USA > Maryland > Chronicles of colonial Maryland, with illustrations > Part 22
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crush it, as they had done Sullivan's unfortunate army. The situation was terrible, but Stirling did not lose his self-posses- sion. The remnant of Sullivan's forces were endeavoring to escape through the morasses and thickets, and dense masses were crowding the dam at Freeke's mill. Many were shot while struggling through the mud and water; and it is not im- probable that some were drowned".
"Forming hurriedly on ground in the vicinity of Fifth ave- nue and Tenth street, the light column advanced along the Gowanus road into the jaws of battle with unwavering front. Artillery plowed their fast thinning ranks with the awful bolts of war; infantry poured its volley of musket balls in almost solid sheets of lead upon them, and from the adjacent hills the deadly Hessian Jagers sent swift messengers of death into many a manly form.
"At the head of this devoted band marched their general, to whom even victory had now become less important than an honorable death, which might purchase the safe retreat of his army. Amid all the terrible carnage of the hour there was no hurry, no confusion, only a grim despair, which their cour- age and self-devotion dignified into martyrdom. The advance bodies of the enemy were driven back upon the Cortelyou house, now become a formidable redoubt, from the windows of which the leaden hail thinned the patriot ranks as they ap- proached. Lord Cornwallis hurriedly brought two guns into position near one corner of the house, and added their canister and grape to the tempest of death".
"At last the little column halted, powerless to advance in the face of this murderous fire, yet disdaining to retreat with the disgrace of a flight. Again and again these self-devoted heroes closed their ranks over the bodies of their dead com- rades, and still turned their faces to the foe. But the limit of human endurance had for the time been reached, and the shattered column was driven back. Their task was not, how- ever, yet fully performed".
"As Stirling looked across the salt meadows, away to the scene of the late struggle at Buckie's Barracks, and saw the
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confused masses of his countrymen crowding the narrow cause- way over Freek's mill-pond, or struggling through the muddy tide-stream, he felt how precious to their country's liberty were the lives of his retreating soldiers, and he again nerved himself for a combat which he knew could only prove a sacrifice. Once more he called upon the survivors of the previous dreadful as- sault, and again the noble young men gathered around their General. How sadly he must have looked upon them-scarcely more than boys-so young, so brave, and to meet again the pitiless iron hail !"
"The impetus and spirit of this charge carried the battalion over every obstacle quite to the house. The gunners were driven from their battery, and Cornwallis seemed about to abandon the position ; but the galling fire from the interior of the house, and from the adjacent high ground, with the overwhelming numbers of the enemy who were now approaching, again com- pelled a retreat".
"Three times more the survivors rallied, flinging themselves upon the constantly re-enforced ranks of the enemy; but the combat, so long and so unequally sustained, was now hastening to its close. A few minutes more of this destroying fire and two hundred and fifty-six of the noble youth of Maryland were either prisoners in the hands of the enemy or lay side by side in that awful mass of dead and dying. The sacrifice had been accomplished, and the flying army had been saved from com- plete destruction. Amid the carnage Stirling was left almost alone, and scorning to yield himself to a British subject, he sought the Hessian General De Heister, and only to him would he surrender his sword".
* "On the shore of Gowanus Bay sleep the remains of this noble band. Out upon the broad surface of the level marsh rose a little island of dry ground, then and long after covered with trees and undergrowth. Around this mound, scarcely an acre in extent, clustered a few of the survivors of the fatal field and of the remorseless swamp, and here the heroic dead were brought, and laid beneath its sod, after the storm of bat-
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tle had swept by. Tradition says that all the dead of the Mary- land and Delaware battalions, who fell on and near the meadow, were buried in this miniature island, which promised at that day the seclusion and sacred quiet which befit the resting place of the heroic dead. Third avenue intersects the westerly end of the mound; and Seventh and Eighth streets indicate two of its sides".
"The very dust of these streets are sacred, " for far below "lies the dust of those brave boys who found death easier than flight, and gave their lives to save their countrymen". "And our busy hum of commerce, our grading of city lots, our specula- tions in houses reared on the scene of such noble valor, and over the mouldering forms of these young heroes, seem almost sacrilege"; * * "but that cannot rob the nation of the sad, sweet thought: 'She is Maryland, OUR Maryland'. Her dead on the field of battle are our dead. Her fame and her glory are our own pride and our rejoicing".
To those patriotic heroes, sons of Maryland, let it be said: The sacrifice which you made at Long Island, you did not make in vain. An hour more precious to American Liberty than any other in your country's history, there you gained. In the sublimeness of that hour you saved the army of your coun- try from the jaws of destruction which were fast closing around it, and you thereby left the way still open for your country's freedom. Sacred forever be thy memory, and hal- lowed be the spot where now you rest.
On Long Island, and within the shadows of its battle ground now stands a massive granite shaft, erected on August 27th, 1895, by the Maryland Society of the Sons of The American Revolution, to commemorate forever the superb ac- tion and the matchless valor of the Maryland Line in this crisis, this turning point in the great struggle for American freedom, and to "mark the spot for all time, where lay the ashes of that Immortal Band of heroes who were willing to die that the cause of liberty might live, and in honor of Maryland's 400, who on this battlefield, on August 27, 1776, saved the Ameri- can Army".
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Washington was in command of the New York division of the army, and not knowing when the city would be attacked by the British fleet, could not absent himself from that impor- tant post of duty. He did, however, risk the time on the 24th, to personally inspect the conditions on L'ong Island, and on the 26th to confer with General Putnam, who had just been put in command to relieve General Green who was ill with fever. On the 27th also, as soon as he knew the battle was on, he hurried over to Long Island with re-inforcements, but be- fore he reached there, Howe's girdle around the army had been formed and he could not have gotten within the lines even if he had possessed the temerity to attempt it, and the presump- tion to suppose that he could save the day. But from Conical Hill, beyond the lines, he could plainly see the awful catastro- phe and how his men were surrounded and slaughtered. He was deeply touched, and wringing his hands exclaimed, "Great God, what brave fellows I must lose this day"!
While exulting over a supposed victory, General Howe had not yet attained his object, and he never did. He had not captured the American Army on Long Island, but had simply driven it within its lines. Instead of following up his vantage ground and promptly storming the American works, now in a state of almost helpless confusion, he ignored this golden mo- ment of opportunity, and let slip by him a more than hopeful chance to end the war with a single blow. The long march the night before, and the severe fighting that day, made him and his men feel in need of rest and they determined to take it and let the storming go over to another day. Washington, assuming that of course, it would come the following day, brought over re-inforcements from New York, increasing his army to 10,000 men and otherwise preparing himself for it. Though exhausted by the terrific fighting of the day before, the Maryland Line was again called into requisition and placed on duty, with some Pennsylvania and Massachusetts troops, to guard the entrenched lines, a position which they main- tained throughout the day and night. But the storming still did not come. Washington now concluded that, being wedged
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in on Long Island by the British Army on the land side and the British Navy on the water side, he had better try to effect a retreat. This was a perilous undertaking and a most diffi- cult feat, the enemy on both sides being only a few hundred yards away, and that it was successfully accomplished, marks the event as a most notable military achievement. Collecting every craft and boat available for the purpose, he selected the expert Gloucester and Marblehead fishermen and sailors from Glover's Massachusetts regiment, to man them. To Small- wood's Maryland, the Pennsylvania battalions of Shea and Magaw and Haslett's Delaware troops were assigned the duty of covering the retreat. At eight o'clock on the night of the 29th, the boats were brought over and the embarkation was started as quietly as possible. All night long the Gloucester and Marblehead men, with muffled oars, were plying to and fro, the waters of the East river, conveying the patriot soldiers and their stores from Long Island to New York. By seven in the morning, the seemingly impossible task had been per- formed, and without the loss of a man or gun, and Long Island was as completely bereft of the American Army and its mun- iments of war, as if it had never been occupied. The troops covering the retreat were the last to embark, and they, with Washington, who personally superintended the entire move- ment, and who was the last man to leave the ground, were half way across the river and beyond range of both land and naval forces, before the British became aware of what had taken place. The night was cloudless and bright, but a heavy fog hung over the river in the morning and also on the even- ing before, when preparations were being made, and which materially aided in conceiling the movement, but that an army of 10,000 men, its stores, cannon, horses and all accoutrements, could have been so skillfully and noiselessly moved from the entrenchments and across the river without attracting the attention of a single sentinel, either on land or water, when both were so close at hand, was indeed nothing short of a marvel in military strategy. In his report to Congress, Washington said : "He had scarcely been out of the line from the 27th until
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the morning of the evacuation, and for the forty-eight hours preceding, he had hardly been off of his horse and had never closed his eyes".
Shortly after landing in New York, the Maryland Line was ordered to Harlem Heights to protect the military stores, the most of which had been sent to that point. Keenly realiz- ing that New York could not be held against such a large army and powerful fleet, Washington decided upon its evacu- ation. This was at once commenced, and on the 13th of Sep- tember the main body of the army moved to Harlem, then about ten miles distant, but now well within the city limits, Washington occupying as his headquarters there, the splendid but deserted mansion of Colonel Roger Morris, a loyalist, who with his family had fled. A rear guard of 4,000 men, under Putnam, was left to garrison the city. On the 15th, a part of the British fleet sailed up the Hudson, and under its cover, a large force was landed at Kips Bay to take the city. Washington, hearing the cannonading, hurried to the scene and to his horror and disgust met the troops placed there to guard the landing panic stricken, and fleeing in every direc- tion and, in the greatest confusion. The thought of his respon- sibility to his country and his reputation as a General resting upon men displaying such cowardice and want of military bearing, drove him into a state of despair amounting almost to desperation. But it was a critical moment and he must be equal to its exigencies. The British had been permitted to land, and it would be easy to completely cut off Putnam's re- treat from the city, and no time must be lost. Putnam was ordered to leave New York immediately, and a messenger was hurriedly dispatched for Smallwood to bring down the Mary- land Line and cover the retreat. The order was promptly carried out and the retreat was successfully made. In this, Putnam was materially aided by a cleverly executed ruse of Mrs. Lindley Murray, who extended the hospitality of "Mur- ray Hill" that day to General Howe and some of his officers. The unsuspecting Howe fell into the trap, and while thus being "dined and wined", a general halt was ordered. This gave
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Putnam more than an hour of respite and safety, and yet, the position of the Maryland Line was perilous in the extreme, for though delayed, the retreat was discovered in time for ser- ious trouble for the Maryland troops, a mere hand full, as com- pared to the enemy. A determined effort was made to flank and surround them. This was happily averted, and Smallwood held his ground until the last of Putnam's 4000 men had passed, when he ordered a retreat and the Maryland Line was soon safely within the lines of Harlem.
The next morning a detachment of British made its ap- pearance at Harlem in front of the American line. Vir- ginia and Connecticut troops were sent out to get in the rear and cut the enemy off from the main body of the army, but before this could be done, the British were heavily re-in- forced. The Maryland troops, Colonels Richardson's and Griffith's regiments, and Price's rifle company were now ad- vanced to the scene of action. The battle lasted about an hour. and again the Maryland men behaved with great gallantry. Three times the enemy was dislodged, and was being driven from the field, when moving too closely to the enemy's lines, Washington ordered their recall. Of the action of the Mary- land men on this occasion, Washington, in his letter to Con- gress on the 18th of September, says: "These troops charged the enemy with great intrepidity, and drove them from the woods into the plain, and were pushing them from thence, having silenced their fire in a great measure, when I judged it prudent to order a retreat". The loss in the battle of Harlem was sixty Americans and three hundred British.
Howe now moved about nine miles above Harlem, with a view of striking at the American rear and cutting off its supplies from New England. But the strategy of Washing- ton was again to be met. The only bridge over which Howe could cross the creek at Frog Neck, the point of destination, Washington had destroyed, thus delaying Howe several days. Availing himself of this delay and knowing that he might be surrounded by the enemy, now more powerful than ever by the arrival of another instalment of Hessians, Washington
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slipped away from Harlem and entrenched himself at White Plains, about thirteen miles distant, and a more formidable position.1 The British promptly followed, and on the 28th, was fought the spirited battle of Chatterton Hill, commonly known as White Plains, but which in fact was across the river from the American encampment. General McDougall, with 1,600 men, including Smallwood's Maryland, was in charge of this outpost, and against him the attack was made. Shortly after the fight commenced, the "Massachusetts troops fled in confusion without firing scarcely a random shot". Soon the entire brigade followed, except the Maryland Line and a New York regiment, which were left alone on the field. For half an hour these deserted troops displayed great steadiness and courage, and, "twice repulsed the enemy horse and foot". Against such immense odds, it was deemed unwise to take further risk, and a retreat was ordered. Putnam had been advanced to the support of MacDougall, but when he reached there the battle was over and the enemy was in control of the hill. The British lost 229 and the Americans 140 men. General Smallwood, who conducted himself with great gallantry, was twice wounded and the loss to his battalion was over a hundred killed and wounded. Washington spent that night in strength- ening his fortification and giving them the appearance of strength which they did not really possess. In front of the enemy, this was partly done with corn stalks pulled up by the roots, in laying which, the roots and earths were placed on the outside. This completely deceived Howe and looked to him so formidable, that he concluded to defer an attack until he could get re-inforcements. Another opportunity lost by the overly cautious Howe. Washington, knowing that North Castle, five miles away, was practically unassailable, that night quietly moved his army and stores there and secured them safely within the lines of that strong position. Howe bitterly realizing that he had been outwitted by the resourceful Amer-
1 On the night of the 21st, Maryland and Delaware troops were sent out to surprise the "Queen's Rangers". Eighty were killed and captured. The spoils were 60 stands of arms, provisions and clothing.
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ican General, and that he could not risk an attack on North Castle, changed his plan of operations and moved away, re- turning down the Hudson as far as Dobbs Ferry. By this time Stirling and Sullivan, who had been taken at Long Island, were back with the army, the former having been exchanged for Governor Brown and the latter for General Prescott, both of whom had been captured some months before.
Washington, now fearing that Howe's next move would be against Fort Washington, ordered Green to remove his stores and garrison there, and also to evacuate Fort Lee, on the oppo- site side of the river. They were no longer important as mili- tary posts ; were very much exposed, being assailable on three sides from the water, and too small to be sufficiently garrisoned to hold them. But Congress thought differently, and took upon itself the responsibility of directing Green to main- tain them, which, as might have been expected, proved to be a most unwise and disastrous decision. The American com- mander, who in the meantime had been busy distributing his forces, did not know of the action of Congress until his return on the 14th of November, ten days after he had issued the or- der to evacuate, and which he supposed had been done. It was then too late to ignore the order of Congress and to have his own carried out, at least as to Fort Washington, for Howe's fleet arrived that evening ready to storm it. The next morning he demanded its surrender, which the veteran Colonel Magaw, who was in command, declined to do. He was supported by Colonel Rawlings, with his now famous Maryland and Virginia regiments of riflemen, though reduced then to 274 men, and by Colonel Calwalader with his Pennsylvania regiment, in all about 2,600 men. Howe advanced 5,000 Hessians, under Knyphausen to attack Rawlings, Cornwallis and Percy were to direct their energies upon other quarters, all to be supple- mented by a general assault, both from the land and the water. It was a desperately hot encounter, lasting about two hours. Magaw and Calwalader were ultimately driven in, but Raw- lings, who was stationed on an eminence just beyond the lines, heroically held his ground. He continued to pour such a mur-
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derous fire upon the Hessians that they were twice repulsed. At last by sheer force of overwhelming numbers, and having no support, he too, after receiving a severe bullet wound, was compelled to retreat within the lines, but not until it had "cost Knyphausen 800 men to force the single regiment of Rawlings back". Magaw, seeing that further resistance was useless, sur- rendered. This was a most distressing blow to the cause of independence, for besides its far reaching moral effect, the Americans lost valuable arms and stores and had to give up 2,500 men. The British lost about 1,200 men and the Ameri- cans about 150, killed and wounded. Howe determined now to capture Fort Lee, and to that end, dispatched 5,000 men un- der Cornwallis, but this move he put off for two days, by which time Washington had the fort evacuated and had the garrison with him in New Jersey.
The ranks of the Maryland Line had now become badly thinned, and many of its men unfit for duty. In less than two months they had borne the brunt of three hotly contested bat- tles, each of which being at such close range that they charged the enemy with fixed bayonets, the first revolutionary troops to thus meet the British veterans face to face. On these troops Washington had confidently relied, and that so many of them had fallen, added gloom to a situation which he regarded with extreme apprehension and despondency. His army was half clothed, poorly armed, much discouraged and greatly reduced, and with the time of many of the enlisted men about to expire, still heavier encroachments upon its ranks would soon be made. To add still further to his troubles, much sectional feeling had sprung up in the army, or as Washington deploringly described it, "unhappy and pernicious distinctions and jealousies" existed between the troops of the different States. The remarkable deportment of many of the New England troops made them objects of derision and scorn among the Southern brethren, in arms, and the equipment, discipline and conduct of the South- ern troops generally, and especially the steady bearing and splendid achievement of the Maryland men at Long Island, Kips Bay, Harlem Heights and White Plains, as contrasted
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with the crude soldiery qualities of many of the Northern men, and the cowardice of some of them, excited on their part a feeling of chagrin as to themselves, spite toward the Southern troops, and a jealousy, which meant nothing less than a deep sectional antipathy.
The spirit of peculation too, which was in evidence in that branch of the army, was a source of the keenest annoyance to Washington, for apart from its moral aspect, he regarded it as a serious element of weakness to the entire service. Gray- don says: "The sordid spirit of gain, was the vital principle of the greater part of the army, the only exceptions I recollect to have seen to these miserably constituted bands from New England, was the regiment of Glover, from Marblehead". To this Gordon, another writer of the times, adds : "It is a mortify- ing truth that some of the Massachusetts officers disgraced the colony by practicing the meanest acts of peculation. Every subtlety that avarice can invent, or rascality carry on, are used to cheat the public, by men who procured commissions, not to fight for the liberties of their country, but to prey upon its dis- tresses". General Smallwood, in his report to the Maryland Council of Safety, October 17th, 1776, in referring to the flight of the Connecticut troops from Kips Bay, where he was afterwards sent to cover the retreat of Putnam from New York, says: "I have scarce an officer, myself included, or soldier, who did not lose more or less of their baggage, pillaged by these runaways. Indeed I believe many of them never had any other views than flight and plunder, at both of which they are extremely dextrous I have since stripped from these patroons several of our soldiers coats, and had them severely scourged. Supplementing all this, is the letter of Washington from Camp Cambridge, in which he says: "The people of this (Massachusetts) government have obtained a character which they, by no means deserve ; their officers, gen- erally speaking, are the most indifferent kind of people I ever saw. I have already broke one colonel and five captains for cowardice and for drawing more pay and provision than they had men in their companies, and there are two more colonels now under arrest and to be tried for the same offense".
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Under these deplorable and discouraging conditions, Wash- ington commenced his masterly retreat through New Jersey, his destination being Philadelphia, then the seat of the Conti- nental Congress, and which Howe was next to attack. Stir- ling's brigade, composed in part of the Maryland Line, cov- ered the retreat, and a perilous post it was, as Cornwallis, with 8,000 men, was in hot pursuit and at very close range-so close indeed, that several times just after a bridge had been crossed and destroyed, the advance force of the enemy was on the other shore of the stream. He was then pursuing the Amer- ican commander with the full expectation of effecting his cer- tain capture. Washington, after a march of ten days, on the 2nd of December, reached Trenton, where he concluded to place the waters of the Delaware between him and the enemy. The stores and baggage were promptly moved across, but to pro- tect Stirling, who had covered the retreat, and who was then being fiercely pursued, he remained at Trenton until Stir- ling arrived on the 8th, when the whole army crossed, the last boats reaching the Pennsylvania shore just as Cornwallis marched into Trenton. There he was completely checked, for the wary Washington had collected every boat and craft on the Jersey side of the river for a distance of thirty miles, in each direction, and had them with him on the Pennsyl- vania shore. While Cornwallis was debating and deploring his situation, General Howe arrived and settled the question by ordering the army to be distributed along the banks of the river between Trenton and Princeton and wait until the river froze over hard enough to cross-a freeze that did not come.
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