History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men, Part 36

Author: Woodward, E. M. (Evan Morrison) cn; Hageman, John Frelinghuysen
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 36
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 36

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Gen. Washington had left Gen. Stirling with twelve Cornwallis, not being able to cross the Delaware, left a large detachment of soldiers at Trenton and also at Princeton, and returned to New Brunswick, where his stores and the best portion of his army were quartered. hundred men at Princeton to check the advance of Cornwallis, that Washington might have time to retreat beyond the Delaware, and there fortify his army. But the approach of Cornwallis with his large and veteran army almost as soon as Washington had Thus was the whole State of New Jersey subjugated by the enemy. So triumphant was the success of the British forces thrown upon the country by the British departed from the place rendered Stirling's presence of no account, and he followed Washington closely to the Delaware. Cornwallis took possession of Prince- : fleet at New York only a few months before that Gen. Howe received the congratulations of his government i at home and was about to return to England, think- ing the rebellion broken and the Continental army I scattered to the winds.

ton on or about the 7th of December, 1776, occupying the college and the Presbyterian Church for barracks, and leaving a large force there he moved on in pur- suit of Washington with a portion of his troops, reaching Trenton just as Washington had effected a crossing of the Delaware and scoured all the boats on the river to prevent the enemy from crossing after him.

while he was recruiting soldiers in his township. During the month of December the Hessian soldiers quartered at Princetou and Trenton and cantoned throughout the townships of Hopewell, Nottingham, Maidenhead, and Windsor ran over all the territory now Mercer County, and maintained themselves by plundering the farms and homes of the citizens of their stock and furniture. Many families from Princeton and Trenton, among them the family of the Rev. Dr. Elihu Spencer, of Trenton. for whose head a price had been offered, aud Dr. Witherspoon, from Prince- ton, made their escape with the American army to the other side of the Delaware. Mrs. Lydia Biddle, of Carlisle, Pa., who was the youngest daughter of Dr. Spencer, many years after the war described the scenes at the ferries above Trenton thus: "To my youthful imagination they called up the day of judg- ment, so many frightened people were assembled, with sick and wounded soldiers, all flying for their lives. and with hardly any means of crossing the river. We were unspeakably delighted when we got over safely and into a little hut, where we spent the night with a company of American soldiers on their way to join Gen. Washington. We stayed at MeKonkey's Ferry for two or three weeks, until Gen. Mercer sent my father word that he was not safe thicre. This was Sunday before the battle of Trenton. Mrs. J. D. Sergeant had uot lett her father, as her husband was still in Congress, sitting then in Baltimore. Mean- time his new house in Princeton had becu burued by the enemy, and his father had died of smallpox." 1

But Washington had not lost confidence in the cause in which he had enlisted. Though he had Been thus far unsuccessful in battle, he was success- ful in retreat, and in the great emergency he devel- proved him to be the right man for the position he ; held through the war. While encamped on the other : side of the Delaware his army was increased by the arrival of Gen. Lee's corps under Gen. Sullivan, and by four regiments under Gen. Gates from Ticonderoga. Gen. Stirling, with his twelve hundred men from Princeton, rejoined him, and he received large acces- sions of militia from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and

From this time till the 3d of January, 1777, a large , oped those elements of extraordinary character which force of the British army was quartered upon Prince- ton, destroying property, pillaging farms in the neigh- borhood and through the townships of Maidenhead, Hopewell, Windsor, and Montgomery. The houses of the three signers of the Declaration were pillaged. Richard Stockton was betrayed and captured in Mon- mouth County and imprisoned, while his beautiful home in Princeton was plundered by the Hessians. Dr. Witherspoon's house was also pillaged, but he was away. John Hart's house and farm were pillaged 1 Life of Samuel Miller, D.D., vol. i. p. 147.

589

. BATTLES OF TRENTON AND PRINCETON.

Delaware. Gen. Washington cautiously disclosed to his officers his purpose to recross the Delaware and capture the Hessian army at Trenton, and rout and break up the British cantonments stretched out in front of the river some miles apart before the enemy could consolidate. Understanding the convivial habits of the German soldiers, and that they would likely keep Christmas with a carousal, which would unfit them for the best service on the following morning, he fixed upon Christmas night, the 25th of December, 1776, for reerossing the river and marching down to Tren- ton early the next morning. Some of his officers opposed the plan as being unfeasible on account of the turbulent state of the river. Gen. Ewing was to cross with his troops just below Trenton, and Gen. Cadwallader with his at Burlington, the former to prevent the flight of the enemy down the river, and the latter to capture Burlington.

The Battle of Trenton .- The scene of that Christ- mas night, when Washington, with twenty-four hun- dred men, besides horses and twenty pieces of artillery, embarked in small boats and crossed the swollen river filled with floating ice, the hazardous feat oceupying the whole night in its accomplishment, is a familiar one, having been often described ,and also painted with consummate art by the great painter. McKon- key's Ferry, where the crossing was effected, about nine iniles above Trenton, is now known as Washing- ton's Crossing. The night was dark and a snow-storm had set in. It was four o'clock in the morning before the whole army stood on Jersey soil in old Hopewell township.1 There were two roads leading from that point to Trenton, one known as the River road, and . the other by Bear Tavern, intersecting the old Scotch road and the Pennington road, a mile or two back from the river, and entered Trenton at the head of Warren Street, then called King Street. When the order was given, "On to Trenton !" Gen. Sullivan led one column down the River road, and Gen. Washing- - ton and Gen. Greene led the other column down the other road. There was but little difference in their distance. Gen. Washington had desired to have twelve men dressed in farmer's habits, mounted on horse- back without arms, to ride before the army to reeon- noitre and learn what they could of the outguards of the British army. There were but three who would volunteer for this service, viz. : David Lanning, of Trenton, and John Muirheid and John Guild, of Hopewell. There were others who served as guides and marched with the army, viz. : Col. Joseph Phil- lips, Capt. Philip Phillips, Adjt. Philip Phillips, of Maidenhead, Joseph Inslee, Edward Burroughs, Stephen Burroughs, Ephraim Woolsey, and Henry Simmonds, of Hopewell, and Capt. John Mott, Amos Scudder, and William Green, of Trenton. . killed.

Gens. Greene, Stirling, Mercer, and Stevens accom-

panied Washington, with David Lanning for their guide.

The British foree which had been detached at Trenton by Cornwallis consisted of three Hessian regiments of Landspach, Kniphausen, and Rahl, amounting to about one thousand five hundred men, and a troop of British light-horse. Col. Rahl, who had command of the Hessians, had his headquarters at the house of Stacy Potts, on the west side of Warren, opposite Perry Street.

The two columns, marching with quick step over the ground covered with snow and sleet, reached the city at the same time. Gen. Washington said that his division arrived at the post of the advanced guard at exactly eight o'eloek, and in three minutes he found from the firing at the guard at Rutherford's and Gen. Dickinson's places that Gen. Sullivan had also reached the eity. The outguards made but small opposition, but behaved well, keeping up a constant retreating fire from behind houses. But they were all driven into town. At the head of King Street, now Warren, Capt. Forrest opened a six-gun battery. under the immediate orders of Gen. Washington, which commanded the street. Capt. William Wash- ington and Lieut. James Monroe (afterwards Presi- dent of the United States), perceiving that the enemy were forming a battery in King Street, rushed upon them with the advanee-guard, drove the artillerists from their guns, and took from thein two pieces which they were in the act of firing. These officers were both wounded in this successful assault. A part of this division marched down Queen Street, now Greene Street, and filed off to eut off the retreat of the enemy towards Princeton. Gen. Sullivan pushed back the ad- vance-guard in a running fire with light arms through Second (now State) Street beyond the Presbyterian Church. The two divisions of the American army converging aud hemming in the enemy, though the latter attempted to make a stand and fight on a field near the Assanpink, they laid down their arms and surrendered. The light-horse troops and four or five hundred Hessians had crossed the Assanpink Creek and escaped towards Bordentown at the beginning of the fight, and a few of the other soldiers escaped towards Princeton. All the rest of the enemy were made prisoners.

The number of prisoners taken by Washington was twenty-three offieers and eight hundred and eighty- six privates ; others were found concealed in houses, making the whole about one thousand. Six field- pieces and a thousand stand of arms were the trophies of the victory. Col. Rahl, the Hessian commander, and a gallant officer, fell mortally wounded. Six other officers and between twenty and thirty men were

The American loss, was two privates killed and two others frozen to death, and, as before stated, Capt. William Washington and Lieut. Monroe were . wounded. It is not known who killed Col. Rahl, as

1 The most active men who assisted In ferrying the troops across the river were Urialı Slack, William Green, and David Lanaing.

590

HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

he was found on the battle-field by Gen. Washington, mortally wounded, pale, and covered with blood, having been shot from his horse. He presented his sword to Gen. Washington, who caused him to be taken to his headquarters (Stacy Potts'), where he died of his wounds.

Gen. Ewing, who was to have crossed the river just below Trenton, and Gen. Cadwallader, who was to have crossed at Burlington, were neither able to do so on account of the ice in the stream and along the banks, and as a consequence the British soldiers at Burlington, Mount Holly, Black Horse, and Borden- town were not captured.

In consequence of the miscarriage of this part of the plan, Gen. Washington deemed it unsafe to remain in Trenton, with cantonments of Hessians below him and at Princeton, where there had been left by Corn- wallis about three thousand choice troops, and the same at New Brunswick. He therefore determined to take his prisoners and guns with his army and re- . cross the Delaware on the same day of the battle to his camp in Pennsylvania ; and this was done.

This skillful and bold piece of military strategy by Washington inspired hope and courage among the patriots, as also in the American army. If nothing else had been gained but a victory, this was of great advantage in its effect upon our soldiers, who had be- ; fore this met with nothing but defeat atter defeat. It had the effect of breaking up the several canton- ments of the enemy along the Delaware. Count Do- nop abandoned his stores and his sick and wounded at Bordentown, and marched with his brigade of Hes- sian grenadiers, on hearing of the death of Rahl and the capture of Trenton, by way of Crosswicks to Princeton, where he threw up arrow-headed earth- works.

It was a surprise to Sir William Howe, who was in New York, and who immediately upon hearing of the Christmas visit to Trenton by Washington ordered Cornwallis to resume command of the Jerseys, which order he obeyed, taking with him an additional force from New Brunswick and hastened to Princeton, not knowing perhaps that Washington had recrossed with his prisoners to Pennsylvania.

This battle of Trenton makes the first bright page in the history of the war. Though the enemy werc captured by surprise and before they could form in battle array, at an early hour of the day next after a Christmas festival, there was so much virtue in the skill and daring, in the self-sacrifice and the military tactics of Washington and his troops displayed in the plan and execution of this feat, that it is justly entitled to be named among the great achievements of Washington, and to be inscribed upon his monu- mient as such.

During the week between Christmas and New Year, Washington had been refreshing and increasing his forees, and he succeeded in getting some of his sol- diers whose term of enlistment had expired to remain

with the army six weeks longer while he would again lead them into New Jersey. Gen. Washington and Gen. Stark both pledged their private funds, and Robert Morris borrowed on New Year morning of his own friends in Philadelphia on his own credit fifty thousand dollars to pay the soldiers and buy clothing for them.

Washington now set out to " pursue the enemy and try to break up their quarters," as he wrote to Con- gress. He felt that to remain idle where he then was would betray his weakness, and yet to go again into New Jersey where the enemy was in full force was full of peril. He knew there were at least seven thousand veteran troops with heavy artillery march- ing against him from Princeton. He crossed over the Delaware into New Jersey the second time on the 30th and 31st of December, 1776, with all his forces, and concentrated them at Trenton. His whole army on the 1st of January, 1777, numbered five thousand men, but more than half were private citizens, unused to military drill, fresh from their warm homes, and tender to the cold.

The Battle of the Assanpink .- Lord Cornwallis, on the 2d of January, 1777, leaving three regiments and a company of cavalry at Princeton, led the flower of the British army from Princeton to attack Washington at Trenton. He led them in one column through Maidenhead, and left at that village a brigade under Gen. Leslie. The roads were soft, the weather was mild. Gen. Washington had learned the day before through some British dragoons which had been captured in a house near Princeton by some dashing horsemen from Trenton that Cornwallis was moving against him in force. and he sent Gen. Hand and Gen. Greene, to harass and check the enemy in their approach to Trenton, so as to avoid a general battle if possible on that day. They hindered the enemy by skirmishes so that they did not reach Tren- ton till four o'clock P.M., and then Gen. Washington conducted the retreat of his army through the town and passed the bridge over the Assanpink Creek, where the main body of his army were well arrayed and defended by batteries. The enemy attempted to force their passage across the bridge, but they were repulsed. The fighting was across the stream. The Americans were on the high ground on the south side, and the fort and bridges were well guarded with artillery. Every attempt of the enemy to cross the stream was repelled, and a brisk firing was kept up by both sides till nightfall made a cessation necessary. Cornwallis then withdrew to the high ground near the Princeton road for a night's rest, and sent word to Maidenhead and Princeton that the fight was post- poned till morning, but he kept a strong picket along the creek to watch the Americans, expecting in the morning to capture Washington and his army, or, 1s it is said he expressed it, "to bag the fox in the morning," and thus redeem the character of the British arms which had suffered by Washington's

591

BATTLES OF TRENTON AND PRINCETON.

Christmas visit. It is said that at least one hundred and fifty men were killed in this battle. Gen. Washı- ington in his brief notice of it, written from Pluck- emin on the 5th of January, after the exciting events of the midnight retreat to Princeton and the battle of Princeton and the march to Pluckemin, briefly states that "we were drawn up on the other side of the ereek. In this situation we remained till dark, eannonading the enemy and receiving the fire of their field-pieces, which did us but little damage." The ae- eount by an officer in the fight, published in the Con- ! necticut Journal, Jan. 22, 1777, and another written by an eye-witness in the Princeton Whig in 1842, eon- cur in the statement that there was great loss of life, especially by the British, who were exposed to the terrific discharges of our artillery in their attempts to force the bridges and fords, that the ereek was | nearly filled with dead bodies. As there was no re- port of the killed made by the British officers, and under the peeuliar exeitement and circumstances of lish artillery was returned by Capt. Neal from the that night and the next day none made by the Ameri- cans to Washington, his aeeount from Pluckemin may be explained, while the other more particular aeeounts may be correct. In every aspect it was more of a battle than the atfair at Trenton, which was more of a surprise than a square fight, though it was not so illustrious an achievement as the first one.

The Retreat .- Gen. Washington saw the peril of risking a general battle with his veteran enemy in full force, seven thousand strong. The next morning every officer under him saw it. IIe kept the watch- fires burning all night, and held out the appearanee, by the stir and bustle in eamp, that he intended a battle in the morning. But his purpose to retreat and avoid a battle was formally diselosed to his offi- cers in a council of war before the evening had passed. His plan was to send his baggage-train to Burlington, and to lead the enemy in the morning to think that his army had gone in the same direction, while his army should move quietly and quiekly up the road to Sandtown, and thenee aeross to the Quaker road to Stony Brook, shunning the pickets of Gen. Leslie at . Maidenhead, and marching upon Princeton, and thenee to New Brunswick, where the British stores were kept. At midnight the troops, with their artil-

The Battle of Princeton .- It was now a little after sunrise on the 3d day of January, 1777,-a very cold morning,-when the main army of Washington was moving from Stony Brook, by a drift-way through the fields of the Clark and Olden farms, to Princeton, and Gen. Mercer was moving towards the mill to de- stroy the bridge, when Col. Mawhood, commanding the Seventeenth and Fifty-fifth Regiments of British soldiers, on their way from Princeton to Trenton to join Cornwallis, descried from the road on the hill west above the stream Mercer's detachment, which he supposed had fled from the Trenton battle-field. He turned and prepared to give battle. The hostile forees were nearly equal, and each had two pieces of artillery. The Amerieans were fatigued with the night's march, while the enemy were fresh aud expe- rienced soldiers. Both parties ran for the high ground, and the Americans were a little ahead. A couflict ensued. A heavy discharge from the Eng- American field-pieces. After a short but brisk can- nonade the Americans elimbed over a fence to con- front the British, and were the first to use their guns. Mawhood's infantry returned the volley, and soon charged them with bayonets. The Americans, who for the most part used rifles without bayonets, gave way, abandoning their eannon. Their gallant offi- cers, unwilling to flee, were left in the rear, endeavor- ing to call baek the fugitives. In this way fell Has- let, the brave colonel of the Delaware regiment ; Neal, who had charge of the artillery ; Fleming, the gallant leader of all that was left of the First Virginia Regiment, and other officers of merit. Geu. Mercer himself, whose horse had been disabled under him, was wounded, kuocked down several times, and stabbed with the bayonet, refusing to cry for quarter. He was left on the field supposed to be dead.

The firing arrested the attention of Washington, who had advanced as far as the Olden farm, on his way to Prineeton, and he immediately directed the Pennsylvania militia to go to the support of Gen. Mercer, and he led them in person, with two pieces of artillery, under Capt. Moulder, who formed a battery on the right of Thomas Clarke's house. The enemy, in pursuing the detachment of Mereer over the hill,

lery, were set in motion with the utmost eaution. The . now for the first time discovered that the main army weather had become severely eold during the night, of Washington was there. They haited and brought up the artillery, and attempted to capture Capt. Moulder's battery. Gen. Washington, to encourage his troops, marehed into the very front of danger, and when within thirty yards of the British he reined in his horse with its head towards them, as both par- ties were about to fire. The two sides gave a volley at the same time; when the smoke eleared away, it and the ground had so frozen as to bear the horses and the artillery, enabling them all to travel with celerity, and to reach the Quaker meeting-house at Stony Brook by daylight, where the army halted, while Washington detailed Gen. Mereer. with Capts. Stone, Fleming, Neal, and others, with about three hundred and fifty men and two pieces of artillery, to march up the Quaker road to Worth's Mills, there to , was thought a miracle that Washington was un- destroy the bridge over the Stony Brook, and thereby . touched. Hitchcock came up with his brigade, and hinder the pursuit of his army by the enemy, which . Hand's riflemen began to turn the left of the Eng- he supposed would follow him. The baggage-train , lish. The enemy, after fighting with desperate cour moved towards Burlington. age, fearing they might beeome surrounded, tled over

592

HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY, NEW JERSEY.

the fields and fences up Stony Brook. Mawhood left sidering the time occupied and the number engaged on the ground two brass field-pieces, which for want of horses the Americans could not carry off. Wash- . during the war. The enemy exhibited the highest ington thanked Hitchcock for his services.

While the largest part of the army were engaged with the troops under Mawhood, the New England regiments of Stark, Poor, Paterson. Recd, and others drove back the Fifty-fifth Regiment, which with the Fortieth made a gallant resistance at the ravine, a short distance south of the village of Princeton, but the Americans were again victorious, and the enemy retreated to the college. Pieces of artillery were brought to play upon them, traees of which can be scen on the old walls of the college. The first ball, it is said, entered the prayer hall, or college chapel, and passed through the head of the portrait of George II. suspended on the wall. The British surrendered, and some fled across the fields towards New Bruns- wick.

The British lost on that day, in those three battles' at Princeton, about two hundred killed and wounded and two hundred and thirty prisoners, of whom four-, teen werc British officers. Some historians make the number killed one hundred, and prisoners three hun- dred. Among the officers of the enemy killed was Capt. Leslie, whose loss was very much regretted. The loss of the Americans was small, not exceeding thirty, but it was great in worth aud talents. Col. Haslet, Maj. Morris, Capts. Shippen, Fleming, and Neal were brave and reliable officers, and Gen. Mer- eer was Washington's most esteemed and reliable general, a gentleman of fine attainments and social position, and generally beloved. He did not die on the field, but lived some days at the house of Mr. Clarke, where he was kindly nursed by the Misses | chief, exclaiming, with tears, 'Thank God, Your Ex- Hannalı and Sarah Clarke, the house now occupied cellency is safe!' The chief, ever calm, affectionately grasped the hand of his friend and aide, and said, 'Away, my dear colonel, and bring up the troops; the day is our own.' " by Henry E. Hale, between the battle-field and the Quaker meeting-house. He died on the 12th of Jan- uary, and was buried in Christ churchyard in Phila- delphia.

The dead of the British, about one hundred, were buried where they lay on the field, about two hun- dred yards north of Joseph Clarke's barn, along an obscure drift-way. Their bodies, frozen stiff, with their clothing mostly stripped from them by the . American soldiers, were piled into a wagon and then carried to the grave. The fourteen Americans killed | clectric. Volunteers responded to the eall for new were also buried in the field. There is no monument to designate their graves.

Gen. Washington hastened from Princeton on the same day of the battle, and after destroying the bridge at Kingston, over the Millstone, he marched with his army down the Millstone on his route to Morristown for winter-quarters. He was hotly pursued by Corn- wallis' army from Trenton, which marched directly through Princeton to New Brunswick, where it sup- posed Washington had gone to capture the British stores there.

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History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men, Part 36

Author: Woodward, E. M. (Evan Morrison) cn; Hageman, John Frelinghuysen Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Woodward, E. M. (Evan Morrison) cn; Hageman, John Frelinghuysen
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1096