USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 41
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In the same connection, and with the same results, a few weeks subsequently, the Committee of the County of Westchester, of which the same Gilbert
The Contractor encountered so much of trouble from these interfering causes, that he was constrained to seek the interposition of the Committee of Safety ; and, on the twentieth of March, that Committee, re- ponsive to the Contractor's complaint, ordered "that "the respective Committees of the Counties of West- "chester and Duchess permit Mr Abraham Living- "ston to export Provisions of any kind whatsoever, "from either of those Counties to New-York, on his "giving, or any other such proper person as is em- "ployed on his behalf giving, such security as the "Committees approve of, to land and store such Pro- " visions in New-York or Kings-county."1
The facts that the Contractor for supplying the Continental Army with Provisions was subjected to the hindrances invented by these local Committees, and that the farmers within those Counties were thereby prevented from selling their surplus supply of Pro- visions, even for the known use of the Continental Army, like those similar prohibitions of trade, by similarly arbitrary authority, already noticed, at once so remarkable and so unaccountable, would have be- come stumbling-blocks in the way of the careful stu- dent of the history of the men of that period and of their doings, had not time and the opening of pre- viously concealed records revealed the explanation of this, among others of the mysteries of the politics of the American Revolution. That explanation of the restrictions of trade, in this instance, will be noticed hereafter.
Early in January, 1776, while the conservatism or the inhabitants of Queens-county was occupying the attention of the leaders of the Rebellion ; while the inhabitants of that County, because of their decided and outspoken opposition to the Rebellion and to the various Committees and Congresses which the Rebellion had ealled into existence, were subjected, by the Provincial Congress, to a sentence of out- lawry;" and while, in consequence of that savage enactment and the unaccountable negligence of its duty to do something for their protection, by the naval force which then occupied the harbor of New York and commanded all the neighboring waters, that populous and thickly-settled County was over- run and pillaged and the inhabitants subjected to all classes of barbarities, by inroads from Connecticut
1 Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Mercurii, A M., March 20, "1.76."
Journal of the Provincial Congress " Die Jovis, 3 ho., P.M., Decent. " 21, 1755 ; " Jones's History of Nie York during the Revolutionary Hier, i., 107-110.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
and New Jersey, the latter accompanied by amateur banditti from New York City, the leaders of the Re- having been less than forty men; and, on the thir- bellion in Westchester-county, also, were anxious to teenth of that month, these assembled at Wilsey Du- wberry's, in " Harrison's Precinet," and arranged join in the crusade of "patriotism," against their neighbors on the other side of the Sound-they had , themselves into a single Troop, electing their Officers, and duly reporting their doings to the Provincial Congress. The following is the official report of the
county ; they knew that it was a profitable ocen. " Election of its Officers, made by two members of the County Committee and transmitted to the Provin- cial Congress :
had practise in such a service as that, in the work of harrying their conservative neighbors, in Westchester- pation; and they were anxious to participate in a similar service, elsewhere, where even greater profits were promised. To secure that much-desidered em- ployment, on the eighth of January, 1776, the Com- mittee of the County addressed the following note to the Committee of Safety, in the City of New York: " WHITE PLAINS, 8th Janry, 1776. "SIR :
1
The Committee of West Chester County hav- "ing seen in the public prints that many of the "Inhabitants of Queens County are thrown out of the " Protection of the Provincial Congress ; and having " been informed that they are Arming in their De- " fence, are greatly alarmed at their Conduct, and beg ""leave to assure your honorable House, that the " Friends of Liberty in this County are willing stren- "uously to exert themselves to reduce the Enemies to "their Country before they are supported by the "Regular Troops If it shall be thought most advisat- " ble by the Committee of Safety, or the Provincial "or Continental Congress. We are Sir Your most " Humble Servants
" By Order of ye Committee " Wy. MILLER, D. Chairman.
"To Mr. Pierre Van Cortlandt, President of the " Committee of Safety." 1
As the original letter remained among the papers of the Military Committee of the Provincial Con- gress and has been preserved, to this day, among the multitude of other inedited and unexplained manu- scripts, in the office of the Secretary of State, at Al- bany, it is very evident that it was duly referred to that Committee; that the unholy desires of the " pat- "riots " of Westchester-county, to join in the spolia- tion of fellow-colonists. in a neighboring County, with- out lawful reason, without any process in law, and in time of Peace, were not reciprocated by the members of that Committee; and that the application was filed, without having received any other attention whatever. In short, very appropriately, the Committee of West- chester-county was told, by that inattention, either to attend to its own business, at home, or to play the parts of freebooters, if it should continue to hanker after the spoils to be acquired in such an ocenpation, on its own responsibility.
In February, 1776, a movement was made by the Committee of Westchester-county, to consolidate the several Troops of Horse which were then within that County, evidently several in number and mere phan-
tom4 in weakness, the aggregate of their strength
"On the 13th of February, 1776, The Troops of " Horse in the County of Westchester was Called to- "gether at the House of Willsey Dusinberry in Har- " sous Precinct and There being Present between "Thirty and fourty went into an arrangement for the "Choice of officers under the Inspection of Col- "Thomas, Samuel Haviland, and William Miller "Three of the Committee where Samuel Tredwell " was Unanimously chose Capt. and Thaddeus Avory "was chose Lent unanimously Likewi-e Abraham " Hatfield was Chose Corneth by a majority and Uy- " tendall Allair was Chose Quartermaster by a ma- "jority also. Certifyed by us
" THOMAS THOMAS. " WM. MILLER.""
The Return was laid before the Provincial Con- gress on the twenty-first of February, when the Com- missions were issued to the officers-eleet; 3 and thus, probably, a beginning was made of that notable Troop of Horse, in Westchester-county, of which so much has been said, in romance, if not in history.
Early in February, 1776, General Lee, then chief . in command, in the City of New York, informed the Committee of Safety, then in session, that he was "of opinion that the two Connecticut Regiments "and Lord Stirling's would not be sufficient for the " services he will have to perform ; and he desired to "know whether it would be agreeable to the Com- "mittee that he should send to Pennsylvania for a " Regiment from thence." After due consideration, the introduction of troops from other Colonies having been found unsatisfactory, because of outrages in- Hieted by them on the inhabitants, the Committee of Safety adopted the following Resolution :
" RESOLVED, That if General Lee shall think it "necessary to call in the aid of any other troops than " the two Connecticut Regiments and Lodd Stirling's "Regiment, that he be authorized and, in such case, "he is hereby authorized, to eall in as many of the " Minute-men of this Colony as he shall, at any time. " think necessary." "
In accordance with the authority which was thus delegated to General Lee, on the following day,
Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Milking Referus. xxVI., 251. & Journal of the Inercial Congress, " Die Dereusit, P.M. Feb. 21.
A Journal of the Committee of Safety. "Die Veneris, 19 ho., .L.M., Feb. " 9, 1576."
Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Military Committee, XXV, 022.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
( February 9, 1776] a letter was addressed to Colonel entered the Continental service, and after its rein- - annel Drake, onlering the skeleton Regiment of forcement had joined it, it numbered not more than a Westchester-county Minute-men into active service. That letter may properly find a place in this narra- tive : it was in the following words : hundred and fifty men ; 6 and abont two weeks subse- quently, little more than a month after it had been mustered in, it was made ridiculous and the propen- sity to office-holding among " the friends of Liberty," in Westchester-county, was forcibly illustrated by the following paragraph, which appeared in the | General Orders of the commanding Officer of the Con- tinental Army in New York :
"NEW YORK, Feb'y 9th 1776. " SIR : " You will see by the enclosed Resolution " that Major General Lee now at New York is author- "ized to call in as many of the Minute Men of this "Colony as he may think necessary.
" I am directed by the General to have some Regi- "ments of Miunte Men called here directly.
" Your Regiment is fixed on by the Committee of "Safety of this Colony as proper to be called.
" You are therefore on receipt hereof to march with "your Regiment to New York with all possible dis- " patch. Take care that your men have their knap- " sacks and Blankets with them & provisiens for their "march .- The Quartermaster ought by all means to " come with the Regiment.
" It is not doubted but you will give orders that "your Troops observe the greatest regularity in their " march, and if you order the several Companies to "procced " [precede ?'] "each other a few miles in their 'march they will be more easily accommodated.
"Suffer no Delay in bringing in your Regiment.
" I am respectfully Sir your very humble seryt " R. YATES, Ch.
" P.S .- It is expected' that Col" Drake will leave a "sufficient Guard of his Regiment at the cannon be- . " gond Kings bridge .- He will be a proper judge bow "many may be necessary for that small service." 1
As Captain Varian and his eighteen companions. facetiously regarded as oue of the Companies of Minute-men of which Colonel Drake's Regiment was subsequently composed, were, then, unknown as sol- diers," that Regiment could not have possibly mustered more than two Companies commanded, respectively, by Captains Slason and Seely 3-that commanded by Captain Gray was not organized until six days after the Regiment had been ordered into the service; ' and no record appears of any attempt having been made to organize the two Companies, in the Cort- landt's Manor, for which blauk Commissions had been issued, in advance of any organization, in the preceding October -- although it is understood that those Companies which were commanded by Captains Gray and Steinrod subsequently joined it. There is no known Return of the actual strength of the Regi- ment, at any time; but within a few days after it had
Historical Mannscripts, etc. ; Military Committee, XXV., 65%.
: Vide pages los, ante. 3 Ibid.
Bitten of an El ction af Oflives of that Company, " Banrono, 15 Feby, "1776"-Historied Manuscript, etc .: Military INturas, NAVI., 196.
S Mennomadin by fidbest bruder. Chairman of Westchestervonaty Commit. & .. "Where Praiss, October 21, With" Lord of Provincial Congress, ** Dar Merentii, 10 ho., A. M., October 23, 177."
1 15
" HEAD-QUARTERS, March 16, 1776. " As Colonel Drake's Regiment of Minute-men "consists of one hundred and eleven private men, " present, and yet have no less than four Field "Officers, two Captains, and thirteen other Commis- "sioned Officers, and twenty Non-commissioned "Officers, it is unreasonable to put the Continent to "the enormous expense of maintaining so many "Officers for the use of so few meu; and it is there- " fore ordered that one Field-officer, two Captains, "four Lientenants, two Ensigns, the Adjutant, and " Quartermaster, eight Sergeants, eight Corporale, or " Drums or Fifes, and no other Officer do remain with " that small part of the Regiment ; the other Officers "are to return to their County, in order to compdete "their Corps. Colonel Swartwout aud Lieutenant- "colonel Humphreys " are to observe the same rule in "proportion to their numbers; and they are all of "them to send into Headquarters, Returns of their " respective Corps, present." >
The reader will become better acquainted with this portion of the history of Colonel Samuel Drake's Regiment of Westchester-county Minute-men, by- and-by ..
The Regiment, when it reached the City of New- York, was employed in the construction of a redoubt, on Hoern's Hook, at the mouth of the Harlem-river, for the defence of the pass of Hell-Gate as well as to command the ferry to Long Island, which, even at that carly period. had been established at that place ; In
" Captain Gray's Company probably marched from Bedford, on the sixteenth of February, agreeably to the promise that it should do so; mol on the twenty-ninth of the amme month, General lee sail of the Regiment and of a Company detached from another Regiment, together torming the garrison at Hoern's Hock, " Drake's Regiment of Mltitle- "Men and one more Company, (in all about two hundred. ) are stationed at " Horn's Book, which commands Hell Gate. They are employed in "throwing up a redoubt, to contain three hundred men," (Gourtal Le to General Washington, "NEW-YORK, February 29, 1776.")
Jacobs Swartwoul was Colonel of one of the Regiments, so call-1, of Duchess-county Minute-men, (Historien Manuscripts, etc .: Ma . y Returus, xxvi., 3.)
8 Lieutenant-colonel Cornelius Humphrey's evidently commandel the Regiment of Duchess-county Minute-men, of which John Van Now With Colonel and Robert G. Livingston, Junior, one of the Major. (Motoria Manuscripts, etc .: Military INturas, xxvi., 3.)
" Gourd Orders of Lord Stirling, General of the Contiaratat Things, "ITRAI-QY VETERS, March 16, 1776."
10 th arval Lee to Covered Washington, " NEW-YORK, February 99, 1776." Jones's History of Sie Fink during the Revolutionary War, i., 199. At the period referred to in the text, that was buown as " Waldron's "Ferry."
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
but it was composed of men of notorious poverty atal meanness,' by no means representative men of the yeomanry of Westchester-county; " many of them " were, " destitute of " arms" " and, therefore, useless for soldiers ; and it appears that, as such characters were apt to be, they were recklessly destructive of the private property of those who were richer than
they, not sparing, even, the property of those who had endeavored to make them more than ordinarily comfortable3 The Lieutenant-colonel of the Regi- ment, who was, also, a Deputy from Westchester- county in the Provincial Congress, complained to that body that the Regiment "lodged in an mmcom- " fortable manner for the want of Cribs for its beds ; " and he insisted that it was " necessary that a car- " penter be sent to make ('ribs for their beds; " and a carpenter was accordingly sent to Hoern's Hook, for the purpose of making " Cribs" for the greater comfort of Westchester-county's " patriotic " Minute- men.“
It does not appear how long that particular. Regi- ment remained in the service of the Continent; but it was evidently mustered in for only a short term of service ; and that, at the expiration of that brief term, it was discharged and mustered ont, di-appearing, for ever, from the field of military service.
On the nineteenth of January, 1776, the Continen- tal Congress ordered four Battalions to be raised for the defence of the Colony of New York ; ? and, on the twenty-sixth of the same month, the experiment of starting the work of enlistment, for those four Battal- ions, by jobbing out the Offices which would be re- quired, among the several Counties, with invitations for estimates of the numbers of men who coukl " be " speedily raised and armed," in the respective Coun- ties, by that proffered bait of Offices, was the first ac- tion which was taken by the revolutionary authori- ties, in New York, on that important subject."
On the following day, [January 27, 1776, ] the Com- mittee of Safety issued its Instructions for the Recruit- ing Officers who should be employed in the enlistment of men for the service referred to, in that new Order -the pay of the Privates was to be five dollars per month ; each was to receive, as a bounty, a felt hat, a pair of yarn stockings, a pair of shoes, and, if they could be procured, a hunting-shirt and a blanket; 'and the men were to provide their own Arms. There
was no specified term of service; but the Private- not the Others-were " liable to be discharged at any " time, on allowing them one month's pay extraordi - " nary." :
There appears to have been great backwardness in enlisting, however-those who were expected to step into the ranks and to do the fatigue duty and the fighting, while the more favored ones of the Rebellion lad ocenpied all the offices, in advance, and were pre- destinated to enjoy all that was comfortable and to issne all the orders and to be implicitly obeyed, were slow in their responses ; only those who were extreme- ty pour, and who-e actual necessities obliged then, of those whose morals were questionable, and who enlisted either to retire from adverse observation or to secure a wider field for their unholy practices, ap- pearing to have been willing to support " the Liber- "ties of America," in the field, even where there was no enemy and where none was really expected." In- feed, so discouraging were the reports from those who had been entrusted with the Warrants for recruiting, that, on the fifteenth of February, the Provincial Con- gress, on the recommendation of a Committee who had been appointed to consider the subject, deter- mined to apportion a specified quota of Officers and Privates to each of the Counties in the Colony, in or- der that the organization of the required Battalions might be effected in the shortest possible period." Three days subsequently, [February 18, 1776,] another Committee who had been appointed to apportion the different quota of Officers and Privates to be raised in the several Counties, made a Report, which was adopted, two Companies, as we have already stated, being apportioned to Westchester county ; " and, on the afternoon of the same day, a Circular Letter was sent by the Provincial Congress to each of the Coun- ty-committees throughout the Colony, informing it of the arrangement and urging its attention to the mat - ter of the enlistments. As that Circular Letter is pe- enliarly interesting, in its details of the terms of (n- listment into the Continental Army of 1776, a place may properly be found for it, in these pages. It was in the following words :
" IN PROVINCIAL, CONGRESS, " NEW-YORK, Feb. 18, 1776.
" The Congress having determined that your Coun- " ty shall have the opportunity of raising [tiro] Com- "panies in the four Regiments to be raised by order
i lastentags to the Colours and other univers for Falishment, etc., "COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, NEW-YORK, Jany. 27, 1776."
& Blibu Maria, Chairauto; to the Commiller of Sanity. " Is Chen " COMMITTEE, OXFORD, Feb, 15, 1776;" Zepherab Plat, Chairman, to the Bruker to the Provincial Congress, "AMEsta, March 1, 1776" ; WWW. Smith, Chairnota, "SUFFOLK COUNTY, Jaus. 21. 176;" The Commit. of Wany County to the Committee of Setily, "AtHANS, April 2, 1775" ; etc. D Journal of the Proclacial Congress, " Die Jovis, P. M., Feb. 15, 1776." 1 Journal of the Painted Congress, " Die Solis, 10 ho., A.M., Feb, 1, " 1776."
1 Colonel Sonuel Drake to the Provincial Congr. xx, " SEW. Youh, Frby. "16, 1776," compared with the letter of Dirck Leffeils, post. : Idon't Samal Drake to the Provincial Congress, "NEW-YORK, Foly. "16, 1770."
3 birck Lefforts to the Deputies of the second Counties, etc., " May 1, " 1776."
4 Journal of the Provincial Congres, " Die Mailis, 3 ho., P.M., Match : " 12, 1776."
3 Jonrual of the Continental Congress, " Friday, January 19, 177."
" Journal of the Committee of Safety. "Die Veneris, S ho., P. M., Jauy.
"28, 1776," and the Circular Letter, containing the proposed system, which was ordered to be sent to each of the several County Committee-, on the same day.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
" of the Continental Congress, for the defence of this i a meccs-fal enlistment of the quota and the conse. "Colony, have resolved that blank Warrants for the quent reward to themselves ; but Westchester county "Officers of the same shall be sent to your Com- "mittee.
would not be conciliated far enough to send her well- to-do sons into the Army ; and the Warrants were re- " You will observe by the enclosed Resolves that " you are restrained in the appointments to give the " preference to such persons as have served their Can- " try in the last Campaign; but it is not, by any " means, the design of Congress that men who have " misbehaved themselves should be any further em- " ployed. turned to the Congress and the proffered Offices were not seenred by those who had hankered for them: The prospect for the four Battalions, as far as Westchester county was concerned in it, was not promising; and the Committee of Safety was already entertaining the proposal to call back the Warrants which had been sent into the County, more than two "It is expected that the people will readily enlist months previously, when a letter was received by " in these Regiments, as they are raised for the ex- I that body, from (albert Drake, the Chairman of the " press purpose of defending this Colony ; and unless " we raise them from among ourselves, in all proba- " bility they will be sent from other Colonies, which "will be to our everlasting disgrace. Committee of the County, stating that one, Ezekiel Hyatt, or Haight, with his associates, had enlisted seventy men in Westchester county, for a Connecticut Regiment ; but was inclined to take them, as a por- tion of the quota of that County, into a New York Regiment, if Commissions could be assured to those who were designated as their Officers3
" We have great confidence in your zeal for the " common canse, and trust you will exert yourselves " that these levies be completed with all possible de- "spatch.
" We are, Sir, your very hble. servants, " By order, " NATHANIEL WOODHULL, Pres't."
" It is expected that cach man furnishes himse !! " with a good gun and bayonet, tomahawk, knapsack "or haversack, and two bills. But those who are not "able to furnish themselves with these arms and ac- " coutrements will be supplied at the public expense. " for the payment of which small stoppages will be "made out of their monthly pay, till the whole are " paid for; then they are to remain the property of " the men." 1
Notwithstanding all the inducements which the Provincial Congress and its various office-seeking re- cruiting agents could offer, however, the staid and conservative farmers of Westchester-county were slow to enlist into the Continental service-there had been much discontentment among those who were in the service, under Colonel Holmes, in the preceding year ; 2 and on the return of those malcontents, they had undoubtedly told. the story of their respect- ive grievances to their surprised and sympathetic neighbors; besides which hindrance, the conserva. tism of the County had been too barbarously treated by those who were in rebellion, to permit it to extend to that "common cause" the slightest favor, while the wounds which it had thus received were yet bleeding. It was, indeed, true that War. rants had been sent with the Circular Letter, in Feb- ruary; and it is undoubtedly true, also, that the favored ones; throughout the County, Warrants in hand and Offices in prospective, had employed all their powers of conciliation and persuasion to ensille
1 Jourand of the Prorows Congress, " Die Solis, P.M., Feb. 18.
" Vide pages 100, Nº1, ante.
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Subsequently, it was seen that the men whont Ezekial Hyatt, or Haight, or Hlait-for by each of these several names that. " patriotic " gentleman was known, at different times-had enlisted into his Com- pany had been entrapped, by false representations : " and the revelations of mopened records of that period, more recently opened, reveal the fact that Commissions had already been issued, by the Conti- nentid Congress, to Ezekiel Han, Esquire, as Cap. tain, to Caleb Hobby, Gentleman, as First Lieuten- aut, to Joseph De Groet, Gentleman, as Second Lieu- tenant, and to Isane Poineair, Gentleman, as En- sign,' all dated on the eighth of April, more than a fortnight before Gilbert Drake wrote to the Commit- tee of Safety, asking Commissions for the same Ofli- cers from the Provincial Congress of New York ; and that each of those Commissions had specifically de- secibed the Company to which the holder of the Com- mission was attached, not as belonging to a Connecti- ent Regiment, but as " the Company of the First " Regiment of New York Forces." But, Whatever schemes may have been laid to carry the Company into the Connectient Line of the Continental Army, and notwithstanding the men enlisted into the Cour- pany had been fraudulently entrapped into a service which they did not intend to enter." Captain Ilyatt
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