USA > New York > History of the state of New York, for the use of common schools, academies, normal and high schools, and other seminaries of instruction > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
3. In the mean time a committee of Congress, consisting of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Con- necticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York, had reported a DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, which, on the FOURTH OF JULY, was unanimously adopted by the delegates of all the late Colo- nies, now forming the THIRTEEN UNITED STATES of America. This declaration was enthusiastically approved on the 9th of July by
Preparations for the defence of New York. - General and Lord Howe and Sir Henry Clinton invest New York. - Declaration of Independence.
104
FIFTH PERIOD.
the Fourth Provincial Congress of New York, at their meeting at White Plains, and effective measures of defence were inaugurated.
4. The city of New York was now invested by a formidable army of twenty-five thousand veteran troops, under the con- mand of an able and experienced general, and heavy reinforce- ments from England and the Continent were daily expected. By the possession of the city, with its harbor and adjacent islands, and the consequent command of the Hudson, a free communication with Canada was expected to be secured, and the separation of the Eastern from the Middle States effected. To meet this powerful force, Washington had at his command an undisciplined militia of about seventeen thousand effective men.
5. Several abortive efforts at accommodation having been made by the British commanders, a force of ten thousand men, with forty pieces of artillery, were, on the 22d of August, land- ed on the southern shore of Long Island, near the villages of New Utrecht and Gravesend, a few miles below the city, and in three divisions marched to the attack of the American camp at Brooklyn, commanded by General Putnam, with a force of about five thousand men. The left division of the British army, under General Grant, took the route by the Narrows towards Gowanus ; the right, under Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, that lead- ing to the interior of the island, and intersecting the road leading from Bedford to Jamaica ; and the central division, under De Heister, chiefly composed of Hessians, that by the vil- lage of Flatbush, on the south of the range of hills connecting the Narrows with Jamaica.
6. On the morning of the 27th, Clinton, advancing from Flat- lands, had succeeded in gaining possession of the Jamaica pass, near the site of the present East New York, intrusted to the command of General Sullivan, and, with his entire force, de- scended, by the village of Bedford, into , the plain between the hills and the American camp. Grant, moving along the shores of the bay, attacked Lord Stirling on the present site of the Greenwood Cemetery. De Heister, advancing on the Flatbush road, the patrols assigned to guard the passes having been rash-
Approved by Provincial Congress at White Plains. - Plan of the cam- paign. - Forces of the combatants. - Battle of Long Island. - Disposition of the forces.
:
105
BROOKLYN AND HARLEM HEIGHTS.
ly withdrawn by Putnam's order, engaged Sullivan, while Clinton gained a position in his rear. Sullivan immediately ordered a retreat to the American lines at Brooklyn ; but being pressed by Clinton and driven back upon the Hessians, after losing a great portion of his force, he was compelled to surrender.
7. Cornwallis, in the mean while, taking the road to Gowanus, attacked Stirling, who was made prisoner, together with most of his command, many of their number having been drowned while attempting to escape across the Gowanus Creek. The victory on the part of the British was decisive. Five hundred Americans were killed or wounded, and upwards of a thousand taken pris- oners and confined in the prison-ships at New York, where, for a long period, they endured extreme hardships and privations. The British loss was comparatively trifling. On the night of the 29th, Washington silently, and under cover of the darkness and a thick mist, drew off the remainder of his troops to New York, unperceived by the enemy.
8. On the 12th of September, Washington, with the broken and dispirited remainder of his forces, retreated to Harlem Heights on the upper part of the island, where he fortified him- self and awaited the attack of the British. With the view of obtaining authentic information of their movements, Nathan Hale, a young officer in Colonel Knowlton's regiment, was de- spatched to the enemy's camp on Long Island, in disguise. After possessing himself of full intelligence of their strength and plans, he was intercepted on his return and conveyed to General Howe's head-quarters, then in New York, where he was tried and convicted as a spy, and executed at daybreak on the ensu- ing morning, with circumstances of contumely and insult reflect- ing deep disgrace on their heartless agents.
9. In the mean time, under cover of the fire of the British ships, Howe, on the 15th, landed at Kip's' Bay, at the foot of the present Thirty-Sixth Street on the East River, driving before him two brigades of Connecticut militia stationed in the neigh- borhood for its defence, to the intense and passionate indigna-
Defeat of the Americans. - Withdrawal of the troops to New York. - Retreat to Harlem Heights. - Arrest and execution of Nechat. Hale as a Ty. - Howe effects a landing at Kip's Bay. - Cowardly retreat of Connec. tirut troops.
106
FIFTH. PERIOD.
tion of Washington, who arrived on the ground just in season to witness, without being able to prevent, their ignominious flight. Seeing that further occupation of the island was impracticable, Putnam received orders to evacuate the city, and the troops at Harlem were removed to Kingsbridge, at its upper extremity. Silliman's brigade, which by some mischance had been left be- hind, was extricated from its perilous position by the bravery and address of Colonel Burr, then an aid of Putnam's. On the next day a severe skirmish ensued between the contending forces at Harlem, in which the Americans were victorious, with the loss of two brave officers, - Colonel Knowlton of Connec- ticut and Major Leitch of Virginia.
10. General Howe, with the design of gaining the rear of the Americar. army, leaving a strong force in possession of the city, and sending three armed vessels up the Hudson to intercept all communication with New Jersey, transferred the main portion of his forces, now amounting to 35,000 men, to a point in West- chester County, in the vicinity of Throg's Neck on the Sound, sixteen miles north of the city. Washington, comprehending his designs, and leaving a garrison of three thousand men in Fort Washington on the Hudson, under command of Colonel Magaw, withdrew the residue of his forces to White Plains, on the left bank of the Bronx River.
11. Here the American army took post on the high grounds northwest and northeast of the village, and on the lower ground between, extending from the Bronx on the right to Horton's (now Willett's) Pond, on the left, having the village in their front, and the rocky height known as Chatterton's Hill on the south- west, separated from the right of the lines by a narrow marsh, through which the river flowed. The enemy, meanwhile, having advanced to Scarsdale, within four miles of White Plains, where they remained for three days, marched, on the morning of the 28th of October, in two columns, to the attack, General Clinton with the British troops commanding the right, and General Howe, with the Hessians under De Heister, having charge of the left.
12. Driving before them the pickets and advance parties,
Washington's indignation. - Evacuation of the city. - Skilful extrica- tion of Silliman's brigade. - Skirmish at Harlem. - Advance of the British to Throg's Neck. - Retreat of Washington to White Plains.
107
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
the division of De Heister encountered at Hart's Corners, about a mile south of the lines, a battalion of two thousand Ameri- can troops, under General Spencer, who gave them a temporary check. They speedily rallied, however, and gained a position south of Chatterton's Hill, in front of which intrenchments had been hastily thrown up by the Americans, and placed in charge of General MeDougall, at the head of his brigade. Colonel Haslett's Delaware regiment, which had been ordered to his sup- port, was thrown into confusion by the Hessian fire, and replaced by the Maryland and one of the New York regiments on the extreme right of the line.
13. General Howe, abandoning his original intention of at- tacking the main body on the heights and plains north of the village, concentrated his force against MeDougall. A sharp cannonading was kept up for upwards of an hour. The enemy, in three divisions, steadily ascended the hill, attacking simul- tancously the regiments stationed on its southern and northern slope and on the summit, as well as the right flank which was assailed by the Hessians. An attempt to turn McDougall's left was promptly defeated. After an obstinate contest, General McDougall's troops were forced to give way, with the loss of about sixty men killed and an equal number wounded, with forty prisoners. The remainder of the force retreated in good order.
14. On the ensuing night, General Washington drew back his lines, ordered fresh reinforcements, and so strengthened his position that no renewal of the attack was attempted. On the 31st he retired to North Castle, about two miles north, where he remained until early in November, when the enemy withdrew their forces to Kingsbridge, preparatory to a contemplated attack on Fort Washington, which was speedily invested.
15. This important fortress occupied a prominent position on the Hudson River, between the present One Hundred and Eighty- First and One Hundred and Eighty-Sixth Streets, the highest point on the island, and completely commanding the navigation of the river. It was supported and defended by a series of strong redoubts, batteries, and other works, on the north and south, extending across the entire island at that point, covering the
Battle of White Plains.
108
FIFTH PERIOD.
Harlem River, and that portion of Westchester County between its eastern shore and Long Island Sound.
16. General Knyphausen, with a large body of Hessian and English troops, amounting in all to five thousand men, attacked the fort on the 16th of November, which, after a gallant defence by the garrison, under Colonel Magaw, with about three thousand men, was compelled to surrender, with the loss of fifty men killed and about one hundred wounded, the remainder being captured. Two days afterwards, Fort Lee, on the opposite shore of the Hud- son, fell into the hands of Lord Cornwallis, with its garrison of six thousand men, and a quantity of baggage and military stores. And the remainder of the American army fell back through New Jersey to Trenton, where, on the 8th of December, they crossed the Delaware into Pennsylvania.
17. Events, meanwhile, of considerable importance, were trans- piring on the northern frontier. General Gates, -to whom the command of the troops lately engaged in the disastrous expedi- tion against Canada had been assigned, - apprehensive of an im- mediate attempt to recapture Crown Point and Ticonderoga, abandoning the former by the advice of a council of officers, concentrated his forces at the latter point, where in August he constructed a squadron of small vessels, and placed them on Lake Champlain under the command of General Arnold. Carleton, on learning this intelligence, made similar preparations on his part to counteract the movement, whatever it might por- tend, and anchored his squadron opposite St. John's. Arnold, unaware of the strength of his opponent, fell back from his . position opposite Crown Point to Valcour's Island, a short dis- tance south of Plattsburg, where he anchored his fleet across the narrow channel between the island and the western shore of the lake, and awaited Carleton's approach.
18. On the morning of the 11th of October the enemy's squadron, consisting of a very superior force in ships, schooners, soldiers, and seamen, appeared off Cumberland Head to the northward, and, sweeping around the southerly point of Valeour's Island, took up a position directly south of the American fleet.
Capture of Forts Washington and Lee. - Retreat of the American army through New Jersey to Pennsylvania. - Naval combat on Lake Champlain between the British and American fleets.
£
109
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Arnold immediately prepared for action, and at about eleven o'clock his schooner - the Royal Savage - and a few of the small Wwats got under way, the residue of the squadron remaining at anchor. The schooner was speedily disabled by the enemy's guns, and, to prevent her falling into his hands, run ashore by her captain and burnt. The action was continued with round and grape shot, on both sides, until night separated the com- batants.
19. So severe were the injuries sustained by the American squadron in this desperate engagement, that an immediate return to Crown Point was deemed advisable; and notwith- standing the proximity of the enemy's vessels in their front, aided by the darkness of the night and the presence of a heavy fog, they succeeded in passing through the fleet undiscovered, and in reaching Schuyler's Island, ten miles distant, where they stopped for a short time for repairs. Resuming their course, and closely pursued by their disappointed adversaries, they reached Willsborough, about thirty miles north of Crown Point, on the morning of the 13th, and were shortly afterwards overtaken by the enemy's fleet, favored by a fresh northeasterly breeze.
20. The schooner Washington, which was first overtaken, after sustaining with great gallantry the fire of three of the British vessels, struck her colors, and General Waterbury and his men, who were on board, were taken prisoners. The Congress was next attacked, and sustained for five hours a spirited but unequal contest against a vastly superior force, when, having become a complete wreck, with her sails, rigging, and hull torn to shreds, Arnold run her into a creek on the eastern shore of the lake, and set her on fire, with the remaining boats by which he was accompanied. He then, after witnessing the completion of his work, marched his men through the woods to Chimney Point, reaching Crown Point at an carly hour on the ensuing morning. .
21. Of the fleet with which he sailed from Crown Point a few days before, only two schooners, a sloop, two galleys, and a gondola remained. The prisoners captured from the Wash- ington were released on parole, and returned to Crown Point on
The American fleet disabled. - Its retreat and pursuit. - Return to Crown Point.
110
FIFTH PERIOD.
the next day. General Arnold was highly complimented in all quarters for his skill, bravery, and persistent courage in the face of so great odds ; and the result of the combat was hailed as indicative of future naval triumphs on the part of the Ameri- cans, under less adverse circumstances.
CHAPTER VII.
FIRST STATE CONSTITUTION. - GEORGE CLINTON ELECTED GOVERNOR. - BARBAROUS TREATMENT OF PRISONERS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. - BURGOYNE'S CAMPAIGN. - MURDER OF JANE McCREA. - BATTLE OF ORISKANY.
1. MEANWHILE the city of New York became, from the period of its occupation by the English troops, the head-quarters 1777. of the British army, under the command of General Howe. The patriotic inhabitants - such of them, at least, as had escaped capture and imprisonment - were compelled to aban- don their abodes, which were occupied chiefly by officers of the army and hosts of Tories from the neighboring counties. The Provincial Congress adjourned to Kingston and other towns on the Hudson, where, in conjunction with delegates from the in- terior, they established a committee of safety, with John Jay at its head, and by spirited and patriotic addresses encouraged resistance to the common enemy.' Westchester and Rockland, known as the neutral ground, were infested by "Cow-Boys " and " Skinners," - the former avowed Tories, and the latter indif- ferent to any principle other than plunder.
2. In March, 1777, General Howe despatched a strong force up the Hudson for the capture of the military stores of the Americans at Peekskill, which, on their approach, were promptly destroyed by the defenders under the command of General Mc- Dougall, and the party, without accomplishing their object, returned to New York. A short time afterwards Colonel Meigs, with one hundred and twenty men, attacked a British post at Sag Harbor, on the eastern extremity of Long Island,
Result of the conflict. - Occupation of New York. - The neutral ground. - Military stores at Peekskill. - Attack on Sag Harbor.
-
.. .
-- -
111
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
burned several vessels, store-houses, &c., and took ninety prisoners, for which he received the thanks of Congress.
3. In April of this year, a Convention of delegates, represent- ing the several counties of the State, assembled at Kingston and formed the first State Constitution. By its provisions a Gov- ernor was to be elected by the people for a term of three years, and the legislative department vested in a Senate and Assem- bly, deriving their power from the same source. All inferior offices were to be filled by the Governor and a council of four senators, -- one from each district ; and to a Council of Revision, similarly constituted, was assigned the power to pass upon the validity and constitutionality of legislative acts. GEORGE CLINTON, of Orange County, already favorably distinguished for his patriotism and public and private worth, was elected Gov- ernor. John Jay was appointed Chief-Justice ; Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor ; and Philip Livingston, James Duane, Francis Lewis, and Gouverneur Morris, delegates to the Con- tinental Congress.
4. During this period, and until nearly the conclusion of the war, the numerous prisons in the city of New York, and the prison-ships in its vicinity, were crowded with captives, whose ill-treatment and sufferings reflected a lasting disgrace upon the vile instruments by whom they were inflicted and upon the nation which permitted them. The City Hall, the Bridewell, situated on the Commons, the new jail in the Provost, many of the churches, the old Sugar-House, built in the days of Leisler, and other public buildings, were transformed into receptacles for the captured soldiers.
5. The Jersey prison-ship, and numerous other vessels in the bay, rivers, and harbor, were converted into loathsome dungeons for the sailors. The former, under the supervision of the in- famous Provost-Marshal Cunningham, with his assistants, depu- ties, and commissaries, were subjected to the most inhuman and incredible barbarities ; while the latter were huddled together in vast numbers in crowded hulks and miserable cabins, suffering all the horrors of pestilence, starvation, and tyrannical barbarity.
Constitutional Convention. - Election of Governor and appointment of State officers and Congressional delegates. - Barbarous treatment of prisoners. - The Sugar-House and Jersey prison-ship.
112
FIFTH PERIOD.
In one church eight hundred prisoners were incarcerated, of whom many died from sheer want of the necessaries of life, ill- treatment, and neglect ; and in another three thousand were crowded together, large numbers of whom perished from discase and violence.
6. The atrocities which have consigned the memory of the old Sugar House to an eternal infamy were of a still deeper dye, and their horrible and revolting details are equalled only by the annals of the Bastile and the dungeon vaults of the European feudal ages. But even these were surpassed, if pos- sible, in cruelty and criminality, in the Provost Jail, under the immediate charge of Cunningham, where the most brutal and barbarous treatment to prisoners of distinction of every grade was of daily occurrence. On board the prison-ships the same systematic outrages against the commonest dictates of human- ity were continually perpetrated ; nor did they cease, in these or the other prisons, notwithstanding the constant remonstrances of Washington, until the close of the war.
7. In accordance with the original design of separating the eastern and northern colonies from the southern and western by the occupancy of the Hudson River, General Burgoyne, in command of an army of seven thousand men, consisting of English, Germans, Canadians, and Indians, established himself, on the 16th of June, 1777, at Crown Point, and from that point proceeded on the 2d of July to invest Ticonderoga, sending out a detachment of about two thousand Canadians and Indians, by way of Oswego, to attack Fort Schuyler on the Mohawk.
8. General St. Clair, who commanded the post at Ticonderoga, with a force of about three thousand men, finding himself un- able to hold the outworks against the superior forces brought to bear against him, withdrew to the defences of the fort. The British troops took post on the northwest ; their German allies on the opposite side of the lake in the rear of Mount Indepen- dence, occupied by the Americans ; while Mount Defiance, on the southern side of the outlet, which commanded the entire position, had been left unfortified from inability to furnish it with an effective garrison.
9. The British immediately availed themselves of this omis-
Plan and objects of the campaign. - Attack on Ticonderoga.
----
113
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
sion by planting their artillery on the summit of this height, at the distance of about a mile from the fort ; and St. Clair, at once perceiving the futility of further resistance, evacuated the works on the evening of the 5th of July, crossed over to Mount Independence, and, sending his ammunition and stores to Skenesborough, a few miles up the lake, commenced his re- treat to Fort Edward.
10. His movements, however, having been discovered by the enemy, through the accidental burning of a building on Mount In- dependence, he was pursued, his baggage, stores, and provisions seized and destroyed, and his rear division, under Colonel Seth Warner, overtaken at Hubbardton in Vermont, and, after a severe engagement, routed and dispersed. The victors, on the 7th of July, returned in triumph to Ticonderoga, over which the British flag was floating, while the dispirited remnant of the Americans, five days afterwards, reached General Schuy- ler's camp at Fort Edward.
11. That officer, finding himself unable to maintain his posi- tion with a very inferior force against a victorious adversary, sent a strong party to obstruct the route of the invaders, while he slowly retreated, with the residue of his command, down the valley of the Hudson to the mouth of the Mohawk. Here, with the aid of the distinguished Count Kosciusko, who was attached to his staff as engineer, he erected a series of strong intrench- ments in the neighborhood of Cohoes Falls, and, reinforced by a large body of New England troops under General Lincoln, awaited, with an army of thirteen thousand men, the approach of the enemy.
12. General Burgoyne's march to Fort Edward was seriously impeded by the numerous obstructions thrown in his path by the party sent out to Skenesborough by Schuyler, and it was not until the 30th of July that his army, nearly destitute of provis- ions and exhausted by fatigue, reached their destination. On this inarch occurred the lamentable' tragedy of the murder of Jane McCrea, a young woman consigned by her betrothed to a party of Indians belonging to the British army, for conveyance from
Retreat of St. Clair. - Retreat of General Schuyler. - Concentration of troops at the mouth of the Mohawk. - Kosciusko. - Murder of Jane McC'rea.
8
114
FIFTH PERIOD.
Fort Edward to the British camp. The circumstances under which the murder was committed are involved in considerable obscurity ; but there seems to be little doubt that the hapless girl was brutally shot down in a quarrel among her savage guides for the reward offered for her transmission to the camp.
13. On the 2d and 3d of August, Fort Schuyler, situated on the site of the present village of Rome, on the Mohawk, had been invested by a detachment of Burgoyne's army, com- manded by St. Leger, numbering some seventeen hundred men, and consisting of a large number of Mohawk Indians under Brant, and of American Tories under Sir William Johnson and the infamous Butler. On the morning of the 4th active hostili- ties commenced, and were continued on the 5th. The fort was commanded by Colonel Peter Gansevoort. General Herkimer, with a force of about eight hundred men, marched to his relief, accompanied by Thomas Spencer, the faithful sachem of the Oneidas. Crossing the Mohawk at the present site of Utica, they encamped on the 5th at Oriskany, near the present village of Whitesborough, from whence General Herkimer sent mes- sengers to apprise Colonel Gansevoort of their approach, and to concert measures of co-operation.
14. In consequence of the reckless impetuosity of the troops under his command and their entire disregard of discipline, Herkimer, seconded by Spencer and some of his most experienced officers, was desirous of remaining in his present camp until the arrival of reinforcements, or intelligence from the fort. The junior officers, however, strongly remonstrated against all delay, and an angry altercation ensued, in the course of which General Herkimer was stigmatized as a coward and a Tory. His indig- nant reply was a peremptory order to "March on !" and the command was immediately obeyed with the utmost precipitation and disorder, taking care, however, to send out an advanced guard and flanking parties to guard against surprise.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.