USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 65
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When the disposition of the Brigade had been thus successfully and satisfactorily effected, Colonel Glover rode forward to the Company whom he had employed as a mask, and personally assumed the command of it-the name of the Captain who had so boldly con- fronted the enemy and held him in check, before the Colonel had completed the disposition of the main body of the Brigade, behind the very convenient -tone walls, on his rear, has not been recorded-ordering it to advanee toward the enemy ; which was promptly done. When it had marched to " within fifty yards" of the place where the enemy had halted, the latter opened his fire, without, however, inflicting any loss on his assailants; and the latter returned the fire, killing or seriously wounding four of the enemy -" we returned the fire and fell four of them," are the quaint words of Colonel Glover, in his description of the opening of this spirited affair. Five rounds were exchanged by the Americans; and they had sustained a loss of two men killed and several
wounded, when the enemy, who had, meanwink. been largely reinforced, pressed forward, in a charz. : on the gallant little party. As it would have been useless, under the existing circumstances, to have inade any further resistance, Colonel Glover ordered the Captain commanding to fall back, which wa, done with order and coolness-"I ordered a retreat. " which was masterly well done by the Captain that " commanded the party," are the Colonel's words. descriptive of the retrograde movement-the enemy cheering and pushing forward, in pursuit.
Without supposing, for a moment, that the glory of a complete victory had not been already gained. the Chasseurs and Light Infantry and Grenadier- pressed forward, in column, along the narrow country road, until they approached, "within thirty yard -. " the heavy stone wall, on their right flank, behind which the Regiment commanded by Colonel Read, was concealed ; when the latter rose and, from behind its substantial breastwork, poured into them a full and destructive fire. Without attempting to even return the fire, the advaneing column broke and fell back and awaited the support of the main body, some portion of whom bad evidently effected a landing : while Colonel Glover and his concealed command patiently and hopefully awaited a renewal of the movement.
An hour and a half are said to have passed, before the enemy again advanced, when, with what were supposed to have been four thousand men, strength- ened with seven pieces of artillery, be again appeared, keeping up, as he advanced, a constant and noisy but entirely harmless fire, and approached the heavy stone wall, on his right flank, behind which Colonel Read and his men, made more confident by the result of their earlier success, were securely eronched, in complete readiness to receive him. The advancing column seems to have learned nothing from the les- son which the Americans had taught the advance. earlier in the morning; and, with au appearance of bravado, it moved forward, in the midst of the smoke of its own uselessly expended gunpowder, as if there were not an enemy within a day's march of it, until it had approached within fifty yards of the first line of the ambuscade, when Colonel Read and his com- mand arose, as they had arisen when the advance had approached, carlier in the day, and threw on it a deliberate and destructive fire. The suddenness of the attack and the evident strength of its sheltered assailants brought the advancing column to a sudden balt; and it is said that the Americans maintained their ground until they had thrown seven well- directed volleys into the closed ranks of the enemy, by whom, meanwhile, the fire was returned "with "showers of musquetry and cannon-balls," as Colonel Glover has stated, concerning it.
Having thus bravely maintained his ground, until a retreat had become necessary, Colonel Read fell back, without returning to the roadway, until he had
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passed the left flank of the Regiment commanded by Colour Shepard, who had remained, in coraiment, on the opposite side of the road, during the entire morning; and there, covering Colonel Shepard's left flank, the Regiment was re-formed, and rested on its arms.
The enemy evidently misunderstood the character of the retreat of Colonel Read and his brave com- mand-like the Officer commanding the detachment, had repulsed the Americans; and that nothing re- mained to be done, except to gather the fruits of his success-and he cheered and pushed forward, along the narrow roadway, until the head of kis column had advanced within easy gn-shot distance from the second line of the ambuscade, on his left flank. where Colonel Shepard and his command were concealed, as we have said, behind "a fine double stone wall ;" when the latter sprang to their feet, and, from behind their all-sufficient shelter, poured into him a well- directed and effective fire. The column was again brought to a sudden and unexpected halt ; and a long- continned and well-sustained fire was kept up, by each of the belligerent parties-it is said that seventeen volleys were fired by the Americans; and that the enemy's line was broken, "several times, once, in : Town of Yonkers.' "particular, so far that a soldier of Colouel Shep- "ard's" [ Regiment] " leaped over a wall, and took a " hat and canteen off of a Captain that lay dead ou " the ground they retreated from."
But the disparity of numbers between the opposing forces was so very great that prudence dictated a re- treat of the two Regiments who had so successfully held the enemy in check ; and Colonel Glover ordered them to fall back and re-form and rest on their arms, in the rear of the third line of the ambuscade, behind which the Regiment commanded by Colonel Baldwin was concealed.
The advancing column of the enemy was again put in motion ; but the record of the events of the day make no mention of any mere waste of ammunition nor of any shouts of exultant success; and it is evi- deut that it moved forward, soberly and cautiously, as was becoming, in view of the heavy losses which it had already sustained and of those to which it was predestined. It had not proceeded far before Colonel Baldwin and his command arose from their conceal- ment, behind the third line of the ambuscade ; aud, sud- denly and unexpectedly, they delivered a destructive fire, into the head of the column. It is said, however, that, in this instance, the ground was much in favor of the enemy, enabling him to bring his artillery to bear on the Americans; and that the opposition of the latter was, in consequence of those disadvantages, neither as spirited nor as effective as that which had been made by Colonels Read and Sheperd. The Amer- icans were compelled to retreat "to the bottom of "the hill," or high ground on which the ambuscade was formed ; through a brook, the bridge over which
had been previously taken up, by ( donde Glover ; smtp the slope, on the oppositeside of the moon in the place, on the high ground, where Captain Curtis and Colonel Glover's Regiment and the three field- pieces were posted.
It appears that the enemy did not pursue the re- treating Americans, but contented himself, until late in the day, with a continued fire of his artillery, over the little valley and the brook, the Americans, of in the morning, he appears to have supposed that he . course, returning it-the latter, without su-taining any loss whatever from the enemy's fire; while the former evidently sustained very little, if any, from the Americans' fire on him.
The Americans having becu in front of the enemy, from an early hour, in the morning, all the day, without food or drink, "at dark," they feli back, three miles, and bivouaced-" after fighting all day, with- "out victuals or drink, lay as a picquet, all night, the " heavens over us, and the earth under us, which was "all we had, having left all our baggage at the old "encampment we left in the morning," are Colonel Glover's words, concerning that portion of his Brig- ade's movements-and, on the morning of Saturday, the nineteenth of October, they marched to the Mile Square, on the western side of the Bronx, in the
The strength of the Brigade commanded by Colo- nel Glover has been already stated, in detail, from official sources ; " and, because Colonel Glover would not have left the encampment and all the baggage and stores of the Brigade without a sufficient guard, there is an evident truthfulness in his statement th .t he carried from his encampment only " about seven "hundred and fifty men and three field-pieces." But, in the same connection, it must be remembered that the two Regiments commanded, respectively, by Colonel's Read and Shepard, sustained almost the entire attacks of the enemy-Colonel Baldwin fell back, without having sustained any other than au artillery-fire; and Captain Curtis only saw the enemy, in the distance, on the other side of the val- ley -- and that, therefore, the number of Americans who were actually engaged did not, probably, exceed four hundred rank and file. The strength of the enemy who was actually engaged has not been stated iy any of the foreign authorities ; and we can do no more than state the fact, which are well-authenticated, and to draw our conclusions from them. It is known that the detachment of the Royal Army which was first moved to l'ell's-neck was composed of the Light
1 We have dependent. in this statement of the spirited action at Pel- ham, on Colonel Glover's homely description of it, contained in a leifer, dated at " Mene-SQUARE, October 29, ITTe," which was evidently written for the eye of a friend, although it very soon found its way into the newspapers, from one of which - The Freeman's Journal and Ver Hong- shire Gratte, Vol. t., No. Y., PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, November 26, 1776 -we made our copy. Force copied it, with some unimportant variations in his. Imprimantechères, V., ii, He, He) ; but we have preferred to uno the coutemporary edition.
: Vide jugo 211, aufe.
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Infantry and Grenadiers of the Army ; 1 and if the ! manding the First Betation of Light Infantry, ! ! Chasseurs of the German auxiliar's- were ako imind- Captain Evelyn, of the Fourth Begint I'd For twenty men, wounded; " those of the Chase it -. whom, in such mixed detachinents as that under no,- tice, the severest losses usnally fell, have not been stated; but they were said to have been, and they probably were, very severe.7 od, as more than one of the authorities have stated .: and as was more than probable, the previously large force of the detachment was very largely increased. The advance-guard from that detachment was said to have been only thirty men ; 3 and these were met and held in check by a Captain and forty men. These, naturally enough, fell back on the main hody, not on that of the Army itself, but on that of the detach- ment which had been moved from Throgg's-neck, in advance of the main body of the Army ; and, since that detachment had been thus sent forward, in ad- vance, for the express parpose of holding back any force of the Americans who should incline to obstruct the landing of the main Army, there can be no reason- able doubt that almost the entire force of the detach- ment was moved forward, against Colonel Glover and his command. In the absence of official Returns, the number of men actually included in that detachment can be only surmised ; but the Light Infantry and Grenadiers of the entire British Army, added to the Chasseurs and other Light Infantry and the Grena- diers of the German mercenaries-the Chasseurs tak- ing with them their light regimental fieldpieces- could have been scarcely less than four thousand men, the number stated by Colonel Glover.
The losses sustained by the Americans, in this ac- tion, were six men killed,' and Colonel Shepard and twelve men wounded ;3 those of the British were three men, killed, and Lieutenant-colonel Musgrave, com-
1 Lushingiou's Life of Lord Harris, St.
See, aly), Extract from a letter from Fort Ler, dated October 20, 1776, in The l'angleunia Journal, No. 1768, PHILADELPHIA, Wednesday, Octo- ber 23, 1996 ; Sauthier's Plan of the Operations ; etc.
" Extract from a letter from Monut Washington, dated October 23, 1776, in The Pennsytrauis Journal, No. 1769, PHILADELPHIA Wednesday, Octo. ber 30, 1776 ; General Home to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 20 " November, 1776 : " Fanthier's Plan ; etc.
3 Colonel Glover's letter, dated, " MILE-SQUARE, October 22, 1776."
+ We are not insensible that Colonel Glover, in his letter of which so much use bas been inade, in the preparation of this narrative, stated that eight were killed; last the official Returns, referred to, below, clearly indicated that only air were killed-no Returns of the Wounded having veen munde, only the Kill i can be noticed.
The Return of the Regimeult couraatided by Colap.1 Road shows That, of that Regiment, Sammet Cole, of Captain Pond's Company, Daniel Doland, of Captain Wassen's Company, and Rarki -! Faller, of Captain Peter's Company, were killed. 1.1 Return of the Killed, Masing, etc., with- but dale, in Force's stranden Ichines. V., il .. 715.)
The Return of Colonel Shepard's Regiment shows that, of that Regi- ment, Sergeants James Scott and Charles Alams and Private Thaddeus Kemp, all of them of Captain Holter's Company, were killed. LA Fiction of the Killed, Taken, and Musing of the Third Regime af, commanded by Colonel Shepard, etc., " NORTH-CASTLE, November 19, 1775.")
The Return of Colonel Baldwin's Regiment shows that that Regiment sustained no tos, on the day under consideration. (Return of the Killed, Wounded, Pruners, and Missing in the ligade commanded by Garden sal- Install, Eng .. " NORTH-C'ESTLE. November 1, 1976.")
. The Return of Colonel Glover's Regiment shows that that Regiment, consantoled by Captain Curtis, on the occasion now notater consideration, sustained no how-it was not under the enemy's five. (.A Return of the Officers and Privates Killed Mixany, and Taken, in the Fourbreath Regiment, etc., "CAMP, NORTHE CASTLE NovPOIker 19, 1776.")
& Colonel Glover's kter, " MILE SOLARE, October 2), 1776."
It does not appear to have been pretended that Gen- eral Lee gave any Order or any support to Colonel Glo- ver, notwithstanding the latter despatched his Major of Brigade to the General, with information of the ap- proach of the enemy to Pell's-neck, before he ordered his command to move down the Neck, to oppose the rhemy's progress; " and, in truth, nothing what- ever has been recorded of the doings of General Lee, on that eventful eighteenth of October. It is said, on the other hand, that, early in the morning of that day, the Officer commanding the Regiment which gnarded the pass to Throgs's-neck, by way of the causeway and bridge, from the Village of Westchester, suspected the enemy was preparing to move from the Neck, and sent an express to General Heath, with the information ; that the latter ordered one of his Aide's to gallop to Valentine's, near whose house General George Clinton and his Brigade were posted, with Orders that the Brigade should be formed, " in- "stantly ; " that General Heath reached Valentine's " by the time the Brigade was formed, " and ordered the Officer in command " to march with the utmost expe- "dition, to the head of the causeway, to reinforee "the troops, there, himself moving on with them ; " that, while on the march, another express met Gen- eral Heath, informing him that the entire force of the enemy was in motion, and scented to be moving towards the ford, at the head of the creek which sep- arated Throgg's-neck from the mainland; that the
6 General Hotte to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 31) November, "1776."
; It was not the practise, when this skirmish occurred, to notice. in detail, the operations of the German mercenary troops, in the despatches of the Royal Commander-in-chief to the Home Government ; and the losses sustained by those troops, in whatever actions they were engager, were seldom, if ever, included in the detailed Reports of Casualties which were sent to and published by the Government, at Loudon. The Reports of the operations and the casualties of these troops were made to the several sovereign Things. Electors, etc., of whom those to ops war, respectively, sujets ; nel, theque in sine w iste, , With individual enterprise has unearthed some of them, the text of these Reports anat much of the official more-pendence remain in their original repositories, unopened and seemingly, uncared for.
The reports of deserters and other unofficial reports made the total loss, including both British and German, from eight hnulret toa chut- sind men , atul it is difficult to make one bhneve that four hundir Americans, foraitiar from their rhuiblhond with the use of firearms, shel- tored by ample defences from which they contd hire deliberately aod with their pieces rested on the top of their defences, could have possibly fired volley after volley, into a large body of men, masel in a slowly compacted colnam and cooped spin n harrow country r. away, withen! having inflicted uextended a damage on those who received their fire. as deserter after deserter, to the number of more than half & dozen, of different days, without any connection with each other, w. verally and separately declared had been inflicted on the enemy's advance, on the occasion now nuder const leration.
& Colonet Glover's letter dated " MILE SQUARE, October 22, 1776."
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Brigade was immediately halted, the men were or- derel to print and load their pirees, and the rear Regiment was ordered " to file off by the leh and to " march. briskly, to reinforce the Americans, at the "pass, at the head of the Greek ;" that, while the Brig- ade was thus halted, General Washington rode up, in- quired and was informed of " the state of things;" ordered General Heath to return, immediately, evi- dently with all the troops who were with him, and to have the entire Division which he commanded form- ed, ready for action, and to take such a position as should appear to be best adapted for holding the ene- my in check, if he should attempt to effect a landing ; at Morrisania, which the Commander-in-chief " thought not improbable ; " and that such a disposi- tion as was thus ordered, was promptly made of the three Brigades commanded, respectively, by Briga- dier-generals Parsons, Seott, and George Clinton, of whom the Division commanded by Major-general Heath was then composed.1 Indeed, notwithstand- ing the evident movement of the main body of the enemy, from Throgg's-neck, to the eastward, the con- trolling suspicion, to which we have already alluded," that the real intention of General Howe was to de- ceive General Washington and, instead of making Pell's-neek or some other point "inrther to the cast- ward the base of his operations, to effect a landing at Morrisania ; to move from that point, as his base; and to take the Americans, on the Heights of Har- lem, on their left flank or on their rear, induced Gen- eral Washington to do little more, during that day, [Friday, October 18,] than to watch the movements of the enemy ; to extend his line of detached parties, along the high grounds on the western bank of the Bronx-river, northward, as rapidly asthe enemy should show an inclination to move, in force, in that direc- tion ; to continue the Head quarters of the Army on the Heights of Harlem; and to hold the main body of that Army in constant readiness to move in what- ever direction it should beeame necessary to confront and oppose the enemy. On Colonel Glover and ou his Brigade, therefore, during that eventful Friday. rested the great responsibility-a greater responsibil- ity than either the Colonel or his command had any knowledge of -- of being the only armed force which was in front of the Royal Anny, opposing the progress of the latter into the interior of Westchester-county : and of being the only force, of any kind, which, on that day, fired a shot on the advancing column of that Army-how well that opposition to the enemy's advance was directed and how entirely successful it was, in that opposition, have been already told and need not be repeated. Not until the dusk of the evening, nor then, until after Colonel Glover and his exhausted command had fallen back, three miles, in the direction of Dobbs's-ferry, did the powerful ad-
vance of the Royal Army venture to cross the little valley over which it had been etnuonaded, by the AAmericans, during a large portion of the day ; 3 and atter its progress toward the mainland was thus re- stined, it made no attempt to pursue the retreating Americans, contenting itself, on the contrary, with quietly moving eastward, toward New Rochelle, where it also bivonaced. and rested from the anxie- ties and the dangers to which it had been exposed,' the main body of the Army, meanwhile, lying on its arms, at the place of debarkation, during the whole of that day and the following night," if, indeed, it did not do so until the twenty-first of October.5
The great service which Colonel Glover and his command had thus performed, and the great skill and the equally great bravery which they had dis- played, in the discharge of that very important duty, were favorably noticed, officially, at that time ; ; and,
& Colonel Glover's letter, " Mity SQUARE, October 22, 1776."
& General Home to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, "*1776."
5 ". On the 1sth, our army re embarking, procresel along the coast "about six miles further, in their beats, and then re landed a l'ell's " Point, and lay on our arms that night." ([fluff's) Hat ry of the Cieil War in . Invrica, i., 205.)
" We are not insensible of the fact that General flowe, in his despatch to Lund George Germaine, dated "New York, So November, 1776," said "the main body advanced, immediately, and laid, that night," [Friday, October 18, ] " upon their arms, with the Lett upon a creek "opposite to East Chester and the Right hear New Rochelle;" and that Sauthiet's Flow of the Operations of the King's Army continued the statement. But General Washington's Manuscript Lian of the Country took no notice of any such veenjeition of the maintant, as was thins stated, previously to the twenty-first: Captain Hall, who was in the Royal Army, made In mention whatever of any move- ment of'that Army, during the intervening period, except of that of the advance, who encountered General Glover, (History of the Civil Wur in America, i., 205 ;) and Stedman, who is said to have been inspired by General Sir Henry Clinton, in his History of the . Vinericon War, (i., 212,) was equally silent, on that subject. Colouel Harris it's letter to Williane Duer, " CAME ON VALENTINE'S HILLS, October 21, 1776"-"since his "Exert chey's letter of yesterday, nothing of importance has transpired, "nuless the marching of the enemy, to-day, from Eastchester towards " New Rochelle, is considered in that light "-General George Clinton's Information relating to the Enemy, dated "the tober 21, ITTo," in which the enemy was said lo "how my from where they first landed, extended "about one mile East of New Rochelle; "und General Washington's despatch to the Continental Congress, dated " HEAD-QUARTERS, WHITE . "I'mA1x5, 25 October, 17764" all clearly indicated that such a movement of the main body of the King's Army was not made on the eighteenth ; and nobody has pretended that Colonel Hover confronted the entire koval Army and left it in check, during the whole of the day, is be We prefer to Irleve, therefore, that, although the advance and, possibly, some other detechments of det Array may have moved and sonpied The country between Hutchinson's river and New Rochelle, on the eighteenth, vinete ath, and twentieth of October, " the main body " re- tuained on Pell's.heck, until the twenty first, as stated, indirectly. ly Hall and Stedigan, confirmed by the testimony of tienend Washington. H iten, in his History of Wistchester county (origin of edition. i., 114 ; the somme, second edition, i., 19h.) informed his readers, that, "on the "eighteenth of Getober, 175, Lord Howe, the British commander, look "post in the village " of New Rochelle ; but it is very likely that " Lord "Howe," who was Amural of the Fleet, remained on land one of the vessels of war-le, certainly, was not at New Rochelle, on the day of the debarkation of the Army, oh Poll's nerk.
"" The next day, Gen. Lee (under whose command we are) came "and paddockly returned his thanks to Colonel Glover and the Others "and soldiers of his committed, for their Doble spirited and soblier like "conduct, during the battle ; and that nothing in his power should be
I Memoirs of Conerul Heath, 72.
2 Vide pages 232, 233, 233, ante.
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from that time nutil the present, with more or . .. minutenes med precision, they have been Hope 1 00 those, in Europe as well as in America, who hasse written of the events of the Campaign, in Westchester- | Washington employed Colonel Itatus Putnam, an county, in the Autumn of 1776 1
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