USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. II > Part 15
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Gates, Mifflin, and Trumbull, were all absent from Little York where congress sate, the enemy being at Philadelphia.
The confederacy of sovereign states had before 1777, been in many instances, found wanting. In July, 177S, the confederacy was signed, but October the 14th, 1777, congress resolved, that no state should be represented by more than seven members nor less than two. New York had but two members present, barely suffi- cient to give her a vote ; one of those was lying sick ; this was a situation which rendered her a nullity, and a day was appointed by the cabal, to nominate a committee to arrest Washington at the Val- ley Forge, they having a majority owing to the absence of New York.
Francis Lewis, the only member from New York capable of taking his place, sent to the absentee. Colonel William Duer sent for his physician, Doctor Jones, and demanded whether he could be removed to the court house, (or place of meeting.) " Yes, but at the risk of your life." "Do you mean that I should expire before reaching the place?" " No ; but I would not answer for your
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CONWAY'S INTRIGUES.
life, twenty-four hours afterward." "Very well, sir ; you have done your duty, prepare a litter for me-if you refuse-some one else shall-but I prefer your care in this case."
The litter was prepared, and the sick man ready to sacrifice his life for his country, when the faction, baffled by the arrival of Go- verneur Morris, and by the certainty of New York being against them, gave up the attempt, and the hazardous experiment on the part of Colonel Duer, was rendered unnecessary.
General Gates and suite, of whom Colonel Lewis was one, were detained at the Susquehanna three days, during which Gover- neur Morris joined them. On their arrival at Little York, Colonel Lewis and Gouverneur Morris, immediately repaired to the quarters of the New York delegation; and found Colonel Duer on the lit- ter surrounded by blankets, attended by his physician and carriers, ready to go to the court-house where congress met.
After the surrender of an army, few of the military events which passed in New York seem worthy of history. Until 1778, the per- secutions of the commander-in-chief continued.
The expressions of Conway were repeated to Washington, and (as Mifflin informed Gates by letter) were enclosed by the general to Conway without remarks, who, says Mifflin, supported the opin- ion he had given, "the sentiment was not apologized for." Gates, on receiving this information from Mifflin, wrote to Conway, en- treating to know which of the letters was copied off, and to Mifflin, expressing his uneasiness and anxiety to discover the villain who had " played him this treacherous trick." He likewise immedi- ately wrote a letter to General Washington, conjuring him to as- sist, as he says, in "tracing out the author of the infidelity which put extracts from General Conway's letters to me into your hands." He says, the letters have been " stealingly copied." This, instead of being sent direct to the general, was enclosed to congress. Upon hearing of this discovery, Lafayette wrote to Washington, inform- ing him of Conway's endeavours by flattery to gain his confidence, and to make a breach between him and the general, so as to in- duce Lafayette to leave the country.
There are documents extant in which, at this very time, he ex- presses his enmity to Lafayette. But a just estimate of this at- tempt upon General Washington can only be formed by reading all the letters published by Mr. Sparks. I will only say further, that as Gates had enclosed his letter to the commander-in-chief in one to congress, he sent his answer in the same manner. Washington tells Gates that he had viewed Conway as a stranger to him, and had no thought that they were correspondents, " much less did I suspect that I was the subject of your confidential letters." He says, that on receiving this extract, he considered it as a friendly warning from Gates to forearm him " against a secret enemy, or in
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FALSEHOOD AND MEANNESS OF GATES.
other words, a dangerous incendiary ; in which character, sooner or later, this country will know General Conway : but in this, as in other matters of late, I have found myself mistaken." Gates then endeavoured to persuade the general that the extract was a forgery. The answer of Washington exposed the falsehood of the assertion, and showed the contradiction in which this weak man's own statements had involved him. . Gates replied by a mean apo- logy on the 19th of February, 1778, filled with such falsehoods as these : " As to the gentleman," Conway, " I have no personal con- nexion with him, nor had I any correspondence previous to his writing the letter which has given offence. I solemnly declare I am of no faction." He disavows any intention of giving offence to his " Excellency," and concludes humbly " with great respect." I make use of the word falsehood, because in the papers left by Gates, and now in a publick library, are the proofs that these as- sertions are void of truth. Washington answered this apology very coldly, thus : "Your repeatedly and solemnly disclaiming any offensive views, in those matters which have been the subject of our past correspondence, makes me willing to close with the de- sire you express, of burying them hereafter in silence, and, as far as future events will permit, oblivion. . I am, sir your most obe- dient servant."
In the meantime General Washington received information, from various quarters, of the efforts made to overthrow him, and a most positive indication of their success, by the appointment, as we have seen, of this Conway, notwithstanding the known opinions of Washington and Lafayette, to the office of inspector-general and the rank of major-general, to the excessive disgust of the American brigadiers. The whole of this infamous proceeding on the part of the faction in congress, of Gates, Conway and others, can only be appreciated by reading all the documents published, and some yet unpublished, in the library of the Historical Society.
When Sir William Howe was recalled from the command in America, the British officers and Philadelphia ladies, gave him a great fete, and Sir Henry Clinton took the command of the troops. He evacuated the city, and embarked his army at Monmouth for New York, but not before Charles Lee had so behaved at the bat- tle of Monmouth, as to relieve Washington from one of his greatest open enemies.
The Britishi fleet and army arrived in the harbour of New York in time to escape an action with the French fleet, who finding they were too late, sailed to the north. The commander-in-chief, and the main army were so disposed, as to prevent Sir Henry from making any attempt on the Hudson.
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PRISONERS AND PRISON SHIPS.
CHAPTER X.
Prisoners and Prison Ships.
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1776
THE prisoners taken on Long Island and at Fort Wash- ington, were at first shut up in the College, and in the 1780 "new, or middle Dutch church, in Nassau and Cedar streets." An old gentleman living in 1837, who was one of Captain Vandyke's grenadiers, and made prisoner on the 27th of August, says, he saw the "great fire" from the College windows. Another gentleman, Mr. John Pintard, who is still with us, and who as a young man was an assistant to his uncle, Mr. Lewis Pintard, appointed by congress to supply necessary clothing for the American prisoners during a part of the war, gives us some particulars which are very valuable, as he was in New York, and had an opportunity for acquiring knowledge respecting his suffering countrymen. He tells us, in a published document, that in the church above mentioned, " the sick, the wounded, and well, were all indiscriminately huddled together by hundreds and thousands- large numbers of whom died by disease-and many undoubtedly poisoned by inhuman attendants, for the sake of their watches or silver buckles."
We must remember that he speaks of the time immediately fol- lowing the battle of Brooklyn : the recent occupancy of the city by the victors, the conflagration of a great portion of it, and the capture of the brave men at Fort Washington-all tending to create disor- der in every department of the then conquering army. The writer proceeds to mention circumstances witnessed and remembered by myself. He says, " This church (the middle Dutch) was after- ward converted into a riding school for training dragoons. The extensive sugar-house in Liberty street, and the north Dutch church, were also used as prisons. . The new Quaker meeting- house, formerly in Pearl street, was appropriated as a hospital. The seamen were confined on board the prison-ships, where they suffered every hardship to compel them to enter into the British service, and were consigned to disease and death by hundreds. The provost was destined for the more notorious rebels, civil, naval, and military. An admission into this modern bastile was enough to appal the stoutest heart. On the right hand of the main door
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PRISONERS AND PRISON SHIPS.
was Captain Cunningham's quarters, opposite to which was the guard-room. Within the first barricade was Sergeant Keefe's apartment. At the entrance-door two sentinels were always posted by day and night ; two more at the first and second barricades, which were grated, barred, and chained ; also at the rear door, and on the platform at the grated door at the foot of the second flight of steps, leading to the rooms and cells in the second and third stories. When a prisoner, escorted by soldiers, was led into the hall, the whole guard was paraded, and he was delivered over, with all formality, to Captain Cunningham or his deputy, and ques- tioned as to his name, rank, size, age, etc., all of which were en- tered in a record book. What with the bristling of arms, unbolting of bars and locks, clanking of enormous iron chains, and a vestibule as dark as Erebus, the unfortunate captive might well sink under this infernal sight and parade of tyrannical power, as he crossed the threshold of that door which probably closed on him for life. But it is not our wish to revive the horrours attendant on our revolution- ary war; grateful to Divine Providence for its propitious issue, we would only remark to the existing and rising generation, that the independence of the United States, and the civil and religious lib- erty they now enjoy, were achieved and purchased by the blood and sufferings of their patriotic forefathers. May they guard and transmit the boon to their latest posterity.
" The northeast chamber, turning to the left, on the second floor, was appropriated to officers, and characters of superiour rank and distinction, and was called Congress Hall. So closely were they packed, that when they lay down at night to rest, when their bones ached on the hard oak planks, and they wished to turn, it was alto- gether by word of command, "right-left," being so wedged and compact as to form almost a solid mass of human bodies. In the day time the packs and blankets of the prisoners were suspended around the walls, every precaution being used to keep the rooms ventillated, and the walls and floors clean, to prevent jail fever; and, as the provost was generally crowded with American prisoners, or British culprits of every description, it is really wonderful that in- fection never broke out within its walls.
" In this gloomy terrifick abode, were incarcerated at different periods, many American officers and citizens of distinction, awaiting with sickening hope and tantalizing expectation the protracted pe- riod of their exchange and liberation. Could these dumb walls speak, what scenes of anguish, what tales of agonizing woe, might they disclose !
" Among other characters, there were, at the same time, the fa- mous Colonel Ethan Allen, and Judge Fell, of Bergen county, New Jersey. When Captain Cunningham entertained the young British officers, accustomed to command the provost guard, by dint VOL. II. 1S
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JERSEY PRISON SHIP.
of curtailing the prisoner's rations, exchanging good for bad pro- visions, and other embezzlements practised on John Bull, the cap- tain, his deputy, and indeed the commissaries generally, were ena- bled to fare sumptuously. In the drunken orgies that usually ter- minated his dinners, the captain would order the rebel prisoners to turn out and parade, for the amusement of his guests-pointing them out-" this is the damned rebel, Colonel Ethan Allen-that a rebel judge, an Englishman," etc. etc.
The writer well remembers the Rev. Thomas Andros, a presby- terian clergyman, who, when a youth, shipped himself as a priva- teersman from New London. He was taken, and confined in this sepulchre, where the living, the dying, and the dead, formed one mass, of which the latter description was the most enviable. I am far from charging upon the deputy commissaries the misery which my countrymien suffered in the prison ships ; but I must think that there was culpable neglect or designed cruelty on the part of the commander-in-chief of the British army, or a criminal thirst for riches on the part of Sprout. Mr. Andros says :
" We were captured on the 27th August, by the Solebay frigate, and safely stowed away in the old Jersey prison ship, at New York. This was an old sixty-four gun ship, which through age had be- come unfit for further actual service. She was stripped of every spar and all her rigging. After a battle with the French fleet, her lion figure-head was taken away to repair another ship ; no appear- ance of ornament was left. and nothing remained but an old, un- sightly, rotten hulk. Her dark and filthy external appearance perfectly corresponded with the death and despair that reigned within ; and nothing could be more foreign from truth than to paint her with colours flying, or any circumstance or appendage to please the eye. She was moored about three quarters of a mile to the eastward of Brooklyn Ferry, near a tide-mill, on the Long Island shore. The nearest distance to land, was about twenty rods. And doubtless no other ship in the British navy ever proved the means of the destruction of so many human beings. It is computed that not less than eleven thousand American seamen perished in her. But after it was known that it was next to certain death to confine a prisoner here, the inhumanity and wickedness of doing it, was about the same, as if he had been taken into the city and deliber- ately shot on some publick square. But as if mercy had fled from the earth, here we were doomed to dwell. And never while I was on board did any Howard or angel of pity appear- to inquire into or alleviate our woes. Once or twice, by the order of a stranger on the quarter-deck, a bag of apples was hurled promiscuously into the midst of hundreds of prisoners crowded together as thick as they could stand, and life and limbs were endangered by the scramble. This, instead of compassion, was a cruel sport. When
٠٠ خدصورة.
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JERSEY PRISON SHIP.
I saw it about to cominence, I fled to the most distant part of the ship.
"On the commencement of the first evening, we were driven down to darkness between decks, secured by iron gratings and an armed soldiery. And now a scene of horrour, which baffles all description, presented itself. On every side, wretched, despond- ing shapes of men, could be seen. Around the well-room an armed guard were forcing up the prisoners to the winches, to clear the ship of water, and prevent her sinking ; and little else could be heard but a roar of mutual execrations, reproaches, and insults. During this operation, there was a small dim light admitted below, but it served to make darkness more visible, and horrour more ter- rifick. In my reflections I said, this must be a complete image and anticipation of hell.
" When I first became an inmate of this abode of suffering, des- pair, and death, there were about four hundred prisoners on board, but in a short time they amounted to twelve hundred. And in proportion to our numbers, the mortality increased.
" All the most deadly discases were pressed into the service of the king of terrours, but his prime-ministers were dysentery, small- pox, and yellow fever. There were two hospital ships near to the old Jersey, but these were soon so crowded with the sick, that they could receive no more. The consequence was, that the dis- eased and the healthy were mingled together in the main ship. In a short time we had two hundred or more sick and dying, lodged in the fore part of the lower gun-deck, where all the prisoners were confined at night. Utter derangement was a common symptom of yellow fever, and to increase the horrour of the darkness that shroud- ed us, (for we were allowed no light betwixt decks,) the voice of warning would be heard-' Take heed to yourselves; there is a mad man stalking through the ship with a knife in his hand.' 1 sometimes found the man a corpse in the morning by whose side 1 laid myself down at night. At another time he would become de- ranged, and attempt in darkness to rise and stumble over the bodies that every where covered the deck. In this case I had to hold him in his place by main strength. In spite of my efforts he would sometimes rise, and then I had to close with him, trip up his heels, and lay him again upon the deck. While so many were sick with raging fever, there was a loud cry for water, but none could be had except on the upper deck, and but one allowed to ascend at a time. The suffering then from the rage of thirst during the night was very great. Nor was it at all times safe to attempt to go up. Provoked by the continual cry for leave to ascend, when there was already one on deck, the sentry would push them back with his bayonet. By one of these thrusts, which was more spiteful and violent than common, I had a narrow escape of my life. In the morning the
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JERSEY PRISON SHIP.
hatchways were thrown open, and we were allowed to ascend, all at once, and remain on the upper deck during the day. But the first object that met our view in the morning was a most appalling spectacle. A boat loaded with dead bodies, conveying them to the Long Island shore, where they were very slightly covered with sand. I sometimes used to stand to count the number of times the shovel was filled with sand to cover a dead body ; and certain I am, that a few high tides or torrents of rain must have disinterred them. And had they not been removed, I should suppose the shore, even now, would be covered with huge piles of the bones of American seamen. There were, probably, four hundred on board who had never had the small-pox -- some, perhaps, might have been saved by inoculation.
" But humanity was wanting to try even this experiment. Let our disease be what it would, we were abandoned to our fate. Now and then an American physician was brought in as a captive, but if he could obtain his parole he left the ship, nor could we much blame him for this; for his own death was next to certain, and his success in saving others by medicine, in our situation, was small. I remember only two American physicians who tarried on board a few days. No English physician, or any one from the city, ever, to my knowledge, came near us. There were thirteen of the crew to which I belonged, but in a short time all but three or four were dead. The most healthy and vigorous were first seized with the fever, and died in a few hours. For them there seemed to be no mercy. My constitution was less muscular and plethorick, and I escaped the fever longer than any of the thirteen except one, and the first onset was less violent.
" There is one palliating circumstance as to the inhumanity of the British, which ought to be mentioned. The prisoners were furnished with buckets and brushes to cleanse the ship, and with vinegar to sprinkle her inside. But their indolence and despair were such that they would not use them, or but rarely. And, in- deed, at this time, the encouragement to do it was small-for the whole ship, from her keel to the taffrail, was equally infected, and contained pestilence sufficient to desolate a world. Disease and death were wrought into her very timbers. At the time I left, it is to be presumed, a more filthy, contagious, and deadly abode for human beings, never existed among a christianized people. It fell but little short of the Black Hole at Calcutta. Death was more lingering, but almost equally certain.
" If there was any principle among the prisoners that could not be shaken, it was the love of their country. I knew no one to be seduced into the British service. They attempted to force one of our prize brig's crew into the navy, but he chose rather to die than perform any duty, and he was again restored to the prison-slip."
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JERSEY PRISON SHIP.
In addition to the testimony of Mr. Andros, I have that of an aged gentleman still residing with us, who confirms the statement made in the book. Ile says, he was an officer on board of the United States frigate Confederacy, and was captured by two Eng- lish frigates. Being at the time of capture sick, he was put on board one of the hulks in the Wallabout, that served as a hospital ship for convalescents, but was as soon as somewhat restored, trans- ferred to the "Old Jersey," to make room for others more help- less. Here he experienced all the sufferings, and witnessed the horrours described by Andros, for five months. The confinement in so crowded a place, the pestilential air, the putrid and damaged food given to the prisoners, (procured by the commissaries for little or nothing, and charged to the English government at the prices of the best provisions,) soon produced a fever, under which this young man suffered without medicine or attendance, until nature, too strong for even such enemies, restored him to a species of health, again to be prostrated by the same causes. He says, he never saw given to the prisoners one ounce of wholesome food. The loath- some beef they prepared by pressing, and then threw it, with da- maged bread, into the kettle, skimming off the previous tenants of this poisonous food as they rose to the top of the vessel.
And these commissaries became rich, and revelled in luxuries, hearing the groans of their victims daily, and seeing the bodies of those who were relieved from torture by death, carried by boat loads to be half buried in the sands of the Wallabout. The testi- mony proving these atrocities, cannot be doubted. Yet, in answer to the remonstrances of General Washington, Admiral Arbuthnot denied the charge altogether.
To save his life, the officer referred to consented to become deputy to the purser, and was then removed from the darkness, filth, stench, and horrible sounds, which assailed him in the dungeons of this float- 'ing hell. In the office of deputy-purser he fared well, and recovered health. He witnessed a mode of cheating practised by the clerks and underlings, less criminal than that of the commissaries of priso- ners. Such of the captives as had money were liberated by bar- gain with these officials, and returned on the report as dead ; and the deaths were so many, that this passed without inquiry.
Many of the prisoners had saved their money by sewing it in pieces of canvass, and fastening them in the inner parts of their trowsers. A boat would be brought to the ship at night, and by a system of collusion, the person who had bought his liberty would be removed on some specious pretence. Faith was kept with then to encourage others in the same process.
The writer went to school in Little Queen street, now Cedar street, and my seat at the desk, in an upper room of a large store- house kind of building, placed me in full view of the Sugar-house,
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PRISONERS AND THEIR TREATMENT.
corner of Crown, now Liberty street, and Nassau street. The reader may have noticed the tall pile of building with little port- hole windows tier above tier. In that place, crowds of American prisoners were incarcerated, pined, sickened, and died. During the suffocating heat of summer, when my school-room windows were all open, and I could not catch a cooling breeze, I saw oppo- site to me every narrow aperture of those stone walls filled with human heads, face above face, seeking a portion of the external air. What must have been the atmosphere within ? Andros's description of the prison ship tells us. Child as I was, this spec- tacle sunk deep in my heart. I can see the picture now.
In Rivington's Gazette, may be seen several controversial letters between the commissaries of prisoners, Sprout and Skinner, respecting the treatment of prisoners.
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CITY OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER XI.
City of New York from 1776 to 1780-Battle of Monmouth- Indian Hostilities on the Mohawk-Massacre ut Cherry Valley.
THE Walton House in the city of New York, is now No. 326 Pearl street. This family mansion was, in its time, a thing to wonder and gaze at. It was erected in 1754 by William Walton, a prosperous English merchant, who resided in Hanover Square, (now part of Pearl street,) and this splendid dwelling was built out of town. It was bequeathed by the founder, who died a bachelor, to his nephew William, who was one of the king's or governour's council before the revolution; and it still remains family property. Built of bricks imported from Holland, and ornamented by brown stone water-tables, lintels, and jambs, it stands a monument of ancient English archi- tecture. The staircase in the ample hall, the carved work in various parts without and within, (I presume all imported,) give it an air of aristocratick grandeur which our modern palaces are deficient in. During the war of the revolution, the commanders of the British army and navy occupied the Kennedy House, now a part of No. 1 Broadway, the Beekman House in Hanover Square, the Ver- plank House in Wall street, and others ; but the Walton House was the residence of its hospitable owner.
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