USA > New Jersey > Union County > Elizabeth > History of Elizabeth, New Jersey : including the early history of Union County > Part 42
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+ Riv. Gazette, No. 225. Sparks' Washington, VI. 125, 9, 131, 155.
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about one thousand in number, were detailed for this pur- pose. They embarked at Red Hook, Long Island, at 9 o'clock, P. M., of the 24th of February, 1779, crossed the Bay to the Bergen Shore, landed, and marched over land to Newark Bay, when they reembarked, the boats having pass- ed around through the Kills. They landed, between two and three o'clock A. M. of the 25th, on the salt meadows about a mile north of Crane's Ferry. Having obtained Capt. Wm. Luce, Cornelius Hatfield, Jr., and John Smith Hatfield, (who had gone over to the British in 1778), as guides, the 42d Regiment advanced immediately, and gained the upland. The remainder of the force, through a mis- understanding, waited at the place of landing for further orders. Col. Stirling, impatient for their appearance, came to a halt, after he had got well up towards Woodruff's Farms, and sent back one of the guides to order them forward. The officer in command declined to receive the order from the lips of the guide, who, thereupon, returned to Stirling for an official order. In this blundering, they lost about an hour and a half.
Col. Stirling, in order to gain fuller intelligence as to the state of affairs in the town, sent one of the guides with six soldiers to capture one of the residents. They came to the house of Mr. Hendricks, and questioned him in respect to the troops, some of the soldiers, in the meantime, entering the house of Mr. Woodruff, directly opposite, and beginning to plunder. Mr. Woodruff made good his escape, and gave the information to Col. Ogden, the officer of the day. Gen. Maxwell immediately called the troops to arms, and march- ed them to the rear of the town, whither also the principal part of the inhabitants retired, uncertain as to the number and designs of the enemy.
A detachment was sent, with one of the guides, the shortest route to "Liberty Hall," the residence of Gov. Livingston, to apprehend him. The Governor, happily, had left home some hours before, and was passing the night at a friend's house a few miles distant. It was falsely reported by the enemy that he had left his bed only five minutes before his
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
house was surrounded. The house, of course, was searched in vain for his person. His papers were demanded of his eldest daughter, who had sufficient presence of mind to lead them into the library, and show them a drawer filled with intercepted letters from London, taken in a British vessel, a part of which they pocketed, and then carried off the re- mainder with the drawer itself. All his recent correspond- ence with Congress, Washington, and the State officers, was in a box in the parlor, which was saved by this artifice.
In the meantime, the main body of the enemy proceeded directly to the rear of the town, and had every road guarded except the Rahway road, by which several of the inhabitants escaped, before the guard could reach it. The barracks, and the Presbyterian parsonage then used as barracks, were found deserted, and in the rage of their disappointment the enemy set them on fire and they were burned down. The school-house, or academy, adjoining the Presbyterian bury- ing ground, had been used for storing provisions for the troops. This, also, they fired, and destroyed. While it was burning, a few of the female neighbors, of whom Mrs. Egbert was one, rescued from the ruins twenty six barrels of flour. A blacksmith's shop, also, was burned. They boasted, also, that they burned "the ferry-house of Stephen Crane," of which, however, the people themselves made no mention.
As soon as the light enabled Maxwell to ascertain the force and positions of the enemy, he set his troops in motion, and Col. Stirling beat a retreat. The militia both of this town and Newark took the alarm, and assembled with great alac- rity. Cols. Dayton, Ogden, and Barber conducted the pur- suit. Abandoning the horses and cattle which they had collected, the enemy retreated as they came, by the way of the salt marsh, usually regarded as quite inaccessible. Some skirmishing ensued, but the well-directed fire of two pieces of artillery greatly quickened their steps. After wading a considerable distance in mud and mire, they reached their boats, and reembarked under the cover of a galley and two or three gunboats, not a little galled by the fire poured in
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upon them from the shore. One of their boats grounded, and with the hands on board was captured.
The enemy acknowledged that from four to six of their number were slain, and about forty were wounded. They took with them about a score of the elderly men of the place, but soon after restored them to their homes. Brigade Major Ogden, who first reconnoitred the enemy received a bayonet wound, in his right side, but not dangerous. Lieut. Reucastle, also, was wounded, and four privates,-one man, a private, was killed. Chaplain Andrew Hunter, on his return from the Governor's house, whither he had hastened to give the alarm, was captured, but soon after made his escape. The invasion, save in the burning of the barracks, the parsonage, and the academy, (a procedure worthy of a savage foe,) was a complete failure-a signal blunder .*
Four or five weeks after this occurrence, Gov. Livingston addressed a note, March 29th, to Gen. Sir Henry Clinton informing him that he was "possessed of the most authentic proofs," that one of his general officers had " offered a large sum of money to an inhabitant of this State to assassinate " him-the Governor-"in case he could not take" him " alive." Ephraim Marsh, Jr., of this town, had deposed before Isaac Woodruff, Esq., that Cortlandt Skinner had offered him a reward of two thousand guineas and a pension for life, for such an exploit. A reply, very curt and imper- tinent, was received from Sir Henry, to which the Governor returned a withering rejoinder.+
The immense depreciation of the continental currency began to be seriously felt among all classes of the commu- nity, but especially among the soldiers of the patriot army, whose families were, in any measure, depending on their wages. The Jersey Brigade, under Maxwell, stationed at E. Town, sent an affecting memorial of their distressed condi- tion, for want of adequate compensation, to the Legislature. Gen. Maxwell, also, urged their case, and called attention to
* N. J. Journal, No. 2. N. J. Gazette, No. 65. Gaines' Mercury, No. 1429. Remem- brancer, VII. 368. Sparks' Washington, VI. 175, 182, 191. Sedgwick's Livingston, pp. 322-4. Barber's Hist. Coll. of N. J., p. 165. Hist. Magazine, VI. 180-1, 239.
t N. J. Journal, Nos. 10, 12. Barber's Hist. Coll. of N. J., pp. 163-4.
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the necessity of sending out of the lines the tories who were seeking every opportunity to induce the soldiers to desert. He instanced the cases of Capts. Kennedy and McCloud, at large on their parole, and yet in the pay of the enemy, " licensed spies, in our very lines, amongst our troops." He then adds :-
Mrs. Chandler is much in the same way here that McCloud is, with re- spect to her living ; but in the way of giving intelligence to the enemy I think her the first in the place. There is not a tory that passes in or out of New York or any other way, that is of consequence, but what waits on Mrs. Chandler ; and mostly all the British officers going in or out on parole or exchange, wait on her ; in short, the Governor, [Wm. Franklin], the whole of the tories, and many of the whigs. I think she would be much better in New York, and to take her baggage with her, that she might have nothing to come back for. Lawyer Ross and some other noted tories here I would recommend to be sent some distance back in the country. . . There wants a thorough reform here .*
A gratuity of £200, to cach commissioned officer, and $40, to each private, was ordered by the Legislature, the money immediately forwarded to E. Town, and the brigade, soon after took up their line of march for the Susquehanna. So many of the officers and men of the brigade were residents of this town, and so long had they been on service at this post, during the war, that the people of the town took the deepest interest in every thing pertaining to their welfare. It was their own right arm of defence.t
Washington removed his headquarters from Middlebrook, the first week in June, and soon after took post at New Windsor on the North River. In consequence, as the regular troops, that usually kept watch of Staten Island, were on their way to the Indian country, the eastern coast of this town, was considerably exposed. Col. Neilson, a vigilant officer, was left here with a small corps, which, with the militia, ready to be called out on any emergency, was thought sufficient for the time being. Col. Frederick Frelinghuysen, at a later date, was appointed to the command of the State regiment, with his headquarters at this post.+
* N. J. Rev. Correspondence, pp. 143-154 ; 159-168. Sparks' Washington, VI. 252-5. t Sparks' Washington, VI. 253, 5.
# Marshall's Washington, IV. 65, 6. N. J. Rov. Correspondence, p. 176.
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The refugees on Staten Island took advantage of the reduc- tion of the forces here, and renewed their predatory excur- sions. On the night of Saturday, June 12th, Cornelius Hat- field, Jr., with five other " loyal refugees," as Gaines calls them, crossed over the Sound to Lieut. John Haviland's house, which they effectually plundered of its contents, and seizing Haviland and the Captain of one of the guard boats, whom they had also surprised, they returned with them in safety to the Island. A few nights after, Friday, 18th, the same party, with other tories, and several British soldiers, re- peated the experiment, and landed at Halstead's Point, ---
From whence they stole up in small parties, amongst their friends, where, probably, they obtained full information of the strength and situa- tion of our guard at Halsted's house, which they attacked about day-light in the morning ; the guard being vigilant escaped, (except one man killed), and gave the alarm to the town, the villains in the meantime plundered the house of almost every thing portable, took off his riding chair, and made Mr. Halsted a prisoner, who, however, had the address to take ad- vantage of the surprize these British worthies were thrown into by the firing of a single gun, and made his escape from them; had they stayed a few minutes longer, they would probably have paid dear for their pre- sumption ; as it was, they had two men wounded, one of them mortally .*
To these troubles was added, at midsummer, June 20th, a panic respecting the negroes of the town :
On Sunday night last it was discovered that the negroes had it in con- templation to rise and murder the inhabitants of Elizabeth Town. Many of them are secured in gaol.t
This conspiracy was, of course, attributed to the tories, and with the plundering incursions, had the effect to quicken the Court of Common Pleas, in finding, July 6th, inquisitions, and entering judgment in favor of the State against the fol- lowing fugitives and offenders, viz. :-
Isaac Mills, John Stiles, jun., George Marshall, James Frazee, jun., Ichabod Oliver, Thomas Bradbury Chandler, John Slone, Robert Gault, Joseph Marsh, John Ackley, Cornelius Hetfield, jun., Oliver De Lancey, and John Lee, jr., in the County of Essex. (It is added) Notice is hereby given that all the real estates that lately belonged to the above fugitives
* Gaines' Mercury, No. 1443. New Jersey Journal, No. 19. N. J. Rev. Correspondence, p. 176.
+ N. J. Journal, No. 19.
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY. 477
within the bounds of Elizabeth Town, will be sold at public vendue, on Monday the sixteenth day of August next, at the house of Samuel Smith, innkeeper, in Elizabeth Town aforesaid, or on the premises ; and also that part of the estate late the property of Cavalier Jouet, that was sold to a certain Nathaniel Hubbell [son of Rev.], unless the said Hubbell appears and pays the purchase-money for the same, before the day of sale .*
The representations of Gen. Maxwell in respect to the re- moval of tories from the State were not without effect :-
A Motion was made at Elizabeth Town last Thursday, [12th of Aug.], (says Gaines), to remove all the suspected Persons from that place ; agree- able to a Law lately passed in that province; but the Motion could not be carried, it being strongly opposed by Gov. Livingston, who said it was impolitic to the highest Degree, and that it would only increase the Num - ber of their Enemies. +
At the convening of the Legislature, Oct. 27th, 1779, Liv- ingston was the fourth time elected Governor of the State. Great efforts had been made, by means of the press and otherwise, on the part of his enemies-" copperheads," as they would have been called at a later period-to prevent his reelection. They could command in the Legislature, however, only nine of the thirty-eight votes. The result was highly gratifying to his patriotic townsmen, and all the truc patriots throughout the State.
With the commencement of the winter, the main body of the army under Washington took up their quarters at Mor- ris Town. It proved to be one of the severest winters on record. The cold set in early, and storm succeeded storm, piling up the snow in every direction, until January 3d, 1780, when one of the most terrific storms, ever remembered, set in, from which the army suffered dreadfully. The snow covered the earth to the depth of from four to six feet, the roads were everywhere obstructed, and almost nothing could be had for the sustenance of the troops. Washington was compelled to resort to forced requisitions on the several counties of the State. Col. Matthias Ogden was appointed to collect the cattle and grain required of the County of
N. J. Journal, No. 23.
t Gaines' Mercury, No. 1452. # Sedgwick's Livingston, pp. SSS-9.
·
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Essex. The State, to its honor be it spoken, though so greatly impoverished by a four years war, came nobly to the rescue. The crisis was firmly met, and safely passed. The army was fed and furnished. *
The extraordinary severity of the cold, and its steadiness, closed up the rivers, the Sound, Newark Bay, and even the harbor of New York. The isolation of the City and the Island existed no longer. The ice, even in the Bay of New York, was of such solidity, that an army with all its artillery and baggage could cross with greater facility than on the firm earth. The authorities at New York were full of ap- prehension, and took measures to concentrate their forces, in case of an attack. Extraordinary vigilance was called for, on both sides of the line. +
As the troops had now received their needed supplies, and a portion of them might be favorably employed in an attempt on Staten Island, Gen. Wm. Irvine, who had been sent down some time before, with a detachment, to this post, was in- structed to obtain information "of the enemy's strength, corps, situation, and works," on Staten Island ; to ascertain the state of the ice at Halstead's Point, and at the Blazing Star Ferry ; and to act in concert with Col. Dayton, in mak- ing the necessary preparations. Great caution was to be
used in keeping the design secret. A large number of sleds or sleighs-several hundred-were procured, with all the necessary ammunition, rations, tools, guns, and spare shoes. Various detachments were called in, and detailed for. the service-amounting to about 2500 men-all to rendezvous in this town on the evening of Friday, the 14th. #
The expedition was put under the command of Lord Stir- ling, and it was designed to capture, if possible, the entire force of the enemy on the Island, supposed to be about 1200 men. It was believed that the communication by water with the city was cut off. The expedition set off, in good order, early in the morning of Saturday the 15th. They crossed
* Sparks' Washington, VI. 437-41. Thacher's Military Journal, pp. 176-82, 6. Barber's H. Coll. of N. J., pp. 888-92. Gordon's Rev. War, III. 42, 3.
+ N. Y. Col. Docmts., VIII. 781, 2, 5. Hist. Mag., VIII. 58.
# Sparks' Washington, VI. 441-7. Marshall's Washington, IV. 199-200.
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ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY.
safely on the ice, at De Hart's Point, to Mercereau's dock- yard. At the forks of the Blazing Star road, they divided, one column proceeding by Dougan's mills, and the other by the back road towards the watering place [Tompkinsville]. Lieut .- Col. Willet was detached to surprise Buskirk and his force of two hundred provincials at Decker's Ferry. But the enemy had obtained carly intelligence of the invasion, and on all sides retired to their works. The two columns effected a junction on the heights above the works at the same time. They found the enemy strongly fortified, and entrenched, also, behind an abattis of snow, about ten feet in height. Communication by water with the city, also, they found to be open. After fully reconnoitring the position, and remaining over night, they retired about sunrise the next morning, making good their retreat, and arriving at De Hart's Point about 11 o'clock A. M. At Decker's Ferry they captured and destroyed nine sailing vessels. They took eight or ten prisoners, and received several deserters. One of the enemy was slain, as were three of their own men. Many of the men, also, were frost-bitten, and all suffered considerably from the severity of the cold, the snow being three or four feet deep. *
Taking advantage of this opportunity a number of worth- less characters followed the troops to the Island, and com- mitted various depredations upon the people ; Rivington says, to the extent of $10,000. Washington had given strict orders not to allow anything of the kind. After their re- turn from the Island, Lord Stirling reclaimed the property as far as possible, and issued orders that whoever had been guilty of plundering should restore what they had thus taken to the Rev. Mr. Caldwell, that it might be sent back to the owners. t
This expedition had the effect to increase the vigilance of the enemy, whose number in garrison was thereupon doubled. While, on the other hand, the forces, on this side, disheart-
* N. J. Journal, No. 51. N. J. Gazette, Nos. 109, 110. Rivington's Gazette, Nos. 845, 7, 8, 350. Thacher's Journal, p. 184. Marshall's Washington, IV. 201-2. Sparks' Washington, VI. 442-S. Sparks' Corr. of the Rev., II. 350-1.
t Ibid., p. 381. Spark's Washington, VI. 416.
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ened by their failure, suffered a relaxation of both vigilance and enterprise. Preparations were accordingly made, by the enemy, for retaliatory raids on this town and Newark, on the night of Tuesday, Jan. 25, 1780, and in both cases they succeeded. The N. Jersey Journal of the 27th makes the following statements :-
A party of the enemy, consisting of about three hundred infantry, un- der the command of Colonel Van Buskirk, of the new levies, and about sixty dragoons, said to be under the command of Captain Steward, of the seven- teenth light dragoons, with several refugees-the whole in number nearly four hundred-crossed on the ice from Staten Island to Trembly's Point, about three miles from Elizabeth Town, last Tuesday night. From thence they were conducted by Cornelius Hetfield, Job Hetfield, and Smith Het- field, their principal guides, the nearest and most retired route to Eliza- beth Town. They entered the town, in two divisions, before the alarm was sounded. As soon as the troops that were in town (consisting of about sixty men) perceived their danger, they retreated; however, they took a major, who was commandant of the place, and two or three cap- tains that lodged in town that night, and a few troops. They then set fire to the presbyterian meeting and court-house, which were con- sumed ; plundered, insulted and took off some of the inhabitants, and re- treated, with great precipitation, by the way of De Hart's Point, whose house they likewise consumed .*
" A gentleman at Elizabeth Town," in a letter, written on the 29th, an extract from which was published in the New Jersey Gazette, says,-
The enemy paid us a visit here last Tuesday evening; they were in town between ten and eleven o'clock, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Buskirk, of the New Levies : The plan was well concerted, and as well executed; they evaded our guards, and were in town before any one knew it .- They have taken forty or fifty privates and several officers, with ten or twelve of the inhabitants. Major Williamson and Captain Gifford fell into their hands. Mr. Belcher Smith, [son of Wm. Peartree Smith], in attempting to escape, was likewise taken. They burnt the Presbyterian Church and the court house, plundered Jecamiah Smith, but no other houses of any consequence, as they were afraid to enter them, and staid but a little time before they pushed off.t
Rivington, in his paper of Jan. 29th, gives the British ver- sion of the affair :
* N. J. Journal, No. 51.
+ N. J. Gazette, Nos. 110, 112.
ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY. 481
On Tuesday night, the 25th inst., the rebel posts at Elizabeth Town were completely surprised and carried off by different detachments of the king's troops. Lieut. Col. Buskirk's detachment,-consisting of about 120 men from the 1st and 4th battalions of Brig. Gen. Skinner's brigade, with 12 dragoons under the command of Lieut. Stuart,-moved from Staten Island early in the night, and got into Elizabeth Town without being discovered, between the hours of 10 and 11. With little resistance, they made prisoners 2 majors, 3 captains, and 47 privates, among whom were 5 dragoons, with their horses, arms, and accoutrements. Few of the rebels were killed, but several were wounded by the dragoons, though they afterwards escaped.
The services were performed without loss. The following are the names of some of the rebel officers brought to town on Thursday last, ... from Elizabeth Town: Maj. Eccles, of the 5th Maryland regiment; Col. Belt, of the 4th regiment, from Prince George Co. ; Mr. B. Smith, son of Pear- tree Smitlı ; Maj. Williamson and his brother .*
Rivington's statement as to the persons, and the strengthi of the detachment engaged in this retaliatory foray, is, proba- bly, to be accepted as at least semi-official. Abraham Bus- kirk, according to Gaines' Register for 1781, was Lieut. Col. Commandant of the fourth battalion of New Jersey volun- teers, or tories, under the command of Brig. Gen. Cortlandt Skinner, Esq. Neal Stewart was a Lieut. of Col. Bayard's Orange Rangers. The guides were natives of the town, familiar with all the roads and all the residents of the place.t
Washington speaks of the event, two days after, as " the late misfortune and disgrace at Elizabeth Town." Not less than 2000 men, under Col. Moses Hazen, were stationed that night along the shore of the frozen waters from Paulus Hook to Amboy, in small detachments, one of which, sixty only in
* Rivington's Gazette, No. 34S. Barber's IIist. Coll. of N. J., pp. 166-7. Thacher's Journal pp. 156-7.
t llist. Magazine, VIII. 855, 6. The names of the persons captured, as subsequently re- ported, were, "Major Eccleston, Major Williamson, Captain Gray, Captain Thomas Woodruff, Captain Samuel Moorehouse, Captain Isaac Scudder, Captain W. [B.] Smith, Captain Gilford [Gifford], John Culles, Ja. Knot, William Frucker, John Sullivan, Charles Gough, John Gor- mond, John Roebly, John Lumox, Theodorik Lindsey, James Davison, Joseph Farson, John Blades, John Creaton, John Ryon, Thomas Gordon, John King, Joseph Austin, Jaines Dues, Michael Coughlon, John Miles, Michael Rowland, John Fisk, E. P'ruket, Isaac Dukeson, James Morrison, Jonathan Hackson, Benjamin Garrison, Philip Knolt, Abraham Rosier, John Brown, Andrew Patterson, Andrew MeFarland, David Buddel, Albert Slarret, Henry Rendert, Ralph Price, Ab. Prico, Jerub Price, John Gray, John Mulford, James Shay." Not more than twelve or fifteen of theso were residents. The remainder were soldiers. Gaines' Mercury, No. 147C. Rivington's Gazette, No. 351.
31
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number, under Major Eccles, was detailed for this important post .*
"The Court House " was "a small frame shingle covered building, which had never been adorned with paint ; and in the same condition, and style of architecture, was the adja- cent building, the Presbyterian Meeting House, both of which respectively occupied the ground whereon now stand the structures devoted to the same objects." Such is the descrip- tion of these buildings as given by the late Capt. Wm. C. De Hart. They were among the oldest and most venerable buildings of the town. The church was ornamented by a steeple, surmounted by a ball and weathercock, furnished, also, with a clock. It was the most conspicuous and the most valued building in the town-hallowed as the structure in which their pilgrim-fathers had worshiped God, in which they themselves-so many of them-had been consecrated to God in baptism, and in which the great and revered Dick- inson, the honored Spencer, and the still more renowned Whitefield, had preached God's word.+
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