USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 73
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At best, Chatterton's-hill, at that time, was an iso- lated position ; beyond the American lines ; too dis- tant to be supported from the main body, in the pres- ence of an enemy occupying the Plains, unless in force and at great risk ; with no line of communica- tion with the main body, which was not commanded by the enemy ; and with no opening for a retreat of the occupying force, in case of a disaster, unless to the westward, into the neighboring hills of Green- burgh, which were already occupied by the fugitive New Englanders whom General Spencer had at- tempted to command. It could hardly be considered, therefore, with any degree of propriety, as anything else than a detached and independent position, form-
missioned and Noncommissioned Univers. Bank and File, Killed, Founded, and Mixing, etc., appended to his despatch to Loel George Germaine, dated " NEW-YORK, 3 December, 17;C." We have compared it with the Baxter of the killed and Wanted of the Second thigh, etc., made by Gewend Lehe ; and find that, atthe righ the details of the classifications differ, the aggregate of the British los is the sure the hundred and fifty -zeven Officers and Men.
Rank and File. Killed. Wurded, e id Missing, appendel to his despatch In Ford George Germaine, dated " New-York, 3 December, 1776."
It is proper for us to say, however, that that Return included all the losses sustained by the Regiments referred to, from the nineteenth to the twenty-eighth of Detober. both these dates included ; and it is poasi- ble, therefore, that some of the casualties mimed in the text were aus- tained elsewhere than ou or near Chatterton's-bill. We have no means for ascertaining their exact losses, on the twenty-eighth of October.
" We are not insensible that Stedman, in his History of the American War, (1, 214) satt " the reason of their "[the americans] "occupying " this postur." [on Chatterton'shill, { " is inexplicable, unless it be that " they could not be contained within the works of their Camp:" but the reason assisted was too evidently ridiculous to be regarded with the slightest respect.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
As we have elsewhere stated. the advancing cohimnus of the Royal Army had been formed, in line, with the Right resting on the road leading from the White
ing no portion of the American lines ; and nothing , for than a - apparition, on the part of Gineral Wash- ington's advisers and on that of the General himself, that the continued occupation of it was absolutely es- i Plains to Mamaroneck, and the Left resting on the sential to the safety of the main body, in the position which it then acenpied. could possibly have led him to make such a costly and hazardous experiment. un- der the existing circumstances and in the immediate presence of such an overwhelming enemy, as the con- tinued occupation and defence of Chatterton's-hill. But General Washington had evidently planned bet-
The Bomeylemin Evening Post, Vol. If., No. 278. Postsprieurs, There- day, Heterler 31, 1776, and in The Portugtrani Journal, No. 1779, Paus. marius, November 6, 176 ; the latter af tab liebert It. Hervimos in 1. I've dent of the Congress, dated .. Wany-Praiss, October 29, 179; " the Letter to a Gentleman to Anydis, daled . Watx-Phase, Holder """. 1976." published in The Peuusrani Jovenel, No. 1771, PHILADEL- Puis, Wolveslay, November 1. 176 ; the Letter from the Comp, aled WHITE PLAINS, October 29, 1776, published in The Forum's Journal, or ter than he knew ; and, in the providence of God, Nor Haunghie Gratte, Vol. 1. 30. 25, Peersvertu, Tuesday, Novem- some results which were more beneficial to the . bert, 15; General Unter of the bay, in the case of Colonel Webb.
Americans than any which he hedl conceived and hoped for, were unquestionably derived from that seemingly unpromising experiment of occupying and holding that exceedingly exposed position, on the western bank of the Bronx ; among which results, in America, we may mention the effect of that occupa- tion, as an apparent menace against the left flank and rear of the Royal Army, in whatever movement that
American lines; the delay in that evidently projected movement of the Royal Army, to enable its command- ing General to remove what appeared to have been a dangerous element from Chatterton's-hill -- a delay which enabled the Americans to strengthen their de- fensive works and to become better prepared for de- fending them, whenever the Royal Army should move against them ;- and the reduction of that great Army, which was, then, in front of the American lines, and ready to move against them, for the purpose of assault- ing the Americans who had occupied the hill as well for that of holding the hill, subsequently, which re- duction of the strength of his main body compelled General Howe to wait for the arrival of reinforcements, · to abandon his intention to assault the works which sheltered the main body of the American Army, and. finally, to retire from Westchester-county-the first- mentioned of which consequences affording still further time and opportunities to General Washing-
Figliom'a letter to William Dier, dated "HEADQUARTERS, WHITE. " Plains, Gruber 23, 1756; " the same to his father, siated " Waits- "Praiss, October 31, IT;" the Letter from Stanford, dated October 30. 1756, published in The Freerand's Journal, or Nor-Hampshire Grette. Vol. L., No. 25, PORTSMOUTH, Tuesday, November 12, 1976 ; The Letter of Colonel Robert H. Harrison to General & Angles, " WnuE-Plus, Novem- "ter 1, 1756;" the Letter from a Gentleman in for dring, data " top "NFAR THE MILLS, ABOUT THREE MILES NORTH OF THE WHITE PINENS, ". November 1, 1776, " published in The Bonusglennin Evening Post, Vol. II., No. EST. PHILADELPHIA, Thursday, November It, 1776, in Forer's, Inter- Army, under General Howe, should make against the form. Jechies, V., ii., it-17), and, in a mutilated form. in Frank Monde's litry of the American Revolution, j., 335-37 ; Caboel Robert H. Hurrian's borre to Governor Trumbull, dated " WHITE-PLAINS, November 2, 1776 ; " Lieutenant enfouet Tolyhonda's letter be William Duer, dass { " HEADQUAR. " EYES, NEAR WHITE-PLAINS, November 2, 1776;" Chart Gist's letter tothe Med ad Conarit of Safety, dated " CAME BEFORE THE WHITE- " PLAINS, 2 November, 1776; " General Washington's letter to the Presi- de ut of the Congress, dated " Where-Plass, November fi, 1776;" Global Robert J. Harrison's letter to Goer nor Traudull, dated " WHITE PLAINS, "November 6, 1776;" Commel Hoste's Coffee to Genial Casser Rodney, dated " November 12, 1776 ;" Doctor Pi's letter to James Tilghman, datel " CAMP AT THE WHIPP. PLAINS, November 7, 1755; " General Here's seguitoh to Load Grunge Gremaior, dated . NEW-YORK, Suveraber ":30, 1775;" the Letter of Williver Harrison to the Maryland Commit of Njutg, dated "GrowsKrowy, KANT-OUNTY, 28th November, "With; " General Returns of the Army, September 21, October 5, and November 3, 1776; Returns of Killed, Wounded, and Missing, [in the American Aring, jin avere lations, puldi-bed in Force's American .Ich- ires, V., iii., 715-720; Return of Commissioned and Non-comunicazione of- fivers and Road and Ede, Killed, Wounded, and Missing, From the 17th Sql- tember to the With November, inclusive, appended to tivarral Hove's despatch to Lord George Gornatine, " NEW-YORK, 3 December, 1776; " Samtlive's Ihen of the Operations of the King's Army under the Command of Si Wil. linn Houver, K.B., in New-York and Fast New Jersey against the Imerivan Forces commanded lo General Washington, from the 12th of thetoter to the 29th of November, 1970 ; A Plan of the Country for Frog's Bout to Coupon o and his feeble command : the latter two aflording to the Americans, everywhere, the relat. as well as some of the advantages, of better generalship and of course- quent success. All these, among other not much less- important results, although they were probably hil- den from General Washington. when he devised and ordered the movement, were, unquestionably, among the results, in America, of that " inexplicable " occu- pation of Chatterton's-bill, on the morning of the twenty-eighth of October, 1776: with the results, in Emope, of that occupation, we have nothing to do, in this place.1 Hiver ; The Eruniation of Joseph Gialloray, Exg., before a Committee of the House of Commons; [Galloway's] Letters to a Noble man ; The Narrative of Sir Williama Hover, . . with some Observations upon a jumptilet udi- Bort Letters to a Nollegan : always Reply to the Observations of Limitation Sir William Hose, on a pamphlet entitled Lettersto as holde. The lumal Register for 1756; The Hotary of the Har in Avere, Edit., Latin : 1769; [Hall's] History of tin Ciest Har in America ; Losuis Bisher- iques et politiques sur la l'évolution sin l' Amcripte Septentrionale, par M. II lidl d'Aubertour ; Andrews's History of the War with almerien, Fourre, Specia, and Holland : Saule's Het ured & Troubles de I Manrique Anglaise ; Gordon's History of the Burrice Revelation : Raley's Motory of the Amérique Resolution : Murray's Laquertial Hubery of the War i . Ierten ; Sichan's History of the War in America : Memories of Major-yedenal Both ; Chaser Lebrun's Histoire politique et philosophiques de be li cotation de " lan Tique Septentrionde; Marshall & Life of trong Washington ; Warren's History of the barriona Revolution : Malplings History of England : Ser- I In our preparation of this description of the engagement on Chatter- ton's hill, pour rally called " THE BATTLE OF Water-Pisos," we have examined and uses The diary of Lowid How ; the latter from the White Plains, dated catulares, ITTE, polishedin The Prousylvania Jonened, No. 1770, PHILADELPHIA, Wedoplay, November 6, 1776 ; the Letter from the White-Theo, dated the toler 25, 1776, at two d'ele k, P. M., published in gosut Lanle's Journal of Occurrences during the Life Emotions War ; Hum- phrey's Life of themoral Putnam ; Pant Allen's History of the American Revolution ; Motor's hands of the linetien Herdations; Rauway's Life of Courge Washington ; Pitkin's Political and Firil Hastory of the United States Nie York Sparks's Life of Course. I ashington ; Losing's Secenter hun
272
WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Bronx ; and that it had been halted, within a mile of the American lines, to enalde a heavy detachment of both British and Hessian troops to dispo-sess a body of American troops who had occupied Chatterton's- hill, and who appeared to menace the left flank and rear of the Left, in its proposed movement again-t the American lines.1 The result of that assault on Chatterton's-hill has, also, been duly noticed ; ; but the success of that movement did not disturb the main body, who remained, resting on its arms, where it had been halted, during the remainder of the day and throughont the following night ; and, there, " with " very little alteration," it encamped, on the following day " -- it had been so much reduced. in effective strength, by the withdrawal of the assaulting parties, and, as was said by an intelligent officer, "the ditli- "enlty of co-operation between the Left and Right " wings of ohr Army was such, that it was obvious " that the latter could no longer expediently attempt "anything against the enemy's main body." + It ap- pears, however, that the Right of the Royal Army, who was not expected to participate in the proposed assault on the American lines, and who was not con. cerned in the assault on Chatterton's-hill, further than to detach the Hessians commanded Ly Colonel Donop, who were in that wing of the Anny, for the purpose of assisting in that important operation, was not inclined to rest, as the Left of the Army had been ordered to do and had done; and a portion of it, at least, was moved forward, on the main road of the Village, in front of the Left of the American lines, which was occupied, as the reader will remember, by the Division commanded by General Heath.5
We have been told that the advancing columnmn was
dred and serenty-six ; Campbell's Revolutionary Services and Ciril Life af General William Hull ; Hinman's Historical Collection of the part sustained by Connecticut, during the War of the Herdation; Lassing's Potorial Field-book of the Revolution ; Hildreth's History of the United States of America ; Irving's Life of George Washington : Hamilton's History of the Republic of the United States of America, as traced in the Writings of us- maler Hamilton ; Dawson's Military Retreatsthrough Westchester county, in # 176, (an unpublished manuscript ;) Moore's Diary of the American Foto- lation ; Memoir of Colonel Benjamin Tallandys. prepared by himself, at the request of his Children ; Dawson's Battles of the United States, by Sont and Land; Stark's Memoir and Oficial Correspondence of Con. John Stark, with Notices of . . . and of Colonel Robert Hoges ; Viewer's The lin of Nathanme! Greene, Major-geral in the Army of the Road to, Edit. New-York : 1867, Anaki's Life will Correspondre of Henry Kis, Major-general in the Revolutionary Army ; Jones's History of Your York during the Revolutionary War, and de Lancey's Notes On that work ; Pan- croft's History of the United States, both the original and the centenary editions; Bollow's History of Westchester county, both editions ; larini's Life of lerand Pasteum ; Carrington's Battles of the American Probation; and Ridatl's History of the United States.
Those works, bearing on the subject, in the German language, which are in our own library, were fuit away, and could not be reached without undne later ; and we were not physically able to go elsewhere, to con sult them For these reasons. they have not been examined.
I Vile juges 262, 263, 264, ante.
2 Vide pages 266-265, ante.
3 General Have to Lord George formaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, "1776 ;" Stodian's History of the American War, i., 215; [Hall's] Hadary of the Civil War in America, T., 209 ; etc.
" Stedman's History of the American ler, i., 215. & Memoire of Major-general Houth, 7%.
led by a detachment of about twenty Light Dragoon -. enpering and brandishing their sabres, who laped the fence of a wheat-field, situated at the foot of the hill on which the Regiment commanded by Colonel Mal- colm had been posted." The horsemen evidently sup- posel the hill was ungenpied; and. it is probable, they expected to turn the Hank of the American lines, and to seenre an easy victory ; but Lientenant Feuno and his field-piece were also on " the Sunth brow of "the hill; "; and, when the horsemen approached, he gave them a shot which, " by striking in the midst " of them," killed one of them." The troop was im- mediately " wheeled, short about, and galloped out of " the fehl as fast as they came in ; rode behind a little " hill, in the road ; and faced about; " the other por- tions of the column, at the same time, as they she- cessively came up, wheeling to the left, by platoons ; and, passing through a gateway or bars, directed their march, westward, to the place where the Left of the Army had been halted." With that move- ment of the extreme Right of the Army, and with that of the Hessian and British troops, on the high grounds, on the western bank of the Bronx, on its extreme Left, already mentioned, the Royal Army closed the operations of the day.
It is undoubtedly true that the delay which was pro- duced by the halt of the Royal Army, on the Plain, was the salvation ot the American Army, within the lines; since it afforded time for strengthening the works be- hind which the latter was, then, posted, and for prepar- ing it for falling back, soon afterwards, and occupying another position, which would be more defensible and not so accessible to the King's troops. But it is scarcely true that, since the morning of the preceding day, the Americans had "drawn back their encampment " and "strengthened their lines by additional works," to such an extent, in either instance, that "the designed "attack upon them," on the morning after the engage- ment, [ Tuesday, October 29,] need have been "deferred," for no other reasons than these, notwithstanding Gen- eral Howe is reported to have informed the Home Government that such had been the case W-the re- ported withdrawal of the American encampment was, probably, nothing more than the removal of the Stores, back, to the high grounds of Newcastle, which Was commenced on that day ; " aud, notwithstanding
6 Vide page 252, aule. : 1bi.t.
In the Return of the Killed, Howaded, and Missing, of the Royal Army, applied to General Howe's dispatch to Load George carmine, dated "NEW- YORK, 3 December, 1776," it was siated that The only one of either of the two Regiments of the Light Dragons then in America, who was killed, from the nineteenth to the twenty-eighth of October, inclusive, was one Bank and File, of the Seventeenth Regi- ment ; and, very probably, that one was the same to whom we have re- ferred, in the text.
9 Mouvoir of Major gruered Hoch, is.
" General Home to Lor George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November,
11 David How's Inury, October 29 and 30. 1776. Les, also, Lieutenant colonel Tilghman to his father, " WHITE PLAINS, 31 "October, 1776"; Memoirs of Moregeneral Health, 70 ; ch.
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the interval had been undoubtedly beenged by the | it necessary for the American Army to abandon the Americans, in industriously strengthof it rang .. position, the work of marketing its lines was con- tinued, with unabated in lu-try. tion, they could scarcely have made defensible and; formidable what, only a few hours previous, had been During Wednesday, the thirtieth of October, the King's troops were occupied in throwing up some defensive works and redoubts, on the Plain, in front of the American lines,6 and an entrenchment on the summit of Chatterton's-hill ;? and, during the after- noon of the same day, four Regiments, from the lines on New-York-island," and two Regiments of the Sixth Brigade, who had been posted at Mamaroneck, after the Queen's Rangers had been so "roughly hardly respectable. Indeed, at no time, even under the most favorable cirenm-tances, were the defences of the American lines, immediately above the Plains, in any respect formidable ; and the center, where the post-road passed through them, was decidedly the weakest portion. They had been hastily constructed, withont the superintendence of experienced Engi- neers. The stony soil prevented the ilitch from being made of any troublesome depth of the parapet of a troublesome height : the latter was not fraised : only brother, dated "NEAR WHITE PLAINS, 32 MILES FROM NEW-YORK, 1 " Nov : 1776," said "the enemy's having possession of this hill obliged " ns to abandon some slight lines thrown up on the White Plains." where it was least needed-probably because the con- struction of it, elsewhere, had been interfered with- was there the slightest appearance of an abatis.1 5 There was something which required explanation in what was written by General Washington's Secretary and, undoubtedly, with bis ap- proval, to the President of the Congress, when he sarl, "Our post, from " its situation, is not so advantageous as could be wished ; and was only " intended as temporary and occasional, till the stores belonging to the " Army, which had been deposited, here, could be removed."-(Colon ) Robert H. Harrison to the President of the Congress, " Warth PLAINS, 29 "October, 1776." There was little foundation, therefore, for General Howe's transparent exenses; and it would have been more creditable to his candor, had he told the true reason for his failure to assault the lines, on the morning after the Battle and while the troops who had been designated to make the as- " The Stores belonging to the Army," at that time and for some time previous, had not been so abundant as to have been burdensome ; am!, if there had been jndicions oversight, they could have been carried & couple of miles further, to a place of greater afety, when they were carried to the White Plains, saving the repeated re-handling of them and the construction of two distinct lines of works for nothing else than for the "temporary and occasional " protection of them. sault, with their line unbroken, were resting on their arins, within a mile and in open sight from the works which they were expecting to assault, and ready to move against them, at a moment's notice --- the faet was simply this, as we have already seen,? " the Army could no longer expediently attempt " anything against the enemy's" [the Americans'] " main body ;" and it was necessary that it should be reinforced, before the Americans should be attackrd.
During Tuesday, the twenty-ninth of October, as we have seen, the Royal Army, "with very little al- "teration " in its position, encamped on the Plain, and awaited the arrival of reinforcements ; " and, not- withstanding the loss of Chatterton's-hill, in the opinion of some of the American Officers,4 had made
1 In this description of the character of the American defeuzes, we have followed Stedmati, (History of the American War, i., 213,) who was probably present, in the Royal Army.
l'e are not insensible that Bancroft, (History of the United States, origi- nal alition, ix., 190 ; the same, centenary edition, v., 414,) has so framed his sentence that his readers must suppose the abatis was as extended as the " lines of entrenchmonts ;" hut the feetleness of the Army aul the Bearcity of teamen could not have seenred so great & wars, in ws short a titue ; neither General Washington Ler General Heath ne Bracal khoa, among the Americans, bor General howe nor General Lord Cornwallis, among the King's troops, all of whom have more or less described the American defenses, has made the slightest allusion to auch a general defense, before the long line of American entreuchments; and Stedman expressly stated that " the point of the hill, on the enemy's " right," [that on the line of the Harlem Railroad, inonediately parthcard from the Railroad station, ] " exceedingly steep and rocky, was covered by " a strong abatis in front of the entrenchment," the very place, as we have said in the text, where such an additional nisan of defense was least needed. For these reasons, we prefer to believe that the American lines were not, generally, furnished with an abatis.
Vide pagy 272, ante.
3 General Hore to Lord George Germaine, " NEW-YORK, 30 November, " 1776."
4 General Heath said, (Me moire, 79,) " the British having get presses. " sion of this hill, it gave thent a vast advantage of the American lines, " almost down to the center :" and General Knox, in a letter to his 29
There is, generally, a prodigality in the expenditure of both money and materials and labor, in all which relates to Arnties ; but there secois to have been an excess of prodigality in the use of all these, of which the American Army had such an insufficient supply, if the ouly purpose of the two lines of entrenchments, one at the foot and the other on the crest of the high grounds, at the White Plains, had been only for the " temporary and occasional " protection of a few Stores, handled and re- handled, over and over again, the whole of which could have been con- sumed by the Army, in less than six days, probably in half that time .*
If there had been. in fact, no other reason than these, for occupying and fortifying That position, there was reason for General George Clin- ton's dembts, when he wrote, " Uncovered, as wo are ; daily on fatigue ; "making redoubts, fleches, abatis, and lines; and retreating from " them an I the little temporary hints made for our comfort. before they "are well finished, I fear, will ultimately destroy onr Army, without " fighting." " However, I would not be understood to con- " domn measures. They may be right, for anght I know. I do not un- "derstand munch of the refined art of War: it is said to consist of " slmategem and deception."-(Generel Givorge Clinton to John Mckesson, " CAMP NEAR THE WHITE PLAINS, October 31, 1776.")
6 Colonel Robert H. Harrison to the President of the Congress, " WHITE- " PUNINS, October 31, 1776;" Letter from a Gentleman in the Army, Anted " CAMP NEAR THE MHILLS, ABOUT THREE MILES NORTH OF THE WHITE- "PLAINS, November 1, 1776," published in The Peakexecuta Brewing Auf. Yok 11., NJ. 250, PUISDECEMIA, Thursday, November 11, 117 ; Ma- moirs of Geveral Heath, 80; etc.
Lieutenant colonel Gist to the Maryland Council of Safety. "CAMP "BEFORE THE WHITE-PLAINS, 2 November, 1776."
8 Ville page 230, ante.
* " His," [General Washington's.] " apprehensions are exceedingly " great lest the Army should snfor manch for want of necessary supplies " of J'rovisions, especially in the article of Flour. From the best ta- "telligence, he is able to obtain, there is not more in Camp and at the " several places where it has been deposited, that will serve the Army " longer than four or five days, providedl the utmost care and economy " were used in isning it out ; but. from the waste and embezzlement, " for want of proper attention to it, as it is reported to him, it is not " probable That it will last so long."-Colonel Robert II. Harrison to Colonel Joseph Trumbull, Commissary-general of Provisions. " WHITE- " PLAINS, November 1, 1776.")
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