USA > New York > Westchester County > Rye > Chronicle of a border town : history of Rye, Westchester county, New York, 1660-1870, including Harrison and the White Plains till 1788 > Part 26
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Ill-used as they thought themselves, however, our inhabitants fared worse before long, when these forces were removed from their neighborhood, and they were left entirely exposed to the incursions of the enemy. This occurred early in 1777. The time of service of many of the Connecticut troops, who hitherto had protected the border, now expired. November 3d, General Washington, while at the White Plains, had ordered the dis- charge of the light horse under Major Backus, of whom he spoke in high praise. 'Their conduct,' he said, ' has been extremely good, and the services they have rendered of great advantage to their country.' 3 February 17, 1777, General Wooster wrote from Rye Neck, that a regiment of volunteers from Connecticut was to be discharged on the twenty-second, when he would be left with not more than eight hundred men in his department.4 A few weeks later, the country was deprived of the services of this excellent man, who died May 2, 1777, in consequence of
1 Journals of the Provincial Congress, etc., of New York, vol. ii. p. 259 ; Petition of the Committee for Westchester County to the Convention for relief, December 23, 1776.
2 American Archives, fifth series, vol. iii. p. 1129.
8 Ibid. p. 484.
4 Journals of the Provincial Congress, ete., vol. i. p. 816.
245
THE QUEEN'S RANGERS.
wounds received during the expedition of the British to destroy the magazines at Danbury, Connecticut.1
One of the principal terrors to the inhabitants of the Neutral Ground, at this period, was the body of troops known as 'The Queen's Rangers.' We have noticed their first visit to our neigh- borhood, at Mamaroneck, just before the battle of the White Plains. After that battle, when the lower part of the county lay open to the incursions of the enemy, they soon became the scourge of the population. The Rangers were a partisan corps, raised originally in Connecticut and the vicinity of New York, and numbering about five hundred men, all Americans and loyalists. At this time they were commanded by one Robert Rogers, of New Hamp- shire, 'one of the most odious of all Americans of note' who had enlisted under the royal standard. As early as December 12, 1776, the inhabitants of Westchester County complain bitterly to the Convention, through Judge Thomas, Frederick Jay and others, of their exposure and suffering from this source. They are in con- tinual danger of being made prisoners, and having their farms and habitations plundered by Robert Rogers's party. These men make daily excursions in divers parts of said county, taking with them by force of arms many good inhabitants ; also their stock, grain, and everything else that falls in their way, and laying waste and destroying all that they cannot take with them. 'The suffer- ing inhabitants of Westchester County are ravaged without restraint or remorse.' 2
The presence of an American force at Saw Pit 3 did not prevent the enemy from making an occasional dash into this neighborhood. ' Between thirty and forty Head of fat Cattle belonging to the
1 DAVID WOOSTER, born in Stratford, Conn., March 2, 1710, graduated at Yale College, 1738, served in the expedition against Louisburg, 1745, and in the French War, 1756 to 1763. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits till May, 1775, when he planned the expedition from Connecticut to capture Fort Ticonderoga. He was ap- pointed one of eight brigadier-generals by Congress, June 22, 1775, being third in rank. During the campaign of 1776 he was principally employed in Canada. On his return home he was appointed first major-general of the militia of his State, and during the whole winter, 1776-77, he was employed in protecting that State against the enemy.
2 Journals of the Provincial Congress, etc., vol. i. p. 749.
3 It may have been about this time that the following incident occurred : Several American soldiers, gathered at ' Simmons' [Silvanus Seaman's] tavern,' in Saw Pit, were bantering one Jabez Hobby, a ' tory'; one of them asked him what the letters U. S. A. on his military cap, meant. 'Useless, Scandalous, Army,' answered Hobby : whereupon the enraged patriots took him and hung him by the neck to a tree near by. He was taken down before life became extinct, and lived for some years after the war. His brother Hezekiah Hobby was a whig. (Communicated by Seth Lyon.)
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THE REVOLUTION.
Rebel Army, were drove into this City last Tuesday,' says Gaine's ' New York Gazette,' of March 31, 1777, ' from Rye, in Connecti- cut.' 'Last Sunday week, Colonel James De Lancey, with 60 of his West Chester Light horse, went from King's Bridge to the White Plains, where they took from the Rebels forty-four Barrels of Flour and two Ox Teams, near one hundred Head of Black Cattle, and 3 hundred Fat Sheep and Hogs ; on this Service Mr. Purdy, a very respectable Inhabitant of West Chester County, was killed; there were also Five Horses shot by the Rebels.' 1
On one of these occasions, Thomas Kniffen, a lad of fourteen or fifteen, was passing through ' Steep Hollow,' 2 between Rye and Saw Pit, driving his father's cows home from pasture. As he ap- proached the post-road, a party ' from below ' came along the road, and took him prisoner, making him drive the cows down to New York island, where he remained in camp with them for several weeks. By this time the cattle had been butchered, and his cap- tors set forth on a new marauding tour, taking him with them as guide. They took their course northward in the direction of the White Plains, but finding little spoil, crossed over into the town of Rye, and concealed themselves in the Great Swamp which still existed, between Regent and Ridge streets. Kniffen was ordered to go to some of the neighboring houses and find out where they could obtain food. He went to the house of Caleb Sniffen, on the old road near Mr. Peyton's, told the family what his errand was, .and who were hiding in the swamp, and then starting across the fields toward the American lines, ran for his life to Byram Bridge, where he went into camp, and told his story, and enlisted in the army. Just then whale-boats were being fitted out for service on the Sound. Kniffen engaged as a whale-boat man, and served through the war in this capacity. He cruised most of the time along the coast from ' Horseneck' to Throg's Point, making occasional dashes across to Long Island, or annoying the British boats and vessels in the Sound.3 In this sort of warfare, not a few of our inhabitants were likewise engaged ; but little is known at present of their exploits.
'SNIFFEN'S HILL,' according to our old inhabitants, was the place where an American force encamped in Rye, at various times
1 Gaine's New York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury, October 13, 1777.
2 The ravine on the south side of Mr. Quintard's property, terminating at the post- road, below Port Chester.
8 Thomas Kniffen was the grandfather of Jonathan Sniffen, of Rye, from whom I have these particulars.
247
SNIFFEN'S HILL.
in the course of the war.1 The more modern name of this locality is 'Bloomer's Hill.' It overlooks the village of Port Chester, formerly Saw Pit, and commands an extensive view of the sur- rounding country. This is the only spot, in the lower part of our town, which I have been able to identify as permanently occupied by the troops of either side. Here, I am led to think, the Con- necticut troops were encamped from the early part of October, 1776, till the following spring. The commanding officers date their letters sometimes from Saw Pit and sometimes from ' Rye Neck.' The latter name was commonly given at that time to Peningo Neck, rather than to the portion of the town which lies west of it toward Mamaroneck. Probably the same spot was meant by both designations.
In the summer of the year 1778, Washington was again for several weeks at the White Plains. The British, after the battle of Monmouth, had retreated to New York, and the Americans, from their former post on the hills of Westchester, awaited further movements on the enemy's part. During this period a detach- ment of French troops, it is said, was stationed near Saw Pit. The spot pointed out as their camping ground is on the west side of King Street, opposite the Misses Merrit's house.
1 See vignette, p. 215.
.
Byram Bridge.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE REVOLUTION.
1777-1783.
TN the northern part of our town, an American force had been stationed, as we have seen, ' near the head of Rye Pond,' in October, 1776, while the army was still at the White Plains. In January, 1777, General Heath, who was at Peekskill with his division, received orders from Washington, then in New Jersey, to move down with a considerable force toward New York, as if he had a design on the city. This was after the attack on Prince- ton ; and the object of the proposed manœuvre was, to compel the enemy to withdraw their forces from New Jersey for the defence of New York. Heath's journal relates the movements of his troops in this neighborhood as follows : -
' Jan. 8th, 1777. - General Parsons went down to King-street.
'Jan. 13th .- Our General [Heath himself ] moved to the Southward, and reached North-Castle just before sunset.
' 14th. - Our General moved to King-street to Mr. Clap's-about 3,000 militia had arrived, and Gen. Lincoln's division marched to Tarrytown on this day.
' 15th. - The Connecticut volunteers marched from King-street to New Rochelle, and Gen. Scott's brigade to Stephen Ward's. Plenty
249
LOYALISTS OF RYE.
of provisions now arriving. A deserter came in from the enemy, and gave an account of their situation and numbers.
' 17th. - At night the three divisions began to move towards Kings- bridge - Gen. Lincoln's from Tarrytown, on the Albany road ; Gen- erals Wooster and Parsons from New Rochelle and East Chester, and Gen. Scott's in the centre from below White Plains.'
29th. - These operations were ended, and the troops fell back. It was 'considered a very hazardous expedition,' the more remarkable because · performed entirely by inexperienced militia.'
January 31st. - A cordon of troops was formed from Dobb's Ferry to Mamaroneck.
' February 1st. - Foraging being now the object, a large number of teams were sent out towards Mamaroneck, and upwards of eighty loads of forage were brought off.' On the third, and again on the eighth, ' another grand forage ' took place.1
A number of loyalists from Rye and Mamaroneck were now with the British army in New York or on Long Island, while their families remained here, within the American lines. General Wooster announced his intention to require these families immedi- ately to remove from the place and 'go below,' unless the men should return and pledge themselves to stay quietly at home, in which case they should be protected, and should not be disturbed nor imprisoned.2 Measures of this character were doubtless neces- sary, though in many cases they must have caused much suffering. Commissioners were now appointed, with authority to 'seize the personal property of such of the late inhabitants of Westchester County as have gone over to the enemy, and dispose of it at pub- lic sale.' 3 We soon hear complaints of 'over-zeal' on the part of
1 Memoirs of Major-General Heath, written by himself. Published according to Act of Congress. Boston, 1798 : pp. 106 seq. The movement failed to accomplish the object proposed.
2 Gaine's New York Gazette, Monday, February 17, 1777.
' The Copy of an intercepted Letter from a Rebel Officer to a Person in Long- Island.
' HEAD-QUARTERS, January 3, 1777. Sir At the Reqst of Yr Friends You have here Present'd an Invitation of Your Returning Home. The General has ordered all the Wives and Families in Rye and Marrinack whose Husbands or Males are at New York or Long Island immediately to Move to New York or the Island, Unless their Husbands or Males will Return Home and if they Return home, the General Prom- ises Protection which I Here Inclose to Gether with Your Parole which You must Sign and upon Your signing it the General on his Part Promises that he will Protect Yon as long as a brave People inspired with a Love of Liberty is able to Protect You. You Nead not Fear any Danger of being Moved or imprisoned for You have the Gen- erals Honnor Pledge, Signed By order of Major Genl Wooster Stephen K. Bradley Aid De Camp.'
3 Journals of the Provincial Congress, etc., vol. i. p. 811.
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THE REVOLUTION.
the agents thus empowered. The Committee of Safety, upon rep- resentations made by General Putnam, remonstrate with the com- missioners for sequestration. 'We are sorry to hear that many of the women and children of tories gone over to the enemy are in a suffering condition. . ... Several complaints have been made to us that many families have been stripped of almost everything, even of a little pasture and hay for a cow, and in some instances, not left a cow itself, by which means they are reduced to almost a starving condition.' Large families where there are small children have been left without the means of subsistence. 'It was not the sense of Convention to deprive such families of the necessaries of . life.' The commissioners are cantioned to proceed with less harsh- ness. 1
Soon after the withdrawal of the American army from New York, great numbers of poor persons were sent into Westchester County from the poor-house of that city and from elsewhere.2 Rye, Mamaroneck, and New Rochelle are the places appointed for their reception.3 Judge Thomas has distributed them as well as he could in the several districts of the county. Among the ac- counts sent in to the Committee of Safety for the support of these indigent people, is that of Ezekiel Halsted, who has provided for fifty-one of them. The sum of £21 16s. 4d. is allowed him for this service. The presence of so many helpless persons must have added to the trials of our inhabitants already overburdened.
The sufferings of the people in the lower part of Westchester County now attract much attention, and excite deep sympathy. ' Unless it is the intention of the State to abandon this quarter to the enemy,' writes William Duer, Esq., chairman of the Com- mittee of Convention, ' and to sacrifice those who have stood firm in their country's cause in the worst of times, a proper force must be sent immediately unto the lower parts of this county, under command of active and vigilant officers.' General Wooster is still at Rye Neck, February 17, 1777, but a regiment from Connecti-
1 Journals of the Provincial Congress, etc., vol. i. pp. 812, 813 ; vol. ii. p. 218.
2 The Vestry of the city of New York, May 30, 1776, represent to the Provincial Congress, that there are about four hundred poor in the almshouse and adjoining buildings - blind and lame, helpless, children, and old people, etc. They ask for £5,000 or other relief. (American Archives, fourth series, vol. vi. p. 627.) August 25, the Convention took action relative to the support of the indigent persons who must be driven from their abodes ; they are to be quartered upon the inhabitants, at vari- ous places, who are to be paid moderate prices for their support. One thousand pounds are appropriated to remove these people out of the city of New York. (Ibid. pp. 1539-1541.)
8 Some were sent also to New Windsor, in Ulster County. (Ibid. p. 1545.)
251
SUFFERINGS IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
cut is to be discharged on the twenty-second, when he will not have more than eight hundred men in this department, 'a number very insufficient for the purpose of protecting or maintaining the allegiance of this county, and particularly of securing the important article of forage.' The frequent calls for the services of the militia have greatly distressed the inhabitants of Westchester County ; taken the husbandmen from their occupations ; and prevented them from threshing and manufacturing their wheat. Colonel Humphreys is directed, March 3, to proceed with all the men he has raised immediately to Westchester County, for the protection of the well affected ; and if the troops prove insufficient, volun- teers are to be raised, not exceeding three hundred in number. The Provincial Congress appoints a committee of three to devise ways and means for the permanent defence of the inhabitants from the ravages of the enemy.1
Little was done for them, however, save to express sympathy and to promise help. Indeed, it was not the design of the Amer- ican leaders to keep a strong military force in this neighborhood for the protection of the inhabitants of the Neutral Ground. Wash- ington himself, we learn, at an earlier stage of the war, held that upon grounds of military expediency the whole southern part of Westchester County ought to have been desolated, and the army stationed in the Highlands west of the Hudson.2 At present, the chief anxiety of the leaders was to remove from this region the forage and other stores which might otherwise fall into the hands of the enemy. A number of teamsters were employed, in the spring of 1777, for this purpose, as well as for the removal of " well-affected inhabitants.' Among these teamsters we recognize the names of Daniel Horton, Stephen Field, John Cromwell, and others, of Rye.
Every week now brings reports of inroads by parties from the British lines, penetrating far into the interior of the county : -
' We have daily accounts of cattle being stole and drove downwards to support our cruel, merciless and inveterate enemies, by our more than savage neighbours, the tories, who have of late become so insult- ing as to hiss at men passing; and several have been fired at in the road. Isaac Oakley, at the Plains, has been robbed of thirty-six head of cattle.' 3
1 Journals of the Provincial Congress, etc., vol. i. pp. 808, 816, 821.
2 Irving's Life of Washington, vol. ii. p. 372. American Archives, fifth series, vol. ii. p. 921.
3 Letter of Israel Honeywell, junior, Philip's Manor, March 28, 1777. (Journals of the Provincial Congress, etc., vol. i. p. 856.)
252
THE REVOLUTION.
In one of these raids, the enemy succeeded in effecting the cap- ture of a person whom they had long been seeking to take, Judge Thomas, of this town. On Sunday morning, March the 22d, 1777, a party of British troops seized him at his house in ' Rye Woods,' and carried him to New York, where he was committed to prison. The site of this house is on the west side of King Street, about four miles from the village of Port Chester, and a little beyond the residence of Daniel Brooks, Esq. The kitchen attached to it is still standing, at the end of a short lane. A Mr. Miller was taken at the same time with Judge Thomas ; probably William Miller, who was deputy chairman of the Committee of Safety for West- chester County, of which Thomas was chairman. Tradition re- ports that a certain Hachaliah Carhart, an officer in the British service, belonging to De Lancy's corps of refugees, was one of the company who made this capture. He was well acquainted with Miller, and was like him a member of the Society of Friends. It is said that when the band surrounded the house, Carhart called out to his old acquaintance, Friend Miller, dost thou not know me ? The question was repeated three times, and finally the answer came, I knew thee once, but I know thee no more.1 Judge Thomas died in New York soon after his arrest, and was buried in Trinity churchyard.2 He had long been prominent as a public man, and was particularly obnoxious to the enemy on account of the active part he took in the early events of the Revolution.
A sad affair occurred at Rye just after this. We quote the ac- count of it which appeared in Gaine's ' New York Gazette,' which had now become a tory organ, April 14, 1777 : -
' Some Days ago the Daughter of Mr. Jonathan Kniffin of Rye in Connecticut, was murdered by a Party of Rebels near or upon Budd's Neck. She was carrying some Cloaths to her Father, in Company of two Men who had the Charge of a Herd of Cattle. They were fired upon by the Rebels from behind a Stone-Wall. The poor young woman received a Ball in her Head, of which she'instantly died. The Men escaped unhurt. They plundered her dead Body of its Cloaths, cut one of her Fingers almost off in order to take a Ring, and left the Corpse most indecently exposed in the Highway. Such are the Advo- cates of this cursed Rebellion ! Yet the Officer (so called) who com- manded the Party, and is said to be a Colonel among the Rebels, glo- ried in the Exploit, and swore it was better to kill one Woman than two Men, adding moreover, that he would put both Man and Woman
1 Information from Mr. Nehemiah Purdy, King Street.
2 Bolton's History of Westchester County, vol. i. p. 255.
253
THE WHALE-BOAT SERVICE.
to death, who should presume to cultivate their Farms or their Gardens in the Neighbourhood of Rye in this Spring.' 1
This account differs in several particulars from that which has been preserved by tradition. The perpetrators of the outrage, it is said, were not American soldiers, but a party of three ' Cow Boys,' whose names are well remembered. They lived in this vicinity,1 and were fit specimens of the class of vile and lawless men to which they belonged. The murder is said to have occurred, not on Budd's Neck, but on the post-road a short distance above the village of Rye, near the entrance to Mr. Hunt's late residence. Jonathan Kniffin lived on Regent Street. His daughter was the sister of Andrew Lyon's wife. Her father, it is said, was a ' tory,' and had gone to New York, where he was taken with the small- pox, and eventually died. The daughter, hearing of his sickness, started to go to New York on horseback, but was waylaid and killed in the manner which has been described.
The following item of news appeared in Gaine's 'New York Gazette' of Monday, February 17, 1777 : -
' A few Evenings ago, four Boats full of Men came over from Rye to the opposite Shore on Long Island, and carried off a Sloop laden with Poultry and other Things for the New York Market. The Fog was so thick, that the Guard, which is constantly kept upon the Shore, did not perceive them. One Man was taken in the Sloop.'
This is one of the earliest notices of a kind of warfare which was now beginning to assume considerable importance. Small boats, resembling those used by whalers, about thirty feet long, and propelled with oars, from four to twenty in number, were fitted up in the harbors along the northern shore of the Sound, and em- ployed in harassing the enemy in various ways. They would dart across the Sound, under cover of the night, and run into the inlets of the Long Island shore, landing near the house of a tory family, sometimes to plunder and sometimes to take prisoners. Small British vessels, cruising in the Sound, were occasionally captured by these nimble privateers. Market sloops, loaded with provisions for the British army in New York, were their favorite prey. Great quantities of forage and other stores belonging to the enemy were destroyed by these parties. The newspapers from 1777 to the close of the war contain numberless accounts of these exploits, which were a source of no little uneasiness and inconvenience to
1 One of them in West Street, another in the Purchase.
254
THE REVOLUTION.
the British army, while they spread consternation among the loy- alists of the surrounding country, and served greatly to cheer the spirits of the friends of the country. Notices like the following appear almost every week : -
' Oct. 20, 1777. - Yesterday Sen' night, a Whale Boat, with about ten Men, from Byram River, went into Hempstead Harbour, Long Island, and took out a Wood Boat, carried her into the Sound, and was return- ing for two others that lay there ready loaded, but a few of the Militia getting together, prevented their Design from being put in Execution, and obliged them to row off with speed.1
'Muy 4, 1778. - Last Monday Evening two Row-Gallies and an armed Vessel crossed from Connecticut to Lloyd's Neck, on Long Island, where a Party of loyal Refugees were cutting Wood, who, upon being attacked by the Rebels, retreated to a House, in which they defended themselves with great Bravery and Resolution upwards of six Hours : but their Ammunition being expended, they were obliged to submit to superior Force. Next Morning the Rebels carried their Prisoners, 18 in Number, over to Connecticut. The House in which the Refugees fought and surrendered, is perforated in many Places by the shot of the Rebels.2
' May 18. - Other parties have been over to Long Island. Thirteen Boats have been taken within twenty Days.3
' May 25. - Sunday Evening the 16th inst., with Up-sun, a Boat from Connecticut, with a Number of Men and a 4 Pounder, came to Sand's Point, on the North side of Long Island, and stripped a Boat that lay there of all her Sails and Rigging, and went off unmolested.+
' June 29. - Last Wednesday a Number of whale Boats well manned, from Connecticut, convoyed by the Wild Cat Galley, and a little Sloop, formerly the Raven's Tender, made their Appearance at Lloyd's Neck, in order to harrass his Majesty's Wood Cutters at that Place, and soon took a Boat then going out of the Harbour, which they endeavoured to carry off, but they were immediately pursued and attacked by a Num- ber of Boats from the Ships, when the Wild Cat, the Raven's Tender, and the Wood Boat were taken, as also some of the Whale Boats. Thirty Men were made prisoners, and two killed, without any Loss on our side.5
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