THE Capture of Mount Washington zA^ — >i i ' ' il'^ ' / THE CAPTURE OF MOUNT WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER i6th, 1776, THE RESULT OF TREASON, BY EDWARD F. DE LANCEY. New York. 1877.. CX Read before the New York Historical Society, at its Regular Meeting on December 5 th, 1876, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the capture of Mount Washington on November i6th, 1776, Reprinted from the '"'' Magazine of American History'" for Feb- ruary, 1877, with corrections of press errors, an additional Map, and an Appendix. EDITION 150 COPIES. ^ EXPLANATION OF MAP. Photo-lithographic fac-simile of a copy taken from the original in Cassel for Professor Joy, now in the possession of J. Carson Brevoort, Esq. Translation of the Legend on the Map. — The attack which His Excellency the Hon. General Lieutenant von Knyphausen, with eight Battal- ions of Hessians and one Battalion of Waldeckers, on the i6 November 1776, made on Fort Washington, taking it and a quantity of Ammunition and Pro- visions, and 2,600 American Prisoners. A Camp before the Attack. B March of the said Regiments for King's Bridge. C Formation of the Columns of which one on the right and another on the left. D The Riflemen. E Enemy's Line of Batteries. F G II Fort Washington, Fort Lidependence, Speak-Devil Fort garrisoned by the Enemy. / Our Batteries. K Hessian Field Artillery. L Quarters of His Excellency. M Do. of General Major Schmidt. N Do. of General Cleveland. O Do. of Col. Rail. F Landing of the English Brigade on the feint. Q Frigate that made a strong cannonade at the beginning of the attack. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE ON THE i6th OF NOVEMBER, 1776. FOUR of tht military events of the American Revolution occurred upon the island of New York : — ist The landing at Kips Bay, and the occupation of the city, by the British army, on the 15th of September, 1776; 2d The action of Harlem Plains on the succeeding- day ; 3d The capture of Mount Washington two months afterwards, and 4th The evacuation of the island and the victorious entry of Wash- ington, on the 25th of November, 1783. A century ago, the i6th day of November 1776, took place the storm- ing and capture of Mount Washington, with its fort, garrison, armament and stores, by the army of Sir William Howe, who had been just made a Knight of the Bath for his victory, a few weeks before, at Brooklyn Heights. It was the first and the last great battle ever fought on the island of Manhattan since its settlement by Europeans. It was a terrible disaster to the American arms, and a heavy blow to the cause of the colonies. It gave to the British army and to England undisputed possession of the city and harbor of New York, the leading city and chief seaport of America ; a possession which it was never after in the power of the colonies even to threaten successfully, much less regain. It struck instantly from the then rapidly dissolving army of Wash- ington nearly three thousand effective men. By the same blow, practi- cally, Fort Lee, on the opposite side of the Hudson, with its guns and most of its stores, was taken, and New Jersey thrown open to the strong, well appointed, victorious troops of Howe, with nought to oppose them but the broken, dispirited, deserting, half clad regiments of Washington, dwindled down to less than three thousand men.' " In ten days," wrote Washington to his brother John Augustine, three days after the capture, " there will not be above two thousand men, if that number, of the fixed 'Wasliinglou to Lee, 21 Nov. Force sthseiies, vol. iii pp. 78-9. Letter of Matthew Tilghman. Ibid. p. 1053. 6 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 established regiments on this side of Hudson's river to oppose Howe's whole army, and very little more on the other to secure the Eastern colonies and the important passes leading through the Highlands to Albany and the country about the lakes.'" No wonder he exclaims in the same letter, in the full confidence of fraternal love, " I am wearied almost to death with the retrogade motion of things, and I solemnly protest, that a pecuniary reward of twenty thousand pounds a year would not induce me to undergo what I do ; and after all to lose my character, as it is impossible under such a variety of distressing circum- stances, to conduct matters agreeably to public expectation, or even to the expectation of those who employ me, as they will not make proper allowances for the difficulties their own errors have occasioned." Whence and why this disaster? Who was responsible? Was it the commandant of the post, the General in charge of Fort Lee with whom that officer acted, or was it the Commander-in-Chief himself ? Perhaps no questions growing out of any single event of the Revo- lution were discussed with more vigor at the time, or have given rise to more controversy since, than these. Each of the three officers, Wash- ington, Greene, and Magaw have had their enemies and opposers, friends and defenders. Two facts, utterly foreign to the capture as acts of war, or rather of military science and forecast, had much to do with this controversy ; — the bitter antagonism to Washington in the Continental Congress, and the intense antipathy between the officers and men from New England and those from all the other colonies. These facts are only mentioned, because they should always be borne in mind in considering the military affairs of the Revolution, and especially those of its first two years. The throwing of his army into Westchester county at Throg's Neck, by Sir William Howe on the 12th of October, 1776, forced Washington to evacuate New York Island, with the fortified camp at Kingsbridge, and to retreat to the north along the line of the river Bronx, to avoid being outflanked and surrounded. At the time Washington was at the Roger Morris House — his well-known head-quarters — and the bulk of his army lay in its neighborhood, while a strong force held Kingsbridge and the adjoining hills in Westchester county. The northern part of the island of Manhattan is a narrow, high, rocky, wooded region of singular natural beauty ; unique as a feature in modern cities, and precisely such a spot as in an ancient Greek city would have 'Force 5th scries, vol. iii, p. 766. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 7 been chosen for its Acropolis. Separated from the rest of the island by the plains of Harlem on the south, and extending thence to Kingsbridge on the north, a distance of about four miles, its average width is only about three-fourths of a mile. Bordered on the east by the narrow winding, umbrageous Harlem, and on the west by the magnificent Hudson, the two united by the historic inlet of Spuyten Duyvel, it rises from these rivers in sudden, rocky, forest clad precipices, nearly a hundred feet in height, which for well nigh three-fourths of its circumference are almost inaccessible. These natural buttresses support an irregular plain, the surface of which rises toward the centre to an eminence on the side of the Hudson two hundred feet above its waters, and to another on the side of the Harlem of almost equal height, between which lies the most level part of the entire region. This towards its northern end sinks into a narrow valley or gorge, through which runs the road to Kings- bridge. Besides the Kingsbridge, which connected the island with the mainland of Westchester, there was another bridge, a short distance south east of it, called Dyckman's bridge. Opposite these bridges the rocky bluffs recede to the west for nearly a mile, leaving between them and the Harlem river a small plain, on which rise two or three low hills. At the southern end of this plain was a little branch of the Harlem called Sherman's creek, still in existence, directly above and south of which rises the high eminence on the Harlem above-mentioned, then termed " Laurel Hm," and since, and now, " Fort George." The highest eminence on the Hudson, which was southwest from Laurel HiU, was selected by Colonel Rufus Putnam, in the summer of 1776, as the site of a large earthwork fortification for the defence of and to aid the obstructions intended to close the Hudson against the passage of ships, which, after the Commander-in-Chief, was called " Fort Wash- ington." The term "Mount Washington" was given in 1776 to the entire elevated region above described. It is so-called in the letters and docu- ments of that period, though sometimes styled " Harlem Heights ; " and in the same sense it is here used, although in our day the appellation has become restricted to the small part of the region immediately adjacent to the old fortification. That fortification— and that only— is here called " Fort Washington." Directly beneath the eminence on which Fort Washington stood, a low cape, (^r rather promontory, called Jeffrey's Hook, throws itself out into the waters of the Hudson, making the river narrower there than from any other point on the Manhattan sliore. Between this " Hook " and the 8 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 Jersey shore extended a line of simken vessels and cJicvaiix-dc-frise, intended to obstruct the passage of the river. On the summit of the Pahsades, opposite Fort Washington, was erected about the same time another fortification to defend the Jersey end of the obstructions, called " Fort Constitution " and subsequently " Fort Lee," in honor of General Charles Lee. This latter was therefore dependent on the former, and was of no value without it. Both forts together commanded the river and the communication between its two sides, or, in a larger sense, be- tween New England and the colonies west and south of the Hudson. Jutting out into and rising above the Harlem plains, at the extreme south eastern extremity of Mount Washington, was a lofty and almost perpendicular promontory, now blasted away, called "The Point of Rocks." It was surmounted by a strong battery, and commanded " the King's Highway," or " the Road to Kingsbridge," from the city of New York, and was the American post nearest to the British lines. The American lines ran from the Point of Rocks westwardly to the Hudson river, along the southern face of Mount Washington, lower and less precipitous there than any where else, and northeastwardly along its high southeastern face to the Harlem river. A slight depression in the latter face, as it approached the Harlem, afforded a passage for the road to Kingsbridge as it ascended from the Harlem plains, forming the well-known " Break Neck Hill," a short dis- tance to the east of which road stood the house of Colonel Roger Morris, occupied by Washington as his headquarters. A few weeks before, Roger Morris and his fair wife had retired to the Highlands, little dreaming that his old friend and companion of " the last war," and his wife's old admirer, was to become the next master of their beautiful home. East and west of the Point of Rocks, in exposed places, the Americans had thrown up light breast works and facing the Hudson some small batteries, the largest being upon Jeffrey's Hook. But their main works were at Mount Washington and south of the Fort — three distinct lines of fortifications running across the island from river to river. The middle line was located about a third of a mile south of the Morris House; a thoroughly completed strong work, with redoubts, bastions, and curtains, — a well made line of intrenchments. The ex- treme southern line was placed about a third of a mile further to the south, but it was not so well built, nor in as favorable a location ; while the northernmost one, very near the Morris House, and about the same distance to the north of the middle line, was vastly inferior, and in some parts never wholly completed. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 9 Upon its north side Mount Washington had no intrenched lines whatever. On the summit of Laurel Hill was a small battery and re- doubt, and at the northern brow of the long hill, on which Fort Wash- ino-ton stood-above what is now styled Inwood-was another redoubt and battery of three guns, to aid in protecting the river obstructions by an enfiladino- fire. The round wooded hill on the south side of the en- trance to Spuyten Duy vel was crowned by another small work of a simi- lar character mounting two guns.' From this first mentioned battery and hill, down and across the gorge occupied by the Kingsbridge road to Laurel Hill ran two or three lines of abatis, or felled trees, hastily made by the Americans after they retired on the 2d of November from Kings- bridge. , ^ -r ^- c c Fort Washington itself was a large earth work fortification of five bastions, without supporting breastworks, except a single one on its north side. It was erected in July, 1776, by the Pennsylvania battalions or regiments under Brig. Gen. Thomas Mifflin; the fifth commanded by Colonel Robert Magaw, and the third by Colonel John Shee : The last named officer, in September, went home on furlough, and never a^ain rejoined his regiment, which thereafter was commanded by Lam- bert Cadwallader, its Lieutenant Colonel.'^ These regiments arrived m New York at the end of June, 1776, full in numbers but deficient in arms, the latter having only 300 guns, and the former but 125^-a want subsequently remedied. The fort had been laid out by Colonel Rufus Putnam, Engineer-in-Chiel, built under his directions at Washington s request, and was intended to cover the communication with New Jersey in connection with Fort Lee, on the suijimit of the Palisades on the opposite or Jersey side of the Hudson, which was erected at the same time by General Hugh Mercer and the troops under his command. It had no casemates, barracks nor well, and when invested, con- tained but small supplies of provisions, or fuel, or stores of any kind requisite to stand a siege of any length. With the exception of a wooden magazine and some offices, it had no interior construction and was, in fact, simply a large, open earth work.^ How many guns it mounted is not now known. The British return of ordnance of all sizes iHowe's Dispatch. Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 924- . ^Graydon's Memoir, LittelFs ed., p. 181. Cadwallader was commissioned Colonel of this regiment by the Continental Congress on the 25th of October, 1776. See Commission Pena Archives, vol. v., p. 53. , . _ ^Mifflin's letter to Washington 5th July 1776. Force 5th series, vol. i, p. 27. ^Graydon, 1S6. IH lO MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 captured at Mount Washington was forty-seven/ of which probably much less than one-half were mounted in the fort. The summer of 1776 was of great heat, and these Pennsylvania troops were drilled hard, as well as worked hard. About a fourth were always on the sick list. Excepting two days service on Long Island, im- mediately following the battle of the 27th of August, and some short marches into Westchester, just after their return from Brooklyn, they saw no service in the field except upon Mount Washington." The American army lay encamped on Mount Washington from the beginning of September 'till the 13th of October, 1776, a period of about five weeks. At the latter end of September, Mr. James Allen,' of Philadelphia, second son of Chief Justice Allen, and Dr Smith, the Provost of the College in that city, paid a visit of curiosity, merely, to the seat of war. In the manuscript diary of the former there is an account of his visit to Mount Washington at this time. From Amboy, where he saw his old friends Generals Dickenson and Mercer, he went to Bergen, and lodged with another friend. General Roberdeau, who commanded that post. " Thence," says the diary, " to Fort Constitution, now Fort Lee, com- manded by my old acquaintance, General Ewing, with whom I dined, and same day crossed the river to Head-quarters. General Washington received me with the utmost politeness. I lodged with him ; and found there Messrs. Jos. Reed, Tilghman, Grayson, Moyland, L. Cadwallader, and many others of my acquaintance, and was very happy with them. Nothing happened while I was there except an attempt of our army to bring off grain from Harlem, in which they did not succeed, and which had well nigh brought on an engagement. Next day I re-crossed the river to Fort Lee, and came through Hackensack in company with Captain Charles Craig, and thence through Morristown to Union, where I found my wife and child, and Mrs. Lawrence,'" the latter lady being his wife's mother. Ten days before this visit, on the i8th of August, says General Heath, not a single cannon was mounted beyond Mount Washington." On the 'Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 1058. ^Tliey were recruited in tlie early part of 1776, and so well drilled in Philadelphia, prior to being sent to New York at the end of June, as to receive mention from Washington himself. ^James Allen, the second son of Chief Justice William Allen, of Pennsylvania, was a prominent lawyer of Philadelphia and a member of Assembly for Northampton county. He was a brother-in- law to Governor John Penn and to James de Lancey, of New York, the head of that family, eldest son of James de I.ancey who died Governor of New York in 1760. ■•MS. Diary of James Allen. *Force 5th series, vol. i, p. 1030. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 11 ,0th William Duer was ordered by the New York Convention to consult with Washington on the subject of aidhrg him to obstruct the r.ver op- '"t^i:e"l«ltlpt:mber Washington ordered Mercer to lay out and buUd addkional works at Fort Lee.' The very same day Colone Ruus Putnam stated in his report to the Commander-urCh.efo that d "te that with both sides ol the river fortified as he recommended and the forts and batteries well filled with guns and ammumt.on and the rter obstructed by sunken vessels, if the enemy " attempted to force this oost, 1 think they must be beaten. ' 0,"tlis same thi/d of September also, it strangely happened General Nathaniel Greene wrote Washington that remarkable pr.vate letter urgmg T; t e trongest terms the burning of New York and ,ts suburbs, and the evacurtion of the island, closing it with this request-" should your excel en y agree with me in the first two points, that a speedy and gen- eral e.^at Is necessary, and also, that the city and suburbs should be burned! I would advise to call a general council on that question, and tike everv o-eneral officer's opinion upon it. ' . , , WasWn^ton, singularly enough, had already submitted the cp.estion of "yW New\ork to Congress the very day before r and Han- cock also^,l? this same 3d day of September, replied to him, that Con- ' es; on co^idering his letter of the .d, " came to a resolution in a com- mute; of fte whole^ouse that no damage should be done to the city of ^'tiI Commander-in-Chief agreeing to Greene's suggestions, did call a counciVof general officers on the 7th, and they deeded to defend an Lto destroy and evacuate the city, by a majority vote. The mmo. ity verlfor a toLl and immediate removal from the city, " nor were some of the majority." says Washington to Hancock, " a httle influenced m ijouraals N. Y. Trov. Cong., vol. i, p. 579- '^Force sA series, vol. ii, p 140. September 13 .^ome of the chevaux de frise 3Ibkl. 139. The obstruction, proved fu Uk On ^^P'^"^^'^' ^ .avin, bee. Jloatin, with ^^^^^^^^^^^2.::^:^ survey of tL Clinton on the subject, and on the ^7th oicleiea p ^.^^ered six vessels purchased by Cong., pp. 624, 628, 639, 663. ''Force 5th series, vol. ii, pp. 1S2-3. sForce 5th series, vol. ii, pp. 1S2-3. «lbid. p. 135. 12 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 their opinions, to whom the determination of Congress was known, against an evacuation totally, as they were led to suspect Congress wished it to be maintained at every hazard.'" This decision did not suit Greene, nor apparently Washington, and on the nth of September the former, with six Brigadiers, presented a written petition signed by them all, to the latter, requesting him to call anotJicr coimcil of ivar to rc-considcr the question. Washington assented, and called it for the next day, the 12th, at McDougall's quarters ; when ten generals, Beall, Scott, Fellows, Wadsworth, Nixon, McDougall, Parsons, Mifflin, Greene, and Putnam, voted to re-consider and evacuate ; and three, Spencer, George Clinton, and Heath, to adhere and defend. The record of this council thus closes : " It was considered what number of men are necessary to be left for the defence of Mount Washington and its dependencies — agreed, that it be eight thousand.'"^ Tliis is the first official mention that Mount Washington was to be defended, and it is noteworthy that so large a number of men was then deemed necessary for that object. From this summary of the official action of Congress, Washington and the Council of War, we learn why Mount Washington was occupied and held. Pursuant to the decision of the Council of War just mentioned, the evacuation of the island began on the 13th, continued on the 14th, and was interrupted on the 15th of September, 1776, by the landing at Kip's Bay and the taking of the cit}^ by the British. After the action of Harlem Plains the succeeding day, the two armies lay encamped opposite each other, separated by those plains. The British lines extended from Horen's Hook, on the East river at 90th street, along the heights at McGowan's Pass (the north end of the Central Park) to the end of the high ground on the south side of the western end of the Harlem plains at 125th street, while the American lines occupied the whole of the southern and eastern side of Mount Washington, facing the northern side of those plains, from the Harlem to the Hudson. Such were the positions of the two armies when Howe suddenly, on the 1 2th of October, in a dense fog, threw all his army upon Throg's Neck, nine miles up Long Island Sound, with the exception of a force under Lord Percy sufficient to hold the British lines just mentioned, and the city of New York. Washington, as before stated, was at the Morris House. Late in the day an express from General Heath advised him of the landing, the news 'Force 5II1 scries, vol. ii, p. 237. *Ibid. 325, 32S, and 330. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 i;^ of which had reached the post of that officer at Kingsbridge. He in- stantly ordered a detachment, made up of his best troops, to Westchester to oppose them.' Among these was the regiment of Prescott of Pep- perell, the hero of Bunker Hill, to 'whose lot it fell singularly enough, for the second time, to aid mainly in forcing Howe from a peninsula, by de- fending with success the road and Mill Dam leading from Throg's Neck to Westchester village. So unexpected was this movement of Howe, that the very day before it took place — the nth — General Greene, from Fort Lee, wrote Gover- ner Cooke, of Rhode Island, " our army are so strongly fortified and so much out of the command of the shipping, we have little more to fear this campaign."" General Greene however, the same day, as soon as he heard of it, at 5 o'clock P. M. of the 12th, wrote Washington of the fact, and offered if he desired them three, brigades and his own services."^ The 13th Washington spent chiefly in a personal reconnoissance of southern Westchester. The next day, the 14th, he formed his army into four divisions, under Major Generals Lee, Heath, Sullivan, and Lincoln, which the following day, the 15th, moved into Westchester county. The same day, the 14th, he formed two other divisions to remain on the island under Major Generals Spencer and Putnam ; the former to take charge of all Mount Washington south of the northernmost of the fortified lines from river to river, near head-quarters, and the latter the rest of it on the north of that line. General Putnam, says the order, " will also attend particularly to the works about Mount Washington and to the obstruc- tions in the river, which should be increased as fast as possible."^ General Lee had arrived from the south the day of his appointment, and after making a brief stop at the fort which bears his name, crossed the river to Mount Washington, stopping long enough, however, to write this short note to General Gates, with his views of things as he found them : " I write this scroll in a hurry. Colonel Ward will describe the position of our army, which in my own breast I do not approve — inter nos the Congress seem to stumble at every step. I do not mean one or two of the cattle, but the whole stable. I have been very free in delivering my opinion to 'em. In my opinion. General Washington is much to blame for not menancing 'em with resignation unless they refrain from unhinging the army by their absurd interference.'" 'Force 5th series, vol. ii, pp. 1014 and 1025. "^Force 5th series, vol. ii, p. ggy. "Ibid. p. 1015. ^General orders Oct. 14. ^Lee papers, vol. ii, p. 261. 14 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 Lee was outspoken in condemnation of the policy of leaving and holding a garrison in Fort Washington, but he and those who thought with him were overruled in the council of war, held on the i6th at his own head-quarters in Westchester. Washington and all his Major Gen- erals and Brigadiers were present to the number of sixteen, except Greene. The command of the latter being in New Jersey was the prob- able cause of his absence. At all events he was not there. This council agreed that ''■Fort Washmgtoit be retained as long as possi- ble." The record gives no votes but simply the result. It is, therefore, not officially known who was on one side and who on the other.' And here a most important point requires attention, and that is the limited extent, at this time, of Washington's powers as Commander-in-Chief, He did not have, nor exercise, the independent " one man power," which by all military rules belongs to that command. He could not overrule the council of war if he saw fit, and act on his own independent judgment, as Commanders-in-Chief usually do. Re- ceiving his appointment from Congress the year previous, in virtue, as he himself has told us, of " a political necessity," that body was un- willing to vest in him the power referred to, and he was thus compelled to carry out the decisions of his council of war, no matter whether he individually did, or did not, approve them. Not until Congress at the very end of December, 1776, when Cornwallis was overrunning New Jersey, on the eve of their flight to Baltimore, and in fear of their own existence, vested in him the powers of a dictator, did he possess the full perogatives of a Commander-in-Chief. From the hour when he drew his sword under the great elm at Cambridge as leader of the armies of America, till that action of Congress he was, in all important steps, subject to the will and the decision of a majority of his own general officers. This fact must especially be borne in mind in the matter of Mount Washington. By the 20th of October all the troops left on the island of New York under Spencer and Putnam had been withdrawn, except the regiments intended to garrison Mount Washington." These were Magaw's fifth and Cadwallader's third Pennsylvania battalions before mentioned. Putnam, before leaving, had requested of Greene a re-inforcement from Fort Lee. The latter sent him, as he tells Washington in a letter of the 24th, between 200 and 300 of Durkie's regiment, and also sufficient 'Force 5th scries, vol. ii, p. II17. 'Harrison to Congress. Force 5th series, vol. ii, p. 1137. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND rrS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1776 15 provisions for the garrison.' Harrison, however, writing for Washington the same day, from White Plains, tells Hancock that there " are about 1400 men at Mount Washington and 600 at Kingsbridge."-^ But Colonel Lasher, the officer in command at. the latter post, wrote General Heath on the 26th that he only had 400 men and 6 artillery men.' On the 27th Lasher had orders from Heath to quit the post, burn the barracks, and join the army at White Plains, and either do this himself, or communi- cate with Magaw, as he pleased. He obeyed and executed the orders himself.' The same day, which was Sunday, an attack was made by Lord Percy on Mount Washington by land, at the same time that two men-of- war attempted to pass it and go up the river. The latter were severely cut up by Magaw's artillery, and one of them, badly crippled, had to re- tire.' The British troops moved down from their lines at McGowan's Pass to Harlem Plains and began a fire with field pieces, which the Americans returned from their fortified lines and batteries. It was a mere artillery duel, had no effect, and was apparently intended as a feint." The cannonade was heard at White Plains.^ This affair was probably one great cause of Greene's confidence in Fort Washington, and of his desire a fortnight later to hold it. He was present in the fort, and with Magaw, during the firing on the ships. The whole contest was over by three o'clock in the afternoon, when he returned to Fort Lee and wrote an ac- count of it to General Mifflin,* and the next day sent another to the President of Congress. " From the Sunday affair," he wrote Washing- ton on the 29th, " I am more fully convinced that we can prevent any ships from stopping the communication.'" Two days afterwards, Greene asked Washington's opinion as to hold- ing, not the fort only, but all Mount Washington, in these words : " I should be glad to know your excellency's mind about holding all the ground from the Kingsbridge to the lower lines. If we attempt to hold the ground, the garrison must still be re-inforced, but if the garrison is to draw into Mount (Fort) Washington, and only keep that, the num- ^Force 5th series vol. ii, pp. 1202, 1203, 1221. ^Ibid. 1239!- "Ibid. 1263. *Ibid. vol. ii, p. 1264. ^Ibid. vol. ii, pp. 1263, 1265. ^Ibid. 1266. 'MS. Letter of General Sillimaii to his wife. sporce 5th series, 1263, I26g. «Ibid. 1281. l6 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 ber of the troops on the island is too large. * * * I shall re-inforce Colonel Magaw with Colonel Rawling's regiment, until I hear from your excellency respecting the matter. The motions of the grand army will best determine the propriety of endeavoring to hold all the ground from Kingsbridge to the lower lines. I shall be as much on the island of York as possible, so as not to neglect the duties of my own depart- ment.'" What Washington's answer was we shall hereafter see. He was then at White Plains, expecting an immediate attack by Howe's whole army. That high and beautiful region of south eastern Westchester, from Pell's Hill on the west to Heathcote Hill on the east, never glowed with more brilliant autumnal hues than on the 28th of October 1776. The white tents of the Hessians gleamed brightly in the morning sun, amid the glades and slopes of those fair hills which, rising from-the shores of Long Island Sound, form the coast line of the old Manors of Pelham and of Scarsdale. Martial music woke the echoes of the woods, and its sounds were borne on the soft autumn breeze over the blue waters of the Sound, far toward the distant hills of Long Island. The stirring scenes of camp life, companies drilling, groups of officers, prancing horses, busy adjutants passing to and fro, and a few brilliant young aids gathered under the over-hanging porch of a quaint old stone house with low walls and a high roof, the flag above which marked it as head- quarters, formed a picture that had never before been seen by the de- scendants of the Huguenot exiles who then dwelt on those lovely shores. They beheld with singular interest the marked features, dark, striking uniforms and strange arms of the Germans. Some of the older, perhaps, as they heard the guttural tones of the strangers, so different from their own musical tongue, recalled the days, a century before, when their own grandfathers, under the golden lilies of Louis Quartorze, had aided in the conquest of Alsace and Lothringen from the very people whose grandchildren stood before them. Arriving in New York harbor a week before, this second Hessian contingent had been transferred to boats and sloops, and landed directly at New Rochelle, where they had since been recovering from the effects of their long sea voyage. They were six regiments from Hesse Cassel, and one from Waldeck, all soldiers trained in the tactics of the great Frederick. The obloquy which American historians have naturally, perhaps, cast upon " the Hessians," as these Germans auxiliaries were, and still 'Force 5th Series, 1294. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 1/ are, generically styled, has deceived us much as to their real character. The men were the same people precisely as the 150,000 Germans whom we now find in this city of New York — such orderly, thriving citizens, and who have made New York the third or fourth German city, for population, in the world. They were drawn, as is our German popula- tion now, to use an Americanism, from the " masses " of the fatherland. Their officers, however, were of an entirely different class, and one of which we have few, or none, here now. They were a/l noblc}}icn. None but nobles could hold commissions under any German sovereign then, any more than they can now. The military services of Germany and Austria are the most aristocratic in Europe in 1876, as they were in 1776. As far as birth was concerned, the Hessian officers as a whole in Howe's army were superior to the English officers as a whole. A rich middle class Englishman could buy a commission for a son, and it was often done, by favor of the Horse Guards, for the express purpose of making the youth " a gentleman." But in the German services such a proceeding was not tolerated. The youth must possess the aristocratic prefix of " von," or " de," or he could not aspire to a commission under the sign manual of his sovereign, and those sovereigns exceeded twenty in number. The Hessian officers in America were polite, courteous, well-bred gentlemen, educated soldiers, and in the social circles of the time great favorites. As military men they were the best in Europe at that period. And of this we can have no stronger proof than the fact that to one of these very " Hessian," or " German" soldiers did the continental army owe all the tactics and discipline it ever possessed — Baron de Steuben. The victorious guns of Howe had hardly ceased on Chatterton Hill, ere he dispatched an order to Lieutenant-General Baron von Knyphau- sen, the commander of the Hessians, to move from New Rochelle toward Kingsbridge. Leaving the Waldeck regiment as a guard, von Knyp- hausen marched with the rest of his command the next day, took post at Mile square, and on the 2d of November encamped upon New York island at Kingsbridge — the Americans retiring to Fort Washington at his approach.' Why Howe did not attack Washington at White Plains after the brigades from Percy joined him, neither he, nor any one else, has ever satisfactorily explained. After his return to England, he told the com- mittee of Parliament which investigated his conduct that he Jiad in- tended an attack on Washington's right, which was opposite to the 'Howe's Dispatch, 30th Nov. Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 923. l8 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 Hessians under de Heister, but that he had '* political reasons, and no other, for declining to explain why that assault was not made."* He retired from White Plains very suddenly in the night of the 5th of November, 1776, and his army had been moving some time on the road toward Dobb's Ferry before the fact was discovered by the Ameri- cans. " The design of this manoeuvre is a matter of much conjecture and speculation, and cannot be accounted for with any degree of cer- tainty," wrote Washington to Hancock on the 6th, and he called the same day a council of war, which unanimously agreed immediately to throw a body of troops into Jersey, and station 3,000 men at Peekskill to guard the Highlands. This was a perfectly natural conclusion. " Howe has but two moves more, in which we shall checkmate him," wrote Charles Lee, but without sa3ang what they were.^ One was evidently to New Jersey, and the other to Mount Washing- ton. Why did Howe choose the latter? That he intended originally to throw his army into Jersey from Dobb's Ferry and march for Phila- delphia, leaving Washington to follow him as best he might — first, how- ever, detaching and leaving behind a sufihcient force to hold Westchester, and to keep in check, or invest, Mount Washington — is most probable. This would explain his order to von Knyphausen on the 28th, and the subsequent order of the 3d to Grant, to march the next day, the 4th, with the sixth brigade to de Lancey's Mill on the Bronx at West Farms, send the fourth brigade to Mile square in the same town, and the Waldeck regiment from New Rochelle to a bridge, three miles above de Lancey's Mills, on the same stream." Washington and his council of war evidently thought he would do so, hence their unanimous vote to throw an army into Jersey and to secure Peekskill. The record of that council shows that neither " Mount Wash- ington" nor " Fort Washington" were even mentioned.* A striking fact, when we know from a letter of the Commander-in-Chief himself, written the day the council met, that all " communication with Mount Washington has now been cut off for two weeks."' Reed, on the same 6th of November, says : '' Opinions here are various ; some think they are fall- ing down on Mount Washington ; others that they mean to take shipping up North river and fall upon our rear ; others, and a great majority, think that finding our army too strongly posted they have changed their whole 'Howe's Narrative, p. 7. ^Letter of Wm. Whipple to John Langdoii. F'orce 5th series, vol. iii, p. 555. ''Howe's Dispatch. ^Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 543. ^To Pennsylvania Commissioners, Nov. 6, 1776. Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 546. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 19 plan, and are bending southward, intending to penetrate the Jerseys, and so move on to Philadelphia." Howe suddenly and certainly did "change his whole plan." He himself said his reason for not attacking Washington at White Plains was a political one, but refused to divulge it. His successes in the cam- paign so far had not been decided ones. He had not been able to crush the rebellion in a single great battle as he hoped, and he found he must ask the Ministry in England for more men and materials. Though they were not his political friends, still, they had given him his command, and must be placed in a position to do so with ease and honor. And an occurrence utterly unexpected had just transpired by which he could not only do this, but at the same time win great applause for himself, and strike a blow deadly, if not fatal, to the rebellion, and that too with no risk of failure and little of loss. He had good cause '' to change his whole plan," as Reed expressed it. And that cause was tlic treason of a covimissioncd officer of the American army. Four years before Arnold's attempt to betray West Point, a similar but more successful traitor betrayed Mount Washington. On the 2d of November, 1776, tlie Adjutant of Magazv, the commandant of the fortress, passed, undiscovered, into the British camp of Lord Percy, carrying the plans of Fort Washington, and full ii for mat ion as to its zvorks and garrison, and placed them in the hands of that officer. It was Percy's duty, of course, instantly to send the plans and the Adjutant to Sir William Howe, then at White Plains. As he could only do this by way of the East river, or the North river, it probably was the evening of the 3d of November before Howe received them, and they may possibly not have reached him till the 4th. The British commander now saw not only how he could certainly capture Mount Washington, but how he could do it without much loss, send the ministry in England a glowing account of forts, guns, and men taken, deprive Washington of a large force of his best troops, seize the communication between New York and Westchester, and destroy that between the eastern and southern colonies across the Hudson, on which both had so long relied ; he acted accordingly. Alexander Graydon, a captain in Cadwallader's regiment, who was taken at Mount Washington, says, in his striking " Memoirs of his own Times," given to the world in 181 1, " Howe must have had a perfect knowledge of the ground we occupied. This he might have acquired from hundreds in New York, but he might have been more thoroughly informed of everything desirable to be known from an ofificef 20 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 iyy6 of Magaw's Battalion, wlio was intelligent in points of duty, and deserted to the enemy about a week before the assault," The same thing is inti- mated in one or two of the German accounts of the capture of Mount Washington. What these writers thought a possibility, is now an absolute certainty. The evidence too, is of the most conclusive character — -that of the traitor himself — in a letter of his own, over his own signature, stating the treason in plain, undeniable terms. Sixteen years after the fall of Fort Washington, in order to obtain a small amount due him by the British government, he wrote the following letter, the contents of which were to be used in obtaing payment of his claim from certain British officials in Canada. It is addressed to the Rev. Dr Peters, a clergyman of the Church of England, originally of Hebron, and the author of the History of Connecticut. In Dr Peters' possession, and that of two gentlemen of this city, father and son, the elder of whom married a ward of Dr Peters, who resided with him, and died in his house, both well-known members of the bar, this letter has remained until recently placed in the hands of the author of this article. Its authenticity is therefore beyond a cavil. It is given, with its errors of grammar and style, precisely as written. Rev. Sir : Permit me to Trouble you with a Short recital of my Services in America which I Presume may be deem'd among the most Singular of any that will go to Upper Canada. On the 2d of Nov'r 1776 I Sacrificed all I was Worth in the World to the Service of my King & Country and joined the then Lord Percy, brought in with [me] the Plans of Fort Washington, by which Plans that Fortress was taken by his Majesty's Troops the 16 instant, Together with 2700 Prisoners and Stores & Ammunition to the amount of 1800 Pound. At the same time, I may with Justice affirm, from my Knowledge of the Works, I saved the Lives of many of His Majestys Subjects, — these Sir are facts well-known to every General Officer which was there — and I may with Truth Declare from that time I Studied the Interest of my Country and neglected my own — or in the Language of Cardinal Woolsey had I have Served my God as I have done my King he would not Thus have Forsaken me. The following is a Just Account due me from Government which I have never been able to bring forward for want of Sr. William Erskine who once when in Town assured me he'd Look into it but have never done it otherways I should not have been in Debt. This Sir though it may not be in your Power to Get me may Justify my being so much in Debt, & in Expectation of this Acct being Paid, together with another Dividend, from the Express words of the Act where it Says all under Ten Thousand pound Should be Paid without Deduction, I having received only ^464 which I Justified before the Commissioners : Due for Baw, Batt, & Forrage -------- £110. 7.0 For Engaging Guides Getting Intelligence, &c. - - - - - - 45- 9-7 For doing duty 39 Commissary of Prisoners at Philadelphia Paying Clerks Stationery, &c. 16.13. 8 ;^l82.I0.3 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 2I The last Two Articles was Cash Paid out of my Pocket which was Promised to be Refunded by Sirs Wm Howe and Erskine. I most Humbly Beg Pardon for the Length of this Letter & Shall Conclude without makmg Some Masonac Remarks as at first Intended, and Remain Rev'd Sir with Dutiful Respect London ) Your most obedient and Most Hum'l Serv't. Jany i6th V WILLIAM DEMONT. 1792. ) P.S. the Inclosed is a true account of my Debts taken from the Different Bills received. Such was the treason of WiUiam Demont. Originally entering Ma- o-aw's battalion in Philadelphia as an ensign by the appointment of the Pennsylvania Council of Safety, he was by the same body appointed its Adjutant on the 29th of February, 1776, and went with it to New York at the end of June in that year. This position gave him Magaw's confi- dence, and when, on Putnam's departure to join Washington's army, that officer was left in command of Mount Washington, it also gave hrni the fullest information of the post, and of every thing that was done or intended to be done in relation to it. What the two words Bazc, Batt, evidently abbreviations in the first line of the account mean is not known ; they are given as written. Graydon mistakes both the time of his desertion and his name. He left a fortnight before the capture, and not a week. He gives the name as ^^Dcmentr and so it also appears in the printed proceedings of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, and in the Army Returns. But, if this is not a printer's error, he subsequently changed the last vowel, for he writes it himself, unmistakably, '' Dcmontr Of his subsequent career little is known, except that during the British occupation of Phil- adelphia he acted as a Commissary of prisoners. From that time until he appears in London in 1792, writing the above letter, nothing has been learned of him, nor has it been possible as yet to trace him after that date. Nor yet whether he obtained his claim. Probably he could say : — " It is the curse of treachery like mine To be most hated where it most has serv'd." Sir William Howe's course shows that he acted on Demont's plans and information ; for, reaching Dobb's Ferry on the 6th of September with his army, he the next day dispatched his park of artillery to Kings- bridge, with a strong escort, to join von Knyphausen. And the first step after its arrival was to place batteries in position on the Westchester side of the Harlem river, to cover selected points of attack on the New York side. The next three days were occupied by the necessary prepa- rations for an assault, and in sending a brigade of Hessians to von 22 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 Knyphausen, whose own headquarters were also on the Westchester side of Harlem river. About the 9th or loth of November a deserter named Broderick came one cold rainy night over to Captain Graydon while he was on guard at the Point of Rocks, who told him " that we might expect to be attacked in six or eight days at furthest, as some time had been employed in transporting heavy artillery to the other side of the Haerlem, and as the preparations for the assault were nearly com- pleted." On the 1 2th Howe's whole army marched to Kingsbridge, and encamped the next day on the high ground on the same side of that river, with its right on the Bronx and its left on the Hudson. On the night of the 14th, undiscovered by either Magaw or Greene, thirty boats, chiefly from the transport fleet under Captains Wilkinson and Malloy, passed up the North river, and through Spuyten Duyvel to the Harlem river. Howe had determined on four separate assaults upon Mount Wash- ington ; the first and main one by von Knyphausen and the Hessians from Kingsbridge, aided by the man-of-war Pearl lying in the North river ; the second by boats across the Harlem river with English troops upon Laurel Hill ; the third by Scotch troops under Colonel Sterling, also by boats across the Harlem river, upon the hill inside the American lines of fortification near the Morris House ; and the fourth by Earl Percy, with English and a few German troops to march from the lines at McGowan's pass upon the American lines to the southward of Mount Washington. Batteries on the Harlem river opposite the chosen points of attack covered them completely.' Such was the British plan of attack. What were Greene at Fort Lee, and Magaw at Mount Washington, doing all this time ? And what was the action of the Commander-in- Chief ? Washington on the 5th of November replied through his Secretary, Harrison, to Greene's request of the 30th of October above mentioned, for his " mind " as to holding all Fort Washington, " that the holding or not holding the grounds between Kingsbridge and the lower lines de^ pends upon so many circumstances that it is impossible for him to deter- mine the point. He submits it entirely to your discretion and such judgment as you shall be able to form from the enemy's movements, and the whole complexion of things. He says, you know the original design was to garrison the works and preserve the lower lines as long as they could be kept, that the communication across the river might be open 'Howe's first Dispatch, Nov. 30. Force 5th series, vol. iii, pp. 921, 925. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 1 776 ?3 to US, and the enemy at the same time should be prevented from having a passage up and down the river for their ships,'" On the 7th Washington writes personally to Greene : " We conceive that Fort Washington will be an object for part of his (Howe's) force, while New Jersey may claim the attention of the other part. To guard against the evils arising from the first, I must recommend you to pay every at- tention in your power, and give ^very assistance you can, to the garri- son opposite. * * * If you have not sent my boxes, with camp tables, and chairs, be so good as to let them remain with you, as I do not know but I shall move with the troops designed for the Jerseys, per- suaded as I am of their having turned their views that way.'" Surely this was full authority to Greene to reinforce Mount Washing- ton if he saw fit, and as surely Washington did not expect it to be the object of Howe's " views." The next day (the 8th) he heard of the passage of three British vessels up the North river, and thereby convinced of the inefficiency of the obstructions therein, wrote Greene : " What valu- able purpose can it answer to attempt to hold a post from which the ex- pected benefit cannot be had ? I am, therefore, inclined to think it will not be prudent to hazard the men and stores at Mount Washington, but as you are on the spot leave it to you to give such orders as to evacu- ating Mount Washington as you judge best, and so far revoking the order given to Colonel Magaw to defend it to the last.'" This, though a strong opinion, still left it to Greene's judgment, and the latter replies on the 9th, after visiting the post the evening before : " Upon the whole I cannot help thinking the garrison is an advantage ; and I cannot conceive the garrison to be in any great danger. The men can be brought off at any time, but the stores may not so easily be re- moved, yet I think they can be got off in spite of them, if matters grow desperate. This post is of no consequence only in conjunction with Mount Washington. I was over there last evening ; the enemy seem to be disposing matters to besiege the place ; but Colonel Magaw thinks it will take them till December expires before they can carry it."^ Two letters passed from Greene to Washington — the one on the loth and the other on the nth, and the only reference to Mount Washington in either is the closing line of the latter, " the enemy remains quiet there this afternoon."^ 'Harrison's Letter. Force 5th series, vol. iii. p. 519. ^Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 557. ^Ibid. p. 602. ''Ibid. p. 619. *Ibid. p. 638, 24 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND Tl'S CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 Washinj^ton wrote no other letter to Greene after that of the 8th. On the loth he left White Plains, where he had been all the time, at 1 1 A. M., and rode to Peekskill. The nth he spent in a reconnoissance of the Highlands, and on the 12th, after writing two letters,' crossed the North river to the ferry landing below Stoney Point on his way to the army in Jersey. The same day Greene wrote President Hancock ; " I expect General Howe will attempt to possess himself of Mount Washington, but ver}^ much doubt whether he will succeed in the attempt. Our troops are much fatigued with the amazing duty, but are generally in good spirits.'"^ As Washington crossed the Hudson he saw the three British men of war, which had come up on the 7th, quietly riding at anchor in the Tappan Sea. The obstructions and chevaux-dc-frise from which so much had been expected had been passed with ease. They were absolute failures. The British ships neither went over them nor through them, but around them, close in, on either the eastern or western shore, one of the largest vessels, which it was proposed to sink, in consequence of a blunder bilged and went down far from her destined position, and part of the chevaiix-dc-frisc found after the capture, having apparently never been used.^ On the 14th November Washington wrote a long letter .to the President of Congress, dated at " General Greene's Head-quarters," beginning, " I have the honor to inform 3'ou of my arrival here yester- day," in which he discussed at length various subjects of public concoi'n, but remarked casually on the movements of the enemy that, " it seems to be generall}' believed on all hands that the investing of Fort Washington is one object they have in view," and closed with the Avords, " I propose to stay in this neighborhood a few days, in which time I expect the designs of the enemy will become disclosed, and their incursions be made in this quarter, or their investiture of Fort Washington, if they are intended." This shows clearly that both Washington and Greene were in doubt on the 14th, the day before Mount Washington was summoned to surren- der, whether it was to be attacked or not. On the 15th, the day of the summons, Washington wrote two letters to the Board of War, one dated, " General Greene's Quarters," on an 'One to General Lee, and the other — a very full one — of instructions to General Heath. Mount Wasliington is mentioned in neither. Ibid. 656, 657. -Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 653. ^British return of ordnance and stores taken from I2t]i of October to 2oth of November, 1776. Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 1058-9. MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 25 exchange of ladies, and the other dated " Hackensaek," on an exchange of prisoners with the enemy, but aUudcs in neither to Mount Washing- ton.' The arrival undiscovered, of his boats after midnight of the 14th, completed Howe's preparations, but the next day proving unfavorable, he postponed the attack to the i6th. A short time after noon on the 15th, a mounted ofificer, with two or three companions under a white flag, crossed Kingsbridge, and slowly ascended the heights towards Fort Washington. The American commander sent down to meet him Colonel Swoope of Pennsylvania. The officer proved to be Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson, the Adjutant-General of the British Army, who bore a sum- mons to Colonel Magaw to surrender at discretion or suffer the conse- quences of a storm, which by military law is liability to be put to the sw^ord if taken, and he required an answer in two hours. Magaw at once dispatched a note with the intelligence to Greene at Fort Lee, saying to him at the same time, " we are determined to defend the post or die." He then returned to the summons this brave answer, addressed " To the Adjutant General of the British Army.— Sir, If I rightly understand the purport of your message from General Howe, communicated to Colonel Swoope, this post is to be immediately surren- dered, or the garrison put to the sword. I rather think it is a mistake than a settled resolution in General Howe, to act a part so unworthy of himself and the British Nation. But give me leave to assure his excel- "lency that actuated by the most glorious cause that mankind ever fought in, I am determined to defend this post to the very last extremity." Rob't Magaw, Colonel Connnanding. On receiving this note, Greene instantly ordered Heard's brigade " to hasten on," directed Magaw to defend to the last, and then in a let- ter dated " Fort Lee, 4 o'clock," sent enclosed Magaw's dispatch an- nouncing Howe's summons to Washington, who was at Hackensaek, ar- ranging for the reception of the American Army then crossing into New Jersey. Li his communication Greene said, " the contents will require your Excellency's attention.'" Washington immediately started for Fort Lee ; arrived there he found that Greene was on the New York side, and himself embarked to cross the river to the fort about 9 o'clock at night, " and [in his own words,] had partly crossed the North River, when I met General Putnam and General Greene, who were just returning from 'Force 5th series, vol. iii, p. 699. ■■'Ibid. 699, 700. 26 MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. 1 6 1 776 thence, and informed me that the troops were in high spirits and would make a good defence ; and it being late at night I returned." The morning of the i6th November, 1776, broke bright and fair. The mists in the deep valley of the Harlem had not yet risen when Lieuten- ant-General von Knyphausen, at the head of his Germans, marched from their camp on its Westchester side across Kingsbridge, and joined a small body of the same troops that had lain upon the island. He had made a special request of Sir William Howe that the main attack might be made by himself at the head of German regiments only, and it had been granted. Forming his troops, consisting of detachments from his own corps, von Rahl's brigade and the Waldeck regiment, 3,000 in all, according to Graydon, into two columns, the right nearest the Hud- son under Colonel von Rahl, and the left under Major-General von Schmid, the whole commanded by himself, he pressed forward about seven o'clock supported by a terrific cannonade from ail the British batteries, intend- ed to confuse the Americans as to the real point of the main attack. But receiving word from Howe that all was not quite ready, he rested quietly till the final arrangements for the other assaults were made. The sun had risen well above the Westchester hills on the eastern edge of the valley, when a gun from the British battery farthest down the Harlem suddenly threw a shot into the American lines south of Fort Washing- ton. Then pushing forward a battery of Hessian field-guns far enough to engage the American batteries on the hill above what is now called Inwood, he put his columns in motion, each preceded by an advance guard of about 100 men. Von Rahl on the right, passing through the break in the hills forming the present entrance to Inwood, close along the Hudson river, pressed through the woods up the northern end of the long hill on which Fort Washington stood, supported by the guns of the Pearl frigate, which lay opposite the break, and fiercely attacked the Ameri- can battery and redoubt on its crest, defended by Colonel Rawling's regiment of Maryland riflemen, under himself and Major Otho Williams, and some Pennsylvania troops. The pass was steep, narrow, covered with woods, and well defended. The greatest gallantry was shown on both sides. iVgain and again the Germans attacked, and again and again were repelled. Fighting behind intrenchments, the Americans had the advantage of position ; the Germans that of numbers. Many were killed on both sides, but far more of the latter than the former. The American guns, only three in number, served rapidly and well, did great execution. But courage and numbers finally prevailed over courage and intrenchments, and the Germans, with a shout, at last car- MOUNT WASHINGTON AND ITS CAPTURE NOV. l6 IJ/S 2/ ried the crest ol the hill, and drove the Americans, whose rifles at the last had become almost too foul for nse, from their works. vin Schraid's column, with which von Knyphausen himself was look a more easterly route, and attacked the same position a !■ "le nea - the Kincsbrid-e road, but having to penetrate a triple al,at n oi felled rees and to go through a thick undergrowth covering the declivity, they were somewhat delayed; but forcing their way through, von Knyphau- Tennprsmi leading and helping to break down the obstructions with hTs own hands, the two German columns united upon the summit of 'le hill, and completed the discomfiture of the Americans, who retreated nlnmx its flat tOP tO tllC fort. . , . ^ , J rst as the Germans became fully engaged the English reg.nients o liJl in antry and guards, four in number, under Bngadiei^General l^faUiews, supported by the First and Second Grenadiers and the Thir- ty tWrdoo, under Cornwanis,in thirty boats, under cover of a tre- mendous fire'from the British batteries on its "^-^ ^^^^^^^^^.^XT^^ Harlem river to Sherman's Creek. Though met with a sharp fire, they " tanUy ascended the face of Laurel Hill, high wooded and precpitou Ihe fallen leaves, yet moist with the rain of the preceding day, rendei- ng he footing si 1 more difficult, and drove from the battery on its brow ^indiTs summit the Pennsylvania troops (the last reinforcements sent over from Fort Lee) whoni Magaw had detailed to defend it. Though de ea ted and forced to retreat, they made a brave defense. Colonel Baxter their commander) being killed, sword in hand, at the head of his men About eight o'clock Earl Percy with two brigades, one English and the other Hessian under von Stein, began the attack upon the U^es to the south of Mount Washington. With this coi-ps was Su WiUiamHowe himself, who animated the troops by P^Tiel Lam nersonal bravery. The American lines were defended by Colonel Lam be CadwaUader at the head of his own, and Magaw's Pennsylvania b talons and some broken companies from Miles' and other regmr^nts chiefly from Pennsylvania. Driving them from a small outwoik an the ■ first fortified line across the island, Pvth£ im/Ticans and iumed fti tjit ri ^rett Li&.c'rsta^a/!i>di 7 "Ju?? (? vr APPENDIX 31 COLONEL MAGAW S ORDERLY BOOK AT MOUNT WASH- INGTON. The following is a copy of all the entries in the Orderly Book of Colonel Magaw, taken from the original by the kind permission of its present owner, the Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Murray, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It begins October 31st, 1776, but unfortunately stops November loth, 1776, six days before the surrender. The order of Nov. ist, increasing the picket guards very strongly for the 2d, may have been the proximate cause of Demont's departure. He probably did not want to run the risk of the increased numbers of pickets, and therefore went over to the enemy before they were act- ually placed on guard. E. F. de L. "Harlem Heights, October 25th. Parole Danvers. Co. Sign Newberry. Saturday, October 26th. Parole Lexington. Co. Sign Concord. Sunday, October 27 th. Parole Roxbury. Co. Sign Cambridge. Monday, October 28th. Parole Litchfield. Co. Sign Norwich. Tuesday, October 29th. Parole Berks. Co. Sign Reading. Wednesday, October 30th. Parole Lancaster. Co. Sign York. Thursday, October 31st. Parole Cumberland. Co. Sign Carlisle. Friday, November ist. Parole Pittsburgh. Co. Sign Bedford. Coll. Magaw's Orders. Ninety men for Picquet towards New York tomorrow, to be stationed as fol- lows — North River, i Sub. and 20; Hol- loway, I Sergt. and 10; Point of Rocks, I Sub. and 20 ; Works near Harlaem River, i Sub. and 20; One Capt. at the Point of Rocks or North River; i Sub. and 20 on the East River between Head quarters and Fort Washington. Weekly returns to be given in before 12 o'clock at Noon, of the strength of the several Regiments and Detachments of our Troops now on this Island, that duty may be proportioned. Capt. Longs Company to join Coll. Rawlings Battn.; in the mean time Capt. Moulton, of the Artillery, will appoint one of his Officers to act as Fort Major who will prevent all doubtfull or suspect- ed persons entering the Fort, and observe such Orders As may be given by the Commanding Officer or Capt. Moulton. Saturday, November 2d. Parole Amboy. Co. Sign Woodbridge. Sunday, November 3d. Parole Morris. Co. Sign Potter. Monday, November 4th. Parole Sabrook. Co. Sign Enfield. No cattle or hogs to be suffered in the Fort. No passes or passages to be made on any pretence whatsoever through the Abbatis, Lieut. Coll. Wypert is to be at liberty to have any Tents or obstructions removed which may be in his way in strengthening the works; all Officers to give him assistance for that purpose. The Officers of the several Guards to recommend the greatest allertness to their Centinels at this time and place, the most dangerous, important, and honourable. Post that, perhaps, Americans were ever l^laced in. The Liberty of this great and free Continent may in great measure de- 32 APPENDIX pend on our vigilance and bravery. Mr. John Morgan is to act as Brigade Major, all passes signed by him to be considered as good. The Adjutants orSergt. Majors of the several battalions to attend at Headquar- ters at 3 o'clock every day for orders, which will be delivered by Mr. Morgan, he will also deliver them the Parole and Counter Sign in the Evening. Each Bat- talion and Detachment to make out exact returns of their strength on this Island, both fit for duty and sick, as orders are received to transmit the returns to the Commander in Chief, and the Congress, these returns to be made by 12 o'clock tomorrow. Tuesday, November 5 th. Parole Bristol. Co. Sign Frankfort, Notwithstanding the frequent general orders against fireing guns about the Camp and wanton waste of Amunition, This destructive practice still prevails. Officers are to be very vigilant and detect and confine offenders, and also to examine the Cartouch Boxes at least twice a week, and charge the men 6d pr Cartridge for such as cant be accounted for. Wednesday, November 6th. Parole Dover. Co. Sign Darby. The Officers of the Guards on the lines are to be very punctual in giveing strict orders to the Centinels to permit no person who is not in this service to come within the lines, but such as come to continue, as they will not on any pre- tence whatever be permitted to return, likewise no person to pass from here be- yond the lines, as they will not on any account be suffered to return. The Adjutants and Sergt. Majors of the several battalions and detachments are to be carefull that all their officers have the Reading the above orders. Thursday, November ytli. Parole Washington. Co. Sign Lee. Friday, November 8th. Parole Magaw. Co. Sign Greene. Saturday, November 9th. Parole Cadwallader. Co. Sign Beatty. Sunday, November loth. Parole Brunswick. Co. Sign Burling- ton." Colonel Robert Magaw was the eldest son of William Magaw a Scotch- Irish lawyer who came, prior to 1752, from Strabane, in the north of Ireland, to Maryland, and thence to Carlisle, in Pennsylvania. He was born in Ireland, was a lawyer, married while a prisoner Marritie Van Brunt of Flatbush, and died 6th January, 1790, at Carlisle, leaving a son and daughter. His regi- ment, 5th Pennsylvania, numbered 25 officers and 312 men when surrendered. — Ms. Magaiv papers. Letter of Dr. Murray. DoDON Henry, Baron von Knyp- hausen, Lieutenant-General, born in Al- sace, in 1730, son of Baron von Knyp- hausen a Colonel under Marlborough, and was a descendant of the great Holland General of Gustavus Adolphus, whose name he bore. Tall, spare in per- son, very German in appearance, he was, though a strict officer, popular with both officers and men. He died in Berlin, in 1794, a full General in the Prussian service. — Watson s Philadelphia Bio- graphic Universelle. Parade of the Prisoners. — " The prisoners taken at Mt. Washington were all paraded near the Jews' Burying Ground (now Chatham Square). They were said to be 2,500; no insults were offered to them when paraded, nor any public huzzaing or rejoicing as was usual on similar and less occasions." — Ms. letter of yohn McKesson to Geo. Clinton. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 800 186 2