USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 48
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Washington's instructions to Wayne were to make the assault about midnight, because, as he explained, the usual time selected for snch enterprises was just before dawn, when a more vigilant officer would probably be on guard. Wayne, with 1,400 men, came down through the Highland defiles on the afternoon of the 15th, made the circuit of the Dunderberg (around which Sir Henry Clinton had swept when going to attack the American forts), and arrived within a mile and a half of the Point by eight o'clock in the evening. flere he halted until half-past eleven, when he sent forward a negro of the neighborhood, accompanied by two men disguised as farmers. The negro had the entree to the fort, having frequently supplied the soldiers with fruit, and possessed the countersign. By this means the sentinels were secured and gagged. Before being discovered the Americans had arrived close to the outer works. Then, heedless of shot and shell, they made the assault in two columns, which ar- rived in the center of the works almost at the same instant. The garrison surrendered at discretion. The heroic Wayne, leading one of the columns, received a wound on the head, and, thinking he was dying, said: "Carry me into the fort and let me die at the head of my column." In his report to Washington he used these noble words: " The humanity of our brave soldiery, who scorned to take the lives of a vanquished foe when calling for mercy, reflects the highest honor on them and accounts for the few of the enemy killed on the occasion." The enemy's killed were only 63. It will be recalled that in the storm- ing of Forts Clinton and Montgomery the Americans lost 250 out of a total no larger than that of the British at Stony Point; and indeed it is notorious that the victors upon the former occasion ruthlessly bayoneted most of the defenders who failed to escape.
By this glorious exploit Wayne was exalted to the highest pinnacle of fame, and to the present day the splendor of it has not faded away. Probably no hero of a single military coup de main was ever hailed with greater applause than was showered upon Wayne. Even the malignant, backbiting General Charles Lee wrote to him from his disgraceful retirement a letter of glowing enthusiasm-although at the trial of Lee Wayne had been one of the chief witnesses against him. On the other hand, whilst the recollection of this prodigions
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deed of valor was still fresh in men's minds, Major Andre, who was to be the next central object of sentimental attention, found it fitting to select Wayne, of all American generals, as the hero of his Hudibrasian poem, " The Cow Chace." Wayne happened to be dis- tingnished for unconthness of general demeanor no less than for lion-like daring before the armed foe and woman-like tenderness be- fore the vanquished. Andre, the little curled and perfumed drawing- room darling, noted this uncouthness of the man, which indeed was the subject of many a smart jest among the fashionable ladies of New York, and discovered no artistic inconvenience in fitting the magnifi- cent conqueror of Stony Point to his farcical verse. There prob- ably is no more informing test of Andre's real parts, abont which so much amusing hysterical nonsense has been written, than this little circumstance.
As the guns of the Stony Point fortress bore only on the land side and northward (there being no occasion for the British engineers to direct them athwart the river, since the Americans could not attack from below), it was impracticable to reduce the Westchester Fort Lafayette from the captured height. Moreover, Washington con- sidered it unprofitable to rearrange the Stony Point armament, or even to hold the place, exposed as it was to attack by land and water. It was estimated that a garrison of 1,500 would be required for it, which could not be spared from the army. So after trans- porting the cannon and stores to West Point, the works were de- molished.1
The loss of Stony Point caused Sir Henry Clinton to give up his design against New London, and that place was spared until Sop- tember of 1781, when the traitor Arnold was sent against it and the Fort Griswold garrison was massaered. Returning from Throgg's Neck to the Hudson shore of Westchester County, Clinton hastily
1 Bolton (rev. ed .. 1., 161) quotes from an en- tertaining writer, whose historical accuracy, however, does not very distinctly appear, an incident of later years bearing upon the cap- ture of Stony Point which is too enjoyable not to be included in our pages. " Many years ago an iron cannon was, by accident, brought up by an anchor from the bottom of the river at that point (Caldwell's Landing). It was sug- gested that it belonged to the pirate ship of Captain Kidd. A speculator caught the idea and boldly proclaimed, In the face of recorded history to the contrary, that Kidd's ship had been sunken at that point with untold treas- nres on board. The story went abroad that the deck had been penetrated by a very large anger, which encountered hard substances, and lis thread was shown with silver attached.
which, it was declared, had been brought up from the vessel. The story was believed, a stock company was formed to procure the treasures by means of a coffer-dam around the sunken vessel. For days, weeks, and months the engine worked on the coffer-dam. One New York merchant put $20,000 into the enterprise. The speeulatur took large commissions until the hopes of the stockholders failed and the work reased. Nothing may be seen there now (1876) but the ruins of the works so begun, at the water's edge. At that point a bateau was sunk by a shot from the " Vulture " while conveying the captured fron cannon from Stony Point to West Point after the victory hy Wayne. The cannon brought up by the anchor was doubtless one of these."
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FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
strengthened Fort Lafayette and again drew his forces up the river to that neighborhood. Washington meantime had undertaken a separate project for the reduction of Fort Lafayette. He ordered Major-General Robert Howe, with two brigades, to march down from the Highlands, by way of Peekskill, and besiege the fort. The latter, in executing this command, came near getting into serious difficulty; for Clinton by that time (July 17) had reached the north side of the Croton, and there was danger that he would throw himself be- tween Verplanck's Point and Peekskill, and thus ent Howe off. But happily General Heath, who with a considerable force had just pre- viously gone to the rescue of Connecticut, returned by a forced march to the Hudson and posted troops so as to prevent Clinton's advance at every point. Howe retired from Verplanck's Point, and all the American forces fell back to Peekskill. Clinton retained Fort Lafay- ette, and also resumed possession of Stony Point, reconstructed its works, and fortified it with a more powerful armament than before. But Washington still declined to bring his army down from its High- land position, and Clinton was too prudent to undertake anything formal against West Point. Consequently there was no further em- ployment for the British general on the Hudson, and indeed his occupation of Verplanck's and Stony Points, involving two succes- sive demonstrations with a loss of 600 men, proved to be an utter waste of time and energy. In the fall (October 21) he evaenated both the Points; for having, as it proved, permanently abandoned all hope of gaining the mastery of the Hudson by force, he deemed if an unprofitable expenditure of his resources to retain these isolated and exposed posts. During the rest of the war the British were strictly confined to the portion of the river below Verplanck's Point.
In spite of the ignominious failure of this final endeavor of the enemy to open the Hudson, the attempt was more serious than ap- pears from a superficial view of it. It seems to have been Clinton's principal plan for the campaign of 1779 to force Washington down from the Highlands by a series of aggressions, of which the seizure of the King's Ferry route was the most important. As the capture of the two Points did not bring about the desired result, he withdrew temporarily and carried tire and sword into Connectient, expecting by this process to entice Washington from his chosen station. The latter sent General Heath, with two brigades, to Connecticut ; where- upon Clinton prepared to follow up the former raids with a heavier blow, which was prevented by the counter-stroke at Stony Point. After that it looked for a time as though the northern part of West- chester County was to be the scene of large military operations. Washington detached Robert Howe to take Fort Lafayette on Ver-
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planck's Point; Clinton, besides re-enforcing that place, threatened the surrounding country; and then Washington recalled Heath from Connecticut by forced marches. But, as we have seen, the American tacties were to avoid any general engagement and compel the enemy to come up into the Highlands if he really desired a regular trial of strength. As this was disagreeable to Clinton, his whole plan of campaign for 1779 went awry.
The British occupation of the fort on Verplanck's Point lasted from the 1st of June until the 21st of October, a period of nearly five months. Clinton's return in force to the northwestern section of Westchester County after Wayne's recapture of Stony Point was made by way of the " New Bridge " at the mouth of the Croton River; and it was by the same route that Clinton fell back to Kingsbridge after being foiled by Heath. By the 20th of July Clinton had re- tired as far down as Dobbs Ferry. The British garrisons left at Ver- planck's and Stony Points had a total of about 1,500. From the 20th of July to the 21st of October, when the posts were evacuated. these garrisons were wholly inactive. Heath, in his Memoirs, reports almost daily desertions from them to the American army. On the 14th of October, he says, fourteen British seamen were taken prison- er's at Teller's (Croton) Point by Captain Hallet's company of New York militia.
From the time of the landing of the British expedition below Ver- planck's Point on the 31st of May until the ultimate withdrawal of Clinton to New York City in the latter part of July, our county suf- fered much from ravages. The principal event of this period was the burning of Bedford by Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who had participated in the massacre of the Stockbridge Indians in 1778. This was the same Tarleton who became famous by his sanguinary doings in the South in 1780 and 1781.
A body of about ninety American cavalry, under Colonel Elisha Sheldon, was quartered at Poundridge in and around the house of Major Ebenezer Lockwood, one of the most noted patriots of West- chester County,1 and in the same locality was a militia force of 120 men, commanded by Major Leavenworth. Tarleton, then encamped at the Mile Square near Yonkers, was ordered to make a sudden night march to Poundridge for the double purpose of surprising and
1 Ebenezer Lockwood was the foremost Poundridge citizen of his times. He was for many years a member of the board of super- visors, represented the county in the second, third, and fourth provincial congresses, in the State convention of 1776-77, and in the assem- bly during and subsequently to the Revolution, and in 1791 was appointed first judge of Com-
mon Pleas of Westchester County, He took a conspicuous part In the locating and building of the new county court house. He was com- missioned major of Colonel Thomas Thomas's regiment of Westchester County militia in 1775, and at various times performed service in the field.
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FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
capturing these Americans and seenring the person of Major Lock- wood, on whose head a price of forty guineas had been set. All American spy named Luther Kinnieutt gave notice to Sheldon of the intended attack, but without being able to say on what day it would oceur. This timely information enabled Lockwood to escape. Tarleton chose a very rainy night, and in consequence the Americans were not well on their guard. He moved from the Mile Square about half-past eleven on the night of July 1, with a mixed force of horse and foot carefully picked from four different regiments. In his offi- cial report he stated that his numbers were about 200, but accord- ing to American estimates they were some 360. Going by way of Bedford, he arrived at Poundridge early on the morning of the 2d. After driving back a small detachment under Major Benjamin Tall- madge, he put the whole of Sheldon's body to rout, capturing the regimental colors. The American losses were estimated ai from eighteen to twenty-five in killed, wounded, and prisoners.1 Tarleton pursued the fugitives, and after his return burned Lockwood's house, maltreated his wife, and burned the Poundridge meeting-house. The small body of militia under Leavenworth now began to harass Tarle- ton's troopers, and upon the retirement of the latter through Bedford they were much annoyed by the American riflemen, who fired at them from houses. To this " inveteracy " of the militia, as he calls it, Tarleton says his burning of Bedford was owing. " I proposed to the militia terms," he says, " that if they would not fire shots from buildings I would not burn. They interpreted my mild pro- posal wrong, imputing it to fear. They persisted in firing till the torch stopped their progress, after which not a shot was fired." But according to accounts left by residents of Bedford the burning of the place was a quite wanton deed. The Presbyterian Church was destroyed, and indeed the tradition is that only one house was left standing. Thus the ancient settlement of Bedford was practically swept out of existence. Barrett, in his History of North Castle, says that many houses in that locality were burned by Tarleton on his way down from Bedford. Certainly there was no inveteracy of militia at North Castle.
It is curious that the responsibility for Tarleton's deed was by many of the Bedford people charged to Colonel James Hohnes, their
1 Bolton (rev. ed .. li., 115) relates the follow- ing amusing incident: " John Buckhout, who happened to be in the rear of Sheldon's regl- ment during the retreat, and closely pursued. was accosted in the Imperative tone of a Brit- Ish dragoon: 'Surrender, you damn rebel, or I'll blow your brains out!' John, not heedIng the threat, was saluted with a pistol shot,
which hit his cap and perforated the scalp on the side of his head without further Injury. ' There,' says the dragoon, 'you damned rebel, a little more and I should bave blown your brains out.' ' Yes, damn you," replied John. 'and a little more you wouldn't have touched me.' John continued his speed, and escaped without further Injury."
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recreant townsman. Holmes was descended from one of the original Bedford proprietors, and the family had always been a promi- ment one in the town. He served in the French and Indian War, and. as related in a previous chapter, was an active patriot partisan at the beginning of hostilities between America and Great Britain, being a member of the New York provincial convention, one of the committee which made the first inspection of the heights at Kings- bridge with a view to their fortification, and colonel of one of the first four regiments raised in the Province of New York. But on account of private grievances he resigned his commission in 1777 and retired to his farm at Bedford. Here he soon became known as one of the disaffected, and in 1778, at the instance of some of his neighbors, he was arrested by the committee of safety. Escaping from custody, he joined the British in New York. His name thus became an odious one in Bedford, but his connection with the burn- ing of the village by local report was unjust to him. He certainly was not with Tarleton's party. Soon after this event he was seized while on a visit to Bedford occasioned by the death of his brother, was thrown into prison, escaped, was again taken, and again es- raped. Then, his estate having been confiscated, he accepted the appointment of lieutenant-colonel of the Westchester County Refu- gees in the British service. This was in the summer of 1781. It is but. just to say that Colonel James Holmes was a type of the un- fortunate rather than the bloody-minded Westchester County Tories who ultimately took up arms against their country.
Just previously to his raid on Poundridge and Bedford, Tarleton, in conjunction with Simcoe's Rangers, successfully attacked an American militia force at Crompond, in the present Town of York- town. This was on the 24th of June. Ahont thirty of the Americans were killed or taken prisoners, the captives being conveyed to New York and incarcerated in the notorious Sugar House. This was the second raid on Crompond within a month. A former British party came there from Verplanck's Point under Colonel Abercrombie, guided by Caleb Morgan, a Tory of Yorktown, and burned a store- house and the parsonage. In fact, the country above the Croton River, which up to this time had been comparatively secure against British incursions, was now pretty generally visited by hostile troops, and the numerous Tories of Cortlandt Manor were in high feather consequently.
To the same general period belongs an attack made by Colonel Emmerick's men on a continental guard at Tarrytown, which, though a small affair- in fact only one of a vast number of minor occur- rences unrelated to the main current of events .- is memorable for
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FROM JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER, 1780
the incident of the inhuman killing of Sergeant Isaac Martlingh. Martlingh was a one-armed man. With Emmerick's troop from be- low came a certain Nathaniel Underhill, of the vicinity of Yonkers, a Tory, who, it is said, harbored bitter animosity against Martlingh because on one occasion the latter had caused his arrest. Marilingh had been to a nearby spring for a pail of water, and was just about to re-enter his house when Underhill approached him from behind and smote him dead. The act was considered so heinous that it was commemorated on the dead man's tombstone, which, with its grim record, is still standing. The inscription is as follows: " In Memory of Mr. Isaac Martlings, who was Inhuminely slan by Nathaniel Under- hill May 26 A D 1779 in the 39th Year [of his age]." On the same occasion, according to a local Tarrytown authority, a woman named Polly or Katrina Boekhout was " killed by a yager rifleman " be- longing to the Emerick party. " She imprudently appeared at the door of her house with a man's hat on, when two hostile parties were near each other, and was killed by mistake for an enemy. The yager tired withont orders, and Emmerick made an apology, being much mortified at the occurrence."
Another incident of the summer of 1779 which deserves passing mention was a notable running fight between Captain Hopkins, of the American Light Horse, and Emmerick, with a much larger body of British cavalry (about 500 strong). This happened on the borders of the Town of Greenburgh. Hopkins was lying in ambuscade in the vicinity of Youngs's House, hoping to surprise a party of the enemy under Colonel Bearmore, when Emmerick came up. A spirited encounter followed, in which numbers were killed and wounded on both sides. According to Bolton, the British killed were twenty-three. Hopkins conducted himself with great credit in this engagement, retiring successfully at the end.1
Although most of the fighting in our county during the summer and fall of this year occurred in the northern and central sections, as the result of British aggressions, the Americans attempted oc- casional counter-strokes in the territory of the present Borough of the Bronx, two of which are described by Heath. On the 5th of
1 The Interested reader may find detailed par- llenlars of this fight, as of numerous other Revolutionary episodes for the Towns of Green- burgh and Mount Pleasant, in the " Souvenir of the Revolutionary Soldiers' Monument Dedi- cation at Tarrytown, October 19. 1834 " (com- piled by M. D. Raymond, editor of the Tarry- town Troux). This little book, although mod- estly claimed by the compiler to be chiefly of "a personal character," Is Invaluable lo the student of the Revolutionary annals of West-
chester County. In the compilation of the present History, both the author and editor have found frequent occasion to appreciate the general thoroughness, accuracy, and Intell- gence of Mr. Raymond's local historical writ- ings as published in his newspaper and other- wiso; and they take satisfaction In acknowl- edging their Indebtedness to his published ar- Heles for not a few of the facts contained In these pages.
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Angust " about one hundred horse, of Sheldon's, Moylan's, and of the militia, and about forty infantry of Glover's brigade, passed by de Lancey's Mills to the neighborhood of Morrisania, where they took twelve or fourteen prisoners, some stock, etc. The enemy col- lected and a skirmish ensued, in which the enemy had a mimber of men killed and wounded; our loss, two killed and two wounded." And on the 3d of October " Lieutenant Gill, of the dragoons, patrol- ing in Eastchester, found a superior force in his rear, and no alterna- tive but to surrender or out his way through them. He chose the latter and forced his way, when he found a body of infantry still behind the horse. These he also charged, and on his passing them his horse was wounded and threw him, when he fell into the enemy's hands. Two of the lieutenant's party, which consisted of twenty- four, were killed, and one taken prisoner; the rest escaped safe to their regiments."
General Heath resumed his old headquarters at Peekskill on the 24th of October, three days after the final evaenation by the British of the forts at Verplanck's and Stony Points. Here, on the 28th of November, he received from Washington the appointment of com- mander of all the posts and troops on the Hudson River.
About the same time that Sir Henry Clinton definitively aban- doned his schemes on the Hudson he also withdrew the large com- mand which, since the winter of 1776, had been in occupation of Rhode Island. One of his reasons for this move, as well as for his withdrawal of the garrisons from Verplanck's and Stony Points, was his apprehension that the French fleet of d'Estaing, which had sailed from the West Indies, would now unite with Washington in a siege of New York. But d'Estaing stopped at Savannah to assist General Lincoln in his effort to recover that place, and afterward, the joint operation having failed disastrously, returned to France. Clinton next carried his arms southward and besieged and took Charleston. He was ocenpied in the South from the beginning of 1780 until June.
The winter of 1779-80 was the severest ever known in this part of the country. Not only the whole North River, but much of New York Bay, was frozen solid,1 and if the army under Washington had been in any condition to assume the aggressive New York, with its relatively small garrison, must probably have succumbed. But never was Washington's army in a more deplorable plight than dur- ing that terrible winter. It was encamped in two divisions, one
1 tieneral Heath relates In hls Memolrs, un- der date of February 7, 1780, that " A body of the enemy's horse, sald to be about 300,
and the Seventh British regiment, came over from Long Island to Westchester on the lee."
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under Heath at Peekskill and in the Highlands, the other and prin- cipal part under Washington at Morristown.
The principal event of the winter in Westchester County was the so-called " Affair at Youngs's House," a considerable and very disas- trous engagement, in which some 250 men were concerned on the American side and more than twice that number on the enemy's. This house, owned by Joseph Youngs, was situated about four miles east of Tarrytown and about the same distance northwest of White Plains, at the intersection of an east and west road from Tarrytown and a north and south road from Unionville; and the locality was hence called " The Four Corners." As a result of the conflict there the dwelling was burned, and during the remainder of the war the place was known as " The Burnt House." After the Revolution the Youngs farm was purchased by Isaac Van Wart, one of the cap- tors of Andre, who built upon it the historic " Van Wart House." which subsequently, with the whole property, was owned for many years by his son, the Rov. Alexander Van Wart. The house was in the present Town of Mount Pleasant, just beyond the Greenburgh border.
" Youngs's House," being at an important cross-roads and on elevated ground, and having a number of outbuildings attached to it, which, with the dwelling, afforded accommodation for many men, was a principal station for the American troops quartered "on the lines "-the lines at that time being maintained as far south as Dobbs Ferry. Lientenant-Colonel Thomson, at the period of which we write, was in chief command on the lines, subordinate, of course, to General Heath at Peekskill. His orders were " to move between Croton River and the White Plains, Hudson's River and Bedford; never to remain long at any one place, that the enemy might not be able to learn their manner of doing duty or form a plan for striking them in any particular situation." During this winter, with 250 men, he took a position at the Youngs House, and, contrary to instrue- tions, stopped there so long that the enemy conceived and excented the precise project that General Heath apprehended. On the night of February 2, 1780, " a force of between four and five hundred in- fantry and one hundred horsemen, composed of British, Germans, and Colonel de Lancey's Tories, set out from Fort Kuyphansen ( for- merly Fort Washington), sonth of Spusten Duyvil," to attack him. the whole expedition being commanded by Colonel Nelson, of the Guards. The weather was intensely coll, and deep snow covered the ground. The attacking party arrived about nine o'clock on the morning of February 3. Thomson's men offered a brave resistance, but were overpowered by numbers. The American loss in killed
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