USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, Vol. II > Part 5
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" HEZEKIAH RIPLEY,
" Afterwards one of the Trustees of Yale College
" Sept. 23, 1776."
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unaccountable error, remained too long in the city, was, indeed, effected almost by a miracle. Hastily rallying at Bunker Hill, under the supposition that all the avenues were in the possession of the enemy, they had just deter- mined to make a bold stand and sell their lives as dearly as they could, when Colonel Burr, at this time one of the aids of Putnam, came up to extricate them from the diffi- culty by his superior knowledge of the country. Guiding them by a cross-road from Bunker Hill to a new road, recently cut through the hills on the line of Broadway, he led them along the edge of a swamp to the woods which surrounded the house of Robert Murray, at Incleuberg Hill, and, passing thence up the Greenwich Road, reached the Apthorpe House on the road to Bloomingdale, where Washington was impatiently await- ing their arrival. In the meantime, Howe, Clinton, Tryon . and a few others had halted for refreshment at the Mur- ray House, where, beguiled by the smiles and the choice wines of the Quaker hostess, who had received a hint from Washington to intercept and detain them as long as possible, they lingered in forgetfulness of the enemy they now deemed a certain prey, until a soldier rushed in, panting for breath, to tell them that the brigade had passed almost within their grasp, and was now advane- ing up the Bloomingdale road. To mount and pursue them was the work of an instant. Fifteen minutes after Washington had quitted the Apthorpe House, it was filled with British troops ; but the few minutes' delay had saved the retreating soldiers. At ten minutes after three, the colors were struck in New York, and General Robertson with his forces took possession of the city.
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The two armies, separated by Harlem Plains, encamped for the night; the one on the heights between Manhattanville and Kingsbridge, the other in a line between Hoorne's Hook and Bloomingdale. Early the next morning, two parties, under the command of Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch, were detached by Washing- ton with orders to gain the rear of a body of British troops stationed on Vandewater's Heights (on the site of the present Bloomingdale Asylum) while dispositions were made to attack them in front ; but, by some mis- take, a fire was opened upon them before the rear was gained, and, warned of their danger, they made good their retreat to the main body of the army.
By way of retaliation, Howe ordered a detachment to push forward through McGowan's Pass and attack the American lines. They were met by Colonel Knowlton at the foot of a rocky gorge between the Eighth and Ninth Avenues, near the line of One Hundred and Twenty-fourth street, who drove them into a cleared field about two hundred rods distant, where they took shelter behind a fence and continued the contest. It was not long before they were forced from this position ; and, retreating to a buekwheat field four hundred yards distant, they made a stand on the summit of a high hill, where, joined by a reinforcement of Hessians, they fought for two hours with great spirit, but were finally forced to retreat for the third time to another hill near the British lines .* The main body now prepared to
* Vide Dunlap's Hist. of New York, vol ii., pp. 77, 78, Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, vol. ii., pp. 817-819, and Dawson's Battles of the United States by Sea and Land, pp. 160-162.
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advance to their aid, when Washington, not wishing to risk a general engagement, prudently retreated, with the loss of sixteen of his men, among whom was the gallant Colonel Knowlton. Major Leitch was also so severely hurt that he died of his wounds a few weeks after. The loss of the British, as acknowledged in the official report, was fourteen killed and seventy-eight wounded. Clouded as it was by the loss of two valuable officers, the success of this skirmish greatly inspired the Americans, who had been much depressed by their last defeat. A few days after, Major Thomas Henly fell in an unsuccess- ful attack upon the British forces under the command of General Heath, which were stationed at Montresor's, now Randall's, Island.
For several weeks, Washington retained his position in the high grounds above Manhattanville, residing mean- while at the house of Col. Roger Morris, between 160th and 161st streets, at Morrisania. Not caring to risk a direct attack, Howe withdrew the greater part of his forces from the island and landed them at Throg's Point in Westchester County, with a view to cutting off all com- munication from the eastern States ; while, at the same time, he dispatched three frigates up the Hudson River to intercept all supplies from the southern and western shores. Forced by this movement to evacuate the island, Washington detached a garrison of three thousand men for the defence of Fort Washington, and proceeded with the remainder of his forces to White Plains, where, on the 28th of October, a spirited action took place in which he lost nearly four hundred of his men ; then, fearing a speedy repetition of the attack, he withdrew to the almost
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impregnable heights of North Castle. No longer daring to pursue the main body of the army, Howe now retraced his steps across Kingsbridge, and proceeded to invest the garrison at Fort Washington.
This fort, which was but the centre of the fortifica- tions on this part of the island, stood on the shores of the North River about two and a half miles below Kingsbridge. The position was a strong one; the hill was steep and difficult of access on all sides but the south, which was commanded by the fort; and sur- rounded on all sides by redoubts and batteries. Three lines of intrenchments, a mile in length, extended across the island from the Harlem to the North River ; the first in the vicinity of One Hundred and Fifty-first street ; the second about half a mile further north ; and the third westward from Colonel Morris' house along the line of One Hundred and Seventieth street ; but the works were unfinished and defended only by a few old pieces of artillery ; while, to maintain them properly, an army would have been needed instead of the handful of men detailed for their defence. Colonel Magaw, who was in command at the station, remained in the fort ; Colonel Rawlins, with his regiment of riflemen, occupied a redoubt to the north and also a small breastwork on the southern- most part of the island, overlooking Spuyten Duyvel Creek ; Colonel Baxter, with the militia under his com- mand, was posted along the heights of the Harlem River opposite Fort Washington ; Colonel Cadwalader, with a force of eight hundred men, was stationed at the lower lines which crossed the island, and the rest of the troops were distributed among the other redoubts and breast-
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works at Manhattanville and along the Kingsbridge Road.
On the 15th of November, a summons to surrender - was sent to the garrison by Adjutant-General Patterson of the British army, which was peremptorily refused by Magaw. Early on the following morning, a heavy can- nonade was opened upon the positions of Colonels Rawlins and Cadwalader, and about ten o'clock, a large body of the enemy, headed by Lord Percy and preceded by their field-pieces, appeared on Harlem Plains and advanced to attack Cadwalader, who held them in check for more than an hour and a half, while Washington, with Putnam, Greene and Mercer, crossed the river from Fort Lee, and after examining the ground, returned again to his intrenchments.
At noon, the riflemen of Colonel Rawlins were attacked by the Hessians under Knyphausen, and, after defending themselves with great bravery until their rifles, through frequent charging, became useless in their hands, were forced to retreat to the fort, whither Knyphausen pursued them, and intrenching himself behind a large storchouse in the vicinity, summoned Magaw again to surrender. Finding his position hopeless beyond redemp- tion, the commander gave a reluctant assent, and sur- rendered himself and the garrison, twenty-seven hun- dred in number, as prisoners of war.
Lord Percy, in the meantime, had been reinforced by a detachment under the command of Colonel Stirling, which had descended the Harlem River in bateaux, and landed in the rear of Cadwalader. After defeating the parties under Captains Lenox, Edwards and Tudor, which
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had been detailed to oppose their landing, the new . troops advanced to the heights near Morris' house, and, seconding the efforts of Percy, forced Cadwalader to retreat to Fort Washington, where he was at once made prisoner by the British, now in possession of the fort. A few minutes after, the troops of Colonel Baxter, who had been driven from their ground with the loss of their leader by General Mathew and Lord Cornwallis, came in, and were also made prisoners of war ; and at half-past one the British flag waved triumphantly over the fort in token of the undisputed sovereignty of the island. About fifty of the Americans, among whom were Colonels Baxter and Miller, and Lieutenants Harrison and Tannihill, were killed in this engagement ; one hundred were wounded, and nearly three thousand made prisoners of war. The loss of Fort Washington was soon followed by that of Fort Lee; Washington retreated with his troops through the Jerseys, and the struggle for liberty in New York was over.
CHAPTER XVII.
1776 -- 1783.
New York during the Occupation of the Royalists-The British Prisons and Prison Ships of New York.
THE city now lay prostrate in the hands of its captors. Those of the Sons of Liberty who had escaped imprison- ment had fled to rejoin the Northern army, or the patriots who were struggling almost hopelessly in the Jerseys, and their place was filled by a host of Tories from the neighboring counties. The Provincial Con- gress, abandoning the city, held secret meetings, armed and in disguise, at various towns in the suburbs, con- stantly changing their place of rendezvous to avoid the vigilance of the Tory spies who infested the neighbor- hood. Westchester and Rockland-the so-called neu- tral ground-were filled with Cow Boys and Skinners; the former, the avowed friends of King George ; the latter, ready to attach themselves for the moment to the party which might offer the greatest hopes of plunder. To guard against the machinations of these, a Committee of Safety, with John Jay at the head, was appointed by the Provincial Congress, the adventures of which were
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fraught with incidents which shame the wildest tales of romance. Intrigue was thwarted by intrigue ; plot was met by counterplot. All trust in man was destroyed in the dark and terrible struggle ; the most intimate friends, the nearest relatives, were arrayed on opposite sides in the strife, and none dared be sure that the most trusted acquaintance, the kindest neighbor, might not be laying a snare to deliver him up to an ignominious death from the hands of his enemies. Each party endea- vored to elude the suspicions of the other, and to lure the unwary within the American lines or to decoy them within reach of the British at New York.
The city, meanwhile, became then and henceforth the headquarters of the British army in America, and the residence from time to time of its principal officers. General Howe took up his abode in the Kennedy House at the lower end of Broadway. General Knyphausen took possession of a large house in Wall street. The Hessians under his command were encamped at Corlaers Hook, whence a line of intrenchments was thrown up on the Bowery Lane to Bunker's Hill ; while the bar- racks, the hospital and the empty houses of the Whigs who had fled for safety were filled with the British sol- diers. The Beekman House in Hanover Square became the residence of the naval officers arriving at the station; there Admiral Digby afterwards dwelt, with the sailor prince William Henry-the future William IV .- under his charge.
About five thousand prisoners were now in the hands of the British, comprising those who had been captured at Long Island and Fort Washington, together with
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ยท many who had been brought in by privateers ; and as New York was henceforth the British prison-house, this number received constant accessions during the war. The privates were crowded into the public buildings ; the sailors were conveyed to the loathsome prison-ships which lay, first in the North River opposite the lower end of the island, and afterwards at the Wallabout ; and the officers were required to give their parole, then suf- fered to lodge in the town under the strict surveillance of the British guard. This permission was in many instances afterwards recalled, and the officers committed to the old Provost, the receptacle of the prisoners of superior rank. Among these officers were Colonels Magaw, Rawlins, Allen, Ramsey, Miles and Atlee ; Majors Bird, West, Williams and De Courcey ; and Captains Wilson, Tudor, Edwards, Forrest, Lenox, Davenport, Herbert and Edwards, with many others.
The city became emphatically a city of prisons. Every available building was transformed into a dungeon for the soldiers of the American army, who, under the super- vision of the infamous provost-marshal, Cunningham, with his deputy O'Keefe, and the commissaries Loring, Sproat and others, were treated with almost incredible barbarity. The pews of the North Dutch Church in Wil- liam street were torn out and used for fuel ; a floor was laid from one gallery to another, and eight hundred prisoners were incarcerated within its walls. Here they were allowed neither fuel nor bedding, their provisions were scanty and of the poorest quality, and many died from cold and starvation. "The allowance," says Adolph Myer, of Lasher's battalion, who had been taken prisoner
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at Montresor's Island, and afterwards imprisoned here, " was one loaf of the bread left on the evacuation "of New York (and which had been made for an "allowance of three days), one quart of peas, half a " pint of rice, and one and a half pounds of pork for " six days. Many prisoners died from want, and others " were reduced to such wretchedness as to attract "the compassion of common prostitutes, from whom "they received considerable assistance. No care was " taken of the sick, and if any died, they were thrown at " the door of the prison, and lay there till the next day, "when they were put on a cart and drawn out to the " intrenchments, beyond the Jews' burial-ground, where " they were interred by their fellow-prisoners, conducted "thither for that purpose. The dead were thrown into " a hole promiscuously, without the usual rites of sepul- " ture."
The Brick Church in Beekman street was at first used as a prison, then converted into a hospital for the sick among the prisoners. The Friends' Meeting-house in Pearl street and the Presbyterian Church in Wall street were also used as hospitals, and the French Church in Pine street was transformed into a depot for military stores.
The Middle Dutch Church, the present Post-Office, was also stripped of pulpit and pews, and made to furnish room for three thousand prisoners. " Here," says John Pintard, an eye-witness of the scene, "the "prisoners taken on Long Island and at Fort Washing- " ton-sick, wounded and well-were all indiscriminately "huddled together by hundreds and thousands ; large
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"numbers of whom died by disease ; and many were un- " doubtedly poisoned by their inhuman attendants for the "sake of their watches or silver buckles." The inmates were subsequently transferred to the other prisons, and the church was converted into a riding-school, to train dragoon horses. The glass was taken from the windows and the shutters left unhung, the floor was taken up and the ground covered with tan-bark ; and a pole was placed across the middle for the horses to leap over.
Just to the east of this, in Liberty street, stood the old Sugar-house, built in the days of Leisler ; a grey stone building, five stories in height, with thick walls, and small, deep windows, which now became one of the gloomiest of the improvised dungeons of the city. Each story was divided into two rooms, with ceilings so low and windows so small that the air could scarce find entrance under the most favorable conditions. A pon- derous, jail-like door opened on Liberty street to the courtyard-a broad, flagged walk about the building, through which two British or Hessian soldiers were constantly pacing, night and day. On the southeast, a heavy door opened into a dismal cellar, also used as a prison. The yard was surrounded by a close board fence, nine feet high. In this forbidding prison-house, secured by massive locks and bars, the wretched prison- ers were huddled so closely that they could scarcely breathe, and left for many weary months, without fire or blankets and with no other clothes than those which they had worn on their entrance, to while. away the hours of their captivity by carving their names upon the walls with rusty nails -- often the only clue to their
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probable fate ; for the typhus fever raged fiercely among them, and the dead-cart paid its daily visits, bearing away the writers ere they could finish the rude epitaphs, thus left as the sole trace to their friends of their doom. "In the suffocating heat of summer," says Dunlap, the contemporary historian of the times, "I saw every narrow "aperture of those stone walls filled with human heads, " face above face, seeking a portion of the external air." " While the jail fever was raging in the summer of 1777," says Onderdonk, in his "Incidents of the British Prisons and Prison-ships at New York," " the prisoners " were let out in companies of twenty, for half an hour " at a time, to breathe the fresh air; and inside they "were so crowded, that they divided their numbers into " squads of six each. No. 1 stood ten minutes as close " to the window as they could crowd, and then No. 2 " took their places, and so on ; seats there were none ; "and their beds were but straw, intermixed with ver- "min. For many weeks, the dead-cart visited the " prison every morning, into which from eight to twelve " corpses were flung and piled up, then dumped into " ditches in the outskirts of the city." An interesting reminiscence of this prison, as well as of the hospitals of the city-the more interesting from being one of the few descriptions on record of the treatment which the sick received in these hospitals-is found in the narrative of Levi Hanford, of Walton, Delaware County, New York. Entering the army in the autumn of 1775, at the early age of sixteen, he was one of the company sent by Lee, in the spring of 1776, to break ground for the first fortifications erected on Governor's Island. In March.
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1777, he was surprised and captured by a party of Tories while on guard at Long Island Sound, and taken first to Huntington, then to Flushing, and thence to New York, where he was incarcerated in the old Sugar- house in Liberty street.
" The old prison," says he, " was a stone building, " six stories high ; but the stories were very low, which " made it dark and confined. It was built for a sugar "refinery, and its appearance was dark and gloomy, " while its small and deep windows gave it the appear- "ance of a prison, which it really was, with a high board " fence inclosing a small yard. We found at this time "about forty or fifty prisoners, in an emaciated, starv- "ing and wretched condition. Their numbers were " constantly being diminished by sickness and death, " and as constantly increased by the accession of new "prisoners, to the number of 400 or 500. Our allow- " ance of provisions was pork and sea-biscuit ; it would " not keep a well man in strength. The biscuit was "such as had been wet with sea-water and damaged, " was full of worms and moldy. It was our common " practice to put water in our camp-kettle, then break " up the biscuit into it, skim off the worms, put in the " pork, and boil it, if we had fuel ; but this was allowed "us only part of the time ; and when we could get no "fuel, we ate our meat raw and our biscuit dry. " Starved as we were, there was nothing in the shape of " food that was rejected or was unpalatable. Crowded "together, in bad wir and with such diet, it was not "strange that disease and pestilence should prevail. I had not been long there, before I was taken with the
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"smallpox, and conveyed to the Smallpox Hospital. " I had it light, and soon returned to the prison, but not " till I had seen it in its most malignant forms. Some "of my companions died in that hospital. When I " returned to the prison, others of our company had " been taken to the different hospitals, from which few " returned. I remained in prison for a time, when, " from bad air, confinement, and bad diet, I was taken " sick, and conveyed to the Quaker Meeting Hospital, so " called from its being a Quaker Meeting-house.
"I soon became insensible, and the time passed " unconsciously till I began slowly to recover health and " strength, and was again permitted to exchange these " scenes of disease and death for the prison. On my "return, I found the number of our companions still " further reduced by sickness and death. During all " this time, an influence was exerted to induce the men " to enlist in the Tory regiments. Although our suffer- "ings were intolerable, and the men were urged by " those who had been their own townsmen and neigh- " bors, who had joined the British, yet the instances " were rare that they could be influenced to enlist. "So wedded were they to their principles, that they " chose honorable death rather than to sacrifice them. " I remained in the prison till the 24th of October, when " the names of a company of prisoners were taken down, "and mine among the rest. It was told us that we " were going home. We drew our week's provision, " which, by solicitation, we cheerfully divided among our " starving associates whom we were to leave in prison.
" But whether it was to torment and aggravate our feel-
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"ings, I know not ; but this I do know, that, instead of " going home, we were taken from the prison, and put on " board one of the prison-ships (the Good Intent) lying " in the North River, and reported there with one week's "provision. The scene of starvation and suffering that " followed cannot be described ; everything was eaten " that could appease hunger. From this and other " causes, and crowded as we were, with over two hun- " dred in the hold of one ship, enfeebled as we had " become, and now reduced by famine, pestilence began "to sweep us down, till, in less than two months, we " were reduced by death to scarcely one hundred. In " addition to all this, we were treated with the utmost "severity and cruelty. In December, when the river " began to freeze, our ship was taken round into the ".Wallabout, where lay the Jersey, another prison-ship " of terrific memory, whose rotted hulk remained till " lately to mark the spot where thousands yielded up " their lives a sacrifice to British cruelty.
" The dead from these ships were thrown into the "trenches of our fortifications ; and their bones, after " the war, were collected and decently buried. It was " here that Ethan Allen exhausted his fund of curses "and bitter invectives against the British, as he passed "among the prisoners, and viewed the loathsome dens " of suffering after his return from his shameful
"imprisonment in England.# Here again I was taken " sick and my name taken down to the hospital. The " day before New Year's, the sick were placed in a boat
* See Ethan Allen's Narrative, pp. 93-102.
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" for the city ; she had lost a piece of plank from her " bottom ; but it was filled up with ice, and we were taken " in tow. From the motion, the ice soon loosened, and " the boat began to leak ; and before we had gone far, "the sailors inquired if we leaked. Our men, from pride, " and not to show fear, replied but a mere trifle ; but " they soon perceived our increased heft, pulled hard for
"a time, and then lay to until we came up.
Our boat
" was half filled with water. When they saw it, they " cursed us, and pulled for the nearest dock, shouting for " help. When the boat touched the dock, she struck " level with the water, and we held on with our " hands to the dock and a small boat by our side to " keep from sinking. It was low water, and the sailors "reached down from the dock, clenched hold of our "hands, and drew us up. I remember that I was drawn " up with so much violence, that the skin was taken from " my chest and stomach. One poor fellow that could not "sit up, we had to haul on the gunnel of the boat " to keep his head out of water ; but he got wet and died "in a few minutes after he was got on shore. We were "taken to the hospital in Dr. Rogers' Brick Meeting- "house (afterwards Dr. Spring's) near the foot of the " Park. From the yard, I carried one end of a bunk, " from which some person had just died, into the church, " and got into it, exhausted and overcome. The head "nurse saw my condition. She made me some tea, and " pulled the blankets from the sick Irish, regardless of "their complaints or curses, and piled them on me, till I " sweat profusely and fell asleep. When I awoke in the "morning, they gave me some mulled wine and water.
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