USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume II > Part 59
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1 A corruption of " Throckmorton's"; also called "Frog's Point."
2 This regiment was raised for the American war, and participated in the affair of Harlem
Heights, September, 1776. After the peace it be- came the seventy-third regiment of foot.
3 See "Hist. Royal Regt. Artillery," Duncan. 4 General Heath's Memoirs. Boston, 1798.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
probable; but a storm came up, and the Americans took advantage of it to retire to a much stronger position on the heights of New Castle, about five miles northwest of White Plains.
When General Washington withdrew with his main force to White Plains, he left behind him, in Fort Washington, about three thousand men, under Colonel Magaw. This work mounted eighteen guns, and is described as "a pentagonal, bastioned earthwork, without a keep, having a feeble profile and scarcely any ditch. In its vicinity were batteries, redoubts and intrenched lines."1 The territory to be de- fended had a radius of nearly three miles. The main work was intended, in connec- tion with Fort Con- stitution (Lee) on the opposite side of the Hudson, and certain obstructions in the channel, to guard the water communi- cations, but so far had failed materially WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, HARLEM. to interfere with the movements of hostile ships. General Greene was reluctant to abandon Fort Washington, and had confidence in the ability of its garrison to hold it.
General Howe, having failed in his flank movement against the mobile American army, turned his attention to Magaw's isolated post .? He moved with a part of his force to Dobbs Ferry on the Hudson, inducing Washington to think a crossing there was in- tended. A strong detachment of Americans was, therefore, thrown into New Jersey, and another marched to Peekskill. The British forces began to converge upon Fort Washington, and by the night of November 15 it was completely invested-Percy on the south, Knyp- hausen and Rahl on the north, Matthews, Cornwallis, and Stirling' on the east, while H. M. S. Pearl took up a cooperative position in the
1 Gen. Cullum, in "The Struggle for the Hud- son." "Narrative and Critical History of Amer- ica," Boston, 1888.
2 Although the British commander must have intended to attack Fort Washington immediately after White Plains, he was, doubtless, confirmed in his intention by information received from a deserter - Magaw's post-adjutant, William De- mont. In a letter published by Mr. E. F. De Lancey (in Mag. Am. History, Feb., 1877), dated London, Jan. 16, 1792, Demont says: "On the 2d
of Nov. 1776 I Sacrificed all I was Worth in the World to the Service of my King and Country and joined the then Lord Percy, brought in with me the Plans of Fort Washington. by which Plans that Fortress was taken by his Majesty's Troops the 16 instant, Together with 2700 Prisoners and Stores & Ammunition to the amount of 1800 Pound." This statement, if true, explains the promptness and precision of the British attack. 3 Colonel Stirling, B. A.
NEW-YORK DURING THE REVOLUTION
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
river on the northwest. On the 15th a demand for surrender, with the formidable alternative of being "put to the sword," met with a digni- fied refusal. Magaw reported to Greene and Putnam, who visited him at this time, that his men were in good spirits and would make a good defense. On the next day (16th) a combined attack was made by Howe's forces, under cover of artillery fire from the east bank of the Harlem. Colonel Cadwallader, command- ing the outworks on the south, beset in front and rear, was the first to succumb. Baxter was killed, and his detach- ment melted away be- fore the Hessians on the north; and finally, af- FORT LEE. ter a gallant resistance against overwhelming numbers and a heavy artillery fire,1 Magaw was obliged to surrender to Knyphausen on honorable terms. The British admitted a loss of five hundred killed and wounded; the American casualties were one hundred and fifty killed and wounded, two thousand six hundred and thirty-four taken prisoners, together with forty-three pieces of artillery .? Into British hands thus passed, for the time being, the whole of New-York island.
Before proceeding to matters immediately concerning the city at this time, a word of comment may be permitted. With Manhattan Island as the stage, the second act of a great drama had been played. The spectator could hardly realize the import of the performance. The actors were as unequal in strength as David and Goliath. Yet "all the world wondered" when the British commander lost three successive opportunities to crush or capture his antagonist, and it has never ceased to wonder at the patience, tact, and military ability that enabled the American general to gather, organize, and train
1 Major Duncan, in his " Hist. Royal Regt. Ar- tillery," says thirty-four guns.
2 " George Selwyn, the other evening, in one of the polite gaming houses in London, hearing a young gentleman speaking with great animation of the miraculous escape of General Howe, who was said to have been patting Lord Percy's charger at the time the animal was shot under him, replied : ' You are right: and never was a more miraculous escape, or perhaps more temper shown upon any occasion than by the two gen- eral officers in that situation.' . How was that ? I did not hear anything about it.' 'No! Why it
seems they were disputing about the age of the horse, and had made a bet upon it. Lord Percy said he was aged; Sir William said otherwise ; and just as the latter was looking into his mouth to satisfy his doubts, a nine-pounder came from Fort Washington and severed the horse's head from his body; upon which Sir William Howe. with great composure, took up the head and showed his lordship the mark in his mouth. Lord Percy, instantly dismounting, paid him the money, and then, with the greatest intrepidity. led his brigade to the walls of the fort.'" "Mid- dlesex Journal," January 2, 1777.
525
NEW-YORK DURING THE REVOLUTION
his ragged levies in the very face of the enemy, and, finally, to make a triumphal entry into the city from which he had been driven in the same month just seven years before. It is a well-established fact that the future of a great republic was probably assured by the result of the campaign of 1776, in and near the city of New-York.1
In the mean time the city had changed masters. The best account of what transpired in the early part of the new regime is that of the
N. RIVER
EAST RIVER
OR THE
SOUND
THE VICINITY OF FORT WASHINGTON IN 1779.3
loyalist Moravian pastor Schaukirk .? He was the Samuel Pepys of New-York in the Revolution, and notes in his diary that on Sunday,
1 Washington's own opinion was as follows: " We should on all occasions avoid a general action, nor put anything to the risk, unless compelled by a necessity into which we ought never to be drawn. The war should be defensive, a war of posts." Washington to Congress, Sept. 8. 1776.
In the "Middlesex Journal" of January 2. 1777, appeared the following lines, expressive of con- temporary comment on the movements of the contending armies :
When Rome was urged by adverse fate, On Cannae's evil day,
A Fabius saved the sinking state By caution and delay.
"One only State!" reply'd a smart; "Why talk of such a dunce ?
When Billy Howe, by the same art, Can save Thirteen at once."
: Ewald Gustav Schaukirk, born in 1725 at Stet- tin, Prussia, emigrated to America in 1774, and in the year following was appointed pastor of the Mo- ravian Congregation, New-York. He was conse-
crated bishop in 1785, and died at Herrnhut, Sax- ony, in 1805.
3 The above illustration furnishes a bird's-eye view or plan of the vicinity of Fort Washington, after it had been captured by the British and its name changed to Fort Knyphausen. The follow- ing key explains the figures: Nos. 1, 2, 3, Spuyten Duyvil; 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, American redoubt ; A, North or Cox Hill and its redoubt ; B, Palisades of the New Jersey shore ; C, Charles redoubt; D, watch- house; E, once a bridge of boats; F, storehouses; G, upper Cortlandt house; H, lower Cortlandt house; I, Fort Independence; K, Emmerich's Chas- seurs' encampment; L, farm-house; M, Queen's bridge; N, King's bridge (invisible); O, demol- ished house; Q, American redoubts; R, huts of the blacks; S, encampment of the seventeenth English regiment, taken prisoners; T, encamp- ment of the body regiment; U, garden cut down for barricades; V, blockhouse; W, Laurel Hill; X, Holland's Ferry; Y, huts built by forty-fourth regiment English; Z, Hessian riflemen and chas- seurs' encampment; ala, aža, a3a, Fort Clinton, nearly erected in 1779.
1
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
September 15, "the King's flag was put up again in the fort and the Rebels' taken down; and, thus, the city was now delivered from those Usurpers who had oppressed it so long." The next day, "in the forenoon the first of the English troops came to town. They were drawn up in two lines in the Broadway; Governor Tryon and others of the officers were present and a great concourse of people. Joy and gladness seemed to appear in all countenances, and persons who had been strangers, one to the other, formerly, were now very sociable together and friendly. The first that was done was that all the houses of those who have had a part and a share in the Rebellion were marked as for- feited. Many, indeed, were marked by persons who had no order to do so; and did it, per- haps, to one or the other from some personal resentment."
A few days later (September 21) our Moravian chronicler writes that "in the first hour of the day, soon after midnight, the whole city was alarmed by a dreadful fire. It spread so violently that all what was done was but of little effect; if one was in one street and looked about, it broke out al- Pulaski ready again in another street above; and thus it raged all the night and till about noon. The wind was pretty high from southeast and drove the flames to the northwest. It broke out about White Hall; destroyed a part of Broad, Stone and Beaver streets, the Broadway and then the streets going to the North river and all along that river as far as the King's College. Great pains were taken to save Trinity Church, but in vain;1 it was destroyed, as also the old Lutheran Church : and St. Paul's at the up- per end of the Broadway escaped very narrowly. . . . There are great reasons to suspect that some wicked incendiaries had a hand in this dreadful fire, which has consumed the fourth part of the city: several persons have been apprehended. Moreover there were few hands of the inhabitants to assist; the bells being carried off, no timely alarm was
1 "Long before the main fire reached Trinity Church, that large, ancient and venerable edifice was in flames which baffled every effort to sup- press them. The steeple which was one hundred
and forty feet high, the upper part, wood, and placed on an elevated situation resembled a vast pyramid of fire exhibiting a most grand and aw- ful spectacle." Moore's Diary Am. Revolution.
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NEW-YORK DURING THE REVOLUTION
given; the engines were out of order; the fire company broke; and, also, no proper order and directions: all which contributed to the spreading of the flames."1 Four hundred and ninety-three houses were destroyed, and the place that knew them was a blackened ruin. The origin of the fire was never precisely ascertained. The British of course claimed that it was the result of "rebel" design. The propriety of making the city unavailable as quarters for the enemy had been a subject of discussion between Congress, the committee of safety, and the general-in-chief and his military advisers; but it had been decided
"TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF THE ROYAL TROOPS INTO NEW-YORK."
to spare New-York, and the consensus of opinion seems to ascribe the beginning of the fire to accident, and its violence and extent to the want of a fire department, and to the opportunities afforded by the circumstances to irresponsible incendiaries.
While dense volumes of smoke yet ascended from the ruined city, another tragedy was being enacted within its limits. It was nothing unusual in war-time- merely the execution of a spy, the culmina- tion of a drum-head trial and conviction. The scene had few wit-
1 Another cause was the number of small wooden houses in the path of the flames. In 1761 the colonial authorities enacted that all buildings
erected south of Duane street after 1766 should be of stone or brick; but the time extended to 1774.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
nesses and lacked sensational features. And yet the case was similar to that which gained for a British spy world-wide commiseration and a monument in Westminster Abbey. The continental army had, as yet, no organized system for obtaining military intelligence: its re- cent reverse on Long Island was largely due to this deficiency. Wash- ington determined to maintain the closest scrutiny of the enemy, and to this end caused the names of several persons to be sent to him. Among these was that of Nathan Hale of Connecticut, a captain in the picked corps of Knowlton's Rangers. Young, handsome, self- reliant, a graduate of Harvard and familiar with the country, he seemed an ideal scout. Disguised as a schoolmaster, Hale crossed
" REPRESENTATION OF THE TERRIBLE FIRE IN NEW-YORK."
over to Long Island, entered the British lines, and penetrated into the city. With valuable information as to numbers and positions of the enemy, he was about to return, when he was arrested on the shores of Huntington Bay by a patrol-boat from a British man-of- war. Instead of attempting a defense or explaining the papers found on his person, he frankly declared his rank in Washington's army, and the object of his visit to the British camp. If tradition and meager records are correct, the scene of his examination and sentence was the little greenhouse in the garden of the old Beekman mansion (on Fifty-second street, near First avenue), where Howe had fixed his headquarters. His fate was sealed. With unusual severity he was
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NEW-YORK DURING THE REVOLUTION
deprived by the brutal provost-marshal, Cunningham, of all comforts, even of a bible or clergyman; a kind-hearted British officer eventually procured for him writing materials, with which he wrote a letter to his mother. He suffered death in the ignominious manner prescribed for his offense by military law and custom. Nothing, however, can obscure the memory of the heroism with which he met his fate. The spirit of the true soldier was ex- pressed when he accepted the detail, in his remark that "every kind of service necessary to the public good became honorable by being neces- sary"; the soul of a martyr patriot inspired his last words : "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."1
The New-York of 1777 had but few of the attractions over which travelers in more quiet times were wont to wax eloquent. The mailed hand of war had been laid heavily upon it. Its beautiful groves had been cut down by the military sap- CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE. per; its velvet lawns upturned for intrenchment purposes or indented by artillery-wheels; and its fairest and broadest avenue had been blackened and mutilated by the flames. But the foreigners who now elbowed the natives gave but little heed to such mournful sights. It was in keeping with the profession of arms, and they made the best of it.
The garrison comprised a brigade of foot (fourth, fifteenth, twenty- seventh, and forty-fifth regiments), a squadron of the seventeenth light dragoons, and three regiments of Hessians, all in the city proper. At Harlem there was a brigade of British foot (sixth, twenty- third, and forty-fourth regiments), together with a brigade of Hessians. The headquarters of the commandant, No. 1 Broadway, was daily the scene of military bustle. There might be found, arriving or de- parting, spruce aides-de-camp or grim old field-officers; "lounging about the entrance were well set-up orderlies in different costumes; the gunner in full dress, with his gold-laced cocked-hat with black feathers, his hair clubbed and powdered, white stock, white breeches,
1 Captain Hale was executed in the Rutgers orchard on East Broadway. In 1886 the Sons of the Revolution initiated a movement to erect a statue. It is now cast in Paris, modeled by an American residing there, and is to arrive here some time during the present year. It was exhib-
ited in the Salon of 1891, and received the gold medal. It is to be placed in the northwest corner of the City Hall Park. Unfortunately there is no portrait of Hale, and the above is taken from Karl Gerhardt's ideal bronze statue. EDITOR.
VOL. II .- 34.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
and white stockings, and armed with a carbine and a bayonet; or per- haps in the marvelous undress (invented by Colonel Cleaveland, R. A.) -a blue jacket and brown trowsers. Among the others is also to be seen an occasional negro, in no particular uniform at all, one of a com-
IN CONGRESS.
The DELEGATES of the United Colonies of New Hampshire, Mafacbufetti-Bay, Rhode- Ifland, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the Counties of Newcaffle, Kent, and Suffex on Dalaware, Mary. land, Virginia, North Carolina, and South-Carolina, to Matkan Hate d'y W E- repofing efpecial truft and confidence in your patriotifm, valour, conduct and fidelity, DO by thele prefents confiture and appoint you to be takenin to the nineteenth chegment of jest commanded by silent Charles Wall
in the army of the United Colonies, raifed for the defence of American Liberty, and for repelling every. hoftile invafion thereof. You are therefore carefully and diligently to difcharge the duty of ftin by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto belonging. And we do frialy charge and require all officers and foldiers under your command, co. be obedient to your orders, ma Captain And you are to observe and follow fuch orders and directions from time to time as you fhall receive from this or a future Congrefs of the United Colonies, or Committee of Congrefs, for that purpofe appointed, or Commander in Chief for the time being of the army of the United Colonies, or any other your fuperior officer, according to the rules and difcipline of war, in purfuance of the truft repofed in you. This commifion to continue in force until revoked by this or a future Congrels. By Order of the Congress,
John Hancock Gadanh
CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE'S COMMISSION. 1
pany of Virginian blacks enrolled for duty with the Artillery and in the Ordnance Yard."2 A few natty-looking light dragoons led slowly, to and fro, along the sad-looking Bowling Green, the chargers of their officers. Perhaps the martial strains of a band came stealing down from the Mall where the daily guard-mounting was held. There the half camp, half garrison nature of the town was sharply illustrated.
1 The commission of Captain Hale was purchased by Mitchell, an autograph dealer of New-York, in April, 1892, at an auction sale in Philadelphia, for $1775 (he should have bid an additional dollar and made it $1776), and at the same time he paid $1125 for a portion of the letter which appears in fac- simile on the following page. Both documents have
since been sold, at an advance, to a New-York col. lector. It may be added that, so far as known, but eight of Hale's letters have survived the flood of years. EDITOR.
2 Major Duncan, in " History of the Royal Artil- lery."
531
NEW-YORK DURING THE REVOLUTION
keet kraft, and Mi
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532
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
For a background the ruined abbey-like walls of old Trinity rose majestically above the motley throng of soldiers and citizens drawu to witness the important ceremony. "Here might be seen the Hes- sian with his towering brass-fronted cap, mustachios colored with the same material that coloured his shoes, his hair plastered with tallow and flour, and tightly drawn into a long appendage reaching from the back of the head to his waist, his blue uniform almost covered by the broad belts sustaining his cartouch box, his brass-hilted sword and his bayonet; a yellow waistcoat with flaps and yellow breeches were met at the knees by black gaiters, and thus heavily equipped he stood
NEW-YORK, FROM REAR OF COLONEL RUTGERS'S HOUSE, 1776.
an automaton, and received the command or cane of the officer who inspected him. A contrast to the German was the Highlander, who, though loaded with weapons and accoutrements, appeared free and flowing in the contour of his figure. His low, checkered bonnet, his tartan or plaid, his short, red coat, his kilt leaving his knees exposed to the view and the winds, and his legs partly covered by the many coloured hose of his country. His musket, bayonet, broadsword, dirk and pistols showed a formidable array for the strife of blood, and the ornamental portion of his dress was completed by a pouch hanging in front of his kilt decorated with tassels. This costume was changed after the first or second campaign in a country whose temperature and warfare were both unsuited to it. These were the most striking and most contrasted costumes of the army of the King at this time, though we could perhaps describe graphically the gallant grenadiers of Anspach, with their towering black caps and sombre but military array; - the gaudy Waldeckers, their cocked hats edged with yellow scollops; the German Jägers, and the various corps of English in glittering and gallant pomp." 1
1 " History of the American Theatre." Dunlap, N. Y., 1832.
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NEW-YORK DURING THE REVOLUTION
Within a space sacredly reserved for the principal officers of the garrison and their friends might often be seen the dignified form of Sir Henry Clinton, the jolly rotundity of Lord Cornwallis, or the wiry figure of honest General Pattison-"the Gunner who governed New York."1 Again, there were visible the well-known faces of the Howes- the indolent soldier and the gallant sailor; the popular and gifted André; the amiable artilleryman Williams, bending in graceful devo- tion over the fair loyalists who usually mustered in force on fine days. But the guard is march- ing off to the main guard- house at the City Hall, in Wall street, and the spectators are dispers- ing. Stately burghers exchange snuff-box cour- tesies with pompous general officers; gay and youthful cavaliers attend their maidens fair on their shopping campaigns in Hanover Square, where in the early years of the war the richest stuffs and rarest trinkets were dis- played. "Society" en- deavored successfully to forget the troubles that distracted the country, and dinners, routs, and amateur theatricals were UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH ARMY, 1776-99." freely indulged in. Then, as often now, charity went hand in hand with pleasure. The "rebel Congress" had closed the little red thea- ter in John street, the year before, with a view of improving the morals of the country, injuriously affected, as the staid Boston members thought, by "theatricals, cock-fighting, and horse-racing." It was reopened in January, 1777, as the "Theatre Royal," by the "Garrison Dramatic Club," composed of some of the brightest men in the British army. The surgeon-general of the forces, Doctor Beau- mont, was manager and principal low-comedian; Major Williams of
1 As Major Duncan, R. A., calls him in Hist. Royal Regt. Artillery."
2 "These figures represent his Majesty George III. in the dress of a general officer attended by an officer of heavy and light dragoons. The sen- try presenting arms is a fusilier, whose dress is a
scarlet coat, blue facings, white breeches and waistcoat, black gaiters up to the knees, a bear- skin cap with a brass plate in front." "History of the Dress of the British Soldier," Lieutenant- Colonel John Luard, London, 1852.
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