History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 111

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 111

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On the twenty-seventh of October, the small force which had been left in Fort Independence, when General Heath's Division was moved from near Kingsbridge to the White Plains,3 was ordered to re- move the Cannon and Stores from that post to Fort Washington ; to burn the several Barracks which had been erected, there, with so much difficulty and at so great an expense ; and, " with all possible dispatch," to move, by way of the Albany post-road, as far as Dobbs's-ferry, to the White Plains; + and, on the fol- lowing day, without having removed the Cannon, three hundred stand of Small-arms, five tons of Bar- iron, and "a great quantity of Spears, Shot, Shells, " etc., too numerons to mention," which were within or near the Fort, and all of which were recklessly abandoned,5 that small command, numbering not more than four hundred effective men,6 joined the main body of the Division,? on the left of the line, at the White Plains. The enemy, who had occupied the en- tire lower portion of Westchester-county, since the American forces had been concentrated at the Plains, occupied the position, on the evening of the day on which Colonel Lasher had abandoned it.8

At the time of which we write, judging from The General Returns of the Army, dated on the third of November, the Army commanded by General Wash-

" General IcDougal's Brigade, of which tbe Maryland Regulars is " a part, having laid in the woods for three nights," [preceding the day of the action on Chatterton's-hill, that is to say, on the nights of the twenty- fifth, twenty-sirth, and twenty-seventh of October, ] "two miles from this " place, and to the right of the main body, as a covering party, was or- " dered to advance along the road, abont a mile, near a place called the " Mile-stone, and there take post, which was accordingly done." (Letter to a Gentleman in Annapolis, dated " WHITE-PLAINS, October 29, 1776," re printed in Force's American Archives, V., ii., 1284.)

I ". I am so closely coufined to my post, on the left of the whole, as not " to liave been a quarter mile West from this for four days past. Near "three thousand of the enemy, yesterday and the evening before, filed "off to the left, aud were seen advancing towards King's street and the " Purchase road. . . Our lines were manned all night, in con- "sequence of this ; and a most horrid uight it was to lay in cold "trenches. . . . I have only time to add that I am with usnal " health, though in no better lodging than a soldier's tent, with our old " friend General Scott." (General George Clinton to John Mckesson, " CAMP NEAR WHITE-PLAINS, October 31, 1776.")

! " On the same evening," [ October 23,] " Cul. Tyler's, Huntington's, and "Throop's Regiments, of General Parson's Brigade and of our General's "Division, moved, aud took post at the head of King street, near Rye- " pond."-( Memoirs of General Heath, 75, 76.) 3 Vide pages 251, ante.

4 General Heuth to Colonel Lasher, " WHITE PLAINS, October 27, 1776;" General Greene to General Mifflin, " Foar LEE, October 27, 1776 ;" Mem- oirs of General Heath, 79, 80.

& General Greene to General Washington, " FORT LEE, October 29, "1776."

6 Colonel Lasher to General Heath, "CAMP AT KING'S BRIDGE, October "26. 1776."

" Memoirs of General Heath, 79, 80.

8 Colonel Lasher to General Heath, "CAMP AT KING's BainGr., October " 26, 1776."

ington, in person, was composed, nominally, of about twenty-five thousand, four hundred, and fifty men, of whom about twelve thousand and fifty were sick, on independent commands, or on furlough; leaving only about thirteen thousand, four hundred, rank and file, present and fit for duty.9 The supply of Pro- visions, as the reader has been already informed,10 was exceedingly scanty; 11 the Medicine-chest was almost destitute of both instruments and drugs ; 12 and Clothing was a Inxury in which very few could com- fortably indulge themselves.13 The troops, as we have already stated,14 were dispirited and, often, disaffected ;

9 The General Returns of the Army, dated on the third of November, six days after the action on Chatterton's-hill, showed an aggregate of twenty-five thousand, two hundred, and seventeen, "rank and file," including the Mlatrosses of ten Compauies of Artillery and excluding, of course, the Counmissioned Officers, the Staff, and the Non-commis- sioned Officers of the Army. Adding to these, those who had been killed and missing during the period which had intervened between the time of which we write and the date of the Returns referred to, in which occurred the action on Chatterton's-hill and all the other military operations in the vicinity of the White Plains ; and it will be seen that, when the Army occupied the high grounds, to the north- ward of that Village, excluding tbe Sick, those who were on Com- mands, and those who were absent, on Furloughs, the effective force was only thirteen thousand, four hundred, and fonr, "rank and file." 10 Vide pages 248, 250, ante.

11 " His," [General Washington's,] " apprehensions are exceedingly "great lest the Army should suffer much for want of necessary supplies "of Provisions, especially in the article of Flonr. From the best in- "telligence he is able to obtain, there is not more, iu Camp and at " the several places where it has been deposited, than will serve the " Army longer than four or five days, provided the utmost care and "economy were used in issuing it out; but from the waste and em- " bezzlement, for want of proper attention to it, as is reported to him, "it is not probable that it will last so long."-(Colonel Robert II. HIar- rison, Secretary of General Washington, to Colonel Joseph Trumbull, Com- missary-general of Provisions " WHITE-PLAINS, November 1, 1776.")

12 " We want Medicine, mncb : none can he had, here. Onr sick have " [been] "and are suffering extremely."-(Colonel Smallwood to the Coun- cil of Safety of Maryland, " PHILIPSE'S HEIGHTS, October, 1776.")

"I wrote a hasty letter, some time ago, requesting from the State "of New York, that they would allow me the remainder of the "stock of Medicines purchased for the use of the State, of which they "were so good as to allow me one-half, early in the Summer, for the " use of the Army. The demand for Medicines is very great ; and we "cannot procure a sufficiency, at any rate."-(Doctor John Morgan, Medical Director of the Army, to John Jay, "NORTH-CASTLE, October 28, "1776.")

A letter from Doctor John Pine, of the Maryland Line, to James Tilgbman, of Annapolis, dated, "CAMP AT WHITE-PLAINS, November 7, "1776," contains a detailed statement of the entire destitution of the Army, and of the consequent sufferings of the sick aud wounded.

13 " The Rebel Army are in so wretched a condition, as to Clothing and " Accoutrements, that I believe no Nation ever saw such a set of tatterde- " malions. There are few Coats among them but what are ont at " elbows ; and in a whole Regiment there is scarce a pair of Breeches. "Judge, then, how they must be piuched by a Winter Campaign."-(Let- ter from an Officer of the Sirty-fourth Regiment to his friend in London, " NEW-YORK, October 30, 1776," re-printed in Force's American Archives, V., ii., 1293, 1294.)

" We are requested by the Generals of our State to inform you of the "absolnte necessity our troops are in for want of Clothing." -- (Charles D. Witt, Robert Harper, and Lewis Graham to the President of the New York Courention, " WHITE PLAINS, October 24, 1776.")

" The Colonel and Major Barber came here, last evening ; and the " Regiment is now within a few miles of this place, marching with "cbeerfulness; but great part of the men [are] barefooted and bare- legged." (Richard Stockton to Abrum Clark, "SARATOGA, October 28 "1776.")

14 Vide pages 223, 224, ante.

434

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

the term of service of very many of them had nearly expired ; 1 and, very largely, that short term was made very much shorter by shameful desertions.2 There was no harmony of sentiment, no common feeling of patriotism, no sympathy with each other as fellow- countrymen engaged in a common cause, in any por- tion of the Army. The Eastern troops were stigma- tized as, generally, nothing else than a mass of speculating poltroons, for which, very often, there was abundant reason ; 3 and they, reciprocated the ill- feeling of those from the Middle and Southern States, by branding them as " Aristocrats" and "Mac- caronis "- the former of the two sobriquets in allusion to the distinctions of rank which were maintained among those troops, so different from the practice of the New Englanders; the latter, in contemptuous reference to the Regiments, from the Middle and Southern States, who were uniformed, well-equipped,

1 Many of the troops were enlisted to serve only until the first of December ; and the terms of service of the greater portion of the re- mainder would expire on the last day of December, ensuing .- (General Washington to the President of the Congress, " HEAD-QUARTERS, AT COLONEL " MORRIS'S HOUSE, 18 September, 1776 ;" etc.)

2 General Washington to the Officers and Soldiers of the Pennsylvania As- sociation, "HEAD-QUARTERS, NEW-YORK, 8 August, 1776;" the same to the President of the Congress, "NEW-YORK, 2 September, 1776;" General Schuyler to General Gafes, "SARATOGA, October 30, 1776 ;" etc.

3 The following is a specimen of a multitude of such testimonials of the speculative propensities of the New England troops, in the Army of the Revolution, and of their too frequent dishonesty in their oper- ations, which are accessible to every one. Every careful student can con- mand many such evidences ; but this, written by the Commissary-gen- eral of Provisions of the Continental Army, himself a Connecticut- man, to his father, Jonathan Trumbull, who was, then, the Governor of Connecticut, will be sufficient, for the purposes under consideration.

"NORTH-CASTLE, 4th December, 1776.

" HONOURED SIR :

"Enclosed I send you Returns of some of the Regiments of Cou- "necticut Militia under command of Major General Wooster, such as "I can get ; though I have called and called again and again for theni, " I believe there are but one of them really truc, that is Major Brins- " made's, who seems to be the honestest man. The fact is, they can't "make their Weekly and Provision Returns agrce ; for this reason, " they have made a number of Brevet Officers, They doubt whether " these Officers will be allowed extra rations : to avoid that, they re- "turn so many more men as to cover the extra rations of those Offi- " cers. You'll see by adverting to the Returns, that some Companies "have more Officers than Privates, at best ; but not content with that, "and instead of sending home the Officers who have very few men, " almost none, and turning over those few men into other Companies, " they add Brevet Officers, not only to pick the pockets of the pub- "lick, here, but, also, those Brevet Officers are to be dismissed from "the Militia Rolls, at home ; and, in a few times more being called "forth, there will be no Militia left in the State.

" These things I thought it my duty to report to you, as the char- "acter of the State is at stake; and how the Officers who have done " these things will get along. here, I don't know, as we now make " Weckly Ration Returns as well as Returns of the Army, by which " they must be discovered. The consequence is bad to the Officers ; how- "ever, they must take their fate.

"I am sorry to have the character of the State suffer by such conduct " of its Officers.

* * * % * *

" I am, honoured Sir, your dutiful Son,

'. JOS. TRUMBULL.

" Governonr TRUMBULL."

We have seen no evidence that either General Wooster or Commis- sary-general Trumbull took any steps for either the arrest of the of- fenders or a suppression of the offences.

and properly disciplined +-adding fuel to the flame of discord, which, on more than one occasion, required all the good judgment and determination of which the Commander-in-chief was master, to prevent a serious outbreak.5

It will be remembered that, on Monday, the twenty- first of October, the Right and Centre of the Royal Army were moved to a position, on the road leading to the White Plains, about two miles to the northward of New Rochelle ; and that Lieutenant-general Heis- ter, with the Left of the Army, consisting of one Brigade of British and two Brigades of Hessian troops, moved forward and occupied the position which had been thus abandoned.6 It will be remembered, also, that, on the same day, Lieutenant-colonel Rogers, with the Corps of Loyalists known as "The Queen's " Rangers," was detached from the main body of the Army, and pushed forward to take possession of Mamar- oneck,7 where, on the following night, he and his command "were roughly handled," by a party of Americans who had been despatched from the White Plains, for that purpose ; 8 which led General Howe, on the following day, [Tuesday, October 22,] to move the Sixth Brigade of British troops, commanded by Brigadier-general Agnew, to sustain that important post.9 It will be remembered, also, that, on Sunday, the twentieth of October, the Royal Army was strengthened by the addition of a portion of the Six- teenth and the whole of the Seventeenth Regiments of Light Dragoons, the former commanded by Lien- tenant-colonel Harcourt, an Officer of great merit; 10 and that, on Tuesday, the twenty-second of October, it was further strengthened by the arrival, at New Rochelle, of Lieutenant-general Knyphausen, with the Second Division of Hessians and the Regiment of Waldeckers.11

Taking counsel of his experience, General Howe ordered Lieutenant-general Heister, with the Left of the Army, to join in the movement ; and, on Thursday, the twenty-fourth, and on Friday, the twenty-fifth, of October, the main body of the Royal Army was moved from the positions on which it had rested, for several days, towards Scarsdale.12 It moved in two

# Reed's Life of Joseph Reed, i., 239-242 ; Gordon's History of the Amer- ican Revolution, ii., 304, 317, 324, 331, 333-335 ; Marsliall's Life of George Washington, il., 473, 474 ; etc.

6 General Orders, " NEW-YORK August 1, 1776 ; " Gordon's History of the American Revolution, ii., 304; etc.

6 V'ide page 249, ante.

See, also, General Howe to Lord George Germaine, "NEW-YORK, 30th "November, 1776;" [Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 205 ; etc.

" Vide page 240, ante.

8 Vide pages 252, 253, ante. 9 Vide page 253, ante.

10 Vide page 249, ante.

11 Vide page 253, ante.

12 Information was received, at the White Plains, as early as two o'clock on Thursday afternoon, [ October 24,] that the Royal Army had struck its tents, on its position near New Rochelle, "early this morning ;" and that it was, then, "advancing from that to this place, along the common "road."-(General George Clinton to John McKesson, Secretary to the New- York Convention, " WHITE-PLAINS, October 24, 2 P. M., 1776.")

435

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

columns, with great cantion ; 1 and, on the twenty-fifth of October, when the heads of the columns reached Scarsdale, after their two days' march, they were halted; and the Army encamped in a line which was parallel with the Bronx-river and with the line of march, on the opposite side of that little stream, on which General Lee, with his heavily laden column, was transporting the Baggage and Stores of the Amer- ican Army, to the White Plains2-in many places, the two were not more than a mile distant from each other ; and, in one place, if not in others, the toiling Americans were directly within sight of their powerful encmy.

The objeet of General Howe, in halting at Scars- dale, with his Right within four miles of the Ameri- can lines, at the White Plains, and of remaining en- camped at that place, without making a movement, of any kind, during nearly three days, was not under- stood by those, in Europe, who were inclined to con- demn his conduct, as Commander-in-chief of the Army, before the Parliament and the country ; and the evidently studied silence, on that subject, which the General maintained, was not calculated to quiet, nor even to lessen, the fault-findings of those who were his political and personal enemies. But, what-

In his letter tothe President of the Congress, dated " HEAD-QUARTERS, " WHITE-PLAINS, 25 October, 17,6," Colonel Robert H. Harrison, General Washington's Secretary, stated that "about two o'clock this afternoon, "intelligence was brought to Head-quarters, that three or four detach- " ments of the enemy were on their march, and had advanced within "abont four miles of this place. It has been fully confirmed, siuce, by "a variety of persons, who have been out to reconnoitre."

If General Clinton did not make a mistake in the date of his letter, of which we have no evidence, the movement of the Royal Army was com- menced on Thursday, [October 24;] and the letter of Colonel Harrison clearly indicated that it had already reached Scarsdale, within four miles of the Plains, before the movement was known at Head quarters, at two o'clock in the afternoon of the following day, [ Friday, October 25.]

The failure of General Washington to obtain information of the move- ments of the King's troops, of which so many instances have been seen, was nowhere more evident than in the instance now under considera- tion- one of the reasonable results of the ontrages to which the inhabit- ants had been subjected, by both the Congresses and the Committees, on the one hand, and by the unrestrained thieves, among both the Officers and the Privates of the Army whom General Washington commanded, on the other.

! "General Howe thought it necessary to proceed with great circum- "spection. The progress was slow ; the march of the Army, close ; the " encampinents, compact and well-guarded with artillery ; and the most " sohlier-like cantion used, in every respect."-(Annual Register for 1776 : History of Europe, *I77.)

" The British continued moving up, but with great caution, their rear "scarcely advancing, when they came to encamp again, mnch further "than where the advance had moved from."-(Memoirs of Major-gen- eral Heath, 76.)

" The caution of the English General was increased by the evidences "of enterprise in his adversary. Ilis object seems to have been to avoid " skirmishing, and to bring on a general action, if that could be effected " under favorable circumstances ; if not, he knew well the approaching "dissolution of the American Army, and calculated, not without reason, " to derive from that event nearly all the advantages of a victory. IIe " proceeded, therefore, slowly. His marches were in close order ; his "encampment> compact, and well guarded with artillery; and the ut- " most circumspection was used, not to expose any part which might be " vulnerable."-(Marshall's Life of George Washington, ii., 501.)

" General How- to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, "1776 ; " Sauthier's Plan of the Operations, etc .; Gordou's History of the American Revolution, ii., 340 ; etc.

ever may have been thought and said of his failure to cross the Bronx and to attack the heavily laden col- umn commanded by General Lee, the maxims of mil- itary science, at that time, forbade a movement towards the White Plains, then, leaving his left flank and his rear exposed to the three Divisions commanded, respectively, by Generals Lee, Spencer, and Lin- colu.3 There was a possibility that the separation of those three Divisions from the main body of the Army might have enabled him to attack the Ameri- cans, en detail, and to overcome them more completely than if they had been in one body ; but he had excel- lent evidence of the vigilance and the enterprise of those who were nearest to him ; and his ruling prin- ciple, to avoid an unnecessary exposure of his men evidently led him to the safe conclusion that, in such a series of undertakings on the divided forces of the Americans, if more than one attack on them were to be made, the last one of the series should be that on that portion of the American Army which, then, occupied the entrenched Camp, at the White Plains, a conclusion in which he would have been entirely sustained by every intelligent soldier, of that period, in Europe or in America.

Notwithstanding the silence of General Howe, concerning his purpose in moving his command to Scarsdale, instead of to the White Plains, there is rea- son for supposing that it was done for the purpose of cutting off the column commanded by General Lee, before it could join the main body ; that preparations for the movement, on the following morning, were made on the afternoon and evening of the day of the arrival of the Royal Army, at Scarsdale; and that it was prevented by the withdrawal of the column which it was intended to attack, from its designated route, into a road which was further westward, so that, when the time came for the attack, General Lee, by a forced march, during the night, was several miles nearer to the main body of the Army, and entirely beyond the reach of General Howe.+

3 Other instances of that peculiar caution were seen, at the White Plains, three days after the instance now under notice, when the main body of the Army was halted, until the Americans had been driven from Chat- terton's-hill, and, most disastrously to the Americans, in the following year, when the fruits of the victory, at Germantown, were lost by the halt of the main body, in order to dislodge a handful of the Royal Army who had occupied and wbo held the Cbew mansion.

4 In a letter which was written by au Officer of the Royal Army, dated on the tenth of November, and printed in The Middlesex Journal and Evening Advertiser, No. 1209, Loxnox : From Saturday, December 21, to Tuesday, December 24, 1776, will be found our authority for what we have said of the purposes of General Howe, of his preparations for carry- ing out those purposes, and of the cause of his disappointment ; and a reference to the letter of Colonel Glover, with which our readers are al- ready familiar, (" MILE-SQUARE, October 22, 1776,") there is an ample confirmation of each of the statements-the ('olonel erroneously stated that the Royal Army was moved from New Rochelle, on Sunday, the twenty seventhi of October, instead of on Friday, the twenty-fifth of that month, and so continued to be two days too late, in each of his subsequent statements ; but, in all else, his statements of the movement of General Ilowe ; of the discovery, by General Lee, of the purpose to cut him ofl from the main body of the Army ; of the consequent detour of the columin, into the Dobbs's-ferry road ; of its forced night-march ; and of

436

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

At length, all the necessary preparations having been completed, early in the morning of Monday, the twenty-eighth of October, the Royal Army struck its tents, in the encampment, at Scarsdale, which it had occupied since the preceding Friday ; and, in two columns, right in front, it moved towards the White Plains.1 The right column, which was composed mostly of British troops, was commanded by Lieutenant-general Sir Henry Clinton ; 2 the left column, with whom was General Howe, 3 was com- posed mostly of German troops, and was commanded by Lieutenant-general Heister. 4

The American pickets were driven in, by the Light Infantry, of the right column, aud by the Chasseurs, of the left column; 5 and when the moving columns reached Hart's-corners-now known by the name of Hartsdalc-they encountered a body of New England troops, composed of a "part of General Wadsworth's " Brigade, with some other Regiments," 6 the whole under the command of Major-general Spencer,7 and numbering not far from twenty-six hundred Officers and effective men, 8 whom General Washington had

its arrival at the White Plains, at ten o'clock on the following morn- ing, were in entire harmony with what was stated by the British Officer, through The Middlesex Journal.

1 General Howe to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, "1776 ; " [ IIall's] History of the Civil War in Americo, i., 207 ; Stedman's History of the American War, i., 212; Gordon's History of the American Revolution, ii., 340; Marshall's Life of George Washington, ii., 503 ; etc. 2 Sauthier's Plan of the Operotions, etc .; Stedman's History of the American War, i., 212; etc.

3 Stedman's Ihistory of the Americon War, i., 212 ; Marshall's Life of George Washington, ii., 503 ; etc.

4 Generol Howe to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, " 1776 ; " Sauthier's Plan of the Operations, etc. ; Gordon's History of the Americon Revolution, ii., 340 ; etc.

Very singularly, Marshall, (Life of George Washington, ii., 503,) statcd that the left column was commanded by Lieutenant-gencral Knyphansen, who had not left the Second Division of German troops, whom he com- manded, which was, then, at New Rochello.

& General Howe to Lord George Germoine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, " 1776 ; " [Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 207; Stedman's History of the American War, i., 212 ; Marshall's Life of George Woshing- ton, ii., 503; etc.

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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 111

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