USA > New Jersey > New Jersey as a colony and as a state; one of the original thirteen > Part 7
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WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT HARLEM.
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Thus began the struggle for the control of the Hudson, which, lasting throughout the summer, was later, as the part of a succeeding campaign, transferred to the soil of New Jersey, and which so seriously affected every subsequent phase of the Revolutionary War.
The bitter contest for the control of Long and Manhattan Islands must be briefly told.
From the 22d of August until the 30th of that month, when General Washington, defeated if not disheartened, crossed in a dense fog from Long Island to New York, Brooklyn and its vicin- ity ran with blood. Utterly unable to cope with the superior force of the enemy after his defeat at the battle of Brooklyn upon the 27th, with Generals Stirling, Sullivan, and Woodhull pris- oners, the militia "discouraged and intractable," subject to " disorder, irregularity, and confusion," Washington advised Congress that the City of New York be destroyed ere it fell into the hands of the enemy. To this suggestion Congress, how- ever, refused to listen, and Lord Howe, recogniz- ing the commercial and strategic importance of the town, also refrained from bombarding the metropolis.
Upon the evacuation of New York, which oc- curred September 12th, the Americans moved northward. With his shipping at the mouth of the Sound, and advantageously placed in the Hud-
[Vol. 2]
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WYFour
son as far as Bloomingdale, General Sir William Howe prepared to occupy the city. In this attempt he was entirely successful, and by the 15th British and German troops of the King controlled Man- hattan Island from the Battery to Harlem Heights. Directly to the north lay Washington with fourteen thousand men in a fortified position on the Heights, but so active was Howe that the Americans, upon the 16th of October, resolved to evacuate the whole of Manhattan Island except Fort Washington, " deemed impregnable and of great value for future operations."
Falling back upon White Plains, the American commander-in-chief, upon the 28th of October, confronted Howe with thirteen thousand men, the British general having an equal number of troops. Upon the termination of the battle of White Plains, upon the 28th, Howe suddenly al- tered his plans concerning the subjugation of the Hudson Valley and retired to the old city. His precipitate action was undoubtedly due to the treasonable act of Adjutant William Demont, an officer at Fort Washington, through whom Howe had become possessed of the plans of that vital point, which, with Fort Lee on the New Jersey shore of the river, made a pretence, at least, of defending the Hudson. Upon the morning of the 16th of November, after a furious assault by land and water, not only upon the fort itself, but upon
Sir William Howe, son of Emanuel Scrope, Vis- count Howe ; b. in England, Aug. 10, 1729 ; d. there July 12, 1814; commanded under Wolfe at Quebec 1759 ; succeeded General Thomas Gage as commander of the British forces in America 1775 ; superseded by Sir Henry Clinton in May, 1778 ; returned to England and held several important positions.
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accompanying subsidiary works, Colonel Magaw, the commandant of the fort, surrendered to Gen- eral Knyphausen. Two thousand six hundred Americans were taken prisoners, together with an important quantity of arms, ammunition, and stores.
With the fall of Fort Washington ended the military operations which sought to control the Hudson River. Although it left the British in absolute possession of Manhattan Island, with New York as the winter quarters of the Anglo- Hessian army, Howe had lost many troops, and in his manœuvers had not added to his reputa- tion for generalship. Washington, with his raw recruits and lack of supplies, had relied, through modesty and courtesy, too much upon the advice of his officers. It had been, indeed, a campaign replete with military blunders, but with much show of personal daring.
The retirement of the British to New York upon the 4th of November led General Washington to write to General Lee that in his opinion Lord Howe had " designs upon the Jerseys," a suppo- sition later borne out by the subsequent move- ments of the British army.
A council of American officers had decided that a body of troops should be thrown over to New Jersey for the protection of the State, and that three thousand men "should be stationed at
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Peekskill and the passes of the Highlands." Leaving the command of the army on the east bank of the Hudson in the hands of General Lee, General Washington reconnoitered in the vicinity of Peekskill and West Point upon November 11, and the next day with his army crossed the river at King's Ferry. The 14th of November found General Washington with his regiments at Fort Lee, the plans of which, upon the 20th of the preceding July, had been laid out by the com- mander-in-chief in company with a military party. Moving toward Hackensack, in which place his army went into camp, Washington es- tablished his headquarters at the residence of Peter Zabriskie.
Flushed with their successes on Manhattan Island, determined to not only decimate but obliterate the presumptuous "Rebels," General Cornwallis was directed to capture Fort Lee, the last post on the lower Hudson remaining in the hands of the Americans. Upon the stormy night of November 19th six thousand Anglo-Hessian troops detached from the main army in New York crossed the Hudson at Closter dock, seven miles north of Fort Lee. Realizing the futility of holding his post, General Greene, with three thousand men, beat a hasty, even unceremonious, retreat to Hackensack, where he joined General Washington.
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The loss of Fort Washington and the immediate abandonment of Fort Lee mark the beginning of Washington's "Retreat across the Jerseys," which, commencing in utter hopelessness and despair, was ultimately crowned with victory in the issues of the affair at Trenton and the sur- prise at Princeton.
Never had an army been closer to annihilation. Harassed by the immediate presence of the King's veteran troops, absolutely exposed in a cul-de-sac between the lower valleys of the Hack- ensack and Passaic Rivers, with the British pre- paring to land their forces on the Raritan or New- ark Bay, cutting off retreat to the southwest, Washington's situation was desperate. But with- in the camp there was even less to lend a ray of hope. Without proper military equipment, sadly in need of food, surrounded by those who were disaffected, his forces depleted by desertion or expirations of terms of service, but one course lay open-retreat. Upon the 21st of November Washington crossed the Acquackanonk bridge to the west side of the Passaic and commenced the retreat, closely pursued by the British; so closely indeed, that, as W. S. Baker says in his " Itinerary of General Washington," "often the music of the pursued and the pursuer would be heard by each other, yet no action occurred."
From the 22d until the 28th Washington re-
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FORT LEE IN 1776.
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mained in Newark, on the 29th reaching New Brunswick, where a halt was made until Decem- ber 1. Early the next morning Washington ar- rived in Princeton, where, leaving troops under General Stirling to watch the advance of the British, Washington pushed on through Lawrence- ville to Trenton. Arriving on the east bank of the Delaware, the military stores and equipments were collected and by the 8th of December the impedimenta of war were scattered along the Pennsylvania shore of the river.
It is one of the remarkable problems of military history that the British commander-in-chief did not immediately follow up the advantage gained at Fort Lee. Possibly an explanation is to be found in the self-confidence of Howe. His com- paratively easy conquest of Manhattan Island had led him to underestimate the subjective power of the Revolutionary movement, his love of ease and the attractions of New York primarily over- weighed any design he might have for the pros- ecution of a winter campaign. William Nelson, in his " History of Paterson," Vol. I, pp. 448-460, shows that the British army spent a great deal of time on this march in plundering the inhabitants along the route pursued. Certain it is that when Cornwallis had crossed into East Jersey he had been instructed to hold that portion of the State and proceed no further than New Bruns-
RUINS OF TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK. ( After the great fire in 1776.)
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wick. But the advance of Cornwallis somewhat altered Howe's scheme of action, as he saw in a sudden move the possibility of capturing Phila- delphia and thus cutting out the heart of the Revolution. Howe pushed forward to New Brunswick, where he joined Cornwallis. Leaving Cornwallis in command in New Brunswick, Howe marched to Coryell's Ferry, now Lambertville, hoping to find boats with which to cross the Delaware. Failing to secure transportation, which had been removed by Washington, he took post in Pennington and extended his lines toward Monmouth County and into central Burlington County.
The attitude of the people of Central and East- ern New Jersey during the "Retreat " was not encouraging to the cause of independence. The very appearance of a ragged army in full retreat disheartened those from enlisting who were other- wise favorably disposed toward the Whig cause. It was generally believed that the Revolution was at an end, and that to participate in a gallant but hopeless struggle meant the shadow of the gibbet for those who took part. Fair promises were made by the British officers, and many along the line of march took advantage of the amnesty proclamation of the Howes, one of the most con- spicuous being Samuel Tucker, president of the New Jersey Provincial Congress. In its march
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through New Jersey the nearness of an influential Tory element, in Amboy and its vicinity and along the northeastern shore of Monmouth County, gave constant support to the King's troops. Spies were everywhere; no man was safe. Although Gov- ernor Franklin had been removed to Connecticut the Tories who had rallied around him at Perth Amboy were active, communicating not only be- tween New Brunswick, Staten Island, and New York, but even to distant Philadelphia.
In such extremity the work of holding the East Jersey Tories in check fell upon the local com- mittees of correspondence and upon the activity of the militia. Although surrounded by foes, some degree of success attended these self-con- stituted attempts to restrain trade between New Jersey and the localities later in the hands of the British. Everywhere there was suspicion and doubt. Neighbor was arrayed against neighbor, friend against friend, father against son. The failure of Washington to hold the mouth of the Hudson had made the Tories bold; they talked of a speedy termination of the war so soon as the Whig army, starved and frozen, had been dis- membered.
The triumphal progress of the King's troops through New Jersey was a saturnalia of lust, loot- ing, and butchery. To this the official investiga- tions of Congress, the newspaper accounts, letters
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of the time, in fact all documentary evidence as well as confirmed tradition, point, and point un- mistakably. In the commission of crimes none was spared. Wives and daughters were ravished by drunken soldiers, at times before the eyes of their husbands and fathers, homes were wantonly wrecked, fields laid waste, barns and farm implements were burned, while murder of the in- offensive was of daily occurrence. Upon Whig and Tory alike, including those who had taken protection papers of Lord Howe, the sword of the vandals fell. Not only must the American Rev- olution be crushed, they said, but America itself must be blotted from the map. To the righteous cry of indignation official orders were issued commanding the troops to refrain from such prac- tices; but such orders were not enforced. Both British and Hessian troops took part in these shameless scenes; the Hessian with a greater degree of reason-if reason there was-because as an alien he had been snatched from his farm to do the bidding of his mercenary lord. Un- affiliated in any manner with America, his first thought was of rendering as slight a service as possible, and then filling his knapsack with loot ere he gratified his animal passions.
Then it was that Thomas Paine, seeing all, knowing all, wrote the immortal words:
These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier
A HESSIAN HUT.
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and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country, but he that stands by it now deserves the thanks of man and woman.
RHINELANDER SUGAR HOUSE : NEW YORK. ( Used during the Revolution as a military prison. )
CHAPTER VIII
TRENTON AND PRINCETON
.
N a grove of pines crowning a ridge over- looking the Delaware, opposite Trenton, there stood, upon the 8th of December, 1776, a mansion belonging to Thomas Bar- clay, of Philadelphia. Here, within view of the ferry which formed part of the main high- way between Philadelphia and New York, General Washington had his headquarters in what was later the village of Morrisville until December 14th. From the porch of this mansion General Washington could command a view of the entire river front of Trenton, could even see the advance guard of the British and Hessian troops in Tren- ton hunting along the river bank for row boats, all of which, without their knowledge, had been re- Princeton Shabbokong C. moved to the Pennsylvania side of the river under Pennington Stony Me. Conkey' orders of the commander-in-chief. The final pur- Sullivan's RD& Ferry Delaware Cornwallis EighUM, Hington" IL. Dec.20 pose of the British commander was unknown to Run . R.Jan-& Washington, although the presumption was Trentun Viry Run strong that an attack upon Philadelphia was soon Cross to be made. Thinking that to gain this end the King's troops would attempt to cross the river Bordentown Bring north of Trenton, Washington, driven to desper- Burlington ation, grasping at what indeed was the last chance 4 12 in the protection of American liberties, wrote this BATTLEGROUND OF TRENTON pathetic letter to the president of the Continental AND PRINCETON : 1776-77. Congress:
I shall remove further up the River to be near the Main body of
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GENERAL CHARLES LEE.
my Small Army, with which every possible opposition shall be given to any further approach of the Enemy towards Philadelphia.
Upon the 14th of December Washington took up his headquarters in the farm house of William Keith, near Newtown, Bucks County, which vil- lage was the depot of his supplies. It was here that General Washington learned of the capture of General Lee, who, having been left in command of the army on the east side of the Hudson, had construed, in his own way, the urgent, not to say peremptory orders that Washington had sent him relative to prompt cooperation. From November 17 to December 2 General Lee had debated whether to join in the retreat or wait for rein- forcements from the Northern army. At last, de- ciding to advance, he occupied from the 4th to the 11th of December in crossing the Hudson and in reaching Morristown.
Upon the 12th of December Lee's army was at Vealtown, now Bernardsville, while he occupied as his headquarters White's Tavern at Basking Ridge. Suddenly surprised by a party of British troops under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Harcourt, he was taken prisoner of war, as much to his own chagrin as that of General Washing- ton.
Added to the disappointment of Lee's capture the commander-in-chief found himself in a dis- affected country with Philadelphia upon the verge
Charles Lee, youngest son of General John and Isa- bella ( Bunbury) Lee ; b. in Dernhall, Cheshire, Eng., 1731 ; said to have received a commission in the army at the age of eleven ; was in Braddock's expedition at . Monongahela ; adopted into the Mohawk Indian tribe ; joined the Continental army 1775; d. in a tavern in Philadelphia, "friendless and alone," Oct. 2, 1782.
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of a panic. In that city the news of Cornwallis's advance had filled the Whigs with consternation. An exodus of the inhabitants had begun, while some of those who had been friendly to American liberty, led by Joseph Galloway, boasted of their conversion to Toryism. In the extremity Congress hastily adjourned to Baltimore, charging Wash- ington with dictatorial powers of a military char- acter. Many of the refugees proposed flight to the army on the river, but how little Washington was prepared for their reception is best shown by a letter he wrote from Keith's:
No man, I believe, ever had a greater choice of difficulties, and less means to extricate himself from them. However under a full persuasion of the justice of our cause, I cannot entertain an Idea, that it will finally sink, tho' it may remain for some time under a cloud.
In spite of the fact that his army had been in- creased by two thousand Philadelphia militia, the command of Sullivan, who had succeeded Lee, and four New England regiments under Gates, Gen- eral Washington's available military force con- sisted in all of but ten thousand men. There were also five thousand soldiers on the sick list or on furlough.
The middle of the month of December found the position of the two opposing armies well defined. The British troops were in winter quarters in New Brunswick, Princeton, Trenton, and Bordentown,
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with outposts at Burlington, Columbus, and Mount Holly. General Grant was in command at New Brunswick, Cornwallis having received per- mission to return to England, while the luxury- loving Howe had retired to New York. With the Anglo-Hessian troops at Trenton under Colonel Rall the Tories of Monmouth and of Bucks Coun- ty, Pennsylvania, were in constant communica- tion. All the American forces were concentrated upon the west bank of the Delaware, reaching from Coryell's Ferry (Lambertville) to Bristol. Four brigades under Generals Stirling, Mercer, Stephen, and De Femoy held the upper fords of the Delaware between New Hope and Yardley. Another detachment was stationed at Bristol un- der Colonel Cadwalader, while at Colvin's Ferry, now Morrisville, the Pennsylvania militia of the Flying Camp and the New Jersey militia were under the command of Brigadier-General Ewing, of Pennsylvania.
Upon a plan, earlier devised and now tending rapidly toward consummation, the hope of the Revolutionary movement hung. Conceived as a last resort, its boldness of execution led first to universal amazement and then to universal com- mendation. It was to attack the Anglo-Hessian army at Trenton, and at one blow rid West Jer- sey and Philadelphia of the possibility of British supremacy. Arrangements having been per-
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fected, it was ordered at the council of war, held on the evening of December 24th, that Colonel Cadwalader should cross the river from Bristol to Burlington on Christmas night and beat up the posts of Mount Holly and Bordentown, for whose safety Colonel Donop was responsible; that Gen- eral Ewing should cross at Trenton, land and take position south of the Assanpink Creek, so that Rall's men could not escape to Donop; and that General Washington, with a detachment of the main army, two thousand four hundred strong, with eighteen pieces of artillery, should make a direct attack on the garrison town of Trenton, where Colonel Rall was in headquarters.
During Christmas day the camps in Pennsyl- vania were alive with activity. By two o'clock in the morning some regiments of the main army were moving toward McKonkey's Ferry; and by three in the afternoon all those detailed for this service were on the march, tingeing, it is said, the light snow which had fallen with blood from their feet. Each soldier had three days' cooked rations and each carried forty rounds of ammunition.
The men were placed in Durham boats, in row- galleys, and in every kind of craft which could be collected in the upper waters of the Delaware. The jagged ice floated swiftly by, struck the boats severely, and they had to be handled with the greatest care. It was after three o'clock upon the [Vol. 2]
A HESSIAN BOOT.
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morning of December 26 when the Americans reached the New Jersey shore. The order for the expected attack on Trenton, nine miles distant, was five o'clock in the morning, which could not now be carried out.
The point where the army crossed, now known in New Jersey as Washington's Crossing, was about nine miles above Trenton. Here two roads led to Trenton, one skirting the river, the other running along the rising ground which lay but a short distance to the eastward. Washington, with a detachment, took the more easterly route, General Sullivan following the river road. Mut- tering the password " Victory or Death," both de- tachments reached Trenton at eight o'clock. Driv- ing back the pickets, it was clear by the rapid firing that each column vied with the other to be the first in the attack on the main body of the Hessians.
As soon as Rall's grenadiers heard the firing they hurried out of their quarters on King (now Warren) Street and formed in front of what is now the American House. The Von Lossberg regiment made their formation under the poplar trees in Church Alley, near North Broad Street, on the north side of the graveyard in the rear of the English church. The Von Knyphausen regi- ment organized on Queen (now Broad) Street and
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began to march westward along Second (now State) Street.
Under the personal supervision of General Washington, who stood upon the heights north of the present site of the Battle Monument, the bat- teries of Captain Thomas Forrest and Captain Alexander Hamilton swept both Warren and Broad Streets, disabling the cannon of the Rall regiment.
Immediately the brigade of General Stirling be- gan to charge down Warren Street. Captain Will- iam Washington, his lieutenant, James Monroe, and their company of Colonel Weedon's regiment were on the right of Stirling's brigade. These two officers were wounded in the charge, but they took two fieldpieces and drove the Rall regiment off the street into the gardens between Warren and Broad Streets, pushing them back in great con- fusion on the Von Lossberg regiment, which was just coming out of Hanover Street into Broad Street. Then both organizations started off to- gether from Broad Street across the fields in the direction of the place where Montgomery Street now crosses the feeder.
Colonel Rall joined the Rall and Von Lossberg regiments as they were marching in a northeaster- ly direction and had left the town, and he ordered them to right about and attack the village. This they promptly did. They had again reached the
THE ONLY BARRACKS OF THE NEW JERSEY SERIES RE- TAINING ITS ORIGINAL IDENTITY.
(Erected at Trenton in 1759.)
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junction of Broad Street and Church Alley when they found themselves sorely pressed by Stirling's men, who fired from houses and fences on Warren Street and the alley, and saw General Mercer's brigade charging down Broad Street on their broken ranks. But Rall was still shouting, " All who are my grenadiers, forward!" when a bullet struck him. He fell from his horse and was car- ried into the Methodist Church on the northeast corner of what is now Broad and Academy Streets, while the column of the Americans pushed the remnant of the two demoralized regi- ments through Hanover and Academy Streets into the orchard.
While these charges were being made General Stephen's and General De Fermoy's brigades, by Washington's orders, hurried towards the Fox Chase Tavern, on Brunswick road, to prevent the escape of the enemy to Maidenhead (now Law- renceville). This they succeeded in doing.
With their Hessian commander wounded and soon to die, their ranks broken, and overwhelmed by superior numbers, the King's troops realized their situation and surrendered. General Stirling rode forward and Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Scheffer, then the senior officer of the Hessian brigade, surrendered his sword and his command to him. This ceremony took place on the edge of the apple orchard, east of what is now Montgom-
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ery Street-on the two blocks north and the two blocks east of the corner on which the postoffice stands.
The Von Knyphausen regiment essayed first to march down along the low ground of the creek from the orchard to the stone bridge, and so to escape, but they found the bridge guarded by the Americans. They tried also to ford the creek, and in this a few succeeded. Their commander, Major Von Dechow, had been badly wounded, and had given himself up a prisoner of war. The two guns they had with them were mired in the marshy shore of the creek, and could not be saved. They heard also that the other Hessian regiments had surrendered, and they saw General Stirling, with his brigade, pushing on through the orchard to- ward them. Then they, too, grounded their arms near where the Montgomery Street bridge crosses the creek.
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