USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greenwich > Ye historie of ye town of Greenwich, county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, with genealogical notes on the Adams. > Part 13
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The enemy has made an excursion within four miles of Stamford, by the best accounts of about 1400 or 1500 men, under the command of Governor Tryon; they reached Horseneck on Friday morning about nine o'clock; at Stam- ford they were not alarmed till ten o'clock, notwithstanding the enemy was discovered at nine o'clock the preceding evening by a small guard of Continental troops at East Chester, under the command of Captain Titus Watson, who were obliged to give way though they fought on their retreat, and some of them were wounded and taken prisoners. Cap- tain Watson was closely pursued by a light horseman whom he had the good fortune to kill, and by the . . . made his escape. General Putnam was accidently at Stamford, but the Continental troops were too much scattered to be collected in season to oppose the enemy. About 200 mili- tia and a few Continental troops fell in with the enemy's rear, just as they were leaving Horseneck about the middle of the afternoon, who killed eight or ten of them and took about fifty prisoners, who had made too free with the liquor they had plundered. They destroyed a small salt work and burnt a schooner which lay at Mianus Creek. They plun- dered the inhabitants of everything they could lay their hands on, broke windows, etc., and many families are stripped of everything but the clothes they had on; even the house where Governor Tryon had his headquarters was not spared. They retreated to Rye on Friday evening and the next day to Kingsbridge. Their retreat was so precipitate,
COURTESY OF "THE GREENWICH GRAPHIC."
GENERAL PUTNAM'S RIDE.
FROM AN OLD SKETCH DRAWN BY GENERAL PUTNAM.
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that they left behind two wagons loaded with plunder. We had not a man killed.
From the foregoing reports and from the most reliable traditions, which have been handed down from sire to son, the author has arranged the following account of the raid, as being most consistent with the facts, and with which he anticipates some of the readers will disagree:
The headquarters at this time were at the house of Cap- tain John Hobby, who lived on Putnam Avenue about opposite Sherwood Place. He was commissioned by the May Session of the General Assembly, 1777, captain of the 8th Company of the Alarm List in the 9th Regiment, and was a brother of Colonel Thomas Hobby of the Continental Army. The Hobby house during the Revolutionary War was a popular stopping-place for all Continental officers and patriots.
On the evening of the twenty-fifth of February, 1779, General Putnam was at Horseneck inspecting the picket guard, where it was his custom to come almost every day to gain information of the doings of the enemy in Westchester County, New York, and, incidentally, to discuss with his comrade of the French and Indian War, Colonel Thomas Hobby, the contemplated movement of troops, the most strategical points to hold, or capture, and the results of recent campaigns. During the day a small company of the Continental light-horsemen, under the command of Captain Titus Watson, consisting of about thirty men, had been ordered forward by General Putnam to observe the move- ments of the enemy. They went down nearly as far as New Rochelle, where between eight and nine o'clock in the evening they found the enemy approaching with Delancey's body of tories in the lead. The Continentals retired before them, but were discovered and attacked. By reason of superior numbers they were defeated and many of them were killed. The enemy drove them from the Post Road down into Milton, where under the cover of darkness they
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managed to keep away from their pursuers, some of them hiding in the swamps. A number of others, including Cap- tain Watson, by crossing the heads of the creeks which indented the shore along Long Island Sound, succeeded in reaching Byram Bridge. This they had time to take up before the enemy came in sight again. Captain Watson and his men then rode directly to Horseneck (Borough of Green- wich) with the company of tories in full pursuit. Five of
them turned southward and were pursued by a detail of the enemy, which came up with one of the Continentals near the present railroad station. The soldier was there shot down and the horse inhumanely butchered from which the inclosure has since been known as the "horse lot." Captain Watson and . the others kept to the Post Road and gave the alarm to the picket guard in the village, but there was little or no time to prepare for defence. The enemy had been informed of the weakness of the outpost and advanced steadily on it. Mat- thew Mead, then a boy of twelve, was back of his father's house, which was on the northerly side of Putnam Avenue, a short distance east of the Field Point Road, when he saw the enemy at the top of the hill west of Horseneck Brook. His father sent him off with the other children and the cattle back in the lots, where he reached a place of safety. The Americans, warned by Captain Watson, according to the various accounts, numbered from one to two hundred men. General Putnam says, "as I was there myself to see the situation of the guards, I had the troops formed on a hill by the meeting house, ready to receive the enemy as they advanced. They came on briskly, and I soon discovered that their design was to turn our flanks and possess them- selves of a defile in our rear, which would effectually prevent our retreat. I therefore ordered parties out on both flanks with directions to give me information of their approach,
that we might retire in season. In the meantime a column advanced up the main road, where the remainder of the troops (amounting to about sixty) were posted. We dis- charged some old field pieces which were there, a few times,
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and gave them a small fire of musketry, but without any considerable effect. The superior force of the enemy soon obliged our small detachment to abandon the place. I therefore directed the troops to retire, and form on a hill a little distance from Horseneck, while I proceeded to Stam- ford to obtain re-enforcements." He, however, delayed too long in arranging for the safety of his men, and the enemy, as they came by the house of Captain John Hobby, recognized General Putnam as being in command of the troops and gave him full chase. He dashed on and by the time he reached the precipice now known as Put's Hill the com- mander of the tories, Thomas Merritt, of Westchester County, New York, was within two lengths of him.
The road before reaching the brink of the precipice ran nearly east and west, then turning a short right angle ran north about thirty rods, when it turned directly about and ran south along under the precipice to about five rods below the causeway forming the present road, where it again turned eastward.
General Putnam plunged his horse down this "rocky steep," which, being overgrown with stunted bushes, pre- sented a wild appearance, at a headlong pace in a south- easterly direction and followed a sort of a cow-path through the thicket until he came out on the road at the foot of the hill. The hill now presents a totally different aspect from what it formerly did, and the most difficult part of General Putnam's descent was after he crossed the road running along the brow of the hill.
Some will have it that he rushed headlong down the seventy-four stone steps, placed roughly one above another for the convenience of pedestrians (this is merely a fancy sketch for picture books and is at variance with the facts), and at this day point out with pride as those historic steps the ones chiselled in the rocks on the north side of the road in 1902 at the expense of the town, and under the auspices of some of our patriotic citizens. The old steps were removed before the Civil War.
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One of the many balls fired at him by the tories from the brow of the hill as he rode through the bushes passed through his hat. General Putnam on this occasion could not refrain from his customary exclamation when in trouble from the tories, which he shouted as the balls whistled thickly past him: "God cuss ye; when I catch ye, I'll hang ye to the next tree."
A very accurate and reliable account of General Putnam's ride by Isaac L. Mead appeared in the Greenwich Graphic of July 21, 1897, and by courtesy of the Graphic, is reprinted here.
The following is an account of General Putnam's ride by Mr. I. L. Mead, the story having been related to him by his grandfather, Rev. Mark Mead, who received his information from Colonel Ebenezer Mead, who was standing in the door- yard of the house where John Maher now resides, and saw General Putnam as he rode down.
In those days there was no cut through the rocks, but the road ran north some distance, then turned in a southeasterly direction, using the old road as it now is half-way down the hill and crossing the present road going down on the south side. The road in some places was steep. On the top of the hill south of Putnam Avenue was the Episcopal Church. Pedestrians, instead of going around the road to the church, took the short cut up the hill. There were flat stones laid to give the people a better footing. When I was a boy there was a line of bushes where my grandfather told me the steps were. As near as I can remember, one corner of the building south of the present road stood on the line of steps. Any one going on to the hill will see the impossibility of a horse going where these steps were, even at a walk and without a rider.
The story told in history with the picture of a man riding at full gallop down the steps, cut from immense stones brought from Voorhis's quarry, is on a par with many yarns that get into print. They are only fancy sketches of the writer.
OLD KNAPP TAVERN, LATER KNOWN AS THE TRACY HOUSE. DEDICATED AS THE PUTNAM COTTAGE IN 1906.
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Tryon's Raid
There are various accounts given as to Putnam's move- ments before the enemy were discovered. Some say that he was at a ball the night previous, taking a lady on his horse behind him. The ball was near Pecksland at the house standing where the William A. Husted house is. The lady was the daughter of David Bush, who lived in the house now occupied by Mr. E. P. Holley, of Cos Cob.
The Tracy house opposite the present Episcopal Church is claimed by some to have been the general's headquarters. Others say that his headquarters were at a house standing about opposite Mechanic Street, or Sherwood Place, as now called.
There was probably but a small force of men on duty here, and they were attacked by a much larger enemy. As soon as they caught sight of General Putnam they gave him full chase. He stopped to order his men to scatter. They did so, hiding behind trees and fences. Putnam started for the hill, and instead of going around the loop they were so close to him that he turned down a cow-path. This was too dan- gerous for the horsemen to follow. Any one can locate this cow-path where General Putnam rode down if they will go where the old road joins the present road. By looking up towards Mrs. Button's house on the north side of the cut, you will see a natural pathway. It is very plain to be seen. This was at that time a cow-path. General Putnam could ride down there, but any one would know it was dangerous. Any one going on to the hill south of the present road must see that it would be impossible to get down there on a horse.
These conditions and the testimony of reliable witnesses (others saw it besides Colonel Ebenezer Mead and give the same account) convince me that this account of General Putnam's ride is the true one.
The above account, given by Mr. I. L. Mead, practically agrees with the story about the ride told to the writer by Mr. Jabez Mead. His father related the facts to him, and said that that was what General Ebenezer Mead, who stood in his doorway, just beyond the foot of the hill, told him about the
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
ride. General Mead saw General Putnam come tearing down the cow-path; saw him turn in his saddle just as he reached the bottom of the stone steps and come into the turnpike, and holler "damn ye" to the redcoats who stood around the little church at the top of the steps, firing at him. -Editor Graphic.
The author's great-grandfather, Deliverance Mead, heard the firing at Horseneck and climbed on top of his house at Indian Field to see what the trouble was, and he saw the horseman ride down the hill and the smoke from the guns of the tories as they fired at him.
This historic spot is now marked by a monument erected by Putnam Hill Chapter, Daughters of the American Revo- lution, and unveiled on the sixteenth day of June, 1900.
Colonel Holdridge, who was in command of the Conti- nental soldiers, retreated in an unsoldierly manner to Stan- wich, while General Putnam only intended that he should retire a short distance. From the account given of this officer (who was a Hartford man) by the Americans, he was totally unfit to be a soldier at all and much less an officer.
The citizens hung about the village as near as they dared, hiding in the swamps and by-places during the whole day, taking advantage of every opportunity by some daring feat to secure prisoners and even fire upon the enemy.
About an hour after the arrival of the main body of tories, Governor Tryon with his full force of about twelve hundred men took full possession of the town. He made his headquarters at the house of Henry Mead, who then kept a public house on the corner of Greenwich Avenue and La- fayette Place. The soldiers, meantime, separated themselves into squads and pillaged every house in the neighborhood; a large body of them visited Cos Cob where they destroyed the salt works, which were on Bush's Point (now the ship- yard), a small sloop, and a storehouse.
A party of them also entered the house of Daniel and Joshua Smith, which was situated on the westerly side of
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North Street near the Second Congregational Church. They found this house deserted by all its inhabitants, excepting a deaf old lady, the mother-in-law of Joshua Smith. As they entered they saw her standing at the head of the stairs. She not being able to hear, disobeyed their orders to come down, which so enraged the soldiers that one of them sprang up stairs, and cut her down with his sword. After this murder the house was set on fire and burned to the ground. This is said to have been the only house wholly burned by the British during the raid.
The following houses were within the present limits of the Borough of Greenwich at that time.
Colonel Jabez Fitch at the top of Put's Hill.
Captain Israel Knapp opposite the present Episcopal Church. (Knapp Tavern.)
An old building near the Soldiers' Monument (probably the town hall).
Angel Husted just west of the Second Congregational Church.
Jared Mead near the corner of Milbank and Putnam Avenues.
Captain John Hobby opposite Sherwood Place. (Hobby Tavern.)
Colonel Thomas Hobby about opposite Mason Street. Henry Mead on the corner of Putnam Avenue and La- fayette Place. (Mead Tavern.)
An old house a little further west.
Captain Matthew Mead next.
Dr. Amos Mead on the brow of the hill about opposite the Field Point Road.
The houses of those who held the enemy's permits were safe from these depredations, but the others were ransacked and plundered of every valuable. The wagons brought to carry back the plunder were filled to their utmost capacity. After that everything was destroyed. The farmers made granaries of their garrets; and the enemy, after cutting holes through the garret and main floors, shovelled all the grain into the cellars, where the cider barrels were knocked in and
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all mingled in one useless mass. The cider, however, was not all permitted to run upon the ground, so that by the middle of the afternoon nearly all of the soldiers had become so drunken with it as to be unfit for the least defence. A small guard was kept around Governor Tryon's headquar- ters, but it did not prevent one of the patriots from creeping slyly into the orchard in the midst of the enemy and firing a ball through the clapboards, which whistled close by Governor Tryon's head and struck the mantel-piece, from which it rebounded upon the floor. This startled Governor Tryon so much that he, without waiting for his late dinner, gave immediate orders for a retreat. The officers now experienced the greatest difficulty in forming their men. . Many were beastly drunk, and a great number made irregular marches, so that the militia managed to take several pris- oners. Although several shots were fired at the enemy during the course of the day, they did not lose a man until after the retreat had been ordered and he fell near Horseneck Brook. Others were wounded and the enemy was soon in a full and disorderly retreat. The militia so hotly pressed upon their rear, that the drivers cut their horses loose from an ammunition and a plunder wagon, and rode off after their comrades at full speed. The militia had just taken possession of them when General Putnam, with between one and two hundred Continentals and militia, returned from Stamford, too late, however, to render any assistance to the inhabitants.
This was an eventful day for Greenwich. Houses though not burned were badly damaged; all provisions had been destroyed by the enemy; the tories for some time there- after had an almost complete mastery of the town; and it being in the midst of winter, it is absolutely impossible to depict the miseries of the people who, loving the American cause, were obliged to stay here.
General Putnam says, "I cannot tell exactly the number we lost, though I don't think more than ten soldiers, and about that number of inhabitants."
OLD CAVE, BRUCE MEMORIAL PARK, KNOWN AS ADDINGTON'S HOUSE. IN WHICH JOHN ADDINGTON CONCEALED HIS SET OF CARPENTER'S TOOLS DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
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Tryon's Raid
Lieutenant David Brown was wounded during the raid, and his father, Roger Brown, sent the following petition to the May Session of the General Assembly, 1779, stating that "his son Lieutenant David Brown was wounded in several parts of the body in an action with the enemy under the command of General Tryon in their incursion into said Greenwich on the twenty-sixth day of February last, whereby the said David Brown was rendered unfit to be removed for a fortnight thereafter, during which time the memorialist had to convey attendants and necessaries for his said son upwards of six miles, that said memorialist has been at great expense in doctoring and nursing his said son, who has no property of his own, which the memorialist is unable to bear, having a numerous family to maintain." The Assembly ordered the account paid.
The selectmen also asked relief from the May Session of the General Assembly, 1779, for the inhabitants of the town, stating that "the inhabitants of said town are much exposed to the hostile incursions of the enemy from the land and water, by means whereof they are liable to frequent rota- tions in military duty, whereby husbandry is in a great degree neglected and many of their fields lie open and uncultivated; that said inhabitants suffer much from a gang of villains who plunder their cattle and horses in the night; that their sufferings are greatly increased in consequence of an invasion of a large body of British and German troops under the command of General Tryon on the twenty-sixth day of February last, who together with a number of tories with their teams surprised and entered into said town when they stripped a large number of the inhabitants of every- thing they could lay their hands on, destroyed what they could not conveniently carry off, and in their retreat have collected and drove off all the cattle, sheep and swine they could find; that by repeated robberies and depredations committed by the enemy and their emissaries many fam- ilies formerly in comfortable circumstances are thereby reduced to want and distress; praying that a committee be
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
appointed to estimate the losses sustained by said inhabi- tants, occasioned aforesaid, and report make to some future Assembly, and also that the compassionate interposition of this Assembly may be extended to those individuals who cannot subsist without immediate relief." A committee was appointed and "directed to repair to Greenwich as soon as may be to estimate the losses of every individual in said town in consequence of the aforesaid hostile invasion of the enemy and report make to some future Assembly, that the real loss the unhappy sufferers have sustained by the desola- tions and ravages of the enemy may thereby be duly ascer- tained," and certify "to the selectmen of said town the names of those whom they shall judge proper objects of. immediate relief and the selectmen are hereby empowered to abate the taxes of such persons in part, or in whole, as the case may require. "
At the October Session, 1779, General John Mead, one of the representatives of the Town of Greenwich, showed to the Assembly "that the committee appointed by the General Assembly in May last, by the frequent incursions of the enemy in said town, have not been able to enquire into and estimate the damages done by the enemy there, and since that time the enemy has made sundry incursions into that town, whereby the good people of said town have been further greatly distressed and many rendered incapable of paying state taxes." A committee was appointed to abate the taxes of such individuals in part, or in whole, as in their opinion are proper subjects of such abatement.
It has, heretofore, been generally accepted as a fact, which the author has considered reliable until recently, that "among the most inveterate tories were a family by the name of Knapp, living in the place now called the Putnam Cottage." This house during the Revolutionary War was owned by Captain Israel Knapp, and kept as a tavern by him. He had two sons, Timothy and Israel; and five daughters, Mary, who married Stephen Mead, a Revolution- ary soldier; Elizabeth, never married; Hannah, who married
JOHN ELBERT WHITE, PROPRIETOR OF "YE GREENWICH SHOP," JEWELRY AND ART GOODS, BOROUGH OF GREENWICH. A DESCENDANT OF CAPTAIN ISRAEL KNAPP.
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Putnam Cottage-Knapp Family
Abraham Husted, a Revolutionary soldier; Amy, who died young; and Amy, who married Captain Jabez Fitch. Jabez Fitch was town clerk and registrar all through the Revolution- ary War and for many years thereafter, and also a Revolu- tionary soldier; Israel Knapp, Jr., was chosen one of the Committee of Safety for the year 1776; was one of the survey- ors of highways in 1787; was made a mason in Union Lodge at Stamford in 1780, and was its master from 1781 to 1785. Colonel Thomas Hobby of the Continental Army, when he drew his will on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1783, named Israel Knapp as one of his executors. It is not at all probable that Colonel Hobby would have a tory as one of his executors, nor the town a tory on its Committee of Safety, nor select a tory for one of its officers in 1787, nor Union Lodge elect a tory as its master.
Captain Israel Knapp was born on the thirteenth day of December, 1705. His will was admitted to probate at Stamford on the twenty-eighth day of August, 1783, and by it he gave the bulk of his estate, which he remained in undis- turbed possession of during the Revolutionary War, to his son Israel. There was, however, something the matter with his son Timothy, who was baptized as an adult on the seventeenth day of September, 1761, at Saint John's Epis- copal Church at Stamford, because when his father, Captain Israel Knapp, drew his will on the seventh day of June, 1777, he cut Timothy off with only a life estate in a farm of forty acres, for him and his wife Ruth, and after their death to their children; after making bequests to his widow and his other children, he devised all the rest, residue, and remainder of his estate to his son Israel. The farm left to Timothy and his wife during their lives was located on the westerly side of the Round Hill Road near the Howe Monument at Pecks- land. It is, therefore, evident that Timothy Knapp, who married Ruth, daughter of Thomas Close and Hannah Lyon, on the fourteenth day of September, 1757, by whom he had Mary, Thomas, Matthew, Ruth, Timothy, Israel, and Elizabeth, and his family were the tories, and the following
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incident related of his son Timothy, a lad of eighteen in 1777, corroborates this statement.
Timothy had been paying his attentions with a view to marrying a daughter of Mr. Titus Mead, then living in an old house near the corner of Mead Avenue and North Street, and on her refusing his hand, he proudly told her that she should yet speak to him, and he would in turn take no notice of her. This threat was verified in a more terrible way than he intended. Horses were the most valuable booty that the refugees could lay their hands on, and knowing that Mr. Mead kept a fine horse, which he every night led up the oaken stairs to his garret, Knapp with two of his brothers went to the house to take it. Mr. Mead had knowledge of their approach and stationed a man who was with him at a back window upstairs. It was at dusk, and when the three men had come to the door-step, after some words, Mr. Mead fired, the ball passing through the door and entering the heart of Timothy Knapp. Without waiting to see the result of the shot, his brothers ran off in an easterly direction; and at the same time the man stationed at the back window sprang out and ran with all his might. The remaining refugees, seeing him, and supposing it to be their brother, called out, "Run, Tim, run," which made him run the faster. At last, the daughter, opening the door and seeing Timothy lying there, asked him if he were badly hurt, but he made no answer and it was found that he was dead. She had spoken to him, and he had taken no notice of her. On finding that he was dead, word was sent to his family that his body was lying as it fell on the door-step. They paid no attention to the messenger, and after the body had lain there for a con- siderable length of time, Mr. Mead buried it in a lot belonging to the Knapps, in a pair of bars, where they must have driven over it in going in and out. Afterwards the family took up the body and buried it close by the house where he was shot, and his bones still rest there.
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