Chapter XXX: ```'Hail, mighty city! High must be his fame (2)

* (v) On the twentieth of December, the ship Lady Gage, commanded by Captain Thomas Mesnard, arrived with ten cases and three boxes of arms, and a barrel of gunpowder, consigned to Walter Franklin. The collector ordered these to be seized, because, as he alleged, they had been lying in Franklin's warehouse several days without cockets. While on their way to the custom-house, a small party of the Sons of Liberty took them from the officers in charge, but before they could conceal them, they were retaken and placed on board an armed ship in the harbor. On the same day a letter for the collector was put in the post-office, * containing menaces of vengeance, and that night a very inflammatory hand-bill was left at almost every door in the city. **

* (vi) When General Gage began to fortify Boston Neck, the people refused him labor and materials; and in the spring of 1775, he sent to New York for both, in order to erect barracks for the soldiers on Boston Common. The patriots were informed that a sloop laden with boards was about to sail for Boston. A meeting was ealled at the Coffee-house, and it was resolved to seize the vessel. At that meeting, Sears exhorted the people to arm themselves with muskets and twenty-four ball-cartridges each. For this he was arrested and taken before the mayor. He refused to give bail, and was about to be carried to prison when the people took him from the officers, and bore him in triumph through the town, preceded by a band of music and a banner. That night Sears addressed the people in "the fields," and a few days afterward he was elected a member of the Provincial Congress. The names of Burling, Ivers, Alner, M'Dougal, Roorbach, and Richard Livingston are preserved as among those of Sears's friends on that occasion.

* A scheme for the establishment of an independent post-office, proposed by William Goddard, the publisher of the Maryland Journal, was put into partial operation in 1775, and on the eleventh of May, John Holt, the printer, was appointed postmaster. The office was kept at Holt's printing-house.

** This is supposed to have been written by John Lamb. To avoid being betrayed, the Sons of Liberty went to Holt's printing-house at night, and put in type and printed their hand-bills themselves, and then circulated them through the town.

[[[Arming of the People.--Closing of the Custom house.--Arms seized by the Sons of Liberty.--Fortifications Ordered.]]]

{794}people took possession of the City Hall, armed themselves, and with Lamb and Willett at their head, they embargoed all vessels in the harbor laden with provisions for the British army in Boston. They did more; Andrew Elliott, the collector, forbade the landing of a cargo of rum for the patriots. Sears and Lamb ordered the vessel to Cruger's Wharf (between Coenties * and Old Slips), landed the rum, and carted it to its destination in the city; then returning to the custom-house, they demanded and received the keys, dismissed the employees, and closed the building.[[May 2]] When they had committed this overt act of treason, they boldly gave notice of the fact to their brethren in other cities. Persons known to be engaged in sending provisions to the British ships in the harbor were seized, and general alarm pervaded the Tory ranks. ** A grand Committee of Safety, consisting of one hundred of the most respectable citizens, was now organized; a military association for practice in the use of fire-arms was formed, under Samuel Broome; a pledge (see page 384, volume i.) was circulated, and numerously signed; six hundred stand of arms were taken from the city arsenals by the committee, and distributed among the citizens; and when an Irish battalion (the last remains of the garrison in Fort George), under Major Moncrief, were on their way to a vessel bound for Boston, with a quantity of spare arms in boxes upon wagons, Marinus Willett and a small body of Sons of Liberty, encouraged by a short harangue by John Morin Scott, boldly confronted the soldiers, seized the arms, and carried them baek to the now deserted fort.[[Jan 23, 1775]] These arms were afterward used by Gansevoort's regiment, of which Willett was lieutenant colonel.

When the Provincial Congress assembled,[[May 22]] its complexion disappointed the people.

Toryism and timidity prevailed in that Assembly, and the elaboration of schemes for conciliation, instead of measures for defense, occupied the majority. Hard pressed by public opinion, *** and the influence of important events daily transpiring, they were obliged to yield. Four regiments were authorized to be raised; **** fortifications at King's Bridge (v) were ordered, and measures were taken to fortify the Hudson passes in the Highlands. In the mean while, the patriots gathered in force around Boston; the battle of Bunker Hill was fought; a Continental army was organized, and George Washington appointed the commander-inchief. (vi) Rumors of the approach of troops from Ireland came, and the Provincial Congress,

* This is a corruption of Countess's Slip, a name given to it in honor of the Countess Bellomont, the child-wife of Governor Bellomont. She was a mother at the age of thirteen.

** Dr. Cooper, the president of King's (now Columbia) College, becoming alarmed, soon afterward fled to Stuyvesant's house, near the East River, where he remained concealed, under the impression that the Whigs were trying to seize him. He finally escaped to the Asia man-of-war. He had written much in favor of Episcopacy in America, and was a decided Loyalist; so decided, that, next to Tryon, Colden, and Mayor Hicks, he was most detested by the Whigs. Dr. Cooper was eminent for his learning. He succeeded Dr. Johnson as president of the college in 1763. Soon after his flight he went to England. He died suddenly in Edinburgh, on the first of May, 1785, at the age of fifty years, and was buried in the Episcopal chapel there.

*** New York has been unjustly taunted for its adherence to royalty, when the curtain of the Revolutionary drama was first lifted in 1775. Family influence was very great in that colony, and through it the General Assembly and the Provincial Congress were very loyally inclined. But the masses were chiefly republican in feeling, and when Toryism was fairly crushed out of the popular Assembly by pressure from without, no state was more patriotic. With a population of only one hundred and sixty-four thousand, of whom thirty-two thousand five hundred were liable to do militia duty, New York furnished seventeen thousand seven hundred and eighty-one soldiers for the Continental army; over three thousand more than Congress required.--Judge Campbell's Address before the New York Historical Society, 1850.

**** These were commanded by colonels M'Dougal, James Clinton, Ritzema, and Wynkoop. Herman Zedwitz, a Prussian, was M'Dougal's first major. Ritzema joined the Royal army after the battle at White Plains; and about the same time Zedwitz was cashiered for attempting a treasonable correspondence with Tryon.

* (v) King's Bridge spans Spyt den Duyvel Creek, at the northern end of York Island. The first structure there was of wood, erected at the expense of the colony in 1691, and was called the King's bridge.

* (vi) For a notice of Washington's arrival in New York, when on his way to Cambridge, see vol. i., page 564.

[[[Wooster and his Troops at Harlem.--Capture of British Stores.--Turtle Bay.--Committee of One Hundred.]]]

{795}somewhat purged of its Toryism by intelligence from the East, invited General Wooster, then in command of eighteen hundred Connecticut militia at Greenwich, to come to the defense of New York.

He encamped at Harlem[[June, 1775]] for several weeks, sent detachments to beat off marauders, who were carrying away the cattle of Long Island to the British army in Boston, and by his presence made the New York patriots bold and active. At midnight[[July 20]] they captured British stores at Turtle Bay, and sent part to the grand army at Boston and a part to the troops then collecting on Lake Champlain to invade Canada; they also seized a tender, with stores, belonging to the _Asia,_ and took possession of provisions and clothing deposited at Greenwich * by the government. **

Governor Tryon returned to New York in the _Asia_ on the third of July, and was received with respect. His course soon indicated his opposition to the Republicans. The energetic actions of the committee of One Hundred taught him to be circumspect in public, and his private intrigues to gain ascendency for Toryism in the Provincial Congress were abortive. That body, now guided by the popular will, and perceiving a resort to arms to be inevitable, ordered Lamb, who was then a captain of artillery, to remove the cannons from the grand battery and the fort, and take them to a place of security. Assisted by an independent corps under Colonel Lasher, and a body of citizens guided by _King_ Sears, as

* Greenwich was then a village of a few houses, a mile and a half from the city. It has long since been merged into the metropolis, and is now (1852) at about a central point, on the Hudson, between the lower and upper part of the city.

** These acts were done under the immediate sanction of the committee of One Hundred, * who, while the Provincial Congress legislated, were busy in executing according to the known will of the people. The patriots regarded this committee with more confidence than they did the Provincial Congress.

*** Turtle Bay is a small rock-bound cove of the East River, at the foot of Forty-seventh Street. The banks are high and precipitous, and afforded a safe retreat for small vessels. Here the government had made a magazine of military stores, and these the Sons of Liberty determined to seize. Under the direction of Lamb, Sears, Willett, and M'Dougal, a party procured a sloop at Greenwich, came stealthily through the dangerous vortex of Hell Gate at twilight, and at midnight surprised and captured the guard, and secured the stores. The old store-house in which they were deposited is yet standing upon a wharf on the southern side of the little bay. The above view is from the bank at the foot of Forty-sixth Street. Beyond the rocky point on the north side of the bay is seen the lower end of Blackwell's Island, with the shore of Long Island in the distance. On the left of the old store-house, delineated in the annexed sketch, is seen the bridge across the mouth of Newtown Creek, a locality which will be mentioned presently in connection with a notice of the landing of troops under Sir Henry Clinton.

* The following-named gentlemen composed the committee of One Hundred: Isaae Low, Chairman; John Jay, Fraud's Lewis, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, James Duane, E. Duyekman, William Seton, William W. Ludlow, Cornelius Clopper, Abraham Brinekerhoff, Henry Remsen, Robert Ray, Evert Bancker, Joseph Totten, Abraham P. Lott, David Beekman, Isaae Roosevelt, Gabriel II. Ludlow, William Walton, Daniel Phoenix, Frederick Jay, Samuel Broome, John De Lancey. Augustus van Horne, Abraham Duryee, Samuel Verplanck, Rudolphus Putzema, John Morton, Joseph Hallett, Robert Benson, Abraham Brasher, Leonard Lispenard, Nicholas Hoffman, P. V. Brugh Livingston, Thomas Marsten, Lewis Pintard, John Imlay, Eleazar Miller, Jr.. John Broome, John B. Moore, Nicholas Bogart, John Anthony, Victor Bicker, William Goforth, Hercules Mulljin, Alexander M'Dougal, John Reade, Joseph Ball, George Janeway, John White, Gabriel W. Ludlow, John Lasher, Theophilus Anthony, Thomas Smith, Richard Liates, Oliver Templeton, Jacobus van Landby, Jeremiah Platt, Peter S. Curtenius, Thomas Randall, Lancaster Burling, Benjamin Kissam, Jacoh Lefferts, Anthony van Dam, Abraham Walton, Hamilton Young, Nicholas Roosevelt, Cornelius P. Low, Franeis Bassett, James Beekman, Thomas Ivers, William Dunning, John Berrien, Benjamin Helme, William W. Gilbert, Daniel Dunscombe, John Lamb, Richard Sharpe, John Morin Seott, Jacob van Voorhis, Comfort Sands, Edward Flemming, Peter Goelet, Gerrit Kettletas, Thomas Buchanan, James Desbrosses, Petrus Byvanek, Lott Embree.--See Dunlap's History of New York, ii., Appendix, ccxvi.

[[[Removal of Cannons from the Battery.--Cannonade from the Asia.--Newspapers in the City.]]]

{796}the sturdy Son of Liberty was now called, he proceeded to the battery at nine o'clock on lhe evening of the twenty-third of August. Captain Vandeput, of the _Asia_, informed of the intended movement, sent a barge filled with armed men to watch the patriots. When they appeared, a musket ball was indiscreetly sent among them from the barge. It was answered by a volley, when the barge hastened to the _Asia_, bearing several men killed and wounded. That vessel opened her port-holes, and hurled three balls ashore in quick succession. Lamb ordered the drums to beat to arms; the church bells were rung, and while all was confusion and alarm, a broadside came from the _Asia_. Others rapidly followed, and several houses near the fort and Whitehall were injured by the grape and round shot. * No life was sacrificed, but terror seized the people. Believing the rumor that the city was to be sacked and burned, hundreds of men, women, and children were seen at midnight hurrying with their light effects to places of safety beyond the doomed town. Yet the patriots at the battery were firm, and in the face of the cannonade every gun was deliberately removed. Some of them afterward performed good service in the American cause. **

Deep feelings of exasperation moved the Sons of Liberty in the city after this cannonade, and Tryon's fears wisely counseled his flight. Mayor Hicks and others promised him protection, but he had more confidence in gunpowder, and on the nineteenth of October[[1775]] he took refuge on board the British sloop of war Halifax, *** where he received his council, and, like Dunmore, attempted to exercise civil authority. **** Aided by Rivington. (v) with

* Among the houses injured at that time was the tavern of Samuel Fraunce (commonly called Black Sam, because of his dark complexion), on the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, where Washington parted with his officers more than eight years afterward. That house, known as the Broad Street Hotel, was partly destroyed by fire in June, 1852. Freneau, in his Petition of Hugh Gaine, makes that time-server allude to the cannonade of the Asia, and say,

"At first we supposed it was only a sham,
'Till he drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam."

** There were twenty-one iron eighteen-pounders and some smaller cannon on the battery. Alexander Hamilton, then a student in King's (now Columbia) College, was among the citizens on that occasion. He had organized a corps for artillery discipline among his fellow-students, and fifteen of them were now with him. Among their trophies were two six-pounders, which they buried in the earth on the College Green, despite the menaces of Dr. Cooper, the Tory president. These two cannons may yet (1852) be seen at the entrance gate of the College Green, fronting Park Place.

*** The Continental Congress, on the sixth of October, recommended the several Provincial Congresses and Committees of Safety to seeure every person believed to be inimical to the Republican cause. No doubt this recommendation hastened Tryon's flight.

**** The members in attendance were Oliver Delancey, Hugh Wallace, William Axtell, John Harris Cruger and James Jauncey.

* (v) James Rivington was a native of London, well educated, and of pleasing deportment. He came to America in 1760, established a bookstore in Philadelphia the same year, and in 1761 opened one near the foot of Wall Street, in New York, where his Royal Gazetteer * was established in April, 1773. No man was more thoroughly detested by the Whigs than Rivington, for he held a keen and unscrupulous pen. His good nature often pointed his severest thrusts. When, in 1781, he perceived the improbability of success on the part of the British, he made a peace-offering to the Americans, by furnishing the commander-in-chief with important information. By means of books which he published, he performed his treason without suspicion. He wrote his secret billets upon thin paper, and bound them in the cover of a book, which he always managed to sell to those who would carry the article immediately to Washington. The men employed for this purpose were ignorant of the nature of their service. While thus playing into the hands of the Republicans, he unceasingly abused them, and kept Clinton, Robertson, and Carleton in blissful ignorance of his perfidy. When the Loyalists fled, and the American army entered the city in the autumn of 1783, Rivington remained; a fact which has puzzled those acquainted with his course during the war. Others, not a tithe so obnoxious, were driven away; in his secret treason lies the explanation. His business declined, and he lived in comparative poverty until July, 1802, when he died at the age of seventy-eight years. The portrait here given is from a fine painting by Stuart, in the possession of Honorable John Hunter, of Hunter's Island, New Rochelle. The signature is half the size of the original. Mr. Hunter remembers Rivington as a vivacious, companionable man, fond of good living, a lover of wine, and a perfect gentleman in his deportment.

* There were three other newspapers printed in the city when Rivington's press was destroyed, namely, Gaine's New York Mercury, in Hanover Square, established in 1752; Holt's New York Journal, in Dock (Pearl) Street, near Wall, commenced in 1766; and Anderson's Constitutional Gazette, a very small sheet, published for a few months in 1775. at Beekman's Slip. Hugh Gaine was a time-server. He was a professed patriot until the British took possession of New York in 1776, when he returned to the city after a brief exile at Newark, became a moderate Loyalist, and, on making an humble petition to the State Legislature at the close of the war, he was allowed to remain. This petition was the subject of one of Freneau's best satirical poems. Gaine kept a bookstore under the sign of the Bible and Crown, at Hanover Square, for forty years. He died on tin: twenty-fifth of April, 1807, at the age of eighty-one years. Previous to the meeting of the first Congress, Holt's paper contained the Snake device (see page 508, volume i.) at its head; in December, after its session, it bore the annexed significant picture as a vignette. This is half the size of the original. Upon the body of the serpent were these words.

"United, now, alive and free,
Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand,
And thus supported ever bless our land,
'Till Time becomes Eternity."

After the destruction of his press, Rivington went to England. When the British took possession of New York, he was appointed king's printer, and in October, 1777, he resumed the publication of his paper, under the original title. On the thirteenth of December, he changed the title to "The Royal Gazette," and published it semi-weekly. During the occupation of the city by the British, a paper was issued every day but one; Gaine's Mercury on Monday; Rivington's Gazette on Wednesday and Saturday; Robertson's, Mills', and Hicks' Loyal American Gazette on Thursday; and Lewis's New York Mercury and General Advertiser on Friday. Rivington alone assumed the title of "printer to the king."--Thomas's History of Printing, ii., 312.

[[[Destruction of Rivington's Printing Materials.--Capture of Seabury.--Rivington and Sears.]]]

{797}his _Royal Gazetteer_, his influence was still great, and and in active propagation.

In total disregard of truth and common fairness, Rivington abused the Republicans with unsparing severity, and none more bitterly than Captain Sears. *

That patriot, fired by personal insult and political zeal, came from Connecticut, where he had gone to plan schemes for the future with ardent Whigs, and at noonday entered the city[[Nov. 23, 1775]] at the head of seventy-five light-horsemen, proceeded to the printing establishment of Seabury ** and two other obnoxious Tories, and managed to keep disaffection alive Rivington, at the foot of Wall Street, placed a guard with fixed bayonets around it, put all of his types into bags, destroyed his press and other apparatus, and then in the same order, amid the shouts of the populace, and to the tune of Yankee Doodle, left the city. They carried off the types and made bullets of them. On their way back to Connecticut they disarmed all the Tories in their route, and at West Chester seized and took with them the Reverend Samuel in triumph to New Haven.

* Isaac Sears was born at Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1729. His ancestors, who were among the earliest emigrants to Massachusetts, were from Colchester, England, and came to Plymouth in 1630. Mr. Sears was a successful merchant in the city of New York, engaged in the European and West India trade, when political matters attracted his attention. When the Stamp Act aroused the colonists, Sears stood forth as the champion of right, and, as we have seen in preceding pages, was one of the most active and zealous members of the association of the Sons of Liberty. He was an active Whig during the whole war, and when it ended, his business and his fortune had disappeared. Before the war he had commanded a vessel engaged in the West India trade. In 1785, we find him on the ocean as supercargo, bound for Canton, with others engaged in the venture. When they arrived at Canton. Captain Sears was very ill with fever, and on the twenty-eighth of October, 1785, he died at the age of nearly fifty-seven years. He was buried upon French Island, and his fellow-voyagers placed a slab, with a suitable inscription, over his grave.

** This was Bishop Seabury of a later day, whose grave we have noticed on page 50. He was born at New London in 1728, graduated at Yale in 1751, took orders in the church, in London, in 1753, and then settled in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was at Jamaica, Long Island, for ten years, and then removed to West Chester, in the county of West Chester. He took sides with the Loyalists, and was one of those who signed a protest at White Plains against the measures of the Whigs. Sears and his party carried him to New Haven, where he was kept for some time, and then paroled to Long Island. His school at West Chester was broken up, his church was converted into a hospital, and he went to New York, and served as chaplain, at one time, in Colonel Fanning's corps of Loyalists. At the close of the war he settled in his native town. He was consecrated a bishop (the first in the United States) in 1784, and for the remainder of his life he presided over the diocese of Connecticut and Rhode Island. He died on the twenty-fifth of February, 1796.

[[[Disaffection.--Disarming of the Tories.--Troops under Lee in New York.--His Head-quarters.--Sir Henry Clinton.]]]

{798}During the winter of 1775--6, disaffection to the Republican cause prevailed extensively throughout the province, and in Queen's county and vicinity, on Long Island, the people began to arm in favor of the crown.

Tryon expected to see the province speedily declare in favor of royalty, and from the _Duchess of Gordon_ (armed ship), where he made his headquarters, he kept up an active correspondence with Hicks, Delancey, and other Loyalists in the city. The Continental Congress promptly opposed the progress of disaffection, and vigorous measures were adopted for a general disarming of the Tories throughout the colonies. * Early in January,[[1776]] Washington, then at Cambridge, was informed that General Sir Henry Clinton was about to sail on a secret expedition. He doubted not that New York was his destination, where Tryon was ready to head the Loyalists in a formal demonstration in favor of the crown. Fearing that province might be lost to the patriots, Washington readily acceded to the request of General Charles Lee, then in Connecticut, to embody volunteers in that colony, and march to New York. Governor Trumbull lent his aid to the service, and within a fortnight Lee, having the bold Isaac Sears for his adjutant general, was in rapid march toward New York with twelve hundred men. His approach produced great alarm, and many Tories fled, with their families and effects, to Long Island and New Jersey. The Committee of Safety, yet dozing over the anodyne of disaffection, were aroused by fear, and protested against Lee's entrance into the city, because Captain Parker, of the _Asia_, had declared his intention to cannonade and burn the town if rebel troops should be allowed to enter it. ** Lee was unmoved alike by Parker's threats and the committee's protest, and encamping the larger portion of his troops in "the fields" (the present City Hall Park), he made his head-quarters at the house of Captain Kennedy, No. 1 Broadway. *** He proclaimed his mission, and said, "I come to prevent the occupation of Long Island or the city by the enemies of liberty. If the ships of war are quiet, I shall be quiet; if they make my presence a pretext for firing on the town, the first house set in flames by their guns shall be the funeral pile of some of their best friends." Lee's energy of expression and action was potential. The Tories shrunk into inactivity; a glow of patriotism was felt in the Provincial Congress, and measures were speedily adopted for fortifying the city and the approaches to it, and garrisoning it with two thousand men.

Sir Henry Clinton arrived at Sandy Hook on the day when Lee entered the city. He sailed for North Carolina,[[March, 1776]] was followed thither by Lee, and in June

* Resolutions to this effect were adopted on the second of January, 1776, and on the same day Lord Stirling was directed to "seize and secure all the ammunition and warlike stores belonging to the enemy'' then or thereafter in New Jersey.--See Journal, ii., 5, 6, 7.

** Parker did not fire a shot because of the "rebel troops" in the city. His reasons were ludicrous. He said Lee desired the destruction of the city, and he would not gratify him.--Lee's Letter to Washington.

*** This house (yet standing) was built by Captain Kennedy, of the royal navy, at about the time of his marriage with the daughter of Colonel Peter Schuyler, of Newark, New Jersey, in April, 1765. The above engraving exhibits the locality in the vicinity of the Kennedy House. On the extreme left is seen the Broadway front of the Kennedy House (No. 1), where Lee, Washington, and afterward Sir Henry Clinton, Robertson, Carleton, and other British officers, were quartered, and where André wrote his letter, to Arnold. The building next to it (No. 3) is the one occupied by Arnold (see page 209) when Champe attempted his capture. The two high buildings beyond (Nos. 5 and 7) are more modern; the small, low one (No. 9, Atlantic Garden) was Gage's head-quarters in 1765. On the right of the picture is part of the Bowling Green, where the statue of the king stood. The view is taken from the site of the northwest bastion of Fort George.

[[[Fortifications upon York or Manhattan Island.]]]

{799}they were in conflict in Charleston harbor. The army in New York was left in charge of Lord Stirling,[[March 7]] and that officer prosecuted with vigor the labor of fortifying the city, begun by Lee. * Already the Tories who remained had been compelled to take an oath to act with the Americans if required, and officers were busy upon Staten Island, and some parts of Long Island, in disarming them.

Washington hastened to New York after the British evacuated Boston,[[March 17, 1776]] for he suspected Howe would sail directly to attack that city. He arrived on the fourteenth of April, and approving of the course of Lee and Stirling, he pushed forward the defenses of the city. Fort George was strengthened, and in the course of three months strong works were erected in the vicinity of the city and in the Hudson Highlands. ** Toward the

* On the night of the tenth of April, one thousand Continentals went over to Governors Island and constructed a redoubt upon the west side, a little southeast of Castle William. On the same night a regiment went over to Red Hook, the extreme point of land north of Gowanus Bay, over which South Brooklyn is now spreading, constructed a redoubt for four eighteen-pounders, and named it Fort Defiance. It was upon a small island, close to the shore, near the water termination of Conover and Van Brunt Streets, south of the Atlantic Docks.

** Redoubts and batteries were constructed at eligible points along the East River to Harlem, and along the Hudson to King's Bridge; also upon Governor's Island, Red Hook, Brooklyn Heights, and Paulus's Hook. * Fort George with its dependencies, on the site of ancient Fort Amsterdam, was the principal military work upon the island. It had, when Washington came into the city, two twelve-pounders and four thirty-two-pounders, though capable of mounting sixty cannons. Connected with it was the Grand Battery, with thirteen thirty-two pounders, one twenty-four, three eighteen's, two two's, and one brass and three iron mortars. This was enlarged after the British took possession, to a capacity for ninety-four guns. This work was in the vicinity of the present flag-staff upon the Battery. A little eastward of it, at the South Ferry landing, was the Whitehall Battery, with two thirty-two pounders. From this point to Corlaer's Ilook, along the East River, several works were constructed. There was a battery of five guns upon Tenyck's Wharf, at Coenties Slip, and upon Brooklyn Heights opposite, Fort Stirling, a battery with eight guns, was constructed. It was between the present Hicks and Clinton Streets, a little northeastward of Pierrepont Street. At Old Coffee-house, Fly, Burling's, Beekman's, and Peek Slips, and at the Exchange, foot of Broad Street, breast-works were thrown up. There was also a barrier with two guns across Broadway, just above the Bowling Green. At "the ship-yards," on the site of the present Catharine Market, was an irregular work, called Waterbery's Battery, having seven guns. A larger work was on Rutgers' first hill (a little eastward of the Jews' burying-ground), at the intersection of Market and Madison Streets. It was called Badlam's Battery, and mounted eight guns. Another small work, of horse-shoe form, was on a high bank near the water, in Pike Street, between Cherry and Monroe Streets, with a breast work on the water's edge. Here General Spencer was encamped, and this was called Spencer's Redoubt. It had two twelve-pounders. On Rutgers' second hill, between Henry and Madison, Clinton and Monroe Streets, was a star redoubt, embrasured for twelve guns. This was connected by an irregular line of works, extending to a strong battery called Crown Point, at Corlaer's Hook, situated upon the site of the present Allaire Works. Eastward of this, upon Burnt Mill Point, was a battery, on the site of the Novelty Iron Works. From Crown Point was a line of intrenchments extending to a strong redoubt, of circular form, mounting eight heavy pieces, and called Fort Pitt. It was upon the brow of a hill at the intersection of Grand and Pitt Streets. From Fort Pin a series of strong works extended nearly on a line with the present Grand and Broome Streets, to Broadway, and thence, diverging to the northwest, terminated in a redoubt on the brow of a hill, on the borders of a marsh near the intersection of Thompson and Spring Streets, Within this line, upon an eminence called Bayard's Mount, was the largest of all the works, except Fort George and the Grand Battery. This was called Independent Battery, and the Americans named the eminence Bunker Hill. This name was retained until the Collect or Fresh Water Pond, which covered many acres in the vicinity of the Halls of Justice, was filled by digging down the hills around it.

** The battery on Bunker Hill was upon the space included within the intersections of Center, Mott, Mulberry, Grand, and Broome Streets; and for a long time after the hill was digged down, the brick lining of a well, constructed within the works, stood up like a huge chimney. This battery had nine eight-pounders, four three's, and six royal cohorns and mortars. The first work on the Hudson, after leaving Fort George, was the Oyster Battery in the rear of No. 1 Broadway. It had two thirty-two pounders and three twelve's. Southwest of Trinity Independent Batteky. church, on the high river bank, was a Battery of four guns. West of Greenwich Street ("Greenwich road"), near the water, between Reade and Duane Streets, was the Jersey Battery, with five guns. Along the high river bank a breast-work extended almost to the Vauxhall (see page 788) at the corner of Warren and Greenwich Streets. On Greenwich, between Franklin and North Moore Streets, was the "Air-furnace" and "Brew-house." The former was fortified, and from it a line of intrenchments extended northeast, to the north part of the present St. John's Park, overlooking Lispenard's Meadows. On the river bank, in front of the "Brew-house," was a circular work called the Grenadier's Battery, with three twelve pounders and two mortars From it a line of breast-works extended along the river to Hubert Street. From that point, close along the west side of Greenwich Street, was a line of breast-works, extending to Desbrosses Street. Where Watt Street crosses Greenwich was another small breastwork; at the foot of King Street was another; and from the foot of Clarkson to Barrow was another. Upon the high ground known until within a few years as Richmond Hill, there was quite an extensive line of fortifications, which commanded the river, and the Greenwich and Broadway roads. This line commenced near the junction of Spring and M'Dougal Streets, and, sweeping around near Houston and Hammersley, ended at Variek, near King Street. On the west side of Broadway, near Houston Street, was an eminence on which works were erected; and directly east of them, between Broadway and the Bowery, were four small breast-works, a few rods apart. East of the Bowery, at the intersection of Forsyth and Delancey Streets, was a small circular battery. On the west side of Broadway, near Walker, was an irregular work; and the Hospital on Broadway, fronting Pearl Street), a strong stone building, was fortified. There was also a line of breast-works extending along the East River from the present Dry Dock to Stuyvesant Square; and at Horn's Hook, at the foot of Eighty-ninth Street, was a work ealled Thompson's Battery, with nine guns. I was informed by the venerable Judge Woodhull, of Franklinville, Long Island (now ninety-eight years of age), that when the lines across the island, from the East River toward the Hudson, were constructed, the merchants and other citizens were, pressed into service. It must be remembered that most of the streets here mentioned were not then in existence. Chambers Street up Broadway, Hester Street up the Bowery, and Catharine Street up the East River, were the extreme points to which streets were laid out at the time of the Revolution. Now (1852) the streets and avenues are all opened to Fortieth Street, and some beyond and almost a solid mass of edifices cover the island from river to river below Thirty-second Street. Then the Hospital was quite in the fields, and Greenwich was a country village.

[[[Washington's Conference with Congress.--Preparation for the Defense of New York.--Landing of British Troops.]]]

{800}close of May,[[May 23]] he left the troops in command of General Putnam, while he hastened to Philadelphia to confer with Congress respecting the general defense of the colonies.

The wicked bargain of Great Britain with the German princes for their men was now known, and it was believed that New York was the point where the mercenary vultures would probably strike their first blow. To that point the eyes of all America were now turned. Congress authorized a re-enforcement of thirteen thousand eight hundred militia, to be drawn from New England, New York, * and New Jersey, and provided for the establishment of a flying camp of ten thousand men, to be formed of militia from Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The latter were to rendezvous at Amboy, and the accomplished General Mercer was appointed to the command. General Greene took post at Brooklyn, and Superintended the preparation of defenses there. On his return,[[June 7]]Washington went to the upper end of the island, and personally aided in the surveys and the arrangement of the plan of Fort Washington and its outworks.

General Howe, who went to Halifax from Boston, arrived at Sandy Hook on the twenty-ninth of June,[[1776]] with ships and transports bearing his recruited army, where he was visited by Governor Tryon.

On the eighth of July he landed nine thousand men upon Staten Island, *** and there awaited the arrival of his brother, Admiral Howe, with English

* John Morin Scott was appointed to the command of the New York troops, with the commission of a brigadier.

** I was informed by the venerable Anna van Antwerp, * about a fortnight before her death, in the autumn of 1851, that Washington made his head-quarters, on first entering the city, at the spacious house (half of which is yet standing at 180 Pearl Street, opposite Cedar Street), delineated in the engraving. The large window, with an arch, toward the right, indicates the center of the original building. It is of brick, stuccoed, and roofed with tiles. There Washington remained until summoned to visit Congress at Philadelphia, toward the last of May. On his return, he went to the Kennedy House, No. 1 Broadway, where he remained until the evacuation in September.

*** The main body of Howe's troops landed near the present quarantine ground, and encamped upon the hills in the vicinity. The fleet had anchored off Vanderventer's point (the telegraph station at the Narrows), and three ships of war and some transports brought the English troops within the Narrows, to the landing-place.--(Howe's Dispatch to Lord George Germaine.) Howe made his head-quarters at the Rose and Crown Tavern, upon the road leading from Stapleton to Richmond, near New Dorp. The house is near the forks of the Richmond and Amboy roads, and overlooks the beautiful level country between it and the sea, two miles distant. It is now (1852) the property of Mr. Leonard Parkinson, of Old Town, Staten Island. The house was built by a Huguenot, one of the first settlers upon that part of the island. When Howe landed, the great body of the people on the island formed a corps of Loyalists, under Tryon, and some of them were in the battle near Brooklyn.

* Mrs. Van Antwerp left the city with her parents when the British took possession, and retired to Tappan, where she was married. They returned to the city after the war, and her husband purchased the lot No. 38 Maiden Lane, where she resided from that time until her death, a period of almost seventy years. Her style of living was that of the Revolution, and all the persuasions of her wealthy children could not lure her from that simplicity and the home of her early years of married life. She arose one morning, sat down by her table, leaned her head upon it, and expired like a waning ember, at the age of ninety-five years. Almost all of the few who knew her half a century ago, had forgotten her.

[[[Plot to destroy Washington.--Declaration of Independence read to the Army.--Destruction of the King's Statue.]]]

{801}regulars and Hessian hirelings. These arrived in the course of a few days, and on the eleventh, Clinton and Parker, with their broken forces, joined them. Another debarkation took place on the twelfth, and there, upon the wooded heights of Staten Island, above Stapleton and Clifton, and upon the English transports, almost thirty thousand men stood ready to fall upon the republicans. * Already the Declaration of Independence had gone abroad; ** the statue of the king in New York had been pulled down, *** and brave men, pledged to the support of the Continental Congress and its measures, were piling fortifications upon every eligible point around the devoted city.

* A plot, originated by Tryon, to murder the American general officers on the arrival of the British, or at best to capture Washington and deliver him to Sir William Howe, was discovered at this time. It was arranged to blow up the magazine, secure the passes to the city, and at one blow deprive the Republicans of their leaders, and by massacre or capture annihilate the "rebel army." Mayor Hicks was one of the conspirators; and from his secure place on board the Duchess of Gordon, Tryon sent money freely to bribe Americans. Two of Washington's Guard were seduced, but the patriotism of a third was proof against their temptations, and he exposed the plot. Hicks, Gilbert Forbes (a gunsmith on Broadway), and about a dozen others, were immediately arrested, and sent prisoners to Connecticut. It was ascertained that about five hundred persons were concerned in the conspiracy. Thomas Hickey, one of the Guard, was hanged on the twenty-seventh of June, 1776. This was the first military execution In New York.--See Spark's Writings of Washington, iii., 438; Force's American Archives, vi., 1064; lb., i. (second series), 117; Game's New York Mercury.

** Washington received the Declaration of Independence on the ninth of July, with instructions to have it read to the army. He immediately issued an order for the several brigades, then in and near the city, to be drawn up at six o'clock that evening, to hear it read by their several commanders or their aids. The brigades were formed in hollow squares on their respective parades. The venerable Zachariah Greene (commonly known as "Parson Greene," the father-in-law of Mr. Thompson, historian of Long Island), yet (1852) living at Hempstead, at the age of ninety-three years, informed me that he belonged to the brigade, then encamped on the "Common," where the City Hall now stands. The hollow square was formed at about the spot where the Park Fountain now is. He says Washington was within the square, on horseback, and that the Declaration was read In a clear voice by one of his aids. When it was concluded, three hearty cheers were given. Holt's Journal for July 11, 1776, says, "In pursuance of the Declaration of Independence, a general jail delivery took place with respect to debtors." Ten days afterward, the people assembled at the City Hall, at the head of Broad Street, to hear the Declaration read. They then took the British arms from over the seat of justice in the court-room, also the arms wrought in stone in front of the building, and the picture of the king in the council chamber, and destroyed them, by fire, in the street. They also ordered the British arms in all the churches in the city to be destroyed. This order seems not to have been obeyed. Those in Trinity church were taken down and carried to New Brunswick by the Reverend Charles Inglis, at the close of the war, and now hang upon the walls of a Protestant Episcopal church in St. John's.

*** The statue of George the Third was equestrian, made of lead, and gilded. It was the workmanship of Wilton, then a celebrated statuary of London, and was the first equestrian effigy of his majesty yet erected. It was placed upon its pedestal, in the center of the Bowling Green, on the twenty-first of August, 1770. On the same evening when the Declaration of Independence was read to the troops in New York, a large concourse of people assembled, pulled down the statue, broke it in pieces, and sent it to be made into bullets. Ebenezer Hazard, in a letter to Gates, referring to the destruction of the king's statue, said, "His troops will probably have melted majesty fired at them." Some of the soldiers appear to have been engaged in the matter, for on the following morning Washington issued an order for them to desist from such riotous acts in future. * The greater portion of the statue was sent to Litchfield, in Connecticut, and there converted into bullets by two daughters and a son of Governor Wolcott, a Mrs. and Miss Marvin, and a Mrs. Beach. According to an account current of the cartridges made from this statue, found among the papers of Governor Wolcott, it appears that it furnished materials for forty-two thousand bullets.

* In a coarse Tory drama, entitled "The Battle of Brooklyn; a farce in two acts, as it was performed on Long Island on Tuesday, the twenty-seventh day of August, 1776, by the representatives of the Tyrants of America assembled, at Philadelphia," published by Rivington, the destruction of the statue is attributed to Washington. A servant girl of Lady Gates is made to say, concerning the chief, "And more, my lady, did he not order the king's statue to be pulled down, and the head cut oft'." Mr. Greene described the statue to me as of the natural size, both horse and man. The horse was poised upon his hinder legs. The king had a crown upon his head; his right hand held the bridle-reins, the left rested upon the handle of a sword. The artist omitted stirrups, and the soldiers often said, in allusion to the fact, "the tyrant ought to ride a hard-trotting horse, without stirrups." Stephens, in his Travels in Greece, &e. (ii., 33), says, that in the house of a Russian major, at Chioff he saw a picture representing the destruction of this statue. The major pledged him in the toast, "Success to Liberty throughout the world."

[[[Effect of the Declaration.--Howe's Letter to Washington.--Commission of the Brothers.--Preparations for Battle.]]]

{802}On the arrival of General Howe at Sandy Hook, the Provincial Congress of New York adjourned to White Plains, and there, on the ninth of July, they reassembled, approved of the Declaration of Independence, and changed the title of the Assembly to _Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York._ The Declaration, however, offended many influential men, who, though warmly attached to their country, and yearning for a redress of grievances, shuddered at the thought of separation from Great Britain. Some closed their mouths in silence and folded their arms in inaction, while others, like Beverly Robinson, the Delancey's, and men of that character, actively espoused the cause of the king. The patriot army in New York was surrounded by domestic enemies, more to be dreaded than open adversaries, and this fact seemed favorable to the hopes of Howe, that the olive branch would be accepted by the Americans when offered. * He soon perceived that much of loyalty was the child of timidity, and when his proclamations were sent abroad, offering peace only on condition of submission, the missiles proved powerless. Although doubtless desiring peace, he was obliged to draw the sword and sever the leashes of the blood-hounds of war.

On the twelfth of July, the Rose and Phonix ships of war, with their decks guarded by sand-bags, sailed up the bay, and passing the American batteries without serious injury, proceeded up the Hudson to Haverstraw Bay, for the double purpose of keeping open a communication with Carleton, who was endeavoring to make his way southward by Lake Champlain, ** and for furnishing arms to the Tories of West Chester. The vigilant Whigs would not allow their boats to land, and there they remained inactive for three weeks. In the mean while, the belligerent forces were preparing for the inevitable battle. Hulks of vessels were sunk in the channel between Governor's Island *** and the Battery, and _chevaux de frise_ were formed there under the direction of General Putnam, to prevent the passage of the British vessels up the East River. A large body of troops were concentrated at Brooklyn, under General Greene; Sullivan and his little army hastened from the North; two battalions from Pennsylvania and Maryland, under Smallwood, arrived, and the New York and New England militia flocked to the city by hundreds. On the first of August the American army in and around New York numbered about twenty-seven thousand men,

* General Howe, ami his brother, the admiral, were appointed by Parliament commissioners to treat for peace with the Americans. They were authorized to extend a free pardon to all who should return to their allegiance; to declare penitent towns or colonies exempt from the penalties of non-intercourse; and to offer rewards to those who should render meritorious services in restoring tranquillity. Howe sent proclamations to this effect ashore at Amboy, addressed to the colonial governors, and designed for general circulation among the people. The General Congress denounced it as a scheme to "amuse and disarm the people," and exhorted them to perceive "that the valor alone of their country was to save its liberties." Journal, ii., 260. At about the same time, Colonel Paterson, the British adjutant general, went to New York with a flag, bearing a letter from General Howe, addressed to "George Washington, Esq." this was so addressed because the Briton was unwilling to acknowledge the official character of the "rebel chief." It was a silly movement; Washington penetrated the design, and refused any communication, unless addressed to General Washington. Paterson urged Washington not to be punctilious, pleading the necessity of waving all ceremony, for Howe came to cause the sheathing of swords, it possible. Washington was inflexible, and said, in reference to the commissioners, that they seemed empowered only to grant pardons; that those who had committed no fault needed no pardon, and that the Americans were only defending their rights as British subjects. Paterson returned, and Howe made no further attempts to correspond with "George Washington, Esq." Congress, by resolution, expressed its approval of the course of the commander-in-chief in this matter.

** The chief plan of the campaign of 1776 was for Howe to attack New York and ascend the Hudson, while Carleton should come from Canada and form a junction. This would effectually cut off the Eastern States from the rest of the confederacy. Clinton, in the mean while, was to make war in the Southern States, and the American forces being thus divided, might be easily conquered. Their designs miscarried. Clinton was repulsed at Charleston, Carleton was kept at bay, and Howe did not pass the Highlands.

*** The original name of this island was Nutten. The rents of the land being a perquisite of the colonial governors, it was called Governor's Island. It was held as such perquisite until the close of Governor Clinton's administration. General Johnson, of Brooklyn, informed me that Clinton rented it to Dr. Price, who built a house of entertainment there, and laid out a race-course. Owing to the difficulty of taking race-horses to the island, it was abandoned after two or three years, and the course at Harlem was established.

[[[Disposition of American Detachments.--Kip's Bay.--The Kip Family.]]]

{803}but at least one fourth of them were unfitted by sickness for active duty. Bilious fever prostrated Greene about the middle of August, and Sullivan was placed in command at Brooklyn. A small detachment was ordered to Governor's Island; another was posted at Paulus' Hook, where Jersey City now stands, and General George Clinton, with a body of New York militia, was ordered to West Chester county to oppose the landing of the British on the shores of the Sound, or, in the event of their landing, to prevent their taking possession of the strong post at King's Bridge. Parson's brigade took post at Kip's Bay, * on the East River to watch British vessels if they should enter those waters. Such was the position of the two armies immediately antecedent to the battle near Brooklyn, at the close of August, 1776.