200 Year Anniversary Of Sag Harbor Battle Marked With Flag Raising

200 years ago Thursday, on July 11, 1813, five British ships, carrying around 750 men each, descended on Sag Harbor.

At 2 a.m. a young soldier in Amagansett saw the ships approaching and rode on horseback to the military fortress on Sag Harbor's High Street to warn the local regiment. Armed only with two cannons firing nine and 18 pound shots — cannonballs about the size of melons — but with a full view of the harbor below from the highest point in the town, the fort repelled the attempted British invasion— capturing three ships and sending the others packing. No Americans were killed or wounded in the skirmish.

These were just some of the details conveyed in David Thommen, Dockmaster of the Village of Sag Harbor's speech, as he dedicated a new flagpole on Thursday to mark the spot where the fort once stood.

Though no Americans lost their lives in the battle 200 years ago, the fort at Sag Harbor was not without its eventual casualties in the War of 1812. In 1815, two soldiers, Nathaniel Baker and John Peirson, both 22 years old, were killed in an explosion when they attempted to set off the cannons at the fort one last time— to mark the war's end. Though their death's were an accident, Thommen said, "They died on duty, they died protecting us."

Thommen, whose grandparents lived down the street from the simple granite memorial reading "On This Spot Stood An American Fort 1812" remembered playing on the monument as a child, but had to spend two years researching to find the story behind it.

The monument, placed in 1902 as part of the Historical Society's 125th anniversary of the Revolutionary War's Meig's Raid, also known as the Battle of Sag Harbor, was something of an afterthought. "They were placing markers around town but the other's were for a different conflict," Thommen said, "They built a breakwater that same year. It makes you wonder where they got the stone." Nowhere, however, could Thommen find evidence that the site had ever been formally dedicated.

After two years of research, Thommen began raising money six months ago for the purchase of a flagpole, which he proudly erected Thursday before a crowd of veterans and onlookers. The 25-foot flagpole was delivered to Thommen's house, and he and his grand-nephew dug the hole that holds it. The cement that keeps it steady was donated by Schmitter's Mini Mix, and Peconic Monuments of Riverhead will be fixing the new solid bronze plaque that tells the story in place.

The flag which Thommen raised was his own, historically accurate, selection. The new flagpole is mounted by a flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes, marking the 13 original colonies and the additions of Kentucky and Vermont. This would have been the flag seen flying above the fort at Sag Harbor at the time of the battle, and is the same flag that flew above Fort Henry in 1814 when Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star Spangled Banner" about another battle in the same war.