USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 41
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the 23d were removed to " the plain near the cross-roads " at White Plains, the evacuation of the country below having by that time been sufficiently accomplished to justify Washington in stationing him- self at the termination of the route.
On the 22d the continned inactivity of the British, with the pleas- ing news of the American raid on the Loyalist Rangers at Mamaro neck, had a stimulating effect on the whole army, to which Wash- ington's personal presence, everywhere encouraging the men and superintending the work, contributed. There was now a continuous column of moving troops all the way from Valentine's Hill to White Plains. A portion of the sick had been previously sent across the
ELFE
THE MILLER HOUSE, WHITE PLAINS (WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS).
Hudson to Fort Lee, but a large number of these unfortunates re- mained, who were given a position in the advance, being dispatched early on the 22d and reaching White Plains the next morning. Dur- ing the night of the 22d General Sullivan's division completed the march, and from then until the close of the 26th the weary and be- draggled battalions kept steadily tiling into the White Plains camp. General Lee's division had the honor of bringing up the rear; and the time occupied on the march by this body, commanded by an officer of undoubted capacity (whatever may be said of him ofher- wise), may be taken as a fair indication of the extreme laboriousness of the army's progress. General Lee's command presumably started from the lower part of the county on the 22d, or at any rate not later than the morning of the 230; it reached Tuckahoe early on the 24th,
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and on the 26th arrived in White Plains-more than three days being required to cover a lesser distance than the division of General Heath, in light marching order, had traversed in twelve hours. Lee, how- over, upon reaching the section where the British were encamped (Scarsdale), was apprehensive of attack, and by a forced night march left the Tuckahoe Road and gained the Dobbs Ferry road, by which he proceeded the rest of the way. There was no pursuit of the army by the British forces remaining in New York City: and even Colonel Lasher's little command of a few hundred men, which Washington had left at Fort Independence as a guard for Kingsbridge, safely joined the main body at White Plains after being summoned to do so on the 27th.1
On the morning of the 28th of October, when Hewe moved up from Scarsdale to attack Washington, the only American force remain- ing south of White Plains was the garrison at Fort Washington on Manhattan Island, retained there, against the judgment of the com. mander-in-chief, in deference to the opinions of his subordinates and the wish of congress. It may be said, we think without the possi- bility of mistake, that for fully six days after General Howe's pas- sage to Pell's Neck on the 18th it was abundantly in his power, with the forces at his disposal and from the positions successively ocen- pied by him, to cut the Revolutionary army in twain by an easy thank movement; and that, without speculating at all as to the probable maximum results of such a movement executed at any time in that period, its minimum results could not have failed to be either the destruction or capture of a very considerable section of our army. Yet in face of the tremendous peril to which the army in its very integrity was exposed, not the minntest portion of it suffered harm at Howe's hands; and, indeed, if any single American soldier was killed, or wounded, or made prisoner on the march from Kingsbridge to White Plains as the consequence of aggression by the enemy, the fact is beyond our sources of information. Aside from the engage- ment in Pelham on the 18th and the affair at the outlying Brit- ish post of Mamaroneck on the morning of the 22d, both brought on by the enterprise of the Americans, there were two or three skir- mishes of some interest along the line of march-which likewise were precipitated by the Americans. On the 23d a scouting party sent out by Colonel Glover attacked a party of lessians, killing
1 Lasher evacuated Kingsbridge carly on the morning of the 28th, first burning the bar- racks, and went to White Plains by way of the Albany Post Road. After his departure, Gen- oral Greene came over from Fort Washington, removed to that place all the materials and supplles which had been left behind, completed
the work of dismantling Fort Independence and the redoubts, and tore down King's Bridge and the Free Bridge. General Knyphausen, with a force of mercenary troops from Now Rochelle, occupied the abandoned ground on the evening of the 20th.
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twelve (among them a field officer) and capturing three, with a loss of but one man; and on the 24th a detachment from General Lee's division crossed the Bronx and at Ward's Tavern, near Tuckahoe, fell upon 250 Hessians, slew ten of them, and bore away two into durance. (The lessians, it seems, were singularly marked for do- struction by the wayside in this campaign, even eliminating Daw- son's murderous pen.) The latter performance provoked a slight retaliating blow, a raid being made upon General Lee's column which resulted in the capture of the general's wine and some other per- sonal baggage, including that of Captain Alexander Hamilton. This appears to have been the only aggressive act of the enemy. The re- markable forbearance of the British general was dne, as he subse- quently explained, to his settled policy " not wantonly to commit His Majesty's troops where the object was inadequate." He ab- horred skirmishes, and he despised such a merely partial issue as the capture of a portion of Washington's forces or even the shatter- ing of the whole-for his cautions mind saw only the minimum ad- vantage to be derived by disturbing the movement after its van had passed him, and refused to believe that the entire object of his campaign would follow. He was looking for a grand finale, a pitched battle with thousands engaged, to terminate in the rebel general's humble appearance before him and his glittering staff to deliver over his sword and surrender the last bleeding remnant of his host. Even in his short advance from above New Rochelle to Scarsdale, on the 25th and 26th, it is said that he moved " with the utmost cir- emuspection, not to expose any part which might be vulnerable," although there was no foe to the east of him, and at the north Wash- ington's main body was occupied in building its White Plains in- trenchments, and at the west, over across the Bronx River, he could see, almost without the aid of his field-glasses, the troops of General Lee most painfully and tediously toiling on, rather in the character of beasts of burden than of armed men. But the capital blunder of Howe was his lazy movement in mass. According to his detini- tion of his object, it was to make a master stroke which would end the war. This he might have attempted by assailing Washington in his intrenehments on Harlem Heights, which would have been foothardy because of the strength of the position. His whole pur- pose in coming up to Westchester County was to surround that posi- tion from the north, and, by thus cutting off Washington's communi- rations and supplies, force him either to surrender or to offer battle in the open field. Notwithstanding his absurd disembarkation on Throgg's Neck, he could still easily have realized that aim after his movement to Pell's Neck if he had then advanced steadily to a con-
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tral locality in the upper part of Westchester County. Instead he loitered on the shores of the Sound until Washington had occupied White Plains with a powerful body, and then he granted his ad- versary time to fortify his new station; so that, when he finally did move forward to bring on the decisive engagement for which he was longing, he was in precisely the same relative situation as he had been in before the position on Harlem Heights-attacking an in- trenched camp from below, with the whole country above left open.
The effective strength of Washington's army as finally concon- frated at White Plains was in the neighborhood of 13,000. The actual force which Howe brought against it is generally estimated at about the same number or not many thousands greater-General Knyphansen's entire command of not less than 8,000 having been left at New Rochelle. The great advantage of the British troops in regard to quality, discipline, and equipment is too well understood by the reader to need renewed statement here. On the other hand. the Americans had a certain advantage from the circumstance of being intrenched, which, however, was by no means of a commanding nature at the time of the appearance of the enemy before him. These intrenchments, says Dawson, " had been hastily constructed, withont the superintendence of experienced engineers. The stony soil pro- vented the ditch from being made of any troublesome depth or the parapet of a troublesome height. The latter was not fraised. Only where it was least needed -- probably because the construction of it elsewhere had been interfered with-was there the slightest appear ance of an abatis." The works had for their central feature a square fort of sods built across the main street or Post Road; from which the defenses extended westwardly over the south side of Purdy's Hill to a bend of the Bronx River, and eastwardly across the hills to Horton's Pond (Saint Mary's Lake). Directly across the Bronx from the termination of the western line of defenses-that is, in the territory of the present Town of Greenburgh-rose an elevated height called Chatterton's Hill, which was to be the scene of the entire impending battle. On the erest of this hill a breastwork had been begun on the night of the 27th by some Massachusetts militia- men, but it was not sufficiently advanced to prove of any value. There were no American works or troops whatever west of Chatterton's till. The easterly termination of the White Plains intrenchments, as already said, was at Horton's Pond, and there were no supple- mental works beyond that point; but off to the east, near Harrison's Purchase, the brigades of Generals George Clinton and John Morin Scott were stationed, and to the northeast, at the head of King
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Street, near Rye Pond, was posted a brigade commanded by General Samuel 1. Parsons.
From his camp at Scarsdale, four miles below White Plains, Gen eral Ilowe marched early on the morning of Monday, October 28, to fight what he supposed would be the decisive bafile. He pro- ceeded in two heavy columns, the right commanded by General Sir Henry Clinton and the left by General de Heister. Upon arriving at Hart's Corners (now Hartsdale) he was met by a body of New England troops under Major-General Spencer, whose number Daw- son carefully calenlates at abont 2,600. This force, which had been pushed forward by Washington to check the enemy's advance, made only a sorry endeavor, being promptly scattered. in its dispersal the Hessians bore a conspicuous part, but obtained not much substantial satisfaction for the hard blows they had suffered on previons days, as the Americans made good their escape-in fact fled in every direc- tion with the ntmost diligence. Yet a noticeable loss was inflicted- 22 killed, 24 wounded, and one missing, a total of 47, or about half as many as our side lost in the well-fought engagement on Chatter- ton's Hill. The famous battle of Hart's Corners well merits the more descriptive name-which we borrow with acknowledgments from Dawson-of the Ront of the Bashful New Englanders.
Most of the fugitives tled across the Bronx River, whither they were pursned by the Hessians. This trifling circumstance proved a principal factor in determining the scene of the conflict historically known as the battle of White Plains. The commander of the pur- sning Hessian force was Colonel Rahl, a gallant officer-the same who fell two months later at Trenton. Rahl, in his chase of the New Englanders, approached Chatterton's Hill, and observing that that summit was ocenpied by an American body, conceived it to be his duty to turn his attention thither. He accordingly abandoned the pursuit, advanced toward the hill (still moving on the west side of the Bronx), and took a station commanding it, whence he opened a cannonade of most pompous pretensions, whose only present result. however, was the wounding of one member of the New England militia regiment posted on the hill. That catastrophe so agitated the comrades of the hapless man that it is related they " broke and fled, and were not rallied without much difficulty." But the hill was soon to have sturdier defenders.
The American troops on Chatterton's Hill who had engaged the attention of Colonel Rahl were Colonel Haslet's Delaware regi- ment (which participated in the raid on the Queen's Rangers), and a regiment of Massachusetts militia commanded by Colonel John Brooks. It is unknown whether Washington's original plans for de-
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fending his position behind the White Plains intrenchments con- templated any particularly formal operations from Chatterton's Hill. But during Rahl's artillery attack he sent over a strong force, com- manded by General MeDougall, to occupy it in conjunction with the men already there. This body consisted of the Ist regiment of the New York line, Colonel Ritzema's 30 regiment of the same line, Col- onel Webby's regiment of the Connectiont line, and the surviving rem- nant of Colonel Smallwood's noble Maryland regiment which so distinguished itself at the battle of Long island-all well experi- enced and reliable troops; together with a company of New York artillery (having two small field-pieces) commanded by Captain Alex- ander Hamilton. The united force was about 1,800 and made a re- spectable showing as its different regi- ments took up their positions on the hill.
During these preliminaries the main body of llowe's army, in its two columns, continued to approach the American intrenchments, as if to pro- ceed forthwith to the general attack. But at the distance of about a mile from Washington's lines a halt was ordered, and General Howe and his principal officers held a consultation on horse- back. They concluded that the force on Chatterton's Hill was a serions menace to their tank and that it must be dis- GENERAL MCDOUGALL. lodged before moving on the principal works. Thereupon a numberof the finest regiments, both British and German, were ordered to storm the hill. In addition to Rahl's battalion, already in action, there were the 2d brigade of British (comprising the 5th, 28th, 35th, and 49th regiments), a party of light dragoons, and the Hessian Grenadiers under Donop-all commanded by General Leslie. Artillery was sta- tioned at advantageons places, some twenty pieces altogether, and furiously cannonaded the Americans on the hill. The total numerical strength of the attacking party has been variously estimated at from 4,000 to 7,500. All authorities agree that it was overwhelming.
The troops designated for the enterprise forded the Bronx, whose banks at that time were considerably swollen, and undertook the assault in three distinct movements.
The 28th and 35th British regiments, with Rahl's Hessians, and another German regiment (which led the assault), attacked the Ameri- can position in front, where the regiment of Massachusetts militia, the
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Maryland regiment, and Ritzema's 3d New York regiment were posted. The Massachusetts militiamen, who had been so skittish under the artillery fire, showed themselves equally disinclined to sus- tain an infantry shock ; and, although sheltered by a stone wall, " iled in confusion, without more than a random, scattering fire," when Rall's troops, whom it was their duty to oppose, advanced upon them. On the other hand, the Marylanders and New Yorkers awaited un- flinchingly the onset of the other three regiments (one Hessian and two British), and from the brow of the hill received them, when within range, with a deliberate and effective fire, which caused them to recoil in spite of their very superior numbers and admirable discipline. But the desertion of their post by the militiamen exposed the brave re- maining defenders of the position to a flank attack by Rahl's brigade, which (especially as the check administered to the three regiments was only temporary) rendered the ground untenable. The Ameri- cans therefore fell back, though in good order, here and there making a stand at favorable points. The number of the Maryland and Now York troops engaged in this quarter and thus dislodged from it was about 1,100.
Meantime the right of the American position, occupied by Colonel Haslet's Delaware men, about 300 strong, was moved on by the 5th and 49th British regiments. Notwithstanding the notable weakness of the American force, a most gallant defense was made. It seems that before the ascent of the assailing party, while the enemy's can- nonade was still in progress, one of the two field-pieces belonging to Alexander Hamilton's company of New York Artillery was, upon Colonel Haslet's application to General MeDougall, assigned to his (Haslet's) command. This gun became, however, partially disabled by a Hessian cannon-ball, and although several discharges were made from it, the artillerymen who served it are said to have been remiss in their duties and to have retired with it from the action unsea- sonably. At all events, the essential work of defense done at this point in the American line was that of the riflemen, and their ro- markable steadiness in maintaining their ground was no way due to artillery support. Even after the 1,100 Maryland and New York troops, courageous and stubborn though they were, had completely abandoned their attempt to hold the center, this heroic Delaware band persevered in the fight, finally taking a post behind a fence at the top of the hill, where, with some fragmentary troops from Me- Dongall's 1st New York regiment, it twice repulsed the British charge, in which both foot and horse partook. In fact, the crowning honors of the day were won by the Delaware men; they were the last of all the American forces on Chatterton's Hill to stand against the
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A
L
GEORGE WASHINGTON
FROM THE ORIGINAL CABINET-SIZE PORTRAIT BY PEALE, PRESENTED BY JOHN QUINCY ADAMS TO CARLO GIUSEPPE GUGLIELMO BOTTA, AUTHOR OF " HISTORY OF THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE." PURCHASED FROM THE BOTTA FAMILY, WITH PULL CREDENTIALS OF AUTHENTICITY, BY FREDERIC HE PEYSTER, LL. D., A FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND PRESENTED BY HIS SON. BREV. - MA.I. - GEN. J. WATTS DE PEYSTER, NEW YORK, TO THE UNITED STATES WAR DEPARTMENT LIBRARY, AT WASHINGTON, D.C.
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enemy, they helped to secure the retreat of the other regiments, and when the time came for them to retreat they exeented the maneuver successfully.
The American left was but a trifle stronger than the right, con- sisting of the 1st New York regiment and Colonel Webb's Conner- tient regiment, both skeleton organizations whose united numbers were some four hundred. Against them moved a formidable array- Donop's Hessian Grenadiers in three regiments, besides a regiment of German chasseurs. The second of Hamilton's field-pieces was sta- tioned in this position, and according to most accounts of the battle did good exeention. But the seasoned mercenary troops came steadily on up the hill, and the two American regiments, like their com- patriots at the other points, were forced to retreat, which they did in an entirely creditable manner. A feature of the fighting at the left of the line was the spirited defense of a portion of the position, against a force twice as strong as his own, by Captain William Hull (afterward General Hull, distinguished in the War of 1812), who commanded a company of the Connecticut regiment.
it has already been mentioned that a slight intrenchment was thrown up (or rather begun) on Chatterton's Hill during the night of October 27 by Brooks's Massachusetts militiamen. But this elemen- tary work did not prove of the least utility to the defenders of the hill. The action on Chatterton's Hill was not fought by the Ameri- eans from behind intrenchments like Bunker's Hill, but on ground fully exposed to the onrush of the enemy-or at least affording only the incidental protection of a sheltering rock here and there and a straggling stone fence or two. Before the charge of troops outnum- bering them by three or four to one-troops as skilled and hardened in the business of war as any that the armed camps of Europe could supply, and operating under the gaze of their commander and the whole army-it was humanly impossible to hold such a position. Everything reasonably possible was performed by all concerned-if we except the single regiment of undisciplined militia: the position at every point was nobly defended, and in several instances with signal brilliancy; the retreat, when nothing but retreat remained, was performed with dignity as well as discretion and without material loss; and finally the punishment visited upon the foe was much more considerable than that inflicted by him. Regarding the losses on both sides we accept Dawson's figures, which appear to have been compiled with exactitude. The British regiments lost 35 killed, 120 wounded, and 2 missing, a total of 157; the mercenary regiments 12 killed, 62 wounded, and 2 missing, a total of 76-making a grand total on the enemy's side of 233. The American losses were 25
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killed, 52 wounded, and 16 missing-93 altogether; to which add the 17 lost at Hart's Corners-an American grand total of 140 for the two fights. It is true the returns are somewhat defective for both sides; but there is no reason for suspecting that the American un- reported losses were disproportionately greater than the enemy's. The Americans bore off all their wounded and their two tiekl-guns, and, by way of the Dobbs Ferry road, crossed the bridge over the Bronx River and fell into position for further service, if necessary, behind the White Plains intrenchments. No attempt was made to pursne them.
It is probable that a good many of our killed and wounded fell under the artillery fire which preceded the assault. This, although not long continued, was very heavy for the time that it did last. A participant on the American side, writing over the signature of " A Gentleman in the Army," has left a truly epie description of it, whereof we will not deprive our readers, especially as we shall hardly have another opportunity to offer them anything so fine about the spectacular aspects of war in Westchester County.
The scene (he says) was grand and solemn. All the adjacent hills smoked as though on fire, and bellowed and trembled with a perpetual canonde and fire of field-pieces, howitz, aund mortars. The air groaned with streams of eannon and musket-shot ; the air and hills smoked and echoed terribly with the bursting of shells ; the fences and walls were knocked down and torn to pieces, and men's legs, arms, and bodies mingled with the eannon and grape- shot all around us.
There are differences of opinion about the value of the services rendered the American regiments by the two field-guns at their dis- posal. It is said that Alexander Hamilton, visiting Chatterton's Hill many years after, remarked on this point: " For three successive discharges the advancing column of British troops was swept from hill-top to river," and in the writings of his son, John C. Hamilton, much is made of the artillery phase of the American defense. Daw- son, whose animus against Hamilton is strong, utterly discredits the claims for the artillerymen and their young commander, and even asserts that this arm of the defense was distinctly neglectful of its duty, comporting itself almost as disgracefully as the Massachusetts regiment of militia. But this is not a detail of any essential import- ance. The two guns could not have been of more than minor con- sequence in any case. The aggregate force detached by Washington to Chatterton's Hill was not strong enough, even with the best sup- port which a single company of artillery with two small pieces could have given it, to retain that station against the tremendous attack- ing power. The one essential thing is that it was strong enough to alarm General Howe in his progress toward the American intrench- ments at White Plains, to divert him from the main business of the
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day, and to canse him absolutely to dismember his army for the purely incidental purpose of capturing an outlying post.
After expelling the Americans from Chatterton's Hill, the attack- ing party quietly occupied the ground thus taken, prepared dinner, and rested on its arms. To that inert and irresolute attitude the main body of the royal army also resigned itself. In the often-quoted words of Stedman, the English historian of the Revolution, " the diffi- culty of co-operation between the left and right wings of our army was such that it was obvious that the latter could no longer ex- pediently attempt anything against the enemy's main body." That is, in the storming and occupation of the hill Howe split his forces into two remotely separated parts, which could not co-operate in a general advance movement, whilst Washington with his entire body lay in an advantageous position ready to resist any attempt with satisfactory numbers. The original project of the British commander was suspended for the day, no offer being made to engage the in- trenched Revolutionaries, with the exception of one slight sporadic effort which is thus described by Heath, against whose division it was directed :
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