USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 59
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
John Johnson, surgeon, Joseph Fenton, jr., quarter-master, Alex- ander Benstead, and Captains, John Folwell, William Roberts, Wil- liam Hart, Valentine Opp, and John Jamison.
The campaign of 1776 was disastrous to the American arms. Washington announced to Congress, the first of December, his con- templated retreat across the Delaware, and asked that the Pennsyl- vania militia be ordered toward Trenton, 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 lumber 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 Americans, 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 imme- diately 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, while the troops were stationed opposite the crossings. 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 removed to the west bank. They made demonstrations to cross above and below, including a night-march to Coryell's ferry, but their attempts failed. The hostile armies now lay facing each other across the Delaware, and the cause of Independence was saved. Washington, fearing the boats on the river might fall into the enemy's hands, General Greene was charged with their safety. He was at Bogart's tavern, now Righter's, Centreville, 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 di- rected 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
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
legislature of New Jersey, which left their state with the army, was summoned to meet at Four Lanes Ends, now Attleborough, 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 9th he sent four brigades, under Lord Sterling, Mercer, Stephen, and De Fermoy, up the river, who took post between Yardleyville and New Hope. Sterling was at Beaumont's, in Sole- bury, with three regiments, which he had under cover by the 12th, and De Fermoy was at Coryell's. General Dickinson guarded the river from Bordentown to Yardleyville, General Cadwalader was posted near Bristol, and Colonel Nixon's regiment was 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, in his comfortable quarters on the east bank of the Delaware, was waiting for the river to freeze that he might cross over, the Continentals 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. 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 the artillery, afterward President cf 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 Rob- ert Thompson the day the army marched for Trenton, 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 a few years ago by an iron railing. Marinus Willett, jr., likewise an officer of a New York
40
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
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 superior intelligence and refinement, and the family nursed him with the greatest tender- ness and care. His parents visited the Hutchinson's after the war, and subsequently many interesting letters passed between the fami- lies. His father was a distinguished citizen of New York, and the intimate friend of Lafayette.
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 regi- ments, five hundred strong, which raised the strength of the army to about six thousand men, although a large portion of them was unfit for service. During the month the Reverend John Rosbrugh, pastor of the Presbyterian church of 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 murdered. The headquarters of the commander-in-chief and his most trusted lieutenants were at farm- houses in the vicinity of their troops, where they could be in easy communication with each other. Washington occupied the dwell- ing of William Keith, on the road from Brownsburg to the Eagle, Greene was at Robert Merrick's, a few hundred yards away across the fields and meadows, Sullivan was at Hayhurst's, grandfather of Mis. Mary Buckman, of 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 its proximity to Jericho hill, from the top of which 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 quartered are still standing. The Keith house has under- gone but little change, except where gnawed by the tooth of time.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Then, as now, it was a two-story, pointed stone house, twenty-four by twenty-eight feet, with kitchen adjoining, and built by Keith in 1763. The pine door, in two folds, set in a solid oaken frame, is garnished with a wooden lock fourteen by eight inches, and is the same that locked out intruders when Washington occupied the house. The interior, finished in pine, remains unchanged, and one room has never been despoiled by the painter's brush. Wash- ington 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 quarter ago of the London company, contains two hundred and forty acres, and has never been out of the family. The situation, 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 in 1773, and now belongs to Edward, 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 finished, the general caused the walls of the room he occupied to be tastefully painted, with a 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 traditions of the times. Greene purchased the confidence of his young daughter, Hannah, by the 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 quartered on this Upper Makefield farmer, devouring his flock of turkeys, and monopolizing his only fresh cow, besides eating her calf. In return he allowed 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, and now owned by Edward Johnson, on the opposite side of Jericho a mile from Brownsburg, is in excellent condition, and is the best house of the Revolutionary period we have seen in the county. Knox occupied 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 artil-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
lery, 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 con- siderable local discussion. It is claimed that he quartered at Newtown all the time his army lay on the west bank of the Dela- ware, 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 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 Coryell'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 headquarters on the 25th, to make the final preparations for Trenton. The headquarters of Washington do not appear to have traveled about with him, and when at other points, his letters were dated from " camp," " camp above Trenton 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 headquarters had been at Newtown the paymaster would have awaited the general'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 to attack the Hessians is not known. While the troops of Gates and Sullivan had increased his force sufficient to make the attempt, we are told he could yet find but two thousand four hun- dred fit for the service. All the preparations 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 watchword,
.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
"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 upon for our attack on Trenton." The troops selected were those of New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and among the officers chosen to accompany him were Greene, Mercer, Sterling, Stephen, Sullivan, Knox, Hand, Monroe, and Hamilton, 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, which greatly aroused the spirits of the troops.
Washington rode over to Merrick's, and took supper with Greene, the evening of December 24th, 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 empire in America. A day or two before, a young man from down the river came with a mes- sage to Washington, who was put under guard until the truth should be known, and the frightened youth kept repeating to him- self, "They may keep me here, but they will find it just as I told them."
While Washington was making his final preparations to strike, everything was pleasant and serene within the enemy's lines. The Hessians spent a merry Christmas at Trenton, and the officers were invited to spend the evening at the house of Abraham Hunt, a sus- pected tory, where they made a night of it. A surprise by the demoralized Continentals had never been thought of, and no pre- cautions were taken against it. General Grant at Princeton had heard of the intended attack, and advised Rahl, but the latter treated it with indifference. During the evening a Bucks county tory crossed the river with a note to the Hessian commander, in- forming him of the attack on the morrow, but he was too busy just then to attend to such matters, and 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 rendez-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
vous, 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 memorable occasion. The morning was clear and cold, but the night set in stormy with sleet ; it com- menced to snow about eleven, and the river ran strong with ice. At six, P. M., Washington wrote Cadwalader that, as the night "is favorable," 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 Mon- roe, with a piece of artillery, was sent across the river to the Pen- nington 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 artil- lery. Washington called Captain Blount to take the helm of the first boat, and James Slack, a young man of twenty, son of Abra- ham Slack, who lived a mile above Yardleyville, William 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 divisions 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 was 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 re- ply 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 a feeble resistance, and the fruit of the morning's work was ten hundred and forty prisoners, rank and file, twenty- three officers, one thousand stand of arms and several cannon. The army, with the prisoners, re-crossed the river that afternoon, and the next day the captured Hessians were at Newtown, the officers quartered at the taverns, and the soldiers confined in the church and jail. There is a difference of opinion as to where the prisoners crossed the river, the accepted account stating that it was at
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
McKonkey's ferry, while an equally reliable authority tells us they were crossed at Johnson's ferry, probably lower down, the officers remaining in the small ferry-house until morning, when Colonel Wheeden conducted them to Newtown. We can hardly believe that Washington would risk his prisoners in a flank march of nine miles when it was so evidently his policy to put the river between them and the enemy as quickly as possible. No doubt he crossed them at the nearest ferry where there were boats to carry them. over. The officers signed their parole at Newtown on the 30th, and were conducted to Philadelphia, meanwhile visiting Lord Ster- ling, whom some of them had met while a prisoner on Long Island and calling to pay their respects to Washington, with whom four were invited to dine. The rank and file were taken to Lancaster. Among the prisoners were a Hessian surgeon of middle age and a young English officer, who quartered at Doctor Jonathan Ingham's, near New Hope. The latter died of pleurisy, from a cold, but his body was afterward disinterred and taken to England. Washington came direct from Trenton to Newtown, arriving the evening of the 26th or the morning of the 27th, and took quarters in the house of John Harris, west of the creek, lately torn down by Alex- ander German, while the troops doubtless returned to their for- mer camps and quarters. Washington remained at Newtown until the 29th, when he re-crossed the river with the same troops he had with him on the 26th, and inaugurated the skillful campaign that nearly relieved New Jersey of the enemy. The morning of his departure he presented to Mrs. Harris a silver tea-pot, which was kept in the family many years, but finally made into spoons. Lord Sterling was left in command at Newtown, the exposure in the recent attack on Trenton having aggravated his rheumatism and rendered him unfit for active duty. We have met with many traditions in connection with these operations, but few of them, on investigation, bear the light. Lossing tells, as sober history, that Mercer, whose headquarters he fixes at Keith's, related to Mrs. Keith the day he left for Trenton, a remarkable dream he had the night before, of being overpowered by a great black bear, and as he was shortly afterward killed at Princeton, it was taken as a warning of his death, but as Mrs. Keith died in 1772 we are justified in saying that Lossing's story is a myth. During these trying events the militia of Bucks county were frequently called into service, but they did not always respond as cheerfully as the good cause
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
demanded. At the close of December, 1776, when ordered to turn out, forty-nine men of Captain John Jamison's company, of War- wick, refused to march, twenty-two of Thomas Wier's, of Warrington, sixty-seven of William McCalla's, of Plumstead, thirty-nine of Robert Sample's, of Buckingham, and twenty-two of Captain Lott's com- pany, of Solebury. General Putnam states that after the battle of Princeton some militia companies deserted bodily, and he mentions one case in which the whole company ran away except " a lieutenant and a lame man."
The active scenes of warfare were now removed from our county. When the state government was put into operation under the con- stitution of 1776, the legislature took steps to strengthen the hands of the civil authorities. The 13th of June, 1777, an act was passed compelling every inhabitant to subscribe an oath of allegiance, which met with general compliance. Three thousand two hundred and fifty took the oath in all, of which two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four subscribed it while the war was in progress. The first oath was taken by William Folwell, of Southampton, before Joseph Hart, a justice of Warminster, and before whom six hundred and ninety subscribed. Among the subscribers we find the well-known names of Hart, Cornell, Bennet, Krosen, Vanhorne, Dungan, Davis, Thompson, Shaw, Morris, James, Chapman, Foulke, Kulp, Over- peck, Transue, Fulmer, Beans, Jamison, Dyer, Hogeland, Ingham, Applebach, Harvey, and of many others whose names are now prominent in the county. The oath of allegiance was followed by the test-oath, with pains and penalties, and the refusal to subscribe it disabled persons following certain pursuits, among others that of teaching school. The violent opposition of the Friends caused its repeal. The county courts met the first time the 9th of September, 1777, when Henry Wynkoop, of Newtown, the presiding justice, delivered an able charge to the grand jury, appropriate to the new order of things. When spring opened it was thought the Dela- ware would again become the scene of conflict, in the attempt of the enemy to reach Philadelphia. General Arnold was put in command of the river the 14th of June, and all the fords and crossings were placed in a state of security. At the request of Washington, Presi- dent Wharton of this state caused accurate drafts of the river and its approaches to be made ; and boats were collected at New Hope and above for the passage of the army. During the spring and summer several calls were made upon the Bucks county militia. In
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
April she furnished five hundred men for the camp of instruction at Bristol, and in July the battalions of Colonel John Gill and Lieutenant-colonel McMaster were ordered to Billingsport, New Jersey, and received the thanks of the authorities for their good conduct. In September every able-bodied man was ordered to turn out, and those who had not arms were to take axes, spades, and every kind of entrenching tools. The county frequently furnished wagons, and at one time her farmers supplied the Continental army with four thousand bushels of grain for horse feed.
When the British sailed south from New York, in July, 1777, the Continental army again crossed the Delaware into Bucks county. Washington, with Greene's division, reached Coryell's ferry the night of the 29tli, and one brigade crossed over before morning. General Stephen, with two divisions, crossed at Howell's ferry, four miles above, and Lord Sterling at Trenton. The troops which crossed at Coryell's and Howell's, composing the bulk of the army, were put in march down the York road the morning of the 31st of July, Washington setting out for Philadelphia at the same time, where we find him the 3d of August, and whence he joined the army at Germantown before the 6th. On the supposition that the enemy had returned to New York, the army retraced its steps, and on Sunday evening, the 10th of August, we find it at Hartsville, where it was halted by an express from Congress. It remained encamped on the Neshaminy hills thirteen days, and until it was known that the enemy was about to land at the head of the Elk. Washington quartered in the stone house on the York road at the north end of the bridge over the Neshaminy, and the whipping-post was erected on the opposite side of the road. The army was again put in motion the morning of the 23d, and the next day marched through the city and across the Schuylhill to meet the enemy upon the dis- astrous field of Brandywine. The approach of the British caused great consternation in this section of the state, which was greatly increased by Washington's defeat at Brandywine, and the fall of Philadelphia. Lafayette, who was wounded at Brandywine, was taken by the way of Chester and Philadelphia to Bristol, en route for Bethlehem. At Bristol he staid over night at the house of Simon Betz, and was waited upon by the late Mrs. Charles Bessonett, a niece of Betz. He was conveyed to his destination up the Durham road, stopping at Attleborough and Stoffel Wagner's tavern, built in 1752, a mile from Hellertown. At Bethlehem he occupied the
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