USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 17
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When Congress authorized an army, John Lacey, an orthodox Quaker,. of Buckingham, raised a company of sixty-four men for Wayne's regiment, January, 1776, whose first lieutenant was Samuel Smith, of Buckingham, Michael Ryan, the second, and John Bartley and John Forbes, ensigns. About the same time, among those who entered the military service from this county were Robert Sample, a scholarly man from Buckingham, a captain in Hub- ley's Tenth Pennsylvania regiment, a good officer who served to the end of the war, Augustus Willett, who had served with Montgomery in Canada, 1775, a captain in Bull's regiment, Samuel Benezett, major in the Sixth Pennsylvania. regiment, and Alexander Graydon, Bristol, a captain in Shee's regiment, who was made prisoner at Fort Washington. Colonel Robert Magaw, Sixth Penn- sylvania regiment, recruited a number of his men in this county, and the roll of his killed and captured at Fort Washington gives many well-known names.1
I Names of officers and men from Bucks county, in Colonel Magaw's regiment, killed and captured at Fort Washington : John Beatty, major, Warminster, Bucks county ; John 'Priestley, lieutenant, Bristol, Bucks county; William Crawford, lieutenant, War- rington, Bucks county ; Isaac Van Horne, ensign, Solebury, Bucks county; John Wal- lace, sergeant, Warrington, Bucks county ; John Murray, sergeant, Bristol, Bucks county ; Robert Forsyth, corporal, Warrington, Bucks county; Richard Hay, private, New Britain,. Bucks county ; John Stevens, private, Bristol, Bucks county; John Banks, private, New Britain, Bucks county ; Thomas Bell, private, Bristol, Bucks county; Daniel Gulliou,. private, Warwick, Bucks county, died of wounds; Joshua Carrigan, private, Bristol, Bucks county, died in prison ; Ralph Boon, private, Bristol, Bucks county; Robert Aiken,.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Adjutant Johnson,2 Buckingham, and Lieutenants Matthew Bennett and John Erwin, of this county, were among the captured at Fort Washington and were kept prisoners several years. Four militia regiments were organized in the county immediately after the war commenced, and in the summer of 1776, Bucks sent a battalion of four hundred men under Colonel Joseph Hart to the Flying camp near Amboy, whose adjutant was John Johnson, surgeon, Joseph Fenton, Jr., quartermaster, Alexander Benstead, and Captains, John Folwell, William Roberts, William Hart, Valentine Opp, and John Jamison.
The campaign of 1776 being disastrous to the American arms, Wash- ington announced to Congress, December 1, his contemplated retreat across the Delaware and asked that the Pennsylvania militia be ordered toward Tren- ton, and the boats collected on the west side of the river. About the same time he sent forward Colonel Humpton to collect all the boats and other craft along the Delaware, and General Putnam was ordered to construct rafts of the lum- ber at Trenton landing, while another party was sent up the river to collect all the boards and scantling on or near the river banks. Congress and the local authorities were thoroughly alarmed at the approach of the enemy. The arms of non-associators were collected to prevent them being used against the Amer- icans, and the militia were ordered to reinforce Washington, and the owners of cattle were directed to be ready to remove them at least five miles from the river.
Washington, with the main body of the army, reached Trenton the 3d of December, and the heavy stores and baggage were immediately removed to this side. He crossed over with the rear guard on Sunday morning, the 8th, and took quarters at the house of a Mrs. Berkley, about a mile from the river
private, Warminster, Bucks county; William Jenkins, private, Warwick, Bucks county ; Timothy Knowles, private, Northampton, Bucks county ; Robert Frame, private, Bristol, Bucks county, died in prison; William Huston, private. Warwick, Bucks county ; Joseph Bratton. private, Bristol, Bucks county; James McNiel, Bensalem, sergeant, Bucks county ; John Evans, sergeant, Bensalem, Bucks county ; Daniel Kenedy, sergeant. Bris- tol, Bucks county ; William Kent, private, Bensalem, Bucks county; Cornelius Foster, private, Bensalem, Bucks county; John Bell, private. Bensalem, Bucks county; Edward Murphy, private, Bensalem, Bucks county; , Andrew Knox, private, Bensalem, Bucks county ; Halbert Douglass, private, Warrington, Bucks county; John Lalbey, private, Solebury, Bucks county; Edward Hovenden, ensign, Newtown, Bucks county; John Coxe, sergeant, Bensalem, Bucks county ; Thomas Stevenson, sergeant, Newtown; John Sproal, corporal, Newtown; John Eastwick, corporal, Newtown; Richard Lott, private, Plumstead; Dennis Ford, private, Middletown; John Murphy, private, Falls: Thomas Varden, private, Glassworks; Richard Arkle, private. Wrightstown: Henry Aiken, private, Wrightstown; Charles A. Moss, private, Northampton; John Dunn, private, Falls ; John Kerls, private, Falls; John Ketchum, private, Bensalem; Hugh Evans, private, Southampton, died in prison; George Clark, fifer, Biles Island (enlisted) : Read- ing Beatty, ensign, Warminster.
The author has a piece of the discharge of Andrew Stull, of Nockamixon, a soldier of the Revolution, but we do not know when nor where he served. He died January 13, 1846, at the age of ninety-five years and twenty-seven days.
2. A statement in Henry Cabot Lodge's "Life of Washington," says he was six feet and six and one-half inches tall, wore shoes eleven and boots thirteen inches, and could hold a loaded musket at arms length in one hand and fire it ; made. we believe, on the statement of a soldier in the Continental army, who was near him, in 1776, shortly before crossing the Delaware. We have seen no account of it elsewhere.
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while the troops were stationed opposite the crossing. The enemy came marching down to the river about eleven o'clock the same morning, expecting to cross, but were much disappointed when they found the boats had been re- moved to the west bank. They made demonstrations to cross above and be- low, including a night-march to Coryell's ferry, now New Hope, but their at- tempts failed. The hostile armies now lay facing each other across the Dela- ware, and the cause of Independence was saved. Washington, fearing the boats on the river might fall into the enemy's hands, charged General Greene with their safety. He was at Bogart's tavern, now Righter's, Centre- ville, the 10th of December, whence he ordered General Ewing to send sixteen Durham boats and four flats down to McKonkey's, and General Maxwell was directed to collect the boats as high up the river as there was danger of the enemy seizing them, and to place them under strong guard. Those that could not be secured were to be destroyed. Boats were to be collected at one of the ferries in Tinicum for the passage of Lee's troops, which were shortly expected to join Washington. The Legislature of New Jersey, which left its state with the army, was summoned to meet at Four Lanes End, now Langhorne, the last Thursday in December, "to take action on the future."
Washington's next care was to guard the fords and crossings of the river .to prevent the passage of the enemy. On the morning of December 9, he sent four brigades, under .Lord Sterling, Mercer, Stephen and DeFermoy up the river to take post between Yardley and New Hope. Sterling was at Beau- mont's, in Solebury, with three regiments which he had under cover by the 12th, and De Fermoy at Coryell's. General Dickinson guarded the river from Bordentown to Yardley, General Cadwalader was posted near Bristol and Colonel Nixon's regiment at Dunk's ferry. Small redoubts were thrown up at various points and each detachment was supplied with artillery. The general instructions to the troops were, if driven from their positions to retreat to the strong ground near Germantown. Washington rode up to visit Sterling on the 10th, probably returning the same day. The depot of supplies was fixed at Newtown, the county seat, because it was central, removed from the river and easy of access from all points.
While the enemy was in his comfortable quarters on the east bank of the Delaware, waiting for the river to freeze over that he might cross, the Con- tinentals were shivering on the west bank. Some of the troops were actually in a suffering condition. Major Ennion Williams, of the First Pennsylvania rifles, stationed at Thompson's mill, in Solebury, wrote on the 13th that his men were barefooted; a week afterward Washington thanked the committee of safety for the old clothes collected for the army, and at his request, one person was appointed in each township to collect blankets for the troops.212
21/2 The following were the number of blankets collected and by whom; Bucking- ham, collector, John Robinson, blankets, twenty ; Tinicum, Wm. Wilson, twelve; Hilltown, James Armstrong, sixteen; Northampton, Gilliam Cornell, eighteen; Wrightstown, Jo- seph Sacket, eight; Lower Makefield, George Bennett, nine; Upper Makefield, Isaiah Keith, thirteen; Southampton, Leonard Krewson, twelve; Lower Milford, John Jami- son, ten : Solebury, John Sebring, thirteen; Warwick. Charles McMicken, twelve; New- town, Robert Ramsey, ten; Warminster, William Carr, ten; Falls, Lambert Pitner, twelve: Springfield, William Thomas, six ; New Britain, David Davis, eighteen: Rock- hill, Abraham Kechline, thirteen; Richland, John Fries, thirteen; Durham, George Knight, four; Warrington, Abraham Hollis, six; Bedminster, John Shaw, twelve; Plumstead, Joseph Greir, twelve; Bristol Borough, Robert Patterson, fourteen; Ben-
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Some of the officers quartered at farm houses in the vicinity of their camps, and we learn that Captain Washington, a fine looking man, Lieutenant James Monroe, of a Virginia regiment, afterward President of the United States, and Doctor Ryker were at William Neeley's in Solebury. Captain James Moore, of the New York artillery, a young man of twenty-four, died of camp fever at the house of Robert Thompson the day the army marched for Tren- ton, and was buried just below the mouth of Pidcock's creek in the edge of the timber. His grave is marked by sculptured stones and patriotic hands of the neighborhood enclosed it many years ago with an iron railing. Marinnus Wil- lett, Jr., likewise an officer of a New York regiment, died at the house of Matthias Hutchinson in Buckingham, and was buried near the dwelling whence his remains were removed to the family vault. He was a young man of su- perior intelligence and refinement, and the family nursed him with the greatest tenderness and care. His parents visited the Hutchinsons after the war, and subsequently many interesting letters passed between the families. His father was a distinguished citizen of New York and the intimate friend of La- fayette.
General Sullivan. with Lee's division in a destitute condition, joined Washington on the 20th of December, and the same day General Gates came in with the remnant of four New England regiments, five hundred strong, which faised the strength of the army to about six thousand men, although a majority were unfit for service. During the month the Rev. John Ros- brugh, pastor of the Presbyterian church at Allen and Lower Mount Bethel, Northampton county, raised a battalion, and marched at its head to join the Continental army. He requested to have a military man placed in command, as he wished to act as chaplain. A few days after the battle of Trenton he was surprised by the enemy at a house near Pennington, and cruelly mur- dered.2 The headquarters of the commander-in-chief and his most trusted lieutenants were at farm houses in the vicinity of the troops, in easy communication with each other. Washington occupied the dwelling of William Keith on the road from Brownsburg to the Eagle, Greene was at Samuel Merrick's, a few hundred yards away across the fields and mead- ows, Sullivan at Hayhurst's, grandfather of the late Mrs. Mary Buckman, Newtown, and Knox and Hamilton at Doctor Chapman's, over the Jericho hill to the north. The main body of the army was encamped in sheltered places along or near the streams not far from the river. No doubt this position for headquarters was selected with an object. its sheltered situation, nearness to the river and proximity to Jericho hill, from whose top signals could be seen a long way up and down the river when the trees were bare of leaves. Here Washington was near the upper fords of the Delaware at which it was supposed the enemy would attempt to cross, and within a half hour's ride of the depot at Newtown.
The old mansions in which Washington, Greene, Knox and Hamilton
salem, Jacob Vandegrift, fifteen; Nockamixon, Samuel Wilson, twelve; Middletown, Anthony Rue, thirteen. The number of blankets collected was three hundred and thirteen, and the cost, £678.12.6. The names of the townships and collectors.and number of blankets are from the original records which belong to the author.
3 The late Reverend Robert D. Morris says that Rosbrugh was killed on the north- .east branch of the Assanpink the day of the battle of Trenton. This doubtless refers to the action of January 2, 1777. when Cornwallis made the attack on Washington at Trenton.
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quartered are still standing. The Keith house has undergone little change, except when gnawed by the tooth of time. It is a two-story pointed stone house, twenty-four by twenty-eight feet with kitchen adjoining, built by Keith in 1763. The pine door in two folds set in a solid oaken frame, was garnished with a wooden lock fourteen by eight inches, and the same that locked out intruders when Washington occupied the house. The interior was finished in pine and remained unchanged, and one room had never been despoiled by the painter's brush." Washington probably had the main front room down stairs for an office, and slept in the chamber over it. The property was purchased by William Keith a century and a half ago of the London company, contains two hundred and forty acres, and has never been out of the family. The situa- tion, on the south side of Jericho hill is retired and pleasantly exposed to the sun. The Merrick house, a fourth of a mile away across the fields on the road from Newtown to Neeley's mill, is a stone dwelling, twenty feet square, with a kitchen at the west end, and the farm was bought by Samuel Merrick, 1773, and now belongs to Edward Merrick, his descendant. When Greene occupied it the first floor was divided into three rooms, now all thrown into one and the family lived in the kitchen. As the house was recently built, and not yet fin- ished, the General caused the walls of the room he occupied to be tastefully painted, with the picture of the rising sun over the fire-place. At this time Samuel Merrick had a family of half-grown children about him, who were. deeply impressed with passing events, and whose descendants are full of tra- ditions of the times. Greene purchased the confidence of his young daughter, Hannah, by gift of a small tea-canister, which was kept in the family many years. The Rhode Island blacksmith lived on the fat of the land while quar- tered on this Upper Makefield farmer, devouring his flock of turkeys and monopolizing his only fresh cow, besides eating her calf. In return he al- lowed the family to use sugar from the barrel bought for his own mess. At the last supper before Trenton, when Washington was the guest of Greene, the daughter Hannah waited upon the table, and kept the plate from which he ate as a memento of the occasion. The Chapman mansion, the quarters of Knox and Hamilton, now owned by Benjamin E. Johnson, on the opposite side of Jericho, a mile from Brownsburg, is in excellent condition, and the best house of the Revolutionary period we have seen in the county. Knox occu- pied the first floor of the east end, then divided into two rooms but now all in one, twenty-five by seventeen feet. Hamilton, then a captain of artillery, lay sick in the back room. The late Peter G. Cattell, who lived and died on an adjoining farm, used to relate that he saw Washington at Knox's quarters.
The location of Washington's headquarters has given rise to considerable local discussion. It is claimed that he quartered at Newtown all the time his army lay on the west bank of the Delaware, but the evidence in the case is to. the contrary. It does not appear that his headquarters were at Newtown until after the battle of Trenton, nor did he write a single official letter from there down to that time. To prove this we have but to trace his whereabouts from the time he crossed the Delaware, on the 8th, to his re-crossing on the 25th. On that and the following day his headquarters were at Trenton falls, where
4 The above description of the Keith house is as we knew it thirty years ago, and described it in the first edition of the "History of Bucks County," but, since then, the despoiler has been about. It has been modernized and several changes made inside and out, but the walls are the same. The front door is no longer fastened by the wooden lock and were Washington's spirit to come back it would not recognize the house.
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he still was on the 13th when he wrote Congress: "I shall remove further up the river to be near the main body of my small army." He probably removed to Keith's on the 14th, where we know he was on the 15th and 16th, the latter day writing that many of his troops "are entirely naked, and most so thinly clad as to be unfit for service." The same day he and Greene rode up to Cory- ell's ferry. He was down at Trenton falls on the 20th, back at headquarters on the 22d, down again at camp at Trenton on the 24th, and back at head- quarters on the 25th, to make the final preparations for Trenton. The head- quarters of Washington do. not appear to have traveled about with him, and when at other points, his letters were dated from "camp," "camp above Tren- ton falls," etc. When he was down at the falls on the 24th, Deputy-Paymaster- General Dallam wrote him from Newtown, on public business; but if head- quarters had been at Newtown the paymaster would have awaited the Gen- eral's return in the evening, instead of writing him. Had he removed from the falls to Newtown on the 14th, when he advised Congress that he wished. to be nearer to his small army, he would have been going into the interior instead of up the river.
At what time Washington first conceived the plan of re-crossing the river and attacking the Hessians is not known. While the troops of Gates and Sulli- van had sufficiently increased his force to make the attempt, we are told he- could yet find but two thousand four hundred fit for the service. All the pre- parations were quietly made; the troops were selected and put in readiness. and, a few days before Christmas, boats were collected at Knowles' cove two. miles above Taylorsville. Bancroft says that Washington wrote the watch- word, "Victory or death," on the 23d, and he writes to Colonel Reed about that. time, "Christmas day, at night, one hour before day, is the time fixed for our attack on Trenton." The troops selected were those of New England, Penn- sylvania and Virginia, and, among the officers chosen to accompany him, were Greene, Mercer, Sterling, Stephen, Sullivan, Knox, Hand, Monroe, and Ham- ilton, all trusted leaders. General Cadwalader was to co-operate below Bristol by crossing and attacking the enemy's post at Mount Holly. The men were provided with three days' cooked rations, and forty rounds of ammunition. Six days before, the first number of Paine's "American Crisis" was read to every regiment in Washington's army, and greatly aroused the spirits of the troops.
Washington rode over to Merrick's and took supper with Greene the evening of December 24, and no doubt Knox, Sterling and Sullivan were there. The family was sent across the fields to spend the night at a neighbor's so there would be no listeners to the council of war that destroyed British em- pire in America. A day or two before, a young man from down the river came with a message to Washington, who was put under guard until the truth could be known, and the frightened youth kept repeating to himself, "They may keep me here, but they will find it just as I told them."
While Washington was making his final preparations to strike, every- thing was pleasant and serene within the enemy's lines. The Hessians spent a merry Christmas at Trenton, the officers being invited to pass the evening at the house of Abraham Hunt," a suspected tory, and where they made a night
5 General Stryker, in his exhaustive history of the "Battles of Trenton and Prince- ton," says: "Abraham Hunt was the rich merchant of the village, and its postmaster. He has been called a non-committal man. Patriots, it is said, feared he was not altogether true to the cause, for they knew their country's enemies ofttimes partook of his bounty ..
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.of it. As a surprise by the demoralized Continentals had never been thought .of, no precautions were taken against it. General Grant, at Princeton, had heard of the intended attack, and advised Rahl, but the latter treated it with in- difference. During the evening a Bucks county tory crossed the river with a note to the Hessian commander, informing him of the attack on the morrow, but, being too busy just then to attend to such matters, when it was handed to him, the note was put into his pocket, where it was found unopened, after his death. On what a slender thread hung the destinies of the country!
The troops left their camps about three p. m. the afternoon of the 25th of December, and late in the day, reached the place of rendezvous, at the mouth of Knowles' creek, where the crossing was to be made, and near which a house still stands which shows marks of its occupancy by the soldiers on this memor- able occasion. The morning was clear and cold, but the night set in'stormy with sleet ; it commenced to snow about eleven, and the river ran strong with ice. At six, p. m., Washington wrote Cadwalader that, as the night "is favor- able," he was determined to "cross the river and make the attack on Trenton in the morning." Wilkinson, who joined the army on the bank of the river, tracked the men by the blood from their feet on the frozen ground. During the day Lieutenant Monroe, with a piece of artillery was sent across the river to the Pennington road, but joined the army in its march to Trenton next morning. The troops commenced crossing about sunset, and it was three in the morning before they were all over, with the artillery. Washington called Captain Blount to take the helm of the first boat, and James Slack, a young man of twenty, son of Abraham Slack, who lived a mile above Yardley, Will- iam Green and David Lanning, all acquainted with boats, assisted to ferry the army across. The troops were formed on the bank of the river into two di- visions and put in march, Washington, accompanied by Sterling, Greene, Mercer and Stephen, taking the upper, while Sullivan led the right column on the river road.
The morning was cold and stormy and the march made in silence, the two divisions reaching the outposts of Trenton at nearly the same time. "Which way is the Hessian picket?" inquired Washington of a man chopping wood at his door and the surly reply came back, "I don't know." "You may tell." said Captain Forrest, of the artillery, "for that is General Washington." The aspect of the man changed in a moment. Dropping his ax and raising his hands to heaven he exclaimed: "God bless and prosper your Excellency : the picket is in that house and the sentry stands near that tree there." The attack was immediately made to which there was but feeble resistance and the fruit of the morning's work was ten hundred and forty prisoners, rank and file, twenty-
. He has frequently been spoken of in history as a Tory, but it is never asserted that he took any active part against his country. On the contrary, at this very time, he held the commission of Lieutenant-Colonel in Colonel Isaac Smith's first regiment, Hunterdon county militia, and the State records do not show any stain upon his honor as an officer and a soldier. It has never been stated that he ever claimed protection from the British. His property does not appear to have been confiscated, which would have been done had he been a Tory, and he certainly was in the full enjoyment of it to the date of his death, long after the close of the war. He also retained his office as postmaster of the village under the national government for many years." This testimony seems con- clusive that Abraham Hunt was a friend of the Colonies. It is probable Hunt was in the secret of Washington's intended attack, and the Christmas party may have been a "'set up" job on the Hessians. 1
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