USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > Centennial history of Somerset County [New Jersey] > Part 7
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Beside the death of Gen. Mercer the battle of Princeton ton is memorabie on account of another victim. Captain William Leslie, son of the Earl of Levin of Scotland, was wounded in the first on-set, carried to Plnckamin, and died on the porch of the small inn, almost immediately on reach- ing there. Mr. G. W. P. Custis in his recollections of the life of Washington, gives the following account of this in- cident of the battle : "It was while the Commander in Chief reined up his horse, where lay the gallant Col. Harshlet mortally wounded, that he perceived some Brit- ish soldiers supporting a wounded officer, and upon in- quiring his name and rank, was answered Capt. Leslie. Dr. Benjamin Rush, who formed a part of the Genl's. suite, earnestly asked "a son of the Earl of Levin?" to which the soldiers replied in the affirmative. The Doctor then addressed the General-in-Chief, "I beg your excellen- cy to permit this wounded officer to be placed under my care, that I may return, in however small a degree, a part of the obligation, I owe to his worthy family for the many kindnesses received at their hands while a student at Edin- burgh." The request was granted, but poor Leslie wa s soon past all surgery. "After receiving all possible kind- ness in the march, he died, was interred at Pluckamin in the old Lutheran Cemetery, and after the war Dr. Rush placed a monument over his remains, yet in existence. It has the following Inscription :
"In memory of Capt, William Leslie, son of the Earl of Levin, who died January, 1776, after being wounded in the
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Battle of Princeton." This monument has been erected by Dr. Benj. Rush, out of respect to his noble family, and in testimony of his exalted worth.
Many years since money was sent from Scotland to build a stone wall in front, and more recently the Presbyterian Church was erected on a part of it.
The following extracts will be of interest to many of our readers :
' Many persons in this country will recall with pleasure the visit to this country last year of the Hon. Roland Les- lie Melville, brother of the Earl of Levin and Melville, who some time ago become a partner in London of Mr. McCulloch, ex-Secretary of the United States Treasury. While here Mr. Melville mentioned the fact that one of his "Forbyes," a young British officer, had fallen in America during the Revolutionary war, and that the family had never been able to learn where he was burried. There was tradition that his remains had been deposited in a certain "Trinity" church yard, but that vague description gave thern little clue to the spot.
Only the other day an American friend of Mr. Melville, searching our early national history with quite another ob- ject, stumbled on the story of his ancestor's death, and finding that he fell at the battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777, pursued the inquiry, and discovered his - burial place still well preserved.
As the story throws an agreeable light on the courtesies which mitigated the terrors of those days of strife we lay it before our readers. The young officer in question was the Hon. William Leslie, and the account of his fate is ta- ken from "Custis's Recollections of the Life of Washington."
As an interesting addition to this item of Revolutionary history, I make the following extract from the journal of Col. Thomas Rodney, who commanded a body of Delaware militia during the campaign of Jannary, 1777, and partici- pated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. The Col. Leslie he mentions is undoubtedly the same referred to in the above paragraph, and the coincidence is the more re- markable from the great lapse of time since the occurrence of the event :
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FLUCKAMIN, N. J., Jan. 5, 1777.
" The General continued here this day also to refresh the army. He ordered 40 of our light infantry to attend the funeral of Col Leslie, to bury him with the honors of war, He was one of the enemy who fell at Princeton ; they readily obeyed in paying due respect to bravery, though in an enemy.
Capt. Henry was now gone home and I myself had com- mand of the five companies of infantry, but as I had not paid any attention to the military funeral ceremonies I requested Capt Humphries to conduct it. I had nothing to cover me here but my great coat, but luckily got into a house near the mountains, where I fared very comfortably while we stayed here.
These troops, Col. Rodney further states, were the only soldiers in the whole army in complete uniform, and while they remained at Morristown acted as General Washing- ton's body-guard, doing all the parade duty, and acted al- so as the funeral escort to Col. Ford and Gen, Hitchcock."
CAESAR A. RODNEY.
The army only remained at Pluckamin for a few days, and then went into winter quarters near Morristown. shel- tering themselves in huts on the south side of Kimball's mountain. The winter passed away in quietness, not, how- ever, without suffering from sickness and want of sufficient provision. Often there were only three day's rations in the camp. Somerset County lay at the mercy of the enemy, whose foraging parties went out from New Brunswick, where Howe had quartered his troops, across the Millstone as far as Neshanic, and the South Branch, gathering eve- rything they could lay their hands on, and maltreating the inhabitants most cruelly, whenever any resistance was off- ered. It seemed as if the idea that they were or might be rebels, formed a sufficient excuse in the minds of the sol- diers for any outrage, that their passions prompted them to commit, They did not, however, always escape with impunity. On the 20th of January, sixteen days after Washington had passed Weston with his victorious army, a large party of the British, foraging as usual, was met there, routed, and 43 baggage wagons, 164 horses, 118
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cattle, 70 sheep and 12 prisoners captured. The Ameri- can party was under Gen. Dickenson, and included two companies from the Valley of Wyoming. We find the follow account of this little fight giyen in the "Field Book of the Revolution." " A line of forts had been established along the Millstone river, in the direction of Princeton. One of these, at Somerset Court House, (the village of Millstone), was occupied by Gen. Dickenson with two companies of the regular army, and about 300 militia. A mill on the opposite part of the stream contained consider- able flour. Cornwallis, then lying at New Brunswick, dispatched a foraging party to capture it. The party consisted of abont 400 men, with more than 40 wagons. The British arrived at the mill at Weston, in the morning and having loaded their wagons with flour, were about to return, when Gen. Dickenson leading a portion of his force through the river, middle deep, and filled with ice, at- tacked them with so much spirit, that they fled in haste, leaving the whole of their plunder with their wagons, be- hind them." Dickenson lost five men in this skirmage, and the enemy about 30 Washington warmly commend- ed Gen. Dickenson for his enterprise and gallantry evinced in this little skirmish."
But the discomfeiture in one of their ravages, did not prevent them from repeating them almost daily in one di- rection or another around the whole country.
The whole region of the Raritan and Millstone was stripped. The farmers threshed their wheat and then hid it under the straw in the barn, in order to preserve it from the greedy enemy. In many instances not enough was saved to serve for seed in the autumn. Cellars, houses, pig pens and hen roosts, were all carefully explored, and everything desirable carried off to feed the insatiate cormor- ants.
Let us now leave Washington's soldiers in their tents near Morristown, undergoing innoculation for the small pox, as a "precautionary measure," and consuming lots of butter-nut pills in substitution for better medicines." While the wintermonths thus are passing, let us look to- wards the future. The prospect for the coming summer
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in deed was not bright. but it was not quite so discourag. ing as the autumn had been. Trenton and Princeton. coming after Long Island and White Plains. and the sur- render of Forts Washington and Lee, had shown that the British were not quite invulnerable and omnipotent.
Gen. Putnam was placed in observation at Princeton, soon after the defeat of the British. He had only a few hundred troops : sometime not as many as he had miles of frontier to guard. In January, Washington issued a proc- lamation from Morristown, directed to those who had ta- ken protection, "discharging them from the obligations of their oath to the King, and directing them to repair to head-quarters, or the nearest general officer, and swear al- legiance to the United States, as the condition of a full pardon, for what they had doue in a moment of fear and despondency." It had a good effect ; the people soon flocked from all quarters to take the oath, and all idea of British protection was abandoned.
Howe, at New Brunswick, as the spring opened, was the principal object of solicitude to Washington. It was evi- dent he must attempt one of two things ; either to move up the Hudson, and co-operate with Burgoyne approach- ing Albany from Ticonderoga, or attempt to reach Phila- delphia by marching across the State of New Jersey. He determined so to place himself and his troops, as to shield them from attack, and at the same time have them ready to attack, if any movement was made. Sending the northern troops to the Highlands, he stationed his own on the heights north of Middlebrook, and repaired to the camp in person, on the 28th of May. He had only 8,398 men in all, inclusive of cavalry and artillery ; and of these more than 2,000 were sick ; so that the effective rank and file were only 5,738. Howe and Cornwallis had been employ- ed during the winter in enlisting every loyalist possible, offering large and special rewards to deserters ; and, strengthened in this way, far outnumbered the little army of Washington. What he had not in numbers, he en- deavored however, to provide for by the advantage of his position and his superior vigilance. The drama was one of the most interesting in the whole war. Washington's
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skill as a tactition was nowhere and on no occasion, more triumphantly displayed, than on the plains south of our mountain and east of Bound Brook, in June 1777. It is enough to say that he foiled his enemy completely, and fi- nally forced him from the State.
He had seen early in the winter, that the campaign of this year must be an important one-perhaps the ultimate decision of the contest ; and that, so far as his antagonist Sir William Howe was concerned, it would embrace three points ! One an attempt from Canada by Burgoyne, to form a junction with the British at New York, by way of Albany and the Hudson ; and so by cutting off and isola - ting the eastern states of New England, divide and weak- en the colonies. Another, to maintain British ascendency in New York, and by preventing commerce, weaken and discourage the people. Lastly, to obtain possession of the city of Philadelphia, preparatory to the efforts to conquer the southern states. These three objects attained, he felt that the cause of Independence would be lost, or at best only a question of time. The British might rest in their conquests, and leave the Americans to waste their strength in vain ; and it would not take long to do it ! It was therefore, his business to frustrate all these designs. With the view of preventing the junction between Burgoyne and the British forces in New York. He threw, early in the spring, additional forces into Ticonderoga, collected men and stores at Albany, and strengthened the defences at West Point and Peekskill ; and planted himself behind the mountain at Middlebrook, within striking distance of New Brunswick, and near enough to New York, to act in any emergency that might arise there in the progress of the pending operations.
We may sufficiently indicate the precise place of the encampment, by saying that it was on the right of the road leading through the mountain gorge in which Chim- ney Rock is situated, just where it rises up from the bed of the little stream, and attains the level of Washington valley. A strong earth work was thrown up about a quarter of a mile to the north west, almost in the centre of the valley, as a protection to any movement approaching
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from Pluckamin ; and the whole of the defile leading through the narrow mountain valley was strongly guarded while the brow overlooking the plain bristled with cannon, Just at the edge of the wood, east of Chimney Rock, huts were erected as quarters for the officers, and everything done which either safety or comfort demanded in the emergency. At Bound Brook a strong redoubt was con- structed, commanding the bridge over that miery little stream, just north of the present Railroad crossing, looking to any attack to be made from the way of New Bruns. wick. Having taken, in this way, all possible precaution against surprise, he felt strong to abide the issue of events. The result justified his sagacity as a military tactition.
In, the strong position described, guarded in front by the abrupt mountain wall and the wood crowning it ; and almost equi-distant from New York and Philadelphia, he was equally prepared for any movement made in either di- rection. While from the elevation of the mountain itself the whole plain upon which the enemy had to travel was visible to his watching eye. It would be difficult for Sir William Howe to change his position in any way, or at- tempt to come out of New Brunswick without finding some one on his heels who would not allow him a single mistake without taking advantage of it.
There was however no equality in the relative strength of the two armies, when the contest commenced. The British forces were well clothed and provisioned, and flush- ed with their success in the preceeding campaign. The army of Washington was a feeble band-the whole effect- ive rank and file, when at Middlebrook, amounting only to 5,737 men ; more than half of which had never seen any service. And beside, there were elements of weakness in the corps itself. A large portion of it was composed of foreigners ; many of them servants-upon whose attach- ment to freedom it was not safe to depend. This circum- stance was known to Sir William Howe ; and he had en- deavored to profit by it, offering pardon and protection to all deserters, and bounties to any slaves who might bring in their arms and accoutrements. It was a dastardly stroke of policy ; and its meanness seems to have been its weakness.
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Few took advantage of the offer, and the slaves remained content with their masters. As soon as Washington had taken his position at Middlebrook, Gen. Benedict Arnold was directed to form an army of Militia on the east side of the Delaware, and be prepared to dispute the passage of Howe, should he escape from Washington, and attempt to cross on his way to Philadelphia. And to give strength to his corps, a few companies of regular troops were detailed to assist him in making his dispositions effective.
At the same time Gen. Sullivan, who had remained in the vicinity of Princeton with a part of the regular army, and whose force was increasing daily by recruits from the South and the Militia of New Jersey, was ordered to hold himself in perpetual expectation of attack-to be prepared to send his bagage and provisions to a place of safety, and to move at a moment's warning-to preserve a communi- cation with the main army at all times open ; by no means to risk a general engagement, but to act as a partizan corps ; and on the first movement of the British from their encampment at New Brunswick, after having placed his main body in safety, to harrass and annoy them by detatch- ing active parties for that purpose. The whole militia of the state were also called out, and instructed to hang up- on the main body of the British army ; and by ranging the country in small parties, harrass their flanks and rear, cut off their supplies, and injure them as much as possible.
Such was the state of things in Somerset County at the end of May, 1777 ; and now if we take a map of the State and place it before us, we shall have a chess-board, upon which to trace the subsequent movements of the opposing forces in that grand contest of stratagem and skill, which was about to commence, It is equal in interest and in ability to anything in the military text book. Its results entered largely into the ultimate success which crowned American valor, and gave liberty to these United States, so proud in their career of glory, so magnificent in their fu- ture prospects.
Leaving now Burgoyne to Schuyler and Gates, and Cornwallis looking anxiously for news from the north at New York, we concentrate our attention upon the two ar-
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mies in Somerset County. Washington looking from the mountain summit in the rear of Bound Brook, and Howe at New Brunswick contriving to escape him, or to bring him down from his eirey, to fight him on the plains on more advantageous terms. The city of Philadelphia was the stake, and the play for it was magnificent.
The British General had two ways of attaining his ob- jeet. One by marching through New Jersey and crossing the Delaware by a portable bridge, constructed for that purpose, during the winter at New Brunswick, and make his way directly to his object. The other to embark his army and attempt the city by the way of the Delaware or Chesapeak Bay. The first was preferable, and was there- fore to be attempted before the other was resorted to .- The demonstration was made on the 14th of June. Gen. Sir William Howe, leaving 2000 men at New Brunswick under the command of Gen. Matthews, advanced in two columns towards Princeton, The first under Lord Corn- wallis reached the village of Millstone by break of dav ; the other under DeHester arrived about the same time at Middlebush, having taken a route more to the south than that which the former pursued.
To meet the movement thus begun, Washington brought his army forward and posted it to great advan- tage in order of battle, on the south side of the mountain east of the gorge in which Chimney Rock is situated. This position he maintained during the whole day, and at night the troops slept upon their arms. In this condition things remained from the morning of the 14th to the evening of the 19th. Howe threatening and making every effort to induce the Americans to abandon their high ground and fight him on the plain ; and Washington resolutely dis- regarding his taunts and maintaining his superior position; but perfectly prepared and willing to give him battle where he was.
Nor had he been idle at other points in anticipation of these movements. The troops from Peeks Kill, with the exception of 1000 effective men left there on guard, had been summoned to his aid, and were present and ready to act. A select corps of riflemen under Col. Mergan had been or-
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ganized early in the seasou, and was acting as a partizen corps between the Raritan and Millstone, with instructions to watch the left flank of the enemy and fall on at the first favorable moment ; but not to permit himself to be sur- rounded, and his retreat to the main, body cut off. Mor- gans's men soon became a perfect scourge to the British regiments. Sir William Howe could not throw out a pick- et guard at any distance from the main army, but Morgan would drive it in ; and of woods and grain fields the ene- my soon had a complete horror, and would at any time march a mile round to avoid them ; for they were almost sure to receive from every one which they approached a sa- lute of Morgan's rifles. Ranging the whole country on the south side of the Raritan, from that river to Rocky Hill, he kept the inhabitants during the whole time that the British army remained on the east side of the Millstone, almost in a state of perfect security, and many a farmer owed to the fear of Morgan's men, the preservation of his tenements from the flames.
It has been a common mistake to assert that Morgan during this period was encamped on the ridge of land be- tween the present residences of Mr. Henry Garretson and what was formerly that of C. Brokaw, west of the Weston road. That encampment consisted of 1st, 2d and 7th Regiments of Pennsylvania troops, commanded by Gen. Anthony Wayne, and the time of their encampment there, was the winter of 1778 and 9. They came upon the ground in November, and remained until May. Their huts formed quite a town with its streets and parade ground in beautiful order, and when the encampment was broken up they proceeded to the Highlands, immediately after which, Stony Point fell, being stormed and taken by Gen. An- thony Wayne ! In the meantime Gen, Sullivan had changed his position from Princeton as soon as Howe mov- ed towords Millstone, and lay on the high grounds of Rocky Hill, looking over the plains on which the scene was act- ing ; and the militia of New Jersey, rallying with an alac- raty unexemplified at any previous time, took the field in great numbers, principally joining Gen. Sullivan, who again, when Howe threatened him from Middlebush and
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the village of Millstone, retired behind the Shannock monn- tain, in the neighborhood of Clover Hill, and was forming a formidable army there to resist his progress to the Dela- ware.
When General Howe determined on leaving a part of his army at New Brunswick, marched out towards Mill- stone, with two divisions, stationing one at Middlebush, under the command of General De Heister, where two forts or redoubts were thrown up, one across the Amwell road, a few yards west of the house in which Moses Wol- sey at present resides ; the other was about three hundred yards south of the former, adjoining the present railroad, on land then owned by Denice Van Liew.
The other division, under command of Lord Cornwallis, was stationed at Millstone, and a fort thrown up on the North side of the road, a few yards West of the present dwelling of John V. C. Wyckoff, on the land then owned by Hendrick Probasco. Another fort was thrown up on the opposite side of the road on land of Ann, widow of Cornelius Van Liew.
While the army was encamped there a great amount of property belonging to the inhabitants of the neighborhood was taken and destroyed, The Dutch Church was dam- aged. General Cornwallis, in marching with his division to Millstone, took the amwell road, which then came into the Princeton road but a short distance above the Mile Run Brook near New Brunswick, which he followed, until he reached Millstone, while General De Heister followed the one running along the West bank of the Raritan for more than three miles, until he came to the then Van Duyn place, where he turned to the left and followed the road leading from thence into the Amwell Road, a few yards east of the present Middlebush Church, about half a mile west of which he encamped with his troops.
This was the state of things from the 14th to the 19th of June. On the night of the 19th, Sir William Howe, finding the American army could not be drawn from its strong position, and seeing the crowds which flocked to join Sullivan in his front, determined to waste no more time in attempting to reach Philadelphia by land, returned to New
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Brunswick. Here he remained only two days, and on the 22d, proceeded to Amboy, when he threw over the Kills the bridge of boats intended to cross the Delaware, and cons- menced passing over his bagge ard some of his light troops to Staten Island. His whole retreat was precipatous and was marked by the smoking ruins of barns and farm hous - es ; but it was not peaceable. Morgan's eye was upon him, and at sun rise on the morning of the 22d the sharp report of his rifles sounded in his ears, as he attacked and drove in his picket guard, and when they threw thein- selves into the redoubts on the hill west of New Brunswick, Wayne was there to second Morgan's attack. These were soon abandoned, and the whole army having crossed the Raritan, was seen in full flight towards Amboy. Some sharp skirmishing took place between the rear guard and Morgan's riflemen, but the march was conducted in such a guarded manner that nothing effectual could be accom- plished. Sullivan was now ordered to move his division and co-operate with Green and Maxwell, who had been di- rected to watch the enemies flanks and rear, and molest them in every possible way. But from the distance at which he was encamped, he was unable to come up in time. And the express sent to Maxwell either deserted or was taken ; and the rear guard being stronger than was ex- pected, Green with his three brigades could make no effec- tual impression on them. In consequence the retreat to Amboy was less disastrous than it might have been, had circumstances favored our troops ! An aged man who was a native of Middlebush, and as a boy was taken prisoner when the British retreated, related that in returning from the movement above described, the troops crossed below Bound Brook to the north side of the Raritan, on their way to New Brunswick. It is difficult to see the occas- ion of such a movement, and yet more difficult to discredit the testimony of an eye witness. Perhaps it was in the hope of tempting Washington to attack them.
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