As commander of the galley (which he had captured from the British in the Sakonnet River on October 28, 1778), and later , both under the Army, he cruised against 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 which 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. The sword was made by silversmith John Gladding Gibbs of Providence.