DESIGNS OF THE ENEMY AGAINST NEW YORK AND THE HUDSON—PLOT OF TRYON AND
THE TORIES—ARRIVAL OF A FLEET—ALARM POSTS—TREACHERY UP THE HUDSON—FRESH
ARRIVALS—GENERAL HOWE AT STATEN ISLAND—WASHINGTON’S PREPARATIONS.
The great aim of the British, at present, was to get possession of New
York and the Hudson, and make them the basis of military operations.
This they hoped to effect on the arrival of a powerful armament, hourly
expected, and designed for operations on the seaboard.
At this critical juncture there was an alarm of a conspiracy among the
tories in the city and on Long Island, suddenly to take up arms and
co-operate with the British troops on their arrival. The wildest reports
were in circulation concerning it. Some of the tories were to break down
King’s Bridge, others were to blow up the magazines, spike the guns, and
massacre all the field-officers. Washington was to be killed or
delivered up to the enemy. Some of his own body-guard were said to be in
the plot.
Several publicans of the city were pointed out, as having aided or
abetted the plot. One was landlord of the Highlander, at the corner of
Beaver Street and Broadway. Another dispensed liquor under the sign of
Robin Hood. Another named Lowry, described as a “fat man in a blue
coat,” kept tavern in a low house opposite the Oswego market. Another,
James Houlding, kept a beer house in Tryon Row, opposite the gates of
the upper barracks. It would seem as if a network of corruption and
treachery had been woven throughout the city by means of these liquor
dealers. One of the most noted, however, was Corbie, whose tavern was
said to be “to the south-east of General Washington’s house, to the
westward of Bayard’s Woods, and north of Lispenard’s Meadows,” from
which it would appear that, at that time, the general was quartered at
what was formerly called Richmond Hill; a mansion surrounded by trees,
at a short distance from the city, in rather an isolated situation.
A committee of the New York Congress, of which John Jay was chairman,
traced the plot up to Governor Tryon, who, from his safe retreat on
shipboard, acted through agents on shore. The most important of these
was David Matthews, the tory mayor of the city. He was accused of
disbursing money to enlist men, purchase arms, and corrupt the soldiery.
Washington was authorized and requested by the committee, to cause the
mayor to be apprehended, and all his papers secured. Matthews was at
that time residing at Flatbush on Long Island, at no great distance from
General Greene’s encampment. Washington transmitted the warrant of the
committee to the general on the 21st, with directions that it should “be
executed with precision, and exactly by one o’clock of the ensuing
morning, by a careful officer.”
Precisely at the hour of one, a detachment from Greene’s brigade
surrounded the house of the mayor, and secured his person; but no papers
were found, though diligent search was made.
Numerous other arrests took place, and among the number, some of
Washington’s body-guard. A great dismay fell upon the tories. Some of
those on Long Island who had proceeded to arm themselves, finding the
plot discovered, sought refuge in woods and morasses. Washington
directed that those arrested, who belonged to the army, should be tried
by a court-martial, and the rest handed over to the secular power.
According to statements made before the committee, five guineas bounty
was offered by Governor Tryon to each man who should enter the king’s
service; with a promise of two hundred acres of land for himself, one
hundred for his wife, and fifty for each child. The men thus recruited
were to act on shore, in co-operation with the king’s troops when they
came.
Corbie’s tavern, near Washington’s quarters, was a kind of rendezvous of
the conspirators. There one Gilbert Forbes, a gunsmith, “a short, thick
man, with a white coat,” enlisted men, gave them money, and “swore them
on the book to secrecy.” From this house a correspondence was kept up
with Governor Tryon on shipboard, through a “mulatto-colored negro,
dressed in blue clothes.” At this tavern it was supposed Washington’s
body-guards were tampered with. Thomas Hickey, one of the guards, a
dark-complexioned man, five feet six inches high, and well set, was said
not only to be enlisted, but to have aided in corrupting his comrades;
among others, Greene the drummer, and Johnson the fifer.
It was further testified before the committee, that one Sergeant Graham,
an old soldier, formerly of the royal artillery, had been employed by
Governor Tryon to prowl round and survey the grounds and works about the
city, and on Long Island, and that, on information thus procured, a plan
of operations had been concerted. On the arrival of the fleet, a
man-of-war should cannonade the battery at Red Hook; while that was
doing, a detachment of the army should land below with cannon, and by a
circuitous march surprise and storm the works on Long Island. The
shipping then, with the remainder of the army, were to divide, one part
to run up the Hudson, the other up the East River; troops were to land
above New York, secure the pass at King’s Bridge, and cut off all
communication between the city and country.[72]
Much of the evidence given was of a dubious kind. It was certain that
persons had secretly been enlisted, and sworn to hostile operations, but
Washington did not think that any regular plan had been digested by the
conspirators. “The matter,” writes he, “I am in hopes, by a timely
discovery, will be suppressed.”[73]
According to the mayor’s own admission before the committee, he had been
cognizant of attempts to enlist tories and corrupt Washington’s guards,
though he declared that he had discountenanced them. He had on one
occasion, also, at the request of Governor Tryon, paid money for him to
Gilbert Forbes, the gunsmith, for rifles and round-bored guns which he
had already furnished, and for others which he was to make. He had done
so, however (according to his account), with great reluctance, and after
much hesitation and delay, warning the gunsmith that he would be hanged
if found out. The mayor, with a number of others, were detained in
prison to await a trial.
Thomas Hickey, the individual of Washington’s guard, was tried before a
court-martial. He was an Irishman, and had been a deserter from the
British army. The court-martial found him guilty of mutiny and sedition,
and treacherous correspondence with the enemy, and sentenced him to be
hanged.
The sentence was approved by Washington, and was carried promptly into
effect, in the most solemn and impressive manner, to serve as a warning
and example in this time of treachery and danger. On the morning of the
28th, all the officers and men off duty, belonging to the brigades of
Heath, Spencer, Stirling and Scott, assembled under arms at their
respective parades at 10 o’clock, and marched thence to the ground.
Twenty men from each brigade, with bayonets fixed, guarded the prisoner
to the place of execution, which was a field near the Bowery Lane. There
he was hanged in the presence, we are told, of near twenty thousand
persons.
While the city was still brooding over this doleful spectacle, four
ships of war, portentous visitants, appeared off the Hook, stood quietly
in at the Narrows, and dropped anchor in the bay.
In his orderly book, Washington expressed a hope that the unhappy fate
of Thomas Hickey, executed that day for mutiny, sedition, and treachery,
would be a warning to every soldier in the line, to avoid the crimes for
which he suffered.[74]
On the 29th of June, an express from the look-out on Staten Island,
announced that forty sail were in sight. They were, in fact, ships from
Halifax, bringing between nine and ten thousand of the troops recently
expelled from Boston; together with six transports filled with Highland
troops, which had joined the fleet at sea. At sight of this formidable
armament standing into the harbor, Washington instantly sent notice of
its arrival to Colonel James Clinton, who had command of the posts in
the Highlands, and urged all possible preparations to give the enemy a
warm reception should they push their frigates up the river.
According to general orders issued from head-quarters on the following
day (June 30), the officers and men, not on duty, were to march from
their respective regimental parades to their alarm posts, at least once
every day, that they might become well acquainted with them. They were
to go by routes least exposed to a fire from the shipping, and all the
officers, from the highest to the lowest, were to make themselves well
acquainted with the grounds. Upon a signal of the enemy’s approach, or
upon any alarm, all fatigue parties were immediately to repair to their
respective corps with their arms, ammunition and accoutrements, ready
for instant action.
It was ascertained that the ramifications of the conspiracy lately
detected, extended up the Hudson. Many of the disaffected in the upper
counties were enlisted in it. The committee of safety at Cornwall, in
Orange County, sent word to Colonel James Clinton, Fort Constitution, of
the mischief that was brewing. James Haff, a tory, had confessed before
them, that he was one of a number who were to join the British troops as
soon as they should arrive. It was expected the latter would push up the
river and land at Verplanck’s Point; whereupon the guns at the forts in
the Highlands were to be spiked by soldiers of their own garrisons; and
the tories throughout the country were to be up in arms.[75]
Clinton received letters, also, from a meeting of committees in the
precincts of Newburgh, apprising him that persons dangerous to the cause
were lurking in that neighborhood, and requesting him to detach
twenty-five men under a certain lieutenant acquainted with the woods,
“to aid in getting some of these rascals apprehended and secured.”
While city and country were thus agitated by apprehensions of danger,
internal and external, other arrivals swelled the number of ships in the
bay of New York to one hundred and thirty, men-of-war and transports.
They made no movement to ascend the Hudson, but anchored off Staten
Island, where they landed their troops, and the hill sides were soon
whitened with their tents.
In the frigate Greyhound, one of the four ships which first arrived,
came General Howe. He had preceded the fleet, in order to confer with
Governor Tryon, and inform himself of the state of affairs. In a letter
to his government he writes: “I met with Governor Tryon on board of a
ship at the Hook, and many gentlemen, fast friends of government,
attending him, from whom I have the fullest information of the state of
the rebels. * * * * * We passed the Narrows with three ships of war, and
the first division of transports, landed the grenadiers and light
infantry, as the ships came up, on this island, to the great joy of a
most loyal people, long suffering on that account under the oppression
of the rebels stationed among them; who precipitately fled on the
approach of the shipping. * * * * * There is great reason to expect a
numerous body of the inhabitants to join the army from the province of
York, the Jerseys and Connecticut, who, in this time of universal
oppression, only wait for opportunities to give proofs of their loyalty
and zeal.”[76]
Washington beheld the gathering storm with an anxious eye, aware that
General Howe only awaited the arrival of his brother, the admiral, to
commence hostile operations. He wrote to the President of Congress,
urging a call on the Massachusetts government for its quota of
continental troops; and the formation of a flying camp of ten thousand
men, to be stationed in the Jerseys as a central force, ready to act in
any direction as circumstances might require.
On the 2d of July, he issued a general order, calling upon the troops to
prepare for a momentous conflict which was to decide their liberties and
fortunes. Those who should signalize themselves by acts of bravery,
would be noticed and rewarded; those who proved craven would be exposed
and punished. No favor would be shown to such as refused or neglected to
do their duty at so important a crisis.