“No important news from the front,” said Washington, transmitting this information to the newspapers. “Providence appears to have been occupied, as all communication with that place has ceased. It is reported that two blocks of buildings in Fall River have been destroyed, but the rest of the city is intact.” Washington had become the only source of news, for the time, after the foe had effected a base in Narragansett Bay. The coasts of New Jersey and Long Island suddenly had become as quiet again as if there were no enemy within three thousand miles. No demonstration was made against the ocean defenses of New York City. No ships threatened the defenses of Long Island Sound. _The Plight of New Bedford_ Simultaneously with the severance of communication with Providence, Boston had been cut off from direct communication with southern New England, and could telegraph or telephone only by way of Worcester. Late that night the city transmitted a dispatch that had come to it from Fort Rodman, near New Bedford in Buzzards Bay. A strong force, numbers unknown, had begun moving along the railroad out of Fall River, with evident design against the town or the fort. Trains were being assembled. “Send reinforcements,” said Fort Rodman. “No militia in the city. We have in our defenses only 63 men, Fourth Company, New Bedford Militia Coast Artillery, besides our own two companies of regulars and the two companies that were sent here from Charleston and Mobile.”[73] The morning newspapers announced that New Bedford was in uproar and had demanded of Washington to know if the Government intended to abandon its sea-board cities utterly. The people had gone out to tear up the railroad tracks leading into the town, but one train of fifteen cars had already advanced half way from Fall River, with another of twelve cars behind it. Shortly afterward a dispatch from a station along the line informed Boston that three other trains had just passed, close behind each other, going slowly. One train had twelve, one had eight and the other had ten cars. “Fifty-seven cars,” said the War Department, “would indicate that two regiments with artillery were on the way.” Two hours later Washington gave out this bulletin: “New Bedford was occupied at nine A.M. by a regiment of infantry and three batteries of heavy field artillery. Shortly before 10 A.M. this force, augmented by a further regiment of infantry, a strong body of sappers and miners, and a battery of howitzers, proceeded in the direction of Fort Rodman. Since then it has been impossible to gain any intelligence.” _The Demand of the Cities for Protection_ At noon an enemy force of unknown strength advanced toward Taunton, Massachusetts, by way of the railroad running north from Fall [Illustration: “The people had gone out to tear up the railroad tracks leading into the town.”]