Editing Silas Talbot (section)

===American Revolutionary War===
On June 28, 1775, Talbot received the commission of a captain in the [[2nd Rhode Island Regiment]].<ref name=Talbot48/> After participating in the [[siege of Boston]], Talbot and the [[Continental Army]] began their march to New York. En route, they stopped at [[New London, Connecticut]], whose port had just received [[Esek Hopkins]], who had just landed from a naval expedition to the [[Bahamas]]. After learning that Hopkins would petition General George Washington for 200 volunteers needed to assist his squadron in reaching Providence, Talbot volunteered his services in this effort.

After Talbot made his way back to New York, where he was aiding in the transportation of troops, he obtained command of a [[fire ship]] and attempted to use it to set fire to the [[Royal Navy]] warship [[HMS Asia (1764)|HMS ''Asia'']] on September 14, 1776. The attempt failed, but the daring it displayed, and that Talbot was severely burned during the effort, won him a promotion to [[Major (United States)|major]] on October 10, 1777, retroactive to September 1.<ref name=Talbot48/>

After suffering a severe wound at [[Fort Mifflin]] while fighting to defend [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], on October 23, 1777, Talbot returned to active service in the summer of 1778 and fought in the [[Battle of Rhode Island]] on August 28, 1778.

As commander of the 8-gun galley {{ship|HM galley|Pigot||2}} (which he had captured from the Royal Navy in the [[Sakonnet River]] on October 28, 1778), and later the 12-gun sloop {{USS|Argo||2}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2020/february/leading-land-and-water |title=Leading on Land and Water |date=February 2020 | accessdate=31 May 2025}}</ref>, both under the Army, he cruised against [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] vessels that were harassing [[American trade]] between [[Long Island]] and [[Nantucket]] and made prisoners of many of them. On November 14, 1778, the Continental Congress passed a resolution that recognized his success in capturing ''Pigot'' and promoted him to lieutenant colonel on the same date. In October of the same year, the Rhode Island General Assembly voted to present Talbot with a "genteel silver-hilted sword" for the same action. Silversmith John Gladding Gibbs of Providence made the sword.

====Continental Navy====
Because of his success fighting afloat for the Army, Congress commissioned Talbot as a captain in the [[Continental Navy]] on September 17, 1779. However, since [[United States Congress|Congress]] had no suitable [[warship]] to entrust to him, Talbot put to sea in command of the [[privateer]] ''General Washington''. He took one prize in it but soon ran into a Royal Navy fleet off New York. After a chase, he [[Striking the colors|struck his colors]] to ''Culloden'', a 74-gun British [[ship-of-the-line]] and remained a prisoner of war until exchanged for a British officer in December 1781.<ref name="Mystic Seaport">{{cite book | last=Fowler | first=William M. | year=1900 | title=Silas Talbot: Captain of Old Ironsides | publisher=Mystic Seaport Museum | page=231 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X-wQAQAAMAAJ | isbn= 9780913372739}}</ref>

[[File:WSTM nathanschneider 0028.jpg|thumb|Talbot is buried at [[Trinity Church Cemetery|Trinity Churchyard]]. This photo represents the original, incorrect grave marker placed by the NY SAR. As of July 2019, a new, correct marker has been installed, following years of effort by Silas Talbot's 4th great-grandson, Peter J. Talbot. The original marker is now in his possession, gifted to him by Trinity Church.|alt=]]

====Slave trader====

Talbot was twice involved in mercantile enterprises, both for a [[slave ship]] cargo including slaves.  In late 1783 he had an interest in a cargo of produce and slaves shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, in the sloop PEGGY.   In August 1785 he bought half of the ninety-ton [[brigantine]] ''Industry''. Both vessels transported slaves from the Guinea region to Charleston. On one 1786 voyage of the ''Industry'', Talbot was notified by his solicitors, Murray, Mumford, and Bower, on 9 September 1786 of a significant financial loss: "We hear about one hundred & eighty Slaves off the coast of Guinea, near half of which died before the brig arrived in Charleston where she is now."<ref>Verhoeven, Wil., ''Gilbert Imlay and the Triangular Trade'', The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 4, 2006, pp. 827–42, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4491581, Accessed 12 Jul. 2022, for the letter quoted see p. 837.</ref><ref>''Slave Voyages'', vessel, Industry, Captain Benjamin Hooks, 1786, mortality rate 53.0 %, https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database</ref>  Talbot later sold his half of the Industry, but as late as 1801 was still trying to collect his half of the cargo which he claimed he had not included in the sale.<ref>G.W. Blunt Library, Mystic Seaport, Silas Talbot Collection https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll018/</ref>