USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 25
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Sir John and his followers did not go to Niagara, but started for the St. Lawrence. They suffered intensely from weariness and starvation on the way, and reached that river in a wretched plight some distance above Montreal. The baronet was immediately commissioned a brig- adier-general in the British service. He raised two battalions-a total of one thousand men -- composed of his immediate followers and other American loyalists who followed his example in deserting their country, and these formed that active and formidable corps known in the frontier warfare of that period in Northern and Central New York as the "Royal Greens."
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CHAPTER XVII.
AN arrangement had been made by the British Cabinet to attack the Americans in 1776 simultaneously at three points. Sir Henry Clinton was to invade the Southern colonies ; General Sir John Burgoyne was to clear Canada of the " rebels ;" and General Howe, with the main army of thirty thousand men, including twelve thousand Germans, was to seize and occupy New York City, and thence form a junction with Burgoyne at Albany.
At the close of June General Howe arrived at Sandy Hook from Halifax with a large army, in transports, and on July 8th landed nine thousand troops on Staten Island, where he awaited the arrival of his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, with British regulars and some of the German hirelings.
Sir Henry Clinton joined Howe on the 11th with troops from Charles- ton, S. C., where they had co-operated with Admiral Sir Peter Parker's fleet in an unsuccessful attack upon Fort Moultrie, on June 28th. That conflict raged furiously about ten hours, when the terribly shattered fleet withdrew, and the seaworthy vessels sailed with the army for Sandy Hook.
Admiral Howe arrived at Sandy Hook on the 12th, and very soon other vessels came with German mercenaries. When August arrived nearly thirty thousand veteran soldiers stood ready to fall upon the Republican army (who were mostly militia, and nearly one fourth of them sick and unfit for duty), then occupying the city of New York, under the immediate command of Washington.
General Howe and his brother appeared in the twofold character of peace commissioners and as military commanders empowered to make war. They were authorized to treat for peace, but only on the condition of absolute submission on the part of the Americans. They were also authorized to grant pardons and amnesty to penitents. They made a most silly blunder at the outset in endeavoring to open negotiations with Washington by sending him a letter addressed to " George Washington, Esq." The general refused to receive it unless addressed to him by his military title. This the commissioners were instructed not to do ; also not to recognize the Congress in an official capacity. Howe's adjutant- general (Major Patterson) was sent with another communication. It was
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A BRITISH ARMAMENT BEFORE NEW YORK.
not received, but he was admitted to the presence of Washington. He expressed a hope that reconciliation might be effected, and said the com- missioners had large powers. " They have power only to grant pardon," said Washington. "The Americans are only defending their rights as British subjects, and have been guilty of no act requiring pardon," he continued. Here ended the interview.
Admiral Howe, who was personally acquainted with Dr. Franklin and most sincerely desired reconciliation, wrote to that gentleman on his first arrival. The doctor's reply satisfied the earl that his Government mis- apprehended the temper of the American people, and that Franklin expressed the sentiments of the Continental Congress when he wrote at the conclusion of his letter : " This war against us is both unjust and unwise ; posterity will condemn to infamy those who advised it ; and even success will not save from some degree of dishonor those who voluntarily engage in it." Here the commissioners pansed in efforts to negotiate, and prepared immediately to strike the "rebellion" an effectnal blow.
Already British ships-of-war had run up the Hudson River past American batteries, and were menacing the country in the rear of Man- hattan Island with the intention of keeping open a free communication with Canada and facilities for furnishing arms to Tories in the interior. In the city of New York a majority of the influential inhabitants were active or passive Tories. The provincial authorities were yet acting timidly. In this exigency Washington appealed to the country. It was nobly responded to by the farmers of Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, where harvest-fields needed them, and very soon they swelled the army at New York to about seven- teen thousand effective men.
Both parties now prepared for an inevitable conflict. Hulks of vessels were sunk in the channel of the Hudson opposite the height on which Fort Washington was built. Fort Lee was erected on the Palisades beyond the river. Batteries were constructed at various points on Manhattan Island, and troops under the command of General Greene were sent over the East River to erect fortifications on Long Island back of Brooklyn. Greene was soon prostrated by fever, and resigned the command to General Sullivan, who had lately come from Lake Cham- plain. Small detachments were placed on Governor's Island and at Paulus's Hook (now Jersey City), and some militia were posted in lower Westchester County under General James Clinton to oppose the landing of British troops on the shores of Long Island Sound. Sullivan placed guards at several passes through a range of wooded hills on Long Island
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
extending from the Narrows to Jamaica. Late in August the Ameri- cans had a line of defences extending from (present) Greenwood Cem- etery to the Navy Yard, a distance of nearly two miles. These were armed with twenty cannons, and there was a strong redoubt with seven great guns on Brooklyn Heights.
On Angust 26th from twelve to fifteen thousand British troops were landed at the western end of Long Island. Washington immediately sent over a small re-enforcement to the Americans near Brooklyn, placed General Putnam in chief command on Long Island, and ordered General Sullivan to command the troops outside the lines. On that evening the British began an advance in three divisions. Their left, under General Grant, moved along the road nearest New York Bay ; their right, under Sir Henry Clinton and Earl Cornwallis, accompanied by Howe, moved toward the interior of the island, and their centre, composed of Germans and led by General De Heister, advanced by Flatbush. The British had then afloat in adjacent waters ten ships of the line, twenty frigates, some bomb-ketches, and almost three hundred and fifty transports. The American troops on Long Island did not exceed eight thousand in number.
Informed that his pickets at the lower pass below Greenwood had been driven in, Putnam sent General Lord Stirling with some Delaware and Maryland troops to confront the enemy. He unexpectedly met a large force. Planting his only two cannons upon a wooded height (" Battle Hill " in Greenwood), he waited for the coming enemy, to give battle.
Meanwhile the Germans were pushing forward to force their way through the Flatbush Pass (now in Prospect Park, its place marked by an inscription), while Clinton and Cornwallis were eagerly pressing on to gain the Bedford and Jamaica passes. The latter had been neglected by Putnam, and having no defenders, Clinton easily seized it. While Sullivan was defending the Flatbush Pass against De Heister, the baronet with a strong force descended from the woods and attacked the Americans there on flank and rear. Sullivan attempted to retreat to the American lines, but failed, and with a large portion of his men he was made a prisoner.
Stirling and his party were now the only Americans in the field with unbroken ranks. They fought Grant's column with spirit for four hours .. Then Cornwallis descended the Port or Mill Road with the bulk of Clinton's column and fell upon Stirling. The latter ordered a retreat, but the bridge over Gowanus Creek was in flames and the tide was rising. There was no alternative but to wade the creek. He · ordered one half of his troops, with some German prisoners, to cross the
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A NOTABLE RETREAT FROM LONG ISLAND.
muddy channel, while he and the rest should fight Cornwallis. Stirling was finally overcome and was made a prisoner." By noon the victory for the British was complete. The Americans had lost about five hun- dred men killed and wounded, and one hundred and eleven made prisoners. The victors encamped in front of the American lines and prepared to hesiege them.
Washington, who had beheld these movements with great anxiety, crossed the river on the morning of the 28th, and was rejoiced to find the British encamped and de- laying an attack until their fleet should co-operate with them. He at once conceived a plan for the salvation of his imperilled little army. He resolved to attempt a retreat across the river to New York under the shadow of the ensuing night. Providentially a dense fog which overspread both armies at midnight and covered the whole region gave him essential aid. It did not disperse until after sunrise the next morning, when, LORD STIRLING. under its sheltering wing and un- suspected by the British, the whole American army had passed the stream in boats and bateaux, carrying everything with them except- ing heavy cannons. Washington and his staff, who had been in the saddle all night, remained on the Brooklyn side of the river until the last boat-load had departed.
Immediately after the battle General Howe again proposed to treat for peace. This was a reason for his delay in attacking the American camp. He sent a verbal message to the Continental Congress, whose
* William Alexander (Lord Stirling) was born in New York City in 1720, a son of Secretary Alexander, of New Jersey. Attached to the commissariat of the British Army in America, he attracted the notice of General Shirley, who made him his private secre- tary. He went to Scotland in 1755, and unsuccessfully presented his claim to the Earldom of Stirling. It was generally believed that his claim was just, and he ever after- ward bore the empty title of "Lord Stirling," in America. In 1776 he was commissioned a brigadier-general in the Continental Army, and served with distinction during the war then begun. He married a daughter of William Livingston, of New Jersey. He was one of the founders of the New York Society Library and King's (now Columbia) College. Lord Stirling died June 15th, 1783.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
authority he had been instructed not to recognize, proposing an informal conference with any persons whom that body might appoint. Congress .consented, and early in September Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge met Howe at a house on Staten Island opposite Amboy, known as the " Billop House."" The meeting was friendly, but barren of expected fruit. Howe could not meet the three gentle- men as members of Congress, but only as private citizens ; and he informed them that the independence of the colonies would not be considered for a moment. The gulf between them was impassable, and the conference soon ended.
The disaster on Long Island disheartened the American army, and
THE BILLOP HOUSE.
hundreds deserted and went home. General insubordination prevailed, and the army was weakened by the practice of many vices. Drunken- ness was very common, and licentiousness poisoned the regiments. The ontlook was extremely gloomy, and it was determined to take the sick and wounded to New Jersey, the military stores up the Hudson to Dobbs Ferry, abandon the city, and establish a fortified camp on Harlem Heights, near Fort Washington, toward the upper part of Manhattan Island.+
* This house was the residence of Captain Christopher Billop, formerly of the British Navy. It was now abandoned by the family. It stood upon high ground opposite Perth Amboy.
+ Washington, in his retreat from the city to Harlem Heights, made his headquarters for a day or two at the home of Robert Murray on (present) Murray Hill, where he gave instructions to Captain Nathan Hale, who had volunteered to visit the British camp on Long Island, in disguise, and obtain information. While on that business Hale was recog- nized and exposed. He was arrested, sent to Howe's headquarters at Turtle Bay, East River (at Forty-seventh Street), and hanged as a spy by the notorious provost-marshal,
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BATTLE ON HARLEM PLAINS.
General Howe was indolent and fond of sensual pleasures. Procras- tination marred many of his plans. When he found the Americans had escaped he leisurely prepared to invade Manhattan Island in the rear of the American army there. Before he was ready to do so that army was so strongly intrenched upon Harlem Heights that they defied him. Washington made his headquarters at the home of his companion-in-arms on the field of Monongahela, Roger Morris, which is yet standing.
After various menacing movements had been made, a strong British force erossed the East River (September 15th) from Long Island and landed at Kip's Bay, at the foot of (present) Thirty-fourth Street, under cover of a cannonade. The American guard there fled, but were soon rallied. So long delayed were the movements of the British toward the Hudson River that Putnam, who had been left in the city with a few troops, was enabled to escape to Harlem Heights.
On the following day some British infantry and Scotch High- landers, led by General Leslie, encountered some Connecticut Rangers and a force of Virginians, under Colonel Knowlton and Major Leiteh, on Harlem Plains. They fought desperately until Washington sent some re-enforcements, when the enemy was forced baek to the high roeky ground at the upper end of Central Park. This affair greatly inspirited the Americans, though they were compelled to mourn the loss of Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch.
General Robertson was now sent with a considerable force to take possession of the city, where the British intended to make their com- fortable winter quarters. While his forces were reposing in their tents on the hills not far northward of the town, at midnight (September 20th-21st) huge columns of lurid smoke arose above the houses. It was soon followed by arrows of flame that shot upward. A terrible eon- flagration was begun. It broke out, by accident, in a low groggery and brothel at Whitehall, and as most of the Whig inhabitants had fled from the city, there were few to check the flames excepting the soldiers and the sailors from the ships in the harbor. About five hundred buildings were consumed, including Trinity Church, on Broadway.
Howe, re-enforced by troops from Great Britain and more Germans, under the command of General Knyphausen, resolved to gain the rear of Washington's army, which he dared not attack in front. The
Cunningham, who exercised the greatest cruelty toward the unfortunate young man. His last words were, as he stood under the tree upon which he was hanged, with a rope around his neck : " I only regret that I have but one life to give to my country." Hale is justly regarded as a martyr to human liberty. André, who suffered for the same offence, was the victim of his own ambition.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Germans had come in seventy vessels, and numbered about ten thousand men, swelling Howe's forces to about thirty-five thousand. On October 12th Howe embarked a large portion of his army in ninety flat-boats and landed them on a low peninsula of the main of Westchester County. Washington sent General Heath to confront the invaders and check their movements toward his rear.
Perceiving his peril, Washington called a council of war, when it was resolved to evacuate Manhattan Island and take position on the Bronx River in Westchester, to meet the invaders face to face, or secure a safe retreat to the Hudson Highlands. Leaving a garrison of nearly three thousand men in Fort Washington, under Colonel Magaw, the army withdrew, and, marching up the valley of the Bronx, formed intrenched camps from the heights of Fordham to White Plains. Washington made his headquarters near White Plains village on the 21st. General Greene commanded a small force which garrisoned Fort Lee, on the west side of the Hudson.
After almost daily skirmishing the two armies, cach about thirteen thousand strong, met in battle array near the village of White Plains on October 28th. The strongest position of the Americans was behind breastworks upon Chatterton's Hill, a lofty eminence on the right side of the Bronx opposite the village.
Howe's army advanced in two divisions, one led by Sir Henry Clinton, and the other by Generals De Heister and Erskine. Howe was with the latter. A hurried council of war was held by these officers on horseback, when some troops, under cover of a heavy cannonade, pro- ceeded to build a rude bridge over the Bronx. Over this British troops crossed and drove the Americans from Chatterton's Hill. The Repub- licans retreated to their intrenched camp nearer the village, where they remained unmolested until the night of the 31st. Howe dared not attack the apparently formidable breastworks of Washington's intrench- ments, which were really composed chiefly of cornstalks slightly covered with earth. The Americans withdrew in the night to a strong position on the heights of North Castle, five miles farther north. The British did not pursue. Washington with his main army crossed the Hudson and encamped between Fort Lee and Hackensack, in New Jersey. He left General Lee in command of a strong force at North Castle, with instructions to follow him into New Jersey if necessary, and he put Heath in command in the Hudson Highlands.
Isolated Fort Washington, standing upon the highest land on the island, overlooking and commanding the Hudson River, between One Hundred and Eighty-first Street and One Hundred and Eighty-sixth
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CAPTURE OF FORT WASHINGTON.
Street, was the next point of attack by the British under Howe. It was a five-sided earthwork, two hundred and thirty feet above tide- water, a mile north of Washington's former headquarters at the Roger Morris home. It mounted thirty-four great guns, and it was defended by several outlying redoubts and batteries on the north and south, extending across the island between the Hudson and Harlem rivers.
Howe procrastinated as usual, and it was the middle of November before he attacked Fort Washington. On the morning of the 16th he put troops in motion for a simultaneous assault at four different points.
THE JERSEY PRISON-SHIP.
They crossed the Harlem River under cover of a cannonade. The troops were led, respectively, by General Knyphausen (who commanded the Germans), Lords Percy and Cornwallis, General Mathews, and others. Before noon the occupants of supporting redoubts and batteries were driven into the fort. At one o'clock in the afternoon it had been surrendered, and the British flag was waving over it. Its name was changed to Fort Knyphausen.# Twenty-six hundred men became prisoners of war, and many of them were long sufferers in the loathsome prisons of New York and the more loathsome prison-ships afloat in the surrounding waters. +
* On the day of the final attack, Washington, with Generals Putnam, Greene, and Mercer, crossed the river, ascended the heights, and went to the abandoned mansion of Roger Morris, where the commander-in-chief had established his headquarters on Harlem Heights. From that point they took a hasty view of the scene of operations, and hastily departed. Within fifteen minutes after they left the mansion the British Colonel Sterling with his victorious troops took possession of it.
+ Among the most notable of these prison-ships was the hulk of the Jersey, which was moored at the Wallabout, now the site of the Navy Yard at Brooklyn. It was called "hell afloat." A greater portion of its inmates were captive American sailors. The most wanton outrages were suffered by the poor victims. The number of deaths in this
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Washington, satisfied that Howe would now turn his attention to the Federal City (Philadelphia), where Congress was sitting, prepared to hasten to its defence. Fort Lee was abandoned, but before its stores could be removed Cornwallis had crossed the Hudson with six thousand men, and was rapidly approaching it. The garrison fled to the camp near Hackensack, and then began Washington's famous retreat across New Jersey, pursued by Cornwallis, to the Delaware River.
The British were now in full possession of the city of New York and Manhattan Island, and held them more than seven years. The Pro- vincial Congress of New York became migratory. Driven from the city in August (1776), they sat a short time at Harlem, then at Kingsbridge, White Plains, the Philipse Manor, Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, and finally at Kingston, in Ulster County. There they remained until their final dissolution on the establishment of a State Government, in the spring and summer of 1777.
While the important military events just recorded were occurring in Southern New York near the sea, others of great importance were occurring in Northern New York near the borders of Canada. A large British and German force were in the latter province under the general command of Sir John Burgoyne, and were united with troops under General Guy Carleton, the Governor of Canada, in preparation for executing the plan for the severance of New England from the other colonies, already mentioned. This gave the Continental Congress and their constituents great anxiety, and in June the Congress sent General Horatio Gates to take command of the Republican army in Canada, independent of General Schuyler's control.
When Gates arrived in Albany he was thus first informed that the army was out of Canada, and the remnant of it was at Crown Point. He hastened thither, took command of that remnant, and proceeded to
"hell " was frightful. Starvation, fever, and even suffocation in the pent-up air at night made a fearful daily sacrifice of human creatures. Every morning there went down the hatchway from the deck the terrible cry, "Rebels, turn out your dead !" Then a score of dead bodies covered with vermin would be carried up by tottering half skeletons, their suffering companions, when they were taken to the shore and lightly buried in the sands of the beach. Such was the fate of eleven thousand American prisoners during the war.
The cruelties inflicted by Cunningham, the brutal provost-marshal, who had the general supervision of American prisoners in New York City, were terrible. He seemed to be acting independent of the military officers. In his confession before his execution in England for a capital crime, he said : "I shudder to think of the murders I have been accessory to, with and without orders from Government, especially while in New York, during which time there were more than two thousand prisoners starved in the different buildings used as prisons, by stopping their rations, which I sold !"
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NAVAL ENGAGEMENT ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
construct a flotilla of armed vessels to oppose the advance of the British. General Arnold was appointed commander-in-chief of the flotilla, and by the middle of August (1776) ten vessels, large and small, were ready for service. Meanwhile the British were busy in the construction of an armed flotilla at St. Johns, on the Sorel.
Toward the close of August the impatient and impetuous Arnold was permitted to go down the lake to meet the foe, but instructed not to go beyond (present) Rouse's Point, on the boundary-line between New York and Canada. He soon found himself in a perilous position, and fell back some distance. In the course of a few weeks his flotilla was increased, and early in October he was in command of a fleet composed of three schooners, two sloops, three galleys, eight gondolas, and twenty-one gun-boats, bearing an aggregate armament of sixty-seven cannons and ninety-four mortars, and manned by about five hundred men.
Ignorant of the strength of the naval armament preparing at St. Johns, and unwilling to meet a superior force on the broad lake, Arnold committed the foolish blun- der of arranging his vessels in a line across the comparatively narrow channel between Valcour Island and the western shore of the lake, THE ROYAL SAVAGE .* a few miles below Plattsburg. His flag-ship was the schooner Royal Savage, twelve guns. There he was attacked by a formidable flotilla, manned by many veterans of the Royal Navy, on the morning of October 11th. It was commanded by Captain Pringle in the Inflexible, though the expedition was under the supreme command of General Carleton, who was with the fleet, with British and German officers and troops. A severe action ensued, which continued almost five hours. Arnold and his men fought desperately. His vessel grounded and was burned by the enemy, but the crew were saved. Night closed upon the scene, when neither party was victorious.
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