Battle of Freetown

The Battle of Freetown was a skirmish between American colonists and a British naval ship during the American Revolutionary War. The events took place on May 25, 1778, in the part of Freetown, Massachusetts, that later became the city of Fall River.

Although Freetown was known as a Tory stronghold, many townspeople were becoming more engaged in the separation efforts by 1776. Early on May 25, 1778, a British ship sailed up the Taunton River into lower Freetown. Spotted by a sentinel, the ship was fired upon by several local minutemen, their gunfire returned by cannonfire. Several soldiers disembarked to lay siege to the increasingly anti-royalist towns in southeastern Massachusetts. These soldiers proceeded to burn a dwelling house, grist mill, and sawmill, before being fired upon by local Freetown militia minutemen who had been keeping watch over the river and alerted by the sentinel. The British soldiers then took one resident as prisoner, set fire to his property, and retreated to their ship. The prisoner was eventually released after several days, and the British retreated from Freetown altogether.

The Freetown minutemen were aided by other colonist minutemen from the Tiverton outpost. The British suffered two casualties as a result of the light fighting. The colonists suffered no losses.