Cattle and Kidnappers – Staten Island in the Spring of 1776

Cattle

The 65-acre Cortelyou farm and homestead at Fresh Kills Road (now Arthur Kill Road) near the intersection of present-day Cortelyou Avenue. Jasper F. Cropsey
Painting courtesy of the Staten Island Historical Society (Richmondtown)

The First Continental Congress had inflicted a severe boycott on Staten Island, in which most of the Islanders protested and attempted to thwart by smuggling their produce and livestock to the lucrative markets in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  The leading protesters were also the most prominent of Loyalist families who had profited from these local markets and the British markets overseas.  Christopher Billopp, one of the largest landowners, his father-in-law, Benjamin Seaman, the Richmond County Jurist, Richard Connor, member of the Moravian Church and eventual Captain of the Third Brigade of Billopp’s Loyalist Militia, Aaron Cortelyou, another member of the Moravian Church (and a future spy for the British), John Journeay, the county clerk, Paul Michaeu and Richard Lawrence, the master carpenter of Staten Island’s shipyards were the most outspoken against this boycott.

When General Charles Lee inadequately fortified Staten Island in February in preparation of a British invasion, he proceeded to attempt to have all of the livestock rounded up and transported off of the Island to New Jersey. General Livingston and Col. Heard then arrived with roughly 1,000 militia on the Island to secure the livestock over a four-day period in mid-February 1776.

Staten Islanders were so enraged at the soldiers’ appearance on the Island, they began to harass and threaten the soldiers with death. Col. Heard had had enough. He arrested four prominent Loyalists: Richard Connor, Isaac Decker, Abraham Harris and Minah Burger and sent them to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, to await trial. All four were eventually acquitted.

Sunset on a River Inlet, Jasper F. Cropsey

Lord Sterling was then sent by Washington to continue shoring up New York’s defenses, including what had been unfinished by General Lee on Staten Island. General Stirling began surveiling the Loyalist residents and made one an example by arresting John James Boyd for expressing his Loyalist sympathies.

Plan of The Narrows, shewing the channel, shoal, depth of water, and the several battery’s proposed on each side to prevent an enemy’s sailing up to New York. [1776 Continental Forces]

By April 1776, the Island was still not properly fortified, prompting the new General in charge of New York’s defenses, Israel Putnam, to send three companies of Virginia and Maryland riflemen to the Watering Place, in an attempt to block the British Navy from procuring water for its ships. The soldiers continued to harass and insult the Loyalist Islanders, including Captain Alexander MacDonald’s wife–the soldiers rummaged through her house and pillaged her farm. Other farmers homesteads were ransacked of their produce, livestock and woodlands.

George Washington, upon finally arriving in New York and taking command of the fortifications, had all of the heights of Staten Island secured with signal stations. He again ordered “the Removal of the Stock of Cattle and Horses” to prevent the enemy from obtaining these important supplies:

New York July the 3d 1776

Sir

“Since I had the honor of addressing you and on the same day, several Ships more arrived within the Hook, making the number that came in then a hundred & Ten, and there remains no doubt of the whole of the Fleet from Hallifax being now here.

Yesterday evening fifty of them came up the Bay, and Anchored on the Staten Island side. their views I cannot precisely determine, but am extremely apprehensive as part of ’em only came, that they mean to surround the Island and secure the Stock upon It. I had consulted with a Committee of the Provincial Congress upon the Subject before the arrival of the Fleet and they appointed a person to superintend the business and to drive the Stock off. I also wrote Brigr Genl Herd and directed him to the measure, lest It might be neglected, but am fearfull It has not been affected.

. . .

Esteeming It of Infinite advantage to prevent the Enemy from getting fresh provisions and Horses for their Waggons, Artillery &c. I gave orders to a party of our men on Staten Island since writing Genl Herd to drive the Stock off, without waiting for the assistance or direction of the Committees there, lest their slow mode of transacting business might produce too much delay and have sent this morning to know what they have done. I am this Minute informed by a Gentleman that the Committee of Eliza. Town sent their Company of Light Horse on Monday to effect It, and that some of their Militia was to give their aid yesterday—he adds that he was credibly told last night by part of the Militia coming to this place that yesterday they saw a good deal of Stock driving off the Island & crossing to the Jerseys. If the business is not executed before now, It will be impossible to do It. I have the Honor to be with Sentiments of the greatest Esteem Sir Your Most Obedt Servt”

Go: Washington

Looking Oceanward from Todt Hill, Jasper F. Cropsey. Painting courtesy Staten Island Museum

Kidnappers

Sources: Phillip Papas, “Richmond County, Staten Island” in Joseph S. Tiedemann and Eugene R. Fingerhut, ed., The Other New York: The American Revolution Beyond New York City, 1763-1787 (Albany, NY, 2005)

“From George Washington to John Hancock, 3 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0127. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 191–194.]

Major General Philemon Dickinson’s Invasion of Staten Island, November 25, 1777

Major General Philemon Dickinson. New York Public Library

On the 25th of November, 1777, General Philemon Dickinson, commanding the New Jersey Militia, suddenly embarked before daylight from Halstead’s Point to Staten Island, with a party of about fourteen hundred militia. He advanced his men in three different detachments by different roads, to rendezvous at a central point a few miles distant, undoubtedly Richmond. Unfortunately it was soon found that General Skinner had been informed of the intended attack, and before three o’clock he had drawn his troops off the Island. General Dickinson, however, made a few little attacks on some straggling parties of the tories and on the detachment of British troops under Major-General John Campbell [at Fort Hill], and he killed some five or six men and took twenty-four prisoners [Three NJ Volunteers were captured:  Lieutenant Jacob Van BuskirkLieutenant Edward Earle and Surgeon John Hammell].

Major General John Campbell: Wikipedia

Immediately after opening fire upon the British, General Dickinson discovered reinforcements and several ships of war approaching the Island. Knowing that he would be overpowered by numbers, he gave orders to retire from the scene, and with the loss of a few men whom the British captured, the Americans made good their escape to the Jersey shore. He lost three men of his command captured, and two wounded. The main object designed by this affair was not accomplished; but General Washington was pleased with the disposal made of the forces by General Dickinson and the manner in which they had been handled.

General Dickinson sums up the results of his invasion in the following letter to Washington:

Elizabeth Town [N.J.] Novemr 28th 1777

Dear Sir

Having obtained the fullest Information, respecting the Strength & Situation, of the Enemy upon Staten Island, & made the necessary Preparations, I called in many Volunteers, whose Numbers, in addition to those who were on Duty at this Post, amounted to about 1400 Men, with this Detachment, I landed Yesterday Morning before Day, upon the Island, from Halsteads Point—The whole Strength of the Enemy, were drawn to this side of the Island, & extended from the Blazing Star, to their former works; Genl Skinner with five Regiments of Greens, were quartered in different Parts, about three hundred Waldeckers with Genl Campbell lay at the Works, in which were light cannon with a company of Artillery, cover’d by a fifty Gun Ship, & a Sloop of War—I landed in three Divisions (having the best Guides) & intended to have march’d bye roads, in order to get in the rear of the Greens, & cut off their Retreat—the Divisions proceeded as far as was intended, (7 Miles) & then met at the appointed Rendezvous, but to my great disappointment, they secured their retreat in the Works, by the most precipitate flight, Genl Skinner, Col: Allen & many other officers having narrowly escaped—We drove in all their Pickets with little opposition, & now & then skirmished a little with them as they fled—I kept my Design as much as possible, not having communicated it, to the Field officers, untill 8, OClock the Evening before, but notwithstanding all my precaution, Mr Skinner recieved the Intelligence at 3, OClock in the Morng which frustrated my Plan—I flatter’d myself, I should have had the Pleasure, of giving your Excellency a good account of the General & his Green Brigade, which undoubtedly would have been the case, had he not unluckily have received the above Information[1]—We made the following Prisoners—vizt two Lieutenants, (one Col: Buskirks Son) one Surgeon, one Commissary, & twenty Privates—Mr Hud of Brunswick among the Numbers—& killed five or six Greens—our loss was, three Men made Prisoners, & two slightly wounded[2]—In justice to both officers & Men, I must inform your Excellency, they behaved well, & wanted nothing but an opportunity, to have done honor to the State they belong to, their Expectations were great, & their Spirits high. I was astonished the Enemy had not collected, & formed upon some advantageous Ground, this I expected would have been the case; & proceeded with caution—They came down in a Body, to play the old Game upon our Rear, this I expected, & was sufficiently prepared for, having thrown up a small Work at Halsteads Point, & placed two Field Pieces in it, from which we kept up a brisk fire, & soon dispersed them—After remaining on the Island Eight hours, & driving them within their Works, we made an easy & secure retreat—not having lost a single Man, Horse, or Boat—By a Flag just come over, I am informed they say, in excuse for their Gallant Behaviour, that we were joined by 2,000 Continental Troops—had it not have been strong tide of Flud, by which means, they might easily have been reinforced from N. York—as General Putnam only intended a Feint there, & their having two Gondola’s, & an armed Sloop, lying in the Sound, I should have remained in Possession of the Island for the Day; those considerations & the Troops being much fatigued, as the Night was very cold, & they obliged to march thro’ much water, determined me to return—which reasons, I hope will mee⟨t your⟩ Excellency’s approbation.

⟨I pr⟩oposed to the Governor, to march most of the Men ⟨from th⟩is Post to the Southern Part of this State, to serve out ⟨th⟩e remainder of their Time, (indeed the whole Force should have marched long ago, but the Council would not consent) if I am not forbid, shall take the Liberty of sending on six hundred of the best Troops early tomorrow Morng which Detachment, I shall accompany—the Weather is very bad, but hope it will clear up this Eveng.

My Indisposition, being much fatigued, & very wet in crossing the river, prevented my giving your Excellency the above Information earlier.

A Fleet consisting of 25 Sail, is just arrived at the Narrows, said to come from England, & to have brought over some of the New raised Irish Regts. I have the honor to be, Your Excellencys most Obt Servt

Philemon Dickinson

The prisoners taken in the raid of General Dickinson, in the preceding November, were still in the possession of the Americans at the commencement of the year 1778, and some had been summarily dealt with. In consequence the following correspondence passed between General Robertson, the commanding officer at New York, and Governor Livingston, of New Jersey:

“New York, January 4, 1778.

“Sir: — I am interrupted in my daily attempts to soften the calamities of prisoners, and reconcile their care with our security, by a general cry of resentment, arising from an information —

“That officers in the King’s service taken on the [27th] of November, and Mr. John Brown, a deputy-commissary, are to be tried in Jersey for high treason; and that Mr. Hill and another prisoner have been hanged.

“Though I am neither authorized to threaten or to sooth, my wish to prevent an increase of horrors, will justify my using the liberty of an old acquaintance, to desire your interposition to put an end to, or prevent measures which, if pursued on one side would tend to prevent every act of humanity on the other, and render every person who exercises this to the King’s enemies, odious to his friends.

“I need not point out to you all the cruel consequences of such a proceedure. I am hopeful you’ll prevent them, and excuse this trouble from. Sir,

“Your most obedient and humble servant,

“James Robertson.

” N. B. At the moment that the cry of murder reached my ears, I was signing orders, that Fell‘s request to have the liberty of the city, and Colonel Reynold to be set free on his parole, should be complied with. I have not recalled the order, because tho’ the evidence be strong, I can’t believe it possible a measure so cruel and impolitic, could be adopted where you bear sway.

“To William Livingston, Esq., &c., &c.”

Immediately upon the receipt of this letter Governor Livingston replied as follows:

William Livingston. Source: Sons of the American Revolution, Inc.; ©Fraunce’s Tavern Museum, New York City

“January 7, 1778.

“Sir: — Having received a letter under your signature, dated the 4th instant, which I have some reason to think you intended for me, I sit down to answer your inquiries concerning certain officers in the service of your King, taken on Staten Island, and one Browne who calls himself a deputy commissary; and also respecting one Iliff and another prisoner, (I suppose you must mean John Agee, he having shared the fate you mention), who have been hanged.

Buskirk, Earl and Hammell, who are, I presume, the officers intended, with the said Browne, were sent to me by General Dickinson as prisoners taken on Staten Island. Finding them all to be subjects of this state, and to have committed treason against it, the Council of Safety committed them to Trenton goal. At the same time I acquainted General Washington, that if he chose to treat the three first who were British officers, as prisoners of war, I doubted not the Council of Safety would be satisfied. General Washington has since informed me that he intends to consider them as such; and they are therefore at his service, whenever the Commissary of Prisoners shall direct concerning them. Browne, I am told, committed several robberies in this state before he took sanctuary on Staten Island, and I should scarcely imagine that he has expiated the guilt of his former crimes by committing the greater one of joining the enemies of his country. However, if General Washington chooses to consider him also a prisoner of war, I shall not interfere in the matter.

‘Hill was executed after a trial by jury for enlisting our subjects, himself being one, as recruits in the British army, and he was apprehended on his way with them to Staten Island. Had he never been subject to this state, he would have forfeited his life as a spy. [John]Magee was one of his company, and had also procured our subjects to enlist in the service of the enemy.

“If these transactions, Sir, should induce you to countenance greater severities toward our people, whom the fortune of war has thrown into your power, than they have already suffered, you will pardon me for thinking that you go farther out of your way to find palliatives for inhumanity, than necessity seems to require; and if this be the cry of murder to which you allude as having reached your ears, I sincerely pity your ears for being so frequently assaulted with the cries of murder much more audible, because less distant, I mean the cries of your prisoners who are constantly perishing in the goals of New York (the coolest and most deliberate kind of murder) from the rigorous manner of their treatment.

“I am with due respect, “Your must humble servant, ”William Livingston.

Sources and Notes:

Morris’s Memorial History of Staten Island, Ira K. Morris, New York: Winthrop Press (1900); History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York from its discovery to the present time, Richard M. Bayles, New York: L.E. Preston (1887); Founders Online

1. British officer Stephen Kemble’s journal entry for 27 Nov. also reported minor skirmishing on that date: “The Rebels Landed upon Staten Island in Force, from one thousand to seventeen hundred; proceeded as far as General Howe’s Head Quarters, but there turned about and fled to their Boats, where they Embarked; the loss of either side is so little worth mentioning that we shall not say what it was” (Kemble Papers, 1:145).

2. These prisoners all served in Gen. Cortlandt Skinner’s Loyalist corps of New Jersey Volunteers. Jacob Van Buskirk (b. 1760) of Bergen County was a lieutenant in the 3d Battalion, commanded by his father, Lt. Col. Abraham Van Buskirk. Van Buskirk returned to his battalion after his exchange. He was promoted to captain in May 1780 and was wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, S.C., in September 1781. Van Buskirk settled in Nova Scotia on British half-pay after the war. Edward Earle (1757–1825), also of Bergen County, was commissioned a lieutenant in the 3d Battalion in November 1776. Earle, whose property was confiscated by the Americans in 1778, was promoted to captain in July 1781, and after the war he settled in New Brunswick, Canada. John Hammell (born c.1755) of Windsor in Middlesex County served as a surgeon in Col. Philip Van Cortlandt’s regiment of New Jersey militia from July 1776 to November 1776, when he deserted and joined Van Buskirk’s 3d Battalion. Hammell also settled in New Brunswick, Canada, after the war, receiving British half-pay to 1801. John Brown (died c.1780), a cooper from New Brunswick, N.J., and a former commissary for the American forces, apparently served as both a deputy commissary and guide for Skinner’s corps. The New Jersey council of safety on 31 Nov. ordered Van Buskirk, Earle, Hammel, and Brown “committed to Trenton Jail for high Treason” (N.J. Council of Safety Minutes, 167). GW recommended against trying the four men for treason, and after a grand jury failed to bring in a bill of indictment against them, the council turned them over to Elias Boudinot as prisoners of war (see William Livingston to GW, 1 Dec., and note 2, GW to Livingston, 11 Dec., and Charles Pettit to Elias Boudinot, 1 Jan. 1778, in NjP: Thorne-Boudinot Collection). “Mr Hud” of New Brunswick, N.J., may be James Hude, Jr., son of the former mayor of New Brunswick, James Hude, Sr.

Simcoe and The Queen’s Rangers on Staten Island, Part 2

We have compiled from the works of Colonel Simcoe his own accounts of his service on Staten Island, keeping strictly to his own language, believing that, as a historical record, it would be unjust to the original writer as well as the reader of today to cause a change in either form or phrase. We quote from Simcoe’s Military Journal:

“On the 9th of October, 1778, [the Queen’s Rangers being at Oyster Bay, Long Island], it was hinted to Lieut. Col. Simcoe to hold his corps in readiness for embarkation. On the 19th it marched for that purpose; the cavalry to Jericho, where they were to remain under the command of Lieut.-Col. Fulton, and the infantry to Jamaica, which proceeded to Yellow-hook, and embarked on the 24th. Earl Cornwallis commanded this expedition, consisting of the 7th, 23d, 22d, 33d, 57th regiments, Rangers, and Volunteers of Ireland, commanded by Lord Rawdon; it was supposed to be intended for Jamaica, at that time presumed to be threatened with an invasion from M. d’Estaing. On intelligence being received that his designs were pointed elsewhere, the troops were re-landed, and were ordered to continue in readiness to embark at the shortest notice. The Queen’s Rangers marched to Richmond, on Staten Island. They relieved a regiment which had been very sickly while there. Lieut.-Col. Simcoe immediately ordered their huts to be destroyed, and encamped his corps. Signals, in case of alarm, were established on the Island by General Patterson, who commanded there.

IMG_1981.JPG
Royal Provincials

“Two days were lost by a misunderstanding of the General’s order, the Hussars of the Queen’s Rangers only being sent to Jericho, without Captain Sanford’s troop, which was not merely necessary in regard to numbers, but particularly wished for, as it was known that Captain Sanford, when quartermaster of the guards, had frequently been on foraging parties in the country he was to pass through. On the 25th of October, by eight o’clock at night, the detachment, which had been detailed, marched to Billopp’s Point, where they were to embark. That the enterprise might be effectually concealed, Lieut.-Col. Simcoe described a man, as a rebel spy, to be on the Island, and endeavoring to escape to New Jersey. A great reward was offered for taking him, and the militia of the Island were watching all the places where it was possible for any man to go from, in order to apprehend him. The batteaux and boats, which were appointed to be at Billopp’s Point, so as to pass the whole over by twelve o’clock at night, did not arrive until three o’clock in the morning. No time was lost; the infantry of the Queen’s Rangers landed; they ambuscaded every avenue of the town [Perth Amboy]; the cavalry followed as soon as possible. As soon as it was formed, Lieut.-Col. Simcoe called together the officers; he told them of his plan, “that he meant to burn the boats at Van Vacter’s bridge, and crossing the Raritan, at Hillsborough, to return by the road to Brunswick and making a circuit to avoid that place as soon as he came near it, to discover himself when beyond it, on the heights where the General Redoubts stood while the British troops were cantoned there, and where the Queen’s Rangers afterwards had been encamped; and to entice the militia, if possible, to follow him into an ambuscade in which the infantry would lay for them at South River bridge.

Major Armstrong was instructed to re-embark, as soon as the cavalry marched, and to land on the opposite side of the Raritan, at South Amboy; he was then, with the utmost despatch and silence, to proceed to South River bridge, six miles from South Amboy, where he was to ambuscade himself, without passing the bridge or taking it up. A smaller creek falls into this river on South Amboy side. Into the peninsula formed by these streams Lieut.-Col. Simcoe hoped to allure some Jersey militia.”

Here follows a detailed account of the raid into New Jersey, in the vicinity of Morristown, then the headquarters of the Continental army. Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe was badly wounded and captured. He was taken to the military prison at Burlington, N. J., where he was afterward joined by Colonel Christopher Billopp, the commander of the Staten Island militia. Major Armstrong assumed command of the Queen’s Rangers. The account continues:

“At South River the cavalry joined Major Armstrong; he had perfectly succeeded in arriving at his post undiscovered, and, ambuscading himself, had taken several prisoners. He marched back to South Amboy, and re-embarked without opposition, exchanging some of the bad horses of the corps for better ones which he had taken with the prisoners. The alarm through the country was general.  Wayne was detached from Washington’s camp m the highlands, with the light troops, and marched fourteen miles that night and thirty the next day. Colonel Lee was in Monmouth County, as it was said fell back toward the Delaware. The Queen’s Rangers returned to Richmond that evening, the cavalry had marched upwards of eighty miles, without halting or refreshment, and the infantry thirty.

Soldiers’ Huts (depicted are similar huts that were built at Inwood, Manhattan)

“In the distribution of quarters for the remaining winter, Richmond was allotted to the Queen’s Rangers. The post was in the centre of Staten Island, and consisted of three bad redoubts, so constructed, at various times and in such a manner as to be of little mutual assistance. The spaces between these redoubts had been occupied by the huts of the troops, wretchedly made of mud. These Lieut.-Colonel Simcoe had thrown down, and his purpose was to build ranges of log houses, which might join the redoubts, and being loop-holed, might become a very defensible curtain. Major Armstrong followed the plan, and set the regiment about its execution, in parties adapted to the different purposes of felling the timber, sawing it, and making shingles for the roofings. In the beginning of December the regiment was ordered to embark; which order was, soon after, countermanded.

“On the last day of December Lieut.-Colonel Simcoe returned to Staten Island from his imprisonment. He was mortified to find the expedition, under the Commander-in-Chief, had failed; especially, as, upon his landing at the Island, he received a letter from Major Andre, Adjutant-General, saying, ‘If this meets you a free man, prepare your regiment for embarkation, and hasten to New York yourself.’

”He joined the corps at Richmond. Major Armstrong had been indefatigable in getting the regiment hutted in a manner which rendered their post comfortable and defensible, and they soon found the advantage of their very extraordinary labor. The day which Lieut.-Col. Simcoe passed the Sound was the last on which it became navigable for a considerable time, the frost setting in with most unusual inclemency, and, by the 10th of January, the communication with New York was totally shut up by floating ice; and General Sterling was reduced to the necessity of restraining the troops to half allowance of provisions, but with every precaution to impress the inhabitants and soldiers with the belief that this restriction was precautionary against the possibility of the communication being closed for several weeks; and care was taken to investigate what resources of fresh provisions might be obtained from the Island.

“The Sound, which divided Staten Island from the Jersies, being totally frozen over and capable of bearing cannon, information was received that several of the rebel Generals had been openly measuring the thickness of the ice, and it was universally rumored that an attack was soon to take place upon Staten Island. General Sterling commanded there, and he was with the main body at the watering place, the heights of which [Pavilion Hill] were occupied by several redoubts. Colonel Lord Rawdon, with the Volunteers of Ireland, was quartered near a redoubt at the foot of the Narrows; and Lieut.-Col. Simcoe, with the Queen’s Rangers, at Richmond —the whole force on the Island being one thousand eight hundred effective men.

“On the 15th of January, early in the morning, the rebel detachment of near three thousand men, under the command of the person styled Lord Stirling, crossed the ice and entered Staten Island. Lord Stirling marched immediately towards the landing place, and by his position cut off General Sterling’s communication with the Volunteers of Ireland and the Queen’s Rangers. Lieut.-Col. Simcoe occupied the high grounds near Richmond with small parties of cavalry, and the infantry were sedulously employed in what might strengthen that post. There were three pieces of cannon (a nine and two six-pounders), mounted on platforms, without embrasures, in the redoubts. These were pointed at the eminences, where it was expected the enemy would first appear, and where the stones were collected in heaps, so that a round shot, if it struck among them, might have the effect of grape. If batteries, or any cannon, should be opened against Richmond, it was obvious these guns must be dismounted; they were, therefore, not intended to be exposed to such accidents; but the redoubt on the right [now a burying ground on a hill] was meant, on the first appearance of assault, to be abandoned, and its area filled with abatis which were provided, and its gate left open and exposed to the fire of the cannon of the other redoubts placed at their respective gates, of the two regimental field pieces, and of the musketry from the doors, windows and loop-holes of the barracks. The officers’ barracks, which were within the triangular area formed by those of the soldiers and the redoubts, were intended to be taken down, and the logs of which they were composed were to be heaped within a hut, and to form a traverse on a part exposed to the enemy. The rear of the works were secured by their position on the edge of the hill from any possibility of attack, and some of the huts, which ran below the surface of it, were in perfect safety from any shot whatsoever, and nearly so from shells, against the splinters of which their logs were very respectable traverses.

400-pound canon used by the British to repel an attack by the Americans (Cutting Family gift to Conference House). Stolen in 1972.

“There was a gun boat, which was frozen up in the creek, at the foot of Richmond Hill. This gun was elevated so as to fire a single round of grape shot; some swivels also were brought into the redoubts. Spike nails, of which there were a quantity for the barrack purposes, were driven through boards, ready to be concealed under the snow in places which were most accessible; all the cattle in the neighborhood were brought in the precincts of the garrison, as were the sledges, harness and horses, and the most cheerful and determined appearance of resolution ran through the whole corps. About midday many deserters came in from the rebel army; by them a perfect knowledge of the enemy’s force was gained, and one of them affirmed that he overheard some of their principal officers say, ‘That it was not worth while to attack Richmond where they were sure of obstinate resistance, and which must fall of itself whenever the main body was taken.’

“Lieut. Col. Simcoe was anxious to communicate with Lord Rawdon, and to obtain any intelligence or orders his lordship might have for him. He sent his adjutant, Lieut. Ormond, with directions to get some of the militia to convey a letter for that purpose by the sea shore [South Beach]. Some scattering parties of the enemy had been that way, on which account Lieut. Ormond could get no one to venture; he therefore went himself, and putting on colored clothes that he might not be distinguished, in case of any small parties lying in ambuscade, he got safely to the flag staff, [now Fort Wadsworth] and returned without discovery. The rebels making no attempt in the daytime upon the redoubts, where General Sterling was, led Lieut.-Col. Simcoe to conclude that they waited for cannon or more forces, and meant to storm them at night or the next morning; for, though no person could hold more cheaply than he thought himself authorized to do, those men on whom the enemy had conferred the office and title of Generals, it appeared totally unreasonable that having so well chosen the moment of invading the Island, they had no determined point to carry, or had neglected the proper means to ensure its success. On these ideas, he desired Colonel Billopp, (who commanded the militia of Staten Island), to get them to assemble to garrison Richmond; but neither entreaties, the full explanation of the advantage such a conduct would be of, nor the personal example of Col. Billopp, had any effect; not a man could be prevailed upon to enter the garrison. They assembled to drink at various public houses, and to hear the news, or were busy in providing for the temporary security of their cattle and effects; and these were not disaffected persons, but men who were obnoxious to the rebel governors, many of them refugees from the Jersies, some who had every reason to expect death, if the enemy succeeded, and all the total destruction of their property,

‘Lieut. -Col. Simcoe was therefore obliged to lay aside his intentions, which were to march with his cavalry, carrying muskets, with as many infantry as he could justify the taking from Richmond, with his field pieces in sledges, together with the swivels fixed upon blocks, and to get near the enemy undiscovered, and to make as great an alarm and as much impression as possible upon their rear, whensoever they attempted to storm the British redoubts. All the roads between Richmond and the headquarters, [New Dorp], led through narrow passes and below the chain of hills; these, where they had been beaten only, were passable, the ground being covered with several feet of snow, so that no patroles were made during the night, which would have been useless and dangerous; and the cavalry were assembled within the redoubts; the night was remarkably cold. A person from the Jersies brought the report of the country, that Washington was expected the next day at Elizabethtown, and that straw, &c., was sent to Staten Island. He went back again, commissioned by Lieut. Col. Simcoe, to observe what stores were in Elizabethtown, and particularly to remake what air-holes were in the ice on the Sound between the mouth of Richmond Creek and Elizabethtown, as it was intended, if nothing material intervened before the next night, to send Captain Stevenson with a detachment to burn Elizabethtown, and to give an alarm in the Jerseys.

“The intelligence which this zealous and trustworthy loyalist brought was very probable. The making a winter campaigning in America had always appeared to Lieut. Col. Simcoe a matter of great facility, and by frequently ruminating upon it, he was alive to the advantages which would attend Mr. Washington in its prosecution. He would without hesitation have abandoned the post at Richmond, and joined Lord Rawdon, or GJeneral Sterling, taking on himself all consequences, had it not appeared to him that the possession of Richmond would insure to Mr. Washington a safe retreat, even should the ice become impassable, and would probably inculcate on him the propriety of his seriously attempting to keep Staten Island at this very critical period, when the Commander-in-Chief was absent with the greatest part of the army, and the troops in New York, under General Knyphausen, were probably not in a capacity to quit it and take the field; particularly as in that case the nominal militia, whose members were so well displayed, as sufficient to garrison it, must form-the greater part have melted away in their attendance on the army, to whose various departments they in general belonged.

“Mr. Washington might without difficulty have assembled from the smaller creeks, and even from the Delaware and Hudson’s river, a multitude of boats, which, while the snow was upon the ground. might be conveyed overland to the Staten Island Sound; and with these, added to those which attended the army, he might transport his troops or form bridges, securing all approaches to them from the water by batteries constructed on the Jersey shore, while by other attacks and preparations he certainly could have thrown great difficulties in the way of General Knyphausen and the British army in the three Islands.

“Lieut.-Col. Simcoe, reasoning on the possibility of these events, waited to be guided by circumstances. If General Sterling could hold out, and was neither overwhelmed by number, or reduced by famine, which was most to be dreaded, it was obvious Richmond would be safe. If matters happened other- wise, he was perfectly certain, from Lord Rawdon’s character, that he should receive some directions from him, who would never remain in an untenable pose, with the certainty (if being made prisoner; and at all events Lieut.-Col. Simcoe determined, in case General Sterling should be defeated, and that he should receive no orders, he would attempt to escape; for since the rebels liad shown a total defect in every private and Benedict Arnold. public principle of honor, when they violated the convention with General Burgoyne’s army, he and the officers of the Queen’s Rangers had determined in no situation to surrender, where by escaping, if it should be but a mile into the country, the corps could disband itself individually, and separately attempt to rejoin the British armies; proper inducements being held out to the soldiers, and great aid being reasonably to be expected from the loyal inhabitants, scattered throughout every colony, and in very great numbers.

“This, which had been his common conversation and steady resolution, in case of any fortunate events, was now determined on by Lieut.-Col. Simcoe; his ideas were to forerun all intelligence and to attempt to surprise Col. Lee, at Burlington, and then to escape to the back countries. For this purpose he had sledges which could carry a hundred men, and he had no doubt of soon increasing them in the Jersies to a number sufficient to convey the whole corps. The attempt was less dangerous in itself and less injurious, if it failed, to the community than the certainty of being destroyed by heavy artillery, of ultimately surrendering, of moldering in prison and becoming lost to all future service to their king and country.

“There was no corps between General Washington’s army and that of Lincoln’s hastening into Charlestown but Lee’s. When once in possession of his horses there was but little doubt in the minds of Lieut. -Col. Simcoe and the officers to which he communicated his ideas, but that he should effect his retreat into the back parts of Pennsylvania, join his friends there, probably release the Convention army, and not impossibly join the Commander-in-Chief in Carolina, all of these ideas, it was with great surprise and pleasure that Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe understood the enemy were retreating from the Island. He immediately pursued them with the flank companies of Hussars, and was overtaken by an order from General Sterling to effect the same purpose; but the enemy had passed to the Jersey shore before he could come up with them. While the troops in the enemy’s front, on their arrival at the heights opposite to the British redoubts, halted for the rear to close up, they were permitted to make fires, which increased the power of the frost, and rendered them totally unable to proceed, and the severity of the night affecting the whole of them, many lost their limbs and several their lives. There were vast mounds of snow drifted before the redoubts, which Lord Stirling gave as his reason for not attempting them; and General Knyphausen, on the first signal of Staten Island being attacked, embarked troops to support it. The enemy in the dark of the evening saw there vessels, (which, whether the passage could be effected or not, were wisely directed to be kept plying off and on); but they did not wait to see if they could reach the Island, which in fact the drifting ice prevented, but immediately determining to retreat, they effected it the next morning, losing many men by desertion, and many British soldiers, who had enlisted with them to free themselves from imprisonment, embraced the opportunity of being in a country they were acquainted with to return to their old companions.”

Quoted From: Morris, Ira K. 1898. Morris’s memorial history of Staten Island, New York. New York: Memorial Pub. Co.

*Morris had included some errors in his text.  If you need more up to date info on Loyalist units, visit the  Royal Provincial website.

The Reenactment Unit is The 4th Battalion New Jersey Volunteers (a Loyalist Unit). I participated as a common soldier from 2008 to 2014.

Reenactment of Peace Conference at Christopher Billopp’s Bentley Manor (Conference House), Staten Island, September 11, 1776.

The Reenactment Unit is The 4th Battalion New Jersey Volunteers (a Loyalist Unit). I participated as a common soldier from 2008 to 2014.

Todd Braisted, noted Historian of all things Loyalist. For more info, see
Revolutionary War Loyalist history and genealogy
Getting SI signatures to Loyalty Oaths to King George III
A beautiful Loyalist walking the grounds of the Conference House
Me, Native Staten Islander loyal to the King of England
Loyalists troops standing guard
View of Perth Amboy
Frankin, Adams and Rutlege arrive from across the Authur Kill
to participate in the Peace Conference

Front Parlor for Dining
Best Front Parlor
Best Front Parlor
300-year-old Mulberry Tree
300-year-old Mulberry Tree
300-year-old Mulberry Tree
2007 Event
2007 Event
2007 Event
2007 Event
2007 Event

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Vaughn Dongan (Loyalist Staten Islander)

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Vaughn Dongan, commander of the 3rd Battalion of New Jersey Volunteers in Skinner’s Loyalist brigade was mortally wounded in a skirmish, midway between the Old Blazing Star Ferry and Prince’s Bay. He was taken to a local farm (which I have yet to identify).  It may very well be The Abraham Manee Farmhouse in Prince’s Bay, where British redoubts have been discovered nearby.

Lt.-Col. Edward Dongan. Circa 1773. A copy of this painting is in the home of Dr. John R. Dungan of Hastings. The sitter is almost certainly Edward Dongan, in the style of 1771-72, possibly 1760s, but he was married in 1773, a more likely date of painting. This is one of a pair of portraits removed from the Dongan Manor, 1882 and presented to the New-York Historical Society’s collection in 1882. The New-York Historical Society, Digital Collections.


Edward Vaughan Dongan was born January 3, 1749. After his father’s death, he went with his mother to live in Elizabeth. He was brought up a lawyer and lived at New Brunswick, N. J., where he married a daughter of Squire La Grange, a lawyer of that place. On the outbreak of the revolution, he made himself obnoxious on account of his adherence to royalty and was driven from his home before the British landed in New York. His father-in-law and family were in sympathy with him, and their estate was afterward forfeited.

Lt. Col. Edward Vaughan Dongan, along with Major Robert Drummond of the 3rd Battalion New Jersey Volunteers, had participated in Loyalist Foraging Raids into the New Jersey countryside from the Winter and early Spring of 1777. They successfully captured prisoners and livestock in one Foraging Raid into New Jersey from Staten Island on August 19, 1777.

Dongan was in command of a body of loyal troops and was posted at the Morning Star at the time of Sullivan’s raid on Staten Island, August 22, 1777. In this engagement, he received a wound from the effects of which he died in the hospital in New York city on the first of September.
August 23.—Yesterday morning, before daybreak, a body of rebels, under the command of Messrs Sullivan, Smallwood, Sullivan’s decent and^e Bourg, landed in two divisions upon the west end on Staton Island. By the acknowledgment of some of their officers, now prisoners here, their number was at least two thousand. One division of them soon fell in with a part of the New Jersey volunteers, which brigade was posted, in small detachments, along the side of the island, from Decker’s ferry to the point opposite Perth Amboy, a distance of fifteen miles. The rebels, greatly superior in numbers, had the fortune with success to engage the detachments that were commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Laurence, and LieutenantColonel Barton, who were both made prisoners, with several other officers, and a considerable number of men. They then marched down to Decker’s ferry, where they burned about thirty-five tons of hay and set fire to a barn. As soon as the alarm had reached head-quarters, Brigadier-General Campbell marched with the 52d British and 3d battalions of Waldeck, leaving a regiment of Anspach to guard the camp and redoubts. Upon the approach of the regular troops, the rebels instantly marched off with all speed. In the mean time Brigadier-General Skinner had collected those of his corps which had been dislodged from their stations, and detached Major Tympany, with twenty-five men, to gain information of the route which the enemy had taken. The major came up with a number of them at the house of Doctor Parker, which they were plundering. He attacked them immediately, killed several, and took the rest prisoners; among the killed was Mr. Small wood’s brigadier-major.

It was now known that the rebels on this side had gone off towards Richmond; they were eagerly pursued, and on the road beyond that village an account was received from Lieutenant-Colonel Dongan, that his post had been attacked by the second division of the enemy, and obliged to retire, (which they did with very little loss,) towards Lieutenant-Colonel Allen, who had himself very seasonably retired, and taken post on a height near Prince’s Bay, where Lieutenant-Colonel Dongan had joined him. A large body of the rebels had twice made a show of attacking them, but finally declined it, and marched off towards the Old Blazing Star. Those two gallant officers soon determined to pursue them, and now gave information to Brigadier-General Skinner that they were on the way and requested orders which were immediately despatched to them, to proceed, and at all events to attack the enemy as soon as possible, informing them at the same time, that their brother volunteers from the right were coming up with all speed to join them, and that the regular troops, with General Campbell, were at hand to support them. These orders were executed with equal spirit and success. Notwithstanding a great disparity of numbers, these new troops attacked the rear of the enemy, consisting of Smallwood’s and other corps that are foremost in reputation among the rebels, with an intrepidity and perseverance that would have done honor to veterans. A considerable number of the enemy were killed, and about three hundred taken prisoners, including twenty-one officers, viz., one lieutenant colonel, three majors, two captains, ten lieutenants, three ensigns, one surgeon, and one officer wounded. By this time, General Campbell had got up one piece of cannon with a detachment of the artillery. That piece was soon followed by two or three more, and a well-directed fire of round and grape shot had a great effect on the rebel boats, and on those of their people who had got over to the Jersey shore. Our loss, in the whole affair, is five killed, seven wounded, and eighty-four missing. Among the wounded were Lieutenant-Colonel Dongan1 and Major Barnes, both officers of distinguished bravery.

The rebels, by this attempt, have, indeed, got a good deal of plunder, chiefly from the inhabitants, of which they may possibly be ready to boast, for they have often boasted of exploits which honest men would deem a disgrace; and they have reason on this occasion to blush for their conduct.

Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Vaughan Dongan died of his wounds soon after the action. He was the commandant of the third battalion of New Jersey Volunteers; the youngest son of Walter Dongan, Esq., late of Staten Island; was bred to the law, and supported a most amiable character. He was in his twenty-ninth year and left a young distressed widow to lament the death of an affectionate husband. Their only child died a few hours before him.

—Gaine’s Mercury.

‘Gaine’s Mercury, September 1. * In New Jersey.

His only child, which with its mother had suffered great exposure on the day referred to, died on the same day, and was buried in the same grave with him. His widow afterward went with her family to reside at Farmington, Hackney, England.
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Excerpts from: Frank Moore, Diary of the American Revolution: From Newspapers and Original Documents, Volume 1, C. Scribner, 1860.
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Bound Brook, N.J. May 2009 (Loyalist reenactment 4th B. N.J. Volunteers)

Reenactment as a Loyalist soldier (an American-born colonist who supported the Crown) with the IV Battalion NJ Volunteers at Bound Brook, New Jersey. The Regimental coat, waistcoat, shirt and trousers were all borrowed thanks to Todd and Sue Braisted and Ray Helge. For more information, please visit: Royal Provincial, the official Loyalist History page authored by historian Todd Braisted.

General Skinner’s Headquarters, Port Richmond, Staten Island, N.Y.

NOTE: The text below is in the public domain.  There was no author attached to it.  I do not claim authorship of it.

Pelton House

The house sits on a bluff on Staten Island and overlooks the Kill Van Kull and a series of boatyards along the shore, a few blocks west of Snug Harbor Cultural Center. Buses, trucks, and cars rumble by on Richmond Terrace below, and travelers have no inkling that the future King William IV of England was a guest in that house during the American Revolution. Few even suspect that Staten Island was occupied territory for the entire course of that war for national independence. As a young Naval officer in the war, the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, was a guest at the Cruser-Pelton House. Major John Andre also spent time there. The soldier, poet, spy was hanged for conspiring with Benedict Arnold only a week after writing his last will and testament on Staten Island. The Cruser-Pelton House, as it is known locally, or Kreuzer-Pelton, as the New York City Landmarks Commission spells it, served as the commanding headquarters of Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner’s brigade of American Loyalists beginning in 1777.

Pelton House (late 19th C.) (NYPL)

The Island had already been occupied for a year by
then and the house used by British army engineers, along with a second Cruser house nearby. The house is marked on a military map drawn by the engineers during the British occupation, as well as on one drawn by French engineers for the Americans. The Revolution saw a great shift in population between the area of Elizabeth Town, New Jersey and Staten Island, as loyalists fled New Jersey for nearby Staten Island and patriots went in the other direction. The North Shore of Staten Island, occupied by the British, and the area opposite in New Jersey, occupied by the Americans, was known as “the Lines,” meaning the enemy lines. Skinner had already raised six battalions of New Jersey Volunteers by 1777 when he took up personal headquarters in the Cruser-Pelton House. From the house, Skinner planned raids into New Jersey and defended against raids from the rebels in New Jersey. His main responsibility was intelligence gathering for the secret service and he seems to have been good at his job. The house commands the high ground and any approach along the north shore by American forces from New Jersey would have been spotted from there.

Skinner had advance knowledge of every rebel raid except one. He narrowly escaped capture in August 1777 when rebels invaded the North Shore from Elizabeth Point and marched to the county seat at Richmond Town, where they took Skinner’s subalterns, Col. Barton and Lt. Col. Lawrence, and some 30 other prisoners. On one of many raids conducted by Lord Sterling, who led 2000 soldiers across the Kill in 1779, Skinner was ready for them and after a short, but furious battle in Port Richmond, in which the Dutch Church was burned, the Americans were driven back.

Pelton House photo (c) Nick Matranga

There is a local tradition of another skirmish being fought at Cruser Cove itself just below the Cruser-Pelton House. Skinner himself was supposed to have been wounded at this encounter. The house is composed of three parts: a fieldstone cottage on the west built in 1722 by Cornelius Van Santvoord, minister of the Port Richmond Dutch Reformed Church; a larger, steep-roofed rough-cut stone central section built around 1770 by Cornelius Cruser, a farmer, landowner, and son of the Voorlezer of the Dutch church; and a two-story brick extension added in 1836 for Daniel Pelton, an abolitionist, who moved there from Manhattan. When Daniel Pelton built the brick extension, it replaced an earlier east wing similar to the original stone cottage.

Rev. Cornelius Van Santvoord was the son-in-law of John Staats, who was the son of the original holder of the royal land patent granted in 1677, Pieter Jansen Staats, known as Peter Johnson. The next patent west was granted in 1677 to Gerrit Croesen (later Cruser), Peter Johnson’s brother-in-law. A farm on the Croesen Patent belonged to the Dutch Voorlezer, Hendrick Cruser, who was the patentee’s son and Cornelius Cruser’s father. In 1751, Cornelius Cruser bought the farm next door to his father’s farm and the property included the Van Santvoord house. Islanders had no choice in the matter of giving up their homes to the conquerors and it is questionable that Cornelius Cruser was a loyalist, since his son Abraham was a major on the American side. But Cornelius’s son John Cruser married Mary Tooker, daughter of a New Jersey loyalist, Jacob Tooker, who lived on Staten Island in the war years and then went into exile in Nova Scotia. John Cruser and Mary Tooker did not go into exile with her family and inherited the farm on his father’s death in 1786. Mary Tooker Cruser’s mother’s family included the notorious Col. Cornelius Hatfield and his gang of Tory irregulars who terrorized his hometown, Elizabeth, New Jersey from the Staten Island base. Hatfield hung a New Jersey man at Bergen Point in full view of the Cruser-Pelton house. Skinner, who could have looked out his window and watched the execution across the narrow Kill Van Kull, had directed Hatfield to do as he wished with the man. Hatfield was later tried for murder in Elizabeth Town, but was acquitted and went to Nova Scotia.

Pelton House photo (c) Nick Matranga

The house is located in Livingston, which was something of an abolitionist stronghold in the day. Near neighbors and social acquaintances of Pelton were abolitionists Francis George Shaw, father of Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded black troops in the Civil War, George William Curtis, and Sydney Howard Gay. Daniel Pelton’s reputation as an abolitionist, along with a trap door leading to an underground space the family called “the dungeon,” led to the tradition that the house was used in the Underground Railroad before the Civil War.

  The Cruser-Pelton House is a private residence not open to the public.