Arsdale, who had shown great spirit in the fight, and was among the last
to cease firing, resolved not to be made a prisoner, and managed to
escape from the fort; but he had only gone a short distance when he was
shot in the calf of the leg, and seized by a British soldier while in
the act of crossing a fence. He was conducted back into the fort, under
a torrent of abuse from his captor, who threatened to take his life, and
he himself expected instant death. His gun was demanded, and when
delivered, the barrel was yet so hot from frequent firing that the
soldier quickly dropped it, with another imprecation. Then the old
musket, its last work so nobly done, was ruthlessly broken to pieces
over the rocks. Van Arsdale and the other prisoners, two hundred and
seventy-five in all, including twenty-eight officers, were kept under
guard for a day or two at the forts, then put on board the British
transports and taken to New York. Forty-four of Van Arsdale's regiment
were among them including the brave colonel McClaughry (who was
suffering from seven wounds),[25] and his brother-in-law Capt. Humphrey,
of whom it was said by one Van Tuyl (among the last to escape from Fort
Montgomery) that, when he left, Humphrey was yet throwing stones! The
prisoners, on arriving at New York, October 10th, were landed, and the
privates marched up to Livingston's Sugar House, in Liberty Street,
between Nassau and William, and put in custody of Sergeant Woolly;
excepting the badly wounded, who were sent to the hospital. The
officers, with similar exception, were taken to the old City Hall,
whence, two days after, they were marched up to the Provost, and placed
in charge of the brutal Cunningham, where they remained till after the
surrender of Burgoyne, when, retaliation being feared, nearly all the
officers were sent (November 1st) to Long Island, upon parole.[26] The
privates had all been removed from the Sugar House, October 24th, and
put on board a prisonship, anchored opposite Governor's Island. Van
Arsdale, and his friend Sears, needing surgical aid, were, with others,
suffering from their wounds, taken directly to the Presbyterian Church
in Beekman Street, known as the "Brick Church," and then used by the
enemy as an hospital. Sears had been very badly hurt in the battle.
After being shot in the leg, and stabbed in the side by a bayonet, which
filled his shoes with blood, he was knocked down with the but of a gun
and trampled upon by the invading column. At the hospital, the bullets
being extracted and their wounds dressed, they began to mend, but only
three weeks and three days elapsed, when they too were sent to the
prisonship, and confined between decks. Winter had set in very
inclement, their food was not only stale and unwholesome, but even this
was limited in quantity to two-thirds of a British soldiers when at sea,
which was one-third less than the allowance upon land; in consequence of
which they suffered everything but death from hunger and cold. Nor was
this the worst. The prisoners, from these and other causes, became very
sickly, and died off in great numbers. Abel Wells and four others of the
Fort Montgomery party, being tailors, were sent from the prisonship to
the Provost, November 24th, to make clothing for the prisoners
there.[27] They informed Judge Fell, a prisoner, that their company was
then reduced to one hundred. This mortality would seem to have been
heavy among Col. Dubois's men, very few of whom ever rejoined their
regiment. Van Arsdale was taken sick about the 20th of December, and had
the good fortune to be sent to the hospital, where he had some care, and
soon recovered. Shortly after going there he was joined by Sears, who
was in a suffering and helpless condition, his feet and legs having been
badly frozen in the prisonship. Fortunately Van Arsdale was getting
better, so that he was of great service to his friend, and which also
tended to divert his mind from his own misfortunes. He even begged
"coppers" from the British officers to buy little comforts for Sears;
but which, had it been for himself, he declared he would have scorned to
do, in any extremity. Sears always held that Van Arsdale saved his life,
and he spoke feelingly of his kindness to him to the day of his death.
Van Arsdale finding his condition in the hospital much more tolerable,
managed to prolong his stay, by tying up his head and feigning illness
when the doctor made his daily call. The latter would leave him some
powders, but only to be thrown away. This did not long avail him, and
when reported well enough to remove, he was taken back to the
prisonship, to endure its indescribable miseries for several weary
months. Words cannot portray the horrors of this prison, which was
loathsome with filth and vermin, and where to the pangs of hunger and
thirst, were aided the alternate extremes of heat and cold. Especially
when the hatches were closed, as was always done at night, the heat and
stench caused by the feverish breath of hundreds of prisoners became
almost suffocating. Consequently dysentery, smallpox and jail fever made
fearful ravages. The ghastly faces of the starved and sick, and the pale
corpses of the dead, the groans of the dying, the commingled voices of
weeping, cursing and praying, joined to the ravings of the delirious;
such were the shocking scenes to which Van Arsdale was a witness, and
which added to his personal sufferings, made his situation one of the
most appalling to be conceived of. Fitly was this dungeon described by
one of its inmates as "a little epitome of Hell!" Kept near to
starvation, Van Arsdale, when allowed with other prisoners, a few at a
time, to go up on the quarter deck, was glad to eat the beans or crusts
he skimmed from the swill kept there to feed pigs, that he might
partially relieve the gnawings of hunger! But we forbear further comment
upon a fruitful topic, the cruel treatment of the American prisoners,
and which has fixed a stain upon the perpetrators never to be wiped out!
Sears had returned to the prisonship about the last of March, and in the
month of May he and Van Arsdale, with other prisoners, were picked out
and removed again to the Sugar House. This was probably a step towards
an exchange of prisoners, then contemplated, which made it necessary to
separate those belonging to the land service from the naval prisoners.
The Sugar House, with its five or six low stories, was crammed with
American patriots, and the passerby in warm weather could see its little
grated windows filled with human faces, trying to catch a breath of the
external air! But now a little more lenity seems to have been shown some
of the prisoners, perhaps in view of the exchange. Van Arsdale found a
friend in his father's cousin, Vincent Day, who had enlisted in Lamb's
Artillery, in 1775, but did not go to Canada, and was now regarded as a
loyalist. He was permitted to see Van Arsdale, bring him food, etc.,[28]
and a next step was to get leave for him to visit his house. This was a
most grateful relief; but it being suspected that Van Arsdale meditated
an escape (which my informant said was the case), this privilege was cut
off, and Day sent to the Provost for his humanity. This incident was
related to me by Mr. Abraham Van Arsdale, before mentioned.
Van Arsdale had dragged out some two months of miserable existence in
the Sugar House, and in all nine months and a half as a prisoner, when
the day of happy deliverance arrived. Gen. Washington had long been
trying to effect an exchange of prisoners, but to overcome the scruples
of the British commander took months of negotiation. Terms were at
length agreed upon by which some six hundred Americans were set at
liberty. On July 20th, Van Arsdale was released from his dungeon, and
taken with others in a barge down the bay, and _via_ the Kills to
Elizabethtown Point, where they landed, and were delivered up to Major
John Beatty, the American Commissary. In marching from the Point two
miles to the village of Elizabethtown, Van Arsdale was obliged to
support his friend Sears, who was too feeble to walk alone. Now
breathing the air of freedom, they set out together for their homes in
Hanover Precinct, where Van Arsdale was heartily greeted by his numerous
friends who received him as one risen from the dead, and found a warm
welcome in the house of his brother Tunis. Emaciated to a degree, and
suffering from scurvy, he was for some time under the doctor's care, but
finally regained his health.
A nation's gratitude is the least tribute it can render to its brave
soldiers who have fought its battles; but if any class of patriots
should be tenderly embalmed in a nation's memory, it is those who,
through devotion to country, have languished in prison walls, whether
the "Sugar House," or a "Libby!" What firmness, and what consecration to
country was required in the Revolutionary prisoners, under the pressure
of their sufferings, to spurn the alluring offers frequently made, to
entice them into the British service; but so rarely successful. Do not
their names deserve to be written in letters of gold, on the proudest
obelisk that national gratitude and munificence united could erect?[29]
Van Arsdale's bitter experience at the hands of the Britons, had
changed his animosity towards them into unmitigated hate, and we know
that time but partially overcame it. So far from weaning him from the
dangers and hardships of a soldier's life, it only nerved him with
courage, and fixed his purpose to re-enter the service, an opportunity
for which soon offered.
The frequent atrocities committed by the Indians and Tories upon the
settlers on the frontiers, within New York and Pennsylvania, and
especially the massacres, the preceding year, at Wyoming and Cherry
Valley, led to retributive measures, which took the form of an
expedition into the Indian country. This expedition was to move in two
divisions; one under Major General Sullivan, who was chief in command,
to ascend the Susquehanna river from Easton, the other under General
James Clinton to descend that river from the Mohawk Valley; and the two
meeting at Tioga Point, the united force was to proceed up the Chemung,
to give the Indians battle, should they make a stand, or otherwise to
burn and lay waste their villages, orchards and crops, thus depriving
them of subsistence, and the power to repeat their bloody forays upon
the border settlements.
This design was scarcely matured, when our legislature, on March 13th,
1779, ordered the raising of two regiments from the militia, to be
called State Levies, for the special defense of the State, and
particularly of the frontiers of Orange and Ulster, which were subject
to the stealthy attacks of roving Indians, and of Tories disguised as
Indians, the fear of which kept the loyal inhabitants in constant alarm,
and called for the maintenance of a military guard to prevent their
falling a prey to these destroyers in the British interest, or their
abandonment of their homes and possessions. One battalion of levies, so
raised, was commanded by Lieut.-Col. Albert Pawling, and under whom, in
the company of Capt. William Faulkner, our Van Arsdale enlisted on the
10th of May. Governor Clinton had assured Washington that Pawling would
reinforce Gen. Clinton on his march, and take part in the expedition.
But the sudden seizure of Stony Point by the British, May 31st, and a
further advance which menaced West Point and obliged Governor Clinton to
take the field with all his available force, together with the burning
of Minisink by red and white savages under the cruel Brant, and the
fatal battle that ensued, July 22d, near the Delaware, in which fell
many of the brave yeomen of Orange, made it so unsafe to withdraw the
levies from these borders that Governor Clinton expressed a fear that he
might not be able to detach them upon the western expedition.
But eventually Col. Pawling, with his battalion, about five hundred men,
left Lackawack and Shandaken, on the borders of Ulster, upon the 10th of
August. The route lay across the country for a hundred miles, over
mountains and rivers, and through dark forests known only to the guides;
but it so happened that, added to these obstacles, the rains set in and
the rivers became swollen and impassable, except by rafts. This, with
the state of his provisions and other considerations, rendered it
impracticable for him to proceed, and he reluctantly turned back. He,
however, pushed forward a small detachment of sixteen men, under Capt.
Abraham Van Aken, either to advise Gen. Clinton of his approach or of
his inability to join him; but Van Aken reached Aghquaga, or Anquaga, on
the Susquehanna, the day after Clinton had passed, so missed of seeing
him; and remaining there some days, as would appear, then returned to
camp, where he arrived September 1st. It transpired that Clinton had
reached Anquaga on the 14th, and, waiting till the 16th, then sent out
Major Church, with the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment, five or six miles
to look for Pawling, but they returned without seeing him, and the next
morning Clinton pursued his march. This was a great disappointment to
Van Arsdale and others, who were full of ardor to share in the
expedition under Sullivan, and our statement must correct the existing
belief that Van Arsdale did take part in it, while it explains how he
failed of the coveted opportunity.
Major Van Benschoten, with a detachment of the levies, including Van
Arsdale and his company, in which he was serving as corporal, proceeded,
October 31st, to the camp on the Hudson, and were ordered to Stony Point
to augment its garrison. But the winter setting in with severity, the
men through anxiety to reach home, began to desert in great numbers, on
account of which they were ordered to Poughkeepsie, and set out December
16th. At Fishkill, the next day they were paid off, up to October 31st,
the date they arrived in camp. What Capt. Faulkner then paid him was all
that Van Arsdale received in lieu of his services, past or subsequent,
till after the war ended. He remained with his company until it was
disbanded on December 25th, when he was honorably discharged and went
home, having acquitted him as "a good soldier" in the estimation of his
captain.
He spent the winter at Neelytown, giving spare time to improving his
mind in some useful studies. It was the famous "Hard Winter," and it
made a fearful draft on the woodpile; taking the brothers often to the
woods with their axes, to keep up the supply of fuel. Snow covered the
ground to an average depth of six feet or more, fences and roads were
obliterated, and travel went in all directions over the hard crust.
Being difficult if not dangerous for a team, they drew their wood home
on a hand sled. On the melting of the snow in the spring, the stumps
left were of sufficient length to be used by Tunis for making fence
rails!
A dark cloud hung over our cause in the spring of 1780; there were no
funds with which to pay the army, or even to supply it with necessary
food and clothing. Pressed by keenest want, officers were resigning,
large bodies of soldiers whose time had expired were leaving, while such
as remained were disheartened,--less by the remembrance of hardships
past, than by what the future seemed to forebode. It was under such
discouragements, when
"Allegiance wand'ring turns astray
And Faith grows dim for lack of pay."
that Van Arsdale re-entered the army, to share its fortunes whatever
those might be. An Act had been passed March 11th, 1780, to raise a body
of levies for the defense of the frontiers. It required every
thirty-five male inhabitants, of competent age, to engage and equip one
able-bodied recruit to serve in their stead in said levies. Whether at
the solicitation of his neighbors, liable under this Act, or prompted by
his own devotion to the service, or both combined, we have no means of
knowing, but we find Van Arsdale joining the levies on the 2d of May.
But under an act of June 24th ensuing, which permitted privates serving
in the levies to enlist in either of the continental battalions
belonging to the State Line, provided they engaged to serve for the war,
Van Arsdale with the then common idea that this was the more honorable
service, took his discharge from the levies, and enlisted in the company
of Capt. Henry Vandebergh (being the 1st company) of the 5th New York
regiment, of which Marinus Willett was Lieut.-Col. Commandant, and
belonging to Gen. James Clinton's brigade. This brigade was then in
garrison at West Point, and Van Arsdale's initial service was fatigue
duty on the four redoubts at that post, and guard duty at Fort
Montgomery; the latter reviving but too vividly the campaign of 1777,
and its great disaster, many traces of which were still visible.
Vandebergh, who had had command of the company as lieutenant for the
four months since its captain, Rosecrance, became a major, was now
promoted July 1st, and on the 30th, was officially put in command as
captain. Upon the latter date (it having before been given out that an
attack was to be made upon New York City), the New York brigade was
directed to march next morning at sunrise. They moved accordingly,
crossed the Hudson and took up a position below Peekskill. But the
object of the advance, which was merely strategic, having been served,
the army again crossed the river at Verplank's Point, and on August 7th
made headquarters at Clarkstown. Washington had given orders a week
previous for the immediate formation of a corps of Light Infantry, to be
commanded by General Lafayette. It consisted of two brigades, each of
three battalions, and each battalion composed of eight companies
selected from the different lines of the army, by taking the first or
"light company" of each regiment. Capt. Vandebergh's company was
included in a battalion under Col. Philip Van Cortlandt. Gen. Lafayette
was at great expense to equip this corp which was pronounced as fine a
body of men as was ever formed. They were in neat uniform, and each
soldier wore a leather helmet, with a crest of horsehair, and carried a
fusil. The General took command August 7th, and at three o'clock the
next morning the army marched, with the light infantry in the advance,
and proceeded to Orangetown, where and in the vicinity it lay for some
time, in readiness, should Sir Henry Clinton leave on an expedition
eastward or southward, of which there were indications, to strike a
vigorous blow at New York. Soon after occurred the foul treason of
Arnold, and the capture, trial and execution of Major Andre. The light
infantry were at Tappan, October 2d, when this last sad tragedy took
place.[30] Lafayette felt great pride in this corps, and was at infinite
pains to perfect its discipline, which by the assiduity of the officers
he brought to high proficiency. But the campaign passed without
affording him an opportunity to perform any signal service. The corps
was broken up on November 28th for the winter, and the companies
returned to their respective regiments.
On December 4th the New York line sailed for Albany to go into winter
quarters, but, the levies which had joined it, being discharged by order
of Gen. Washington, because of a scarcity of provisions and clothing,
Van Arsdale took leave of his regiment, December 15th, much to his
disappointment, having enlisted for the war. But he had won the favor of
Col. Willett, who was pleased to say that he was "a good soldier and
attended to his duties." Except a small gratuity from the State, of
"Twenty Dollars of the Bills of the new emission," received when he
joined the 5th regiment, he returned without any remuneration for his
services in this campaign; but with a patriotism uncooled, and rising
superior to mercenary motives, the winter recess was no sooner past when
Van Arsdale again joined the levies raised for the defense of the State,
under Col. Albert Pawling. One of the captains was John Burnet, of
Little Britain, who had been in the battle at Fort Montgomery. Van
Arsdale entered his company, April 25th, 1781, and was given the
position of sergeant, with ten dollars a month pay, which was an advance
of two dollars. He was posted much of the time on the frontier of Ulster
County, where the levies were billeted on the families, a few in a
house, to protect them from Indians. These had done but little mischief
in this section of the State, since the crushing blow inflicted upon
them by Sullivan's expedition. The principal outrage had been committed
the last year (1780), when a small party under Shank's Ben, on September
17th, attacked the house of Col. Johannes Jansen, in Shawangunk,
intending to capture him, but, failing in this, seized and carried off a
young woman named Hannah Goetschius, and whom, with one John Mack and
his daughter, Elsie, they murdered and scalped in the woods!
But the present year witnessed a more formidable invasion. Col. Pawling
had sent out Silas Bouck and Philip Hine, on a scout, to watch for the
enemy. Near the Neversink River, they discovered a large body of Indians
and Tories approaching; but, then starting back to give the alarm, were
intercepted by Indian runners and captured. The settlements were
therefore unprepared for a visit; when early on Sunday morning, August
12th, this savage horde stole into Wawarsing and began an attack upon
the stone fort. Being repulsed with loss, they departed to plunder and
burn a dozen scattered dwellings; many others being saved by the bravery
of the levies quartered in them. Pursued by Col. Pawling as soon as he
could collect a force, they had time to escape; but, on September 22d,
returned again to burn Wawarsing. On this occasion, also, they first
attempted to surprise the fort, but an alarm being given by the sentinel
firing his gun, the garrison were warned and the inhabitants fled from
their houses and secured themselves. The enemy, again repulsed with a
number slain, proceeded to pillage and burn the place. Capt. Burnet was
then stationed at a blockhouse at Pinebush (in Mombackus, now town of
Rochester), whence he and Capt. Kortright marched towards Wawarsing,
but, not being in sufficient force to give battle, turned back. Soon
Col. Pawling arrived and they pursued the enemy about 40 miles, being
out seven days, but they could not overtake them. There was a private in
Van Arsdale's company named George Anderson, who three years before had
performed an exploit which marked him as a hero. He and Jacob Osterhout
were seized one evening in a tavern at Lackawack, by some Indians and
Tories, and carried off towards Niagara. When within a day's march of
that place, Anderson, at midnight, effected their release, and with his
own hand tomahawked the three sleeping Indians who then had them in
charge; then, each taking a gun, provisions, etc., set out with all
speed for home, where they arrived exhausted and almost starved, after
seventeen days. The State gave Anderson L100 "for his valor." Van
Arsdale used to relate this adventure, whence has come the mistaken idea
that it happened with himself.[31]
On Dec. 19th, Van Arsdale's service ended, and he returned home to spend
the winter; with a good conscience, doubtless, but still with empty
pockets! Yet all looked bright and hopeful, great success had crowned
our arms in other quarters; the proud Cornwallis had been humbled, and
his splendid army captured. On the opening of 1782, measures were
concerted to follow up these successes; the army was maintained, and a
body of levies were also raised in this State to afford the usual
protection to our frontiers. In these Van Arsdale enlisted on the 27th
of April, in the company of Capt. John L. Hardenburgh, of Col.
Frederick Weissenfels' regiment. Five days after, he was made sergeant,
and served as such during that campaign, holding the place of first or
orderly sergeant from Sept. 24th. But the season passed in inactivity,
and the magazine of provisions at Marbletown being exhausted, the levies
were disbanded, and on December 28th, Van Arsdale received an honorable
and final discharge from the army. He laid away his musket with a
lighter heart than on any former occasion. True he and his fellow
soldiers _had received no pay during the last three campaigns_! But he
had escaped the thousand perils of the service and was permitted to see
this grievous war practically closed and independence secured.
Recompense ample, yet the State was just to its brave defenders, and
soon afterwards paid them for this service, and also those who had been
prisoners of war, for their time from the day they were captured to the
day of their return from captivity.[32]
There were more times than one, Van Arsdale being at home, when the
farmhouse at Neelytown, upon sudden news of a victory, echoed with
cheers long and loud, and witnessed a lively jig, enacted then and there
impromptu, with all his early zest for the dance; but how buoyant were
his spirits now, the bitterness of the struggle being past and the final
victory achieved, while the future seemed radiant with promise.
The ensuing winter, spent with his brother, was one of unusual gayety,
and at a social party given by his old friend, Alexander Bodle, then
married and living at La Grange, he first met with his future wife, Mary
Crawford, a most amiable girl, six years his junior. Escorting her home
in his sleigh, the acquaintance ripened--the bans were published in the
church at Goshen, of which her father, David Crawford, was an elder; and
the Rev. Nathan Ker married them at the hospitable farmhouse, in
Walkill, on the 16th of June, 1783. Van Arsdale now left his brother's,
where he had experienced a kindness almost parental, and with his bride,
who ever proved herself a discreet companion, went to keeping house in
New Windsor. He had found an occupation suited to his robust and active
temperament. The owner of the Black Prince, a vessel used during the war
as a gunboat, but now fitted up for the more peaceful service of
conveying passengers and freight on the Hudson, wanted Van Arsdale as a
partner. The latter assented, he always loved the water; it was moreover
an opportunity to begin life respectably with his Polly, for a living
was not so easily secured just after the war, when the country was
impoverished, money scarce and times hard, while he saw many of his old
comrades in arms wanting employment. So he donned the tarpaulin and
sailor jacket, and entered on a calling in which he was engaged when the
incident of November 25th, 1783, occurred; and at which he became a
veteran, sustaining the character of a safe and skillful captain, and an
honest and noble-hearted man. Affable to and careful of the passengers
who patronized his packet; this in itself was an advertisement, and many
making their annual visit to the City, either for pleasure or to sell
their dairies or other farm produce, or to purchase goods (for the day
of railroads was not yet), much preferred sailing with "Captain John."
His passenger list was full on the trip preceding Evacuation Day, but of
that memorable day we need add nothing; and the sequel of Capt. Van
Arsdale's life will be briefly told.