History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 12

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > New York > Orange County > History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 12

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Hanover-Fifth Co .- 1775-John Gillespie, captain; Jasoo Wilkins, first lieutenant; Robert Hunter, Jr., secood lieutenant ; Samuel Gillespie, ensign. Formerly Capt. Galatian's company.

Wallkill-First Co .- 1775-Samnel Watkins, captain ; David Crawford, first lieutenant; Stephen Harlow, second lieutenant ; Henry Smith, ensigo. Company located on the east side of the Wallkill.

Wallkill-Second Cu .- 1775-William Faulkner, Jr., captaio; Edward McNeal, first lieutenant; John Wilkius, second lieuteoaut; John Faulkner, ensign. Company located on west side of Wallkill, " be- tween the said Wallkill and the Little Shawangunk Kill."

Wallkill-Third Co .- 1775-Isaiah Velie, captain ; Israel Wickham, first lieutenant; John Dunning, second lieutenant ; Jonathan Owen, en- sigu. Company located between the Wallkill and the Little Shawao- gunk, to the southward of Capt. Faulkner's company district.

Wallkill-Fourth Co .- 1775-William Denniston, captain ; Benjamin Velie, first lieutenant ; Joseph Gillet, second lientenant ; David Cor- win, Jr., ensign. Company located to the northwest of Little Shawan- gunk Kill.

There were, of course, many changes in these com- mands during the Revolution, but of which we have found no record. The duties specially assigned to the active members of the militia were, "in case of any alarm, invasion, or insurrection;" to immediately

repair, " properly armed and accoutred," to the liabi- tations of the captains of the companies to which they belonged, or to a duly appointed rendezvous. Cap- tains were required to march their companies, when thus assembled, "to oppose the enemy, and at the same time send off an express to the commanding officer of the regiment or brigade," who was in turn required " to march with the whole or part of his command," as he should judge necessary. By the law of 1778, those "who, in ordinary circumstances would be exempt," were organized in companies to repel invasions and suppress insurrections.

by the formation of

SPECIAL ORGANIZATIONS AND CONTINENTAL REGIMENTS.

The first of the special militia organizations was that known as Minute Men, which was formally rec- ommended by the Continental Congress to the sev- erał provinces for adoption in May, 1775. Under the militia bill of August 22d, the Provincial Convention of New York accepted the plan, and provided "that after the whole militia" was formed, in the manner already detailed, "every fourth man of each com- pany" should be " selected for minute men" of such persons as were willing to enter into that "necessary service." The persons thus selected were to be or- ganized in companies and elect officers, except in cases where an entire company of any regiment should offer its services, when it was to be commanded by the officers already chosen. The companies were to be organized in regiments under officers corre- sponding with those of the regular militia, and the manner in which they were called out was similar; but they were required to meet in subdivisions for military drill at least four hours in each week, and in companies for the same purpose at least four hours every fortnight, and when in service were subject to the orders of officers of the Continental army, and entitled to the "same allowance, as to pay and pro- visions, with the Continental forces." The plan, low- ever, was not satisfactory in its operation, and it was abolished in June, 1776. In the mean time the pro- visions of the law were generally complied with. In the southern district of Ulster three companies were raised, viz. :

Newburgh Minute Co .- Uriah Drake, captain ; Jacob Lawrence, first lieu- tenant ; William Ervin, second lieutenant; Thomas Dunn, ensign. New Windsor Minute Co .- Samuel Logan, captain; John Robinson, en- sigu ; David Mandeville and John Scofield, sergeants.

Hanover Minute Co .- Peter Hill, captain ; James Latta, first lieutenant ; Nathaniel Hill, second lieuteoant; William Goodyier, ensign.

With a company organized in Marlborough a regi- mental organization was effected, of which Thomas Palmer was colonel ; Thos. Johnston, Jr., lieutenant- colonel ; Arthur Parks, first major ; Samuel Logan, second major ; Isaac Belknap, quartermaster. Com- panies were also organized in Goshen, Cornwall, etc.,

* These returns are not of official record. The original rolls from which they are taken were accidentally discovered in a quantity of old paper sent to market iu 1864. Of their genuitieness there is not the slightest doubt.

+ Prior to the organization of this company two companies liad ex- isted in New Windsor, attached to Cul. Ellison's regiment, one in New Windsor Village and one in Little Britain,-the former commanded by Capt. William Ellison, who was superseded by Nicoll. Of the old Little Britain company, James MeClaughry was captain, George Denniston, lieutenant, and John Burnet, James Humphrey, James Faulkner, Jacob Newkirk, Richard Wood, William Telford, Samuel Logan, James Ker- naghan, and Alexander Beatty among its members.

itt

MILITARY HISTORY.

and a regiment formed, of which Isaac Nicoll was colonel ; Gilbert Cooper, lieutenant-colonel ; Henry V. Verbeyck, first major; Hezekiah Howell, Jr., second major; Ebenezer Woodhull, adjutant; Ne- hemiah Carpenter, quartermaster .* The companies organized for this regiment were :

Cornwall Minute Co .- Thomas Moffat, captain ; Seth Marvin, first lieu- tenant; James Little, second lientenant : Nathan Strong, ensign, succeeded by William Bradley.

Goshen Minute Co .- Moses Hetfield, captain ; Cole Gale, snd Daniel Ev_ erett, lientenants. At another date, James Butler and William Bar- ker named as lieutenants, and William Carpenter, ensign.

The second special organization of the militia in- cluded the several drafts made to reinforce the army at different times. The first draft occurred in June, 1776, when four battalions were organized for service in the vicinity of New York City, to which Orange County sent three companies and Ulster four, as part of Gen. John Morin Scott's brigade. The second draft was made in July, 1776, and embraced one- fourth of the militia under command of Cols. Isaac Nicoll and Levi Pauling, the whole constituting a brigade under Gen. George Clinton. The third draft was in September, 1776, for six hundred men to rein- force the garrison at Forts Clinton and Montgomery, of which number sixty-two were drawn from Col. Hasbrouck's regiment, and the whole placed under command of Johannes Snyder. Details in regard to the officers and privates in these and subsequent drafts are not of record, but it is known that under them the militia were in varying numbers almost constantly employed.

On the 23d of July, 1776, companies of Rangers were authorized for the protection of the inhabitants of the northern and western frontiers of the province. These companies were to hold themselves in constant readiness for service, with a view especially to pre- vent the incursions of Indians and Tories, but were to be confined entirely to the counties in which they were raised, unless by mutual consent of the commit- tees of adjoining counties, or unless otherwise directed by the convention. Three companies were organized in Ulster County, under Capts. Isaac Belknap, of Newburgh, Jacob R. DeWitt, of Deerpark, and Elias Hasbrouck, of Kingston. Capt. Belknap's company was composed (Oct. 7, 1776) as follows :

Isaac Belknap, captain.

John MeNeal.

Henry Schoonmaker, first lieu- tenant.

Robert Harris.

Petrns Roosa, second lieuten- ant.

Jonathan Chatfield.

David Clark, corporal.

Stephanus Ecker.

Sammel Falls.

Matthew Robinson.

Thomas Jackson.

Jss. Dailey.

Corns. Vanderburgh.

Wilhemus Roosa.

Marcus Wackman.

George Hack.

Christian Dupont. Isaac Utter.

Saml. Chard.

ARron Roosa.

James Humphrey. James Carscaden.

John Hisson.

Philip Aing.

John Mallot.

Petrus Roosa.

Thomas Patterson. John Willard.

Ed. McClannon.

Elisha Willard.

Robert Gillespy.

John Christie. Joshua Griffen.

The first active service of the company was under the direction of the Committee of Safety at Fishkill. In February, 1777, it was attached to Governor Clin- ton's brigade, and was thereafter kept busy in the Highlands.t The organization was abandoned, March, 1777.

The first New York, or "Continental" regiments as they were called, were constituted in 1775 for the term of six months. These regiments were four in number, and were commanded respectively by Alex. McDougall, Goose Van Schaick, Jantes Clinton, and James Holmes. Col. Clinton's regiment (the third) was largely composed of Orange and Ulster County men, the district embraced in the present county of Orange furnishing two companies, viz .: Capt. Daniel Denton's, of Goshen, and Capt. John Nicholson's, of New Windsor. The regiments were in the expedi- tion against Canada in the fall and winter of 1775. On the Sth of January, 1776, the Continental Con- gress issued its first formal call for troops for the pur- pose of reinforcing the army in Canada. Under this call New York furnished one battalion, of which Col. Van Schaick was continued in command. On the 19th of January of the same year the second call was issued, under which New York was required to fur- nish four battalions " to garrison the several forts of the colony from Crown Point to the southward, and to prevent depredations upon Long Island, and pro- mote the safety of the whole." These battalions were assigned to the command of Alex. McDougall, James Clinton, Rudolphus Ritzema, and Philip Van Cortlandt. The quota of Orange County was two companies, and that of Ulster three companies, which were filled in April following, the companies being Capt. Daniel Denton's, of Goshen, Capt. Amos Hutchins', of Orangetown, and Capt. William Roe's, of Cornwall, from Orange County, and Capt. John Belknap's, of New Windsor, Capt. William Jackson's, of Montgomery, and Capt. Cornelius Hardenburgh's, of Hurley, from Ulster County. Capt. Roe's com- pany was in excess of the quota. Denton's and Hutchins' companies were in Ritzema's regiment, and the other companies in Clinton's regiment. On the 16th of September the Continental Congress

+ Jour. Prov. Conv., 536, 813, etc. The names of the members of Capt. Belkuap's company are from a memorandum-book found among his papers, and are no doubt correct. The same book contains a diary nf the services of the company during the month of October, 1776, from which it appears that its first muster for duty was at the house of Mrs. Ann Du Bois, in Marlborough, on the 7th of that month. It marched from thence to Fishkill, snd reported to the Convention on the 17th, when it was placed "under the direction of the committee for trying tories." It was still st Fishkill in January, 1777. There is little room for doubt- ing that Capt. Belknap was the original of Cooper's Capt. Townsend in " The Spy." There was certainly no other company of rangers at Fish- kill.

* Both regiments were on duty iu the Highlands in 1775-76 .- Proc. Prov. Conv., 38I.

Abraham Garrison.

John Csverly.

Darius Worden.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

issued its third call for troops, under which New York was required to furnish four battalions "to serve during the war." These battalions were the first of their class, and were placed under the com- mand of Cols. Goose Van Schaick, Philip Van Cort- landt, Peter Gansevort, and Henry B. Livingston. Ulster furnished three companies to Col. James Gansevort's regiment, of which Capt. James Greggs', of New Windsor, was one, and one company-Capt. William Jackson's, of Montgomery-to Col. Living- ston's regiment. In July previous, the Continental Congress authorized a commission to Maj. Lewis Du- Bois, of Col. Hasbrouck's regiment of militia, to raise a battalion "for three years or the war," but the Con- vention of New York objected, and the matter was held in abeyance. Now, however, the Convention asked authority to recruit a fifth battalion, of which Maj. DuBois should have the command, and, the re- quest being granted, the battalion was commissioned. While more or less mixed by general recruiting, this battalion was regarded as the battalion of the district the history of which we are considering. It was ordered to garrison Fort Montgomery in March, and was on duty there in the action of October, 1777, when it sustained a heavy loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Its field-officers were :

Lewis DuBois, colonel; commissioned June 25, 1776 ; resigned Dec. 29, 1779.

Jacobus Bruyn, lieutenant-colonel; commissioned June 25, 1776; taken prisoner at Fort Montgomery, Oct. 6, 1777.

Marinns Willett, lieutenant-colonel; commissioned July 1, 1780.

Samuel Logan, majer; commissioned June 26, 1776; taken prisoner at

Fort Montgomery; exchanged Dec. 21, 1780; served to the end ef the war.

Henry DuBois, adjutant; commissioned Nov. 21, 1776; promoted captain July 1, 1780.

Nehemiah Carpenter, quartermaster; commissioned Nov. 21, 1776; taken prisoner at Fort Montgomery ; exchangeil and promoted lieutenant. Samuel Townsend, paymaster; commissioned Nov. 21, 1776.

John Gane, chaplain; commissioned Nov. 21, 1776 ; promoted brigade chaplain; served to the end of the war.

Samuel Cook, surgeon; commissioned Nov. 21, 1776; served to the end of the war.

Ebenezer Hutchinson, surgeon'e mate; commissioned June 12, 1778.

The battalions authorized under this call, and Col. Lamb's artillery,-which drew many officers and pri- vates from Orange and Ulster,-were the only three years' regiments raised in the State during the Revo- lution, and were kept in the field by levies and by recruiting for shorter periods to supply vacancies in their ranks.

UNIFORMS AND EQUIPAGE.

The uniform which was worn by the Continental regiments varied with the ability of the authorities to purchase the materials. The regiments raised in 1775 were clothed in the same general style but in different colors. The first had blue broadcloth dress coats with crimson cuffs and facings; the second had light brown coats with blue cuffs and facings ; the third had gray coats with green cuffs and facings; the fourth had dark brown coats with scarlet cuffs and facings. Their breeches (as they were called) and

waistcoats were of Russia drilling ; the former were short (to the knee) and the latter long (to the hips). Their stockings were long (from the knee), of " coarse woolen homespun ;" low shoes, linen cravats, and round low-crowned broad-brimmed felt hats. The regiments raised in January, 1776, were supplied with hunting-frocks in lien of coats, and in June the Rus- sia drillings gave place to " brain-dressed deer's leather sufficient to make each soldier one waistcoat and one pair of breeches." The established uniform of the troops, however, so far as there was one, was the hunting-frock, which came in under the order of the Continental Congress in 1776. These frocks have the same description wherever spoken of. "The uni- form of the South Carolina rebels," says an English writer, "is a hunting-shirt such as the farmers' ser- vants in England wear;" and another, referring to the Continental soldiers who were killed at Fort Montgomery, says, " they had on frocks such as our farmers' servants wear," from which fact it was pre- sumed they were militia-men, instead of members of Col. DuBois' regiment as they were. The description by the Hessian officer, Briefwechsel, of the army under Gen. Gates at Saratoga, which was composed of over nine thousand regular troops, may be accepted as applicable to the entire army of the Revolution at that time. The rank and file, he writes, "were not equipped in any uniform." A few of the officers wore regimentals ; and those fashioned to their own notions according to cut and color. Brown coats with sea- green facings, white linings and silver trimmings, and gray coats in abundance, with buff facings and cuffs, and gilt buttons; in short, every variety of pattern. The brigadiers and generals wore uniforms and belts which designated their rank, but most of the colonels and other officers were in their ordinary clothes; "a musket and bayonet in hand, and a cartridge-box or powder-horn over the shoulder." The Continental uniform, now generally accepted as such, was not adopted until 1780, when, by general orders (June 28th), all officers were directed "to wear their coats with butf facings and linings, yellow buttons, white or buff under-clothes, with a black and white feather in their hats."

The equipage of the militia, as well as of the early Continental regiments, consisted of "a good musket or firelock and bayonet, sword or tomahawk, a steel ramrod, worm, priming-wire and brush fitted thereto, a cartouch-box to contain twenty-three rounds of car- tridges, twelve flints, and a knapsack, one pound of powder, and three pounds of bullets." The muskets were of a variety of patterns; the long gun of the old French war, the shorter standard musket of the English army, and a scant assortment of rifles. The Convention of New York endeavored, in its con- tracts,* to secure uniformity by providing that the

* Robert Boyd established, in June, 1775, a forge in New Windsor, just south of Quassaick Creek, for the manufacture of muskets and bay-

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

musket-barrel should be "three feet and a half in length, and of three-fourths of an inch bore, well fortified at the breech," and that bayonets should be " one foot and nine inches from the shoulder ;" but as there were few gunsmiths in the province at that time (1776), it was not until after arms were received from France that there was a perceptible regularity or a sufficient quantity to supply the troops. Mean- while spears, spontoons, and tomahawks were called into use and became effective weapons .* Not only did the district now comprising the county of Orange furnish men and arms, but within its limits were ex- tablished the first works for the manufacture of pow- der, of which (January, 1778) "near 2000 weight" was delivered to the order of the Convention of the State, and the remainder of their production "to the several orders of Gen. Washington and Gen. Schuyler at different times."

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

Having enumerated as far as fragmentary records will permit the military organization of the district down to and including the heroic era of the Revolu- tion, a brief review of their services in the field obliges a return to the French and Indian war of 1755. This was peculiarly a frontier war, although a war in which the question of English supremacy in all that section of North America over which the English flag was floating at the outbreak of the Revo- lution. The Indians of the Delaware River country (the ancient Lenapes and Minsis) had grievances to adjust which led them to become the allies of the French. They had sold their lands to William Penn, who, perhaps under the expectation of arranging the boundaries himself to the satisfaction of the grantors, had drawn a deed of which advantage could be taken, and his successors, the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, were not slow to improve it,-literally "running" the boundaries of the famous " walking purchase." The Minsis had special complaint against the traders in the Minisink country who had made them drunk and defrauded them of the purchase-money of their lands; who invariably, by the same process, defrauded them of the price of the peltries which they brought in. The Delawares complained; the proprietaries sum- moned them to a council, with chiefs of the Six Nations as arbitrators ; feasted the latter and loaded them with presents. The result may be anticipated: the Delawares, then tributary to the Six Nations, and the special wards of the Senecas, were obliged to re-

linquish their lands and remove to Wyoming. Not satisfied with what they had wrongfully obtained, the proprietaries followed up their advantage with the Six Nations, and, with the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut, bought the lands at Wyoming. The transaction so incensed the Senecas, who had beeu but partially represented in the matter, that they drove from their ranks their best chief for his par- ticipation in it, and removed the "petticoat" from the Delawares and bade them defend their homes. The latter were ready for the work. Liberated from the thraldom to which they had been subjected for nearly a century, and with all its grievances to redress, the chiefs of the East met those of the West in coun- cil at Alleghany ; rehearsed their wrongs, and declared that wherever the white man had settled within the territory which they claimed, or of which they had been defrauded, there they woukl strike him as best they could with such weapons as they could com- mand ; and that the blow might be effectually dealt, each warrior-chief was charged to kill and scalp and burn within the precincts of his birthright, and all simultaneously, from the frontiers down to the heart of the settlements, until the English should sue for peace and promise redress.

In October following, with their allies, painted black for war, in bands with murderous intent, they moved eastward, and the line of the Blue Mountains, from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, became the scene of the carnival which they held with torch and tomahawk during many coming months. The Minsis performed their part, and on the frontiers of Orange and Ulster Counties, and New Jersey, but principally within the limits of the Minisink Patent, were re- peated the fearful ravages of the more remote dis- tricts of Pennsylvania. The settlements were small, at considerable distance from each other, and much exposed to the surprises of the Indians, whose incur- sions were frequent. The people, especially in the contested district, were kept in almost perpetual alarm, and under such " continued military duty as to be rendered incapable of taking care of their pri- vate affairs for the support of their families." An extent of country, on the west side of the Wallkill, of fifteen miles in length and seven or eight in breadth, which was "well and thickly settled, was abandoned by the inhabitants, who, for their safety, removed - their families to the east side of the river, and became a charge on the charity of their neighbors," while others "removed to distant parts, and some out of the province."+

"Fatigues of body, in continually guarding and ranging the woods, and anxiety of mind which the inhabitants could not avoid, by their being exposed to a cruel and savage enemy, increased by the per- petual lamentations of the women and children," were not the only evils which the inhabitants suf-

onets. The Convention voted to pay him "three pounds fifteen shillings, New York money, for each good musket with steel ramrod, and bayonet with scabbard." In February, 1776, he was able to write that he had " the best gunsmiths' shop in the colonies ;" but nevertheless its capacity was limited from the difficulty in obtaining workmen.

* The Provincial Convention of New York ordered (Sept. 4, 1776) the manufacture of four thousand lauces or spontoons to arm the militia for whom no guns could be obtained. Eight hundred were sent to Orange, and the same number to Ulster County. (Proc., 607.) Tomahawks were a favorite implement, and many thousand were furnished the troops, As a whole, the equipage of the army was not ineffective.

+ N. Y. MSS., Ixxxii. 107, etc.

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK.

fered. Three men were killed at Cocheeton ; five men at Philip Swartwout's; Benjamin Sutton and one Rude, two of the Goshen militia, were killed at Mini- sink; Morgan Owen was killed and scalped about four miles from Goshen ; a woman, taken prisoner at Minisink, was killed and her body out in halves and left by the highway ; Silas Hulet's house was robbed and he himself narrowly escaped. " From abont the Drowned Lands for fifteen miles down the Wallkill, where fifty families dwelt, all save four abandoned their fields and crops."*

Pending negotiations for peace, hostilities were suspended during the year 1756, but in August of the succeeding year, says Niles, "one James Tidd was scalped in the Minisinks. About this time also, one James Watson, with James Mullen, went out on some business, and were fired upon by a party of In- dians. Watson was found killed and scalped; Mul- len was carried off, as was concluded, not being found or heard of. About the 19th of September, Patrick Karr was scalped and killed at a place called Mini- sink Bridge. Some time in October, in Ulster County, the Indians fired into the farthermost house in Roch- ester, and killed two women, but were repulsed by two men.t

"On the 16th of May, 1758, about two o'clock in the afternoon, about thirteen Indians rushed into the house of one Nicholas Cole, on the frontiers of the Jerseys, if I mistake not. Cole not being at home, they immediately pinioned his wife, and tomahawked their son-in-law, about eighteen years old, and drag- ged her (Mrs. Cole) out of doors, where her eldest daughter, about thirteen years old, lay murdered, and a boy aged eight, and her youngest daughter aged about four. This last-the poor, helpless old woman saw the cruel savages thrust their spears into the body of their gasping infant. They rifled the house, and then carried her and her son off, after they had scalped the slain above mentioned.

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History of Orange County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 12

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.) Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1336

Author: Ruttenber, Edward Manning, 1825-1907, comp; Clark, L. H. (Lewis H.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1336