A History of the city of Newark, New Jersey : embracing practically two and a half centuries, 1666-1913, Volume I, Part 24

Author: Urquhart, Frank J. (Frank John), 1865- 4n; Lewis Historical Publishing Company. 4n
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: New York, N.Y. ; Chicago, Ill. : The Lewis Historical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1186


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 24


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But Cornwallis delayed until the Continentals were gone. He sent small detachments to Bloomfield, Glen Ridge and Orange after Washington had left Newark, to prey upon the country.


Just how Washington disposed the division accompanying him while in Newark, is not known. It is probable that he had his headquarters in the Eagle Tavern, a little to the north of the north


eral. The following buildings were used: Trinity Episcopal Church, First Presbyterian Church at Branford place, the Court House adjoining the church, and the Academy on Washington Park. The Newark hospital was maintained intermittently throughout the greater part of the war. It is stated, although not clearly proven, that Dr. Burnet set up and conducted a hospital in Newark in 1775. One physician recommended Newark as suitable for the location of a hospital .in the following: . "I am persuaded it is a place infinitely superior in all respects for the establishment of a General Hospital. There are but four miles of land carriage required; all the rest is water carriage. The houses are numerous and convenient." The smallpox made serlous ravages among the troops, and early in 1777 Wash- ington ordered the soldiers inoenlated. See Wickes' "History of Medicine and Medical Men in New Jersey," pp. 66, 67, 68.


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corner of Broad and William streets, and that he was often in con- ference with Dr. Macwhorter, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, whose parsonage was near the southern corner. There are some reasons for thinking that the division itself, part of it at least, was camped along the High street ridge. Many of the men were probably quartered upon the townspeople. There were about 140 dwellings in Newark at that time.


WASHINGTON'S LETTERS TO LEE FROM NEWARK.


On every one of the five days that Washington was in Newark, he wrote to Lee to bring his army near to him, sending his missives by despatch riders. If he had any inkling of Lee's duplicity at that time he gives no evidence of it in his writing. As for Lee, he played fast and loose with the commander-in-chief, all the while working through members of Congress who were favorable to him, and through other sources, to have himself made head of the army. Just before leaving Newark, Washington wrote to Lee, on November 27:


"Dear Sir,


"I last night received the favor of your letter of the 25th. My former letters were so full and explicit, as to the necessity of your marching as early as possible, that it is unnecessary to add more on that head. I confess I expected you would be sooner in motion. The force here, when joined with yours, will not be adequate to any great opposition. At present it is weak, and it has been more owing to the badness of the weather, that the enemy's progress has been checked, than to any resistance we could make. They are now


" Fifty years ago one tradition had it that Washington made his head- quarters in the building known as "Cockloft Hall" in what is now Mt. Pleasant avenue, at Gouverneur street, and later made famous by Washing- ton Irving. But it is to be doubted if any buildings standing there then would have been suitable. Another location sometimes given was the private residence on the southwest corner of what are now Washington street (then the "West Back street") and Court street. This house was burned by the British shortly after Washington left Newark, which fact is repeatedly mentioned in old records, while there is not the slightest intimation in these records that Washington had occupied it. Forty or so years ago there were old Newarkers still living who remembered that the Eagle Tavern was called "Washington's Headquarters" when they were young. The tavern was a two-story stone structure with wooden outhouses.


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pushing this way ; part of 'em have passed the Passaic. Their plan is not entirely unfolded, but I shall not be surprised if Philadelphia should turn out the object of their movement. The distress of the troops for want of clothes I feel much ; but what can I do" ?


THE ARMY'S WISH TO REMAIN IN NEWARK.


In a letter to the President of Congress from New Brunswick, on November 30, Washington said: "On Thursday morning I left Newark and arrived here yesterday with the troops that were there. It was the opinion of all the generals that were with me, that a retreat to this place was requisite, and founded in necessity, as our force was by no means sufficient to make a stand, with the least probability of success, against an enemy much superior in numbers, and whose advanced guards were entering the town [Newark] by the time our rear got out. It was the wish of all to have remained there longer, and to have halted before we came thus far; but, upon due consideration of our strength, the circumstances attending the enlistment of our little force, and the frequent advices that the enemy were embarking or about to embark another detachment for Staten Island, with a view of landing at Amboy to co-operate with


' Writing of Lee, in his "The Revolutionary War and the Military Policy of the United States," Major General Greene says, (pp. 64-65) : "The succession of disasters and retreats, from Long Island to White Plains and from Fort Washington to Newark, filled his traitor's mind with the thought that perhaps people would be induced to believe that Congress had made a mistake in the selection of a commander-in-chief sixteen months before, and that a soldier who had seen service under the King of England, the King of Poland and the Empress of Russia might be selected as his successor. Ile was therefore in no hurry to join Washington; to the latter's repeated instructions to hasten his march he returned frivolous replies, meanwhile writing to his friends, Reed, Rush and Gates, wondering if Washington was such a great man as had been thought. Finally, however, Washing- ton's orders became so imperative that he dared not disobey, and he put his command in motion ten days after he had received the first order. He crossed the Hudson at King's Ferry (Stony Point-Verplanck's Point), and had to make a detour by way of Morristown in order to avoid Cornwallis. He marched as slowly as possible-40 miles in 8 days-and one night, while sleeping at a tavern at Basking Ridge, he was captured by Cornwallis's dragoons and carried a prisoner to Howe."


"Thus, through the villainy of this traitor in the camp, Washington actually lost more men, so far as their present use was concerned at this critical moment, than he had been deprived of by all the blows the enemy had dealt him since the beginning of the campaign."-John Fiske's "Amer- ican Revolution," vol. i, p. 260.


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this [Cornwallis' then in Washington's rear] * it was judged necessary to proceed till we came here, not only to prevent their bringing a force to act upon our front and rear, but also that we might be more convenient to oppose any troops they might land at South Amboy, which may be conjectured to be the object they had in view."


THE "TIMES THAT TRY MEN'S SOULS."


Some writers are inclined to believe that Thomas Paine, who accompanied Washington during his retreat through New Jersey, wrote that never-to-be-forgotten sentence, "These are the times that try men's souls,"" while in Newark. The experience of the army while here at least had much to do with making the historic utter- ance possible, even if it were not penned until two or three weeks later. The words apply with great force to the sad straits the army was in at that time. The soldiers were departing for their homes in droves, their terms of enlistment having expired. What induce- ment was there for any but the hardiest and most optimistic to re-enlist? Everybody knew that the cause of independence was then trembling in the balance. Congress was unable to meet the situa- tion. The State government was little more than a name. The commonwealth was in chaos.


Writing of this period, Gordon, in his history of New Jersey, says: "The officers were continually changing, both military and civil; and for the services of the latter, there was at this period, but too little occasion. The campaign of 1776 was the most trying period of the war. * ¥ Governor Livingston made the most strenuous exertions with the Assembly and with the people, to have the militia in the field to oppose the invading force. But it was not practicable to control the panic which had seized upon the mass of the population. The barefooted and almost naked Continental


" The opening sentences In Paine's celebrated truet, "The Crisis," written to Inspire the patriots with fresh spirit, were: "These are the times that try mon's souls. The summer sokiler and the sunshine patriot will In this crisis shrink from the servlee of his country, but he that stands by it now deserves the thanks of man and woman."


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army, retreating before the well appointed battalions of the enemy, impaired the confidence of the people. The defenceless Legislature, with the governor at their head, removed from Princeton to Bur- lington, where they adjourned on the 2nd of December, each man retiring to his home to take charge of his peculiar interests. There scarcely remained a vestige of the lately constituted government, or any who owed it allegiance; and until the battle of Trenton New Jersey might have been considered a conquered country."


A striking illustration of the conditions is to be gained from the fact that Samuel Tucker, president of the convention that formed the Constitution of the State, chairman of the Committee of Safety for the State, treasurer and later a justice of the Supreme Court, vacated his offices, renounced his allegiance and took out pro- tection papers from the British.


THE FIRST NEWSPAPER PRINTED IN NEWARK.


Hugh Gaine, the editor and publisher of the New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, boldly upheld the patriot cause during the very early stages of the struggle. About the middle of September, 1776, he removed to Newark and published five or six copies of his weekly here, from forms half the size of those he used in New York, which would seem to indicate that he had departed from New York in some haste and had to use such printing apparatus as he could easily bring with him, or lay his hands on here. His last Newark issue is believed to have appeared on November 2. Not long after that he returned to New York, a sworn defender of the British militant faith, and seems to have been rewarded with liberal advertisements giving the status of the British forces. Thereafter in his paper he spoke of the Americans as "rebels," as did the other pro-British publications."


" Gaine was the victim of much chaffing for his swift change of politics. Freneau, the patriot poet, held him up to ridicule more than once. In Freneau's "Rivington's Confessions" ( Rivington was a staunch royalist pub- lisher in New York) we find the following at the expense of Gaine:


" 'Twon'd have pleas'd you no doubt had I gone with a few setts Of books, to exist in your cold Massachusetts, Or to wander at Newark like iil-fated Hugh,


Not a shirt to my back or a soai to my shoe."


THE NEWARK WASHINGTON


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Washington had entered Newark and Essex County with per- haps 4,500 men, and the number grew fearfully less every day, while the British were greatly reinforced with fresh troops from England and with a large fleet, and had in the field against him something like 10,000 men. The Americans were many of them without shoes, and their clothing in rags. They were poorly fed, and they were now in Newark, where many of the so-called leading families were disaffected toward them. The New Jersey militia had failed to render the support that had been more or less con- fidently expected. The people of the region were in a state of panic, and the worn, dispirited and half-starved soldiers did not inspire confidence. The agents of the crown were circulating through the county offering pardon and immunity from punishment of any kind to all who would declare their allegiance to the home government- and were finding many signers. The hospitals, with their hundreds of wounded, also served to make the horror of war even more pain- fully apparent. Even Washington, as we have already seen, was soon to write his brother that the game was apparently about up.


THE DEPARTURE FROM NEWARK.


Washington drew in his outposts from the hills and left Newark for New Brunswick early on the morning of November 28, the beginning of the sixth day after his arrival, being convinced that no succor was to be had from Major-General Lee. As his


Gaines' "Petition" to the New York Legislature on Jan. 1, 1783, contains the following:


"To Newark I hastened -- but trouble and care Got upon the crupper and followed me there!


There I scarcely got fuel to keep myself warm, And scarcely found spirit to weather the storm, And was quickly convine'd I had little to do, (The whigs were in arms and my readers but few.) So, after remaining one cold winter season, And stuffing my newspaper with something like treason,


And meeting misfortunes and endless disasters,


And fore'd to submit to a hundred news masters,


I thought it more prudent to hold to the one,- And after repenting of what I had done, ( And cursing my folly and idle pursuits) Returned to the city and hung up my boots."


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troops left Newark, the blood-stained footprints of the wretchedly shod men marked their progress. The rumble of Cornwallis's cannon over the frozen roads of Belleville could be distinctly heard in Newark, and the Tories of the town rejoiced audibly, while the patriots who for one reason or another were unable to leave, cowered in apprehension in their homes. With Washington went Parson Macwhorter, for had he remained the British would either have killed him on the spot or thrown him into prison in New York from whence he would probably never have emerged alive. The army was split into two columns, to accelerate the retreat, one pro- ceeding by way of Elizabeth and Spanktown (now Rahway), the other through Springfield and Quibbletown (now New Market, Mid- dlesex County). Both reached New Brunswick about the same time.


The immediate cause of Washington's departure, in addition to the appearance of Cornwallis, was a rumor that British forces were being embarked at Staten Island for Perth Amboy in order to turn the American flank and prevent further retreat across the State.


From November 28 until December 2, the main portion of Cornwallis's force lay at Newark and in the neighborhood, and the townspeople suffered terribly at the hands of the soldiers. It was virtually in Newark that the awful record of lawlessness, rapine and frenzied hatred made by the enemy during this campaign in New Jersey, was begun.


NEWARK IN THE GRIP OF THE ENEMY; PASTOR MACWHORTER'S ACCOUNT.


A vivid description of the wanton cruelty displayed by Corn- wallis's men in and near Newark after they entered the town upon Washington's evacuation of it was written by Pastor Macwhorter, early in 1777, upon his return after the army had gone into camp at Morristown, to the Rev. William Gordon of the Congregational Church at Roxbury, Mass. It is in part as follows:


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Ala. Macharter


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"Great have been the ravages committed by the British troops in this part of the country. Their footsteps are marked with ruin and desolation of every kind. The murders, ravishments, robbery and insults they were guilty of are dreadful. When I returned to the town, it looked more like a scene of ruin than a pleasant, well- cultivated village. One Thomas Hayes, as peaceable and inoffen- sive a man as any in the State, was unprovokingly murdered by one of their negroes, who ran him through the body with his sword. He also cut and slashed his (Hayes's) aged uncle in the same house, in such a manner that he has not yet recovered from his wounds.


"Three women of the town were basely ravished by them, and one of them was a woman of near seventy years of age. Various others were assaulted by them who happily escaped their lewd purposes. Yea, not only the common soldiers, but officers went about the town by night, in gangs, and forcibly entered into houses, enquiring for women. As to plundering, Whigs and Tories were treated with a pretty equal hand, and those only escaped who were happy enough to procure a sentinel to be placed as a guard at their door.


"There was one Captain Nuttman, who had always been a remarkable Tory, and who met the British troops in the Broad street with huzzas of joy. He had this house robbed of almost everything. His very shoes were taken off his feet, and they threatened hard to hang him.10 It was diligently circulated by the Tories, before the enemy came, that all those who tarried in their houses would not be plundered, which induced some to stay, who otherwise would have saved many of their effects by removing them. But nothing was a greater falsehood than this, as the event proved, for none were more robbed than those that tarried at home with their families.


"Justice John Ogden, whom you know, had his house robbed of everything they could carry away. They ripped open his beds, scat- tered the feathers in the air, and took the ticks with them; broke his desk to pieces and destroyed a great number of important papers, deeds, wills, etc., belonging to himself and others; and the more he entreated them to desist from such unprofitable and per- nicious waste, the more outrageous they were. They hauled a sick son of his out of his bed, whose life had been despaired of for some time, and grossly abused him, threatening him with death in a variety of forms.


" This was subsequently denied by descendants of Nuttman, who were also descended from the martyr, Joseph Hedden. Nuttman, they said, was a Tory, but a mild, inoffensive old man. Nuttman's home was about where the Newark Zinc Works were located for many years until dismantled, in the summer of 1913.


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"The next neighbor to Mr. Ogden was one Benjamin Coe," a very aged man, who, with his wife, was at home. They plundered and destroyed everything in the house, and insulted them with such rage, that the old people fled for fear of their lives, and then, to show the fulness of their diabolical fury, they burnt their house to ashes. Zophar Beach, Josiah Beach, Samuel Pennington and others, who had large families, and were all at home, they robbed in so egregious a manner that they were scarcely left a rag of clothing, save what was on their backs. The mischief committed in the houses forsaken by their inhabitants, the destruction of fences, barns, stables, the breaking of chests of drawers, desks, tables and other furniture; the burning and carrying away of carpenters' and shoemakers' tools, are intirely beyond description. "Now this is only a faint account of the justice and humanity of the British troops. They fully answer the character of the wicked, whose mercies are cruelty. For in addition to all, they imposed an oath of absolute submission to the British King, turning. the declaration contained in Howe's proclamation into an oath and causing the people solemnly to swear the same. Those who took the oath, and obtained what were falsely called protection, there are instances with us of those being robbed and plundered afterwards, but the most general way in which they obtained the effects of such people, was by bargaining with them for their hay, cattle or corn, promising to pay, but none whatever received anything worth mentioning. I might have observed that it was not only the com- mon soldiers who plundered and stole, but also their officers; and not merely low officers and subalterns, but some of high rank were abettors and reaped the profits of their gallows-deserving business.


"No less a person than General Erskine Knight had his room furnished from a neighboring house with mahogany chairs and tables; a considerable part of which were taken away with his


" The Coo residence stood on the southwest corner of what are now Washington and Court streets, the same that was at one time thought to have been Washington's headquarters. Mrs. Coe is said to have thrown most of her silver and some other valuables out of window in a bag. They fell in a bush and were afterwards recovered by the family. In 1782 Benjamin Coe made an inventory of his losses, the original of which is still in the possession of the family. He figured his total loss at a little over £337. The items were as follows: "One dwelling house, 60 feet by 38, £250; one clock, £12; one watch, £3; two fat cattle, $12; one hundred bushels of corn, £10; twenty bushels of buckwheat, £2.10; fifteen bushels of ry, £3; thirty bushels of oats, £3; ten bushels of flax seed, £2; six large silver spoons, $6; three small silver spoons, £0.12; two feather beds, £10; by one cupboard, £5; three spinning wheels, £3; twenty lengths of fence, £2; one wooling wheel, $0.15; one recle, $0.14; ton chairs, common ones, £2; two bedstlds and cords, £1.10; two hogs of two hundred wait each, £6.13.2; one calf, nine months old, £1. 10; one bed, one sheet, one coverlld, £2.10."


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baggage when he went to Elizabethtown. Col. McDonald had his house furnished in the same felonious manner, and the furniture was carried off as though it had been part of his baggage. Another Colonel, whose name I have forgot, sent his servants who took away a sick woman's bed, Mrs. Crane's, from under her, for him to sleep upon. But there is no end of describing their inhuman conduct. And what they practised in this town seems, as far as I can hear, only a sample of their general treatment of the inhabitants wherever they came. But there is no end of their inhuman conduct. They have not only proved themselves cruel enemies, but persons destitute of all honor ; and there is no hope of relief but by expelling these murderers, robbers and thieves from our country." 1"


PLUNDERERS AND VANDALS IN BLOOMFIELD.


Detachments of the British troops made their way into what is now Bloomfield from the neighborhood of Second River over the Newtown road, now Belleville avenue, and probably along the old Bloomfield road from Newark over Franklin hill. The troops, or the cowboys, as the camp followers (the Sherman's bummers of their time were called) plundered many of the people, carrying off . goods by the cart full. Years afterwards the people filed claims against the State for their losses at that time. There seems to have been comparatively little violence in that section, although later parties of young men made assaults upon the enemy and Tory refugees in Bergen, partly to wreak vengeance for the losses of their families for the thievery and vandalism of those days late in November, 1776.


ENEMY'S BRUTALITY INFLAMES ALL NEW JERSEY.


Washington's brilliant capture of Rall at Trenton, his master stroke in getting around Cornwallis's left flank a few nights later, and his achievement at Princeton the next morning, were of in- estimable value to the cause of independence at this most critical juncture. But the monstrous and unspeakably brutal treatment of the defenceless old people, young women and children by the


12 A copy of this letter, together with other material, was submitted by the State Committee of Safety to Congress and a reprint of it will be found in the New Jersey Archives, vol. il, pp. 350-353.


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invaders was quite as potent a factor in rousing Jersey-folk to desperate activity. The people now felt that they must either take to the wilderness there to fall into the hands of hostile sav- ages, or else fight the British to the death. It is hard to tell which was the more powerful influence here in this State at least- the victories at Trenton and Princeton or the inhuman conduct of the enemy. Says Gordon: 13


"Neither the proclamation of the [British] commissioners, nor protections, saved the people from plunder or insult. They exhibited their protections, but the Hessians could not read and would not understand them, but the British soldiers deemed it foul disgrace that the Hessians should be the only plunderers. Discontents and murmurs increased every hour with the ravages of both, which were almost sanctioned by general orders, and which spared neither friend nor foe. Neither age nor sex pre- vented from outrage. Infants, children and old men and women were left naked and exposed, without a blanket to cover them from the inclemency of the weather. * * % But even the worm will turn upon the oppressor. Had every citizen been secured in his rights, protected in his property and paid for his supplies, the consequence might have been fatal to the cause of liberty. What the earnest commendations of Congress, the zealous exertions of Governor Livingston, and the State authorities and the ardent supplications of Washington could not effect, was produced by the rapine and devastations of the royal forces.


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THE QUICKENING OF THE MILITIA.




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