USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 67
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On the twentieth of October, Lieutenant-colonel Harcourt, with the greater portion of the Sixteenth Regiment of Light Dragoons-the other portion of the Regiment having embarked on a transport which had not come into port-and the whole of the Seven- teenth Regiment of Light Dragoons, joined General Howe; and, on the next day, [October 21, 1776,] thus strengthened, the Right and Center of the Royal Ar- my were moved to a position, about two miles to the northward of New Rochelle, on the road to the White Plains, Lieutenant-general Heister occupying the ground which had been thus abandoned, with one Brigade of British and two Brigades of Hessians, constituting the Left of the Army ;7 and, early in the morning of that day, the Queen's Rangers, a Corps of Loyalists commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Rogers, were detached and pushed forward, to take possession of Mamaroneck,' the last-named of which places was
1 See, also, General Washington, through his Secretary, to the President of the Continental Congress, " KING's BallE, October 20, 1776, half-after one " o'clock, P. M."
" Vile page 231, ante.
3 Vide page 229, 230, ante.
We are not insensible that Bancroft, (History of the United States, origi- mal edition, ix. 177; centenary edition, 1876, v., 441, reaid it was as early as his fifth day on Throgg's-neck, that General lowe "gave up the hope of "getting directly in Washington's terr ;" and that, in consequence of that disappointment and at that time. " he resolved to strike at White ' Plains." Little credit is given to General Home and the very able Officers whom he commanded, by any one who can really aufgave tiny would open a Campaign, or even a series of important movements, without having, previously, forumsla plan, as carefully and as intelligently con- eracted as possible, for the general guidance of the operations of the Array ; and it from nothing vler, the selection of Tarrytown and New Rochelle harbor. as the two extremesof the project Has, while the Army was yet nuknown ou Throgg's-neck, might have indicated to a less ex- Perienced i der than the vetecalle ex-Secretary of War, that the pro- Powal line from New Rochelle, by way of the WInte Fiaite, to Tarry- town, was vastly more, in the military operations of the Royal Army, than a sud lee inspiration which sprung up to cheer the disappointed General, when, vo the sixteenth of October, the latter is alleged to have given up all hope of getting in the rear of the Americans -- the whole of it a finely vonstrip trd ciration of the venerable historian's peenfiarly lisely and portioil imagination.
There is an abundance of testimony showing that General Howe's original purpose was to take Tarrytown amI New Rochelle, as the extre mes ot huis proposed fines ; and, because the venerable historian do not ap- par to have been governed by it, preferring, rather, to pay deference to a phantom of his own creation, it must have been that he did not under- stand it. Whatever it may have been which inspired the historian, however, what he wrote, on the subject under notice, is not historical, although it bears the name of History.
4 Vr.l. jage: 231, not: 7, ente. 27
& General Washington, through his Secretary, to the Congress, " KING's "BamboL., October 20, 1776, half-after one o'clock, P.M."
6 Sparks, ( Writings of George Washington, iv., 152, note, ) said, " Head- "quarters remained at Haeriem Heights, as appears by the Orderly P. . ok, " till the twenty -first ; " and the Orderly Book of both the twentieth and the twenty-first of October gives weight to bisstatement. But, bocango the entire military force, except the garrison of Fort Washington, had been moved into Westchester-county as early as noou, ou the twentieth ; because fienend Greene had found Headquarters, " near King's Bridge," on the evening of the nineteenth, (Letter to the Continental Congress, " CAMP AT FORT LEE, (LATELY FORT CONSTITUTION,) October 20, 1776 ;") because Lieutenant colonel Tenth Tilghman, one of the General y Alla, " BEIDer, October 20, 1776; " because Colonel Harrison, the General's i Secretary, had addressed a better to th. President of the Continental Con- ( press, datel " KING's BRIDGE, October 20, 1776, half-after one o'clock, "P.M. ; " and treause General Washington, himself, hadd addressed a letter to colonel Joseph Tranduill, Commissary-general of Provisions, dated, " HEAD-QUARTERS, KING'S BRIDGE, October 20, 1776," we prefer lo consider the Orderly Bok-which was in evolent disputer, from the eighteenth until the twenty-third (only a single entry appearing in it, during that long intervaly-and, necessarily, Doctor Sparks, to have been in error ; and that Head quarters were really at or very near to Kings- bridge, na early hs the afternoon of the nineteenth.
i wanthier's 1'in of the Operations of the King's Army.
& Ciemetal Hver to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 3) November, "IFFR; " [Wall's] History of the Cied War in .Imerten, t., 205 ; Steel- man's History of the American Har, i., 212; Gordon's History of the barricaa Herolation, ii., 39 ; Sauthier's Plan of the Operations of the Kim's Army ; Plan of the Country from Frog's Point to Crown Arr ; etc.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
shamefully abandoned To the Americans who were pedition, and, with Lieutenant colonel Living-ton. posted there was the degreech of the en my ; and that. " hot for want of univers, but for want of a "good Officer to lead the men." 1
When the intelligence of the enemy's movements. ou the twenty-first of October, was received at Head- quarters, which had been removed to Valentine's- hill, General Washington was absent, on a tour of inspection .? Evidently aroused by the information which he had received, on the preceding evening. from Colonel Putnam, he had left, early in the moru- ing of that day, to visit the posts on the left of the American line and at the White Plain- ; and when the express arrived with the very important intelli- genee of the enemy's movements, it was immediately transmitted to him, by his Secretary, Colonel Harri- son, although he was evidently quite well informed of those movements, even of that towards Mamaro- neck,' from other sources of intelligence.
While the General was at the White Plains, on that tour of inspection, [October 21, 1776,] he personally examined the Stores which had been accumulated at that place, and renewed bis earnest entreaties5 with the Commissary-general of Provisions to supply the posts in that vicinity, in time, with Flour and Beef, for present use; to form other Magazines of Provisions, "in secure places, removed from the wa- " ter, in Connecticut and at such others as were men- " tioned in my last, and circumstances may ilirect."6 From the same place, the General ordered the Officer in command, at Mamaroneck, to make the best stand he could, with the troops under his command, against the enemy ; and told him of his intention to order an attack on the enemy's flank "-how little the General thought that, at that very time, the Officer whom he was thus addressing had shown himself to be only a contemptible poltroon. At the same time. he or- dered Colonel Lachlan MeIntosh, who was then in Connectient, with two Regiments of Massachusetts troop-, preparing to make a movement against the enemy, on Long Island, to saspend that proposed ex-
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1 General Washington to Colonel Lachlan MIback of Fragen, " WHITE- "PLASS, October 21, ITT6;" Lieutenant colonel Tilylin ta to Willing Duer, "HVAD-QUARTERS, VALENTINE'S-1TILL, 22 Oct., 1776."
" colonel R. J. Harrison to Willian Imer, "CAMP ON VALENTINE'S- "HILL", October 21, 1776:" Besure to the Continental Congress, " Hrub. "QUARTERS, VALENTINE'S- HILL, October 21, 1776;" Manous of General Heat, 73, 74.
3 CAvael R. H. Harrison to William Iver, " CAMP ON VALENTINE'S- " Int., October 21, 1776."
A General Washington to Major Zabdiel Rogers, " WHITE PLAINS, Octo- "ber 21, 1776."
3 " I have no reason, either from information or utraervation, to alter " my opinion of yesterday, and, therefore, again and again entreat your "every exertion to supply these posts, in time, with Flour and Beef for " present use," were his words.
. 6 General Washington to Colour Jos. Trumbull, Commissary-general of Provisions, " WHITE-1'EAINS. October 21, 1776. '
1 General Washington to Major Zandel Rogers, " WHITE PLAINS, Otto- "ler 21, 1776."
driemoral Washington to Colonel McIntosh, " WHITE PLAINS, October *21, 177."
who was in the same State, with a considerable force, to march, immediately, toward, Byram-river-that which forms the boundary between the States of New York and Connecticut, near the Somd-and to re- ceive orders, on his arrival at the river, from Briga- dier-general Lord Stirling, then at the White Plains, for the disposition of the men undder his command .?
While the Commander-in-chief was thus employed, on the extreme left of the American line, General Howe having been equally active, during the same period, only a few miles distant, " the extreme right of that line, at Kingsbridge, was, also, the scene ot bustle and active preparation for a movement-Orders had been issued for the movement of the Division commanded by Major-general Heath, then oceupying the grounds around Kingsbridge amd, thenee, north- ward, to Valentine's-hill, to the extreme left of the proposed line, in the new position, to the northward and eastward of the White Plains, which had been selected for the inimmediate occupation of the Army." That movement, as we have said, " had evidently been determined on, at least as early as during the preced- ing night, after the return of Colonel Putnam, and was not consequent on either the movement of the Royal Army, during the same morning, or the observations of General Washington, on his tour of inspection ; but there was, evidently, some cause for the eight hours of delay, beyond the hour appointed for the movement of the Division ; 13 and the extreme searcity of Teams, for any purpose, as we have already stated," which was producing great anxiety and trouble, throughout the entire Army, may have caused the delay.
The Division commanded by Major-general Heath, as we have said, (except General George Clinton, with the Regiments commanded, respectively, by Colmels Nicolls, Pawling, Graham, and Swartwout,) was ordered to move, left in front, at eight o'clock in the morning, if possible: the advance-guard was to consist of one hundred men, taken from General Scott's Brigade; and was to be followed by the heavy artillery, of which iwo heavy iron twelve-pounders were to be moved with that Division: the column was to follow, in platoons or by file, the six and three- pound guns to be moved between the first and second and between the third and fourth Regiments of each Brigade: each Regiment was ordered to throw out a flank-gnard: and General Parsons was ordered tu
2 General Washington to Colonel M Intosh, "WHITE PLAINS, Butcher 21,
10 Two miles from New Rochelle, say nine miles froin the White Plains. Il Division Orders, "KIN's BRIDGE, October 21, 1776." 1: Vide page 219, aute.
13 The Division was ordered to march from the left, near Valentine's, " if possible, at eight o'clock, this morning." (Diesom ( dere, "KING's " BRIDGE. Octuber 21, 1776 :") it was not until "abont 4 o'clock, P.M. "our tieneral's Division moved from above Kingsbridge," (Memoirs of General Heath, 73).
14 Vide par- 243, ante.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
parrisha rear gaard of fifty men. Each of the Brig- right wedlock in the evening, that it passed Head- 1. of the Division was to have
Tods, which was ordered to be moved with the heat " artillery. A number of the Spear- which were at Fort Independence was to be becled on rach wagroll, with the Tools; and Colonel Thomas and Colonel Drake were respectively ordered to seud tu each of the Regiments of the Division. a Gnide, who was well acquainted with the road to the White Plains and with the vicinity of that place. It was ordered, in case the Division should be attacked, while on its march, that the line should be instantly formed : with the reserves at one hundred pace- distant, in the
march ; and with the heavy artillery posted on the t:carest commanding height and covered by the Regi- ment commanded by Colonel Prescott. General George Clinton, with all the Regiments of his com- mand, except the Westchester-county Regiment com- manded by Colonel Thomas, was ordered to remain where he was then posted, until the afternoon, and to forward all the Stores, Provisions, etc., which would not be required for the use of the detachment which was to be left in the barracks, in Fort I dependence; after which he was to move his Brigade, on the Alba- ny road, as far as Dobbs's Ferry, where he would re- ceive his Baggage, etc., from the boats on which they had been forwarded; and to join the Division, at the White Plains, without delay. A. de- tachment of six hundred men, under the com- mand of Colonel Lasher, was ordered to remain, near Kingsbridge, until further orders -- two hundred and fifty of the number were to occupy the barracks of Colonel Thomas's Regiment; fifty were to be posted in Colonel Swartwout's regimeutal barracks ; fifty were to be posted in General Scott's Brigade barracks; fifty were to occupy the regimental barracks of Colonel Prescott; fifty were to occupy the barracks of Colonel Pawling's Regiment : fifty were to be posted in the barracks of Colonel Nicoll's Regiment ; and the re- maining fifty were to be posted in the barracks of Colonel Graham's Regiment-and it was also ordered to mount the proper guards and pickets ; and to es- tablish aların-posts, in the different works. The guards then posted at Morrisania were to be called in, during the evening of that day, and to follow the Di- visjon, on the following morning ; and a small guard, evidently to be supplied from the detachment at Fort Independence, was to be continually posted on the high grounds, toward Morrisania, for the security of the detachment.1 All these specifie Orders, which were evidently issued much earlier than eight o'clock in the morning, were unquestionably obeyed, as far as they could be obeyed, with entire precision and promptitude; but, nevertheless, it was not until about four o'clock, in the afternoon of that October day, that the Division was enabled to move; not until
. res, on Valentine's-hill ; and, after a tedious and warisome night-march, not until four o'clock, on the following morning -- thatof Tuesday, the twenty-second of October-that it reached Chatterton's-hill, the last of the line of entrenched works, near the village of the White Plains. During the same day, General Heath moved the Division to the high ground, to the northward of the little village; and, there, it evi- dlently rested from the fatigue which was consequent on the laborious movements of the preceding thirty- six hours."
It will be seen by the reader, that the Division year; with the light artillery as it was posted on the ; which was thus pushed forward, to the White Plains, was in light marching order, evidently taking with it no more than the personal Baggage of the Officers and men ; that it was pushed forward, with all possible ex- pedition, if it may not properly be said to have been by a forced march ; and that it was not halted on its line of march, until it had reached Chatterton's-hill. It had moved along the roadway leading to the White Plains, behind and under cover of the line of en- trenched camps, stretched along the high grounds, westward from the Bronx-river, from Valentine's-hill, on the South, to the White Plains, on the North, which had, already, been thrown up and occupied,3 and it reached the Plains and rested on the high grounds, at that place ; and it was subsequently moved into the
2 Memoirs of General Houth, 73-75.
" Sau hier's Plus of the Operations of the Koug's Army ; Plan of the Country front Freg's You ' to Crotone Hiver; Dawson's Minden Potrests through Westchester county, in 1776, 35-37 ; etc.
We are not insensible of the fact that, in this instaure, the greater number of those who have preceded us, in writing of that military re- treat of the Americans, have maintained that these defensive work- wire thrown up by the retreating Army, ou its march to the White Plains, instead of by detachments moved forward, for that specific juirpose, be- fore the retreat of the main body, from Kingsbridge, bad been fully de- termined on. Among those from whotu we kave thus disseusted, are lle desjeitch of General Howe to Lord George Gerninc, " NEW- Yous, $30 November, 1976; " Amaral Register for 1976: History of Europe. * 177: History of the War in America, Itidin: 1779, i., 194 ; [ Hall's History of the Old War in dering, i., 207 ; Got low & If Joy of the Amerigo live- Intim, it., 339 ; Stedtan's History of the Amerina War, i. 212; Mar- shall's Lifeof George Washington, ii., 500; Atulrews's History of the l'ur. ii., 242; Murray's Inquietud History of the War in Interior, il., ITT ; Banway's History of th . Sedan Revolution, i. Ba; More's .Bankof
the Repaldies, i., END; Lossing's Pictorial Field-book of the Ben irea Bo cale- food, si .. >21 ; Carrington'- Hell's of the American Recitation, 234, etc .; bet we have preferred the Testimony of Division O dore for the move- went of the troops, the narrative of the movement which was written by the Major-general canmailing the Division, the official Map of the movement drawn by both the American wol the Royal Engineers, aud our own well-settled conviction. of The itaprobability t'en the main Ariny Lol been employed in Ihn wing up entrend lunerls or that its Ldlowious retreat to the Plates was male more latorions by continous halt- for the purpose of throwing up earthworks, for any purpose. When the retreat was originally delerinined on, the neo vity be a prompt and immediate occupation of the new-selected position wu- too evident to a.mit of any such halt, for any such purposes; and, in the great scarcity of Teams for the removal of the Stores atel Barg cre atol Artil. levy, which required the mien to take the places of beasts of bunden, in dragging and carrying what needed to be transported, the main løvly of the Army needed uo additional labor, uor is it in the slightest degree protable that any such additional labor was really iagreed on it.
Frixion Orders, " Kina's Barnak, October St, 1776."
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
position which ha ! pointed for it, on the ex- treme lett of the pr .. sed line of the Army, its lett resting on a "deep h. How, through which ran a small "brook,1 which came in ra a mill-pond," a little above."3 On the eastern, or op; site -ide, of that "deep ho !-
" low," " there was a very commanding grouml." from \ occupation of Mamaroneck ; and that he had deter- which the Division cool I have been entiladed; ' and fined to make an attack on the Queen's Rangers who the ground occupied by the Division, descended, ! gradually, from the extreme left to the right of the line.3
were posted there .? In accordance with that deter- mination and with Orders which were undoubtedly i -- sned by General Washington, "" General Lord Stirling, On the high ground. on the opposite side of the "deep hollow," General Heath posted the Regiment of New York troupe commanded by Colonel William Malcolm, and Lieutenan: Fenno of the Artillery, the latter with a field-piece, with instructions to occupy a : who had reached the White Plains, with his com- mand, during the morning of that day, detachel Major Green, with one hundred and fifty men frota the First and Third Virginia Regiments, and Colom I John Haslet, with six hundred men from his own- position in the skirt of the wood which covered the , the Delaware-and other Regiments, with orders to upper portion of the high ground, "at the South brow " of the hill ;" and there, that covering party remained, until the American Army retreated into the high grounds of Northeastle.s
While the Division commanded by General Heath was thus hurrying, by a forced march, towards the White Plains, during the night of the twenty-first of October, another portion of the American Army was engaged in a brilliant dash on the enemy's outpost, at Mamaroneck.
It will be remembered that, on the twenty-first of October, when the Right and Center of the main body of the Royal Army were moved forward to a position between New Rochelle and the White Plains, the Queen's Rangers, a select body of Loy- alists, commanded by the celebrated partisan, Lieu- tenant-colonel Robert Rogers,' were pushed forward
to Mamaroneck, which they had occupied early a the morning of that day."
It will be remembered, also, that while General Washington was at the White Plains, on the twenty. first of October, he had received information of that
fall on the Rangers, during the coming night. The movement was made with good judgment and ability ; the Rangers were entirely surprised, through the carelessness of their sentries ; and, as was stated by an Officer in the Royal Army," they were "very roughl; " handled." In consequence of the bad conduct of the gnides whom Colonel Haslet had employed,12 how- ever, the success was not as complete as it probably would have been, had the guides done their duty properly. As it was, Colonel Haslet and his gallant command handled the Rangers " very roughly," kill- ing and wounding a considerable number ; 13 carrying back, to the White Plains, thirty-six prisoners,14 and
& General Washington to Colonel Eachline McIntosh, of Georgia, " Www. "PLAINS, October 21, 1776; " the smag to Major Zabdiel Rogers, "WHITE PLAINS, October 21, 1776;" Extract of a letter from a Govern! Officer, dated " MOUNT WASHINGTON, October 28, ITT6 ;" General Have to Lord George Germaine, "NEW-YORK, 30 November, 1776 ;" [ Bull's] History of the Cied War in America, i., 205; Stedman's Hutory of the American War, i., 212; Gordon's History of the American Revolution, i., 339 ; Santhier's Plat of the Operations of the King's Army; Plan of the Country from Frog's Point to Croton River ; etc.
9 Vide paire 250, ante.
10 In Lieutenant-colonel Tilghman's letter to his father, dated " VAL- "ESTINE's-HILL. 4 MILES FROM KINGSBRIDGE 22 October 1776," it is ex- preasly stated that "the General "-by which torns he referred to (en- eral Washington, whose Aile-de-Camp ho was and with whom he had beeu, while the Commander-in-Chief wasat the White Plains -- " detach-d "Major Green * * * In fill upen Rogers in the Night, which they " Cil," etc.
1) [I]] ] History of the Girl! War in Any tiến, i .. 2015.
1: Lieutenant-cobriel Tilghman, in the lott ; to his father, to which we have already referred, stated that "bad not the Guides posted Hisiet "wrong the whole party consisting of 900 must have fallen into var "llands ;" and Colonel Hastet, in his Letter to General Casar Rodney, dated " October 25, 1776," said, " hal not our guides deserted us on the "first outset he and his whode party must have been taken."
See also, General Washington, through his Sieratary, to Governor Town- ball. "CAMP ON VALENTINE'S -Httt, October 29, 1776."
Is In Lieutenant colonel Tilghman's letter to his father, already men- tioned, it is said " they comel 25 killed in one Orchard, how many got "off wounded we dont know ;" and in Colonel Haslet's letter to General Rolney, already referred to, it was sail, " his Lieutenant and a number " of other- were left den ! on the spot."
These Rangers were sant, by the longrapher of their distinguished Com- mandant, of a Liter print, to have been "dociplined, not for parade, but "for activeservice They were never to march in slow titne ; were directed " to time with precision and steadiness ; to wiel the bevonet with force I+ Lieutenant-colore Tilghmanta his father, " VALENTINE'S-HILL + MILES "PRON KINGSBERRY, 22 October, 176;" Colonel Hadet to General Find- ney, " WHITE-PLAINS, October 2s, 176 ;" etc. "ail effect ; to disperse and rally with rapihty. In short, in the in- "structions for the thamgeriout of the Corps, its commander sem- to " have anticipated the niere no-lern tactics of the French Army."- (Memoir of Lieuten ant called Suave, -Simcoe's Journal of the Operations . de chiere, V., i., 1913 ; but the evilett slaughter of the names he's true of the Queen's langere, viii.)
A list of thirty-one of those prisoners may be seen in Force's In mein that record useless to every one who is menegh tinted with the man > <
! Then and now known as the Mamaroneck-river.
" Then known as " Horton's pund : " now known as "St. Mary's " Lake."
3 The entire property inchided in this portion of our narrative, is now owned by Charles Deutermann, E-q.
4 Now forming a portion of what is known as " The Underhill " Farm .. "
5 Ilus description of the ground occupied by the Division commatoled by General Heath, has been taken, largely in his own words, from his Memoirs, evidently written by himself, page TA. For our statements concerning the present nunes and owners of the several properties re- ferred to, we are itriebted t . the li mi. J. 9. Dykivan, Lige of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, and a resident of the White Plains.
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