USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union County, New Jersey > Part 5
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The outlook for the patriots was indeed a gloomy one. It seemed impossible to retrieve the fatal field of Flatbush, and even the most sanguine patriots now spoke in despondent tones.
"I heard a man of some shrewdness once say," remarked Dr. Ashbel Green, "that wlien the British troops overran the state of New Jersey in the closing part of the year 1776, the whole population could have been bought for eighteen pence a head."
It was regarded as certain that the authority of King George would soon be re-established in all the states ; such was the confidence, at least, of the well caparisoned troops of Cornwallis' army, and the one event greatly feared by the patriots. During these trying times General Charles Lee, with reinforcements for Washington, reached Chatham on the 8th of December, and on the 11th, from Morristown, wrote General Heath, on his way from Peekskill, "that at Springfield, seven miles west of Elizabeth Town, about one thousand militia are collected to watch the motions of the enemy." They were Colonel Ford's troops. They were stationed at the Short Hills, just back of Springfield, from which point every movement of the enemy could be seen. An eighteen-pound gun was planted subsequently on the heights, near the residence (in after days) of Bishop Hobart, to give the alarm in case of the enemy's approach. To the top of a lofty pole near by was fixed a tar-barrel, to be set on fire when the alarm gun was discharged. These could be respectively heard and seen over a great extent of country.
The movement of the troops under Lee and Heath, and the posting
3
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of the militia under Ford at the Short Hills, had not escaped the eye of Cornwallis, and General Heath wrote to Washington on the 15th that "several thousand of the enemy landed at Elizabeth Town on yesterday or the day before." Ou the evening of the 17th, Ford, who was at Chatham, had a brush with the enemy, about four miles south of that village, and suffered a sore defeat. This battle, on the part of the British, was fought by Leslie's brigade, whichi came up from Elizabeth Town, probably, the day before, and on the morning after the brush with the patriots entered Newark. Colonel Ford found his forces so much scattered after this fight that only about two hundred of his men remained, and he himself was so greatly exposed during that short campaign that, soon after, he was seized with sickness, and died on the IIth, at Morristown.
General Washington, learning that about eight hundred of the militia had called at Morristown, sent General Maxwell to take command of them. On the 26th of December Washington sur- prised and captured nine hundred and eighteen Hessians at Trenton, with the loss of only four wounded. This brilliant manœuvre com- pletely turned the tide of affairs and electrified the American army with delight. Following up this advantage, Washington once more crossed the Delaware, passed around the British at Trenton, marched forward by night, and surprised and captured Princeton on the morning of January 3, 1777.
On the 30th Washington wrote to Maxwell to collect as large a force as possible at Chatham and as soon as possible " to strike a stroke upon Elizabeth Town or that neighborhood." General Maxwell, taking advantage of the consternation of the enemy, came down from the Short Hills and compelled the British to vacate Newark ; had a brush with them at Springfield ; drove them out of Elizabeth Town and fought them at Spank Town (Rahway) a couple of hours. At Spring- field Major Oliver Spencer had a fight with the enemy on Sunday morning, the 15th, when eight or ten Waldeckers were killed or wounded and the remainder of the thirty-nine or forty were made prisoners, with the officers, by a force not superior in number, and without receiving the least damage, and on the 8th, our forces recovered possession of the post. For this heroic work Major Spencer was promoted to a colonelcy.
The American army at Pluckemin marched to Morristown, arriving there January the 6th. General Maxwell advanced and took possession of Elizabeth Town and made prisoners of fifty Waldeckers and forty Highlanders. He also captured a schooner with baggage and some blankets on board. About the same time a thousand bushels of salt were captured of the enemy at Spank Town.
The English troops, it seems, would not suffer the Waldeckers to stand sentry at Elizabeth Town, several of them having deserted and
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gone over to the patriot army. On the day that the British force abandoned Newark and marched to Elizabeth Town, a company of Waldeckers was dispatched on some particular service towards Con- necticut Farms. Captain Littell and his followers discovered and followed them, and he so disposed his small force in front and to their rear that the Germans on being attacked from ambush, being then on a retreat and finding the enemy firing on thein under cover again, surren- dered without unloading a gun. The British, greatly exasperated at this loss under such favorable conditions to them, ordered out a body of Hessians to revenge the affront, when the superior knowledge of Littell again caine to his rescue, and the enemy were again defeated. At this mortification, which seemed to be beyond measure, the British next, through a Tory, found Littell's house, and some three hundred men attacked the captain in his pent-up quarters, as they supposed, but to their dismay, they were again fired on froin the rear and were again as badly discomfitted as before.
The Rev. James Caldwell, of Revolutionary and patriotic memory, became chaplain for a portion of the patriot army, and was for a time with his brother-in-law, Stephen Day, at Chatham. In the second week in January, 1777, he and his family with others returned to their homes in Elizabeth Town, after an absence of six weeks, and they found almost everything in ruins. The utter and needless destruction of property by the British and Hessians during their short occupancy of the town was a disgrace to human nature, the Tory neighbors from Staten Island being the most ruthless of any in laying waste the property .*
The enemy had been driven out of the town on the 8th of January, but they remained still in the neighborhood. The situation of the inhabitants during the first half of the year 1777 was exciting enough, there being almost daily a skirmish with the British somewhere in the county.
BATTLE OF ELIZABETH TOWN.
General Knyphausen landed at Elizabethport June 8, 1780, with a force of five thousand men, with the intent to march against Wash- ington, then encamped at Morristown, and drive the whole Continental army ont of New Jersey. The inhabitants resolved to fight to the end. At the Cross-roads the advancing army was attacked by an outpost of twelve men. General Stirling was severely wounded and a temporary retreat was ordered. An advance soon followed, and the invading force marched up Elizabeth avenue, and through the town to Springfield by the
* A letter from one of Governor Livingston's danghters, dated November 29, 1777, reads : " Kate has been to Elizabeth Town ; found our house in a most ruinons situation. General Dickinson had stationed a captain with his artillery company in it, and after that it was kept for a bullock's guard. Kate waited on the General and he ordered the troops removed the next day, but then the mischief was done; every thing was carried off that mamma had col- lected for her accommodation, so that it is impossible for her to go down to have the grapes and other things secured ; the very hinges, locks and panes of glass are taken away."
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Galloping Hill road. Warning of their approach was given by the firing of an eighteen-pounder on Prospect Hill and the lighting of a tar- barrel on a signal pole. The militia, fariners and all who could bear arms, mustered and attacked the British. This little body, with the assistance of the regulars under Maxwell, made so gallant a fight that the enemy halted. Their commander, hearing that all of Washington's force was advancing from Short Hills, began a retreat at nightfall. During it all his force was pursued and harassed by the patriots, the loss of many men being inflicted. During the retreat Mrs. Caldwell, the wife of the fighting pastor, was killed in her house at Connecticut Farms. A cowardly British ruffian came to the window of the room where she was sitting with her children and shot her.
Again, on the 23d of the same month, another invasion was made by a force of five thousand under General Clinton. Again was the warning given by the same means at Springfield, and again did the thousand brave Continentals and militiamen put them to flight and pursue thein to the shores of the Sound. To the Elizabethans General Washington wrote : "The militia deserve everything that can be said ; on both occasions they flew to arms universally, and acted with a spirit equal to anything I have seen in the course of the war." With the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, in October, the conflict was prac- tically ended, and the fighting men returned to their homes.
MRS. CALDWELL'S DEATH.
The Rev. Mr. Caldwell, by the advice of his friends, rented the vacant parsonage at Connecticut Farms, and within the fall of 1779, moved there from Elizabeth Town. On the day of the battle at this place Mr. Caldwell had vainly endeavored, when the aların was given in the morning, to induce his wife to seek, with him and the elder children, a place of greater security. She concluded to trust to Prov- idence and remain at home. She believed her presence would save the house from pillage, and that her person could not possibly be endan- gered. Thatcher says, in the Military Journal : "On the arrival of the royal troops Mrs. Caldwell entertained the officers with refresh- ments, and after they had retired she and a young woman, having Mrs. Caldwell's infant child in her arins, seated themselves on the bed. Upon seeing a British soldier looking at her, Mrs. Caldwell exclaimed : 'Don't attempt to scare me,' when he fired, shooting her through the breast. Soon after, a British officer came, and throwing his coat over the corpse carried it to the next house."
THE FIGHTING CHAPLAIN KILLED.
Prominent in all the battles was the Rev. James Caldwell, of the First Presbyterian church, the fighting chaplain of the New Jersey Brigade. He preached resistance to tyranny in his pulpit on Sunday,
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and during the week practiced what he preached. On one occasion, at the battle of Springfield, when the wadding had given out, he rushed into the church, came out with an armful of hymn books, and cried out to the fighters, "Now put Watts into them, boys."
The closing tragedy of the war was the murder, November 24th, 1781, of Parson Caldwell by one of the American soldiers. He was shot at Elizabeth Point, where he had gone for a young lady who had come to that place from New York under the protection of a flag of truce. The ball pierced his heart, but he did not die immediately, and was tenderly carried to the stoop of the famous Dayton house, nearly opposite the Boudinot house, and there expired. There his funeral was held, and there, when the time came for his people to take their last look of his loved features, his nine homeless and doubly orphaned children were led to his casket by a brother minister and were then taken to the homes of kind people, who brought them up in the fear of God, the love of their country and the hatred of its enemies. The remains of himself and wife lie together in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian church at Elizabeth Town. He died in the forty-ninth year of his age, leaving a name dear to the state and nation.
' He was shot by a man called Morgan, who was tried and found guilty of murder. It is said that he was bribed by British gold to commit the crime. He was hanged, giving signs of the most obdurate villainy. The day of his execution was intensely cold, and his last words were, addressed with an oath to the executioner, "Do your duty and don't keep me here suffering in the cold." The place of his execution is about half a mile north of the town of Westfield, and is called Morgan's Hill to this day.
CHAPTER X.
ELIZABETH TOWN'S GLORIOUS RECORD.
HE publishers of this book are greatly indebted to the courtesy of the Journal Printing House and the Illustrated Elizabeth for the following sketch of Elizabeth Town's glorious record in the Revolutionary war. Speaking of these historical times, and of Washington's inauguration, the Journal says :
"In General Washington's triumphant journey to his inauguration at New York, on April 30th, 1789, Elizabeth played an important part. On April 22d he was met at New Brunswick by Governor Livingston, of Elizabeth, and rode to Woodbridge, where he spent the night. On the following morning he was met there by a number of military companies, among them Captain Condit's, of Newark, Captain Wade's, of Connecticut Farms, and Captain Meeker's, of Elizabetlı, and escorted to Elizabeth by way of Bridgeton, or Lower Rahway. General Matthias Ogden, of Elizabeth, of Revolutionary fame, commanded the procession, which escorted him to Samuel Smith's tavern, on or about the site of Mrs. Buckmaster's house, on the southwest corner of Broad street and the present Rahway avenue. Here he held a brief reception. Then he went to luncheon at Boxwood Hall, on East Jersey street, the residence of the Hon. Elias Bondinot, now remodeled and occupied as the Home for Aged Women. There Washington met the committee of congress and an illustrious company representing nearly all the quarters, if not the states, of the Union. Among those present were Jolin Langdon, president of the senate, from New Hampshire ; Richard Henry Lee, Theodoric Bland and Arthur Lee, from Virginia ; General Knox, the secretary of war, from Maine ; Tristam Dalton, from Massachusetts ; William Samuel Johnson, from Connecticut ; Charles Carroll, from Maryland ; Ralph Izard and Thomas Tudor Tucker, from South Carolina ; Governor Livingston, from New Jersey ; Egbert Benson, Jolin Lawrence, Walter Livingston, Chancellor Livingston, Samuel Osgood, John Jay and others front New York.
"Elias Boudinot, the statesinan and philanthropist, was then in his fiftieth year, in the very prime of his active and useful life, a lawyer of wealth and eminent Christian character ; had been classically educa- ted and highly cultivated by reading and study, was affable and yet
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remarkably dignified in his manners, and a hospitable, genial and delightful companion. He had been sent as a delegate to the Conti- nental congress in 1777, and in 1782 was chosen president of that body, and in that capacity signed the treaty of peace with England. After the adoption of the constitution he was naturally the first choice of New Jersey to the new congress."
THE BOUDINOT HOUSE.
The home of Boudinot in Elizabeth was a great, square, com- fortable structure, with an old-fashioned gable roof, tall chimneys, suggestive of forefatherly fire-places, and a massive door with a brass knocker in the centre of a somewhat imposing front. It stood among lawns and gardens and lofty trees, very much embowered and hidden in summer time with aspiring vines, attractive shrubbery and gay- colored flowers. There was no Jersey street then, but the house was reached by a private carriage-way from the old road to Elizabethport. Its entrance hall and staircase are of the style so much in fashion before the Revolution, the former being broad enough for a cotillion party. Two stately apartments on either side of this central hall reveal even at this late day many traces of former elegance and taste. The mantels with their quaint carving and the curious cornices are worthy of note. Two stories have been added to the building, which has been converted into a home for aged women, but the charm of its historic associations still remains.
After an hour or two spent here Washington was escorted by a great procession, amid enthusiastic popular demonstration, to Elizabeth- port, where at noon he embarked on an elegantly decorated barge, and was rowed to New York by thirteen sailors dressed in white, of whomn Thomas Randall was coxswain. A numerous, gaily decked fleet accompanied him, and at Trenton thirteen young ladies of the leading families, symbolically garbed as the thirteen original states, gave him greeting and farewell.
LIBERTY HALL.
This was owned and occupied by Governor Livingston. It was built in 1773 by Livingston himself. The house was named Liberty Hall, and it is interesting to note that it was the first refuge of Alexander Hamilton when he arrived in America from the West Indies, a pale, delicate, blue-eyed boy of fifteen. He brought letters to Livingston from Dr. Hugh Knox, and through the advice of the former entered the school of Francis Barber, in Elizabeth Town. Liberty Hall was always open to him, and it was in listening to the table-talk of its many and delightful guests, among whom were the Ogdens, Stocktons, Bondinots and the learned Dr. Witherspoon, that Hamilton obtained his first lessons in statesmanship. Mrs. Livingston
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and her daughters took a deep interest in the country's affairs, and the young ladies became full-fledged politicians long ere they had attained complete physical stature. The knotty problems of the hour prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and the methods of solving and settling them, were discussed daily in the household. Even in the most familiar correspondence with his children at school, the subject upper- most in Livingston's thoughts occupied the chief space.
Liberty Hall has had an upper story and extension in the rear added within recent years, modern glass has taken the place of small panes in many of the windows, and the deep fireplaces are framed in marble mantels that had not come into use when the house was new. But the narrow doors and wide staircases-bearing still the cuts of the angry Hessian soldiery when thwarted in their purposes-and the innumerable little cupboards and artful contrivances for hiding things in the paneling of the walls, are tenderly preserved. It stands on elevated ground some rods from the street (what was the old Springfield turnpike), about a mile from the railroad station, and the front yard retains the lofty shade-trees of a century ago.
One large tree in the yard was planted in 1772 by Susan, the eldest daughter of Governor William Livingston, the same who with such heroism and tact saved her father's correspondence with Washing- ton and congress from falling into the hands of the British.
It was this lady, Susan Livingston, who became the wife of Hon. John Cleve Symmes, whose daughter became the wife of President William Henry Harrison, and thus the grandmother of President Benjamin Harrison. The 'enemy made several attempts to burn Liberty Hall during the Revolution.
When the British made their memorable incursion into New Jersey in June, 1780, and burned Springfield and Connecticut Farms, the flames of which were in full view, and soldiers continually passing Liberty Hall throughout that dreadful day, the ladies were alone with the women-servants, the governor being at Morristown, and the men- servants all hiding in the woods. In the morning three or four British officers called and had a short interview with Mrs. Livingston and her daughters ; but they left so full of admiration at the coolness and intrepidity of the ladies as to swear they should not be harmed. The house was accordingly spared. Late in the evening some British officers sent word that they should lodge at Liberty Hall. This was regarded as additional assurance of safety to the family. About midnight there was a sudden uproar, and the officers were called away hastily by startling news. There was firing along the road. Presently a band of drunken refugees came staggering through the grounds, and with horrid oaths burst the door open into the hall. The women- servants huddled into the kitchen, and the ladies locked themselves into one of the chambers. Their retreat was soon discovered, and
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there was a great pounding upon the door ; as it was about to be burst in, Kitty Livingston stepped forward and resolutely opened it. A drunken ruffian seized her by the arm, and she, with the quickness of thought, grasped his coat-collar. Just thien a flash of lightning revealed to the assailant the lady's white robes and equally white, scared face, and the wretch fell back, exclaiming, "Good God ! It is Mrs. Caldwell, whom we killed today !" The same merciful light showed Sarah Livingston the face of one of their former neighbors among the ruffians, and she quickly secured his intervention, and the house was cleared.
It was in this historic home that Mrs. Washington was enter- tained, in May, 1789, when on her way to New York, after the inauguration of her husband as first president of the United States. The mansion was decorated with flowers, and Governor Livingston's children-a gifted gathering of men and women-were present to help do the honors. The guest-chamber occupied by Mrs. Washington was over the library. The one set apart for the use of Mrs. Robert Morris was over the hall, in the centre of the front of the mansion. The next morning Washington, accompanied by John Jay, Robert Morris and other distinguished gentlemen, arrived at Liberty Hall in time for breakfast. No queen was ever escorted into a capital with more conspicuous ceremony than Mrs. Washington into New York.
After the death of Governor Livingston, in 1790, the beautiful country seat passed into the hands of strangers. It had a romantic episode, being purchased by Lord Bolingbroke, who ran away from England with the school-girl daughter of Baron Hompasch, leaving an estimable wife to break her heart. Later on, the property was purchased by the daughter of the governor's brother, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, who was the widow of Hon. John' Mckean. She subsequently married Count Niemcewicz, a Polish nobleman and poet, and the mansion once more became the centre of attraction for statesmen, scholars and celebrities. It has ever since been in the possession of the Kean family.
THE GENERAL SCOTT HOUSE.
The original owner of this celebrated family domicile in Elizabeth, and by whom, doubtless, it was erected, was Dr. William Barnet, an eminent physician of the old borough, who occupied it for a period antecedent to the Revolution, as well as during and for several years subsequent to the war. It is certainly one of the oldest private houses in the city of Elizabeth, as well as one of the best preserved. During the perilous septennial period of the Revolution Dr. Barnet's house, probably, had more than one narrow escape from destruction by the enemy, one of which is recorded in the Rev. Dr. Hatfield's admirable "History of Elizabeth," page 484, in an account there given of its
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being "plundered in a most barbarous manner" by a British raiding party, together with Mr. Herriman's house, next door north, and several other residences. That was in February, 1781. Dr. Barnet died in 1790, aged sixty-seven, and in September, 1794, his house, lot and appurtenances were sold to Dr. Jonathan Hampton, Esq., by Dr. Oliver Barnet, of Tewksbury, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, executor of his last will and testament. In 1805 this property was sold and conveyed to Colonel John Mayo, by Elizabeth Gilman, "guardian of Jonathan Hampton," presumably a son of the purchaser from Dr. Oliver Barnet. This deed was recorded September 15, 1807, "by order of the orphan's court," and the lot is stated as containing three acres, which was the same as when sold to Hampton. Of that transfer the witnesses were Jonathan Dayton, Matthias Williamson, George C. Barber, and Aaron Ogden, clerk. Sworn before Jeremiah Ballard.
At the death of Colonel Mayo this property was left to his widow, Mrs. Abigail DeHart Mayo, and their three children,-Edward C. Mayo, Mrs. Juliana Cabell and Mrs. Maria M. Scott. Mrs. Abigail Mayo died about the year 1843, when her portion descended to her daughter, Mrs. General Scott, who having survived her brother and sister, became eventually sole possessor ; and at her decease her three children became equal sharers of the Elizabeth estate. They were Camelia, wife of Henry D. -; Camilla, who married Gould Hoyt; and Marcella who married Charles C. McTavish. The years of Colonel Mayo's occupancy of this house, and of his distinguished son-in-law, Major-General Winfield Scott, constituted, in some respects, the most important and interesting epoch in its history. Colonel Mayo, representing a rich and aristocratic family of Richmond, Virginia, had married, some years previously, a daugliter of the Hon. Jolin De Hart, a prominent and patriotic citizen of Elizabeth Town, and was accustomed, with his family, to spend the summers in the place. During such seasons he is said to have driven a four-horse family. coach, and to have brought with him several black servants. General Scott and liis beautiful wife, when dwelling in the Hampton-place house, are still held in pleasant memory by old inhabitants.
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