USA > New Jersey > Essex County > Newark > A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume I > Part 23
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" For further information as to the military organization of New Jersey in the War for Independence, see Stryker's Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey; and Lee's New Jersey as a Colony and a State, vol. ii.
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The diary was written by Miss Jemima Cundict, who with her family was a faithful member of the "Mountain Society" (First Presbyterian Church of Orange), of which the "fighting parson," the Rev. Jedidiah Chapman, was the pastor. Here are the extracts in the quaint spelling of a bright young woman who had manifestly few educational opportunities, although no doubt better equipped than most of the girls about her:
"Saterday, october first, 1774. It seams we have troublesome times a coming, for there is great Disturbance abroad in the carth, & they say it is tea that caused it. So then if they will Quarrel about such a trifling thing as that, what must we expect But war; and I think or at Least fear it will be so.
"A fast day. I went with my Cousins to hear Mr. Green [the minister at Hanover], & the words of his text was: the race is Not always to Swift, nor Battle to the Strong.
"Monday, which was called Training Day. I Rode with my Dear father Down to See them train, there Being Several Com- panyes met together. I thought it would be a mournful Sight to See, if they had been fighting in earnest & how soon they will be Called forth to the field of war we Cannot tell, for by What we can hear the Quarrels are not like to be made up without bloodshed. I have Jest Now heard Say that All hopes of Conciliation between Briten & her colonies are at an end, for both the King and his Parliament have announced our Destruction ; fleets and armies are Preparing with utmost diligence for that Purpose."
Miss Jemima and her father evidently went down to Newark to see the militia at their exercises, probably in Military Park.
"Monday, May first [1775] this Day I think is a Day of mourning, we have Word Come that the fleet is Coming into New- York also & to Day the Men of our town [Newark] is to have a general meeting to Conclude upon measures which may Be most Proper to Be taken; they have chosen men to act for them, & I hope the Lord will give them Wisdom to Conduct wisely and Prudently in all matters.
"May the 17, 1776, it was fast all over the Continent; & this was Mr. Chapman's Text on that Day, O thou that hearest Prayer, unto thee Shall all flesh come. Iniquities Prevail against me; 55 Psalm.
"August the 4th [1776] Did Mr. Chapman Preach his farewell Sermon & is gone out Chaplain to the army. His text on that Day was in the 13 Chapter of Corinthians, 11 verse: finally Brethren
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farewell; Be Perfect, be of good Comfort, be of one [mind] Live in Peace, & the God of Peace Shall Be with you; 2 Corinthians.
"August the 16th [1776] Then died Jared freeman. He was taken Sick at newyork among the Sogers & was brought home, & died soon after.
"September ye 12, 1777. on friday there was an alarm, our Militia was called. The Regulars Come over into elesabeth town, where they had a Brush with a Small Party of our People; then marched Quietly up to Newark; & took all the Cattle they Could. there was five of the militia of Newark they killed Samuel Crane, & took Zadock & Allen heady & Samuel freeman Prisnors. one out of five run and escapt. They went Directly up to Second River [Belleville] & on Saterday morning march up toward wadsesson [Bloomfield]. our People attackted them there, Where they had a Smart Scurmage. Some of our People got wounded there; but I Do Not Learn that any was killed. there was Several Killed of the regulars [British], but the Number is yet unascertained."
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CHAPTER XIV. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE-NEWARK AND ESSEX IN THE STRUGGLE. 1776-1777.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE-NEWARK AND ESSEX IN THE STRUGGLE. 1776-1777.
T HE British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, General Howe sailing out of Boston Harbor on that day, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. It had become plain enough to Wash- ington that the enemy's next campaign would be directed against New York and the Hudson and the immediate neighborhood, and no sooner had the redcoats left Boston than he began the movement of his forces to New York. The Hudson was to the War for Indepen- dence what the Mississippi was to the Civil War. The latter divided the Confederate States, and the former separated New England (the section chiefly responsible for the defiance of the Crown) and New York, from the other colonies. If the British could obtain absolute control of the Hudson, they could hope to destroy the insurrection in two sections. But the British allowed themselves to be diverted from the Hudson and ultimately the war failed. Grant steadfastly refused to take his mind off the conquest of the Mississippi in the Civil War, and the cause of the South crumbled.1
The first squadron of the British fleet, bearing a largely rein- forced army, arrived in New York harbor on July 3, 1776. Troops were landed on Staten Island and were paraded along the north shore. They made a demonstration near Elizabethtown Point which greatly alarmed all Essex County. On July 12, two of the British warships sailed up the North River all the way to the Tappan Zee, their progress being unavailingly contested by the Continental batteries upon both the New York and the New Jersey shores. The cannonading was heard in Newark and at Second River [Belleville] -almost the first sound of actual warfare to reach this region. (There were some trivial demonstrations by the Essex County folk
See Major General Francis Vinton Greene's "The Revolutionary War and the Military Policy of the United States," pp. 30-31.
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against the troops on Staten Island a few days before.) Having decided that New York was difficult of defense, Washington had entrenched part of his army on Long Island, and the disastrous battle of that name was fought on August 27. The city of New York was evacuated by the Americans on September 15, and the battle of Harlem Heights occurred on the following day. In this last encounter the Continentals, although defeated, showed far more spirit than in the disgraceful and panic-stricken retreat from Kip's Bay and New York. The Battle of White Plains, in which Wash- ington succeeded in blocking Howe's attempt to get in his rear and cut off his communications with New England, occurred on October 28. The last stand to be made on the New York side of the river was at Fort Washington, which the British captured on November 16. Three days later, the now sadly demoralized Americans gave up their stand at Fort Lee, and the "Flight through the Jerseys" was begun.
WASHINGTON'S INSTRUCTIONS TO ESSEX COUNTY FOLK.
In anticipation of the coming scourge, the following was issued by the Committee of Safety of Essex County to the people on November 10, 1776:
"The Committee of the county of Essex think it proper to inform the inhabitants of it, that they have received intelligence by letter from his Excellency, General Washington, at the White Plains, dated the 7th instant, that General Howe, with the army under his command, had retreated from that place, with an inten- tion, as he supposed, of sending a detachment of his troops into the Jerseys: The General therefore advises all those who live near the water, to be ready to move their stock, grain, carriages and other effects back into the country. He adds if it is not done, the calamities we must suffer will be beyond all description, and the advantages the enemy will receive immensely great. * The * article of forage is of great importance to them; not a blade, he says, should be left; what cannot without convenience be removed, must be consumed without the least hesitation.
"The Committee, taking into consideration the present alarming situation of this country, recommend it to all the inhabi- tants who live near the water, or the great roads leading through
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the country, to remove, as soon as possible, their stock of grain, hay, carriages and other effects, into some place of safety back into the country, that they may not fall into the enemy's hands."
There was at once a general movement toward the Orange Mountains from Newark and the neighboring hamlets.2 Newark's weakness in time of war was thus swiftly revealed. Being "near the water," it was then and is, of course, today, almost certain to be close to, if not actually upon, the "firing line" when this portion of the United States is invaded.
THE RETREAT; AS DESCRIBED AT THE TIME.
An excellent account of the beginning of the memorable "flight" was published in the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, January 29, 1777, and in reproducing it here the reader is furnished with the facts, first hand :
"As our force was inferior to that of the enemy, the fort [Lee] unfinished, and on a narrow neck of land, the garrison was ordered to march to Hackinsack, which, tho' much nearer the enemy than the fort, they quietly suffered our troops to take * possession of. * * Our troops continued at Hackinsack bridge and town that day and half of the next, when the inclem- ency of the weather, the want of quarters and approach of the enemy obliged them to proceed to Aquaconack [Passaic] and then to Newark ; a party being left at Aquaconack to observe the motions of the enemy.
"At Newark our little army was reinforced by Lord Sterling's and Col. Hand's brigades, which had been stationed at Brunswick. Three days after our troops left Hackinsack, a body of the enemy crossed the Passaic above Aquaconack, made their approaches slowly toward Newark, and seemed extremely desirous that we should leave the town without their being put to the trouble of fighting for it. The distance from Aquaconack to Newark is nine ** * * miles, and they were three days in marching that distance.
"This retreat was eensured by some as pusillanimous and dis- graceful, but did they know that our army was at one time less than a thousand effective men, and never more than 4,000,-that the
" Ferdinand Baker of this city said (In 1913) that his grandmother was among those who fled from Newark at the time the above instructions were issued. She drove out to Westfield with one horse and managed to keep one of the family's cows with her. That night she gave birth to a child, in Westfeld.
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number of the enemy was 8,000, exclusive of their artillery and light horse,-that this handfull of Americans retreated slowly above eighty miles [to the Delaware] without losing a dozen men, and that suffering themselves to be forced to an action would have been their intire destruction-did they know this, they would never have censured it all-they would have called it prudent-pos- terity will call it glorious-and the names of Washington and Fabius will run parallel to eternity."
This is a remarkably clear, comprehensive and far-seeing account of the "Flight through the Jerseys," which historians of succeeding generations have been able to improve upon but little. except in the matter of details.
SOLDIERS' APPEALS TO PATRIOTISM.
How dark the moment was, may be gathered from the following letter written from Newark, no doubt by a soldier, and published, on November 27, 1776, in the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser. There is also an intimation that Washington and his staff were contemplating a stand at Newark. This plan, if it really was seriously considered, was frustrated by the failure of Major- General Lee to obey Washington's urgent summons to join him here. The extract follows:
"You have no doubt heard all the particulars of our retreat from Fort Lee to Hackinsack, from Hackinsack to Aquackonack, and from thence to this place. Nothing material has happened in
the fighting way. * I believe the Generals intend to make * * a stand at this place. I hope these losses will rouse the virtue of America; if she does not exert herself now, she deserves not the independence she has declared. I have still hopes of success-I heard a great man say many months ago, that America would not purchase her freedom at so cheap a rate as was imagined-nor is it proper she should, what costs us little we do not value enough."
Two days later another soldier wrote, from Newark, the fol- lowing, which graphically expressed the feeling of the moment among the soldiers:
"I have just time enough to inform you that there is very good intelligence that the enemy intend to make a push for Philadelphia. We hear part of their force is embarked, either to go up the Delaware and make their attacks on both sides at once, or else to amuse the Southern States, and prevent their sending any assist- ance to Philadelphia; we have not force enough to oppose their
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march by land. We look to New Jersey and Pennsylvania for their militia, and on their spirit depends the preservation of America. If in this hour of adversity they shrink from danger, they deserve to be slaves indeed! If the freedom that success will ensure us, if the misery that waits our subjection, will not rouse them, why let them sleep on till they awake in bondage."
The above words, written in the stress and trial of a great emergency, are especially precious to us today. Alas, the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania militia did not rise to the emergency, nor for many days thereafter. They did not rally to the colors with the enthusiasm and the alacrity that the demands of the moment seemed to require. It was a period of the gravest concern for Washington and his official family. The Commander-in-Chief had grasped the extreme seriousness of the situation from the moment of landing upon Jersey soil. One of the most despondent letters that he penned during the entire war was written to his brother, Augustine Washington, when about to continue the retreat from Hackensack to Newark. He writes as a strong man, thoughtless of self, but all but powerless to overcome the mighty difficulties that seem to hem him in on every side. So far as he could see, the cause of the people was all but lost, although he was careful not to reveal his actual feelings to those around him. The letter to his brother follows:
WASHINGTON FEARS THE WORST. "Hackinsac, 19 November, 1776. "Dear Brother,
* * * It is a matter of great grief and surprise to me to find the different States so slow and inattentive to that essential business of levying their quotas of men. In ten days from this date, there will not be above two thousand men, if that number, of the fixed established regiments on this side of Hudson's River to oppose Howe's whole army, and very little more on the other to secure the eastern colonies and the important passes leading through the Highlands to Albany, and the country about the Lakes.
"In short, it is impossible for me, in the compass of a letter, to give you any idea of our situation, of my difficulties, and of the constant perplexities and mortifications I meet with, derived from the unhappy policy of short enlistments and delaying them too long.
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Last fall, or winter, before the army, which was then to be raised. was set about, I represented in clear, explicit terms the evils, which would arise from short enlistments, the expense which must attend the raising of an army every year, the futility of such an army when raised; and, if I had spoken with a prophetic spirit, I could not have foretold the evils with more accuracy than I did. All the year since I have been pressing Congress to delay no time in engaging men upon such terms as would ensure success, telling them the longer it was delayed the more difficult it would prove. But the measure was not commenced till it was too late to be effected, and then in such a manner, as to bid adieu to every hope of getting an army from which any services are to be expected; the different States, without regard to the qualifications of an officer, quarrelling about the appointments, and nominating such as are not fit to be shoe blacks, from the local attachments of this or that members of the Assembly.
"I am wearied almost to death with the retrograde motion of things, and I solemnly protest, that for a pecuniary reward of twenty thousand pounds a year I would not undergo what I do; and after all, perhaps, to lose my character, as it is impossible, under such a variety of distressing circumstances, to conduct matters agreeably to public expectation, or even to the expectation of those who employ me, as they will not make proper allowances for the difficulties their own errors have occasioned."
Washington gave many other evidences of his gloomy appre- hensions for the future because of the lack of the proper co-opera- tion of Congress and of the governments of the states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in his private correspondence. Less than a month after the above letter was penned he wrote to Lund Washington, as follows:
"A large part of the Jerseys have given every proof of dis- affection that they can do, and this part of Pennsylvania are wholly inimical. In short, your imagination can scarcely extend to a situa- tion more distressing than mine. Our only dependence now is upon the speedy enlistment of a new army. If this fails, I think the game will be pretty nearly up, as from disaffection and want of spirit and fortitude, the inhabitants, instead of resistance, are offer- ing submission and taking protection from Gen. Howe in Jersey." 3
3 On November 23, Washington wrote to Congress, from Newark, as
follows: "I expected on coming here to have met with many of the militia but find from inquiry that there are not more than from four to five hundred at the different posts. The situation of our affairs is truly critical and such as requires uncommon exertions on our part."
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"THE CONDUCT OF THE JERSEYS HAS BEEN MOST INFAMOUS."
On the very day after he wrote the above letter, Washington further outlined the conditions in a letter to his brother, Augustine Washington :
"But we are now in a very disaffected part of the Province [Pennsylvania] ; and between you and me, I think our affairs are in a very bad situation ; not so much from the apprehension of Gen. Howe's army, as from defection of New York, the Jerseys, and Pennsylvania. In short, the conduct of the Jerseys has been most infamous. Instead of turning out to defend their country, & affording aid to our army, they are making their submissions as fast as they can. If the Jerseys had given us any support we might have made a good stand at Hackinsac, and after that at Brunswick; but the few militia that were in arms disbanded them- selves & left the poor remains of our army to make the best they could of it."
These letters do not place New Jersey in an enviable light; they were written when Washington was deeply moved and disap- pointed, to find his confidence in the people misplaced. Those were bitter days for him and for the officers and men around him, who had endured all manner of hardships, giving away slowly before greatly superior numbers, making their way into a country where they had every reason to believe they would meet with spirited and generous assistance, only to find the Jersey folk panic stricken and despairing of the cause. This is not a pleasant phase of New Jersey history for us of today to contemplate, but we must remember that the people of this State had not yet "found them- selves," and that disaster after disaster had crowded so rapidly one upon the other that nearly everyone had come to believe the cause of independence practically lost. Later Washington was to commend Jersey troops for their valor on the field of battle.
BETWEEN THE HACKENSACK AND PASSAIC.
On November 19, Washington wrote to the President of Congress, from Hackensack, as follows, after the retreat across the Iludson and the abandonment of Fort Lee:
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"We lost the whole of the cannon that was at the Fort, except two twelve pounders, and a good deal of baggage-between two and three hundred tents, about a thousand barrels of flour and other stores in the Quarter Master's department. This loss was inev- itable. As many of the stores has been removed as circumstances and time would admit of; the Ammunition had been happily got away. Our present situation between Hackensac and Passaic Rivers being exactly similar to our late one [at Harlem and later at White Plains], and our force here by no means adequate to an oppo- sition that will promise the smallest probability of success, we are taking measures to retire over the waters of the latter, where the best disposition will be formed that circumstances will permit of."
Still at Hackensack, on November 21, Washington wrote to Major General Charles H. Lee, his second in command, then on the east side of the Hudson, in the Highlands, as follows:
"But as this country is almost a dead flat, and we have not an intrenching tool, and not above three thousand men, and they much broken and dispirited, not only with our ill success, but the loss of their tents and baggage, I have resolved to avoid any attack, though by so doing I must leave a very fine country open to their ravages, or a plentiful storehouse from which they will draw voluntary supplies."
In this letter Washington advised, although careful not to command, that Lee cross to the west side of the river and assist him in making as formidable a demonstration as possible, since he was satisfied that the enemy were shifting the seat of war to the Jersey territory and "this country will therefore expect the Conti- mental army to give them what support they can. It is * therefore of the utmost importance, that at least an appearance of force should be made, to keep this province in the connexion with the others."
CORNWALLIS'S DELAY THE PATRIOTS' SALVATION.
Up to the evacuation of Fort Lee General Howe had pushed the campaign with vigor. He was now prepared to go into winter quarters and it was left to Cornwallis to complete what the British expected would be the complete annihilation of the "rebellion," which had been dealt so many sledge hammer blows in a few
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months that little life remained to be crushed out. Cornwallis, accordingly took his time. Washington retreated from Hackinsack and proceeded with haste across the flats to the Passaic, to Acquack- anonck, whose site, in the city of Passaic, is now marked with a suitable memorial. With his guns, Cornwallis could have harried the flying Americans terribly, and Washington is believed to have been fearfully exercised for fear the last remaining fragments of his little army would be dispersed by a swiftly pursuing foe flushed with the success of a series of victories. Had Washington been in Cornwallis's place there would have been little left of the latter's army by the time it reached the Passaic river bridge.
THE ARMY IN NEWARK.
This was the first, and at that time the only, bridge over the Passaic below the Passaic Falls. Washington crossed it on November 21, 1776, had all his forces safely over it on the morning of the 22d, and burned it immediately after. He no doubt breathed a sigh of relief when the flames arose from the structure, which was then upwards of fifteen years' old. There was no sign of a British advance, and the army proceeded down the river, in three divisions, it is believed, two being sent westward and into camp at what are now Glen Ridge and Montclair, forming the army's left wing; the third accompanying Washington into Newark.' The sick and wounded, those whom the army brought with it and possibly those that were removed to the town after the battle of Long Island, were moved still further into the hills, to Morristown. The route was probably along Second River, thence to Bloomfield by Franklin street, over the mountain and along what is now Bloomfield avenue, thence through Caldwell, to the Whippany river and by this route into Morristown." Thus the possible but less probable route was through Orange to Livingston, Hanover and Whippany.
' Wickes' "History of the Oranges," p. 171.
" By order of Washington of September, 1776, a general hospital was established in Newark with provisions for a thousand patients under the direet charge of Dr. Foster, Deputy Director General of Hospitals east of the Hudson, and Dr. William Burnet, of Newark, who was Physician Gen-
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These facts make it clear enough that Washington already had Morristown in mind as a final citadel of defense, where, if worst came to worst, he would make his last stand. Before resorting to this desperate measure it is clear that he hoped to make a stand at or near Newark, at least until General Lee's forces should arrive. Something of his military genius is shown by his disposition of the three divisions as already described. Should he succeed in luring Cornwallis to turn westward from the Passaic and pursue the two divisions in Glen Ridge and Montclair, they might have drawn the British further and further into the hilly section of Morris county, partly with the hope of destroying the "rebel" troops, and partly with a determination to root out the Ford powder mills at Morris- town, which were furnishing much of that essential to the American army. In case this strategy proved successful, in whole or in part, Washington, with the remaining division in Newark, would no doubt have proceeded to Morristown by way of what are now Clinton and Springfield avenues, through the Short Hills. He had then, too, every reason to expect that Major General Charles Lee would by the time Cornwallis was well up in the hills be close at hand. Had all this eventuated, Cornwallis would have received far rougher treatment than he did at Princeton a few weeks later.
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