USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, Vol. II > Part 4
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Hitherto, the governor had remained firm at his post ; but, finding his position daily growing more perilous, despite the pledges of the corporation for his personal safety, he determined to abandon the city, and took refuge on board the Asia ; from which he kept up a con- stant communication with his friends on shore, and insti- gated violent attacks on the Sons of Liberty through Rivington's Gazette,* the organ of the royalist party. Finding this journal becoming somewhat too scurrilous in its abuse, the Liberty Boys, after vainly remonstrating with the printer, directed Captain Sears to attend to the matter. Mustering a party of light-horse from Connec- ticut, he entered the city at noon on the 4th of Decem- ber, and, proceeding to the printing-office, forced open the doors, demolished the press, distributed the types through the windows, and effectually stopped the paper.
* This journal, which was first issued by James Rivington on the 22d of April, 1773, on a large medium sheet, folio, from the beginning warmly supported the cause of the British government, and received the support of the royalists through- out the country. After the destruction of his office, Rivington went to England, where he procured a new press, and obtained the appointment of king's printer for New York. After the conquest of the city by the British, he returned, and, on the 4th of October, 1777, issued his paper anew, and continued it under the title of the Royal Gazette until the close of the war, when he discarded the royal arms from the title, which henceforth appeared as Rivington's New York Gazette and Universal Advertiser. The paper, however, was regarded with coldness; and, dis- couraged by the want of popular faith in his conversion, in 1783, he discontinue ! its publication, and devoted himself exclusively to the sale of books and stationery. He also published several volumes, among which were Cook's Voyages. Ile wae regarded by his contemporaries, as a man of considerable ability.
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Early in the spring of 1776, General Lee,* who had commanded the American forces at New York since the departure of Wooster, was ordered to Charleston, and General Putnam was left in sole command of the city. Putnam fixed his head-quarters at No 1 Broadway, in a
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Washington's Head-quarters in Pearl street.
* Lee came to New York in January, 1776, with a force of twelve hundred men, and took up his head-quarters at the Kennedy House, the same afterwards occu- pied by Putnam. Previously to the departure of Washington for Philadelphia, he lodged while in the city at No. 181 Pearl street; upon his return, he removed to the Kennedy House, the favorite resort of the officers of the army.
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house built by Captain Kennedy of the British army. On the 14th of April, Washington arrived, having succeeded in expelling the British troops from Boston, and took up his quarters at Richmond Hill, on the corner of Varick and Charlton streets. The idea of independence was fast gaining ground, and those who would have shuddered at the thought a few months before, were now discussing the expediency of a total separation from the mother country. At this juncture, " Common Sense " was pub- lished in Philadelphia by Thomas Paine, and electrified the whole nation with the spirit of independence and liberty. This eloquent production severed the last link that bound the colonies to the mother-country ; it boldly gave speech to the arguments which had long been trembling on the lips of many, but which none before had found courage to utter, and, accepting its con- clusions, several of the colonies instructed their delegates in the Continental Congress to elose their eyes to the ignis fatuus of loyalty, and fearlessly to throw off their allegiance to the crown. On the 7th of June, 1776, the subject was introduced into Congress by Richard Henry Lee, who offered a resolution declaring " that the " United Colonies are, and ought to be, free and inde- "pendent States, that they are absolved from all alle- "gianee to the British crown, and that their political "connection with Great Britain is and ought to be "totally dissolved." A spirited debate followed these resolutions. The delegates of several of the colonies New York among the rest, had received no instructions how to act in this emergency, and they drew back shrink- ingly from the perilous step which would condemn them,
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if unsuccessful, to a traitor's doom. Seven of the thirteen colonies voted in its favor. Armed with this small majority, Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Sherman and Robert R. Livingston were appointed to draft a Declar- ation of Independence ; which, on the 4th of July, was adopted by Congress, and the British colonies trans- formed into the United States of America.
On the 10th of July, the news reached New York, where it was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Orders were immediately issued for the several brigades then in the city to meet on the Commons at six in the
evening to hear the document publicly read. At the hour appointed, the soldiers ranged themselves in a hol- low square, within which was Washington on horseback with his aids, on the site of the present Park Fountain, to listen to the address which, for the first time, pro- claimed the United States a free and independent nation. The reading ended, the immense auditory burst into shouts of applause. The people, impelled by the new- born spirit of independence, rushed in a body to the City Hall, and, tearing the picture of George III. from its frame, rent it in pieces and trampled it under foot. Proceeding thence to the Bowling Green, they hurled from its pedestal the statue of the royal tyrant which they had set up in a fit of ill-judged enthusiasm a few years before, and dragged it in triumph through the streets of the city. The statue of Pitt escaped desecra- tion upon this occasion ; yet the people had lost much of their reverence for their former idol, and the statue had already received considerable mutilation from their hands.
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Everything now indicated that the city of New York had been chosen by the enemy as the next point of attack. On the 25th of June, General Howe had arrived at Sandy Hook from Halifax, and had landed on the 21st of July at Staten Island, where he found many partisans of the royal cause. Here he was joined a few days after by his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, from England, together with the forces of Clinton from the South, and thus placed in command of an army of twenty-four thousand of the best disciplined troops of England, besides the large reinforcements of Tories which flocked to his standard, and rendered him invaluable aid by their knowledge of the country. To oppose this formidable array, Washington had collected a force of twenty thousand raw militia-the best at his command- nearly one half of whom were invalids or detailed for other duty, while many more were destitute of arms and ammunition.
The city, meanwhile, had been strongly fortified. On the southernmost point of the island was the Grand Battery, mounting twenty-three guns, with Fort George Battery, of two guns, immediately above it, in close proximity to the Bowling Green. The North River shore was defended by MeDougall's Battery, of four guns, on a hill a little to the west of Trinity Church ; the Grenadiers' or Circular Battery, of five guns, some dis- tance above, in the neighborhood of the brewhouse ; and the Jersey Battery, of five guns, to the left of the latter. On the East River shore were Coenties' Battery, of five guns, on Ten Eyck's wharf ; Waterbury's Battery, of seven guns, at the shipyards ; Badlam's Battery, of
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eight guns, on Rutger's Hill, in the vicinity of the Jew's burial-ground in Chatham street ; and not far from that, Thompson's Battery, of nine guns, at Hoorne's Hook, and the Independent Battery on Bayard's Mount, now christened Bunker Hill, on the corner of Grand and Centre streets. Breastworks were also erected at Peck, Beekman, Burling, Coenties and Old slips ; * at the Coffee-House, and the Exchange ; and in Broad and other streets of the city, and a line of circumvallation was stretched across the island from river to river. Fortifications were erected on Governor's Island, Paulus Hook, Brooklyn Heights, and Red Hook ; a line of works were thrown up on Long Island from Fort Greene at the Wallabout to Gowanus Creek, within which nine thousand men were encamped and the passages to the city, both by the North and East Rivers, were obstructed by chains and sunken vessels. The latter fortifications were erected under the superintend- ence of General Greene, who was intrusted with the command of the American forces on Long Island. General Sullivan was deputed as the assistant of Greene ;
* These slips were simply openings between two wharves, into which the wood- boats entered at high water and grounded there, that the cartmen might enter at low tide to unload them. There were at this time six slips on the East River shore-Whitehall Slip, so called from the large white house, built by Stuyvesant adjoining the slip; Coenties' (Coen and Antey's) so called from Conrad Teu Eyck and Jane, his wife, who lived in the house on Little Dock, now Pearl street. adjoining the slip; Old Slip, the first in the city ; Burling Slip, which derived its name from Mr. Burling, a merchant on the corner of the Sit's Vly and Golden Hill ; Beekman's Slip, so called from Mr. Beekman who resided on the southwest corner of Pearl street and che slip, and Peek Slip, which received its name from Mr. Peck, at that time the owner of the lands in its vicinity. The only slip on the North River was at the foot of Oswego, now Liberty street.
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General Nathaniel Woodhull was directed to forage for the troops on Long Island, and Washington retained command of the forces in the city.
Soon after the arrival of the British fleet at Staten Island, Admiral Howe, who came commissioned by the British government to treat for peace with the rebels, as they were contemptuously termed, attempted to open negotiations with the American forces, and, to this end, addressed a letter to " George Washington, Esq.," which Washington returned without reply. He then dispatched another, addressed to "George Washington, etc. etc.," which was also returned ; upon which the general, resolved never to acknowledge the military rank of a traitor, abandoned all hopes of an accommo- dation with the rebels, and turned his thoughts to a warlike policy.
At this critical juncture, General Greene fell danger- ously ill of a fever, and Washington, anticipating that New York and Long Island would be attacked simulta- neously, dispatched General Putnam to take command at the latter, with strict injunctions to guard the passes to the American camp, and by all means to hinder the advance of the enemy. For this, the position of the ground was well chosen. A range of thickly wooded hills, extending from the Narrows to Jamaica, and only accessible by three easily-guarded passes-the first, wind- ing round the western base of the Narrows ; the second, crossing the range by the village of Flatbush ; and the third, passing to the right through Flatlands and inter- secling the road which led from Bedford to Jamaica- separated the American lines from the expected landing-
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place of the enemy at Gravesend. Near these passes, breastworks had been erected and three or four regi- ments stationed, while patrols were set to reconnoitre the roads and to give the earliest intelligence of the advance of the enemy. Trusting to the watchfulness of Lord Stirling and General Sullivan, Putnam, who knew nothing of the topography of the country, unwisely removed these patrols from their posts, and thus insured the defeat of the American army.
Contrary to the expectations of Washington, Howe determined to reach New York through Long Island, and on the 22d of August, passed over with four thou- sand men from Staten Island to Gravesend, where he landed without opposition. Other regiments, commanded by Earls Cornwallis and Percy, Sir William Erskine, Count Donop, and Generals Grant, De Heister, and Knyphausen soon followed, increasing the number to fifteen thousand men, who stretched along the eastern base of the hills, where they lay encamped for several days, reconnoitering the ground and skirmishing with straggling scouting parties from the American lines.
Clinton was not long in discovering the unguarded state of the passes through the hills. He at once com- municated the intelligence to Howe, a consultation was held by the generals, and a skillful ruse concerted for the plan of attack. On the evening of the 26th, De Heister, with the Hessians under his command, advanced along the road which led through the hills by the way of Flatbush, while General Grant, with the left division of the army, took the lower road along the shore ; a manoeu- vre designed to divert the attention of Putnam, and thus
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enable Clinton with the main body of the army to skirt the hills by an easterly route, gain possession of the pass in the heights near Bedford, and thence turn the left of the American lines. The artifice was successful; Putnam, apprised by advance parties of the advance of Grant and De Heister, dispatched a strong detachment under Lord Stirling to guard the lower road, and another under Sullivan to stop the progress of De Heister, and it was not until the army under Clinton had gained the coveted position and opened a heavy fire upon Sullivan's rear, that the ruse was detected by the cheated general. Find- ing themselves thus completely hemmed in, the troops under Sullivan, after vainly attempting to break through the lines of the enemy, scattered in confusion and took refuge among the hills, where the greater portion with their commander were soon discovered and taken prisoners.
The conflict at the river pass was far more sanguinary. Posted with his troops on the slope of the hills north from Greenwood Cemetery, Lord Stirling maintained his ground against Grant, until the approach of Cornwallis with a large reinforcement warned him that further resistance would be in vain. Closely pressed by the enemy in front, and having in his rear the deep marsh and creek at Gowanus, eighty feet in width, two courses alone remained to him ; either to surrender at once to the enemy, or to attempt to escape across the creek, spanned only by the remuant of a half-burnt mill-dam, He gallantly chose the latter ; and, selecting four hun- dred men from the Maryland brigade to cover their flight, he ordered the remainder of his troops to retreat,
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then charged with fixed bayonets with this forlorn hope upon the brigade commanded by Cornwallis. Four times the desperate charge was repeated ; on the fifth, the enemy was on the point of yielding, when De Heister came up from the rout of Sullivan, and commenced an assault on the rear. This new onslaught determined the fortunes of the day. Stirling and a portion of the detachment surrendered themselves prisoners of war ; while the remainder resolutely cut their way through the ranks of the enemy, only to perish in the deep morass which ingulfed the most of their number. The loss of the Americans in this battle amounted to nearly twelve hundred men, a thousand of whom, including Lord Stirling and General Sullivan, remained prisoners in the hands of the enemy. On the day after the battle, General Woodhull was also captured while scouting at the southwest part of the island, and so severely hurt that he died of his wounds a short time after, About four hundred of the British were killed, wounded and taken prisoners.
Encouraged by this success, the victorious troops advanced in front of the American lines, which had been reinforced during the battle by Washington in person with a large body of troops from the city, and made preparations for investing them in form. In this emer- gency, Washington summoned a council of his officers, and, by their advice, determined to evacuate the island. In order to conceal this resolution from the British, it was announced that boats were wanted to transport a detachment of the American troops to Hellgate in order to attack the enemy in the rear. At eight in the even-
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ing of the 29th, the embarkation commenced under cover of a heavy fog and a fine, drizzling rain. To deceive the British, companies of troops marched and countermarched from the ferry to the lines while their comrades were embarking. At eleven o'clock, the wind, which had been unfavorable, suddenly changed, and the boats crossed rapidly, almost under the bows of the British fleet which was lying in the Narrows, oblivious of the easy escape of its prey. Nor was this the only danger to which the Americans were exposed ; a Tory who lived in close proximity to the ferry, dispatched a negro servant with the intelligence to Clinton ; but the slave was apprehended by a Hessian guard, who, not understanding his language, detained him until morning, then conducted him to headquarters, too late for his mes- sage. Washington, who for two days had scarcely quit- ted his saddle, superintended the retreat of his troops with intense anxiety, each moment expecting to see them discovered by the enemy. But the friendly fog screened them effectually, the boats rapidly crossed and recrossed in safety, and, by sunrise the next morning, the whole army of nine thousand men, with their prisoners, bag- gage, and stores, together with most of the wounded, were safely landed on the opposite shore. The fog continued till a late hour the next morning, when the British scouts, suspecting that all was not right from the dead silence which reigned in the camp, drew nearer and nearer the American line." By and by, one, more daring than the rest, crept cautiously within
* See Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents, pp. 130-131.
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the works, and finding them abandoned, gave the alarm, upon which the British army rushed in and hastened to the ferry, just in time to witness the escape of their foes.
Thinking this a favorable moment for winning back the colonies to their allegiance, Howe opened a negotia- tion with the Continental Congress, promising pardon to all who would lay down their arms, together with a repeal of the obnoxious laws in which the struggle had originated. But this concession came too late ; the people had grown into a spirit of self-government, and, in the conference which was subsequently held on Staten Island, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Francis Rutledge, the commissioners appointed by Congress for the negotiation, refused to treat for peace on any other terms than the full and entire acknowledgment of the independence of the colonies. This, of course, was inadmissible. Seeing that no terms could be made with Congress, Howe issued a proclamation repeating the offer to the people, then proceeded at once to invest the city.
Notwithstanding the fortifications which had been erected, it was evident to all that the city could not maintain a siege against the British on the neighboring islands and the ships of war which held the harbor in blockade, and on the 12th of September, Washington called a council of war, and reluctantly determined to abandon it to its fate. The military stores were at once ordered to be removed across the Harlem River, a con- siderable force was stationed at Kingsbridge, Putnam was left with a force of four thousand men in the city,
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and Washington withdrew with the main body of the army to Harlem Heights .*
What was next to be done ? was a question which Washington put to himself, but could gain no reply. The British had complete possession of both rivers ; they could ascend when they pleased, and, landing above him, hem him in and insure the destruction of his army, for resistance would be in vain with such unequal forces ; could attack the city at once, or could cross over from Long Island and attack him when they thought proper. That he would eventually be forced to evacuate the island, he foresaw clearly-to evacuate it too soon would be to yield an important advantage to the enemy ; to linger too long would be to surrender his army. His own conduct must depend on the movements of Howe, yet with all his endeavors he had failed to procure the slightest clue to these movements. In this emergency, it was resolved, in a council of war, to send a trusty man to penetrate the enemy's ranks in disguise and obtain the desired information, and Nathan Hale, a young officer in the regiment of Knowlton, volunteered to undertake the dangerous mission. He passed over to Long Island, penetrated the enemy's lines, made drawings of his works, and gained full intelligence of the projected movements of the army. On his return he was recog- nized as belonging to the American army, and at once
* After his retreat from the city, Washington first fixed his quarters at the house of Robert Murray on Murray Hill, whence he issued his instructions to Nathan Hale, and where he was on the day preceding the landing of Howe. On the 15th, he was at Mott's Tavern, at the corner of One Hundred and Forty-third street and Eighth Avenue, He subsequently resided at the house of Col. Roger Morris, on the shore of the Harlem River.
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arrested and conveyed to the Beekman House, on the corner of Fifty-first street and First avenue, now the head-quarters of General Howe, who, since his departure, had taken possession of the island. Here he was tried, convicted as a spy, and sentenced to be hung the next morning at day-break. He was at once delivered over to the notorious Cunningham, the Provost-Marshal of the Revolution, who confined him for the night in the green-house of the garden, refusing his prayer for a light and writing materials that he might write for the last time to his parents and friends. Through the influ- ence of the lieutenant, these were afterwards furnished him ; but, in the morning, Cunningham savagely tore the letters in pieces before his eyes, declaring that the rebels should never know that they could die with so much firmness ; and ordered the prisoner to immediate execu- tion, demanding, as a last refinement of cruelty, that he should make a dying speech and confession. "I only "regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," was the calm reply of the doomed patriot. These were his last words ; the next moment he was suspended on an apple-tree in the orchard, whence his bones were thrust into a nameless grave. The tragedy cast a deep gloom over the army, in which Hale was universally beloved ; while the heartlessness with which the affair was conducted must ever remain a stigma on the name of the British general.
Soon after the departure of Hale on his perilous mis- sion, the British ships advanced up the rivers, and under cover of their fire, which swept across the island, Howe landed at Kip's Bay at the foot of Thirty-sixth street.
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The guard stationed there to prevent his landing fled without striking a blow, followed by the two Connecticut brigades under the command of Generals Parsons and Fellows, which had been sent to their support. On hearing the firing, Washington immediately rode to the scene of action, which he reached just in time to catch a glimpse of the vanishing brigades. "Are these the men " with whom I am to defend America !" exclaimed he, indignantly dashing his hat upon the ground, as he saw himself thus deserted by his recreant soldiers. His aids hurried him from his perilous position, and, seeing that the island was irretrievably lost, he retired with his forces to Kingsbridge, sending orders to Putnam to evac- uate the city. In the meantime, Howe advanced to the centre of the island, and, encamping on Incleuberg Hill, made preparations to stretch a cordon across the island and thus insure the capture of the troops still in the city. The retreat of Silliman's brigade," which, by some
* The following affidavit, copied from the original in the possession of Abraham Tomlinson, Esq., Poughkeepsie, N. Y., seems to indicate that Putnam was separated from and considerably in the rear of the retreating brigade :
"Hezekiah Ripley of said Fairfield doth certify that on or about the 15th day of "September, 1776, I was the officiating chaplain of the brigade, then commanded by "Genl. Gold S. Silliman. From mismanagement of the commanding officer of that " Brigade, was unfortunately left in the city of New York, and, at the time before "mentioned, while the Brigade was in front and myself considerably in the rear, I " was met by Genl Putnam, who then informed mne of the landing of the enemy "above us, and that I must make my escape on the west side of the Island, where- "upon, I, on foot, erossed the lots to the west side of the Island unmolested, " excepting by the fire of the ships of war, at the time lying on the North River. " How the Brigade escaped, I was not an eye witness.
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