USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 31
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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 me 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, crossed 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.
" HEZEKIAH RIPLEY, " Afterwards one of the Trustees of Yale College
"Sept. 26, 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 advanc- 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 buckwheat 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, now Madame Jumel's 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 storehouse 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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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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"jail-fever, and as the Provost was generally crowded " with American prisoners or British culprits of every " description, it is really wonderful that infection never " broke out in its walls."
The following graphic list of the grievances endured by the prisoners, which was sent to General Jones by Mr. Pintard, reveals a terrible tale of suffering : "Close " confined in jail, without distinction of rank or charac- "ter ; amongst felons (a number of whom are under " sentence of death), without their friends being suffered "to speak to them, even through the gates. On the "scanty allowance of 2 lbs. hard biscuit and 2 lbs. raw "pork per man per week, without fuel to dress it. Fre- " quently supplied with water from a pump where all " kinds of filth is thrown that can render it obnoxious " and unwholesome (the effects of which are too often " felt), when good water is as easily obtained. Denied " the benefit of a hospital ; not allowed to send for medi- " cine, nor even a doctor permitted to visit them when "in the greatest distress ; married men and others who "lay at the point of death, refused to have their wives " or relations admitted to see them, who, for attempting "it, were often beat from prison. Commissioned officers " and other persons of character, without a cause, thrown " into a loathsome dungeon, insulted in a gross manner, " and vilely abused by a provost marshal, who is allowed "to be one of the basest characters in the British army, "and whose power is so unlimited that he has caned an " officer .on a trivial occasion, and frequently beats the " sick privates when unable to stand, many of whom are "daily obliged to enlist in the new corps to prevent ,
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"perishing for the necessaries of life. Neither pen, ink "nor paper allowed (to prevent their treatment being "made public), the consequence of which, indeed, the "prisoners themselves dread, knowing the malignant " disposition of their keeper."
These statements are amply confirmed by the testi- mony of eye-witnesses as well as of the sufferers them- selves ; and it is not strange that the name of Cunning- ham became a by-word of horror in the annals of the times. It was afterwards reported and currently believed that he was executed at Newgate for forgery ; and a dying speech and confession, purporting to be his, was published in 1791 in a Philadelphia paper and copied thence into the Boston journals of the day ; but the Newgate Calendar, examined by Mr. Bancroft, con- tains no record of any such name. The Americans were willing to believe all things possible from a man who had shown himself capable of such barbarity, and rumors of this sort found ready credence. But the odium of this cruelty must forever rest on Howe, who was cognizant of all its details, and to whom the provost marshal was but a tool-a cat's paw, as he is called by the indignant Ethan Allen-to execute his vengeance upon the detested rebels. The sufferings of the captives excited universal sympathy, and considerable aid was afforded them by the citizens ; yet this was not encouraged by the British commandant, and Mrs. Deborah Franklin was even banished from the city in 1780 for her unbounded liberality to the American prisoners. Remonstrances would have been in vain. The American officers who were free on parole shrunk from visiting the prisons to
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witness the sufferings which they could not relieve, and dared not appeal to Howe for aid, lest this audacity should doom them to a similar fate. In 1777, after the successes of Washington in New Jersey, a portion of the prisoners were exchanged ; but, exhausted by suffering, many fell dead in the streets ere they reached the vessels destined for their embarkation, and few long survived their return to their homes. The churches and sugar- houses were gradually cleared of their inmates during the course of the war, but the Provost and the old City Hall were used as prisons till Evacuation Day. "I was in New York, Nov. 26th," says Gen. Johnson, "and at the Provost about ten o'clock A.M. A few " British criminals were yet in custody, and O'Keefe "threw his ponderous bunch of keys on the floor and "retired, when an American guard relieved the British " guard, which joined a detachment of British troops, " then on parade in Broadway, and marched down to the " Battery, where they embarked for England."
Not less deplorable was the condition of the sailor- captives on board the loathsome prison-ships .* The first of these vessels were the freight-ships which brought the British troops to Staten Island in 1776 ; in these, as
* For further details respecting the prisons as well as the prison-ships of New York, the reader is referred to "Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen's Captivity," Burling- ton, 1838; " Onderdonk's Incidents of the British Prisons and Prison-Ships at " New York," New York, 1849; " Life of Jesse Talbot ;" "Life of Ebenezer Fox, of " Roxbury," Boston, 1838 ; " Recollections of the Jersey Prison-Ship," by Capt. Thomas Dring, Providence, 1829 ; "The Old Jersey Captive," by Thomas Andros, Boston, 1833; "The Interment of the Remains of 11,500 American " Prisoners at the Wallebocht," New York, 1808 ; Freneau's " Poem on the Prison- " Ship," and Gaines', Rivington's, and other papers of the day.
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they lay anchored at Gravesend Bay, the prisoners taken at the battle of Long Island were confined for a few days until the conquest of the city, when they were transferred thither and the vessels reserved for the cap- tured seamen. The Good Hope and Scorpion were then anchored in the North River off the Battery, whence the bodies of the prisoners who died were conveyed to Trinity Churchyard for burial. Some time after, they were taken round to the East River and moored in the Wallabout Bay, where a dozen old hulks, among which were the Good Hope, Whitby, Falmouth, Prince of Wales, Scorpion, Strombolo, Hunter, Kitty, Providence, Bristol, Jersey, etc., lay anchored in succession, usually two or three at a time, to serve as floating prisons for the British commanders. Of all these, the Jersey gained the greatest notoriety ; christened " the hell afloat " by her despair- ing inmates, her name struck 'terror to the hearts of every American sailor. A 64-gun ship which had been condemned in 1776 as unfit for service, she had been stripped of her spars and rigging and anchored at Tolmie's Wharf to serve as a storeship. In 1780, when the prisoners on board the Good Hope burnt the vessel in the desperate hope of regaining their liberty, the chief incendiaries were removed to the Provost, and the remainder transferred to the Jersey, which was thence- forth used as a prison-ship until the close of the war, when her inmates were liberated, and she was henceforth shunned by all as a nest of pestilence. The worms soon after destroyed her bottom, and she sunk, bearing with her on her planks the names of thousands of American prisoners. For more than twenty years, her ribs lay
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exposed at low water ; she now lies buried beneath the United States Navy Yard.
Though the Jersey has gained a bad eminence as a prison-ship, which would naturally lead many to suppose that her prisoners alone were subjected to suffering and privation, the testimony of those confined in the other hulks proves clearly that their treatment was every- where the same. The chief difference lay in the fact that the Jersey was larger than the others, and con- tinued in the service for a longer space of time. David Sproat, the British Commissary, denied, indeed, that any suffering existed, and, painting the situation' of the captives in glowing colors, brought documents signed by them to testify to the truth of his assertions ; but as these were forced from them almost at the point of the bayonet, and universally retracted as soon as they were free, the papers in question are not worth much in evidence.
The life on board the Jersey prison-ship may be regarded as a fair sample of the life on all the rest. The crew consisted of a captain, two mates, a steward, cook and a dozen sailors, with a guard of twelve marines and about thirty soldiers. When a prisoner was brought on board, his name and rank were registered, after which he was searched for weapons and money. His clothes and bedding he was permitted to retain ; how- ever scanty these might be, he was supplied with no more while on board the prison-ship. He was then ordered down into the hold, where from a thousand to twelve hundred men were congregated, covered with rags and filth, and ghastly from breathing the pesti-
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lential air ; many of them sick with the typhus fever, dysentery and smallpox, from which the vessel was never free. Here he joined a mess of six men, who, every morning, at the ringing of the steward's bell, received their daily allowance of biscuit, beef or pork and peas, to which butter, suet, oatmeal and flour were occasionally added. The biscuit was moldy and lite- rally crawling with worms, the butter and suet rancid and unsavory to the highest degree, the peas damaged. the meal and flour often sour, and the meat tainted, and boiled in the impure water from about the ship in a large copper kettle, which, soon becoming corroded and crusted with verdigris, mingled a slow poison with all its contents. Yet for these damaged provisions, the highest prices were charged to the king by the royal commissioners, who, by curtailing the rations and substi- tuting damaged provisions for those purchased by the government, amassed fortunes at the expense of thou- sands of lives ; and, when accused, forced their prisoners by threats of still greater severity, to attest to the kind treatment which they received at their hands.
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