‘Unknown’ no more: Connecticut honors War of 1812 sailor lost to history
Two cannons used to defend Stonington in the War of 1812 stand on a small green.
James Kirkikis/ShutterstockNestled against a stone wall in a historic cemetery in the Mystic section of Groton is the grave of a British sailor killed during a skirmish with American troops in 1814, days after a bombardment of nearby Stonington.
The headstone says "unknown," but in recent years he has been identified as a Scotsman who was the only fatality in a U.S. ambush against a cutter from His Majesty's Ship Terror that also resulted in several British sailors taken prisoner in the War of 1812.
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On Sunday, during an afternoon-long public commemoration 212 years after his death, military personnel, local historians and musicians will celebrate William Adamson, a ship's "quarter gunner" whose identity was confirmed in recent years after research into the archives of the British Navy.
The little-known skirmish in a largely forgotten war occurred days after a squadron of British ships led by Capt. Thomas Masterman Hardy bombarded Stonington in August of 1814, exchanging cannon fire with the local militia, said Grace Cleere, a former civilian writer and educator for the U.S. Navy who is helping organize the event in the historic Packer Cemetery on New London Road in West Mystic.
Cleere and other local historians tried for years to look into the records of HMS Terror, which at the time was a state-of-the-art bomb-throwing warship that later participated in the siege of Fort McHenry in Baltimore that inspired Francis Scott Key's poem that eventually turned into the national anthem.
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Cleere said Adamson, of Pittenweem, Scotland, was identified as the victim because his name appeared on the HMS Terror's personnel logs that second week of August 1814 then disappeared after the skirmish.
"By August 17th, he was no longer in the rolls," Cleere said.
She said Adamson, about 43 at the time, was probably manning a small artillery piece at the front of an armed British rowboat, called a cutter, when he was the target of American fire. He left a widow and two girls back in Scotland.
In the skirmish, Americans first sent a boat down the Mystic River to test the British blockade, then ambushed a cutter that was responding to the incursion. Adamson was the sole casualty, with other crew members taken prisoner in what is now the Groton Long Point neighborhood.
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The Americans buried him beneath an apple tree in the cemetery. Sunday's ceremonies will include the planting of another apple tree and a new brass plaque identifying Adamson by name.
Cleere said that in recent days, a U.S. descendant of Adamson was located and will attend the Sunday event, called "A Salute to Quarter-Gunner William Adamson," which goes from 1-5 p.m.
In 2016, the wreck of the HMS Terror was located in the Arctic Ocean, where it was lost in the 1840s during a failed British exploration for the fabled Northwest Passage to the Pacific.
Cleere and organizers of Sunday's event planned a 19th-century-style afternoon of remembrance, with period music, historical presentations and refreshments. The event will feature performances by the Mystic Pipes & Drums, the Free Men of the Sea, the Nutmeg Volunteer Junior Fife and Drum Corps, and local traditional fiddler Craig Edwards, along with stories about the Connecticut coast's role in the War of 1812.
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A food truck specializing in pizza will be located at the nearby Mystic Hook & Ladder Company firehouse. The fire department is also lending picnic tables and chairs for those bringing picnic lunches to the event.
Cleere said that representatives of both the U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy are expected to attend. There will also be an auction of items of nautical and local history, starting at 4:30 p.m.
The Packer Cemetery is located at 68 New London Road in the West Mystic section of Groton, near the Mystic Hook & Ladder Company. A GoFundMe campaign has been created to help defray costs. Mail-in donations may be sent to: Adamson Tribute, c/o 1 Apple Tree Lane, Mystic CT 06355. In the event of a rainout, a cancellation recording will be available at 860-536-3021.
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