History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 9

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703

USA > New York > Queens County > History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals. > Part 9

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A year later Major Tallmadge sent a party of 150 under Major Trescott to destroy Fort Slongo, in the northwestern part of Smithtown. The force crossed from Saugatuck River in the night, attacked and destroyed the fort, which was garrisoned by 140 men, burned the block- house, destroyed two iron guns, killed four and wounded two of the enemy, took twenty-one prisoners, one brass field piece and seventy muskets; and returned with none killed and but one seriously wounded.

In 1778 a fort was erected on Lloyd's Neck by the British for the protection of wood cutters and defense against raiders from the mainland. An unsuccessful attack was made on this fort on the 12th of July 1781, by a force of French under Count de Barras, assisted by American volunteers. In this affair a few of the assail- ants were wounded and one or two killed.

Allusion has been made to the fact that the restraints of military discipline prevented the British troops on the island, during its long occupation by them, from the per- petration of such atrocities as the lawless marauding bands of tories or piratical whaleboat crews were guilty of. The following, from the pen of the excellent historian Henry Onderdonk jr., of Jamaica, is quoted as an illus- tration of this:

"Billeting Soldiers .- During the summer British troops were off the island on active service, or if a few remained here they abode under tents; but in winter they were hutted on the sunny side of a hill, or else distributed in farmers' houses. A British officer, accompanied by a jus- tice of the peace or some prominent loyalist as a guide, rode around the country, and from actual inspection de- cided how many soldiers each house could receive, and this number was chalked on the door. The only notifi- cation was: 'Madam, we have come to take a billet on your house.' If a house had but one fireplace it was passed by, as the soldiers were not intended to form part of the family. A double house for the officers or single house with a kitchen for privates was just the thing. The soldiers were quartered in the kitchen, and the inner door nailed up so that the soldiers could not intrude on the household. They, however, often became intimate with the family and sometimes intermarried. The Hes-

sians were more sociable than the English soldiers, and often made little baskets and other toys for the children, taught them German and amused them in various ways, sometimes corrupting them by their vile language and manners. Any misconduct of the soldiers might be re- ported to their commanding officers, who usually did justice; but some offenses could not be proven, such as night stealing or damage done the liouse or to other prop- erty. As the soldiers received their pay in coin they were flush and paid liberally for what they bought, such as vegetables, milk, or what they could not draw with their rations. These soldiers were a safeguard against robbers and whaleboat men. Some had their wives with them, who acted as washerwomen, and sometimes in meaner capacities.

" From a perusal of the orderly book of General De- lancey, it appears that he used every means to protect the persons and property of the inhabitants of Long Island from the outrages of British soldiers. They were not allowed to go more than half a mile from camp at daytime and for this purpose the roll was called several times during the day), nor leave it under any pretext after sundown without a pass; but now and then they would slip out and rob. On the 11th of June 1778 Mr. John Willett, of Flushing, was assaulted at his own house, at 11 o'clock at night by persons unknown but supposed to be soldiers from having bayonets and red clothes, who threatened his life and to burn his house. The general offered a reward of Sio to the person who should first make the discovery to Major Waller, and a like reward for the discovery of the person who robbed Mr. Willett on the 9th of June of two sheep, a calf and some poultry, as he was determined to inflict exemplary punishment and put a stop to practices so dishonorable to the King's service. Again, March 9th 1778, Mrs. Hazard,.of New- town, having complained that the soldiers of the guard pulled down and burnt up her fence, that was near the guardhouse, the general at once issued an order to the officer that he should hold him answerable thereafter for any damage done the fences. So too if a soldier milked the farmers' cows, he should be punished without mercy; nor should he go in the hayfield and gather up new mown grass to make his bed of. Generally the farmers were honestly paid for whatever they sold. For instance, April 23d 1778, they were notified to call on Mr. Ochiltree, deputy commissary of forage at Flushing, with proper certificates and get payment for their hay.'

In January 1777 the American prisoners in New York were paroled and billeted on the people in Kings county. Of their situation there Colonel Graydon wrote:

" The indulgence of arranging ourselves according to our respective circles of acquaintances was granted us, and Lieutenant Forrest and myself were billeted on Mr. Jacob Suydam, whose house was pretty large, consisting of buildings which appeared to have been erected at dif- ferent times. The front and better part was occupied by Mr. Theophilus Bache and family from New York. Though we were generally civilly enough received, it cannot be supposed we were very welcome to our Low Dutch host, whose habits were very parsimonious, and whose winter provision was barely sufficient for them- selves. They were, however, a people who seemed thoroughly disposed to submit to any power that might be imposed on them; and whatever might have been their propensities at an earlier stage of the contest, they were now the dutiful and loyal subjects of King George the III. Their houses and beds we found clean, but their living extremely poor. A sorry wash made up of a sprinkling of bohea and the darkest sugar, on the verge of fluidity, with half baked bread (fuel being very scarce)

SMUGGLING-THE PRISON SHIPS.

and a little stale butter, constituted our breakfast. At our first coming a small piece of pickled beef was occa- sionally boiled for dinner, but to the beef, which was soon consumed, there succeeded cleppers or clams; and our unvaried supper was suppaan 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 supper soon became my best meal. The religion of the Dutch, like their other habits, was unostentatious and plain; and a simple, silent grace be- fore 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."

During the British occupation of Long Island illicit trade was carried on between the people here and in Connecticut by means of many ingeniously devised plans.

Previous to the separation of the colonies non-impor- tation associations had existed, and the patriotic colonists had accustomed themselves to drinking sage and sassafras tea and wearing homespun. After the separation no motive of patriotism stood in the way of indulgence in the use of British goods, and with the facilities which the long stretch of the north coast, with its numerous estuaries, inlets and harbors, and the narrow sound beyond, af- forded for smuggling, it is not surprising that Yankee shrewdness should elude the sleepy vigilance of govern- ernment officials, and the people of Connecticut come to be well supplied with goods that had been brought from New York ostensibly to supply the wants of loyal Long Islanders. All the ordinary devices of smuggling were resorted to, and even collusions were entered into with the so-called piratical whaleboat men, and stores were robbed and the goods taken across the sound, the owners, of course, sharing the profits of the adventure. In many cases government officials winked at this trade, because it supplied necessaries that were difficult to procure otherwise. In some instances it was believed they were secretly interested in the transactions. By reason of the long sound coast of Suffolk county and the secret rebel sympathies of many of its inhabitants a large share of this trade was done throught it.

No chapter in the history of the American Revolution is more appalling or revolting to every human feeling than that which records the sufferings of the prisoners who fell into the hands of the British. In all cases of this kind the account which prisoners themselves give of their treatment should be taken with many grains of allowance, for they were very prone to exaggerate; but if the half of that which was related by American prisoners is true the inhumanity of their keepers was truly shock- ing. The capture of New York in September 1776 and of Fort Washington in November of the same year threw into the hands of the British a large number of prisoners, which, added to those already in their hands, swelled the aggregate to about 5,000 in the city of New York. To the confusion and embarrassment which this sudden

accumulation of prisoners necessitated were added the negligence of the British commander and the brutal- ity of Provost Marshal Cunningham and his subordi- nates.

But if the condition of the prisoners in New York was pitiable that of the seamen confined in the prison ships at the Wallabout was horrible. The crowding together of many human beings in the hold of a ship, even with the best means of ventilation and the utmost care for their cleanliness and comfort, is disastrous to the health of those so situated. If then, as was the case with these prisoners, they are compelled to breath over and over again the pestilential emanations from their own bodies and from the filth by which they are surrounded, and to subsist on food insufficient in quantity and almost poison- ous in quality, it is not a matter of wonder that, as was the case with those confined in these ships, few survive their imprisonment. From the autumn of 1776, when the British came in possession of New York, during six years one or more condemned hulks were stationed at the Wallabout, in which were confined such American seamen as were taken prisoners by the British. The first of these was the "Whitby," which was moored in the Wallabout in October 1776. In May 1777 two other large ships were also anchored there, one of which was burned in October of the same year, and the other in February 1778. In April 1778 the old "Jersey " was moored there, and the "Hope " and the "Falmouth "-two so-called hospital ships-were stationed near. Up to the time when these hospital ships were stationed there no phy- sicians had been in attendance on the sick in the prison ships. Rev. Thomas Andros, of Berkley, Mass., was a prisoner on the old "Jersey," and relates his experience and observation as follows:

" This was an old sixty-four gun ship, which through age had become unfit for further actual service. She was stripped of every spar and all her rigging. After a battle with a French fleet her lion figurehead was taken away to repair another ship; no appearance of ornament was left, and nothing remained but an old, unsightly, rotten hulk. Her dark and filthy external appearance perfectly corresponded with the death and despair that reigned within, and nothing could be more foreign from truth than to paint her with colors flying, or any circumstance or appendage to please the eye. She was moored at the Wallabout Bay, about three-quarters of a mile to the east- ward of Brooklyn ferry, near a tide mill on the Long Isl- and shore. The nearest place to land was about twenty rods; and doubtless no other ship in the British navy ever proved the means of the destruction of so many human beings. It is computed that not less than eleven thousand American seamen perished in her. After it was next to certain death to confine a prisoner here the inhu- manity and wickedness of doing it was about the same as if he had been taken into the city and deliberately shot in some public square; but, as if mercy had fled from the earth, here we were doomed to dwell. And never while I was on board did any Howard or angel of pity appear, to inquire into or alleviate our woes. Once or twice, by the order of a stranger on the quarter deck, a_bag?of apples was hurled promiscuously into the midst of hun- dreds of prisoners, crowded together as thick as they could stand, and life and limbs were endangered by the scramble. This, instead of compassion, was a cruel sport.

GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

When I saw it about to commence I fled to the most dis- tant part of the ship.

" If there was any principle among the prisoners that could not be shaken it was their love of country. I knew no one to be seduced into the British service. They attempted to force one of our prize brig's crew into the navy, but he chose rather to die than to performn any duty, and was again restored to the prison ship.

"When I first' became an inmate of this abode of suffering, despair and death there were about four hun- dred prisoners on board; but in a short time they amounted to twelve hundred, and in proportion to our numbers the mortality increased. All the most deadly rors, but his prime ministers were dysentery, small-pox, and yellow fever. There were two hospital ships near to the old 'Jersey,' but these were soon so crowded with the sick that they could receive no more. The conse- quence was that the diseased and the healthy were mingled together in the main ship. In a short time we had two hundred or more sick and dying lodged in the fore part of the lower gun deck, where all the prisoners were confined at night. Utter derangement was a com- mon symptom of yellow fever, and, to increase the hor- ror of the darkness that shrouded us (for we were allowed no light between decks), the voice of warning would be heard, ' Take heed to yourselves! There is a madman stalking through the ship with a knife in his hand!' I sometimes found the man a corpse in the morning by whose side I laid myself down at night. At another time he would become deranged and attempt in the darkness to rise, and stumble over the bodies that else- where covered the deck. In this case I had to hold him to his place by main strength. In spite of my efforts he would sometimes rise, and then I had to close in with him, trip up his heels, and lay him again upon the deck. While so many were sick with raging fever there was a loud cry for water, but none could be had except on the upper deck, and but one allowed to ascend at a time. The suffering then from the rage of thirst during the night was very great. Nor was it at all times safe to at- tempt to go up. Provoked by the continual cry for leave to ascend, when there was one already on deck, the sen- try would push them back with his bayonet. By one of these thrusts, which was more spiteful and violent than common, I had a narrow escape of my life. In the morning the hatchways were thrown open and we were allowed to ascend, all at once, and remain on the upper deck during the day. But the first object that met our view was an appalling spectacle-a boat loaded with dead bodies, conveying them to the Long Island shore, where they were slightly covered with sand. I sometimes used to stand and count the number of times the shovel was filled with sand to cover a dead body; and certain I am

that a few high tides or torrents of rain must have disin- terred them, and had they not been removed I should " On the commencement of the first evening we were driven down to darkness, between decks secured by iron gratings and an armed soldiery, and a scene of horror which baffles all description presented itself. On every side wretched desponding shapes of men could be seen. Around the well room an armed guard were forcing up suppose the shore even now would be covered with huge piles of the bones of American seamen. There were probably four hundred on board who had never had the small-pox. Some perhaps might have been saved by in - oculation, but humanity was wanting to try even this ex- periment. Let our disease be what it would, we were the prisoners to the winches to clear the ship of water and abandoned to our fate. Now and then an American prevent her sinking, and little else could be heard but a roar of mutual execrations, reproaches, and insults. During this operation there was a small, dim light ad- mitted below, but it served to make darkness more vis- ible, and horror more terrific. In my reflections 1 said this must be a complete image and anticipation of hell. Milton's description of the dark world rushed upon my mind :- physician was brought in as a captive, but if he could ob- tain his parole he left the ship; nor could we blame him for this, for his own death was next to certain and his success in saving others by medicine in our situation was small. I remember only two American physicians who tarried on board a few days. No English physician or any one from the city ever, to my knowledge, came near us. There were thirteen of the crew to which I be- " Sights of woe, regions of horror doleful, Shades where peace and rest can never dwell." longed, but in a short time all died but three or four. The most healthy and vigorous were first seized with the fever and died in a few hours. For them there seemed to be no mercy. My constitution was less muscular and plethoric, and I escaped the fever longer than any of the thirteen except one, and the first onset was less violent."

Alexander Coffin jr., who was twice a prisoner on the old "Jersey," has related some of his experiences there. Of the firmness and patriotism of the American prisoners, even under these circumstances, he said:

" Although there were seldom less than 1,000 prisoners constantly on board the 'Jersey '-new ones coming

diseases were pressed into the service of the king of ter- about as fast as others died, or were exchanged (which,

by the bye, was seldom -I never, in the two different times that I was on board, knew of but one prisoner entering on board a British ship of war, though the boats from the fleet were frequently there and the English offi- cers were endeavoring to persuade them to enter; but their persuasions and offers were invariably treated with contempt, and even by men who pretty well knew they should die where they were. These were the men whose bones have been so long bleaching on the shores of the Wallabout; these were the patriots who preferred death in its most horrible shape to the disgrace and infamy of fighting the battles of a base and barbarous enemy against the liberties of their country; these were the patriots whose names suffer no diminution by a comparison with the heroes and patriots of antiquity."

The bodies of those who died on these ships were buried in the sand along the shore, on the slope of a hill, in a ravine, and in several other localities. The bones of many were washed out of the sand and were seen lying along the shore. In 1803 some societies began to agitate the subject of awarding funeral honors to the remains of these martyrs, but nothing was accomplished till 1808. The Tammany Society, which then embraced many Rev- olutionary patriots, took the lead in the work, and the corner stone of a monument to these heroes was laid April 13th of that year, on land donated by John Jack- son, Esq., near the Brooklyn navy yard. Their bones, to the amount of about twenty hogsheads, were collected, placed in thirteen capacious coffins, and on the 26th of May 1808 each coffin, in charge of one of the Tammanial tribes and escorted by eight Revolutionary soldiers as pall bearers, was borne to the place of sepulture, and all were, with solemn and imposing ceremonies, deposited in a common tomb.

After the interment of these remains steps were taken toward providing funds to erect a suitable monument to

GEN. NATHANIEL WOODHULL-THE WAR OF 1812.

the memory of these martyrs, but the interest which was at first felt in the matter subsided, and at length the lot on which the vault was constructed was sold for taxes. It was purchased by Benjamin Romaine, who, to prevent its further desecration, fitted it up as a burial place for himself and family, and there, at his death, in 1844, he was entombed. After his death another movement was made looking toward the erection of a monument, and an association for that purpose was formed; but "yet there is no monument-no stone bearing the record of their patriotic devotion to principle, and their more than he- roic death."

The self-sacrificing patriotism, the meritorious services, the pure, unselfish life, and the tragic death of General Nathaniel Woodhull render a brief sketch of him appro- priate here. He was born in 1722 at Mastic, in Brook- haven, received a sound education, and early displayed those mental traits that qualified him for public useful- ness. In 1758 he entered the army in the French and Indian war of 1754-60, and held the position of major. He was at Ticonderoga under General Abercrombie, and was with General Bradstreet in the expedition against Fort Frontenac and the reduction of that fortress. He did important service in the expedition from Schenectady to the Oneida carrying place in the same summer, and in 1760, having been promoted to the rank of colonel, he went in command of the 3d regiment of New York troops in the expedition against Canada. On the termination of hostilities he was discharged with the troops of the prov- ince and returned to private life. In 1769 he was made a member of the colonial Assembly from Suffolk county, and he continued a member of that body till the dissolu- tion of the colonial government in 1775. He was chosen a delegate to the Provincial Congress in May 1775, and in August of the same year was made president of that Congress, and acted in that capacity till August 10th 1776. He was also, in August 1775, appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Suffolk and Queens counties. On the Ioth of August 1776 he obtained leave of absence from the Provincial Congress. On the 24th, two days previous to the battle of Long Island, he was ordered by the con- vention to take command of a force of militia and " use all possible diligence to prevent the stock and other pro- visions from falling into the hands of the enemy." H discharged this duty to the best of his ability with his meager force, driving beyond the reach of the enemy all the cattle that could be collected, at the same time making known to the convention his inability to maintain himself with the force at his command. The unfortunate issue of the battle of Long Island and the impracticability of sending the desired reinforcements will be remembered. In the hope of receiving these, however, and in accord- ance with his sense of honor and duty, he did not make a final retreat, but on the 28th ordered his troops to a point four miles east of Jamaica, where, in the afternoon, he attempted to join them. A thunder storm arrested him some two miles from this town, at the tavern of Increase Carpenter, and he was overtaken by a party of dragoons and infantry, guided by some tories. Wood says: "The

general immediately gave up his sword, in token of sur- render. The ruffian who first approached him [said to be a Lieutenant Huzzy], as is reported, ordered him to say 'God save the King.' The general replied 'God save us all;' on which he most cowardly and cruelly assailed the defenseless general with his broadsword, and would have killed him on the spot if he had not been prevented by the interference of an officer of more honor and humanity (said to be Major De Lancey of the dragoons), who ar- rested his savage violence." He was removed to Jamaica, his wounds were dressed, and with other prisoners he was confined till the next day in a stone church. He was then sent to Gravesend and confined with eighty others in a vessel that had been used for the transportation of live stock, with no provision for comfort or health. Thence he was removed to a house in New Utrecht. Here it was found his injuries necessitated the amputa- tion of his arm. Previous to the operation he sent for his wife, and made arrangements for the alleviation of the suffering of the American prisoners at his own ex- pense. Mortification soon succeeded the operation, and on the 20th of September he died. Wood says of him: " With personal courage he possessed judgment, decision and firmness of character, tempered with conciliating manners, which commanded the respect and obedience of his troops and at the same time secured their confi- dence and esteem."

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History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 9

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co. Number of Pages: 703

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703