Streets, the State House yard being used as a park. The Forty-second
Highlanders occupied Chestnut Street below Third, and the Fifteenth
Regiment was quartered in Market Street, in and about Fifth Street.
Later in October General Washington sent General McDougall to attack
1500 British at Gray’s Ferry. Generals Sullivan and Greene were to make
a feint along the Germantown road. Greene got as far as Three Mile Run,
where he united with Sullivan and waited for the signal that McDougall
had begun the attack. The enemy had called in his troops at Gray’s Ferry
and the Americans were obliged to return.
The English forced the evacuation of Fort Mifflin, November 15, and Fort
Mercer was abandoned the 20th, but, in spite of this handicap, the
American fleet successfully passed Philadelphia and took refuge above
Bristol.
----------
British Open Hostilities in Long Siege on
Fort Mifflin, September 27, 1777
The British Army was in possession of Philadelphia, but the
communication was not open with their fleet, and General Washington in
evacuating the city had placed a garrison in Fort Mifflin, not as strong
as the importance and exigencies of the place required, but such as the
situation of his army could afford.
Fort Mifflin was nothing more than a wooden fort with an inclosure of
palisades. It was situated on Mud Island, on the Pennsylvania side of
the Delaware River. The small Pennsylvania fleet was in command of
Commodore John Hazlewood.
The British were not unacquainted with the miserable situation of the
fort and knew its weaknesses and the best means to reduce it.
On September 27 the enemy on Providence Island opened two mortars and
three heavy guns against the southeast blockhouse. That left these
batteries unsupported, which gave an opportunity for Colonel Smith to
order a sally above and below.
Two parties supported by the galleys under Commodore Hazlewood landed on
the beach of Providence Island and stormed the battery, which was
defended by two officers and sixty British, who surrendered themselves.
They were carried into the fort before the enemy’s guards could attack
the Americans, but not before the guns were spiked.
From October 10 to the 21st a severe fire was kept up; the two west
blockhouses were ruined and the north one blown up by the fall of
several shells.
The enemy, seeing the breaches made to the palisades, hoped to gain
possession of the fort, and as it was very important for their remaining
in Philadelphia that the communication be open, they determined a
general storm on Mud Island October 22.
Previous to it, in the evening of the 21st, the Hessian brigade crossed
at Cooper’s Ferry to storm Fort Mercer, on the Jersey shore about 1500
yards northeast of Fort Mifflin and up the river. The attack was so rash
that even success could not justify its temerity.
Before the storm of the fort was attempted Colonel Donop sent a flag to
Colonel Christopher Green, who commanded the fort, threatening to put
the garrison to the sword if he did not surrender it immediately.
Colonel Green answered with disdain, saying he would defend it till the
last drop of his blood. About an hour before night the attack was begun
on the north and south side.
Both the British attacks were expected. The artillery and musketry of
the fort and the heavy guns of the galleys poured grapeshot and cannon
balls upon them and made great slaughter. They advanced as far as the
abattis, and being repulsed with great loss, they left their commanding
officer dying and retreated with hurry and confusion. They rallied in
the woods, and leaving their wounded and dead, about 300, in the hands
of the victors, retired to Philadelphia the same night.
Colonel Green and the officers who had displayed so much courage in
repulsing the enemy, treated the wounded with much humanity. Colonel
Donop was attended with the greatest care, but he died a few days after
the action, and was buried with the honors of war.
The morning after the attack on Fort Mercer it became Fort Mifflin’s
turn. On the 22d, about 9 o’clock, the ships Eagle, Somerset, Isis,
Augusta, Pearl, Liverpool and several frigates, with a galley, came up
to the chevaux de frise, 500 yards from the fort. At the same time the
land batteries, the fort batteries and the American galleys and the
British squadron engaged.
The firing continued until noon with relentless fury; the fort
frequently fired red-hot balls, one of which struck the Augusta, a
sixty-four-gun ship, she took fire, and in a moment was ablaze, and soon
after blew up with a thundering noise, before the enemy could take out
all their hands.
A moment after, the Merlin, a twenty-two-gun frigate, ran ashore below
the Augusta, and as she could not be removed before the explosion, took
fire and also blew up.
The other ships, frightened by the fate of these two, retired below Hog
Island; and the land batteries, which had hoisted the bloody flag, to
warn the garrison that they were not to expect any quarter, continued
their fighting until evening.
The weakened garrison had been re-inforced by Pennsylvania and Virginia
troops, but Colonel Smith found the garrison in great danger from
fatigue and salt provisions, the water they had to wade through, the
cold nights and constant firing by the enemy turned many men to the
hospital.
The enemy suffered also from the inclemency of the weather, and the
overflowing of the island. The water was two feet deep in their fort.
The British, believing they must evacuate Philadelphia or take the fort,
made new batteries, and on November 8 kept up an incessant fire.
All the palisades were broken down and the block houses ruined. The
ditch filled up with mud. Captain Treat and his lieutenant were killed.
Colonel Smith was wounded and the garrison nearly exhausted.
Major Thayer with some New England troops relieved the garrison. Major
Fleury would not be relieved and remained with the garrison.
On November 15 the enemy made a furious attack by the river and land and
floating batteries on the fort.
The ships came as near the fort as possible in the main channel, and the
Vigilant, carrying 24-pounders, came up under the protection of the land
batteries, behind Hog Island, and anchored forty yards from the angle of
the battery.
Fort Mifflin had been so much exposed on that side that on it did not
remain a single gun. Major Thayer ordered the 32-pounder to be carried
there. Before the Vigilant began to fire that single gun put fourteen
shots in her board. But as soon as she was at anchor and began to play
all resistance became impossible.
In three or four broadsides not only the parapet and the carriages but
even the irons of the guns themselves were broken, and in half an hour
not a gun in the fort was able to fire.
Another sloop of war joined the Vigilant and played against the fort all
the afternoon.
The garrison was buried in ruins, unable to retreat during the day and
unwilling to do it as long as they could expect re-enforcements, had not
any expectation but to sell their lives dearly as they could.
It was impossible to defend the fort with so small a force, and Major
Thayer called for re-enforcements from Fort Mercer or he must evacuate
the fort. At that moment Major Fleury and Major Talbot were wounded and
another officer of artillery killed.
At 10 o’clock at night, as no re-enforcements had arrived from New
Jersey, it was impossible to defend the fort any longer.
Major Thayer evacuated the fort with a degree of firmness equal to the
bravery of his defense. He set fire to the remains, and with less than
200 men, having carried off all the wounded, he arrived at Fort Mercer
about 1 o’clock in the morning, being the last man to march out of the
fort.
The British took possession of Fort Mifflin half an hour after the
Americans left it.
----------
Colonel William Plunket Defeats Yankees
in Pennamite War, September 28, 1775
There had been four years of tranquil enjoyment among the Yankee
settlers at Wyoming following the conclusion, in 1771, of the first
Pennamite War. The Proprietaries had been defeated and driven out, and
for four years they made no attempt to retake their property.
With the defeat of Dick and Ogden, August, 1771, the Penns were actually
driven out of Wyoming and the Yankee settlers poured into the valley in
such numbers that it was considered advisable to erect five new
townships, each five miles square, along the West Branch of the
Susquehanna River, on the lands of the Susquehanna Company.
Accordingly, in 1771 the township of Charlestown was erected at the
mouth of Muncy Creek, now Lycoming County; the township of Judea was
erected above the mouth of Limestone Run, which is in the center of the
present borough of Milton.
In May, 1773, the township of Westminster was erected above the mouth of
Buffalo Creek, in what is now Union County.
It was intended that another township, to be called New Simsburg, should
be erected on the south side of the West Branch, opposite the mouth of
Pine Creek. This survey was never made, but the site selected was
opposite the present borough of Jersey Shore, and included the beautiful
island at that place.
The fifth town, called Salem, was erected on the North Branch, May,
1773, below the mouth of Shickshinny Creek.
Northumberland County was erected March 21, 1772, and its territory,
which embraced 462 square miles, included the entire Wyoming Valley,
which was placed in the seventh and last township, called Wyoming.
During that summer a number of settlers arrived in Turbot Township from
the State of New Jersey, among whom were John, Cornelius and Peter
Vincent and their families. John and Peter were brothers and Cornelius
was the son of John. They settled on a plantation one mile below the
mouth of Warrior Run, which is two miles north of the present borough of
Milton.
John immediately became the leader of this pioneer settlement and
dominant factor and partisan of the Connecticut interest. In May, 1775,
the Governor of Connecticut appointed him a justice of the peace for
Litchfield County. Accompanied by his son and several others, he went to
Wyoming in August and requested a number of people to go to the West
Branch and make settlements.
Major William Judd, Joseph Sluman, Esq., and about eighty others arrived
at Vincent’s September 23, and two days later Judd and Sluman wrote a
jointly signed letter to Judge William Plunket, in which they
acknowledged they had come with a view of settling, and stated that as
this might be a “matter of much conversation among the inhabitants, we
are willing to acquaint you with the principles on which we are come. In
the first place, we intend no hostilities; we will not disturb, molest
or endeavor to dispossess any person of his property, or in any ways
abuse his person by threats or any action that shall tend thereto. And,
as we are commissioners of the peace from the Colony of Connecticut, we
mean to be governed by the laws of that colony, and shall not refuse the
exercise of the law to those of the inhabitants that are now dwellers
here on their request, as the Colony of Connecticut extended last May
their jurisdiction over the land. Finally, as we are determined to
govern ourselves as above mentioned, we expect that those who think the
title of this land is not in this colony will give us no uneasiness or
disturbance in our proposed settlement.”
If Major Judd and his party really supposed that their movements would
meet with no opposition, they were egregiously mistaken. It is also
quite evident they prepared for defense.
According to the deposition of Peter Smith, one detachment was on guard
at a schoolhouse at Freeland’s Mills, three miles above the mouth of
Warrior Run, and another at John Vincent’s house.
The report reached the county seat at Sunbury that the settlers had
brought along entrenching tools, also swivels to be used in the
entrenchments.
A petition was immediately prepared and sent to Governor John Penn, as
the Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, which was signed
by William Cooke, Sheriff; James Murray, Coroner; William Plunket,
President Judge; Samuel Hunter, County Lieutenant and Justice; Benjamin
Alison, Robert Moodie, Michael Troy, Ellis Hughes and William Maclay,
Associate Justices.
The petitioners set forth that their utmost efforts had failed to halt
the “ambitious designs and enterprises of the intruders from the Colony
of Connecticut. That they had been re-enforced with fresh numbers:
Officers, civil and military. Swarms of emissaries are seducing the
ignorant, frightening the timorous, and denouncing the utmost vengeance
against any who may be hardy enough to oppose them—In fine, to such a
situation we are already reduced as to be under the hard necessity of
keeping constant guards, not only to prevent the destruction of our
jail, but for the security of our houses and persons, all of which are
violently threatened.”
Without waiting for action on the above petition the militia of
Northumberland County was called out, and September 25 a company of
fifty men left Fort Augusta to join companies from other points, to
demand the reason for “this intrusion and hostile appearance.”
On September 28 the Yankees at their encampment at John Vincent’s were
attacked by the Provincial forces under Colonel Plunket. Just how much
resistance was offered is not a matter of record, but that there was a
battle fought is evidenced by the fact that one Yankee was killed and
eight wounded.
Plunket’s militiamen collected all the movable property, which was then
and there divided among the victors. The torch was applied and all the
buildings burned. They then marched the men, as prisoners, to Sunbury,
where they were confined in jail. The women and children had been sent
back to their friends and relatives at Wyoming.
At the hearing of the prisoners, Major Judd and Joseph Sluman, the
leaders, were sent to Philadelphia, where they were confined in gaol,
until December 20, when they were released by resolution of Congress.
Three others were detained ten days in the gaol at Sunbury, and the
remainder were dismissed.
This action of the county authorities and militia was approved by the
Provincial Assembly in a resolution which was passed October 27, 1775:
“Resolved, That the inhabitants of the County of Northumberland, settled
under the jurisdiction of this Province, were justifiable and did their
duty in repelling the said intruders and preventing the further
extension of the settlements.”
No doubt this expedition resulted in breaking up the Connecticut
settlements on the West Branch, and the Pennsylvania claimants remained
undisturbed in full possession of the territory.
----------
Captain John Smith Who First Meets Native
Pennsylvanians Sailed for England,
September 29, 1609
There seems to be no doubt but that the first European to meet the
Indians who resided in what is now Pennsylvania was Captain John Smith.
This adventurer explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in 1608,
and made a map of his observations, which with the one he made at a
later date, of his explorations along the New England coast, were for
many years recognized as the authority for this hemisphere.
The Dutch who first came to these shores formed an acquaintance with the
Indians in 1615, and the Swedes first met them in 1638.
It seems, therefore, that a story about this intrepid navigator,
statesman, soldier, and writer is timely.
Captain John Smith, founder of the Virginia Colony, was an English
soldier, a native of Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, where he was born
January, 1579; he died in London, June 21, 1631.
From early youth he was a soldier, enlisting in 1596, in the French Army
to fight against Spain, but after the peace of 1598, he transferred his
services to the insurgents in the Netherlands, and there remained until
about 1600.
Returning home he almost immediately started on a career of marvelous
adventure.
He sailed from France to Italy, where he was thrown overboard because it
was learned he was a Protestant, but he was rescued by a pirate and
landed on Italian soil.
He traveled through Italy and Dalmatia to Styria and fought with the
Austrian Army against the Turks, distinguished himself in Hungary and
Transylvania, for which service he was ennobled and pensioned.
Taken prisoner by the Turks, Smith was sent a slave to Constantinople,
where he won the affections of his young mistress. He was sent by her to
her brother in the Crimea, with a letter avowing her attachment. The
indignant Turk cruelly maltreated Smith, when the latter one day slew
his taskmaster, put on the Ottoman’s clothes, mounted a horse and
escaped to a Russian port.
On his return to England, in 1605, Bartholomew Gosnold persuaded Smith
to engage in founding a colony in Virginia, and at the age of
twenty-seven years, already greatly renowned, he sailed from Blackwell
for America, December 16, 1606, with Captain C. Newport, who commanded
three vessels that bore one hundred and five emigrants.
Smith was accompanied by men of property, and the voyage being by the
southern route was long and tedious. They landed, May 13, 1607, about
fifty miles from the mouth of the river they called the James, where
they built Jamestown, and chose that for the seat of the new empire.
Captain Smith, with Newport and twenty men, explored the James River as
far as the falls, the site of Richmond, and made the acquaintance of
Powhatan, emperor of thirty Indian tribes.
On the voyage to Virginia, Smith had become boastful and arrogant,
causing him to be much disliked by Wingfield, of the London Company.
On his return from the first exploration trip Smith found Wingfield had
set himself up as president, and that he was under arrest, but was
acquitted at the trial and took his seat in the council, when that body
demanded that the president should pay Smith £200 for false
imprisonment.
All of Wingfield’s property was seized to pay it, when Smith generously
placed it in the public store for the use of the colony.
Sickness prostrated the colony before the close of the summer.
Smith was soon made the leader of the colony, and brought order out of
chaos, made the Indians bring in stores of corn, and had the colony well
supplied with food for the ensuing winter.
After erecting fortifications Smith began a series of excursions into
the surrounding region. He proved an excellent leader and became in fact
the principal head of the colony.
He went up the Chickahominy in an open boat. Leaving the craft, he with
two others and two Indian guides penetrated the forest, when Smith was
seized by savages under Opechancanough, King of Pumunky, an elder
brother of Powhatan, and conducted to the presence of the emperor.
At a great council presided over by Powhatan, Smith was doomed to die.
Matoa, or Pocahontas, a daughter of Powhatan, begged her father to spare
the prisoner’s life, but in vain.
Smith’s head was laid upon two stones, and two warriors had raised heavy
clubs to crush it, when Pocahontas sprang from her father’s side,
clasped Smith’s head with her arms, and laid her own on his.
The emperor yielded, and Smith was released and returned to Jamestown,
where only forty persons were left, the little church burned to the
ground, and the inhabitants on the point of abandoning the settlement.
On September 10, 1608, Smith was elected president of the colony; and,
upon assuming this office, he enforced discipline, strove to convert
their unthrifty methods, had them rebuild the church, strengthen the
defenses, and make provision for agriculture and fishery.
Smith made two voyages, covering hundreds of miles, about the coast of
the Chesapeake and its tributaries.
When his successor was elected Smith refused to surrender the government
and served until September 29, 1609, when he sailed for England, and
never again returned to Jamestown.
This was unfortunate for the colony, as his better leadership was
necessary at that time to save it from frequent and serious disturbance.
In 1614 he made a voyage of exploration to New England and prepared a
map of the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod.
When Captain Smith sailed his barge up the Chesapeake, entered the
Susquehanna River and pushed as far up that stream as was possible, he
made the first exploration of that great river from its mouth for
several miles, and if he did not actually enter Pennsylvania, he was
very close and certainly did meet some of the Susquehanna Indians, who
resided in what is now called Lancaster County.
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Washington Started March Through Pennsylvania
During Whisky Rebellion,
September 30, 1794
Virginia claims George Washington as her native son, but most of the
deeds which made Washington famous and the greater part of both his
military and official life were passed in this State.
While Philadelphia and the counties of the East have stories, legends
and traditions innumerable of the great Father of His Country, while
Western Pennsylvania was the scene of his early military training,
Central Pennsylvania, and the Cumberland Valley especially, have also
their Washington traditions.
A Lancaster County almanac, published in the latter part of 1778, is
credited by many with first having called Washington “Father of His
Country,” while Lebanon, Hummelstown, Harrisburg, New Cumberland,
Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg and many other valley towns and
places have Washington traditions as part of their historic past,
because of Washington’s trip to Bedford during the “Whisky Insurrection”
of 1794.
A force of 12,900 men was to be raised against the rebellion, and
Carlisle was the rendezvous for the Pennsylvania contingent of 5200.
Cumberland County furnished 363 men, including officers. These, with
similar quotas from York, Lancaster and Franklin Counties, were under
command of Brigadier General James Chambers, of Franklin County.
The President set out from his home on Market Street, Philadelphia,
September 30, 1794, accompanied by Secretary Hamilton, his own private
secretary and a colored servant.
Accounts of the trip say that Washington was much interested in the
canals and locks between Myerstown and Lebanon; that he lodged at
Lebanon for the night, breakfasted at Hummelstown, the next morning and
reached Harrisburg in time for dinner October 3.
Washington’s diary mentions the First Regiment of New Jersey, about 560
strong, which he found drawn up to receive him.
He spent the rest of that day in Harrisburg, received an address
delivered to him by the burgesses[8] in behalf of the citizens, and
departed the morning of October 4 for Carlisle, fording the Susquehanna
in his carriage, which he drove himself.
Footnote 8:
Conrad Bombaugh and Alexander Berryhill.
Washington’s diary says: “On the Cumberland side I found a detachment of
the Philadelphia Light Horse, ready to receive and escort me to
Carlisle, seventeen miles distant, where I arrived about 11 o’clock.”
The President remained seven days in Carlisle, the guest of Colonel
Ephraim Blaine. With him, according to one account, were “the members of
his Cabinet and Governor Mifflin, many Senators and Representatives from
Pennsylvania, and those, together with the New Jersey troops, formed a
brilliant and numerous assemblage.”
The day after his arrival General Washington attended public worship.
Before his departure a number of the principal inhabitants presented him
with an address.
Sunday morning, October 12, Washington set out from Carlisle on the
Walnut Bottom road. Near what is now Jacksonville stood the residence of
Colonel Arthur Buchanan, relative of the later President James Buchanan,
a large land owner and proprietor of Pine Grove furnace.
Verification of Washington having accepted Buchanan’s hospitality, for a
short time at least, is said to have been founded on the story of
“Polly” Buchanan, a daughter of the host. She died in Shippensburg in
1884 at the age of 104.
As Washington and his party came down Shippensburg’s one long street the
citizens were at their doors. One account says: