History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 99

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 99

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" The galleys being employed in the service of the Continent, are es- " teemed to be at the Continental care and risk.

"This State readily sulanits to your Excellency's directions what is requisite and proper relative to the men and their arms.

" I am, with esteem and respect, " Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, " JONTHI. TRUMBULL.

"To His EXCELLENCY GENERAL, WASHINGTON."

1I. " HEAD-QUARTERS, October 18, 1776.

" SIR:

" The very critical state of our Army and frequent movements of the en- " emy render it almost impossible for the General to write, himself, with- "out neglecting more important duties. lle, therefore, directs me toan- " swer your letter of the 14th, and to say that the Captains of the galleys " from your State have misbehaved, in variably, from the first moment they " came, to the time of their departure from hence, about a week ago ; " that the accumulation of business and a hope that they would retrieve " their reputation, prevented your having an earlier information of their "behaviour. They are now under the sentence of a Court Martial for " misbehaviour, in the first attack made on the ships in the North River ; " and on every other occasion, since, havo manifested such want of "spirit and judgment as to be despised by the whole Army. .

" I am, Sir, by his Excellency's command, " Your most obedient, humble servant,

" JOSEPH REED, Adjutant-general."

" Never did meu behave with more firm, deter- "mined spirits, than our little crews; one of our tars, "being mortally wounded, cried to his mess-mate, 'I " 'am a dying man : revenge my blood, my boys, and "'carry me alongside my gun, that I may die there.' " We were so preserved by a gracious Providence, " that in all our galleys, which consisted of six, we " we had but two men killed and fourteen wounded, " two of which are thought dangerous. We hope to "have another touch at these Pirates, before they " leave our river, which God prosper.

"P. S. The following are the particulars of the "galleys, with their killed and wounded, viz .: the " Washington, Captain Hill, four wounded ; the Whit- " ing, McCleave, one killed, four wounded ; the Spit- " fire, Grimes, onc killed, three wounded; the Crane, "Tinker, one wounded; on board a whaleboat, two " wouudcd." 2

It appears that one, Anderson, had proposed a scheme to the Continental Congress for destroying the British flect, then lying in the harbor of New York, with fire-ships; and he had been officially recom- mended to General Washington, by the President of the Congress, with a request that the experiment should be made.3 The General had, accordingly, employed Anderson in constructing two fire-vessels ; and, on the cighth of August, they were sent up the river,4 for the purpose of destroying a portion, at least, of the squadron which scems to have continued to occupy its anchorage, off Tarrytown, although, by some, it is said to have dropped down the river, to the vicinity of the Lower Yonkers. One of these vessels was commanded by Captain Fosdick, the other by

2 The Pennsylvania Journal; and the Weekly Advertiser, No. 1757, PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, August 7, 1776.

For other accounts of this early naval action, see an Extraet of a letter from New York, dated Angust 4, 1776, in Force's American Archires, Fifth Series, i. 751; General Washington to the President of ('ongress, " NEW-YORK, 5 "August, 1776 ; " The Pennsylvania Evening Post, Volume II., No. 241, PHIL- ADELPHIA, Tuesday, August 6, 1776; The Connecticut Gazette and Uni- rersul Intelligencer, Vol. 11., No. 66G, NEW-LONDON, Friday, August 16, 1776; [llall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 186, who said "most of the galleys were ran on shore, and taken;" Memoirs of Gen- erul Hrath, 51 ; Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, Edit. Lon- don, 1791, i., 298, a mere mention ; Allen's History of the American Rec- olutum, Edit. Baltimore, 1822, i., 429 ; Wilson's History of the American Revolution, Ed. Baltimore, 1843, 157; Force's American Archives, V., i., 751; Irving's Life of Washington, Edit. New York, 1856, ii., 299.

No others of the many writers on the American Revolution and Gen- eral Washington, as far as we have seen them, including Stedman, Murray, Andrews, Lamb, Marshall, Ilildreth, Pitkin, Lendrum, Hinman, Lossing, Bancroft, Carrington, Ridpath, etc., nor the local historian, Bolton, have paid the slightest attention to it.

We learn from the records of the " Governor and Council, or Commit - "tee of War," of Connecticut, tha; the Whiting and the Crane were owned by the State of Connecticut, and were, probably, those which were loaned to General Washington ; that the Whiting was a new vessel, commanded by Captain John McCleave, was manned with fifty men, in- chudling her officers, and armed with four cannon, taken from the Mi- verva, eight swivels, and five muskets; and that the Crane was also a new vessel, commanded by Captain Jehial Tinker, was manned with fifty men, including her officers, and armed with two Continental nine-pound- ers, two three-pounders, eight swivels, and ten muskets.

3 Sparks's Writings of George Washington, iv., 19, note. 4 Memoirs of General Heuth, 51.

391

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

Captain Thomas, both of them volunteers from the Army ; and they must have succeeded in passing up the river and in being concealed, without having been seen by the enemy ; and no one, ashore, appears to have given the slightest information concerning them.

We are told these vessels were sloops, 1 probably such as ordinarily sailed on the North-river ; and that the night of the fourteenth of Angust was appointed for the attempt to burn the ships; but, from some unexplained cause, without having aroused any sus- picion, however, the attempt was not, then, made. 2 Two nights later, that of the sixteenth of August, it was "pretty dark," and the tide was also favorable ; and the mischief-laden sloops were unmoored, and allowed to drift with the tide, silently, up the river, toward their proposed victims. The Rose's tender is said to have been anchored as a look-out, ahead of the ships ; 3 and Captain Thomas, without having been discovered by the enemy, steered his sloop alongside of her ; grappled her ; and lighted his fires. The flames from the burn- ing vessels afforded light to Captain Fosdick, who, with very great ability, so directed his sloop that she fell alongside of the Phoenix, and grap- pled her, notwithstanding every effort of seamanship, on board the ship, was made to prevent it. With her fires fiercely burning, the sloop continued alongside the Phoenix, nearly a quarter of an hour, during which time the latter was also set on fire, in four places; and she was finally saved from total destruction, "almost miraculously," by a sailor who leaped, naked, on board the sloop, and, with an axe, "disengaged the "chain of the grappling which had " linked the two vessels together."" It is said,5 very reasonably, that the low- ness ofthe burning stoop, when alongside of the vastly larger frigate, prevented the more complete ignition of the latter ; and that, after the vessels had been separated, the sloop was sunk by her intended vietim. We are told,6 also, that, as soon as she was disentan. gled from the burning sloop, " the Pharnir either cut "or slipped her eable; let fall her foresail; wore "around ; and stood up the river; being imme- "diately veiled from the spectators by the darkness of " the night ;" that "the Rose and the other two " tenders remained at their moorings, although it was

1 Memoirs of General Heath, 51.

2 Ibid.

3 [Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 186.

4 We have taken this minute description of the assault on the enemy's ships from Captain Hall's History of the Civil War in Imerira, i., 1st, 187, because it is so clearly stated, and because it is the work of an oth- cer of the Royal Army, and, therefore, is not likely to have been over- staled.

5 Gordon's History of the Imericon Revolution, ii., 305.

6 Memoirs of Generol Heath, 54.

" said that one of the tenders was deserted by her " erew, for a time ;" that the tender which was grappled by Captain Thomas was burned to the water's edge and was towed to the shore, by the Americans,7 by whom one iron six-pound gun, two three-pounders, one two-pounder, ten swivels, a eaboose and apron, some gun-barrels, cutlasses, grapplings, chains, etc., were taken from the wreek; and that the gallant erews of the fireships sustained neither loss nor injury, except in the instance of one man, who, in setting fire to his vessel, was considerably burned in his face, hands, ete., and in that of Captain Thomas, who, it was feared, perished in the attempt to fasten his vessel to the tender which it destroyed or in making his escape, by swimming, as he was not sub- sequently heard of. As General Washington stated in the letter from which we derive the information, when writing of him, " his bravery entitled him to a " better fate." 8

Notwithstanding the bravery and skill of those who conducted the firevessels and the considerable success which attended their efforts, it is said that the advan- tages gained would have been largely increased had

THE AMERICAN FIRESHIPS.

the galleys more aetively eo-operated with them ; and there was evidently some dissatisfaction displayed, beeause of that nautical backwardness; " but these

7 Lieutenant London, of Colonel Nicoll's Regiment, and two privates of his Company, (General Heath to General Washington, " KING'S BRIDGE, " August 20, 1776.") 8 General Washington to Governor Trumbull, "NEW-YORK, August 18, " 1776."

9 Ibid.

General lleath reported to General Washington, on the morning after the attack, that the galleys Lady Washington and Independence had be- haved well, in their co-operation with the firevessels, while the other galleys were inactive ; and the Commander-in-chief answered, on the same day, expressing his pleasure in hearing of the good behavior of those who had participated in the adventure, and instructing General lleath to " inquire into the cause of the inactivity of the other galleys, "and inform him thereof."-(Richard Carey, Jun. A. D. C. to General Heath, " ILEAn-QUARTERS, Angust 17, 1776.")

In Adjutant-general's Reed's reply to Governor Trumhull's letter con- cerning the Connecticut galleys, after having recited the notorious mis-

392

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

repeated attaeks and the want of intereourse with the fleet and the perils to which they were exposed, prompted the commanders of the ships, on the eigh- teenth of August, less than forty-eight hours after the last attaek had been made on them, to take advantage of a strong easterly wind and a very rainy morning, to run down the river, past the fortifieations thrown up by the Americans, and to join the main body of the fleet, off Staten Island, a feat which was success- fully accomplished, without any considerable dam- age, " the air resounding with acclamations from the " fleet, re-echoed by the Army encamped on the " heights above,"" as they came to the anchorage.

During the period occupied in this early naval de-

behavior of the crews of all of them, "in the first attack made on the " ships in the North River," for which they had been tried and con- demned by a Continental Court-martial, that officer, writing "by his Ex. "cellency's commands." (ride page 390, ante) said of the subsequent opera- tion of those galleys, " In the late affair, Captain MeCleave minst be ex " cepted from the general censure, as he managed with prudence and "propriety. But Captain Tinker, with the wind at South, and on the " tide of flood " [ flood of tide ?] "when the ships coull move, left his vessel, "though stationed as a guard, to go up to King's Bridge, after some " clothes, as he pretends. The consequence was, that, in the hurry and " confusion, and long before they were in danger, they left the gal- "ley aground, though they might have burned or bilged her. The enemy " took possession of her, in halfan hour ; and she, with the other, left " under the like circumstances, will probably prove the most formidable " force they can have, to oppose us, on the river. There was a place of " safety provided for the other galleys, which they might have got into, "as well as MeCleave ; but they passed it, in their hurry." (General Washington, through the Adjutant-general, to Governor Trumbull, " HEAD- "QUARTERS, October 18, 1776.")

1 [ Hall's] History of the Civil War in America, i., 187.

For other accounts of this daring feat, in attempting todestroy these ships, and of the subsequent escape of the latter, see General Heath to General Washington, " KING'S BRIDGE, 17 August, 1776;" General Washington to the President of Congress, "NEW-YORK, Angust 17, 1776; " the same to Governor Trumbull, " NEW YORK, Angust IS, 1776; " Generul Heath to General Washington, " KING'S BRIDGE, 18 Angust, 1776 ;" Eramination of Jonathan Woodman and tiro others, deserters, enclosed by General Mer- cer to General Washington, "NEWARK, August 19, 1776 ;" Extract from a Irtter dated " NEW YORK, August 19, 1776," published in Force's .Imer- ican Archives, Fifth Series, i., 1066 ; General Heath to General Washing- ton, " KING'S BRIDGE, Angst 20, 1776 ;" The Pennsylvania Ercuing Post, Vol. 11., No. 247, PHILADELPHIA, Tuesday, August 20, 1776; The Penn- sylvania Journal, No. 1750, PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, August 21, 1776 ; The Connectiont Gazette and I'nirersot Intelligencer, Vol. II., No. 667, NEW LONDON, Friday, Angust 23, 1776; Memoirs of General Heath, 53-55; Gordon's History of the American Revolution, ii., 305; Force's American Archives, V., i., 983 ; Irving's Life of George Washington, il., 306. 307 ; etc.

What purports to have been copied from a contemporary drawing of the brilliant scene, made by Sir James Wallace, who had command of the Rose, on the occasion now under notice, may be seen in The Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1864, opposite page 672. It is understood to have been copied from the original drawing, in the British Museum ; and it has been re-produced, in perfect fac-simile, but reduced in size, for the illustration of this article. ( l'ide page 391, ante.)

What the local historian of Westchester-county possibly intended for a description of this daring attempt to destroy the ships, was in these words, taken from his description of the property of the late Elijah Rich, near Yonkers: " Here, in 1777, a memorable engagement took " place between the two British frigates, the Rose and the Pharuir, which " lay off at anchor, and the gun-boats of the patriots which sallied ont "of the harbor of Yonkers, having in tow a large tender filled with "combustibles, intending to run it alongside of the frigates. The crews, "however, kept it off, hy means of spars ; and a heavy fire of grape and "cannister compelled the gun-boats and their brave crews to seek shelter "in the mouth of the Saw Mill. The year previous," he continued, " General Ileath had heen requested by the person in command of the " fireshipe, to he a spectator of the burning of these vessels," quoting,

monstration, so interesting to those of Westehester- eounty who lived near the line of the Hudson-river, neither of the great opposing powers, in the City of New York and on Long Island, on the one side, and on and around Staten Island, on the other, did any thing else than to strengthen their respective forees and prepare for the rapidly approaching contest. General Washington continued to strengthen his de- fences, both in the City of New York and on Long Island ; but the backwardness of the distant States, in sending reinforcements to the Army, not only caused a constant anxiety, at Head-quarters, but an alarm which extended beyond the lines of the Camp.2

in full, what General Heath, in his Memoirs, under the date of the six- teenth of August, 1776, had said of the attempt to destroy these ships, which is the subject of the narrative, in the text. (History of Westchester- county, original edition, ii., 459, 460 ; the same, second edition, ii., 627, 628.)

As it is more than probable that the ships, when they were attacked, were off Tarrytown, instead of below Yonkers; as Yonkers, in 1777, was within the British lines, and so could not have afforded a rendezvous, in the Saw-Mill-river, for American gun-boats and fireships, during that year ; as the Phonir and the Rose had dropped dowu to the anchorage of the Royal Fleet, off Staten Island, on the eighteenth of August, 1776, two days after the engagement described in the text; and as the an- thority whom he quoted, in full, described the engagement, of which he was an eye-witness, as having taken place on the sixteenth of August, 1776, it will be evident to the reader that the historian of Westchester- county, as well as his posthumous Editor, blundered.

2 In order that the reader may understand the gravity of the subject, and be the better prepared for the recital of the narrative of those stir- ring events which occurred within the succeeding month, we make room for the following :

" It gives ns great pain to inform you that the aid received from our "sister States is very inadequate to our expectations, none of them hav- "ing yet completed the levies directed by Congress, which leaves ns "reason to fear that, instead of using every means that human wisdom "dictates, for ensuring success, we shall, (with inferior numbers, ) on " the doubtful issue of a single battle, hazard the glorious canse for "which we have hitherto struggled." (The Convention of New York to the Delegation from New York in the Continental Congress, " HARLEM, 7th An- "gust, 1776, A.M.")

" It is our great misfortune that, at this important crisis, this State is "nuable to make those exertions which the cause of America requires. "From the disaffection of some among ns; from the want of arms ; "from the exposed situation of Long Island and our frontiers ; from the " possession of one County by the enemy ; and from the probability of "our being called upon to reinforce the northern Army, we are nuable " to add much strength to your Excellency's command, being, by the " several reasons above-mentioned, deprived of the assistance of nine "Counties out of fourteen which compose this State. Nothwithstanding "all these difficulties, we are determined to combat every obstacle and "to strain every nerve in defense of the rights and liberties of America, " which we conceive to be most materially interested in the safety of this "State. By our Resolutions for ordering the several drafts made in the "Connties of Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Westchester, Duchess, Ulster, and "Orange, to the euvirons of New York, we hope, in about six days, to ""add near three thousand men to your Army.

" We lament, exceedingly, that we should have occasion to complain "of the languid efforts which the neighbouring States have made for "our assistance. From the zeal they professed for the public canse ; " from the vicinity of some of them to this invaded country ; and from " the dangerons situation in which Connecticut, Massachusetts, Penn- " sylvania, and Jersey must be in, should the enemy succeed in their "designs against this State, we expected the most strennons and expe- "ditious exertions. How great our concern [is] at finding so considera- "ble a deficiency in the establishment of this Army, your Excellency "may easily judge from the feelings of a patriotic hosom, on the im- "portance of the cause and the daugers to which it is, by these means, " exposed.

" We flatter ourselves, however, that this supineness will not be of

393

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

General Howe, on the contrary, had been strength- ened, on the twelfth of July, by the arrival of his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, with the long expected reinforcements for the Royal Army ; 1 and he brought, also, a Commission from the King, appointing his brother, General Howe, and himself 2 to be Commis- sioners for granting pardons to those of the Ameri- eans who should ask for the clemeney of the Sover- eign.3 On the twelfth of August, the two fleets, under the eonvoy, respectively, of Commodore Ho- tham and the Repulse, met off Sandy-hook, and entered

"any duration ; and that the Continental Congress will devise means of "affording the most expeditious aud effectual assistance to preserve a " State, the loss of which, from its geographical situation and the politi- "cal character of too uiany of its inhabitants, would be almost fatal to ", the cause of Americau liberty." (The Convention of New York to Gen- erul Washington, "HARLEM, Augt. 9, 1776.")

" I am extremely concerned that the quotas of men to be furnished by "tbe neighboring States have proved so deficient. The busy season "and harvest, to which it has been ascribed, being now over, in a great " degree, 1 flatter myself, from the zeal they have heretofore manifested, " they will afford every possible assistauce, They are well apprised of " the importance of this State, in the present contest, and the necessity " of maintaining it against the attempts of the enemy." (General Wash- ington to the Convention, " NEW-YORK, August 11, 1776.")

Ilow ill-founded General Washington's faith in the siucerity of the other States was, beyond the limits of their respective individual inter- ests, has been duly recorded in history, is well-known to every intelli- gent reader, and need not be repeated, in this place.

1 General Washington to General Schuyler, " NEW YORK, 15 July, 1776;" The Annual Register for 1776 : History of Europe,# 167; etc.

Stedman, (History of the .American ll'ar, i., 191,) said the Admiral aud his command arrived at Sandy-hook, ou tho first of July ; but his error will be evident to every one.

" As the remarkable influence which the General aud the Admiral pos- sessed over the King, eveu uuder the most adverse circumstances, has been frequently noticed and very rarely explained, a passing notice of the reason for that influenco may not be unwelcome to the reader.

de Lancey, in his Notes ou Joues's History of New- York during the Revolutionary War, (i., 722,) has partly "let tbe cat out of the bag," by saying they "were sons of Emanuel Scrope Howe, second Viscount " Ilowe, by Mary Sophia, an illegitimate daughter of George I .. by his "mistress, the Hanoverian Baroness Kilmansegge, and, consequently, "in point of fact, first cousins once removed of George 111." But our friend appears to have gone a little astray, since George III. was the great-grandson of George I .; and the children of a daughter of the latter could hardly have been "first cousins once removed " of the former. Besides, if our memory serves us correctly, the motber of the Howes, whomsoever she may have been, was a paramour of Frederic Lewis, son of George II., and fatber of George III., even after her convenient mar- riage with Viscount Howe ; and the very distinctive features and the peculiar physical ailments of the two brothers, which they sbared with the King, very clearly indicated whose offspring they were, although they were born in wedlock and were, therefore, nominally, Howes. They were, iu fact, half-brothers of the King.

3 The extent of the authority of the brothers, Admiral and General Howe, as Commissioners for the restoration of Peace, in America, has been so variously stated, that the careful reader will do well to refer to their Commission, which may be found in a most singular connection with a mass of papers concerning the Expedition comnauded by General Burgoyne, which appear to have beeu laid before the House of Com- mons, early in 1778. (Almnon's Parliamentary Register, London : 1778, viii., 308-312.)

When Lord North, closely pinned in debate, declared that " taxation " was not to be given up : it was to be enforced : but whether at present "or hereafter was a point of policy which the Commissioners would " learn, on the spot, by sounding the people upon tbo spot," there was point as well as wit in what Charles James Fox said, in reply : " Accord- " ing to the noble Lord's explanation, Lord Howe and his brother are " to be sent out as spis, not as l'ommissioners, and if they cannot get on "shore, they are to sound upon the coasts." (Debates in the House of Commons, May 22, 1776 : Almou's Parliamentary Register, iv., 126.)

the harbor together, bringing another heavy rein- foreement to the Royal Army, as well as the inneh needed Camp-equipage ; * two days later, [August 14, 1776,] Sir Peter Parker reached Staten Island, with the remains of the expedition which had been sent to Virginia and the Carolinas ; 5 and, at the same time, Lord Dunmore, "with the refugees and blackamoors " from Virginia," 6 and Lord William Campbell, re- eently Governor of Sontli Carolina, also joined General Howe.7 Although General Howe made no mention of them, in his despatches to Lord George Germaine, it is said the Royal Army was strength- ened, also, about the same time, by the aecession of " several Regiments from Florida and the West In- " dies ; "8 and, although about one half the German troops had not arrived-they were on the ocean, but were not immediately expected-the strength and discipline and appointments and spirits of the Army were greatly superior to those of the American Army, and reasonably promised greater sueeess, in the field.

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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 99

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