USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > Perth Amboy > Contributions to the early history of Perth Amboy and adjoining country : with sketches of men and events in New Jersey during the provincial era > Part 34
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27 Elmer's Journal, N. J. Hist. Socy. Proceedings, Vol. III., p. 90.
28 Verbal information from Mr. Jo- seph Marsh.
29 Elmer's Journal. The Captain and 25 of his men were sent to New York on the 25th as prisoners.
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killed, wounded and prisoners. The firing drew out a number of the enemy from Amboy, but they retired again on finding their movements were observed. General Maxwell was pres- ent at the affair. 30
The following day a detachment of English went as far as Woodbridge, but effected nothing.
We return to the events of June, 1777. The British army did nothing against Washington. They retreated again to New Brunswick, and, on the 22d June, after committing many outrages, left there for Amboy, and on the road, houses were burnt and other damage done to the property of indivi- duals. A few of the British troops and the heavy baggage were passed over to Staten Island, to lead General Washing- ton to believe they intended to evacuate the State forthwith, but the real object of General Howe was to draw the Ameri- cans from the strong position they occupied. So soon, there- fore, as General Washington advanced his forces to Quibble- town, General Howe, having recalled the troops from Staten Island, directed his march towards him on the 25th in two columns, with a determination to bring on a general engage- ment. The Americans, however, withdrew from the low ground which they had occupied on advancing, and after en- gaging a division under Lord Stirling, subjecting it to some trifling loss, General Howe continued the pursuit to West- field. He remained there until the next day at 3 o'clock, when he retired to Rahway, the day after reached Amboy, and on the 30th the whole British Army embarked, leaving all New Jersey in the quiet possession of General Washing- ton.31 The harbor of Amboy was filled with their vessels, and many troops embarked at once from our shores on board the transports that conveyed them to the Chesapeake, 32 and shortly
30 Elmer.
31 Washington's Writings, Vol. IV., p. 497.
32 Washington's Writings, Vol. IV., p. 481. As this expedition was one undertaken with much preparation by Lord Howe, and with high expecta- tions of success, I give here such por- tions of Lord Howe's official despatch of July 5th, 1777, as refer to it.
"The necessary preparations being finished for crossing the troops to Sta- ten Island, intelligence was received that the enemy had moved down from the mountain and taken post at Quib- bletown, intending, as it was given out, to attack the rear of the army re- moving from Amboy; that two corps had also advanced to their left-one of 3,000 men and 8 pieces of cannon,
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afterwards the battle of Brandywine took place. 33 The Ameri- cans remained in undisturbed possession of Amboy the remain- der of the war ; the English never making their appearance
under Lord Stirling, Generals Max- well and Conway: the last said to be a Captain in the French service ; the other corps consisting of about 700 men, with only one piece of cannon. In this situation of the enemy, it was judged advisable to make a movement that might lead on to an attack, which was done the 26th, in the morning, in two columns: the right, under the command of Lord Cornwallis, with Major-general Grant, Brigadiers Mat- thew and Lesslie, and Colonel Donop, took the route of Woodbridge towards Scotch Plains-the left column where I was, with Major-generals .Sterne, Vaughan and Grey, Brigadiers Cleave- land and Agnew, marched by Metu- chin Meeting-house to join the rear of the right column in the road from thence to Scotch Plains, intending to have taken separate routes about two miles after the junction, in order to have attacked the enemy's left flank at Quibbletown. Four battalions were detached in the morning, with six pieces of cannon, to take post at Bon- hamtown.
" The right column, having fallen in with the aforementioned corps of 700 men soon after passing Woodbridge, gave the alarm, by the firing that en- sued, to the main army at Quibble- town, which retired to the mountain with the utmost precipitation. The small corps was closely pursued by the light troops, and with difficulty got off their pieces of cannon.
" Lord Cornwallis, soon after he was upon the road leading to Scotch Plains from Metuchin Meeting-house, came up with the corps commanded by Lord Stirling, who he found advantageous- ly posted in a country much covered with wood, and his artillery well dis- posed. The King's troops, vying with each other upon this occasion, pressed forward to such close action, that the enemy, though inclined to re- sist, could not long maintain their ground against so great impetuosity, but were dispersed on all sides, leaving behind them three pieces of brass ord- nance, 3 captains and 60 men killed- and upwards of 200 officers and men
wounded and taken. His Lordship had 5 men killed and 30 wounded, and 13 prisoners ; [see Gen. W.'s letter to Congress, June 29, 1777. He says, Lord Stirling assured him his loss was light except in the 3 field pieces. ] Capt. Finch, of the light company of the Guards, was the only officer who suffered, and, to my great concern, the wound he received proving mortal, he died the 29th June at Amboy. The troops engaged in this action were- 1st Light Infantry, 1st British Grena- diers, 1st, 2d and 3d Hessian Grena- diers, 1st Battalion Guards, Hessian Chasseurs, and the Queen's Rangers. I take the Liberty of particularizing these corps, as Lord Cornwallis in his report to me so highly extols their merit and ardor upon this attack. One piece of cannon was taken by the Guards, the other two by Col. Minge- rode's battalion of Hessian Grenadiers.
" The enemy were pursued as far as Westfield, with little effect; the day proving so intensely hot, that the sol- diers could with difficulty continue their march thither ; in the mean time it gave opportunity for those flying to escape by skulking in the thick woods, until night favored their retreat to the mountain.
" The army lay that night at West- field, returned the next day to Rah- . way, and the day following to Amboy. On the 30th, at 10 o'clock in the fore- noon, the troops began to cross over to Staten Island, and the rearguard, un- der the command of Lord Cornwallis, passed at two in the afternoon. The embarkation of the troops is proceed- ing with the utmost despatch, and I shall have the honor of sending your Lordship further information as soon as the troops are landed at the place of their destination.
" With the most perfect respect, &c., "W. HOWE."
33 The bridge of boats which was intended by the British for the Dela- ware, answered a very good purpose at Amboy in facilitating the crossing of a portion of the army to Staten Isl- and .- Marshal Botta.
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in its vicinity in any numbers after the evacuation of the place, although predatory excursions to Woodbridge, Rahway, Elizabethtown, and up the Raritan were frequently under- taken, and attended with more or less annoyance to the inhabitants.
General Vaughan commanded the garrison while the place was in possession of the enemy. His head-quarters were in the Government-house, which then occupied the site of the present Brighton. The troops were a mixed assemblage of Germans, Hessians, Highlanders and English. The High- landers were an object of considerable curiosity and wonder from their dress, wearing a low checkered bonnet, a tartan or plaid, a short red coat or with a kilt, leaving their knees ex- posed to view and to the winds, and their legs only partly cov- ered by the many-colored hose of their country.
The musket, bayonet, broadsword, dirk and pistols showed a formal array for the strife of blood, and the ornamental por- tion of the dress was completed by a pouch hanging in front of the kilt decorated with tassels. This costume was changed after the first or second campaign, the temperature of the country and species of warfare being both unsuited to it.
The dress of a Hessian soldier as described by Dunlap 24 was as follows : "A towering brass-fronted cap ; moustaches colored with the same material that colored his shoes, his hair plastered with tallow and flour, and tightly drawn into a long appendage reaching from the back of the head to his waist ; his blue uniform almost covered by the broad belts sustaining his cartouch box, his brass-hilted sword, and his bayonet ; a yellow waistcoat with flaps, and yellow breeches were met at the knee by black gaiters ; and thus heavily equipped he stood an automaton, and received the command or cane of the offi- cer who inspected him." .
The following are notices of some of the expeditions refer- red to above, as having been set on foot by the British after their evacuation of Amboy and the vicinity, and of some other events of interest from contemporary accounts :-
34 American Theatre, pp. 45, 47.
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On 19th August, 1777, a detachment of 60 men of the Battalion of New Jersey Royal Volunteers, came over from Staten Island and, it is said, marched 27 miles into the inte- rior, taking off 14 prisoners, 62 head of cattle, 9 horses, and a quantity of arms and ammunition, destroying much they could not remove. On returning they posted their pickets and sen- tinels so well, that, although the American Light-horse, under the command of Captain Barnet of Elizabethtown, made their appearance on the heights north-west of the town ; they did not venture to attack them, and all their booty was transported in safety to the island.
On the 12th April, 1779, Commissioners appointed by General Washington and Sir Henry Clinton, met at Amboy, to make arrangements for a general exchange of prisoners.
On October 12th, 1779, about 50 of " the Greens" crossed over from Staten Island early in the morning, and had se- cured upwards of a hundred cattle and horses before any Ame- rican troops could be collected ; but about 10 o'clock a detach- ment from Elizabethtown, under Captain Davis, came upon them unexpectedly, and obliged them to retreat, leaving most of their booty behind them.
Soon after this, occurred, what the gallant Henry Lee says " was considered by both armies among the handsomest ex- ploits of the war," and from the interest attaching to it, from the ground traversed, and other circumstances, no apology is offered for giving an account"of it, principally in the words of the chief actor in the affair-Lieut. Col. Simcoe of the Queen's Rangers-whose corps was characterized. throughout the war by its gallantry and success.
" There was a general rumor "of an intended attack on New York. Lt. Col. Simcoe had information that fifty flat-boats, upon carriages, capa- ble of holding seventy men each, were on the road from the Delaware to Washington's army, and that they had been assembled to Van Vechten's bridge, upon the Raritan. He proposed to the Commander-in-Chief to burn them. Sir Henry Clinton approved of his plan, as did Earl Corn- wallis, and directed it to be put into execution. Colonel Lee, with his cavalry, had been at Monmouth : Sir Henry Clinton, upon Lieut. Col. Simcoe's application to him for intelligence of this corps, told him, that by the best information he had, Lee was gone from that part of the country. There were no other troops in the vicinity : the Jersey militia only, and
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those tumultuously assembled at the moment of the execution of the en- terprise could, possibly, impede it.
"Lieut, Col. Simcoe's plan was, to burn the boats with as much expe- dition as possible; to return, with silence, to the heights beyond the town of Brunswick, before day; there to show himself, to entice all who might follow him into an ambuscade ; and if he found that his remaining in the Jersies could effect any valuable purpose, the Commander-in-Chief pro- posed to reinforce him.
" On the 25th of October, by eight o'clock at night, the detachment, which had been detailed, marched to Billop's Point, where they were to embark. That the enterprise might be effectually concealed, Lieut. Col. Simcoe described a man, as a rebel spy, to be on the island, and endea- voring to escape to New Jersey ; a great reward was offered for taking him, and the militia of the island were watching all the places where it was possible for any man to go from, in order to apprehend him. The bateaux, and boats, which were appointed to be at Billop's Point, so as to pass the whole over by twelve o'clock at night, did not arrive till three o'clock in the morning. No time was lost; the infantry of the Queen's Rangers were landed : they ambuscaded every avenue to the town; the cavalry followed as fast as possible. As soon as it was formed, Lieut. Col. Simcoe called together the officers; he told them of his plan, 'that he meant to burn the boats at Van Vechten's bridge, and crossing the Raritan, at Hillsborough, to return by the road to Brunswick, and, mak- ing a circuit to avoid that place as soon as he came near it, to discover himself when beyond it, on the heights where the Grenadier Redoubt stood while the British troops were cantoned there, and where the Queen's Rangers afterwards had been encamped; and to entice the militia, if possible, to follow him into an ambuscade which the infantry would lay for them at South-river bridge.' Major Armstrong was instructed to re- embark, as soon as the cavalry marched, and to land on the opposite side of the Raritan, at South Amboy : he was then, with the utmost despatch and silence, to proceed to South-river bridge, six miles from South Amboy, where he was to ambuscade himself, without passing the bridge or taking it up. A smaller creek falls into this river on the South Amboy side: into the peninsula formed by these streams, Lieut. Col. Simcoe hoped to allure the Jersey militia. In case of accident, Major Armstrong was desired to give credit to any messenger who should give him the patrole of ' Clinton and Montrose.' It was daybreak before the cavalry left Amboy. The procuring of guides had been by Sir Henry Clinton entrusted to Brigadier Skinner : he either did not or could not obtain thein, for but one was found who knew perfectly the cross-road he meant to take, to avoid the main road from Somerset court-house, or Hillsborough, to Brunswick. Captain Sandford formed the advance-guard, the Huzzars followed, and Stuart's men were in the rear; making in the whole about eighty. A Justice Crow was soon overtaken; Lieut. Col. Simcoe accosted him roughly, called him 'Tory,' nor seemed to believe his excuses, when in the American idiom for courtship, he said 'he had only been sparking,' but sent him to the rear-guard, who, being Americans, easily compre- hended their instructions, and kept up the justice's belief that the party was a detachment from Washington's army. Many plantations were now passed by, the inhabitants of which were up, and whom the party accost- ed with friendly salutations. At Quibbletown, Lieut. Col. Simcoe had just quitted the advance guard to speak to Lieut. Stuart, when, from a public house on the turn of the road, some people came out with knap- sacks on their shoulders, bearing the appearance of a rebel guard : Cap- tain Sandford did not see them till he had passed by, when, checking his
-
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horse to give notice, the Huzzars were reduced to a momentary halt oppo- site the house; perceiving the supposed guard, they threw themselves off their horses, sword in hand, and entered the house. Lieut. Col. Simcoe instantly made them remount: but they were afraid to discover some thousand pounds of paper-money which had been taken from a passenger, the master of a privateer, nor could he stay to search for it. He told the man, 'that he would be answerable to give him his money that night at Brunswick, where he should quarter ; ' exclaimed aloud to his party, ' that these were not the Tories they were in search of, although they had knapsacks, and told the country people who were assembling around, ' that a party of Tories had made their escape from Sullivan's army, and were trying to get into Staten Island, as Iliff (who had been defeated near this very spot, taken, and executed) had formerly done, and that he was sent to intercept them.' The sight of Justice Crow would, probably, have aided in deceiving the inhabitants, but, unfortunately, a man personally knew Lieut. Col. Simcoe, and an express was sent to Governor Living- ston, then at Brunswick, as soon as the party marched. It was now con- ducted by a country lad whom they fell in with, and to whom Captain Sand- ford, being dressed in red, and without his cloak, had been introduced as a French officer : he gave information, that the greater part of the boats had been sent on to Washington's camp, but that eighteen were at Van Vech- ten's bridge, and that their horses were at a farm about a mile from it : he led the party to an old camp of.Washington's above Bound brook. Lieut. Col. Simcoe's instructions were to burn these huts, if possible, in order to give as wide an alarm to the Jersies as he could. He found it impractica- ble to do so, they not being joined in ranges, nor built of very combusti- ble materials. He proceeded without delay to Bound brook, from whence he intended to carry off Col. Moyland, but he was not at Mr. Vanhorn's : two officers who had been ill were there; their paroles were taken ; and they were ordered to mark 'sick quarters ' over the room door they in- habited, which was done; and Mr. Vanhorn was informed, that the party was the advanced guard of the left column of the army, which was com- manded by General Birch, who meant to quarter that night at his house ; and that Sir Henry H. Clinton was in full march for Morristown, with the army. The party proceeded to Van Vechten's bridge: Lieut. Col. Simcoe found eighteen new flat-boats, upon carriages; they were full of water. He was determined effectually to destroy them. Combustibles had been applied for, and he received, in consequence, a few port-fires; every Huzzar had a hand-grenade, and several hatchets were brought with the party. The timbers of the boats were cut through; they were filled with straw and railing, and some grenades being fastened in them, they were set on fire : forty minutes were employed in this business. The country began to assemble in their rear; and as Lieut. Col. Simcoe went to the Dutch-meeting, where the harness, and some stores, were reported to be, a rifle-shot was fired at him from the opposite bank of the river: this house, with a magazine of forage, was now consumed, the commissary, and his people, being made prisoners. The party proceeded to Somerset court-house, or Hillsborough. Lieut. Col. Simcoe told the prisoners not to be alarmed, that he would give them their paroles before he left the Jersies ; but he could not help heavily lamenting to the officers with him, the sinister events which prevented him from being at Van Vechten's bridge some hours sooner, as it would have been very feasible to have drawn off the flat-boats to the South river, instead of destroying them. He proceeded to Somerset court-house; three Loyalists, who were prison- ers there, were liberated; one of them was a dreadful spectacle ; he ap- peared to have been almost starved, and was chained to the floor; the
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soldiers wished, and it was permitted, to burn the court-house: it was unconnected with any other building, and, by its flames, showed on which side of the Raritan he was, and would, most probably operate to assemble the neighborhood of Brunswick at its bridge, to prevent him from return- ing by that road : the party proceeded towards Brunswick. Alarm guns were now heard, and some shots were fired at the rear, particularly by one person, who, as it afterwards appeared, being out a shooting, and hearing of the incursion, had sent word to Governor Livingston, who was at Brunswick, that he would follow the party at a distance, and every now and then give a shot, that he might know which way they directed their march. Passing by some houses, Lieut. Col. Simcoe told the women to inform four or five people who were pursuing the rear, 'that if they fired another shot, he would burn every house which he passed.' A man or two were now slightly wounded. As the party approached Bruns- wick, Lieut. Col. Simcoe began to be anxious for the cross-road, diverging from it into the Prince-town road, which he meant to pursue, and which having once arrived at, he himself knew the bye ways to the heights he wished to attain, where having frequently done duty, he was minutely acquainted with every advantage and circumstance of the ground: his guide was perfectly confident that he was not yet arrived at it; and Lieut. Col. Simcoe was in earnest conversation with him, and making the ne- , cessary inquiries, when a shot, at some little distance, discovered there was a party in the front. He immediately galloped thither; and he sent back Wright, his orderly serjeant, to acquaint Captain Sandford 'that the shot had not been fired at the party,' when, on the right at some dis- tance, he saw the rail fence (which was very high on both sides of the narrow road between two woods) somewhat broken down, and a man or two near it, when putting his horse on the canter, he joined the advance men of the Huzzars, determining to pass through this opening, so as to avoid every ambuscade that might be laid for him, or attack, upon more equal terms, Colonel Lee, (whom he understood to be in the neighbor- hood, and apprehended might be opposed to him,) or any other party; when he saw some men concealed behind logs and bushes, between him and the opening he meant to pass through, and he heard the words, ' now, now,' and found himself, when he recovered his senses, prisoner with the enemy, his horse being killed with five bullets, and himself stun- ned by the violence of his fall. His imprisonment, the circumstances which attended it, and the indelible impressions which it has made on his memory, cannot, even at this distance, be repeated without the strongest emotions.
"Lieut. Col. Simcoe had no opportunity of communicating his determi- nation to any of his officers, they being all with their respective divisions ready for what might follow upon the signal shot of the enemy, and his resolution being one of those where thought must go hand in hand with execution, it is no wonder, therefore, that the party, who did not perceive the opening he was aiming at, followed with the accelerated pace which the front, being upon the canter, too generally brings upon the rear ; they passed the ambuscade in great confusion : three horses were wounded, and the men made prisoners, two of them being also wounded. The enemy who fired were not five yards off: they consisted of thirty men, commanded by Mariner, a refugee from New York, and well known for ·his enterprises with whale-boats. They were posted on the very spot which Lieut. Col. Simcoe had always aimed at avoiding. His guide mis- led him : nor was the reason of his error the least uncommon of the sinis- ter events which attended this incursion. When the British troops quitted
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the camp at Hillsborough, and marched to Brunswick, among other houses which were unwarrantably burnt was the one which the guard relied upon, as marking out the private road the party was to take: he knew not of its being burnt, and that every vestige had been destroyed, so that he led them unintentionally into the ambuscade; which when the party had passed by on the full gallop, they found themselves on the high grounds beyond the barracks at Brunswick. Here they rallied ; there was little doubt but Lieut. Col. Simcoe was killed : the surgeon, (Mr. Kellock,) with a white handkerchief, held out as a flag of truce, at the manifest risk of his life, returned to inquire for him. The militia assem- bling, Captain Sandford drew up, and charged them, of course, they fled : a Captain Voorhees, of the Jersey Continental troops, was overtaken, and the Huzzar, at whom he had fired, killed him. A few prisoners were taken. Captain Sandford proceeded to the South river, the guides having recovered from the consternation. Two militia men only were met with upon the road thither : they fired, and killed Molloy, a brave Huzzar, the advance man of the party, and were themselves instantly put to death. At South river the cavalry joined Major Armstrong; he had perfectly succeeded in arriving at his post undiscovered, and, ambuscading himself, had taken several prisoners. He marched back to South Amboy, and re- embarked without opposition, exchanging some of the bad horses of the corps for better ones which he had taken with the prisoners. The alarm through the country was general; Wayne was detached from Washing- ton's camp in the highlands, with the light troops, and marched fourteen miles that night, and thirty the next day; Colonel Lee, who was in Mon- mouth county, as it was said, fell back towards the Delaware. The Queen's Rangers returned to Richmond that evening : the cavalry had marched upwards of eighty miles, without halting or refreshment, and the infantry thirty." 35
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