USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 38
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The drear of that winter was rendered the more affecting because at that time no nation in Europe had acknowledged our independ- ence, wherefore all seemed to rest on the efficiency of this ill-ap- pointed army, suffering as it was before the face of a superior British force ; but, happily for us, then abandoned in good degree to pleasure and revelry, in luxurious quarters in Philadelphia. " Their counsels were foolishness," and the "sceptre had departed" from the sove- reign who alarmed us.
A gentleman, (C. M.,) who was an officer at the camp, has told me of some of their hardships there. Fresh beef they could scarcely get ; of vegetables they had none, save sometimes some potatoes. Their table was loose planks, rough, as split from the tree. One dish, of wood, or of pewter, sufficed for a mess. A horn spoon and tumbler of horn was lent round. Their knife was carried in the pocket. Much of their diet was salted herrings, in such injured state, that they would not hold together to be drawn out of the cask singly, but had to be shoveled up en masse. Sugar, coffee, tea, &c., were luxuries not seen. They had only continental money, and it was so depreciated it would not allure farmers to sell to them. Yet cheerless as was such a state, when they drew three months' pay, a number of subaltern officers sallied out to seek mirth and jollity, and spent a month's pay in one night of merry revelry ! Sometimes, for pleasantry, you might see a squad of men and officers affecting to have received a supply of whisky-of which they were often with- out-and passing round the stone jug, as if filled, when lo! the eager expectant found it was only water! The fun was, that the deceived still kept the secret, in hopes to pass it to another and another un- wary wight. On one occasion of alarm, the men being marched out, in several instances were so shoeless as to mark the frozen ground with blood, when General Conway, who saw it, exclaimed, " My dear fellows, my heart bleeds with you '"
The consequence of such hard fare was, that sickness and death prevailed greatly. Then came unavailing sighs for home, for all the lost comforts of domestic reliefs. The quietude of the citizen was sighed after. Parents, brothers, sisters, or wives and children, were remembered but to increase their regrets. The dysentery was very prevalent, and long trenches in the vale below the hill were dug and filled with those " whelm'd in pits, and forgotten in undistinguished mass." If such were the calamities of war, and such the price we pay for self-government, oh, how sedulously should we now preserve the attainment !
Revolutionary exploits of Colonel Allen McLane .- Col. Allen McLane, who died in 1829, at the age of eighty-three years, had been one of the most remarkable men, as a partisan officer, in the VOL. II .- 2 Q
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revolutionary war. While the British occupied Philadelphia and Germantown, he was a captain of cavalry, in the command of the scouting parties, and, as such, became known to every body as the constant hero of enterprise and daring. Having been personally ac- quainted with him, in his elder days, I had gathered many facts of his exploits and services, records of which may be found in pages 439 to 444 in my MS. book in the Historical Society, from which I now here make some extracts.
It was the pleasure of himself and his men to make it matter of frolic and fun to attack or alarm the enemy, wherever and as often as they could.
It was an active part of their business to intercept the market peo- ple, in the British interest, going to the city, and to turn them over to our suffering army at Valley Forge. Others he would suffer to pass, on condition of taking some supplies, and with them some messages, to brother officers, prisoners in the city. But it was their fun some- times, when they could kill a well-fed British horse, to have their " spy butchers" carry in the choice pieces, and sell it as bullock beef for gold, which might repay, in part, the trouble and hazard of the imposition.
At one time, in the summer of 1778, going, at the break of day, into the upper end of Frankford, he was surprised by an ambuscade of British, near the Rocks. He quickly discharged his pistol at the nearest, and made good his retreat into the woods. But after gain- ing the open field, he discovered a troop of British horse. Finding no chance of escape, he made his advance to them as if to surrender. This put them off their guard ; when he suddenly turned to the road leading to the Oxford church. Upon this, two of the troop were de- tached in his pursuit. When they overtook him, they took separate sides of his horse, dropping their swords in their slings, as if he was already their certain prisoner. He, no way conquered, shot his pis- tol into the breast of the one, and in the instant struck the other from his horse with his empty pistol. He could have brought off their horses, but that the whole troop were seen not far off, and pursued him into the swamp near Shoemaker's mill, where he eluded them. A painting of this encounter used to be exhibited at Peale's Museumn.
About the same time, Captain M'Lane had an appointment to meet a citizen, disguised in woman's dress, at daybreak, at the house of one Goodman, (now Maupay's garden,) near the Rising Sun. At the moment he was on his horse, he was seen by a dozen British horsemen, who immediately urged their horses onward to his cap- ture. M'Lane seeing his case was desperate, affected to have his men behind the house, called out to come on, and dashing up to their serjeant, fired his pistol in his face, and made his escape.
In cold weather, when riding abroad in severe nights on the lines, Captain M'Lane often used the rum in his canteen to pour into his boots, to keep his feet from freezing. Ardent spirits was very scarce and dear; and on several occasions of skirmishing, his men have
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been more eager to cut off the canteens of the British soldiers than to seize their persons.
When the British army entered Philadelphia, it was his business to hover close on their rear, to cut off stragglers. He thus secured several prisoners. Some of his men were disguised as British cavalry. With five of these, he entered Philadelphia in their rear, and on Second-street bridge, then over the Dock creek, he surprised and took off Captain Sandford on horseback. At the same time he was very near to seizing the British adjutant-general, with his papers, in Second near to Chestnut street. Thence he turned up Walnut street, and on the bridge over Dock creek, he surprised and took Frederick Varnum, the keeper of the jail under Galloway. As he went out Walnut street, he met old Isaac Parrish, who told him he had just seen General Howe, and several general officers, out near the Better- ing-house. He pressed thither-they had gone-but he, ascending his friend Cormer's house close by, got a view of them proceeding down South street. He thought he could have seized them all, if he had had a few more minutes.
He always avoided to attack the enemy in any town, from a be- lief that they might be induced to fire the place. That was a reason why no attack was attempted on Philadelphia.
While the British were indulging in the festivities of the night of the Meschianza, below the city, McLane was busy with a stratagen1 to break them up. He had one hundred infantry, in four squads, supported by Clow's dragoons. At ten at night, they had reached the abattis in front of their redoubts, extending from the Schuylkill to the Globe mill. These divisions carried camp-kettles, filled with combustibles, with which, at the proper signal, they fired the whole line of abattis! The British beat the long roll, and their alarm guns were fired from river to river, and were answered from the park in Southwark. The ladies, however, were so managed by the offi- cers as to have taken the cannonade for any thing but the fact, and therefore continued the sports of the night. But the officers in charge on the lines, understood the nature of the assailants, and gave pur- suit and assault. He retired to the hills and fastnesses of the Wissa- hiccon. After day-light the British horse were in full force to pursue him, and finally took his picket and ensign at Barren hill. McLane was afterwards attacked, and swam his horse across the Schuylkill, when some of Morgan's riflemen appeared to his protection. He then turned upon his pursuers, driving them, in turn, into their lines near the city.
This kind of warfare, begun without necessity and without orders, from the love of enterprise and prowess, was the instinctive plea- sure of such active and martial spirits to invent and accomplish. Such were the impulses which, on a former occasion, induced McLane to surprise and capture, by night, the British garrison at Paulus Hook, a circumstance already detailed in history.
McLane, at the beginning of the war, was a man of property, all
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of which he sold, and freely used his money to enlist and clothe a company at his own charge. His continental money went down to almost nothing in his hands; but he cared for none of these things while he could so usefully serve his country. Such a man-so dashing and valorous in his enterprise, lived to become a grave and religious character. He was the father of Secretary McLane, who was also for some time our resident minister at London.
Exploit of the Hyder Ali .- The capture of the General Monk, by the Hyder Ali privateer, on the 8th of April, 1782, by a num- ber of volunteers, of Philadelphia, was so remarkable a case of gal- lantry as to deserve some special notice.
A number of gentlemen having met in the evening at Crawford and Donaldson's insurance office, in High street, and conversing to- gether on the subject of the captures making in the bay by the Gene- ral Monk, just then arrived, it was resolved to raise a loan of money by which to fit out a vessel which might succeed to capture her.
The money was obtained of the Bank of North America, upon the responsibility of sundry individuals ; the Hyder Ali was purchased of John W. Stanly, and the command given to Captain Barney ; a crew of volunteers, chiefly from the regular service, was engaged, and a commission of a letter-of-marque procured.
In a week, the vessel was ready, and sailed. Captain Barney dis- guised his vessel as a merchantman, and gave his orders, that when he should command to board, they should fire coolly and deliberately ; and that when he should order to fire, then they should board. When arrived in sight, and perceiving that he could outsail the other, he hung over his drag anchors, to impede his way and to deceive the adversary. On being overhauled by the General Monk, Barney called out to prepare for boarding : the other, deceived by the call, directed his men to line the sides of his vessel to prevent them. The moment they were at their posts, Barney cried to his men to board. His men fired : the captain of the General Monk and several of his officers fell. The General Monk returned the fire, but it was too late then to retrieve; so that when Barney ordered his men to fire, they boarded without resistance. There they had a horrid sight- nearly one hundred killed and wounded lay upon the deck. The General Monk carried eighteen nine-pounders, and one hundred and fifty men : the Hyder Ali carried four nine-pounders and twelve sixes, and one hundred and twenty landsmen-four were killed and fifteen wounded
Howe's Army .- It has probably been a surprise occurring to most citizens, that any country so thickly populated as ours on the sea- board, should have ever feared the force of an army small as was the British among us. Judging as peaceful citizens, estranged to the facts of war, we are apt to conceive that such a male population as Philadelphia afforded, we had only to turn out en masse and make a meal of the invading foe! But it is wonderful on such oc- casions, how very few of the whole can be brought out in any effec'
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as defenders. I find I am not alone in such reflections on the case. Indeed, they are too natural not to have occurred to others. I find, therefore, that our Captain Graydon, in his memoirs, has thought of these things :- " Why so much caution (says he) against a foe in the very heart of the country ? Why not rather turn out en masse, surround, and make a breakfast of Mr. Howe and his mercenaries ? Could not a population of two millions of souls have furnished fighting whigs enough for the purpose! Where were the multitudes which used to appear in arms in the commons of Philadelphia' Where the ardent town meeting hosts! The tavern declaimers! Where the legions of New England men that hemmed in Gage at Boston ! &c. Where the famed Pennsylvanian riflemen ! Where the 150,000 men in arms boasted of in General Lee's letter to Bur- goyne! These things promised well (on paper)-they were flatter- ing in the extreme! Yet, on the day of trial, the fate of the country and its liberties was always committed to a handful of mercenaries- the very things which were the eternal theme of our scorn and deri- sion. Would it have been credited, in the year 1775, (when patri- otic ardour first inflamed,) that a British army of 18,000 men could have marched in perfect security from the Chesapeake to Philadel- phia! That a much smaller force could have penetrated through the Jerseys ! and that mere partisan bodies could have traversed the southern states in utter contempt of the long knife of Virginia !"- The truth is, the mass of citizens have little or no enthusiasm in such perils -- they can help on the war by imposing numbers, at re- solves, and at the polls ; but when " sacred lives and fortunes" are needed, " few take the risk, and less the battle share!" Howe, as a martial man, knew this, and pushed his way accordingly.
Things done in Philadelphia .- It is not sufficiently known how very much our common country is indebted to Philadelphia, or rather to a few leading individuals therein, for those early measures which led eventually to resistance and to national independence. The acts of opposition-begun in 1774, at Boston, to the Port Bill -was altogether dependent for its success, as they believed, on the countenance it might receive from the middle colonies, of which Pennsylvania was deemed the chief. The spirit of Virginia was previously known to be favourable to resistance ; but Pennsylvania, and especially Philadelphia, then the metropolis, and a great com- mercial city, was regarded as so far under the influence of the Qua- ker population and the merchants-both of whom were averse to a breach with the mother country-that little success was expected unless Philadelphia city could first be made hearty in the cause. The merchants had at first gone very cheerfully into non-importa- tion resolutions, but when it was ascertained how very much it cur- tailed their business, several began to swerve. As it was thus early ascertained that Philadelphia was the fulcrum which turned a long lever, some leading men there, of closer observation and steadier resolution, entered into a concerted scheme to produce a great politi-
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cal change. These were the Hon. Chas. Thomson, John Dickin son, Esq.,* Governor J. Reed, and Gen. Thomas Mifflin.
The particulars of these facts I ascertained from the perusal of the posthumous papers of Chas. Thomson, extracts and copies of which I have given to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
At a general meeting, called at the Coffee-house, these gentlemen became severally speakers. Mr. Dickinson, who had the confidence of the Friends, took moderate grounds, but Mr. Thomson was so vehement and zealous for making a common cause with Boston, that he fainted and was carried out. From causes like these, they were allowed to take the rule of inofficial public measures. They soon took the expedient of calling a convention of the committees of self-created county meetings : by this they could raise a power to overawe and rule the assembly, which was in effect still too loyal for their purpose. Such " a private association, for laudable views," is spoken of in Mr. Jefferson's letter of March, 1822, to Dr. Morse, saying, " this perilous engine became necessary to precede the revo- lution." " It was a collateral power which no man should wish to see in use again"-thus showing in effect the precedent of the Paris and Jacobin clubs. That we did better than they, is ascribable to our better materials-men of more substantial patriotism and virtue -true sons of that " virtue" which is made significantly enough to precede in the motto-scroll of our escutcheon of independence.
In addition to those city measures, Chas. Thomson, and another of those speakers, made a tour through the country, under the ap- pearance of a summer tour with their ladies, but in reality to better enlist the feelings of the back country people, and to test their dispo- sition, in the event of a revolution.
In July, 1774, the assembly of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, resolved, " that in consequence of the differences which long have subsisted with Great Britain, and have been greatly increased by divers late acts, it is absolutely necessary to hold a congress of deputies from all the colonies, and that a committee open a correspondence to effect that object."
Captain Thomas Forrest .- In 1775-6, Capt. Thomas Forrest (since colonel) formed a company, which were dressed in all the style of Indians, with painted faces, leggings and plumes. At same time Captain Copperthwaite formed a company of young Quakers, called the " Quaker Blues." Capt. John Cadwallader (afterwards general) formed a company of "Greens," called, in allusion to the gentility of the members, "the silk stocking company." They were afterwards General Washington's guards, at New York.
Newspapers .- At the early progress of the war, much newspaper controversy appeared in the Philadelphia papers, pro and con, thus giving for a time the semblance of free discussion. "Common Sense" is controverted in several numbers, by " Cato," who in turr is answered by " the Forester" and " Cassandra."
* Author of the Farmer's Letters.
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Arnold's Effigy .- In September, 1780, the populace of the city were drawn together in great excitement to witness the degradation and burning of Arnold, the traitor, in effigy. His figure, in regiment- als, was placed on a cart and drawn through the city, to be burnt on High-street hill. He had two faces, and a mask in his left hand. Near him was the devil, in black robes, holding out to him a purse of money. Near them were some transparencies of pictures and letters describing the treachery, &c. The procession began from the rear of the present Methodist St. George's church, in Fourth street, headed by several gentlemen on horseback-by a line of con- tinental officers-by several gentlemen in a line-and by a guard of city infantry. The accompanying music played all the way the Rogue's March !
Mrs. Darrach's Conduct .- I have very direct and certain evi dence for saying that Mrs. Lydia Darrach (the wife of William Dar- rach, a teacher, dwelling in the house No. 177, South Second street, corner of Little Dock street,) was the cause of saving Washington's army from great disaster, while it lay at Whitemarsh in 1777. The case was this-the adjutant general of the British army occu- pied a chamber in that house, and came there by night to read the orders and plan of General Howe's meditated attack. She over heard them, when she was expected to have been asleep in bed, and making a pretext to go out to Frankford for flour for family use -under a pass-she met with Colonel Craig, (who afterwards shot himself,) and communicated the whole to him, who immediately rode off to General Washington, to put him on his guard. The next night, about midnight, the British army in great force marched silently out of Philadelphia. The whole affair terminated in what was called, I believe, the action of Edgehill, on the 5th December ; and on the 8th following, the British got back to the city fatigued and disappointed. Lydia Darrach and her husband were Friends. She communicated all the particulars (more than here expressed) to my friend, Mrs. Hannah Haines, and others. Although she was a small and weakly woman, she walked the whole distance, going and coming, bringing with her, to save appearances, twenty- five pounds of flour, borne upon the arms, all the way from Frank- ford. The adjutant general afterwards came to her to inquire if it had been possible, that any of her family could have been up to listen and convey intelligence, since the result had been so myste- rious to him !
Doings of Ladies .--- I have heard a lady, Mrs. H- -, speak in lively animation of the feelings of the ladies during the revolu- tionary war, when debarred by the patriotism of the times from the usual use of their beloved tea. Although it was proscribed from the tables of all the whigs, it was even then indulged in by some of tne whig ladies. It was a practice with some, to avoid observation, by setting a coffee-pot upon the tea-table, even while they secretly drank their tea as from the water-pot ; but if a stranger came in, the
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coffee pot was sent out (feignedly) for more coffee! When tea was asked for at stores, it was sold in sealed papers, under the name of cut tobacco, and similar disguises !
I have preserved an original subscription roll [vide MS. book, p. 340] of ladies who joined to contribute money to raise the bounty to the soldiery under General Washington, and to be forwarded for that purpose to his lady. This was an answer of the year 1780, to that general appeal of the general, to all the colonies, to fall upon some extra expedient to supply the army. On that occasion, the Philadelphia ladies set the example ; and at the same time invoked all in the union to do the same. This fact gave occasion to this well expressed compliment, to wit: "We cannot appeal in vain for what is good, to that sanctuary where all that is good has its proper home --- the female bosom !" The darkest day of our revolu- 'ionary struggle was cheered by the beams of woman's benevolence. In this city, the ladies were distinguished for their active benevo- lence ; and it is a part of our annals of which we are most proud.
A lady of Philadelphia, writing to an officer of the British army, who had been intimate in her family before the war, thus expresses to him the patriotic feelings of her sex. The copy was found not long since in MS. among her papers. I give only a few leading ex- tracts, to wit: "I assure you, that though we consider you as a public enemy, we regard you as a private friend, and while we detest the cause you are fighting for, we wish well to your personal interest and safety. I will tell you what I have done. My only brother I have sent to the camp with my prayers and blessings ; and had I twenty sons and brothers, they should go to emulate the great exam- ples before them. I have retrenched every superfluous expense in my table and family. Tea I have not drunk since last Christmas, nor bought a new cap or gown since your defeat at Lexington. I have the pleasure to assure you that these are the sentiments of all my sister Americans. They have sacrificed assemblies, parties, tea- drinkings and finery, to the great spirit of patriotism. If these are our sentiments, what must be the resolutions of our husbands but to die or be free ! All ranks of men among us are in arms. Nothing is heard in our streets but the trumpet and drum ; and the universal cry is ' Americans to arms !! ' "
Philadelphia was at one time gratified with the imposing spectacle of a French army in fine style of military array, consisting of six thousand men. They came down Front street; passed up Vine street, and encamped on the commons at the Centre square. They were fine-looking soldiers, all in clean white uniform. They were under command of General Rochambeau, on their way to Yorktown.
When the camp fever was so fatal among our soldiery, they were brought into Philadelphia, and placed in any and all empty houses which could be found. In this way, eleven of them were taken to Harbeson's house in High street, near to Second street. There Mrs. Speakman, out of compassion to their sufferings, visited and refreshed
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them daily, and by much attention recovered the whole of them. They were young men of the Maryland line, and unbounded in their only means of recompense-" the blessings of those who were ready to perish." I give this instance as a specimen of a frequent incident of the time. Some striking facts of the kind, I have con- nected with the notices of " Carpenter's mansion."
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