USA > New York > Ulster County > The history of Ulster County, New York > Part 16
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Dec. 12, 1776-At Ramapo
300 men, 27 days.
Jan. 7, 1776- Jan. 28, 1777-
"
100
14
40
66
Mch. 7, 1777-
Mch. 1777- Peekskill
250
40
8
Aug. 1777- 60
Oct. 1777- Constitution
200
IO
66
Oct. 1777- Burning of Esopus
460
30
Nov.
1777-
New Windsor
I20
45
April 1778-
West Point
420
8
66
Jan. 1777- Fort Montgomery 66 ¥
150
12
90
66
July 1777- 66 Fort Montgomery
460
500
66
8
66
66
66
200
130
No doubt similar reports were sent in by the commanders of other regiments - they were called for at least, and we know that Snyder's, Pawling's and McClaughrey's regiments were out in detachments, as has been stated. The entire force was seriously handicapped by the scarcity of arms and ammunition. Guns and powder "cannot be had for love or money," wrote Lieut. Colonel McClaughrey of the Second Regi- ment; of 293 men exclusive of officers of the First Regiment, July 17, 1777, ten were in want of arms, and 282 in want of ammunition, wrote
193
SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.
Lieut. Colonel Elmendorf, and Captain Jeremiah Snyder, of the First regiment, who had been sent out with his company to garrison a block house on the western frontier at Shandaken, wrote, August 15, 1778: "My company consists of forty-one men besides sergeants, and corporals, and these I cannot supply with three cartridges apiece. From this you may judge what defence we can make." And the wonder is that they made any. The Provincials Convention, to supply the place of guns, had 3000 spontoons (short spears) made and distributed. They were good for close action, but were next to nothing against Tories and Indians armed with guns. There was plenty of patriotism in stock, and that was about all.
It so happened that on the capture of the forts in the Highlands by the British (Oct. 6th, 1777), only two of the Ulster Regiments, Mc- Claughrey's (Second) and Hasbrouck's (Fourth) were on duty there, but it only happened so because it was their "turn." The detachment of 200 men from Hasbrouck's regiment, however, were not in the action; it was stationed in Fort Constitution on the east side of the river, with a company of Lamb's artillery under Captain Ebenezer Mott, and with that company were idle spectators of the desperate struggle on the west side of the river where the defense of the forts fell upon McClaughry's detachment, detachments from Allison's and Woodhull's Orange County regiments, two companies of Lamb's artillery, and six companies of Du Bois's Fifth Continentals. Fort Montgomery, the largest and best equipped, was on the north side of Poplopen Creek, and Fort Clinton was on the south side of the same stream. Allison's and Woodhull's de- tachments were in the latter, and McClaughrey's in the former. Both suffered heavily in killed, wounded and prisoners, the latter including both of the commanders named and several of their subordinate officers.
FALL OF THE HIGHLAND FORTS.
The forts were defended with spirit and bravery. The enemy were held in check from three in the afternoon until dusk when, in the final bayonet charge of the assailants the defenders were overwhelmed by numbers - they did not surrender! Governor Clinton and his brother General James escaped over the parapets, the latter to the bed of the creek, the former to the Hudson where a boat conveyed him to General
194
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
Putnam's Headquarters at Peekskill. Colonel Du Bois was wounded, but escaped over the parapets, as did many of his men. Governor Clinton and Putnam were fairly outgeneralled by Sir Henry Clinton who com- manded the British forces. Feigning an attack on Putnam, Sir Henry threw a column of three thousand men on the west side of the river and came upon the forts in the rear where there were no parapets and where there were no cannon in place to defend. The forts could hardly be classed as forts; they were more strictly batteries for the defense of the chain which had been stretched across the Hudson from Fort Mont- gomery. The batteries taken the chain amounted to nothing; it was quickly swept away. The chevaux-de-frise from Nicoll's Point was more formidable, but it was only a matter of a few days that intervened before the navigation of the Hudson was opened for the raid of the British fleet with Kingston as the immediate objective point and the forming of a junction with Burgoyne the principal purpose. The Provincials lost everything - forts, guns, powder, provisions, and clothing. The blow was severe, but it inspired desperation. "Every man between sixteen and fifty to the front!" rang out the order of Governor Clinton; "Burgoyne must be defeated or all is lost."
BURNING OF KINGSTON.
Governor Clinton did not sleep. In his interview with Putnam plans were formed for doing what could be done with the forces at their command to protect the settlements along the river, and possibly prevent a junction of the British forces with Burgoyne. Putnam was to move up on the east side of the river, and Governor Clinton on the west, and to strengthen the latter Putnam gave to him Webb's Connecticut Con- tinentals. On the morning of the 7th Clinton established headquarters at the Falls House in upper New Windsor; fugitives from the forts came in; the militia came in and preparations were made to move to the defense of Kingston as soon as the enemy passed the chevaux-de-frise. While Governor Clinton was busy getting together his shattered forces, his namesake, Sir Henry Clinton, was busy in destroying the forts and in opening a clear passage in the chevaux-de-frise. This was completed
195
SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.
on the 12th,* and an armed schooner, two row galleys and a small brig passed through and went up the river; on their return the British fleet composed of the Friendship, 22 guns, the Molloy, the Dilligent, the Dependence, the Spitfire, the Crane, the Raven and twenty galleys and fiat boats, sailed through on the morning of the 13th. Governor Clinton's forces were off too. Their route was on the west side of the Wallkill to Marbletown where they arrived two hours too late, Kingston was in flames ! Many of the First and Third militia regiments were away with Gates or on the frontier. Governor Clinton had ordered the remainder to Kingston and had directed them to throw up breastworks at the landing and do everything that they could to check the advance of the enemy. The militia responded by turning out one hundred and fifty men who made the best defense they could, but were quickly dispersed. Sir John Vaughan, who was in command of the British expedition, no doubt wrote correctly the general facts of the attack and the defence of the town in his report to Sir Henry Clinton, dated October 17th :
"I have the honor to inform you that on the evening of the 15th instant I arrived off Esopus ; finding that the rebels had thrown up works and had made every dis- position to annoy us and cut off our communication, I judged it necessary to attack them, the wind at that time being so much against us that we could make no way. I accordingly landed the troops, attacked the batteries, drove them from their works, spiked and destroyed their guns. Esopus being a nursery for almost every villain in the country, I judged it necessary to proceed to that town. On our approach they (the militia) were drawn up with cannon, which we took and drove them out of the place. On entering the town they fired from their houses, which induced me to reduce the place to ashes, which I accordingly did, not leaving a house. We found a considerable quantity of stores which shared the same fate. Our loss is so inconsiderable that it is not at present worth while to mention it."
Sir James Wallace, who commanded the fleet wrote under the same date :
"We arrived at Esopus Creek where we found two batteries, one of two guns and one of three, and an armed galley at the mouth of the creek, who endeavored to prevent our passing by their cannonade. General Vaughan was of opinion such a force should not be left behind. It was determined to land and destroy them, and immediately executed without reducing our proceeding up the river. The General marched to the Town and fired it."
* The chevaux-de-frise was not what Webster describes as "a piece of timber on an iron barrel traversed with pointed spikes or spears," but timbers about thirty feet long pointed with iron and held on angle in cribs filled with stone sunk on the bottom of the river. It required time to remove them; the boats of the British fleet were employed for many hours in removing them. Governor Clinton thought they would not have succeeded had not the carriage of the 24 1b. cannon on Nicoll's Point been broken. Something unfortunate seems to have been happening all the time.
196
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
An armed galley and some small vessels lying in the creek were burned. Rivington's Gazette added to the official report that "the rebels deserted their guns and made no defence after the British forces landed. The 13th, the date given by Lossing as that on which the burning occurred, is not correct. Vaughan and Clinton wrote 16th. The Pro- vincial Convention, and in its recess the Committee of Safety of that body, had been holding sessions in Kingston since March 6th. The first Constitution of the State had been adopted there and George Clinton elected Governor under it. On the fall of the forts in the Highlands the archives of the State and County were hurriedly taken to the Town of Rochester, and also such army stores as could be removed. Most of the inhabitants had also made retreat to the country with such possessions as could be taken, and those who had not removed fled on the approach of the British forces. Substantially the town was in the keeping of a limited number of militiamen who, as shown by Vaughan's report, made the best defence they could. The dwellings were mostly low stone structures in which the woodwork burned rapidly leaving blackened walls .* In Rivington's Gazette of November 3d, it is said: "326 houses with a barn to most every one of them" were burned, but the precise number is not certain. The excuse which Vaughan gave for burning the town was probably coined for the occasion; he was sent out to destroy the place, he intended to destroy it, and he did destroy it because it was the head- quarters of the rebels in the then Province of New York. True, he called it "A nursery of villains !" but he could not have paid to the people of the town a higher compliment. He went but little further north, burn- ing some buildings on Livingston Manor on the opposite side of the river, and then turned back to New York, his last ship disappearing below West Point on the 25th. Why did he return? He found that the destruction of the forts and the obstructions in the Highlands had so detained him that he was too late to help Burgoyne, who, when he heard of the occurrences on the river below him, had already signed the agree- ment of capitulation. The six days that had been especially lost in re- moving the chevaux-de-frise at Nicoll's Point in order to give free pass- age to the fleet, were important days. "As soon as I see that the enemy is likely to pass the chevaux-de-frise" wrote Governor Clinton, and that
* Some of the dwellings were reroofed, the woodwork restored and remained in occupation for years. The principal one now standing is "The Senate House," a mecca to which the feet of many of the Sons and Daughters of Ulster are turned with reverence.
Eng.by E & Williams & Bro NY-
Z Jacob At hemper
197
SERVICES OF THE MILITIA.
evidence he did not have until the morning of the 13th. In other words, the detention of the English fleet by the chevaux-de-frise, which had been constructed by detachments from the militia was an important factor in the surrender of Burgoyne. Had it not been in the river the fleet would not have been delayed, and if the fleet had not been delayed Burgoyne would not in all probability have been compelled to surrender, the Province would have been dismembered and the contest for national independence almost certainly lost.
A contributing cause leading to Burgoyne's surrender was the delay in receiving information from Sir Henry Clinton. The latter had dis- patched a messenger to him, Daniel Taylor, on the 8th, but it so happened that his steps led him into Governor Clinton's camp at New Windsor. Fairly caught he endeavored to conceal his mission by swallowing the silver bullet in which it was encased. It was taken from him by an emetic, and its contents read. Then Taylor was tried by court-martial and con- demned as a spy, which he certainly was not. As a prisoner he was taken with Clinton on the march to Kingston, and when Hurley was reached and Kingston in flames came in view the soul of Daniel Taylor was sent to its giver from the limb of an apple tree. A second messenger sent by Sir Henry Clinton to Burgoyne did not reach him until the 14th. The silver bullet and its message have been preserved, as has also a single spear-head from the chevaux-de-frise, the factors which contributed so largely to save the infant Republic. They seem to have been the master- keys of an Overruling Power.
The re-building the Highland forts at West Point during the succeed- ing winter and the placing of the historic chain across the river at that point, pressed heavily upon the Ulster militia. The building of the walls of Fort Putnam, and the redoubts known as Fort Wylis and Fort Webb required men ; the Stirling Iron Works required one hundred and eighty- two men to aid in making the chain, wood cutters, carters, men for making steel, men for making iron, welders, etc. Although Washington brought his Continental Army into the Highlands within supporting dis- tance of the forts, it was not until the signing of the preliminary articles of peace in April, 1782, that the militia of Ulster was relieved from duty.
198
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CONTINENTAL LINE.
W HILE the service of the Ulster Militia in local fields was, in de- tachments and continuous during the entire war, its contribu- tions to the Continental Line* was not less pronounced. Acting in concert with New England legislators who regarded the invasion of Canada as the most promising strategic movement, the Provincial authori- ties of New York, in the summer of 1775, authorized the organization of four regiments to serve for six months, commanded respectively by Alex- ander McDougall, Goose Van Schaick, James Clinton and James Holmes. The first was recruited in New York, the second in Albany, the third in Ulster, and the fourth in Duchess, the last three, however, were more or less mixed. They were fine bodies of young men, well armed and hand- . somely uniformed. The first had blue broadcloth dress-coats with crimson cuffs and facings; the second had light brown coats with blue cuffs and facings ; the third (Ulster) had gray coats with green facings and cuffs : the fourth had dark brown coats with scarlet cuffs and facings. Their breeches and waist-coats were of Russia drilling; the former were short (to the knee) and the latter were long (to the hips). Their stockings were long (to the knee) of "coarse woolen homespun," low shoes, linen cravats and low crowned broad brimmed felt hats. Drums and fifes they had, and on parade were "very pleasant to the eye"; in the field their dress was quite less showy.
The officers of the Third Regiment (Ulster) were :
James Clinton, Colonel; Edward Fleming Lieut. Colonel; Cornelius D. Wynkoop, Major; George Slosser, Adjutant; James Hamilton, Qr. Master; Samuel Cooke, Surgeon.
Captains-Daniel Griffin, John Nicholson, Jacobus Bruyn, Andrew Billings, Lewis
* The Continental Line was composed of organizations under pay of the Continental Congress, and in service as the regular army and liable to duty in any part of the country, while the militia as such could not be taken outside of the states in which they resided. Washington learned very early in the war that the militia could not be a force which could be relied upon-that there must be a regularly constituted army. It was the militia, however, who won the battle of Bennington, and compelled the surrender of Burgoyne. For the making of an army no better material was ever found than the men drawn from the militia of Ulster.
199
THE CONTINENTAL LINE.
Du Bois, John Hulbert, Elias Hasbrouck, John Grinnell, Daniel Denton, Robert Johnson.
First Lieutenants-Benj. Marvin, Isaac Belknap, Thomas DeWitt, Ezekiel Cooper, Elias Van Benschoten, John Davis, Cornelius T. Jansen, Wm. Phillips, Jr., Bal- thazar De Hart, Martin Goetchius.
Second Lieutenants-Nathaniel Norton, David Du Bois, James Greeg, John Lang- don, Cornelius Adriance, Wm. Havens, Albert Pawling, Philip Conkling, Jonas Bellows, Philip Du Bois, Brevier.
The regiments were brigaded under General Richard Montgomery, and marched away to Canada. The severity of the weather and the fatigues of the march had reduced the four regiments to 900 effective men on the first of December. Three weeks later Montgomery led them "into the jaws of death" in the narrowest point under Cape Diamond. A storm of grape-shot from an English battery swept him and both of his aids from among the living and with them several privates. But the story of the Canada campaign may be read elsewhere - we have not room to repeat it here.
The term of service of the New York regiments (six months) soon expired. Some of their members were willing to remain for another six months, others had broken down, others had aspirations in other direc- tions. The outcome was that from those who were willing to remain a new regiment was formed, which may be called the fifth of the first series of the New York Line. Captain John Nicholson, of Hanover Pre- cinct, who had gone out with Clinton in the Third New York, and had been therein promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, was appointed Colonel of the new organization, and several of the officers from Ulster in the old Third remained with him. The further prosecution of the invasion of Canada having been abandoned, the regiment was sent to the northwest- ern frontier, headquarters at what is now Johnstown, Fulton County, and there completed its term of enlistment. Colonel Nicholson retired from service with impaired health and closed his life on his farm. Ensign Charles F. Weisenfels went into the new Third New York and attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and Gershom Mott became Captain in Lamb's Artillery. In brief, nearly all the officers who had served in the Canada regiments of 1775, continued in subsequent organizations.
On the 8th of January, 1776, the Continental Congress issued its first formal call for troops to reinforce the army in Canada under which a single battalion was furnished by New York. The second call was issued on the 19th of the same month and required four battalions from New
200
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
York. These battalions were assigned to Colonels Alexander McDougal, James Clinton, Rudolphus Ritzema and Philip Van Cortlandt. To Colonel Clinton's (second) battalion Ulster County sent three companies - Capt. John Belknap's of New Windsor; Capt. William Jackson's of Hanover, and Capt. Cornelius Hardenberg's of Hurley. They were all short term regiments. The Ist, 2d, and 3d regiments were assigned to the defence of New York City, and were brigaded under Brigadier Gen- erals Alex. McDougal and James Clinton, who had been promoted to that rank. The second (Ulster) was sent to Saybrook, Conn., under Lieut. Col. Henry B. Livingston. The Ist and 3d were in the battle at White Plains and in the sharp fight at Chatterton's Hill. Ritzema's (third) regiment, then under Lieut. Col. Weisenfall, suffered the greatest loss. In the retreat through New Jersey the Ist and 2d formed part of Lee's division, which subsequently joined Washington, and were in the surprise and capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 25th, 1776, the anni- versary of the first grapple with the enemy at Quebec. Immediately after they were ordered home, their terms of enlistment having expired.
The third call for men was issued by the Continental Congress on the 16th of September, 1776, for four regiments "to serve during the war" - the grand old New York regiments of the Continental Army, which were organized under the commands respectively of Colonels Goose Van Schaick, Philip Van Cortlandt, Peter Gansevort and Henry B. Living- ston. To Gansevort's regiment (3d) Ulster sent three companies, viz : Cornelius T. Jansen's, Thomas R. De Witt's, and James Gregg's. With other companies of Gansevort's regiment they were shut up in Fort Schuyler (old Fort Stanwix) in August, 1777, and defended that post against the forces under St. Leger. Capt. Gregg was later caught in the woods by the Indians and scalped. His little dog licked his wounds and when the Captain recovered consciousness, was sent to the fort for as- sistance. He was brought in and ultimately recovered. The story of Fort Schuyler is an interesting chapter in the history of Burgoyne's expedition.
To the number of regiments recruited under the call was added a fifth recruited under Colonel Lewis Du Bois of Marlborough, who has been met in Colonel Hasbrouck's regiment of militia, and in Colonel James Clinton's Canada regiment. His regiment (the Fifth) was eminently
Noah Wolven.
201
THE CONTINENTAL LINE.
the Ulster County regiment of the New York Continental Line. Its Field and Staff at organization were:
Lewis Du Bois, Colonel; Jacobus S. Bruyn, Lieut. Colonel; Samuel Logan, Major ; Henry Du Bois, Adjutant; Albert Pawling, Aid-Major; Nehemiah Carpenter, Qr. Master; Saml. Townsend, Paymaster; John Gano, Chaplain; Samuel Cooke, Surgeon; Ebenezer Hutchinson, Surgeon's Mate.
Captains-I. Jacobus Rosekrans; 2. James Stewart; 3. Amos Hutchins; 4. Philip Du Bois Bevier ; 5. Thomas Lee; 6. Henry Goodwin ; 7. John F. Hamtrack; 8. John Johnson.
First Lieutenants-I. Henry Dodge; 2. Alexander McArthur; 3. Patton Jackson; 4. Michael Connelly ; 5. Henry Pawling ; 6. Solomon Pendelton; 7. Francis Hanmer; 8. Henry W. Van der berg. Henry Pawling was transferred to the regiment from Gansevort's.
Second Lieutenants-I. Samuel Dodge; 2. John Burnett; 3. John Furman; 4. -; 5. Samuel English; 6. Ebenezer Mott; 7. -; 8. James
Betts.
Ensigns-I. Henry Swartwout; 2. John McClaughrey; 3. -; 4.
; 5. James Johnson; 6. Abraham Leggett; 7. -; 8. Henry J. Vanderbergh.
The figures refer to the companies in which the officers served. The list is not the same in all respects as that given in 1777. (N. Y. Historical Manuscript, P. 50) ; the changes subsequently made may be omitted here.
The regiment was stationed in the spring of 1777, on garrison duty at Forts Montgomery, Clinton and Constitution, in the Highlands, and was there on the 6th of October of that year when the forts were captured by the British forces under Sir Henry Clinton. In this action - the first baptism of fire which the regiment had sustained - the losses of the regiment were heavy. Lieutenant Colonel Bruyn, Major Logan and Qr. Master Carpenter, Captain Goodman, Lieutenants McArthur, Jackson, Pawling, Pendleton, Samuel Dodge, Furman and Mott; Ensigns Swartwout, McClaughrey and Legg, and Sergeant Henry Schoonmaker, were taken prisoners,* and "missing in action" was written on the roll-call on the 7th against the names of ninety-six privates, some of whom, however, had escaped from the forts in the final rush and reported for duty later. Over one-third of the regiment in action were among the
* Several of these officers were not exchanged until the war was practically over. Militia officers were not recognized as exchangeable. Line officers were exchanged for those of equivalent rank, or for an equivalent number of privates, the exchange running from two privates for an ensign to seventy-two privates for a colonel. The officers who were prisoners were carried on the rolls and given half pay for life. Lieutenants Henry Schoonmaker and Henry Pawling returned in 1780, and also Major Logan; Solomon Pendleton in 1781. Lieut. Colonel Jacobus Severyn Bruyn was held on parole on Staten Island until near the close of the war. On the organization of the "Society of Cincinnati" at Temple Hill, in New Windsor, May, 1783, twenty- four Ulster County officers of the Line signed the roll as members.
202
THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.
killed, wounded and prisoners. The men lost all their clothing except that which they had on them, and most of them their arms also. De- moralized and broken as the regiment was, however, Colonel Du Bois rallied its survivors around Governor Clinton at his headquarters in New Windsor, and marched to the defence of Kingston. In the winter fol- lowing the regiment was in barracks at Fishkill and in a deplorable con- dition from the loss of clothing. General Putnam wrote in January, '78: "De Bois's regiment is unfit to be ordered on duty, there being not one blanket in the regiment, very few have either a shoe or a shirt, and most of them have neither stockings, breeches or overalls." Chastellux wrote that many of them were absolutely naked, "being covered only by straw suspended about the waist." Of course this condition did not last long after Governor Clinton heard of it. In July, 1778, the regiment was at White Plains, Westchester County ; in 1779, it was, with Colonel Du Bois in command, under Brigadier-General James Clinton in the Sullivan campaign against the Six Nations of Indians, and on the return of that expedition was stationed at Fort Stanwix in the Mohawk Valley. Here Colonel Du Bois resigned (Dec. 31, 1779) ;* and the regiment was placed under Lieut. Colonel Marius Willett, formerly of the Third and was in service under him in the events at Fort Stanwix in 1780. Colonel Du Bois was also there in command of a regiment of "Levies of the State to reinforce the Army of the United States," and did most excellent work in the battle of Klock's Field, now in Montgomery County, on the 19th of October of that year. Later, what remained of the Fifth seems to have been consolidated with the Fourth, and the latter with the Third, and in that connection was under General James Clinton in the Siege of Yorktown, October, 1781, From that last great battle of the war the three remaining New York regiments came (Nov. 1782) to the last encampment of the army of the Revolution at Temple Hill in New Wind- sor, the home of the Second Ulster militia, and from thence, on the disso- lution of the army by furlough (June, 1783), passed "out of mortal sight,
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