History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 188

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 188

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4 so declared in a letter shortly prior to his resignation. lle meant to come to America, " where his pride and poverty would be much more at their ense."

5 A little way insido of the gateway of Mr. William Ogden Giles.

0 New York Gazetteer, October 7, 1773, contains his advertisement of the King's Bridge farm "at private sale."

I Who attempted to found a city as a rival to New York, on an island in the Sound, since called "City Island."

2 Dyckman, who built a tavern at the approach to the free bridge (where the King's Bridge Hotel now stands), failed soon afterward, and sought legislative relief for his ontlays in its construction. Palmer, towards the end of the century, unsuccessfully applied to the Assembly for aid on the same account. The press took up his canse and declared that his work had been " the first step towards freedom in this State, * * * " for it was almost as difficult for Mr. Palmer to get a free bridge in "those days as it was for America to get her freedom." Aaron Burr and others made np a purse of £30 for the needy old man in 1800.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

and his brother Frederick, of the Yonkers, heartily favored resistance.

The news from Lexington was shonted at every threshold along the old Boston road in the night of April 22d, as the herald spurred on towards New York. A few days later the inhabitants were aiding to unload, at King's Bridge and the hills beyond, npward of one hundred cannon,1 which had been carted ont from the city for security. On the 8th of May the new committee for Westchester County, on which Frederick Van Cortlandt represented the Yonkers, chose Colonel James Van Cortlandt as deputy to the new Provincial Congress, and he attended its first meeting at the exchange in Broad Street.

The importance of maintaining communication by land between New York and the country so impressed the Continental Congress that it resolved, on May 25th, that a post should be immediately taken and fortified at King's Bridge. On the 30th the Pro- vincial Congress appointed a committee of five, in- cluding Captain Richard Montgomery and Colonel James Van Cortlandt to view the ground near the bridge and report whether it wonld admit of a tenable fortification. Their report of Jnne 3d favored a post for three hundred men on the hill adjoining Hyatt's taveru, bnt recommended no form or dimensions and thonght it imprudent to fortify until the embodi- ment of troops, who could do most of the labor. Commanding points on Tippett's and Tetard's Hills were suggested for additional works. On the spots thus indicated forts were afterwards erected by the Americans, and when captured by the British, were strengthened and garrisoned by them for many years. 2

Colonel Van Cortlandt was a member of the com- mittee of the Provincial Congress to arrange the troops and form the militia. ‘ Frederick Van Cortlandt, Thomas Emmons, Williams Betts and William Hadley were of the local committee for the Yonkers. Under their supervision a militia company was formed in the precinct, as part of the "South Battal- ion" of the connty. The roster included sixty-four names,-Anthony Allaire, Abraham Asten, George Berrien, Wm. Betts, Frederick, Gilbert and Robert Brown, Hendrick Browne, Jr., Henry Bursen, Jno. Cock, Jno. and Edw'd Cortright, Geo. and Jas. Crawford, Jno. Cregier, Daniel Deen, John Devoe, Abraham Em- mons, Benj., Thos. and Robert Farrington, Usial Fountain, Wm. and Isaac Green, Geo., Isaac, Jos. and Wm. Hadley, Thos. Merrill, Jas. Munro, Jos. Jr., and Thos. Oakley, Abraham and John Odell, Jas. Parker, Abm. Dennis, Isaac, Israel, Jacob, Lewis, Martin and Wm. Post, Henry Presher, Tobias Rickinan, Wm. Rose, Edward and John Ryer, Francis Smith, Chas.

Elnathan, Jr., Elijah, Henry and Jacob Taylor, Izarell Underhill, Frederick Van Cortlandt, Abm, Frederick and Josh. Vermilye, John and Wm. Warner, Geo. Wertz, John and Samnel Williams. On August 24, 1775, they chose John Cock, captain ; Wm. Betts, first lientenant : John Warner, second lieutenant ; and Jacob Post, ensign. The names were sent to the Pro- vincial Congress for commissions. The county com- mittee protested against the captain elect, and on the 11th of September presented the affidavit of William Hadley, of the district committee, that when he pre- sented the " general association " to Cock, he said, "I sign this with my hand, but not with my heart; for I would not have signed it, had it not been for my wife and family's sake." The friends of Cock rallied to his support. A majority of the company and a score more inhabitants of Yonkers 3 sent down a petition in his favor, stating that he had been chosen " for his well-known skill and ability in the military disci- pline," and that the complaints were made ont of " spite and malice." But further affidavits by Isaac Green and George Hadley, that Cock " had damned the Continental Congress," satisfied the Committee of Safety that it was improper to give Cock a commission. The local committee was ordered to hold a new elec- tion, " taking care to give public notice that John Cock cannot be admitted to any office whatso- ever." 4

The twenty-one nine-ponnders carried off from the Battery by the Sons of Liberty, August 23d, were hauled np to King's Bridge and left with the rest in care of the minnte mnen. In the night of January 17, 1776, more than fifty guns near Williams', and as many in the fields near Isaac Valentine's, were spiked or " loaded and stopped with stones and other rubbish." Search was made for the perpetrators. John Fowler was brought before the Committee of Safety on the 23d, charged with a recent purchase of rat-tail files in New York. He implicated William Lounsbery, of Mamaroneck, as the real purchaser. They were imprisoned. Jacamiah Allen was employed to unspike the guns at twenty shillings each. He raised them on fires of several cords of wood, tended day and night to soften the spikes, and by March 16th he had unspiked eighty-two and expected to soon complete the work. These guns were afterwards mounted

3 They were Matthias, Anthony and Benjamin Archer, Benjamin Ars. dan, Stephen Bastine, Ezekial and Henry Brown, George Crawford, Benjamin Farrington, Jonathan Fowler, John Guerenean, Samuel Law- rence, Henry and Jordan Norris, David, Jr., and Moses Oakley, Abm., James and Thomas Rich, Elnathan Taylor and Thomas Tippett.

4 Cock kept the old tavern on the north side of King's Bridge. Tlie head of the overthrown statue of George III., in the Bowling Green, was carried to Fort Washington, to be fixed to a spike on the flag-staff. While it was left temporarily at Jacob Moore's tavern, near by, an emissary from Colonel Montresor went out through the "rebel camp" with a message to Cock to steal and bury the head. This was done (probably at Cock's tavern), and when the British arrived, in November, 1776, it was dug up and sent in care of Lady Gage to Lord Townsend, " to con- vince then at home of the infamous disposition of the ungrateful people of this distracted country."

1 Compensation to the heirs of Sebring and Beekman, for certain of these guns, was provided for by an act of the Legislature, passed in 1800.

2 The British called the redoubt on the hill near Hyatt's tavern " Ft. Prince Charles ; " the one on Tippett's Hill " Number Three, and the onc on Tetard's Hill, the American Ft. Independence, " Number Four."

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KING'S BRIDGE

in the works erected by the American troops on the hills about King's Bridge.

In February, 1776, Augustus Van Cortlandt, elerk of New York City, reported to the Committee of Safety that for their security he had removed the public records to Yonkers. They were deposited in Colonel Vau Cortlandt's family burial vault 1 and were still there in December; but it is probable the British were soon afterwards apprised of their place of concealment and had them returned to the city.

On the 18th of March the Yonkers militia held a new election and chose John Warner, captain; Jacob Post, first lieutenant ; Samuel Lawrence, second lieutenant ; and Isaac Post, ensign. In May the Pro- vincial Congress had in service the armed schooner " General Putnam," commanded by Captain Thomas Cregier, of King's Bridge. After months of inactivity at the heads of inlets when he should have been at sea, Cregier was discharged for iuefficiency and the vessel was sold.

Early in June Washington visited and inspected the grounds above King's Bridge. He found them to admit of seven places well calculated for defense. " Esteeming it a pass of the utmost importance in order to keep open communication with the coun. try," he set two Pennsylvania regiments at work on their fortification, and put bodies of militia to the same labor as fast as they arrived. In General Orders of July 2d, Mifflin was directed to repair to Kiug's Bridge and to use his utmost endeavors to forward the works. " The time is now at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves" is a memorable sentence in this order. The enemy was ready to disembark in the lower bay. It was uuknown from what quarter their attack would eome. Mifflin thought they would di- vert attention to the heights above King's Bridge, and it was reported they meant to erect strong works there to cut off communication between city and country. On the 12th of July the ships of war "Rose" and "Phoenix" sailed up the Hudson, and unaware of the new batterics which had been planted on Tip- pett's and Cock Hills, anchored near the muouth of Spuyten Duyvil Creek. A dozen guus opened fire on them and " did great execution." On the 15th additional troops were hurried out to King's Bridge, the destruction of which was apprehended. Three hundred men were sent up the Harlem River in boats on the 19th and were put to work on the forts. Engineers were assigned, tools supplied and the work carried on uight and day during the ensuing fort- night. On the 8th of August General Clinton was directed to send expresses to Ulster, Dutchess, Orange and Westchester Counties, to hasten levies and anarch them down to the fort erected on the north side of the bridge. On the 13th Gencral Heath was

put in command of the division stationed there and large quantities of provisions and ammunition were sentup. The "Rose " and "Phoenix " with their tenders were anchored off' Mt. St. Vincent. On the nights of the 14th, 15th and 16th numbers of officers and men, (including on two occasions Generals Heath and Clinton) gathered on Tippett's Hill to witness an at- tempt to destroy these vessels with fire-ships. It was made at midnight on the 17th. A flaming galley set fire to one of the tenders and consumed her with " horrid flames." At sunrise on the 18th the frigates and remaining teuders fled down stream, and ran through the cheraur-de-frise under a heavy cannonade from the " Blue Bell Fort " 2 and Fort Lee. Ou the 21st Washington assigned the new engineer Monsieur Martin to the post at King's Bridge and under his direction work was pressed on the fortifications. On the 23d Clinton's brigade was ordered iuto camp. Colonel Thomas's regiment pitched on the south side of Fort Independ- ence, Colonel Graham's about half a mile farther south ward, Colonel Paulding's and Colonel Nicholas' on the flat below, near Corsa's orchard, and Colonel Swartwout on the southerly end of Tippett's Hill. On the 25th a detachment went down from King's Bridge to Paulus Hook in " the flat-bottomed boat " and brought back a number of gun-carriages, on which cannon were mounted in the new works. Colonel Swartwout's regiment threw up a battery "on the north side of Spuyten Duyvil Creek, at its very mouth," to prevent the enemy from approaching the bridge in boats, and also constructed two additional redoubts on the top of Tippett's Hill, one of which was called " Fort Swartwout." " No "fatigue rum " was allowed to any one engaged ou these works, except on certificate that he had been "faithful, obedient and industrious." On the 27th the Provincial Congress, then sitting at Harlem, alarmed by the defeat on Long Island, ordered its records and papers, and the receiver-general's chest to be taken at once to the camp at King's Bridge. On the 29th Heath impressed every boat and craft at the post and hurried them down to Washington for use in the retreat from Long Island. On the 31st the inhabitants began driving their cattle into the interior. The Committee of Safety now urged on Washington the defensibility of the country above the bridge and the dreadful conse- quences of its occupation by the enemy. He replied that the defensible state of that ground had not es- caped him, and that as the posts at King's Bridge were of such great importance, he hoped the con- vention would afford aid for their defense. When it became evident in September that the eity was un- tenable by the Americans in the face of the superior British force, Washington determined to take post at King's Bridge and along the Westchester shore, where

1 This ancient depository of the city records is still used as a burial- place by the family, and gives the name to the hill on which it Is lo- cated.

2 Fort Washington, near which the old Blue Bell tavern stood.

8 The night guard in this work, October 17, 1776, was one captain, two lieutenants and fifty men.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

barracks could be procured for the part of the army without tents. He concluded to leave five thousand men ou the island for defense of the city, and to post nine thousand at King's Bridge and its dependencies. On the 8th Heath was instructed to fell trees across the roads towards the bridge, to dig holes in them, break them up and destroy them so as to be impassable. The next day one hundred and sixty thousand boards were ordered for the barracks at the bridge, also brick and stones for ovens, which all soldiers who were masons were ordered to assist in making.

Meanwhile the inhabitants suffered from the occu- pation of their farms. Fences were pulled down and burned and corn-fields, gardens and orchards pillaged. The orders of the day pronounced it "cruel as well as unjust and scandalous thus to destroy the inhab- itants by destroying the little property for which they have been sweating and toiling through the summer aud were expecting very soon to reap the fruits of."

Howe's movement to Throg's Neck caused Wash- ingtou to call a meeting of general officers at King's Bridge. It was held on the 16th of October, when it was determined to abandon Manhattan Island. On the 19th strong pickets were established and frequent night patrols made through all the region about King's Bridge. On the 20th Washingtou moved his headquarters to the bridge, where the main army was now in barracks, and continued there until the 22d. During the next few days the army moved off to the heights of the Bronx, leaving garrisons in the forts about King's Bridge under orders to destroy them on the enemy's approach in force. Col. Lashier, in Fort Independence, was "to burn the barracks, quit the post and join the army, by way of the North River, at White Plains." At three in the morning of the 28th the long lines of barracks were fired and the forts abandoned. Their garrisons either withdrew to Fort Washington, or, crossing to New Jersey, rejoined their regiments at White Plains by way of King's Ferry. Gen. Greene, coming out from Fort Washington, found several hundred stand of small arms, great numbers of spears, shot, shells, etc. To carry these off he impressed all the wagons in the neighborhood. He then dismantled King's Bridge and the Free Bridge. On the evening of the 29th General Knyphausen, with a force of Hessians and Waldeckers which had landed at New Rochelle, ap- proached Fort Independeuce by the old Boston road, and, finding it deserted, occupied it the following day. Hc took possession of the other works on Tetard's Hill and occupied them until November 2d. Then, with part of his forces, he descended and took a position on Paparinamin, north of King's Bridge. Having repaired the bridge, he crossed over and occupied the deserted American post on the opposite hill, but retired ou the 4th. He crossed again on the 7th with fifteen hundred men and took positions on the hills commanding the old King's Bridge road.

Ou the 16th the remainder of General Knyphausen's force crossed over the Free Bridge and united in the capture of Fort Washington, which thereafter took his name.

Being now possessed of the whole of Manhattan Island, the British adopted and strengthened the American works at and about King's Bridge for the defense of New York City. Beginning with the westerly redoubt on Spuyten Duyvil Neck, and going eastward, and from Fort Independence southward, they were distinguished by the numbers 1 to 8, inclu- sive.

Number One was located where the house of the late Peter O. Strang stands, iu grading for which all traces of the fort were obliterated. It was square, and overlooked the Hudson and Spuyten Duyvil Creek at their confluence.

Number Two was a circular redoubt on the crown of the hill in the field west of Warren B. Sage's resi- dence. Its walls are yet discernible.1 This was the American Fort Swartwout. In the adjoining field to the westward a flankiug redan may yet be seen over- looking the Riverdale road.

Number Three stood where Warren B. Sage's house now stauds, on the easterly brow of Spuyteu Duyvil Hill and directly overlooking the post on the north- erly eud of Manhattan Island at King's Bridge, called Fort Prince Charles2 by the British. Numbers one, two and three were first garrisoned in 1777. In No- vember, 1778, the three works had a garrison of one hundred and ten officers and men. They were aban- doned by the British iu the fall of 1779.

The creek near Johnson's foundry was crossed by a pontoou bridge, and a military road ran from it up the easterly side of the hill to and along Spriug Street, where it branched off to the Redoubts One, Two and Threc.

Number Four was the Americau Fort Iudependence, on Tetard's Hill, across the valley. The house of William Ogden Giles now stands on its site. It was built on the farm of General Richard Montgomery, and unay have been laid out by him. It occupied a most commanding position overlooking the Albany road on one side and the Boston road on the other. It had two bastions at the westerly angles.

The British garrisoned it continuously from its cap- ture until they removed its guns, August 16th, its wood-work, August 17th, and demolished its maga- zine, September 12, 1779. It was not garrisoned again during the war. A number of iron six-pounders were dug up inside its walls, by Mr. Giles, when excavat- ing his cellar, about thirty years ago. Two of them are now mounted in a miniature fort on his grounds.

1 Miscalled " Ft. Independence," on Sauthier's and other British muaps, an error which has misled some modern writers. The same misnomer has been perpetuated otherwise. The Coast Survey so calls it in a diagram of the triangulation point on its wall. These errors probably arose from confounding the name "Tetard's Hill," on which Fort Independence stood, with "Tippett's Hill," wheron the fort in question was located. 2 This work is yet standing.

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KING'S BRIDGE.

Number Fire was a square redoubt, whose walls are yet standing on the old Tetard farm, a little way north from H. B. Claflin's stables. It is about seventy feet square. It was occupied in 1777, and dismantled September 18, 1779.

Number Six stood just west of the present road to High Bridge, and its site is now occupied by a house formerly owned by John B. Haskin.

Number Seren was on the Cammann place. No trace remains.

Number Eight was on land now owned by H. W. T. Mali and Gustav Schwab. The latter's house occu- pies part of its site.

King's Battery is on the grounds of Nathaniel P. Bailey, and is still preserved.

Another redoubt, semicircular in form, is yet standing on the old Bussing farm, just north of the town line, and distant about one thousand feet northeasterly from the William's Bridge Station on the Harlem Rail- road. It commauded the road and bridge across the Bronx, and was one of the series of works thrown up by Washington along the heights of the Bronx and extending northerly to White Plains, at the approach of Howe. General Heath located it and Colonels Ely and Douglas were engaged upou it October 6, 1776. 1

An outpost of light troops was established near Mosholu and maintained throughout each year. The force was usually composed of German mounted and foot yagers and a company of chasseurs formed of detachments from the different Hessian regiments in New York. 2 Their camp was on Frederick Van Cortlandt's farm, near his house. 3 They made fre- quent patrols out Mile Square road, over Valentine's Hill and Boar Hill to Phillipse's Mills and back by the Albany post road. Two three-pound Amusettes were sometimes taken on these rounds.

Another camp of light troops and cavalry was es- tablished at the foot of Tetard's Hill, between King's Bridge and the Free Bridge. It was long occupied by Emmerick's chasseurs, formed in 1777, Simcoe's rangers and other Royalist troops. The King's Bridge was made the Barrier, and the old tavern on the north side became the watch-house.

During the protracted struggle the Yonkers was the scene of constant military activity. Numerous unsuccessful attempts were made by the Americans to recapture the posts on Tippett's and Tetard's Hills, and plans of winter attacks across the frozen Har- lem and Spuyten Duyvil were often laid and foiled. The rangers of Simcoe and De Lancey, the yagers of Von Wurmb and the chasseurs of Emmerick were often met and engaged by troops of American Light Horse, under the fiery Colonel Armand and other dashing leaders, on the high-roads and by-ways of the Yonkers plantation. It was also the scene of ceaseless ravages by those irregular bands, known as "Cowboys" and "Skinners." Most of the inhabit- ants went into exile, and were refugees within either the American or British lines. Their homes were desolated, their buildings, fences and orchards de- stroved. The Tippetts were mainly Tories. In 1776, General George Clinton arrested Gilbert Tippett for " practices and declarations inimical to American liberty." Colonel James De Lancey had married a cousin, Martha Tippett. The Warners, Hadleys, Valentines, Bettses, Corsas, Posts and other old resi- dents were nearly all stanch Whigs, and supplied some of the ablest guides and minute-men of the Revolution.

THE SIEGE OF FORT INDEPENDENCE .- In January, 1777, General Heath made a movement against the British outposts at King's Bridge. 4 His forces were chiefly Connecticut volunteers and Dutchess County militia. They moved down on the night of the 17th, in three divisions-the right, under General Lincoln, from Tarrytown by the old Albany road, to the heights above Colonel Van Cortlandt's ; the centre, under General Scott, from below White Plains to the rear of Valentine's house, 5 on the Boston road; and the left, under Generals Wooster and Parsons, from New Rochelle and East Chester to Williams' on the east side of the Bronx above the bridge. The three divisions arrived simultaneously at the enemy's outposts just before sunrise on the 18th. Gen- eral Lincoln surprised the guard above Van Cort- landt's, capturing arms, equipage, etc. Heath moving with the centre, as it approached Valentine's house, ordered its cannonade by Captain Bryant in case of resistance from the guard quartered there, and sent two hundred and fifty men at double-quick to the right into the hollow between the house and Fort Independence to cut off' the guard. Just then two British light horsemen, reconnoitering out the Boston road, canc unexpectedly on the head of Wooster's column where the road descends to Williams' bridge. Before they could turn, a field-piece dismounted one, who was taken prisoner, while the other galloped back crying " The rebels! the rebels !" which set all

1 Between this fort and Fort Independence, on the southerly side of the Boston road, and on the Corsa farm, stood "Negro Fort," so called, it is said, because garrisoned by a company of negroes from Virginia. The British kept an outgnard there in the winter of 1776-77. No trace of it remains, a house now occupying its site.

2 In 1778 five companies of foot and one of monuted yagers, noder Lien- tenant .Colonel Von Wurmb. In 1779 the yagers and Lord Rawdon's corps.

Captain von llanger's company of chasseurs, in 1778, consisted of four officers, twelve sub-officers, three drummers and one hundred privates selected from the Leib, Erh Prinz, Prinz Carl, Donop, Mirback, Trin- bach, Losberg, Knyphansen, Woelwarth, Wiessenbach and Sietz Regi- ments.

3 Known as the "Upper Cortlandts," in distinction from Colonel Jacobus Van Cortlandt's house on the plain, called " Lower Cortlandts." The former was also called "Cortlandt's white-house " sometimes. It was burned about 1826, aud the present residence of Waldo IIntchins was ere ted on its site.

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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 188

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