Key to the Northern Country

Introduction

James m. JohNsoN

if any British army had chosen to play “The for its strategic and tactical advantages, its cen- World Turned Upside Down” as it marched into tral role in communication and trade, and its captivity, it should have been Lieutenant Gen- primary role as the major agricultural producer eral John Burgoyne’s Convention Army. With in North America. For the same reasons, the its surrender to the American Northern Army American revolutionaries mustered all of their commanded by Major General Horatio Gates resources to retain and control the region. From on 17 October 1777, the diplomatic world did 1776–1780, the region was the central battle- turn upside down. On 6 February 1778 Con- ground of the Revolution, with major battles rad Alexander Gerard, representing King Louis fought at White Plains, Saratoga, Fort Mont- XVI of France, signed a Treaty of Amity and gomery, and Stony Point. It also witnessed some Commerce in Paris with the three American of the most dramatic and memorable aspects envoys, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and of the war, including Benedict Arnold’s failed Arthur Lee. Not only did this document rec- conspiracy at West Point, the burning of the ognize the independence from Great Britain of New York capital at Kingston, the chaining of the “United States of North America,” it also the river, and the over 600-mile march of Gen- pledged that the French would be America’s eral George Washington and the Continental principal ally should war develop between her Army and Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, and the British, “their common Enemy.” Gen- comte de Rochambeau and his French Expe- eral George Washington would call Fortress ditionary Corps—the expédition particulière to West Point on the Hudson River in New York Yorktown, Virginia. All but three of the chap- “the key of America.” From July 1776 until 25 ters in this volume have previously appeared in November 1783, the Hudson River would be either the Hudson Valley Regional Review or The one of the most important strategic locations in Hudson River Valley Review, published by the the colonies. As the central seat of the war in Hudson River Valley Institute. We have cho- the thirteen colonies, New York would be the sen 20 articles, from the more than 194 pub- center of political, social, and military activities lished in these two regional journals, which we throughout the war. believe illustrate the richly textured history of The North River Valley, as it was first known, this supremely important place in the Ameri- was distinguished by its central role in the Amer- can Revolution. We hope that this anthology of ican Revolution, the region that George Wash- representative pieces of writing about the Hud- ington referred to as the “Key to the Northern son River Valley will inspire you to enjoy many Country.” The region was prized by the British other issues of The Hudson River Valley Review.

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oVerVIeW Michael Diaz, a former intern at the Hudson River Valley Institute and the recipient of the “The American Revolution in the Hudson Open Space Institute’s first Barnabas McHenry River Valley” by Dr. James M. Johnson and Dr. Hudson River Valley Award, introduced the Thomas S. Wermuth provides an overview of plight of key Loyalists (Tories) who sided with the region’s important role in the Revolutionary King George III against their neighbors, the War and the reasons that it was one of the most Whigs, who were determined to separate them- embattled areas in North America. Ultimately, selves in a civil war from his control. Inspired by as “the nexus of the conflict,” it was the region’s States Dyckman of Boscobel, Diaz looked at the strategic importance, rich bounty, proximity to most influential Loyalist families in the Hudson New York City, and leading role in trade that River Valley: the DeLanceys, the Philipses, the led both Revolutionaries and Redcoats to prize Van Cortlandts, the Coldens, the Van Schaacks, the region. and the Robinsons. He concluded that rather than being “disaffected,” the politics of the men PoLItICs aND LoyaLtIes in these families “were determined by strong social forces such as family ties, religious con- Kenneth Shefsiek’s “A Suspected Loyalist in the viction, and a respect for civil obedience, law, Rural Hudson Valley” tells the story of New Pal- and order.” tz’s Roeloff Josiah Eltinge, who was accused of Former West Point instructor Major Colin being a Tory by his neighbors and the conspir- Williams in his article, “New York’s Com- acy commissioners. His primary crime seems to mittees in the American Revolution,” reveals have been disinterest in the Revolutionary cause the mysteries of the political system used by as revealed by his refusal to accept Continental the Whigs during the rage militaire before the currency. As Edward Countryman has pointed approval of the New York State Constitution out, Eltinge was by no means unique among in Kingston on 20 April 1777—the extra-legal people in the region and elsewhere, who chose committees of safety, “which ran the local gov- no side in the conflict and preferred to watch the ernance in the colonies upstate counties.” After growing struggle from the sidelines. The term gaining “legitimacy by giving as many residents “Tory” was usually understood by generations as possible a role in fighting the rebellion,” the following the Revolution to mean someone who committees “handled the challenges of local stayed loyal to the Crown—a “Loyalist.” How- security, commodity distribution, military pro- ever, the term had much wider meaning during visioning, and collecting the money needed to the war years and soon after. It connoted folks pay for the war.” Ultimately, committees for who were not “patriotic” enough or who simply detecting and defeating conspiracies “became seemed disinterested in the struggle. At times the government’s most powerful instrument in it referred to those who didn’t seem to do their prosecuting New York’s civil war.” share to win the war, while other times it might Claire Brandt shows in “Robert H. Living- be used to describe a local price-gouger. In the ston, Jr.: The Reluctant Revolutionary” that story of Roeloff Eltinge, we see the difficult Robert R. Livingston, Jr., “the Chancellor,” world of the Revolutionary Hudson and how a might not deserve to be mentioned among the citizen could be driven into the Loyalist camp names of George Washington, Thomas Jef- by the harsh treatment of his neighbors. ferson, George Clinton, and other prominent In his article, “‘Can you on such principles figures of the American Revolution. Nonethe- think of quitting a Country?’ Family, Faith, less she gives him his due as she explores the Law, Property, and the Loyalists of the Hud- numerous contributions that he made to the son Valley during the American Revolution,” Whig cause in New York’s Hudson River Valley.

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He was the chancellor of New York, a nominal suffrage aND soCIety member of the committee that drafted the Dec- laration of Independence, the Secretary of For- Denis P. Brennan provides insights into the eign Affairs, and the Minister to France as the Revolutionary era newspaper business in New United States negotiated the acquisition of the York and the other colonies in his article, “Open Louisiana Purchase. For a leader of the demo- to All Parties: Alexander and James Robert- cratic Whig cause in America’s first civil war, son, Albany Printers, 1771–1777.” Of partic- he proved to be a reluctant revolutionary who ular interest, Alexander and James Robertson regarded the masses “as irresponsible, immoder- published Albany’s first newspaper,The Albany ate, and injudicious” and thus not to be trusted Gazette, from 1771–1772. Although they ini- with political power. According to Brandt, Liv- tially appeared “to have been most interested in ingston hungered “for recognition, fame, and the newspaper as a tool of the enlightenment power” and in the end achieved only political and not as a weapon of the political wars,” the ruination. Albany Committee of Correspondence thought Lincoln Diamant, in his article about Skinners their later printing trade to be overly supportive in the Neutral Ground of Westchester County, of the Crown, causing James to flee Albany and answers the question in his title—“Patriot Alexander and his apprentice to be imprisoned. ‘Friends’ or Loyalist Foes?”—as emphatically Brennan concludes that they “deserve more Loyalist foes. Diamant provides a penetrating than a footnote in Albany’s history.” analysis that rejects the legend started by James Jonathan Clark in “Taxation and Suffrage in Fenimore Cooper that Cowboys were affiliated Revolutionary New York” reexamines the rela- with the British and Skinners with the Patri- tionship between taxation and the franchise in ots. The name Skinners in fact can be traced Revolutionary New York based on its Consti- to Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner, com- tution adopted in the capital of Kingston on mander of a New Jersey Loyalist brigade. His 20 April 1777. Investigating poll and tax lists article is a cautionary tale for all historians— in Dutchess County, Clark concluded that “the find the bedrock evidence and avoid the quick- suffrage requirements may not have excluded sand of hearsay. as many men as currently accepted estimates Dr. Thomas S. Wermuth in “The Central would have it.” He discovered that the Revo- Hudson Valley and the American Revolution,” lutionary founders may have “held somewhat originally published in The Other New York, more democratic leanings” as they allowed focused his research on the central counties of those who voted for assemblymen, unlike for the Hudson River Valley: Dutchess, Orange, governor or senator only, to have to “own a bit and Ulster Counties. He found that “The of land or pay taxes.” They thus came close to Central Hudson Valley was one of the most universal manhood suffrage with the next best contested battlegrounds in the War for Amer- thing—taxpayer suffrage. ican Independence.” Except for the entrenched William P. McDermott examined voting pat- institution of African slavery, the turmoil of war terns in Dutchess County in his article, “The caused economic and political change as “a far Right to Choose: Suffrage During the Revolu- more democratic, egalitarian society” emerged. tionary Era in Charlotte Precinct.” He sought to In the central Hudson new leaders rose from the answer the question: “Was the Revolution and middling classes and used their political power the events which followed, such as the Consti- to confiscate and to redistribute Loyalists’ lands. tutional Convention held in Poughkeepsie in This “dramatic” development “opened opportu- 1788, treated as a significant social movement nities for land ownership and free-hold status,” by the average individual in the agricultural which were truly revolutionary. communities of Dutchess County?” Not so

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surprisingly, he revalidated the old axiom that Georgia During the Revolution,” to tie together all politics are local even among the Revolution- pieces of his own heritage as a Georgian educated ary English, Germans, and Dutch residents of in New York who returned to Dixie to teach at the county. With votes on significant questions Augusta State University for thirty-eight years. such as sending delegates to the Second Conti- The three officers were Major General Anthony nental Congress, “a great majority of individu- Wayne, Major General Nathanael Greene, and als in Dutchess County were opposed, neutral, Lieutenant Colonel “Light-Horse” Harry Lee. or simply unwilling to commit themselves.” In The lady was Greene’s wife Catherine or Caty. fact, 60% chose neutrality. Over the period that While the inspiration for Cashin’s talk, which he studied, he found that, in Charlotte Pre- became this article, was the 225th anniver- cinct, the residents were “focused on local con- sary of the battle of Stony Point in the Hud- ditions, and interested in maintaining the status son Highlands won by Wayne on 15–16 July quo locally.” Voting records led him to six other 1779, Greene and Lee make their reputations major conclusions about how those who cast in the southern theater of operations. While ballots moved toward “more democratic rep- these four individuals made signal contribu- resentation in public office” and avoided class tions to victory in the War for Independence, conflict as they aspired to social advancement Cashin determined that their lasting legacy to themselves. the United States, as they all ended up in Geor- Dr. Thomas S. Wermuth’s “The women! in gia after the war, was to influence Georgians to this place have risen in a mob: Women Riot- join “in a stronger federal union” and to make ers and the American Revolution in the Hud- New Yorkers more accepting of Georgia. Fol- son River Valley,” tells the story of the popular lowing in their footsteps, Dr. Cashin, who also disturbances and crowd actions that dominated lived in both states and died in Georgia, helped Valley towns and villages in the years during to bridge the Mason-Dixon Line with his own the Revolution. While many crowd actions that academic work. occurred in the 1760s and 1770s were aimed at the Crown (Stamp Act Riots, Boston Massa- fortresses, PrIsoNs, aND huts cre, etc.), it was far more common that eighteenth-century riots were aimed at local social In “Lewis Graham’s House in Pine Plains: A and economic conditions. Boycotts of prof- Revolutionary Log Building,” Neil Larson iteering shopkeepers, “rough music” aimed offers a detailed examination of a house in Pine at perceived social deviants, and riots against Plains, New York, originally constructed of hoarding shopkeepers were not uncommon and pine logs during the American Revolution. The in fact grew in number during the wars years. Graham-Brush Log House—now restored— These riots, often related to economic woes survives as an example of eighteenth century and shortages of basic foodstuffs, were domi- domestic architecture—log construction—that nated by women who exerted their public voice Larson found to be “a near intuitive solution for around these issues. Although women did not a settler in a forest.” Of interest to students of fight on the battlefield, they were involved in the War for Independence, the house appears important social and economic activities central “to be the only example of a log building built to to the Revolutionary process as “they threatened military specifications during the Revolutionary the ability of authorities to wage war.” War that retains sufficient architectural integ- Former Marist College graduate, professor, rity to represent the character of the hundreds and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. of log huts constructed by the Continental Edward J. Cashin used his article, “Three Offi- Army to house troops and refugees from Vir- cers and a Lady: The Hudson Highlands and ginia to Maine temporarily, including the major

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encampments at New Windsor, Morristown these two ships, fighting and ultimately burning and Valley Forge.” in the Hudson Highlands off Fort Montgom- The fortress at West Point, called by Gen- ery, would contribute to Major General Horatio eral George Washington the “key of America,” Gates’s far-off victory at Saratoga. started inauspiciously as Constitution Fort on R. Beth Klopott, in “Civil War in Schaghti- what is now Constitution Island across from the coke: A Footnote to the Revolution in Upstate present-day United States Military Academy. In New York,” ventures into the civil war between his article, “The Flawed Works of Fort Consti- New York and New Hampshire within the tution,” originally printed in Engineer, Colonel larger civil war between Whigs and Loyalists (Ret.) James M. Johnson found that the military over what would become the state of Vermont. engineer, Dutch-born Bernard Romans, pro- She shows why “Schaghticoke residents split duced flawed fortifications by improperly locat- over support for Vermont or New York.” While ing the works and by failing “to develop them the Crown had sided with New York in the effectively, expeditiously, and economically.” Order of Council in 1764, the area between the Hudson River Valley Institute Advisory Hudson River and the border with New Hamp- Board member and genealogist Frank Doherty shire, including Schaghticoke, saw raids by in his article, “The Revolutionary War Fleet “Vermonters” confronted by New York militia- Prison at Esopus,” answered the call to research men until 1782. The issue was not fully resolved the prison ships on Rondout Creek. Using ships until Vermont became a state in 1790. such as the Camden and the Hudson to incarcer- One of New York’s greatest achievements ate known or suspected Loyalists, the Commit- during the 225th anniversary of the American tee for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies Revolution was to reclaim Fort Montgomery and the Albany Committee of Correspondence near the Bear Mountain Bridge from the wil- “reduced the Loyalist threat” and freed up space derness and to open it as Fort Montgomery in overcrowded jails in the surrounding coun- State Historic Site. In “Interpreting the Bat- ties. At least 176 prisoners spent some time tle for the Hudson River Valley: The Battle of confined aboard the ships. Doherty found that Fort Montgomery,” Gregory Smith and James the Fleet Prison had “served its purpose, but M. Johnson describe the battle fought there and for a relatively short period of time—just under at its sister Fort Clinton on the south side of six months.” Aside for the uncomfortable con- Popolopen Creek on 6 October 1777 and their finement, he found that most Loyalists did not “decisive role in the Saratoga campaign of 1777, receive any harsher punishments. ‘the turning point of the American Revolution.’” Additionally, they explain the work of the Fort BattLes aND Warfare Montgomery Plan Team in clearing and interpreting the site’s ruins so that visitors can learn The Saratoga campaign of 1777 proved to be about the forts, the battles fought there, and the the turning point of the War for Independence sacrifices made by the men who defended their and placed the Hudson River at the center of works. the naval action in 1776 and 1777. In Novem- Thomas C. O’Keefe in his article, “Revo- ber 1775, Congress passes a resolution autho- lutionary Road: Incident on Gallows Hill,” rizing the construction of a fleet of thirteen focused on the former commander of the Hud- frigates to challenge the Royal Navy. New York son Highlands Department during the Sara- would outfit and build theCongress and the toga Campaign of 1777, Major General Israel Montgomery. As James M. Johnson argued in Putnam, to connect the Hudson River Valley to his article, “A Warm Reception in the Hudson Redding, Connecticut. While General George Highlands,” originally published in Sea History, Washington had assigned Putnam to command

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the Eastern Wing of the Continental Army in New York first as a militiaman and then as a 1778, he clearly had lost confidence in his sub- levy in Captain Nathaniel Bunnel’s 7th Com- ordinate after he failed to prevent Lieutenant pany of the 5th Connecticut Battalion. He saw General Henry Clinton from running free up action at Kips Bay, Harlem Heights, and White and down the Hudson. While the Court of Plains. Sullivan argues that Tuttle’s “experi- Inquiry chaired by Major General Alexander ence as a soldier during the campaign of 1776 McDougall had absolved Putnam of “any fault, demonstrates that while the performance of misconduct, or negligence,” Old Put was clearly temporary troops proved dismal at times, their under a cloud. During the harsh winter of 1778– willingness to enter the field of battle against 1779, faced with a mutiny and threatened march great odds and in spite of hunger, poverty, and on the Connecticut legislature in Hartford by disease helped sustain the Revolution through troops from Brigadier Jedediah Huntington’s its early stages.” He concluded that “the militia brigade, Putnam chose to shoot a convicted spy, and levies had performed a valuable role in the Edward Jones, and hang a deserter, John Smith, New York campaign.” as, according to O’Keefe, “sacrificial lambs,” to In his article, “Valcour Island: Setting the make an impression on the Connecticut troops. Conditions for Victory at Saratoga,” Major While he couched his conclusions as questions, Gregory M. Tomlin reassesses the 1776 Lake O’Keefe clearly feels that General Putnam had Champlain Campaign that led to the Battle of “taken the hardest possible line,” treating the Valcour Island. A pyrrhic victory that ended two unfortunate prisoners as ring leaders of a with the loss of almost all of Brigadier General mutiny, which they clearly were not. While a Benedict Arnold’s fleet, the battle “delayed an paralytic stroke in December 1779 would end earlier British attack in the fall of 1776, thereby Putnam’s career, his legacy would be anchored providing the Americans with an additional on his earlier military service rather than the year to prepare their defenses for the British events at the Redding encampments. northern invasion of New York.” He concluded Joseph Plumb Martin is perhaps the most that “This unique naval battle fought on Lake famous enlisted soldier in the American Rev- Champlain . . . should be considered the open- olution because be published his experiences in ing phase of the Saratoga campaign, making it the war. Another soldier, Moses Tuttle, from the a relatively obscure engagement that deserves Constitution State fought alongside Martin in greater attention by students of the Ameri- the New York Campaign of 1776. In fact, Wil- can struggle for independence.” The Battle of liam Sullivan in his article, “Soldier of ’76: The Valcour Island thus “proved critical for setting Revolutionary Service of a Connecticut Pri- the conditions for victory” in the turning point vate in the Campaign in New York,” found that Saratoga Campaign the next fall, 1777. It also Connecticut provided over one-third of the men foretold the British military strategy in 1814 to defend New York against General William that would culminate in the American victory Howe’s invading British army. Tuttle served in at Plattsburg.

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