USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 36
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Chroniclers of the times catalogued the events of these two or three days as they would an invoice of crockery : " Nothing remarkable hap- pened ; still getting ready to retreat." Like some portraits, the drawing is chiefly in outline without color or shading. Yet the British were changing position and nearing the shore on Long Island. Their guns and those of the ships in the East River were heard continually. Citizens and sol- diers were running hither and yon with pale faces, performing their allotted duties with nervous energy. Carts were laden as fast as pro- cured, and driven hurriedly to boats or over the long tedious roads to the
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North. Effects were swiftly packed and households scattered. Forts were, as far as practicable, dismantled. Bells were removed from the churches and public buildings and secreted. Brass knockers were taken from the doors of the houses (by order of the Convention) weighed, valued, and registered, then deposited for safe-keeping in Newark, New Jersey. Several bodies of troops marched to the upper part of Manhattan. Washington took supper on Saturday night (the 14th) at the Apthorpe Mansion, where at a late hour the expedition of Nathan Hale into the enemy's camp for trustworthy information was planned.
Sunday morning dawned upon a tired city. There had been no ces- sation of labor during the night. The removal of the sick and Sept. 15. wounded, numbering several thousand, had consumed much time, and disheartening delays had resulted from the scarcity of proper con- veyances. Yet everything thus far had been conducted with consum- mate method, and men unschooled in war had exhibited the self-control of veterans. With the rising of the sun a fresh source of alarm was visible. Three ships of war were sailing defiantly by the Battery into the Hudson River. Nash writes, "They fired smartly at the town." Rev. Mr. Shewkirk said one ball struck the North Church; and that it was " unsafe to walk the streets." It was not known where these ships would anchor, but they were presumably destined to meet the line upon the western shore which the British were about to throw across the island above the city. Of course there could be no further removal of army stores by water.
Two roads intersected Manhattan lengthwise; of which the " Old Boston Road " on the general line of Third Avenue, and bearing west of Fifth Avenue by a crooked way through McGowan's Pass, was the grand highway. The Bloomingdale road, a continuation of Broad- way, leaned towards the Hudson after reaching Sixtieth Street, and wound along the picturesque region of hills and vales known by the beautiful descriptive name of Bloomingdale, past the Apthorpe Mansion, terminating as a legal highway at Adam Hoagland's house, about One Hundred and Fifteenth Street, - although it was continued through his estate as a farm-road to Manhattanville. It was connected with the old Boston or Kingsbridge road by a narrow public way from Hoagland's house, running nearly at right angles. These two chief thoroughfares were intersected at various points by local roads, private avenues to property, and farmer's lanes.
Attention was soon diverted from the ships in the North River to motions in the East River. Five men-of-war suddenly spread their wings and anchored within fifty yards of the American breastworks at
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Kip's Bay (near Thirty-fourth Street) and commenced a well-directed and incessant cannonading to "scour the grounds " in that vicinity. The occupants of Kip's mansion took refuge in the cellar. Presently eighty-four flat-bottomed boats laden with troops in bright scarlet drifted into view from Newtown Creek, giving the broad bosom of the river the appearance of a clover-bed. This brilliant scene was watched by Scott. and his New-Yorkers on the Stuyvesant estate near Fifteenth Street, and by Wadsworth and Selden with their forces at Twenty-third Street. Putnam's division was ordered to retreat at once from the lower town, but, although abandoning heavy cannon and a quantity of provision, were too seriously encumbered with families and baggage to move expe- ditiously, and would certainly be captured unless the landing could be delayed; hence Parsons and Fellows were sent with their brigades on a run to support Douglass with his few militia-men at Kip's Bay. They were just in time to see the first company of British troops from the flotilla ascend the slope, while thousands were ready to follow in their footsteps ; and also to witness the flight of the soldiers who manned the works. This was hardly cowardice, although it has been so stigmatized by military officers and historical writers ever since that memorable morning. It was well known that the city was not to be defended. Had such a handful of troops opened fire upon the enemy it would have been a mere exhibition of foolhardiness, as useless as unjustifiable. Noth- ing was to be gained by it. Douglass gave the order to retreat, but not until it became impossible to remain in the works, which were acknowl- edged by all parties the least defensible of any along the whole East River shore. Obliged to cross an unprotected space "scoured by cannon- balls and grape-shot," the men dispersed, running swiftly toward the Old Boston or Post Road, the enemy firing and pursuing them.
Near Thirty-sixth Street and Fourth Avenue stood the residence of Robert Murray amid extensive grounds, - designated on the map as " Inclenberg." To the north of it a cross-road, nearly on the line of Forty-third Street, connected the Old Boston with the Bloomingdale road. A cornfield belonging to the Murray estate flourished on the site of the present Grand Central Depot, extending east to the junction of the roads, - the Old Boston Road here being about on the line of Lexington Avenue. At this point Washington on his four-mile gallop from the Apthorpe Mansion encountered the men in retreat from Kip's Bay. They were in dust and confusion, and in the hasty judgment of the moment " in disgrace." Here also came up the almost breathless recruits of Par- sons and Fellows, who had scarcely halted in their run from Corlear's Hook, and who had been nearly headed off before they could spring
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into the cornfield and through it reach the cross-road. The red foe surging over the bluff could be seen through the foliage already in possession of the highway. Washington in a frenzy of excitement rode up and down trying to rally the troops into line to check the advance of the British, in which he was gallantly aided by Parsons and other officers. But the attempt was fruitless. And having not a moment to lose he ordered the troops to continue their retreat, and spurred away to provide for the safety of Harlem Heights, as it was possible for the enemy to land in that vicinity at the same time as elsewhere.
Meanwhile Scott, Selden, and others on the East River below Kip's Bay saw the wisdom of immediate escape, since the British would naturally stretch across the island above them without delay. Scott reached Putnam's moving column on the Bloomingdale road with his command in safety; but Selden and party collided with a body of Hessians on their way to the city by the Boston road, near the corner of Twenty-third Street and Third Avenue, and after some sharp firing in which four Hessians were killed and eight wounded, he was made prisoner.1
1 Howe to Germain, September 21, 1776. Colonel Samuel Selden was one of the sub- stantial and accomplished men of his generation. Possessing a large estate on the banks of the Connecticut, a homestead of liis own erection (in 1760) which, bearing the traces of good taste and the refined knowledge of how to live comfortably, is still standing, the father of thir- teen children, and past fifty, with impaired health, he ignored all personal interests in devo- tion to the common cause, and accepted a colonelcy of Connecticut levies after - like Silliman, Douglass, and others - first advancing the funds to equip his regiment. He was the son of Samuel and Deborah Dudley Selden, and the grandson and great-grandson of the two Governors Dudley of Massachusetts, who it is well known were of the best blood of England. He was born January 11, 1723. After his capture lie was conveyed to the City Hall in Wall Street and confined in the "Debtors' prison " on the upper floor. But, prostrated by the heat and exertions of the day, he was attacked with fever, from which he died on Friday, October 11. Some British officers, learning of his illness, caused him to be conveyed to more comfortable quarters in the " Old Provost," and he was attended by Dr. Thatcher, a British surgeon, receiving every possible kindness. He was buried in the Brick Church yard, where the building of the New York Times now stands, with more honors than were usually ac- corded to prisoners-of-war, whatever their rank ; all the American officers who were prisoners at the time were indulged with liberty to attend his funeral. His wife was Elizabeth Ely, daughter of Richard Ely of Lyme. His son, Richard Ely Selden, born 1759, was the father of the wife of Henry Matson Waite, Chief Justice of Connecticut. Thus the present Chief Justice of the United States, Morrison R. Waite, is the great-grandson of Colonel Selden. And Mrs. Morrison R. Waite is a great-granddaughter of the same through her father Samuel Selden Warner, whose mother was the sixth daughter of Colonel Selden. Judge Samuel Lee Selden, Judge Henry R. Selden, Hon. Dudley Selden, Hon. Lyman Trumbull, General Mc- Dowell, and Professor Eaton of Yale, are among his descendants. President Eliphalet Nott of Union College, and Rev. Dr. Samuel Nott, were the sons of Colonel Selden's sister Deborah, who married Stephen Nott about 1752. Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott Potter, now President of Union College, Rev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, Rector of Grace Church, Hon. Clarkson Nott Potter, and Howard Potter are grandsons of President Eliplialet and Sarah Benedict Nott. The old Selden estate in Hadlyme (formerly a part of the town of Lyme), which belonged to
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One of his officers, Eliphalet Holmes, a man of great physical strength, knocked down two Hessians who were attempting to capture him, and escaped. John P. Wyllys, Wadsworth's brigade-major, was taken pris- oner in this encounter, and fifty or more men. Gay, with his command, had passed the Boston road, down "Lover's Lane " (now Twenty-first Street) to the Bloomingdale road, and beyond, before the Hessians reached the point of intersection. Silliman's brigade, left to guard the city until the other troops could be withdrawn, and Knox with detach- ments of artillery, were now in the greatest danger. About thirty minutes after the main column, with its women, children, hangers-on, household stuff, and camp utensils, had passed out of sight on the Broadway road to the north of Walter Rutherford's house, Silliman received orders to follow as far as Bayard's Hill fort, just above Canal Street. Here he saw the British land at Kip's Bay, and supposing the roads closed and departure impossible, prepared for a vigorous defense. At this very instant Put- nam, galloping forward, met Washington at the corner of the cross and Bloomingdale roads, now Forty-third Street and Broadway, and paused for hasty consultation. It was clear no stand could be made on Murray Hill. Had the British acted promptly, all the Americans south of Forty-second Street at that hour might have fallen into their hands with ease. A few minutes later Putnam was flying on his foaming steed toward the city to meet and hurry on the column which as yet had only worked its. weary way into the region below Bleecker Street ; on his route he encoun- tered a portion of Wadsworth's command, and Scott with his retreating forces from Stuyvesant Cove.
For a complete view of the stirring scenes of this day, distances must. be considered.1 A ride from City Hall to Murray Hill, not less than three miles, occupied as much time then as now, and it was not yet noon. Officers only were mounted; the soldiers were all on foot,
Colonel Selden at the time of his death, has been in the possession of the Selden family one hundred and eighty or more years. It is now the property of William Ely Selden.
1 See map (Vol. II. 68). Few of the cross-roads mentioned in the text were then public thoroughfares, which accounts for their omission upon the maps of the period ; but nearly all the localities of interest, with their relative positions, can be traced with the eye. The authorities upon which the text describing the incidents of the 15th of September, 1776, is based, number not less than eighty ; of these are the various accounts from the pens of participants and eye-witnesses, many letters having recently been exhumed from family archives. The "Kip's. Bay Affair," with the light of a century turned strongly upon it, resolves itself into a justifi- able retreat from an overwhelming force ; and the "panic," which has furnished opportunity for writers and artists to embellish fiction until it has become grotesque, seems to have been the natural result of extraordinary exposure. As for the story of Washington's wrath, there is little doubt of his having given expression to language more forcicle than gentle as he came upon his demoralized troops ; but there is not a shadow of evidence that he threw his hat upon the ground, or exposed himself to sharp-shooters, much less to the bayonets of the enemy.
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wagons were insufficient for the transfer of families, those in use were indiscriminately overladen, and the cannon were chiefly dragged by hand. The day was excessively hot, the roads were darkened by clouds of dust, the people as well as the soldiers on the march had been without sleep for twenty-four or more hours, and deaths occurred from time to time by the wayside from over-exertion and the drinking of water from cool springs.
Aaron Burr, Putnam's aide-de-camp, dashed towards the city in advance of the general to extricate Silliman, who protested that retreat was out of the question. Knox was of the same mind, and disposed to fight to the bitter end. Alexander Hamilton, with his company of New York artil- lery men, was eager to defend the post. But Burr claimed to know every inch of ground on Manhattan Island, and was confident he could pilot the party through farms and by-ways, and they finally started. Nash, who was present, writes, " The enemy headed us so that we who were left were obliged to make our escape as well as we could, but they did not take many of our men." Overtaking the column, now comprising about three thousand five hundred persons, and stretching two miles, Silliman's party were formed into a rear-guard. Putnam, Silliman, and other officers were on the constant lookout - riding furiously from front to rear and from rear to front - at the same time stimulating an effort for increased speed by encouraging words and their own coolness and intrepidity. The slight, graceful figure of Burr was also everywhere conspicuous. He conducted the train to a road west of Eighth Avenue from Fifteenth Street north, and keeping in the woods, often countermarching, or crooking through irregular lanes to avoid being discovered by the shipping in the North River, the long slowly moving train actually passed Murray Hill within a half mile of the British army as they were complacently eating their midday meal; the men on the grass in the trim grounds of the Murrays, and the officers, Howe, Clinton, Cornwallis, and Governor Tryon, partaking of generous hospitalities with- in the mansion. Mrs. Murray, the mother of Lindley Murray, the gram- marian, was personally known to Tryon; he introduced the British generals, who, charmed with the luxury of her cool parlors and the tempting wine with which she bountifully supplied them, loitered in gay and trivial conversation for two hours. Thatcher, relating the incident in his journal, says, "It has since become almost a common saying among our officers, that Mrs. Murray saved this part of the American army." As soon as the second division of the British under Percy had crossed from Long Island, and could support the troops posted at " Inclenberg," a detach- ment was sent to capture a corps of Americans descried about three miles
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distant, near McGowan's Pass, which proved to be the regiments of Mifflin and Smallwood sent by Washington to cover Putnam's escape, and who retired towards Harlem Heights as the enemy approached. The column of Putnam, coming down through the Hoagland farm, passed the junction of the Bloomingdale and Kingsbridge roads, as these British troops ap- peared on the right. Humphrey says : " So critical indeed was our situa- tion and so narrow the gap by which we escaped, that the instant we had passed, the enemy closed it by extending their line from river to river." They attacked the tired column with spirit, but Silliman with three hun- dred men beat them off. In this skirmish Hamilton, who had marched the whole distance in the rear of the line, aided materially with his cannon; Sergeant Hoyt, in charge of the extreme rear gun, dragged it to an eminence by the roadside and fired it continuously until the whole train had safely rounded the point of danger. Hoyt was one of those in the last boat (discovered and fired upon by the British) in the notable Long Island retreat, and was chosen for this post of exceptional peril because of his unflinching nerve and heroic mettle.
It began to rain towards evening, and then a cold wind came up; and when at a late hour Putnam's party reached the encampment on the heights, "above the Eight mile stone " they were not only worn out with the march of over thirteen winding miles, but drenched and chilled to the bone. They had lost knapsacks, baggage, hope, and confidence, and, grieving for the artillery and costly works sacrificed, made their beds upon the wet ground, the threatening clouds their only covering.
Washington remained at the Apthorpe Mansion striving to cover his anxiety under an aspect of stoical serenity until the enemy were in sight, then rode to the Morris House on Harlem Heights. The British soon stretched from Horn's Hook (Ninety-second Street) to McGowan's Pass, and across the beautiful hills to the northwest, their left flank resting on the Hudson. Howe and his officers rode leisurely up from Murray Hill and found a well-cooked supper awaiting them at Apthorpe's; while their warriors borrowed sheep and geese at random and made themselves com- fortable for the night. The city meanwhile was occupied by a division of the army of King George. Ferry-boats had crossed to the Jersey shore during the day, many persons escaping by that source who were unable to leave with Putnam; among these was Hugh Gaine, editor, compositor, and publisher of The New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, who, with his press, took quarters in Newark, New Jersey; and citizens in hiding returned to New York by the same means to welcome the British. At evening the passage was closed. Thus Manhattan slept.
Before daylight next morning Washington was in the saddle. His
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first important act was to send Knowlton with a picked company of one hundred and twenty men to learn the position of, and, if practicable, take the enemy's advanced guard. The second was to visit the various en- campments to "put matters in a proper situation " should the British come on as expected.1 Knowlton from near headquarters descended the ravine, now Audubon Park, leading his men along the low shore of the river to Matjte Davits Fly,2 and beyond into the woods that skirted the bank west of Vanderwater's Heights, until parallel with the left flank of the vanguard of the enemy under General Leslie. Here he was discovered at sunrise, and attacked by four hundred of the British light infantry ; he allowed them to come within six rods before giving orders to fire, and after eight rounds apiece, he commanded a retreat which decoyed the adversary, in the language of Sir Henry Clinton, " into a scrape." 3 One of Knowlton's officers wrote, "we retreated two miles and a half and then made a stand, and sent for reinforcements which we soon received, and drove the dogs near three miles." There is no discrepancy between this statement and the report of De Heister, who said, "They retired into their entrenchments to entice the pursuers deeper into the wood."
Confusion as to localities has resulted from the blending of two distinct encounters in the descriptions of the battle of Harlem Heights. The first was at sunrise, occupying but a few minutes. The second com- menced between ten and eleven o'clock in the forenoon and continued nearly four hours.4 It was the former to which Lewis Morris referred in writing to his father: "Monday morning an advanced party, Colonel Knowlton's regiment, was attacked by the enemy upon a height a little to the southwest of Dayes' Tavern." And it was the second and chief battle which the pen-and-ink sketch furnished the Convention shortly afterward, and subsequently presented by John Sloss Hobart to Rev. Dr. Stiles, President of Yale College, describes as " beginning near the Ten mile stone and ending near the Eight mile stone." Washington's headquarters at the Morris house was three and one half miles from
1 Washington's Letters.
2 Matjte Davits Fly was a well-known public landmark (a meadow,) which for a century had been mentioned in charters, patents, deeds, and Acts of the Legislature, and laid down with the utmost precision by actual survey.
3 Manuscript note in Sir Henry Clinton's private copy of Stedman's History of the Ameri- can War, in possession of John Carter Brown, Providence, R. I. ; De Lancey's Notes to Jones's History ; Donop's Account ; Journal of De Heister ; Baurmeister's Report ; Stewart's Sketches of the Highlanders; Sir William Howe to Lord Germain, Sept. 21, 1776.
4 General Gold Selleck Silliman to his wife, Sept. 17, 1776 (original in possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Oliver P. Hubbard), Jones's History of New York in the Revolution, Vol. I. De Lancey's Notes, 606, 607. Jay, 57.
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Howe's headquarters at the Apthorpe Mansion. The army of each was thrown out in front for a mile and three quarters, Washington's advanced guard under Greene being in the woods above, and his pickets upon the " Point of Rocks " which overlooked Manhattanville, while Howe's were upon Vanderwater's Heights, opposite. Parsons 161 st St Knowlton 156th St Morris During the interval Griffith House between the two bat- Washington e tles the light infantry 5-10-M- Sp Douglass of Leslie were silently pushing their way after Knowlton along Plain I Silliman H. E I the low shore of the Hudson. R Hartem
Putnam.
Burr
HARLEM
Break
FLAT
" As yet no forti- fications had been Scott erected across Harlem Heights," wrote Sil- Greene's liman, - and also Camp Vanguard George Clinton, - Dayes Tavern " except a mere begin- Mati int of Rocks New Ro Davi 5 ning near the Morris Mt Morirs @Harlem house, and three small Village of redoubts about half- E 125th St way to Manhattan- Vanguar /8 M ville "; from the first Leslie gray dawn he had a large force of men Donop wopull Rond Harlem Lane A L employed at this lat- Vandewater Heights Hoaglands House @ ter point with spades 110th St Kings Bridge H and shovels throwing earth into the trench- wan's De Heister Line es ; ere night-fall lines CENTRAL M 10th Aye were completed across Bloomingdale Road the island, and subse- PAR "Jones. Ilouise Harlem Creek quently strengthened. Clinton Washington galloped Apthorpe? Photo- Eng., Co. Cornwa Howe 91st St. 6th Ave to Greene's encamp- Sketch of Battle-Field, Harlem Heights. ment, where, seated [Showing the relative position of the two hostile armies of Great Britain and America, Sept. 16, 1776. Compiled from the most authentic sources. By the author. ] [Topography traced from Colton's map.]
upon his horse, at sun- rise he heard the firing between Knowlton and Leslie, and saw large bodies VOL. II.
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of the enemy upon "the high ground opposite." He returned to the Morris House and hurriedly breakfasted. Uneasy about Knowlton, he sent scouts for information, when presently that handsome, animated young officer appeared in his presence asking for reinforcements to cap- ture his pursuers. Almost simultaneously one hundred of the British light infantry, who had clambered up the steep close in Knowlton's foot- steps, came out upon the plain and blew their bugle-horns, as usual after a fox-chase. They had at the same time left three hundred men con- cealed in the woods on the river-bank. Washington ordered Major Leitch with a detachment of Virginia riflemen to join Knowlton and his rangers, and, with Reed as a guide, "to steal" around to the rear of the foe by their right flank, while another detachment was to feign an attack in front. There was a hollow way, or ravine, coursed by a winding stream, between the two hostile parties, not far from the Ten mile stone, termi- nating at Audubon Park. The British upon the plain (some two hundred feet above the Hudson), seeing so few coming out to fight, ran jubilantly down the slope towards them and took post behind a rail-fence, firing briskly. As the Americans pushed forward they left the fence, retiring up the hill. The rattle of musketry soon brought their reserve corps. to the rescue; and just then, by some mistake or failure to obey orders. to the letter, never satisfactorily explained, the spirited charge of the rangers and riflemen began upon the flank of the enemy, instead of the rear, as intended. Both Knowlton and Leitch fell within ten minutes, near each other, and within a few paces of Reed, whose horse was shot from under him.1 But the tide was turning, and the British giving way in an open-field conflict. Washington reinforced his gallant soldiers with detachments from the nearest regiments, Griffith's, Richardson's, Nixon's, Douglass's, and others, and the very men who had been so severely criticised for running from Kip's Bay the day before redeemed themselves from the odium by deeds of noble daring.2 Putnam, Reed, and other prominent officers took command, charging upon the British and driving them from the plain ; they fled through a piece of woods, becoming scat- tered and fighting from behind trees and bushes, and then into a buck- wheat field, By this time it was nearly noon.
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