USA > New York > Rockland County > The history of Rockland County > Part 12
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On August 19th, Hazen's regiment and the New Jersey line were quietly crossed over to Sneden's Landing, and marched inland to Spring- field. On the same day, the remainder of the force was slowly withdrawn up the country, and the crossing of the riverat Kings Ferry begun. Dur- ing this movement, portions of the army encamped on the line of march through the County and on one occasion a body of French troops was camped near the old Treason House. Finally, by August 26th, the last of the army was in motion on the west shore, and the long Journey to Vir- ginia begun.
In the march over our soil, the Americans passed over the old military road through Kakiat and Ramapo or Sidman's Pass ; while the French, following the Kings Highway, advanced over the Long Clove; down through the Upper Hackensack Valley ; skirted the western base of the Nyack hills; tarried for a brief space at Tappan; and then marched on south to again join the Americans and help them gain that victory, that gave this people peace, with a national existence, and greater political liberty than the world had yet seen.
t The name of this creek is spelled by different parties as follows: Benson J. Lossing. " Peploap's or Poplopen's ;" Map of New York, in 1779. "Coplap's Kill ;" Romans wrote it " Pooploop's;" when the boundaries of the County were defined in 1798, the Legislature called it "Poplopen's." In a plan of the attack on the forts drawn by a British officer and published in London, in 1784, it is given as " Peploaps."
# Samuel Holden Parsons, who was one of the eight brigade commanders on the Court of In- quiry that Iried Andre, and unanimously found him guilty; was, within ten months after that trial, in correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, and betrayed to him the position, strength, and in- tended movements of the Continental Army, so far as he was conversant with the facts. Maga- zine American History. Vol. XII. p. 166.
Authorities referred to : "Field Book of the Revolution," Lossing. Vols. II. " Life of Washington." John Marshall. Vol. I. "History of Orange County." S. W. Eager. " His- tory of Ramapo." Rev. E. B. Cobb. " History of Haverstraw." Rev. Dr. A. S. Freeman. " History of Clarkstown." H. P. Fay. "History of Stony Point." Rev. E. Gay, Jr. Old Documents. "Force Papers." Magazine American History. Article by Dr. James Thacher, in the New England Magazine, May, 1834.
CHAPTER VII.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
EVENTS AT TAPPAN AND SNEDEN'S LANDING-CONFLICT BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND SHORE GUARD AT PIERMONT AND HAVERSTRAW- NAVAL FIGIIT IN TAPPAN ZEE-CONFLICTS AT NYACK-THE DEPRE- DATIONS COMMITTED BY COWBOYS IN THE COUNTY-FORAYS AT SLAUGHTER'S LANDING-JOSHUA HETT SMITH-INVASIONS OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF OUR COUNTY BY THE ENEMY-ACTS OF INDI- VIDUAL BRAVERY AND SUFFERING-ACCOUNT OF CLAUDIUS SMITH- CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR-ROLL OF THE NAMES OF TIIE MEN WHO SERVED IN THE ARMIES OF THE RE- VOLUTION.
Far more interesting, than the march of armies or the fighting of battles, is the history of private deeds of men and women in trying hours of danger and death. By reason of its ease of access from the enemy's ships, its exposure to the raids of their foraging parties, and the number of the Tory marauders who lived near to or within its borders, Rockland County is rich in tales of the outrages produced by war. Patriot citizens as- saulted and robbed, their buildings burned, their women violated, themselves not infrequently murdered. Parties of reprisal formed of these patriots, which gave but short shrift to the Tory when he was captured. Goodbyes exchanged between a brave wife, who though surrounded by every danger that chills a human heart, still loved the cause too dearly to shrink from risk ; and husband, who, though leaving all which was of value to him on earth, hastening at the call of a duty, which might leave him unharmed, which might leave him sorely wounded, which might leave him lying asleep, after the turmoil of conflict was ended, with only a slight blue spot to show that that sleep was eternal, and with the "night dew and death dew mingling on his forehead;" or worse, far worse than wound or death, which might leave him a prisoner in British hands to suffer all that mind can dream or fear of hell on earth.
Yet, despite the interest that these acts of individuals and communities possess for us, it is with extreme difficulty that we can obtain accounts of them. The pioneers in the birth of this nation, the laborers in the founda- tion of this government, like their predecessors, the first settlers in the country, found other work to do besides noting their daily trials and deeds for the benefit of their descendants. They made history and left us in
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quieter times the peaceful task of recording it. Almost all of the local events and struggles of the Revolution in this County come to us by family tradition, and even the names of many who lived and participated in those events are lost. Perchance all would be gone but that here and there upon an old tomb stone can be found some record of patriotism.
As early as September 8th, 1776, Washington ordered the removal of his sick to the neighborhood of Tappan. Later, when General Scott en- camped in Haverstraw to protect the stores which were there, he ordered ten tons of lead moved from Tappan to Major Smith's at Upper Nyack- the property now owned by Joseph Hilton. When Colonel Tyler had ceased to harry the Tories in Orangetown for a moment, and had with- drawn to Ramapo, Abraham Post, of Tappan, was ordered to remove eleven chests of armorer's tools, with bellows, anvils, &c., to the store of Abraham Mabie at the Slote. In 1780, General Greene had his head- quarters in the stone house near the old road, which led from Sneden's Landing to Orangeburg, and which is now occupied by E. N. Taft and owned by Wm. Peet.
To protect the landing place at Sneden's the Americans erected a work, which was visited by a British spy on June 27th, 1781, and thus described: " It is a redoubt about a mile and half from the landing, on a very rough rocky height, picketted in all round with tops of trees and branches; no way to get in without climbing over; about four rods within this circle is a round breastwork running quite round the height, eight feet high, with a gate to pass in on the west side. Within that circle, about three rods, is another breastwork running round the top of the height, about the same height as the other, on which is wooden embrasures built, in which they have one piece of cannon on a travelling carriage. On the south side of the inward work a gate opens into the first breast- work. The rise of the height is so much as to cause the top of the first breastwork to be no higher than the bottom of the second. At this time it was commanded by a Lieutenant, two Sergeants, two Captains, and twenty-five men in the works."
At one time during the war Garret O'Blenis and a half-dozen comrades were watching a British vessel, which had anchored off Sneden's Landing -now Palisades. At last their watch was rewarded by seeing a barge filled with men start for the shore. Concealing themselves behind the rocks, the Americans permitted the barge to approach within a few yards of the landing, and then fired into her. After the first surprise the enemy endeavored to force a landing, assisted by the guns of the ship. For a few moments the conflict was severe, but, unaware of the numerical
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strength of the shore party, the foe at length withdrew. The only man seriously wounded among the patriots was Garret O'Blenis, who had a ball pass through his right arm and completely through his body, smash- ing two ribs and perforating the right lung in its course. His wound was regarded as mortal, but, after several months' illness, he entirely re- covered.
The river shore from Taulman's Point at Piermont, north, was much exposed to the depredations of foraging forces from the enemy's ships, and the chief duty of Colonel Hay and the Minute Men was to guard this long and exposed line. On the first appearance of the British vessels, on July 12th, 1776, the enemy made two attempts to land at Nyack, but were re- pulsed through the watchfulness of Colonel Hay's men, who, by reason of their small number-only 400-and the distance to be patroled, were on duty day and night. On July 16th the fleet sailed up as far as Haver- straw and anchored off Kiers' landing, but here, too, their attempts to land were prevented. So deficient was the guard in the necessary munitions of war that Hays appealed for powder and ball to supply his men. Fortu- nately General George Clinton was able to reinforce him at the time, and shortly after he was sent twenty pounds of powder. For nine days the vessels remained off Haverstraw, but only once succeeded in obtaining provisions from the west shore. On that occasion they burned the house of a man named Halstead and took his pigs.
At last, on July 25th, the vessels sailed slowly down the river, anchor- ing for a time off Teller's, now Croton Point, to obtain some provisions from the Westchester shore. But their presence had roused the spirit of battle in the patriots, and on August 3d, 1776, the American galleys. Lady Washington, Spitfire, Whiting, and Crown, under Benjamin Tupper, attacked their vessels, Phenix, Captain Parker, and Rose, Captain Wallace, off Tarrytown and fought them for two hours.
Nyack, then but a hamlet of perhaps a dozen houses, became, before the end of the war, an object of the enemy's bitter aversion. This was partly due to those patriotic actions of its inhabitants, which ended in the repulsion more than once of their forces when they attempted to land for fresh provisions or water; partly because it was a rendezvous for the whale boat fleet, which patroled the river, and partly because of the residence at this place of Henry Palmer, who had rendered himself obnoxious to the British.
Captain Palmer had owned a vessel and been employed in the carrying trade for one of the largest firms in New York, before the Revolution. When the news of the battle of Bunker Hill reached that city, he was
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offered great financial advantages to serve the cause of the King but re- fused absolutely. Shortly after he conveyed two cargoes of arms and ammunition, which had been seized by the Sons of Liberty, from New York to the camp of the Continental Army. New York soon became uncom- fortable for this patriot, and he removed with his family to a house, which formerly stood in Upper Nyack, on the east side of Broadway, opposite the old mountain road, by Garret E. Green's residence.
Owing to these causes, the British vessels, whenever they passed up the river, greeted the residents of the Nyack valley with a shotted salute from their guns. For their protection, those residents erected an earth work on the land east of the Methodist Church and just north of Depew Avenue, which covered the first dock in the village; while the section known as Upper Nyack, was defended by a swivel mounted on Major John L. Smith's place, and a company of Minute men under his and his brother -Captain Auri Smith's command.
As soon as hostilities had begun in this Colony the Shore Guard was placed on duty ; this following order governing those stationed at Nyack.
"Haverstraw, October 16th, 1776. General orders for the command- ing officers at the place called the Hook.
"Guards to mount daily at 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon, with sentries fixed as the commanding officer sees expedient. No soldier to fire a gun unless a sentry after hailing a craft or person three times, or at the enemy, or on an alarm. On every alarm, twenty hands to be sent to the com- manding officer with intelligence. No person to pass without a permit from some commanding officer, or the committee from whence he came. No craft to be taken without liberty from the officer of the party of the place where said craft is. No liquor to be sold after 7 o'clock at night un- less to a traveller, and none to be sold to any person in liquor. No sentry to leave his post until relieved. The commanding officer at the Hook to consult with the Major of the Riflemen, at New York, about the counter- sign. These orders to be read morning and evening to the guards until further orders."
" A HAWKINS HAY,
Commanding Officer."
In October 1776, the enemy attempted to land at Nyack, but were re- pulsed by the Shore Guard, not however till their cannon balls had marked Sarvent's house. In December of the same year, they effected a foot-liold and, besides looting a house, took off some cattle. In the sum- mer of the following year-1777-two boats attempted to land at the pres- ent Piermont, at the point now known as the upper dock, at daybreak.
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After a sharp conflict with the Shore Guard they were repulsed with three killed. Several of the Shore Guard were wounded, but none fatally.
Toward the close of July, 1777, the British sent a galley ashore to de- stroy a sloop which was moored to a dock at Abram Sarvent's place in Upper Nyack. To oppose this endeavor, Henry Palmer, Abram Sarvent, Cornelius Cuyper, Peter Freeland and Major Smith hastily collected, and concealed themselves in a quarry near the dock. Waiting till the enemy was within safe range, the patriots opened fire. The galley was at once put about and pulled out of gun shot for a time. A second attempt to force a landing, though assisted by the ship's guns, ended in failure. A third attempt was made, but the loss of the British was too great for further hope of success. The galley was then pulled up opposite Henry Palmer's house, and fire opened against that building from the bow carronade. So accurate was the aim of the gunners, that every shot struck the house or tore up the earth in the door yard. Mrs. Palmer, fearing each moment that a ball would pass through the building, took her infant in her arms and, creeping through the brambles and bushes along a water course, which passed alongside the house, till out of range, at length crossed the mountain and found a safe asylum at the house of a friend. In her flight, a ball struck the bank so close to the fugitive as to spatter dirt over herself and child.
The morning after the fight at Sarvent's Landing, the bodies of nine British sailors floated ashore and were buried by the Americans.
On another occasion Captain Palmer with a few comrades fired into a British vessel which was becalmed and floating with the tide. Thirty-six of the enemy were killed or wounded in this slaughter while of Palmer's force but one man was injured. He was wounded by a splinter from the rock behind which he was concealed.
Dreadful warfare did the patriots wage against the enemy's ships with the swivel, which was mounted east of Broadway, in Upper Nyack, op- posite the residences of Joseph Hilton and S. C. Eaton, on property now belonging to Wilson Defendorf. At best this famous gun would barely carry a ball a half mile, andas the ships kept in the channel, some twoand a half miles away, no very great injury was done by this long range shooting. Once however, during the war, two boats attempted to land at this shore for water and the Shore Guard opened so hot a fire with muskets and swivel, that one boat's crew surrendered at once while the other, braving the fire, pulled for the ships. The captured crew was sent to Tappan.
While the enemy did not, as a rule, invade the upper part of the valley, they did express their 'disapprobation of the swivel fire by returning its
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salute with great freedom. One of their six pound balls was found some years ago on the property belonging to Harmon Snedeker some distance from the river. In one of these artillery duels, a shot from the ships struck the stone fence on which the American gun rested, scattering stones in every direction, dispersing the Minute Men with startling rapidity, and knocking the swivel off its mount into the trench behind the earthwork. On this occasion Cornelius Cuyper was standing on the fence when the ball struck it. In the dust and excitement that followed he was heard to ejaculate: " H-11, don't shoot my legs off!"
A messenger to Verplancks Point on June 27th, 1781, under a flag, reported on his return that he saw " opposite Tarrytown, on the west shore, six whale boats and about forty-two men in all. No appearance of any of them fitted for carrying swivels or wall pieces."
Recollections of cowboys and their deeds in Nyack is preserved, by a bullet hole in the wall of the house now occupied by John Salisbury, and the tradition, existing in the family, of the escape from their clutches of Michael Cornelison, Jr., who resided in the house during the Revolution, the capture of his father, and the looting of the place. The bullet was fired through the window, in the south-west corner of the house, at some American officers who were sitting in Mr. Cornelison's parlor. It passed between them doing no injury. Another attack by a party, supposed to have been from Westchester, who rowed across the river and landed at the "Bight," was made upon Mr. Cornelisons' one evening.
At the outbreak of hostilities Mr. Cornelison's house was unfinished, and, owing to the draft upon the people, it remained uncompleted till the close of the Revolution. When it was evident that the struggle would be a protracted one, Cornelison, foreseeing the difficulty of obtain- ing provisions at a later period, laid in a store of tea, sugar, wines, crock- ery, &c., for the entertainment of travellers as well as for his own use. When the enemy, who were guided by a Tory neighbor of Cornelison, entered the house, Mrs. Cornelison had but time to throw a few silver dollars behind the back-log in the fire-place. In their usual manner the foe proceeded to devastate the house. The crate of crockery was opened and its contents broken, the tea was scattered all the way down the hill to the boat, while the pipe of wine was broached, and, after being used free- ly, it was turned upside down to empty it.
While this destruction was going on down stairs, the commanding officer, guided still by the Tory, passed up to the rooms above. On a collar beam in those rooms lay Michael Cornelison, Jr., who had rushed to hide at the first alarm. In his flight, his watch chain had caught on some
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projecting object and dragged the watch from its fob. As he lay upon the beam, scarcely daring to breath, the ticking of the dangling watch sounded like the roar of machinery, and doubtless, could he have but gotten his thumb on the works, it would have required more than me- chanical ingenuity to repair the damage. He was espied by the Tory, but was saved by the fact that his discoverer was a brother Freemason.
After destroying everything they could lay their hands on, the ma- rauders at length left, taking Michael Cornelison, Sr., with them. He was confined in the Sugar House for nine months and then released on parole. The morning following his capture, Mrs. Cornelison visited New York to secure his release. She, too, was detained within the enemy's lines, but was permitted to reside at the house of a friend named Walker, and to visit her husband daily, taking him food and luxuries. At length she made the acquaintance of a leman of one of the British officers, and, through her interposition, obtained greater freedom for the prisoner. After being detained some six months in the city, she was allowed to go home, followed, as we have seen, by her husband three months later. In 1840, when some needed repairs were being made to the old house, evi- dences of that night's visit of the enemy were found in abundance.
Adjoining the residence of John A. Hazzard at Rockland Lake is an old house, which seems to have acted the part of a target for the British gunners whenever they passed Slaughter's Landing. It has been marked over and over again with shot, and from its wall many old six pound balls have been taken.
On one of their many foraging expeditions, a boats' crew, which had landed at Rockland Lake and marched inland, came upon the house of a Mr. Ryder, which stood near the present Swartwout's pond. Mr. Ryder was from home at the time of this visit and his young wife was alone to meet the marauders. In compliance with their demands, she gave them all the food she had and waited on them during their meal. When they had finished cating, the invaders returned to the beach taking Mrs. Ryder with them. On reaching the shore these, worse than brutes, violated the poor woman and then left her, lying unconscious on the sand under Calico Hook, while they returned to their vessel. It was not till the following day that the poor creature could drag herself back to her home, and tell to her alarmed neighbors her horrible tale.
In more than one instance these predatory parties raided inland from Rockland Lake or Haverstraw after fresh provisions. Sometimes they would meet with success and get back to their boats without difficulty. Sometimes they would retire when they found they were discovered, and
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sometimes, they roused a hornets' nest of Minute Men about them and were glad to reach their boats without spoil. During an expedition of this nature in the neighborhood of Strawtown, Resolvert Stephens and a few others learned of the enemy's presence and attacked them. The British were in too great force, however, for this little band to do more than fire and run; but the patriots, at least, had the satisfaction of seeing one of the foe carried back to the shore by his comrades, and knew their volley had not been in vain.
On another occasion Major John Smith, having learned that a body of the enemy had landed at the present Rockland Lake, and proceeded in- land, hastily gathered a party and rode up the Strawtown road. Ere the faintest suspicion was excited, the Major was in an ambush. His com- rades wheeled and rode back as the enemy fired, but it was too late for the Major to turn and, finding himself surrounded, he spurred ahead, leaped his horse over a fence, and started across country for the Nyack and Haverstraw road. Believing that the enemy werc below him, he turned toward the Long Clove, but when opposite the present Waldberg Church, he saw a group of invaders about a neighboring house. Again he was fired at and missed. Then two of the enemy, mounting in haste on two stolen horses, began pursuit. The race was kept up till Long Clove was reached, when the chase was abandoned, but not till one pursuer had been shot, and Major Smith's sword hand nearly amputated by a saber stroke. At a later period, this patriot was captured and confined in New York.
Toward the close of the war a boat load of marines landed at Rock- land Lake, in the dusk of the evening, and under the guidance of neighbor- ing Tories, started on a search for booty. On this crrand bent, they marched around the lake and down the old lake road towards its junction with the Kings Highway. On the west side of the lake road and almost opposite the junction of the mountain road with it, lived Garret Meyers, a militia-man. All that day Mr. Meyers had been watching the British ves- sels, to alarm the country in case an attempt was made to land from them, and only at nightfall had returned to his home. Just before bed time, he heard the tramp of feet on the road, and surmising at once that the enemy had landed, he started out to light the beacon fire on Verdridica Hook, and thus warn the Minute Men. As he stepped from his door however, he saw that the enemy was between him and the mountain, and that it would be necessary for him to wait till the road was clear. Hastening to a pear tree, which stood near the house, he flattened himself against it, hoping to be unobserved in the darkness. But fate was against him.
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In the yard was a pet white calf that Mr. Meyers had been accustomed to feed, and the animal had become so tame, that it would follow its mas- ter like a dog. Seeing him appear, the calf ran to the tree behind which he was standing, and stood beside it. Among the Tories, who accom- panied the British, was a near neighbor of Meyers, who knew the habit of the calf, and when he saw it run to the pear tree he suspected the presence of his neighbor. He therefore told the commanding officer of the party that a rebel Whig was hidden at that spot, and the search that followed resulted in Meyer's capture. The party then visited his house, gutted it completely, knocked Mrs. Meyers senseless with a blow from the butt of a musket, which drove her teeth down her throat, and then took their de- parture for the landing with their prisoner. Mr. Meyers was confined in the Sugar House till the close of the war, and left it with his health forever broken. This unfortunate man always suspected a neighbor, who claimed to be a patriot, of having betrayed him, and, rendered frenzied by his suf- ferings while a prisoner, registered an oath to shoot the suspect on sight. Being informed one day, long after the war had ended, that this neighbor was coming down the road, the bed-ridden old man, toilsomely dragged himself to his loaded gun, but fell ere he could take aim, and the villain who caused his misery escaped the judgment of man.
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