Background
Richard Wickes was born in Kent County, Maryland.
Richard Wickes was born in Kent County, Maryland.
During the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, he was the first American casualty of the war in New Jersey. His family home, Wickliffe, was on Eastern Neck Island. On March 28, 1776, they both began service on the newly commissioned 18-gun Reprisal.
On June 10, the Committee of Secret Correspondence of Congress ordered Captain Wickes to set sail from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and proceed to Martinique.
On June 28, near, New Jersey, they joined forces with Captain John Barry on the Lexington to come to the aid of the privateer Nancy being chased by two British Navy ships, the 32-gun HMS Orpheus and the 16-gun HMS Kingfisher. Nancy was headed to Philadelphia with supplies loaded in the Caribbean islands of Saint Thomas and Saint Croix.
The cargo contained several hundred kegs of gunpowder. Lieutenant Wickes reached the Nancy soon after midnight.
In the early hours of June 29, pursued by the British Orpheus and Kingfisher, the Nancy headed for the nearby Turtle Gut Inlet to run aground and salvage the cargo.
Lieutenant Wickes assisted in operations to return cannon fire and transfer the cargo ashore. By late in the morning of June 29, the British bombardment had heavily damaged the Nancy. Barry ordered the main sail wrapped around 50 pounds of gunpowder to create a long fuse running from the nearly 100 gunpowder kegs remaining in the hold to the deck and over the side.
The fuse was lit as the crew abandoned ship.
As the British boarded the ship, the fuse reached the hold. The gunpowder exploded with a huge blast felt for miles which killed many British.
After the explosion, Lieutenant Wickes was killed by subsequent British cannon fire. He was the only American casualty.
A section of the cemetery, Veterans Field of Honor, is dedicated to his service "in the cause of American freedom." There is a second memorial marker in, New Jersey.
