The Continental Dragoon

by Robert Neilson Stephens

  NOTES.

  NOTE 1. (Page 41.)

  "The old county historian." Rev. Robert Bolton, born 1814, died 1877.His "History of the County of Westchester," especially the revisededition published in 1881, is a rich mine of "material." Among otherworks that have served the author of this narrative in a study of theperiod and place are Allison's "History of Yonkers," Cole's "Historyof Yonkers," Edsall's "History of Kingsbridge," Dawson's "WestchesterCounty during the Revolution," Jones's "New York during theRevolution," Watson's "Annals of New York in the Olden Time," GeneralHeath's "Memoirs," Thatcher's "Memoirs," Simcoe's "Military Journal,"Dunlap's "History of New York," and Mrs. Ellet's "Domestic History ofthe Revolution." For an excellent description of the border warfare onthe "neutral ground," the reader should go to Irving's delightful"Chronicle of Wolfert's Roost." Cooper's novel, "The Spy," dealsaccurately with that subject, which is touched upon also in that goodold standby, Lossing's "Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution."Philipse Manor-house has been carefully written of by Judge Atkins ina Yonkers newspaper, and less accurately by Mrs. Lamb in her "Historyof New York City," and Marian Harland in "Some Colonial Homesteads andTheir Stories." Of general histories, Irving's "Life of Washington"treats most fully of things around New York during the Britishoccupation, and these things are interestingly dealt with in localhistories, such as the "History of Queens County," Stiles's "Historyof Brooklyn," Barber and Howe's "New Jersey Historical Collections,"etc., as well as in such special works as Onderdonk's "RevolutionaryIncidents."

  NOTE 2. (Page 47.)

  Of Colonel Gist's escape, Bolton gives the following account: "Thehouse was occupied by the handsome and accomplished widow of the Rev.Luke Babcock, and Miss Sarah Williams, a sister of Mrs. FrederickPhilipse. To the former lady Colonel Gist was devotedly attached;consequently, when an opportunity afforded, he gladly moved hiscommand into that vicinity. On the night preceding the attack, he hadstationed his camp at the foot of Boar Hill, for the better purpose ofpaying a special visit to this lady. It is said that whilst engaged inurging his suit the enemy were quietly surrounding his quarters; hehad barely received his final dismissal from Mrs. Babcock when he wasstartled by the firing of musketry.... It appears that all the roadsand bridges had been well guarded by the enemy, except the one nowcalled Warner's Bridge, and that Captain John Odell upon the firstalarm led off his troops through the woods on the west side of the SawMill [River]. Here Colonel Gist joined them. In the meantime Mrs.Babcock, having stationed herself in one of the dormer windows of theparsonage, aided their escape whenever they appeared, by the waving ofa white handkerchief."

  The British attack was under Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, whose journalshows that his force so far outnumbered Gist's that the latter's onlysensible course was in flight. About the year 1840, trees cut downnear the site of Gist's camp were found to contain balls buried sixinches in the wood.

  NOTE 3. (Page 76.)

  The three generals arrived on the _Cerberus_, May 25th. All thehistories say that they arrived "with reinforcements." It is true,troops were constantly arriving at Boston about that time, but nonecame immediately with the three generals. The _Connecticut Gazette_(published in New London) printed, early in June, this piece of news,brought by a gentleman who had been in Boston, May 28th: "GeneralsBurgoyne, Clinton, and Howe arrived at Boston last Friday in aman-of-war. No troops came with them. They brought over 25 horses." Itis a wonder that Frothingham, in his admirably complete history of thesiege of Boston, missed even this little circumstance. Probablyeverybody has read the incident thus related by Irving: "As the shipsentered the harbor and the rebel camp was pointed out, Burgoyne couldnot restrain a burst of surprise and scorn. 'What!' cried he; 'tenthousand peasants keep five thousand King's troops shut up! Well, letus get in and we'll soon find elbow room!'" I don't think Irvingrelates anywhere the sequel, which is that when, after his surrender,Burgoyne marched with his conquered army into Cambridge, an old womanshouted from a window to the crowd of spectators, "Give him elbowroom!" This story ought to be true, if it is not.

  NOTE 4. (Page 89.)

  It was in a letter under date of October 4, 1778, that Washingtonwrote: "What officer can bear the weight of prices that everynecessary article is now got to? A rat in the shape of a horse is notto be bought for less than L200; a saddle under thirty or forty."

  NOTE 5. (Page 124.)

  Captain Cunningham was the British provost marshal, as everybodyknows, whose name became a synonym for wanton cruelty in the treatmentof war prisoners. He had come to New York before the Revolution, andhad kept a riding school there. As soon as the war broke out he tookthe royal side. It was he who had in charge the summary execution ofNathan Hale. He would often amuse himself by striking his prisonerswith his keys and by kicking over the baskets of food or vessels ofsoup brought for them by charitable women, who, he said, were theworst rebels in New York. He died miserably in England after the war.His career is briefly outlined in Sabine's "Loyalists." As to themanner in which Peyton, if caught, would have died, it must beremembered that in the American Revolution the rope served in many acase which, occurring in Europe or in one of our later wars, wouldhave been disposed of with the bullet. Writing of General Charles Lee,John Fiske says: "There is no doubt that Sir William Howe looked uponhim as a deserter, and was more than half inclined to hang him withoutceremony." Then, as now, a deserter in time of war was liable to deathif caught at any subsequent time, his case being worse than that of aspy, who was liable to death only if caught before getting back to hisown lines. There was, by the way, much unceremonious hanging on the"neutral ground." Not far from the Van Cortlandt mansion there stillstood, in Bolton's time, "a celebrated white oak, in the midst of apretty glade, called the Cowboy Oak," from the fact that many of theTory raiders had been suspended from its branches during the war ofRevolution.

  NOTE 6. (Page 127.)

  I am not sure whether the saying, "The corpse of an enemy smellssweet," attributed to Charles IX. of France, in allusion to Coligny,is historical or was the invention of a romancer. It occurs in Dumas's"La Reine Margot."

  NOTE 7. (Page 136.)

  Mr. Valentine's unwillingness to lend aid was doubtless due to thefrequency of such incidents as one that had occurred to his neighbor,Peter Post, in 1776. Post's estate occupied the site of the presenttown of Hastings. He gave information to Colonel Sheldon regarding themovements of some Hessians, and afterwards deceived the Hessians as tothe whereabouts of Sheldon's own cavalry. Thereby, Sheldon's troop wasenabled to surprise the Hessians, and defeat them in a short andbloody conflict. The Hessians' comrades later caught Post, strippedhim, beat him to insensibility, and left him for dead. He recovered ofhis injuries. His house, a small stone one, became a tavern after theRevolution, and was a celebrated resort of cock-fighters andhard-drinkers. Not far north of Hastings is Dobbs Ferry, which wasoccupied by both armies alternately, during the Revolution. Furthernorth is Sunnyside, Irving's house, elaborated from the originalWolfert's Roost, and beyond that are Tarrytown, where Andre wasstopped and taken in charge, and Sleepy Hollow. Enchanted ground, allthis, hallowed by history, legend, and romance.

  NOTE 8. (Page 179.)

  The secret passage or passages of Philipse Manor-house have not beenneglected by writers of fiction, history, and magazine articles. Thepassage does not now exist, but there are numerous traces of it. Thedifferent writers do not agree in locating it. The author of aninteresting story for children, "A Loyal Little Maid," has it that thepassage was reached through an opening in the panelling of thedining-room, this opening concealed by a tall clock. I think MarianHarland says that a closet in one of the parlors or chambers connectswith the secret passage. Both these assumptions are wrong. Mr. R. P.Getty has pointed out in the northwestern corner of the cellar whatseems to have once been the entrance to the passage. One authorityquotes a belief "that from the cellar there was a passage to a wellnow covered by Woodworth Avenue," and that this was to afford accessto what may have been a storage vault. A man who
was born in 1821 saysthat, when a boy, he saw, near the house, a dry cistern, from thebottom of which was an arched passage towards the Hudson, large enoughfor a man six feet tall to pass through. Judge Atkins says that thewell was opposite the kitchen door, and had, at its western side,about ten feet deep, a chamber in which butter was kept. One writerlocates an ice-house where Judge Atkins places this well, and says asubterranean arched way led northward as far as the present WellsAvenue. "The ice-house was formerly, it is said, a powder-magazine."Many years ago, the coachman of Judge Woodworth used to say he had"gone through an underground passage all the way from the manor-houseto the Hudson River." Judge Atkins has written interesting legends ofthe manor-house, involving the secret passage and other features.

  NOTE 9. (Page 259.)

  "That lonely highway now called Broadway." A block of houses andanother street now lie between that highway and the east front of themanor-house. The building is closely hemmed in by the sordid signs ofprogress. Ugly houses, in crowded blocks, cover all the greatsurrounding space that once was thick forest, fair orchards, gardens,fields, and pastoral rivulet. The Neperan or Saw Mill River flows,sluggish and scummy, under streets and houses. A visit to themanor-house, now, would spoil rather than improve one's impression ofwhat the place looked like in the old days. Yet the house itselfremains well preserved, for which all honor to the town of Yonkers.There is in our spacious America so much room for the present and thefuture, that a little ought to be kept for the past. It is well to bereminded, by a landmark here and there, of our brave youth as apeople. A posterity, sure to value these landmarks more than thismoney-grabbing age does, will reproach us with the destruction we havealready wrought. Worse still than the crime of obliterating allhuman-made relics of the past, is the vandalism of nature herselfwhere nature is exceptionally beautiful. To rob millions ofbeauty-lovers, yet to live, of the Palisades of the Hudson, wouldbring upon us the amazement and execration of future centuries. Thisearth is an entailed estate, that each generation is in honor bound tohand down, undefaced, undiminished, to its successor. In order that aclose-clutched wallet or two may wax a little fatter, shall we bringupon ourselves a cry of shame that would ring with increasingbitterness through the ages,--shall we invite the execration meritedby such greed as could so outrage our fair earth, such stolid apathyas could stand by and see it done? Shall an alien or two, as hard ofsoul as the stone in which he traffics, mar the Hudson that Washingtonpatrolled, rob countless eyes, yet unopened, of a joy; countlessminds, yet to waken, of an inspiration; countless hearts, yet to beat,of a thrill of pride in the soil of their inheriting? Shall somefuture reader wonder why Irving, deeming it "an invaluable advantageto be born and brought up in the neighborhood of some grand and nobleobject in nature," should have thanked God he was born on the banks ofthe Hudson? I write this with the sound of the blowing up of IndianHead still echoing in my ears, and knowing nothing done by Governmentto protect the next fair Hudson headland from similar destruction.

  NOTE 10. (Page 281.)

  It is probable that Colden served with his brigade when it fought inthe South in the last part of the war. He was afterwards lost at sea,leaving no heir. He was of a family prominent in New York affairs,both before the Revolution and afterwards, and which was intermarriedwith other New York families of equal prominence, as may be seen inthe "New York Genealogical and Biographical Record," the "New EnglandGenealogical and Historical Register," and similar publications. It isprobable that Sabine means this Colden when he mentions a CaptainColden, of the First Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers. That he was amajor, however, is certain, from the official British Army listspublished in Hugh Gaines's "Universal Register" for the years of theRevolution.

  People curious about Harry Peyton's military record may consultSaffel's "Lists of American Officers," Heitman's "Manual," and a largework on "Virginia Genealogies," by H. E. Hayden, published atWilkes-barre. To the reader who demands a happy ending, it need be noshock to learn that Peyton, having risen to the rank of major, waskilled at Charleston, S. C., May 12, 1780. For a love story, it is ahappy ending that occurs at the moment when the conquest and thesubmission are mutual, complete, and demonstrated. A love to beperfect, to have its sweetness unembittered, ought not to be subjectedto the wear and tear of prolonged fellowship. So subjected, it maydeepen and gain ultimate strength, but it will lose its intoxicatingnovelty, and become associated with pain as well as with pleasure. Wemay be sure that the love of Peyton and Elizabeth was to Harry asweetener of life on many a night encampment, many a hard ride, in thecampaign of 1779, and in the spring of 1780, and exalted him thebetter to meet his death on that day when Charleston fell to theBritish; and that to Elizabeth, while it receded into further memory,it kept its full beauty during the half century she lived faithful toit. Her sisters were married into the English nobility, gentry, andmilitary, but Elizabeth died in Bath, England, in March, 1828,unmarried. Colonel Philipse had moved with his family to England whenthe British quitted New York in 1783. Many other Tories did likewise.Some went to England, but more to Canada, the greater part of whichwas then a wilderness. Many of the Tory officers got commissions inthe English army.

  No Tory family did more for the King's cause in America, lost more,or got more in redress, than the De Lancey family, which had beenforemost in the administration of royal government in the provinceof New York. It had great holdings of property in New York City,elsewhere on the island of Manhattan, and in various parts ofWestchester County, notably in Westchester Township, where DeLancey's mills and a fine country mansion were a famous landmark"where gentle Bronx clear winding flows." The founder of theAmerican family was a French Huguenot of noble descent. The family wasrepresented in the British army and navy before the Revolution. Onemember of it, a young officer in the navy, at the breaking out ofthe war, resigned his commission rather than serve against theColonies, but most of the other De Lancey men were differentlyminded. Oliver De Lancey, a member of the provincial council, wasmade a brigadier-general in the royal service, and raised threebattalions of loyalists, known as "De Lancey's Battalions." Ofthese battalions, the Tory historian, Judge Jones, says: "Two servedin Georgia and the Carolinas from the time the British army landed inGeorgia until the final evacuation of Charleston." One of these,during this period, was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Stephen DeLancey, the other by Colonel John Harris Cruger. The third battalion,during the whole war, was employed solely in protecting thewood-cutters upon Lloyd's Neck, Queens County, L. I. This GeneralDe Lancey's son, Oliver De Lancey, Junior, was educated in Europe,took service with the 17th Light Dragoons, was a captain when theRevolution began, a major in 1778, a lieutenant-colonel in 1781,and, on the death of Major Andre, adjutant-general of the British armyin America. Returning to England, he became deputy adjutant-general ofEngland; as a major-general, he was also colonel of the 17th LightDragoons; was subsequently barrack-master general of the BritishEmpire, lieutenant-general, and finally general. When he died he wasnearly at the head of the English army list. This branch of thefamily became extinct when Sir William Heathcoate De Lancey, thequartermaster-general of Wellington's army, was killed at Waterloo.

  The James De Lancey who commanded the Westchester Light Horse was anephew of the senior General Oliver De Lancey, and a cousin of theMajor Colden of this narrative. His troop was not "a battalion in thebrigade of his uncle," Bolton's statement that it was so beingincorrect; its operations were limited to Westchester County. Itraided and fought for the King untiringly, until it was almostentirely killed off, at the end of the war, by the persistent effortsof our troops to extirpate it.

  The members of this corps were called "Cowboys" because, in their dutyof procuring supplies for the British army, they made free with thefarmers' cattle. Like the other conspicuous Tories, this James DeLancey was attainted by the new State Government, and his property wasconfiscated. Local historians draw an effective picture of himdeparting alone from his estate by the Bronx, turning for a last look,from the back of his horse, at the f
air mansion and broad lands thatwere to be his no more, and riding away with a heavy heart. He went,with many shipfuls of Tory emigrants, to Nova Scotia, and became amember of the council of that colony. His uncle went to England anddied at his country house, Beverly, Yorkshire, in 1785. I allude tothe case of this family, because it was typical of that of a greatmany families. The Tories of the American Revolution constitute asubject that has yet to be made much of. They were the progenitors ofEnglish-speaking Canada.

  The act of attainder that deprived the De Lanceys of their estates,deprived Colonel Philipse of his. It was passed by the New Yorklegislature, October 22, 1779. The persons declared guilty of"adherence to the enemies of the State" were attainted, their estatesreal and personal confiscated, and themselves proscribed, the secondsection of the act declaring that "each and every one of them whoshall at any time hereafter be found in any part of this State, shallbe, and are hereby, adjudged and declared guilty of felony, and shallsuffer death as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy." Actsof similar import were passed in other States. Under this act,Philipse Manor-house was forfeited to the State about a year after thetime of our narrative. The commissioners whose duty it was to disposeof confiscated property sold the house and mills, in 1785, toCornelius P. Lowe. It underwent several transfers, but little change,becoming at length the property of Lemuel Wells, who held it a longtime and, dying in 1842, left it to his nephew. The town of Yonkersgrew up around it, and on May 1, 1868, purchased it for municipal use.The fewest possible alterations were made in it. These are mainly inthe north wing, the part added by the second lord of the manor in1745. On the first floor, the partition between dining-room andkitchen was removed, and the whole space made into a court-room. Onthe second floor, the space formerly divided into five bedrooms wastransformed into a council-chamber, the garret floor overhead beingremoved. The new city hall of Yonkers leaves the old manor-house lessnecessary for public purposes. May the old parlors, where the besilkedand bepowdered gentry of the province used to dance the minuet beforethe change of things, not be given over to baser uses than they havealready served.

  Allusion has been made, in different chapters of this narrative, tothe Hessians who daily patrolled the roads in the vicinity of themanor-house. This duty often fell to Pruschank's yagers, the troop towhich belonged Captain Rowe, whose love story is thus told by Bolton:"Captain Rowe appears to have been in the habit of making a daily tourfrom Kingsbridge, round by Miles Square. He was on his last tour ofmilitary duty, having already resigned his commission for the purposeof marrying the accomplished Elizabeth Fowler, of Harlem, when,passing with a company of light dragoons, he was suddenly fired uponby three Americans of the water guard of Captain Pray's company, whohad ambuscaded themselves in the cedars. The captain fell from hishorse, mortally wounded. The yagers instantly made prisoners of theundisciplined water guards, and a messenger was immediately despatchedto Mrs. Babcock, then living below, in the parsonage, for a vehicle toremove the wounded officer. The use of her gig and horse was soonobtained, and a neighbor, Anthony Archer, pressed to drive. In thisthey conveyed the dying man to Colonel Van Cortlandt's. They appear tohave taken the route of Tippett's Valley, as the party stopped atFrederick Post's to obtain a drink of water. In the meantime anexpress had been forwarded to Miss Fowler, his affianced bride, tohasten without delay to the side of her dying lover. On her arrival,accompanied by her mother, the expiring soldier had just strengthenough left to articulate a few words, when he sank exhausted with theeffort." The room in which he died is in the well-known mansion in VanCortlandt Park.

  The incident of the horse, related in an early chapter, has a likenessto an adventure that befell one Thomas Leggett early in theRevolutionary war. He lived with his father on a farm near Morrisania,then in Westchester County, and was proud in the possession of a fineyoung mare. A party of British refugees took this animal, with otherproperty. They had gone two miles with it, when, from behind a stonewall which they were passing, two Continental soldiers rose and firedat them. The man with the mare was shot dead. The animal immediatelyturned round and ran home, followed by the owner, who had dogged hercaptors at a distance in the hope of recovering her.