Volume 10 • Number 2

F A L L 2 0 1 0

$4.95

The British Ditch City

Pioneering Scientists on the Erie Canal • Jewel in New York Harbor • Caretaker of His General’s History • Ulster County Woman Transformed • Woodstock Redux? V O l U m E 1 0 • NU m b E R 2 • F A L L 2 0 1 0

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18 24 D E P A R T M E N T S New York’s In Search of Truth 3 From the State Best-Kept Secret Margaret Washington Archivist Ann L. Buttenwieser The woman who was 5 Contributors If an island with historic Sojourner Truth began life in 6 At the State 10 importance four minutes from the Hudson Valley as a slave a major city is your idea of a named Bell. Her remarkable Archives Evacuation Day recreational day out, look no transformation made––and 8 Archives Around Jennifer E. Steenshorne farther than Governors Island. was responsible for––history. New York The holiday that marked the withdrawal of the British 32 In Their Own Words from in 1783 20 28 34 Genealogy was once considered Grant’s Faithful Soldier Woodstock and New York’s equivalent of 36 Parting Shots Historical Memory Independence Day. Steve Trimm Oliver Clarke was a young Geoffrey Storm soldier, then a POW, then a Two enormous music festivals 14 scarred Civil War veteran. But in upstate New York, thirty when he became caretaker years apart, had very different Field Trip on of Grant Cottage in Saratoga, outcomes. What changed the Erie Canal he found his calling. over time––or did memory David Minor itself change? Asa Fitch had an opportunity C O R R E C T I O N in 1826 that only a few In the Summer 2010 issue, had been afforded: a tour of O N T H E F R O N T C O V E R the correct date of the New York on the Erie Canal. Washington’s Triumphal Entry into New York City, November 25, 1783. photograph of a young man Creator: Edmund P. Restein (1837–91) and Ludwig Restein (b. ca. 1838), in front of Landau’s lithographers. Date created/published: , PA, pub. [E.P.] & L. Delicatessen on page 30 Restein, [1879]. Medium: 1 print, chromolithograph. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS [“Pastrami on Rye”] is 1965.

www.nysarchivestrust.org 10 EvacuationEvacuation DayDay

B Y J E N N I F E R E . S T E E N S H O R N E

A holiday “remembered for having been forgotten”: the commemoration of the british removal from New York City in 1783 began in celebration, but ended in obscurity.

ireworks, parades, squabbling remain, in historian Clifton defeat at Yorktown in October local politicians, marching Hood’s words, “a holiday that of that year, Carleton veterans, crowds, parties: was dedicated to memory… organized the removal (mainly all the familiar elements of a remembered for having been to Canada) of Loyalists of Fourth of July celebration–– forgotten.” all races who wished to leave. except that New York’s British troops occupied Independence Day was cele- New York City after the The British Depart F brated in November. Evacuation Battle of Long Island and the Word of the signing of the Day, commemorating the ’s retreat in Treaty of Paris reached New November 25, 1783 removal 1776, and New York became York in early November 1783. of British troops from New the American Gibraltar, the While the treaty marked the York City, was the state’s base of British operations. It official end of the war, the most important civic holiday also became a mecca for evacuation of the British until the Civil War. But after Loyalists and thousands of troops and the celebrations the war, with the exception escaped slaves and free blacks. that followed marked the of a brief resurgence in 1883, General Sir Guy Carleton was psychological and emotional it waned in public conscious- appointed commander in chief end. On November 21, 1783, ness, disappearing by 1916 to in 1781, but after Cornwallis’s Carleton ordered his troops to

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broomstick—the only violent Washington and his officers at exchange of the day. In a Cape’s Tavern. Again thirteen At 1 p.m. a cannon farewell gesture, the British toasts were drunk, such as greased the flagpole at Fort “May the Trade of America fired, signaling the George in the Battery without center with those who have removing the Union Jack, been foremost to defend her British departure. which was replaced with the liberties.” The evening “was General Knox and his American colors only after a spent in great good humour, young sailor named John hilarity and mirth.” On troops entered the Van Arsdale donned cleats December 1, Clinton hosted and climbed the pole. (His another dinner at Cape’s city, followed by descendents retained the in honor of the French Washington and honor of hoisting the flag on ambassador, the Chevalier Evacuation Day until the end de la Luzerne. Present were Clinton, representing of the nineteenth century.) Washington, his officers, and At 1 p.m. a cannon fired, “upward of one hundred military and civil signaling the British departure. gentlemen.” The revelers “with authority. General Knox and his troops great conviviality” consumed entered the city, followed 135 bottles of Madeira, thirty- by Washington and Clinton, representing military and civil authority. The procession of troops, led by Knox, Washington, Clinton, the COLLECTIONS SPECIAL AND LIBRARY/MANUSCRIPTS STATE YORK NEW Common Council, and citizens on horseback and on foot, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS OF LIBRARY proceeded down Queen Street Washington’s triumphal

and to Cape’s entry into New York City, Tavern. The “elegant and November 25, 1783. efficient disposition which

prevailed through the whole

event,” and the contrast prepare for departure. Major between the arrogant British General Henry Knox led 800 and the dignified Americans, Continental troops to the were much remarked upon. northern boundary of the city, Many raucous celebrations while followed. On the evening and Governor George Clinton of November 25, Governor waited in a tavern in Harlem. Clinton held a dinner at On November 25, the British for marched down the Bowery to Washington and his officers. the East River, jeered by the In honor of the allies and with crowd, many wearing the hope for the future, thirteen “union cockade” of black-and- toasts were drunk, such as ribbon and laurel sprigs in “May the remembrance of their hats. A Mrs. Day hoisted this day be a lesson to princes.” her American flag a trifle early, On the 28th, “citizens who Before the British left, they greased the flagpole flying the Union Jack, and when confronted by a lately returned from exile” making it extremely difficult for the Americans to raise the Stars and British officer, she bloodied entertained the governor, Stripes. Veteran John Van Arsdale put on cleats used to ascend a ship’s his nose with a blow from a the Common Council, and mast and accomplished the task. Only then did Washington enter the city.

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The national trauma of the Civil War played a large part in Evacuation Day’s decline. In the post- war years, the holiday became increasingly

marginalized as it lost CONGRESS OF LIBRARY

its meaning for most New Yorkers.

six bottles of port, and thirty the spectators were rendered A Holiday in the Making bowls of punch. Apparently mute “unless when they In contrast, November 25, 1784 glassware was broken. some times manifested their passed without much notice. December 2 saw a great satisfaction by loud huzzas.” If New Yorkers commemorated display of fireworks, organized Finally, on December 4, the day, they did so privately. by Captain William Price of at yet another dinner at Public celebration did not the Corps of Artillery. The Fraunces Tavern, an emotional commence until 1787, when program consisted of three Washington took leave of the Army brigade garrisoned sets, and included rockets, his officers and embraced his in the city moved the date of “chinese fountains,” illuminated comrades, saying, “With its dress review to November stars, moons, and suns, an an heart full of love and 25, marching in formation “illuminated Pyramid with gratitude, I now take leave of and performing the feu de joi Archimedean Screws, a you: I must devoutly wish (“fire of joy”), the rapid firing Globe and Vertical Sun,” that your latter days may be of guns in succession that and concluded with “Fame as prosperous and happy, as was traditionally used to mark descending a Flight of one your former ones have been This drawing, The Last Boat-Load victories and that ended with of the British Leaving New York hundred Rockets.” The glorious and honourable.” a thirteen-gun salute. by Howard Pyle, appeared in Independent New York- This occasion, like all the In the 1790s, the celebra- Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Gazette reported that it was other events of the week, tion became a regular November 1883, Vol. LXVII, so “splendidly beautiful was reported in newpapers occurrence, a local “national” No. 402. and so well conducted” that across the nation. holiday. New Yorkers attended

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the military display and then advertised its location as the battles…sad-faced, poverty- T H E A R C H I V E S moved on to private parties ideal place to view the parade stricken shadows of them- C O N N E C T I O N or the theater. Theaters (in paid seats) and then, of selves.” played a role in popularizing course, to see the exhibitions, The centennial celebration vacuation Day events and commercializing the which included wandering in 1883 was both the most were heavily covered in holiday by presenting historical gypsies, fireworks, mechanical spectacular celebration and E New York and the other melodramas and pageants figures, and an albino lady. the last gasp of popular states, indicating the about the Revolution. participation. Organized by significance of the event With the beginning of National Trauma, patrician John Austin Stevens, for all Americans. Thus the the nineteenth century, the Then Decline secretary of the New-York main sources of information “anniversary of the evacua- As the Civil War approached, Historical Society, 25,000 about the 1783 evacuation tion of the British troops” Evacuation Day became troops participated, with over and the subsequent cele- became commonly known as politicized as an expression of a million people, including brations are the newspapers Evacuation Day. This shift support for the Union. New President Chester A. Arthur, of the time, which can be symbolized the change in York’s City Council, dominated in attendance. A naval pag- found in the collection meaning of the day, from an by Copperhead Tammany eant, with 300 warships and Early American Newspapers, event experienced by the Democrats, refused to take private yachts, complemented available in both micro- Revolutionary generation to part or provide public funds the celebration. Stevens went film and digital form an event memorialized by their for the celebration. At war’s on to found the Society of (http://www.newsbank.com/, children and grandchildren. end, the 1865 celebration ’83, later renamed the Sons search on “Early American Evacuation Day gained new was appropriately huge, with of the Revolution, which Newspapers”). A valuable resonance with the War of 8,000 soldiers and twenty marginalized Evacuation Day source for nineteenth- 1812, as veterans from that regimental bands participating. by celebrating it privately century events is the war marched alongside and But the national trauma of through dinners and balls Brooklyn Daily Eagle, then replaced veterans of the the Civil War played a large reported in society pages, available online at http:// Revolution. Another shift part in Evacuation Day’s not news headlines. eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary. came as New Yorkers began decline. In the post-war years, The last recorded observa- org. The papers of George to see Evacuation Day as a the holiday became increas- tion of Evacuation Day was Washington, online at the day of play. Diarist George ingly marginalized as it lost November 25, 1916, when Library of Congress (http:// Templeton Strong referred to its meaning for most New sixty veterans of the Old Guard memory.loc.gov/ammem, it as “…glorious Evacuation Yorkers. Instead, the Fourth (the 3rd U.S. Infantry) raised click on “Presidents”) and Day, glorious in one point, of July represented a renewal the flag a final time. The the papers of John Jay, at least…that it allows us to of nationalist spirit, and same day, 45,000 spectators online at Columbia University kick up our heels all day at Thanksgiving, a more inclusive watched Army beat Navy at (http://www.columbia.edu, our leisure.” holiday that was traditionally the old Polo Grounds in click on “Libraries,” then In the 1830s and 1840s, observed in New York the upper . Thereafter, search under author), also the regular military were same week as the Fourth, the holiday was relegated provide valuable information. replaced by elite volunteer became a national holiday in to newspaper stories about units, such as the Washington 1863. The Brooklyn Eagle old New York customs. Its Grays and the Lafayette Horse noted that “the intense bicentennial was celebrated Guard. Displays of precision anti-British feeling the citizens in 1983 with a parade and gunnery also disappeared. inherited from their fathers exhibition at the Fraunces Evacuation Day was also disappeared, and now New Tavern Museum, but no commercialized through York is more concerned about revivals followed, although in depictions in popular prints trading with England than… 2008 the National Park by Currier and Ives. Barnum’s avowing a hatred toward Service lit beacons at twelve American Museum, at the her.” The veterans of the sites in New York and New corner of Broadway and Ann War of 1812 were also dying Jersey and held a ceremony Street in lower Manhattan, off, “decrepit veterans of on the steps of Federal Hall. n

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