USA > New York > Kings County > Williamsburgh > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 30
USA > New York > Kings County > Bushwick > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 30
USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn : including the old town and village of Brooklyn, the town of Bushwick, and the village and city of Williamsburgh > Part 30
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" With these axioms before us, let us examine, as far as the evi- dence goes, who commanded, and who slept on his post. It is said that General Greene commanded on Long Island, that the defences were thrown up under his direction, and that he was taken sick with a fever and left the island .? It is said that General Sullivan then assumed the command ;3 that, notwithstanding the enemy was still on Staten Island, he employed mounted patrols, at an expense of fifty dollars per night, to mount guard on roads which he saw the enemy might use in approaching New York ;4 and that, on the 23d of August,-the day after the enemy's army landed on Long Island,- he was superseded by General Putnam. It is said, and has never been contradicted, that General Washington gave General Putnam positive instructions to guard the passes through the hills leading to
1 Battles of the United States, 148-150. 3 General Orders, Aug. 20.
2 Gen. Greene to Gen. Washington, Aug. 15.
4 His letter to Congress, Oct. 25, 1777. 5 Sparks' Washington, p. 180.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
Brooklyn ;1 it is said, also without contradiction, that General Sulli- van, his predecessor and second in command, enforced the same measures on his attention ;? it is known that, although the enemy, in full force, was encamped within four or five miles, opposite two of those very passes, General Putnam never reconnoitred that enemy's position-in fact, that he never left Brooklyn ;3 and it is equally well known that, although the enemy was then encamped at Flatbush, the mounted patrols which General Sullivan had established,4 as well as the guards at some of the passes established by General Greene, were withdrawn, leaving the country clear for the enemy's secret movements, and the passes conveniently unguarded for his especial accommodation. It is also a well-established fact, that no general officer was outside the lines at Brooklyn, on the night of the 26th, until the advance of General Grant was made known to General Putnam, at three o'clock, when Generals Sullivan and Lord Stirling were dispatched to Flatbush and the Bay Road, to oppose the move- ments in those quarters.6
"From these facts, it appears conclusively that General Putnam paid no attention to the orders of General Washington, respecting the security of the passes, and that the advice of General Sullivan, on the same subject, was also disregarded, his patrols withdrawn, and the command outside the lines, where his knowledge of the ground rendered him peculiarly useful, taken from him and given to another ;7 that, with an enemy encamped in full force within a few
1 " At the same time, I would have you form a proper line of defence around your encampment and works, on the most advantageous grounds." "The woods should be secured by abatis, etc., where necessary, to make the enemy's approach as difficult as pos- sible. Traps and ambuscades should be laid for their parties, if you find they are sent out after cattle," etc .- Orders to Gen. Putnam, Aug. 25.
2 Gen. Sullivan's letter to Congress, Oct. 25, 1777.
3 Thompson's Long Island, i. p. 222.
4 Gen. Sullivan to Cong., Oct. 25, 1777. The "patrol" which Gen. Clinton captured was a party of officers, not a regular patrol (ante, p. 266, note).
5 This is shown by Gen. Howe, in his dispatch, where he says : "The General, learn- ing that the rebels had not occupied the pass, detached a battalion of light-infantry to secure it," etc.
6 See Lord Stirling's letter to Gen. Washington, Aug. 29 ; Gen. Sullivan's letter to Congress, Oct. 25, 1777.
7 Gen. Sullivan, to Congress, Oct. 25, 1777, says Lord Stirling was ordered to the command outside the lines, while he was ordered to remain within the lines, as Gen. Putnam's second in command.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
miles of his position, he quietly remained at Brooklyn, without reconnoitring that enemy's position, or sending out a scout ; that he withdrew guards and failed to remount them, where they were essen- tial to his safety; and, finally, that to his ignorant, self-conceited inefficiency, the enemy is indebted for one of the greatest victories of the war, and his country for one of the most disastrous defeats, both military and moral, which it ever experienced."
In closing this chapter, it is proper to notice the very limited extent to which the Kings County militia participated in the battle. Previous to its commencement, they were ordered into service within the lines at Brooklyn, under the command of Lieut .- Col. Nicholas Cowenhoven, of Flatbush, and Major Barent Johnson, of Bushwick, the father of the late worthy Gen. Jeremiah Johnson. Many of them, however, embraced the earliest opportunity to join the British army on Staten Island, and others concealed themselves. As a consequence of this universal defection, the regiment was reduced to about two hundred men, and, after the battle, was still further reduced, by desertions, to about one hundred and fifty. This remnant left the island with the rest of the army, under command of Major Johnson,1 and marched to Harlem, where they dispersed without leave and returned to their homes, where many of them were captured by Tories and incarcerated in the prisons at New York. This was not surprising, when we con- sider the example set them by their colonel, who left his command within the lines and went privately to Flatbush, where he was seen, shortly after, in company with two British officers. For this he was, upon his return to camp, placed under arrest and sent to Harlem for trial by the Committee of Public Safety. The witnesses were, how- ever, conveniently " spirited away," through the management of friends, and there being no one to appear against him, the colonel was released. After his return to his home in Kings County, he was engaged in certain transactions in the British commissary and barrack departments, and, with many others, was indicted be- fore the Circuit Court, at Albany, at its October term, in 1783, for
1 Major Johnson accompanied the army to Jersey, where he was captured by the British, and returned home on a parole, given by Howe, in January, 1777.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
treason against the State, but, by the good management of Alexander Hamilton, he escaped trial. After the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, when the public debt was funded, he was one of the commission which investigated the claims of persons who had · suffered loss of cattle and injuries done by American troops in Kings County before they left the island, in 1776. Col. Cowenhoven was afterwards appointed Chief Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Kings County, and died at New Utrecht on the 6th of March, 1793. In view of his evident sympathy with the British cause, we can only regard his loan of money, in 1782, to Major Wyckoff, as merely a politic concession to the rising fortunes of America.1
PART II. THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF BROOKLYN.
AUGUST, 1776, TO NOVEMBER, 1783.
The people of Kings County, as we have before remarked, had un- willingly espoused the cause of liberty, and the few who had been persuaded or forced into rebellion, now found themselves abandoned by their countrymen to all its penalties. It was not strange, then, that they should eagerly accept the opportunity of withdrawing from a struggle in which they had no heart, and of throwing themselves upon the mercy and protection of the now dominant power of Eng- land.
On the 17th of November, 1776, a large number of the freeholders and inhabitants of Kings County-availing themselves of a procla- mation of pardon issued by the British authorities2-submitted a very humble and loyal address to Lord Howe, wherein they state that, "reflecting with the tenderest emotions of gratitude on this instance
1 On the back of one of Col. N.'s letters, dated Aug. 23, 1778, and offering Governor Geo. Clinton money for the use of the American prisoners then in the hands of the British, is the following endorsement in the Governor's handwriting: "Letter from N. C. He offers (by way of laying an anchor to windward) to furnish our prisoners on Long Island with as much money as they want."
2 July 14th, and subsequently Sept. 19th.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
of His Majesty's paternal goodness, and encouraged by the affec- tionate manner in which his Majesty's gracious purpose hath been conveyed to us by your Excellencies, who have thereby evinced that humanity is inseparable from that true magnanimity and those enlarged sentiments which form the most shining characters," they beg leave to represent that they have all signed the Oath of Alle- giance, and proceed to say, "that we esteem the constitutional supremacy of Great Britain over these colonies and other depend- ing parts of His Majesty's dominions, as essential to the union, security, and welfare of the whole empire; and sincerely lament the interruption of that harmony which formerly subsisted between the parent State and these her colonies." 1
The submission of the rank and file was soon followed by that of the leaders, or, at least, the majority of them, who, in December fol- lowing, presented to Governor Tryon the following " wholesale clear- ance" of themselves from all complicity with the Rebellion :
" We, the members of the Provincial Congress, the County Com- mittee, and the Committees of the different townships, elected for and by the inhabitants of Kings County, feel the highest satisfac- tion in having it in our power to dissolve ourselves without danger of the County being desolated, as it was by repeated threats, some short time ago. We do hereby accordingly dissolve ourselves, rejecting and disclaiming all power of Congress and Committees, totally refusing obedience thereto, and revoking all proceedings under them whatsoever, as being repugnant to the laws and consti- tution of the British Empire, and undutiful to our sovereign, and ruinous to the welfare and prosperity of this County. We beg leave to assure your Excellency we shall be exceeding happy in obeying the legal authority of government, whenever your Excellency shall be pleased to call us forth, being from long experience well assured of your Excellency's mild and upright administration." This was signed by forty persons.1
The corps of militia in Kings County, in January, 1777, further testified their "loyalty to their sovereign and zeal to the constitu-
1 This document, with the names appended, will be found in Onderdonk's Kings Co., sec. 829.
.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
tion," by voluntarily contributing the sum of £310 8s. towards the expense of a new battalion, which was being raised about that time by Col. Fanning.
These evidences of returning loyalty were graciously accepted, and the good people of Kings County no doubt felt themselves amply rewarded by the assurance of Lord Germaine, that " His Majesty has observed with great satisfaction the effusions of loyalty and affection which break forth in the addresses of his faithful sub- jects upon their deliverance from the tyranny and oppression of the rebel committees ; and the proof given by the inhabitants of Kings County of their zeal for the success of His Majesty's measures, by so generously contributing towards the expense of raising Col. Fan- ning's battalion, cannot fail of recommending them to His Majesty's favor." 1
At this time, the American prisoners in New York were paroled and billeted on the inhabitants of this county, Congress having agreed to pay two dollars per week for their board. Col. Graydon, who, with the other officers of Col. Shee's and Col. Magraw's regiment, was quartered at Flatbush, gives the following humorous sketch of his accommodations, which will answer, we presume, for a portrait of most of the Dutch families at that day : "Though we were, in general, civilly enough received, it cannot be sup- posed we were very welcome to our Low Dutch hosts, whose habits were extremely parsimonious, and whose winter provision was barely sufficient for themselves. Had they been sure of receiving two dollars per week, Congress or ourselves being looked on as paymasters, it might have reconciled them. They were, however, a people who seemed thoroughly disposed to submit to any power that might be imposed upon them ; and whatever might have been their propensities or demonstrations at an earlier stage of the con- test, they were now the dutiful and loyal subjects of His Majesty King George III., and entirely obedient to the behests of their mili- tary masters in New York. Their houses and beds we found clean, but their living extremely poor. A sorry wash, made up of a sprink- ling of bohea and the darkest sugar, on the verge of fluidity, with half-
1 Onderdonk's Kings Co., sec. 830.
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
baked bread (fuel being among the scarcest articles at Flatbush) and a little stale butter, constituted our breakfast. At our first coming, a small piece of pickled beef was occasionally boiled for dinner ; but to the beef, which was soon consumed, there succeeded clippers, or clams ; and our unvaried supper was supon, or mush, sometimes with skimmed milk, but more generally with buttermilk, blended with molasses, which was kept for weeks in a churn, as swill is saved for hogs. I found it, however, after a little use, very eatable, and sup- per soon became my best meal. * *
* Their religious, like their other habits, were unostentatious and plain ; and a simple, silent grace before meat, prevailed at the table of Jacob Suydam. When we were all seated, he suddenly clapped his hands together, threw his head on one side, closed his eyes, and remained mute and motionless for about a minute. His niece and nephew followed his example; but with such an eager solicitude that the copied attitude should be prompt and simultaneous, as to give an air of absurdity to what might otherwise have been very decent. Although little of the vernacular accent remained on the tongues of these peo- ple, they had some peculiarities in their phraseology. Instead of asking you to sit down to table, they invited you to sit by."
After the evacuation of Brooklyn, the British, Hessians, Tories, and refugees had unlimited range over Long Island, and were quickly joined by neutrals and "fence gentry." Most of the Whigs were absent with the army; their wives, children, and aged people alone remained at home, and their dwellings became the prey of these wretches, who robbed friend and foe alike. The negroes, also, became their willing aiders and abettors, and frequently guided them in their predatory expeditions. The loyalists were all sum- moned to attend at headquarters, in Bedford, to be registered ; after which, they were ordered to wear a red badge in their hats, as a protection and a token of loyalty. They obeyed with ludicrous alacrity, and straightway the loyal badge flamed from every hat and cap in the county. Many ladies wore scarlet ribbons, while all the negroes, of course, were royalists and bedecked their hats with scarlet rags ; and females even dispensed with their flannel petticoats, in order to supply the unprecedented demand for cloth of the requisite hue. The haughty British officers, however, scarcely
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
deigned to conceal their contempt for the newly-found loyalty of the " red rags," as they were termed, and in less than three months the scarlet emblems were doffed by all except a few negroes who courted distinction.
The protection afforded to the people by the royal authorities, was paternal only in its severity. Long Island, New York city, Staten Island, and Westchester, during their whole subsequent occupation by the British, were kept under the most rigorous mili- tary rule. Elections were not allowed ; voting, except at annual town meetings, was prohibited ; the civil courts were suspended, and their functions arbitrarily dispensed either by a king's justice or a military officer. A sort of police court was, after a while, opened in New York city at the mayor's office ; and at length, in 1780, a similar court was established at Jamaica, for the greater convenience of the Long Island people. The old "Fly Market," at the foot of Maiden Lane, New York, was protected by a guard of soldiers, with sentinels on the ferry stairs ; and no farmer or other person was permitted to carry any goods or provisions to or from the city with- out a written pass, obtained either from the mayor's office or from Col. Axtell, at Flatbush, for which a charge of 2s. was exacted. The owner of every market-boat had to obtain a yearly license for the same, wherein the name of each person coming to the city was entered ; and these boats and licenses were frequently examined, to prevent the passage of unlicensed travellers. Officers of the British army and navy were alone exempt from this military examination at the ferry stairs. The price of wood, and of all kinds of farm produce, was regulated by proclamation, and the farmers themselves, their horses, wagons, and servants, could be at any time impressed into the king's service, at a stipulated price.1 Woodland and brushwood was also remorselessly cut down by the British, to be used for fuel
1 When the British were preparing, in 1777, to enter Pennsylvania and take Phila- delphia, the farmers of Kings and Queens counties were required to furnish horses, wagons, and drivers for the use of the army. They were designated by officers, under command of a (refugee) Captain Beman, of the Quartermaster's Department, and were ordered to appear, on specified days, at Bedford, where the value of horse and wagon was appraised and recorded in a book kept for the purpose. After their return from Philadelphia, where many were lost or damaged, a day was set apart for the owners to present their claims ; and these claims were paid, it was asserted, from a false record,
302
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
and the building of fortifications ; and when at length the wood was exhausted, and the inhabitants began to be straitened for want of it, the Hessians dug up the meadows for peat, in spite of the ex- postulations of the astonished and indignant Dutch farmers.1 During the summer months, the fields, from Red Hook to the heights of Cripplebush, were white with tents faced with scarlet; and before their removal to New York, nearly all the fences were taken up and burned. The whole district occupied by the troops was a common, and most of the land remained unfenced till the British left the country. In the winter season every village was filled with British soldiers, wagons, etc., billeted in private houses or cantoned in tem- porary huts. This quartering of officers and billeting of troops among the people, was a serious annoyance. The first notice gen- erally given of such occupation was an abrupt " Well, madam, I've
and at about thirty per cent less than the real valuation. Protest was futile, the un- lucky farmers were told to take what was offered them, or go without. As if to add insult to injury, they were graciously told by the commissioners, "Friends, there is a barrel of rum in the entry-help yourselves !" To which two of the indignant suffer- ers retorted : " We don't want your rum-give us our own-we can treat ourselves ;" an answer which subsequently cost them their woodlands, which were specially desig- nated to the barrack-masters, and cut down for the use of the army. The owners of this wood received only two dollars per cord, while the officials charged and received from the Government ten dollars.
1 Furman, in his MS. notes, vol. ix., p. 376, preserves this fact relative to the dis- covery and use of peat in Kings Co. :
" My father, who is now fifty-eight years old, says that previous to the Revolutionary War, the existence of peat in Kings County, and in the town of Newtown, Queens County, was unknown to the inhabitants; and that the same was discovered by the British soldiery who were then and there encamped, in those places where wood had become scarce in consequence of its having been all cut off. They instructed the inhab- itants in the art of preparing this valuable article of fuel-which was found on land formerly considered as comparatively worthless-but which is now highly esteemed. It was on the land of my great uncle, William Furman, at the head of the 'Vlie,' in Newtown, that the first turf was thus cut. He remonstrated with the British officers, believing that they would ruin his land, and told them that they might cut all his wood, but should leave his meadow. They replied that all his wood would not serve the British troops about New York for a single month ; but that there was turf enough on his land to serve as fuel for the whole British army in America. So they cut it, regardless of his objections, and without paying him for it, as he was known not to be a loyalist, and had relatives in the American army. They also told him that the deeper it was cut, the better it was-which my great-uncle found to be true, and always afterwards used turf for fuel, from preference. It was truly a providential dis- covery for the Long Island people, who were beginning to be distressed for want of wood, which had nearly all been cut off by the British troops."
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
come to take a billet in your house." The officers usually appro- priated one or more of the best rooms in the house to their own use, and kept a guard constantly parading to and fro before the door. The soldiers made themselves at home in the kitchen. These officers, too, required the utmost condescension from the inhabitants, who were expected, while addressing them, to hold their hats under their arms : and should a farmer, in passing, neglect to doff his hat, he ran a strong risk of a good caning; although if he did it, the Briton rarely deigned to notice him or to return his civil- ity. As a natural consequence, insubordination arose among the slaves, who either ran away from or became less respectful to their masters, whom they saw so humbled before the British officers. When we add to this the carousing, gambling, profanity, and the many other vices of the camp which were introduced into these hitherto quiet and orderly villages by the presence of large bodies of troops, who spread gold and dissipation with equal liberality around them, we cannot envy the condition of the people. It is true that all this afforded a ready market for such of the farmer's produce as had not been previously pilfered by the numerous marauding gangs which prowled around the country, making equal booty from friend and foe. The farmers flourished on British gold ; but as there were no banks for its safe-keeping, and few oppor- tunities of investment, they were obliged to keep it by them, and were often robbed. The churches, also, except those of the estab- lished faith, were freely occupied as prisons, hospitals, storehouses, and barracks for troops : some were even wantonly destroyed.
In short, between the oppressions of their so-called "protectors," the British, and the depredations of the American whale-boatmen, the good people of Kings County generally were in a most pitiable condition. These whale-boatmen were Americans (many of them refugees from Long Island), who lived along the Connecticut shore, and bore commissions from the governors of that colony and of New York, authorizing them to cruise in the Sound against British vessels. It became, after a while, no unusual thing for them to land, and, under pretence of carrying off British goods, to plunder Whig and Tory alike, until at length the whale-boat warfare degen- erated into downright piracy. The dwellers along the shore were in
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HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.
constant dread of their visits, and would often climb to the roofs of their houses, where, spy-glass in hand, they anxiously scanned the horizon. If they discerned whale-boats in the bay, the alarm was immediately given by signal-guns or horn-blowing, and all valuables were hastily hid away, leaving only a few articles in the house ; and the robbers, after ransacking the premises, would curse the inmates for their poverty, and depart. In this way, stores were sometimes nearly emptied of their contents in an afternoon, and the goods re- placed next morning. If, however, the owners were once caught, they ran a good chance of being tortured until the goods were forth- coming. Another more honorable employment of whale-boats, and one in which they rendered good service, was that of surprising and carrying off distinguished loyalists, in order to exchange them for Whig prisoners.1
At this period, and during the war, the whole of the land em- braced between the brow of the Heights on the river and the pres- ent Fulton and Joralemon streets-now forming one of the most closely-built and beautiful portions of our city-was then under high cultivation. That portion of it nearest to Fulton street was either used for pasturage, with its beautiful crop of grass browsed upon by fat, well-kept cattle, or was kept, at times, in grain. The middle part was almost entirely occupied by fine and thrifty orchards of apple, pear, and other trees ; and the lower portion was used for excellent gardens, which furnished an abundant supply of small fruit and vege- tables to the New York markets. . This tract of land belonged to several owners, among whom were the Middaghs, Bamper, Colden, Debevoise, Remsens. On the Heights (ante, p. 73) stood the man- sion of Philip Livingston, Esq.,2 afterwards known as the "Jorale- mon House," a large double frame-house, the more modern por-
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