AMERICA MEETS FRANCE OUTSIDE NEW YORK CITY
8.1
The March of the French Forces to Philipsburg
8.2 The March of the Continental Army to Philipsburg
8.3 The Encampment at Philipsburg
8.4 The Grand Reconnaissance
8.1 The March of the French Forces to Philipsburg, July2-6, 1781
As they were getting closer to New York, Rochambeau re-organized his troops into brigades. Bourbonnais and Royal Deux-Ponts formed the First Brigade, the Soissonnais and Saintonge the Second. On July 1, his 56th birthday, Rochambeau set out with the First Brigade for Ridgebury via Danbury, a village of maybe 80 houses. Here he received a letter from Washington dated June 30, 1781, asking him "to put your First Brigade under march tomorrow Morning (i.e., July 1), the remaining Troops to follow as quick as possible, and endeavor to reach Bedford by the evening of the 2d. of July." [1]
Washington's letter indicated a change of venue on the part of the American general, which occasioned a change of routes as well. Until now, King's Ferry had been the destination of the French forces; at this time Philipsburg became the new gathering point. The move southward removed any doubts, if there were any, as to the objective of the campaign: the political and military center of British power in America, Sir Henry Clinton's headquarters in New York, had been targeted for an attack. But since Quarter-Master de Beville and his aides had prepared neither maps nor itineraries for this eleventh day of march from Newport, there is no official source to indicate which route was taken. [2] As Rochambeau redirected his Brigade to Mount Kisco, (known as North Castle after 1722 and as New Castle after 1791) the following day, his troops marched south on Ridgebury Road to Tacoma Trail. Next they took CT SR 33 on to Ridgefield, where they turned east onto SR 35 and soon crossed into Westchester County and New York. At Mill River Road they turned south again until they reached NY-SR 172 near Poundridge Town Hall whence they turned east to Bedford Village -- or rather what little there was left of it. But a single house had survived the fire Banastre Tarleton's men had set during a raid on the morning of Sunday, 11 July 1779. [3] Clermont-Crèvecœur recorded on July 2, 1781, that Bedford "had already suffered much damage and, in fact, hardly any houses left standing. This settlement is very small and denuded of every resource." [4] The men of Rochambeau's First Brigade set up their first camp in the State of New York and their 12th camp since Newport, in the early afternoon of July 1, 1781, near the lake in the triangle formed by Seminary, Court, and Poundridge Roads. [5] (SITE 1)
The order to form brigades reached the Fourth Division around 10:00 p.m. on July 1, 1781, as it was resting in Newtown. "Without stopping here to rest, my (i.e., the Fourth) Division joined that of the comte de Vioménil (i.e., the Third) to form a brigade commanded by the latter and led by M. Collot." The next day "the Second Brigade left Newtown and marched 15 miles to Ridgebury, where it arrived at eleven o'clock (i.e., a.m.). It was preceded on its march to the camp by an advance detachment of grenadiers and chasseurs. I was ordered to lead them and to choose a good position for them a mile ahead of the brigade on the road to New York, where they camped after stationing sentries at all points leading in from enemy territory. Here we received a change of itinerary."(4) The main body of troops camped close to the Congregational Church along the road to Danbury, the advance guard about one mile south at the intersection of Old Stagecoach Road and Ridgebury Road. At midnight July 2/3, the Second Brigade received orders to proceed to North Castle, 22 miles away. Three hours later the troops were on their way.
Since it marched to North Castle directly from Ridgebury rather than via Ridgefield, its route was different from that of the First Brigade. After leaving Ridgebury on Ridgebury Road, the men turned east onto Mopus Bridge Road, which becomes Wallace Road in the State of New York, to North Salem, where they entered NY State Route 116. Here they continued on SR 116 (Titicus Road) to SR 121, south on SR 121 to Grant Corner and Hawley Road to the Old Post Road (Mead Street) past Lake Waccabuc. Continuing on the Old Post Road they turned east again (SR 35/124), crossed the Cross River on a wooden bridge now covered by the Cross River Reservoir, and continued on SR 121 to Bedford Village. Near Camp 1 of the First Brigade (SITE 1) in Bedford Village, the routes of the First and Second Brigades merged again. The Second Brigade did not stop but continued on Guard Hill Road to Baldwin Road and on to SR 172 (South Bedford Road) to Bedford Four Corners and Mount Kisco. Having covered the 22/24 -mile march in just about 8 hours time, the Second Brigade arrived at the edge of Leonard Park and the grounds of the Northern Westchester Hospital Center (junction of Routes 117 and 172) in Mount Kisco around 13:00 on July 3. According to Lauberdière, North Castle was a village of "no more than four or five houses situated close to a very extensive pond. It is not [a] natural [pond] and the water does not flow into it but via dykes." [6] Here the First Brigade, just arrived after an easy march from near-by Bedford on the same route as that the Second Brigade had taken, had set up Camp 13 to await the arrival of the Second Brigade and of Lauzun's Legion. [7] (SITE 2)
In Mount Kisco, Berthier recorded that "the grenadiers and chasseurs camped on a height to the left of the New York Road in front of a pond that adjoins the North Castle Meeting House. The rest of the army was encamped on high ground in back of the pond and the little North Castle River [Kisco River], with their left at the meeting-house and their right resting on a wood." The town itself, so Berthier, "has few houses, and they are widely separated. The headquarters was very poorly housed -- just how poorly you will understand when I tell you that the assistant quarter-masters general were obliged to sleep in the open on piles of straw, which was, to boot, rather too green." North Castle Meeting House was St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church founded in 1761, (demolished in 1819, resurrected as St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church from 1851-1911), which stood at the intersection of East Main Street/Corner of St. Mark's Place in Mount Kisco, just a few hundred feet from the site of the French camp. [8] (SITE 3)
They did not have to wait long for Lauzun. In the evening of June 30, while enjoying a ball in Monroe/New Stratford, the duc had received orders from Washington via his aide Lieutenant-Colonel David Cobb to march immediately to Bedford via Ridgefield where Washington expected him in the evening of July 2, for an attack at Morrisania. [9] Early in the morning of July 1, Lauzun broke camp in New Stratford and headed for Ridgefield on CT-SR 102. [10] Lauzun and his men encamped in the Scotland district of Ridgefield "along the ridge east of the North Salem Road" some 9 miles south of the main army. [11]
On July 2, Lauzun's Legion joined Rochambeau and his First Brigade on the march to Bedford Village, where Lauzun's troops rested briefly with Rochambeau's infantry near the lake that forms part of the triangle created by Seminary, Court, and Poundridge Roads. (SITE 1) As the infantry was making camp, Lauzun set out on a night march to meet up with American General Benjamin Lincoln. Following SR 22, the Old Post Road, past Wampus Pond through Armonk south to the Kensico Reservoir, (south of which it becomes White Plains Roads) through East Chester and West Chester, Lauzun's troops were late in reaching Morrisania at the juncture of the Harlem and East Rivers in the morning of July 3. Morrisania was the estate of General Lewis Morris and occupied by the loyalists of James De Lancey. Lauzun, Fersen and de Vauban, two of Rochambeau's aides who had permission to accompany the duke, could not prevent the failure of the two-pronged surprise attack on British posts, once the enemy had become aware of Lincoln's movements. [12] Following a brief encounter with De Lancey's Loyalists, Lauzun withdrew in the evening of July 3 to Valentine's Hill and camped on the East Chester Road. The next day, July 4, his men marched to Wampus Pond where they joined Rochambeau's infantry on its march to Philipsburg on the 6th. [13]
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The routes are confirmed in the MacDonald Papers by James Hopkins of Bedford who states that “In 1781, Lauzun’s Legion marched from Bedford by the Post Road passing Smith’s at sun about one or two hours high, or rather I should say, near nightfall. About twenty or thirty American guides rode in front. They went to (General Lewis) Morris’s that same night." "Smith's" was the Captain John Smith Tavern, situated on the 37th milestone from New York City on the old Danbury Post Road, owned by Benjamin Hopkins and run by Ichabod Ogden in 1781. (SITE 4) In the same interview he stated that "The French infantry next day passed towards White Plains by the West Road passing North Castle Church (I believe). Their drums were beating all day long.” [14]
July 4 and 5 were days of rest, interrupted only by a review of the French forces by Washington on July 5. Unable to put on their parade best, Berthier recorded that the men "were drawn up before the camp in line of battle without arms and wearing forage caps." [15] On July 6, Rochambeau's troops set out for the almost 20-mile march to Philipsburg. "Leaving from the left of the camp, that is from the meeting house," i.e., St. George's Church, "you take the first road to the left," i.e., SR 128 past Wampus Pond and Armonk to SR 22, along Kensico Reservoir, the left bank of the Bronx River past White Plains Station, right across the Bronx River and Chatterton Hill, to today's Ridge Road. [16]
"The road was tolerable up to a point three miles from White Plains, where there are several very steep mountains. The troops suffered a great deal from the excessive heat that day. When our generals found the Lauzun Legion on the road, they stopped; and since (Washington and Rochambeau) had arranged to meet each other there in a small barrack, in order to agree on the position that the two armies should take, we scoured much of the country until they had reached their decision. This prevented the troops from arriving at their respective camps before 6 o'clock. That day the army left behind more than 400 stragglers, but they all rejoined us during the night, with the exception of 2 men from the Bourbonnais and three from the Deux-Ponts, who decided in favor of deserting to the woods, where they found shelter. Those from the Deux-Ponts were brought back, some days later, by some Americans, good Whigs, and were flogged." [17]
Clermont-Crèvecœur recorded that the first 14 miles of the 17-mile march "were quite good. Early in the day we suffered much from the heat." The last three miles of "the roads were so bad that the last division of artillery, to which I was attached, did not arrive in camp until one hour after midnight. The troops had been on the road since three o'clock in the morning before without anything to eat. They found nothing to drink on the way. Casting your eyes over the countryside, you felt very sad, for it revealed all the horrors and cruelty of the English in burned woodlands, destroyed houses, and fallow fields deserted by the owners. It is impossible to be more uncomfortable than we were that day; more than 400 soldiers dropped from fatigue, and it was only by frequent halts and much care that we brought everyone into camp." [18]
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8.2 The March of the Continental Army to Philipsburg, July 2 - July 4, 1781
The winter of 1780/81 and the following spring had been difficult for the Continental Army. On December 1, 1780, Dr. James Thatcher recorded that "Our brigade is now ordered into the woods, in the highlands, in the rear of West Point, where we are to build log-huts for winter cantonments." Five weeks later, on January 3, 1781, his "brigade took possession of our huts for the winter, in the woods about two miles in the rear of the works at West Point. Our situation is singularly romantic, on a highly-elevated spot, surrounded by mountains and craggy rocks of a prodigious size, lofty broken clefts, and the banks of the beautifully meandering Hudson, affording a view of the country for many miles in all directions. We have now no longer reason to complain of our accommodations; the huts are warm and comfortable, wood in abundance at our doors, and a tolerable supply of provisions. Our only complaint is want of money." [19]
Thatcher was well off compared to most of
the enlisted men, who for all practical purposes considered themselves forgotten
by their state and federal governments in their camp near New Windsor on the
west side of the Hudson River. Even before Thatcher had written these lines,
the Pennsylvania Line had finally had enough and mutinied in Morristown on
1 January 1781. A settlement was reached on the 9th and the troops
furloughed until March. On the 20th about 200 men of the New Jersey
Line mutinied in Pompton. This time the rebellion was put down by force and
two men were executed on the 27th. As winter turned into spring,
the Continental Army barely maintained its strength while Cornwallis was marching almost at will across the
southern colonies. Despairingly George Washington had wrote on April 9: "We
are at the end of our tether, and … now or never our deliverance must come."
[20]
The campaign of 1781 had to produce results, preferably
the conquest of New York City.
Upon learning that the French troops had left Newport, Washington on 16 June gave orders that a camp be laid out for the Continental Army near the intended place of rendezvous at Peekskill along the south side of Crompond Road between Washington Street and Lafayette Avenue. (SITES 5 and 40) On the 18th he brigaded his troops and gave order for the First Brigade to leave winter camp on Thursday, June 21, and on the 22nd Dr. Thatcher wrote that "Our division of the army crossed the Hudson at West Point-landing yesterday, and reached Peekskill at night. We have left our cantonments in a woody mountain, affording a romantic and picturesque scenery of nature clothed in her wild and winter attire, having scarcely the appearance of vegetation." The Second Brigade followed on the 23rd, and the Third on the 24th. On the 25th, Mrs Washington set out for Mt. Vernon and the Commander in Chief, who had spent the months of December 1780 to June 1781 with Colonel Thomas Ellison in New Windsor, joined his troops in Peekskill. [21] The Continental Army occupied (from west/Peekskill Bay to the East) Drum Hill overlooking South Street, part of the old Post Road in 1781, Oak Hill, site of the hanging of convicted spy Daniel Strang in 1777, and the Villa Loretto Hills. [22]
The campaign of 1781 had begun. On the 28th, "Having determined to attempt to surprize the Enemys Posts at the No. end of Yk. Island, if the prospt. of success continued favourable, and having fixed upon the night of the 2d of July for this purpose … everything was put in train for it and the Count de Rochambeau requested to file off from Ridgebury to Bedford and hasten his Mar (ch) -- while the Duke de Lauzen was to do the same." [23] On 2 July, Washington recorded in his diary that at 3:00 a.m. "I commenced my march with the Continental Army in order to cover the detached troops." Following the New York and Albany Post Road (SR 9 and 9A), the troops rested first at the New Bridge over the Croton near the Van Cortlandt Manor (SITE 6) about 9 miles south of Peekskill. A second rest of about 2 hours followed at Tarry Town/Sleepy Hollow Church (SITE 7). Continuing on SR 9 (Broadway) through Philipse Manor (SITE 8) and Dobbs Ferry, the Continental Army turned east onto SR 9A (Ashburton) in Yonkers and after a long night march arrived at Valentine's Hill at about sunrise on July 3.
The planned surprise attack on Delancy having failed, Washington spent the better part of July 3 on an impromptu surveillance, returning to Valentine's Hill in the evening. Lauzun's Legion bivouaced along East Chester Road and retreated to Wampus Pond on the 4th while Washington laid out the Franco-American camp at Philipsburg.
8.3 The Encampment at Philipsburg, July 4/6-August 18/19, 1781
"The camp," so Berthier, "was located at Philipsburg on an eminence that dominates the surrounding country," i.e., on the heights between the Bronx and Sawmill Rivers within the town of Greenburgh. "The American army composed the right wing, resting on the Saw Mill River to which you descend by a steep bluff; the American artillery park occupied the center; and the French composed the left wing, resting on the Bronx River, whose banks are very steep. The American light infantry and dragoons were strung out from the right of the line all the way to Dobbs Ferry on the Hudson River, where a battery of four 12-pounders and two howitzers was emplaced. [24] The heights at the left of the line were occupied by the French grenadiers and chasseurs, the Lauzun Legion, and an American unit commanded by Colonel (David) Waterbury. The field pieces were laid before the camp at each opening in the front of attack. The main guards were posted in advance on the most strategic heights, guarding all points at which the enemy could approach the camp." [25]
Lauberdière described White Plains, "a name deduced, I believe, from the color of the flowers which cover the ground during the pretty season" as "covered with bunches (or pockets) of trees, of ravines, and of heights. Closen, who had been sent ahead to Philipsburg with Cobb on the 4th, described Philipsburg as "a certain district containing only some hills and wasteland, almost uninhabited and full of heather and thorns." [26] The "French were encamped one quarter of a mile from the left wing of the American camp, from which they were separated by a small stream, on which several communications posts were established. To the right of the American camp, three miles away, was Dobbs Ferry, on the North River (or Hudson), and to the left of the French camp, half a mile away, was the little Bronx River, which could be forded in several places; the mounted patrols relieved each other continually along this river, and several small posts were established on both banks." These mounted patrols were provided by Lauzun's hussars encamped on Chatterton Hill. On 17 July the hussars moved about 2 miles to the north-east toward Silver Lake and the grenadiers and chasseurs of the Second Brigade (i.e., the Soissonnais and Saintonge) took over their camp on Chatterton Hill. [27]
In an interview with McDonald in 1847, Dr. Nehemiah U. Tompkins remembered that “In 1781, some of the French lay at Chatterton Hill. But the main body encamped on my uncle Isaac Tompkins’s farm. The French park of Cannon were on a smooth piece of ground west of my uncle’s old house and towards Col. Odell’s." [28] John Tompkins of Greenburgh told McDonald on 7 September 1846 that "The French cannon were placed in the smooth field west of my house and of the old house, and where a ridge commences which runs towards Colonel Odell’s. The main body of the French was also encamped west of our houses. Some of them were encamped on Underhill’s ridge four or five hundred yards south or southwest of our house." Underhill's ridge is today's Sunningdale Country Club on Underhill Road, [29] (SITE 9), the smooth piece of ground is the site of the former Henry Gaisman Estate, part of the property purchased by John Tompkins in 1737 and now Hart's Brook Nature Preserve & Arboretum on Ridge Road leading west to Dobbs Ferry. On the ridge overlooking Central Park Avenue where the artillery was placed stands today a religious facility of the archdiocese of New York. [30] (SITE 10)
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Most of Washington's and Rochambeau's officers were quartered with local citizens; the marquis de Chastellux stayed at a house on John Tompkins' land that is still standing on South Healy Avenue in Scarsdale near the eastern border of the Sunningdale Country Club. No eyewitness account of Chastellux could be found in the McDonald Papers, but there are quite a few on the duc de Lauzun, who "resided at a house where John Norton now lives," [35] i.e., the home of Captain John Falconer on Broadway in Philipsburg. [36] Ms Davis remembered "the Duke de Luzerne" as "very polite, had a handsome person, wore moustaches, was liberal with money." Handsome, polite, liberal with money: these are all attributes fitting for Lauzun. But a mustache? Grenadiers and chasseurs wore them as signs of their elite status with a line regiment, and so did Lauzun's hussars. No portrait of a mustachioed duc, a highly unusual facial ornamentation in eighteenth-century America or France, has come to light, but other eyewitnesses confirm Mrs Davis. On 5 November 1845, William Griffen of Mamaroneck quoted Lauzun as saying 'The women of this country don't like my whiskers. I can't get along with them -- but I can't cut them off." [37]
John Tompkins of Greenburgh told McDonald how his father "Isaac Tompkins was a young married man in July and August 1781, when the French army encamped on our farm, and lived then in a log house, a little north of my grand-father’s John Tompkins. In that same month of July my mother had her first child. A French general (or officer) was about taking possession of our house for his quarters, but hearing of my mother’s situation relinquished his intention and erected his marquée near the rocks north of the house and very close to it. This officer was very kind to my mother during her confinement, frequently sending her presents of wines and other delicacies (Dumas? Lamothe? &c?). A French general (I don’t remember his name) – it might have been de Beville – took my grandfather’s house, which was a little southwest of my father’s, for his quarters and occupied it during the time they remained encamped at Greenburg. [38]
On both counts Tompkins' memory did not fail him. The "French general … at Gilbert Underhill’s about 400 yards south of our house," was de Beville, whose headquarters were located near the junction of present-day Central Park Avenue and Underhill Road. The officers who relinquished his father's house were most likely Charles de Lameth, who together with fellow assistant quarter masters general and aides-de-camp Mathieu Dumas and Alexandre Berthier had been assigned a house which they found too far away from that of their commanding officer de Beville. Instead they built themselves a marquee made of six soldier's tents complete with an English bulldog to warn them of approaching strangers. In their journals, Dumas, Berthier, and Lameth give detailed descriptions of the pastoral life, the "six weeks of perfect happiness," they led in the "marquee". Even General Washington came to visit. [39]
Following informal visits on the 7th, Washington reviewed the French forces on the 8th. "We hadn't had more than a day to repair the disorder of the march, but our troops nevertheless appeared in the grandest parade uniform. M. de Rochambeau took his place in front of the white flag of his oldest regiment and saluted General Washington. … Our general received the greatest compliments for the beauty of his troops. It is true that without doubt those that we have with us were superb at our departure from France." [40]
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The next day "all the American army presented arms; General Washington invited our headquarters staff to come to see it." Baron Closen was in for a surprise. "I had a chance to see the American army, man for man. It was really painful to see these brave men, almost naked with only some trousers and little linen jackets, most of them without stockings, but, would you believe it? Very cheerful and healthy in appearance. A quarter of them were negroes, merry, confident, and sturdy. … Three quarters of the Rhode Island regiment consists of negroes, and that regiment is the most neatly dressed, the best under arms, and the most precise in its maneuvres (sic)." [41] Clermont-Crèvecœur "went to the American camp, which contained approximately 4,000 men. In beholding this army I was struck, not by its smart appearance, but by its destitution: the men were without uniforms and covered with rags; most of them were barefoot. They were of all sizes, down to children who could not have been over fourteen. There were many negroes, mulattoes, etc. " [42] To Cromot du Bourg, the Continental Army seemed "to be in as good order as possible for an army composed of men without uniforms and with narrow resources." He too, like all observers, singled out the 1st Rhode Island Regiment for praise: "The Rhode Island Regiment, among others, is extremely fine," though it provided but a few hundred of the "great number of negroes in the army," whose strength he estimated at "four thousand and some hundred men at the most."
The comte de Lauberdière gave probably the most detailed observations. The whole army "consisted at most of 4000 men. We found them lined up in the order of battle in front of their camp. It was not a very pleasant sight not because of the attire and the uniform of the regiments, because at present, and ever since they have been in the war, they are pretty much naked. But I remember their great accomplishments and I can not see without a certain admiration that it was with these same men that General Washington had so gloriously defended his country. The officers were in the uniform of their regiment; they are armed and salute with the spontoon." What also bothered Lauberdière was that the Americans "lined up in the ranks according to seniority. This method infinitely hurts the eye and the beautiful appearance of the troops because it often places a tall man between two short ones and a short one between two tall ones." What a difference to the French line, which was "well lined up, of an equal height, well dressed."
Viewing the American camp, Lauberdière noticed how "The Americans are camped in the English manner in two parallel rows of tents, under arms they are aligned in two lines according to height. [43] When the weather is fine they stack their arms in front of their tents on an easel (or towel horse, a chevalet) and retrieve them at night or when it rains. This arrangement is subject to many inconveniences." Comparing equipment, Lauberdière noticed how "Our soldiers were overloaded and too warmly dressed for the summer. The Americans, on the contrary, have nothing but a kind of shirt or jacket and a big pair of trousers. Right now their coat is worn only at three-quarter length; they have no shoes. They trouble themselves little with provisions: actually they are given just a bit of corn meal of which each soldier makes his own bread. Each man is also provided a small woolen blanket which he always carries with him. This method is good in a country where the cold of the night follows quickly the searing heat. Since the havresack of the American soldier is not burdened any further this provides light and quick cover, something that we can not give our troops for fear of augmenting a load that is already too heavy." Abbé Robin too noted with surprise and approval the differences in French and American uniform and equipment. "Neither do these troops in general wear regular uniforms. … Several regiments have small white frocks, with fringes, which look well enough; also linen over-alls, large and full, which are very convenient in hot weather and do not at all hinder the free use of the limbs in marching. … This advantage in dress, I believe, has not been sufficiently considered in France. We are apt to consult the gratification of the eye too far, and forget that the troops were designed to act, and not merely to show themselves and their finery." [44] He was also "astonished to find, that their whole travelling equipage and furniture would not weigh forty pounds" as opposed to the almost 60 pounds plus musket carried by the French. [45]
"The regiments which should have been 600 men strong had barely 250. Many officers were also missing who had not yet rejoined since the army had marched and quit its (winter) quarters. Marriage is the normal condition (un état) in America; celibates are little esteemed here. Amost all the officers of the army are married and they often demand permission to return home. ... in that they differ much with our officers and even our soldiers." This often caused officers and men alike to request frequent home leaves and to return late, but Lauberdière thought that "In general our allies are slow (paresseux) and they don't incovenience themselves (gener)" more than absolutely necessary.
After the review Washington invited the French officers to his headquarters "where there is always a table set with glasses and many bottles, of wine, rum … (sic) for the refreshment of those who need it and of which there is always a great number. On meeting someone it is their custom to give each other the right hand and to shake it, and I have often admired the patience and goodness of General Washington who had the courtesy to do this all day long 80