USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 42
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The right column, composed of British troops, preceded by about twenty light horse in full gallop, and brandishing their swords, appeared on the road leading to the Court House, and now directly in the front of our general's (Heath's) division. The light horse leaped the fence of a wheat field at the foot of the hill on which Colonel Malcolm's regiment was posted, of which the light horse were not aware until a shot from Lieutenant Fenno's field-piece gave them notice by striking in the midst of them, and a horseman pitching from his borse. They then wheeled short about, galloped ont of the field as fast as they came in, rode behind a little hill on the road and faced about. . . . The column eame no further up the road, but wheeled to the left by platoons as they came up, and, passing through a bar or gateway, directed their heads towards the troops on Chatterton's Hill, now engaged.
This pitiful demonstration was the sole thing undertaken by the enemy in the White Plains quarter.
But while there was no battle at White Plains, the whole engage- ment having transpired on Chatterton's Hill in the Town of Green- burgh, the name of the battle of White Plains, by which alone the event is known in general histories, is a strictly appropriate one; and indeed it would have been regrettable if this exceedingly im- portant conflict-one of the most important and representative of the struggle for independence-had received the merely local desig- nation of the isolated, incidental, accidentally chosen, and unpop- ulated summit where it was fought. The strategie situation was at White Plains exclusively, which was the place deliberately selected by Washington days in advance for his final stand, and fully accepted by Howe as the battle-ground; and up to the moment that Howe arrived in sight of our lines the attention given to Chatterton's Hill by the American commander, even as a locality of incidental conso-
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quence, was of the most informal nature, no defensive works of any availability having been erected and not a single piece of artillery planted upon it. That the action on Chatterton's Hill proved acci- dentally to be the whole of the duly appointed battle of White Plains, would have been no suitable reason for robbing the latter place of the honor of the name. Moreover, as rural battlefields are always named after the most conspienons and most familiarly known locality of their vieinage, it would have been a peculiar departure from such ethies not to dignity this very notable engagement with the name of the flourishing and widely known village beside which it occurred.
There exists no publie memorial, either on Chatterton's Hill or in White Plains village, commemorative of the battle. Upon the ap- proach of the centennial anniversary of the day in 1876, arrangements were made, under the auspices of the Westchester County Historical Society, for a public celebration on Chatterton's Hill, to include the laying of the corner-stone for a monument. This latter ceremony was duly performed, but as the weather was exceedingly inclement the public exercises were adjourned to the court house, where a titting address was made by the Hon. Clarkson N. Potter, at that time representative in congress from the district. Congress had pre- viously donated three Revolutionary cannon as accessories to the proposed monument, and the plans for the memorial did not con- template any elaborate or costly structure. Yet the project ended with the laying of the corner stone and the speechifying. The futile attempt is a decidedly painful reminiscence for the people of West- chester County, and our readers will willingly spare ns any further remark upon it than this passing notice of the fact.
CHAPTER XVIII
FORT WASHINGTON'S FALL-THE DELINQUENCY OF GENERAL LEE
HE divided British army, with its right resting on the road from White Plains to Mamaroneck, and its left on the Bronx River and Chatterion's Hill, remained completely inactive not only during the rest of the 28th of October, but throughout the period of its continuance before Washington's position. As we have seen, it was deemed inexpedient by General lowe to move on the White Plains infrenchments with his forces thus separated. But it has never been satisfactorily explained why that separation of his army need have been protracted after the taking of the hill, or why he might not have promptly reunited the severed parts and fought the intended battle on the same after- noon or the next morning under substantially the original conditions. To hold Chatterton's Hill after having secured it, only a small hody of troops was required, since Washington, expecting a general as- sault upon his intrenchments, would not have dared weaken his army for such a hazardous and profitless object as an attempted recap- ture of a detached post. We think the only reasonable deduction from the known facts is that Howe grew faint-hearted while facing Washington after his halt; and indeed his personal explanation of his couduet in declining a general battle strongly suggests such an inference. In a letter to Lord George Germaine he accounted for his failure to attack Washington the next morning by representing thai the Americans meantime had drawn back their encampment and strengthened their lines by additional works, which made it neces- sary io defer the purposed aggression until re-enforcements could ar- rive. In other words, he sought counsel of his fears. It is true the AAmericans did strengthen their lines to every extent possible, thank- fully taking advantage of the respite granted them; but when Howe marched from Scarsdale he was coming to assail intrenchments of entirely uncertain strength, and if willing to venture against them then he could hardly have changed his mind after the lapse of a few hours from any other circumstance than newborn discretion. As for his assertion that the Americans had drawn back their encamp- ment by the morning of the 29th, it was entirely erroneous; although
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they did begin as early as the night of the 28th to move back their stores as the first preliminary to their masterly withdrawal into the impreguable Heights of North Castle-an ultimate movement which Howe should have foreseen if he had possessed a grain of military sense, and which he must have known would prove more and more imminent with every hour that he frittered away before the White Plains works.
During the 29th and 30th General Howe continued, with all the sagacity he could command, to inspect the rising American intrench- ments and to reflect upon the excellent uses to which the rebels were
THE PRISON SHIP.
thus putting the unexpected opportunity vouchsafed them. On the afternoon of the latter day he was re-enforced by four regiments from New York City and two from Mamaroneck, and, thus strengthened, he resolved to fight the battle on the morning of the 31st, and made preparations accordingly. But a violent rainstorm fell, and there was another and last postponement. Between the hours of nightfall on the B1st of October and daybreak on the Ist of November, Wash- ington retired to his new position in the North Castle hills, about a mile above his first stand, leaving. however, a tolerably strong force on the lines at White Plains, which hold them for a number of hours on the 1st without suffering disturbance from the enemy. and then abandoned them to a party of lessians that came over from Chatterton's Hill to occupy them. In the inquiry instituted by par-
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liament concerning lowe's transactions as commander of his Majesty's forces in America, one of the witnesses (Lord Cornwallis) was interrogated concerning the failure to storm the works after the arrival of the re-enforcements. He replied that it was on ae- count of the rain. The question was then asked whether, "if the powder was wet on both sides, the attacks might not have been made by bayonets? "-to which the intelligent witness replied, " I do not recolleet that I said the powder was wet." The simple truth is that on the very last day when he might have fought Washington under not extremely unfavorable conditions, Hlowe found it unpleasant 10 do so because of rain, as on the preceding days he had found it in- expedient because of fear. In such an emergency as the impending retirement of an inferior adversary to an imassailable position, one would think that, even if reduced to the necessity of a bayonet fight, the attacking general, unless blindly indifferent to his reputation, should not have hesitated to pursue that course rather than suffer the campaign to come to a humiliating end.
Finding that Washington had retired, General Howe, apparently with some realizing sense of his previous delinquency, and despite the continuance of the storm and the wretched condition of the roads. followed him to the North Castle position on November 1 with a por- tion of his artillery, and began to cannonade the American left, which replied with vigor. Little resulted from this performance on either side but powder burning. Washington had already taken the pre- cantien of preventing any attempt of the enemy to ent off his re- treat north of the Croton River. As the reader doubtless knows. that stream, previously to the diversion of its waters for the uses of New York City, had a decidedly wide channel for a considerable distance from its mouth; and at the time of the Revolution the only structure affording passage over it to the north was Pine's Bridge, some five miles east of the Hudson River.1 There was a ferry at the mouth of the Croton, but of course it was essentially important to retain Pine's Bridge. Washington consequently, on October 31, sont General Rezin Beall, with three Maryland regiments, to that point: and in addition he ordered General Lord Stirling with his brigade " to keep pare with the enemy's left dank and to push up also to C'roton River should he plainly perceive that the enemy's route lays that way." Thus besides having gained a situation for the army on the Heights of North Castle from which he could defy any further attempts of Howe's, he had thoroughly secured his lines of com- munication.
! However, toward the end of the war a bridge was thrown across the stream about a
mlle and a half from the mouth. This was known as Continental Brlige.
-
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Howe made no offer to dispute the possession of the country above the North Castle hills, and it does not appear that he even attempted to reconnoiter it. But the brigade of General Agnew which was stationed at Mamaroneck was pushed forward about two miles be- vond Rye, in order, if possible, to bring an American force at the Sawpits to an engagement. Failing in this, Agnew returned to Mamaroneck. During the passage of the royal troops through Rye, says Baird, they were warmly greeted by the Loyalists of that place, " conspicuous among whom was the Rev. Mr. Avery, the [ Episcopa- liau] rector of the parish, who had been in correspondence with Gov- ernor Tryon before the arrival of the British army in New York and had been very ontspoken in his professions of sympathy for the Brit- ish cause." This Rev. Mr. Avery, according to Bolton, was a stepson of the patriot General Putnam. He soon had cause to rue his indis- creet demonstration of enthusiasm. A few days later his horses and cattle were seized by some vindictive Revolutionaries. Two days after that he was found dead in the neighborhood of his house. It has never been learned how he came to his end. So far as is known, no marks of violence were found on his body. The Tory clergyman Seabury, of Westchester, writing to the Propagation Society about his death, mentions the conjecture of some persons that he was mur- dered by the " rebels," but apparently gives preference to the opinion that he died from natural canses, superinduced by distress of mind under the persecutions to which he was subjected.
Confronted by the difficult conditions of the new situation, General Howe would hardly in any case have persevered long in his actual test of Washington's too evident strength in the location where he had now established himself. But the suddenness of his retirement was almost as puzzling as had been the circumstances of his en- trance upon the Westchester campaign. On the night of the 4th of November he broke up his encampment, and by daybreak of the 5th he was marching with all his army to Dobbs Ferry, where he formed a new camp on the 6th.
This move of course implied that Howe, abandoning his designs against Washington's forces at North Castle, and also leaving to his opponent the undisturbed possession of the country above, had concluded to transfer the scene of aggressive operations to some other quarter. But it was difficult to determine just what he had in view. " The design of this maneuver," wrote Washington to the president of congress on the 6th, " is a matter of much conjecture and specula- tion, and can not be accounted for with any degree of certainty." But there were three principal objects that Howe might contem- plate :- first, to capture Forts Washington and Lee, so as to make
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his mastery of the lower Hudson complete; second, to transport his army to the west bank of the Hudson, and by a march through New Jersey seize Philadelphia, the Revolutionary capital; or third, to proceed up the Hudson River along its west bank and take posses- sion of the Highlands. In the case of an intended capture of Forts Washington and Lee it was manifestly impossible to do anything more toward retaining those positions than had already been done, as both of them were well garrisoned and it would have been inju- dicious to deplete the army for their further protection. But it was necessary without delay to provide for thwarting the other two pos- sible objects of Howe. At a council of war held on the 6th it was unanimously agreed to so distribute the army as to have a portion of it available for confronting Howe whithersoever he might go- to retain a part in the encampment at North Castle, to dispatch another part into New Jersey, and to establish a third part in the neighborhood of Peekskill as a guard for the Highlands. Conforma- bly with this decision Washington on the 9th detached 3,000 men under General Heath to Peekskill and removed 5,000 to New Jersey under the temporary charge of General Putnam, intending to assume this command personally within a few days, and on the 10th he com- mitted to General Lee the command of the North Castle residue, at that time about 7,500.
In making this disposition he had two fundamental purposes- first, to keep Heath's body of 3,000 permanently in the Highlands, without drawing upon it in any event for the re-enforcement of the main operating army; and second, to have Lee remain at North Castle only for the time being, until Howe's intentions should be de- veloped. Upon the latter point his directions to Lee were unmis- takable. Hle directed that the stores and baggage be removed north of the Croton River into General Heath's jurisdiction, and closed with this injunction: " If the enemy should remove the greater part of their force to the west side of Hudson's River, I have no doubt of your following with all possible dispatch." We shall see later how Lee, in his commander's direst need during the retreat through New Jersey, deliberately ignored this instruction and even assumed to exercise independent authority and to reverse Washington's express orders to Heath.
On the night of the 10th of November Washington, having taken his departure from the remnant of the army at North Castle, went to Peekskill, and on the 11th, accompanied by Generals Heath, Stirling, George and James Clinton, and Mifflin, began a detailed inspection of points on both banks of the river above, which was extended the next morning into the defiles of the Highlands. This tour resulted
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in the issuance of definite instructions to lleath. About ten o'clock on the morning of the 12th he crossed the river to embark upon his (Wer memorable winter campaign in New Jersey.
Allusion has been made in a previous chapter to the burning of the Westchester County court house by some soldiers of Washing- ton's army. That deplorable event occurred on the night of the 5th of November. It was an entirely wanton and irresponsible perform- ance. Throughout the Westchester campaign Washington had been excessively annoyed by the bad conduct of the lawless element in his ranks-men who pillaged and set fire to farm houses, and com- mitted promiscuous outrages. He repeatedly issued orders to re- strain such practices. In general orders dated November 2 he said : " The General expressly forbids any person or soldier belonging to the army to set fire to any house or barn, on any pretense, without a special order from some general officer." The burning of the court house during the night of the 5th was therefore done in defiance of a recent stringent prohibition by the commander-in-chief. The cul- prits were a band of Massachusetts troops led by Major JJonathan Williams Austin, and, besides destroying the court house, they burnt the Presbyterian Church and several private dwellings at White Plains. For this deed Austin was court-martialed, dismissed from the service, and turned over to the State convention for further pun- ishment. By the direction of that body he was put in jail at Kings- fon, but managed to escape. Fortunately the county records did not perish in the flames, having been removed to a place of security before the occupation of White Plains by the two armies.
This instance of the incidental ontrages inflicted upon the people of our county as a result of the military operations in the campaign of 1776 might be enlarged upon by the introduction of local details of destruction, devastation, violence, and phider almost innumera- ble. The materials for such local chronicles obtainable from pub- lished sources and from family records are so abundant thai very many of our pages might be filled with them ; but such minutia hardly belong to a general narrative history of moderate dimensions. It is sufficient to say that, as in the cases of individual persecutions for political belief, they were perpetrated with activity and mercilessness by both sides-with the important distinction, however, that while the offenses committed by the American sokliers were the acts of in- dividuals or small detachments in defiance of very strict army regu- lations, the crimes of the invading troops were wholly unrestrained if indeed they were not tacitly licensed. It was well understood, and the fact is recognized by all historians (not excepting those of strong British bias), that the German mercenaries, privates as well as officers,
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in accepting the employment of the king of England were encouraged to believe that they could enrich themselves in America by plundering the population, and wherever they went their excesses were unlimited. The British soldiery wore hardly less serupulous or ernel; and both British and Germans robbed, killed, burned, and devastated the land with little discrimination between Tory and patriot where the object was the gratification of their own greed or passions. In their vindic- tive fury against the patriots the British went farther than their German hirelings. The following, from a letter written from Peeks- kill, January 19, 1777, reads like a chapter from the Thirty Years' War:
General Howe has discharged all the privates who were prisoners in New York ; one-half he sent to the world of spirits for want of food. The other he hath sent to warn their eoun- trymen of the danger of falling into his hands, and so convince them, by ocular demonstration, that it is infinitely better to be slain in battle than to be taken prisoners by British brutes, whose tender mercies are cruelty. But it is not the prisoners alone who felt the effects of Brit- ish inhumanity. Every part of the country thro' which they have mareh'd has been plundered and ravaged. No diserimination has been made with respect to Whig or Tory, but all alike have been involy'd in one common fate. Their mareh thro' New Jersey has been marked with savage barbarity. But Westchester witnesseth more terrible things. The repositories of the dead have ever been held sacred by the most barbarous and savage nations. But here, not being able to accomplish their accursed purposes upon the living, they wreaked their ven- geanee on the dead. In many places, the graves in the church-yards were opened, and the
bodies of the dead exposed upon the ground for several days. At Morrissania the family vault was opened, the coffins broken and the bones scattered abroad. At Delancey's farin the body of a beautiful young lady, which had been buried for two years, was taken out of the ground and exposed for five days in a most indecent manner ; many more instanees could be men- tioned, but my heart sickens at the recollection of sneh inhumanity. Some persons try to believe that it is only the Hessians who perpetrate these things, but I have good authority to say that the British vie with, and even exceed the auxiliary troops in lieentionsness. After such treatment ean it be possible for any persons seriously to wish for a reconciliation with Great Britain ? 1
We left General Howe on the 6th of November at Dobbs Ferry, to which point he had fallen back after abandoning on the 4th his position before Washington's lines on the Heights of North Castle. His object in this move was made perfectly plain a few days later by the concentration of all his forces for the reduction of Fort Wash- ington. But his reasons for so abruptly retiring from in front of Washington at North Castle, where he seemed to have established himself with the serious intent of attacking him sooner or later, remained none the less shrouded in mystery; and indeed for more than a hundred years historical writers, in commenting on this phase, were quite at a loss to reasonably account for his conduct- although the subject was made a peculiarly inviting one for curious inquirers by a remarkable statement of General Howe's during the investigation of his American career by the committee of the House of Commons. " Sir," said he on that occasion, "an assault upon the
1 Frroman's Journal, or New Hampshire Gazette, February 18, 1777.
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enemy's right, which was opposed to the Hessian troops, was in- tended. The committee must give me credit when I assure them that I have political reasons, and no other, for declining to explain why that assault was not made. Upon a minute inquiry these rea- sons might, if necessary, be brought out in evidence at the bar." The suggested proceedings were not taken, and the secret was success- fully guarded until 1877, when, in an article in the Magasinc of Ameri- can History by Mr. Edward Floyd de Lancey, supported by docu- mentary proof, it was fully exposed. The " political reasons " alluded to by General Howe were that he was diverted from the attack on the American camp to the attack on Fort Washington by intelligence
B
N. RIVER
M
LAST
RIVER
OR THE
VICINITY OF FORT WASHINGTON.
furnished him by an American traitor, and that such a delicate fact naturally could not be spread before a parliamentary committee. The name of that traitor was WILLIAM DEMONT.
Demont was adjutant to Colonel Magaw, the commandant of Fort Washington, and on the 2d of November he made his way out of the fort and conveyed to Earl Percy, the British commander in New York City, complete plans of its defenses and information about the arrangement of its armament and disposition of the garrison. These were at once communicated by Percy to Howe, then lying before the American works in the North Castle hills, and that general, seeing in the assured capture of the chief rebel fortress a good excuse for
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withdrawing from his hopeless campaign in the field, faced about and with a celerity, skill, and success which had never characterized his operations up to that hour proceeded to the investment and re- duction of the betrayed stronghold.
Fort Washington, to which reference has so frequently been made in these pages, barred all progress by land to and from New York City, and with its fall Westchester County was completely laid open to the enemy, remaining in that unhappy state until the signing of the treaty of peace -- a period of seven years. A particular descrip- tion of it belongs, therefore, to this narrative. We quote from an article by Major-General George W. Cullum in the " Narrative and Critical History of America ":
It was built by Colonel Rufus Putnam soon after the evacnation of Boston, and oceupied the high ground at the northern end of Manhattan Island. It was a pentagonal bastioned earthwork without a keep, having a feeble profile and seareely any ditch. In its vicinity were batteries, redoubts, and intrenched lines. These various field fortifications, of which Fort Washington may be considered the citadel, extended north and south over two and one-half miles and had a circuit of six miles. The three intrenched lines of Harlem Heights, crossing the island, were to the south : Laurel Hill, with Fort George at its northern extremity, lay to the cast ; upon the river edge, near Tubby Hook, was Fort Tryon, and close to Spuyten Duy- vil were some slight works known as Cockhill Fort ; and across the creek. on Tetard's Hill, Fort Independence. The main communication with these various works was the Albany Road, crossing the Harlem River at Kingsbridge. This road was obstructed by three lines of abatis extending from Laurel Hill to the River Ridge.
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