Shortly after breakfast the next morning the whole party were on the
yacht, and it was speeding down the river. West Point was their first
halting-place. Some hours were spent there; they were just in time for
the battery drill; after that they climbed to the top of Mount
Independence, enjoyed the view, and visited the ruins of "Old Fort
Put"; came down, and then went back to their yacht, promising
themselves another and longer visit to West Point some days later.
The captain pointed out the sites of forts Montgomery and Clinton as
they passed, and told of their building by the Americans during the
War of the Revolution and their destruction by the British in 1777.
"As Lossing tells us," said Captain Raymond, "'They fell beneath one
heavy blow suddenly and artfully dealt by a British force from New
York, and the smitten garrison were scattered like frightened sheep
upon the mountains.'"
"Oh, papa, surely they didn't surrender without fighting at all?"
exclaimed Lulu.
"No indeed, daughter; they fought long and desperately. General James
Clinton and his brother George were their commanders. As I have told
you before, I think, General Clinton established his headquarters at a
place called Washington Square, about four miles west of the village
of New Windsor, and there collected his dispersed troops preparatory
to marching to the relief of Kingston, then threatened by the enemy."
"But they didn't get there in time to save it from being burned by the
British," said Edward Leland. "What dreadful times those were!"
"Yes," said Grandma Elsie; "we may be very thankful that we live in
these better days. And in the best and freest country in the world;
which it wouldn't have been, if God had not been for us in those days
of trial."
It was a pleasant morning, and all sat under an awning on the deck,
preferring it as the breeziest spot and affording the best view of
the beautiful country on either side with its many historical
associations. Captain Raymond drew attention to Verplanck's and Stony
points as they passed them.
"Yonder is Verplanck's Point," he said; "and there, overlooking the
river, stood, in Revolutionary times, Fort Fayette; and yonder, on the
other side, is Stony Point, where was another small fort. They were
captured by Sir Henry Clinton on the 1st of June, 1779. The garrison
of Stony Point consisted of only forty men, and that at Verplanck's of
seventy, commanded by Captain Armstrong. The British flotilla was
commanded by Admiral Collier. The troops landed in two divisions on
the morning of May 31--the one, under Vaughan, on the east side eight
miles below Verplanck's; the other, under Clinton, on the west side a
little above Haverstraw. There was no fight at Stony Point, as the
garrison retired to the Highlands, knowing that the forces of the
enemy were too overwhelming to be successfully resisted. The British
took possession; dragged up cannon and mortars during the night;
pointed them and the guns found in the fortress toward Fort Fayette,
and in the morning began a heavy cannonade upon it. At the same time
the fort was attacked in the rear by Vaughan and his troops, and the
little garrison surrendered themselves prisoners of war.
"The loss of these forts was a grief to Washington, and he determined
to make an effort to recover them, for their loss endangered West
Point. He soon ordered an attack upon them by the Americans under the
command of Generals Wayne and Howe. Wayne had his quarters at Sandy
Beach, fourteen miles from Stony Point, and on the morning of July 15
all the Massachusetts light infantry was marched to that place. It was
an exceedingly sultry day, and the march--begun at noon, taking them
through narrow defiles, over rough crags, and across deep
morasses--must have been hard indeed; they moved in single file and at
eight in the evening rendezvoused a mile and a half below Stony Point.
They rested there while Wayne and several other officers reconnoitred
the enemy's works. Then they formed into column, and moved silently
forward under the guidance of a negro slave belonging to a Captain
Lamb living in the neighborhood."
"New York was a slave State at that time?" exclaimed Sydney
inquiringly.
"Yes," replied Captain Raymond; "England had forced slavery upon her
Colonies here, and it was not yet abolished. Captain Lamb was a warm
Whig, and Pompey seems to have been one also. Soon after the British
took possession of the fort, he ventured to carry strawberries there
for sale; the men of the garrison were glad to get them, and Pompey
became quite a favorite with the officers, who had no suspicion that
he was regularly reporting everything to his master.
"At length Pompey told them that his master would not allow him to
come with his fruit in the daytime, because it was now hoeing-corn
season. The officers, unwilling to lose their supply of luxuries, then
gave him their countersign regularly so that he could pass the
sentries in the evening. He had it on the night of the attack, and
gave it to the Americans, who used it as their watchword when they
scaled the ramparts. It was 'The fort's our own.'"
"And they could say it with truth," laughed Lucilla; "for the fort was
really theirs--stolen from them by the British."
"The fortress seemed almost impregnable," resumed her father; "built
upon a huge rocky bluff, an island at high water, and always
inaccessible dryshod,--except across a narrow causeway in the
rear,--it was strongly defended by outworks and a double row of
abatis. There was a deep and dangerous morass on one side, and on the
other three were the waters of the Hudson."
"And was the rock too high and steep to climb, papa?" asked Ned.
"Yes, indeed! But our men were brave and persevering fellows; Wayne,
their leader, believed in the old saying 'Where there's a will there's
a way.' He practiced upon that, and in consequence was very
successful. He was so rapid and earnest in what he did that people
took to calling him 'Mad Anthony Wayne.'
"Now, he resolved to storm this fort at all hazards, as Lossing says,
and only waited for the ebbing of the tide and the deep first slumber
of the garrison.
"At half-past eleven o'clock that night the Americans began a silent
march toward the fort. Two strong men disguised as farmers, and the
negro Pompey, went first. There was no barking of dogs to arouse the
garrison, for they had all been killed--all in that neighborhood--the
day before. Pompey gave the countersign to the first sentinel on the
high ground west of the morass, then the two disguised men suddenly
seized and gagged him. The same thing was done with the sentinel at
the causeway. Then, as soon as the tide ebbed sufficiently, the
greater part of Wayne's little army crossed the morass at the foot of
the western declivity of the promontory, no one among the enemy
observing them. Three hundred men under General Muhlenburg remained as
a reserve in the rear. The troops were divided into two columns--all
with unloaded muskets and fixed bayonets. At a little past midnight
the advance parties moved silently to the charge, one on the northern
and the other on the southern part of the height. The two main
divisions followed them, one led by Wayne himself. The Americans were
not discovered by the British until they were within pistol shot of
the pickets on the heights, when a skirmish took place between the
advance guards and the sentinels.
"The Americans used only their bayonets, as they had been ordered, but
the pickets fired several shots; and those sounds of strife waked the
garrison, and the silence of the night was broken by the loud cry 'To
arms! to arms!' the roll of the drum, the rattle of musketry from the
ramparts and the abatis, and the roar of the cannon, charged with
deadly grapeshot, from the embrasures. It was a terrible storm, but
our brave fellows forced their way through it--through every
obstacle--until the vans of all the columns met in the centre of the
works, where they arrived at the same time. Each of our men had a
white paper in his hat which, as it could be seen in the dim light,
enabled him to distinguish friend from foe."
"I think Wayne was wounded in the fight, wasn't he?" asked Mr. Leland.
"Yes," replied the captain; "at the inner abatis he was struck on the
head by a musket ball, the blow causing him to fall to his knees. His
aides, Fishbow and Archer, raised him to his feet and carried him
gallantly through the works. He believed himself mortally wounded, and
exclaimed as he arose, 'March on, carry me into the fort, for I will
die at the head of my column!' But, fortunately, he was not so badly
wounded as he supposed, and was able to join in the loud huzzas which
arose when the two victorious columns met within the fort.
"The garrison surrendered as prisoners of war, and I am glad and proud
to say were treated with clemency by the victors. Not a life was taken
after the flag was struck and quarter asked for."
"Was anybody killed before that, papa?" asked Little Elsie in anxious
tones.
"Yes, daughter," he replied; "15 Americans lost their lives and 83
were wounded; 63 of the British were killed and their commander and
543 officers and men taken prisoners. Down in the river below were
some British vessels. They slipped their cables and moved down to a
place of security.
"So prompt was Wayne that he did not wait for daylight to send in his
report to Washington. 'Dear General: The fort and garrison with
Colonel Johnson are ours. Our officers and men behaved like men who
are determined to be free,' was what he wrote."
"Oh, I like that! It reminds me of Perry's despatch to Harrison after
his victory on Lake Erie," exclaimed Lucilla.
"Did our people get back the other fort, uncle?" asked Eric.
"No; the guns of the Stony Point fort were turned upon it at dawn the
next morning and a desultory firing kept up during the day, but delays
and misunderstandings prevented an intended attack from being made in
time to dislodge the garrison; Sir Henry Clinton getting news of their
danger in time to send them help.
"Washington saw that we could not retain Stony Point, because he could
not spare enough troops to hold it; so he ordered the stores and
ordnance to be removed, the fortress to be evacuated, and the works
destroyed; all of which was accordingly done on the night of the
18th."
"And did the British find out what was going on and attack our
fellows?" asked Eric.
"Yes; the heavy ordnance was placed upon a galley to be conveyed to
West Point; but as soon as it moved a cannonade began from Verplanck's
and the British shipping near by. A heavy shot from the _Vulture_
struck the galley below water mark, and she went down near Caldwell's
Landing. The British again took possession of Stony Point, but little
of value was left them there except the eligible site for a
fortification."
"Wayne was very much praised for the taking of Stony Point, wasn't he,
papa?" asked Grace.
"Yes; the storming and capture of Stony Point was esteemed one of the
most brilliant exploits of the war,--an exhibition of skill and
indomitable courage,--and General Wayne, the leader of the enterprise,
was everywhere greeted with rapturous applause. Congress gave him a
vote of thanks. It also resolved that a gold medal, emblematic of that
action, be struck and presented to General Wayne. Also, rewards were
given to the other officers and to the men."
"Papa, wasn't the home of Captain Molly somewhere in this
neighborhood?" asked Grace.
"Yes; Lossing tells us that she lived, at the close of the war,
between Fort Montgomery and Buttermilk Falls, and was generally
dressed in a woman's petticoats with an artilleryman's coat over
them--perhaps an old one of her husband's, for he was a cannonier.
They were both in Fort Clinton when it was taken by the British. When
the Americans retreated and the British scaled the ramparts, her
husband dropped his match and fled. Molly picked it up, touched off
the piece, then scampered after him and the others. As you probably
remember, she was again with her husband in the Battle of Monmouth,
and when he was shot down took his place at the cannon and worked it
through the rest of the engagement. For that act of bravery Washington
rewarded her with a sergeant's commission."
"I think she deserved it," said Grace. "I admire her bravery, but I
don't know what would tempt me to go into a battle."
"I should be sorry indeed to have you go into one," returned her
father, regarding her with a fond smile.
The yacht was now moving rapidly down the river, all on board greatly
enjoying the beautiful scenery. They landed at Tarrytown and visited
the historical spots in its vicinity, among them the scene of Andre's
capture and the monument to his captors.
"Why did they name this place Tarrytown, uncle?" asked Eric.
"Probably from the fact that a great deal of wheat was raised in the
vicinity. 'Tarwe Town'--meaning wheat town--was what the early Dutch
settlers called it.
"Those living here in Revolutionary days saw stormy scenes. There were
lawless hands of marauders called Cowboys and Skinners infesting the
Neutral Ground, which extended for thirty miles along the river and
was plundered by both bands of outlaws without much, if any, regard to
their victims' loyalty or disloyalty to the country."
"Those were bad times to live in," remarked Little Elsie. "I'd a great
deal rather live in these; though I should like to have seen
Washington and Wayne and Lafayette and--oh, all the rest of the good,
brave men who did so much to save our country!"
"Yes," said Grandma Elsie, "but though we cannot see them here, we may
hope to meet at least some of them in another and a better world."