ARRIVAL OF MORE SHIPS—MOVEMENTS OF THE PHŒNIX AND THE ROSE—PANIC IN THE
CITY—HOSTILE SHIPS UP THE HUDSON—STIR OF WAR ALONG THE RIVER—GENERAL
GEORGE CLINTON, AND THE MILITIA OF ULSTER COUNTY—FRESH AGITATION OF NEW
YORK—ARRIVAL OF LORD HOWE.
The exultation of the patriots of New York, caused by the Declaration of
Independence, was soon overclouded. On the 12th of July, several ships
stood in from sea, and joined the naval force below. Every nautical
movement was now a matter of speculation and alarm, and all the
spy-glasses in the city were incessantly reconnoitering the bay.
“The enemy are now in the harbor,” writes an American officer, “although
they have not yet ventured themselves within gunshot of the city, but we
hourly expect to be called into action. The whole army is out between
two and three every morning, at their respective alarm posts, and remain
there until sunrise. I am morally certain that it will not be long
before we have an engagement.”
Scarce had this letter been penned, when two ships of war were observed
getting under way, and standing toward the city. One was the Phœnix, of
forty guns; the other the Rose, of twenty guns, commanded by Captain
Wallace, of unenviable renown, who had marauded the New England coast,
and domineered over Rhode Island. The troops were immediately at their
alarm posts. It was about half past three o’clock in the afternoon, as
the ships and three tenders came sweeping up the bay with the advantage
of wind and tide, and shaped their course up the Hudson. The batteries
of the city and of Paulus Hook on the opposite Jersey shore, opened a
fire upon them. They answered it with broadsides. There was a panic
throughout the city. Women and children ran hither and thither about the
streets, mingling their shrieks and cries with the thundering of the
cannon. “The attack has begun! The city is to be destroyed! What will
become of us?”
The Phœnix and the Rose continued their course up the Hudson. They had
merely fired upon the batteries as they passed; and on their own part
had sustained but little damage, their decks having ramparts of
sand-bags. The ships below remained in sullen quiet at their anchors,
and showed no intention of following them. The firing ceased. The fear
of a general attack upon the city died away, and the agitated citizens
breathed more freely.
Washington, however, apprehended this movement of the ships might be
with a different object. They might be sent to land troops and seize
upon the passes of the Highlands. Forts Montgomery and Constitution were
far from complete, and were scantily manned. A small force might be
sufficient to surprise them. The ships might intend, also, to distribute
arms among the tories in the river counties, and prepare them to
co-operate in the apprehended attack upon New York.
Thus thinking, the moment Washington saw these ships standing up the
river, he sent off an express to put General Mifflin on the alert, who
was stationed with his Philadelphia troops at Fort Washington and King’s
Bridge. The same express carried a letter from him to the New York
Convention, at that time holding its sessions at White Plains in
Westchester County, apprising it of the impending danger. His immediate
solicitude was for the safety of Forts Constitution and Montgomery.
Fortunately George Clinton, the patriotic legislator, had recently been
appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Ulster and Orange
counties. Called to his native State by his military duties in this time
of danger, he had only remained in Congress to vote for the declaration
of independence, and then hastened home. He was now at New Windsor, in
Ulster County, just above the Highlands. Washington wrote to him on the
afternoon of the 12th, urging him to collect as great a force as
possible of the New York militia, for the protection of the Highlands
against this hostile irruption, and to solicit aid, if requisite, from
the western parts of Connecticut. “I have the strongest reason to
believe,” added he, “it will be absolutely necessary, if it were only to
prevent an insurrection of your own tories.”
Long before the receipt of Washington’s letter, Clinton had been put on
the alert. About nine o’clock in the morning of the 13th, an alarm gun
from his brother at Fort Constitution, thundered through the echoing
defiles of the mountains. Shortly afterwards, two river sloops came to
anchor above the Highlands before the general’s residence. Their
captains informed him that New York had been attacked on the preceding
afternoon. They had seen the cannonade from a distance, and judged from
the subsequent firing, that the enemy’s ships were up the river as far
as King’s Bridge.
Clinton was as prompt a soldier as he had been an intrepid legislator.
The neighboring militia were forthwith put in motion. Three regiments
were ordered out; one was to repair to Fort Montgomery; another to Fort
Constitution; the third to rendezvous at Newburgh, just above the
Highlands, ready to hasten to the assistance of Fort Constitution,
should another signal be given. All the other regiments under his
command were to be prepared for service at a moment’s notice. In
ordering these hasty levies, however, he was as considerate as he was
energetic. The colonels were directed to leave the frontier companies at
home, to protect the country against the Indians, and some men out of
each company to guard against internal enemies.
Another of his sagacious measures was to send expresses to all the
owners of sloops and boats twenty miles up the west side of the river,
to haul them off so as to prevent their grounding. Part of them were to
be ready to carry over the militia to the forts; the rest were ordered
down to Fort Constitution, where a chain of them might be drawn across
the narrowest part of the river, to be set on fire, should the enemy’s
ships attempt to pass.
Having made these prompt arrangements, he proceeded early in the
afternoon of the same day, with about forty of his neighbors, to Fort
Constitution; whence, leaving some with his brother, he pushed down on
the same evening to Fort Montgomery, where he fixed his head-quarters,
as being nearer the enemy and better situated to discover their motions.
Here, on the following day (July 14th), he received Washington’s letter,
written two days previously; but by this time he had anticipated its
orders, and stirred up the whole country. On that same evening, two or
three hundred of the hardy Ulster yeomanry, roughly equipped, part of
one of the regiments he had ordered out, marched into Fort Montgomery,
headed by their colonel (Woodhull). Early the next morning five hundred
of another regiment arrived, and he was told that parts of two other
regiments were on the way.
“The men,” writes he to Washington, “turn out of their harvest fields to
defend their country with surprising alacrity. The absence of so many of
them, however, at this time, when their harvests are perishing for want
of the sickle, will greatly distress the country. I could wish,
therefore, that a less number might answer the purpose.”
On no one could this prompt and brave gathering of the yeomanry produce
a more gratifying effect, than upon the commander-in-chief; and no one
could be more feelingly alive, in the midst of stern military duties, to
the appeal in behalf of the peaceful interests of the husbandman.
While the vigilant Clinton was preparing to defend the passes of the
Highlands, danger was growing more imminent at the mouth of the Hudson.
New York has always been a city prone to agitations. That into which it
was thrown on the afternoon of the 12th of July, by the broadsides of
the Phœnix and the Rose, was almost immediately followed by another. On
the same evening there was a great booming of cannon, with clouds of
smoke, from the shipping at anchor at Staten Island. Every spy-glass was
again in requisition. The British fleet were saluting a ship of the
line, just arrived from sea. She advanced grandly, every manof-war
thundering a salute as she passed. At her foretop masthead she bore St.
George’s flag. “It is the admiral’s ship!” cried the nautical men on the
look-out at the Battery. “It is the admiral’s ship!” was echoed from
mouth to mouth, and the word soon flew throughout the city, “Lord Howe
is come!”