History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 83

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 83

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" THOMAS THOMAS. " WM. MILLER."2

The Return was laid before the Provincial Con- gress on the twenty-first of February, when the Com- missions were issued to the officers-elect; 3 and thus, probably, a beginning was made of that notable Troop of Horse, in Westchester-county, of which so much has been said, in romance, if not in history.

Early iu February, 1776, General Lee, then chief in command, in the City of New York, informed the Committee of Safety, then in session, that he was " of opinion that the two Connecticut Regiments "and Lord Stirling's would not be sufficient for the " services he will have to perform ; and he desired to "know whether it would be agrceable to the Com- " mittee that he should send to Pennsylvania for a " Regiment from thence." After due consideration, the introduction of troops from other Colonies having been found unsatisfactory, because of outrages in- flicted by them on the inhabitants, the Committee of Safety adopted the following Resolution :

" RESOLVED, That if General Lce shall think it " necessary to call in the aid of any other troops than " the two Connecticut Regiments and Lord Stirling's " Regiment, that he be authorized and, in such case, " he is hereby authorized, to call in as many of the " Miuutc-men of this Colony as he shall, at any time, " think necessary." +

In accordance with the authority which was thus delegated to General Lee, on the following day,

1 Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Committee, xxv., 62".

2 Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Returns, xxvii., 254.

3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, P.M, Feb. 21, "1776."

4 Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Veneris, 10 ho., A.M., Feb. "9, 1776."'

329

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

[ February 9, 1776] a letter was addressed to Colonel Samuel Drake, ordering the skeleton Regiment of Westchester-county Minute-men into active service. That letter may properly find a place in this narra- tive : it was in the following words :

"NEW YORK, Feb'y 9th 1776. " SIR :

" You will see by the enclosed Resolution " that Major General Lee now at New York is author- "ized to call in as many of the Minute Men of this "Colony as he may think necessary.

" I am directed by the General to have some Regi- " ments of Minute Men called here directly.

" Your Regiment is fixed on by the Committee of "Safety of this Colony as proper to be called.

" You are therefore on receipt hereof to march with " your Regiment to New York with all possible dis- " patch. Take care that your men have their knap- " saeks and Blankets with them & provisions for their " march .- The Quartermaster ought by all means to " come with the Regiment.

" It is not doubted but you will give orders that "your Troops observe the greatest regularity in their " march, and if you order the several Companies to " procced " [precede ?] " each other a few miles in their 'march they will be more easily accommodated.

"Suffer no Delay in bringing in your Regiment.

" I am respectfully Sir your very humble serv' "R. YATES, Ch.

" P.S .- It is expected that Colo Drake will leave a "sufficient Guard of his Regiment at the cannon be- " yond Kings-bridge .- He will be a proper judge how " many may be necessary for that small service." 1

As Captain Varian and his eighteen companions, facetiously regarded as one of the Companies of Minute-men of which Colonel Drake's Regiment was subsequently composed, were, then, unknown as sol- diers,2 that Regiment could not have possibly mustered more than two Companies commanded, respectively, by Captains Slason and Seely 3-that commanded by Captain Gray was not organized until six days after the Regiment had been ordered into the service ; ‘ and no record appears of any attempt having been made to organize the two Companies, in the Cort- landt's Manor, for which blank Commissions had been issued, in advance of any organization, in the preceding October3-although it is understood that those Companies which were commanded by Captains Gray and Steinrod subsequently joined it. There is no known Return of the actual strength of the Regi- ment, at any time; but within a few days after it had

entered the Continental service, and after its rein- forcement had joined it, it numbered not more than a hundred and fifty meu ; 6 and about two weeks subse- quently, little more than a month after it had been mustered in, it was made ridiculous and the propen- sity to office-holding among " the friends of Liberty," in Westchester-county, was forcibly illustrated by the following paragraph, which appeared in the General Orders of the commanding Officer of the Con- tinental Army in New York :

" HEAD-QUARTERS, March 16, 1776. " As Colonel Drake's Regiment of Minute-men "consists of one hundred and eleven private men, " present, and yet have no less than four Field "Officers, two Captains, and thirteen other Commis- "sioned Officers, and twenty Non-commissioned "Officers, it is unreasonable to put the Continent to "the enormous expense of maintaining so many " Officers for the use of so few men ; and it is there- " fore ordered that one Field-officer, two Captains, " four Lientenants, two Ensigns, the Adjutant, and " Quartermaster, eight Sergeants, eight Corporals, or " Drums or Fifes, and no other Officer do remain with " that small part of the Regiment ; the other Officers " are to return to their County, in order to complete " their Corps. Colonel Swartwout7 and Lieutenant- "colonel Humphreys 8 are to observe the same rule in "proportion to their numbers; and they are all of "them to send into Headquarters, Returns of their " respective Corps, present." 9

The reader will become better acquainted with this portion of the history of Colonel Samuel Drake's Regiment of Westchester-county Minute-men, by- and-by.

The Regiment, when it reached the City of New- York, was employed in the construction of a redoubt, on Hoern's Hook, at the mouth of the Harlemn-river, for the defence of the pass of Hell-Gate as well as to cominand the ferry to Long Island, which, even at that carly period. had been established at that place ; 10

" Captain Gray's Company probably marched from Bedford, ou the sixteenth of February, agreeably to the promise that it should do so ; and on the twenty-ninth of the same month, General Lee said of the Regiment and of a Company detached front another Regiment, together forming the garrison at Hoern's Hook, "Drake's Regiment of Minute- " Men and one more Company, (in all about two hundred, ) are stationed ut "Horn's Hook, which commands Hell-Gate. They are employed in " throwing up a redoubt, to contain three hundred men," (General Lee to Geurral Washington, "NEW-YORK, February 29, 1776.")

7 Jacobus Swartwont was Colonel of one of the Regiments, so called, of Duchess-county Minute-men, (Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Returns, xxvi., 3.)

8 Lieutenant-colonel Cornelius Ihumphreys evidently commanded the Regiment of Duchess-county Minute-men, of which John Van Ness was Colonel and Robert G. Livingston, Junior, one of the Majors. ( Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Returus, xxvi., 3.)

9 General Orders of Lord Stirling, Grueral of the Continental Troops, "HEAD-QUARTERS, March 16, 1776."

10 General Lee to General Washington, " NEW-YORK, February 29, 1776;"' Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 69.

At the period referred to in the text, that was known as "Waldron's " Ferry."

Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Committee, Xxv., 658.

" Vide pages 284, ante. 3 1bid.

A Returus of an Election of Officers of that Company, "BEDFORD, 15 Feby, "1776 "-Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Returus, xxvii., 196.

5 Memorandum by Gilbert Drake, Chairman of Westchester-county Commit- le, "WHITE PLAINS, October 21, 1775;" Journal of Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, 10 ho., A.M., October 25, 1775."

330

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

but it was composed of men of notorious poverty and meanness,1 by no means representative men of the yeomanry of Westchester-county; "many of them" were, "destitute of " arms " 2 and, therefore, useless for soldiers ; and it appears that, as such characters were apt to be, they were recklessly destructive of the private property of those who were richer than they, not sparing, even, the property of those who had endeavored to make them more than ordinarily comfortable.3 The Lieutenant-colonel of the Regi- ment, who was, also, a Deputy from Westchester- county in the Provincial Congress, complained to that body that the Regiment "lodged in an uncom- " fortable manner for the want of Cribs for its beds ; " and he insisted that it was " necessary that a car- " penter be sent to make Cribs for their beds; " and a carpenter was accordingly sent to Hoern's Ilook, for the purpose of making " Cribs " for the greater comfort of Westchester-county's " patriotie " Minute- men.4

It does not appear how long that particular Regi- ment remained in the service of the Continent; but it was evidently mustered in for only a short term of service ; and that, at the expiration of that brief term, it was discharged and mustered out, disappearing, for ever, from the field of military service.

On the nineteenth of January, 1776, the Continen- tal Congress ordered four Battalions to be raised for the defence of the Colony of New York ; 5 and, on the twenty-sixth of the same month, the experiment of starting the work of enlistment, for those four Battal- ions, by jobbing ont the Offices which would be re- quired, among the several Counties, with invitations for estimates of the numbers of men who could " be " speedily raised and armed," in the respective Coun- ties, by that proffered bait of Offices, was the first ac- tion which was taken by the revolutionary anthori- ties, in New York, on that important subject.6

On the following day, [January 27, 1776,] the Com- mittee of Safety issued its Instructions for the Recruit- ing Officers who should be employed in the enlistment of men for the service referred to, in that new Order -the pay of the Privates was to be five dollars per month ; each was to receive, as a bounty, a felt hat, a pair of yarn stoekings, a pair of shoes, and, if they could be procured, a hunting-shirt and a blanket ; and the men were to provide their own Arms. There

was no specified term of serviee; but the Privates- not the Officers-were " liable to be discharged at any " time, on allowing them one month's pay extraordi- "nary." 7

There appears to have been great backwardness in enlisting, however-those who were expected to step into the ranks and to do the fatigue duty and the fighting, while the more favored ones of the Rebellion had occupied all the offices, in advance, and were pre- destinated to enjoy all that was comfortable and to issue all the orders and to be implicitly obeyed, were slow in their responses ; only those who were extreme- ly poor, and whose actual necessities obliged them, or those whose morals were questionable, and who enlisted either to retire from adverse observation or to secure a wider field for their unholy practices, ap- pearing to have been willing to support "the Liber- "ties of America," in the field, even where there was no enemy and where none was really expected.8 In- deed, so discouraging were the reports from those who had been entrusted with the Warrants for recruiting, that, on the fifteenth of February, the Provincial Con- gress, on the recommendation of a Committee who had been appointed to consider the subject, deter- mined to apportion a specified quota of Officers and Privates to each of the Counties in the Colony, in or- der that the organization of the required Battalions might be effected in the shortest possible period." Three days subsequently, [ February 18, 1776,] another Committee who had been appointed to apportion the different quota of Officers and Privates to be raised in the several Counties, made a Report, which was adopted, two Companies, as we have already stated, being apportioned to Westchester-county ; 10 and, on the afternoon of the same day, a Circular Letter was sent by the Provincial Congress to each of the Coun- ty-committees throughout the Colony, informing it of the arrangement and urging its attention to the mat- ter of the enlistments. As that Circular Letter is pe- enliarly interesting, in its details of the terms of en- listment into the Continental Army of 1776, a place may properly be found for it, in these pages. It was in the following words :

" IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, " NEW-YORK, Feb. 18, 1776. " SIR :

" The Congress having determined that your Coun- " ty shall have the opportunity of raising [tiro] Com- " panies in the four Regiments to be raised by order

1 Colonel Samuel Drake to the Provincial Congress, " NEW-YORK, Feby. "16, 1776," compared with the letter of Dirck Lefferts, post.

2 Colonel Samuel Drake to the Provincial Congress, "NEW-YORK, Fcby. "16, 1776."

3 Dirck Lefferts to the Deputies of the several Counties, etc., "May 1, " 1776."

+ Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Martis, 3 ho., P.M., March " 12, 1776."

5 Journal of the Continental Congress, " Friday, January 19, 1776."

6 Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Veneris, 3 ho., P.M., Jany. "26, 1776," and the Circular Letter, containing the proposed system, which was ordered to be sent to each of the several County Committees, on the same day.

7 Instructions to the Colonels and other Officers for Enlistment, etc., "COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, NEW-YORK, Jany. 27, 1776."

8 Elihu Marvin, Chairman, to the Committee of Safety, "IN COUNTY " COMMITTEE, OXFORD, Feb. 15, 1776;" Zepheniah Platt, Chairman, to the Prarincial Congress, "POUGHKEEPSIE, Feb. 9, 1776;" Captain William Barker to the Provincial Congress, " AMENIA, March 1, 1776"; William Smith, Chairman, "SUFFOLK COUNTY, Jany. 24, 1776;" The Committee of Albany County to the Committee of Safety, "ALBANY, April 2, 1775"; etc.

9 Journal of the Provincial Cougress, "Die Jovis, P.M., Feb. 15, 1776." 10 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Solis, 10 ho., A.M., Feb. 18, " 1776."

331

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

" of the Continental Congress, for the defenee of this " Colony, have resolved that blank Warrants for the " Officers of the same shall be sent to your Com- " mittee.

" You will observe by the enelosed Resolves that "you are restrained in the appointments to give the " preference to such persons as have served their Coun- "try in the last Campaign; but it is not, by any "means, the design of Congress that meu who have " misbehaved themselves should be any further em- " ployed.

"It is expected that the people will readily enlist "in these Regiments, as they are raised for the ex- " press purpose of defending this Colony ; and unless " we raise them from among ourselves, in all proba- " bility they will be sent from other Colonies, which " will be to our everlasting disgrace.

" We have great confidence in your zeal for the " common cause, and trust you will exert yourselves " that these levies be completed with all possible de- "spatch.

" We are, Sir, your very hble. servants, " By order, " NATHANIEL WOODHULL, Pres't."

" It is expected that each man furnishes himself " with a good gun and bayonet, tomahawk, knapsaek "or haversaek, and two bills. But those who are not "able to furnish themselves with these arms and ac- " coutrements will be supplied at the public expense, " for the payment of which small stoppages will be " made out of their monthly pay, till the whole are "paid for; then they are to remain the property of " the nien." 1

Notwithstanding all the inducements which the Provincial Congress and its various offiec-seeking re- cruiting agents could offer, however, the staid and conservative farmers of Westchester-county were slow to enlist into the Continental serviee-there had been much discontentment among those who were in the service, under Colonel Holmes, in the preceding year ; 2 and on the return of those malcontents, they had undoubtedly told the story of their respect- ive grievances to their surprised and sympathetic neighbors ; besides which hindrance, the conserva- tismi of the County had been too barbarously treated by those who were in rebellion, to permit it to extend to that "common cause " the slightest favor, while the wounds, which it had thus received were yet bleeding. It was, indeed, true that War- rants had been sent with the Circular Letter, in Feb- ruary; and it is undoubtedly true, also, that the favored ones, throughout the County, Warrants in hand and Offices in prospective, had employed all their powers of conciliation and persuasion to ensure

a successful enlistment of the quota and the conse- quent reward to themselves ; but Westchester-county would not be conciliated far enough to send her well- to-do sons into the Army ; and the Warrants were re- turned to the Congress and the proffered Ofliees were not secured by those who had hankered for them. The prospect for the four Battalions, as far as Westchester-eounty was concerned in it, was not promising; and the Committee of Safety was already entertaining the proposal to call baek the Warrants which had been sent into the County, more than two months previously, when a letter was received by that body, from Gilbert Drake, the Chairman of the Committee of the County, stating that one, Ezekiel Hyatt, or Haight, with his associates, had enlisted seventy men in Westchester-county, for a Connecticut Regiment; but was inclined to take them, as a por- tion of the quota of that County, into a New York Regiment, if Commissions could be assured to those who were designated as their Officers.3

Subsequently, it was seen that the men whom Ezekial Hyatt, or Haight, or Hait-for by each of these several names that " patriotic " gentleman was known, at different times-had enlisted into his Com- pany had been entrapped, by false representations ; + and the revelations of unopened records of that period, more recently opened, reveal the fact that Commissions had already been issued, by the Conti- nental Congress, to Ezekiel Hait, Esquire, as Cap- tain,5 to Caleb Hobby, Gentleman, as First Lienten- ant," to Joseph De Groet, Gentleman, as Second Lieu- tenant,7 and to Isaac Poineair, Gentleman, as En- sign,8 all dated on the eighth of April, more than a fortnight before Gilbert Drake wrote to the Commit- tee of Safety, asking Commissions for the same Offi- cers from the Provincial Congress of New York ; and that each of those Commissions had specifically de- scribed the Company to which the holder of the Com- mission was attached, not as belonging to a Conneeti- out Regiment, but as " the Company of the First "Regiment of New York Forces." But, whatever schemes may have been laid to carry the Company into the Connecticut Line of the Continental Army, and notwithstanding the men enlisted into the Com- pany had been frandulently entrapped into a service which they did not intend to enter," Captain Hyatt

8 Gilbert Bruke to " Mr. Morin Scott," " April the 24th, 1776;" Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Jovis, 10 ho., A.M., April 25, 1776."

4.I List of the Officeres names in New York Troops, riz. : Col. MeDougal's Regiment. (5) .- Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Committee, XV,

6 Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Returus, xxvii., xx.

G Historical Manuscripts, etc. ; Military Returus, xxvii., 96.

3 Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Military Roturas, xxvii., 92.

8 Historical Maunserijds, etc. : Military Returns, xxvi., 101.

9 There are good reasons for believing that that Company, like the similar Company commanded by Cornelius Steenrod, of which mention will be made, hereafter, had been really enlisted for Colonel Samnel Drake's Regiment of Minute-men, then at Hoern's look, is already stated ; and that a system of schemes had followed, first with Alexander MeDongal, of the first New-York Regiment ; then with some Connectic

1 Jaurant uf the Provincial Congress, " Die Solis, P.M., Feb. 18, "1776."

2 Vide pages 276, 277, ante.

332

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

and his command were accepted by the Committee of Safety, as one of the two Companies required from Westchester-county ; 1 and it subsequently coustituted the Fifth Company of the First Regiment of the New York Line, commanded by Colonel Alexander Mc- Dongal.2 It was said of the Company, afterwards, that the Captain "has deceived the Convention " [the Provincial Congress ?] "in Enlisting the men " for 6 & 12 months instead of doing it for the "war ; " 3 that the men, who had, also, been deceived by their Captain, deserted in large numbers ; 4 that the Regiment was greatly reduced by the descrtions, of which those from this Company were part ; 5 and the Company was thereby disgraced, through all time. Of Captain Hyatt, it was stated that he was " unfit" to be retained in the service,6 as " he wants authority " to make a good Officer :"7 of the three Subalterns, the same record stated, "These three wish to de- " cline the service; they will be no loss to it." 8

Two days after Ezekiel Hyatt, through the Chair- man of the Committee of Westchester-county, had secured a place for himself and his command, in the New York Line of the Continental Army, [April 27, 1776,] Cornelius Steenrod appeared, personally, before the Committee of Safety, in the City of New York, and informed that Committee "that he can enlist a "complete Company of men for the Continental ser- " vice, in fourteen days; " and the Committee, after due consideration of the proposal, adopted a Resolu- tion giving to him "full assurance that he and his "Subalterns, with the said Company, will be em- " ployed as part of the troops raising for the defence " of this Colony," provided a full and complete Com- pany of able bodied men should be enlisted and made ready to join a Regiment, within the designated period of fourteen days.9

That Cornelius Steenrod was a Miller, on the Cort- landt's Manor ; evidently a man of some property ; 10

parties ; and finally with the Committee of Westchester-county-each scheme having been an improvement on those which had preceded it- for the disposition of the Company, just as schemes were formed for the promotion of personal interests of Officers, and just as Enlisted Men were trucked and bartered into Regiments which were foreign to them, for the promotion of those schemes, in another service, within the memory of living men.

1 Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Jovis, 4 ho., P.M., April 25, " 1776."

2 List of Officers' names of New York Troops, riz. : Cobommel MeDongut's Regiment, -Historical Mammscripts, etc. : Military Committee, xxv., 488.

3 Ibid.

4 General Alexander MeDougal to Robert Yates, "YONKERS, 21 October, "1776.""

5 Ibid.

6 General Me Dougal's Reconnurndation of Lieutenant Colonel Van Cortlandt -Historical Mannscripts, etc. : Military Committee, XXV., 845.

i List of Officers' names of New York Troops, viz. : Colonel Me Dongut's Regiment,-Historical Mannscripts, etc. : Military Committee, xxv., 488. 8 I bid.

9 Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Sabbati, 10 ho., A.M., April " 27, 1776."

10 Cornelius Steenrod was the owner of three fulling-mills, if not of some others; and he addressed " the Convention," withont date, requesting protection for his millers .- Cornelins Steeurod to " the Convention," with- out place or date-Journals of the Provincial Congress, ii., 147.

aud an intimate friend and confidante of Stephen De Lancey, a sou of the late distinguished Chief-justice De Lancey, who was also one of the Proprietors and a resident of that Manor,11 there can be no doubt. He was peculiarly anxious to obtain an office, no mat- ter what, nor on what terms ; 12 he was particularly zealous in his desire that he might administer test- oaths to his neighbors ; 13 and it is more than probable that he was, in fact, a "friend of the Government," in disguise, notwithstanding all his official dis- claimers.14 He had been in command of one of the skeleton Companies of Minute-men of which the skeletou Regiment of Colonel Samuel Drake had been nominally composed 15-it is more than probable that one of those two blank Commissions, for Captains of Companies, which had been issued in advance of the formation of those Companies,16 was held by him ; and it is far from impossible that the men whom he and his Subalterns had evidently on hand, when he applied to the Committee of Safety for admittance into the service of the Continent, in a different Regiment, had been really enlisted for the re-inforcement of the former Regiment, then at Hoern's Hook.

He evidently completed his Company, in season to take a place, as the second Company of the appor- tionment to Westchester-county, in the First Regi- ment of the New York Line, in the Continental Army of 1776, commanded by Colonel Alexander MeDougal, of which it was the Sixth Company, Isaac Titus having been his First Lieutenant, Isaac Ruyckman, Junior, his Second Lieutenant, and Ben- jamin Jones his Ensign.17 But, like Captain Hyatt, Captain Steenrod had deccived his men and the Congress, in his enlistment of his command for six and twelve months instead of for the entire period of

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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 83

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