USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 28
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In relation to the taking down of the king's arms, it will be of interest to quote from a letter of Rev. Charles Inglis, then rector of Trinity and its subsidiary churches, addressed to Rev. Dr. Hind: "In the beginning of July, independency was declared I thought it was proper to con- sult such of the vestry as were in town, and others of the congregation and I must do them the justice to say, that they were all
RECTOR INGLIS SURROUNDED BY "REBELS" 273
unanimous for shutting up the churches; and chose rather to submit to that temporary inconvenience, than, by omitting the prayers for the king, give that mark of disaffection for their sovereign. To have prayed for him had been rash to the last degree-the inevitable consequence had been a demolition of the churches, and the destruction of all who frequented them. The whole rebel force was collected here, and the most violent partisans from all parts of the continent All the king's arms, even those on the signs of taverns, were destroyed. The committee sent me a mes- sage, which I esteemed a favour and indulgence, to have the king's arms taken down in the church, or else the mob would do it, and might deface and injure the churches. I immediately complied. People were not at liberty to speak their sentiments, and even silence was construed as a mark of disaffection. Things being thus situated, I shut up the churches. Even this was attended with great hazard; for it was declaring, in the strongest manner, our disapprobation of independency, and that under the eye of Washington and his army." Lossing, in his Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, says that "the arms in Trinity Church were carried to New Brunswick by Rev. Charles Inglis, D.D., at the close of the war, and now (1852) hang on the walls of a Protestant Episcopal Church in St. John."
The statement of Dr. Inglis, as to the political sentiments of the mem- bers of the Church of England, illustrates the fact that in the City of New York, at least, the political alignment and the denominational cleav- age were in a large measure identical. That there were many of the patriot party who were also members of the Church of England is doubt- less true, particularly in Virginia. George Washington was a member of that church. But in New York City the members of the Church of Eng- land were almost solidly of Tory politics, and those of the Presbyterian, Reformed Dutch, and other denominations were nearly all, but not quite so solidly, Whigs.
All the excitements in the city in connection with the formation of the new State government at White Plains, and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia, went on with the enemy's great fleet in the harbor and the British Army preparing itself for battle in the camp on Staten Island. The Patriot Army enrolled at the several posts on New York, Long and Governor's Islands and Paulus Hook (Jersey City) aggregated 17,225, but because of not only the usual camp diseases, but also of an epidemic of smallpox, about 3700 were sick, and others were detailed on other duties until the effective fighting force was 10,514 men. Few of these were accustomed to warfare, and this was the force which General Washington had to oppose to the well-trained, seasoned and well-provisioned army of 33,000, including 13,000 Hessians, encamped on Staten Island.
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Besides the regular troops, there were arriving militia of Connecticut and Long Island, of which twelve regiments of the former and two regiments of the latter came before the Battle of Long Island, but of the regular forces so many had joined on short enlistments that there were daily departures in considerable numbers. The army was in five divisions, under Generals Put- nam, Heath, Spencer, Sullivan and Greene, in addition to the fourteen regi- ments of emergency militia and the artillery, under command of Colonel Knox. In Putnam's division were James Clinton's Brigade (four Massachusetts regi- ments ), Scott's Brigade (four New York regiments), and Fellows' Brigade (four Massachusetts regiments). In Heath's Division were Mifflin's Brigade (two Pennsylvania, two Massachusetts and one Connecticut regiment) and George Clinton's Brigade (five New York Regiments). Spencer's Division included Parson's Brigade (four Connecticut and one Massachusetts regi- ments) and Wadsworth's Brigade (seven Connecticut regiments). Sullivan's Division had Stirling's Brigade (one Maryland, one Delaware and two Penn- sylvania regiments) and McDougall's Brigade (two New York, one Connecti- cut, and one artificer regiments). General Greene's Division was made up of Nixon's Brigade (one Pennsylvania, one Rhode Island, and three Massachu- setts regiments), and Heard's Brigade, composed of five New Jersey regi- ments.
Notable among the New York troops was the First Regiment, under Colonel Alexander McDougall, who had six years before been in jail for his too patriotic utterances; he was colonel of the regiment, organized in March, 1776, as successor to the other First Regiment which he had organized in June, 1775, but the term of which had expired after serving under Montgomery in Canada. John Lamb's company of artillery, with seventy men, had also gone to Canada, and had lost forty of its men in the hard campaign there. Captain Lamb was wounded and captured at Quebec, and the thirty survivors of his company returned to New York, in March, 1776. Its successor was a com- pany known as the New York Provincial (later State) Company of Artillery, organized on call of the Provincial Congress in March, 1776, with Alexan- der Hamilton as captain; and which afterward became a part of the artillery regiment of Colonel Lamb, and served until the close of the war.
On July 12th, Lord Howe, admiral commander in chief of the naval forces on the American coast, arrived with more ships, in time to witness a military movement planned by his brother, General Sir William Howe, in conjunction with the fleet admiral. Its plan was to cut off the up-river communications of the American forces, to destroy two ships which were in course of con- struction at Poughkeepsie, and to encourage and organize the forces of loyal- ists, of whom it was reported that there were many in Westchester and he- yond. For this purpose the Phoenix, forty guns, and the Rose, twenty guns,
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made their way up North River under full canvas, accompanied by their tend- ers. They were shot at from every battery along the route, but were skill- fully piloted, and though they fired broadsides from both starboard and port guns at both the New York and the New Jersey shores, they did little damage. American sharpshooters tried to pick off the sailors on the decks, but they had little chance, because the sailors were protected by sandbags piled up behind the bulwarks. Three Americans were killed by the bursting of a gun, and three more by the enemy's shots. The up-river designs of General Howe were frustrated by the activity and vigilance of the recently organized militia, under the command of General George Clinton.
Lord Howe, endeavoring to negotiate some kind of basis for peace, sent a message addressed to George Washington, Esq., but his messenger found no person of that rank to whom it could be delivered. Colonel Patterson, the next envoy, who paid more attention to diplomatic usage and proper courtesy, saw the general, and was informed that his propositions would be presented to the Congress as a matter of courtesy, but returned without the slightest inti- mation that peace could be now arranged upon any basis involving a recog- nition of George III, or any other monarch. The continuance of war was, therefore, inevitable, and the British decided on Long Island as the first point of attack. The American defenses on Long Island extended from the Wall- about Bay, across what is now the heart of Brooklyn, to Gowanus Marsh, and included three small forts and two redoubts, with field intrenchments and other fortifications. Without going into much detailed description of the movements, it may be briefly stated that on August 26th, General Washington went over from Manhattan to Long Island, where General Sullivan had been in charge, taking with him General Putnam, who was Sullivan's superior, and therefore was in general command of the succeeding battle. The British had brought an army of fifteen thousand men from Staten Island, landing its forces at Gravesend, on the 22d. Washington, after leaving orders as to the disposal of the forces preparatory to battle, returned to New York on the night of the 26th. At that time the troops on the American side on Long Island had been augmented to a total of seven thousand men, and the British force was augmented by five thousand Hessians under General De Heister.
The British plan of attack, as carried out, proved to be well devised, while the American preparation turned out to be weakest where strength was most needed. The British Army advanced by three routes against the American position, and the most important route, the Jamaica road, seems to have been least guarded, and it was precisely by this road that the British and Hessians advanced in greatest force. Parts of the American Army, under General William Alexander (Lord Stirling) and General Sullivan, stationed in advance of the principal American fortification, were defeated after a stren-
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uous resistance in which Lord Stirling, in particular, showed stubborn fight against Cornwallis, in which the Marylanders especially distinguished them- selves, but Generals De Heister and Grant bringing up reinforcements in over- whelming numbers, Lord Stirling was at last compelled to surrender with a few of his men to the Hessian commander. Sullivan had before that been cap- tured with four hundred men. The British loss in killed, wounded and miss- ing was about four hundred men, and on the American side about one thou- sand, of whom about eight hundred, with Lord Stirling and General Sullivan, were prisoners. Howe had captured part of the American position, and was in better shape for complete victory than before the battle. The next day was spent by both sides in re- pairing damages, and the Americans brought rein- forcements that day and the next, so that by the evening of the 29th the Americans had an army of nine thou- sand men. During the two days the rain had fallen in- cessantly, but there had been a continued fusillade by the pickets, and the Brit- ish were making intrench- ments preparatory to an- other attack. Washington, reflecting on the superiority in numbers and position of OLD SUGAR HOUSE IN LIBERTY STREET The Prison of the Revolution the enemy, concluded that the success of the British was only a matter of a few hours, while the opportunity to retreat to New York would be much smaller if the wind should change, as the British ves- sels had been prevented by adverse winds from entering the East River. The proposition to retreat to New York was submitted by General Washington to a council of general officers that afternoon and unanimously approved. An order to the quartermaster's department to impress every kind of water craft from Hell Gate around the island to Spuyten Duyvil Creek and have them all in the east harbor by dark, was executed with wonderful celerity and secrecy. Even the regimental commanders did not know until night that a general retreat was contemplated, but through the night, by oar or sail, the entire American army had crossed the river, and the next morning the British were surprised to find themselves in full possession. It was a masterful retreat and
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is so regarded by military historians, while they condemn in emphatic terms the lack of American generalship in the preceding battle.
After returning to New York, General Washington began to consider a further retreat. The American troops were disheartened, and the militia were demoralized, many companies, and even whole regiments, returning home. It was want of confidence in his troops that made Washington recommend to Congress that the city should be abandoned; and he was authorized to make that move. General Greene and other general officers recommended the burning of the city on its evacuation, but Congress ordered that it should not be dam- aged, as it would doubtless be retaken from the enemy after a time. Public property was hastily removed to Harlem Heights, and the removal was nearly completed when, on November 14th, the British fleet began to circle the island, with frigates and transports concentrating off Kips or Turtle Bay, on East River, and near Bloomingdale on North River. The British encamped at Astoria, with detachments also on Montressor (now Randall's) and Buchan- an's (now Ward's) Islands, made a landing near Kip's house (now the foot of Thirty-fourth Street), the way having been cleared by broadsides from the frigates, which falling into the low intrenchments held by the five Connecticut militia regiments, under Colonel Douglas, they stayed not on the order of their going but were on a beeline for Harlem, when Washington, meeting them at the place where the new public library now stands in Bryant Park, tried in vain to rally them, but they went on, and Washington nearly fell into the hands of the British. General Putnam, who had charge of the troops in the lower end of the island, had rallied them into marching order, and with young Aaron Burr, one of his aides, as guide, went through the woods to about Forty-second Street and East River, and thence to the Bloomingdale road at Seventieth Street, and thence to Harlem Heights (extending from St. Nich- olas Avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Street northwesterly to the Hudson River), while the British later occupied Bloomingdale Heights, a parallel line of bluffs extending from St. Nicholas Avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street and northwesterly to the Hudson River at One Hun- dred and Twenty-ninth Streets.
On the morning of September 16th a scouting party of Knowlton's Rangers encountered British pickets near Hogeland's house (One Hundred and Twelfth Street, near the Hudson), and had a smart skirmish with a de- tachment of the British Light Infantry. Presently they were followed by two battalions of that corps and the Forty-second Highlanders, and retreated slowly and in order, stopping whenever a stone fence gave opportunity to take shots at the enemy. When they neared the American lines, Washington sent reinforcements under Lieutenant Colonel Crary and Major Leitch, until finally, with British reinforcements, a thousand or more were engaged on each side.
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It was a short and vigorous engagement. The British were driven back to their lines and Washington then withdrew his force. The British loss was eight officers and fourteen men killed, and about seventy wounded, while the American loss was twenty-five killed, including Colonel Knowlton, Major Leitch and two other officers, and fifty-five wounded.
Washington's headquarters were located at the Roger Morris house ( after- ward Madame Jumel's ), which still stands, and for a month he kept his men busy erecting defenses extending from the Hudson to the Harlem, between One Hundred and Forty-fifth and One Hundred and Sixtieth Streets, and especially in strengthening the fortification of the ground overlooking the Hudson, between the present One Hundred and Eighty-first and One Hundred and Eighty-second Streets, being the highest point on Manhattan Island. Eastward the defenses extended to signal stations at Throgg's Neck. General Howe had so far attempted no concerted demonstration against the American defenses on the Heights, but prepared his plans to cut off Washington's com- munications and perhaps to capture his entire force. A large part of his army was taken up the Sound on flotillas, and finding Throgg's Neck an impractica- ble landing, moved up to Pell's Point, where debarkation was made on Octo- ber 18th. Howe's movements had made his plans obvious to Washington, who determined to abandon his position on Harlem Heights, and march north parallel to the British lines, but on the opposite side of the Bronx River. General Glover, with 750 men, was sent to delay Howe's march between Pell's Point and New Rochelle, and by taking advantage of the numerous stone fences as convenient barricades they were enabled to retard the British march for several hours. Washington took up a position at White Plains, blocking the roads leading to the Hudson and to New England. At this point the two armies, each of about thirteen thousand men, came face to face, on October 28, 1776. Howe, seeing Washington's strong position, avoided an attack on the front of the American army, but sent four thousand men, in two columns, under Generals Clinton and De Heister, to gain Chatterton Hill, a rocky height west of the Bronx River, near White Plains village. To prevent this, General McDougall, with six hundred Continentals, eight hundred militia and two guns, under command of Captain Alexander Hamilton, made a rapid march, gained the hill and held it firmly against the enemy and thirty pieces of artillery, until Rahl's Hessians, who had forded the Bronx lower down, reinforced the Brit- ish, making a combined attack which rendered McDougall's position no longer tenable, so he fell back in good order upon White Plains, taking with him his artillery and his wounded. The victory in this battle of White Plains (or Chatterton Hill) was undecisive. The Americans, whose losses amounted to about 140 killed and wounded, had been compelled to abandon the hill, but the British loss aggregated 229. Meanwhile Washington had thrown up hasty
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CAPTURE OF FORT WASHINGTON
intrenchments, and Howe postponed further attack. Lord Percy, with rein- forcements, came up on the 30th, and the British would probably have attacked the next day, but a violent storm came up, and on the evening of the 31st Washington took advantage of it to retire to an unassailable position at North Castle, about five miles northwest of White Plains.
General Howe, having failed in his flank movement against the main body of Washington's army, turned his attention to Fort Washington, which was being held by Colonel Magaw, with three thousand men. His plans were aided by the treason of William Demont, Magaw's post adjutant, who deserted, November 2d, carrying with him the plans of Fort Wash- ington, by means of which the designs of the invaders were made more precise. General Greene, when he left Fort Washington for Fort Lee, on the opposite side of the Hudson, had full confidence in the ability of its defenders to hold it. Howe invested the fort, on November 15th, and com- manded the garrison to surrender on pain of being put to the sword. Magaw replied that he would hold the fort to the last extremity. The next day the British attacked in four divisions, led, respectively, by General Knyphausen and General Matthews (supported by Lord Cornwallis), Lieu- tenant Colonel Sterling and Lord Percy. Soon after daybreak, the cannon- ading began, and it continued with great fierceness on both sides until noon. Knyphausen's Hessians then advanced in two columns, of which one, under General Rahl, took a circuitous route to the summit and penetrated Magaw's advanced works. The other column took a straight course up the steep hill, facing a disastrous and galling fire from Colonel Rawling's sharp- shooters. The Second Division, under Matthews, making good their landing, forced the opposing Americans from their sheltered positions behind trees and rocks up a steep and stony hill; the Third Division, under Sterling, landed under a heavy fire, and succeeded in carrying the first redoubt, after a stubborn fight. Percy's Division, with equal intrepidity, carried other advanced works, and at last, on receiving a second summons from Howe, Magaw, seeing further effort to be useless, surrendered the fort, forty-three pieces of artillery and 2634 men, who became prisoners of war. The capture of Fort Washington, and of Fort Lee, across the Hudson, which General Greene evacuated five days later, caused great consterna- tion throughout the United States. The Americans had lost 150 killed and wounded, and the British, five hundred. Fort Washington was renamed Fort Knyphausen, in honor of the Hessian general who led in its capture.
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CHAPTER TWENTY - SEVEN
NEW YORK UNDER BRITISH MILITARY RULE REDCOATS, HESSIANS AND LOYALISTS THEIR INTERESTS AND THEIR DIVERSIONS
New York was now a loyal and a Tory city. Its joy at becoming such, and the happenings thereafter, as seen through Tory spectacles, have been narrated by Ewald Gustav Schaukirk, pastor of the Moravian congre- gation at New York, born at Stettin, Prussia, emigrated to New York in 1774, and appointed to his pastorate in 1775. On September 15, 1776, he tells us that "the king's flag was put up again in the fort and the Rebels' taken down," and rejoices at the delivery of the city from the "usurpers" who had "oppressed it so long." The next day, the first of the English troops came to town, and with them Governor Tryon and other British officials.
The rejoicing was unanimous. The only people who were openly known as adherents of the American cause were in the numerous prisons, and the Whigs, who were with Washington's ragged army in the Jerseys, or who had gone away to more friendly surroundings, were not on hand to disturb the festivities. Such of these as had left property behind were remembered to the extent that their houses were marked as forfeited. There were many who were strangers in town, who took part in the cere- monies. They were Tories from Westchester, Long Island, and other parts of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, who felt safer in New York, under Loyalist auspices than they did among their "rebel" neigh- bors.
Ten days after the king's troops entered the city occurred a disastrous fire, which, beginning in Whitehall Street, spread north and west, destroy- ing part of Broad, Stone and Beaver Streets, then up Broadway, and the streets extending west of Broadway, to the Hudson River. Trinity Church, in spite of heroic efforts to save it, was destroyed, as was also the old Lutheran Church, and St. Paul's Church was only saved by almost superhuman efforts. The progress of the flames was checked by the King's College grounds, at Mortkile (now Barclay) Street. In the path of the flames were many wooden buildings, and each of these added to the more rapid spread of the flames. In 1761 there had been an ordinance passed to the effect that no wooden buildings should be erected after 1766, but the time was afterward extended to 1774. There was no effective way of fight- ing the fire. The fire engines were out of order, and most of the members of the volunteer fire company were with the American Army, either in
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EXECUTION OF NATHAN HALE
the North or in the Jerseys. So the fire practically burned its course. Of course, the British suspected that the fire was the work of "rebels," and made several arrests, but all those arrested were acquitted, for the reason that nothing could be proved against them. In all, about 500 houses were destroyed.
The day after the fire a scene was enacted, which created no excite- ment in the town, at the time, but which placed an otherwise obscure name among the immortals. It was the execution of a rebel spy, who, while Washington was in Harlem, had been sent to gather needed information in regard to the British forces in Long Island. His name was Nathan Hale, born in Coventry, Conn., in 1756. He was an honor graduate of Yale, in the Class of 1773, taught school at East Haddam for a term, October, 1773, to March, 1774, and after that at New London, until July I, 1775, when he became first lieutenant in Charles Webb's Connecticut regiment, served in recruiting duty in New London, and afterward at the siege of Boston. He was commissioned a captain in the Continental Army, and saw active service in the battle of Long Island. When detailed on his final duty, he was a member of Knowlton Rangers. When given the com- mission to visit the royal camp, for which he had volunteered, he disguised as a Dutch schoolmaster and entered the British lines, secured and noted the desired information, and was about to return, on September 21st, when he was recognized and captured. The next morning he was hanged as a spy, after a night in which he had been deprived, by the brutal pro- vost marshal, Cunningham, of all comforts, even of a Bible, or clergyman, and met his fate with soldierly courage and the brave statement: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." A magnificent monument to this brave young patriot stands in City Hall Park, the work of the sculptor MacMonnies.
The patriots, who were held as military prisoners, were neglected and mis- treated in the most shameful way. There were nearly five thousand of these prisoners confined in the prison ship Jersey, the Bridewell on the Common, and in jails improvised from the Brick, Middle Dutch, North Dutch and French churches, the sugar houses, King's College, and the "New Gaol," or "Provost," which was, according to Pintard, "destined for the more noto- rious rebels, civil, naval and military." Among its inmates were Colonels Magaw,' Rawlins, Allen, Ramsay, Miles and Atlee; Majors Bird, West, Williams and DeCourcey; Captains Wilson, Tudor, Edwards, Forrest, Lenox, Davenport, Herbert, Edwards and others. Cunningham, the pro- vost marshal, his deputy, O'Keefe, and the commissioners, Loring, Sproat and others in authority, treated the American soldiers with inhuman cruelty. The prisoners were compelled to sleep on hard oak planks, and
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