USA > New Jersey > Morris County > Annals of Morris County > Part 7
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In the plans of Gen. Washington was one which was entrusted to a body of the militia under Gen. Winds. As soon as the plan of the enemy was perceived to march to Sandy Hook, ordera were given to Gen. Winds to lead hia command to New Brunswick, and then follow xe South bank of the Raritan towards Amboy ad Sandy Hook, for the double purpose of in- ;rcepting the baggage train of the enemy, ad in case of their defeat at Monmouth Court fouse, to cut off their retreat. In pursuance fan arrangement which the inspection of a ap will pronounce admirable, Winds had fol- ved the Raritan as far as Spotswood, reaching t place before noon. The sounds of the nou at Monmouth were constantly heard as
it were to stimulate hia weal. But they a und the bridge over the stream at Spotwood ta up, and they were hastening to repair it in der to cross with aa little delay as possibì At this point my informante differ slightl. Mr. James Kitchel, who was under Winds, anc was present, says that Gen. Winds here receiv- ed ordera to marchi back to Elizabethtown, as the enemy were on the way from New York, and in this several witnesses agree, but it must be admitted that these witnesses were pri- vates, and therefore could not have had the best means of knowing the reasons for their commander's course. Another witness says that a sleok Quaker, looking as innocent as an angel, brought the news to Winds that the en- emy were marching on Elizabethtown. But it is not material as to how the information was brought, since it was brought in some way ; and although it was false, it led Gen. Winds to march back to Elizabethtown. That he must have done this on his own responsibility, and contrary to express orders, is evident from the impossibility that Gen. Washington or any of his general officers could have issued an order so at war with the wants of the occasion. Be- sides this, the verdict of the community against Winds for his conduct would not have been given ; could he have plead in extenuation the orders of a superior. All the facts and circum- stances show that he acted haatily and with no good grounds on which his disobedience could be justified.
The testimony of the soldiers who were with him, indicate that a strong feeling was excited against him, and that some in the heat of the moment attributed the retreat from Spotswood to cowardice. It is said that he came near be- ing court-martialed, but of this I find no evi- dence. His character for courage was too well established for him to be punished as a coward, and his past deeds, marked with such ardent patriotiam and daring, procured for him ex- emption where a worse man would have been cashiered. I am sorry to make this record cou- cerning my hero, and shall be glad to alter it if the proof can be furnished of its incorrect- ness.
Dr. Green's reminiscences show that after the battle of Monmouth, probably in July, Gen. Winds led a detachment of troops to Minisink on the Delaware to repel a threatened incur- aion of Indians, but the enemy did not ap- pear .* The same venerable witness shows that during the remainder of the summer and fall he guarded the lines on the Paasaic and Hack- ensack with great courage and prudence. On several occasions he attacked the enemy, and repulsed them in all their attempts to cross
* Life of Dr. Green, pp. 26-98.
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the ivers: The venerable David Gordon, when ety-one years old, repeated to me a speech ade by Ger. Winds during this campaign, hieh is sufficiently characteristic. They were t Aquackanonk, and one Sabbath morning Gen. Winds paraded his troops, and thus ad- dressed them : "Brother soldiers, to-day, by the blessing of God, I mean to attack the ene- my. All you that are sick. lame, or afraid, stay behind, for I don't want sick men ; lame men can't run. and cowards won't fight!" The Spartanic brevity and hearty wit ot the address are quite notable.
My venerable informant pronounced the words with the vivacity of a young man, and when he had finished, warmed up with the stirring recollections of his old commander and the scenes through which he had followed him, hic exclaimed, "Some say Gen. Winds was a coward, but I tell you he was an old warrior, and I don't believe any such charge. If he hadn't any thing else to fight with but his voice, he could scare a regiment out of their wits with that !" And this was a fact during that summer when the amusing anecdote, of his scaring away a datachment of the enemy, by roaring out "open to the right and left and let the artillery through," actually occurred.
Here I may appropriately insert a character- istic anecdoto of Gen. Winds, which I suppose to be as reliable as an oft-repeated anecdote can well be. It sounds very much like the man.
Col. Joseph Jackson says he often heard his father relate this anecdote. The detachment under the command of Gen. Winds, was lying at Hackensack, and oue Sunday morning they were ordered to parade, fully equipped, for some expedition not yet made known. It seems that through some oversight ot the quarter-master. a Mr. Woodruff, of Ehzabethtown, the soldiers had had short rations on Saturday, and none on Sunday. The Colonel's father, being a neighbor and friend of the General was com- missioned to state the facts to him, and tell him that the troops were not in a very good condition for so long a march.
When Winds heard this he was furions, and asked if "there were no provisions ?" Mr. Jackson replied that ho " supposed there were provisions enough." "Where is quarter-inas- ter Woodruff?" demanded the General, with growing impatience. And without waiting for a reply he strode up to the building in which the provisions were stored, and seizing a heavy stick of wood, he stove the door in at a blow. " There," said he, "help yourselves men."
Just then the quarter-master, who had with- out leave ma le a rapid visit to Elizabethtown, appeared on The ground. His presence called forth the following colloquy, which on the Gen- oral's part was sustained in his fondest tones.
"Where have you been, Woodruff, leaving th men to starve for your abominabio negligence ?
"I have been home, Gen. Winds."
"Home! What did you go home for? Go home and negleet duty, ch?"
"I went home to get some clean clothes."
"Clean clothes, indced ! I wear my nigger's brecches !"
Toen in a tone tremendous for its angyv loudness, and yet one in which those who kne x him, could deteet some roguery, be cried out to bis othicers, " Bring out a rope and hang hill up to the first tree !"
The quarter-master, well knowing the rege- lute character of the mau, began to think he would have to swing for it, and turned deadly pale, when the General cried out again, "Never mind it this time, but look out for the next."
After the troops had eaten, they were marched to Prakeness, where a little seene occurred !. which proves that all soldiers, however honor- able, are not always honest.
Three men, neighbors of Gen. Winds. ard members of Capt. Jackson's company, Richard and Jacob Heniman, and Jacob Camp, got outside the sentinels, probably by fair promises. and made a call on a rich Dutch farmer, som( two or three miles from the camp. One of the men went into the house and introduced bilu- self to the farmer, and entertained him with narratives and anecdotes concerning the war. whilst the other two visited the milk room, a little distance from the house, in search of pro- visions. They found their desire in the shape of a nice ham, some beautiful butter, and sonte loaves of bread On leaving the honest Dateli- man, the soldier slipped off his own Gibbconitish shoes, and slipped on mine host's, which har- pened to be hiandy.
The next morning the Captain was treated bs his patriot soldiers with some delicious broiled hain, and some fresh bread and butter, finely in contrast with common army fare. " Where did you get this, men ?" inquired tho conscien- tious Captain. "We don't know any thing about where it came from, Captain," replied hid equally conscientions followers. But hunger, ' suppose, sharpens appetite more than it does conscience, the monks to the contrary notwith - standing.
It was some time during this year that Winc managed an attack on a party of Hessiansi adroitly, as to take, according to one witnes thirty prisoners, and according to anothe . seventy. This is said to have been near Co necticut Farms, and our informant says it wa in Elizabethtown.
In the following year he was not much active service so far as I can learn, and ow to the feeling excited against him in connect with the battle of Monmouth, he resigned
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commission as a Brigadier-General. His resig- nation bears date of June 10th, 1779. From this time he is not to be reckoned as a member of the active army, but he did not desert his country's cause. When the battle of Spring- field ras fought in 1780, he was present and did good service. In 1781 he was also assisting the cause, as the following well authenticated anecdote shows. It was related to me by Ira Dodd, Esq., of Bloomfield, who bad it from his rather. When General Washington was driv- ing Cornwallis before him, and had begun the seige at Yorktown, it was dee med of the high- est necessity to keep the British in New York nutil the arrival of the French flect in the Chesapeake should ent off Cornwalls's retreat by water. Accordingly, he says, Lafayette was sent to make a great demonstration on the British in New York. For this purpose he began to collect all the boats in the surround- ing waters, even seizing those above Paterson Falls on .he Passaic. These were carried on wagons to be lannehed at Elizabethtown, ap- parently for an attack on Staten Island. Ou one particular night it rained furiously and some of the wagons broke down at Cranetown. (West Bloomfield.> These annoyances threw Lafayette in a great rage. General Winds was in command of a detachment, and his voice viod with the tempest as he cheered and directed his men. Mr. Dodd said that Winds roared louder than the thunder. When Latayette was in this country, he met Mr. Dodd, his compan- ion-in-arms, and laughing heartily said, as he grasped his hand, " Oh, how mad I was that night at Cranetown !"
In 1788, General Winds, William Wocdbnl!, and John Jacob Faesch were elected by Morris county to the State Convention which ratitied the present Constitution of the United States. On the 12th of October, 1789, he died of dropsy, in the chest. It was remarked as a fact not a little singular, that for many years he had expected to bary his wife, who was in feeble health, but she outlived him several years. In his will, signed the day before his death, he gives the use of all his personal and real estate to his "dear and well beloved wife, Ruhamah," "for her sole use and benefft" as long as she should remain his widow, and should she marry "the use and benefit of the third of his whole estate." He inserts the praiseworthy injune- tion "that she shall at no time, nor on any occasion, nor by any persons whatsoever be obliged to give any account for any waste or damage done by her or her order on said estate." The last bequest in the will is in these words, "for that great regard I have felt for the inter- est of Christ's kingdom, and for the benefit of the Presbyterian Church, I do hereby give and bequeath to the Presbyterian Church at Rock-
away all the remainder of my whole estate for a parsonage, and do hereby further will and order that the said remainder of my estate shall be and remain for ever for that use and purpose only, and that it shall never be disposed of for any other purpose whatever."
Mr. David Gordon informed me that General Winds had in his family at the time of his death. one of his soldiers, named Phelps. This man insisted that his old commander should be buried with the honors of war, although some opposition was made to it. Accordingly, Capt. Josiah Hall, who had frequently served under General Winds, assembled a company of Winds's soldiers, who buried their deceased General with the honors of war. Dr. John Darby, of Parsippany, seems to have officiated first as General Winds's physician, then as his lawyer in writing his will, and lastly as his minister in cheering him with the consolations of religion. In this last capacity he also pronounced the funeral sermon, from Job xxiii : 8-10. "Behold I go forward, but he is not there, &c."
His monument of brown free stone is just in the rear of the church, and bears the following inscription, written by Dr. Darby -:
"Under this monument lies buried the body of Wm. Winds, Esq., who departed this life, Oct. 12th, 1789, in the 62d year of his age.
" His natural abilities were considerable, which he improved for the good of his fellow- men. Whenever the cause of his country and liberty called, he ventured his life on the field of battle. As a civil magistate he acted with integrity, and also sustained the office of Captain, Major, Colonel, and General, with great honor.
"He was a provident husband, a kind neigh- bor, a friend to the poor, and a good Christian. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."
Such was William Winds, a man whose name is a fixture in the traditions of Morris county, but the details of whose history have already mostly perished from the memory of his coun- trymen. Full of genuine courage, yet too hasty and impetnous for great military deeds ; self- reliant as "a self-made man," yet sometimes the dupe of the designing ; truly generous, yet most exacting ; a friend to the poor, yet im- perious as a tyrant ; the patron of morality and religion, yet detracting from these noble virtues by the neglect of gentleness and meekness ; a whole-hearted patriot, holding his life and property at the call of his country, yet doing his country a wrong from heady inconsiderate- ness ; such was this remarkable mau, whose memory Morris county has reason to cherish as among the choicest of her revolutionary heroes, and whose name ought to be embalmed in the warmest regrets of the parish in which he spent so much of his life, and to which he finally
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bequeathed half of his estate. In preparing this meager outline of his history. I have felt ready to complain of the cruel destructiveness of time which has suffered so little of him to survive, but imperfect as it is, I dedicate this paper to his memory, with the single reflection that it is somewhat singular the task should have been left to a stranger to collect sufficient of his life to keep safe and sacred among the historie records of New Jersey the name of William Winds. May it never be forgotten I
THE REVOLUTIONARY FOREFATH- ERS OF MORRIS COUNTY .*
The hero and the shrine have been severely condemned and yet men continue to worship the one and fbow at the other In so doing they mean no wrong, but merely express the sentiment of admiration we feel for a great deed and the one who performed it, and the sentiment of reverence which we experience for the place in which a great deed has been performed and a great man has been.
We may in our philosophy jeer at Mr. Car- lyle's notion of hero-worship, and feel grieved as we see onr fellow men bowing at their shrines of what ever kind.
And yet the greatest philosopher uncovers his head at the tomb of Washington and the most devout Protestant is thrilled with rever- ence as be stands under the tree where Luther rested, or at the sepulcher which holds his dust.
Mr. Webster in his speech at Valley Forge said "there is a power in local association. All acknowledge it and all feel it. Those places naturally inspire us with emotion which in the course of human history have become connected with great and interesting events."
On this one hundredth anniversary of our nation we experience sentiments which are among the best ever felt in the human bre.ist. We think of the original colonies, in themselves weak, and this weakness increased by their independence and jealousy of each other ; of the contrast between them and the great power that coerced them-they weak, it the strongest on carth ; of the conviction which leading men in England had before the collis- ion that " notwithstanding their boasted affec- tion for Great Britain the Americans will one day set up for independence"-a conviction which such men as Franklin regarded as the portentious prophecy of bloody battle, and they therefore in all sincerity hastened to assure the people and rulers at home that "Americans can entertain no such idea unless you grossly abuse them," and that "a nuion of the Ameri-
can colomes was impossible umiess they be driven to it by the most grievous tyranny and oppression ;" of the scenes in many a private home and many a council chamber, as well as in the more publie assembly, whether of legis- lators or people, in which with unutterable torebedings and agony and yet with heroic conrage the best and truest men in this coun- try weighed every principle, determined the character of every act affecting them, and at last announcing their independence fought for it through years of darkness and blood ; of the special incidents of that long struggle and the great men that aeted on the conspicuous theatre in the presence of all civilized nations, Concord, Bunker Hill, Trenton, Yorktown, bat- tles which were the offspring of Independene . Hall and the Declaration -the Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and the greatest of them all Washington. I say, we think of these great acts and great men and with more fervent devotion than ever we pronounce the words, "OUR COUNTRY," and we yield our homage to the men who gave us a country and we devout ly bow as at a shrine at the spots where they achieved the deeds which give them immortal renown.
But whilst to day we indulge in these remi- niscences of our national glory-these great in- cidents and persons that find place in general history -let ours be the humble task of re- counting some incidents which are part of the history of Morris county during that period which to-day is in every thought.
And here I find myself beset with a peculiar embarrassment which is both like and nnlike that of the great French pulpit orator when he preached in the cathedral of the French capi- tal. Like hun when he preached sermons al- ready printed and in the hands of his hearers, all that I know of our local history has been in your hands for years ; and unlike him in the eloquence with which he swept away the cm- barrassment, I in my humble gift of speech most yield to it with an appeal to my bearers for their indulgence. In former years gather. ing many a fact of our Revolutionary history from lips that are now dead, and from sources so scattered in archives, libraries and garrets that many of them now are beyond my own reach, I have not hoarded them, but without money and without price have given them free- ly to the press, the historian and the orator. Some of these facts, so precious to me as their preserver. in one case with no recognition of their source, are found in a general history of this country ; in another a graceful pen so pre- sented them on his glowing pages, and su kindly defined their source that in their new beauty I almost forgot they were ever mine ; and in still another case the tongue of the Sen-
* An oration delivored at Morristown, July 41h, 1876,
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ator repeated them so eloquently and with such generous commendation-I crave pardon for the weakness-that though a thousand miles away as I read his words, my blood tingled as with wine. Thanks to the historian, the journalist and the Senator for their appre- ciation of this incomplete, yet genuine, labor of love amid the reminiscences of men and things a hundred years ago in this goodty county of Morris !
And yet this does not help me to-day and here very much, for whether I speak of our own heroic men and women, or of those patriots who dwelt here during two winters in house, cabin or tent, or of the things grave, or the things not so grave, that were done among these hills so long ago, a hundred of my hearers will either nod or shake their heads in approval or dissent as if they knew these things a great deal better than the speaker himself, which no donbt they do since they have his knowledge and their own !
Yon see, my friends, how much I need your forbearance, and how kind it will be in the wisest of you to look as though you never had heard of these things as I repeat them to-day! And, moreover, even if you do hear these things for the hundredth time, pray remember that Yankee Doodle, Hail Columbia, and the Declara- tion are quite old and familiar, and yet old as they are how they canse the blood to leap ! Though they had seen the old flag a thousand times, "the boys in bine" wept and shouted as they saw it run up at Fort Donaldson and Port Royal !
How different the Morris County of 1776 and the Morris County of 1876 1 It is true its moun- tains then as now were grand to look at, the conspicuous watch-towers whence our fathers saw the enemy and gave the alarm, and yet these mountains then stood in the midst of a sparsely settled wilderness in which were scat- tered a few towns and villages with far fewer acres under cultivation than in our day. Its churches were few, the principal being the Presbyterian churches at Morristown, Hano- ver, Bottle Hill, Rockaway, Mendham, Black River (or Chester), Parsippany, Succasunna, the Congregational Church at Chester, the Baptist church at Morristown, and the Dutch churches and Old Boonton and Pompton Plains. Its schools were few. The late Dr. Condit says that the majority of those who learned the most common English branches did so in night schools taught either by the preacher or some itinerant Irish scholar. The roads were bad and the wheeled vehicles so scarce that at the funeral of a light horseman on Morris Plains after the war, as an eye witness once told me, there was only a single wagon of any sort pres- ent, that being the one that carried the re-
mains to the grave. Dr. Johnes the pastor, the attending physician, the bearers, the mourn- ers, and the friends were either afoot or on horse back. Nor in this respect was this funer- al of the light horseman very different from the more pretentious funeral of the Spanish Am- bassador who died at Morristown the second winter the army was in this place.
The manners and occupations of the people were simple. The fleece, the flax, the spinning wheel and the house-loom were found in every mansion, and the most cloquent men at the bar and in the pulpit, as also the most beauti- ful women. and bravo men who made this coun- ty so glorious in those days, wore garments which the women had made of cloth which themselves had manufactured. They were hardy, simple, frugal, brave and good, and when the conflict came it required as little to keep both men and women in fighting condi- tion as it did the soldiers of the Great Frederic. The contrasts between the beginning and the end of the century in these as also in many other respects arc remarkable, and one cannot but be inspired by it not only to glory in the splendor of our county as it now is, but in the sturdy simplicity of the people of our county as it then was.
The strength of the county as a military po- sition has often been noted. On the south, not far beyond the Morris boundary line, is Wash- ington Rock, on a bold range of mountains well adapted for observing the movements of the enemy in the direction of New Brunswick, as also for repelling an attack. Coming north- ward we have Long Hill, the Short Hills, and Newark Mountain, on which are many points which on a clear day com- mand a wide view of the Passaic and Hack- ensack valleys, together with that sweep of country which includes the Bloomfield, New- ark, Elizabeth, Rahway, Amboy, Bergen, the Neversink Highlands, the Narrows, and, but for Bergen Hill, New York itself. One does not need to be a Jerseyman to admire such a view as he gets from the Short Hills, Eagle Rock, or the rugged ledges of rock just north of the toll-gate on the mountain back of Montclair. But it is not of the beauty of this region, but its strength, that I now speak. An enemy ob- served is half vanquished; and from these watch towers, which guarded the approaches to Morris county, especially the one on the Short Hills, near " the Hobart Notch," night and day sentinels wero casting jealous glances to de- tect the slightest sign of an enemy. It is also sure that loyal men, scattered over every part of the country between these Highlands and New York, were on the alert, and their couriers always ready to ride swiftly westward to the hills of Morris to carry the alarm. On thesc
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elevated places were; signal guns and the bea- cons ready to be kindled. On Kimball Moun- tain, Denville Monntain, Green Pond Moun- tain, and even on the spur of the Catskill range dividing Orange county from New Jer- bey, were other stations like that on the Short Hills ; so that, let the enemy never so secretly cross to Staten Island, and thence to Eliza- bethtown Point, or in the winter cross the meadows to Newark, as they often did, the eye of some sentinel, either on the hills or the plains, detected the movement, which the flying cou- rier, the loud-mouthed cannon or the ominous beacon flaming its warning from mountain to mountain, conveyed to a patriotic people, who themselves were ever on the watch and ready to respond. On several occasions the enemy moved across the river from New Brunswick, or, crossing the Raritan, reached Elizabetli- town, Lyon's Farm, Connecticut Farms, and twice Springfield, within cannon shot of " the Old Sow," as the signal gun was called, and the beacon on the Short Hills.
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