USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. II > Part 39
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The command of Lee's division devolved upon Sullivan, who promptly joined Washington on the 20th, the very date of Franklin's arrival in Paris. Gates arrived the same day with some Northern troops, and the army once more numbered nearly seven thousand effective men. In ten days, however, the enlistments of most of the regiments would expire.
It was not a pleasant December, but cold, stormy, and dismal. Howe was tired of discomfort, and preferred winter-quarters in New York, where all was mirth and jollity. He accordingly cantoned some four thousand
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troops at Trenton, Bordentown, Mount Holly, Princeton, New Brunswick, Amboy, and other points, scattering them even to the Hackensack. Tren- ton, the most southern of the cantonments, was left guarded by fifteen hundred Hessians, who could not speak a word of English, commanded by Colonel Rahl, a brave officer, but a notorious drunkard. He was averse to taking the trouble to fortify ; and when told that Washington contemplated recrossing the Delaware, he laughed at the idea. Was it not December ? How could starving men, with neither shoes, stockings, nor blankets, come out to fight in such an inclement season ? The rebels were nothing, anyhow, but a pack of cowards. "Let them come," he said, " we will at them with the bayonet."
Howe pompously reported his surprising successes. He was master of New Jersey. He was also master of Rhode Island, having sent Sir Henry Clinton, with ten thousand men, in one hundred transports, escorted by fourteen men-of-war under Sir Peter Parker, to secure Newport, a feat accomplished December 8 without the firing of a gun, since there was no garrison to resist. And Canada had been altogether restored to England by the valiant and humane Carleton.
The game of war, however, was not yet won, as Howe was shortly to learn to his intense mortification. Washington was preparing for a bold dash upon Trenton. Christmas night was fixed for the hazardous under- taking. Gates, like Lee, indulged in the censure of Washington, and was impatient of his supremacy. When desired to take command of a party at Bristol and co-operate in the spirited expedition, he pleaded ill health, and asked leave to go to Philadelphia, actually intending to proceed to Baltimore and lay plans of his own before Congress, with the hope of eclipsing his commander-in-chief. Symptoms of an insurrection obliged Putnam to remain in Philadelphia ; but Greene, Sullivan, Mercer, and Stirling were among the general officers ; and Stark of New Hampshire, Hand of Pennsylvania, Glover and Knox of Massachusetts, Webb of Con-
necticut, Scott, William Washington, and James Monroe of Virginia, and Alexander Hamilton of New York, were among the field and other officers with Washington. From the wasted regiments twenty-four hundred men only could be found strong enough and sufficiently clothed to accompany their leaders. The weather was excessively cold, the wind high, the river full of ice, and the current difficult to stem. They began Dec. 25. their march at three in the afternoon, with eighteen field-pieces, each man carrying cooked provisions for three days, "and forty rounds." They reached Mackonkey's ferry at twilight. The Marblehead mariners, who did such good service on the retreat from Long Island, bravely manned the boats, Knox superintending the embarkation. At eleven o'clock it
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began to snow. It was four in the morning of the 26th before the troops and cannon were all over the Delaware, and their nine-mile march com- menced. Washington's plan included a simultaneous attack from Dec. 26. several points. Nearly opposite Trenton, Ewing, Nixon, and Hitch- cock were posted with troops, directed to cross and intercept the retreat of the Hessians, or prevent Donop at Burlington from affording relief ; and at Bristol, Cadwallader and Reed were also to cross for a similar purpose. The ice rendered it impracticable for the execution of either of these orders. The troops with Washington were formed in two divisions about three miles from the ferry, Sullivan leading one column along the road near the river, and Greene guiding the other upon a road to the left. These roads entered the town at different points, but the distance was nearly the same. Washington was with Greene, whose advanced guard was led by Captain William Washington, with James Monroe (afterwards President of the United States) as first lieutenant. The stinging cold, the beating storm, and the tiresome march were borne bravely by all. At eight o'clock in the morning Trenton was reached. On the route Sullivan sent a messenger in haste to Washington to say that the storm had ruined many of the muskets. "Then use the bayonet, for the town must be taken," was the crisp reply. The snow deadened the tread of the troops and the rumbling of artillery. Thus the surprise was complete. While Washington advanced on the north of the town, Sullivan approached on the west, and Stark was detached to press on the south end of the village. Some five hundred of the enemy at this latter point, seeing Washington coming down in front, as Stark thundered in their rear, fled precipitately by the bridge across the Assanpink, towards Donop, at Bordentown. Washington rode into Trenton beside the artillery, giving directions when and how to fire, but he was presently flying from point to point regardless of his personal safety, and from the swiftness of the manœuvres of his troops the Hessians were allowed no time to form, therefore their firing was all at random and without effect. In thirty-five minutes the action was over. Rahl, in attempting to rally his panic-stricken guard, had fallen mortally wounded, and they immediately surrendered. Washington took possession of nine hundred and fifty prisoners, six brass field-pieces, twelve hundred small-arms, standards, horses, and plunder in immense quantities ; this last he advertised, and restored to all such persons as came forward and proved their title to the stolen goods, -an act so humane and just, and so totally unlike the manner in which the people of New Jersey had been treated by their so-called protectors, that there was an immediate revolution in public sentiment which was of lasting impor- tance. Had the two divisions crossed the river as Washington expected,
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none of the Hessians could have escaped. And in this brilliant achieve- ment the Americans lost only two privates killed, two frozen to death, and two officers and four privates wounded. The whole scheme was as ingenious as it was executed with remarkable vigor. To Howe's startled senses it was as if some energetic apparition had risen from the dead.
The victory of Trenton turned the wheel of American destiny into a new light. Washington commended his officers and men in the warmest terms, pronouncing their conduct admirable without a solitary exception. He recrossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania with his prisoners, as Tren- ton in itself was of no account, and made immediate arrangements to fol- low up his success and drive the British back into New York. Before the last day of the year he had a second time crossed the Delaware with his forces, and all England was presently to look with amazement upon their own retreating legions. Lord Germain said, "Our hopes were blasted by that unhappy affair at Trenton."
The prisoners taken at Fort Washington were crammed into every available building in New York City at this moment, - churches, sugar- houses, stores, and jails. The Middle Dutch Church was stripped of its pulpit and pews, and nearly three thousand men, sick and well, were huddled indiscriminately within its walls.
On the 27th Congress passed a resolution investing Washington with such extraordinary military powers, that he was said in Europe to have been appointed " Dictator of America." These trusts were confided to him for six months, that he might enlist and organize an army which would have more solidity and permanence than the phantom he had hith- erto attempted to control. The news reached him on the 29th. Dec. 29. The action of Congress authorizing the commissioners in France
to borrow two millions sterling at six per cent for ten years, together with an order for the emission of five million dollars in paper on the faith of the United States, came to his knowledge also on the same date.
Genealogical note, continued from page 119 .- Children of General JAMES CLINTON and MARY DE WITT: 1, Alexander, died unmarried ; 2, Charles, married Elizabeth Mulliner ; 3, De Witt, married 1st Maria Franklin, 2d Catherine Jones ; 4, George, married Hannah Franklin ; 5, Mary, married 1st Robert Burrage Norton, 2d Judge Ambrose Spencer ; 6, Elizabeth, married William Stuart ; 7, Katharine, married 1st Samuel Norton, 2d Judge Ambrose Spencer. By his second wife, Mrs. Mary Gray, General Clinton had four daughters and one son, James Graham Clinton, who married Margaret E. Conger.
Charles, second son of General James and Mary De Witt Clinton, had two daughters and one son, Dr. Alexander Clinton, who married Adeline Arden Hamilton, daughter of' Alex- ander James Hamilton, the last Baron of Innerwich, Scotland. Children : 1, Mary E., mar- ried John Rhinelander Bleecker ; 2, Adeline H., married Thomas E. Brown ; 3, Alexander James, married 1st Sophie E. Vose, 2d Annie J. Nestell ; 4, Anna E., married Thomas A. Wil- merding ; 5, Catherine ; 6, Charles William ; 7, De Witt, married Elizabeth S. Burnham. See page 119.
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CHAPTER XXXIV.
1777.
THE YEAR OF BATTLES.
MONEY. - VICTORY AT PRINCETON. - STARTLING ACHIEVEMENTS. - NEW JERSEY RECON- QUERED BY WASHINGTON. - ARMY AT MORRISTOWN. - LORD STIRLING. - RAIDS. -- BURNING OF DANBURY. - STORMING OF SAGG HARBOR. - CAPTURE OF GENERAL PRES- COTT. - CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK. - AUGUSTUS JAY. - BATTLE OF SCOTCH PLAINS. - FALL OF TICONDEROGA. - BATTLE OF ORISKANY. - BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. - DIS- CUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT. - LAFAYETTE. - THE NEW JERSEY GAZETTE. - OPENING OF THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK. - BATTLE OF THE BRANDYWINE. - FALL OF PHILADELPHIA. - BATTLES OF SARATOGA. - BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN. - BURNING OF KINGSTON. - SURRENDER OF BURGOYNE. - VALLEY FORGE. - WEST POINT.
T THE New Year dawned upon a great chieftain almost without an army. And yet many of the disbanding regiments, whose terms of enlistment expired with the old year, were so electrified with delight at the victory of Trenton, that they agreed with one voice to remain six weeks longer, without any stipulations of their own in respect to com- pensation. The grave question of how to pay off the troops agitated Washington at this moment beyond all others ; he had pledged his own fortune, other officers had done the same, the paymaster was out of funds, the public credit was exhausted. Until the bills ordered by Congress could be executed, he was left penniless even of paper money. Robert Morris was in Philadelphia, at the head of a committee from Congress, and to him Washington wrote, December 30, " Borrow money while it can be done. No time, my dear sir, is to be lost." Very early on New Year's morning, writes Bancroft, Morris went from house to house in the Quaker City rousing people from their beds to borrow money ; and before noon he sent Washington fifty thousand dollars.
While Washington was hurriedly reorganizing his army at Trenton, Cornwallis (who, about to sail for Europe when the news of Washington's master-stroke at Trenton reached Howe, had been sent back into New Jersey to repair the mischief wrought) was making ready at Princeton to
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lead seven thousand veteran troops upon the devoted heroes. Of this Washington had timely notice. The cold of the past week had abated, and the roads were soft ; thus the march of the British, which com- menced on the morning of January 2, was painfully slow. And Jan. 2. they were delayed at various points by skirmishers. Leslie, with a bri- gade, was left at Maidenhead as a reserve. At Five Mile Run they en- countered the brave Hand with his riflemen, who disputed every step henceforward until they reached Trenton. At Shabbakong Creek the column was embarrassed for two hours by Americans secreted within the woods on the sides of the road. When within a mile of Trenton, Greene met them with two field-pieces and six hundred or more musketeers, and held them in check for some time, then withdrew in good order. Late on that wintry afternoon Washington, mounted upon a white horse, placed himself in the rear, and threw the few troops remaining in the town across the bridge of the Assanpink, beyond which the main body of his army stood in admirable battle array, silent in their ranks, protected by bat- teries. The sight was imposing; it was nearly sundown, and fogs and ex- ceptional darkness threatened. Cornwallis encamped his tired troops on the hill above, confident in having driven Washington into a situation from which he could not possibly escape, and with vigilant guards sta- tioned along the little stream, went to sleep in anticipation of a desperate struggle on the morrow.
The American camp fires for more than half a mile along the opposite shore of the Assanpink, blazed and flickered, throwing a glare over the town ; and ever and anon from this wall of flame rose flashes, as fresh heaps of fuel were added, illuminating the heavens for a great distance. The British sentries watched lazily, listening to the perpetual sound of digging near the bridge, where the Americans were apparently scrambling to throw up intrenchments, working the whole night long.
At daylight there was not a soul to be seen ! The American army had vanished like a dissolving-view! Cornwallis could scarcely credit the evidence of his own eyes ! Mounted officers tore madly through the streets. Where, oh, where was the foe they had come so far to Jan. 3. fight ? A distant rumbling like that of cannon in the direction of Prince- ton told of a twin achievement to that of the week before, which a dis- tinguished foreign military critic has pronounced the best planned and executed military manœuvre of the eighteenth century. If possible, this attack upon Princeton, in its audacity and its inspiring results, excelled that of Trenton. Cornwallis was appalled lest Washington should reach and destroy the British magazines at New Brunswick ! He broke up his camp and forthwith marched rapidly towards Princeton.
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Washington, knowing the by-ways leading out of Trenton, the cross-cuts and the roundabout roads, had soon after dark silently removed the bag- gage of his army to Burlington. About midnight he had forwarded his troops in detachments by a circuitous route to Princeton. The weather changing suddenly to crisp cold, aided him materially in moving his artil- lery. The party left to deceive the enemy by maintaining fires and noise of labor performed their parts well, and with the early dawn hastened after the army. At sunrise Washington reached the outskirts of Princeton, and wheeled by a back road towards the colleges. Three British regi- ments had been left here, under marching orders for Trenton, and two of these had already started, one being about a mile in advance of the other. With each there was a sharp and severe conflict. In the first, near the bridge at Stony Brook, the lion-hearted General Mercer was killed. This was one of the moments when all the latent fire of Washington's character blazed forth. He rode squarely to the front, less than thirty yards from the enemy, reined in his horse, and waved his hat to cheer on his troops. Scarcely twenty minutes later the British were flying over the fences and fields, vigorously chased for three or four miles. Washington took Hitch- cock by the hand and thanked him in the presence of the soldiers for his gallantry ; and he also warmly complimented Hand for efficient services. Meanwhile Stark, Reed, and Stirling drove the other resisting regiments into the college buildings ; from which, to escape certain capture, the majority fled through the fields into a back road in the direction of New Brunswick. Nearly three hundred surrendered, including fourteen offi- cers ; the British loss in killed was between two and three hundred. The American loss in numbers was small.
Washington would have proceeded instantly to New Brunswick but for the fatigue of his men, who had been in constant service two days and one night, without shelter and almost without refreshment. After breaking up the bridge at Kingston over the Millstone River, he marched toward Jan. 5. the high mountain ridge, and halted for the night at Somerset
Court-house. He reached Morristown on the 5th, and there, among the barriers of nature, established winter-quarters. But he did not sit down idle. He sent out detachments to assail and harass Corn- wallis, and with such address were these expeditions conducted that the British commander was actually compelled to evacuate all his posts west- ward of New Brunswick, and concentrate his forces for the safety of his stores at that place. George Clinton, with troops from Peekskill, looked down upon Hackensack on the day that the army reached Morristown, and the British force fled from that point.
Taking advantage of the consternation of the enemy, Maxwell, with a
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company of militia, suddenly descended from the Short Hills and drove the British out of Newark, had a skirmish with them at Springfield, com- pelled them to leave Elizabeth, and fought them at Rahway for two hours. On the 9th the British were fairly cooped up in New Brunswick and Amboy ; and there they remained the rest of the winter, subject to constant alarms for their own safety. Not a stick of wood, a kernel of corn, or a spear of grass, could they procure without fighting for it, unless sent over from New York.
The glory of these startling achievements was rendered doubly con- spicuous by their immediate effects. The army which was supposed to be on the verge of annihilation had in three weeks dislodged the flower of the British soldiery from every position it had taken, save two, in the whole province of New Jersey. The reaction of public sentiment was marvelous. Despondency was dispelled as by a charm. Washington's sagacity, intrepidity, and generalship were applauded both by friend and foe. The greatest personages of Europe lavished upon him praise and congratulation. He was compared to the renowned commanders of an- tiquity. Van Bulow writes, "The two events of Trenton and Princeton are sufficient to elevate a general to the temple of immortality." Botta, the Italian historian, says, " Achievements so astonishing gained for the American commander a very great reputation, and were regarded with wonder by all nations, as well as by the Americans." Horace Walpole, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, said, " I look upon a great part of Amer- ica as lost to this country."
When the people of New Jersey, who had fled to the mountains for safety upon the advent of the armies in December, ventured to return in January, they found their houses plundered, fences used for fire-wood, and gardens and grounds in open common. Those who had remained in their dwellings learned to their sorrow (as did the inhabitants of Long Island and Westchester) that neither neutrality nor loyalty protected them from barbarous and indiscriminate pillage. Churches were dese- crated, libraries destroyed, and the furniture, clothing, and eatables of private families taken whenever want or inclination dictated, expostu- lation only resulting in wanton mischief - such as the breaking of glass or the ripping open of beds by which feathers were scattered to the four winds. Infancy, old age, and womanhood were brutally outraged. The Hessians bore the blame chiefly, but the English soldiery were scarcely less to be dreaded. The country rose against the invaders. Every foraging party sent out from New Brunswick was driven back with loss by such gallant leaders as Spencer, Maxwell, and Littell. Hun- dreds of skirmishes occurred before spring ; individually unimportant per-
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haps, and yet brilliant in their relations to the events which had gone before and were to follow in immediate succession.
Lord Stirling wrote to Governor Livingston, "Now is the time to exert every nerve." New Jersey in her great peril had no more efficient, faith- ful, and fearless champions than these two officers. Both were New- Yorkers by birth, education, and family interests. Stirling's wife was Livingston's sister. Stirling himself was the son of New York's famous lawyer, James Alexander, and a descendant of the De Peysters through his mother. Lady Mary, the elder of his two daughters, was married to Robert Watts, son of Counselor John Watts, and residing in New York at the present crisis, - her husband, however, taking no part on either side in the conflict. Stir- ling's country-seat was at Baskin- ridge, a few miles from Morris- town, the house one of the finest in the State, fronting a spacious lawn, with gardens, fields, and a fine deer-park stretching off to the right and left. The stables and coach-houses were perhaps the most striking features of the es- Lord Stirling. tate, ornamented with cupolas and gilded weather-vanes, and encircling a large paved court in the rear. They sheltered the handsomest horses and the most stylish equipage at that time in the State.1 Quiet homes in this mountainous region had been secured by many New York families. John Morton, styled the " Rebel banker" by the British, lived near Lord Stirling, and with this gentleman General Lee was to have breakfasted the very morning of his capture. Morton's daughter, Eliza Susan, then quite young, after-
1 Lord Stirling was in serious financial embarrassment, consequent in part from the costli- ness of his residence in England some years before, one of the incidents of which was his unsuccessful claim to the title and estates of the Earl of Stirling. Just prior to the Revo- lution, he obtained Legislative permission to sell his property by lottery, but the tickets had not yet found buyers when the confusion of affairs stopped proceedings. His lands known as the Cheesecocks, Richbills, Provoost, Hardenburgh, and Minisink Patents, in the coun- ties of Orange, Ulster, Albany, and Westchester, with other real estate, were mortgaged to Mrs. Anna Waddell, one of the wealthiest citizens of New York City, of whom he had bor- rowed large sums of money, - which lands subsequently fell by foreclosure to the daughters of Mrs. Waddell, who married into the families of the Taylors and Winthrops. Mrs. Anna
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CONDITION OF NEW JERSEY.
wards married the distinguished scholar and statesman, Josiah Quincy. Mrs. Governor Livingston and her daughter were the guests of Lady Stirling the entire winter, hastily abandoning " Liberty Hall" when the enemy approached Elizabeth.
The governor was upon his horse daily, regardless of cold, fatigue, in- clement weather, or personal danger. He convened the Legislature, and he conferred with Washington, attending to innumerable conflicting duties at various points between Trenton and Morristown. Washington issued mandates which Livingston emphasized relative to the suppression of law- less rapine among the American soldiers. The offer of full pardon to all inhabitants of New Jersey who would surrender their protection-papers to the nearest officer and swear allegiance to the United States, resulted in a considerable accession to the patriot ranks. But there were Quakers in Western New Jersey who fondly cherished the non-resistance doctrine, to the infinite embarrassment of the framers of the new militia laws of the State. Sharp lines were drawn between friends and foes, dividing families and scattering households, but the public safety demanded rigor- ous measures. Every man who was unwilling to take the oath was obliged to retire within the British limits. Upon the recommendation of Livingston, the Legislature finally, on the 5th of June, passed a bill con- fiscating the personal estates of all such as still adhered to the British interest. This provoked the bitterest hostility on the part of the refugees, notwithstanding the act provided a period of grace in which without loss of property they might renew their allegiance. Henceforward to the end
Waddell was the widow of John Waddell, the grandson of Captain John Waddell who, for great naval victories gained by him, was specially endowed by Charles 1I. "in perpetual remembrance of his glorious achievements, to him and his heirs male for- ever," with a coat of arms - ten fire-balls, etc., and a crest of a demi-lion rampant, out of the battlements of a castle, bearing a banner of St. George. John Waddell came front Dover, England, and was married in 1736 to the lady above mentioned, the ceremony taking place in the old Government House. The wedding chairs used on this occasion are still preserved in the family. (See page 191.) He was one of the first subscribers to the New York Society Library. After his death, Mrs. Waddell became one of the trustees, the only lady whose name appears in the Royal charter of that institution. Their eldest son, William Waddell, was an alderman during the Revolution, and a man of civil and social distinction. Henry, eldest son of William Waddell, married Eliza, the daughter of Lloyd Dau- beny (entitled to the Peerage of Lord Daubeny) and Mary Coventry, a descendant of the Earls of Coventry. The eldest son of Henry and Eliza Daubeny Waddell, Coventry Waddell, who was United States Marshal under President Jackson, financial agent of the State Department under Waddell Arms. Secretaries Edward Livingston and John Forsyth, and subsequently Official and General Assignee in Bankruptcy for New York City, is now the only living representative of the three families of Daubeny, Coventry, and Waddell in this country.
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