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1978 showdown looms at Fort ButtsBy BARBARA LLOYDPORTSMOUTH - Fort Butts, site at the 1778 Battle of Rhode Island, is under siege again.But this time round it’s a semi-friendly battle with a lot of behind-the-scenes maneuvering and not much front-line action. At stake is who gets to claim the annual re-enactment and pageantry of the battle as its anniversary passes each Aug. 29— Portsmouth or Tiverton.Tiverton has celebrated the battle for about 10 years at Holland’s Ferry, where the Continental Army first landed on Aquidneck Island to retake it from the British. And the Portsmouth Historical Society has held sporadic gatherings to commemorate the event, George A. Thurston, co-chairman of the Portsmouth Conservation Commission, said.But now that the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Rhode Island is looming dangerously close, Thurston and co-chairman Steve A. Boscarino want to bring the celebration to its original site — to home base.“We let the fort go so I wig - it becameovergrown with bushes and trees,” Boscarino said of the site behind the high school. “Bid Tiverton’s claim is absolutely nili. The battle culminated here.”Boscarino and Thurston fret and fuss over the Butts Hill site like adoptive fathers. The commission didn't ask to regulate the fort, they said. But when the Newport Historical Sodrty and the state decided in 196S that Portsmouth should have the six acres, the commission was the likely caretaker.Since then, Boscarino and Thurston have become overnight historians, bantering and cajoling one another every time they get together about what really happened at the battle.But they do agree on one thing — the battle should be reenacted on Butts Hill in 1978. Most of their efforts have that end in mind.“I would be happy to have the Tiverton people come over here and stage it,” Boscarino said, half-joking, ‘it is a picturesque event.”He estimated that as many as 500 personsMental specialist outlinesdrew up in American and British uniforms for the skirmish, There were about 5,000 soidienon each side in the actual battle, Thurston said. The battle lasted for three days but the Americans ran like loses” when it was over, Boscarino said. The British held the land for another three years after that.Fort Butts is one of the few sites from the Revolutionary War still intact today, Boscarino said. There are no left-over buildings. But the area, Is ringed by 15 to 20-foot mounds of earth, called parapets, which have survived because of the rocky soil used to build them. Mostly made of shale, the earth was piled around huge bundles of sticks tied together to make an embankment.The British built the fort, which, in its hey-day, is reported to have housed 300 men and officers in wooden barracks. The raised perimeter is star-shaped to allow soldiers the best vantage points for spotting the encroaching enemy, Boscarino said.Thurston and Boscarino have enlisted the help of the town Public Works Department to cut down all the overgrown shrubs. And, this spring,they will be spraying toe area to rid it of masses of poison ivy that threaten history buffs andnictiicters alike.Some of the work already has been completed for a smallparking lotto the left of the ate. And eventually, the commission is planning to build a 15-foot tower for visitors who want to take advantage rf the site's panoramic view of both the Sakormet River to the east and NarragansettBay on the west. .Meanwhile. Thurston said he has written the Town Council asking that something be done toprohibit mini-bike enthusiasts fjpra tearing up the 200-year-old parapets with wheel treads.Fort Butts is the most important fortification on the bland,” Boscarino said. “Everything emanated from here. It stood this wav for 200 years, but in a year or two they’ve done this much damage,” he said, as he pointed to the tire tracks that criss-crossed toe parapets.Both he and Thurston have plans to put Fort Butts on the map - to spruce it up. But more •importantly, they want to rescue it from the clutches of the enemy — Tiverton.
Newspaper Details
Newport Mercury and Weekly News
Newport, Rhode Island, US
Fri, Apr 16, 1976
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Gloria S.
TX, USA 30 Sep 2021
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