of October, a severe engagement took place.' The Americans were driven from their position, and three days afterward [Nov. 1, 1776], formed a strong camp on the hills of North Castle, five miles further north. The British general was afraid to pursue them; and after strengthening the post at Peekskill, at the lower entrance to the Highlands, and securing the vantage-ground at North Castle, Washington crossed the Hudson [Nov. 12] with the main body of his army, and joined General Greene at Fort Lee, on the Jersey shore, about two miles south of Fort Washington. This movement was made on account of an apparent preparation by the British to invade New Jersey and march upon Philadelphia, where the Congress was in session. 5 General Knyphausan and a large body of Hessians had arrived at New York, and joined the British army at Westchester, previous to the engagement at White Plains. After Washington had crossed the Hudson, these German troops and a part of the English army, five thousand strong, proceeded to attack Fort Washington. They were successful, but at a cost to the victors of full one thousand brave men. More than two thousand Americans were made prisoners of war [Nov. 16], and like their fellow-captives on Long Island," they were crowded into loathsome prisons and prison-ships. Two days afterward [Nov. 18], Lord Cornwallis, with six thousand men, crossed the Hudson at Dobbs' Ferry, and took possession of Fort Lee, which the Americans had abandoned on his approach, leaving all the baggage and military stores behind them. During the siege, General Washington, with Putnam, Greene, and Mercer, ascended the heights, and from the abandoned mansion of Roger Morris, surveyed the scene of operations. Within fifteen minutes after they had left that mansion, Colonel Stirling, of the British army, who had just repulsed an The combatants lost about an equal number of men-not more than three hundred each in killed, wounded, and prisoners. * General Heath was left in command in the Highlands, and General Lee at North Castle. 3 Page 250. That body afterward adjourned to Baltimore, in Maryland. See page 262. Page 246. The loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded, did not exceed one hundred. 6 Page 254. 7 Nothing could exceed the horrors of these crowded prisons, as described by an eye-witness. The sugar-houses of New York being large, were used for the purpose, and therein scores suffered and died. But the most terrible scenes occurred on board several old hulks, which were anchored in the waters around New York, and used for prisoners. Of them the Jersey was the most notorious for the sufferings it contained, and the brutality of its officers. From these vessels, anchored near the present Navy Yard, at Brooklyn, almost eleven thousand victims were carried ashore during the war, and buried in shallow graves in the sand. Their remains were gathered in 1808, and put in a vault situated near the termination of Front-street and Hudsonavenue, Brooklyn. See Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents of Long Island. Lossing's Field Book, supplement. THE JERSEY PRISON-SHIP. That mansion, elegant even now [1867], is standing on the high bank of the Harlem River, at One Hundred and Sixty-ninth-street. Roger Morris was Washington's companion-in-arms on the field where Braddock was defeated, and he had married Mary Phillipse, a young lady whose charms had captivated the heart of Washington when he was a young Virginia colonel. It was the property of Madame Jumel (widow of Aaron Burr, who was Vice-President of the United States, under Jefferson), at the time of her death in 1865. American party, came with his victorious troops, and took possession of it. It was a narrow escape for those chief commanders. A melancholy and a brilliant chapter in the history of the war for Independence, was now opened. For three weeks Washington, with his shattered and daily diminishing army, was flying before an overwhelming force of Britons. Scarcely three thousand troops now remained in the American army. Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton, successively fell into the power of Cornwallis. So close were the British vanguards upon the rear of the Americans, sometimes, that each could hear the music of the other. Day after day, the militia left the army as their terms of enlistment expired, for late reverses had sadly dispirited them, and many of the regulars' deserted. Loyalists were swarming all over the country through which they passed,' and when, on the 7th of December, Washington reached the frozen banks of the Delaware, at Trenton, he had less than three thousand men, most of them wretchedly clad, half famished, and without tents to shelter them from the biting winter air. On the 8th that remnant of an army crossed the Delaware in boats, just as one division of Cornwallis's pursuing army marched into Trenton with all the pomp of victors, and sat down, almost in despair, upon the Pennsylvania shore. 3 Washington had hoped to make a stand at New Brunswick, but was disappointed. The services of the Jersey and Maryland brigades expired on the day when he left that place, and neither of them would remain any longer in the army. During his flight, Washington had sent repeated messages to General Lee, urging him to leave North Castle, and reinforce him. That officer, ambitious as he was impetuous and brave, hoping to strike a blow against the British that might give himself personal renown, was so tardy in his obedience, that he did not enter New Jersey until the Americans had crossed the DelaHe had repeatedly, but in vain, importuned General Heath, who was left in command at Peekskill, to let him have a detachment of one or two thousand men, with which to operate. His tardiness in obedience, cost him his liberty. Soon after entering New Jersey, he was made a prisoner [December ware. 1 Note 6, page 185. General Howe had sent out proclamations through the country, offering pardon and protection to all who might ask for mercy. Perceiving the disasters to the American arms during the summer and autumn, great numbers took advantage of these promises, and signed petitions. They soon found that protection did not follow pardon, for the Hessian troops, in their march through New Jersey, committed great excesses, without inquiring whether their victims were Whigs or Tories. Note 4, page 226. Among the prominent men who espoused the republican cause, and now abandoned it, was Tucker, president of the New Jersey Convention, which had sanctioned the Declara tion of Independence, and Joseph Galloway, a member of the first Continental Congress. These, and other prominent recusants, received some hard hits in the public prints. A writer in the Pennsylvania Journal, of February 5, 1777, thus castigated Galloway: "Gall' way has fled, and join'd the venal Howe, A traitor to his country and its laws, Note 4, page 185. 4 Page 259 13, 1776], and his command devolved upon General Sullivan.' At about the same time intelligence reached the chief that a British squadron, under Sir Peter Parker (who, as we have seen [page 247], was defeated at Charleston), had sailed into Narraganset Bay [December 8th], taken possession of Rhode Island, and blockaded the little American fleet, under Commodore Hopkins,* then lying near Providence. This intelligence, and a knowledge of the failure of operations on Lake Champlain, coupled with the sad condition of the main army of patriots, made the future appear gloomy indeed.* 3 5 It was fortunate for the patriot cause that General Howe was excessively cautious and indolent. Instead of allowing Cornwallis to construct boats, cross the Delaware at once, overwhelm the patriots, and push on to Philadelphia, as he might have done, he ordered him to await the freezing of the waters, so as to cross on the ice. He was also directed to place four thousand German troops in cantonments along the Jersey shore of the river, from Trenton to Burlington, and to occupy Princeton and New Brunswick with strong British detachments. Both Congress and Washington profited by this delay. Measures for re-organizing the army, already planned, were put in operation. A loan of five millions of dollars, in hard money, with which to pay the troops, was authorized. By the offer of liberal bounties, and the influence of a stirring appeal put forth by Congress, recruits immediately flocked to Washington's standard at Newtown. Almost simultaneously, Lee's detachment under Sullivan, and another from Ticonderoga, joined him; and on the 24th of December he found himself in command of almost five thousand effective troops, many of them fresh and hopeful. And the increased pay of officers, the proffered bounties to the 8 6 'Both Sullivan and Stirling, who were made prisoners on Long Island [page 254], had been exchanged, and were now again with the army. Lee was captured at Baskingridge, where Lord Stirling resided, and remained a prisoner until May, 1778, when he was exchanged for General Prescott, who was captured on Rhode Island. See page 271. Note 1, page 307. 2 * General Gates was appointed to the command of the army at the north, after the death of General Thomas [note 2, page 243]; and during the summer and autumn of 1776, Colonel Arnold became a sort of commodore, and commanded flotillas of small vessels in warfare with others prepared by General Carleton (the British commander in Canada), on Lake Champlain. He had two severe engagements (11th and 13th of October), in which he lost about ninety men; the British about forty. These operations were disastrous, yet they resulted in preventing the British forces in Canada uniting with those in New York, and were thus of vast importance. 4 Although the Americans had generally suffered defeats, they had been quite successful in making captives. The number of Americans taken by the British, up to the close of 1776, was four thousand, eight hundred and fifty-four; the number of British taken by the Americans, was two thousand, eight hundred and sixty. In addition to men, the Americans had lost twelve brass cannons and mortars, and two hundred and thirty-five made of iron; twenty-three thousand, nine hundred and seventy-nine empty shells, and seventeen thousand, one hundred and twenty-two filled; two thousand six hundred and eighty-four double-headed shot; a large quantity of grapeshot; two thousand eight hundred muskets: four hundred thousand cartridges; sixteen barrels of powder; five hundred intrenching tools; two hundred barrows and other instruments, and a large quantity of provisions and stores. The Americans took every boat they could find at Trenton, and cautiously moved them out of the river after they had crossed. These Each soldier was to have a bounty of twenty dollars, besides an allotment of land at the close of the war. A common soldier was to have one hundred acres, and a colonel five hundred. were given to those only who enlisted to serve "during the war." 9 A small village north of Bristol, about two miles from the Delaware. 8 Page 234. According to the adjutant's return to Washington on the 22d of December, the American army numbered ten thousand one hundred and six men, of whom five thousand three hundred and ninety-nine were sick, on command elsewhere, or on furlough, leaving an effective force of four thousand seven hundred and seven. |