USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 24
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"One of the most important events of the Revolutionary War was the treason of Benedict Arnold, his interview with Major André, and André's attempted return on horseback from near Verplanck's Point to the city of New York. He had gone through Cortlandt Manor, a part of North Castle, now New Castle, and it was while journeying through Philipsburgh, now Mount Pleasant, that he was stopped and taken to the nearest military post, then at North Castle, and to North Salem and finally to Tappan on the west side of the Hudson, where he was hanged as a spy. The road the spy took through New Castle still remains unaltered."
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A recent newspaper comment brings back to us some of the at- mosphere of the time in which André went to his doom: "The streets, the subways, the drawing-rooms of New York buzz today with a thousand and one topics of conversation-but one hundred and forty- three years ago today there was but one conversational hum. On that day Major André was hanged as a spy on the west shore of the Hudson, almost within sight of the city. New York went into mourning when the news of the execution became known, for New York at that time was in the hands of the British army and its officers felt the loss of the affable officer keenly. And even those whose warm sympathies were against the British spoke with admiration of the brave manner in which the sentenced spy had died. To this day the name of Benedict Arnold, to whom Major André's death was due, is synonymous with treason, although his later biographers are more lenient with him and plead extenuating circumstances, while that of Major André still excites universal commiseration. André had many friends in New York. He was a vivacious officer, strikingly handsome and popular in every circle in which he appeared. Indeed, it was his social acquaintance which brought him into the Benedict Arnold affair. He had known Arnold's wife at Philadelphia, and it was he who was selected to open negotiations for the surrender of West Point. Arnold brought these negotiations to a point where a personal contact was necessary. He was selected to make his way through the American lines to meet the American general. He did so as 'John Anderson,' reached Arnold safely, but on his way back to New York to report to General Clinton, was captured by three American militiamen. They turned him over to the authorities. Arnold, through a blunder was notified that documents in his own handwriting and incriminating him, had been found in André's boot-toe and escaped. General Washington ordered trial by military court, and André was sentenced to be hanged. He pleaded to be allowed to die as a soldier, but on October 2, 1780, gallows were erected at Tappan, and he swung to his death. After the incident there was general sorrow over the outcome. In England, of course, Major André became one of the war's outstanding heroes, and in 1821 a monument was erected to him in Westminster Abbey and his remains were disinterred and removed there." An André monument at Tappan was erected by Cyrus W. Field and unveiled on October 2, 1879, the anniversary of André's death. However, the action was strongly adverse to public sentiment and the monument was frequently mutilated and finally destroyed by dynamite.
Affair of Young's House-A recent newspaper issue had the following article bearing on the campaign in the valley of The Bronx; "William Taylor, on whose farm were found the skeletons of five Revolutionary
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soldiers has turned the remains over to Mrs. Jeremiah T. Lockwood, representing the White Plains Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. He has also promised to give the Chapter any relics found in the vicinity of his farm. The finding of the skeletons has aroused great interest through this entire section and many persons have called at the Taylor farmhouse to view them. The find is regarded as of great historical value. Historical Society representatives and scientists have examined the bones and have decided that they are skeletons of white men. This establishes definitely that they are the bones of Revolutionary or British soldiers. Mrs. Lockwood has prepared the following account of the engagement in which it is believed the five men met their deaths :
" 'The affair at Young's House was the principal event of the Revo- lutionary War in Westchester County during the winter of 1779-80. This house, owned by Joseph Young, was about four miles east of Tarrytown and about the same from White Plains. The locality was known as 'The Four Corners,' also as the 'Lower Cross Road.' After the house was burned down by the British the place was known as the 'Burnt House.' When the war was over the farm was bought by Isaac Van Wart, one of the captors of Major John André, who built upon it the well known Van Wart house. The 'Young's House,' located near an important cross-roads on elevated ground and within the American lines, was a convenient stopping place for the Continental troops from August, 1776, to February, 1780. Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, com- manding two hundred and fifty men, had orders January, 1780, to move between Croton River and White Plains, Hudson River and Bedford, that the enemy might not form plans for an attack. For some reason the troops remained at Young's House longer than usual. The Tories in the neighborhood quickly informed the British headquarters in New York and on the night of February 2, 1780, a force of between four and five hundred infantry and one hundred horsemen, composed of British, German, and Colonel De Lancey's Tories, set out from Fort Washington to attack the American troops. Deep snow covered the ground and they did not reach the vicinity of Young's House until nearly nine o'clock on Thursday morning, February 3rd. The enemy closed up on all sides. Thompson's men taken by surprise made a brave resistance, however, but were overpowered by a superior number. Less than one hundred and fifty of the Continentals were at the Young's House to meet the attack, a considerable portion of the two hundred and fifty men being posted along the lines extending nearly two miles toward the Hudson and about three miles towards the Bronx, too far away to engage in the conflict. That this small number of men dared
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to resist nearly six hundred disciplined troops and hold them in check for any length of time showed great courage.
"Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson and six other officers with eight rank and file men were made prisoners. After burning the Young's House and buildings the enemy returned to New York. Of the Ameri- cans thirteen were killed on the spot and Captain Roberts, mortally wounded, lived but a few minutes. Seventeen other men were wounded, several of whom died. The British admitted five killed and eighteen wounded. The American and British dead were buried together north of the Corners!
"The Rev. Alexander Van Wart, in 1885, when describing the sandy field on the east side of the Unionville Road, as the place where the Americans and British who fell in the fight at Young's House were buried, said : 'I have ploughed many a furrow over their graves.' James Fenimore Cooper in his novel 'The Spy,' a story of the Revolutionary War, located at the 'Four Corners,' the hotel of Betsy Flannigan, the inventor of the beverage known as the 'Cocktail.' A duel was fought between General Gates and Colonel Wilkins, September, 1778. It took place near a blacksmith shop east of the 'Four Corners.' Two shots were exchanged without bloodshed and a reconciliation took place. In 1912 the Westchester County Board of Supervisors voted to give the White Plains Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion the stones from the old courthouse in White Plains, then being de- molished to make room for the new building. These stones were in part to be used for making the 'fort' and base for a memorial cannon to be constructed and placed on Chatterton Hill, where the battle of White Plains was fought at the time of the Revolution. The cannon was un- veiled October 28, 1912."
Revolutionary Incidents-There was stationed in Bronx valley also, until Lord Cornwallis began his southern campaign, a body of dragoons or light horse, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton, a name well hated even by the average school child of today, from his sobriquet of "Bloody" Tarleton. The other commands were usually composed of German mercenaries, whose willingness to come to America had been increased by the promise held out to them by the British authorities that they could add to their pay by plundering the inhabitants; which they proceeded to do with strict impartiality to loyalist and patriotic alike. The popular notion is that they could do nothing else but plunder; but one has only to visit Chatterton's Hill at White Plains, where they led the "forlorn hope," or the steep sides of Fort Tryon at Inwood, to learn the fact that they could fight as well as plunder. The German jägers, whom Lossing calls "hired assassins,"
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were notorious for their plundering. The remainder of the forces occupying what is now the territory of the borough were British light infantry or squadrons of light horse, and small bands or companies of loyalist refugees, whose commanders were too obscure to merit record. The earliest reoccupation of the borough by British troops was on November 3, 1776, when the British General Grant occupied De Lancey's Mills at West Farms, and the regiment of Waldeckers took possession of the vicinity of Williamsbridge. Howe's headquarters were at De Lancey's Mills during the preparations for the attack on Fort Wash- ington. The posts already mentioned were extended well into the country during the summer, but were withdrawn to the Harlem River and the Sound during the winter, when the soldiers occupied the barracks and huts erected for quarters. For firewood they used the fences, barns, and houses of the neighboring farmers and denuded their land of its standing timber to supply the garrison and people of the city. The farmers, thus deprived of house and home, took refuge within the lines of either side, and taking up the sword, took a merciless revenge when opportunity offered. The section between the lines became a desolate wilderness with abandoned farms, grassgrown roads, and broken down bridges. John Archer's village of Fordham between the two bridges at Kingsbridge disappeared as firewood for the chas- seurs of Emmerick, whose camp was located at that spot.
On the bluff to the west of Van Cortlandt Park overlooking the Albany Road was an outpost of light troops, usually composed of both mounted and foot jägers, and detachments of all the German regiments in New York. In 1778 it consisted of five companies of foot and one of mounted jägers under Lieutenant-Colonel Van Wurmb; and in the following year, of jägers and the corps of Lord Rawdon, afterwards noted in the southern campaign for his defeat of Gates at Camden. From this outpost, frequent patrols were made to the vicinity of Yonkers and beyond and towards the Mile Square and Valentine's Hill. At Mile Square, De Lancey kept a recruiting officer at all times. Upon one occasion a band of Americans came near falling into an ambuscade near Williamsbridge; but a young girl saw the movements of both sides and cautioned the Americans by waving to them from an upper window of her house. On these excursions the jägers generally took along a couple of light three-pounder field-pieces called amusettes. These patrolling parties, gathering up recruits, cattle, hay, and what not, as well as looking out for an enemy, did not always come and go unmolested; for Sheldon's dragoons, Major Harry Lee, or the fiery and impetuous Frenchman, De Armond, with his corps of compatriots, were often lying in wait for the British; and as the Valentines, Corsas, Hadleys, and other families of the neighborhood were patriots, timely
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notice of the British movements was sent to the American commanders on the lines, while the informants, acting as guides, led them to con- venient spots where the marauders could be intercepted. Andrew Corsa and the Dyckmans became famous as Westchester guides; nor ought there to be forgotten Enoch Crosby, the "Harvey Birch" of Coo- per's "The Spy," whose favorite route between the lines was by way of the Mill Brook valley at Morrisania.
In the summer of 1777 Lord Cathcart commanded in the neighborhood of Kingsbridge, with Emmerick's Chasseurs, the Queen's Rangers, and the partisan bands of Hovenden, James, and Sandford. De Lancey's headquarters were at the manor-house at Morrisania. He was a special object of interest to the Americans, and many attempts were made by them to capture him; but he was always too wary or too fortunate for his enemies, and he always escaped them. Upon one occasion in 1777 he rode to West Farms to visit his aged mother. His thoroughbred stallion was tied to a fence, where it was seen by some American scouts, who recognized its value and stole it. The horse was taken to White Plains and sold to an enterprising Yankee from Con- necticut, who used him for breeding purposes and thus began the famous line of Morgan horses. On January 25, 1777, some Americans attacked the blockhouse erected by De Lancey at West Farms; but the attempt was unsuccessful, for though some of the Tories were wounded, none were killed or captured. Earlier in the same month Wash- ington, believing the post at New York to be weak on account of the main British army being in New Jersey and many detached for duty in Rhode Island, directed Heath to approach Kingsbridge, and if cir- cumstances promised success, to attack the fortifications there. It was hoped that, even if the fort could not be taken, the movement would oblige the British to detach large bodies of men from New Jersey or Rhode Island for the reinforcement of New York, thus threatened by attack. In accordance with these instructions Heath began a concerted movement in force against Fort Independence. General Lincoln ad- vanced by the Albany Post Road to the heights above Van Cortlandt Park; General Scott came from Scarsdale to the vicinity of the Valen- tine house on the Boston Road, between Williamsbridge and Kings- bridge, and Generals Wooster and Parsons marched from New Rochelle over the Boston Road to the same neighborhood. The three divisions arrived at the enemy's outposts just before sunrise. Lincoln captured the outpost in his front at "Upper Cortlandt's." Heath ordered the cannonade of the Valentine house, if the guard there resisted, and sent two hundred and fifty men into the valley between the house and the fort to cut off the guard in case they tried to retreat to the fort. Two mounted British pickets came unexpectedly upon the head of Wooster's
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ONE .OF.A. CHAIN. OF . EIGHT. FORTS.NORTH.AND .EAST .OF SPUYTEN-DUYVIL. CREEK. AND.HARLEM.RIVER .EXTENDING FROM.THIS POINT .TO. THE . SITE. OF. NEW-YORK.UNIVERSITY
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BRONZE TABLET, FORT NUMBER ONE
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column at the Gunn Hill Road near Williamsbridge, and fled to give the alarm. One was dismounted by a shot from a field-piece and captured ; but the other escaped, shouting: "The rebels!", and alarming all the British outposts and pickets, who at once dropped everything and ran for the fort. The garrisons of Valentine's and the Negro Fort fled toward Fort Independence and were fired upon by the pursuing Amer- icans, and one of them was taken prisoner.
Heath then advanced upon the fort and demanded its surrender, which was refused. The garrison consisted of a body of Hessians and the Queen's Rangers. Two field-pieces were then sent to a hill south of the fort not far from Farmers' Bridge and they began a cannonade upon a battalion of Hessians on the other side of the Harlem, near Hyatt's tavern. In order to get a better shot at the Hessians one of the pieces was lowered down the side of the hill to the water's edge; when, to the surprise of the Americans, the redoubt near the bridge opened fire on them from cannon which they did not suspect were there; and they were compelled to scramble up the hill, dragging their gun behind them, to the lively accompaniment of cannon-balls from the British re- doubt. Heath remarks: "This success at the outposts flew through the country and was soon magnified into a reduction of the fort, and capture of the garrison." Washington so reported it to Congress before receiv- ing the official report, and there was disappointment when the actual facts were made known.
While the ultimate object was not to besiege Fort Independence every- thing was done by the Americans to make the enemy believe that the attack was a serious one, with the hope of drawing him out of his strongholds. A detachment was sent down to Morrisania to light a large number of fires, and a number of flat boats were sent to the same place with the intention of making him believe that a strong force was gathering for a descent upon York's Island. This so alarmed the guard at Montressor's or Randall's Island, that they fired the buildings and fled to New York; and it is stated that a brigade was sent to reinforce Fort Washington, and orders sent to Rhode Island for a detachment from that place. On the twenty-ninth there was every appearance of a heavy snowstorm, and the generals having unanimously agreed that it was impracticable to assault the fort with militia, the troops were ordered to withdraw and this time in earnest. A good deal of forage was carried off and the divisions returned in a heavy fall of snow to their former positions at Dobbs Ferry, New Rochelle, and White Plains. The whole force, with the exception of a few artillerymen, con- sisted of militia. It was one of the few times during the war when they showed themselves capable and reliable; and this too for ten days in the midst of winter. Later the storm cleared up and a fleet of twenty ves-
Bronx-14
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sels from the eastward came to anchor between Hart and City islands, probably with British troops on board, from Rhode Island. Afterwards the Americans established a cordon of troops from Dobbs Ferry to Mamaroneck on the Sound to prevent raids from below; and early in February an ineffective raid was made by Colonel Enos with a strong detachment against Fort Independence with the hope of surprising the enemy's outposts, but the enemy was too watchful. Two days later, the inhabitants of the borough were subjected to a grand forage on the part of the patriots.
In the spring of 1777 the British established the posts already men- tioned and engaged in raids upon the upper county. The year was a momentous one, and the attention of the Americans was too busily en- gaged with Burgoyne, with Clinton's attempts to get control of the Hudson, and with Howe's advance on Philadelphia to pay much heed to the predatory warfare in which they were later forced to engage in the Neutral Ground by the similar actions of the British. During the whole of the years 1777 and 1778, the British were active, and had large bodies of troops at Verplanck's Point in the vicinity of the High- lands; but by August 1st of this latter year they had retired below Kingsbridge, leaving only Emmerick's and Baremore's battalions above the Harlem River. During the greater part of the war the British kept a number of vessels stationed in the Sound as guard and patrol ships. The inhabitants themselves had a number of whaleboats in which they made raids across the Sound upon the Tories of Long Island in retaliation for the grievances they suffered from the crews of those ships. In 1777 the guard vessel stationed off the mouth of Eastchester Creek was the "Schuldam." A whaleboat from Darien, Connecticut, carried their boat across Rodman's Neck one night and took possession of the market-sloop which plied regularly between Eastchester and New York, carrying vegetables and other supplies. From her captain they learned that he was in the habit of supplying the "Schuldam" with chickens, eggs, vegetables, and other farm products; so they concealed themselves in the hold of the sloop and compelled her master to lay her alongside of the guardship. As they approached the "Schuldam" her watch called out: "What sloop is that?" The captain of the whale- boat party answered: " 'The Little Stanton.' " "Take care! take care! you will be afoul of us," shouted the watch. "Never fear!" they yelled back, and then added: "The whaleboats are out on the Sound tonight, and we wish to get under your lee." In another minute the sloop had been run alongside the "Schuldam," and the crew of twelve men clam- bered aboard and captured her before her crew could be aroused from sleep. The watch was driven below, but the noise of the affray aroused the British on City Island, and they began to fire upon the Americans.
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As the "Schuldam" was a much larger vessel than they were accustomed to handle, her captors obliged two of the prisoners, whom they after- wards set at liberty, to navigate her into port. Before reaching Stan- ford they took six other vessels bound for New York with cargoes of wood. A short time afterwards, another party of whaleboatmen cap- tured the island, but immediately paroled the inhabitants. At a later period it seems that there was a tacit understanding between the British and the Americans, by which the former had possession of the island by day, and the latter by night.
Affair of "Indian Field"-In the latter part of 1778, after the retire- ment of the British to the shore of the Harlem River, the Americans took the offensive and a body of one hundred horses, selected from the squadron of Sheldon, Moylan, and the militia, with about forty infantry from Glover's regiment, made a raid by way of De Lancey's Mills to Morrisania, where they came in contact with the enemy, who were posted at the manor-house. A sharp skirmish followed, with a loss to the Americans of two killed and two wounded; the British loss was greater, and the Americans returned with a dozen prisoners, as well as stock and other plunder. The enemy tried to return the compliment; but one of their number deserted and gave information to Lieutenant- Colonel White of the intent to surprise him, so that the scheme fell through. A little later, while patrolling out the Mile Square Road, Em- merick and his chasseurs were attacked and compelled to return to their camp at Fordham. The American force consisted of a body of light troops and a body of Stockbridge Indians, all under the command of Colonel Gist. The troops of Gist were posted on each side of the road above the present Woodlawn Heights in two detachments, north of a brook, which still finds its way through the woods from the hill above the Bronx River, while a third party was posted about three hundred yards west of the road; the Indians were between the last party and the road. The positions occupied by these last two were in the north- east corner of the present Van Cortlandt Park, between Mt. Vernon Avenue, the eastern boundary of the park and Jerome Avenue, which runs through it. To the north of Vault Hill in the park was the belt of woods in which the troops were concealed ; the heights on which the main party was posted were also wooded and are in the city of Yonkers. Simcoe learned by means of his spies that the Indians were much elated by the victory over Emmerick and supposed that they had driven in his whole force. He took measures to increase this belief further; and sending for De Lancey's battalion and the Legion Dragoons of Tarleton, prepared a plan for the ambush and capture of the whole party of Americans and Indians. This was a combination of the ablest and most dashing partisans of the British army-Simcoe, Tarleton,
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Emmerick, and De Lancey. On the morning of August 31st the attack- ing force advanced out the Mile Square Road and reached Woodlawn Heights about ten o'clock. The rangers and dragoons took post on the right of the road; while Emmerick was ordered forward to take post in Van Cortlandt's woods at the house of Frederick Devoe, about a mile up a lane leading to the westward. By mistake he took post near the house of Daniel Devoe near the entrance to the land and road, and sent a patrol up the road. The intention was for Emmerick to draw the at- tack of the Americans and Indians and then retreat. The pursuing Americans would thus be led into an ambush of rangers and dragoons and the whole party would be captured or cut off.
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