History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 15

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170

USA > New Jersey > Somerset County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 15
USA > New Jersey > Hunterdon County > History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 15

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HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

sistance was utterly routed and sent flying in disorder along the road towards Kingston. A part of the Fortieth Regiment (which had been left in Princeton when Mawhood marched out in the morning, and which consequently participated very little in the day's fighting) joined in the retreat and swelled the throng of fugitives. A detachment of the American force pursued them, but they soon left the main road, and, striking off to the left, fled in a northerly direc- tion along the by-ways and through the fields and woods of Somerset County." As to the route of their flight, different accounts have been given. The Hon. Ralph Voorhees, in one of a series of historical papers recently published, said,-

" The Fortieth and Fifty-fifth retreated hastily to Kingston, and from thence pursued a ronte that brought them to Middlebush, where they en- camped for a week in a field a few yards west of where the present church stands, and a little to the east of the field where Gen. De Heister laid with his division in June of the same year."

In another account,t published some ten years since, it is stated that, "while Washington took the main road towards New Brunswick, these [the fugi- tives of the Fortieth and Fifty-fifth Regiments], frightened and flying, made towards the heights southwest of Rocky Hill, crossed Beden's Brook, and rushed on till they crowded on the little point formed by the junction of that brook with the Millstone River, just in front of what is now known as the old Van- derveer homestead. Abraham Vanderveer, now [1870] living at Rocky Hill, says that when the family saw them coming they were on a run. When they came into the forks they halted, finding the ice broken. They then procured rails, laid them on the ice, and passed over. The Vanderveers had a large pot of mush, just taken from the fire, intended for breakfast. The British on coming up said they had had nothing but hot bullets for breakfast, and, hastily scooping the mush out with their hands, pursued their march. These accounts doubtless have reference to different partiest of the retreating British, as it is not to be supposed that they kept together in one body during the panic of their headlong flight.

In the college buildings at Princeton there remained a part of the Fortieth Regiment, which had occupied it as barracks. Washington, supposing that these men would stand and defend their position, ordered up a section of artillery, which opened on the build- ings. The first shot fired passed into the Prayer- Hall and through the head of a portrait of His

Majesty George II. which hung on the wall. But lit- tle show of resistance was made by the British within the buildings, and finally James Moore, of Prince- ton, a captain of militia, with the assistance of a few others as bold as himself, burst open a door of Nassau Hall and demanded a surrender of the forces within. The demand was at once complied with, and the en- tire body, including a number of sick, gave themselves up as prisoners of war. This was the last of the British forces in Princeton, and Washington, having now entirely cleared the town of his enemies, imme- diately evacuated the place, and with his army moved rapidly away towards the northeast on the New Bruns- wick road.

The advance division of Cornwallis, which had hur- ried up from Maidenhead towards the scene of action and dashed through the icy waters of Stony Brook, as before mentioned, moved forward in the greatest haste from that point to Princeton. Guarding the south- western approach to the town was a bastioned earth- work which had been thrown up a week or two earlier by their own forces, and upon its rampart a thirty-two-pounder gun had been mounted by Count Donop. Now, as the head of Leslie's division came on at a quick-step, it was greeted by a thundering re- port from the great gun, which had been fired by two or three American soldiers who still lingered near it. The rush of the ponderous shot above the heads of the British caused the advancing column to halt, and the commander, who now believed that Washington had determined to defend the place, sent out parties of cavalry to reconnoitre, the infantry in the mean time advancing slowly and with great caution preparatory to an assault of the work. By these movements Corn- wallis lost one precious hour, and when his men at last moved up to the fortification they found it en- tirely deserted, and soon after the cavalry-parties re- ported that there was not a rebel soldier in Princeton. Upon this the British general, chagrined at the de- lay resulting from his useless caution, ordered his columns to move on with all speed on the New Bruns- wick road. Arriving at Kingston, three miles from Princeton, he found that the Americans had broken down the bridge at that place ; but this was soon re- paired, and the army, having crossed the stream, was again hurried on in the hope of overtaking the Amer- icans in time to prevent the destruction of the military stores at New Brunswick. Cornwallis arrived at that place during the succeeding night, and was rejoiced to find his stores untouched ; but he found no American army, for "the fox" had again eluded him, and was at that time safe among the hills of Somerset.

Washington, on leaving Princeton, moved his force with the greatest possible speed to Kingston, crossing the Millstone River and destroying the bridge behind him. Having proceeded thus far he was not a little perplexed in deciding on his subsequent movements. The heavy column of Cornwallis was following so

# Washington had no cavalry with him, and of course the pursuit of a terrified crowd of fugitives by infantry was fruitless. Many of them, however, were captured, and the pursuing-parties kopt up the chase Ho long that they had not all rejoined the main body two days later.

+ From the pon of Jacob Magill, of the Newark Journal.

# Washington, in reporting to Congress under date of Pluckamin, Jan. 5, 1777, mentions that some of the British prisoners taken in the pursuit after the battle at Princeton were taken across the Delaware River; and also that at that time-two days after the battle-the pursuing-parties had not all returned to the main army. These facts would seem to indi- cato that some of the British fugitives fled towards the southwest and entered Hunterdon County.

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES IN THE REVOLUTION.

closely in his rear that it was only at great peril that he could pursue his original plan* of marching to New Brunswick. The destruction of the British magazines and stores at that place would have been a most glorious ending of the winter campaign, and would, beyond doubt, have driven the last vestige of British military power out of New Jersey ; but, on the other hand, a collision with the superior forces of Cornwallis-which it seemed hardly possible to avoid if the march to New Brunswick was continued- could hardly result otherwise than in defeat, and not improbably in the rout and destruction of the Amer- ican army. At this juncture the commander-in-chief adopted his usual course,-called a council of war, which was held by himself and his generals in the saddle, and, although " some gentlemen advised that he should file off to the southward,"t the council re- sulted in the decision to abandon the original plan, strike off from the New Brunswick road, and march the army by way of the Millstone valley, and thence across the Raritan, to the hilly country in the north- west.

The plan adopted by the council of war was at once put into execution. The army filed off from the main highway,# and, turning sharply to the left, marched over a narrow and unfrequented road to Rocky Hill, where it recrossed the Millstone River and moved on, as rapidly as was practicable in the exhausted condi- tion of the men, to Millstone. "The guides were di- rected to take the road leading to the northward through Hillsborough, but before they reached Som- erset Court-house many of the infantry, worn out with fatigue, fasting, and want of rest, lay down and fell asleep by the way."¿ That night (January 3d)

* " My original plan," said Washington in his letter to Congress dated l'luckamin, January 5th, " was to have pushed on to Bruuswic ; but the harassed state of our troops (many of them having had no rest for two nights nud a day), and the dungor of losing the advantage we lind gained, by niming at too much, induced me, by the advice of my offl- cera, to relinquish the attempt ; but, in my judgment, six or eight hun- dred fresh troops, on a forced march, would have destroyed all their stores and ningazines, taken (as we have since learned) their military chest containing seventy thousand pounds, and put an end to the war. The enemy, from the best intelligence I have been able to get, were so much alarmed at the apprehension of this that they marched immedi- ately to Brunswic without halting, except at the bridges (for I also took up those on Millstone on the different routes to Brunswic), and get there before day,"

+ Marshall.

# The French Marquis de Castellux, who visited this region In 1781, mundo the following mention of the locality, and of Washington's march down the Millstone after Princeton : " It was here [ Kingston] that Gen. Washington halted after the affair at Prince Town. Altor marching from midnight until two o'clock in the afternoon, almost continually fighting, he wished to collect the troops and give them somo rest ; ho knew, however, that Lord Cornwallis was following him on the Maiden- hend rond, but he contented hinwolf with taking up some planks of the bridge, and as soon as he saw the vanguard of the English appear he con- tinued his march quietly towards Middlebrook." This account, however, is not strictly correct.

"@ " It was on this march, or possibly on a similar one In December uf the sume yeur, as the Army of Liberty passed the parsonage [nt Mill- stone], half clothed, unshod, nud in want of food, that the patriotic Foer- Ing, collecting all the stores of his house (it being, mareuver, just after baking-time), and cutting the food luto convenlout pwirtions, distributed

the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, were made at the Van Doren house, half a mile south of the old Millstone church, and the weary soldiers of the army bivouacked in the neighboring woods and fields.

In the darkness of that winter night a small body of Washington's militia, under command of that noted trooper Capt. John Stryker, of Millstone, performed quite a brilliant exploit in capturing a part of Corn- wallis' baggage-train on the New Brunswick road. The British general, terrified at the prospect of losing his stores at New Brunswick, thinking that Washing- ton was still in his front and moving on that post, had pressed on from Kingston in such headlong haste as to break down a number of his wagons; and these, bring disabled, were turned out of the road and left, with a few others, in charge of a quartermaster and guarded by a detachment of soldiers. The American militiamen referred to, having learned of the situation of these wagons, resolved to capture them, and boldly proceeded to put their plan into execution, though their party numbered not more than twenty men, while the British detachment guarding the disabled train was of more than ten times their own strength. Cautiously approaching the spot in the thick dark- ness, they ranged themselves among the trees in a semi-circle, partially surrounding the bivouac of the British wagon-guard, and at a preconcerted signal set up a loud shout and poured in a volley upon the astonished soldiers, who, believing themselves to be encircled by an attacking force superior in numbers to their own, fled in a panic towards New Brunswick, escaping with a few wagons which happened to have their teams attached, but leaving the greater number in the hands of the Americans, who were jubilant at the success of their project, and still more so when it was found that the wagons were principally laden with the article which their army especially needed,- woolen clothing. The captors with their prize moved up as rapidly as possible on through Somerset County, crossed the Millstone at Somerset Court-house, and overtook the main body a day or two later.

In the morning of the 4th of January, Washington, with his army and prisoners, left their encampment of the previous night, and, continuing the march northward, crossed the Raritan River at Van Vegh- ten's Bridge. Passing up by the site of the present village of Somerville, he encamped the same evening at Pluckamin, where a halt of two days was made for the rest and refreshment of the army. While at this encampment the commander-in-chief wrote to the president of the Continental Congress narrating the events of the campaign which had then just closed. This letter, as being an official, and of course an au-

them, as far as they would go, to the weary and hungry soldlers as they hurried on their way. On one of these occasions, as the army pascal, they eucampel for the night in the field directly south of the prosont paranage, Washington himself sleeping in the northwest corner of the parlor of the present homestead uf John Van Duren."-Rer. E. T. Corwin, D.D.

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

thentic, account of the affair at Assanpink and the battle of Princeton, and a statement of the losses and captures at the latter place, is given below,-viz. : "PLUCKAMIN, Jannary 5, 1777.

" Sin, I have the honor to inform you that since the date of my last from Trenton I have removed with the army under my command to this place. The difficulty of crossing the Delaware, on account of the ice, made our passage over it tedious, and gave the enemy an opportunity of drawing in their several caatouments and assembling their whole force at Princeton. Their large picquets ndvanced towards Trenton, their great preparations, and some intelligence I had received, added to their knowledge that the Ist of January brought on a dissolution of the best part of our army, gave me the strongest reasons to conclude that an at- tack upon us was meditating.

"Our situation was most critical, and our force small. To remove im- mediately was again destroying every dawn of bope which had begun to revive in the breasts of the Jersey militia, and to bring those troops which had first crossed the Delaware, and were lying at Crosswix's under Gen. Cadwallader, and those under Gen. Mifflin at Bordentown (amount- ing in the whole to about three thousand six hundred), to Treaton, was to bring them to an exposed place. One or the other, however, was Innl- nvoidable; the latter was preferred, and they were ordered to join us at Treaton, which they did, by a night-march, on the Ist instant. [Ilere fol- lows an account of the so-called " battle of Assanpink," before quoted.]

" Having by this time [that is, on the evening of January 2d, after the British had made the attempt to cross the bridge and ford of the Assan- pink] discovered that the enemy was greatly superior in number, and that their design was to surround us, I ordered all our baggage to be silently removed to Burlington soon after dark ; and at twelve o'clock, after renewing our fires and leaving guards at the bridge in Trenton and other passes on the same stream ahove, marched by a round-about road to Princeton, where I knew they could not have much force left, and might have stores. One thing I was certain of,-that it would avoid the appearance of n retreat (which it was, of course, or to run the hazard of the whole army being cut off ); whilst we might, by a fortunate stroke, withdraw Gen. Howe from Trenton and give some reputation to our arms. Ilappily we succeeded. We found Princeton about sunrise with only three regiments and three troops of light-horse in it, two of which were on their march to Trenton. These three regiments, especially the two first, made a gallant resistance, and ia killed, wounded, and prisoners must have lost five hundred men ; upwards of one hundred of them were left dead on the field; and with what I have with me, and what were taken in pursuit and carried ncross the Delaware, there are near three hundred prisoners,* fourteen of whom are officere, all British.

" This piece of good fortune is counterbalanced by the loss of the brave and worthy General Mercer, Cols. Hazlet and Potter, Capt. Neal of the artillery, Capt. Fleming, who commanded the First Virginin Regiment, and four or five otber valuable officers, who, with about twenty-five or thirty privates, were slain on the field. Our whole loss cannot be ascer- tained, as many who are in pursuit of the enemy ( who were chased three or four miles) are not yet come in.

"The rear of the enemy's army, lying nt Maidenhead, not more than five or six miles from Princeton, was up with us before our pursuit was over; but, as I had the precaution to destroy the bridge over Stony Brook (about half a mile from the field of action), they were so long retarded there as to give ne time to move off in good order for this place. We took two brass field-pieces, but for want of horses could not bring them away. We also took some blankets, shoes, and a few other trifling articles, burned the hay, and destroyed such other things as the short- ness of the time would admit of. [Here follows a paragraph which has before been given,-viz., an explanation that his original plan had been to proceed to and attack the poet of New Brunswick for the purpose of destroying the British stores deposited there.]

"From the best information I have received, Gen. IJowe has left no men cither at Trenton or Princeton. The truth of this I am endeavor- ing to ascertain, that I may regulate my movements accordingly. The militia are taking spirits, and, I am told, are coming in fast from this State; but I fear those from Philadelphia will scarcely submit to tho hardships of a winter campaign much longer, especially as they vory unluckily sent their blankets with their baggage to Burlington. I must

do them the justice, however, to add that they have undergone more fatigue and hardship than I expected militia, especially citizens, would bave done in this inclement season. I am just moving towards Morris- town, where I shall endeavor to put them under the best cover I can; hitherto we have been without any, and many of our poor soldiers bare- foot, and ill-clad ia other respects.

" I have the honor to be, etc., " G. W."

Gen. Hugh Mercer, whose death is mentioned in the letter of Washington, was the commanding officer of the American detachment which first joined battle with the British troops under Mawhood on the morn- ing of the 3d of January near Princeton, and it was in that first short but disastrous conflict that he re- ceived his mortal wounds. In the volley which the British Seventeenth Regiment poured into the Amer- ican line when it held the position along the rail-fence on the heiglit west of Clarke's house on that memor- able morning, a ball, striking Mercer's horse in the fore leg, disabled him and compelled the general to dis- mount; and in the hurried retreat which immediately followed through the orchard, while he was in the very midst of the fight, trying to rally his flying troops, he was felled to the earth by a blow from a British musket. "The British soldiers were not at first aware of the general's rank. So soon as they discovered he was a general officer they shouted that they had got the rebel general, and cried, 'Call for quarter, you d-d rebel l' Mercer to the most undaunted courage united a quick and ardent temperament ; he replied with in- dignation to his enemies, while their bayonets were at his bosom, that he deserved not the name of rebel, and, determining to die, as he had lived, a true and honored soldier of liberty, lunged with his sword at the nearest man. They then bayoneted him and left him for dead."+ It was afterwards ascertained that he had received sixteen bayonet wounds, ¿ and he was also terribly beaten on the head with the butt of a musket by a British soldier while he lay wounded and helpless on the ground. He was taken to Clarke's house, and there most tenderly cared for and nursed by the ladies of the household; but after lingering in agony for nine days he expired on the 12th of January.

Gen. Washington while on the field of Princeton had learned with great grief of the fall of Mercer, who was reported killed, and it was not until he had made his headquarters for the night at Somerset Court- house that the commander-in-chief received with cor- responding joy and thankfulness the intelligence that his old friend and companion-in-arms,¿ although

* The number of prisoners taken by the Americans in the conflicts of the 3d of Jannary in and about Princeton was two hundred and thirty. The ontire loss of the Americans on that day did not exceed thirty, killed and wounded.

+ Recollectione of the Life and Character of Washington, by G. W. P. Custis.

# "The late Dr. Moses Scott, of New Brunswick, with other surgeons, was with Gon. Mercer under the tree after the battle, and said that he lind received sixteen wounds by the bayonet, though these were not thought by the general himself (who was a physician) to be necessarily morini, but that while lying on the ground a British soldier had struck him on the head with his musket; 'and that,' said he, ' wns a dishonor- able act, and it will provo my death.' "-Raum's History of Trenton.

¿ Mercer aad Washington had been comrades and warm personal friends in the campaigns against the French in 1755.

HUNTERDON AND SOMERSET COUNTIES IN THE REVOLUTION.

severely wounded, was not dead, and might recover. At this he at once dispatched his nephew, Maj. George Lewis, with a flag of truce and a letter to Lord Corn- wallis, requesting that every possible attention might be shown to the wounded general, and that Maj. Lewis might be permitted to remain to attend on and nurse him. "To both these requests," says Custis, " His Lordship yielded a willing assent, and ordered his staff surgeon to attend upon Gen. Mercer. Upon an examination of his wounds the British surgeon ob- served that, although they were many and severe, he was disposed to believe they would not prove danger- ous. Mercer, bred to the profession of an army sur- geon in Europe, said to young Lewis, 'Raise my right arm, George, and this gentleman will then discover the smallest of my wounds, but which will prove the most fatal. Yes, sir, that is the fellow that will soon do my business.' . . . During the period that he languished on the couch of suffering he exonerated his enemies from the foul accusation which they not only bore in 1777, but for half a century since,-viz., of their having bayoneted a general officer after he had surrendered his sword and become a prisoner of war, declaring that he only relinquished his sword when his arm became powerless to wiekdl it."

The kindness and courtesy of Lord Cornwallis in so readily and fully granting Gen. Washington's request in reference to the wounded general Mercer was as fully and generously repaid by the consideration and kind attention bestowed, by order of the American commander, on one of his British prisoners,-Capt. William Leslie, of the Seventeenth Regiment,-who was mortally wounded and captured by the patriot forces at Princeton. An account of the death of this brave young officer is thus given by Custis :

" It was while the commander-in-chief reined up his horse upon ap- proaching the spot in a plowed field where lay the gullant t'ol. Hazlet mortally wounded that ho perceived some British soldiers supporting a wounded officer, and upon inquiring his name and runk was auxwered, 'C'npt. Leslie,' Dr. Benjamin Rush, why formed a part of the general's suite, earnestly asked, ' A son of the Earl of Leven ?' to which the soldiers replied in the affirmative. The doctor then addressed the gruorni-in-chief: " I beg your Excellency to permit this wounded officer to be placed under my care that I may return, in howover small a degree, a part of the obli- gations I own to his worthy father for the many kindnowas received it his handa while I was a student at Edinburgh.' The request was im- mediately granted, lait, alas! poor Leslie was soon ' past all surgery.' Ho died the same evening, and was Imried the next day at Phickamin with the honors of war. His troops, as they lowered the remains to the soldier's lust rest, shed tents over the remains of a much-loved com.

* The following is a copy of an entry in a diary kopt by Col. Raulney who commanded a battalion of Delaware militia in Washington's army at that time:

" PLUCKAMIN, N. J., Jan. 6, 1777.

" The general continued here this day also to refresh the army. Ho ordered forty of our light Infantry to attend the funeral of Cul. [t'apt.] 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.

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History of Hunterdon and Somerset counties, New Jersey : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 15

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1170

Author: Snell, James P; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1170