The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn Part 5

FORT GEORGE AND THE GRAND BATTERY.--These works at the lower end of the city had been p.r.o.nounced almost useless by Lee, but as it was of course necessary to include that point in the system of defence they were repaired and greatly strengthened under Was.h.i.+ngton. In Fort George were mounted two twelve-pounders and four thirty-two-pounders.

The walls of the Grand Battery were banked up from within, and mounted thirteen thirty-two-pounders, one twenty-four-pounder, three eighteen-pounders, two twelve-pounders, one thirteen-inch bra.s.s mortar, two eight-inch and one ten-inch iron mortars.

WHITEHALL BATTERY.--A small work on the Whitehall dock on the East River, and practically a continuation of the Grand Battery. It carried two thirty-two-pounders.

WATERBURY'S BATTERY.--On the dock at the north-east angle of Catherine and Cherry streets, mounting, in June, two twelve-pounders.

BADLAM'S REDOUBT.--On the hill above, south of Market and between Madison and Monroe streets. It mounted seven guns in March, but appears not to have been occupied later in the season.

SPENCER'S REDOUBT.--This was either the horseshoe redoubt at the intersection of Monroe and Rutgers streets, or the larger star redoubt between Clinton and Montgomery, east of Henry Street.[58] It mounted two twelve-pounders and four field-pieces.

[Footnote 58: Spencer's Brigade probably built both works, as it was stationed in the vicinity of both. Colonel John Trumbull, who was then Spencer's brigade major, and afterwards in the Canada army, says in the "Reminiscences" of his own time: "The brigade to which I was attached was encamped on the (then) beautiful high ground which surrounded Colonel Rutgers' seat near Corlear's Hook."]

JONES' HILL.--From Spencer's Redoubt a line of intrenchments extended around along the crest of the high land above Corlear's Hook to a circular battery on the northern slope of Jones' Hill, a little north of the intersection of Broome and Pitt streets, and was pierced for eight guns. During Stirling's command it was proposed to call this fortification "Was.h.i.+ngton," but it was known subsequently simply as Jones' Hill. From this battery the works continued along the line of Grand Street to the Bowery, and included two more circular batteries--one on Grand at the corner of Norfolk Street, and the other near the corner of Grand and Eldridge streets.

BAYARD'S HILL REDOUBT.--Upon this commanding site, west of the Bowery, where Grand and Mulberry streets intersect, was erected a powerful irregular heptagonal redoubt, mounting eight nine-pounders, four three pounders, and six royal and cohorn mortars. It had the range of the city on one side and the approach by the Bowery on the other. Lasher's New York Independent companies first broke ground for it about the 1st of March, and continued digging there as well as on the redoubt around the hospital until May 16th, when they were relieved, with Was.h.i.+ngton's "thanks for their masterly manner of executing the work on Bayard's Hill."[59] In the March return this battery is called the "Independent Battery," and it also received the name of "Bunker Hill,"

which was retained by the British during their occupation; but its proper name as an American fort was "Bayard's Hill Redoubt," this having been given to it officially in general orders; and it was so called in letters and orders repeatedly through the summer.

[Footnote 59: _Force_, 4th Series, vol. v., p. 492. Compare, also, Doc.u.ments 38 and 41.]

THOMPSON'S BATTERY.--This was the name given to the work thrown up at Horn's Hook by Colonel Drake's Westchester minute-men soon after Lee's arrival. It mounted eight pieces.[60]

[Footnote 60: This work stood at the foot of East Eighty-eighth Street. See Doc.u.ment 41. Some ten years after the war, Archibald Gracie occupied this site, and it became known as Gracie's Point. The writer of a city guide-book in 1807, referring to Mr. Gracie, says: "His superb house and gardens stand upon the very spot called _Hornshook_, upon which a fort erected by the Americans in 1776 stood till about the year 1794, when the present proprietor caused the remains of the military works to be levelled, at great expense, and erected on their rocky base his present elegant mansion and appurtenances."--_The Picture of New York, etc., 1807, New York._]

GOVERNOR'S ISLAND.--The forts erected on this island were among the strongest around New York. According to a letter from Colonel Prescott of July 3d, they consisted of a citadel with outworks, and were garrisoned during the latter part of the summer by Prescott's and Nixon's regiments. The works mounted in June four thirty-two and four eighteen pounders.

PAULUS OR POWLE'S HOOK.--The point of land on the New Jersey side, opposite the city, and which is now the site in part of Jersey City.

Works were commenced here about May 20th, and in June they mounted three thirty-two-pounders, three twelve-pounders, and two three-pounder field-pieces.[61]

[Footnote 61: The fortifications erected at the upper part of the island are noticed in Chapter V. Mr. Lossing, it should be said, gives a very full list of the Revolutionary works in and around New York ("Field Book of the Rev.," vol. ii., p. 593), from which the list as given here, based on Hills' map, differs in several particulars.]

In addition to these, several other redoubts were erected north of the town, in which no cannon were mounted, and which had no names. They were probably thrown up to be ready for occupation in case the enemy succeeded in landing above the city. There was a circular battery at the corner of Broome and Forsyth streets; another in the middle of Broadway, opposite White Street; another, of octagonal shape, near the corner of Spring and Mercer streets; a half-moon battery above this, between Prince and Spring, on the line of Thompson Street; another on the northwesterly continuation of Richmond Hill, at McDougall and Houston streets; and still another on the river-bank, near the junction of Christopher and Greenwich streets. The hospital on Duane Street was strongly fortified, and breastworks were thrown up at numerous points between and around the forts. On June 10th the entire number of guns fit for service in and around New York was one hundred and twenty-one, thirty-three of which were held as a reserve for field service, "to be run where the enemy shall make their greatest efforts." The mortars were nineteen in number.

As for barricades, the city was full of them. Some were built of mahogany logs taken from West India cargoes. Not a street leading to the water on either side that was not obstructed in this manner; so that, had the enemy been able to gain a footing in the city under the fire of their s.h.i.+ps, they would still have found it, to use Lee's expression, "a disputable field of battle." The City Hall Park was almost entirely inclosed. There was a barrier across Broadway in front of St. Paul's Church, another at the head of Vesey Street, and others at the head of Barclay, Murray, and Warren. On the Park Row or Chatham Street side a barricade stretched across Beekman Street; another, in the shape of a right angle, stood in Printing House Square, one face opposite Spruce Street, the other looking across the Presbyterian churchyard and Na.s.sau Street;[62] another ran across Frankfort Street; another at the entrance of Centre Street; and still another near it, facing Chatham Street.

[Footnote 62: One side of this barricade ran in front of the _Times_, and the other in front of the _Tribune_ building.]

Another element in the defence was a motley little fleet, made up of schooners, sloops, row-galleys, and whale-boats, and placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Tupper,[63] who had distinguished himself by a naval exploit or two in Boston Harbor during the siege. Crews were drafted from the regiments and a.s.signed to the various craft, whose particular mission was to scour the waters along the New Jersey and Long Island coast, to watch for the British fleets, and prevent communication between the Tories and the enemy's s.h.i.+ps already lying in the harbor. Tupper, as commodore, appears first in the sloop Hester as his flag-s.h.i.+p, and later in the season in the Lady Was.h.i.+ngton, while among his fleet were to be found the Spitfire, General Putnam, Shark, and Whiting. The gallant commodore's earliest cruises were made within the Narrows, along the Staten Island sh.o.r.e, and as far down as Sandy Hook, where he attempted the feat of destroying the light-house. But he found this structure, which the enemy had occupied since Major Malcom dismantled it in March, a hard piece of masonry to reduce. He attacked it confidently, June 21st, after demanding its surrender, but retired when he found that an hour's bombardment made no impression upon its walls.[64] He kept a good lookout along these waters, gathered information from deserters, and when reporting on one occasion that the enemy's fleet were short of provisions and the men reduced to half allowance, he added, with unction, "May G.o.d increase their wants!" A little later we meet again with the adventuresome Tupper and his flotilla.

[Footnote 63: This officer was Lieutenant-Colonel of Jonathan Ward's Ma.s.sachusetts Regiment, and subsequently became colonel in the Ma.s.sachusetts Continental Line.]

[Footnote 64: _Force_, 4th Series, vol. vi., p. 1011.]

As the soldiers went on with their exacting duties, the monotony of the routine was now and then relieved by some diversion or excitement.

One day there is "Tory-riding"[65] in the city, in which citizens appear to have figured princ.i.p.ally. Then the whole camp is startled by the report that a "most accursed scheme" had come to light, just "on the verge of execution," by which Was.h.i.+ngton and all his generals were to have been murdered, the magazines blown up, and the cannon spiked by hired miscreants in the army at the moment the enemy made their grand attack upon the city.[66] Again, on the 9th of July, the brigades are all drawn up on their respective parade-grounds, listen to the reading for the first time of the Declaration of Independence, and receive it, as Heath tells us, "with loud huzzas;" and, finally, to celebrate the event, a crowd of citizens, "Liberty Boys," and soldiers collect that evening at Bowling Green and pull down the gilded statue of King George, which is then trundled to Oliver Wolcott's residence at Litchfield, Ct., for patriotic ladies to convert into bullets for the American soldiers.[67]

[Footnote 65: "_Thursday, 13th June._--Here in town very unhappy and shocking scenes were exhibited. On Munday night some men called Tories were carried and hauled about through the streets, with candles forced to be held by them, or pushed in their faces, and their heads burned; but on Wednesday, in the open day, the scene was by far worse; several, and among them gentlemen, were carried on rails; some stripped naked and dreadfully abused. Some of the generals, and especially Pudnam and their forces, had enough to do to quell the riot, and make the mob disperse."--_Pastor Shewkirk's Diary, Doc.

37._]

[Footnote 66: The particulars of this plot need hardly be repeated; indeed, they were never fully known. It was discovered that an attempt had been made to enlist American soldiers into the king's service, who at the proper time should a.s.sist the enemy in their plans. They were to spike cannon, blow up magazines, and, as at first reported, a.s.sa.s.sinate our generals; but the latter design seems not to have been proved, though universally believed. Governor Tryon and Mayor Matthews, of the city, were suspected of furthering the plot and furnis.h.i.+ng the funds. Matthews was arrested at Flatbush by a party of officers under Colonel Varnum, but the evidence against him was insufficient. Among the soldiers implicated was Thomas Hickey, of Was.h.i.+ngton's guard, who was tried by court-martial, found guilty of sedition, mutiny, and correspondence with the enemy, and executed in the presence of the army on June 28th. Something of the feeling excited by the discovery of the plot is exhibited in the letter from Surgeon Eustis of Colonel Knox's regiment (_Doc.u.ment_ 39). This is better known as the "Hickey Plot."]

[Footnote 67: The following memorandum, preserved among Governor Wolcott's papers, is of interest in this connection:

"An Equestrian Statue of George the Third of Great Britain was erected in the City of New York on the Bowling Green at the lower end of Broadway. Most of the materials were _lead_ but richly _gilded_ to resemble gold. At the beginning of the Revolution this statue was overthrown. Lead being then scarce and dear, the statue was broken in pieces and the metal transported to Litchfield a place of safety. The ladies of this village converted the Lead into Cartridges for the Army, of which the following is an account. O.W.

Mrs. Marvin, Cartridges 6,058 Ruth Marvin, " 11,592 Laura Wolcott, " 8,378 Mary Ann Wolcott, " 10,790 Frederick " " 936 Mrs. Beach, " 1,802 Made by sundry persons " 2,182 Gave Litchfield Militia on alarm, 50 Let the Regiment of Col. Wigglesworth have 300 ------ 42,088 Cartridges."]

But now occurred a much more stirring and important event to engage the attention of the army, and this was the arrival of the enemy. It was full time for them to make their appearance. Nearly three months and a half had elapsed since the evacuation of Boston; the spring and a whole month of summer had gone; the best season for active movements was pa.s.sing rapidly; and unless the British began operations soon, all hope of conquering America "in one campaign" would have to be abandoned. Rumors of their coming took definite shape in the last week of June, when word reached camp that an American privateer had captured a British transport with more than two hundred Highlanders as prisoners. On the 25th and 26th three or four large s.h.i.+ps arrived off Sandy Hook, one of which proved to be the Greyhound, with Sir William Howe on board; on the 29th a fleet of forty-five sail anch.o.r.ed off the same point, and four days later the number had increased to one hundred and thirty.[68] This was the fleet from Halifax with Howe's Boston veterans. Preparations were made to land them on the Long Island coast near the Narrows; but on being informed that the Americans were posted on a ridge of hills not far distant, Howe disembarked his troops opposite on Staten Island,[69] and there went into camp to wait the arrival of the reinforcements from England under Admiral Howe. The middle of July saw these also encamped on the island, with the fleet increased to nearly three hundred transports and s.h.i.+ps of war. On the 1st of August there was an unexpected arrival in the shape of the discomfited expedition under Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, that was to gain a foothold in the South;[70] and last of all, on the 12th of August came the British Guards and De Heister's Hessians, after a tedious voyage of thirteen weeks from Spithead, completing Howe's force, and swelling the fleet in the Narrows to more than four hundred s.h.i.+ps. England had never before this sent from her sh.o.r.es a more powerful military and naval armament upon foreign service.

[Footnote 68: "For two or three days past three or four s.h.i.+ps have been dropping in, and I just now received an express from an officer appointed to keep a lookout on Staten Island, that forty-five arrived at the Hook to-day--some say more; and I suppose the whole fleet will be in within a day or two."--_Was.h.i.+ngton to Hanc.o.c.k, June 29th._]

[Footnote 69: Extract of a letter from an officer in the Thirty-fifth Regiment at Staten Island, July 9th, 1776: "Our army consisted of 6155 effectives, on our embarkation at Halifax; they are now all safe landed here, and our head-quarters are at your late old friend, Will Hick's Mansion house."--_London Chronicle._]

[Footnote 70: The expedition sailed from Cork for the Cape River in North Carolina, where Clinton joined it. It was expected that the loyalists in the State would rise in sufficient numbers to give the expeditionary corps substantial aid; but not over eighteen hundred were mustered, and these under General McDonald were completely defeated by the North Carolina Militia under Colonels Caswell and Lillington at Moore's Creek Bridge on the 27th of February. The expedition then moved against Charleston, S.C., and there met with the famous repulse from Colonel Moultrie off Charleston Harbor on the 28th of June. Clinton and Cornwallis after this could do nothing but join Howe at New York.]

The arrival of the enemy hastened Was.h.i.+ngton's preparations. The troops which Congress had called out to reinforce his army were coming in too slowly, and expresses were sent to governors, a.s.semblies, and committees of safety, announcing the appearance of the enemy, and urging in the most pressing terms the instant march of the reinforcements to New York. To his soldiers with him the commander-in-chief issued both warning and inspiring orders. On the 2d of July, a few days after Howe arrived, he reminded them that the time was at hand which would probably determine whether Americans were to be freemen or slaves. "The fate of unborn millions," he said, "will now depend, under G.o.d, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance or the most abject submission. This is all we can expect. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. Our country's honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us, therefore, rely upon the goodness of the cause and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and n.o.ble actions. The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them....

Any officer or soldier, or any particular corps, distinguis.h.i.+ng themselves by any acts of bravery and courage, will a.s.suredly meet with notice and rewards; and, on the other hand, those who behave ill will as certainly be exposed and punished: the general being resolved, as well for the honor and safety of the country as of the army, to show no favor to such as refuse or neglect their duty at so important a crisis."

The digging still went on; the troops were ordered to keep their arms in condition for immediate use; the officers cautioned to look after the health of their men, as the season was excessively warm and sickly; and every attention to necessary details enjoined.

In addition to their military and naval commands, the two Howes were invested by their government with extraordinary powers as civil commissioners. They were authorized to issue pardons, and to open up the question of reconciliation and a peaceable settlement of the troubles; but their first advances in a civil capacity completely failed, though not without furnis.h.i.+ng an entertaining episode. On the 14th of July they dispatched an officer in a barge with a communication for General Was.h.i.+ngton. The barge was detained by one of Commodore Tupper's boats in the harbor until Was.h.i.+ngton's pleasure in regard to it could be known. Suspecting, by previous experience at Boston, that Howe would not recognize his military t.i.tle, Was.h.i.+ngton consulted a few of his officers in the matter, and it was the unanimous opinion that should the communication be addressed to him as a private individual it could not, with propriety, be received.

Colonel Reed, the adjutant-general, and Colonel Knox immediately went down the bay and met the British officer. The latter, with hat in hand, bowed politely and said to Colonel Reed, "I have a letter from Lord Howe to Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton." "Sir," replied Reed, "we have no person in our army with that address." "But will you look at the address?"

continued the officer, at the same time taking out of his pocket a letter marked

"GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON, ESQ., NEW YORK.

HOWE."

"No, sir," said Reed, "I cannot receive that letter." "I am very sorry," returned the officer, "and so will be Lord Howe, that any error in the superscription should prevent the letter being received by _General Was.h.i.+ngton_." "Why, sir," replied Reed, whose instructions were positive not to accept such a communication, "I must obey orders;" and the officer, finding it useless to press the matter, could only repeat the sentiment, "Oh! yes, sir, you must obey orders, to be sure." Then, after exchanging letters from prisoners, the officers saluted and separated. The British barge had gone but a short distance when it quickly put about, and the officer asked by what particular t.i.tle Was.h.i.+ngton chose to be addressed. Colonel Reed replied, "You are sensible, sir, of the rank of General Was.h.i.+ngton in our army." "Yes, sir, we are," said the officer; "I am sure my Lord Howe will lament exceedingly this affair, as the letter is quite of a civil nature, and not of a military one. He laments exceedingly that he was not here a little sooner." Reed and Knox supposed this to be an allusion to the Declaration of Independence, but making no reply, they again bowed, and parted, as Knox says, "in the most genteel terms imaginable."[71]

[Footnote 71: _Colonel Knox to his wife._--_Drake's Life of Gen.

Knox_, p. 131.]

But Howe was unwilling to have the matter dropped in this fas.h.i.+on, and on the 20th he sent his adjutant-general, Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, to hold an interview with Was.h.i.+ngton in person, if possible, and urge him to receive the letter and also to treat about the exchange of prisoners. Patterson landed at the Battery, and was conducted to Colonel Knox's quarters at the Kennedy House, without the usual formality of having his eyes blindfolded. Was.h.i.+ngton, "very handsomely dressed"[72] and making "a most elegant appearance,"

received him with his suite, and listened attentively while Patterson, interspersing his words at every other breath with "May it please your Excellency," explained the address on the letter by saying that the etc. etc. appended meant every thing. "And, indeed, it might mean any thing," replied Was.h.i.+ngton, as Patterson then proceeded to say, among other things, that the benevolence of the king had induced him to appoint General and Admiral Howe his commissioners to accommodate the unhappy disputes; that it would give them great pleasure to effect such an accommodation, and that he (Colonel Patterson) wished to have that visit considered as preliminary to so desirable an object.

Was.h.i.+ngton replied that he himself was not vested with any authority in the case; that it did not appear that Lord Howe could do more than grant pardons, and that those who had committed no fault wanted no pardons, as they were simply defending what they deemed their indisputable rights.[73] Further conversation followed, when Patterson, rising to leave, asked, "Has your Excellency no particular commands with which you would please to honor me to Lord and General Howe?" "Nothing," replied Was.h.i.+ngton, "but my particular compliments to both;" and, declining to partake of a collation prepared for the occasion, the British adjutant-general took his departure. Again the king's "commissioners" had failed, and Was.h.i.+ngton had preserved the dignity of the young nation and his own self-respect as the commander of its armies.

[Footnote 72: "General Was.h.i.+ngton was very handsomely dressed, and made a most elegant appearance. Colonel Patterson appeared awe-struck, as if he was before something supernatural. Indeed, I don't wonder at it. He was before a very great man, indeed."--_Ibid._ p. 132.]

[Footnote 73: Memorandum of an interview between General Was.h.i.+ngton and Colonel Patterson.--_Sparks' Was.h.i.+ngton_, vol. iv., p. 510.]

An incident, of greater moment as a military affair, and which disturbed Was.h.i.+ngton as much as the Patterson interview must have diverted him, was the easy pa.s.sage, on the 12th of July, of two of the British men-of-war, the Rose and Phoenix, past all the batteries, unharmed, up the North River. Taking advantage of a brisk breeze and running tide, the s.h.i.+ps with their tenders sailed rapidly up from the Narrows, and to avoid the fire of the batteries as much as possible kept near the Jersey sh.o.r.e. The American artillerists opened upon them with all their guns along the river, but could do them no serious damage, while by accident, in their haste to load the pieces, six of their own gunners were killed. The s.h.i.+ps sent many shots into the city, some cras.h.i.+ng through houses but doing no other injury, while the roar of the cannon frightened the citizens who had not already moved away, and caused more to go.[74] At the upper end of the island, around Fort Was.h.i.+ngton, where the batteries and river obstructions were as yet incomplete, the s.h.i.+ps suffered still less harm, and sailing by, anch.o.r.ed safely in the broad Tappan Bay above.

Their object was to cut off the supplies which came down the river to Was.h.i.+ngton's army, and, as supposed, to encourage the loyalists in the upper counties and supply them with arms. Was.h.i.+ngton acknowledged that the event showed the weakness and inadequacy of the North River line of defences, and reported to Congress that it developed a possible plan of attack by the British upon his rear. Measures were taken to annoy if not destroy the s.h.i.+ps, and, on the 3d of August, Commodore Tupper, with four of his sloops and schooners, boldly attacked the enemy, but though, as Was.h.i.+ngton wrote, "our officers and men, during the whole affair, behaved with great spirit and bravery," neither side sustained serious damage. On the night of the 16th two fire-rafts were directed against the s.h.i.+ps, which were successful so far as to destroy one of the tenders; and on the 18th the enemy weighed anchor and returned to the Narrows as readily as they came up.

[Footnote 74: On August 17th Was.h.i.+ngton requested the New York Convention to remove the women, children, and infirm persons, as the city was likely soon to be "the scene of a b.l.o.o.d.y conflict." He stated that when the Rose and Phoenix sailed past, "the shrieks and cries of these poor creatures, running every way with their children, was truly distressing." Pastor Shewkirk says: "This affair caused a great fright in the city. Women and children, and some with their bundles, came from the lower parts and walked to the Bowery, which was lined with people."]