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 27
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' Sept. 7. - A great abundance of armed Whale Boats are cruising in many parts of the Sound, and 'tis feared will much interrupt our Market Boats.6
Jan. 1779. - . Three Whale Boats that came over from Connecticut to plunder the inhabitants of Long Island last Week, were taken as
1 Gaine's New York Gazette, October 20, 1777.
2 Ibid. May 4, 1778.
3 Ibid. May 18, 1778.
4 Ibid. May 25.
5 Ibid. June 29.
6 Ibid. September 7.
255
MARAUDING PARTIES ON THE SOUND.
soon as they landed, by a Party of the King's Troops that were in the Neighbourhood, and were brought to town last Thursday.' 1
'June 30. - Yesterday morning about one o'clock a Party of Rebels from Connecticut landed on Long Island, surprized and carried off Mr. Abraham Walton, Dr. Brooks, and eight more very respectable and loyal inhabitants from Musketo Cove.2
' July 5. - Last Thursday night a party of about thirty Rebels came over from Connecticut in three whale Boats to Cow Neck, Long Island; they plundered the house of Mr. Stephen Thorne of many valuable ar- ticles, and at the same time part of them surrounded the house of Mr. Edward Thorne, his son, which they likewise rifled; fortunately both these gentlemen were that night abroad, which prevented them from being carried into captivity. In the house of Mr. Edward Thorne they found Captain Lewis M'Donald, a gentleman banished by the rebel leg- islatures from Bedford, West Chester county ; him they robbed of such effects as their demagogues had permitted him to bring with him.' 3
These extracts, to which we might add many, suffice to show what were the dangers as well as the successes of the whale-boat service. It had now become an organized system, under military authority, and conducted in harmony with the general plans of the war. It was pursued with the greatest activity in the years 1780 and 1781. Whale-boats from Connecticut were constantly plying the waters of the Sound, and landing at Setauket, Smithtown, Huntington, Hempstead ; on Lloyd's Neck, Cow Neck, Sand's Point ; in Oyster Bay, in Mosquito Cove, and other localities along the northern shore of Long Island. We have seen that some of these parties were from Rye and Byram River. Many others doubtless were from the same neighborhood, for in the newspapers of the day, Rye was generally designated as 'in Connecticut.' Some of our inhabitants were engaged during the war in these expeditions, and the scenes of many of them were in full view of our shores.
Operations of this nature were not confined to the American side. The loyalist refugees on Long Island would often retaliate upon their active assailants by similar whale-boat expeditions, starting from the opposite shore, and landing at Fairfield, Stam- ford, and other points in Connecticut, and in Westchester County. ' Many a night, doubtless, after some bold foray across the water, did our inhabitants keep watch for the arrival of the enemy's boats upon Rye Neck or in Byram harbor.
1 Gaine's New York Gazette, January 11, 1779.
2 Ibid. July 5, 1779.
3 Ibid.
250
THE REVOLUTION.
But their dangers from this source were insignificant compared with those that threatened them on other sides. 'The greater part of this county ' was in 1778 ' almost entirely undefended, exposed to the incursions of the enemy.' It was infested too with villains ' who daily commit murders, robberies, and other outrages.' The situation of affairs is truly deplorable. ''Unless measures are im- mediately taken for the defence and security' of this region, ' many of the inhabitants will be obliged to move off.' 1
Foraging parties of the enemy continued to scour the country. Among the most dreaded of these were the Queen's Rangers, now commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe. On Wednesday, Oc- tober 7, 1778, they visited this place, and captured, on King Street, ' six light dragoons belonging to Seldon's Regiment,' at the same time burning a store with a considerable quantity of merchandise.2 But on Friday, November 13, a more important seizure took place. The house of Colonel Thomas, at ' Rye Woods,' was again sur- prised, this time by a party of the Rangers under Simcoe. Colonel Thomas, the son of Judge Thomas, who had been captured in the same way the year before, was like his father very active and fear- less in his support of the American cause, and was bitterly hated by the enemy. A circumstantial account of his capture is given in Simcoe's ' Military Journal.' The Rangers marched all night, and surrounded the house by daybreak. Colonel Thomas had not for some time passed the night at home, but now as the British troops were reported to have gone into winter quarters, thought himself comparatively safe. As the party approached the house, a shot was fired from a window, killing a man by Simcoe's side. The house was immediately forced, and the person who fired the shot was killed. This person, as we learn from local tradition, was James Brundage, a son of Gilbert Brundage, of Rye ; a young man of fine character and high promise, whose cruel death was long vividly remembered here. He was killed ' while on his knees, begging for his life.' Thomas Carpenter, another young man who was also in the house at the time, came near losing his life, being stabbed in many places by the soldiers' bayonets, while hidden under a bed.3 Colonel Thomas leaped out of a window, and came near escaping, but was taken by one of the hussars. The British cavalry proceeded to the American picket, about a mile further,
1 Journals of the Provincial Congress, etc., vol. i. p. 1107.
2 Gaine's New York Gazette, October 12, 1778.
3 The step-mother of James Brundage lived to the age of eighty-six years, and died in 1823 at the house of Aaron Field, King Street. I have these facts from her nieces.
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257
A NOTABLE INCIDENT.
hoping to surprise a party of light horse who were stationed there. But the sound of musketry had alarmed them, and after firing their carbines, and wounding one of the enemy's officers, they re- treated. Colonel Thomas was taken to General Tryon, who was then at ' Ward's house ' in East Chester, and who ' was much pleased at this mischievous partizan's being taken.' 1
The spot occupied by the American force whose picket guard Simcoe had hoped to surprise, was probably ' at the head of King Street, near Rye-pond.' Here, three regiments of General Par- sons's brigade had been posted on the twenty-third of October, 1776, a few days before the battle of the White Plains. General Heath writes from King Street in the following February. Early in 1780, there were ' near 300 Continental Troops stationed at a Place called King Street, their Advance Guard being at the House of John Crom, near the Quaker Meeting House, in Harrison's Purchase.' This was John Cromwell, whose homestead is still standing, ' on the south-east side of Rye Pond, on the road lead- ing from the Purchase to North Castle.' The main body of these troops was probably encamped near the intersection of King Street and the road running east from the meeting-house.
It was near Merritt's tavern, at the upper part of King Street, that one of the most notable incidents of the war occurred, on Sunday, December 2d, 1781. Captain Sackett was stationed here in command of ' the New York levies near Harrison purchase.' A party of De Lancey's loyal refugee cavalry, commanded by Cap- tain Kipp, making an incursion as far as King Street, fell in with Captain Sackett, who had gone a short distance from his men, and took him prisoner, together with an ensign and a private. The command of the American party then devolved on Lieutenant Mosher, who retreated with them to a spot near Merritt's tavern, where he ' formed his Men in a solid Body, with fixed Bayonets.' They were ordered not to fire a shot, but to receive the enemy's charge in silence, until further instructions. At the first charge, the tory officer, finding himself repulsed, called to Mosher to sur- render, or he would cut his party to pieces. Mosher's reply was one of defiance ; and another charge was made and sustained in the same manner. But after the third attack, the Americans were ordered to fire on the retiring troops, which they did with terrible effect, killing one man and dangerously wounding eight others,
1 A Journal of the Operations of the Queen's Rangers, from 1777 to the Conclusion of the late American War. By Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe. New York : Bartlett and Wel- ford, 1844.
17
258
THE REVOLUTION.
among them Captain Kipp. Two of the British officers had their horses killed under them. ' Mosher's men, taking advantage of the discomfiture of their assailants, escaped to a neighboring piece of woods, not having a man even wounded. This is said to have been the most astonishing feat, on the part of both the officers and men, that was enacted during the whole war. General Wash- ington often spoke of the affair, and it was reported all over Europe, to show the utility of the bayonet, and that a small party of infantry thus armed may successfully resist a strong body of cavalry.' 1
Several engagements took place in 1779 and 1780 below this point, at Sherwood's Bridge (Glenville) and at Byram Bridge. On Thursday night, February 27, 1779, a small party sent from the American lines at Horseneck or Greenwich towards New York, discovered a British force at New Rochelle, advancing toward Rye. The party, composed of a captain and thirty men, retired before them undiscovered as far as Rye Neck ; but here, as it was growing light, the enemy perceived and attacked them. They defended themselves as best they could, but were soon defeated by superior numbers, and several were killed. The party now scattered ; some of them were driven by the enemy from the post-road down into Milton,2 where they managed to keep away from their pursuers, crossing the heads of the creeks, and hiding in the swamps ; while others made their way to Saw Pit, where they took advantage of an elevated piece of ground, and made some stand ; but the superior force of the enemy compelled them to retire over Byram Bridge, which they took up, and by this means were enabled to reach Horse- neck in safety. The British troops, consisting of several regiments, a body of dragoons, and a detachment of artillery, were on their way to Greenwich, for the purpose of destroying the salt works at that place. This they accomplished, while General Putnam, who had observed their approach, went to Stamford to collect a body of militia and other troops which were there. Upon his return, the enemy retreated, and 'got over Byram river before dusk, the rebels,' by a tory paper's account, 'annoying the rear with a con- siderable fire.' 3 According to Putnam's report, a number of pris-
1 History of Greenwich, Conn., by D. M. Mead, pp. 179-181. Hugh Gaine's New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, Monday, December 10, 1781.
2 So states Mr. Mead, in his Ilistory of' the Town of Greenwich ( p. 166), probably on traditional authority, as the faet is not mentioned in Putnam's account.
3 Gaine's New York Gazette, March 3, 1779. A party of militia, it is said, num- bering one hundred and fifty or two hundred, occupied the brow of the hill on the right of the road, cast of Byram Bridge, where they were protected by some rocks or boulders. From this vantage-ground they fired down upon the British soldiery as they crossed the bridge, and killed several. (Local tradition.)
259
FREQUENT INCURSIONS.
oners were taken, and two of the enemy's baggage and ammuni- tion wagons were captured, the former containing a portion of the plunder, which Putnam restored to the inhabitants.1
It was on this occasion that General Putnam met with the famous adventure, near Horseneck, which has given his name to the hill east of the Congregational Church.2
May and Jnne of the same year were rendered memorable to the people of Rye by several visits of the enemy's troops, dashing through the town on their way to the Connecticut border. May 5th, 'a Party of Lieutenant Colonel De Lancey's Refugees made an Excursion to Horseneck, where they took a Captain and five Privates ; and on Wednesday the 10th, near Byron [Byram] River, they took nine Privates.' On the twenty-second, the same corps made ' a successful Incursion upon the enemy ' at Horseneck, ' of whom they killed ten, took 37 Continental and Militia Troops Prisoners, and Trophies, consisting, as is said, of one hundred Head of Cattle. But this cost the Colonel the Loss of a brave Officer, Captain [Solomon] Fowler, who was killed by the Ene- my's Fire from a Window, which, it is said, occasioned a severe Retribution - The House was immediately consumed to Ashes.' 3
June 4th, a party of Refugees ' surprised a Party of the Rebels, that were stationed at Byram River ; killed three, wounded some, and brought off four Prisoners, with some Stock, etc.'
June 16th, ' a Party of Lieutenant Colonel Emmerick's Dra- goons, consisting of a Sargeant and twelve Privates, under the Command of Lieutenant Muirson, with Cornet Merrit, took part of two Rebel Pickets, at Byrom and Sherrard's Bridges, and brought off 18 Prisoners.' Sherwood's Bridge is the ancient name of the bridge crossing the Byram River at Glenville. Some of the old inhabitants in that neighborhood remember hearing of this affair. It is said that the picket guard heard the sound of the horses' feet as the British approached, and succeeded in making their escape.
The alarms and sufferings produced by these frequent forays among the people may be faintly imagined. But tradition repre- sents the state of things in Rye, at this period, as one which could
1 Diary of the Revolution, by Frank Moore : vol. ii. p. 138.
2 Several of the popular accounts of this adventure place it a month later -in March, 1779. Mr. Lossing ( Field-Book of the Revolution, i. 411, 412) states that it oc- curred on March 26. General Putnam's own account is confirmed by the New York papers of the period, which assign the event to the day mentioned above.
3 Gaine's New York Gazette.
260
THE REVOLUTION.
scarcely be made worse by any new infliction. The inhabitants, say our old men, ' were pillaged on both sides.' ' Very many had moved away ; those who stayed, had to be milk-and-water men.' The place was considered particularly unsafe, because ' the scout- ing parties would generally go as near as they could to the lines ' of either army. 'The fences were all down. The farmers could not cultivate the lands.' Many of the owners of property were killed, or were never heard from, and in some cases the lands for this reason became lost to the families who had a right to them. The opinion prevails among those who cherish recollections of the old times, that there was no part of the Neutral Ground where the inhabitants suffered more than in the town of Rye.
Besides the British soldiery, and the Cow Boys, their humble allies, there was a class of men during the war whom the people dreaded perhaps equally or more - lawless characters, who, as it commonly happens in such times, would take advantage of the troubled state of the community to plunder, outrage, and murder the peaceable part of the population without mercy, on their own ac- count. One such individual there was, among others, in Rye, whose very name was a constant terror. SHUBAEL MERRITT was neither Cow Boy nor Skinner; but he was a man whom everybody feared ; one who, as it was said, ' would shoot a man for the pleasure of it.' An incident of his bloody career is still remembered, and told at the firesides of some of our farmers. Two Frenchmen, 'forage- masters ' or commissaries, were on their way toward Saw Pit, in the lower part of King Street, carrying a large sum of money in gold. They were followed by Merritt; and alarmed by his suspi- cious appearance, fled across a field, when he fired and killed one of them. Whilst he was engaged in robbing his victim of the gold which he had about him, the other made his escape, and rushing into the house of Mr. Samuel Brown, on King Street, near Regent, entreated the family with gestures and in broken language to con- ceal him. They had seen Merritt pass by with his gun, and sus-
pected that he was the pursuer. They had scarcely succeeded in hiding the Frenchman in the cellar, when Merritt came in, furious with disappointment, and demanded with an oath, 'what had become of that Frenchman ?' The family professed entire igno- rance, and prevailed upon him to join them at dinner; during which, however, he started up repeatedly in a rage, vowing that he would yet catch the man. When he had left the house, the terrified stranger was released from his hiding-place, and shown whither to flee, in the direction opposite to that which Merritt had taken.
261
LOCAL INCIDENTS AND TRADITIONS.
At another time, Merritt and one of his fellow-ruffians were sitting by the road-side, near the village of Rye, engaged in a game of cards, while in a field adjoining an old man accompanied by his little boy was busy ploughing. As they watched his move- ments, the outlaw proposed to his companion that they should play a game, the loser of which should shoot the old man. The lot fell upon Merritt, who, as the unsuspecting farmer next approached the spot, slowly guiding his team along the furrow, deliberately raised his gun and shot him though the heart. The little boy who witnessed the murderous deed lived to avenge his father's death. Some time after the close of the war, when a young man, he met Shubael Merritt at New Rochelle, and reminding him of the act, killed him on the spot. Such was the fear and detestation in which this man was held that no steps were taken to punish the slayer.1
Several of the old houses in our village are known to have been the scenes of thrilling though common events during the Revolu- tionary War. In almost every family long resident here there linger yet traditions that vividly illustrate the perils and priva- tions of the period.2 No better description of the men and the times has ever been furnished than that written by the eminent
1 I have these facts from an aged resident of King Street, and find the latter inei- dent confirmed by Mr. Mead, in his History of Greenwich (p. 155). Mr. Mead, however, states that Merritt was killed at White Plains ; and a tradition exists in Harrison that he was buried on the south side of an orchard on the place now Mr. Holliday's, nearly opposite the main entrance to his grounds.
2 Here are a few, not more remarkable, doubtless, than those that linger about many another village in the Neutral Ground, but which may serve as illustrations : -
The father of two ladies now living in Rye used to relate that during the war he once happened to be in the house now Mr. Joseph Kirby's tenement house, when a party of seonts came in, and he concealed himself under a bed. In searching for him tlie men pierced the bed with their bayonets. When they left the room he escaped through a window and hid in some currant bushes ; and he had barely done so when they returned and thrust their bayonets under the bed where he had taken refuge.
A young couple were living at one time in the house where Mr. Josiah Purdy now resides. One night they heard the firing of musketry near by, followed by groans. In their terror they did not dare to open the door ; and next morning they found the dead body of a man lying on their door-step, whither he had dragged himself.
On the front stoop of the old Halsted house, on the corner of the road to the Beach, a man was shot dead by a party of Cow Boys or Skinners passing by.
The old Square House on the post-road (now the Misses Mead's) bears many marks of revolutionary times, in its ancient walls, perforated by numerous bullet- holes.
It is said that a British officer was concealed for three months, during the war, in ' Toby's Hole,' a remarkable cave on the land now Mrs. Buckley's, on Loeust Avenue. Food was brought to him every day by the family of Gilbert Brundage, who lived near the spot where the railroad crosses Blind Brook; and his military coat, which he gave them when he left, was long preserved as a memorial.
262
THE REVOLUTION.
Dr. Dwight.1 Nor was there any locality in the region described, to which this vivid picture more faithfully applied.
' In the autumn of 1777, I resided for some time in this County. The lines of the British were then in the neighbourhood of King's Bridge ; and those of the Americans at Byram river. These unhappy people were, therefore, exposed to the depredations of both. Often they were actually plundered ; and always were liable to this calamity. They feared everybody whom they saw ; and loved nobody. It was a curious fact to a philosopher, and a melancholy one to a moralist, to hear their conversation. To every question they gave such an answer, as would please the enquirer ; or, if they despaired of pleasing, such an one as would not provoke him. Fear was, apparently, the only passion by which they were animated. The power of volition seemed to have deserted them. They were not civil, but obsequious ; not obliging, but subservient. They yielded with a kind of apathy, and very quietly, what you asked, and what they supposed it impossible for them to retain. If you treated them kindly, they received it coldly ; not as a kindness, but as a compensation for injuries done them by others. When you spoke to them, they answered you without either good or ill- nature, and without any appearance of reluctance or hesitation ; but they subjoined neither questions nor remarks of their own ; proving to your full conviction, that they felt no interest either in the conversation or in yourself. Both their countenances and their motions had lost every trace of animation and of feeling. Their features were smoothed, not into serenity but apathy ; and instead of being settled in the atti- tude of quiet thinking, strongly indicated that all thought beyond what was merely instinctive had fled their minds for ever.
' Their houses, in the mean time, were in a great measure scenes of desolation. Their furniture was extensively plundered, or broken to pieces. The walls, floors and windows were injured both by violence and decay ; and were not repaired, because they had not the means of repairing them, and because they were exposed to the repetition of the same injuries. Their cattle were gone. Their enclosures were burnt, where they were capable of becoming fuel ; and in many cases thrown down where they were not. Their fields were covered with a rank growth of weeds and wild grass.
' Amid all this appearance of desolation, nothing struck my own eye more forcibly than the sight of this great road, the passage from New York to Boston. Where I had heretofore seen a continual succession of horses and carriages, and life and bustle lent a sprightliness to all the environing objects, not a single, solitary traveller was visible, from week to week, or from month to month. The world was motionless and silent ;
1 Travels in New England and New York, by Timothy Dwight, S. T. D., LL. D., late l'resident of Yale College, vol. iii. pp. 491, 492.
263
ASPECT OF THE NEUTRAL GROUND.
except when one of these unhappy people ventured upon a rare and lonely excursion to the house of a neighbour no less unhappy ; or a scouting party, traversing the country in quest of enemies, alarmed the inhabitants with expectations of new injuries and sufferings. The very tracks of the carriages were grown over and obliterated ; and where they were discernible, resembled the faint impressions of chariot wheels said to be left on the pavements of Herculaneum. The grass was of full height for the scythe : and strongly realized to my own mind, for the first time, the proper import of that picturesque declaration in the Song of Deborah : In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-paths. The inhabitants of the villages ceased ; they ceased in Israel.'
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