmouth, Massachusetts, where a group is trying to save it. It is named after the British ship in the War of 1812 which hit it during the bombardment. The cannonball is gone, but the hole is still there.

I was kind of surprised to find that Wikipedia did not have an article about the ship, but did find information in two other sources.

From the Travel Watch "The Nimrod Falmouth, Massachusetts: The Place With a Hole in the Wall."

"...there's the nearly 200 year old hole in the wall of the men's bathroom...."

The Nimrod's owner, Jim Murray, said the hole "was made by a cannon ball fired by the British frigate, the HMS Nimrod, during the War of 1812. The ship's captain demanded the people of Falmouth hand over their guns. When they refused, he had the cannons fire on the town, and a cannon ball penetrated this part of the building. The ball has since disappeared, but the hole remains."

--Brock-Perry

The Bicentennial of Lewes Attack

From the Lewes Military and History page.

This past weekend marked the bicentennial of the British attack on the small town on April 6-7, 1813.

"Cannonballs and Congreve rockets shattered the calm of coast and countryside on April 6-7, 1813, during America's 'second war of Independence'."  The War of 1812 washed ashore at little Lewes on Delaware Bay where for a dramatic 22-hour there was an exchange of cannonballs."

The 74-gun HMS Poictiers and 36-gun Belvidera needed food and water and demanded those from Lewes, offering to pay Philadelphia prices for it.  The demands "were denied by the spunky Americans, and the enemy attacked the town by cannonade. 

Although there was no loss of life and little property damage, it took great courage for the defenders led by a native, Colonel Samuel Boyer Davis, to retort under such odds.

Cannons facing seaward today and the Cannonball House-Marine Museum, in the vicinity of the post office on Front Street, are reminders of the brave stand."

It Was 200-Years Ago.  --Brock-Perry

Delaware in the War of 1812-- Part 1

From the June 6, 2012, Delaware First Media News:  "The War of 1812: Dealware's Role in 'America's Second War for Independence'" by Larry Nagengast.

Lewes,Delaware has a sign on a house reading "The CANNONBALL HOUSE."  This is the last remaining Lewes home bearing a mark from that long-ago war.  A patch on the foundation shows where a cannonball struck it on April 6th or 7th in the year 1813.  It was restored by the Lewes Historical Society.

Chuck Fithian, curator of archaeology for the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, says the declaration of war by the United States on June 18, 1812 "was not one of our better moments."  The two main reason s for it was British impressment of American sailors and their support of the Indians in the Northwest Terrotory.

In December 1812, the British fleet began its blockade of the Chesapeake Bay (which I've been writing about).  In February 1813, some of those ships moved to the Delaware Bay.  Lewes had some 800 residents at the time.  In March, the British fleet appeared off Cape Henlopen.

And, that's when the war really came to Delaware.

British Ships in Delaware!!  --Brock-Perry