USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 12
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 12
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The first blood of the American Revolution was not shed at Lexington and Concord, nor even in the Boston massacre of March 5, 1770. On January 18 of that year in New York City several Sons of Liberty were shot down by a company of Britain's 16th Regulars when members of the organization staged a demonstration in John street. The incident represents the strained state of affairs in the New York province when the following year William Tryon became governor.
Towards the close of his administration an incident similar to the Boston Tea Party took place in New York Harbor when on the night of April 22, 1774, a group of the Sons of Liberty, not as in the Boston episode disguised as Indians, boarded the ship London and tossed overboard eighteen chests of tea. During this same year of 1774 the Long Island towns set up local committees whose chief function was to keep in touch with a central committee in New York by regular correspondence. East Hampton, at the easterly end of the island appointed John Chatfield, Colonel Abraham Gardiner, Burnet Mill, Stephen Hedges, Thomas Wickham, John Gardiner and Captain David Gardiner to its committee.
Smithtown on August 9 named a committee composed of Solomon Smith, Daniel Smith and Thomas Tredwell. Similar action was taken throughout Suffolk County but in Queens and Kings Counties
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the Tory elements prevented any official steps being taken to openly oppose the English cause. Beneath the surface, however, the rebels of these two counties carried on until as the spirit of revolution grew it became the Tories who were obliged to "go underground" for the time being.
Although the first blood of the Revolution was not shed in Massa- chusetts, England chose to there strike back in a demonstration calculated to convince the colonies as a whole of the utter futility of armed rebellion. But she chose unwisely. As word of the engage- ment at Concord on April 19, 1775, spread throughout the colonies each in turn took up arms. On May 10 Ticonderoga and two days later Crown Point fell to American troops in surprise attacks. On June 15 the Continental Congress, sitting at Philadelphia, named George Washington commander-in-chief but word of this had not yet reached Massachusetts when two days later was fought the Battle of Bunker Hill. Not until July 2 did Washington reach Cambridge to assume command. Shortly thereafter a quantity of artillery captured at Ticonderoga and Crown Point arrived and was used to bottle up the English forces within the city of Boston.
On the very day that the American commander-in-chief reached Cambridge, at Bridgehampton on Long Island Deacon David Hedges spoke at the Presbyterian Church in an appeal for volunteers and one of New York's first such companies was here organized under the command of Captain John Hulbert. Without delay it marched to Montauk, recruiting other men as it advanced, hoping to save the two thousand horned cattle and about twice as many sheep there grazing on common grounds. That the stock was temporarily kept out of British hands was due to Hulbert's strategy in marching the same men again and again in sight of enemy ships which con- vinced the British who had come to seize the livestock that a large force of Americans stood ready to resist them.
Hulbert's company won everlasting fame for adopting a flag com- posed of stars and stripes, which is still preserved by the Suffolk County Historical Society as having antedated the so-called "first" stars and stripes of Betsy Ross.
Other companies were quickly formed throughout Long Island in preparation for a war which was now considered inevitable. At the same time the island's population broke into more distinct factions, the two most articulate being the so-called rebels or Whigs, who supported the colonial cause, and the Tories, whose sympathies were with England. The great bulk of the population, however, still hoping that the differences between England and the colonies could be adjusted without further bloodshed, endeavored to remain neutral, an increasingly difficult task as the conflagration spread.
In October of 1775 the administration of Governor Tryon was suspended, leaving the colony in the hands of a Provincial Congress, a loosely organized body dependent for its authority upon local com- mittees of safety and of correspondence. These committees were composed quite generally of men of property and good standing willing to . sacrifice their all if need be to the cause which they
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espoused. Thus the American Revolution began on a high moral plane which won the respect and in some instances the actual support of nations generally.
Neither the British nor the Americans expected a long war nor one that would envelop the colonies as a whole. With the British
Lord Howe
army under General William Howe besieged in Boston and Washing- ton's army of now more than 20,000 troops bent on keeping it there, both sides were convinced that the conflict might very well be settled in that vicinity. That Long Island felt no immediate threat of enemy occupation, although British ships controlled adjacent waters, is evidenced by the large number of Islanders who left their homes to join Washington's forces. Hulbert's company went north with troops sent to invade Canada. From Ticonderoga, however, these Islanders
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returned with a number of enemy prisoners but did not again reach Long Island until January of 1776.
Although William Howe's troops were bottled up in Boston, the British fleet under his elder brother, Lord Richard Howe, using that harbor as its base, played havoc with American shipping all along the coast and finally established a rendezvous in Gardiner's Bay. Thus the easterly end of Long Island was frequently harassed by foraging parties from the British squadron.
In reply to appeals from the east end towns, the Provincial Congress detailed a detachment under General Wooster to help guard this part of the island and to give special attention to keeping the cattle and other supplies out of British hands. On Shelter, Plum and Gardiner's Islands however the enemy made many successful raids. Further west on Long Island, especially on the plains of Hempstead in Queens County where many thousand of cattle and sheep were being herded, the militia was detailed to be on constant guard.
Nevertheless, the winter of 1775-76 passed with no serious fight- ing on Long Island. The war, such as it was, had as yet come no nearer, except for enemy ships, than Boston and even there the opposing armies, one confined within the city, the other commanding its suburban areas, seemed to have reached a stalemate. In northern New York and Canada alone had any engagements taken place since Bunker Hill.
Not until March 3-4, 1776, when Washington suddenly took over the Heights of Dorchester and Roxbury, making Boston harbor as well as the city untenable for the enemy, was the stalemate broken. Then, under agreement to spare the city if permitted to evacuate, the British army and fleet moved out and left this area in American hands. Thus New England's principal city was saved from destruc- tion and New England itself was freed of enemy occupation for the duration of the war while the British fleet and army were released to carry death and destruction to other colonies and most immediately to Long Island.
Anticipating the enemy's approach, Long Islanders took further defensive measures. Dr. Samuel Thompson, father of the historian, made surveys of the harbors of Setauket and Stony Brook for future use by American landing parties should these places fall to enemy ships. Captain Jeremiah Rogers was detailed to keep watch at South- ampton for British invading forces. Militia and Minute Men were told to hold themselves in readiness for such an invasion. Three companies of troops were stationed at the east end. Queens County enrolled 1770 men and Suffolk County 2000 capable of bearing arms.
Although the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776, at Philadelphia, word of the event did not arrive in New York City until five days later when it was read to the American troops there assembled. It was more than a week before the people of eastern Long Island heard the news and not until July 18 was the document read for the general public assembled in front of New York's City Hall (later Federal Hall) on Wall street, this occasion being enlivened
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by the burning of the Royal Coat of Arms taken from the court room.
Increased concern was now felt for Long Island's estimated 100,000 horned cattle and an even larger number of sheep, and on July 20 one-fourth of all the island's militia was detailed to help round up this livestock for immediate purchase by the Continental Army. But while the men of Queens and Suffolk Counties were feverishly working to protect or destroy supplies which might be of use to the enemy, Kings County announced that its citizens had decided to remain neutral, whereupon the Congressional Convention appointed a committee to either appropriate or burn that county's vast quantities of grain and, if need be, to lay the area waste. Mean- while word had come from the Rev. Samuel Buell at East Hampton and from Captain Thomas Weeks at Huntington that enemy vessels had been sighted near these communities.
As British troop-bearing ships arrived off the west end, Congress directed General Nathaniel Woodhull of Setauket or in his absence Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert Potter of Huntington, together with the militia of Queens County, to drive all livestock to the easterly part of Hempstead plains. Colonel Josiah Smith and Colonel Jeronimus Remsen were likewise instructed to assist Woodhull in destroying all grain and stock which could not be removed from Queens County. Before this order could be executed, however, the enemy struck.
The battle of Long Island, the first strategic engagement of the Revolution and the first in which Washington had supreme command, occurred the last week in August, 1776. Washington was not unpre- pared to meet the onslaught. He as well as the British appreciated the advantage of holding Long Island and with it New York City which controlled the entrance to the Hudson down which invasion from Canada would be most likely to advance, as attempted the following year by General Burgoyne.
A month before the British evacuation of Boston, Washington had placed a force of 1500 Connecticut troops in New York and immediately following the evacuation this force was augmented by five regiments with artillery pending the arrival of other reinforce- ments from New England, Westchester, Dutchess County, New Jersey and more distant points. In fact, the battle of Long Island is said to have been the first instance in which the colonies as a whole joined to fight a foreign foe.
While during the early part of 1776 Washington hurriedly built fortifications on and around Manhattan Island, every effort was being made by the Continental Congress to provide boats of all kinds to fight off the British ships and destroy British shipping. On March 21 it voted a fund for equipping and arming the vessels which it had acquired. Captain William Mercier, Thomas Randall, Captain Anthony Rutgers, Captain William Denning, Jacobus Van Zandt and Joseph Hallet were placed in charge of this work.
On April 17 Captain William Rogers of the sloop Montgomery was issued a privateer's license and within six weeks had taken six prizes in or near Long Island waters. Thereafter the naval strength
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of the colonies was steadily increased until before the Battle of Long Island a so-called "Mosquito Fleet" of small sailing crafts, row-galleys, whaleboats and fishing smacks, all in charge of Colonel Benjamin Tucker, was able to harry and seriously hamper England's ships of war which were converging on New York.
A chain of works had been built by the Americans in Brooklyn, extending from Wallabout Bay to Gowanus Marsh, and behind this chain other points had been fortified. As large areas of woodland were cleared for defensive purposes, the timber was used to form an abatis along the entire line of defenses. Unfortunately, however, the Americans had but 121 guns and 19 mortars available.
General William Howe arrived off New York as early as June 25 with several ships. By early July the number of British vessels there assembled had reached 130 and before the Battle of Long Island opened there were more than 400 ships carrying 31,000 troops of which 24,000, including 8,000 Hessians and Waldeckers, were well trained.
To oppose this array of might, Washington had at most 19,000 effective troops in a total army of about 28,500 officers and men, many of whom had to be deployed far from the field of battle in readiness for surprise attacks. Such a sally occurred just east of Huntington the day before the battle, resulting in the loss to the American cause of many livestock.
According to Silas Wood's history, the following officers from Long Island were stationed in Brooklyn: Colonels Josiah Smith and Jeromus Remsen, Lieutenant Colonels John Sands and Nicholas Covenhoven, Majors Abraham Remsen and Richard Thorne, and Captains John Wickes, Nathaniel Platt, Selah Strong, Ezekiel Mul- ford, Paul Reeve, Benjamin Birdsall, David Laton, John W. Seaman, Daniel Rapelye and Andrew Onderdonk.
With General Nathaniel Woodhull in the vicinity of Hempstead were Lieutenant Colonels Jonah Wood and Stephen Abbot, Major Jesse Brush and Captain Alexander Ketcham of Suffolk County; from Queens County, Captains Ephraim Bayles and Daniel White- head and Lieutenant William Sacket, and from Kings County, Captain William Boerum, Lieutenant Thomas Everitt and Ensign Isaac Sebring.
The encounter began on the morning of August 22 with the landing of 15,000 British troops at Gravesend by way of Staten Island. Followed several days of light skirmishing during which Tory residents of Kings County served the enemy as guides and informants. During the night of August 26, led by Tories who knew the roads in this area, a strong force of British regulars and German mercenaries, equipped with artillery, with no serious opposition out- flanked the American army and the following morning commenced firing from the rear.
This was the signal for a general British advance which soon became "a series of unconnected skirmishes." One by one separate American units, threatened with encirclement, were obliged to fall back or, as some chose to do, stand and be overwhelmed by superior
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forces. Thus the British took 1097 prisoners as well as 26 pieces of ordnance and considerable ammunition. Among the American officers taken was General Woodhull who, badly wounded, died a few days later.
The Battle of Long Island might have been the last as well as the first strategic engagement of the war but for a plan of orderly withdrawal prepared in advance by General Washington. Realizing that here on the plains of Brooklyn the American cause could be irredeemably lost by the annihilation of his citizen army, he had held timely retreat wiser than extended defense of the area. With this thought in mind he chose Gowanus Heights upon which his outnum- bered troops, if sufficiently pressed, were to converge.
On these heights, adjacent to the East River, had been erected fortified defenses which in the words of Mather "were more impos- ing than formidable." As such they served the prime purpose of bluffing General Howe into laying siege to the position rather than to risk the uncertainties of immediate assault. And while for two days the British stood at bay, confident of the eventual surrender of the American forces, an enormous fleet of boats from Long Island and New England was quietly assembled and during the night of August 29 the American army was ferried across the river to Man- hattan, unbeknown to the British or their Tory allies.
To aid the deception, a small force of Americans remained at the defenses on the Long Island side until the withdrawal had been successfully accomplished. Thus nearly 10,000 troops, without a single fatality during the process, were taken from an obviously untenable position and saved to continue the war into its first seemingly hopeless winter.
"This retreat," declares Fiske in his American Revolution, "has always been regarded as one of the most brilliant incidents of Wash- ington's career," while the English historian, Trevelyan, wrote of the achievement as follows: "To transport across a wide channel of salt water a great multitude of troops with all their baggage, military stores and cannon from out of the enemy's mouth in a short summer's night without even those who were retreating knowing anything of the matter till just before they embarked, required the conduct, the vigilance, the generalship of a Washington."
The withdrawal to Manhattan and thence under heavy enemy pressure to Westchester County, left Long Island completely in the hands of the British, to remain so throughout the war until the final declaration of peace in 1783. Not only Long Island but New York City as well, and with them the lower Hudson and Long Island Sound became the hub of British military and naval operations. But occupied though it was from one end to the other by the enemy, Long Island continued to contribute in many ways to the American cause.
Immediately following the battle of August 27, the local militia of Kings, Queens and Suffolk Counties disbanded, many erstwhile members joining Washington's army which was doggedly fighting to the north of the city. More than one thousand citizens were forced
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to flee Long Island to escape British and Tory reprisals, most of them crossing the Sound to Connecticut, leaving homes and other property to the tender mercies of the occupational forces. A con- siderable number of these refugees likewise joined the American army while others chose to carry on guerrilla warfare in local waters.
(Photo by F. Kull)
Grave of Genl. Nathl. Woodhull at Mastic
One of the first steps of William Tryon upon being returned as governor was to exact an oath of allegiance to the King from the people of Long Island, under threats of imprisonment. Declared the Hon. Henry P. Hedges in an address in 1910: "They took the oath but in heart were as devoted to their country and as hostile to their oppressors as before." Even commissioners chosen by the governor from the local population to administer the oath were forced to act in many cases under threat of severe punishment-a
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sadistic system calculated to pit neighbor against neighbor and thus destroy the ties which had bound them to a common cause. And while Long Islanders were forced to swear allegiance to the King, populations elsewhere in the state not in the hands of the British were compelled by the Continental authorities to renounce foreign allegiance and acknowledge "New York to be of Right a free and Independent State."
To fully describe Long Island's part in the Revolution would take volumes. Every community and town now has its own par- ticular story replete with local heroes, exploits and sacrifices. Every community and town then had its Whigs and its Tories serving each their chosen cause, some openly, others under cover. But by far the greater number of Long Islanders endeavored to hide if not to com- pletely suppress their sympathies, hoping to escape some of the havoc of the war that had enveloped them.
It has been said that Long Island suffered more from this war than any other part of the country, barring perhaps certain isolated sections of upper New York State where Indian atrocities were of frequent occurrence. On Long Island for close to seven years guerrilla warfare combined with the intense hatred always engendered by civil strife was fought on land and water. Here was waged night and day what historians have called Whaleboat Warfare in which innumerable small bands of Americans were constantly landing upon the island to deal death and destruction.
There was often a military purpose behind these whaleboat raids. Not only were they aimed to harass the occupational forces and wreak vengeance upon their Tory abettors, but as often to take prisoners who could be exchanged for Americans held in durance vile in the notorious prison ships of the British. Thus what actually amounted to organized kidnapping became an important phase of the war on Long Island.
A spectacular instance of this was the kidnapping of one of the island's leading Tories, Judge David Jones, in May 1779 when a posse of twenty men crossed the Sound from Bridgeport to Stony Brook, marched to Massapequa and without warning snatched the Judge from his palatial home, Tryon Hall. It was done with the idea of exchanging the Judge for the equally important Brigadier General Silliman of the Connecticut Militia who had been similarly taken prisoner by Tory militiamen several weeks earlier. The Tory Judge and the American Brigadier General were duly exchanged on April 27, 1780. The transaction, after considerable negotiations, was consummated on Long Island Sound midway between Connecticut and Long Island when an American and a British ship met and each transferred its prisoner to the other. That a roast turkey prepared by Mrs. Silliman was mutually enjoyed by the General and the Judge before the boats separated lends a touch of gallantry to the episode.
While Washington's forces were suffering a series of dishearten- ing reverses during the early stages of the war, American whale- boatmen, crossing the sound from New England, continued to operate
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against Long Island. Following by less than a month assaults by Governor (now General) Tryon on Danbury and Ridgefield in Con- necticut, Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs of that state made a highly successful raid on the British at Sag Harbor.
With 170 men, including a number of Long Island refugees, in thirteen whaleboats convoyed by two armed vessels, this doughty Connecticut Yankee landed near Greenport in Southold Town on May 23, 1777. The boats were portaged across a narrow strip of meadow to Peconic Bay from whence the party rowed to the out- skirts of Sag Harbor, disembarking there about midnight. Cutting through a patch of woods, they took the garrison by surprise, killing six men and capturing the others, ninety in number, whom they transported back to Connecticut without the loss of a single American. Before leaving Sag Harbor, however, they burned ten transports loaded with provisions for the British army in New York and one ten-gun ship, together with large quantities of supplies stored on shore.
A whaleboat raid was made upon the enemy at Setauket by Colonel Parsons on August 22 of the same year and a more general attack against British defenses along the north shore of the island on December 10 following, but neither of these raids was as success- ful as the one at Sag Harbor. At Setauket a detachment of redcoats under Colonel Hewlett had established headquarters in the Presby- terian Church which they had turned into a fort and stables for their horses, using the headstones from the church yard to reinforce earthworks which had been thrown up around the church.
Landing at Crane Neck Bend with 150 men and one "brass pounder", Parsons advanced to Setauket's village green and demanded surrender of Col. Hewlett. This being refused, a skirmish followed until the Americans, learning that British reinforcements were at hand, beat a hasty retreat to their boats and made good their escape.
Bullet holes from this affray may still be seen in Caroline Episcopal Church across the way from the site of the Presbyterian church of that day which was torn down some years later. In Colonel Parsons' ranks on that eventful August day in 1777 was a youth named Zachariah Greene who some twenty years later returned to Setauket as minister of the Presbyterian Church to serve for many years.
On November 21, 1780, Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge led some eighty men across the sound from Connecticut to Mount Sinai (then called Old Man's) and marching to Smith's Point on the south shore of the island, captured Fort St. George, consisting of a crude stockade surrounding the former mansion of General John Smith which the British had appropriated. Here a number of Tory woodchoppers were engaged in providing fuel for the British forces in New York. Several of their boats, used for transporting the wood, lay at anchor off the fort, and these and the stockade, together with a large quantity of supplies were destroyed by the whaleboatmen before taking their prisoners back to Mount Sinai.
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On the return march, Tallmadge led part of his force to Coram where a considerable amount of hay collected for use of British horses was burned. The expedition, without the loss of a man, resulted in the capture of fifty officers and redcoats besides the Tory woodchoppers.
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