Restoration of Plaster Corbel & Plaster Crown Molding
Above is a series of before, progress, and final photos from a recent plaster restoration at the Jeremiah Holmes House in Mystic. Jeremiah is actually my great great uncle and one of the defenders of Stonington during the Battle of Stonington in 1814.
The Battle of Stonington began on Aug. 9, 1814, when a British naval squadron commanded by Capt. Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy began bombarding the Stonington settlement. The British had more men and firepower, but after the four-day battle, the Americans triumphed, said Rieger. “The British had 60 cannons and almost 1,300 men on six ships against Stonington’s small militia with three cannons and about 40 men who were mostly teenagers,” he said. The battle was part of the War of 1812. The U.S. declared war on Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, at time when Britain and France were blockading American shipments, and American sailors were being impressed into the Royal Navy. The war ended in February 1815. One of the fighters in Stonington who was instrumental in the American victory was Jeremiah Holmes, of Mystic, who had been trained in artillery by the British when he was forced into service. Holmes’ story was one of American ingenuity, said Christopher Kepple, director of development at the Stonington Historical Society and the co-author of the grant, who greeted the Shanna Rose as it docked at the New England Science and Sailing dock on Tuesday. He noted that "there was some irony in that Jeremiah Holmes was pressed into the British navy and was able to turn his skill set back on them.” - Excerpt from The Westerly Sun