USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 32
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respectfully. Under all the circumstances the moderation of the Continental troops is quite remarkable. Their depredations were few, and of little conse- quence. The following are the only instances recorded: John Hennion, of Preakness-two hogs, seven shoats, one sheep, a bag of salt, and 150 posts, probably for firewood to cook the animals withal. John Doremus, also of Preakness-a two-year-old heifer, a shoat, a beehive full of honey bees, "one table cloth of toe and flax good." John Van Houten, of Totowa-14 sheep at 12s. each. Roelof Van Houten, of Totowa-5 sheep, a heifer and 5 bushels of turnips. Samuel Van Saun, of Preakness-2 sheep and 3 calves. Martin Ryerson, of the Goffle-17 sheep, a steer, one hog "suposeing to waigh 100 wt. ; " damage done to stone fences, £ 15. Halmagh Van Houten, of Totowa-one calf, 5 sheep, 2 shoats, 150 bushels of turnips, two beehives with bees, and a hayfork. Robert Van Houten, of Totowa-one steer and bull, 2 heifers, 2 hogs, one colt, 4 beehives, 2 sheep, 5 bushels of turnips, potatoes, in all, £20, IOS. Garrabrant Van Houten, who lived where the West Side park now is-£6, 14s. worth of sheep, hogs and a calf. Adrian Van Houten, who lived in Water street-sheep to the value of £5, 3s. 6d. Isaac Vanderbeck, Adrian's next-door neighbor, who occupied the Doremus homestead in Water street, had sheep, a calf, a hand-vise, gridiron, ax, and bridle taken, his barn burned, and a horse and stable destroyed, to his total damage £9, 13s. 6d. John Van Winkle, who lived about where St. Mary's orphan asylum is located, opposite the Lincoln bridge, lost £9 worth of sheep and a calf. Cornelius R. Van Houten, who lived a short distance southwest of Van Winkle, had cattle to the value of £ 31, 14s. taken. John Van Giesen, who lived near Totowa and Redwoods avenues, lost £7, 9s. worth in like manner.
Let us hope that these good people endured such depredations willingly, realizing that they were for the benefit of the men who were periling their lives that the inhabitants might be the more secure against the ravages of a cruel and relentless foe.
When complaints were made the punishment was severe. Four soldiers of the artillery were tried by court martial on November 26, "for stealing two sheep and a pig. All found guilty, and sentenced to receive a hundred lashes each on their bare backs, and to pay Captain Van Blaragin one hun- dred Continental dollars," which would be about $1.50 in good money. The aggrieved owner was doubtless Capt. Henry Van Blarcom, of Willis street, near East Eighteenth street.
The British did not attempt any raids through this part of the country in 1780. but their Tory adherents plundered the inhabitants frequently, as appears by the following inventories of losses : January 4-Martin Ryerson, of the Goffle. a horse, £20. January 25-Capt. Francis Post, in the Bogt. 4 horses of his own, and one of Dr. Philip Dey's, £117. February 25- Adolph Waldron, of Preakness, a "Neagro Wench Named Isabel 38 years," £85; "A Neagro Child aged tow years," £15; a "Neagro man Named Sancho, aged 35 years ; A house Neagro and cook," £90; "one Do named Jo aged 40 years," £40; one Do Named Jack, aged 19 years, £90; one Do
251
THE NATION'S WARS
Named Wan aged 12 years, £60. On August 17 he lost seven horses. On December 4, 1782, Alexander P. Waldron swore that he was "known to the Horses in the inventory of Adolph Waldron and has Resons to believe the Negroes are Now in the Posestion of the enemy." In April, 1780, Henry Garritse, on the Wesel road, was plundered of two horses, four milk cows, a yoke of oxen and a negro man, in all £ 180. Cornelius E. Vreland lost, about the same time, several horses and two fat calves. Garrabrant Van Houten, of Totowa, lost a horse worth £ 14; he had been robbed of two others at an earlier date. Richard Van Houten, his son, testified (the spelling is that of the officer who administered the affidavit) that "he was known to the horses in the inventory of Garibrant V houten and By the Surcumstances Beleives they ware taken By the Enemy." On June 22 Edo Merselis, of Upper Preakness, was robbed of 14 horses, valued at £230. On July 9, 1781, a party of Tories carried off eight more of his horses. He pursued them to Second River, where he arrived early in the morning, just in time to see the fugitives swimming the river on his animals. A party of soldiers fired at them, and dropped several, and the horses were recovered ; but Merselis com- plained that the guard claimed £ 16 reward from him, which he had to pay. On another occasion he had sixteen cows carried off in the night by a gang of "Refugees," or Tories. He and a number of his neighbors turned out in pursuit, and found that the thieves had their headquarters in a sort of cave formed by a projecting rock, on the south side of the present Little Falls road, a short distance west of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western rail- road bridge. He recovered his cows, and the Refugees were driven out of their mountain lair, which was thenceforth known as the "Refugees' Cave." The projecting roof is much worn away since those days.
On the same day (September 25, 1780) that Major John André was arrested, Joshua Hett Smith, who had brought him ashore from the British Vulture. to meet Gen. Arnold, had harbored him at his house, and escorted him to the neutral ground, was seized by order of Washington, and on Sep- tember 30 was placed on trial by court-martial, charged with complicity in Arnold's plot. When the army moved from Tappan to Totowa, Smith was brought along, and was placed under strong guard at a public house-doubt- less the Widow Godwin's inn, a captain and two sentinels keeping watch without, and another sentinel within his room. Through the good offices of Gen. Robert Howe his wife and family were permitted to visit him. The court-martial sat at Gen. Howe's headquarters, on the northwest side of the river, on October 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 24, on which last-mentioned day Smith read his defence, as he says, "to the court-martial, and a large part of the army, in the presence of a great concourse of the inhabitants." On returning to his tavern, he found that someone had informed the landlady that he had been condemued by the court-martial, "on which the good housewife, in a furious rage, refused me admittance, and another place was found for my reception." The repugnance can be imagined with which the Widow God- win would entertain under her roof, even as a prisoner, one whom she had been assured had been found guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy, in
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fighting whom her husband had already yielded up his life, while two of her sons were in the American army, and a third was then languishing in a Brit- ish prison in New York. The court sat the next day in conference, and on October 25 announced the peculiar verdict, that it appeared to them that Smith did do all that he was charged with, but that the evidence was not suffi- cient to convict him of guilty knowledge of Arnold's designs ; they therefore acquitted him.
He was immediately re-arrested, however, on the authority of the State of New York, and hurried off to a new imprisonment at Goshen. Escaping thence on the night of May 22, 1781, he passed through the mountains to Sterling Furnace and the Ringwood Iron Works, and so to a tavern in the vicinity of Pompton or the Ponds, kept by a Tory, who was famed among the Dutch inhabitants for being double-jointed and ambidexterous. This fellow brought him safely by night to within sight of Totowa Bridge. He lay concealed all day, and toward evening his guide reappeared with two other men, who escorted him down a steep hill, which brought them by a short cut to the bridge, which they passed in safety, and then took a road over Garret Mountain, and so on to Acquackanonk, where they lodged in the house of one of the guides until the following evening, when, June 4, 1781 (Smith says 1782, a manifest error), they crossed the river in a small cedar canoe, and ultimately reached Paulus Hook, whence the passage to New York was easily accomplished. Smith's "Narrative" says: "My reflec- tions and sensations in passing this bridge, which I had so often crossed to and from my trial, were painful, from the various ideas that successively. passed in my mind. One of the men, turning to the other, said in Dutch, 'he may now think himself safe, for the damned rebels don't often pass that bridge, except in numbers.'"
The enforced idleness of his army, under discouraging circumstances, was exceedingly irksome to Washington, and he was ever on the alert to strike some blow at the enemy. When Arnold's treason was discovered and insidious efforts were made to spread the belief that other general officers were implicated, the commander-in-chief conceived the daring project of sending a trusted agent into New York to discover whether Arnold had any army accomplices, and to carry off the arch traitor himself. The scheme was entrusted to Maj. Henry Lee, while he was still at the Light Camp, at Waga- raw, and Washington conferred with him at Lafayette's quarters, by appoint- ment, on October 13. Lee induced Sergt .- Maj. John Champe, of his Legion, to undertake the hazardous adventure. On the night of October 20, Champe deserted, was hotly pursued by some of his fellow-troopers (not in the secret) to Bergen, where he managed to find refuge on board a British vessel in Newark bay. He was taken to New York, was cordially welcomed by Arnold, and soon had all his plans laid to seize the traitor one night, and carry him across the Hudson to Hoboken. But the night before the scheme was to be executed, Arnold changed his quarters, and the next day Champe was shipped to the South, and was unable to rejoin his troop until a year or more thereafter.
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THE NATION'S WARS
CHAPTER VII.
Washington's contemplated attack on New York-Winter quarters at Pompton for the New Jersey soldiers-Fac-simile of a draft of an autograph letter from Washington written at the Falls of the Passaic.
Washington was particularly anxious to attack the British army in New York City. As the next most feasible project he planned a descent on Staten Island. In this Lafayette was to take a leading part, and the zealous Hamil- ton, about to be married, eagerly applied for the command of a battalion. Boats were provided, mounted on trucks, for transportation overland, to be hurried to the Sound in readiness for carrying the army across and so sur- prising the enemy. On October 23 it was ordered that the Light Corps should remove from their quarters at the Goffle, and take post "on the most convenient ground to the Cranetown Gap and the Notch, for the more effectual security of our right." The movement was really intended to bring Lafayette's corps within striking distance of Staten Island. The next morn- ing the Pennsylvania Line marched across Totowa Bridge (at the foot of Bank street), and around the Wesel mountain to Stone House Plains, where they encamped for the night, the soldiers being under orders to sleep with their clothes on, ready to move at a moment's notice. Awaiting the arrival of the boats, the army lay quiet the next day, and on October 26 advanced to Cranetown, and so on to a point near Elizabethtown, which they reached at midnight, Lee's Legion and Major Parr's Rifle Corps in the advance. But still the boats did not appear, and the movement was a complete failure. The next morning the retrograde march was begun, and on the 29th the men, tired and dispirited, were again in their old quarters at Totowa.
There still remained Washington's original plan of a direct attack on New York. The preparations were pushed diligently, silently. At last all was in readiness. The final orders were issued by the commander-in-chief on November 21 and 22, from his Headquarters at Preakness. Col. Gou- vion, the French engineer, was directed to proceed to the Hudson river, and make careful observation of the state of the roads from the Light Camp at the Goffle, to Fort Lee; to observe the river from Fort Lee to Fort Wash- ington and upwards, and to note the British forces when they turned out for inspection. Col. Stephen Moylan was ordered to parade with his regiment at nine o'clock on the morning of Friday, November 24, at Totowa Bridge, furnished with two days' provisions, and to detach parties to secure all the crossings on the Hackensack river at New Bridge, etc. Gen. Wayne was directed to march his division on Friday morning at "sunrising" to a mile below Acquackanonk Bridge, and to keep up a show of advancing toward Newark until dark, meanwhile foraging, as if that was his mission, but to keep his men fresh. On November 22 orders were issued to Col. Timothy Pickering, quartermaster-general, reminding him that he had been directed to see that boats were furnished, mounted on good carriages, provided with good oars, materials for muffling the oars, and for repairing the boats in case
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
of accident. These boats were to be all ready by Thursday, at 12 o'clock, together with horses. The boats were to be carried through the Notch the same afternoon, and the next morning were to be moved from the Notch to Acquackanonk Bridge, where ample hay and grain was to be provided in the meantime for baiting the teams during the halt there. A complete relief of good horses was ordered to be provided at Acquackanonk Bridge early on Friday afternoon, to accompany the boats, and to hasten their transporta- tion. Gen. Knox was directed to send along all such pieces of ordnance as would be available to annoy shipping and to cover a body of troops in cross- ing a river. The movement of Gen. Wayne from Acquackanonk Bridge toward Newark was intended to indicate an attack on Staten Island. La- fayette wrote to Col. Alexander Hamilton, Nov. 22, estimating that forty boats would be needed for "the attack on Staten Island," carrying about 1,200 men. He knew, of course, that no such attack was intended. Hamil- ton again entreated his commander-in-chief to give him command of 150 to 200 men, that he might participate in the proposed movement against New York. Some of the men, he suggested, "may move on Friday morning towards - -, which will strengthen the appearances for Staten Island, to form a junction on the other side of the Passaic."
"Never was a plan better arranged," wrote Col. Humphreys ; "and never did circumstances promise more sure or complete success. The British were not only unalarmed, but our own troops were misguided in their operations." Unfortunately, on the very day the movement was to have been begun, the unsuspecting British, in the most casual way, moved some of their war ves- sels up the Hudson into such a position as to render the proposed attack utterly out of the question, and Washington was obliged most reluctantly to abandon it. Accordingly, on Monday morning, November 27, the army broke camp at Preakness, and marched into winter quarters-the Pennsyl- vania division near Morristown, and the Jersey brigade at Pompton and at Sydman's in the Clove.
An important letter was written by Washington to Arthur Lee, one of the American commissioners to France. It is printed in the Life of Arthur Lee, Boston, 1829, Vol. II., p. 170, but is not included in any edition of the Writings of Washington. It is reproduced on the opposite page in fac-simile from what was probably the original draft, in Washington's own hand. Its main interest here is from the fact that it is the only letter of Washington, written by him near the Passaic Falls, which has ever found its way back to this place.
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THE NATION'S WARS
Head Quarter Passaic Falls 20th how: 1780
I am much obliged to you her the suggestion you do me. the favor to make in your Celler of the 11", as I stake at all times be for any others which may occur be you advance of the · public dance conducive to
I am so entirely conver ced of the absolute necessity of a Carpe año immediate femcion aid of money, to Haciatiniana of the war, that I should be kap by to do any thing I could with propriety to provide it - Jim fast to you in conference, that I have in the most explicit manser quien my Sentiments on this Road. He Minister of France have, and if any opini or can have. " influence with the Court of versailles, J'imagine
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
it will be known through this channel_ a more direct com minication might appear an intrusion and an interference in matters out of any province Iam happy to hear
Compress have this important object under consideration -perswade myself they with wige it with all the emphasis in their fever and in the form Brest likely to succeed_ Spthere should be any thing which I would contribute to the success of the application, Is heald certainly think it my duty to give all the and in tryg fewer
I have the homes to be sincerely darth realaespect & esteem
amastored a Hashington
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THE NATION'S WARS
CHAPTER VIII.
The mutiny of the Pennsylvania forces-Revolt of the New Jersey Brigade at Pompton-Energetic measures taken by Washington-A court-martial in the snow-Execution of the ringleaders and pardon for the rest-Washington off for Yorktown.
Pursuant to Washington's orders, the Pennsylvania Line went into their old quarters, about four miles from Morristown, and on November 30 the Jersey Brigade left West Point, marched down the west side of the Hudson, and thence through the Clove to Ringwood, and so on to Pompton, where they took winter quarters, promptly building rude huts for their shelter. A detachment of the brigade remained near Sufferns, to guard the entrance of the Clove, and to cover the line of communication toward West Point. The condition of the little American army at this time was pitiable in the extreme. Gen. Knox writes, December 2, 1780: "The soldier, ragged almost to naked- ness, has to sit down at this period with an axe-perhaps his only tool, and probably that a bad one-to make his habitation for winter." Washington repeatedly called the attention of the State authorities to their shameful neg- lect to provide for their men: "Nov. 20, 1780. Ten months' pay is now due the army. Every department of it is so much indebted, that we have not credit for a single express * * Jan. 5, 1781. The aggravated calami- ties and distresses that have resulted from the total want of pay for nearly twelve months, the want of clothing at a severe season, and not unfrequently the want of provisions, are beyond description. * * * Jan. 7. The few men who remain in service, will with difficulty find a sufficiency of shirts, vests, breeches and stockings to carry them through the winter." The tender heart of Lafayette was deeply moved by what he saw. "Human patience has its limits." he wrote his wife; "no European army would suffer the tenth part of what the American troops suffer. It takes citizens to support hunger, nakedness, toil, and the total want of pay, which constitute the condition of our soldiers, the hardest and most patient that are to be found in the world." These tributes to the heroic endurance, the incomparable patience, of the soldiers, would seem to be sufficient answers to Lee's sneering suggestion that "he Pennsylvania Line ought to be called the "Irish Line," and to Bancroft's exaltation of the New England troops, on the score of their alleged native Americanism, over those of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The revolt of the Connecticut Line in the ensuing May showed that the appreciation of hardship and injustice was as keen among the heroic soldiers of one State as of another.
Those who were paid received Continental currency which, despite leg- islative fiats, had depreciated until a silver dollar would equal seventy-five paper dollars. Vainly had the New Jersey Legislature endeavored by solemn enactments to regulate the prices of labor and products ; nor had the courts been more successful.
The Legislature, by act passed December II, 1777, had fixed a scale of maximum prices for various articles and provisions. For example: Bloom-
P-17
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
ary bar-iron, £3 per cwt .; refined bar-iron, £3, Ios. per cwt .; pig metal, 20s. per cwt .; rolling iron, £30 per ton; sole leather, 3s. per İb .; upper leather, 5s. per ib .; men's neat leather shoes, of the common sort, 17s. 6d. per pair ; women's do., 14s .; wheat, 12s .; rye, 9s .; Indian corn, 7s. 6d. ; oats, 5s. ; wheat flour, 33s. per cwt .; hay, £7, 10s. per ton; pork, 9d. per lb .; beef, 8d. per Ib .; potatoes, 4s. per bush .; butter, 2s. 6d. per lb. As a natural corollary it was also enacted that "The Rates and Prices of Farm- ing Labour, and the Wages of Mechanics, Tradesmen and Handicraftsmen, shall not exceed double what they were in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-five." This preposterous attempt to control the laws of supply and demand by legislation of course was a failure. Then it was sought to shift the responsibility on the courts. On June 10 the Bergen county courts fixed a scale of prices to be paid by the quartermasters and forage masters for the Continental army, but the currency depreciated so rapidly that they had to prescribe new rates in January, 1780. The deprecia- tion is shown by the difference in prices on the dates named :
June, 1779.
Wood by the cord
$8
Jan., 1780. $12
Hay by the cwt ..
4
$160 to $200
Carting, single team per day.
12
32
Rye and corn, per bush.
14
18
Buckwheat and oats, per bush.
8
12
Pasture, per day.
1 50
To add to the discontent, the men who had enlisted for "three years or during the war," and who had endured the dangers and privations of army life for three full years, discovered, to their dismay, that there was a disposi- tion to hold them to the other alternative of their enlistment, or "during the war." While the veterans were unpaid, new recruits received bounties in silver. Under the rankling sense of injustice from these causes, fomented, no doubt, by paid agents of the British, and stimulated by an unusually gen- erous allowance of liquor for the celebration of New Year's Day, the Penn- sylvania Line mutinied at nine o'clock at night, on January 1, 1781, and the next day marched, under the command of their sergeants, toward Philadel- phia, to compel Congress to redress their grievances. The Pennsylvania State authorities sent commissioners to treat with the mutineers, and after several days of temporizing adjusted matters. Gen. Wayne ordered the Jersey Brigade to Chatham, on January 2, and the militia were called out, to check any attempt of the enemy to take advantage of the revolt, and in- vade the State.
The effect of the Pennsylvania mutiny, and its essential success, was to increase the discontent elsewhere. Gen. Washington, on January 7, signifi- cantly suggested to Gen. Heath the wisdom of sending a reinforcement of 100 men from West Point "towards Pompton, to cover the stores at Ring- wood, and to act as occasion might require." The same day, Gen. St. Clair reported that some appearance of a disposition in the Jersey troops to revolt induced Lieut .- Col. Francis Barber, of the Third Regiment, who commanded the brigade, to move 300 or 400 of them to Chatham. Part of them, however,
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about one hundred and sixty in number, remained at Pompton, nursing their grievances. Some of the officers waited on the Legislature, and insisted that their arrears of pay should be settled on the basis of seventy-five paper dol- lars for one in specie. That body hastily complied, and ordered all the money in the treasury to be sent up to the men. Commissioners-the Rev. James Caldwell and Col. Frederick Frelinghuysen-were also appointed to inquire into the claims of such soldiers of the brigade as conceived themselves en- titled to a discharge on account of the expiration of their enlistments, but the men had not been informed of this action. As day after day went by, and nothing was done, the men at Pompton finally got tired of waiting. Having received a part of their pay in almost worthless paper, they spent it for rum. On Saturday evening, January 20, they rose in arms, and placed themselves under the command of Sergt .- Maj. George Grant, of the Third New Jersey Regiment, a deserter from the British army. Grant appears to have been an unusually intelligent fellow. He was in Gen. Sullivan's cam- paign against the Indians in 1779, and kept a journal of the expedition, which is published. Sergt. Jonathan Nichols, of Capt. Alexander Mitchell's com- pany, First New Jersey Regiment, was second in command, and the third in command was Sergt .- Maj. John Minthorn, also of the First Regiment. Some of the more reckless of the men declared that unless they got redress- in the matter of pay, clothing, etc .- they would join the enemy. The house where one of their officers lodged was surrounded and broken open, and with threats of immediate death in case of refusal they compelled him to give up the muster rolls. Col. Israel Shreve, of the Second Regiment, vainly urged them to desist, nor would they obey his orders to parade. Next they seized two field pieces, and marched off to join the rest of the brigade at Chatham. The movement excited no little uneasiness among the friends of America, and much exultation on the part of the enemy. It was rumored that the mutineers were about to march to Elizabethtown. This was interpreted as meaning that there they would receive overtures from Sir Henry Clinton. He ordered Gen. Robertson, with two or three thousand men, from New York to Staten Island, to be in readiness to cross over to Elizabethtown and cooperate with the revolting Jersey soldiers. He also sent one Uzal Woodruff, of Elizabethtown, a cousin of Sergt. Nichols, with proposals to the mutineers. They, however, when they left their quarters at Pompton, had adopted a solemn resolution to put to death anyone who should attempt or even propose to go to the enemy's lines, and hang up without ceremony every Tory who should presume to say a word tending to induce any of them to desert. Woodruff, finding the men would not listen to treason, prudently gave the papers to Col. Elias Dayton, of the New Jersey Line, and convinced that officer of his patriotic zeal. On Monday, January 22, the commissioners from the Legislature arrived in the camp of the mutineers, with assurances that every grievance should be redressed. Col. Elias Dayton, commander of the New Jersey Line, and Col. Shreve, in both of whom the troops had great confidence, joined in these promises, but insisted that the soldiers must return to their duty ere they could hear and treat with them. The insur-
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