```"In the year seventy-six came the two noble brothers.
````With an army and fleet fit to conquer a world;
```And Cornwallis, and Rawdon, and Tarleton, and others--
````And murder and rapine on our country were hurl'd."
`````Yankee Chronology.=
``"There the old-fashioned colonel galloped through the white infernal
`````Powder cloud;
``And his broad sword was swinging, and his brazen throat was ringing
`````Trumpet loud:
````There the blue bullets flew,
``And the trooper jackets redden at the touch of the leaden
`````Rifle breath;
``And rounder, rounder, rounder, roared the iron six-pounder,
`````Hurling Death!"
`````Knickerbocker Magazine.=
[Illustration: 9514]
N Thursday morning, the twenty-second of August, 1776, the British
troops under General William Howe landed upon Long Island, in the
vicinity of New Utrecht. Four thousand men crossed the ferry from Staten
Island, at the Quarantine Ground, to Denyse's strong stone house, where
Fort Hamilton now stands, and landed under cover of the guns of the
Rainbow, anchored where Fort La Fayette looms up in the center of the
Narrows. Some riflemen, under Colonel Edward Hand, posted on the hill
above, retired toward Flatbush. An hour afterward, British and Hessian
troops poured over the sides of the English ships and transports, and
in long rows of boats, directed by Commodore Hotham, five thousand more
soldiers landed upon Long Island, in the bow of Gravesend Bay (at a
place known as Bath, in front of New Utrecht), under cover of the guns
of the _Phonix, Rose, * and Greyhound._
[Illustration: 8814]
The chief commanders of the English were Sir Henry Clinton, Earls
Cornwallis and Percy, and Generals Grant and Sir William Erskine. Count
Donop, who was killed at Red Bank in 1777, landed, with some Hessians,
with the first division, and on the twenty-fifth,[[August, 1776]] the
veteran De Heister, ** with Knyphausen, and two Hessian brigades, also
landed near New Utrecht. The whole invading force was about ten thousand
men well armed, with forty cannons. Lieutenant-colonel Dalrymple
remained to keep Staten Island.
* The Rose and Phoenix, after remaining in Haverstraw Bay three weeks,
had passed the American batteries and joined the fleet.--See page 802.
** Lieutenant-general De Heister was an old man, and warmly attached to
his master, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. The long voyage of almost
fourteen weeks dispirited him, "and," says Sir George Collier, "his
patience and tobacco became exhausted." A sniff of land breeze revived
him. "He called for Hock, and swallowed large potations to the health of
his friends."
*** This view is from the road on the high shore, a little below Fort
Hamilton, looking southeast; the house in the center belonged to Simon
Cortelyou, a Tory, during the Revolution, and has not been altered.
Gravesend Bay is seen beyond the house, and the distant land is Coney
Island beach.
[[[Alarm in New York.--General Putnam.--General John Morin Scott]]]
{805}When this movement of the enemy was known in New York, alarm and
confusion prevailed. * Re-enforcements were sent to General Sullivan,
then encamped at Brooklyn, and the next day the veteran General Putnam
** was ordered thither by Washington, to take the supreme command
there. The military works on Long Island had been constructed under the
immediate direction of General Greene, who made himself acquainted with
every important point between Hell Gate and the Narrows. Unfortunately,
he fell sick, and none knew so well as he the importance of certain
passes in the rear of Brooklyn. The chief fortifications were within the
limits of the present city, *** while at the passes alluded to
* Many Whig families left the city, and for seven long years of exile
they endured privations with heroic fortitude. * Many of their houses
were destroyed by fire, and others were ruined by military occupants.
[Illustration: 9815]
** Israel Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the seventh of
January, 1718. He was a vigorous, athletic lad, and in 1739 we find
him cultivating land in Pomfret, Connecticut. He was appointed to the
command of the first troops raised in Connecticut for the French and
Indian war in 1755, in which capacity the reader has met him several
times in these volumes. He returned to his farm after the peace, where
he remained until he heard of the affair at Lexington. At the head of
Connecticut troops, he distinguished himself in the battle of Bunker
Hill. He was one of the four major generals appointed by Congress in
1775. His services during the war are mentioned in many portions of this
work, and we will not repeat them here. His last military services
were performed at West Point and vicinity in 1779, where he was chiefly
engaged in strengthening the fortifications. Paralysis of one side
impaired the activity of his body, but his mind retained its powers
until his death. He lived in retirement after the war, and died at
Brooklyn, Windham county, Connecticut, on the twenty-ninth of May, 1790,
aged seventy-two years. His remains repose beneath a marble slab in
the grave-yard south of the village, upon which is an appropriate
inscription.
*** Over all the sites of Revolutionary fortifications, near Brooklyn,
the modern city is rapidly spreading. Streets and avenues reticulate the
whole area, and it is difficult now to identify the consecrated places.
* I have before me a manuscript letter, written by a daughter of General
John Morin Seott, from Elizabethtown, three days after the landing of
the British on Long Island, whieh exhibits the alarms and privations
to which wealthy families, who had left the city, were subjected. After
mentioning their hourly expectation of the landing of the British at
Elizabethtown Point, she says: "We have our coach standing before our
door every night, and the horses harnessed ready to make our escape, if
we have time. We have hardly any clothes to wear: only a second change."
Warned by Governor Livingston to leave Elizabethtown, the family of
General Scott fled at night to Springfield, in the midst of a terrible
thunder-storm. The writer continues: "We were obliged to stop on the
road and stay all night, and all the lodging we could get was a dirty
bed on the floor. How hard it seems for us, that have always been used
to living comfortable!... Papa, with his brigade, has gone over
to Long Island, whieh makes us very uneasy. Poor New York! I long to
have the hattle over, and yet I dread the consequences." This letter
is in the possession of her grandson, Charles S. M'Knight, Esq., of New
York.
[Illustration: 8815]
* John Morin Scott was an early opponent of British oppression, the
coadjutor of Sears, Lamb, Willett, and others. He was a descendant of
the baronial family of Scott of Ancram, Teviotdale, Scotland, and was
born in New York in 1730. He graduated at Yale College in 1746. He
adopted the profession of the law, married Helena Rutgers, of New
York, and made that city his field of active usefulness. With William
Livingston, of New Jersey, his voice and pen boldly advocated extreme
measures, and, because of his ultra Whig principles, the timid ones
defeated his election to the General Congress in 1774. He was one of the
most active and influential members of the General Committee of New York
in 1775, and was a member of the Provincial Congress that year. On the
ninth of June, 1776, he was commissioned a brigadier, which office he
held until March, 1777. He was with his brigade in the battle of Long
Island, and was one of the Council of War called by Washington to decide
whether lo fight longer or retreat. He was afterward with General Heath
in the lower part of West Chester, but left the service in March, 1777,
when he was appointed secretary of the State of New York. He was a
member of the General Congress in 1782 and 1783. In 1784 he was elected
an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He died on the
fourteenth of September of the same year, in the fifty-fifth year of his
age. His remains lie in Trinity church-yard with those of his ancestors,
close by the railing on Broadway, north of the great entrance-door to
the church. I am indebted to John Morin Scott, Esq., of Philadelphia, a
grandson of the general, for the materials of this brief sketch.
** This monument is erected to the memory of the Honorable Israel
Putnam, Esq., major general in the armies of the United States of
America; who was born at Salem, in the Province of Massachusetts, on
the seventh day of January, 1718, and died at Brooklyn, in the State of
Connecticut, on the twenty-ninth day of May, A.D. 1700. Passenger, if
thou art a soldier, go not away till thou hast dropped a tear over the
dust of a Hero, who, ever tenderly attentive to the lives and happiness
of his men, dared to lead where any one dared to follow. If thou art a
patriot, remember with gratitude how much thou and thy country owe
to the disinterested and gallant exertions of the patriot who sleeps
beneath this marble. If thou art an honest, generous and worthy
man, render a sincere and cheerful tribute of respect to a man whose
generosity was singular; whose honesty was proverbial; and who, with
a slender education, with small advantages, and with powerful
friends, raised himself to universal esteem, and to offices of eminent
distinction by personal worth, and hy the diligent services of a useful
life."
[[[The "Passes."--Miles and Woodhull.--Fortifications near Brooklyn.]]]
{806}breast-works were cast up. These rows to the Jamaica road, at the
present East New York, and in broken elevations further on. There were
several roads traversing the flat country in the rear of these hills.
[Illustration: 8816]
These Colonel Miles, of Pennsylvania, was directed to reconnoiter with
his regiment, to watch and report upon the progress of the enemy. To
Sullivan was intrusted command of the troops without the lines, assisted
by Brigadier-general passes were in a range of hills extending from the
Nar--Lord Stirling; General Woodhull (late president of the Provincial
Congress), now in arms, was commissioned to deprive the invaders of
provisions by removing the live stock to the plains of Hempstead.
The invading army prepared for marching soon after the debarkation. The
Hessians, under De Heister, formed the center or main body; the English,
under General Grant, composed the left wing, which rested
* By a careful comparison of maps, military plans, and other
authorities, with maps of the modern city, I have endeavored to locate
the various works. I am satisfied that there will be found no material
errors in the statement.
* The first work erected, after fortifying Red Hook and constructing
Fort Stirling, on Brooklyn Heights (see page 799), was a redoubt called
Fort Putnam, upon a wooded hill near the Wallabout, now known as Fort
Greene and Washington Square. This was a redoubt with five guns; and
when the trees were felled, it commanded the East River, and the roads
approaching Brooklyn from the interior. An intrenchment extended from
Fort Putnam northwesterly down the hill to a spring now(1852,) in a
tanning yard, with a pump in it, near the intersection of Portland
Street and Flushing Avenue. This spring was then on the verge of the
Wallabout. From the western side of the fort an intrenehment extended
in zigzag course across the Flatbush road, near the junction of Flatbush
Avenue and Power Street, to Freek's mill-pond, at the head of Gowanus
Creek, near the junction of Second Avenue and Carroll Street. Near the
intersection of Nevins and Dean Streets, about half way between Fort
Putnam and the mill pond, on the land of Debevoise and Vanbrunt, a
redoubt was constructed with five guns, and called Fort Greene.
[Illustration: 9816]
* A little eastward of Fort Putnam, near the Jamaica road, was a small
redoubt; and upon the slope of Bergen Hill (also ealled Boerums's Hill),
opposite Brower's mill, was a small redoubt with four guns. It stood
between Smith Street and First Avenue, not far from the termination
of Hoyt Street, at Carroll. This is supposed to be Box Fort. It was
afterward strengthened by the British while a detachment lay encamped
on Bergen Hill. Last year (1851) a friend of the writer picked up arrow
heads, and buttons marked "42" (42d Highlanders), on the site of this
redoubt. At the head of the tunnel of the Long Island rail way, in
the vicinity of Boerum and Atlantic Streets, was a high, conical hill,
called Ponkiesbergh and Cobble Hill. A redoubt for three cannons was
constructed on the top of this hill, and, from the circumstance that
an intrenchment extended spirally from summit to base, it was called
Cork-screw Fort.--(See Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents of Long
Island, ii" 118.) This redoubt remained until 1812, when it was
strengthened and ealled Fort Swift. Fort Putnam was strengthened at the
same time, and called Fort Greene. The banks then raised on those of
the fort of the Revolution were very prominent until the present year
(1852), when diluted patriotism and bad taste allowed them to be leveled
so as to give the face of Washington Square a smooth appearance. To
the eye of a true American there is more beauty in a single mound
consecrated by patriotism than in a score of graveled walks trodden
by the gay and thoughtless. These several fortifications, with other
localities and events mentioned in the account of the battle, will
be better understood by reference to the accompanying map, which is
a reduced copy of one carefully prepared by Henry Onderdonk, Jr., and
published in his valuable collection of Revolutionary Incidents of
Long Island. Mr. Onderdonk has thoroughly explored the ground we are
considering; and to him, as a cicerone, when visiting the field of
conflict, I am much indebted for a knowledge of the various localities.
* Explanation of the Plan.--Figure 1, Gravesend beach, where the British
landed; 2, Denyse's (Fort Hamilton); 3, Martense's Lane, along the
southern boundary of Greenwood Cemetery, extending from Third Avenue, at
the lower end of Gowanus Bay, to the Flatbush and New Utrecht road; 4,
Red Lion tavern; 5, Grant's forces; 6, Stirling's forces; 7, Stirling's
last encounter; 8, Cortelyou's house; 9, Port or Mill road; 10, Flatbush
pass; 11, Americans retreating across the creek; 12, Party of Americans
covering the retreat; 13, Box Fort; 1-1, Brower's mill; 15, Fort Greene,
near the mill-pond; 16, Cork-screw Fort; 17, Baker's tavern, near the
junction of Fulton and Flatbush Avenues; 18, British redoubt, cast up
after the battle; 19, Fort Putnam, now Fort Greene; 20, Stone church,
where Washington held a council of war; 21, Fort Stirling; 22, The
ferry, foot of Fulton Street; 23, Fort at Red Hook; 24, Corlaer's Hook;
25, Battery, foot of Catharine Street; 20, Panlus' Hook; 27, Governor's
Island; 28, The Narrows; 29, Vandeventer's Point; 30, Shoemaker's
Bridge, near New Lots. Bennet's Cove is near figure 4, where, it
is said, three thousand British troops landed on the morning of the
twenty-seventh of August, the day of the battle, a a, track of the left
wing of the British army, under the immediate command of General Howe,
from Flatlands, by way of the present East New York (Howard's half-way
house) to Brooklyn. While in possession of New York and vicinity, the
British so strengthened Fort Stirling, on Brooklyn Heights, that it
assumed the character of a regular fortification, with four bastions,
similar to Fort George, in New York. They also east up a line of
intrenchments along the brow of the hill from the Heights to the present
Navy Yard.
[[[March of the British.--Advantage gained.--Advance of Grant toward
Gowanus.]]]
{807}on New York Bay; and the right wing, designed for the principal
performance in the drama about to be opened, was composed of choice
battalions, under the command of Clinton, Cornwallis, and Percy,
accompanied by Howe, the commander-in-chief. While Grant and De Heister
were diverting the Americans on the left and center, the right was to
make a circuitous march by the way of Flatlands, to secure the roads and
passes between that village and Jamaica, and to gain the American left,
if possible. This division, under the general command of Clinton, moved
from Flatlands on the evening of the twenty-sixth,[[August, 1776]] and,
guided by a Tory, passed the narrow causeway, over a marsh near the
scattered village of New Lots, * called Shoemaker's Bridge. At two
o'clock in the morning they gained the high wooded hills within half
a mile of the present village of East New York, unobserved by Colonel
Miles and the American patroles, except some subaltern officers on
horseback, whom they captured. Informed that the Jamaica road was
unguarded, Clinton hastened to secure the pass, and before daylight that
important post and the Bedford pass ** were in his possession, and
yet General Sullivan was ignorant of the departure of the enemy from
Flatlands. Expecting an attack upon his right, in the vicinity of
Gowanus, all his vigilance seems to have been turned in that direction,
and he did not send fresh scouts in the direction of Jamaica. The
advantage thus gained by Clinton decided the fortunes of the day.
While the British right wing was gaining this vantage ground, General
Grant, with the left, composed of two brigades, one regiment, and a
battalion of New York Loyalists raised by Tryon, made a forward
movement toward Brooklyn, along the coast road, *** by way of Martense's
Lane--"the road from Flatbush to the Red Lion" (4) mentioned by Lord
Stirling. The guard at the lower pass (3) gave the alarm, and at three
o'clock in the morning[[August 27]] Putnam detached Lord Stirling, ****
with Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland regiments, commanded by Atlee,
Haslet, and Smallwood, to oppose Grant. The militia guard at Martense's
Lane were driven back by Grant to the hills of Greenwood Cemetery, a
little north of Sylvan Water, where they were rallied by Parsons, and
maintained a conflict until the arrival of Stirling (v) at daybreak,
with fifteen hundred men.
* New Lots village is about a mile south of the rail-way station at East
New York, upon the same plain. The morass at Shoemaker's Bridge (30 on
map, page 806) is now only a wet swale, with a small sluggish stream,
and presents none of the difficulties of passage of former days. It is
said that at the time in question a single regiment might have kept the
whole British force at bay at Shoemaker's Bridge.
** There were four important passes through the hills which should
have been well guarded, namely, at Martense's Lane (3), on the southern
border of Greenwood Cemetery; the Flatbush pass, at the junction of the
present Brooklyn and Flatbush turnpike and the Coney Island Plank road;
the Bedford pass, about half a mile northward of the junction of the
Flatbush and Bedford roads; and the Jamaica pass, a short distance from
East New York, on the road to Williamsburgh, just at the entrance to the
Cemetery of the Evergreens. At East New York, "Howard's half-way house"
of the Revolution is yet standing, though mueh altered. William Howard,
a son of the Whig tavern-keeper, is yet (1852) living there, at the
age of ninety. He told me that he remembers well seeing the British
approaching from New Lots, and then taking his father a prisoner and
compelling him to show them the Jamaica pass, and the best route over
the hills east of it, to the open country toward Brooklyn. We sat in the
room in which he was born eighty-nine years before.
*** It must be remembered that the present road along the verge of the
high bank from Yellow Hook to Gowanus did not exist. The "coast road"
was on the slopes further inland, and terminated at Martense's Lane.
**** Lord Stirling was in the English House of Commons on the seeond of
February, 1775, when this same General Grant declared in debate that the
Americans "could not fight," and that he would undertake to march from
one end of the Continent to the other with five thousand men."--Duer's
Life of Lord Stirling, 162; Par. Reg., i., 135.
* (v) William Alexander, earl of Stirling, was born in the eity of New
York in 1726. His father, James Alexander, was a native of Scotland, and
took refuge in America in 1716, after an active espousal of the ling
took position upon the slopes a little northwest of "Battle Hill," in
Greenwood, and Atlee ambuscaded in the woods on the left of Martense's
Lane, near the Firemen's Monucause of the pretender, in the rebellion
the previous year. His mother was the widow of David Provoost, better
known in the city of New York, a little more than a century ago, as
"Ready-money Provoost."* Young Alexander joined the army during a
portion of the French and Indian war, and was aid-de-camp and secretary
to General Shirley. He accompanied that officer to England in 1755, and
while there he made the acquaintance of some of the leading statesmen of
the time. By the advice of many of them, he instituted legal proceedings
to obtain the title of Earl of Stirling, to which his father was heir
presumptive when he left Scotland" Although he did not obtain a legal
recognition of the title, his right to it was generally conceded, and
from that time he was addressed as Earl of Stirling. He returned to
America in 1761, and soon afterward married the daughter of Philip
Livingston (the second lord of the manor), a sister of Governor
Livingston, of New Jersey, and built a fine mansion (yet standing) at
Baskenridge, in that state. He was a member of the Provincial Council of
New Jersey for several years. In 1775, the Provincial Convention of New
Jersey appointed him colonel of the first regiment of militia, and in
March, 1776. the Continental Congress gave him the commission of
brigadier. Lee left him in command at New York in April. He was
conspicuous in the battle near Brooklyn in August, and in February
ensuing Congress appointed him a major general. He performed varied and
active service until the summer of 1781, when he was ordered to the
command of the Northern army, his head-quarters at Albany.
[Illustration: 9818]
* An invasion from Canada was then expected. Quite a large British force
prevailed above the Highlands. He was at Ticonderoga and vicinity, under
St. Leger, who have already met detachments, was repulsed at Fort
Stanwix in 1777. and at that time were several respecting beacons and
alarm posts. From one of them, in possession of the son of Colonel Aaron
Burr, I copied the annexed sketch, made by the pen of Lord Stirling,
together with the full order of Lord Stirling who died at Albany on the
fifteenth of January 1783, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. It is a
singular fact that at different periods during the war. Lord Stirling
had under his command every brigade of the American army except Colonel
William Duer, and became Judge John Duer, of the city of Duer. LL.D.
* The vigorous and effective preparations made by Lord Stirling
intimidated St. Leger, and he returned to Canada. Late in the autumn
Stirling took the chief command in New Jersey, and the following
summer he was again in command at Albany, with a general supervision
of military affairs between that place and New York. His youngest
daughter married the btother of William A. Duer, late president of
Columbia College, at New York.--See Life of Lord Stirling, by his
grandson, William A.
* He acquired this title because he won riches rapidly by the illicit
trade in which the colonists were then engaged. His family vault may now
(1852) be seen a few rods from the bank of the East River, in "Jones's
Woods," between Seventieth and Seventy-first Streets. On the top is a
large marble slab, placed there in memory of the wife of his son David.
**The following is a copy of the order: "Each of the beacons are to be
of lhe following dimensions: at bottom, fourteen feet square, to rise
in a pyramidal form to about eighteen or twenty feet high, and then to
terminate about six feet square, with a stout sapling in the center
of about thirty feet high from the ground. In order to erect them, the
officer who oversees the execution should proceed thus: he should order
the following sized logs to be cut as near the place as possible: twenty
logs of fourteen feet long and about one foot diameter; ten logs of
about twelve feet long; ten logs of about ten feet long; ten logs of
about nine feet long; ten logs of about eight feet long; twenty logs
of about seven feet long; twenty logs of about six feet lone. He should
then sort his longest logs as to diameter, and place the four longest on
the ground, parallel to each other, and about three feet apart from each
other. He should then place the four next logs in size across these
at right angles, and so proceed till all the logs of fourteen feet be
placed. Then he is to go on in the same manner with logs of twelve feet
long, and when they are all placed, with those of a lesser size, till
the whole are placed, taking care, as he goes on, to fill the vacancies
between the logs with old dry split wood or useless dry rails and brush,
not too close, and leaving the fifth tier open for firing and air. In
the beginning of his work, to place a good stout sapling in the center,
with part of its top left, about ten or twelve feet above the whole
work. The figure of the beacon will appear thus. [The sketch above
given.] The two upper rows of logs should be fastened in their places
with good strong wooden plugs or trunnels." These beacons were erected
upon hills from the Hudson Highlands through New Jersey by way of
Morristown, Pluckemin, and Middlebrook, and upon the Neversink Hills at
Sandy Hook. They were to be used as signals denoting the approach of
the enemy, for the assembling of the militia at certain points, and to
direct the movements of certain Continental battalions.
*** I have before me an old manuscript schedule of Lord Stirling's
wardrobe, in which the material and color of each article is given. I
print the number as a curious example of the personal provisions of
a gentleman of his class at that time, namely: Thirty-one coats,
fifty-eight vests, forty-three pairs of breeches, six powdering gowns
(used when powdering the hair), two pairs of trowsers, thirty shirts,
seventeen handkerchiefs, twenty seven stocks, twenty-seven cravats,
eight razor cloths, one hundred and nineteen pairs of hose, six pairs of
socks, fifteen night-caps, five pairs of drawers, two pairs of gloves,
fourteen pairs of shoes, four pairs of boots; total, four hundred and
twelve garments.
[[[Skirmish between Grant and Stirling.---Storming of the Flatbush
Redoubt.---Descent of Clinton.--Surrender of the Americans.]]]
{809}After two or three rounds Atlee fell back to the left of Stirling,
on the top of the hills.
[Illustration: 8819]
At this moment Kichline and his riflemen, De Haas and his battalion, and
Captain Carpenter, with two field-pieces, arrived. Grant advanced
and took post in an orchard, * within one hundred and fifty yards of
Stirling, and a severe skirmish ensued. Grant had also two field-pieees,
but neither party made much use of their cannons. In that position the
belligerents remained, without severe fighting, until eleven o'clock
in the forenoon, ** when events on the left wing of the American army
changed the whole aspect of affairs.
While Grant and Stirling were thus engaged, De Heis-ter and his Hessians
moved from Flatbush, and cannonaded the works at the Flatbush pass,
where Sullivan was in command with the regiments of Colonels Williams
and Miles.
[Illustration: 9819]
In the mean while, Clinton had descended from the wooded hills and
attacked the extreme left of the Americans on the plain at Bedford. The
firing was understood by De Heister, who immediately ordered Count Donop
to storm the redoubt at the pass, while he pressed forward with the main
body of the Hessians. A fierce and bloody combat ensued,3 when Sullivan,
perceiving the peril of his little army (for Clinton was rapidly
gaining his rear), ordered a retreat to the lines at Brooklyn. The
opportunity was gone, and on descending the rough slope from Mount
Prospect, they were met by Clinton's light infantry and dragoons, who
drove them back in confusion upon the Hessian bayonets. Sullivan and his
ensnared soldiers fought desperately, hand to hand, with the foe, while
driven backward and forward between the full ranks of the assailants.
Many broke through the gleaming fence of bayonets and sabers, and
* A few trees of this orchard yet remain in the southwest part of
Greenwood Cemetery.
** During the morning the Roebuck frigate approached Red Hook and
cannonaded the battery there. This, like the movement of Grant, was
intended to divert the Americans from the operations of Clinton on their
left.
*** The Hessians fought with desperation, and gave no quarter. They had
been told that the Americans would not suffer one of them to live, and
their sentiment was total extermination. "Our Hessians and our brave
Highlanders gave no quarter," wrote an offieer of the 71st, "and it was
a fine sight to see with what alacrity they dispatched the rebels
with their bayonets, after we had surrounded them so they could not
resist."--Sec Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents, ii., 138.
[[[Battle between Stirling and Cornwallis.--Retreat across the
Gowanus.--Defeat and Capture of Stirling.]]]
{810}escaped to Fort Putnam, * while their less fortunate companions
died upon the field or were made prisoners.
[Illustration: 9820]
Among the latter were General Sullivan and several subordinate officers.
Those who escaped were followed up to the verge of the American lines,
and the pursuing grenadiers were with difficulty restrained from
storming Fort Putnam. An easy victory would doubtless have been the
result.
Stirling was not aware of the disasters on the left until Cornwallis had
marched down the Port or Mill road (9), took position near the ancient
dwelling known as "the Cortelyon House," near Gowanus, and fired two
guns as a signal for Grant to press forward. That officer immediately
attacked the Americans, and in the engagement Colonel Atlee was made a
prisoner. Hemmed in by the foe, Stirling saw no opportunity for escape
except across the Gowanus Creek, at the dam of the "Yellow Mill," and
other places below Brower's Mill.
[Illustration: 8820]
To effect this, it was necessary to attack Cornwallis, and while
a few--a forlorn hope--should keep him at bay, a large part of the
Americans might escape. No time was to be lost, for the tide was rising,
and soon the creek would be impassable. Changing his front, and leaving
his main body in conflict with Grant, Stirling, at the head of a part of
Smallwood's battalion, commanded by Major (afterward General) Gist,
fell upon Cornwallis, and blood flowed freely. For twenty minutes the
conflict was terrible. Stirling endeavored to drive the earl up the Port
road, get between him and Fort Box, and under cover of its guns escape
across Brower's dam. He was successful, but while with his handful of
brave young men he was keeping the invader in check, a large part of his
companions in arms, consisting now chiefly of Haslet's Delawares and a
part of Smallwood's Marylanders, reached the creek. Some passed it in
safety, but many sunk into silence in the deep mud on its margin or
beneath its turbid waters. Stirling was obliged to yield when despoiled
of nearly all of his brave men. **** He became a prisoner, and was sent
immediately on board the _Eagle_, Lord Howe's flag-ship. Thus ended the
battle, when the sun was at meridian; when it disappeared behind the
low hills of New Jersey, one third of the five thousand patriots who
had contended for victory were lost to their country--dead, wounded, or
prisoners. * Soon many of the latter were festering with
* The most sanguinary conflict occurred after the Americans had left the
Flatbush pass, and attempted to retreat to the lines at Brooklyn. The
place of severest contest, and where Sullivan and his men were made
prisoners, was upon the slope between the Flatbush Avenue and the Long
Island rail-way, between Bedford and Brooklyn, near "Baker's Tavern"
(17), at a little east of the junction of these avenues. The preceding
map, compiled from those of the English engineers for Marshall's Life of
Washington, will assist the reader in obtaining a proper understanding
of the movements of the two armies.
** This house, built of stone, with a brick gable from eaves to peak,
is yet (1852) standing upon the eastern side of the road leading from
Brooklyn to Gowanus. It was built by Nicholas Vechte in 1699, and was
one of the first houses created between Brooklyn and New Utrecht.
*** This is a view of the old mill of the Revolution, as it appeared
when I made the sketch in 1850, before it was destroyed. The view is
from the west side of Gowanus Creek, looking southeast. In the extreme
distance is seen the "Yellow Mill" between which and the one in the
foreground so many of the patriots perished.
****Smallwood's regiment was composed chiefly of young men belonging to
the most respectable and influential families in Maryland. Two hundred
and fifty-nine of them perished in this conflict with Cornwallis's
grenadiers near the "Cortelyon House."
* (v) Dispatches of Washington and General Howe; Letter of R. H.
Harrison, quoted by Sparks, Washington's Writings, iv., 513; Letters of
Haslet and Sullivan, 516, 517; Doer's Life of Lord Stirling, 163;
Life and Correspondence of President Reed, i., 218--224; Gordon, ii.,
96--101; Marshall, i., 87--91; Sted-man, i., 191-196; Onderdonk,
ii.. 127-131. The loss of the Americans is not precisely known. Howe
estimated it at 3300; it probably did not exceed 1650, of whom about
1100 were made prisoners. Howe stated his own loss at 367 killed,
wounded, and made prisoners.
[[[Capture, Treatment, and Death of General Woodhull.--Preparations to
Besiege the Works at Brooklyn.]]]
{811}disease in the loathsome prisons in New York, or in the more
loathsome prison-ships at the Wallabout. * General Woodhull was made a
prisoner at Jamaica the next day, ** and at the close of summer no man
was in arms against the crown in Kings, Queens, and Richmond counties.
The victors encamped in front of the patriot lines, and reposed until
the morning of the twenty-eighth,[[August, 1778]] when they broke ground
within six hundred yards of Fort Putnam, cast up a redoubt (18), and
cannonaded the American works. Washington was there, and joyfully
perceived the design of Howe to commence regular approaches instead of
rapid assaults. This fact was a ray of light in the midst of surrounding
gloom. The
* An account of the New York prisons and prison-ships may be found in
the Supplement to this work.
[Illustration: 9821]
** Nathaniel Woodhull was born at Mastic, Long Island, December 30,
1722. Agriculture was the chief pursuit of his life. He was a major,
under Abercrombie, in the attack upon Crown Point and Ticonderoga,
and afterward accompanied Bradstreet against Fort Frontenac. He was a
colonel, under Amherst, in 1760, and at the close of the campaign he
returned home and married Ruth Floyd, He espoused the popular side in
the Stamp Act movements, and, possessing the esteem of the people, he
was elected, with William Nicoll, a representative of Suffolk county,
in the Colonial Assembly in 1769. He represented Suffolk in the first
Provincial Congress in 1775, and was elected president of that body.
[Illustration: 8821]
** He was appointed a brigadier of militia in August of that year, and
in July, 1776, he was summoned home to embody the militia of Suffolk and
Queens, to assist in repelling invasion. He was engaged in this serviee
when he was made a prisoner,* cruelly wounded by a British officer, and
died of his injuries three weeks afterward at New Utrecht. His wife,
who was with him in his last moments, conveyed his body to Mastic,
and there, in a secluded family cemetery, a short distance from his
residence, his remains rest. A marble slab marks his grave, and bears
the following inscription:
[Illustration: 7821]
** "In memory of General Nathaniel Woodhull, who, wounded and a
prisoner, died on the twentieth of September, 1776, in the fifty-fourth
year of his age; regretted by all who knew how to value his many private
virtues, and that pure zeal for the rights of his country to which he
perished. Woodhull's Grave." The mansion of General Woodhull was burned
in 1783, and in 1784, the present dwelling on the homestead farm was
erected near the spot. It is now (1852) owned by Henry Nicoll, Esq., a
great-grandson of General Woodhull.
* In consequence of the tardy movements of others, on whom devolved
the duty of furnishing him with a proper force to perform the labors
assigned him, General Woodhull (Udell in many old accounts) did not
participate in the battle on the twenty-seventh of August He made his
head-quarters at Jamaica, and with his inadequate force he scoured
the country for miles around, watching the movements of the enemy, and
driving large numbers of cattle to Hempstead plains. When he perceived
the position of Clinton, near the Jamaica pass, on the morning of the
twenty-seventh, he sent urgent messages to the Provincial Congress
asking for re-enforcements. It was now too late, for the regiments of
Smith and Remsen, of Kings and Queens counties, could not be spared from
the lines at Brooklyn.
[Illustration: 6821]
* With a soldier's impatience he was obliged to listen to the distant
roar of battle, for with a soldier's strict discipline he would not move
without orders. When apprised of the disasters of the day, he ordered
his little band to fall hack four miles beyond Jamaica, on the morning
of the twenty-eighth, while he awaited orders from camp. In the
afternoon, he left Jamaica with two companions, to join his soldiers,
and while taking refuge from a thunder-storm in the inn of Increase
Carpenter, two miles east of Jamaica village, he was made a prisoner
by a party of British, under Captain Sir James Baird (whom we met at
Savannah, page 732), piloted by some Tories. Tradition says that Baird
ordered Woodhull to shout "God save the King!" and because instead he
cried "God save us all!" he smote him with his broadsword, and would
have killed him on the spot, if Major Delancey, who accompanied Baird,
had not interfered. The blow badly wounded the head of the general, and
mangled his left arm the whole length. He and his companions were taken
to Jamaica, confined until the next morning in the Presbyterian stone
church (which stood in the middle of the present Fulton Street, at the
head of Union Hall Street. It was demolished in 1832), then taken to the
British camp at Brooklyn, and conveyed to a loathsome cattle transport
in Gravesend Bay. A Church at Jamaica, humane British officer procured
his removal to a house in the village of New Utrecht, where his arm was
amputated at the elbow. Woodhull sent for his wife, with a request that
she should bring; with her all the money in her possession, and all she
could borrow. This was distributed among his fellow-prisoners. His wife
arrived in time to attend him in his last moments, for the unskillful
amputation resulted in mortification, and he died in the fifty fourth
year of his age. I am indebted to Mr. Onderdonk for the sketch of the
old Jamaica church. With him 1 visited New Utrecht (1850) to make a
drawing of the house wherein General Woodhull died. It had just been
demolished, and a modern house placed on its site by the owner, Mr.
Barent Wyckoff. To the patriotism and artistic skill of Miss C. Lott,
living near, I am indebted for the sketch of that venerated edifice,
probably the first house erected in that town. It was of stone, covered
with red tiles, and answered the description of a dwelling erected in
1658, by De Sille, the attorney general of the province.--See Doc. Hist,
of New York, i., 634. The New House in which Woodhull died. Utrecht
church, which stood near, was of octagon form like one at Jamaica. The
weather cock from its steeple now graces the barn of Mr. Lott, and the
gilt dove from the pulpit sounding-board is perched upon the roof of his
well.
[[[Situation of the Two Armies.--Council of War.--Retreat of the
Americans to New York.]]]
{812}chief had crossed from New York early in the morning, and had
witnessed the destruction of some of his finest troops, without ability
to send them aid except at the peril of the safety of the camp or of the
city, and his whole army. Ignorant of his real strength, Howe dared
not attempt an assault, and Washington had time to conceive and execute
measures for the safety of his troops.
The morning of the twenty-eighth[[August 1776]] dawned drearily. Heavy
masses of vapor rolled up from the sea, and at ten o'clock, when the
British cannonade commenced, a fine mist was falling. Although half dead
with fatigue, the Americans had slumbered little, for it was a night of
fearful anxiety to them. At five in the morning, General Mifflin, who
had come down from King's Bridge and Fort Washington with the regiments
of Shee, Magaw, and Glover, a thousand strong, in obedience to an
order sent the day before, crossed the East River, and took post at the
Wallabout. The outposts of the patriots were immediately strengthened,
and during the rainy day which succeeded there were frequent skirmishes.
Rain fell copiously during the afternoon, and that night the Americans,
possessing neither tents nor barracks, suffered dreadfully. A heavy fog
fell upon the hostile camps at midnight, and all the next day[[August
29]] it hung like a funeral pall over that sanguinary battle-field.
Toward evening, while Adjutant-general Reed, accompanied by Mifflin and
Colonel Grayson, were reconnoitering near Red Hook, a light breeze arose
and gently lifted the fog from Staten Island. There they beheld the
British fleet lying within the Narrows, and boats passing rapidly from
ship to ship, in evident preparation for a movement toward the city.
Reed hastened to the camp with the information, and at five o'clock that
evening the commander-in-chief held a council of war. * An evacuation of
Long Island, and a retreat to New York, was the unanimous resolve of the
council. Colonel Glover, whose regiment was composed chiefly of sailors
and fishermen from Marblehead and vicinity, ** was ordered to collect
and man boats for the purpose, and General M'Dougal was directed to
superintend the embarkation. The fog still rested heavily upon the
island, the harbor, and the adjacent city, like a shield of the Almighty
to cover the patriots from the peril of discovery. Although lying within
a few hundred yards of the American lines, the enemy had no suspicion of
the movement. ***
At eight o'clock in the evening the patriot regiments were silently
paraded, the soldiers ignorant of the intent; but, owing to delay on
account of unfavorable wind, and some confusion in orders, it was near
midnight when the embarkation commenced at the Ferry Stairs, foot of
Fulton Street, Brooklyn. For six hours those fishermen-soldiers plied
their muffled oars; and boat after boat, filled with the champions of
freedom, touched at the various wharves from Fulton Ferry to Whitehall,
and left their precious burdens. At six in the morning, nine thousand
men, with their baggage and munitions, except heavy artillery, had
crossed. Mifflin, with his Pennsylvania battalions and the remains of
the regiments of Smallwood and Haslet, formed the covering party, and
Washington and his staff, who had been in the saddle all night, remained
until the last company had embarked. **** At dawn
* The council was held in the stone Dutch church (20), which stood near
the junction of the present Fulton and Flatbush Avenues. This church
was designated in the order for the evening as an alarm post during the
night, where they might rendezvous, in the event of the movement being
discovered by the British. The officers present at the council were
Washington, Putnam, Spencer, Miffin, M'Dougal, Parsons, John Morin
Scott, Wadsworth, and Fellows.--See Life, &c., of President Reed, i.,
417.
** The uniform of these men, until they were attached to the Continental
line, consisted of blue round jackets and trowsers, trimmed with leather
buttons. They were about five hundred in number.
*** A late English author complains bitterly of the apathy of the
British general on this occasion. He says, his troops "kept digging
their trenches on one side, while Washington was smuggling his forces
out on the other, and ferrying them over the East River to the city of
New York.... The high-feeding English general slept on, and his brother
the admiral (Lord Howe), though not so apt to doze, did not move a
single ship or boat, and was to all appearance unconscious of what
was going on."--Pict. Hist, of the Reign of George the Third, i.,
273. Notwithstanding his want of energy on this occasion, General Howe
received the honors of knighthood from his king for this victory.
The ceremony was performed by Knyp-hansen, Clinton, and Robertson, in
November, 1776.
**** In his dispatches to the president of Congress, Washington said
that he had scarcely been out of the lines from the twenty-seventh till
the morning of the evacuation, and forty-eight hours preceding that
had hardly been off his horse and never closed his eyes. Yet a popular
English author of our day (see Pict. Hist, of the Reign of George the
Third, i., 273) mendaciously says, "Washington kept his person safe in
New York."
[[[British first aware of the Retreat.--Condition of the
Army.--Disposition of the British Army.]]]
{813}the fog lifted from the city, but remained dark and dreary upon the
deserted camp and the serried ranks of the foe, until the last boat left
the Long Island shore. Surely, if "the stars in their courses fought
against Sisera," in the time of Deborah, the wings of the Cherubim of
Mercy and Hope were over the Americans on this occasion.
Intelligence of this movement reached the British commander-in-chicf at
half past four in the morning. Cautiously Captain Montressor and a small
party climbed the embankments of Fort Putnam and were certified of the
fact. * It was too late for successful pursuit, for when battalion after
battalion were called to arms, and a troop of horsemen sped toward the
East River, the last boat was beyond pistol shot; and as the fog rolled
away and the sunlight burst upon the scene, the Union flag was waving
over the motley host of Continentals and militia marching toward the
hills of Rutgers' farm, beyond the present Catharine Street. ** Howe was
greatly mortified by the event, for he felt certain that his prey could
not escape his meshes.
Although the American army was safe in New York, yet sectional feelings,
want of discipline, general insubordination of inferior officers and
men, and prevailing immorality, appeared ominous of great evils. Never
was the hopeful mind of Washington more clouded with doubts than when
he wrote his dispatches to the president of Congress, in the month of
September.[[1776]]
[Illustration: 8823]
Those dispatches and the known perils which menaced the effort for
independence led to the establishment of a permanent army. ***
On the evacuation of Long Island, the British took possession of the
American works, and, leaving some English and Hessian troops to garrison
them, Howe posted the remainder of his army at Bushwick, Newtown, Hell
Gate, and Flushing.
Howe made his head-quarters at a house in Newtown (yet standing),
now the property of Augustus Bretonnier, and there, on the third of
September, he wrote his dispatch, concerning the battle, to British
ministry. On the thirtieth,[[August, 1776]] Admiral Howe sailed up
the bay with his fleet and anchored near Governor's Island, within
cannon-shot of the city. During the night, after the battle, a forty-gun
ship had passed the batteries and anchored in Turtle Bay, somewhat
damaged by round shot from Burnt Mill or Stuyvesant's Point, the site of
the Novelty Iron-works. **** Other vessels went around Long Island, and
passed into the East River from the Sound, and on the third of September
the whole British land force was upon Long Island, except four thousand
men left upon Staten Island to awe the patriots of New Jersey. A blow
was evidently in preparation for the republican army in the city.
Perceiving it, Washington made arrangements for evacuating New York, if
necessary. (v)
* Onderdonk (ii., 131) says that a Mrs. Rapelye, living near the ferry,
sent her servant to inform the British of the retreat. The negro was
arrested by a Hessian guard, who could not understand a word that
he uttered. He was detained until morning, when he was taken to
head-quarters, and revealed the seeret, but too late.
** A cannonade was opened upon the pursuers from Waterbery's battery,
where Catharine Market now stands.
*** See page 225. In his letter of the second of September, Washington
evidently foresaw his inability to retain his position in the city of
New York. He asked the question, "If we should be obliged to abandon the
town, ought it to stand as winter quarters for the enemy?" and added,
"If Congress, therefore, should resolve upon the destruction of it, the
resolution should be a profound secret, as a knowledge of it will make
a capital change in their plans." General Greene and other military men,
and John Jay and several leading civilians, were in favor of destroying
New York. But Congress, by resolution of the third of September, ordered
otherwise, because they hoped to regain it if it should be lost.--See
Journal, ii., 321.
**** Washington sent Major Crane of the artillery to annoy her. With two
guns, upon the high bank at Forty-sixth Street, he cannonaded her until
she was obliged to take shelter in the channel east of Blackwell's
Island.
* (v) On the approach of the fleet, the little garrison on Governor's
Island and at Red Hook withdrew to New York. One man at Governor's
Island lost an arm by a ball from a British ship, just as he was
embarking.*
[[[Howe's proposition for a Conference.--Meeting with a Committee of
Congress.--Bushnell's "Marine Turtle" or Torpedo.]]]
{814}Lord Howe now offered the olive-branch as a commissioner to treat
for peace, not doubting the result of the late battle to be favorable to
success.
General Sullivan and Lord Stirling were both prisoners on board his
flag-ship, the Eagle.
[Illustration: 9824]
The former was paroled, * and sent with a verbal message from Howe to
the Continental Congress, proposing an informal conference with persons
whom that body might appoint. Impressed with the belief that Lord
Howe possessed more ample powers than Parliament expressed in his
appointment, Congress consented to a conference, after debating the
subject four days. A committee, composed of three members of that body,
was appointed, and the conference was held[[Sept. 11, 1776]] at the house
of Captain Billop, formerly of the British navy, situated upon the high
shore of Staten Island, opposite Perth Amboy. ** The event was barren of
expected fruit, yet it convinced the Americans
* Both officers were exchanged soon afterward, Sullivan for General
Prescott, captured nine months before (see vol. i., page 181), and Lord
Stirling for Governor Brown, of Providence Island, who had been captured
by Commodore Hopkins. Lord Stirling was exchanged within a month after
he was made prisoner.
** The committee consisted of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward
Rutledge. When they reached Perth Amboy, they found the barge of Lord
Howe in waiting for them, with a British officer who was left as a
hostage! The meeting was friendly, and Lord Howe, who was personally
acquainted with Franklin, freely expressed to that statesman his
abhorrence of the war, and his sincere personal desire for peace. * The
whole interview was distinguished by courtesy and good feeling. Howe
informed the committee that he would not recognize them as members of
Congress, but as private gentlemen, and that the independence of the
colonies could not be considered for a moment They told him he might
call them what he pleased, they were nevertheless representatives of a
free and independent people, and would entertain no proposition which
did not recognize the independence of the colonies. The gulf between
them was evidently impassable, and the conference was soon terminated,
for Howe had nothing acceptable to offer. He expressed his regret
because of his obligation now to prosecute the war. Franklin assured him
that the Americans would endeavor to lessen the pain he might feel
on their account by taking good care of themselves. Thus ended the
conference. * In the third volume of the collected Writings of John
Adams may be found an interesting sketch from the pen of that patriot,
describing the events of a night passed in bed with Dr. Franklin at New
Brunswick, on the night preceding this conference.
* It was while the Eagle laid near Governor's Island that an attempt was
made to destroy her by an "infernal machine," called a "Marine Turtle,"
invented by a mechanic of Saybrook, Connecticut, named Bushnell.
Washington approved of the machine, on examination, and desired General
Parsons to select a competent man to attempt the hazardous enterprise.
The machine was constructed so as to contain a living man, and to
be navigated at will under water. A small magazine of gunpowder, so
arranged as to be secured to a ship's bottom, could be carried with it.
This magazine was furnished with clockwork, constructed so as to operate
a spring and communicate a blow to detonating powder, and ignite
the gunpowder of the magazine. The motion of this clock-work was
sufficiently slow to allow the submarine operator to escape to a safe
distance, after securing the magazine to a ship's bottom. General
Parsons selected a daring young man, named Ezra Lee. He entered the
water at Whitehall, at midnight on the sixth of September. Washington
and a few officers watched anxiously until dawn for a result, but the
calm waters of the bay were unruffled, and it was believed that the
young man had perished. Just at dawn some barges were seen putting off
from Governor's Island toward an object near the Eagle, and suddenly to
turn and pull for shore. In a few moments a column of water ascended a
few yards from the Eagle, the cables of the British ships were
instantly cut, and they went down the Bay with the ebbing tide, in great
confusion. Lee had been under the Eagle two hours, trying in vain to
penetrate the thick copper on her bottom. He could hear the sentinels
above, and when they felt the shock of his "Turtle" striking against the
bottom, they expressed a belief that a floating log had passed by.
He visited other ships, but their sheathing was too thick to give him
success. He came to the surface at dawn, but, attracting the attention
of the bargemen at Governor's Island, he descended, and made for
Whitehall against a strong current. He came up out of reach of musket
shot, was safely landed, and received the congratulations of the
commander-in-chief and his officers. Young Lee was afterward employed
by Washington in secret service, and was in the battles at Trenton,
Brandywine, and Monmouth. He died at Lyme, Connecticut, on the
twenty-ninth of October, 1821, aged seventy-two years.
** Richard, Earl Howe, was born in 1725, and was next in age to his
brother, the young Lord Howe, who fell at Tieonderoga in 1758 (see vol.
i., page 118). He sailed with Lord Anson to the Pacific as midshipman
at the age of fourteen years, and had risen to the rank of admiral at
twenty. He was appointed rear-admiral in 1770, and, before coming to
America, he was promoted to Vice-admiral of the Blue. After the American
war, he was made first Lord of the Admiralty. He commanded the English
fleet successfully against the French in 1794. His death occurred in
1799, at the age of seventy-four years. In 1774, Lord Howe and his
sister endeavored to draw from Franklin the real intentions of the
Americans. The philosopher was invited to spend Christmas at the house
of the lady, and it was supposed that in the course of indulgence in
wine, chess, and other socialities, he would drop the reserve of the
statesman and be incautiously communicative. The arts of the lady were
unavailing, and they were no wiser on the question when Franklin left
than when he came.
[Illustration: 8824]
** William Howe, brother of the earl, succeeded General Gage in the
chief command of the British forces in America, and assumed his duties
at Boston in 1775. He commanded at the attack on Breed's Hill, and from
that time until the spring of 1778, he mismanaged military affairs
in America. He was then succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton, and with his
brother, the admiral, returned to England. He is represented as a
good-natured, indolent man--"the most indolent of mortals,' said General
Lee, "and never took pains to examine the merits or demerits of the
cause in which he was engaged."
[[[Evacuation of the City by the Americans.--Washington's
Quarters.--Captain Hale.--Beekman's Green-house.]]]
{815}that Britain had determined upon the absolute submission of the
colonies.
[Illustration: 9825]
This conviction increased the zeal of the patriots, and planted the
standard of resistance firmer than before.
At a council of war held on the seventh,[[Sept. 1776]] a majority
of officers were in favor of retaining the city; but on the twelfth,
another council, with only three dissenting voices (Heath, Spencer, and
Clinton), resolved on an evacuation.
[Illustration: 9825]
The movement was immediately commenced, under the general
superintendence of Colonel Glover. The sick were taken to New Jersey,
and the public stores were conveyed to Dobbs's Ferry, twenty miles from
the city. The main body of the army moved toward Mount Washington and
King's Bridge on the thirteenth, accompanied by a large number of Whigs
and their families and effects. * A rear-guard of four thousand men,
under Putnam, was left in the city, with orders to follow, if necessary,
and on the sixteenth Washington made his head-quarters at the deserted
mansion of Colonel Roger Morris, ** on the
* Washington made the house ol Robert Murray, on Murray Hill (see page
788), his quarters on the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth he was at
Mott's tavern, now the properly of Mr. Penlz, near One hundred and
Forty-third Street and Eighth Avenue. It was at Murray's house that
Captain Nathan Hale received his secret instructions for the expedition
which cost him his life. *
** This elegant mansion is yet standing and unaltered, upon the high
bank of the Harlem River, at One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Street, a
little below the High Bridge of the Croton Aqueduct. Its situation is
one of the most picturesque on the island, commanding a fine view of the
Harlem River and village, Long Island Sound, Flushing, and Astoria, with
the green fields of Long Island beyond. Below are seen the plains of
* The commissioners immediately afterward issued a proclamation similar
in character to the one sent out in July. This proclamation, following
the disasters upon Long Island, had great effect, and many timid
Americans availed themselves of the supposed advantages of compliance.
In the city of New York more than nine hundred persons, by petition to
the commissioners, dated sixteenth of October, declared their allegiance
to the British government. To counteract this, in a degree, Congress,
on the twenty-first, provided an oath of allegiance to the American
government.
[Illustration: 7825]
** Anxious to know the exact condition and intentions of the British
on Long Island, Washington called a council of officers, when it
was determined to send a spy into their camp. Colonel Knowlton, who
commanded a choice regiment called Congress's Own, was directed to
select a competent man from his corps. Captain Nathan Hale, of Coventry,
Connecticut, volunteered for the service, and, bearing instructions from
Washington to the commanders of all-American armed vessels to convey him
whithersoever he might desire to go, he crossed the Sound to Huntington
(some say to Oyster Bay), and made his way to the British camp
at Brooklyn and vicinity. There he made sketches and notes, and,
unsuspected, returned to Huntington with valuable information. There he
was recognized and exposed (tradition says by a Tory relative), and was
taken immediately to Howe's head quarters at Beekman's house, at Turtle
Bay. He was confined in the green house of the garden during the night
of the twenty-first of September, and the next morning, without even the
form of a regular trial, was delivered to Cunningham, the brutal provost
marshal, to be executed as a spy. He was treated with great inhumanity
by that monster. The services of a clergyman and the use of a Bible were
denied him, and even the letters which he had been permitted by Howe to
write to his mother and sisters during the night, were destroyed. He
was hanged upon an apple-tree in Rutgers' Orchard, near the present
intersection of East Broadway and Market Streets. His last words were,
"I only regret that I have but one life to give to my country!" His body
was buried beneath the gibbet-tree. The name of this youthful patriot
martyr appears luminous upon the pages of our country's history, and the
grateful citizens of his native town have erected a handsome monument to
his memory there. I made the above sketch of the green-house a few days
before it fell, with all the glories of the beautiful garden of the
Beekman mansion, at the touch of the street commissioner, in July, 1852.
Its locality is now in the center of Fifty-second Street, a little east
of First Avenue. It was erected, with the mansion delineated on page
817, in 1764. I am indebted to the Honorable James W. Beekman, the
present owner of the grounds, for a copy of a curious document preserved
among the family papers. It is a memorandum, kept by the gardener of
James Beekman (the original proprietor); during the war, showing the
time that several British officers, in succession, made the house their
head-quarters. The following is a copy, with the heading by the pen of
Beekman: "At the undermentioned time my country seat was occupied by
the following generals" [the gardener's report]: "General Howe commenced
fifteenth of September, 1776--seven and a half months. Commissary Loring
the first of May, 1777--one year and five months. General Clinton the
twentieth of October, 1778--three years and six months. General Robison
[Robertson] May the first, 1782--eleven and a half months. Mr. Beekman
the sixteenth of April, 1783--two months. General Carleton the sixteenth
of June, 1783, to the evacuation, is five months--in the whole, is
seven years one and a half months."--For Hale's capture and death, see
Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents, ii" 48, 53
[[[Preparation to invade New York.--Revolutionary Fortifications on the
north part of the Island.]]]
{816}heights of Harlem River, about ten miles from the city. Every
muscle and implement was now put in vigorous action, and before the
British had taken possession of the city the Americans were quite
strongly intrenched. *
Howe now prepared to invade the island and take possession of the city
of New York. Large detachments were sent in boats from Hallet's Point to
occupy Buchanan's and Moutressor's (now Ward's and Randall's) Islands,
at the mouth of the Harlem River, and early on Sunday morning the
fifteenth.
Sir Henry Clinton, with four thousand men, crossed the river in flat
bottomed boats from the mouth of Newtown Creek, and landed at Kip's Bay
(foot of Thirty-fourth
* At Turtle Bay, Horn's Hook, Fort Washington and the heights in the
vicinity, on the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, and near King's Bridge,
traces of these fortifications may yet be seen. *
* The Americans cast up a redoubt at Turtle Bay, on the East River,
between Forty-fourth and Forty sixth Streets; a breastwork at the
Shot Tower, Fifty-fourth Street; another at the foot of Seventy-fourth
Street; a third at the foot of Eighty-fifth, near Hell Gate Ferry; and
a strong work called Thompson's Battery, upon Horn's Ilook (now a
beautifully shaded grassy point), at Eighty-ninth Street. This redoubt
commanded the mouth of Harlem River and the narrow channel at Hell Gate.
They also built a small work upon Snake Hill (now Mount Morris, in Mount
Morris Square), near Harlem, and a line of breastworks near the Harlem
River, extending from One hundred and Thirty-sixth Street to Bussing's
Point, near M'Comb's Dam. Upon each aide of "Harlem Cove," at
Manhattanville, a battery was constructed (One hundred and Thirty-first
and One hundred and Thirty-third Streets), and along the central hills
whereon the Convent of the Sacred Heart stands with a line of works
extending to One hundred and Fiftieth Street. These were small batteries,
without connecting breast-works, and overlooked Harlem River. From near
"The Grange" (the country residence of General Hamilton, yet standing),
in the vicinity of One hundred and Fifty-first Street, was a line of
intrenchments, with three batteries and abatis extending to the Hudson,
a distance ot almost a mile. The batteries of this line were upon three
eminences. Almost upon the line of One hundred and Sixty-first and One
hundred and Sixty-second Streets, was another line, with three batteries
and abatis. These formed the "double lines of intrenchments," mentioned
in the histories. The quite prominent outlines of a redoubt on the lofty
bank of the Harlem River, at the foot of One hundred and Fifty-sixth
Street, were pointed out to me by Henry O'Reilly, Esq., who resides
near. From this redoubt, down the steep hill to the cove where Colonel
Stirling landed (see page 827), the old road is yet (1852) open and
passable. From Colonel Morris's (Madame Jumel's) house was a line of
shallow intrenchments to the North River, with a single battery upon the
eminence above the residence of the late Mr. Audobon the ornithologist,
a little north of Trinity Cemetery. Upon the high west bank of the
Harlem, yet rough and wooded, were two breast works. These the British
afterward strengthened, and called it Fort George. This was between One
hundred and Ninety-second and One hundred and Ninety-sixth Streets. On
the King's Bridge road below, at Two hundred and Sixth Street, a strong
four-gun battery was erected.
[Illustration: 7826]
Fort Washington, situated between One hundred and Eighty-first and
One hundred and Eighty-sixth Streets, upon the highest eminence on the
island (between ten and eleven miles from the City Hall), was a strong
earth-work of irregular form, covering, with its ravelins, several
acres. It contained an inner work, a sort of citadel, within which was
the magazine. About twenty heavy cannons were mounted upon it, besides
several smaller pieces and mortars. Its chief strength consisted in
its position. On the promontory below it (Jeffery's Hook), where the
Telegraph mast stands (between One hundred and Seventy-sixth and One
hundred and Seventy-seventh Streets), was a redoubt, intended as a
covering to chevaux de frisé constructed in the channel there. The banks
of this redoubt, among dwarf cedars upon the rocks, are yet (1852) very
prominent. Northward of Fort Washington, on the same lofty bank of the
Hudson, between One hundred and Ninety-fifth and One hundred and
Ninety sixth Streets, was a redoubt with two guna, which was afterward
strengthened by the British and called Fort Tryon. Near the extreme
point of this range, at Spyt den Dyvel Kill (Spite the Devil Creek), at
Two hundred and Seventeenth Street, was a little redoubt of two guns,
called Cock Will Fort; and across the creek, on Tetard's Hill, was a
square redoubt, with bastions, called Fort Independence. At the point
where the Hudson River railway strikes the West Chester shore, was a
small battery, and upon a hill commanding King's Bridge from the
south side, between Two hundred and Twenty-fifth and Two hundred and
Twenty-sixth Streets (just above (he present mill), was a redoubt. This
was strengthened in 1781 by the British, and called Fort Prince, in
honor of Prince William (afterward William the Fourth), then in New
York. The embankments of Fort Washington, and all of the works mentioned
in this paragraph, are yet visible. Those of the Citadel of Fort
Washington (indicated at the foot of the flag-staff, page 826) are well
defined. The military works mentioned in this note, with those in the
note on page 799, composed the whole of the Revolutionary fortifications
upon Manhattan Island, except sortie breast-works at M'Gowan's Pass,
between One hundred and Fifth and One hundred and Eighth Streets and the
Fifth and Sixth Avenues, now known as Mount St. Vincent. The embankments
now seen at M'Gowan's Pass, and the square excavation in the rock a few
rods northwest of the Roman Catholic school, were constructed in 1812.
Very few of the streets mentioned in this note have yet been opened; all
of them have been surveyed and located upon the city maps. The streets
are generally opened and graded as far as the State Arsenal, Sixty-third
Street.
[[[Flight of the Americans on the Landing of the British.--Washington's
Mortification.--Evacuation of the City.]]]
{817}Street) under cover of a severe cannonade from ten ships of war,
which had sailed up and anchored opposite the present House of Refuge,
at the foot of Twenty-third Street. * Another division, consisting
chiefly of Hessians, embarked a little above, and landed near the
same place. The brigades of Parsons and Fellows, panic-stricken by the
cannonade and the martial array, fled in confusion (many without firing
a gun) when the advanced guard of only fifty men landed. Washington,
at Harlem, heard the cannonade, leaped into the saddle, and approached
Kip's Bay in time to meet the frightened fugitives.
[Illustration: 9827]
Their generals were trying in vain to rally them, and the
commander-in-chief was equally unsuccessful. Mortified, almost
despairing, at this exhibition of cowardice in the face of the enemy,
Washington's feelings mastered his judgment, and casting his chapeau
to the ground, and drawing his sword, he spurred toward the enemy, and
sought death rather than life. One of his aids caught his bridle-rein
and drew him from danger, when reason resumed its power. ** Unopposed,
the British landed in full force, and, after skirmishing in the rear of
Kip's house with the advance of Glover's brigade, who had reached the
scene, they marched almost to the center of the island, and encamped
upon the Incleberg, an eminence between the present Fifth and Sixth
Avenues and Thirty-fifth and Thirty-eighth Streets. The Americans
retreated to Bloomingdale, and Washington sent an express to Putnam in
the city, ordering him to evacuate it immediately. Howe, with Clinton,
Tryon, and a few others, went to the house of Robert Murray, on Murray
Hill (see page 789), for refreshments and rest.
With smiles and pleasant conversation, and a profusion of cake and wine,
the good Whig lady detained the gallant Britons almost two hours; quite
long enough for the bulk of Putnam's division of four thousand men to
leave the city and escape to the heights of Harlem by the Bloomingdale
road, with the loss of only a few soldiers. *** General Robertson, with
a strong force, marched to take possession of the city, and Howe made
his headquarters at the elegant mansion of James Beekman, at Turtle Bay,
then deserted by the owner and his family. **** Before sunset his troops
were encamped in a line extending from Horn's Hook
* The ships went up the Hudson, at the same time, as far as
Bloomingdale. One of these vessels was the detested Asia, of sixty-four
guns. Captain Talbot, anxious to be useful, attempted its destruction by
a fire-ship. From near Fort Washington he proceeded cautiously, at two
o'clock in the morning of the sixteenth, and soon he was alongside
the enemy, with his ship in a blaze. Lingering too long, he was badly
burned, but escaped to the Jersey shore in safety. The Asia managed to
extricate herself from the peril.--See Tuckerman's Life of Commodore
Talbot, p. 24-29.
** Gordon, ii., 111.
*** Putnam, Knox, and other officers in the city were quite ignorant
of the island beyond the intrenchments. They were perplexed on learning
that the enemy occupied the east and middle roads, for they knew of no
other way among the woods and swamps of the island. Fortunately, Major
Aaron Burr, then one of Putnam's aids, knew the ground well, and under
his direction the troops left Independent Battery, on Bunker Hill (where
they were preparing for defense), and passing through the woods west of
the present Broadway, they reached a road leading from Greenwich (the
property of Sir Peter Warren) to Blooming, dale. They were discovered by
a patrole, after passing the camp upon the Incleberg, and a detachment
of light infantry were sent in pursuit. These overtook the rear of the
Americans in a path extending from Bloomingdale to Harlem Lane, near
M'Gowan's Pass, and a warm skirmish was the result. This skirmish was at
about the intersection of One hundredth Street and Eighth Avenue.
**** See note on page 815. This view of Beekman's mansion is from the
grounds looking toward the East River. The fine lawns and blooming
gardens are now reticulated by eity streets, and in a few years, no
doubt, this elegant specimen of the houses of "the olden time" will be
swept away by the broom of improvement. The carved family arms have
been removed from their long resting-place over the elaborately wrought
chimney-piece of the drawing-room, and an ancient sun-dial, which marked
the hours in the garden for almost a century, has been laid away in
security. The elegant coach of the first proprietor, emblazoned with the
Beekrnan arms, is yet there, a rich old relic of the aristocracy of
New York a century ago. * There General Riedesel and his family resided
during the summer of 1780.
* The family arms consist of an irregular broad line, representing
running water (Beekrnan signifies brook-man) drawn across a shield,
and upon each side of it is a full-blown rose. The crest is a helmet,
surmounted by spread wings: the legend, "Menteonscia recti." The
Beekmans trace their family to Germany as early as 1470. William, the
ancestor of the American branch of the family, came to America, with
Stuyvesant, in 1647. He was appointed vice-governor on the Delaware in
1658, was afterward sheriff of Keopus, in Ulster county, and burgomaster
and alderman in New Amsterdam. There were other Beekmans who settled in
the vicinity of Albany.--See Holgate's American Genealogy, page 66.
[[[Americans on Harlem Heights.--Battle on Harlem Plains.--Death of
Knowlton and Lietch.]]]
{818}across the island to Bloomingdale. Harlem Plains divided the
hostile camps. For seven a Sept. 15, years, two months, and ten
days[[Sept. 15, 1776 to Nov. 25, 1783 from this time, the city of New
York remained in possession of the British troops.
The wearied patriots from the city, drenched by a sudden shower, slept
in the open air on the heights of Harlem that night.
[Illustration: 0828]
Early the next morning[[Sept. 16]] intelligence came that a British
force, under Brigadier Leslie, was making its way by M'Gowan's pass
to Harlem Plains. The little garrisons at Mount Morris and Harlem Cove
(Manhattanville) confronted them at the mouth of a deep rocky gorge,
* and kept them in partial check until the arrival of re-enforcements.
Washington was at Morris's house, and hearing the firing, rode to his
outpost, where the Convent of the Sacred Heart now stands. There he met
Colonel Knowlton, of the Connecticut Rangers (Congress's Own), who had
been skirmishing with the advancing foe, and now came for orders. The
enemy were about three hundred strong upon the plain, and had a reserve
in the woods upon the heights. Knowlton was to hasten with his Rangers,
and Major Leitch with three companies of Weedon's Virginia regiment, to
gain the rear of the advance, while a feigned attack was to be made in
front. Perceiving this, the enemy rushed forward to gain an advantageous
position on the plain, when they were attacked by Knowlton and Leitch on
the flank. Re-enforcements now came down from the hills, when the enemy
changed front and fell upon the Americans. A short but severe conflict
ensued. Three bullets passed through the body of Leitch, and he was
borne away. A few moments afterward, Knowlton received a bullet in his
head, fell, and was borne off by his sorrowing companions. ** Yet their
men fought bravely, disputing the ground inch by inch as they fell back
toward the American camp. The enemy pressed hard upon them, until a
part of the Maryland regiments of Colonels Griffiths and Richardson
re-enforced the patriots. The British were
* This rocky gorge has not yet been touched by the hand of improvement.
It remains in all its primal roughness, covered by low shrubbery, shoots
from the roots of the ancient forest-trees. It extends on a line with
and between the Fifth and Eighth Avenues, from the southern extremity of
Harlem Plains.
** Major Leitch died the following day. Knowlton was earned to the
redoubt, near the Hudson, at One hundred and Fifty-sixth Street, where
he expired before sunset, and was buried within the embankments. His
death was a public loss. His bravery at Bunker Hill commanded the
highest respect of Washington. In general orders in the morning after
the battle on Harlem Plains, the commander-in-ehief, alluding to the
death of Knowlton, said, "He would have been an honor to any country."
[[[Great Fire in New York.--Departure of the British Army for West
Chester.--Landing upon Throck's Neck.]]]
{819}driven back across the plain, when Washington, fearing an ambush,
ordered a retreat. The loss of the Americans was inconsiderable in
numbers; that of the British was eighteen killed and about ninety
wounded. This event inspirited the desponding Americans, and nerved them
for the contest soon to take place upon the main.
The British strengthened M'Gowan's Pass, placed strong pickets in
advance of their lines, and guarded their flanks by armed vessels in the
East and North Rivers. General Robertson, in the mean while, had taken
possession of the city, and commenced strengthening the intrenchments
across the island there. He had scarcely pitched his tents upon the
hills in the present Seventh and Tenth Wards, and began to look with
complacency upon the city as snug winter quarters for the army, when
columns of lurid smoke rolled up from the lower end of the town. It was
midnight[[Sept. 20-21,1776]] Soon broad arrows of flame shot up from
the darkness, and a terrible conflagration began.' It was stayed by the
exertions of the troops and sailors from the ships, but not until about
five hundred houses were consumed.
Perceiving the Americans to be too strongly intrenched upon Harlem
Heights to promise a successful attack upon them, Howe attempted to get
in their rear, to cut off their communication with the north and east,
and hem them in upon the narrow head of Manhattan Island.
[Illustration: 8829]
Leaving a sufficient force of British and Hessians, under Lord Percy, to
guard the city, and others to man his lines toward Harlem, he embarked
the remainder of his army upon ninety flat-boats, passed through the
narrow and turbulent strait of Hell Gate, and landed upon Throck's
Neck,[[Oct. 12, 1774]]a low peninsula jutting into the East River from
the main of West Chester county, sixteen miles from the city. *** A few
days afterward[[Oct. 17]]
[Illustration: 9829]
* Mr. David Grim, a merchant of New York, who saw the conflagration, has
left a record of the event. He says the fire broke out in a low groggery
and brothel, a wooden building on the wharf, near Whitehall Slip. It
was discovered between one and two o'clock in the morning of the
twenty-first of September. The wind was from the southwest. There were
but few inhabitants in the city, and the flames, for a while unchecked.
spread rapidly. All the houses between Whitehall and Broad Streets, up
to Beaver Street, were consumed, when the wind veered to the southeast
and drove the fire toward Broadway. It consumed all on eaeh side of
Beaver Street to the Bowling Green, a little above which it crossed
Broadway, and swept all the buildings on both sides, as far as Exchange
Street. On the west side it consumed almost every building from Morris
Street to Partition (Fulton) Street, devouring Trinity church * in its
way, and destroyed all the buildings toward the North River. For a long
time the new (St. Paul's) church was in peril, for the fire crept in
its rear to Mortkile (Barclay) Street, and extended west of King's
(Columbia) College to Murray Street. The exact number of buildings
consumed was four hundred and ninety-three. The city then contained
about four thousand houses. "The ruins," says Dunlap (who wandered over
the scene at the close of the war), "on the southeast side of the town
were converted into dwelling places by using the chimneys and parts of
walls which were firm, and adding pieces of spars with old canvas from
the ships, forming hovels--part hut and part tent." This was called
Canvas Town, and there the vilest of the army and Tory refugees
congregated. The Tories, and British writers of the day attempted to
fix the crime of incendiarism upon the Whigs, but could not. It was well
known that the fire had an accidental origin, yet British historians
continue to reproduce the libel.
** The officer who went out to Lexington with re-enforcements in April,
1775.--See page 528, vol. i.
*** This is spelled Throck's, Throg's, and Frog's, in different
histories. It was originally owned by a man named Throckmorton, who
was called Throck for the sake of brevity. On the extreme point of this
peninsula, at the entrance to Long Island Sound, stands Fort Schuyler, a
strong work completed in 1842.
* Trinity church was erected at the close of the seventeenth century.
The first building was small and square. Queen Anne granted to the
corporation in 1705 the land extending along the west side of Broadway
to Christopher Street, known as the Queen's Farm. The edifice was
enlarged in 1737 to one hundred and forty-eight feet in length,
including the tower and chancel, and seventy-two feet in breadth. The
steeple was one hundred and seventy-five feet in height. This was the
edifice consumed by the great fire in 1776. The sketch of the ruins is
from a picture made on the spot, and published in Dr. Berrian's History
of Trinity Church. It was rebuilt in 1788, taken down in 1839, and on
the twenty-first of May, 1846, the present edifice was consecrated to
Christian worship.
[[[Landing-place of the Hessians.--Howe confronted.--Skirmish near New
Rochelle.--General Heath]]]
{820}other troops from Montressor's Island * and Flushing landed there;
and on the twenty-second, Knyphausen, with the second division of German
hirelings, just arrived at New York, ** landed upon Myers's Point, now
Davenport's Neck, near New Rochelle. ***
When Washington perceived this movement, he sent strong detachments,
under General Heath, **** to oppose the landing of the British, and
occupy lower West Chester.
[Illustration: 9830]
A redoubt had been thrown up on the hills, near William's Bridge; all
the passes to King's Bridge were well guarded, and a detachment was at
White Plains making intrenchments there. The causeways to Throck's
and Pell's Necks were also guarded, the latter by Colonel Hand and his
riflemen; and on the night of the first landing,[[October 12]]the bridge
was removed, and General Howe was left upon an island.
[Illustration: 8830]
He suspected his Tory guides of treachery, but he soon ascertained the
truth and decamped, after being driven back from the causeway by Hand,
with the aid of Prescott (the hero of Breed's Hill) and a three-pounder,
under Lieutenant Bryant. (v) Howe crossed in his boats to Pell's Point,
a little above,[[October 18]] and marched over Pelham Manor toward New
Rochelle.
[Illustration: 7830]
After a hot skirmish with Glover's brigade, of Sullivan's division,
in which the Americans were repulsed, Howe encamped upon high ground
between Hutchins's River and New Rochelle village, where he remained
until the twenty-first, when he took post upon the heights of New
Rochelle, (v) north of the village, on the road to White Plains and
Scarsdale. Knyphausen and his division arrived the next day, and
encamped upon the land now owned by E. K. Collins, Esq., between New
Rochelle and Mamaroneck.
* On the twenty-fourth of September, Colonel Jackson, with Major Henly
(aid-de-eamp to General Heath), and two hundred and forty men, made a
descent upon the British on Montressor's Island in flat-boats. They were
repulsed with a loss of twenty-two men. Among them was Major Henly, who
was shot while at the head of his men. He was carried to the vamp, and
buried by the side of the brave Knowlton.
** These re-enforcements arrived on the eighteenth of October. The fleet
consisted of seventy-two sail, having on board four thousand Hessians,
six thousand Waldeckers, two companies of chasseurs, two hundred English
recruits, and two thousand baggage horses.
*** The main body of the Germans landed upon Bauflet's Point, on the
east side of Davenport's Neck, where, it is said, the Huguenot settlers
of New Roehelle first touched our shores. Davenport's Neck is a
beautiful fertile peninsula, jutting into the Sound near the village
of New Roehelle. The view here given is from the high rocky bank at
Bauflet's Point, looking southeast upon the wooded islands whieh here
dot the Sound. The shores of Long Island are seen in extreme distance.
**** William Heath was a native of Roxbury, Massachusetts, near whieh
some of his descendants still reside. He was appointed a provincial
brigadier in 1775. The Continental Congress gave him the same
commission, and on the ninth of August, 1776, made him a major general,
together with Spencer, Sullivan, and Greene. He commanded near King's
Bridge after the Americans left New York, and in the following year he
was in chief command in the Eastern department. Burgoyne's captured army
were in his custody. In 1779 he commanded on the Hudson, and there was
the principal theater of his military life, until the close of the war.
General Heath was a useful officer, but circumstances prevented his
making much display. He published an interesting volume, entitled
"Heath's Memoirs," which is now mueh sought after by collectors of
valuable American books. General Heath died in 1814, the last survivor
of the major generals of the Revolution.
* (v) Heath's Memoirs, page 67. For a sketeh of Colonel Prescott, see
page 539, vol. i.
* (vi) These heights are now (1852) partly wooded and partly cultivated;
then they were covered by the primitive forest, except around the house
above delineated, where Howe made his quarters. That house is upon the
eastern side of the highway from New Roehelle to White Plains, about
a mile from the former village. It was very much dilapidated when I
visited it, and was occupied by a colored family. Half a mile beyond
this dwelling, on the same side of the road, is the marble monument
erected to the memory of Thomas Paine. A sketch of this monument may be
found in the Supplement, page 853.
[[[American Army in West Chester.--Skirmishes.--Condition of the
Army.]]]
{821}Washington viewed this first planting of the British standard upon
the main land in proclaimed free America with great anxiety, for clouds
were gathering In the horizon of the future. Nominally, he had an
army of nineteen thousand men, but in discipline, order, and all the
concomitants of true soldiers * they were not one third of that number.
The time of service of many of them was drawing to a close, and cold
weather was approaching to chill the ardor of half-clad patriots.
A powerful enemy, well provided, was crouched as a tiger within
cannon-voice, ready to spring upon its prey. Yet Washington's spirit did
not quail, and he resolved to confront the foe with his motley troop, as
if with a parity of veterans. He called a council of war at his quarters
at Morris's house,[[Oct 16, 1776]] to decide upon the propriety of
evacuating Manhattan Island. General Lee, fresh from the field of
victory at Charleston, had just arrived and gave his weighty opinion in
favor of a total abandonment of the island.
[Illustration: 8831]
The main army was speedily marched toward the Bronx, in West Chester,
leaving a garrison, under Colonel Magaw, of Pennsylvania, sufficient
to hold Fort Washington and its dependencies. In four divisions, under
Generals Lee, Heath. Sullivan, and Lincoln, the American army moved
slowly up the western side of the Bronx, and formed a series of
intrenched camps upon the hills from the heights of Fordham to White
Plains, a distance of about thirteen miles. While presenting a front
parallel to that of Howe, frequent skirmishes occurred, in which the
Americans were generally the winners. ** General Greene with a small
force garrisoned Fort Lee, situated upon the Palisades, *** nearly
opposite Fort Washington, and on the twenty-first of October the
commander-in-chief left Morris's house and made his head-quarters near
White Plains, where, directed by a French engineer, the Americans
* Cotemporary waiters give a sad picture of the army at that time. Among
many of the subordinate officers, greed usurped the place of patriotism.
Officers were elected on condition that they should throw their pay and
rations into a joint stock for the benefit of a company; surgeons sold
recommendations for furloughs, for able-bodied men, at sixpence each,
and a captain was cashiered for stealing blankets from his soldiers.
Men went out in squads to plunder from friend or foe, and immorality
prevailed throughout the American army. Its appointments, too, were in
a wretched condition. The surgeon's department lacked instruments
According to a general return of fifteen regiments, there were not more
than sufficient instruments for one battalion.--See Washington's Letter
to Congress, Sept. 24, 1776; Gordon, ii., 114.