Readings in the History of New York Part IB

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STAMP ACT RIOTS

The English government decided to pass a stamp act. It required the colonists to purchase

a stamp to be put on every kind of legal or business document. It was a clever form of

taxation. The Stamp Act raised a storm of indignation throughout the colonies, from

Massachusetts to South Carolina. It was denounced as an oppressive, unrighteous,

tyrannical measure. It was attacked with unsparing severity from the wayside tavern and

the pulpit alike.

Cadwallader Colden, a Scotchman by birth and a clergyman by profession, was at that time

acting governor of New York. To guard against any resort to force on the part of the people

when the stamps should arrive, he had Fort George, on the Battery, reinforced by a

regiment from Crown Point. He had its magazines replenished, the ramparts

strengthened, and its guns trained on the town. The people saw all this. They understood

its import. It had the opposite effect from that which was intended. Instead of overawing

the people, it exasperated them.

At length, in October 1765, a ship with the British colors flying came sailing up the bay.

She anchored off Fort George. In a short time the startling tidings were circulated, that

she had brought a quantity of stamps. It was like sounding an alarm bell. The streets

became thronged with excited men. All the provincial vessels in the harbor lowered their

colors to half-mast, in token of mourning.

In anticipation of this event, an organization of men had been formed, called “Sons of

Liberty.” At once they assembled. They resolved at all hazards to get hold of those stamps.

They had caused the act itself to be hawked about the streets as “the folly of England and

the ruin of America.” Now they determined to measure their strength against the governor

of the colony.

That night, when the town was wrapped in slumber, they quietly affixed on the doors of

every public office and on the corners of the streets the following placard:

“The first man that either distributes or makes use of stamped paper, let him take care of

his house, person, and effects.”

McEvers, the head stamp distributor, was frightened by the bold, determined attitude of

the people. He refused to receive the stamps. Colden had the stamps sent for greater

safety to Fort George. He had written to the British Secretary, “I am resolved to have the

stamps distributed.” The people, however, were equally resolved that they should not be.

On the last day of October, the merchants of New York came together. They bound

themselves to “send no new orders for goods or merchandise, to countermand all former

orders, and not to even receive goods on commission, unless the Stamp Act be repealed.”

Friday, the 1st of November, was the day fixed upon for a public demonstration against the

Stamp Act by the people throughout the colonies. Never dawned a morning more pregnant

with the fate not only of a nation but also of the world.

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From New Hampshire to South Carolina the demonstration was ushered in by the tolling

of muffled bells, the firing of minute guns, and flags hung at half-mast. Eulogies were

pronounced on liberty. Everywhere people left their shops and fields. They gathered in

excited throngs to discuss the great question of taxation.

Even the children at their games, though hardly able to speak, caught up the general

chorus and went along the streets, merrily caroling, “Liberty, Property, and no Stamps.”

In New York the uprising was terrific. The population rushed together as one man—as

Gage, the commander of Fort George described, “by thousands.”

The sailors flocked in from the vessels, the farmers from the country. The shouts, and

ringing of bells, and firing of cannon made the city fairly tremble. Colden was terrified at

the storm that had been raised. He took refuge in the fort. An old man, bent and bowed

with the weight of eighty years, he tottered nervously to the shelter of its guns. He ordered

up a detachment of marines from a ship of war in port, for his protection. In his

indignation, he wanted to fire on the people. The black muzzles of the cannon pointing on

the town had an ominous look. The people either suspected his determination or got wind

of it. At the fort gate an unknown person handed in a note, telling him that if he did, the

people would hang him on a signpost. Colden wisely forbore to give the order, for if he had

not, his gray hairs would have streamed from a gibbet.

At length the day of turmoil wore away and night came on, but with it came no diminution

of the excitement. As soon as it was dark, the “Sons of Liberty,” numbering thousands,

surged tumultuously up around the fort. They demanded that the stamps should be given

up so that they might be destroyed. Colden bluntly refused, when with loud, defiant shouts

they left and went up Broadway. They erected a gibbet and hanged Colden on it in effigy.

They also hung a boot. It represented Lord Bute, a sponsor of the Stamp Act.

A torchlight procession was formed, and the scaffold and images taken down. They were

borne on men’s shoulders along Broadway towards the Battery. The glare of flaring lights

on the buildings and faces of the excited crowd, the shouts and hurrahs that made the night

hideous, called out the entire population, which gazed in amazement on the strange, wild

spectacle.

They boldly carried the scaffold and effigies to within a few feet of the gate of the fort.

There they knocked audaciously for admission. Isaac Sears was the leader of these “Sons

of Liberty.”

Finding themselves unable to gain admittance, they went to the governor’s carriage-house

and took out his elegant coach. They placed the two effigies in it. They dragged it by hand

around the streets by the light of torches, amid the jeers and shouts of the multitude. At

last becoming tired of this amusement, they returned to the fort. There they erected a

second gallows, on which they hung the effigies the second time.

All this time the cannon, shotted and primed, lay silent on their carriages, while the

soldiers from the ramparts looked wonderingly, idly on. General Gage did not dare to fire

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on the people, fearing that they would sweep like an inundation over the ramparts, when

he knew a general massacre would follow.

The mob now tore down the wooden fence that surrounded Bowling Green, and piling

pickets and boards together, set them on fire. As the flames crackled and roared in the

darkness, they pitched on the governor’s coach, with the scaffold and effigies. Then

hastening to his carriage-house again, and dragging out a one-horse chaise, two sleighs,

and other vehicles, they hauled them to the fire and threw them on. It made a

conflagration that illumined the waters of the bay and the ships riding at anchor. This was

a galling spectacle to the old governor and the British officers, but they dared not interfere.

Although Sears and other leaders of the Sons of Liberty tried to restrain the mob, their

blood was now up. They were bent on destruction. Having witnessed the conflagration of

the governor’s carriages, they again marched up Broadway. Someone shouted “James’

house.” The crowd took up the shout. Passing out of the city they streamed through the

open country to where West Broadway now is, near the corner of Anthony Street. This

“James” was a major in the Royal Artillery. He had made himself obnoxious to the people

by taking a conspicuous part in putting the fort into a state of defense. He had a beautiful

residence here. The mob completely gutted it. They broke up his elegant furniture,

destroyed his library and works of art, and laid waste his ornamented grounds. Then they

dispersed and the city became quiet.

The people had not yet got hold of the stamps, which they were determined to have.

Colden, having seen enough of the spirit of the “Sons of Liberty,” was afraid to risk another

night, even in the fort, unless it was in some way appeased. So the day after the riot, he

had a large placard posted up, stating that he should have nothing more to do with the

stamps. He would leave them with Sir Henry Moore, the newly appointed governor, then

on his way from England.

This, however, did not satisfy the Sons of Liberty. They wanted the stamps themselves.

Through Sears, their leader, they insisted that they be given up. They told Colden very

plainly that if he did not they would storm the fort. They were determined to do it.

The Common Council of the city now became alarmed at the ungovernable, desperate spirit

of the mob, which seemed bent on blood. They begged the governor to let the stamps be

deposited in the city hall. To this he finally, though reluctantly, consented. The feeling in

the city stayed at fever heat. It would remain so until the act itself was repealed.

Moore, the new governor, soon arrived and assumed the reigns of government. The

corporation offered him the freedom of the city in a gold box, but he refused to receive it,

unless it was upon stamped paper. It was evident that he was determined to enforce the

Stamp Act. However, after consulting with Colden and others and ascertaining the true

state of things, he wisely abandoned his purpose and soon made it publicly known. To

appease the people still more, he dismantled the fort, which had become peculiarly

obnoxious to them because of the threatening attitude it had been made to assume. Still,

the infamous act was unrepealed. The people refused to buy English manufactures and

commerce languished.

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At length, Parliament, finding that further insistence in carrying out the obnoxious act

only worked mischief, had repealed it. When the news reached New York, the most

unbounded joy was manifested. Bells were rung, cannon fired, and placards posted, calling

a meeting of the citizens the next day to take measures for properly celebrating the great

event. At the appointed time, the people came together at Howard’s Hotel. Forming a

procession, they marched gaily to “the field,” where City Hall now stands. Then it was an

open lot. A salute of twenty-one guns was fired. A grand dinner followed, at which the Sons

of Liberty feasted and drank loyal toasts to his Majesty, and all went “merry as a marriagebell.”

The city was illuminated and bonfires turned the night into day.

In a few weeks, the king’s birthday was celebrated with great display. A huge pile of wood

was erected in the park and an ox roasted whole for the people. Cart after cart dumped its

load of beer on the ground, until twenty-five barrels, flanked by a huge hogshead of rum,

lay in a row, presided over by men appointed to deal out the contents to the populace. A

boisterous demonstration followed that almost drowned the roar of the twenty-one cannon

that thundered forth a royal salute. As a fitting wind-up to the bacchanalian scene, at

night twenty-five tar-barrels, fastened on poles, blazed over the “common,” while brilliant

fireworks were exhibited at Bowling Green. The feasting continued late in the night.

So delighted were the “Sons of Liberty” that they erected a mast, inscribed “to his most

gracious Majesty, George the Third, Mr. Pitt, and Liberty.” A petition was also signed to

erect a statue to Pitt. The people seemed determined by this excess of loyalty to atone for

their previous rebellious spirit.

The joy, however, was of short duration. The news of the riots caused Parliament to pass

a “Mutiny Act,” by which troops were to be quartered in America in sufficient numbers to

put down any similar demonstration in future, a part of the expense of their support to be

paid by the colonists themselves. This exasperated the “Sons of Liberty.” They met and

resolved to resist this new act of oppression to the last. The troops arrived in due time and,

of course, collisions took place between them and the people. Matters now continued to

grow worse and worse until the “riot of the Sons of Liberty” became a revolution.

1. The attitude of the majority of the colonists towards a stamp act is best described as

a. accepting.

b. joyful.

c. honored.

d. angry.

2. Cadwallader Colden angered New Yorkers by

a. agreeing to distribute stamps.

b. threatening anyone who opposed the Stamp Act with prison.

c. putting more men and weapons in Fort George.

d. not allowing the British ships to unload their cargo.

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3. The “Sons of Liberty” discouraged the use of the stamps by

a. burning the ships that carried the stamps.

b. threatening anyone who used the stamps.

c. attacking Fort George.

d. boycotting paper goods.

4. Which of the following groups did not participate in protests against the Stamp Act?

a. children

b. sailors

c. soldiers

d. farmers

5. Why did Governor Colden decide not to fire on the people with his cannon?

a. He agreed with their point of view.

b. He did not want to anger the king.

c. He did not want to injure anyone.

d. He was afraid of what the mob would do to him.

6. Who did the mob hang?

a. Governor Colden

b. Lord Bute

c. images representing Colden and Bute

d. carriages

7. What did the mob not burn?

a. scaffolding

b. Lord Bute

c. images representing Colden and Bute

d. carriages

8. Why did the mob decide to burn Major James’ house?

a. There were stamps in James’ house.

b. They mistook it for the governor’s house.

c. James had helped to prepare the fort’s defenses.

d. James was the governor’s nephew.

9. Governor Moore dismantled the fort because

a. the Sons of Liberty demanded it.

b. it had been destroyed by the riot.

c. it angered the citizens.

d. it protected the stamps.

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10. How did the citizens of New York react to the news that the Stamp Act had been

cancelled?

a. They protested.

b. They held a celebration.

c. They rioted.

d. They erected a statue.

11. The purpose of the “Mutiny Act” was to

a. protect against any more riots.

b. punish the Sons of Liberty.

c. replace the Stamp Act.

d. protect Governor Colden.

12. Why do you think the Stamp Act caused such resistance? What do you think it may

have led to?

99 .

13. What do you think would have happened if the soldiers had fired on the mob?

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14. What in more recent history can you compare the celebration to? Do you think we

will ever again celebrate like that? Why or why not?

101 .

LAKE CHAMPLAIN BATTLE

Benedict Arnold had been wounded at Quebec. He was now in command at Crown Point.

Competent critics of the war have held that what Arnold did at that time saved the

Revolution. The British had taken New York and made themselves masters of the lower

Hudson. Had they reached the upper Hudson by way of Lake Champlain in the same

season they would have struck blows doubly staggering.

This Arnold saw. His object was to delay the British advance. There was no road through

the dense forest by the shores of Lake Champlain and Lake George to the upper Hudson.

The British had to go down the lake in boats. This General Carleton had foreseen. He had

urged that the British Navy send boats in sections so that they could be quickly carried

past the rapids of the Richelieu River and then launched on Lake Champlain. They had

not arrived. The only thing, then, for Carleton to do was to build a flotilla, which could

carry an army down the lake to attack Crown Point. Skilled workmen were few. It was not

until the 6th of October that the little ships were afloat on Lake Champlain.

Arnold, too, spent the summer building boats to meet the attack. A strange turn in warfare

had now made him commander in a naval fight. There was a brisk struggle on Lake

Champlain. Carleton had a score or so of vessels. Arnold did not have so many. However,

he delayed Carleton. When he was beaten on the water he burned the ships the British

had not captured and took to the land. When he could no longer hold Crown Point, he

burned that place and then retreated to Ticonderoga.

By this time it was late autumn. The British were far from their base. The Americans

were retreating into a friendly country.

There is little doubt that Carleton could have taken Fort Ticonderoga. It fell quite easily

less than a year later. Some of his officers urged him to press on and do it. The leaves had

already fallen then. The bleak winter was near. Carleton pictured to himself an army

buried deeply in enemy country and separated from its base by many scores of miles of lake

and forest. He withdrew to Canada and left Lake Champlain to the Americans.

1. The British had to attack on Lake Champlain because

a. the Americans had already built a navy of their own.

b. by crossing the lake at night they wanted to catch the Americans by surprise.

c. there was not a road through the woods surrounding the lake.

d. they had no other way to get boats onto the lake.

2. The British had to build boats at Lake Champlain because

a. the Americans had already built a navy of their own.

b. by crossing the lake at night they wanted to catch the Americans by surprise.

c. there was not a road through the woods surrounding the lake.

d. they had no other way to get boats onto the lake.

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3. The British decided to retreat to Canada because they were

a. outnumbered.

b. unable to take Fort Ticonderoga.

c. too far from their home base.

d. dying of smallpox.

4. How was Benedict Arnold able to stop the British invasion of northern New York

without actually winning any battles?

103 .

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THE BATTLE OF BROOKLYN HEIGHTS

Washington’s army held the city of New York at the southerly point of Manhattan Island.

Encamped on Staten Island, General Howe could, with the aid of the fleet, land at any of

half a dozen vulnerable points. Howe had the further advantage of a much larger force.

Washington had in all some twenty thousand men. They were for the most part badly

drilled. Howe had twenty-five thousand well-trained soldiers. He could, in addition, draw

men from the fleet, which would then give him double the force of Washington.

In such a situation, even the best skill of Washington was only likely to reduce the impact

of defeat. He was advised to destroy New York and to retire to more tenable positions. Even

if he had so desired, Congress, his master, would not permit Washington to burn the city.

He had to make plans to defend it. Brooklyn Heights commanded New York. Enemy

cannon planted there would make the city indefensible. Accordingly, Washington placed

half his force on Long Island to defend Brooklyn Heights. In doing so, he made the

fundamental error of cutting his army in two. While in the presence of overwhelming

hostile naval power, an arm of the sea now divided it.

On the 22nd of August, 1776, Howe ferried fifteen thousand men across the Narrows to

Long Island. He wanted to be able to attack the position on Brooklyn Heights from the

rear. Before him lay wooded hills across which three roads converged at Brooklyn Heights.

On the east, a fourth road led around the hills.

In the dark of night on the 26th of August, Howe set his army in motion on all these roads.

By daybreak, they would be close to the Americans defending the Heights. They could then

drive them back to the Heights. The movement succeeded perfectly. The Americans fought

well against overwhelming odds. The British made terrible use of the bayonet. By the

evening of the 27th, the Americans had lost nearly two thousand men in casualties and

prisoners, six field pieces, and twenty-six heavy guns. The two chief commanders, Sullivan

and Stirling, were among the prisoners. What was left of the army had been driven back

to Brooklyn Heights. Howe probably could have pressed forward and captured the whole

American force on Long Island.

When Washington realized, on the 28th of August, what Howe had achieved, he increased

the defenders of Brooklyn Heights to ten thousand men, more than half his army.

Washington hoped and prayed that Howe would try to carry Brooklyn Heights by assault.

Then, at least, there would have been slaughter on the scale of Bunker Hill. Howe,

however, had learned caution. He made no reckless attack. Soon Washington found that

he must move away or face the danger of losing every man on Long Island.

1. Before the battle began, one of the advantages the British had was

a. control over Brooklyn Heights.

b. the support of Congress.

c. that they had captured an American commander.

d. better trained troops.

105 .

2. Why was it a mistake for Washington to station troops on Long Island?

a. Long Island was not an important place to defend.

b. There were no hills there.

c. By doing this, he had divided his force in two.

d. There was no way to defend Manhattan.

3. Which of the following did the British capture in the Battle of Brooklyn Heights?

a. half of the American Navy

b. the southern part of Manhattan Island

c. most of the American force on Long Island

d. twenty-six heavy guns

4. Do you think Washington should have burned New York? Why or why not?

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107 .

CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE (1755—1776)

by Rev. Edward Everett Hale

Nathan Hale, a martyr soldier of the American Revolution, was born in Coventry,

Connecticut, on June 6, 1755. When but little more than twenty-one years old he was

hanged, by order of General William Howe, as a spy, in the city of New York, on September

22, 1776.

Nathan Hale’s father was Richard Hale. He had emigrated to Coventry, from Newbury,

Massachusetts, in 1746. He had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Joseph Strong. By her

he had twelve children, of whom Nathan was the sixth.

Richard Hale was a prosperous and successful farmer. He sent to Yale College at one time

his two sons, Enoch and Nathan, who had been born within two years of each other. This

college was then under the direction of Dr. Daggett. Both the young men enjoyed study.

Nathan Hale, at the exercises of Commencement Day, took what is called a “pert,” which

shows that he was among the thirteen scholars of highest rank in his class.

From the record of the college society to which he belonged, it appears that he was

interested in their theatrical performances. These were not discouraged by the college

government. They were a recognized part of the amusements of the college and the town.

Many of the lighter plays brought forward on the English stage were thus produced by the

pupils of Yale College for the entertainment of the people of New Haven.

When he graduated, at the age of eighteen, he probably intended at some time to become a

Christian minister, as his brother Enoch did. But, as was almost a custom of the time, he

began his active life as a teacher in the public schools. Early in 1774 he accepted an

appointment as the teacher of the Union Grammar School. It was a school maintained by

the gentlemen of New London, Connecticut, for the higher education of their children.

In his commencement address Hale had considered the question of whether the higher

education of women was not neglected. And, in the arrangement of the Union School at

New London, it was determined that between the hours of five and seven in the morning,

he should teach a class of “twenty young ladies” in the studies which occupied their

brothers at a later hour.

He was thus engaged in the year 1774. The whole country was alive with the movements

and discussions which came to a crisis in the battle of Lexington the next year. Hale,

though not of age, was enrolled in the militia. He was active in the military organization

of the town.

So soon as the news of Lexington and Concord reached New London, a town meeting was

called. At this meeting, this young man, not yet of age, was one of the speakers. “Let us

march immediately,” he said, “and never lay down our arms until we obtain our

independence.” He assembled his school as usual the next day, but only to take leave of his

scholars. “He gave them earnest counsel, prayed with them, shook each by hand,” and bade

them farewell.

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It is said that there is no other record so early as this in which the word “independence”

was publicly spoken. It would seem as if the uncalculating courage of a boy of twenty was

needed to break the spell which still gave dignity to colonial submission.

Nathan Hale was commissioned as First Lieutenant in the Seventh Connecticut Regiment.

He resigned his place as teacher. The first duty assigned to the regiment was in the

neighborhood of New London, where, probably, they were perfecting their discipline. On

September 14, 1775, Washington ordered them to Cambridge. Here they joined in the

successful night enterprise of March 4th and 5th, by which the English troops were driven

from Boston.

As soon as the English army had left the country, Washington knew that their next point

of attack would be New York. Most of his army was, therefore, sent there. Hale marched

with the regiment to New London, whence they all went by water to New York.

Colonel Knowlton of Connecticut organized a special corps, which was known as

“Knowlton’s Rangers.” On the rolls of their own regiments the officers and men are spoken

of as “detached on command.” They received their orders direct from Washington and

Putnam. They were kept close in front of the enemy, watching his movements from the

American line in Harlem.

Washington had been driven up the island of New York. He was holding his place with the

utmost difficulty. On September 6th, he wrote, “We have not been able to obtain the least

information as to the enemy’s plans.” In sheer despair at the need of better information

than the Tories of New York City would give him, the great commander consulted his

council. At their direction he summoned Knowlton. Washington asked for some volunteer

of intelligence, who would find his way into the English lines, and bring back some tidings

that could be relied upon. Knowlton summoned a number of officers, and stated to them

the wishes of their great chief. The appeal was received with dead silence. It is said that

Knowlton personally addressed a non-commissioned officer, a Frenchman, who was an old

soldier. He did so only to receive the natural reply, “I am willing to be shot, but not to be

hung.” Knowlton felt that he must report his failure to Washington. But Nathan Hale, his

youngest captain, broke the silence. “I will undertake it,” he said. He had come late to the

meeting. He was pale from recent sickness. But he saw an opportunity to serve, and he

did the duty which came next at hand.

William Hull, afterward the major general who commanded at Detroit, had been Hale’s

college classmate. He remonstrated with his friend on the danger of the task, and the

ignominy that would attend its failure. “He said to him that it was not in the line of his

duty, and that he was of too frank and open a temper to act successfully the part of a spy,

or to face its dangers, which would probably lead to a disgraceful death.” Hale replied, “I

wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable

by being necessary. If the exigencies of my country demand a peculiar service, its claim to

perform that service is imperious.” These are the last words of his which can be cited until

those which he spoke at the moment of his death. He promised Hull to take his arguments

into consideration, but Hull never heard from him again.

109 .

1. Nathan Hale probably enjoyed ________ at Yale.

a. drinking and partying

b. study and theatrics

c. farming

d. spying

2. During most of the day, Nathan Hale taught classes composed ________ at Union

Grammar School in New London.

a. exclusively of young men

b. exclusively of young women

c. of men and women in equal numbers

d. mostly of men with twenty young women

3. While only a young man of twenty, Nathan Hale is believed to have been the first

person in Connecticut to

a. lay down his arms.

b. join the militia.

c. urge armed resistance.

d. urge fighting for independence.

4. Nathan Hale’s first military engagement involved

a. watching enemy movements in Harlem.

b. marching from New London to Cambridge.

c. driving the British out of Boston.

d. sailing from New London to New York.

5. Nathan Hale joined a special unit called

a. detached on command.

b. Washington’s Rangers.

c. Putnam’s Rangers.

d. Knowlton’s Rangers.

6. Who said, “I am willing to be shot, but not to be hung”?

a. Colonel Knowlton

b. a Frenchman

c. Nathan Hale

d. William Hull

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7. Who advised Nathan Hale against becoming a spy?

a. Colonel Knowlton

b. a Frenchman

c. Israel Putnam

d. William Hull

8. What in his early life suggests that Nathan Hale would volunteer for so dangerous a

task as spying?

111 .

9. Why was Nathan Hale willing to risk disgrace and “ignominy”?

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THE FALL OF MOST OF MANHATTAN

On the 15th of September, 1776, British men-of-war passed up both the Hudson and the

East Rivers. Their guns swept the shores of Manhattan Island. At the same time, General

Howe sent over an army from Long Island. They landed at Kip’s Bay, near the line of the

present 34th Street. Their goal was to cut off the city from the northern part of the island.

Washington marched with two New England regiments to dispute the landing. His goal

was to give time for evacuation. To his rage, panic seized his men. They turned and fled.

Washington did his best to stop the rout. He struck the fugitives with his sword. He hurled

words of bitter scorn at them. It was in vain. Only by his aides-de-camp was Washington

himself saved from death or capture. They seized his bridle-reins and forced him from the

field.

Meanwhile, on the west shore of the island, there was an animated scene. The roads were

crowded with refugees fleeing northward from New York. Four thousand men under Israel

Putnam also marched out of New York.

Howe had slowly extended his line across the island so as to cut off the city. One story is

that Mrs. Murray, living in a country house near what now is Murray Hill, invited the

general to luncheon. To enjoy this pleasure, Howe ordered a halt for his whole force.

The king’s troops acted with such slowness that the American divisions south of Kip’s Bay

were able to march past them unmolested. A brilliant young officer, Aaron Burr, guided

these divisions on their retreat. He was then an aide-de-camp to the rough, simple-hearted

old wolf-killer General Putnam. Alexander Hamilton and his company of New York

artillerymen protected the rear. They beat off the advance guard of the pursuers in one or

two slight skirmishes.

Probably Putnam had already got his men away. As it was, Howe seized sixty-seven

cannon. By accident—or, it is said, by design of the Americans themselves—New York soon

took fire. One-third of the little city was burned. Washington, Putnam, and their troops

had safely fled to Haarlem.

Washington drew up his army on Haarlem Heights. The next day, he inflicted a loss on the

enemy. An American outpost was attacked by English light troops. They were then

themselves attacked and roughly handled by the Connecticut men and Virginians. The

English were saved from destruction by some regiments of Hessians and Highlanders.

Further reinforcements for the Americans arrived. The royal troops were finally driven

from the field. About a hundred Americans and nearly three times as many of their foes

were killed or wounded. It was nothing more than a severe skirmish, but it was a victory.

It did much to put the Americans in heart. Besides, it was a lesson to the king’s troops. It

made Howe even more cautious than usual. For an entire month, he remained fronting

Washington’s lines, which, he asserted, were too strong to be carried by assault.

113 .

1. One way Washington tried to stop his men from retreating at the landing near Kip’s

Bay was to

a. blow his bugle repeatedly.

b. use his sword on those who retreated.

c. sing the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

d. offer extra pay to those who stayed and fought.

2. Whom does the author blame for burning one-third of New York?

a. the Americans

b. the British

c. both the Americans and the British

d. The author is unsure of whom to blame.

3. Who won the skirmish at Haarlem Heights?

a. the Americans

b. the British

c. the Hessians

d. none of the above

4. How did the skirmish at Haarlem Heights affect General Howe?

a. It strengthened his forces.

b. It made him more cautious and slow.

c. It cost him his life.

d. He lost his best aides-de-camp.

5. What advice would you give George Washington after his withdrawal from

Manhattan and the skirmish at Haarlem Heights?

. 114

115 .

THE FALL OF FORT WASHINGTON

The resourceful Washington was now, during his first days of active warfare, pitting

himself against one of the most experienced of the British generals. On the 12th of October,

Howe moved. He did not attack Washington, who lay in strength at Harlem. That would

have been to play Washington’s game. Instead he put the part of his army still on Long

Island onto ships. They sailed through the dangerous currents of Hell Gate. They landed

at Throg’s Neck, a peninsula on the sound across from Long Island. Washington parried

this movement by guarding the narrow neck of the peninsula leading to the mainland. The

cautious Howe shrank from a frontal attack across a marsh.

After a delay of six days, Howe again moved his army. This time he landed a few miles

above Throg’s Neck in the hope of cutting Washington off from retreat northward. He

found Washington still north of him at White Plains. A sharp skirmish followed. Howe lost

over two hundred men. Washington lost only one hundred and forty. Washington, masterly

in retreat, then withdrew still farther north among hills difficult to attack.

Howe had a plan that made a direct attack on Washington unnecessary. On the 16th of

November, the worst disaster that had yet befallen American arms took place. Fort

Washington, lying just south of the Harlem, was the only point on Manhattan Island still

held by the Americans. Fort Washington stood on the east bank of the Hudson opposite

Fort Lee, on the west bank. These forts could not fulfil their intended purpose of stopping

British ships. Washington saw that the two forts should be abandoned. The civilians in

Congress, who—it must be remembered—named the generals and had final authority in

directing the war, were reluctant to accept the loss involved in abandoning the forts. They

gave orders that every effort should be made to hold them. Nathaniel Greene, on the whole

Washington’s best general, was in command of the two positions. He was left to use his

own judgment.

On the 15th of November, by a sudden and rapid march across the island, Howe appeared

before Fort Washington. He summoned it to surrender on pain of the rigors of war, which

meant putting the garrison to the sword should he have to take the place by storm. The

answer was defiance. On the next day, Howe attacked in overwhelming force. There was

severe fighting. The casualties of the British were nearly five hundred, but they took the

huge fort with its three thousand defenders and a great quantity of munitions of war.

Howe’s threat was not carried out. There was no massacre.

1. Throg’s Neck is a(n)

a. island.

b. area with dangerous currents.

c. peninsula.

d. harbor.

. 116

2. The purpose of Fort Washington and Fort Lee was to

a. guard Harlem.

b. prevent troops from landing on Manhattan Island.

c. protect Washington’s men.

d. stop enemy ships from sailing up the Hudson River.

3. Washington did not abandon Fort Washington and Fort Lee because he

a. was surrounded.

b. felt they were too important to lose.

c. was ordered not to abandon the forts.

d. he was proud of the fort named after him.

4. What did Howe threaten to do if the Americans did not surrender Fort Washington?

Did Howe carry out his threat? Why do you think General Howe did what he did?

117 .

. 118

THE FALL OF FORT TICONDEROGA

The English planned to cut America in half along the Hudson. General Burgoyne was

supposed to bring an army down from Canada. General Howe was supposed to advance

from New York to meet him. General Howe had never received specific instructions,

however. He wasn’t in New York. He was in Philadelphia.

Burgoyne embarked on Lake Champlain on the 17th of June, 1777. Ever since his arrival

in Canada on the 6th of May, the army had been preparing for this advance. He had more

than seven thousand men, of whom nearly one-half were Germans under the competent

General Riedesel. He also had hundreds of Indian allies.

On the 2nd of July, he laid siege to Fort Ticonderoga. Once past this fort, guarding the

route to Lake George, he could easily reach the Hudson.

In command at Fort Ticonderoga was General St. Clair. He had about thirty-five hundred

men. He had long notice of the siege. The expedition of Burgoyne had been the open talk

of Montreal and the surrounding country during many months. He had built Fort

Independence, on the east shore of Lake Champlain. With a great expenditure of labor,

they had sunk twenty-two piers across the lake and stretched in front of them a boom to

protect the two forts. However, he had neglected to defend Sugar Hill in front of Fort

Ticonderoga. It commanded the American works. It took only three or four days for the

British to drag cannon to the top, erect a battery, and prepare to open fire. On the 5th of

July, St. Clair had to face a bitter necessity. He abandoned the untenable forts and retired

southward to Fort Edward by way of the difficult Green Mountains. The British took one

hundred twenty-eight guns.

These successes led the British to think that within a few days they would be in Albany.

Fort Ticonderoga had been the first British fort to fall to the Americans when the

Revolution began. Carleton’s failure to take it in the autumn of 1776 had been the cause

of acute heartburn in London. Now, when the news of its fall reached England, George III

burst into the Queen’s room with the glad cry, “I have beat them, I have beat the

Americans.”

The Americans showed skill in the retreat from Ticonderoga. Burgoyne, following and

harassing them, was led into hard fighting in the woods. The easier route by way of Lake

George was open. However, Burgoyne hoped to destroy his enemy by direct pursuit

through the forest. It took him twenty days to go twenty miles. Finally Burgoyne reached

the upper waters of the Hudson near Fort Edward.

1. General St. Clair’s biggest mistake was

a. sinking the twenty-two piers across the lake.

b. stretching a boom in front of the piers.

c. leaving Sugar Hill undefended.

d. building Fort Independence.

119 .

2. The British capture of Fort Ticonderoga caused

a. the British heartburn.

b. George III to celebrate.

c. Carleton to lose his job.

d. Burgoyne to retreat.

3. Why did Burgoyne choose to follow the Americans through the forest instead of

taking the easier route by Lake George?

a. He suspected there had been a trap set for him at Lake George.

b. He wanted to find their base.

c. He hoped they would surrender if he caught them.

d. He wished to destroy the American force.

4. What do you think is going to happen next to Burgoyne and his men? Why?

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121 .

BATTLE OF BENNINGTON

Never during the two and a half months of bitter struggle that followed the fall of

Ticonderoga was Burgoyne able to advance more than twenty-five miles from Fort Edward.

The moment he needed transport by land he found himself almost helpless. Sometimes his

men were without food and equipment. He did not have the horses and carts to bring

supplies from the head of water at Fort Anne or Fort George, a score of miles away.

Sometimes he had no food to transport. He was dependent on his communications for every

form of supplies. Even hay had to be brought from Canada. In the forest country, there

was little food for his horses.

The inland regions were too sparsely populated to make it possible for more than a few

soldiers to live on local supplies. The wheat for the bread of the British soldier, his beef

and his pork, even the oats for his horse, came, for the most part, from England, at vast

expense for transport. Burgoyne had been told that the inhabitants needed only protection

to make them openly loyal. He had counted on them for supplies. Instead, he found the

great mass of the people hostile, and he doubted the sincerity even of those who professed

their loyalty.

After Burgoyne had been a month at Fort Edward, he was face to face with starvation.

Early in August, he had to make a venturesome stroke to get sorely needed food. Some

twenty-five miles east of the Hudson at Bennington, in difficult country, New England

militia had gathered food and munitions. There were also horses for transport. The

pressure of need clouded Burgoyne’s judgment. To make a dash for Bennington meant a

long and dangerous march. He was assured, however, that a surprise was possible. In any

case, Burgoyne was told, the country was full of friends only awaiting a little

encouragement to come out openly on his side.

Burgoyne sent Colonel Baum, an efficient officer, with five or six hundred men to attack

the New Englanders and bring in the supplies. It was a stupid blunder to send Germans

among a people especially incensed against the use of these mercenaries. There was no

surprise. Many professing loyalists, seemingly eager to take the oath of allegiance, met

and delayed Baum. When near Bennington, he found in front of him a force barring the

way. He had to make a carefully guarded camp for the night. Then five hundred men, some

of them the cheerful takers of the oath of allegiance, slipped round to his rear. In the

morning, Baum was attacked from front and rear.

A hot fight followed that resulted in the complete defeat of the British. Baum was mortally

wounded. Some of his men escaped into the woods. The rest were killed or captured. Nor

was this all. Burgoyne, scenting danger, had ordered five hundred more Germans to

reinforce Baum. They, too, were attacked and overwhelmed. In all, Burgoyne lost some

eight hundred men and four guns. The American loss was seventy.

. 122

1. What happened to Burgoyne and his men because they did not have enough horses

and carts?

a. They could not catch up with the Americans.

b. They could not get supplies.

c. They could not escape from the Americans.

d. They had to carry everything on their backs.

2. Why did the British have to have most of their supplies shipped from England?

a. They couldn’t afford to buy them in America.

b. They did not like the American food and equipment.

c. There were not enough inhabitants to provide the supplies needed.

d. Nobody was willing to sell supplies to the British.

3. Burgoyne had expected most Americans to be ________ to him.

a. loyal and helpful

b. hostile and unfriendly

c. mysterious and invisible

d. childish and obedient

4. Burgoyne decided to attack Bennington because

a. it was unprotected.

b. there was a large fort there.

c. he wanted to prove the Germans were poor soldiers.

d. his men were starving.

5. Explain how the terrain and its inhabitants contributed to the British defeat at

Bennington.

123 .

. 124

GROWING TENSIONS IN CENTRAL NEW YORK

The tensions that existed between the people of central New York during the colonial era

are well documented. Swedish scientist, Peter Kalm, was on a botanical expedition in

1749–1750. He wrote about the relationship between the English and Dutch colonists who

first settled the area:

The hatred which the English bear against the people at Albany is very great, but that of the

Albanians (the Dutch colonists) against the English is carried to a ten times higher degree.

This hatred has subsisted ever since the English conquered this section, and is not yet

extinguished, though they could never have gotten larger advantages under the Dutch

government than they have obtained under that of the English. . . . They are so to speak

permeated with hatred toward the English, whom they ridicule and slander at every

opportunity.

In 1757, Thomas Butler was a member of an English family that held large amounts of land

in New York. He corresponded with Sir William Johnson, another great English landholder

and Superintendent of Indian Affairs:

I have often Said and do Yet That if any Troubles Shou’d arise between the Six Nations and

us it will in Great Manner Or intirely be owing to bad ignorant people of a difrant Extraction

from the English that makes themselves too busey in telling idle Stories. I fear we have too

many of those who Speak the Indian Tongue More or less and dont Consider the Consequence

of Saying we are Dutch and they are English that they had a fight Together last winter in

Schenectady. The Dutch there beat the English. The quarrell was because they wou’d not

allow the English To be Masters and take from them all they had. That the English wanted

to drive them about like dogs, this Story I imagin proceeded from a small dispute between the

battoe Men and Soldars last fall, and the English are Severe on the people at albany taking

from them what they pleas breaking open their doors when they will, had forced Capt.

Herkemer out of his House.

Sir William Johnson was aware of other tensions between the English and German

settlers, including prominent German immigrant, Johan Jost Herkimer (or Hercheimer),

with whose family Johnson’s family had often quarreled. He worried about the alarming

sale by the Germans of large quantities of rum to the Iroquois Confederacy and the wedge

it was driving between the British authorities and the Six Nations, when he wrote to James

Abercromby in 1758:

I believe Sir I have the Honour of your Concurrance in Opinion that for the present at least,

it will be both Politick and prudent not to indulge the Indians with a Trade at the German

Flats. In a Message I have just sent to the Six Nations, part of which is on this Subject, I

have told them that you do not incline, to trust the Lives and properties of His Majestys

Subjects to the Assurances of those, who late Experience shows are either not able or not

willing to fulfill them, and that at Albany and Schenectady they are welcome to come and

trade.

I have many Reasons to believe, and many Informations to strengthen, that some Germans

are interfering with the Indians in a way that will be very prejudicial, and may perhaps be

fatal to His Majesty’s Service.

125 .

After the French and Indian War had ended, Great Britain sought to gain stronger control

of the colonies and started to impose taxes on the colonists in order to reduce Britain’s

enormous national debt, incurred while fighting the war. Rival groups, because of ethnic,

religious, or economic differences, began to align themselves politically. In general, those

who became Rebels were fighting for the right of self-governance and freedom from British

control. Those who chose to be Tories, on the other hand, were fighting to maintain their

ties with Great Britain and the British king. There were also cases where people simply

preferred to keep things the way they were, fought to maintain the status quo, and so were

Tories by default. The explosive mixture of old grudges with the political and philosophical

arguments of the revolutionary era turned New York into a powder keg.

1. The Dutch colonists of Albany seemed to particularly dislike the

a. Germans.

b. English.

c. Iroquois.

d. French.

2. The English thought it a bad idea for the Dutch to

a. gossip among themselves.

b. speak against the Germans.

c. let the Indians know of dissension among the Europeans.

d. sell large quantities of rum to the Indians.

3. The English thought it was a bad idea for the Germans to

a. gossip among themselves.

b. speak against the Germans.

c. let the Indians know of dissension among the Europeans.

d. sell large quantities of rum to the Indians.

4. After the end of the French and Indian War, colonists’ sympathies tended towards

a. France or England.

b. Holland or Germany.

c. independence or loyalty towards Great Britain.

d. the British Parliament or the British king.

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5. Explain the tensions that developed among the various people who lived in central

New York: among the European-Americans; among the six nations of the Iroquois

Confederacy; between the European-Americans and the Iroquois Confederacy.

127 .

6. Why was it important for European-Americans to maintain good relations with the

Iroquois Confederacy?

. 128

129 .

CHOOSING SIDES

Once hostilities broke out in 1775, New Yorkers were forced to choose sides. Upon the

death of Sir William Johnson in 1774, his son John inherited a two hundred thousand-acre

estate. He also became Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Sir John Johnson chose to be

loyal to Great Britain. He gathered ammunition and raised a militia group called the

“King’s Royal Regiment of New York.”

Nicholas Herkimer was the son of Johan Jost Herkimer. His father was a wealthy

German-American trader and owner of two thousand acres of land. Nicholas Herkimer

chose the Rebel cause. In 1776 Nicholas Herkimer was made a brigadier general in the

New York State militia. He was charged with defending the state against Tories and

Indians. Herkimer and General Philip Schuyler, with their Rebel militia, forced Johnson’s

militia to disarm and disband. Johnson was fearful that he would be arrested for his Tory

beliefs. He fled to Canada.

Ironically, Nicholas Herkimer’s brother, Han Yost Herkimer, chose the Tory cause. He

became a captain in the Indian Department. The Herkimers were one of many families

split by New York’s civil war.

One apparent exception to the rivalries in colonial New York appeared to be the Iroquois

Confederacy. For five hundred years the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy had

mutually supported and protected one another. However, continued European settlement

along the New York frontier had generated tensions between the Confederacy and

European settlers. In 1768, in an attempt to set a boundary line to solve this chronic

problem, the British convened a meeting at Fort Stanwix. It had been abandoned following

the French and Indian War and was in disrepair. As many as three thousand delegates

from the Iroquois, Shawnee, and Delaware Nations met with the representatives of the

king of Great Britain. Instead of resolving tensions, the boundary line divided the Iroquois

Confederacy into factions. Some opposed and others allied with the king and Great

Britain.

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, the Iroquois Confederacy had to decide

whether to support one side or the other as a single confederacy or whether to allow each

of the six member nations to decide individually. The Onondaga Nation was the keeper of

the Central Council Fire, the symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy’s five hundred years of

unity.

Although they urged continued unity and neutrality, the six tribes could not agree on a

single course of action. The Central Council Fire was then extinguished due to deaths of

sachems and chiefs caused by disease. Iroquois unity was irrevocably broken. British and

Rebel diplomats courted the favor of the individual tribes, hoping to get them to support

their side or to remain neutral. The Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca Nations

chose to support Great Britain. Although originally neutral, by July 1777, the Oneida and

Tuscarora Nations would support the Rebels. There were many individuals who did not

choose to accept the decision of their respective nations, so both Tories and Rebels counted

members of all six nations among their forces.

. 130

Mohawk Joseph Brant, or Thayendanega, was a relative of Sir John Johnson. His sister,

Mary (Molly) Brant, became the common-law wife of Sir William Johnson after the death

of his wife. British educated and a member of the Anglican Church, Joseph Brant

supported the Tory cause and eventually received a British officer’s commission as a

captain. Just thirty-seven days before the Battle of Oriskany, General Herkimer and Rebel

militia troops went to investigate claims that Joseph Brant was attempting to raise Tory

troops for an impending attack on the Mohawk Valley. On June 29 and 30, 1777, Herkimer

met with Brant and unsuccessfully attempted to persuade him to stay neutral during the

war. By August 1777, sides had been chosen, the participants were armed, and the stage

was set for the first major battle between Tories and Rebels.

1. The leader of the Tory militia in northern New York was

a. Nicholas Herkimer.

b. Philip Schuyler.

c. Sir William Johnson.

d. Sir John Johnson.

2. The general charged with defending New York from Tories and Indians was

a. Nicholas Herkimer.

b. Philip Schuyler.

c. Sir William Johnson.

d. Sir John Johnson.

3. The meeting at Fort Stanwix in 1768 did not include the ________ Nation.

a. Iroquois

b. Shawnee

c. Cherokee

d. Delaware

4. The ________ Nation urged neutrality during the American Revolution.

a. Mohawk

b. Oneida

c. Cayuga

d. Seneca

5. The leader of the Indians favoring Great Britain was Joseph Brant, a

a. Mohawk.

b. Onondaga.

c. Cayuga.

d. Seneca.

131 .

6. Why did New York’s physical location make its control essential for both Rebels and

Tories? What made central New York strategic for both European-Americans and the

Iroquois Confederacy? Why was Fort Stanwix a strategic frontier post?

. 132

133 .

7. Why do you think the individuals and groups decided to support the sides they did

during the Revolutionary War? What impact do you believe these decisions had on

their lives and the lives of those around them? How did these decisions impact the

Iroquois Confederacy?

. 134

135 .

PREPARATIONS FOR THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY

When the Revolutionary War broke out, the New York Rebels recognized the importance of

the Oneida Carry and the fertile Mohawk River Valley. They rebuilt the ruined Fort

Stanwix at the urging of General Philip Schuyler of Albany. Colonel Peter Gansevoort took

command of the fort in the spring of 1777. He garrisoned it with about seven hundred New

York and Massachusetts infantry soldiers.

In July 1777, General Barry St. Leger left Canada and arrived at Oswego, New York. St.

Leger was ordered to move east and join Burgoyne. He left Oswego on July 26th in

command of a force of seven to eight hundred British regulars, Canadians, Mohawk Valley

Tories (commanded by Sir John Johnson and Colonel John Butler), and Hanau (German)

mercenaries. These soldiers were joined by approximately eight hundred American Indian

Tories, mostly from the Mohawk and Seneca tribes, under the command of Joseph Brant.

Fort Stanwix, which had been renamed Fort Schuyler by the Rebels, blocked St. Leger’s

path. St. Leger’s advance troops arrived at the fort on August 2nd and decided it was too

strong and well-garrisoned to attack. After Gansevoort rejected his demand to surrender

on August 3rd, St. Leger prepared for a siege.

General Nicholas Herkimer, hearing about St. Leger’s invasion and the siege of Fort

Schuyler, assembled approximately eight hundred Rebel militia troops from Tryon County

and some Oneida scouts. He set out on August 4th from Fort Dayton (thirty miles east of

Fort Schuyler) to reinforce Gansevoort and relieve the siege.

Molly Brant, the common-law Mohawk wife of Sir William Johnson and sister of Joseph

Brant, sent word to St. Leger on August 5th that the relief force was only ten to twelve

miles away from Fort Schuyler. St. Leger dispatched a detachment of Mohawk Valley

Tories and Indian allies under the command of Joseph Brant, John Butler’s Tory Rangers,

and part of Sir John Johnson’s Royal Greens to ambush the Rebel militia before it could

reach Fort Schuyler.

The Tories chose an ambush point six miles east of Fort Schuyler, not far from the Oneida

village of Oriska. Dense virgin forest provided excellent concealment for forces around a

ravine where an old military road descended to cross marshy little Oriska Creek. Butler’s

Rangers and Johnson’s Royal Greens were deployed to hit the head of the column while the

Indians attacked the flanks and rear. The idea was to surround the column in a U-shaped

pocket and close the open end of the trap.

1. Fort Stanwix was rebuilt at the urging of General

a. Schuyler.

b. Gansevoort.

c. St. Leger.

d. Brant.

. 136

2. Fort Stanwix was commanded by Colonel

a. Schuyler.

b. Gansevoort.

c. St. Leger.

d. Brant.

3. Fort Stanwix blocked the advance of British and allied troops under the command of

General

a. Schuyler.

b. Gansevoort.

c. St. Leger.

d. Brant.

4. The Indian allies of the British were led by

a. Schuyler.

b. Gansevoort.

c. St. Leger.

d. Brant.

5. Fort Stanwix’s name was changed to Fort

a. Schuyler.

b. Gansevoort.

c. St. Leger.

d. Brant.

6. St. Leger laid siege to the fort after ________ rejected his demand to surrender.

a. Schuyler

b. Gansevoort

c. St. Leger

d. Brant

7. A force led by General ________ set out to relieve the fort.

a. Joseph Grant

b. John Butler

c. John Johnson

d. Nicholas Herkimer

137 .

8. Word of the approaching force was sent to St. Leger by

a. Joseph Brant.

b. Molly Brant.

c. John Butler.

d. William Johnson.

9. Among the forces sent out to ambush, the relief column did not include any of

a. Burgoyne’s regulars.

b. John Butler’s Tory Rangers.

c. Sir John Johnson’s Royal Greens.

d. Joseph Brant’s Indians.

. 138

THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY

On the morning of August 6, 1777, General Nicholas Herkimer moved to join the attack

against the British siege camp. Oneida scouts out front and to the sides of the Rebel militia

detected no enemy. General Herkimer led the vanguard of six hundred men into the ravine.

Fifteen supply wagons followed. Then came the two hundred soldiers of the rearguard. At

approximately 10:00 a.m., as Herkimer completed crossing the ravine, the Seneca Tories

attacked. They were slightly premature, because the final two hundred militia troops of

the rearguard were not yet in the ravine. Nonetheless, the first volley, coming from all

sides, was devastating to the Rebel militia. General Herkimer was shot through the right

leg and his horse was killed. The militia defended themselves in a desperate, disorganized

manner. Brant’s men engaged in hand-to-hand combat, using knives, hatchets, clubs, and

spears to attack the Rebels. The battlefield was littered with dead, dying, and wounded

soldiers. The two hundred Rebel troops not caught in the trap fled from the ravine, only to

be followed and attacked by Joseph Brant and other Mohawks.

The Seneca war chief, Blacksnake, described the battle years later:

We met the enemy at the place near a small creek. They had 3 cannons and we none. We

had tomahawks and a few guns, but agreed to fight with tomahawks and scalping knives.

During the fight, we waited for them to fire their guns and then we attacked them. It felt

like no more than killing a Beast. We killed most of the men in the American’s army. Only

a few escaped from us. . . . It was here that I saw the most dead bodies than I have ever

seen. The blood shed [sic] made a stream running down on the sloping ground.

Although bleeding from his wound, Herkimer organized his men into a rough circle so they

could defend themselves in all directions. About forty-five minutes into the battle, a violent

thunderstorm interrupted the fighting. During this reprieve, the Rebels fought their way

up a hill to high ground where they could better defend themselves. General Herkimer was

carried up the hill and sat on his saddle under a tree. He directed his troops to reorganize

in a grove of trees by pairs, so that one man could defend the other while he was reloading

his musket.

Colonel Gansevoort sent out a sortie under the command of Colonel Marinus Willett

between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. to create a diversion to help Herkimer’s force. After driving off

the guards, Willett and his men raided the Indian and Tory camps, taking several

wagonloads of booty and some prisoners back to the fort and destroying what they could

not take.

Hearing of the raid, the Native-American Tories started to leave the battle and return to

their camp. Without Indian support, the European-American Tories also withdrew from

the battlefield. After six hours, at about 4:00 p.m., the battle was over. The Rebel militia

troops then collected their wounded and abandoned the dead without burying them. They

then returned to Fort Dayton.

Only about one hundred fifty of the eight hundred Rebels who went into battle survived

without serious injury. General Nicholas Herkimer died eleven days after the battle due to

139 .

complications from having his leg amputated. The Tory American Indians took prisoner

many Rebels. Tory losses were much lighter than those of the Rebels. The majority of the

Tory losses occurred among the Indian allies, particularly the Senecas.

Major General Benedict Arnold had been sent from Saratoga to relieve Fort Schuyler even

before news of Herkimer’s battle. The column skirted the Oriskany battlefield. As Arnold

approached, St. Leger’s Native American allies, discouraged by the failure of the siege,

abandoned him. St. Leger lifted the siege early on August 22nd. He retreated to Canada.

Both Tories and Rebels claimed victory at the Battle of Oriskany. Herkimer’s attempt to

relieve the siege at Fort Schuyler was unsuccessful, but St. Leger’s expedition failed.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Oriskany, Tories destroyed the Oneida Village of Oriska

and its crops were destoyed, and many of its occupants killed. Molly Brant, who notified

St. Leger about the approach of Herkimer’s column, was forced to flee her home. It was

looted and subsequently given to the Oneida chief, Hon Yerry. He had fought alongside his

wife for the Rebel militia at Oriskany. These types of reprisals would be played out again

and again. The Battle of Oriskany was just the beginning of the civil war to be fought

throughout New York until 1784.

1. General Herkimer thought he could enter the dangerous ravine because his ________

scouts detected no enemy.

a. Seneca

b. Mohawk

c. Oneida

d. Tory

2. The Tory attack was a little premature because the ________ had not yet entered the

ravine.

a. scouts

b. vanguard

c. supply wagons

d. rearguard

3. The Revolutionary forces were first attacked with

a. cannons.

b. bayonets.

c. a volley of musket fire.

d. knives, hatchets, clubs and spears.

. 140

4. Joseph Brant’s Native Americans followed up the first attack with

a. cannons.

b. bayonets.

c. a volley of musket fire.

d. knives, hatchets, clubs, and spears.

5. The supposed relief force was relieved from the fort when a sortie attacked

a. Brant.

b. St. Leger.

c. Indian and Tory camps.

d. the Rangers and Royal Greens.

6. The Battle of Oriskany ended after

a. the Rebels retreated to Fort Schuyler.

b. the Native-American Tories left, and the European-American Tories followed.

c. Colonel Gansevort reached the Oriskany battlefield.

d. Colonel Willett reached the Oriskany battlefield.

7. Major General Benedict Arnold had been sent to

a. aid General Herkimer.

b. aid Colonel Willett.

c. relieve Fort Dayton.

d. relieve Fort Schuyler.

8. Why do you believe the casualities at the Battle of Oriskany were so great?

141 .

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9. Who do you believe won the Battle of Oriskany? Why?

143 .

THE EFFECTS OF THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY

The retreat of General St. Leger returned the Mohawk Valley to an uneasy peace which

would not last for long. In late August, General Benedict Arnold offered to pardon any

Tories who turned themselves in and joined the Rebels saying:

Whereas a certain Barry St. Leger, a Brigadier-general in the services of the George of Great

Britain, at the head of a banditti of robbers, murderers, and traitors, composed of savages of

America, and more savage Britons (among whom is noted Sir John Johnson, John Butler,

and Daniel Claus) have lately appeared in the frontiers of this State, and have threatened

ruin and destruction to all the inhabitants of the United States. They have also, by artifice

and misrepresentation, induced many ignorant and unwary subjects of these states, to

forfeit their allegiance to the same, and join them in their crimes, and parties of treachery

and parricide.

Pierre Van Cortland, writing to New York’s Governor George Clinton on August 25, 1777,

was confident that the British strategy to capture New York was failing:

I have great reason to believe that Genl: Burgoyne will soon follow the example of St. Leger,

and my greatest fear is that he will be equally fortunate in getting off without a second

drubbing, as the militia do not turn out with that alacrity which might be expected. A proper

spirit on this occasion would enable us totally to destroy the enemy in the quarter, and

secure peace and safety to this part of the country. The enemy are in our power, could the

militia only be prevailed on to believe it.

Van Cortland was correct that the British force led by General Burgoyne would not

succeed. On October 17, 1777, after failing to break through the Rebel lines protecting

Albany, and suffering from lack of supplies, General Burgoyne surrendered his entire army

at Saratoga. General Howe never committed his full army to the third thrust up the

Hudson Valley, but instead attacked Philadelphia.

New York was no longer threatened by three British armies, but it continued to suffer the

trauma of civil war. Sir John Johnson and Joseph Brant returned to the Mohawk Valley

with their Tory forces repeatedly. They raided and destroyed villages, crops, and livestock,

and massacred enemies and innocents alike. The Rebels retaliated on Tory strongholds,

most notably when General Sullivan led his troops through western New York, destroying

everything in his wake. When the Oneida requested that neutral Onondaga villages be

spared, their pleas were ignored. The Rebels destroyed the Onondaga villages along with

villages aligned with the Tories.

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the war between the United States and Great Britain.

It was followed in 1784 by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix which ended the war between the

United States and the Iroquois Confederacy. The ancestral lands of the Oneida and

Tuscarora Nations were preserved and protected by the federal government under the

terms of this treaty, in recognition of their support during the American Revolution.

However, the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca were confined to a small

reservation, punished for supporting the Tory cause.

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Although New York was enjoying true peace again, Tories of European and American

Indian heritage were faced with a difficult decision, either to remain in the new United

States and accept its government or to leave the country. While some Tories chose to stay

in the United States, many moved. Some went to the British and Caribbean Islands, but

the vast majority moved to Canada and settled there on lands granted by Great Britain.

Today there are still large numbers of Canadians of European and Native American

extraction who can trace their ancestry to the United States and the Revolutionary War.

Descendants from the tribes that made up the Iroquois Confederacy have worked for years

to restore their lost unity and relight the Central Council Fire.

1. Benedict Arnold called the British and their allies all of the following except

a. loyal citizens.

b. robbers.

c. murderers.

d. traitors.

2. In offering pardon to the Tories who had changed sides, Benedict Arnold suggested

that they may have been

a. savages of America.

b. more savage Britons.

c. ignorant and unwary.

d. motivated by patriotism.

3. Pierre Van Cortland believed, correctly, that General ________ would soon be defeated

in New York.

a. St. Leger

b. Burgoyne

c. Clinton

d. Howe

4. Neutral Onondaga villages were destroyed by

a. the Tory, Sir John Johnson.

b. the Tory, Joseph Brant.

c. the Patriot, General Sullivan.

d. Governor George Clinton.

145 .

5. The pro-British Indian nations suffered the consequences of the American victory,

and the pro-American nations were rewarded, under the Treaty of

a. Paris.

b. Fort Stanwix.

c. Ghent.

d. Fort Schuyler.

6. The vast majority of Tories

a. stayed in the United States.

b. moved to Great Britain.

c. moved to the Caribbean.

d. moved to Canada.

7. What do you think about Benedict Arnold’s address to the Tories of New York in light

of his later career?

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8. How did the battle affect life in central New York for the remainder of the war?

147 .

9. Comment on the significance of the Battle of Oriskany to each of the following:

central New York; the outcome of the Revolutionary War; the fate of the Iroquois

Confederacy; world history. Carefully explain each one.

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149 .

VICTORY AT SARATOGA

At Fort Ticonderoga, Edward Burgoyne now found that he could hardly move. An

enormous baggage train encumbered him. His own effects, it is said, filled thirty wagons.

This we can believe. Champagne was served at his table almost up to the day of final

disaster. The population was thoroughly aroused against him. His own instinct was to

remain near the water route to Canada and to make sure of his communications. On the

other hand, he supposed, he was to go forward and not fail Howe. Howe was, he was told,

advancing to meet him. For a long time, Burgoyne hesitated and waited. Meanwhile, he

was having increasing difficulty feeding his army. Through sickness and desertion his

numbers were declining.

By the 13th of September, he took a decisive step. He made a bridge of boats. On them he

moved his whole force across the Hudson River to Saratoga. This crossing of the river

would inevitably result in cutting off his communications with Lake George and

Ticonderoga. After such a step, he could not go back. He was moving forward into a dark

unknown. The American camp was at Stillwater, twelve miles farther down the river.

Burgoyne sent messenger after messenger. He wanted them to get past the American lines

and bring back news of Howe. Not one of these unfortunate spies returned. Most of them

were caught and ignominiously hanged. One thing, however, Burgoyne could do. He could

fight.

Once his force was on the west bank of the Hudson, Burgoyne had no time to lose. General

Lincoln had cut off his communications with Canada. Lincoln was soon laying siege to

Ticonderoga.

General Gates now commanded the American army facing Burgoyne. This Englishman

had gained command by successful intrigue and powerful support in Congress. That body,

some thought, was always paying too much heed to local claims and jealousies. On the 2nd

of August, it had removed Schuyler of New York because the soldiers from New England

disliked him. They gave the command to Gates. Washington was too far away. He was

maneuvering to meet Howe. He was never able to closely watch the campaign in the north.

Gates, indeed, considered himself independent of Washington. He reported not to the

commander-in-chief but directly to Congress.

On the 19th of September, Burgoyne attacked Gates. Gates was in a strong entrenched

position on Bemis Heights at Stillwater. There was a long and bitter fight. By evening,

Burgoyne had not carried the main position. He had lost more than five hundred men. He

could ill spare them from his scanty numbers.

Burgoyne’s condition was now growing desperate. American forces barred retreat to

Canada. He must go back and meet both frontal and flank attacks, go forward, or

surrender. To go forward now had most promise, for at last Howe had instructed Clinton,

left in command at New York, to move. Clinton was making rapid progress up the Hudson.

On the 7th of October, Burgoyne attacked again at Stillwater. This time he was decisively

defeated. That result was due to the amazing energy in attack of Benedict Arnold, who had

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been stripped of his command by an intrigue. Gates would not even speak to him. His

lingering in the American camp was unwelcome. Yet, as a volunteer Arnold charged the

British line madly and broke it. Burgoyne’s best general, Fraser, was killed in the fight.

Burgoyne retired to Saratoga.

His enemies now outnumbered him nearly four to one. The American guns swept his camp.

His men were under arms night and day. American sharpshooters stationed themselves at

daybreak in trees about the British camp. Anyone who appeared in the open risked his life.

If a cap were held up in view, instantly two or three balls would pass through it. His horses

were killed by rifle shots. Burgoyne had little food for his men and none for his horses. His

Indians had long since gone off. Many of his Canadian French slipped off homeward. So did

the Loyalists. The German troops were naturally dispirited. A British officer tells of the

deadly homesickness of these poor men. They would gather in groups of two dozen or so and

mourn that they would never again see their native land. They died, a score at a time, of no

other disease than sickness for their homes. They could have no pride in trying to save a

lost cause. Burgoyne was surrounded. On the 17th of October, 1777, he was obliged to

surrender.

1. Burgoyne’s force was slowed by

a. too much baggage.

b. not enough horses.

c. American snipers.

d. desertion.

2. None of Burgoyne’s spies returned because they

a. did not want to be captured.

b. knew Burgoyne was doomed.

c. were captured and hanged.

d. misunderstood Burgoyne’s orders.

3. General Gates was made commander of the American force because

a. the commander-in-chief appointed him.

b. Congress supported him.

c. he got along well with the Indians.

d. Washington was too far away to interfere.

4. Burgoyne lost at Stillwater due to Benedict Arnold’s

a. arrogance.

b. betrayal.

c. cowardly behavior.

d. daring.

151 .

5. According to a British officer, many German soldiers died of

a. smallpox.

b. hunger.

c. homesickness.

d. cancer.

6. What would you have done differently if you were General Burgoyne? Why?

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153 .

WEST POINT DEFENSES

On September 14, 1780, there arrived and anchored at Sandy Hook, New York, fourteen

British ships of the line. They were commanded by George Rodney, the bravest and most

competent of the British admirals afloat.

Washington had his army headquarters at West Point. He was on guard to keep the British

from advancing up the Hudson. He was looking for the arrival not of a British fleet but of

a French fleet from the West Indies. For him these were very dark days. The recent defeat

at Camden was a crushing blow. Congress was inept. In it were men, as the patient

General Greene said, “without principles, honor or modesty.” The coming of the British

fleet was a new and overwhelming discouragement.

On the 18th of September, Washington left West Point for a long ride to Hartford,

Connecticut. It was halfway between his headquarters and Newport, the headquarters of

his French allies. Washington had to go to the French as a beggar. Rochambeau, the

French commander, said later that Washington was afraid to reveal the extent of his

distress. He had to ask for men and for ships. He had also to ask for what a proud man

dislikes to ask. He had to ask for money from the stranger who had come to help him.

The Hudson had long been the chief object of Washington’s anxiety. Now it looked as if the

British intended some new movement up the river, as indeed they did. At West Point,

where the Hudson flows through a mountainous gap, Washington had strong defenses on

both shores of the river. His batteries commanded its whole width, but shore batteries

were ineffective against moving ships. The embarking of Clinton’s army meant that he

planned operations on land. He might be going to Rhode Island or to Boston. He might

also dash up the Hudson. It was an anxious leader who, with Lafayette and Alexander

Hamilton, rode away from headquarters to Hartford.

The officer in command at West Point was Benedict Arnold. No general on the American

side had a more brilliant record or could show more scars of battle. He led an army through

the wilderness to Quebec. He incurred incredible hardships. Later, on Lake Champlain,

he fought on both land and water. When in the next year the Americans succeeded at

Saratoga it was Arnold who bore the brunt of the fighting. At Quebec and again at

Saratoga he was severely wounded.

In the summer of 1778 he was given the command at Philadelphia, after the British

evacuation. It was a troubled time. Arnold was concerned with confiscations of property

for treason and with disputes about ownership. Arnold lived extravagantly. He played a

conspicuous part in society. A widower of thirty-five, he was successful in paying court to

Miss Shippen. She was a young lady of twenty, with whom, as Washington said, all the

American officers were in love. Impulsive, ambitious, and with a certain element of

coarseness in his nature, Arnold made enemies. He was involved in bitter strife with both

Congress and the state government of Pennsylvania.

Joseph Reed, the President of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, brought charge

against him of abusing his position for his own advantage. In the end Arnold was tried by

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court-martial. After a long and inexcusable delay, on January 26, 1780, he was acquitted

of everything but the imprudence of using, in an emergency, public wagons to remove

private property and of irregularly granting a pass to a ship to enter the port of

Philadelphia. Yet the court ordered that for these trifles Arnold should receive a public

reprimand from the commander-in-chief. Washington gave the reprimand in terms as

gentle as possible.

When, in July 1780, Arnold asked for the important command at West Point, Washington

readily complied. He probably felt relief that so important a position should be in such good

hands.

1. George Washington was concerned that the British fleet and Clinton’s army were

going to attack

a. Boston.

b. Rhode Island.

c. Hartford.

d. West Point.

2. Why did George Washington have to go to Newport?

a. to attack the British fleet

b. to wait for the French fleet

c. to ask for help

d. to meet with Congress

3. Which of the following was not one of Benedict Arnold’s accomplishments during the

Revolutionary War?

a. never getting wounded

b. leading an army through Quebec

c. fighting at Lake Champlain

d. fighting at Saratoga

4. Benedict Arnold did not get along well with

a. George Washington.

b. Congress.

c. Miss Shippen.

d. Alexander Hamilton.

5. In 1780, Benedict Arnold asked for and received the command of

a. Philadelphia.

b. Hartford.

c. Newport.

d. West Point.

155 .

6. What were the strengths and weaknesses of Benedict Arnold?

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THE TREASON OF BENEDICT ARNOLD

Benedict Arnold was embittered. He had rendered great services. Yet he had been

persecuted with spiteful persistence. Arnold thought America ripe for reconciliation with

Great Britain. He dreamed that he might be the savior of his country. He tried to persuade

himself that to change sides in this civil strife was no more culpable than to turn from one

party to another in political life.

It is almost certain that Arnold received a large sum in money for his treachery. However

this may be, there was treason in his heart when he asked for and received the command at

West Point. And now on the 18th of September, Washington was riding northeastward into

Connecticut. British troops were on board ships in New York and all was ready. On the 20th

of September the Vulture, sloop of war, sailed up the Hudson from New York. It anchored at

Stony Point, a few miles below West Point. On board the Vulture was the British officer who

was dealing with Arnold. He had now came to arrange terms with Arnold.

Major John André was Clinton’s young adjutant general. Under cover of night Arnold sent

off a boat to bring André ashore. They met at a remote thicket of fir trees, outside the

American lines. There the final plans were made. The British fleet, carrying an army, was

to sail up the river. A heavy chain had been placed across the river at West Point to bar

the way of hostile ships. Under pretense of repairs a link was to be taken out. It was to

be replaced by a rope that would break easily. The defenses of West Point were to be so

arranged that they could not meet a sudden attack. Arnold was to surrender with his force

of three thousand men. Such a blow following the disasters at Charleston and Camden

might end the strife. Britain was prepared to yield everything but separation. “America,”

Arnold said, “could now make an honorable peace.”

Had André been rowed ashore by British tars, they could have taken him back to the ship

at his command before daylight. The American boatmen refused to row André back to the

ship. They said that their own return to West Point would be dangerous in daylight.

Perhaps they were suspicious of the meaning of this talk at midnight between an American

officer and a British officer, both of them in uniform.

Contrary to his instructions and wishes, André then accompanied Arnold to a house within

the American lines. He was to wait until he could be taken off under cover of night.

Meanwhile, however, an American battery on shore, angry at the Vulture lying defiantly

within range, opened fire upon her. She was forced to drop downstream some miles. This

was alarming. Arnold, however, arranged with a man to row André down the river. About

midday Arnold went back to West Point.

It was uncertain how far the Vulture had gone. The vigilance of those guarding the river

was aroused. André’s guide insisted that he should go to the British lines by land. He was

carrying compromising papers and wearing civilian dress when seized by an American

party and held under close arrest.

Arnold meanwhile, ignorant of this delay, was waiting for the expected advance up the

river of the British fleet. He learned of the arrest of André while at breakfast on the

157 .

morning of the 25th. He was waiting to be joined by Washington, who had just ridden in

from Hartford. Arnold received the startling news with extraordinary composure and

finished the subject under discussion. He then left the table under pretext of a summons

from across the river. Within a few minutes his barge was moving swiftly to the Vulture

eighteen miles away. Thus Arnold escaped. The unhappy André was hanged as a spy on

the 2nd of October. He met his fate bravely. Washington, it is said, shed tears at its stern

necessity under military law.

1. Benedict Arnold did not believe that

a. he had been treated fairly.

b. he could save his country.

c. he could bring about a reconciliation with Great Britain.

d. it was right to change sides in a civil way.

2. Benedict Arnold did not

a. plan treason when he asked for command of West Point.

b. receive a large bribe for his treachery.

c. meet with John André.

d. plan to defend West Point against a sudden attack.

3. André could not return to his ship promptly after meeting with Arnold because

a. the British seamen were suspicious.

b. the American seamen did not want to row back to the British ship after daylight.

c. Arnold had returned to West Point.

d. the Vulture had sailed upstream.

4. How was John André captured? Why was he treated as a spy?

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5. How did Benedict Arnold escape? What do you think became of him?

159 .

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OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK

First the British had occupied most of Manhattan. Finally, Washington was forced to

abandon Haarlem Heights and Fort Washington on the Hudson. For the next seven years,

New York suffered all the humiliations that fall to the lot of a conquered city. The king’s

troops held it as a garrison town, under military rule. They made it the headquarters of

their power in America. Their foraging parties and small expeditionary columns ravaged

the neighboring counties not only of New York, but also of New Jersey and Connecticut.

Privateers were fitted out to cruise against the shipping of the other states, precisely as the

privateers of the Patriots had sailed from the harbor against the shipping of Britain in the

earlier days of the war.

The king’s troops were not cruel conquerors, but they were insolent and overbearing, and

sometimes brutal. The soldiers broke into and looted the corporation, the college, and the

small public libraries, hawking the books about the streets or exchanging them for liquor

in the low saloons. They also sacked the Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, and Huguenot

churches. There was a completely organized system of gigantic jobbery and swindling, by

which the contractors and commissaries, and not a few of the king’s officers as well, were

enriched at the expense of the British government. The rich Royalists—besides, of course,

all the Whigs—had their portable property, their horses, provisions, and silver taken from

them. Sometimes they lost possessions to bands of marauding soldiers, sometimes to the

commissaries, but always without redress or compensation. Their complaints to the

officers in command were scornfully disregarded. In their bitter anger they complained

that the troops sent to reconquer America seemed bent on campaigning less against the

Rebels than against the king’s own friends and the king’s own army-chest. Many of the

troops lived in free quarters in the private houses, behaving well or ill according to their

individual characters.

A few days after New York was captured the city took fire. A large portion of it was burnt

up before the flames were checked. The British soldiers were infuriated by the belief that

the fire was the work of rebel incendiaries. In the disorganization of the day they cut loose

from the control of their officers and committed gross outrages, bayoneting a number of

men, both Whigs and Tories, whom on the spur of the moment they accused of being privy

to the plot for burning the city. Two or three years afterward there was another great fire,

which consumed much of what the first had spared.

Four or five thousand American soldiers were captured in the battles attending the taking

of New York. From then on the city was made the prison-house of all the captured patriots.

The old city hall, the old sugar-house of the Livingstons, was a gloomy stone building, five

stories high, with deep narrow windows. It was turned into a jail. So were most of the non-

Episcopal churches. They were packed full of prisoners.

The provost-marshal of New York was a very brutal man. The cheating commissaries who

undertook to feed the prisoners made large fortunes by furnishing them with spoiled

provisions, curtailing their rations, and the like. The captives were huddled together in

ragged, emaciated, vermin-covered and fever-stricken masses. Disease, bad food, bad

water, the cold of winter, and the stifling heat of summer ravaged their squalid ranks.

161 .

Every morning the death-carts drew up at the doors to receive the bodies of those who

during the night had died on the filthy straw of which they made their beds. The prisonships

were even worse. They were evil, pestilent hulks of merchantmen or men-of-war,

moored mostly in Wallabout Bay. In their rotten holds men died by hundreds.

Only after a peace treaty was signed did the armies of the king leave the city they had held

so long. They left on November 25, 1783, carrying with them some twelve thousand

Loyalists. On the same day Washington marched in with his troops.

1. Which of the following was not true of New York City during the Revolutionary War?

a. It was held by the British for seven years.

b. It served as British headquarters.

c. Much of it was burned by fires.

d. The British were friendly and considerate.

2. British soldiers traded stolen ________ for liquor.

a. horses

b. books

c. medicine

d. silver

3. Which of the following buildings was turned into a jail?

a. the college

b. the Episcopal church

c. the public library

d. the old city hall

4. Captured American soldiers suffered from all of the following in prison except

a. constant torture and executions.

b. disease.

c. bad food and water.

d. the weather.

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5. Why do you think captive American soldiers were mistreated?

163 .

ALEXANDER HAMILTON, JOHN JAY,

and THE CONSTITUTION

As soon as the project for a closer union of the states was broached, Alexander Hamilton

and John Jay took it up with ardor. New York City followed their lead, but the state as a

whole was against them. The most popular man in the state was stout old Governor

Clinton. He led the opposition to the proposed union. Clinton was a man of great strength

of character, a good soldier, and staunch patriot in the Revolutionary War. He was a sincere

friend of popular rights. He genuinely distrusted any form of strong government. Also he

was doubtless influenced by meaner motives in his opposition to the proposed change. He

was the greatest man in New York. He could not ever hope to be one of the greatest in the

nation. He was the ruler of a small sovereign state, the commander-in-chief of its little

army, the admiral of its petty navy, the leader of its politicians. He did not wish to sacrifice

the importance that all of this conferred upon him. The cold, suspicious temper of the small

country freeholders—and the narrow jealousy they felt for their neighbors—gave him

excellent material on which to work.

Nevertheless, Hamilton won, thanks to the loyalty with which New York City stood by him.

By untiring effort and masterful oratory he persuaded the state to send three delegates to

the Federal constitutional convention. He himself went as one, and bore a prominent part

in the debates. His two colleagues, a couple of anti-Federalist nobodies, left early.

Hamilton then came back to the city where he wrote and published, jointly with Madison

and Jay, a series of letters, afterward gathered into a volume called The Federalist. This

book ranks among the ablest and the best ever written on politics and government. These

articles had a profound effect on the public mind.

1. Of the following who or which was against joining the United States?

a. Alexander Hamilton

b. John Jay

c. New York City

d. the state of New York

2. Governor Clinton was popular because he

a. cut taxes.

b. had saved New York City from the British.

c. was a man of strong character.

d. gave great speeches.

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3. The Federalist was the name given to

a. Alexander Hamilton.

b. Governor Clinton.

c. the Constitution.

d. a book.

4. If New York joined the United States what did Governor Clinton stand to lose?

165 .

BENJAMIN LATTIMORE, 1761–1838

Benjamin Lattimore’s life began in Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1761. By 1776, his family

had moved across the Hudson River to Ulster County in New York. There they farmed and

ran a ferry. Migration was an important element of the New England experience during

the second half of the eighteenth century. Like so many other Yankees who saw

opportunity in the west, the Lattimores had moved to New York. However, unlike other

sons of New England whose forebears had come to America as part of the Puritan migration

of the 1630s, Benjamin Lattimore’s ancestors were African.

At the age of fifteen, young Benjamin joined the Revolutionary army. He served in the New

York Line for three years. He fought in the battle for New York City. He was taken

prisoner. He suffered as a prisoner of the British. Later, free once more, he marched across

the state in the Clinton–Sullivan punitive expedition against the Iroquois in 1779. During

the war, his regiment spent several weeks in Albany. He made the acquaintance of a

number of soldiers who would later become his Albany neighbors.

At the end of the war, Benjamin returned to Ulster County. Soon he decided to leave the

family farm. He had liked what he had seen of Albany. He decided to move there.

Benjamin first lodged with his kinsman, Thomas Lattimore. Thomas was a tailor. He lived

with his own family in a house on the hill behind one of the city’s main streets.

The thirty-year-old began to support himself as a teamster. He purchased a city license to

cart cargoes. He went up and down Albany’s hilly and narrow streets and through the city’s

busy yet muddy boulevards. In the booming commercial center, he found many customers

among those needing goods hauled to and from the docks. Before long, he was ready to set

down more permanent roots.

In 1798, Benjamin Lattimore purchased a lot west of South Pearl Street. It was in a newly

opened area at the foot of “Gallows Hill.” There he built his home. It grew into a

substantial, two-story brick rowhouse. In the years that followed, he was able to invest

extra income in adjoining city lots. His property eventually fronted on South Pearl Street,

one of Albany’s main thoroughfares. In addition, from the estate of General Philip

Schuyler, he bought another lot located farther out on South Pearl Street.

Soon after arriving in Albany, Lattimore began to raise a family. First, he found a mate

from among the many women of African ancestry working in Albany households. Their

son, Benjamin Jr., was born in 1793. Other children followed. In 1799, this “Negro man”

was baptized in the First Presbyterian Church and was admitted to the congregation. Five

years later, the Presbyterian Church sanctioned his common-law marriage to Dina, the

“servant maid” of Wilhelmus Mancius, a prominent city physician. Lattimore was only one

of the few “colored” male members, while his wife was among a number of African-

American women who belonged to the Albany Presbyterian congregation.

By 1815, Lattimore’s family and modest trucking business were established at his 9 Plain

Street address. A few years later, two Lattimore families shared the home. Benjamin Jr.

had married and was starting out as a day laborer and sometime teamster. By that time,

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Benjamin Sr. was a well-known community figure. In an affidavit made in 1820, in a

judicial proceeding, he was described as a six-foot-tall mulatto man “of irreproachable

character and uprightness.” He was licensed by the city government as a cartman. He was

a member of the Presbyterian, and then of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

During the 1830s he was president of the Albany African Temperance Society. Patriarch,

proprietor, and property owner, this “new man of the Revolution” had built a life that made

him a prominent member of post-war Albany’s black middle class.

Benjamin Lattimore died in 1838 at the age of seventy-eight. He was buried from the

newer of the city’s two Methodist Episcopal churches. In the local papers he was eulogized

as a soldier of the American Revolution.

1. Benjamin Lattimore was born in _________ and settled in _________.

a. Africa . . . Ulster County

b. Connecticut . . . Albany

c. New York City . . . Wethersfield

d. New York . . . New England

2. A “teamster” is someone who

a. takes care of horses.

b. fixes wagons and carts.

c. transports goods.

d. builds brick houses.

3. Benjamin Lattimore was all of the following except

a. a soldier during the Revolutionary War.

b. an owner of a successful business.

c. a community leader.

d. a minister of a church.

4. Which of the following does the author not mention in reference to Benjamin

Lattimore?

a. that he had been a prisoner of the British

b. the discrimination he faced

c. where he purchased property

d. his children

167 .

5. What does Benjamin Lattimore’s story tell us about life in New York after the

Revolution?

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LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, New York was a town of sixty thousand

inhabitants. The social life was still aristocratic. The great families still retained their

prestige. The Livingstons were at the zenith of their power in the state. They possessed

enormous influence, socially and politically. They were very wealthy. They lived very

formally. They had crowds of liveried black servants, free and slave. Their city houses

were large and handsome. Their great country seats dotted the beautiful banks of the

Hudson.

The divisions between the upper, middle, and lower classes were sharply marked. The old

families formed a rather exclusive circle. Among them the large landowners still claimed

the lead. The rich merchants, who were of similar ancestry, were much more numerous.

The merchants moved in the same circles and enjoyed almost as much prestige as the large

landowners.

The presence of the great families undoubtedly gave a pleasant flavor to the social life of

New York. The gentlemen still dressed with formal and elaborate care. They wore the

costume then worn by the European upper classes. The ladies were more apt to follow the

fashions of Paris than of London. All well-to-do persons kept their own heavy carriages.

They used them for long journeys and short pleasure drives.

The social season was at its height in the winter. There was an uninterrupted succession

of dinners, balls, tea parties, and card parties. One of the great attractions was the Park

Theater. It was capable of holding one thousand two hundred persons. When there was a

good play on the boards it was always thronged. Large sleighing parties were among the

favorite pastimes. After a drive out to the country, dinner was taken at one of the halfdozen

noted taverns a few miles outside the city. The drive back, if there was no moon, was

made by torchlight.

Marriages were scenes of great festivity. In summer, the fashionable promenade was the

Battery Park. It offered rows and clumps of shade trees, and a broad walk by the water.

On still nights, music played in boats on the water. The “gardens”—such as Columbia

Gardens and Mt. Vernon Gardens on Broadway—were also meeting places in hot weather.

They were enclosed pieces of open ground, covered with trees, from which colored lanterns

hung in festoons. There were fountains in the middle, and little tables at which ice cream

was served. Round the edges were boxes and stalls, sometimes in tiers. There was usually

a fine orchestra. When the hot months approached, the custom was to go to some

fashionable watering place, such as Ballston Springs, where the gaiety went on unchecked.

The houses of the well-to-do were generally made of brick. Those of the poorer people were

made of wood. There were thirty-odd churches. The two principal streets or roads were

Broadway and the Bowery. After nightfall, the streets were lighted with oil lamps. Each

householder was obliged to keep the part of the thoroughfare in front of his own house

swept clean. There were large markets for vegetables, fruits, and meat—brought in by the

neighboring farmers—and for fish and game. Long Island furnished an abundance of

venison. Hickory wood was generally used for fuel. Men, with wooden yokes across their

169 .

shoulders, carried milk in great cans from house to house. The well water was very bad.

Pure spring water from without the city was hawked about the streets in carts and sold by

the gallon.

1. How many people lived in New York City in 1800?

a. 6,000

b. 60,000

c. 600,000

d. 6,000,000

2. A very formal, elegant life was led by the

a. slaves.

b. servants.

c. lower classes.

d. aristocrats.

3. The streets were lighted with

a. oil lamps.

b. torches.

c. fireworks.

d. hickory wood.

4. While the rich were having so much fun, how do you think the poorer people lived?

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171 .

AARON BURR and THE DEMOCRATS

Philip Schuyler was born into a prominent New York family in 1733. Like many early

leaders, he established himself on the field of battle. In his case it was during the French

and Indian War. He served in the New York State Assembly and the Second Continental

Congress.

When war broke out in 1775, he was commissioned as a general in the Continental Army.

His career as a revolutionary was a less than glorious one. In an effort to clear his name

after the fall of Fort Ticonderoga, he requested a trial in a military court. He knew he

would be proven innocent, and he was. His acquittal, however, did not completely repair

his reputation.

Schuyler served two terms in the New York State Senate and a term as a U.S. Senator,

representing New York. Aaron Burr opposed Schuyler for reelection to his Senate seat.

Aaron Burr was polished, adroit and unscrupulous. He was the most powerful of the New

York City Democrats. The powerful Livingston and Clinton families, who were Schuyler’s

enemies, helped deliver victory to Burr. This infuriated Alexander Hamilton, who had

married Schuyler’s daughter, Elizabeth, and had backed his father-in law’s candidacy.

Hamilton was counting on Schuyler to support his economic platforms in the Senate. It

was the first major battle between Hamilton and Burr. Hamilton grew to regard Burr with

a special dislike and distrust, because of his soaring ambition, his cunning, and his lack of

conscience.

Some Democrats did well in New York City. The Livingstons had backed Burr ardently

against the Federalists. One of their number was elected and reelected to Congress from

the city. DeWitt Clinton was also forging to the front. He was a candidate for state office

from the city on more than one occasion, sharing in the defeats and victories of his party.

John Jay’s two successive victories, on the other hand, gave the Federalists the

governorship of the state for six years. Under Hamilton’s lead they won in New York City

rather more often than they lost. In 1799 they gained a complete victory, utterly defeating

the Democratic ticket, which was headed by Burr. The legislature then elected the

Federalist, Gouverneur Morris, to the United States Senate.

The newspapers reviled their opponents with the utmost bitterness, and often with

ferocious scurrility. The leading Federalist editor in the city was the famous dictionarymaker,

Noah Webster.

At the approach of the presidential election of 1800, Burr took the lead in organizing the

Democrats. He himself was his party’s candidate for the vice-presidency. He managed the

campaign with consummate skill.

The Democrats of the city were now tending to divide into three factions. The Clintons

were the natural leaders. The Livingston family was also very powerful. Both the

Clintonians and Livingstons, jealous of one another, were united in distrust of Burr.

Accordingly, Burr dexterously managed to get up a combination ticket containing the

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names of the most prominent members of each faction. This secured him against any

disaffection.

Burr then devoted himself to the work of organization. By his tact, address, and singular

personal charm, he had gathered round him a devoted band of henchmen, mostly active

and energetic young men. He made out complete lists of all the voters, and endeavored to

find out how each group could be reached and influenced. He sent every worker to the

district where he could do most good. He was also indefatigable in getting up ward

meetings.

Hamilton fought him desperately, and with far greater eloquence, but Hamilton was a

statesman rather than a politician. He had quarreled uselessly with some of the greatest

men in his own party. He could not devote his mind to the mastery of the petty political

detail and intrigue in which Burr reveled. Burr won the day by a majority of five hundred

votes. As so often since in this country, the statesman, the man of mark in the national

arena, went down before the skillful ward-politician.

In the election of 1800 Jefferson and Burr were the Democratic-Republican candidates for

president and vice-president. Under the curious system then prevailing, they had a tie vote

in the electoral college. This left the House of Representatives to decide who should be

given the presidency. The Federalists as a whole hated Jefferson. They supported Burr.

Hamilton, to his honor, opposed this move with all his might. From then on, Burr regarded

him with peculiar and sinister hostility. Jefferson was finally chosen. In the spring of

1801, the Democrats also elected the veteran, George Clinton, as governor.

New York City had been the stronghold of Federalism. Its officers were among the first to

feel the axe. Richard Varick had made a most admirable mayor for twelve years. He was

now summarily removed. Edward Livingston was appointed in his place. At the same time

Livingston was also given, by the national government, the position of United States

district attorney. The mayoralty was a much coveted prize. The incumbent not only

presided over the common council and wielded much patronage. He was also the presiding

judge of a court of record with peculiar and extensive powers. His income came in the

shape of fees and perquisites, arranged on such a liberal scale as to form a very large salary.

Livingston later left the office of mayor. It was given to another Democrat. He was DeWitt

Clinton, then United States senator. DeWitt Clinton actually resigned from the Senate to

take it. However, the Senate was not then held in as high regard as it is now. About this

time another New York senator resigned for the purpose of accepting the city

postmastership.

A dozen members and connections of the Livingston family were appointed to important

offices. The entire patronage of the state was divided between them and the Clintonians.

They had formed an alliance to crush Burr. They received the hearty support of Jefferson,

who always strove to break down any possible rival in his party.

173 .

1. New York Federalists included

a. Clintons.

b. Livingstons.

c. Aaron Burr.

d. John Jay and Gouverneur Morris.

2. The most prominent New York City Democrat was

a. Philip Schuyler.

b. Alexander Hamilton.

c. Aaron Burr.

d. DeWitt Clinton.

3. The leading Federalist editor in the city was

a. John Jay.

b. Robert Livingston.

c. George Clinton.

d. Noah Webster.

4. Which of the following would the author say least describes Aaron Burr?

a. honest

b. ambitious

c. political

d. clever

5. Burr was successful in the election of 1800 because he

a. was a better public speaker than Hamilton.

b. bribed people not to vote.

c. was well organized.

d. split Hamilton’s party into rival groups.

6. Hamilton was unsuccessful in the election of 1800 because he

a. did not have enough money to pay for his campaign.

b. assumed he was going to win.

c. refused to debate against Burr.

d. was not a skilled politician.

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7. The presidential election of 1800 was ultimately decided by the

a. Electoral College.

b. Supreme Court.

c. House of Representatives.

d. voters of New York.

8. According to the author, how did Burr view Hamilton?

a. with respect

b. with admiration

c. with hatred

d. with jealousy

9. The author implies that DeWitt Clinton resigned from the Senate to become mayor of

New York City because

a. being mayor paid better.

b. of a political scandal.

c. Burr forced him to.

d. he wanted to live closer to home.

10. Which of the following groups did not hold many government positions in New York

after the election of 1800?

a. Democrats

b. members of the Livingston family

c. Clintonians

d. Federalists

11. How would you describe politics in New York in 1800? Compare it to politics today.