History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 112

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466

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fired, and life was instantly extinguished. The second criminal [Tuttle] was, by the first fire, sent into eternity in an instant. The third [Grant], heing less criminal, by the recommendation of his officers, to his un- speakahle joy, received a pardon. This tragical scene produced a dread- ful shock, and a salutary effect on the minds of the guilty soldiers. Never were men more completely humbled and penitent ; tears of sor- row and of joy rushed from their eyes, and each one appeared to con- gratulate himself that his forfeited life had been spared."

In a thick wood, on the bleak and desolate summit of a rocky knob of the Ramapo mountains, overlooking the Pompton Lakes station on the New York, Susquehanna & Western railroad, the hardy traveler may find two rude piles of weather beaten field-stones. These are pointed out as

marking the lonely, unhonored graves of the two Jersey Mutinecrs.

After the execution, the men were ordercd to parade by regiments, and then by platoons, and obliged to make proper apologies to their officers, and promises of good be- havior for the future. They showed the fullest sense of their guilt, and Gcn. Howe was so assured of their contri- tion that he marched back to Ringwood the same day. Gen. Washington returned thanks, Jan. 30, to Gen. Howe and his officers and men for their conduct in this affair. "It gave him inexpressible pain," he added, "to be obliged to employ their arms on such an occasion, and he is convinc'd that they themselves felt all that reluctance which former affection to fellow soldiers could inspire." The General had deemed this occasion so critical that he went to Ring- wood himself on January 26. The next day he wrote to the commissioners appointed by the New Jersey Legislature to consider the grievances of their troops, informing them Schuyler GArent To Ponds. Sufferns of the suppression of the mu- tiny. "Having punished guilt and supported authority, it To Ramapo and now becomes proper to do Col. Miller justice," he remarked. He therefore urged them to hast- en an adjustment. Lamapo R. River

OFF FOR YORKTOWN.

On Feb. 7, 1781, Washing- ton directed that a mere cap- tain's guard of the Jersey Pompton Brigade be posted at the en- trance to Smith's Clove, and another at Pompton and Ring- To Totowu wood, while the rest of the brigade was ordered to Mor- ristown. In pursuance of his plan to send more of his troops south, Col. Pickering reported to him, February IS, that he proposed to impress and Ringwood, to transport the tents as far as Somerset Court House [Somerville]. This was to facilitate the movement of a detachment of 1200 men, including the Jersey Brigade, under the command of Lafayette, to the Chesapeake, where he was directed to fall upon and destroy Arnold's troops, then ravaging that vicinity. The Marquis passed through Pompton on February 23, with the men detached from the main army on the Hudson, 1

1 " Wednesday, 2Ist [February, 1781]. This morning the detachment of Artillery, under command of Captain Savage marched from this place [near New Windsor] for Pompton with two mortars, where it is said that the Corps of Light Infantry is to meet them."-Pennington's Journal, MS.

JIEN Ringund Road

412

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

and during the next few weeks there was a consider- able movement of troops through that important post, as Washington distributed his army with a view to an attack upon New York and Brooklyn with 20, 000 men. A captain's guard of thirty men was left at Pompton, to guard the stores, and a few militia were ordered out at Second River, and probably at Acquackanonk, with the like object. Chris- tian Lozier and Richard Van Riper, of Acquackanonk, who went into New York, presumably for trading purposes only, were questioned by the British, and reported some of these movements. James O'Hara, a spy, who came in from War- wick via Acquackanonk, confirmed the rumors, and gave other information, all tending to convince Sir Henry Clin- ton that New York was threatened. These mysterious manœuvres were kept up during the summer. About the middle of July, however, Washington felt constrained to abandon his main project, and concluded to move his forces, in conjunction with the French army, against the enemy in Virginia. On August 20-21 the American troops crossed the Hudson river in force and encamped at Haverstraw. On the 22d Col. Alexander Scammel's Light Corps of specially-selected New England men, marched south, pass- ing through Paramus, Acquackanonk and Springfield. On Saturday, the 25th, the American Light Infantry, under Gen. Lincoln, followed by the same route, together with the First New York, and on the same day Col. John Lamb, with his artillery regiment, park and stores, covered by Lieut. Col. Olney's Fourth Rhode Island Regiment, marched through Pompton and Two Bridges to Chatham and Springfield. The Second New York Regiment, Col. Philip Van Cortlandt, took the same route, probably the same day. This regiment was accompanied by thirty-four boats, which had been collected and mounted on carriages at King's Ferry, by Washington's direction. The country people about Pompton must have stared at seeing such strange paraphernalia among the impedimenta of an army on the march on inland routes. Sir Henry Clinton natural- ly regarded this preparation as indicating an attack on Staten Island, in which he found additional evidence in the threatening movements of the Americans at Springfield. Washington himself rode through Ramapo and Pompton on the 26th.

Pompton was destined to be favored with a still more im- posing display of the panoply of war. The French army, under the Count de Rochambeau, crossed the Hudson at King's Ferry (opposite Stony Point) on August 24-25, and proceeded via Kakeat1 to Sufferns, where they camped the first night. On August 25 the First Division or Brigade moved from Sufferns to Pompton, and there went into camp for the night. What a profound sensation this splendidly uniformed and thoroughly-equipped French army created among the country people ! First there came the Legion of the Duke de Lauzun, two squadrons of hussars and lancers, his tall grenadiers and his chasseurs-six hundred men in all, mostly Germans, and fit match for the dreaded Hes-

sians. Little recked the Duke, that brilliant, gallant sol- dier of fortune, that in a dozen years his head would be laid on the guillotine, to appease the greedy thirst of his fickle mistress, the French Republic. After this noble legion the parks of field guns rumbled heavily along, manned by se- lected detachments from the second battalion of the regi- iment of Auxonne, and from the second battalion of the regiment of Metz, the whole under the command of the Count d' Aboville. Then came the regiment of Bourbonnais (formed in 1595), Col. the Marquis de Laval, the Viscount de Rochambeau (younger brother of General the Count de Rochambeau) being the Colonel en Second. The famous Royal Deux-Ponts regiment next swung jauntily along, led by its gallant young Colonel, the Count Christian de Deux- Ponts, his younger brother, the Viscount Gillaume de Deux- Ponts, being his Colonel en Second, with Lieutenant Colo- nels de Haden and the Baron d' Esebeck. The Baron de Vioménil commanded this entire Division. Says a French officer: "We went from Sufferns to Pompton, four miles this side of which the river of this name is crossed three times and there are bridges at each passage;1 the first and third are fordable; the road is superb. This is an open and well cultivated country, inhabited by Dutch people who are almost all quite rich."

The American officers observed with admiration the movements of these experienced campaigners. "I viewed their manner of camping over night," says one; "the perfect mechanical manner of performing all they had to do, such as digging a circular hole and making nitches in which to set their camp kettles for cooking food, &c .; every necessary accommodation was performed in the most nat- ural and convenient manner. They rose in the morning and paraded by daylight; soon struck tents and began their march, which they completed for the day about noon; then pitched tents and set about their cookery. They marched on the road in open order until the music struck up; they then closed into close order. On the march a quartermaster preceded, and at the forking of the road would be stuck a pole with a bunch of straw at top, to shew the road they were to take."

The next day this Brigade left Pompton and marched to Whippany, Morris county, where it halted for the Second Division. The latter camped at Pompton on the night of August 26. It was commanded by the Viscount de Vio- ménil (the Baron's brother), and comprised the regiment of Soissonuais, Colonel the Count de Saint-Maime, with the Viscount de Noailles as Colonel en Second; and the regi- ment Saintonge, under Colonel the Count de Custine-Sar- racks, the Count de Charlus being Colonel en Second. 2

The commander-in-chief of the French army, the Count de Rochambeau, accompanied the troops through Pompton

1 Probably referring to the bridges at Schuyler's basin and at Two Bridges.

2 Tradition relates that a French soldier being too ill to march was taken to the house of Arent Schuyler, near the Schuyler's bridges, where he was hospitably received, and tenderly nursed by the family and ser- vants. His fever proved to be a fatal attack of smallpox. A low mound in the orchard shows where he was buried.

1 The translation of Cromot du Bourg's Diary, as published, says Hackensack-an error obvious to anyone familiar with the geography of that region.

443

CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

on this momentous journey, and the two corps were officered by the flower of the French nobility. What a striking con- trast did these magnificent troops present to the ill-clad Americans who had marched through the village a day or two before. How different this spectacle, mirroring forth the glory of war, from that pitiful scene of six months ear- lier, when the half-starved, barefooted little band of Jersey soldiers at Pompton were summoned to parade on the win- ter snow, to attend the drum-head court-martial and sum- mary execution of their unfortunate comrades whose long- suffering had been tried beyond endurance !

But the brilliant pageant swept by. The American com- mander-in-chief by a masterly movement outwitted. Sir Henry Clinton, hurried the allied armies against Cornwal- lis, and on October 19, 1781, received the surrender of the British forces on the Virginia peninsula. It is pleasant to know that the Jersey Brigade there retrieved the disgrace of the Pompton mutiny, and that among the participants in the crowning victory at Yorktown were Sergeant-Major Grant and Sergeant Nichols, two of the leaders in the revolt at Pompton. 1

1782-1783. CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

The victorious army was conveyed by water from York- town to the head of the Elk river, and thence, November 20, 1781, began the march back to the northern encamp- ments, crossing the Hudson river at King's Ferry on De- cember 7. "On account of the inclemency of the season," says Surgeon Thacher, "we have suffered exceedingly from cold, wet, and fatigue, during our long march. But we re- turn in triumph to rejoin our respective regiments, and en- joy a constant interchange of congratulations with our friends, on the glorious and brilliant success of our expedi- tion which closes the campaign." The gallant Major Gen- eral the Chevalier (afterwards Marquis) de Chastellux com- manded the First Division of the French army as it marched through Pompton on this return journey. Two New York regiments, under the command of Gen. James Clinton, went into winter quarters at Pompton, and immediately proceed- ed to make themselves comfortable by the erection of huts. The men were so expert in constructing these shelters that

they could finish one in twenty-four hours. The walls were of stones laid up in clay, with roofs of planks, logs, or bark, a stone chimney on the outside, a small door being next to it, which kept out cold winds.1 The weather was extremely cold, and the troops were poorly provided with clothing or provisions, so that it was with difficulty that they could keep warm, although there was an abundance of wood in the ad- jacent hills. The Rev. John Gano, a noted Baptist preacher, was Chaplain of the Brigade at this time, but as there was no opportunity for him to preach he was given a furlough. Returning at the close of the winter a private soldier made him uncomfortable by addressing him thus: "Dear Doctor, we have had tolerable health, but hard times otherwise; we have wanted almost everything, scant- ed in clothing, provisions and money, and, hardest of all, we have not even had the word of God to comfort us." The good clergyman was much disturbed in his conscience at this reproof, until he learned that his critic was one of the most incorrigible jokers in the camp, and had been simply making fun at his expense. A number of the soldiers had enlisted for six months or nine months, and Col. Van Cort- landt, commanding one of the regiments, was anxious to have them re-enlist. The use of the Reformed Dutch church on Pompton Plains was secured for the Chaplain on his return, and on the first Sunday thereafter he preached to the men. He was apt in selecting significant texts, and doubtless chose on this occasion the words, "There is no discharge in that war." Certain it is, that he assured his hearers that it always gave him pleasure to preach to sol- diers, especially when he had good tidings to communicate, and he could aver with truth that our Lord and Saviour ap- proved of all those who had entered in his service for the whole warfare. He had no six or nine months men in His service ! The whole camp greatly enjoyed the apropos ad- dress, and the short-term men were so chaffed by their com- rades that most of them re-eulisted.2

The troops encamped at Pompton at various times during the Revolution did not always occupy the same location. Tradition asserts that during two winters their encampment was on the southern slope of the Pompton Lake, where "Sunnybank," the charming home of "Marion Harland," is now situated. In clearing the wooded hillside on her place remains of huts have been unearthed, together with bullets, flints, gunlocks, and a sword of British workmanship, in perfect preservation, with the royal arms of England en- graved on the blade, and on the hilt, rudely scratched, the initials, "E. L." At one point on the "Sunnybank" prem- ises there was a paved roadway for the use of the horses and wagons going to the water's edge.3 It is probable that the

1 Sparks, VII., 406, 418, 430; VIII., 55, 105, 120, 134, et seqq .; Diary of Baron Cromot du Bourg (?), Aid to Rochambeau, in Mag. Am. Hist., IV., 292 ; Letters of Count de Fersen, Aid to Rochambeau, in Mag. Am. Hist., III., 438 ; Corr. Revolution, III., 240; Thacher, 322; Memoirs, Diaries, Narratives, etc., of Rochambeau, the Abbe Robia, the Count de Dumas, M. Blanchard, Duc de Lauzun, etc., passim; Private Intelli- gence of Sir Henry Clinton, in Mag. Am. Hist., X., 498-501 ; the New Jersey Continental Line in the Virginia Campaign of 1781, by Gen. Wm. S. Stryker, Trenton, 1882 ; Autobiography of Philip Van Cortlandt, in Mag. Am. Hist., II., 292 ; Lieut. Reuben Sanderson's Diary, in Henry P. Johnstone's "The Yorktown Campaign and the Surrender of Cornwal- lis, 1781," New York, 1881; Extracts from a Revolutionary Orderly Book, in N. Y. Times, Oct. 16, 1881 ; The French in America . . . 1777- 1783, by Thomas Balch, Philadelphia, Vol. I., 1891 ; Vol. II., 1895; Life and Letters of Elias Boudinot, by J. J. Boudinot, Philadelphia, 1896, I., 231 ; Personal Narrative of an Officer (Thomas Richards, of Connecti- cut) in the Revolutionary War, published in The United Service, XI. (September, 1884), 290 ; Stryker's Officers and Men of N. J. in the Revo- lution, passim.

1 The men sometimes constructed barracks, or double log houses, each large enough for eight men, the logs put together with wooden pins .- De Chastellux, I., 68 ; II., 303.

2 Thacher, 363 ; Chastellux, II., 211 ; I., 68 ; II., 303 ; Van Cortlandt's Diary, Mag. Am. Hist., II., 296; Biographical Memoirs of the late Rev. John Gano, etc., New York, 1806, 97, 116.

3 The Revolutionary camps at Pompton have furnished the theme for two charmingly-written sketches by Mrs. Edward P. Terhune ("Marion Harland"): one entitled "E. L. and a Straw Ride," in Hours

441

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

huts of the Jersey mutineers were located on the northern slope of the Lake (then much smaller than now, the dam having been raised in 1837), near the Schuyler bridges. The New York Brigade who wintered at Pompton in 1781-82 probably occupied substantially the same site, but extend- ing over more ground, and more to the south. Col. Van Cortlandt1-who seems to have been in command of the Brigade much of the time-doubtless had his headquarters in a small frame building facing southerly on the road to Paterson, at the junction of the Hamburgh road and the Wanaque road, in the present Borough of Pompton Lakes. This house was small, the main part being thirty feet in front and twenty-four in depth, two stories high in front, with roof sloping almost to the ground in the rear, a small covered porch in the middle leading to quaint old-fashioned half doors. There was a kitchen extension on the east end, about sixteen feet square, one story high, with attic, a cov- ered verandah extending all along its front. From its color the building was known in later years as the "Yellow House." In the roof of the verandah, and in the massive oaken beams of the kitchen, were to be seen for a century. and more, the marks where the rude soldiers had thrust their bayonets, by way of "stacking arms," in the war times. In the summer of 1878 a silver spur was dug up in the garden. The building was removed about 1890, to per- mit the changing of the roads. In the early part of the Revolution it was the residence of Casparus Schuyler, grandson of Arent Schuyler, who settled at Pompton about 170I. In the summer of 1780 the house was leased to a young man named Curtis, from Morristown, who conducted it as a tavern, with the assistance of his two handsome sisters. 2

at Home, September, 1869; another on "An Old New Jersey Home- stead," in The Home-Maker, May, 1889. In the former she described the sword found on her summer place, and a trip to the graves of the Jersey mutineers. The other article refers briefly to these incidents, and speaks more of the Schuyler homestead, at the Schuyler bridges.

1 In a letter dated "New York line Pumpton March 21, 1782," ad- dressed to Gen. Hand, he signs his name "P. Cortlandt." -- MS. In his Diary he speaks of himself as Philip Van Cortlandt.

2 The Chevalier de Chastellux, who put up there on the night of Dec. 18, 1780, on his way from Philadelphia to New England, says tbe inn had been but lately established, and "consequently the best parts of the fur- niture were the owner and his family." On entering the parlor, where the sisters were wont to sit, he found on a great table the works of Mil- ton, Addison, Richardson, and other writers of like fame. "The cellar was not so well stored as the library," he sarcastically observes, "for there was neither wine, cyder, nor rum ; notbing in short but some vile cyder-brandy, with which I must make grog. The bill they presented me the next morning amounted nevertheless to sixteen dollars. I ob- served to Mr. Courtbeath, that if he made one pay for being waited on by his pretty sisters, it was by much too little ; but if only for lodgings and supper it was a great deal. . .. I learnt, on this occasion, that he hired the inn he kept, as well as a large barn which served for a stable, and a garden of two or three acres, for eighty-four bushels of corn a year."-Travels, I., 342-5. It is said that Mr. Curtis (whose name de Chastellux transforms into Courtheath), had a sign which bore pictures of a horse, a fish and a bird, with this doggerel below :

This is the Horse that never ran

This is the Fish that never swam This is the Bird that never flew

Here's good Fare for your horse and you.

To this modest tavern came General Washington and Mrs. Washington, on Thursday, March 28, 1782, and re- mained there the guests of Col. Van Cortlandt, until the fol- lowing Sunday morning, when they resumed their journey toward Newburgh. The General had an escort of an officer, a sergeant and twelve dragoons, and we may be sure that as they galloped along the road they were looked upon with great interest by the inhabitants. Many an aged citizen treasured up in his memory in after years as a most precious recollection the fact of having seen Washington stand in the simple porch of the old yellow tavern on those March days of 1782. When the distinguished party left Pompton they were furnished with an additional escort by Col. Van Cortlandt, on the way through Ringwood toward New- burgh.

In General Orders of June I it was directed that the New York Brigade should pass muster and inspection on June 4. Col. Van Cortlandt, for the better display of his troops, moved them to the "flat fields" (probably Pompton Plains), where they underwent the inspection of that military mar- tinet, the Baron von Steuben, who declared hinself delight- ed with their efficiency. The Brigade was soon after or- dered to Verplanck's Point. 1

So ended the military occupancy of the present Passaic county.

Washington passed through Pompton on July 12, 1782, on his way from the Hudson to Philadelphia, to meet Rocham- beau. The treaty of peace with Great Britain having been ratified in April, 1783,2 the American army soon began to disintegrate. On June 6 the Jersey Line left their canton- ments at New Windsor, followed on June 8 by the Jersey troops who had enlisted for the war, and the Maryland troops. These all marched through this section, some passing through Acquackanonk, and others by way of Ring- wood and Pompton to the south. Some new Pennsylvania levies having mutinied and threatened the Legislature of that State, Congress deemed it prudent to adjourn to Princeton, and asked Washington to send a detachment for their protection. On June 25 he sent 1500 men, under Gen. Howe, who marched from Newburgh through Ringwood, Pompton and Morristown to Princeton. This was the last movement of any considerable body of troops through this region. On the morning of August 18, 1783, Washington left the Newburgh headquarters, with Mrs. Washington, and probably on the 20th passed through Pompton on his way to Rocky Hill, New Jersey, where, on November 2, 1783, he issued his farewell address to the army.3

1 A return of the First N. Y. Regiment for March, 1782, while at Pompton, shows a total of 544 officers and men .- MS.

2 The proclamation of Congress, for a cessation of hostilities, was published at the headquarters at Newburgh on April 19, 1783, just eight years from that day when at Lexington and Concord was "fired the shot heard round the world." On that same Saturday afternoon Wash- ington rode to Ringwood, returning to Newburgh the next day .- Heath's Memoirs, 371; Sparks, VIII., 425, 567. In Washington's Ac- counts is the charge : "1782 April To the Expences of a Trip to meet the Secretary at War at Ringwood for the purpose of making arrangements for liberating the Prisoners-&ca £8 IOS. 4d."

3 Van Cortlandt's Diary, as cited ; Heath's Memoirs ; Whiting's Or- ders, 213 ; Conversation with Dr. William W. Colfax, in 1875; Sparks,

445

SUNDRY INCIDENTS OF THE REVOLUTION.

Peace once more spread her white wings broodingly over the desolated land.

SUNDRY INCIDENTS OF THE REVOLUTION.

The British on one occasion occupied the Acquackanonk church-probably in November, 1776.

A number of New Hampshire soldiers once camped in the old Totowa church.

A party of British and Hessians pursued some American soldiers as far as the Passaic river at the foot of Bank street, in Paterson. The Americans liad broken down the bridge at that point, but the enemy plunged into the river, the Hessians carrying the officers on their backs. The Ameri- cans-probably militia hastily collected-retreated into the thick forests that then crowned the rocky heights, and the Hessians, fcaring an ambush, prudently forebore attacking them, and retired across the river. 1

John Gould, collector of the township of Acquackanonk, was robbed of a large sum of public money by a party of Tories from Staten Island on Sept. 2, 1782. Having satis- fied the Legislature on the subject, by the evidence of his neighbors-Sarah Speer, Samuel Crane, Esq., Encrease Gould, Diana Vanderhoof, John Keasted, Sarah Clawson, Peter J. Riker and Caleb Hetfield-an act was passed, Aug. 16, 1784, relieving him from responsibility for the loss.

The meaning of the following receipt is not clear, but it is believed to refer to some incident of the War:

Weesel, June ye 14th: 1777

Recd, of Henry Garritse junr. the sum of twenty four Shillings in be- half of my Brother morinus Garritse for Riding Mr. Sharps Sarvents to powlis Hook Recd, By me-

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History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 112

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 466

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466