USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 47
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Now, these two ladies of the parsonage were either not very fero- cious Loyalist partisans, or else hold their political principles quite subordinate to the gentle inclinations of their hearts. The widow Babcock was wooed by a gallant American officer of the Westchester lines, Colonel Gist. She at least did not discourage this devotion, and it has even been surmised that she reciprocated it; and the com- panion of her loneliness, Miss Williams, apparently regarded the romantic affair with a kindly interest. The ardent Colonel Gist, during his occasional warlike employments below the lines, made his rendezvous at the foot of Wild Boar Hill, opposite the parsonage; and here, with his light corps, he was surprised early one morning by a formidable force of the enemy. A careful plan had been laid by Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, of the Queen's Rangers, to surround and capture his whole command. In this enterprise Simcoe had the co-operation of Tarleton, Emmerick, and other able officers. The ac- companying map shows how the different corps of the enemy were to have been disposed, and actually were disposed, with the single important exception of a detachment that was to have been sta- tioned north of the Nepperhan River for the purpose of entting off Gist's retreat that way. But owing to some blunder this line of retreat was left open. The attacking force surprised Gist's men according to programme, and gave them a sharp fire; but the latter, led by the colonel, escaped across the Nepperhan and were soon be- yond pursuit. " In the meantime," says a narrator of the affair,
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IHISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
" Mrs. Babcock, having stationed herself in one of the dormer win- dows of the parsonage, aided their escape, wherever they appeared, hy the waving of a white handkerchief." Our salutations to the shade of the gentle, gracious, and ( we doubt not) beauteons Mrs. Babcock!
During the years 1777 and 1778 a very useful " whaleboat " service was organized and developed in the hamlets of our county along the Sound. The whaleboats, propelled with oars, " would dart across the Sound under cover of the night, and run into the inlets of the Long Island shore, landing near the house of a Tory family, some- times to plunder and sometimes to take prisoners. Small British vessels cruising in the Sound were occasionally captured. Market- sloops, loaded with provisions for the British army, were favorite prey. Great quantities of forage and other stores belonging to the enemy were destroyed. The whaleboat service was pursued with greatest activity in 1780 and 1781."1 Thomas Kniffen, of Rye, is mentioned by Baird as one who was especially energetic in this dar- ing work. The capture of the British guardship " Schuldham " (1777) at the mouth of Eastchester Creek-a very brilliant performance -- was effected by some whalebeatmen from Darien, Conn., who first seized the market-sloop which plied regularly between Eastchester and New York, and then took her alongside the " Schuldham " on the pretense of desiring to sell some of their truck; whereupon a party of armed men, concealed in the sloop's hold, clambered on board the war-vessel, overpowered the crew, forced them to navigate the prize, and ran her into the port of New London.
In this connection a word should be said also about the excellent services of the " water guards" in the various communities on the Hudson. The constant presence of the enemy's ships in the river rendered it peculiarly necessary to keep vigilant watch on the Hud- son's banks, and the organization effected for the discharge of the duties thus involved came to be very efficient. It was never safe for a rowboat from a British ship to venture to the shore; and even the war-vessels themselves had to keep steadfastly to the middle of the stream, else the wide-awake patriots were likely to improvise batteries and open on them with uncomfortable effect. The capture of Andre and the consequent foiling of Arnold's treason was made possible by no other contributing circumstance so much as the well- understood vigilant surveillance of ships in the river, and of all hold- ing communication with them, which was maintained at every point on the shore.
As during the latter half of the year 1778 the enemy in New York
1 Baird's Hist. of Rye (Scharf, ii., 678).
10
RIVER.
NORTH
MARCH of the
Emmericks Corps the Cavalry of
The whole commanded by L' Col: Simcoe
Explan &
E . The Yagers at Philip's BridgeF. Capt. Wreden's detachment. G. The Rout by A. March of the Infantry of the Rangers and Emmericks to B. where they
THE BABCOCK'S HOUSE SU ..
He
D
IS RANGERS
UTH DE ENDICOTT NEW YORK .
under L' Col' Tarleton, and a detachment of the Yagers Le a Corps of Rebel Light Troops under Col. Gist.
e Rear of the Enemy, and marched to C. Gist's Camp. Britsh Cavalry ed H. the Position which the Yagers were intended to have occupied. ROM SIMCOE'S JOURNAL).
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EVENTS OF 1777 AND 1778
City attempted nothing either against New England or the High- lands, Washington drew the army down from the northerly station where he had temporarily posted it, and distributed it in canton- ments extending from Connectient across Westchester Comity as far as Middlebrook, N. J. This was its situation throughout the winter of 1778-79. All expectation of early assistance from the French was now given up, d'Estaing's fleet having sailed to the West Indies.
CHAPTER XXI
FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
ROM the middle of January to the middle of March, 1779, the command " on the lines " in Westchester County was held by the youthful Colonel Aaron Burr; and never in the history of the Neutral Ground before or after did that distressed region enjoy conditions of order and quiet in the least comparable to those which obtained during Burr's brief rule. His administration of the delicate and difficult duties of the command in our county constitute the most noteworthy chapter in his military career, and even his severest biographers concur in regarding this part of his public record with unmixed admiration.
Burr was just twenty-one when appointed by Washington to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the continental army, receiving his commission af Peekskill in July, 1777. He was at the time an aide on the staff of General Putnam. He was soon afterward assigned to a regiment in New Jersey, where he at once set to work to intro- duce much-needed improvements in discipline and organization. " Severe drills and vigorous inspections," says his charming biog- rapher, Parton, " took the place of formal ones." Finding that many of the officers were hopelessly inefficient, he presently " took the bold step of ordering several of them home on the simple ground of their utter uselessness. If any gentleman, he told them, objected to his dismissal, he, Colonel Burr, held himself personally responsible for the measure and was ready to afford any satisfaction that might be desired." Yet he was no more martinet. All his measures com- mended themselves to the good sense of his troops, who became en- ilusiastically attached to his person. The great executive force which he thus displayed, coupled with his reputation for exceptional gallaniry, led to his selection as the most available commander in the Neutral Ground at a time when lawlessness and terrorism there were at their height. He entered upon his duties on the Westchester lines January 13, 1779, succeeding Lieutenant-Colonel Littlefield. The lowest American posts at that period extended " from Tarrytown through White Plains to the Sawpits, or Rye," a distance of fourteen miles. Colonel Burr made his headquarters at White Plains.
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FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
On the very morning of his assuming command, his predecessor left White Plains with a large party on a characteristic " sconting " ex- pedition to New Rochelle. This was an enterprise of promiscuons plunder, pure and simple. The men returned at night loaded down with spoils. Colonel Burr, astonished and indignant, at once took steps to return the stolen articles to their owners. " Sir," he wrote to General MeDougall, the commander at Peekskill, " till now I never wished for arbitrary power; I could gibbet half a dozen good Whigs with all the venom of an inveterate Tory." He announced in the most emphatic manner that he purposed to protect all the peaceable inhabitants without reference to their politics; that all marauders would be punished with the utmost severity of military law; and that " any officer who so much as counived at robbery he would send up to the general's quarters with a file of soldiers the hour the crime was discovered." Shortly afterward a family named Gedney, living below his lines, was plundered at night. The Gedneys were Tories, but of the pacific description. Within twenty-four hours Burr had secured all the culprits and much of their loot. He marched Them to Gedney's house, where he made them restore the recovered prop- erty, pay Gedney in money for what had been lost or damaged, pay him a further amount as compensation, crave his pardon for their deeds, and promise good behavior for the future; and he also had each of the robbers tied up and given ten lashes. " All these things," says Parton, " were done with the greatest deliberation and exact- ness, and the effects produced by them were magical. Not another house was plundered, not another family was alarmed, while Colonel Burr commanded in the Westchester lines. The mystery and swift- ness of the detection, the rigor and fairness with which the maranders were treated, overawed the men whom three campaigns of lawless warfare had corrupted, and restored confidence to the people who had passed their lives in terror." It came to be believed among his soldiers that Colonel Burr possessed occult powers, and could tell a thief by simply looking in his face. He adopted the most thorough system of classification of all the inhabitants, keeping secret lists on which the character of everybody within his jurisdiction was in- dicated. He also familiarized himself with the country in its physical features, obtaining a minute knowledge of its hidden places. He enlisted the co-operation of the respectable young men, whom he organized as a corps of horsemen, without pay, for the transmission of intelligence. One of these was the noted John Dean, who the next year was a member of the memorable expedition of eight volunteers which had for its result the capture of Andre.
In his arrangements for the security of his lines against any pos-
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
sible attack by the enemy, he was equally tireless, efficient, and suc- cessful. Nightly, at unexpected hours and by unexpected routes, he rode from post to post, and if he observed anything not in order the responsible person was held to a strict accountability. In order to keep the enemy's spies at a distance, he issued and rigidly en- forced an order that nobody from below should personally pass the line of posts on any pretext, all who had business above being re- quired to first communicate with headquarters by some well known resident of the immediate country, especially designated for that serv- ice. On the other hand, he always had the most perfeet knowledge of everything happening below. Only two attempts were made by the enemy to surprise the American guards while he was in command, and both were total failures.
Yet Burr's system was not merely defensive and precautionary. With- out risking his men in foolish spec- tacular enterprises, he grasped every opportunity for profitable aggression. Once, when Governor Tryon marched through our county with 2,000 men on an expedition to Connecticut, Burr, hav- ing previous knowledge of the move- ment, sent word to Putnam in Connecti- ent to proceed against him in front, while he would fall upon his rear. This well-laid plan. if it had been carried AARON BURR. out, would probably have resulted in the capture of Tryon; but Putnam was unable to co-operate properly. Burr, however, performed his part so well that Tryon beat a hasty retreat, leaving most of his cattle and other plunder behind.
The crowning achievement of Burr's command was the destruction of a British fort and the capture of nearly all its garrison at de Lancey's Mills (West Farms)-a feat performed, like Wayne's storm- ing of Stony Point, without firing a musket. This fort was a block structure, built by Colonel de Lancer to protect his outposts at Mor- risania. Burr, resolving to take it, reconnoitered it carefully. noting every feature of the ground and measuring with his eye the height of the port-holes. He then prepared ladders, canteens filled with in- flammables, rolls of port-fire, and hand-grenades. It was essential to effeet his work quickly and without noise, as there were strong British forces in the surrounding country, which, if alarmed, would
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FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
ent off his retreat. He arrived with his attacking party at two o'clock in the morning. He sent forward forty men under Captain Black, who rushed past the sentinels, placed the ladders against the fort, mounted them, hurled the combustibles (with slow matches attached) into the port-holes, and then threw the hand-grenades inside. Almost instantly the fort was on fire, and every man, except a few who escaped, surrendered. Not an American suffered injury. When it is remembered that West Farms is to the south of Kingsbridge, where thousands of the British were encamped, and that there were other posts of the enemy still farther above, the brilliant daring of this exploit will be well appreciated.
The preceding brief account of Burr's memorable regime in West- chester County is digested from Parton, who, in turn, derives his facts mainly from a most interesting descriptive letter written in 1814 by Samuel Youngs, of our Town of Mount Pleasant, to R. V. Morris. Youngs was a member of Burr's command. He sums up his narration as follows:
The troops of whom he took command were undisciplined, negligent, and discontented. Desertions were frequent. In a few days these very men were transformed into brave, hon- est defenders-orderly, contented, and cheerful ; confident in their own courage and loving to adoration their commander, whom every man considered as his personal friend. It was thought a severe punishment, as well as a disgrace, to be sent up to the camp, where they had nothing to do but to lounge and to eat their rations. During the whole of his command there was not a single desertion, not a single death by sickness, not one made prisoner by the enemy ; for Colonel Burr taught us that a soldier, with arms in his hands, ought never, in any circumstances, to surrender-no matter if he was opposed by thousands it was his duty to fight.
Richard Platt, adjutant-general to General MeDongall at Peeks- kill, has left the following testimony :
A country which for three years before had been a scene of robbery, cruelty, and murder became at onee the abode of seenrity and peace. Though his powers were despotie they were exercised only for the peace, the security, and the protection of the surrounding country and its inhabitants.
It was during Burr's three months in the Neutral Ground that his romantic midnight visits to his sweetheart, Mrs. Prevost, at Para- mus, N. J., occurred-expeditions celebrated in the annals of the amours of historic persons.
Selecting nights when he knew that he could safely absent himself from the lines, he left the headquarters at White Plains in his usual manner, as though going on a tour of the posts, attended by several of his men, upon whose secrecy he could depend. He rode across country to Tarrytown, where a boat was waiting. His men threw his horse, tied its legs together, and placed it in the boat. On the opposite shore the faithful animal was released from its bonds, and bestriding it Burr was soon in the arms of his love. He was back at headquarters before dawn. He made two of these visits.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
The severe labors which he imposed upon himself while command- ing in Westchester County shattered his health, and on the 10th of March, 1779, in a letter to Washington, he resigned his commission in the army. The latter accepted it with the observation that he " not only regretted the loss of a good officer. but the cause which made his resignation necessary." It may be remarked that Wash- ington and Burr were not congenial souls. The great commander, while perfectly recognizing young Burr's abilities, had the penetra- tion to see his defects as a man; and Burr had little love for Wash- ington, and indeed was mixed up in the Conway-Gates cabal against him, although too youthful an officer to play any active part in that affair. Parton laments Burr's untimely retirement from the Ameri- can army, and complains of Washington's cold treatment of him. He declares that Burr's military character was such-especially as demonstrated by his services in the Neutral Ground-that if his lot had been cast in the armies of France under the eye of Napoleon he would have become a marshal of the Empire. In a history of Westchester County it would be ungracious to find fault with any praise of him on soldierly grounds that his most ardent eulogists have penned. He certainly came to Westchester County as a guar- dian angel, and was the one shining military character among all the commanders on the lines-though their number embraced several officers of marked attainments. The brevity of his career here is the only feature of it to be viewed with anything short of enthusiasm. When he departed, disaster after disaster befell the American posts, and the reign of terror which had subsisted before he came was shortly renewed. It was equally unfortunate for him and for Ameri- can interests in our county that his command covered only the winter months of 1779, when no general operations were going on. The next summer occurred the most formidable and prolonged display of armed force along the lines and above in our county's history. It can easily be believed that Burr, with his splendid organization in full flower, would have acquitted himself right gloriously in that period of activity.
The expedition of Governor Tryon above referred to was for the object of destroying the Revolutionary satt works at Greenwich, Conn. It was the only continuous march of a quite considerable British force through the entire extent of our county along the Sound that occurred during the Revolution. There was some fighting at Rye and above, where a small American party was put to flight by the British. The retreating Americans passed over Byram Bridge, taking up its planking to retard the progress of the enemy. But Tryon got across without being interfered with by Putnam, pro-
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FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
ceeded to Greenwich, and accomplished his purpose. We believe Byram Bridge was never crossed on any other occasion by a British force in connection with serious business.
Burr's successor in the chief command on the lines was Major William Hull. Considering the heavy odds brought against him by the enemy during the exciting campaign that followed, he made a very creditable record.
In the first few months of 1779 Sir Heury Clinton confined himself to ravaging the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Washington, whose headquarters were at Middlebrook, was not disturbed by these pro- voedings, well knowing that the British general would soon turn his attention northward. The work at West Point had now made tolerably satisfactory progress, but Washington was dissatisfied with the comparatively unprotected condition of the river below. He par- ticularly desired to have the entrance to the narrow part of the stream, from Haverstraw Bay, well guarded-the more so as the important King's Ferry route from Verplanck's Point to the west shore was comparatively unsafe so long as this entrance remained unfortified. He therefore began the erection of two forts on the two promontories -- Verplanck's Point on the Westchester side, and Stony Point opposite, which, when completed, "would form as it were the lower gates of the Highlands, miniature Pillars of Herenles. of which Stony Point was the Gibraltar." By the end of May the work on Verplanck's Point. called Fort Lafayette, was finished, and a garrison of seventy men was assigned to it. That on Stony Point. however, was still in an inchoate condition, and had not yet received any artillery. The American army was at this time on the west side of the Hudson in the vicinity of the Highlands.
Sir Henry Clinton sailed up the Hudson on the 30th of May with a formidable expedition. The fleet, under the command of Admiral Sir George Collier, embraced about seventy vessels, great and small, and a hundred and fifty flatboats, and there was a land force of 5,000. The troops were landed in two divisions on the 31st. The principal division, under General Vaughan, debarked on the Westchester County side, seven or eight miles below Verplanck's Point, and the other, led by Sir Henry in person, on the opposite side of Haverstraw Bay, some three miles south of Stony Point. Nothing was done for the time being by Vaughan, except to get in position to assail Fort Lafayette. But Siony Point was promptly seized. the thirty men occupied on its unfinished works decamping without resistance. During the night of the 31st the British dragged artillery up its steep sides, with which, at daybreak, Fort Lafayette was cannonaded ; and at the same time the ships in the river opened fire and Vaughan
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
prepared to assanit the works. Against such overpowering force it was useless to contend, and the garrison surrendered on conditions guaranteeing the safety of the men and security of their personal property. It is an interesting reminiscence that Major John Andre, who a year and some months later passed that locality on the errand that took him to his death, signed the articles of capitulation on be- half of the British.
After the capture of the two promontories Sir Henry Clinton com- pleted the works on Stony Point, fortified them in a powerful man- ner (especially with reference to the approach from the land side), and amply garrisoned both forts. Washington prudently refrained from any offensive demonstrations, retiring to the vicinity of West Point and bending all his energies toward the further development of the defensive situation there. He ordered all the heavy cannon at Boston and Providence to be sent to him, and recalled Heath from Boston. That general arrived at the camp at New Windsor on the 21st of June.
General Sir Henry Clinton, seeing that he had no Putnam to deal with on this occasion, showed himself suddenly disinclined to engage in new exploits in the Highlands. He withdrew his forces, except those necessary to retain the two forts, returned to New York, and sent out the memorable expedition under Tryon which devastated Connecticut. The results obtained were so " salutary," as reported to him, that he determined to extend them by an attack on New London. As a preparatory measure he went to Throgg's Neck. in- tending to forward troops thence to New London on transports. But while waiting there the great achievement of Anthony Wayne at Stony Point compelled him once more to change his arrangements.1
The storming of Stony Point on the night of the 15th of July was wholly planned by Washington. He intrusted the execution of it to Wayne, who accepted the commission with the greatest alacrity, signifying his willingness to storm hell itself for General Washing-
1 The following (furnished to the editor by the late Dr. Flagg, of Yonkers, who possessed the original) is a copy of an interesting letter written by Washington in this interval: HEADQUARTERS [New Windsor], July 12th, 1779.
DR Sın:
In mine to yon of the 5th I requested you to attend to the movements of the enemy on the River below, and for this purpose to engage the country people as lookouts along the River- I could wish you to have such per- sons on whose fidelity and vigilance you can depend stationed at different points as far down as Fort Lee, that we may have the car-
liest intelligence of any collection of vessels or boats or embarkation of troops on the oppo- site shore. The enemy are now manoeuvering to the Eastward-it may be to divert a part of our force that way-thon to make a rapid move- ment back-embark and push up to the forts. We are obliged to give a certain degree of countenance and protection to the country which will occasion a detachment of our force, and this makes it the more essential that we should be upon our watch this way. Your ac- tivity and care I rely upon.
I am Dr Sir Your Obedt. Servant,
Go: WASHINGTON.
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FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
ton. We borrow the following description of Stony Point, as it then was, from Irving:
It was a rocky promontory advancing far into the Hudson, which washed three sides of it. A deep morass, covered at high water, separated it from the mainland, but at low tide might be traversed by a narrow causeway and bridge. The promontory was crowned by strong works furnished with heavy ordnanee, commanding the morass and causeway. Lower down were two rows of abatis, and the shore at the front of the hill could be swept by vessels of war anchored in the river. The garrison was about 600 strong.
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