In the American war of independence ---- the Gaspee Attack was the first planned use of force, against the English military forces, and included the first shot intended to kill an English military officer.

The 1772 Gaspee Affair --- the Rhode Island men's attack on the Gaspee --- was officially declared by the English to be the first act of war. This was the true beginning of the American Revolutionary War. This is where the American Revolutionary War started!

There are two divisions of this Gaspee Info site: the Gaspee Attack, and the Gaspee Raiders.

The Gaspee Attack. Read here the fascinating story of the resourceful Americans attacking the English navy ship Gaspee; the background, the reasons for the Rhode Island attack, and the English reactions to the attack, including the Royal Commission that alarmed the other colonies. Browse pages of information investigating and reporting the history, background, and events of the attack. This is the gateway to one of the two best places to find the history and the current research on the events of the Gaspee attack.
The Gaspee Attack

The Gaspee Raiders . Read here the list and biographical information of the men (including Joseph Bucklin) who attacked the Gaspee. Read who these men were, and the events in their lives before and after the attack. Their names were idden by an American conspiracy when the English sought to find and hang these men as traitors. Their names were unknown for years. Now, original research by the Joseph Bucklin Society and others of the Gaspee Scholars has produced major additions to the list of men who gathered together, and undertook the first planned act of war in the American Revolution.
The Raiders List.

The First Shot of the Revolution! It was after midnight on June 10, 1772. There was no useful moonlight and dark cloaked the Narragansett Bay, where the Gaspee, an English Navy schooner, had run aground on Namquid Point. Yet there was enough light so that Joseph Bucklin could see the Gaspee's commander on the starboard gunwale, swinging his sword and preventing the American attackers from boarding the English schooner.

"Ephe," Bucklin said to his friend Ephraim Bowen, "reach me your gun, and I can kill that fellow.". . .Read the full story.

The Rhode Island attack on the English Navy ship Gaspee was a significant event in the history of the American Colonial Revolution and the start of the American Revolutionary War, This national history site for the Gaspee attack is part of the Joseph Bucklin Society's research and educational efforts. The Joseph Bucklin Society is dedicated both to researching and preserving the history of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island colonists and the descendants of William Bucklin, and also transmitting their example of courage, vitality, faith, duty, and honor.

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