History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 197

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 197

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By the 13th it was evident to all that Westchester County would be the next point of attack by the British. No less than forty-two sail had passed the mouth of Harlem River going eastward, and it was apparent that this movement was no feint, but that Howe meant to " make his coup " in the direction of Westchester.2 The troops at Harlem and at King's Bridge were ordered to their alarm posts, reinforce- ments were sent to King's Bridge and rations for three days' march were ordered to be cooked immediately. The next day General Heath visited the troops at Westchester. Skirmishing was kept up for a conple

of days, and then our position being found too strong to carry with light troops, Howe advanced his heavy gnns up the Throgg's Neck road and commenced the erection of a heavy earthwork immediately opposite the Westchester Bridge, not far from the site of the present Presbyterian Church.3 While this handful of men were checking the advance of the entire British army, Washington heard of the arrival, as they landed at New Rochelle, of the Hessian re- inforcements, and was at once convinced that he could no longer hold the upper part of Manhattan Island, but must, with his illy equipped army, retreat beyond the Highlands of the Hudson. A council of war was held at King's Bridge; the Al- bany post road was ordered to be put in good order by Colonel Drake's regiment of Westchester militia,4 and everything put in train for the retreat of the main army from the island of New York to the main. On the 18th the Westchester Militia Regiment at the causeway was being relieved, when the enemy opened fire from the embrasures of the heavy earthwork opposite the village. Heath ordered a brigade to ad- vance to the support of the party at the bridge, the general himself leading, but before he arrived at the bridge he found that the entire British army were moving toward the head of the creek. Washington just then arrived on the field and ordered him to fall back and form his division for action farther west, and in snch position as to also protect the main army at King's Bridge should the enemy land another force at Morrisania. For some unaccountable reason Howe did not press on towards King's Bridge, but followed a route which corresponds to the present road leading from Throgg's Neck to Pelham Bridge, and being well provided with boats, he crossed Pelham Bay and that evening the head of his column was at New Rochelle, where he was joined by the Hessian reinforcements.5 Had he pushed directly for the Harlem River and Spnyten Duyvil Creek he would have been able to cut off part, if not the whole, of the American army. Soldiers of our last war and military inen generally may regard this small fight at the old Westchester Bridge as a mere skirmish and hardly worth record- ing, but it was the Lexington of Westchester and a son of the soil should always regard the prosaic old causeway and the ruined foundations of the old mill still to be seen on that historic spot, with sentiments of reverence and patriotism. The Westchester Militia and Hand's riflemen at Westchester Creek and bridge covered Washington's retreat with his army to the entrenchments at White Plains and enabled him to in- augurate his masterly defensive policy which resulted in the establishment of the best and freest govern-

1 Heath's " Memoirs," page 68, and Edward de Lancey's paper on the Battle of Fort Washington, vol. i., Magazine of American History. 2 Force, ii. 991 ; Force, ii. 1025.

3 For a good map of these operations, see Lamb's "IHistory of New York," vol. ii. page 140. 4 Force, ii. page 1078.

5 Heath's "Memoirs ;" Dwight's "Travels ;" Edward de Lancey's paper in " Magazine of American History," on battle of Fort Washington ; Force's "Annals."

EAST NEW JERSEY.

Fort Lee53

1Furt Constitution

ATTACKS OF FORT WASHINGTON BY HIS MAJESTY'S FORCES

und the command of GEN. SIR WILLM. HOWE K.B. 16 Nov. 1776.

HUDSON'S

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Jones's

Jeffery

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MCGowansy,

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Tetards Hill

Dykimanes

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WEST

CHESTER

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HARLEM~RIVER.

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791

WESTCHESTER.

ment ever known to history. It is hoped that the wealth and patriotism of the town of Westchester will some day cause an appropriate monument to be erected near the bridge in commemoration of the battle of Westchester Creek.

On the 28th of October the battle of White Plains was fought, and on the 31st, Lasher's troops, which were the last to leave King's Bridge, had joined the rest of the army at White Plains, and Westchester township was denuded of American troops, and prac- tically withiu the enemy's lines, Fort Washington being the only American post south of Harlem River. Fort Independence and the other American works about Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek had been dismantled by the Americans before their re- treat.1

But Westchester was soon revisited by the British, who continued to occupy it, or most of it, for the resi- due of the war. On November 5th, Van Knyphausen marched from New Rochelle and encamped at King's Bridge. 'Two days before, the British General Grant was at de Lancey's Mills (West Farms), on the Bronx; another brigade was at Mile Square, and the Waldeek Regiment was at Williams' Bridge. On the 12th Rahl with his Hessians had advanced on Manhattan Island as far as Tubby Hook (Inwood), aud Fort Washington being already threatened on the south by the British who were left on the island, aud the opposite Westchester shore being covered with British troops, Washington advised its surrender,2 but left its evacuation to General Greene's discretion, who was in command of a force on the Jersey shore, at Fort Lee. Congress advised Greene to hold the fort. Ou the uight of the 15th thirty British flat-boats passed up the Hudson, and by both forts, and lay con- cealed in Spuyten Duyvil Creek. In the mean time the British had erected heavy batteries on Fordham Heights or Ridge extending from the Boston road as far south as the present High Bridge, and on the evening of the 15th Howe summoned Colonel Magaw, who was in immediate command at Fort Washington, to surrender. The post of Fort Washington, or rather the grounds which he had to defend, extended from the Hudson to the Harlem River, and were bounded on the north by a line which will about correspond to Inwood Street on the New York City map, and on the south by One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street. Its extreme length north and south was about two and a half miles, its cireuit say six miles. The northerninost point, near what is now known as Inwood Statiou, was under command of Colonel Rawlings, with a Maryland regiment. Magaw kept a small reserve in the citadel or main fort, which was situated on the site of the residence of James Gordon Bennett. Cadwallader commanded the Amuerieau liues near One Hundred and Forty-fifth or

One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Streets, and on the Ilarlem River side Baxter commanded a redoubt on the high hill or bluff now known as the terminus of Tenth Avenue, and almost opposite the present station of the railways at Morris Dock, on the Westches- ter shore. This redoubt was known as Laurel Hill.3 The interval between Laurel Hill and One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street was left to the casual supply of troops

On November 16th the British opened fire with heavy artillery from Fordham Heights, and made four separate attacks. Rahl led his troops through the hills and to the west of King's Bridge road; Von Knyphausen marched uearer the road, towards the Iuwood gorge, with officers and men dismounted. The Americans had cannon planted along the north end of the high hill facing the approach from King's Bridge, and had also constructed an abattis of felled trees. But the British outnumbered the Americans, scaled the steep heights and a hand-to-hand confliet ensued. In the mean time Lord Cornwallis embarked with a large number of troops in the flat-boats which had been eoucealed at Spuyten Duyvil. They landed at Sherman's Creek, stormed Laurel Hill, captured the battery there, and killed Baxter, its brave com- wander. Lord Percy simultaneously advanced against Cadwallader, who was on the south liue. Howe also sent men down the river in boats, so as to fall on Cadwallader's rear. Magaw and Cadwallader saw them coming down the river ; their advauce was covered by the heavy guns firing from Fordham Heights. Colonel Stirling, of the Highlanders, was the first to land, and scaled the heights somewhere near the present location of the High Bridge. So soon as the heights were gained, he pushed his men across the island towards the citadel, and the Hes- sians and Percy combining, Fort Washington fell, and from that time to the end of the Revolution Manhattan Island and the adjoining shore remained under British rule and oceupation.

Thenceforth the Westchester shorc, and, in fact, the whole of the ancient township was the scene for many years of raids and foraging parties. The Ameri- can lines extended across Westchester from Dobbs Ferry to the Sound. On one occasion an American scouting party near Williams' Bridge would have been ambuscaded by a British scouting squad had it not been for the tiuicly warning a young girl gave them of the British approach, she having seen them from her garret window. In the following autumn the right advanced line of the British extended from Hunt's Bridge to East Chester Creek. They kept continually shifting their position, but towards win- ter the troops were drawn in quite close to King's Bridge and the British built a number of huts and cantonments. De Lancey's corps of loyal refugees were quartered at and near the Morris place, at Mor-

1 Force, 1294; Heath's " Memoirs."

2 Bancroft, v. 448 (Brown & Little's edition).

3 Traces of this earthwork are still to be seen.

792

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

risania. Col. Emmerick's corps, also composed prin- cipally of Tories, [were posted near King's Bridge These troops, when they wanted building material for their winter-quarters, tore down the farmers' houses in the vicinity. The Americans, of course, retaliated, and skirmishes and hairbreadth escapes by the par- tisans of both sides were the order of the day. On one occasion Colonel James de Lancey, while visiting his aged mother at her home at the Mills, had tied his horse, a valuable imported thoroughbred, to the fence. Some American scouts seeing the horse, and kuowing his value, immediately took him and carried him withiu the American lines at White Plains. There some euterprising Yankee bought him. The horse was knowu as "True Briton," and is said to be the progenitor of the celebrated stock, now known to horse fanciers as "Morgans."1

On another occasion Colonel Thomas, an American officer, desirous of visiting his family, and learning that the British had gone into winter-quarters at King's Bridge and Morrisania, ventured home. Word of his arrival reached the Queen's Rangers, the house was surrounded and several of Thomas' men were captured. The colonel jumped from the wiudow and had nearly escaped when one of the Rangers caught him. Thomas was sent as a prisoner to New Lots, on Long Island. There he escaped and remained concealed in the woods for several days. He finally got into the city of New York disguised as a wood-chopper. He had let his beard grow. The British employed a negro who knew him very well to act as a detective for his capture. Thomas saw them coming and went to bed, and when his face was uncovered the negro said that was not the man. Through the influence of a friend, he ob- tained quarters in the house of a widow. One evening, when a search party arrived, she took him down into the cellar, turned a hogshead over him and then threw half a bushel of salt on the head of the hogshead. The cellar was searched, but this simple stratagem saved him from capture. He eventually escaped by a canoe, landed at Fort Lee and joined the Americans by crossing the river farther up.2

In 1778-79 the season was very inclement on the heights about King's Bridge and Fordham and but a small guard was kept. The condition of the people and the country must have been very bad. President Dwight, in his record of his travels, comments on the trepidation of the inhabitants who lived between the lines of the two armies : "They feared everybody they saw, and loved nobody." In conversation "answers were given to please the inquirer," or if they could not please, they tried by the answer "not to pro- voke." Fear was the only passion which animated them; the power of volitiou seemed to have deserted them; they were uot civil, but obsequious, not oblig-

ing but subservient; their houses were scenes of deso- lation, furniture plundered or broken, the walls, floors and windows injured by violence and decay, cattle were gone and fences burnt; the fields were covered with a rank growth of weeds and wild grass; the world was motionless and silent, unless one of these unhappy creatures went on a rare visit to the house of a neighbor no less unhappy, or a scouting party alarmed them with expectations of new injuries and sufferings. The wheel-tracks were grown over and obliterated, and the venerable chaplain of a New England regiment, afterwards president of Yale Col- lege, said that their condition reminded him of the Soug of Deborah : "In the days of Shamgar and Jael the highways were unoccupied and the travelers walked in the by-paths. The inhabitants of the vil- lages ceased, they ceased in Israel."3

Though this territory was in the hands of the enemy, its people and residents still had their repre- sentation in what was then the County Legislature, or County Committee, as shown by the following in- teresting document :

"KING STREET, February ye 12, 1777.

"A Number of the Freeholders aud Inhabitants of Westchester County having appeared at the Court House on the 16th April, 1776, in consequence of Notice given for that Purpose by the Committee of the said County, chose the Persons hereafter named to serve as a Committee for the said County from the 2nd Monday in May, 1776, to the 2nd Mon- day in May, 1777-any twenty whereof to be a Quorum, vizt :

" For Morrisanin. " Lewis Morris, Jun" -- 1.

" For Westchester.

" Thomas Hunt. Gilbert Oakley. Abraham Leggett. Daniel White. John Smith-7.

Israel Honeywell.

Jolin Oakley. * * **

* *

" I do hereby certify that the above is a true Copy takeu from the Records of the Committee of the County of Westchester.

"EDWARD THOMAS, Clerk." 4

In the summer of 1777 Colonel Lord Cathcart was in command of the British out-posts stationcd at King's Bridge and along the Fordham Ridge.

Simcoe's Queen's Rangers,5 Emmerick's corps and Hovenden's, James' and Sandford's partisan corps were also stationed there. A chain of redoubts was constructed by the British on Fordham Ridge, at dis- tances just far enough apart to secure the flanks of a

3 Dwight's " Travels," iii. 491.

4 Calendar of Revolutionary Papers, vol. i. page 632.

6 The Queen's Rangers were originally raised in Connecticut and the vicinity of New York by Colonel Rogers. They at one time mustercd about four hundred men, all Americans and Tories. Hardship and neg- lect had reduced their numbers, and, after several changes in command- ers, they were finally placed under the command of Captain J. G. Sim- coe, of the Fortieth British Regulars, about October, 1777, he being given the provincial rank of major. Sir Henry Clinton, in commenting on the gallantry of the corps, said, " The Queen's Rangers have killed or taken twice their owu number." After the American War, Colonel Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and in October, 1794, he was promoted major-general, and became civil Gov- ernor and commander-in-chief of the Islaud'of San Domingo. October 3, 1798, he was promoted to be lieutenant-general, and died in 1806, at the age of fifty-four years. Though our enemy, his gallant deeds are worthy of record.

1 " History of the Morgan Horses." This fact was brought to my at- tention by kindness of Edward F. de Lancey, Esq.

2 Simcoe's "History of the Queen's Rangers."

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WESTCHESTER.

battalion. These redoubts ean, many of them, be traced to-day. One was on the country place of Mr. Claflin, another on that of Mr. Bailey, and still an- other in Mr. Malis' woods, just west of Sedgwick Ave- nue. The light troops lay encamped about half a mile in advance of the line of the redoubts, so as to secure them from surprise. The American advance line extended from the Saw-Mill River to New Ro- chelle, and sometimes the American scouting parties would come as far south as Williams' Bridge. The Queen's Rangers and Emmerick's corps had in their ranks many Tory natives of Westchester, who had a knowledge of the country equal to our owu men. Clinton and Morgan, from the American side, werc continually foraging the adjoining country, between the two liues, which was so irregular and broken with stone walls as to render it most practicable for snch excursions; besides, the British could not tru-t the people of the country. In the day-time the Brit- ish guards were advanced as far as the high ridge overlooking the Bronx, just above Williams' Bridge. At night only a picket line was left there. On one occasion a picket sergeant, belonging to the Queen's Rangers, iu advancing the picket guard, was cap- tured by the Americans, who had crawled up behind the stone fence. As the sergeant had deserted from the American army, he was thrown iuto prison and threatened with death; a threat that the British would kill the first six Americans they captured, in case the sergeant was put to death, alone saved his life and resulted in his ex- change.

But the British occupancy was soon disputed by the Americans in greater force. In January, 1778, a large force of Americans were sent to attempt the cap- ture of King's Bridge and Fordham Heights. General Lincoln advanced down the Albany post road from Tar- rytown, Wooster and Parsons from New Rochelle and East Chester, and Scott took the centre road from White Plains, which debouches in the old road near the new reservoir just being constructed near Williams' Bridge. General Heath was in command of the whole expedi- tion. The calculation was that the three columns would reach King's Bridge about the same time. Lincoln was to halt at Van Cortlandt's, Scott at Valen- tine's Hill, near the present South Yonkers Station, and Wooster at the top of the Williams' Bridge Hill. Wooster struck the enemy's pickets first at the top of the Williams' Bridge Hill, and pushing on, drove the enemy from the redoubt on the Claflin, or Perot farm, and the British commander of the fort at King's Bridge was ordered to surrender. The redoubt on the Bai- ley place, which commanded the fort at King's Bridge from the south and rear, was also taken possession of by the Americans, and fire was opened on the fort at Kiug's Bridge. It was determined to carry this fort by assault.

The enemy cannonaded from the fort and killed one American as the guards were being relieved at 73

the Negro Fort.1 A plan to cut off the battalion in the fort at King's Bridge, by putting a strong force over Spuyten Duyvil Creek on the ice, was matured. A thousand men were detailed for the purpose, but the weather growing warm, it was decmed too hazard- ous to risk the men on the ice the next morning. There was a heavy cannonading kept up all day, and the enemy on the island were thrown into great con- fusion. Heath observing that the British, during the cannonade, took refuge behind the hill at the bridge on the Hudson River side, rode around in the after- noon to Tippit's Hill, which was in the rear of the British position, though on the Westchester shore, and concluded that a field-piece placed there would leave the enemy no hiding-place. This was near the present residence of Mr. Edsall, at Spuyten Duyvil.

On January 21st the artillery battle was continued on both sides, and Heath succeeded in getting a field- piece to the summit of Tippit's Hill. Thus the enemy were cannonaded from the front and rear, and their position made untenable. Some took refuge in the redoubt, while others lay flat under the bank, or be- took themselves to the cellary. In a short time the American artillerymen had swept the field clean and there was no object left for them to train their guns upon. The weather had grown very moderate. On the 22d a smart skirmish occurred near the fort, and Heath sent for a twenty-four-pounder and some how- itzers. On the 23d a lively fight took place just be- fore dusk in the broken ground near the south side of the fort, probably on the Dykman farm. An ensign and one man of the New York Militia were killed and five wounded; the loss of the enemy was unknown, as they were close to the fort.

On the morning of the 25th the enemy made a sally in the direction of de Lancey's Mills, where they surprised and routed the guard, wounding several, but neither killing or capturing any of them. A regiment near that place quitted their quarters. Em- boldened by their success, about ten o'clock in the morning the British made a powerful sally in the direction of Valentine's (Bailey place) and the Negro Fort (Claflin's place), instantly driving the guards and pickets away. The guards threw them- selves into the old redoubt near Williams' Bridge (the present site of the new reservoir on Michael Varian's farm), and the enemy took a posi- tion behind a stone wall to the southwest. Two regi- ments of the militia were formed in the road near Williams' house, which, according to the De Witt map, (vol. 4, Hist. Soc., No. 122.) was situated east of the Broux, and the horses being hitched to the linibers of the field-pieces, Captain Bryant was ordered to cross the river by fording with his piece, and the militia was ordered to follow. Captain Bryant un- limbered his field-piece when he had reached the top of the Williams' Bridge hill, and to prevent his horses being killed, the men pulled the gun up the rest of

1 This was on the place of the late H. B. Claflin.

794

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

the way with drag-ropes, but the steepness of the hill was such that the men were obliged to drag the gun almost within pistol-shot before they could depress it sufficiently to play upon the enemy. The moment this was done a round shot made a breach in the stone wall four or five feet wide. A second shot opened another and the enemy fled back to the fort. The American loss was two killed and a number wounded. On the 27th the brass twenty-four-pounder and the howitzer were brought up and ordered to open fire on the fort, but on the third discharge of the twenty-four-pounder it was dismounted by its own recoil. No shells had been sent with the howitzer.

Heath attempted in every way to draw the enemy out of the fort by feint or otherwise. A detachment was sent down to Morrisania to light up a great nnm- ber of fires in the night, so as to make the British be- lieve that the Americans were in large force at that place with the design of crossing to New York Island at or near Harlem. To heighten this impression, sev- eral large boats were sent for and brought forward on carriages. The British guard on Montressor's (Ran- dall's) Island were so much alarmed that they set the buildings on fire and fled to New York. On the 29th a severe snow-storm threatened ; so Generals Heath, Lincoln, Wooster, Scott and Ten Broeck came to the unanimous conclusion that the troops should move back before the storm came on to places where they conld be slieltcred from the inclemency of the weather. As they possessed no artillery sufficient to batter the fort, and they were opposed to storming it with militia, and the principal object being to destroy or bring off forage, which conld be accomplished with- ont opposing the men in the open ficld or scattering them abont in houses, where they wonld be in danger of capture in detail-for these reasons the troops were ordered to retire as soon as it grew dnsk. Lincoln's division marched to Dobbs Ferry and Tarrytown, Wooster's to New Rochelle and Scott's to White Plains. They were not safe in their quarters before the snow fell heavily.

In 1779 Heath was again in command of the Amer- ican ontposts, which continually raided Westchester township. In August of that year Sheldon's and Mor- gan's horse and the militia, with forty men of Glover's Continental brigade, made a raid in the neighborhood of Morrisania, captured some prisoners and cattle and were finally driven off by the British. A few days afterwards the British, seeing the necessity of having strong defenses at the north end of Manhattan Island, built a fort on Lanrel Hill, at the high point now the terminns of Tenth Avenue, and about this time also constructed Redoubt Number Eight, on the Westchester side, on the site of the present residence of Mr. Gustav Schwab, near Morris' Dock. Shortly after the build- ing of Fort Number Eight, Lient. Oakley, of the American army, took five prisoners and came very near capturing Colonel de Lancey, the leader of the Tory Westchester light horse, who was quartered at

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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 197

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