History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 21

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224

USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 21
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 21

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Writing from the " Jersey Camp, near Springfield, 14th June, 1780," to Governor Livingston, Maxwell says, ---

"I thought Elizabeth Town would he an improper place for me. I therefore retired toward Connectient Farms, where Col. Dayton joined me with his regiment. I ordered a few emall parties to defend the de- file near the Farm Meeting-House. where they were joined and assisted in the defense by some small bodies of militia. The main body of the brigade had to watch the enemy ou the road leading to the right and left toward Springfield, that they might not ent off our communication with bis Excellency General Washington. Our parties of Continental troups and militia at the defile performed wonders. After stopping the advance of the enemy near three hours, they crossed over the defile and drove them to the tavern that was Jeremiah Smith's; Int the enemy were at that time reinforced with at least 1500 men, and our people were driven in their turn over the defile and obliged to quit it. I, with the whole brigade and militia, was formed to attack them shortly after they had crossed the defile, but it was tho't imprudent, as the ground was not advantageons, and the enemy very numerona. We retired slowly towards the heights toward Springfield, harassing them on their right aud left till they came with their advance to David Meeker's house, where they thunght proper to halt. Shortly after the whole brignde, with the militia, advanced their right, left, and front with the greatest rapidity, and drove their advance to the main body. We were in our turn obliged to retire alter the closest action I have seen this war. We were then pushed over the bridge at Springfield (Rahway River), where we posted some troops, and with the assistance of a field- piece commanded by the militia the enemy were again driven back to their former station, and still farther before night. Naver did troops, either Continental or militia, behave better than ours did. Every one that had an opportunity (which they mostly all had) vied with each other who conld serve the country most. In the latter part of the day the militia flocked from all quarters and gave the enemy no respite till the day closed the scene."2

The fighting on this occasion took place mostly on the rising ground back of the Farms' village and on the east side of the Rahway" River :

"In the hope of preserving the Farma (village) Colouel Dayton, who at that time commanded the militia, determined not to halt in the settlement, but to taks post at a narrow pass on the road leading to Springfield." 3

Both parties, therefore, passed through the village without damage to the dwelling-houses. Many, if not the most, of these houses were at noon and in the afternoon " filled with their wounded."

In the course of the afternoon the British com- mander " learned from Prisoners and Deserters that Washington had got time to occupy with all his force the strong post of Short Hills." This information at once put an end to all thoughts of advance. A retro- grade movement was at the close of the day deter- mined upon, to be executed, however, only after night- fall.4

1 De Hart's " Passages in the History of Elizabeth Town," No. I.

2 Hiet. Magazine, ili 21].

8 Marshall's Washington, Jv. 225.

+ N. Y. Col. Docmts., viii. 793.

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

Preparations accordingly were made for an encamp- ment. Lieut. Mathew, of the Coldstream Guards, says,-

" Finding that the night would come on hefore we reached Spring- field, we retreated to a very commanding ground near a place or village called Connecticut Farms, which we burnt on our retreat afterwards. Here the army divided their ground and sent out pickets, expecting to lay here the whole night. I was on a picket. I went on it shout five o'clock in the evening It was in the skirts of a wood; the rebels kept firing ou it from the time I went on till dark." 1

As soon as it was determined to advance no farther the soldiers seem to have commenced the work of plundering, which was most effectually prosecuted, Governor Robertson himself sharing in the plunder. The village consisted of a house of worship belonging to the Presbyterian Church (a frame building) and eight or ten dwelling-houses, besides stores, shops, and outhouses. The buildings were first given up to pil- lage, thoroughly ransacked, and everything portable carried off. They were then fired and burnt down. The church edifice shared the same fate. The houses on the road running east from the church, belonging re- spectively to Benjamin Thompson, Moses Thompson, John Wade, and Robert Wade, and the house belong- ing to Caleb Wade, at the foot of the hill on which the church stood, were thus destroyed.2

The parsonage was on the street running north and south that bounds the village on the west. It was on the eastern side of the street fronting west. The last pastor of the church, Rev. Benjamin Hait, had died June 27, 1779. The Rev. Mr. Caldwell, of Elizabeth Town, by the advice of friends, had, shortly after Mr. Hait's decease, rented the vacant parsonage and occu- pied it with his family, having removed thither from Springfield. 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 Providence and remain at home, " under the persua- sion that her presence might serve to protect" the house " from pillage, and that her person could not possibly be endangered." 3

Thacher, who was with Washington on this occa- sion, says, in his military journal, that "On the arrival of the royal troops Mrs. Caldwell entertained the officers with refreshments, and after they had re- tired she and a young woman, having Mrs. Caldwell's infant child in her arms, seated themselves on the bed." Another account, published seven days after the oc- currence, says,-

" Mrs. Caldwell retired into a back room, which was so sitnated that she was entirely sermed against transient shot from either party should they dispote the gronul near the house, which happened not to be the case. The habe [Maria] was in the arms of the Inmisekeeper [Catoarine Bernard, or a small girl named Alugail Lemington]; the other child the mother held by the band, all sitting upon the side of the bed, when one of the barbarians, advancing round the home, took the advantage of a stall space thiongh which the room was accesible and fired two balls

into that amiable lady, so well directed that they ended her life in a moment." 4

The circumstances of her death are variously re- lated. The most particular and the most plausible statement is the following :

" The maid, who had accompanied her to this secluded apartment and had charge of the other small children, ou lucking out of x window into the back-yard observed to Mrs. Caldwell that a 'red-coat soldier bad jumped over the fence and was coming up to the winlow with a gun.' Her youngest sun [ Elias Boudinot ], nearly two years old, playing upon the floor, on hearing what the maid said, called out, ' Let me see! Let me see !' and rao that way. Mrs. Caldwell rose from sitting on a bed very near, and at this moment the sold er fired hie musket at her through the window. It was loaded with two balls, which both passed through her budy."5

Thacher says that at the sight of the soldier Mrs. Caldwell exclaimed, "Don't attempt to scare me!" when the soldier fired, shooting her through the breast, and she instantly expired.6

That it was a British soldier that killed her is fully established, and that it was not a random shot is also clear. But that she was known to the murderer, or that he was seeking to gratity a personal malice, is not evident. It was at all events an act of fiendish bar- barity that made the British name still more exe- crable, not only by ber townsmen, but by the whole American people.

Conflicting statements also are made as to the dis- posal of the corpse. Thacher says that "a British officer soon after came, and, throwing his cloak over the corpse, carried it to the next house." A corre- spondent of the New Jersey Gazette, under date of June 13th, says: " I saw her corpse, and was informed by the neighbors it was with infinite pains they ob- tained leave to bring her body from the house before they set fire to it." 7

The house to which the body was conveyed be- longed to Capt. Henry Wade. It was a small build- ing on the opposite side of the street (the site of which has of late been occupied by the family of Mr. Phineas Crilley ), one of the only two dwelling-houses in the village that escaped the flames. There Mr. Caldwell found it the next morning, and thence the same day it was with appropriate ceremonies carried to the grave. Three months after he published a most affecting appeal on the subject that made a deep impression on the public mind.8

The expedition proved a miserable failure. This great array of disciplined troops, horse and foot and flying artillery, so confident in the morning of reach- ing the American camp at Morristown and breaking up the rebellion, were held at bay by a few hastily- gathered militia, driven back, and, after the inglori-

I Hist. Mag., i, 104

2 Barber's N. J. Hist. Coll., p. 196.

3 Hlid. Brown's Life of Rev. Dr. Finley, pp. 240-41.

4 N. J. Journal, No. 70. Catharine Bernard was married the next year to Julin Spicer, of Turkey.

· Brown's Life of Finley, p 241.

6 Thacher's Journal, p. 19.3.

7 N. J. Gazette, No. 130. N. J. Journal. No 70, 73.

8 Barber's N. J. Hlist. Coll., p. 197. N. J. Journal, No. 81. For further particulars, see M18. Ellet's " Women of the Revolution," ii. 108, 113, 173.

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

ous destruction by fire of the little hamlet at Con- necticut Farms, compelled the same night, in the midst of drenching rain, and through mud and marsh, to retreat to the point of departure. Says Lieut. Mathew,-

" About ten o'clock the whole army got in motion and moved off. It Was so exceedingly dark, and there was such strict silence observed, that oue regiment could not perceive the adjoining regine ut going off. . . . It was the darkest night I can remember in my life, with the most heavy rain, thunder, and lightning knowu m this country for mmany years. . . . It rained, I think, harder than 1 ever knew, and thundered and liglitened so severely as to frighten the horses, aml once or tw.ce the whole army halted, being deprived of sight for a time. General Knyphausen's horse started so as to throw the general.

" We continued our march until we reached the bank of the creek (Sound) which he had crossed in the morning. Nothing omre awful than this retreat can be imagined. The rain, with the terrilde thunder and lightning, the darkness of the night, the houses at Connecticut Farms which we had set fire to in a blaze, the dead bodies which the light of the fire or the lightning showed yon now and then on the road, aod the dread of an enemy completed the scene of horror. . . . We balted at the side of the creek and took up our ground, and the whole arory encamped." 1

As the result of the day's encounter, Gen. Maxwell reported one ensign (Moses Ogden, of Elizabeth Town, aged nineteen) killed and three lieutenants wounded, seven privates killed, twenty-eight wounded, and five missing. The militia also lost several and had a number wounded. The enemy lost three times the number. Gen. Stirling died of his wound nearly a year later.

" The Tories were Bo sure of the enemy's succeeding that they sent word to their friends in Elizabeth Town that they should pay them a visit the day after the enemy came over." 2

It is safe to say that the visit was not paid. It is quite certain that the town " the day after" was not a very agreeable place for men that could glory in Knyphausen and his deeds.

Occupation of Elizabethtown Point by the Brit- ish .- The scouts that followed after the retreating foe on their return reported that they had passed over to Staten Island, all but about five hundred men left behind to intrench themselves at the Point. They encamped between the Old Point and De Hart's house. Lord Stirling, the senior in command below the Hills, is reported to have said thereupon to Gen. Hand, " Take your brigade, Hand, and the two bri- gades of militia, and go down and bring up those fellows at the Point." The columns, numbering about fifteen hundred, were soon put in marching order, to rendezvous at Elizabeth Town. Here the troops were marshaled for the attack. The Continen- tals, under Gen. Hand, had the centre, with a militia brigade on the right and left. They advanced in three columns, designing to assault the enemy in as many points at once.

The advance corps of the left brigade cut off and captured the picket-guard of the enemy. This bri- gade were much exposed before reaching their point of attack in crossing a meadow, and drew forth so heavy a

fire of artillery from the enemy as to show that they were in full force. Hand contrived, therefore, to give the attack the appearance of a feint, and drew off his troops so deliberately as to make the enemy believe that he was simply executing a manœuvre designed to draw them from their fortifications. He succeeded in effecting his retreat to the town without being pur- sued. The cannonade at one time was very heavy, and would have done fearful execution had their aim been lower, nearly all the balls passing over the heads of the troops on their advance.3

The ground occupied by the contending forces on this occasion is now covered by the factories, ware- honses, and residences of Elizabethport,-the First Ward of the city of Elizabeth.

The British army continued in the occupation of this post during the next fortnight, behind the forti- fications thrown up by the Americans more than four years before, continual skirmishes taking place be- tween the lines.

The situation of the town during this period was anything but enviable. Almost daily they were visited by portions of one army or the other,-placed between two fires.

Gen. William Irvine, from the " Camp Short Hills, June 18th," wrote to his wife at Carlisle, Pa., as fol- lows :

" The Enemy lie still at Elizabethtown Point, almut ten miles from here. We have small parties down pear them every day, but there is but little damage done on cither side. We have taken at different times some forty prisoners. . . . We have lwen wow thirteen days at this place withont Tents or Baggage. No covering except boughs of trees and bark, which, however, is cool and pleasant in the heat of the day, and serves to keep out a good deal of rain. Notwithstanding these privations, we bave not bad a oren sick since we have taken the field. One consola- tion we have, the enemy are worse off than we are They have no Tents, and are bemed in a narrow neck of land, whilst we have a wide exteut of conutry. You may think your situation happy indeed. my love, when compared with that of the poor people of this part of our country. It grieves me beyond expression to are their distressed situation, particu- larly that of the women and children. Murder and Rapine await them wherever these Imtbarians come. Werr it possible, I would suffer a thousand deaths rather than see you in the situation some poor gentle- med here are forced to see their wives and daughters left iu."+

The attempt to penetrate to Washington's camp by the way of the Short Hills was renewed a few days later, Sir Henry Clinton taking the oversight of the affair. The British lett their camp at the Point before day on Friday, the 23d, and marched forward, an imposing force of about five thousand men, besides dragoons, and fifteen or twenty pieces of artillery, superior to any force that Washington could oppose to them. Having driven in the American pickets, they pressed on without obstruction to Connecticut Farms, which they reached about sunrise. From this point they proceeded in two compact columns, the right taking the more circuitous road on the north that leads through Headly Town, Vauxhall, and Mil- burn, and unites with the main road just below the principal pass of the Short Hills back of Springfield,

! Ilistorical Magazine, i. 104, 105.

2 Barber's N. J. Hiet. Coll., p. 192.

3 Jones' Life of Dr. Greene, pp. 111-14.

+ ilist. Mag., vii. 81.

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

the left taking the road that leads directly from " the Farms" over the Rahway River to Springfield, with which route they had become painfully familiar on their previous expedition.

As soon as the enemy were sten from the signal-sta- tion on Prospect Hill, the eighteen-pounder and the tar-barrel were again fired. The militia began imme- diately to collect from every quarter ; the troops that were guarding the several passes over the hills were hastily called in and posted so as at.once to resist the advancing foe, protect the American flanks, and se- cure a retreat if needed. Major Lee, with the horse and the pickets 'under Capt. Walker, took post at Little's Bridge, on the Vauxhall road, supported by Col. Ogden's command. The defense of the village against the left column of the enemy was intrusted to Col. Dayton's regiment of the Jersey Brigade. Stark's brigade and the remainder of Maxwell's were drawn up on the heights near the mill in the rear of the vil- lage, with the militia on the flanks.

In the disposal of his regiment Col. Dayton sta- tioned Col. Angell, of Rhode Island, with about two hundred men and a piece of artillery at the first bridge over the principal stream, on the main road in front of the town, and Col. Shreve with a detach- ment at the second bridge, over a smaller stream on the same road behind the town, so as to cover the re- treat of Col. Angell's forces. The planks of the bridges in front had been removed.

As the van of the enemy approached the first bridge they began to manœuvre in such a way and so long, nearly two hours, as to convince Gen. Greene that they were moving on his flanks. In the mean time the right column of the enemy advanced along the Vauxhall road to the bridge, defended by Maj. Lee and Capt. Walker. Here they met with a stout re- sistance from the dragoons and pickets, but having forded the river higher up, and gained the point of the hill near by, Lee and Walker were compelled to retire.

As soon as it was known that the right column had reached the bridge in front of Lee, the left column advanced in force against Col. Angell at the lower bridge, and after a hotly-contested struggle of forty minutes compelled him to retire behind the second bridge in good order, carrying off his wounded. Col. Shreve in like manner was compelled to give way after covering Angell's retreat, when both com- mands fell back, and joined Maxwell and Stark on the high ground in the rear. Two regiments, Col. Webb's (under Lieut .- Col. Huntington's command ) and Col. Jackson's, with one piece of artillery, were posted on the Vauxhall road to the left so as to cover Lee's retreat and oppose the advance of the enemy's right column, while the main body of troops were posted on the first range of hills in the rear of Byram's tavern.

During the heat of the contest with Dayton's regi- ment it is related of his chaplain, Mr. Caldwell, that

he showed the utmost ardor in the fight, as if he would avenge himself for the murder of his beloved wife. To supply the men with wadding for their fire- locks he galloped to the church near by and brought back an armful of psalm-books, and as he handed them around he shouted, " Now put Watts into them, boys !"

Having gained possession of the village, and ob- served how every post in front was occupied by the Continentals and the militia, whose numbers were continually increasing, the enemy showed no dispo- sition to press forward. Fearing, too, as they learned from their scouts of the approach of the brigade sent out by Washington, that their retreat might be cut off, they determined to proceed no farther, but to re- trace their steps as before. The work of plunder now began, and house after house was rifled of its valua- bles, fired, and burned to the ground. Nineteen dwel- ling-houses and the Presbyterian Church were thus destroyed. Only four dwelling-houses were spared, being occupied by their wounded. Foiled completely in their object now as before, they once more took up their backward line of march, and disappeared as rapidly as they came, pursued and galled by a detachment of one hundred and twenty regulars under Capt. Davis and a large body of militia, who fell upon their rear and flanks, and pursued them almost to their fortifications at the Point. The sight of the burning dwellings almost maddened the mili- tia, who eagerly sought to take off the red-coated marauders. Maj. Lee with his dragoons also fell upon their rear, and captured some of the refugees that accompanied the army, as well as some of the Tories who had joined them and welcomed their coming.

The enemy, crestfallen and severely punished for their audacity, entered Elizabeth Town on their return about sunset closely pursued by Stark's brigade, which in their eagerness to escape they effectually distanced by their precipitate flight. Having reached, before dark, the cover of their fortifications, they rested until midnight, when they crossed the Sound on their bridge of boats, which, of course, they took up and removed as their rear-guard passed over. Gen. Dickinson marched the militia to the Point the next day and effectually demolished the works which the enemy had constructed, and then dis- missed the brave yeomanry, with great reputation, to their homes.

The loss of the Americans in the several contests of the day, as reported by Lieut .- Col. Barber, deputy adjutant-general, was thirteen killed and forty-nine wounded. The militia had none killed, only twelve wounded, and nine missing. Only one officer was slain, First Lieut. Thompson, of the artillery. The loss of the enemy is not recorded. It must have been very considerable. Lieut. Mathew says that "in this expedition to the Jerseys ... there were not less than five hundred killed, wounded, and miss-

HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.

ing, besides officers," among whom was Brig .- Gen. Stirling.1

Thus ended, so far as this town is concerned, the most memorable campaign of the war. The whole of these exploits, from the 7th to the 23d of June, occurred within the territorial limits of the old borough. That on both these occasions so powerful and well-organized a force should have been held at bay and then driven back by so small a body of Con- tinentals, aided by the militia from their farms and workshops,-not more than a thousand on the 23d having at any one time been brought into action,- reflects great credit on both the patriotism and bravery of the people. Washington was delighted with their services. June 25th he thus writes,-

" The milit a deserve everything that can be grid on both occasions. They firw to arms universally, and acted with a spirit equal to anything I have seen in the course of the war."2

From this time forward the people were mostly per- mitted to remain at home in the cultivation of their fields and in the pursuits of trade. The harvests were gathered without interruption, and the wastes of the war were in part repaired. As the enemy, however, still continued in force on Staten Island, it became necessary to guard againt a repetition of these outrages. In consequence of the exposed condition of the post no more military stores were to be kept here, thus removing one of the strong temptations to these marauding expeditions.

The partisan warfare from which individuals had so severely suffered was still continued. The refu- gees on Staten Island were specially malignant and troublesome. The following notice, published No- vember 8th, shows something of the danger to which the prominent friends of the country were continually exposed :

"On Saturday night last [4th] Smith Hetfield, Cornelius Hetfield, Elias Man, and some others came over from Staten Island to Edizalath Town where they were informed that Cul [ Matthias] Ogden, of the Fi st Jersey Regiment, and Captain [Jonathan] Dayton, of the Third, were to lodge that night at William Herd's at Connecticut Farms, to which place they hastened, omade them both prisoners, and carried them off unmolested to Staten Island."

Gaines, under date of September 23d, represents that the people suffered also from the foraging parties of their own army :

" Last Week a Party of Moyland's Light Horse were at Elizabeth Town, collecting cattle for the Use of the Rebel Army. They took a pair of fat Oxen ont of'n Team on the Road, and gave the Driver a receipt for them ; They then proceeded to the Point Meadows, and took away every Hof from them, but were opposed on the Way by the Militia and the Com- missioners of the Place, who obliged them to relinquish their Booty."

Under date of Dec. 18, 1780, Gaines says,-

1 N. J. Journal, No. 72. N. J. Gazette, Nos. 131. 132. Gordon's Rev. War, iii 60. Thacher'e Journal, pp. 196, 197. Marshall's Washington, iv. 234, 236. Gordon's N. J., p. 306. Barber's N. J. Hr-t. Cull , pp. 193. 195 Sparks' Washington, vi. 85, 87, 506, 509, Sedgwick's L vingston, pp. 351, 355 Duer's Stirling, pp. 207, 208, Irving's Washington, iv. 67, 72. Jones' Life of Green, pp. 115, 121. Tomes' Battles of America, ii. 233, 245. N. Y. Col. Docmuts., viii. 794. Moore's Diary, ii. 291, 292 2 N. J. Gazettr, No. 132

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History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 21

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts Number of Pages: 1224

Author: W. Woodford Clayton, Ed.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia: Everts
Number of Pages: 1224