History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 107

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 107

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Having thus bravely maintained his ground, until a retreat had become necessary, Colonel Read fell back, without returning to the roadway, until he had

419

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

passed the left flank of the Regiment commanded by Colonel Shepard, who had remained, in concealment, on the opposite side of the road, during the entire morning; and there, covering Colonel Shepard's left flank, the Regiment was re-formed, and rested on its arms.

The enemy evidently misunderstood the character of the retreat of Colonel Read and his brave com- mand-like the Officer commanding the detachment, in the morning, he appears to have supposed that he had repulsed the Americans; and that nothing re- mained to be done, except to gather the fruits of his success-and he cheered and pushed forward, along the narrow roadway, until the head of his column had advanced within easy gun-shot distance from the second line of the ambuscade, on his left flank, where Colonel Shepard and his command were concealed, as we have said, behind "a fine double stone wall ;" when the latter sprang to their feet, and, from behind their all-sufficient shelter, poured into him a well- directed and effective fire. The column was again brought to a sudden and unexpected halt ; and a long- continued and well-sustained fire was kept up, by each of the belligerent parties-it is said that seventeen volleys were fired by the Americans; and that the cnemy's line was broken, "several times, once, in " particular, so far that a soldier of Colonel Shep- "ard's" [Regiment] " leaped over a wall, and took a "hat and canteen off of a Captain that lay dead on " the ground they retreated from."

But the disparity of numbers between the opposing forces was so very great that prudence dictated a re- treat of the two Regiments who had so successfully held the enemy in check ; and Colonel Glover ordered them to fall back and re-form and rest on their arms, in the rear of the third line of the ambuscade, behind which the Regiment commanded by Colonel Baldwin was concealed.

The advancing column of the enemy was again put in motion ; but the record of the events of the day make no mention of any mere waste of ammunition nor of any shouts of exultant success ; and it is evi- dent that it moved forward, soberly and cautiously, as was becoming, in view of the heavy losses which it had already sustained and of those to which it was predestined. It had not proceeded far before Colonel Baldwin and his command arose from their conceal- ment, behind the third line of the ambuscade; and, sud- denly and unexpectedly, they delivered a destructive fire, into the head of the column. It is said, however, that, in this instance, the ground was much in favor of the enemy, enabling him to bring his artillery to bear on the Americans; and that the opposition of the latter was, in consequence of those disadvantages, neither as spirited nor as effective as that which had been made by Colonels Read and Sheperd. The Amer- icans were compelled to retreat "to the bottom of " the hill," or high ground on which the ambuscade was formed ; through a brook, the bridge over which

Had been previously taken up, by Colonel Glover ; and up the slope, on the opposite side of the brook, to the plaec, on the high ground, where Captain Curtis and Colonel Glover's Regiment and the three field- pieces were posted.

It appears that the enemy did not pursue the re- treating Americans, but contented himself, until late in the day, with a continued fire of his artillery, over the little valley and the brook, the Americans, of course, returning it-the latter, without sustaining any loss whatever from the enemy's fire; while the former evidently sustained very little, if any, from the Americans' fire on him.

The Americans having been in front of the enciny, from an early hour, in the morning, all the day, without food or drink, " at dark," they feli back, three miles, and bivouaced-" after fighting all day, with- "out victuals or drink, lay as a picquet, all night, the " heavens over us, and the earth under us, which was " all we had, having left all our baggage at the old " encampment we left in the morning," are Colonel Glover's words, concerning that portion of his Brig- ade's movements-and, on the morning of Saturday, the nineteenth of October, they marched to the Mile Square, on the western side of the Bronx, in the Town of Yonkers.1

The strength of the Brigade commanded by Colo- nel Glover has been already stated, in detail, from official sources ; ? and, because Colonel Glover would not have left the encampment and all the baggage and stores of the Brigade without a sufficient guard, there is an evident truthfulness in his statement that he carried from his encampment only "about seven "hundred and fifty men and three field-pieces." But, in the same connection, it must be remembered that the two Regiments commanded, respectively, by Colonel's Read and Shepard, sustained almost the entire attacks of the enemy-Colonel Baldwin fell back, without having sustained any other than an artillery-fire; and Captain Curtis only saw the enemy, in the distance, on the other side of the val- ley-and that, therefore, the number of Americans who were actually engaged did not, probably, exceed four hundred rank and file. The strength of the enemy who was actually engaged has not been stated by any of the foreign authorities ; and we can do no more than statethe facts which are well-authenticated, and to draw onr conclusions from them. It is known that the detachment of the Royal Army which was first moved to Pell's-neck was composed of the Light

" We have depended, in this statement of the spirited action at Pel- ham, on Colonel Glover's homely description of it, contained in a letter, dated at " MILE-SQUARE, October 22, 1776," which was evidently written for the eye of a friend, although it very soon found its way into the newspapers, from one of which-The Freeman's Journal and New Hamp- shire Gazette, Vol. 1., No. 27., PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, November 26, 1776 -we made our copy. Force copied it, with some unimportant variations, in his American Archives, V., ii., 1188, 1189 ; but wo have preferred to use the contemporary edition.

2 Vide pago 417, auto.

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IIISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Infantry and Grenadiers of the Army ;1 and if the Chasseurs of the German auxiliaries were also includ- « d, as more than one of the authorities have stated,2 and as was more than probable, the previously large force of the detachment was very largely increased. The advancc-guard from that detachment was said to have been only thirty men ; 3 and these were met and held in check by a Captain and forty men. These, naturally enough, fell back on the main body, not on that of the Army itself, but on that of the detach- ment which had been moved from Throgg's-neck, in advance of the main body of the Army ; and, since that detachment had been thus sent forward, in ad- vance, for the express purpose of holding back any force of the Americans who should incline to obstruct the landing of the main Army, there can be no reason- able doubt that almost the entire force of the detach- ment was moved forward, against Colonel Glover and his command. In the absence of official Returns, the number of men actually included in that detachment can be only surmised ; but the Light Infantry and Grenadiers of the entire British Army, added to the Chasseurs and other Light Infantry and the Grena- diers of the German mercenaries-the Chasseurs tak- ing with them their light regimental fieldpieces- could have been scarcely less than four thousand men, the number stated by Colonel Glover.

The losses sustained by the Americans, in this ac- tion, were six men killed,4 and Coloncl Shepard and twelve men wounded ;5 those of the British were three men, killed, and Lieutenant-colonel Musgrave, com-

1 Lushington's Life of Lord Harris, 81.

See, also, Extract from a letter from Fort Lee, dated October 20, 1776, in The Pennsylvania Journal, No. 1768, PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, Octo- ber 23, 1776 ; Sauthier's Plan of the Operations ; etc.

2 Extract from a letter from Mount Washington, dated October 23, 1776, in The Pennsylvania Journal, No. 1769, PHILADELPHIA Wednesday, Octo- ber 30, 1776 ; General Howe to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 "November, 1776 ; " Santhier's Plan ; etc.

3 Colonel Glover's letter, dated, "MILE-SQUARE, October 22, 1776."

4 We are not insensible that Colonel Glover, in his letter of which so much nse has been made, in the preparation of this narrative, stated that eight were killed; but the official Returns, referred to, below, clearly indicated that only six were killed-no Returns of the Wounded having Deen made, only the Killed can be noticed.

The Return of the Regiment commanded by Colonel Read shows that, of that Regiment, Samuel Cole, of Captain Pond's Company, Daniel Deland, of Captain Warren's Company, and Ezekiel Fuller, of Captain Peters's Company, were killed. (A Return of the Killed, Missing, etc., with- out date, in Force's American Archives, V., ii., 718.)

The Return of Colonel Shepard's Regiment shows that, of that Regi- ment, Sergeants James Scott and Charles Adams and Private Thaddeus Kemp, all of them of Captain Bolster's Company, were killed. (A Return of the Killed, Taken, and Missing of the Third Regiment, commanded by Colonel Shepard, etc., " NORTH-CASTLE, November 19, 1776.")

The Return of Colonel Baldwin's Regiment shows that that Regiment sustained no loss, on the day under consideration. (Return of the Killed, Wounded, Prisoners, and Missing in the Brigade commanded by Gurdon Sal- tonstall, Esq. " NORTH-CASTLE. November 19, 1776.")

The Return of Colonel Glover's Regiment shows that that Regiment, commanded by Captain Curtis, on the occasion now uuder consideration, sustained no loss-it was not under the enemy's fire. (A Return of the Officers and Privates Killed. Missing, and Taken, in the Fourteenth Regiment, etc., " CAMP, NORTH CASTLE, November 19, 1776.")

5 Colonel Glover's letter, " MILE SQUARE, October 22, 1776."

manding the First Battalion of Light Infantry, and Captain Evelyn, of the Fourth Regiment of Foot, and twenty men, wounded; 6 those of the Chasseurs, on whom, in such mixed detachments as that under no- tice, the severest losses usually fell, have not been stated; but they were said to have been, and they probably were, very severe.7

It does not appear to have been pretended that Gen- eral Lee gave any Order or any support to Colonel Glo- ver, notwithstanding the latter despatched his Major of Brigade to the General, with information of the ap- proach of the enemy to Pell's-neck, before he ordered his command to move down the Neck, to oppose the enemy's progress; 8 and, in truth, nothing what- ever has been recorded of the doings of General Lee, on that eventful eighteenth of October. It is said, on the other hand, that, early in the morning of that day, the Officer commanding the Regiment which guarded the pass to Throgg's-ncck, by way of the causeway and bridge, from the Village of Westchester, suspected the enemy was preparing to move from the Neck, and sent an express to General Heath, with the information; that the latter ordered one of his Aide's to gallop to Valentine's, near whose house General George Clinton and his Brigade were posted, with Orders that the Brigade should be formed, " in- "stantly ; " that General Heath reached Valentine's " by the time the Brigade was formed," and ordered the Officer in command "to march with the utmost expe- "dition, to the head of the causeway, to reinforce " the troops, there, himself moving on with them ; " that, while on the march, another cxpress met Gen- cral Heath, informing him that the entire force of the enemy was in motion, and scemed to be moving towards the ford, at the head of the creek which sep- arated Throgg's-neck from the mainland ; that the

6 General Howe to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, "1776."

7 It was not the practise, when this skirmish occurred, to notice, in detail. the operations of the German mercenary troops, in the despatches of the Royal Commander-in-chief to the Home Government ; and the losses sustained by those troops, in whatever actions they were engaged, were seldom, if ever, included in the detailed Reports of Casualties which were sent to and published by the Government, at Loudon. The Reports of the operations and the casualties of those troops were made to the several sovereign Princes, Electors, etc., of whom those troops were, respectively, subjects ; and, except in some few instances, when individual enterprise has unearthed some of them, the text of those Reports and ninch of the official correspondence remain in their original repositories, unopened and seemingly, uncared for.

The reports of deserters and other unofficial reports made the total loss, including both British and German, from eight hundredl to a thon- sand men ; and it is difficult to make one believe that four hundred Americans, familiar from their childhood with the use of firearms, shel- tered by ample defences from which they could fire deliberately and with their pieces rested on the tops of their defeuces, could have possibly fired volley after volley, into a large body of men, massed in a closely compacted colminn and cooped np in a narrow country roadway, without having inflicted as extended a damage on those who received their fire, as deserter after deserter, to the number of more than half a dozen, on different days, without any connection with each other, severally and separately declared had been inflicted on the enemy's advance, on the occasion now under consideration.

8 Colonel Glover's letter dated " MILE SQUARE, October 22, 1776."

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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

Brigade was immediately halted, the men were or- dered to prime and load their pieces, and the rcar Regiment was ordered " to file off by the left and to " march, briskly, to reinforce the Americans, at the "pass, at the head of the ercek ;" that, while the Brig- ade was thus halted, General Washington rode up, in- quired and was informed of "the state of things; " ordercd General Heath to return, immediately, evi- dently with all the troops who were with him, and to have the entire Division which he commanded form- ed, ready for action, and to take such a position as should appear to be best adapted for holding the ene- my in check, if he should attempt to effect a landing at Morrisania, which the Commander-in-chief " thought not improbable ; " and that such a disposi- tion as was thus ordered, was promptly made of the three Brigades commanded, respectively, by Briga- dier-generals Parsons, Scott, and George Clinton, of whom the Division commanded by Major-general Heath was then composcd.1 Indeed, notwithstand- ing the evident movement of the main body of the enemy, from Throgg's-neck, to the eastward, the con- trolling suspicion, to which we have already alluded,2 that the real intention of General Howe was to de- ceive General Washington and, instead of making Pell's-neck or some other point further to the east- ward the base of his operations, to effect a landing at Morrisania ; to move from that point, as his base ; and to take the Americans, on the Heights of Har- lem, on their left flank or on their rear, induced Gen- cral Washington to do little more, during that day, [Friday, October 18,] than to watch the movements of the enemy ; to extend his line of detached parties, along the high grounds on the western bank of the Bronx-river, northward, as rapidly as the enemy should show an inclination to move, in force, in that direc- tion ; to continue the Head-quarters of the Army on the Heights of Harlem; and to hold the main body of that Army in constant readiness to move in what- ever direction it should become necessary to confront and oppose the enemy. On Colonel Glover and on his Brigade, therefore, during that eventful Friday, rested the great responsibility-a greater responsibil- ity than either the Colonel or his command had any knowledge of -- of being the only armed force which was in front of the Royal Army, opposing the progress of the latter into the interior of Westchester-county ; and of being the only foree, of any kind, which, on that day, fired a shot on the advancing column of that Army-how well that opposition to the enemy's advance was directed and how entirely successful it was, in that opposition, have been already told and need not be repeated. Not until the dusk of the evening, nor then, until after Colonel Glover and his exhausted command had fallen back, three miles, in the direction of Dobbs's-ferry, did the powerful ad-

vance of the Royal Army venture to eross the little valley over which it had been cannonaded, by the Americans, during a large portion of the day ; 3 and after its progress toward the mainland was thus re- sumed, it made no attempt to pursue the retreating Amcrieans, contenting itself, on the contrary, with quietly moving eastward, toward New Rochelle, where it also bivouaced, and rested from the anxie- tics and the dangers to which it had been exposed,4 the main body of the Army, meanwhile, lying on its arms, at the place of debarkation, during the whole of that day and the following night,5 if, indeed, it did not do so until the twenty-first of October.6

The great service which Colonel Glover and his command had thus performed, and the great skill and the equally great bravery which they had dis- played, in the discharge of that very important duty, were favorably noticed, officially, at that time ; 7 and,

3 Colonel Glover's letter, " MILE SQUARE, October 22, 1776."

4 General Howe to Lord George Germaine, "NEW-YORK, 30 November, "1776."

6 "On the 18th, our army re embarking, proceeded along the coast "about six miles further, in their boats, and then re-landed at Pell's " Point, and lay on our arms that night." ([Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 205.)

6 We are not insensible of the fact that Gencral Howe, in his despatch to Lord George Germaine, dated "NEW-YORK, 30 November, 1776," said "the main body advanced, immediately, and laid, that night," [Friday, October 18,] " upon their arms, with the Left upon a creek "opposite to East Chester and the Right near New Rochelle; " and that Sauthier's Plan of the Operations of the King's Army confirmed the statement. But General Washington's Manuscript Plun of the Country took no notice of any such occupation of the mainland, as was tlins stated, previously to the twenty- first ; Captain Hall, who was in the Royal Army, made no mention whatever of any move- ment of that Army, during the intervening period, except of that of the advance, who encountered General Glover, (History of the Civil War in America, i., 205 ;) and Stedman, who is said to have been inspired by General Sir Henry Clinton, in his History of the American War, (i., 212,) was equally silent, ou that subject. Colonel Harrison's letter to William Duer, "CAMP ON VALENTINE'S-IlILLS, October 21, 1776"-"Since his " Excellency's letter of yesterday, nothing of importance has transpired, "unless the marching of the enemy, to-day, from Eastchester towards " New Rochelle, is considered in that light "-General George Clinton's Information relating to the Enemy, dated "October 21, 1776," in which the enemy was said to "now lay from where they first landed, extended "about one mile East of New Rochelle; " and General Washington's despatch to the Continental Congress, dated " HEAD-QUARTERS, WHITE - "PLAINS, 25 October, 1776," all clearly indicated that such a movement of the main body of the King's Army was not made on the eighteenth ; and nobody has pretended that Colonel Glover confronted the entire Royal Army and held it in check, during the whole of the day, as he must have done, had that Army moved from Pell's-neck, on that day. We prefer to believe, therefore, that, although the advance and, possibly, some other detachments of that Army may have moved and occupied the country between llutcbinson's river and New Rochelle, on the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth of October, " the main body " re- mained ou l'ell's-neck, until the twenty first, as stated, indirectly, by Hall and Stedman, confirmed by the testimony of General Washington.

Bolton, in his History of Westchester-county (original edition, i., 444 ; the same, second edition, i., 695,) informed his readers, that, "on the "eighteenth of October, 1776, Lord Howe, the British commander, took "post in the village " of New Rochelle; but it is very likely that " Lord "Ilowe," who was Admiral of the Fleet, remained on board one of the vessels of-war-he, certainly, was not at New Rochelle, on the day of the debarkation of the Army, on Pell's-neck.

7" The next day, Gen, Lee (under whose command we are) came "and publickly returned his thanks to Colonel Glover and the Officers "and soldiers of his command, for their noble spirited and soldier-like "conduct, during the battle ; and that nothing in bis power should be

1 Memoirs of General Heath, 72.

3 Vide pages 408, 409, 415, ante.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

from that time until the present, with more or less minutencss and precision, they have been noticed by those, in Europe as well as in America, who have written of the events of the Campaign, in Westchester- county, in the Autumn of 1776.1

"wanting to serve those brave Officers and men." (Extract of a letter from " CAMP AT MILE SQUARE IN EAST CHESTER," dated 23 October, 1776, in The Freeman's Journal or New Hampshire Gazette, Vol. I., No. 25. PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, November 12, 1776.)

General Washington conveyed his sense of the merit of Colonel Glover and his command, in these words:

"GENERAL OanERS.

" HEAN-QUARTERS, HARLEM HEIGHTS, October 21, 1776. " (Parole, HEATII.) (Countersign, SULLIVAN.) "The hurried situation of the General, for the two last days, having "prevented him from paying that attention to Colonel Glover and the "Officers and soldiers who were with him, in the skirmish, on Friday " last, that their merit and good hehaviour deserved, he flatters himself "that his thanks, though delayed, will, nevertheless, be acceptable to " them, as they are offered with great sincerity aud cordiality. At the "same time, he hopes that every other part of the Army will do their "duty with equal duty * and zeal, whenever called upon ; and that " neither dangers, difficulties, nor hardships will discourage soldiers en

"gaged in the cause of Liberty, and contending for all that freewieu "hold dear and va'nable."

1 David How, in his homely Diary, under that date, [ October 18,] no- ticed the engagement, in these words : "18. The Regulars Landed above "Frogg's point on the main Laud. Our people fought Them Killed a " great many Both sides we have not The Particulars as yet." Lieuten- ant-colonel Teuch Tilghman to William Duer, "HEAD-QUARTERS, KING'S " BRIDGE, October 20, 1776," made a passing and complimentary allusion to the affair : General Washington, through his Secretary, to the Continental Congress, " KING'S BRIDGE, October 20, 1776, half-after one o'clock, "P.M.," gave a brief and complimentary account of the skirmish ; an Extract of a letter from Fort Lee, dated " October 20, 1776," and published in The Pennsylvania Journal, No. 1768, PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, Oc- tober 23, 1776, and by General Force, in his American Archives, V., ii., 1130, gave a very good and generally correct account of it ; another Extract of a letter from Fort Lee, dated "October 20," and published in the same newspaper, on the following Wednesday, also gave a good, brief description ; an Extract of a letter from an Officer, dated " NEAR NEW " ROCHELLE (IN THE VICINITY OF NEW-YORK) October 20, 1776," made a

brief and exaggerated allusion to it ; an Editorial article, in a Newport newspaper of the twenty-first of October, copied by The Freeman's Journal or New Hampshire Gazette, Vol. 1., No. 24., PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, Novem- her 5, 1776, and by General Force, in the American Archives, V., ii., 1174, contained a statement of theskirmish, giving the courmand to General Lee and making other serious errors ; some Information relating to the enemy, communicated to the New-York Convention, evidently by General George Clinton, on the twenty-first of October, 1776, gave a brief description ; an allusion which was made to it, with the report of a deserter as to the enemy's loss, may be scen in an Extract of a letter from Fort Lee, dated "October 22," and published iu The Philadelphia Evening Post, Vol. 11., No. 276, PHILADELPHIA, Saturday, October 26, 1776; with the letter, evidently written by General Glover, dated "MILE SQUARE, October 22, "1776," and published in The Freeman's Journal and New-Hampshire Gazette, Vol. I., No. 27, PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, November 26, 1776, and by General Force, in the American Archives, V., ii., 1188, 1189, the reader is already acquainted ; an Extract of a letter from Mount Washington, dated October 23, 1776, written by an eye-witness of the engagement, and published in The Pennsylvania Journal, No. 1769, PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, October 30, 1776, confirmed the statement that the loss was largely sustained by the German troops; and informed that deserters stated the entire loss, British and German, to have amounted to "more " than eight hundred men, killed and wounded ;" a brief reference was made to the skirmishi, in an Extract of a letter from Eust Chester, dated October 23, published in The Freeman's Journal or Now- Hampshire Gazette, Vol. I, No. 24, PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, November 5, 1776; an excellent and very full description, evidently written by oue who participated in the fight, appeared in an Extract of a letter from Camp at Mile Square in East Chester, dated 23 October, 1776, which was printed in The Freeman's

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 107

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354