[Footnote 72: "General Washington 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 Washington and Colonel Patterson.—Sparks' Washington, vol. iv., p. 510.]

An incident, of greater moment as a military affair, and which disturbed Washington as much as the Patterson interview must have diverted him, was the easy passage, 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 ships 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 shore. 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 ships sent many shots into the city, some crashing 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 Washington, where the batteries and river obstructions were as yet incomplete, the ships suffered still less harm, and sailing by, anchored safely in the broad Tappan Bay above. Their object was to cut off the supplies which came down the river to Washington's army, and, as supposed, to encourage the loyalists in the upper counties and supply them with arms. Washington 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 ships, and, on the 3d of August, Commodore Tupper, with four of his sloops and schooners, boldly attacked the enemy, but though, as Washington 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 ships, 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 Washington 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 bloody 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."]

It was now apparent that the great struggle between the two armies could be postponed no longer, and no day after the arrival of the Hessians passed that the British attack was not looked for. The orders of August 8th cautioned the men to be at their quarters, "especially early in the morning or upon the tide of flood," when the enemy's fleet might be expected, and every preparation was made to resist the landing of the British at any point upon Manhattan Island.[75]

[Footnote 75: Captain Nathan Hale, the "Martyr-spy," says in a letter of the 20th of August: "Our situation has been such this fortnight or more as scarce to admit of writing. We have daily expected an action—by which means, if any one was going, and we had letters written, orders were so strict for our tarrying in camp, that we could rarely get leave to go and deliver them. For about six or eight days the enemy have been expected hourly, whenever the wind and tide in the least favored."—Document 40.]

Upon Long Island General Greene and his men were still at work on the defences, and, since the arrival of the enemy, doubly vigilant. Hand's riflemen kept close watch at the Narrows and reported every suspicious movement of the fleet. Word was brought in on the 9th that a large number of regulars were drawn up at the Staten Island ferry, and Greene immediately sent around the order for "no officer or soldier to stir from his quarters, that we may be ready to march at a moment's warning, if necessary." Upon another alarm, when probably he himself was indisposed, he directed Colonel Little, the senior regimental officer present, to superintend the disposition of the troops. His hastily written letter, penned apparently not long after midnight, runs as follows:

THURSDAY MORNING [August 8 or 15?]

DEAR SIR—By Express from Col Hand and from Red Hook, and from on board the Sloop at Governor's Island it is very evident there was a General Imbarcation of the Troops last evening from Statten Island—doubtless they'l make a dessent this morning. Youl please to order all the troops fit for duty to be at their Alarm posts near an hour sooner than is common—let their flints arms and ammunition be examined and everything held in readiness to defend the works or go upon a detachment. A few minutes past received an Express from Head Quarters. Youl acquaint the Commanding officers of Col Hitchcock's Regiment and Col Forman's Regiment of this, and direct them to observe the same orders, also the Artillery officers.

I am ys, N. GREENE.

[Addressed to Col. Little.][76]

[Footnote 76: Original in possession of Chas. J. Little, Esq., Cambridge, Mass.]

Greene had been promoted to the rank of major-general on the 9th, and his old brigade on Long Island given to Brigadier-General John Nixon, of Massachusetts, who was promoted from a colonelcy at the same time. A new arrangement of the army was effected, and Brigadier-General Heard's brigade of five New Jersey regiments was ordered to Long Island to reinforce Greene. His division, now consisting of these two brigades—Nixon's and Heard's—numbered, August 15th, two thousand nine hundred men fit for duty. Parts of two Long Island militia regiments under Colonels Smith and Remsen which joined him about this date, and Colonel Gay's Connecticut levies, who had been on that side since the 1st of August, increased this number to something over thirty-five hundred.

But Greene was not to be a participator in the approaching scenes. The prevailing fever which had prostrated so many officers and men seized him with all but a fatal hold, and he was obliged to relinquish his command. He clung to it, however, to the last moment in hopes of a change for the better. "I am very sorry," he wrote to Washington on the 15th, "that I am under the necessity of acquainting you that I am confined to my bed with a raging fever. The critical situation of affairs makes me the more anxious, but I hope, through the assistance of Providence, to be able to ride before the presence of the enemy may make it absolutely necessary;" and he assured the commander-in-chief that his men appeared to be "in exceeding good spirits," and would no doubt be able to render a very good account of the enemy should they land on Long Island. On the 16th there was no change for the better in his condition, but on the contrary Livingston, his aid, reported that he had "a very bad night of it;" and in a day or two he was removed to New York, to the house of John Inglis now the intersection of Ninth Street and Broadway where with rest and care he slowly passed the crisis of his illness.[77]

[Footnote 77: Greene's Life of Greene, vol. i.]

On the 20th Washington gave orders to General Sullivan, who had recently returned from Canada, to take the command upon Long Island, until General Greene's state of health should permit him to resume it.[78]

[Footnote 78: General Orders, August 20, 1776.—... "General Sullivan is to take command upon Long Island till General Greene's state of health will permit him to resume it, and Brigadier Lord Stirling is to take charge of General Sullivan's division till he returns to it again."]



CHAPTER III.

THE TWO ARMIES.

Right here, before entering upon the details of the coming struggle, we may delay a moment to glance at the two armies as they lay in their opposite camps waiting to engage in the serious business before them. What was their composition and organization, what their strength, who their officers and leaders? In the case of the American troops particularly may these questions be asked, because to them and their services the country has long acknowledged its obligations, and so far bound itself to perpetuate their memory. Who were the men who stood with Washington in this first and critical year of our national life—who came to this vicinity to fight on strange ground for a common cause? We are called upon to remember them, not as soldiers simply, but as public-spirited citizens arming to secure themselves in their privileges, or perhaps as ancestors who had a thought for the peace and happiness of present generations.

The original army of the Revolution was that ardent though disjointed body of provincials which gathered around Boston immediately after the Lexington alarm, and came nominally under the command of General Artemas Ward, of Massachusetts. As a military corps it entirely lacked cohesion, as the troops from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut were under independent control, and yielded to General Ward's authority only by patriotic consent. The appointment of Washington as commander-in-chief of all the American forces relieved this difficulty, and the adoption by Congress of the Boston troops as a Continental army, under the orders and in the pay of Congress, gave that army more of a military character. But the terms of enlistment were short, and it became necessary to reorganize the entire body by new enlistments for a year's service from the 1st of January, 1776. This force thus recruited was the nucleus of the army which Washington mustered at New York in the present campaign. It consisted of twenty-seven battalions, or "regiments of foot," as they were styled, each divided into eight companies, and having a maximum strength of about six hundred and forty officers and men. With the exception of the First Regiment, or Pennsylvania Riflemen, all were from the New England States; and, as already stated, twenty-one of them, after the evacuation of Boston, marched to New York under the command of Generals Heath, Spencer, Sullivan, and Greene.

This force, diminished by the regiments sent to Canada, was quite inadequate for the purposes of the campaign, and on the 1st of June Congress issued a call for large reinforcements both for the New York army and that on the Canada border. For the former thirteen thousand eight hundred troops were voted necessary, and for the latter six thousand, while in addition it was resolved to establish a "flying camp" of ten thousand men, who could be sent wherever needed. The quota Massachusetts was to furnish for New York was two thousand; Connecticut, five thousand five hundred; New York, three thousand; and New Jersey, three thousand three hundred. For the flying camp, Pennsylvania was to recruit six thousand; Delaware, six hundred; and Maryland, three thousand four hundred. All these men were to be militia or State troops, but to serve under the orders of Congress and in its pay until at least the 1st of December following.

The necessity of these calls was impressed upon the country by urgent letters from the President and members of Congress and the leaders of the day. "The militia of the United Colonies," wrote Hancock, "are a body of troops that may be depended upon. To their virtue, their delegates in Congress now make the most solemn appeal. They are called upon to say whether they will live slaves or die freemen." To the governors and State assemblies he added: "On your exertions at this critical period, together with those of the other colonies in the common cause, the salvation of America now evidently depends.... Exert, therefore, every nerve to distinguish yourselves. Quicken your preparations, and stimulate the good people of your government, and there is no danger, notwithstanding the mighty armament with which we are threatened, but you will be able to lead them to victory, to liberty, and to happiness." But the reinforcements came forward slowly, and it was not until the enemy had actually arrived that the peculiar dangers of the situation were appreciated and the militiamen hurried to Washington's assistance at his own pressing call for them. By the 27th of August, his army, which on July 13th numbered a little over ten thousand men fit for duty, had been increased in the aggregate to twenty-eight thousand; but so many were on the sick list during this month, that he could muster not quite twenty thousand effectives, officers and men, at the opening of active operations.

To this force the State of New York contributed thirteen regiments. Of her Continental battalions then in the service, three were in the Northern department under Schuyler, part of another in the Highlands, and two, commanded by Colonels Alexander McDougall and Rudolph Ritzema, here with Washington, both of which were largely recruited from New York City. McDougall, colonel of the first battalion, had identified himself early with the liberty party in the city, became a member of the Provincial Congress, and by his zealous and energetic efforts in both his civil and military capacity contributed much towards preserving the honor and interests of the colony in the present crisis. In August he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in the Continental army, and rose to the grade of major-general before the close of the war. Nine of the other regiments from this State, chiefly militia, formed two brigades under Brigadier-Generals John Morin Scott and George Clinton. In Scott's command were two battalions which were credited to and represented the city distinctively. The oldest and largest was the "First Independent Battalion," commanded by Colonel John Lasher, remembered as one of the substantial citizens of the place. A man of property and influence, with a taste for military affairs and evidently popular, he had been elected colonel of the Independent Companies during the colonial regime, and now, with most of his officers and men, had taken up the Continental cause.[79] The battalion was a favorite corps, composed of young men of respectability and wealth, and when on parade was doubtless the attraction of the city. Its companies bore separate names, and the uniform of each had some distinguishing feature. There were the "Prussian Blues," under Captain James Alner; the "Oswego Rangers," under Captain John J. Roosevelt; the "Rangers," under Captain James Abeel; the "Fusileers," under Captain Henry G. Livingston; the "Hearts of Oak," under Captain John Berrian; the "Grenadiers," under Captain Abraham Van Dyck; the "Light Infantry," under Captain William W. Gilbert; the "Sportsmen," under Captain Abraham A. Van Wyck; the "German Fusileers," under Captain William Leonard; the "Light Horse," under Captain Abraham P. Lott; and the "Artillery," under Captain Samuel Tudor. As reorganized in the summer of 1776, the regiment had for its field officers Colonel John Lasher, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Stockholm, and Major James Abeel. The Second New York City Battalion was originally commanded by Colonel William Heyer, and among its companies were the "Brown Buffs," "Rifles," "Grenadiers," "Hussars," and "Scotsmen," the latter of whom were commanded by Captain Robert Smith, of New York, who, after doing good service at various times during the war, settled in Philadelphia, where for nearly half a century after he filled offices of public and private trust.[80] In 1776, in the reappointment of field officers, William Malcom, formerly first major, became colonel; Isaac Stoutenburgh, lieutenant-colonel; and James Alner, major.[81] The two remaining regiments of Scott's brigade were commanded by Colonel Samuel Drake, of Westchester, and Colonel Cornelius Humphrey, of Dutchess County. Scott himself was a man of the highest public spirit. A history of the progress of the revolutionary sentiment in the Colony of New York would be incomplete without a record of his career. An able lawyer and speaker, he early resisted the pretentions and arbitrary policy of the home government, and when war became inevitable, he spared no energy to provide for the crisis. In 1775 and 1776 he was one of the most active and useful members of the Provincial Congress and the Committee of Safety. "Nothing from the other side of the water," he wrote to a friend in November, 1775, "but a fearful looking for of wrath. But let us be prepared for the worst. Who can prize life without liberty? It is a bauble only fit to be thrown away." He served through the present campaign, and then continued in the public service as Secretary of the State of New York and afterwards member of the Continental Congress.

[Footnote 79: In a letter to Peter Van Schaack, dated New York, February 23d, 1776, Fred. Rhinelander says: "We are going to raise a new battalion; Colonel Lasher and Gouverneur Morris are candidates for the command. As both the gentlemen have great merit, it is hard to tell which will succeed." The reference here is probably to a plan formed by private citizens in New York to raise a battalion of fifteen hundred men for nine months, on condition that the projectors could appoint the officers. This being refused by the Provincial Congress the plan was abandoned.—Life of G. Morris, vol. i. p. 89, n.]

[Footnote 80: See Biographical Sketches, Part II.]

[Footnote 81: The New York Congress voted that the City and County of New York should furnish twelve hundred men as their quota of the three thousand recently called for, and these were to consist of "the two independent battalions." They were composed of ten companies each, which, however, never reached their maximum strength. In September Lasher's total was 510; Malcom's, 297.]

Two other acquisitions to the army in this campaign were the brothers James and George Clinton, of Ulster County, N.Y., both destined to be prominent characters in the Revolution. James Clinton, as colonel of one of the Continental regiments, superintended the construction of fortifications in the Highlands, and in August was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in the Continental service. George was member of Congress, and after voting for the Declaration of Independence returned to command a militia brigade which the State called out during the summer, and which joined Washington's army just before the battle of Long Island. These troops were commanded by Colonel Levi Paulding, of Ulster County; Colonels Morris Graham and James Swartwout, of Dutchess; Colonel Isaac Nichol, of Orange; and Colonel Thomas Thomas, of Westchester. Before this, in November, 1775, an attempt was made to raise three regiments of militia in New York City to be commanded respectively by Henry Remsen, John Jay, and Abraham P. Lott; but the enlistment of men into other corps made it impossible to organize them.[82] In this campaign, too, we first meet with young officers from this State who subsequently rose to distinction in the service. Here Alexander Hamilton appears; and we read that upon the certificate of Captain Stephen Badlam, that he had examined Hamilton and found him qualified for a command, the New York Convention appointed him, March 14th, Captain of the "Provincial Company of Artillery of the Colony." Among others were Lieutenant-Colonel Henry B. Livingston, Majors Nicholas Fish and Richard Platt, and Hugh Hughes, teacher of a classical school, who, as assistant Quartermaster-General, rendered, at least on one occasion, a most important service to the army.

[Footnote 82: Lewis Morris, one of the Signers of the Declaration, was appointed brigadier-general of the Westchester County militia, but he remained in Congress until later in the fall, when he took the field for a short time with New York militia in the Highlands.]

Long Island was represented in the New York quota by two regiments of militia and two small companies of "troop." The Suffolk County regiment, at the eastern end, was commanded by Colonel Josiah Smith, of South Haven parish, and that from King's County by Colonel Rutgert Van Brunt. But the militia, especially in disaffected Kings and Queens counties, could be mustered, as volunteers, with difficulty; and early in August the New York Provincial Congress ordered a draft to be made from these counties, and the troops so raised to be commanded by Colonel Jeronimus Remsen, of Queens, with Nicholas Cowenhoven, of Kings, for lieutenant-colonel, and Richard Thorne, of Queens, for major. Colonel Smith's lieutenant-colonel at this time was John Sands, and his major, Abraham Remsen. The two regiments—Smith's and Remsen's—did not report to Greene until August 15th and after, and mustered together probably less than five hundred men. The troopers, not over fifty in all, were a few horsemen from Brooklyn under Captain Adolph Waldron and Lieutenant William Boerum; and others, representing King's County, under Captain Lambert Suydam. About the middle of August, Nathaniel Woodhull, of Mastic, brigadier-general of the Long Island militia, and now President of the State Convention, dropping his civil functions, repaired to the Island to render whatever aid the situation might demand. A man of the purest motives and capable of doing good service, an unhappy, although a soldier's fate, awaited him.

New Jersey at the outbreak of the war met an obstacle to hearty co-operation with the other colonies in the conduct of William Franklin, her royal governor. Little sympathy had he with the revolutionary movement, and his influence was powerful in keeping men out of it, until the aroused State legislature ordered his arrest. In William Livingston, her new governor, New Jersey found a patriot and civil leader of the right stamp for the emergency. Part of the year he acted in a military capacity, and directed the movements of the militia in the vicinity of Amboy and Elizabeth. As the Tory element was very considerable here, the State found the same difficulty experienced by New York in raising troops for the army; but she furnished a good proportion. Her three Continental regiments under Colonels Dayton, Maxwell, and Winds, were in the Canada army during the present campaign. In the spring and summer the State sent several detachments of militia, under Lieutenant-Colonels Ward and Cadmus and other officers, to assist in fortifying New York. In answer to the last call of Congress, the legislature voted to raise a brigade of five battalions, to be known as "new levies," to serve until December 1st, and to each man that would enlist a bounty of three pounds was offered. The command of the brigade was given to Colonel Nathaniel Heard, of Woodbridge, now promoted to a State brigadier. The colonels were Philip Van Cortland, whose regiment was recruited in Bergen, Essex, and Burlington counties; David Forman, with four companies from Middlesex and four from Monmouth; Ephraim Martin, with four from Morris and four from Sussex; Philip Johnston, with three from Somerset and five from Hunterdon; and Silas Newcomb, with men from Salem, Gloucester, Burlington, and Cumberland. In September the command numbered seventeen hundred and sixty-two enlisted men, and one hundred and sixty officers.[83] We shall find these troops figuring in the movements on Long Island.

[Footnote 83: List of the Officers and Men from New Jersey who served in the Revolution. By Adjutant-General W.S. Stryker.]

Pennsylvania was well represented in this campaign. Her troops participated in nearly every engagement, and had the opportunity in more than one instance of acquitting themselves with honor. Besides her large body of "associators," or home guards, many of whom marched into New Jersey, the State sent four Continental regiments under Colonels Wayne, St. Clair, Irvine, and De Haas, to Canada, and eight other battalions, three of them Continental, to the army at New York. Of these, the oldest was commanded by Colonel Edward Hand, of Lancaster. It was the first of the Continental establishment, where it was known as the "rifle" corps. Enlisting in 1775, under Colonel Thompson, it joined the army at the siege of Boston, re-enlisted for the war under Colonel Hand in 1776, and fought all along the Continent from Massachusetts to South Carolina, not disbanding until the peace was signed in 1783. Hand himself, a native of Ireland, and, like many others in the service, a physician by profession, had served in the British army, was recognized as a superior officer, and we find him closing his career as Washington's adjutant-general and personal friend. The two other regiments, raised on the Continental basis, were commanded by Colonels Robert Magaw, formerly major of Thompson's regiment, and John Shee, of Philadelphia. The remaining battalions were distinctively State troops, and formed part of the State's quota for the Flying Camp. Colonel Samuel Miles, subsequently mayor of Philadelphia, commanded what was known as the First Regiment of Riflemen. Unlike any other corps, it was divided into two battalions, which on their enlistment in March aggregated five hundred men each. The lieutenant-colonel of the first was Piper; of the second, John Brodhead. The majors were Paton and Williams. Another corps was known as the First Regiment of Pennsylvania Musketry, under Colonel Samuel John Atlee, of Lancaster County, originally five hundred strong, and recruited in Chester and the Piquea Valley. Atlee had been a soldier in his youth in the frontier service, afterwards studied law, and in 1775 was active in drilling companies for the war. Mercer, who knew a good soldier when he met him, wrote to Washington that Atlee was worthy his regard as an officer of "experience and attention," and his fine conduct on Long Island proved his title to this word of commendation from his superior. How much of a man and soldier he had in his lieutenant-colonel, Caleb Parry, the events of August 27th will bear witness. The three other battalions were incomplete. Two were composed of Berks County militia, under Lieutenant-Colonels Nicholas Lutz and Peter Kachlein. Lutz's major was Edward Burd, and their colonel was Henry Haller, of Reading, who did not join the army until after the opening of the campaign. Another detachment consisted of part of Colonel James Cunningham's Lancaster County militiamen, under Major William Hay.



COLONEL FIRST REGIMENT OF FOOT (PENN RIFLEMEN). BRIGADIER GENERAL 1777

Steel Engr. F. von Egloffstein N.Y.]

Delaware furnished more than her proportion to the flying camp. The "Lower Counties," as this little State had been known in colonial times, had shown no haste to break with the mother country. Her people were chiefly farmers of a peaceable disposition, who used herbs for tea and felt no weight of oppression. But Delaware had her public-spirited men, who, when the crisis came, felt that the "counties" must take their place by the side of the colonies in the pending conflict. Among these were Thomas MacKean and Caesar Rodney. Rodney's right-hand man in his patriotic efforts was John Haslet, born in Ireland, once a Presbyterian minister, now a physician in Dover, "tall, athletic, of generous and ardent feelings." The news of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence Haslet celebrated with "a turtle feast;" and he did more. Already he had begun to raise a regiment for the field, and five weeks before the opening battle it left Dover eight hundred strong, composed of some of the best blood and sinew Delaware had to offer.[84]

[Footnote 84: Delaware's Revolutionary Soldiers. By William G. Whiteley, Esq., 1875.]

Maryland raised as her contingent for this campaign four regiments and seven independent companies; but of these, Smallwood's battalion and four of the companies alone had joined the army when hostilities commenced. Though forming part of the State's quota for the flying camp, this was far from being a hastily-collected force. It stands upon record that while Massachusetts was preparing for the contest in the earlier days, there were men along the Chesapeake and the Potomac who took the alarm with their northern brethren. Mordecai Gist, Esq., of "Baltimore town," was among the first to snuff the coming storm, and the first to act, for he tells us that as early as December, 1774, at the expense of his time and hazard of his business, he organized "a company composed of men of honor, family, and fortune," to be ready for any emergency. The Lexington news, four months later, found the best part of Maryland ready to arm. In Baltimore, William Buchanan, lieutenant of the county, collected a body of the older citizens for home defence, while their unmarried sons and others organized themselves into two more companies, donned "an excellent scarlet uniform," and chose Gist for their leader. When the State called for troops at large many of these young men responded, and in the spring of 1776 made up three companies, which, with six other companies that gathered at Annapolis from the surrounding country, formed the first Maryland battalion of "State regulars." William Smallwood, living on the banks of the Potomac, in Charles County, was chosen colonel; Francis Ware, lieutenant-colonel; and Mordecai Gist, first major. On the day it left for the field, July 10th, it numbered, inclusive of Captain Edward Veazey's large independent company from the Eastern Shore, seven hundred and fifty men. The State sent no better material into the service. Without cares, patriotic, well drilled, well led, priding themselves in their soldierly appearance, both officers and men were a notable and much needed acquisition to Washington's army.

Men from Virginia, too, were to take an active part in this campaign, but not until after it had opened. The State had nine regiments organized for service, five of which, under Colonels Weedon, Reed, Scott, Elliott and Buckner, joined the army during the fall. There were several Virginia officers on the ground, however, as early as July and August, one of whom was a host in himself. This was General Hugh Mercer, who had been a surgeon in the Pretender's army on the field of Culloden; who afterward coming to America figured as a volunteer in Braddock's defeat, and then settled down to practice as a physician in Fredericksburg. Appointed a Continental Brigadier, Washington intrusted him with the important command of the New Jersey front, where he kept a constant watch along the shore opposite Staten Island. He had at various times from three to six thousand troops under him, composed of Pennsylvania and New Jersey home guards and militia, but which were never enrolled as a part of Washington's army.[85]

[Footnote 85: Durkee's Continentals garrisoned Powle's Hook, and Bradley's Connecticut regiment was at Bergen, both being returned on Washington's rolls, but otherwise under Mercer's orders.]

From New England, as we have seen, came the troops sent on from Boston by Washington, which formed the nucleus or basis of the force gathered at New York. These were all Continental or established regiments, and were reinforced from this section during the summer by militia and State troops.

Massachusetts furnished the Continental battalions commanded by Colonels William Prescott, of Pepperell; John Glover, of Marblehead; Moses Little, of Newburyport; John Nixon, of Framingham; Jonathan Ward, of Southboro; Israel Hutchinson, of Salem; Ebenezer Learned, of Oxford; Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn; John Bailey, of Hanover; Paul Dudley Sargent, of Gloucester, and Joseph Read. In August, Brigadier-General John Fellows, of Sheffield, brought down three regiments of militia under Colonels Jonathan Holman, of Worcester County, Jonathan Smith, of Berkshire, and Simeon Cary, with men from Plymouth and Bristol counties. The State also sent the only artillery regiment[86] then in the service, under Colonel Henry Knox, of Boston.

[Footnote 86: At New York, the artillery was increased by Captain Alexander Hamilton's company, and soldiers were detached from the several regiments to act as gunners in consequence of Knox's inability to furnish enough from his own regiment to man all the points.]

Many of these officers named had already made something of a record for themselves. Prescott will be forever associated with Bunker Hill. With him there were Nixon, who was severely wounded, Ward, Little, Sargent, and not a few of the officers and men who were here in the present campaign. Many of them were representative citizens. Little, of Newburyport, whose name we have seen associated with the defences of Long Island, had been surveyor of the king's lands, owned large tracts in his own right, and was widely known as a man of character and influence. As an officer he was distinguished for his judgment and great self-possession in the field. His lieutenant-colonel, William Henshaw, of Leicester, belonged to the line of Henshaws whose ancestor had fallen in the English Revolution in defence of popular rights and privileges. A man of the old type, with cocked hat and provincial dress, modest and brave, he writes home to his wife one day that he finds it difficult to stop profanity among the troops; another day he hopes his children are improving in all the graces; and then he is heard of in the heat of some engagement. He was the first adjutant-general of the provincial army around Boston in 1775, and served in that capacity with the rank of colonel until relieved by General Gates. The services rendered by Colonel and afterwards General Glover in this as well as in other campaigns is a well-known record. Learned and Nixon became Continental brigadiers. Shepherd, Brooks, Jackson, Winthrop Sargent, and many other officers from this State, distinguished themselves in the later years of the Revolution. But perhaps no man proved his worth more in this campaign than Colonel Rufus Putnam, of Brookfield, Washington's chief engineer. He succeeded Colonel Gridley at Boston; and at New York, where engineering skill of a high order was demanded in the planning and construction of the works, he showed himself equal to the occasion. That Washington put a high estimate on his services, appears from more than one of his letters.[87]

[Footnote 87: Document 43, Part II., contains interesting and important extracts from Colonel Putnam's Journal, now published for the first time.]

Rhode Island at this time had two regiments in the field. In 1775 they were around Boston; in 1776 they were here again with the army—Varnum's Ninth and Hitchcock's Eleventh Continentals. A third regiment from this State, under Colonel Lippett, did not join the army until September. Varnum and Hitchcock were rising young lawyers of Providence, the former a graduate of Brown University, the latter of Yale. Hitchcock's lieutenant-colonel was Ezekiel Cornell, of Scituate, who subsequently served in Congress and became commissary-general of the army. Greene, Varnum, Hitchcock, and Cornell were among those Rhode Islanders who early resisted the pretensions of the British Ministry. In the discipline and soldierly bearing of these two regiments Greene took special pride, and not a few of their officers subsequently earned an honorable reputation. Varnum was created a brigadier; Hitchcock, as will be seen, closed his career as a sacrifice to the cause; Colonels Crary and Angell and the Olneys served with the highest credit; and the men of the regiments, many of them, fought through the war to the Yorktown surrender.

In proportion to her population, no State contributed more men to the army in 1776 than Connecticut, nor were all ranks of society more fully represented. Fortunately the State had in Trumbull, its governor, just the executive officer which the times demanded. A man of character and ability, greatly respected, prompt, zealous, ardent in the cause, his words and calls upon the people were seldom unheeded; and the people were generally as patriotic as their governor. In the present crisis Connecticut sent to New York six Continental battalions, seven of "new levies," and twelve of militia. Her Continentals were commanded by Colonels Samuel Holden Parsons,[88] of Lyme; Jedediah Huntington, of Lebanon; Samuel Wyllys, of Hartford; Charles Webb, of Stamford; John Durkee, of Bean Hill, near Norwich; and Andrew Ward,[89] of Guilford. The "levies" were the troops raised in answer to the last call of Congress, and were commanded by Colonels Gold Selleck Silliman, of Fairfield; Phillip Burr Bradley, of Ridgefield; William Douglas, of Northford; Fisher Gay, of Farmington; Samuel Selden, of Hadlyme; John Chester, of Wethersfield; and Comfort Sage, of Middletown. Among these names will be recognized many which represented some of the oldest and best families in the State. Wyllys was a descendant of one of the founders of Hartford. His father held the office of Secretary of State for sixty-one years; his grandfather had held it before that, and after the Revolution the honor fell to the colonel himself. The three held the office in succession for ninety-eight years. Three members of this family, which is now extinct, were in the army during this campaign, and two served with honor through the war. From Lebanon came Colonel Jedediah Huntington and his two brothers, Captains Joshua and Ebenezer. They were sons of Jabez Huntington, who like Trumbull was a type of the patriotic citizen of the Revolution. Although his business and property, as a West India merchant, would be greatly endangered if not ruined by the war, he and his family cheerfully ignored their personal interests in their devotion to the common cause. The three brothers and their brother-in-law, Colonel John Chester, served through the present campaign as they had in the previous one, and two of them, Jedediah and Ebenezer, fought to the end of the struggle. Parsons, who subsequently rose to the rank of a Continental major-general, Wyllys and Webb, were among those who pledged their individual credit to carry out the successful enterprise against Ticonderoga in 1775. In his section of the State few men were more influential than Colonel Silliman, of Fairfield, where, before the war, he had held the office of king's attorney. After the present campaign, in the course of which he was more than once engaged with the enemy, he was appointed a State brigadier, rendered further service during the British forays into Connecticut, and marched with troops to the Hudson Highlands upon Burgoyne's approach from Canada. Colonel Douglas, of Northford, engaged heart and hand in the struggle. Joining Montgomery's command in 1775, he served in the flotilla on Lake Champlain, and was subsequently appointed commodore by Congress; but accepting a colonelcy of Connecticut levies he marched to New York in 1776, after first advancing the funds to equip his regiment. With Silliman he enjoyed the confidence and good opinion of the commander-in-chief, and both were appointed to command regiments to be raised for the Connecticut Continental Line. Another of those citizen-soldiers who came from the substantial element in the population was Colonel Selden. A descendant of the Seldens who were among the first settlers in the Connecticut Valley, fifty years of age, possessing a large estate, incapacitated for severe military duty, the father of twelve children, he nevertheless answered the governor's call for troops, and joined the army at New York, from which he was destined not to return. Durkee, Knowlton, Hull, Sherman, Grosvenor, Bradley, afterwards a Continental colonel, and many others, were men from Connecticut, who gave the country their best services. The militia regiments from this State turned out at the governor's call upon the arrival of the enemy. Of the fourteen he designated to march, twelve reported at New York before August 27th, each averaging three hundred and fifty men, with Oliver Wolcott as their brigadier-general,[90] than whom no man in Connecticut had done more to further the public interests of both the State and the nation. Signing the Declaration in 1776, he was to be found in the following year fighting Burgoyne in the field, and afterwards constantly active in a military or civil capacity until the success of the cause was assured.

[Footnote 88: On his promotion to a brigadier-generalship in August, Parsons was succeeded by his lieutenant-colonel, John Tyler.]

[Footnote 89: This was the same officer who came down with Lee in the spring. When his regiment returned home he was put in command of another raised on the continental basis. He joined the army in August, but did not cross to Long Island.]

[Footnote 90: The original letter from Trumbull to Wolcott, among the latter's papers, informing him of his appointment, states that the fourteen regiments had been called out upon "the most pressing application of General Washington." The governor adds: "Having formed raised expectations of your disposition and ability to serve your country in this most important crisis, on which the fate of America seems so much to depend, I trust you will cheerfully undertake the service," etc. General Wolcott proceeded at once to New York, and was with the militia in the city during the fighting on Long Island, and for some time after. As to the number of the regiments that came down, see Colonel Douglas' letter of August 23d (Document 22), where he says twelve were on the parade the day before.]

* * * * *

Pass these men in review, and we have before us not a small proportion of those "fathers" of the Revolution, to whose exertions and sacrifices America owes her independence. It was a crude, unmilitary host, strong only as a body of volunteers determined to resist an invasion of their soil. Here and there was an officer or soldier who had served in previous wars, but the great mass knew nothing of war. The Continental or established regiments formed much less than half the army, and some of these were without experience or discipline; very few had been tested under fire. As to arms, they carried all sorts—old flint-locks, fowling-pieces, rifles, and occasionally good English muskets captured by privateers from the enemy's transports. Not all had bayonets or equipments. Uniforms were the exception; even many of the Continentals were dressed in citizens' clothes.[91] The militiamen, hurriedly leaving their farms and affairs, came down in homespun, while some of the State troops raised earlier in the spring appeared in marked contrast to them, both in dress and discipline. Smallwood's Marylanders attracted attention with their showy scarlet and buff coats. The Delawares, with their blue uniform, were so nearly like the Hessians as to be mistaken for them in the field. Miles' Pennsylvanians wore black hunting shirts; and Lasher's New York battalion perhaps appeared, in the various uniforms of gray, blue and green worn by the independent companies. The general and regimental officers in the army were distinguished by different-colored cockades and sashes. For regimental colors, each battalion appears to have carried those of its own design. One of the flags captured by the Hessians on Long Island was reported by a Hessian officer to have been a red damask standard, bearing the word "Liberty" in its centre. Colonel Joseph Read's Massachusetts Continentals carried a flag with a light buff ground, on which there was the device of a pine-tree and Indian-corn, emblematical of New-England fields. Two officers were represented in the uniform of the regiment, one of whom, with blood streaming from a wound in his breast, pointed to children under the pine, with the words, "For posterity I bleed."[92]

[Footnote 91: When it was proposed to put the Boston army on the new Continental basis on January 1st, 1776, Washington evidently hoped to have it all uniformed. Thus his orders of December 11th, 1775, read: "As uniformity and decency in dress are essentially necessary in the appearance and regularity of an army, his Excellency recommends it earnestly to the officers to put themselves in a proper uniform.... The general by no means recommends or desires officers to run into costly or expensive regimentals; no matter how plain or coarse, so that they are but uniform in their color, cut, and fashion. The officers belonging to those regiments whose uniforms are not yet fixed upon had better delay making their regimentals until they are." The orders of January 5th, 1776, say: "The regimentals, which have been made up, and drawn for, may be delivered to the respective Colonels, by the Quartermaster-General, to the order of those Colonels, who drew them at such prices as they have cost the continent, which is much cheaper than could otherwise be obtained. As nothing adds more to the appearance of a man than dress, and a proper degree of cleanliness in his person, the General hopes and expects that each regiment will contend for the most soldierlike appearance." These "regimentals" were of a brown color. That Little's and Hitchcock's men, or most of them, were in uniform when they came to New York, appears from General Greene's Providence order of April 4th (ante, p. 62). A description of the colors of Colonel Joseph Read's Massachusetts Continental regiment refers to the "uniform of the regiment;" so doubtless most of the Boston army was in uniform. But whether they were kept supplied with uniforms may be doubted. The men wore out their clothes fast while throwing up the works, and Washington speaks of the "difficulty and expense" of providing new ones. (Orders, July 24th, 1776.) At this date he does not insist on uniforms, but recommends the adoption of the hunting shirt and breeches as a cheap and convenient dress, and as one which might have its terrors for the enemy, who imagined that every rebel so dressed was "a complete marksman." A valuable article on "The Uniforms of the American Army" may be found in the Magazine of American History, for August, 1877, by Professor Asa Bird Gardner, of the West Point Military Academy.]

[Footnote 92: Force, 5th Series, vol. ii., p. 244.]

Had this force acquired the discipline and been hardened by the service which made Washington's troops later in the war a most trusty and effective body, the campaign of 1776 would have shown another record. But not the less are we to respect it, with all its failings and defeats. If not all the men were "patriots;" if some lost faith in the cause; if others deserted it entirely and joined the enemy; if some entered the army from mercenary motives and proved cravens in the field; if still others who were honest enough in their intentions were found to be wretched material for the making of good soldiers—this was only the common experience of all popular struggles. As a body, it fairly represented the colonists in arms; and as an army, it did its share in bringing about the final grand result.

* * * * *

To recapitulate: Washington's army, at the opening of the campaign on August 27th, consisted of seventy-one regiments or parts of regiments, twenty-five of which were Continental, aggregating in round numbers twenty-eight thousand five hundred officers and men. Of these, Massachusetts furnished seven thousand three hundred; Rhode Island, eight hundred; Connecticut, nine thousand seven hundred; New York, four thousand five hundred; New Jersey, one thousand five hundred; Pennsylvania, three thousand one hundred; Delaware, eight hundred; and Maryland, nine hundred. Between eight and nine thousand were on the sick-list or not available for duty, leaving on the rolls not far from nineteen thousand effectives, most of them levies and militia, on the day of the battle of Long Island.[93] As officered and brigaded at this date the army stood as follows:

[Footnote 93: The last official return of the army before the battle, published in Force's Archives, bears date of August 3d; the next about September 12th. The latter is the proper basis for making an estimate of the numbers for August 27th, as it includes all the regiments except Haslet's known to be then present, and no more. On September 12th the total of rank and file on the rolls, not including the absent sick, was 24,100. To these add 1800 commissioned officers and 2500 sergeants, drums and fifes, and the total strength is 28,400. On the same date, rank and file, fit for duty, numbered 14,700. Add to these 1000 lost on Long Island and 3500 officers, sergeants, drums and fifes fit for duty, and we have, all told, between 19,000 and 20,000 effectives on August 27th; and these figures correspond with Washington's statement of September 2d: "Our number of men at present fit for duty is under 20,000." The army suffered greatly from sickness during August and September. General Heath writes in his Memoirs, under date of August 8th: "The number of sick amounted to near 10,000; nor was it possible to find proper hospitals or proper necessaries for them. In almost every farm, stable, shed, and even under the fences and bushes, were the sick to be seen, whose countenances were but an index of the dejection of spirit and the distress they endured." On the 4th of August, Colonel Parsons wrote to Colonel Little: "My Doctor and Mate are sick. I have near Two Hundred men sick in Camp; my neighbours are in very little better state." And he asks Little to consent to his surgeon's mate remaining with him until his own surgeons were better. [MS. letter in possession of Charles J. Little, Esq.]]

GEORGE WASHINGTON,

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

AIDES-DE-CAMP.

Colonel William Grayson, of Virginia; Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Cary, Jr., of Massachusetts; Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel B. Webb, of Connecticut; Lieutenant Tench Tilghman, of Pennsylvania.

SECRETARY.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Hanson Harrison, of Virginia.

ADJUTANT-GENERAL.

Colonel Joseph Reed, of Philadelphia.

QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL.

Colonel Stephen Moylan, of Pennsylvania.

COMMISSARY-GENERAL.

Colonel Joseph Trumbull, of Connecticut.

PAYMASTER-GENERAL.

Colonel William Palfrey, of Massachusetts.

MUSTER-MASTER-GENERAL.

Colonel Gunning Bedford, of Pennsylvania.

DIRECTOR OF THE GENERAL HOSPITAL.

Doctor John Morgan, of Pennsylvania.

CHIEF ENGINEER.

Colonel Rufus Putnam, of Massachusetts.

PUTNAM'S DIVISION.

MAJOR-GENERAL ISRAEL PUTNAM.

AIDES-DE-CAMP.

Major Aaron Burr, Major ——.

CLINTON'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES CLINTON.[94]

Brigade-Major, David Henly.

Colonel Joseph Read, Massachusetts 505[95] " Ebenezer Learned, " 521 " John Bailey, " 503 " Loammi Baldwin, " 468

[Footnote 94: General Clinton being absent all summer in the Highlands, the brigade was commanded first by Colonel Read, and afterwards by Colonel Glover.]

[Footnote 95: The figures given here represent the total number of enlisted men on the rolls on September 12, absent sick included. In the case of some of the regiments, especially from the flying camp, under Lutz, Kachlein, and others, only an estimate can be formed. The strength of these is noted in connection with the losses on Long Island in the next chapter. The Connecticut militia regiments are credited with 350 men each, as Washington gives the figures.]

SCOTT'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN MORIN SCOTT.

Brigade-Major, Nicholas Fish.

Colonel John Lasher, New York 510 " William Malcom, " 297 " Samuel Drake, " 459 " Cornelius Humphrey, " 261

FELLOWS' BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN FELLOWS.

Brigade-Major, Mark Hopkins.

Colonel Jonathan Holman, Massachusetts 606 " Simeon Cary, " 569 " Jonathan Smith, " 551 " John Glover,[96] " 365

[Footnote 96: Glover's regiment did not join the army at New York until August. It was assigned on the 12th to Stirling's brigade, and on the 15th to Fellows'.]

HEATH'S DIVISION.

MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM HEATH.

AIDES-DE-CAMP.

Major Thomas Henly, Major Israel Keith.

MIFFLIN'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS MIFFLIN.

Brigade-Major, Jonathan Mifflin.

Colonel Robert Magaw, Pennsylvania 480 " John Shee, " 496 " Israel Hutchinson, Massachusetts 513 " Paul Dudley Sargent,[97] " 527 " Andrew Ward, Connecticut 437

[Footnote 97: Sargent's and Ward's reported on the ground in August. They were probably in Mifflin's brigade.]

CLINTON'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE CLINTON.

Brigade-Major, Albert Pawling.

Colonel Isaac Nichol, New York 289 " Thomas Thomas, " 354 " James Swartwout, " 364 " Levi Paulding, " 368 " Morris Graham, " 437

SPENCER'S DIVISION.

MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH SPENCER.

AIDES-DE-CAMP.

Major William Peck, Major Charles Whiting.

PARSONS' BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS.

Brigade-Major, Thomas Dyer.

Colonel Jedediah Huntington, Connecticut 348 " Samuel Wyllys, " 530 " John Durkee, " 520 " John Tyler, " 569 " Jonathan Ward, Massachusetts 502

WADSWORTH'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES WADSWORTH.

Brigade-Major, John Palsgrave Wyllys.

Colonel Gold Selleck Silliman, Connecticut 415 " Fisher Gay, " 449 " Comfort Sage, " 482 " Samuel Selden, " 464 " William Douglas, " 506 " John Chester, " 535 " Phillip Burr Bradley, " 569

SULLIVAN'S DIVISION.

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN SULLIVAN.

AIDES-DE-CAMP.

Major Alexander Scammell, Major Lewis Morris, Jr.

STIRLING'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL LORD STIRLING.

Brigade-Major, W.S. Livingston.

Colonel William Smallwood, Maryland 600 " John Haslet, Delaware 750 " Samuel Miles, Pennsylvania 650 " Samuel John Atlee, " 300 Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholas Lutz, " 200 " " Peter Kachlein, " 200 Major Hay, " 200

McDOUGALL'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALEXANDER McDOUGALL.

Brigade-Major, Richard Platt.

Late McDougall's, New York 428 Colonel Rudolph Ritzema, New York 434 " Charles Webb, Connecticut 542 " Jonathan Brewer (Artificers) 584

GREENE'S DIVISION.

MAJOR-GENERAL NATHANIEL GREENE.

AIDES-DE-CAMP.

Major William Blodgett, Major William S. Livingston.

NIXON'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN NIXON.

Brigade-Major, Daniel Box.

Colonel Edward Hand, Pennsylvania 288 " James Mitchell Varnum, Rhode Island 391 " Daniel Hitchcock, " 368 " Late Nixon's, Massachusetts 419 " William Prescott, " 399 " Moses Little, " 453

HEARD'S BRIGADE.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL NATHANIEL HEARD.

Brigade-Major, Peter Gordon.

Colonel David Forman, New Jersey 372 " Phillip Johnston, " 235 " Ephraim Martin, " 382 " Silas Newcomb, " 336 " Phillip Van Cortlandt, " 269

CONNECTICUT MILITIA.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL OLIVER WOLCOTT.

Colonel Thompson, Connecticut 350 " Hinman, " " " Pettibone, " " " Cooke, " " " Talcott, " " " Chapman, " " " Baldwin, " " Lieutenant-Colonel Mead, " " " " Lewis, " " " " Pitkin, " " Major Strong, " " " Newberry, " "

LONG ISLAND MILITIA.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL NATHANIEL WOODHULL.[98]

Brigade-Major, Jonathan Lawrence.

Colonel Josiah Smith, Long Island 250 " Jeronimus Remsen, " 200

[Footnote 98: These regiments were nominally under General Woodhull, but actually under Greene and Sullivan. At the time of the battle of the 27th both were doing duty with Nixon's brigade. (Sullivan's orders, August 25th. Document 2.) Their strength can only be estimated, but it is probably correct to say that together they were less than five hundred strong.]

ARTILLERY.

Colonel Henry Knox, Massachusetts 406

As appears from a document among the papers of General Knox, the encampments and posts of these brigades, before the advance of the enemy, were fixed as follows: Scott's, in the city; Wadsworth's, along the East River, in the city; Parsons', from the ship-yards on the East River to Jones' Hill, and including one of the redoubts to the west of it; Stirling's and McDougall's, still further west as a reserve near Bayard's Hill; Fellows', on the Hudson, from Greenwich down to the "Glass House," about half-way to Canal Street; and James Clinton's, from that point down to the "Furnace," opposite the Grenadier Battery. These brigades, forming Putnam's, Spencer's, and Sullivan's divisions, with the Connecticut militia, were retained within the city and its immediate vicinity. Of Heath's division, Mifflin's brigade was posted at Fort Washington, at the upper end of the island, and George Clinton's at King's Bridge. Greene's division—Nixon's and Heard's brigades—with the exception of Prescott's regiment and Nixon's, now under his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Nixon, which were on Governor's Island, occupied the Long Island front.[99]

[Footnote 99: See Appendix to Drake's Life of General Knox.]

* * * * *

A far more perfect and formidable army was that which lay encamped on Staten Island, seven miles down the bay. It was the best officered, disciplined, and equipped that Great Britain could then have mustered for any service. The fact that she found it difficult to raise new troops to conquer America only made it necessary to send forward all her available old soldiers. The greater part of Howe's army, accordingly, consisted of experienced regulars. He had with him twenty-seven regiments of the line, four battalions of light infantry and four of grenadiers, two battalions of the king's guards, three brigades of artillery, and a regiment of light dragoons, numbering in the aggregate about twenty-three thousand officers and men. The six thousand or more that came from Halifax were the Boston "veterans." These had been joined by regiments from the West Indies; and among the reinforcements from Britain were troops that had garrisoned Gibraltar and posts in Ireland and England, with men from Scotland who had won a name in the Seven Years' War.[100] Howe's generals were men who showed their fitness to command by their subsequent conduct during the war. Next to the commander-in-chief ranked Lieutenant-Generals Clinton, Percy, and Cornwallis; Major-Generals Mathews, Robertson, Pigot, Grant, Jones, Vaughan, and Agnew; and Brigadier-Generals Leslie, Cleveland, Smith, and Erskine.

[Footnote 100: The "Highlander" regiments were the Forty-second and Seventy-first. In Stewart's Highlanders, vol. i., p. 354, as quoted in the Memoir of General Graham, the following passage appears: "On the 10th April, 1776, the Forty-second Regiment being reviewed by Sir Adolphus Oughton, was reported complete, and so unexceptionable that none were rejected. Hostilities having commenced in America, every exertion was made to teach the recruits the use of the firelock, for which purpose they were drilled even by candle-light. New arms and accoutrements were supplied to the men; and the colonel of the regiment, at his own expense, supplied broadswords and pistols.... The pistols were of the old Highland fashion, with iron stocks. These being considered unnecessary except in the field, were not intended, like the swords, to be worn by the men in quarters. When the regiment took the field on Staten and Long Island, it was said that the broadswords retarded the men by getting entangled in the brushwood and they were therefore taken from them and sent on board the transports."]

The Hessians or "foreigners" formed more than one fourth of the enemy's strength. They numbered eight thousand officers and men, which, added to the distinctively British force, raised Howe's total to over thirty-one thousand. His total of effectives on the 27th of August was something more than twenty-four thousand.[101]

[Footnote 101: General Clinton, quoting from Howe's returns on this date, says he had "24,464 effectives fit for duty; a total of 26,980, officers not included, who, when added, amount to 31,625 men." See General Carrington's Battles of the Revolution, p. 199. To the British force should be added two or three companies of New York loyalists.]

Drawn up in complete array upon the field this army would have confronted Washington's in the following order:[102]

[Footnote 102: The list that follows is copied from what appears to have been the roster-book of Adjutant Gilfillan of the Fifty-fifth Regiment. The book was captured by Captain Nathaniel Fitz Randolph, of New Jersey (see Document 56), and is now in the possession of Captain John C. Kinney, of Hartford, a great-grandson of the latter. There is no date attached to the "Order of Battle," but from the few dates that follow it was probably made out in the first part of August, 1776. The list gives the full British strength, and is interesting as naming the majors of brigade, represented by the abbreviation M.B.]

ORDER OF BATTLE FOR THE BRITISH.

[SIR WILLIAM HOWE.]

COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.

LIEUT GENLL CLINTON.

BRIGADIER GENLL LESSLIE.

2d Batn Lt. Infty. 3d Brigade[103] Lt. Infty. 1st Batn Lt. Infty.

[Footnote 103: An error, evidently, for Battalion.]

Major of Brigade Lewis.

BRIGADIER GENLL CLEVELAND.

2nd Brig. of Art'lly. 3d Brigade of Art. 1st Brigade of Art.

Major of Brigade Farrington.

FIRST LINE.

[Transcriber's Note: The following table has been split into two parts for readability.]

M.G. Pigot. M.G. Agnew. Cavalry. 5th, 35th, 49th, 28th. 23d, 57th, 64th, 44th. 2d Brigade. 6th Brigade. M.B. Disney. M.B. Leslie.

B.G. Smith. M.G. Robertson. M.G. Mathews. Cavalry. 43d, 63d, 54th, 23d. 15th, 45th, 27th, 4th. Guards. 5th Brigade. 1 Brigade. 2 Battalions. M.B. McKenzie. M.B. Smith.

SECOND LINE.

LIEUT GENLL. EARL PERCY.

M.G. Grant. B.G. Erskine. M.G. Jones. 17th, 46th, 55th, 40th. 71st Regiment. 37th, 52d, 38th, 10th. 4th Brigade. 3 Battalions. 3d Brigade. M.B. Brown. M.B. Erskine. M.B. Baker.

CORPS DE RESERVE.

LIEUT GENLL EARL CORNWALLIS.

Major Genll Vaughan.

2 B. Grendrs 4th B. Grendrs 3 Batt. Grendrs 1st Battln Grendrs

42 Regmt. 33d Regt.

HESSIAN DIVISION.[104]

[Footnote 104: The arrangement of the Hessian troops, as here given, is compiled from Von Elking's work, Baurmeister's Narrative, and the Hessian map in vol. ii. of the Long Island Historical Society's Memoirs.]

LIEUT-GENERAL DE HEISTER.

MIRBACH'S BRIGADE.

MAJOR GENERAL VON MIRBACH.

REGIMENTS.

Kniphausen. Rall. Lossberg.

STIRN'S BRIGADE.

MAJOR-GENERAL VON STIRN.

REGIMENTS.

Donop. Mirbach. Hereditary Prince.

DONOP'S BRIGADE.

COLONEL VON DONOP.

GRENADIERS.

Block. Minegerode. Lisingen.

YAGERS.

LOSSBERG'S BRIGADE.

COLONEL VON LOSSBERG.

REGIMENTS.

Von Ditfurth. Von Trumbach.

* * * * *

When and where, now, will these two armies meet? Or rather, the question was narrowed down to this: When and where will the British attack? With Washington there was no choice left but to maintain a strictly defensive attitude. The command which the enemy had of the waters was alone sufficient to make their encampment on Staten Island perfectly secure. As to assuming the offensive, Washington wrote to his brother, John Augustine, on July 22d: "Our situation at present, both in regard to men and other matters, is such as not to make it advisable to attempt any thing against them, surrounded as they are by water and covered with ships, lest a miscarriage should be productive of unhappy and fatal consequences. It is provoking, nevertheless, to have them so near, without being able to give them any disturbance." Earlier in the season an expedition had been organized under Mercer, in which Knowlton was to take an active part, to attack the enemy's outposts on Staten Island from the Jersey shore, but the weather twice interfered with the plan. All that the Americans hoped to do was to hold their own at and around New York. Washington tells us that he fully expected to be able to defend the city.[105] Even the passage of the Rose and Phoenix did not shake his faith. None of his letters written during the summer disclose any such misgivings as Lee expressed, respecting the possibility of maintaining this base, and in attempting to hold it he followed out his own best military judgment.

[Footnote 105: "Till of late I had no doubt in my own mind of defending this place."—Washington to Congress, September 2d, 1776.]

What occasioned the principal anxiety in the mind of the commander-in-chief was the number of points at which the British could make an attack and their distance from one another. They could advance into New Jersey from Staten Island; they could make a direct attack upon the city with their fleet, while the transports sailed up the Hudson and the troops effected a landing in his rear; they could cross to Long Island and fall upon Greene in force; or they could make landings at different points as feints, and then concentrate more rapidly than Washington, as their water carriage would enable them to do, and strike where he was weakest.[106]

[Footnote 106: "Before the landing of the enemy in Long Island, the point of attack could not be known, nor any satisfactory judgment formed of their intentions. It might be on Long Island, on Bergen, or directly on the city."—Washington to Congress, September 9th, 1776.]

The summer and the campaign season were passing, and still the uncertainty was protracted—when and where will the enemy attack?



CHAPTER IV.

THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND.

At length, upon the twenty-second of August, after days of expectation and suspense in the American camp, the British moved forward. Thoroughly informed of Washington's position, the strength of his army, and the condition of his lines at every point,[107] Lord Howe matured his plan of action deliberately, and decided to advance by way of Long Island. An attack from this quarter promised the speediest success and at the least cost, for, should he be able to force the defences of Brooklyn, New York would be at his mercy; or, failing in this, he could threaten Washington's flank from Hell Gate or beyond, where part of the fleet had been sent through the Sound, and by a push into Westchester County compel the evacuation of the city. Preparations were accordingly made to transport the troops from Staten Island across to the Long Island coast and debark them at Gravesend Bay, a mile to the eastward of the Narrows. A thunder-storm of great violence on the previous evening, which had fallen with fatal effect on more than one of Washington's soldiers, threatened to delay the movement, but a still atmosphere followed, and the morning of the 22d broke favorably.[108] At dawn the three frigates Phoenix, Greyhound and Rose, with the bomb-ketches Thunder and Carcass, took their stations close into the Bay as covering ships for the landing, while Sir George Collier placed the Rainbow within the Narrows, opposite De Nyse's Ferry, now Fort Hamilton, to silence a battery supposed to be at that point. Upon the Staten Island shore fifteen thousand British and Hessian troops, fully equipped, and forty pieces of artillery had been drawn up during the day and evening before, and a part of them embarked upon transports lying near at anchor. At the beach were moored seventy-five flat-boats, eleven batteaux, and two galleys, built expressly for the present service, and manned by sailors from the ships of war, which, with the rest of the naval armament, were placed under the direction of Commodore Hotham.

[Footnote 107: The Tories gave Howe all the information he needed. One Gilbert Forbes testified at the "Hickey Plot" examination that a Sergeant Graham, formerly of the Royal Artillery, had told him that he (the sergeant), at the request of Governor Tryon, had surveyed the works around the city and on Long Island, and had concerted a plan of attack, which he gave to the governor (Force, 4th Series, vol. vi., p. 1178). On his arrival at Staten Island, Howe wrote to Germaine, July 7th: "I met with Governor Tryon, on board of ship at the Hook, and many gentlemen, fast friends to government, attending him, from whom I have had the fullest information of the state of the rebels, who are numerous, and very advantageously posted, with strong intrenchments, both upon Long Island and that of New York, with more than one hundred pieces of cannon for the defence of the town towards the sea," etc.—Force, 5th Series, vol. i., p. 105.]

[Footnote 108: This storm, which is mentioned by Colonel Douglas, Captain Hale, Chaplain Benedict, and others, hung over the city from seven to ten in the evening, and is described by Pastor Shewkirk as being more terrible than that which "struck into Trinity Church" twenty years before. Captain Van Wyck and two lieutenants of McDougall's regiment and a Connecticut soldier were killed by the lightning.]

As soon as the covering frigates were in position, the brigade of light infantry and the reserves of grenadiers and foot, forming an advance corps four thousand strong and headed by Sir Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis, entered the flotilla and were rowed in ten divisions to the Gravesend landing, where they formed upon the plain without opposition.[109] Then followed the remaining troops from the transports, and before noon the fifteen thousand, with guns and baggage, had been safely transferred to Long Island. All who witnessed this naval spectacle that morning were the enemy themselves, a few Dutch farmers in the vicinity, and the pickets of Hand's riflemen, who at once reported the movement at camp.

[Footnote 109: The landing-place was at the present village of Bath. No opposition by the Americans would have availed and none was attempted. Washington wrote to Hancock, August 20th: "Nor will it be possible to prevent their landing on the island, as its great extent affords a variety of places favorable for that purpose, and the whole of our works on it are at the end opposite to the city. However, we shall attempt to harass them as much as possible, which will be all that we can do." To the same effect Colonel Reed's letter of August 23d: "As there were so many landing-places, and the people of the island generally so treacherous, we never expected to prevent the landing." General Parsons says (Document 5): "The landing of the troops could not be prevented at the distance of six or seven miles from our lines, in a plain under the cannon of the ships, just within the shore." An American battery had gone down to De Nyse's, earlier in the summer, to annoy the Asia, but there was none there at this date. The particulars of the debarkation and of subsequent movements of the enemy appear in the reports and letters of the two Howes and Sir George Collier. (Force, 5th Series, vol. i., pp. 1255-6; and Naval Chronicle, 1841.)]

The landing successfully effected, Cornwallis was immediately detached with the reserves, Donop's corps of chasseurs and grenadiers, and six field-pieces, to occupy the village of Flatbush, but with orders not to attempt the "pass" beyond, if he found it held by the rebels; and the main force encamped nearer the coast, from the Narrows to Flatlands. As Cornwallis advanced, Colonel Hand and his two hundred riflemen hurried down from their outpost camp above Utrecht, and, keeping close to the enemy's front, marched part of the way "alongside of them, in the edge of the woods," but avoided an open fight in the field with superior numbers.[110] Captain Hamilton and twenty men of the battalion fell back on the road in advance, burning grain and stacks of hay, and killing cattle, which, says Lieutenant-Colonel Chambers, he did "very cleverly." Among the inhabitants along the coast, confusion, excitement, and distress prevailed,[111] and many moved off their goods in great haste to find refuge in the American lines or farther east on the island; while others remained to welcome the enemy, for whose success they had been secretly praying from the outset.

[Footnote 110: "On the morning of the 22d of August there were nine thousand British troops on New Utrecht plains. The guard alarmed our small camp, and we assembled at the flagstaff. We marched our forces, about two hundred in number, to New Utrecht, to watch the movements of the enemy. When we came on the hill we discovered a party of them advancing toward us. We prepared to give them a warm reception, when an imprudent fellow fired, and they immediately halted and turned toward Flatbush. The main body also moved along the great road toward the same place."—Lieutenant-Colonel Chambers, of Hand's riflemen, to his Wife, September 3d, 1776. Chambersburg in the Colony and the Revolution.]

[Footnote 111: Strong's History of Flatbush.]

The section of Long Island which the enemy now occupied was a broad low plain, stretching northward from the coast from four to six miles, and eastward a still further distance. Scattered over its level surface were four villages, surrounded with farms. Nearest to the Narrows, and nearly a mile from the coast, stood New Utrecht; another mile south-east of this was Gravesend; north-east from Gravesend, nearly three miles, the road led through Flatlands, and directly north from Flatlands, and about half-way to Brooklyn Church, lay Flatbush. Between this plain and the Brooklyn lines ran a ridge of hills, which extended from New York Bay midway through the island to its eastern extremity. The ridge varied in height from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the sea, and from the plain it rose somewhat abruptly from forty to eighty feet, but fell off more gradually in its descent on the other side. Its entire surface was covered with a dense growth of woods and thickets, and to an enemy advancing from below it presented a continuous barrier, a huge natural abattis, impassable to artillery, where with proportionate numbers a successful defence could be sustained.

The roads across the ridge passed through its natural depressions, of which there were four within a distance of six miles from the harbor. The main highway, or Jamaica Road—that which led up from Brooklyn Ferry—after passing through Bedford, kept on still north of the hills, and crossed them at the "Jamaica Pass," about four miles from the fortified line. From this branched three roads leading to the villages in the plain. The most direct was that to Flatbush, which cut through the ridge a mile and a half from the works. Three quarters of a mile to the left, towards the Jamaica Pass, a road from Bedford led also to Flatbush; and near the coast ran the Gowanus Road to the Narrows. Where the Red Lion Tavern stood on this road, about three miles from Brooklyn Church, a narrow lane, known as the Martense Lane, now marking the southern boundary of Greenwood Cemetery, diverged to the left through a hollow in the ridge and connected with roads on the plain. To clearly understand succeeding movements on Long Island, it is necessary to have in mind the relative situation of these several routes and passes.

When word of the enemy's landing reached Sullivan and Washington the troops were immediately put under arms. The commander-in-chief had already been prepared for the intelligence by a dispatch from Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, the night before, to the effect that he had certain information from the British camp that they were then embarking troops and would move to the attack on the following day.[112] As the report came in that the enemy intended to march at once upon Sullivan, Washington promptly sent him a reinforcement of six regiments, which included Miles' and Atlee's from Stirling's brigade, Chester's and Silliman's from Wadsworth's, and probably Lasher's and Drake's from Scott's, numbering together some eighteen hundred men. They crossed with light spirits, and were marched to alarm-posts. Miles' two battalions went on to the Bedford Pass; Silliman was ordered down into "a woody hill near Red Hook, to prevent any more troops from landing thereabout."[113] Hand's riflemen, supported by one of the Eastern regiments, watched and annoyed the Hessians under Donop at Flatbush, and detachments were sent to guard the lower roads near the Red Lion.[114] Within the Brooklyn lines the troops stood to their alarm-posts. Colonel Little, expecting that "morning would bring us to battle," and remembering his promise to defend Fort Greene to the last extremity, enclosed his will to his son, and directed him in a certain event to take proper charge at home.

[Footnote 112: Livingston sent a spy to Staten Island on the night of the 20th, who brought word that the British were embarking, and would attack on Long Island and up the North River. Washington received the information during the storm on the following evening, and immediately sent word to Heath at King's Bridge that the enemy were upon "the point of striking the long-expected stroke." The next morning, the 22d, he wrote again instructing Heath to pick out "eight hundred or a thousand, light, active men, and good marksmen," ready to move rapidly wherever they were most needed; and he promised to send him some artillery, "if," he continues, "we have not other employment upon hand, which General Putnam, who is this instant come in, seems to think we assuredly shall, this day, as there is a considerable embarkation on board of the enemy's boats." (Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., volume for 1878. The Heath correspondence.) On the same date Washington wrote to Hancock: "The falling down of several ships yesterday evening to the Narrows, crowded with men, those succeeded by many more this morning, and a great number of boats parading around them, as I was just now informed, with troops, are all circumstances indicating an attack, and it is not improbable it will be made to-day. It could not have happened last night, by reason of a most violent gust." (Force, 5th Series, vol. i., p. 1110). On the 21st, Colonel Hand at the Narrows reported three times to General Nixon that the British transports were filling with men and moving down, and the reports were sent to Washington. These facts show how closely the enemy were watched. The embarkation was known at headquarters early on the morning of the 22d, before the landing was made on Long Island.]

[Footnote 113: Washington wrote to Heath the next day: "Our first accounts were that they intended by a forced march to surprise General Sullivan's lines, who commands during the illness of General Greene; whereupon I immediately reinforced that post with six regiments." Miles, Silliman, and Chester's adjutant, Tallmadge, state that their regiments were among the first to cross after the enemy landed. Sullivan's orders of the 25th and other records seem to indicate that Atlee's, Lasher's, and Drake's were the other three battalions sent over at the same time.]

[Footnote 114: See Sullivan's orders, Silliman's letters, Miles' Journal (Part II.), and Chambers' letter. [Transcriber's Note: The marker in the text for this footnote is missing in the original.]]

The morning of the 23d, however, brought no battle, nor did the enemy attempt any advance for three days. Washington made Sullivan an early visit, saw the situation there for himself, and during the day issued another of his fervent orders to the army. He formally announced the landing of the British, and again reminded his troops that the moment was approaching on which their honor and success and the safety of the country depended. "Remember, officers and soldiers," he said, "that you are freemen, fighting for the blessings of liberty; that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men. Remember how your courage and spirit have been despised and traduced by your cruel invaders; though they have found by dear experience at Boston, Charleston, and other places what a few brave men, contending in their own land and in the best of causes, can do against base hirelings and mercenaries." He urged them, too, to be cool, but determined; not to fire at a distance, but wait for the word from their officers; and gave express orders that if any man attempted to skulk, lie down, or retreat, he must be instantly shot down as an example. Those who should distinguish themselves for gallantry and good conduct were assured that they might depend upon being honorably noticed and suitably rewarded. Strict orders as to other matters were also issued. The commissary-general was to have five days' baked bread on hand for distribution; the men were to have constantly ready with them two days' hard bread and pork, and the officers were to see not only that they had it, but kept it. The officers of the newly arrived militiamen were instructed also to see that the cartridges fitted their soldiers' muskets, and that each man had twenty-four rounds and two flints.

On the Long Island front, Sullivan was alert, and kept his division in readiness for the attack, which was now hourly expected. He ordered his command that afternoon, the 23d, to prepare two days' provisions and turn out the next morning at three o'clock. For the night, he assigned Hitchcock's and Little's regiments to guard the Flatbush Pass, Johnston's and Martin's to the coast road, and Remsen's Long Island militia to support Miles on the Bedford Road. They were all to be at their posts at six o'clock, and the regiments they relieved were to return to their encampments and, like the rest, "get two days' provisions dressed, and be ready for action."

Meanwhile some brisk skirmishing occurred in front of Flatbush. In the afternoon of this day, the enemy, as Sullivan reported, formed, and attempted to pass the road by Bedford, but meeting a warm reception from the riflemen, some "musketry" sent to their support, and two or three of our field pieces, they fell back. "Our men," wrote Sullivan to Washington, "followed them to the house of Judge Lefferts (where a number of them had taken lodgings), drove them out, and burnt the house and a number of other buildings contiguous. They think they killed a number; and, as evidence of it, they produced three officers' hangers, a carbine, and one dead body, with a considerable sum of money in pocket. I have ordered a party out for prisoners to-night."[115] The enemy returned in force, and the American skirmishers, having but two wounded, withdrew to the hills; but their conduct in the affair was so highly appreciated by Sullivan, that he issued a congratulatory order in the following terms:

"The general returns his thanks to the brave officers and soldiers who, with so much spirit and intrepidity, repulsed the enemy and defeated their designs of taking possession of the woods near our lines. He is now convinced that the troops he has the honor to command will not, in point of bravery, yield to any troops in the universe. The cheerfulness with which they do their duty, and the patience with which they undergo fatigue, evince exalted sentiments of freedom and love of country, and gives him most satisfactory evidence that when called upon they will prove themselves worthy of that freedom for which they are now contending."[116]

[Footnote 115: Referring evidently to this skirmish, Lieutenant-Colonel Chambers says: "Strong guards were maintained all day on the flanks of the enemy, and our regiment and the Hessian yagers kept up a severe firing, with a loss of but two wounded on our side. We laid a few Hessians low, and made them retreat out of Flatbush. Our people went into the town and brought the goods out of the burning houses. The enemy liked to have lost their field-pieces. Captain Steel acted bravely. We would certainly have had the cannon had it not been for some foolish person calling retreat. The main body of the foe returned to town, and when our lads came back they told of their exploits."]

[Footnote 116: Little's Order Book, Document 2. But it seems that Remsen's Long Island militiamen were seized by a panic, either during this skirmish or at a later hour, on the Bedford Road, and ran from their posts. Sullivan rebuked them sharply in his orders of the 24th (Document 2), and confined them thereafter to "fatigue" duty. This proved to be only the first of several militia panics experienced in this campaign.]

On the 24th, Washington was still in doubt as to the intentions of the enemy. Reports represented their numbers on Long Island at not more than eight thousand, whereas they were double this estimate; and it was suspected at headquarters that their landing might only be a feint to draw off our troops to that side, while the real attack should be made on New York. But the imprudence of running any risks on the Brooklyn side was obvious, and Washington sent over a further reinforcement of four regiments, which appear to have been Wyllys's, Huntington's, and Tyler's of Parsons' brigade (his entire command was there on the next day) together with the Pennsylvania detachments under Lieutenant-Colonel Lutz and Major Hay. On this date Brigadier-General Lord Stirling crossed over, where more than half his brigade had preceded him; and Brigadier-General John Nixon, whose name now first appears in connection with the operations on Long Island, was detailed as field officer of the day, with orders to take command of the outer line and post his men "in the edge of the woods next the enemy."[117]

[Footnote 117: Sullivan's Orders, August 24th. Document 2.]

But the principal event of the 24th was the change made in the chief command on Long Island. Sullivan was superseded by Putnam. There were now on that side the whole of Nixon's and Heard's brigades (the two regiments on Governor's Island excepted), the larger part of Stirling's and Parson's, and half of Scott's and Wadsworth's. As this roster included one third of the army's effective force, the command could properly be assigned to Putnam as the senior major-general present; but it does not appear that the question of his rank entered into the reasons for the change. In a letter to Governor Livingston from Colonel Reed, the adjutant-general, dated August 30th, 1776, the statement is made that Washington, "finding a great force going to Long Island, sent over Putnam;" leaving the inference to be drawn that, apart from his rank, Putnam was considered the proper officer, or an officer competent, to command such a force. Reed states further that some movements had been made on Long Island of which the commander-in-chief did not entirely approve, and this also called for a change. Sullivan, too, was wholly unacquainted with the ground; although, as to this, Putnam's knowledge of it was not extensive, as he had been over it only "occasionally." That Sullivan was a brave, zealous, and active officer, his military career abundantly proves. Appointed a brigadier-general from New Hampshire, he commanded a brigade under Lee throughout the Boston siege, and had been sent, as already stated, in the spring of this year to help repair the misfortunes attending our force on the Canada border; but success was not to be met with there, and Sullivan, finding Gates promoted to the chief command in that quarter, returned, after visiting Congress, to the New York army. Like most of our general officers at that date, he as yet lacked military experience, especially in an independent capacity, for which his ambition to succeed was not a sufficient equivalent. How far Putnam was more competent to assume the command on Long Island, is a point which the issue there, at least, did not determine. His record before this was all in his favor. A veteran of the old war, a man of known personal courage, blunt, honest, practical, and devoted to the American cause, he had the confidence of at least the older part of the army, with which he had been identified from the beginning of the struggle. As he had never been tried in a separate department, Washington could not say how he would manage it, but he could say, from his experience with him at Boston, that Putnam was "a most valuable man and fine executive officer,"[118] and such he continued to prove himself through the present campaign. He seconded Washington heartily and efficiently in all his plans and preparations, and when he was sent to Long Island the commander-in-chief had reason to feel that whatever directions he might give as to operations there, Putnam would follow them out to the letter. But if Putnam took the general command across the river, Sullivan continued in active subordinate control, as second in command.[119]