USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress Vol. III > Part 28
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The wealthy inhabitants contributed magnanimously from their private purses ; military companies were organized and drilled ; men of all trades and avocations offered to labor on the works of defense about the city ; and through individual enterprise alone New York fitted out and sent
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to sea from her port, within four months after the declaration of war, twenty-six privateers, carrying two hundred and twelve guns and two thousand two hundred and thirty-nine men.1 Fortresses had been in slow process of erection in the harbor since 1808. Governor's Island pos- sessed a regular inclosed work of masonry, with a brick magazine, a fur- nace for heating balls red-hot, barracks, and an inexhaustible well of good water. The neighboring islands were fortified, and one or two forts had been projected in the city itself. Two hundred and twenty-eight pieces of artillery were reported to Congress, December 17, 1811, as fit for use ; and it was stated that "three thousand three hundred and two artillerists " would be required for their operation.2 But it was none the less apparent that the city and harbor were but feebly prepared to resist an attack from a powerful foe, and men were employed without delay in erecting new forts and strengthening those already existing.
The plan of the campaign was formed at Washington. The buoyant, persuasive, imperious speaker, Clay, and the ambitious and intrepid Calhoun, then a member of Congress, and but thirty years of age, both aspiring to leadership, were inexhaustibly supplied with ingenious argu- ments in support of aggressive warfare. Madison first thought of ap- pointing Clay commander-in-chief; but the brilliant Kentuckian was unacquainted with military science, and, moreover, was wanted at Wash- ington. Of the Revolutionary officers but few survived. Henry Dear- born had distinguished himself under General Washington, been Secretary of War from 1801 to 1809, and since then collector of the port of Bos- ton ; he was sixty-one years of age, a large, portly man of commanding mien, undoubted ability, and unimpeachable integrity. He was placed at the head of the land forces of the Northwestern department. Thomas Pinckney, sixty-two years of age, was appointed second major-general, and placed in command of the Southern department. Joseph Bloomfield, the governor of New Jersey since 1801, a veteran of the Revolution, who was in New York City in charge of the fortifications in process of erec- tion when the news reached him, was commissioned a brigadier-general ; and William Hull, governor of the Territory of Michigan, James Win- chester of Tennessee, and John Parker Boyd of Massachusetts were also made brigadiers.
The invasion of Canada at Detroit and Niagara had been determined upon and openly avowed by Congress, months before the declaration of
1 Hardie's Description of the City of New York (1827), p. 131 ; Miss Booth's History of the City of New York (1863), p. 697.
2 Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1868, pp. 882, 883 ; Dr. Mitchill's Description of the Fortifications, 1808.
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war. Thus the British government had ample time to put their menaced province in a state of complete defense, and supply regular troops from England. Governor Hull was in Washington during the spring, and heard the subject freely discussed in official circles. He protested against the attempt, without a fleet upon Lake Erie, where the British had full sway. Solomon Sibley, a distinguished citizen of Detroit, wrote an earnest and manly letter to Senator Thomas Worthington of Ohio, requesting him to explain to the President the need of a large force at Detroit. He said " a scheme had been long in agitation, and generally approved by the Indians, to clear the country north and west of the Ohio of every American, and in future establish that river as a boundary." He also expressed the opinion that the attack would be made by 1812 the savages, whatever the result of pending negotiations with Great Britain, and that it was of the first importance to the government to send troops before May or June, lest the important post be sacrificed, and the whole line of frontier involved in ruin.1
Objections were made to giving Governor Hull the control of the army in Ohio and Michigan. It was said that the people of the region had no confidence in him -that he was too old and broken in body and nerves to conduct the multifarious operations of such a command. He at first declined the proposed honor and service. The nomination was made on the ground of his valuable military experience. It was opposed, referred to a committee, reported upon favorably, and confirmed by the Senate. Return Jonathan Meigs, son of the heroic Colonel Meigs of Connecticut, was the governor of Ohio at this crisis ; and in response to his call for troops to assemble at Dayton, in April, men flocked thither from every part of the State, ambitious for distinction and eager for ac- tion. Three regiments were organized, with their field-officers elected, when Hull arrived from Washington, May 25. Duncan McArthur was colonel of the first regiment, James Findlay of the second, and Lewis Cass, then thirty years of age, afterwards Secretary of State, of the third. General Wadsworth, commanding the fourth division of Ohio militia, obeyed with alacrity an order to raise three companies of volunteers. At Urbana the moving army was joined by a brave regiment of regulars under James Miller. The entire month of June was consumed by Hull and his troops in toiling through the almost unbroken wilderness towards the Maumee country. They must necessarily cut a road or pathway two hundred or more miles, and causeways of logs had to be constructed across morasses, and bridges thrown across considerable streams. Block-
1 Letter of Sibley to Worthington, February 26, 1812 ; Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley, pp. 123- 127 ; Baines' French Revolution, Vol. II. p. 368.
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houses for the protection of the sick and of provision-trains were also indispensable. Meanwhile hostile Indians skulked behind the bushes and trees, watching every movement with malignant vigilance.
The news of the declaration of war reached Hull on the second day of July, a few hours after his army had moved from the foot of the Maumee Rapids towards Detroit. He had sent two small vessels from that point to convey the sick and the hospital stores to Detroit by water ; he had also shipped his own baggage and that of most of his officers, together with intrenching tools and camp furniture. Captain Hull, the son and aid of the governor, executed the order of shipment, and unfortunately included a small trunk containing Hull's commission and instructions from the War Department, with the complete muster-rolls of the army about to invade Canada ; and the wives of three of the officers, with thirty soldiers for their protection, were passengers. The messenger who con- veyed the government despatch to Hull, which had been intrusted to the postmaster at Cleveland by the postmaster-general, was obliged to swim all the streams between Cleveland and Maumee ; and thence pursued the army to its night encampment, which he reached about two o'clock in the morning, just as the moon was rising. Two hours later the troops were marching rapidly. In the mean time Hull despatched a party to the mouth of the Raisin to stop the vessels with their precious cargoes, but it was too late. The schooner had fallen into the hands of the British at Malden, who had been apprised of the declaration of war two days in advance of Hull, and the valuable information, as well as other treasures, was appropriated by the enemy. The smaller vessel with the sick passed up the more shallow channel on the west side of Bois Blanc Island, and reached Detroit in safety. On the 6th Colonel Cass was sent to Malden with a flag of truce to demand the baggage and prisoners taken from the schooner. On his approach he was blindfolded, and in this condition taken before Colonel St. George, and treated courteously. But the de- mand was refused.
The British were already erecting fortifications on the Canadian side of the river opposite Detroit, which would seriously menace the fort. Hull prepared with all possible expedition to drive them away. After great exertions in obtaining boats and canoes, and through a resort to strategy by which the British hastened to defend another point, he crossed over in the night to Canada, just above the present town of Windsor, hoisting the American flag on the bright and lovely Sabbath morning of July 12, and issuing a stirring proclamation to the inhabitants.
But Hull did not push immediately forward and attack the citadel of the British and Indians at Malden, as his impetuous young officers de-
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sired. He had no means of learning the real strength of that fortified post, thirteen miles below, which, from its position on the Detroit River near its entrance into Lake Erie, effectually commanded the waters. Its possession would soon become necessary for self-preservation, as its warriors infested the road from Ohio over which provisions were to be transported on wagons or pack-horses for the army ; and yet failure was probable unless he could first provide his men with battering cannon, and ladders of sufficient height and number to scale the walls. This gave the British ample time to strengthen their garrison. He afterwards confessed that he took every step under two sets of fears: he dared not act boldly lest his incompetent force be totally destroyed, or cease from acting lest his uneasy militia desert him altogether. While beseeching government for reinforcement, some of his energetic officers performed daring exploits in the vicinity. Four days after he encamped on the Canadian shore, Fort Mackinaw, the strongest American post in the country, situated upon an island in Lake Huron, fell into the hands of the British. Its garrison numbered only fifty-seven, and its commandant was first apprised of the declaration of war by the British officer, who at the head of one thousand men demanded its surrender. The disaster completely changed the whole face of affairs. The Indians who had been owerawed by this northern fort became more deadly hostile, and influ- enced by the apparently victorious British were eager to march upon Detroit. Hull had been the governor of Michigan for nine years, and, perfectly aware of the danger and the brutal character of the savages, was appalled at the situation. He expected a promised attack upon the New York frontier at Niagara would create a diversion in his favor. But the British commander-in-chief, Sir George Prevost, and General Dear- born had already agreed to sign an armistice for a brief period, to take effect on the 13th of August, in which Hull was not included. And no notice of it was sent to Hull, otherwise Detroit might have been saved. Suspecting the whole force of the British was about to be directed against him, Hull on the 8th of August ingloriously retreated to Detroit. His officers of every grade were angered with disappointment, and upbraided him with imbecility and even treachery.
New York had by no means been idle during these summer days. While the little invading army at Detroit was fostering terrible suspicions concerning its commander-in-chief, the New York forces collected on the Niagara frontier were scattered along to guard a line of thirty-five miles. " We have eleven cannon for all our extensive territory," wrote Major John Lovett on the 14th of August ; " and from Buffalo to Niagara, both inclusive, we have less than one thousand militia."
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Confronting them on the Canadian shore was a well-appointed army, under the most exact discipline, and commanded by skillful and experi- enced officers. Every important eminence from Fort Erie to Fort George, on Lake Ontario, was crowned with a battery ; and a commanding position on the heights of Queenstown was every day becoming more secure and formidable. All this, together with the mastery of the lakes, which gave the British facilities for crossing the river at a moment's notice, rendered the outlook extremely dubious for aggressive warfare.
Alexander Macomb, [Major-General U. S. A.]
General Dearborn established himself in the beginning at Greenbush, opposite Albany, as Lake Champlain was the great military high- way to the centre of the British province, and the American settlements at the foot of the lake were remote and exposed. But he delayed prep- arations for the prop- er conduct of the war in all directions through signing the
armistice, which he continued until the 29th of August. The Legisla- ture of New York, quite as vigilant as the national government, had taken measures in the early part of April for enforcing the laws against. smuggling on her frontiers. Small forces of infantry and some artillery were stationed at various points. By a general order issued from the War Department on the 21st of April, the detached militia of New York were arranged in two divisions and eight brigades. The governor of New York made herculean efforts to raise the quota of the State, which in defect of sufficient regular troops was needed at once on the Niagara fron- tier; and he appointed Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon, to the chief command. John Armstrong, having returned the year before from his
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mission to France, was commissioned a brigadier by the general govern- ment in place of the distinguished Peter Gansevoort, who died, after a long and distressing illness, on the 2d of July. Morgan Lewis was ap- pointed quartermaster-general, Alexander Smyth of Virginia, inspector- general, and Thomas H. Cushing of Massachusetts, adjutant-general. Alexander Macomb, of the artillery, was made a colonel, and Winfield Scott, then twenty-six years of age, Edmund Pendleton Gaines of Virginia, and Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, Speaker of the Massachusetts Legislature, each received a lieutenant-colonelcy.
Alexander Macomb, son of Alexander Macomb (or McComb as the name is frequently written, the member of the New York Legislature at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, who pur- chased upwards of three and one half million acres of land resting upon Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in 1792, and who had six sons in the War of 1812) was born in the British garrison at Detroit, in 1782, just at the close of hostilities between Great Britain and her colo- nies ; he was brought by his parents to New York in infancy, and reared in the city. At a school in Newark, New Jersey, his military genius and taste first revealed itself in the organization and drilling of companies among his classmates. At twenty-three he was captain of a corps of engineers, and at twenty-six elevated to the rank of major. So highly were his attainments esteemed that he was employed at West Point by the government to compile a treatise on martial law. He was thirty when promoted to the colonelcy, on the outbreak of hostilities ; and six- teen years later we shall find him general-in-chief of the army of the United States.
The death of Vice-President George Clinton at this juncture deprived New York of an able counselor. During the whole of the Revolutionary War he stood at the head of the government of the State, and sustained with unshaken firmness the rights of the people. No man was more familiar with the physical condition of New York, or better understood the difficulties to be avoided in attempting to defend her wild and unset- tled frontiers. His judgment of men and motives was profound, as well as his knowledge of the human heart. He was to have been nominated for re-election, and would probably have served a third term of Vice-Presidency had his life been spared. He had already presided over the Senate for seven years with rare dignity and discretion. He died in office, at Wash- ington, on the 20th of April, 1812, about nine o'clock in the morning. He was in the seventy-third year of his age. During his illness he was unremittingly attended by his son-in-law, General Pierre Van Cortlandt (son of the lieutenant-governor during Clinton's eighteen years' governor-
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ship of New York), who had succeeded his brother, General Philip Van Cortlandt, as member of Congress. The funeral ceremonies were con- ducted from the Capitol on the afternoon of the 21st, the President and his Cabinet, Congress, and distinguished men of every profession, citizens and strangers, attending. The imposing procession, escorted by cavalry, moved at four o'clock to the Congressional Cemetery on the Eastern branch of the Potomac, where his remains were tenderly interred.1
Van Cortlandt wrote to his brother Philip on the 23d censuring the President for having on the previous evening been so " disrespectful to the memory of a greater man than himself as to suffer Mrs. Madison to have her drawing-room as usual. It is spoken of in all places," he said. On the 26th he wrote again, criticising Madison in the severest terms for sending a message to Congress recommending two assistants to the Sec- retary of War "on the very day of the death of the Vice-President, and while both Houses were mourning the great loss of the nation. The mes- sage was not suffered to be read in either House." In the same letter he remarked : " Overtures were made to me to get Mr. De Witt Clinton to consent to be the Vice-President under Mr. Madison. This arrangement cannot nor will not take place." 2
1 Over the grave of Vice- of white marble was erected, pen of De Witt Clinton ; "To He was a soldier and statesman council, distinguished in war. fulness, purity, and ability, those of governor of his native the United States. While he valor were the pride, the orna- try ; and when he died he left spent life, worthy of all imita- 2 General Pierre Van Cort- Cortlandt, April 26, 1812. Van Cortlandt at this period, ly, throw much light upon the cians at the seat of govern- to Madison, although one of during his late administration. of Vice-President Clinton, and pp.407-410 (Vol. II.). He sub- son, who died in 1821 ; she was who married the sister of Volck- Annals of Albany. See pp. 99,
President Clinton a monument bearing the inscription, from the the memory of George Clinton. of the Revolution, eminent in He filled with unexampled use- among many other high offices, State and of Vice-President of lived his virtue, wisdom, and ment, and security of his coun- an illustrious example of a well- tion."
landt to General Philip Van The letters of General Pierre carefully preserved by the fami- conduct and motives of politi- ment. He was bitterly opposed the warmest friends of Jefferson He married Catharine, daughter 57+ was left a widower in 1811. See sequently married Ann Steven- the daughter of John Stevenson, ert Peter Douw. - Munsell's Clinton's Tomb 100 (Vol. II.). Their only son, Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, the present proprietor of the old historical manor-house, mar- ried, in 1836, Catharine, daughter of Dr. Theodoric Romeyn Beck -known throughout the civilized world as the author and founder of medical jurisprudence, a science which he sub- stantially created, and who ranks, wherever law and justice are administered, with Blackstone,
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COLONEL SOLOMON VAN RENSSELAER.
It was a master-stroke of policy rather than the deliberate choice of a good military leader, when Stephen Van Rensselaer, a leading Federalist, and known to be greatly opposed to the war, was appointed to the major- generalship of the detached militia of New York. He was not a military man, but since his country was committed to the measure of war he nobly laid aside all party feeling and gave it his hearty support. It was thought the example of a man of such wealth and importance in the State would influence favorably the disaffected. He accepted the appointment only on condition that his cousin, Solomon Van Rensselaer, adjutant-general of New York, and well acquainted with military science, should accompany him as his aid and counselor. It was well understood that the latter would be the general, in a practical military point of view. He was some ten years younger than the patroon, the son of General Henry Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, who was wounded at the capture of Burgoyne. He was a born soldier. Before his twentieth birthday he raised a valiant little company of soldiers in his own county of Rensselaer, and, with the sacred commission of Washington in his pocket, led them through a dense Western wilderness of several hundred miles, and joined Anthony Wayne's expedition to the Maumee in 1794. He was promoted to the command of a troop and greatly admired and respected by his superior officers for his soldier-like deportment.1
Bacon, and Grotius. Children of Colonel Pierre and Catharine Beck Van Cortlandt : 1. Cath- arine Theresa Romeyn, married Rev. John Rutherford Matthews ; 2. Pierre Van Cortlandt, died October 16, 1879 ; 3. Romeyn Beck, died March 1, 1843; 4. James Stevenson ; 5. Theodoric Romeyn, died August 11, 1880 ; 6. Anne Stevenson ; 7. Philip, died October 10, 1858. Maria, the youngest daughter of Vice-President Clinton, was with her father at the time of his death. She subsequently married Dr. Stephen Beekman, who was appointed a surgeon of the United States army under Dearborn, at Greenbush. He wrote to General Van Cortlandt, August 11, 1812 : " I am sickened with campaigning - living in tow-cloth houses ; and the mode of operating, sending soldiers off in small detachments, and not half found with clothing or ammunition, so that the Britishers may have no trouble in taking them and sending the officers home on parole of honor, disgusts me with the service, and I am de- termined to resign." - Family Archives.
1 Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer was a rigid disciplinarian. He was at one time parad- ing his famous sorrel troop near the quarters of General Wilkinson on the Wabash River. It was just prior to a contemplated action with the Indians in 1794 ; he had been exercising his men upon every description of service, whether the land was cleared or wooded, broken or smooth, and they were taught to consider no obstacle impassable without a fair trial. General Wilkinson was looking on, and, wishing to test the metal of the youthful officer, cried out, just as the troop came to a halt, facing a stone wall which surrounded his fine garden, " Charge !" In an instant the spurs touched Van Rensselaer's finely strung horse that stood with his neck proudly arched, and with a flying leap, the result of muscular energy that would have unseated a careless rider, he cleared the wall, followed by the whole troop, scam- pering over the vegetables and demolishing every growing thing in their progress. Having prompted this ruinous result to the fruits of a summer's industry and care by his own man- date, although he never supposed the cavalry would pass the high enclosure, Wilkinson
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He married his cousin Harriet, daughter of Colonel Philip and Maria Sanders Van Rensselaer, in 1797. The mother of the bride refusing to sanction the marriage it was tinged with romance. One cold frosty afternoon in January, while the lady of the house was taking her cus- tomary nap on the sofa before a blazing fire in the family sitting-room, the young soldier, with the full consent of the bride's father was united to the beautiful Harriet in the bonds of matrimony by the venerable Dominie Van Vranken of Fishkill. After the ceremony the dominie and the bride- groom climbed out the back window, and the mother was none the wiser for some days. In April of the same year the young soldier wrote to his wife from Philadelphia: "Since I came here I have been sitting twice a day to have my miniature taken by Gilbert Stuart, a masterly artist. It was finished this evening. The price for painting was fifty dollars ; although it is extravagant, yet with much satisfaction did I pay for it, as it was intended to give you pleasure. The likeness is not as striking a one as he took for President Washington and General Wilkinson, in my eyes." The exquisitely painted miniature, of which the accompanying sketch is a fac-simile, was executed on ivory, set in gold, and placed in a red morocco case lined with white satin.
John Lovett, a lawyer of Albany, afterwards member of Congress, was invited by the patroon to become his military secretary. " I am not a soldier!" was the quick response. " It is not your sword, but your pen, that I want," said Van Rensselaer. Whereupon Lovett accepted the prof- stifled his regrets at the destruction of his garden, and with the gravity of a stoic brought the mischief-makers back. After a few more manœuvres, and when the troop suddenly faced the river, the general again shouted, "Charge !" Away under full speed the dauntless young captain with his well-trained horsemen dashed down the steep bank, and headlong into the river, before the order could be countermanded. If the chagrin of the general had been great when his garden had been destroyed, his apprehension was greater now for the safety of the obedient and reckless troop. He watched their movements in silent agony. One of them, a cornet, he saw separated from his own steed, and, in imminent danger of be- ing killed by the struggles of others, but grappled in time and taken in tow by the vigilant captain, whose cheering voice was heard above the uproar. The gallant fellows ascended the opposite bank in triumph, and Wilkinson, as he expressed himself, "felt as if released from the burden of Atlas." (Legacy of Historical Gleanings, by Mrs. Catharine V. R. Bonney.) In the notable battle at the foot of the Maumee Rapids in August, 1794, this boy of twenty sig- nalized himself at the head of the same troop in one of the most brilliant and effective charges ever made against the savages of that region. He was wounded, it was supposed fatally, and a litter was brought to convey him from the victorious battle-field. He refused to be laid upon it. "You young dog ! how then are you going ?" exclaimed Wayne. "I am an offi- cer of the cavalry, sir, and shall go on horseback," was the reply. "You will drop by the way," suggested Wayne. " If I do, just cover me up and let me lie there," was the quiet re- sponse. He was mounted upon his own charger as he desired, and one of his dragoons on either side supported him some five or six miles. The best surgeons in the army attended him, and each said after his recovery, that not one of a thousand ever survived such wounds.
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