A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 33

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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According to Congress the troops in dis- arming and the population were to act with "dispatch, secrecy, order and humanity." and in no respect were these instructions obeyed. Indeed it is difficult to understand how they could be, considering the other instructions to the troops and the entire purpose of the ex- pedition. On January 18, 1776, Colonel Heard with his militia left New York with Major De Hart's regulars and a gang of volunteers associated with the latter, made up it seems to uis mainly of jail-birds, robbers and rascals. Colonel Heard was a man of prudence, for- bearance and excellent judgment. If Major William De Hart possessed any of those qual- ities, which we doubt, his volunteer associates gave him no opportunity to display them, and so this "eminent lawyer" of Morristown really comes before us as the associate and friend of a lot of blacklegs of whose conduct he after- ward confessed he was ashamed. The expedi- tion crossed the East River near Hellgate and

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THE ANTE-REVOLUTION STRUGGLE.

marched to Jamaica, disarming the farmers en route, ransacking their houses and robbing right and left, and even worse crimes were committed, the blame of which was laid on De Hart's volunteers. Jamaica was for a few days the headquarters of the raiders and there large numbers of prisoners were taken, the re- quired oath administered and the examination of Tories conducted ; then Hempstead became the scene of operations, where the same for- malities, or whatever we may call them, were gone through, but there De Hart's volunteers became so thoroughly intolerable even to their allies that they were summarily ordered back to New York. Colonel Heard then sent out scouting parties in various directions,-Flush- ing. Oyster Bay and the like. His expedi- tion, although it elicited a formal vote of thanks from Congress, was not a complete success. He had gathered 1,000 arms, most of which were old and worthless, he had made many arrests, he had reduced the material wealth of many of the Tories, but the spirit of disaffection was as strong as ever, nay, was even more rampant, as hate in many breasts now took the place of apathy. Even the prisoners were soon released, so that no practical result really came of Heard's expedi- tion, unless we consider that the thieves profited any who accompanied it and revelled in their spoils.

As soon as it became apparent that this raid had been a failure, another was proposed and an effort was made to force all the able- bodied Whigs which the island possessed into the four regiments of militia which had been designated as the military contribution of Long Island to the Continental forces. But the effort did not produce results as generous as had been hoped. The situation had really become a serious one. Washington had fore- seen that New York was likely to become the centre of the war after he had completed the mission at Boston on which he was en- gaged, and no one knew better than he that New York City was not by any means a unit

for the Patriot cause. He anticipated, too, that Long Island might form a convenient passage for the royal troops to Manhattan Island and he wrote quite a number of let- ters on the subject to Congress and to in- dividuals. Congress seemed indisposed even then to proceed to extreme measures, and we find him writing January 23, 1776, to Gen- eral Charles Lee, who had been appointed military Governor of New York and Long Island: "I * *

* : am exceedingly sorry to hear that Congress countermanded the em- barkation of the two regiments intended against the Tories of Long Island. They, I doubt not, had their reasons ; but to me it ap- pears that the period is arrived when nothing less than the most decisive measures should be pursued." . General Lee from the beginning treated Long Island as though it was indeed a part of "the enemy's country." He planned the famous line of fortifications from Gowanus to Wallabout, and he made many a raid on the Long Island farmers for supplies while . his troops were so engaged. Congress agreed to pay for such military necessities, but the agreement for patent reasons was not hon- ored except in a few cases. He strung a line of sentinels along the shore to prevent any communication with the British ships in the harbor and forbade any trading with them. He rode pretty rough-handed over the peo- ple, treated the orders of Congress with con- tempt and on the whole seems to have been animated by pretty much the same spirit which in modern days we associate with the last traces of Spanish rule in America. Un- der Lee commenced that grand hunt after Tories which within a few months was to be repaid by the latter with terrible interest. He ordered several well known Tories to be ar- rested and removed from the island, not only without the sanction of Congress but even against its expressed wishes. For this he justified himself in the following impertinent letter to Congress-the letter of a braggadocio, not of a hero:

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

I agree, sir, entirely with you that the ap- prehension, trial and punishment of citizens is not my province, but that of the Provincial Congress. But, irregular as it was, I had the assurance of many respectable men that he (Gale, whose arrest had been made the basis of a specific complaint) was a most dangerous man and ought not to be suffered to remain in Long Island, where an enemy is perhaps more dangerous than in any part of America. However, their assurance and my opinion form no excuse, and I heartily re- pent that I did not refer him to you, his proper judges. I must inform you now, Sir, that in consequence of the last instructions from the Continental Congress to put this city (New York) and its environs in a state of defense, I have ordered Col. Ward as a previous measure to secure the whole body of professed Tories on Long Island. With the enemy at our door, forms must be dispensed with. My duty to you, to the Continental Congress, and to my own conscience have dictated the neces- sity of this measure.

Then began the round-up, but the Tories had taken warning, and the leaders most wanted, such as Capt. Hewlett, could not be found. Isaac Sears, "Lieut. Col. and Deputy Adjutant General," was a most effective, fussy, and disagreeable factor in carrying out Lee's views, but even he captured few Loyal- ists and conducted his operations so that wherever he went he made friends for King George. Even the Whig leaders murmured against him and his ways, and one, Daniel Whitehead Kissam, of the Great Neck Com- mittee of Safety, formally lodged a com- plaint with the Provincial Congress. By that time, however, all civil rule in New York had been reduced to a shadow, Congress felt pow- erless to assert itself against the military arm and Lee determined to answer the complaints by redoubling his efforts to crush out the Tories. So he wrote Sears:

As I have received information from the Commander in Chief that there is reason soon to expect a very considerable army of the en- emy, I should be in the highest degree culpable, I should be responsible to God, to my own conscience, and the Continental Congress of

America, in suffering, at so dangerous a crisis' a knot of professed foes to American liberty to remain any longer within our own bosom, either to turn openly against us in arms, in conjunction with the enemy, or covertly to furnish them with information, to carry on a correspondence to the ruin of their country. I most desire you will offer. a copy of this test enclosed to the people of whom I send you a list. Their refusal will be considered an avowal of their hostile intentions. You are therefore to secure their persons and send them up, without loss of time, as irreclaimable enemies to their country, in close custody to Connecticut. Richard Hewlett is to have no conditions offered to him, but to be secured without ceremony.

This letter was written on March 5, 1776. On the following day Lee was superseded in his command and Lord Stirling appointed in his place. It was hoped that gentler measures might now prevail, but Lee, Ward and Sears and the like had fanned the discontent into almost open revolt, certainly into unconcealed repugnance to the Continental Congress, and while much of the capricious cruelty which had characterized Lee's methods was aban- doned the isolation of Long Island from Brit- ish influence was more stringently attempted than ever. Col. Ward sent an expedition against a notorious pirate named James, which sunk that hero's boat and captured four painted wooden guns, the sight of which were wont to inspire terror. The beach opposite Staten Island and from there to Rockaway was closely patrolled, the chain of forts was steadily strengthened, and Captains Bird- sall and Nostrand secured 186 bay boats which had been suspected of carrying produce to the hated fleet. This wholesale capture did not inspire any feelings of satisfaction with the Continental force and the fussy, Tory-baiting propensities of such hair-brained creatures as Colonel Benjamin Sands, intoxicated with the possession of a degree of power which threw them far beyond their mental bearings, helped to drive many a waverer into the ranks of the avowed Tories. The various Commit- tees of Safety again determined to do what

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THE ANTE-REVOLUTION STRUGGLE.

had hitherto been found impossible-disarm the Loyalists-and ordered all the men in · the three counties capable of bearing arms to enroll in the militia. This was a most disastrotts move, as events proved from the moment the British arrived. However, it served to show who were what were then called "Black Tories." The goods of those who refused to enroll, or neglected to enroll, or to attend the prescribed drills, were seized and heavy fines were inflicted, in addition to

who enlisted from these counties were worse than useless when the crisis came.

"The most stringent efforts," says Field, "were not put forth to force every man, Loy- alist and Whig alike, into the hands of the militia. The iron despotism of military dis- cipline, it was believed, would soon surround them all with its invisible yet impassable walls. Notwithstanding the sleepless vigilance of the Whig committee and of the partisan bands which patrolled the island, by far the largest

THE BRITISH FLEET IN THE LOWER BAY.

the inevitable arrest as the last resource. The island was now aroused into a sort of hell, withi hate as the distinguishing characteristic of both parties to each other. It was an awful time. Families were separated forever, broth- ers became avowed enemies, fathers cursed sons, and friends were friends no longer. The impotency of all that had been done was clearly seen in the returns which came to Con- gress of the enrollment into the militia it had ordered on May 1, 1776. Suffolk was thor- oughly in line, but Kings and Queens were hopelessly delinquent. Half even of those

part of the inhabitants of Kings and Queens counties sturdily refused to appear in arms against the royal cause. Squads of armed Whigs, constantly in active pursuit, arrested the disaffected and thrust them with entire indifference into the ranks or the common jail. The severities with which the Loyalists were now pursued afforded a fatal precedent for the British; and the subsequent sufferings of Whig prisoners in the provost, the sugar houses and the prison ships, are attributable in some degree to the rigors inflicted by their own partisans at this time. The jails through-

196

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

out the northern Colonies were soon crowded with the New York Loyalists, a large propor- tion of whom were from Long Island."

There is no doubt that it was on Long Island that the plot was hatched which was to abduct Washington and so cause such con- fusion in the ranks of the Continentals as to end the war. Around the story of this plot much secrecy was thrown at the time and im- mediately after it was exposed,-why, we can only conjecture. We can also only guess at its extent, but it really seems to have been widespread over the Colony of New York at least, and to have had in view risings of the Tories at several points as soon as the ab- duction of Washington was accomplished, by means of which the Loyalists were to seize the reins of government. Of the 100 persons afterward alleged to have been engaged in it fifty-six were residents of Kings and Queens counties, and Richard Hewlett was distin- guished as the leader of them all. Mayor Matthews, Col. Axtel, Dr. Samuel Martin of Hempstead, Dr. Charles Arden of Jamaica, Capt. Archibald Hamilton of Flushing, and John Rapalye of Brooklyn were prominent among those for whom warrants were after- wards issued and there was also the usual modicum of the scum of civilization, such as Michael Lynch and Thomas Hickey, jail- birds and counterfeiters-Gilbert Forbes, a spy, and Mary Gibbons, a female in the "con- fidence" of Washington, whatever that may imply. Hickey and Lynch and Mary were to be the actual abductors of the Chief, Mary seemingly being designed to act the part of a modern Delilah. The best contemporary ac- count of the plot which we have seen is con- tained in a letter written by Surgeon William Eustis to a friend in Boston and which is printed in volume III of the "Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society." . The letter is dated at New York, June 28, 1776, and while extravagant in its language, and it seems to me ridiculous in its fears, is nevertheless an undoubtedly honest account of the affair, as it seemed to the writer and as doubtless it

seemed to most of those actively engaged with the Continental army.

Perhaps I may give you a better idea of it (the plot) than as yet you have obtained. The Mayor of New York, with a number of villains who were possessed of fortunes and who formerly ranked with Gentlemen, had im- piously dared an undertaking big with fatal consequence to the virtuous army in York and which in all probability would have given the enemy possession of the city with little loss. Their design was, upon the first engagement which took place, to have murdered (with trembling I say it) the best man on earth. Gen. Washington was to have been the first subject of their unheard-of sacricide; our magazines which, as you know, are very capacious, were to have been blown up; every general officer and every other who was ac- tive in serving his country in the field was to have been assassinated; our cannon were to have been spiked up; and in short every the most accursed scheme was laid to give us into the hands of the enemy and to ruin us. They had plenty of money and gave large bounties and larger promises to those who were engaged to serve their hellish purposes. In order to execute their design upon our General they had enlisted into their service one or two from his Excellency's Life Guard who were to have assassinated him; knowing that no person could be admitted into the magazines or among the cannon but those who were of the artillery, they have found several in our regiment vile enough to be con- cerned in their diabolical designs: these were to have blown up the magazines and spiked the cannon.

Their design was deep, long concerted and wicked to a great degree. But, happily for us, it has pleased God to discover it to us in season, and I think we are making a right improvement (as the good folks say). We are hanging them as fast as we find them out. I have just now returned from the ex- ecution of one of the General's Guard (Thomas Hickey). He was the first that has been tried ; yesterday at II o'clock he received sentence ; to-day at II he was hung in presence of the whole army. * The trial will go on and I imagine they will be hung, gentle and simple, as fast as the fact is proved against them. That any set of men could be so lost to every virtuous principle, and so dead to the feelings of humanity as to con-

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THE ANTE-REVOLUTION STRUGGLE.

spire against the person of so great and good a man as Gen. Washington, is surprising ; few of our countrymen (as you may well imagine) are concerned. They are in general foreign- ers : upward of thirty were concerned ; and it is said Gov. Tryon is at the bottom.

Of course the data contained in this letter are made up, much of it, most of it, indeed, of rumor with its usual exaggerations ; but there is no doubt of the existence of a plot and of some of the consequences of its discovery, such as the execution of the unfortunate Hick- ey ; but the men who were supposed to be in -. stigators, the leaders, aiders and abettors, the concocters, all seem to have escaped. Hewlett was already in hiding and so prepared for any such unpleasant consequences as arrest ; Mayor Matthews was arrested and his home searched, but no incriminating evidence against him could be found.

Washington arrived in New York front New England April 14 and took personal charge of the work of fortification and de- fense. On May 21 he went to Philadelphia to consult with the leaders of Congress and on June 14 he was again on the Hudson and in- specting the defense at King's Bridge. It seems to have been during his absence in Philadelphia that the plot was matured and its design, whatever it was, was to go into opera- tion on his return.

hands of the British commander on Staten Island; and that there were traitors in the American army ; but so far as the abduction of Washington was concerned it dwindled down to the work of vengeance of a discarded mistress and two unprincipled scoundrels ; and was frustrated unconsciously so far as the Continental authorities were concerned by the imprisonment of the latter. Mary Gibbons disappeared forever from the scene on the moment of discovery.

The discovery of this plot and its accom- panying wild rumors did not improve matters on Long Island: on the contrary it served to make it be regarded more than ever as part of "the enemy's country." Capt. Marinus Willett was at once dispatched to Jamaica, where a party of those alleged to have been engaged in the conspiracy were reported to be in hiding, and after what seems to have been a regular old-fashioned Indian sort of fight, in which one of the Loyalists was killed and several wounded, made the party prisoners, but was not fortunate enough to capture any of those for whom the Continental authorities were most anxious. The coast was so thor- oughly patrolled by Continental troops that communication with the British vessels be- came almost impossible except to pirates like James and dare-devils like Hewlett, and the iron hand of the dominant power was felt in all directions in the two disaffected counties. But even threats and all sorts of coercive measures failed to make the delegates to the Provincial Congress attend its sessions and the incessant fussy and sometimes cruel pres- sure of the Whig Committees of Safety not only failed to stay the spirit of the spirit of Toryism but rather caused it to increase, re- solved, as it were, the spirit of loyalty from being merely a sentiment into a dogma. The fast gathering strength of the British force in the bay and on Staten Island could not be hidden from the Loyalists, and not only served to embolden them to defy the Continental powers, but the evident certainty of the island

He seems to have been at once informed of the conspiracy, and on June 20 its existence was known throughout the Continental army in and around New York. A waiter in a tavern is given as the informer, and it was alleged that on his statements the warrants were issued. The fact that Hickey and Lynch had by that time been arrested for issuing counterfeit notes and were in jail and anxious to save their own lives by turning informers, had possibly more to do with the "discovery" than anything else. The legal and military proceedings taken against many of the accused certainly showed that the Continental army was full of spies; that plans of the fortifica- tions and the like had been placed in the. being soon again under British domination,

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

a certainty that was zealously promulgated by their leaders, turned many a half-hearted Loyalist into a Tory of the Tories, ready even to make sacrifice for his cause, because he believed such sacrifice would only be tempor- ary.

But the Revolutionary authorities were vigilant to the last, because as developments unfolded themselves it became evident that Long Island was likely to become the key to the military situation. The forts were strengthened in men and in resources, the line of defenses was duly made more formidable and the patrolling parties along the shore more numerous and vigilant.

But the people in Kings and Queens re- mained callous to the slogan of Liberty. An election for delegates to the Provincial Con- gress was held on the 19th of August, but the delegates never had a chance to serve. Three days later Gravesend was in the hands of the British and the campaign was on which ended in Long Island being for seven years in the hands of the British, and the Tories had a chance to repay their persecutors for the indignities and cruelties and wrongs which had been perpetrated upon them in the name of Liberty. They availed themselves of the opportunity and added interest in the way of new cruelties and prison horrors that robs the story of their loyalty of all sense of noble- ness, and has served to add only a new and sickening page to the history of human op- pression and deviltry and persecution.

It is difficult at this stage in the world's history to put ourselves into the places of the leaders of public opinion, the men of ac- tion, in this country, in 1776, and to know all their information, the rumors which reach- ed them, the various now generally hidden and forgotten data on which they based the details of their policy ; and so it is difficult to clearly and fully give judgment on their doings. At the same time, the passage of the years has made things clear to us which were not so to them, and we can weigh their policy in the light of its results more truly and unerringly

than was possible to them. All we can read of the policy of the Continental leaders re- garding Long Island impels us to believe that their policy was wrong, that it only drove into practical rebellion a part of Long Island which otherwise would have remained neutral in its loyalty, which really did not care whether King or Congress reigned, so long as it was left to pursue its way in peace. When the conflict opened, of course, Kings and Queens had their rabid Tories; so also they had their violent Whigs; but the bulk of the population really felt like saying "a plague on both your houses." As soon as they felt themselves sup- ported by Congress the Whigs by their vio- lence started in to make their own cause an instrument of oppression, and such measures as the enforcement of militia service and dis- armament were not only liable to turn the en- tire population against those who thus deemed coercion necessary to liberty, but created a feeling of false strength in their own ranks which had most inglorious results when the time for action came. The Provincial Con- gress, it is fair to say, seems to have had some sense of the unstatesmanlike nature of the policy of force in this instance, but the hotheadedness of such fire-eaters as Charles Lee and the antics of such fanfarons as Col. John Sands, the men of action when the mili- tary crisis came, crushed out whatever states- manship then struggled in the brains of the delegates to Congress. Even Washington, usually so clear-headed and sagacious, fell in line with the reports of his military subordin- ates and treated the people of Kings and Queens as enemies to the cause to which he had with rare single-heartedness devoted his life, his all. But the effects of all this are clearly evident to us as we review the events of 1775 and 1776, and see how easily the British effected a landing and found hosts of friends in a spot which ought to have been one of the natural defenses of the country and on an island on which, had the people been loyal to the Whigs, even Howe's army .could not have landed in triumph.

1. Seabrings Mill.

EAST RIVER

2 Brouwer's Mill.

3 VanDyck's Mill.

4 Brooklyn Church

5 Red Lion Tavern

RIVER

EAST

DOITISK LINES

1776- 1783.

WALLABOUT COVE-

HOWArds HALF-WAY HOUSE, East New York.

PAIFulnam

· Doderà Frers

OCOFORD

Red Hook

warning flug 21

GOWANUS

Mockjes Berg

Flatbuen

Steenbattery

Delleister/litg 27

where Bran

NEW YORK HARBOR

FLATBUSH

-Freak Muti

Anny-

Grants lind of Harch

~ 10 The 26%

Vaas Pond (Flaxl'ond)

Maitions

FLATLANDS

..... +

& NEW. UTRECHT

HARROWS.

LOWER BAY

GRAVESEND

RAY

Rorkaway Inlét

DRQWER'S MILL.

ATLANTIC OCEAN

The flow. Vill is dean in the dertience

MAP OF THE BATTLE OF BROOKLYN, AUGUST 27, 1776.

Canarisen

JAMAICA BAY

(mount Link d'ar York.)

NEV Y

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BATTLE OF BROOKLYN.

HE Battle of Brooklyn, or of Long Island, as it is often called, was a marked disaster to the forces of the Revolution. It showed that in point of strategy the Continental Generals, outside of their chief, were hardly fitted to cope with the trained warriors of Britain. There is no doubt that the battle was lost mainly through a tactical blunder on the part of Gen. Putnam, or rather through the want of tactical knowledge on his part and a strange carelessness on the part of Gen. Sul- livan. A review of the battle, however, would almost seem to force the conviction that the American army would have been defeated at any rate when an issue was made on that ground, for certainly it was a foregone con- clusion that from the time the British were permitted to land in force (some 20,000 vet- eran troops), with a fleet at their service, they were bound to become masters of the situation when opposed only by some 6,000 half trained militia.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 33

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188