The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn Part 50

VAN WAGENEN, LIEUTENANT GERRIT H.--Son of Huybert Van Wagenen and Angenietje Vredenburg, was born in New York at No. 5 Beekman Slip (now Fulton Street), 1753, January 21st. He went to Canada in August, 1775, as second lieutenant in the Eighth Company of the First Regiment of New York State troops under Colonel McDougall. Was at the storming of Quebec, in the columns of General Montgomery. In May, 1776, he was sent to New York, and then to Philadelphia, in charge of some prisoners. On returning to New York and finding that the British were landing on Long Island, he offered his services to General Sullivan, and was sent by him with four other officers to the Jamaica Pa.s.s, as described in the chapter on the battle. The party were all taken prisoners, and he continued a prisoner twenty-two months, when he was exchanged. He then received an appointment in the Commissary of Prisoners Department, and continued in that office about three years.

(For a full account of his services, see the "Gen. and Biog. Record,"

vol. viii., page 44). In 1783, March 11th, he married Sarah, daughter of Derrick Brinckerhoff and Rachel Van Ranst. He now engaged in the hardware business with his father at No. 5 Beekman Slip, where the business had been carried on by his father since about 1760. The volume ent.i.tled "New York during the Revolution" says, under date of 1767, "In Beekman Slip, near Queen Street, was the extensive hardware store of Huybert Van Wagenen, whose sign of the golden broad axe was so often referred to in the annals of the period." He lived at Beekman Slip till 1811, when he removed to 69 Gold Street, near Beekman, and in 1821 removed with his family to Oxford, Chenango County, where he died, 1835, November 20th.

WEBB, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL S.B.--Born in Wethersfield, Conn., December, 1753. He went to Boston on the Lexington alarm, and was at Bunker Hill as Captain Chester's lieutenant. He became aid to General Putnam and then to Washington in 1776. In 1777 he raised a Continental regiment in Connecticut, and served as its colonel to the end of the war, though for two years he was a prisoner on parole. His lieutenant-colonel was Ebenezer Huntington, and major, John P. Wyllys, both young officers in this campaign. Colonel Webb resided in New York until 1789, and then removed to Claverack, where he died December 3d, 1807.

WOODHULL, GENERAL.--There is a good sketch of General Woodhull in "Thompson's History of Long Island," vol. ii. In regard to his capture, Lieutenant Jabez Fitch, of Huntington's regiment, says in his narrative: "On ye 6th [of Sept.] Genll Woodhull, of ye Long Island malitia, was sent from ye Mentor to ye Hospital at Newatrect [New Utrecht]; he was an aged Gentleman, & was taken by a party of ye Enemy's light Horse at Jameca, & altho he was not taken in arms, yet those Bloodthirsty Savages cut & wounded him in ye head & other parts of ye body, with their Swords, in a most Inhuman manner of which wounds he Died at ye Hospital; and altho ye Director of their affairs took but little care to preserve his Life yet they were so generous to his Lady, as to endulge her with liberty to carry home ye General's corpse and bury it with Deacence."

THE MAPS.

PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND AND THE BROOKLYN DEFENCES.

The outlines and topography of this "Plan" have been compiled from Ratzer's and United States Coast Survey maps. Bernard Ratzer was a British Engineer, ranking as lieutenant in the Sixtieth Royal American Regiment of Foot in 1756. In 1767-8, he made an official survey of New York and part of Long Island with many details, the accuracy of which is beyond question. There is an advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Connecticut Gazette_ for October 25th, 1776, in which Samuel Loudon (late printer and bookseller in New York, but now in Norwich) offers for sale "Ratzer's elegant map of New York and its Invirons from Actual Surveys, showing the present unhappy seat of War." This survey on Long Island extends nearly to the line of the hills. All beyond is reproduced from maps of the coast survey, farm lines, and Brooklyn maps. The whole represents the ground almost exactly as it lay in 1776. One correction should be made at the Jamaica Pa.s.s. The name belongs to the dotted roundabout line which represents the original pa.s.s, the straight road having been cut afterwards.

THE STILES SKETCH OF THE BROOKLYN WORKS.

Now published for the first time, and quite important as confirming the Hessian map in vol. ii. of the Society's "Memoirs." The fortifications at Red Hook are undoubtedly exactly reproduced. Taken in connection with General Greene's orders, the sketch is valuable, enabling us to locate the works. The drawing, of course, is not precise, but the names and relative positions are enough as long as we have Ratzer to follow in the matter of outline and topography. The writer is indebted to the librarians of Yale College, Profs. Van Name and Dexter, for the favor of tracing the sketch from the original.

EWING'S DRAUGHT.

This is a one-half reduction from the original in the possession of Mr. Stauffler, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who has kindly furnished the writer with a tracing. It was drawn by John Ewing, Colonel Hand's brother-in-law, but in topography is far out the way. It contains, however, several important items in the references, which are noticed in the text.

MAP OF NEW YORK CITY AND OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, WITH THE AMERICAN DEFENCES IN 1776.

So far as known, no contemporary map exists showing the whole of Manhattan Island, except the very small and inaccurate sketches in Stedman, Sparks, and some other works. The one presented in this volume is believed to be the first to give the entire island, with its roads, settlements, and topographical features, as it lay in 1776. In the compilation, Ratzer and Montressor have been followed as far as they go--namely, from the Battery to about Fiftieth Street. From this point to King's Bridge the map of the commissioners who first laid out the island into streets in 1814 has been adopted. This is official, and gives the old roads as they existed during the Revolution. The Bloomingdale and King's Bridge roads are laid down in the present map as the commissioners have them, the surveys being made by Randall. The fortifications at Harlem Heights are from Sauthier's English map as given in New York Hist. MS. and Stedman.

FIELD OF THE HARLEM HEIGHTS AFFAIR.

Reference has been made to the topography of this battle-field in a note in Chapter VI. The outlines are taken from Randall's city map, and the ground has been frequently visited by the writer. Point of Rocks has been partly cut away, but the main features in the vicinity remain.

NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN WITH THEIR ENVIRONS IN 1776.

In this outline map, a bird's-eye view is presented of the entire position in this vicinity. Details will be found in the larger maps.

Care has been taken to give the outlines, roads, and relative distances with accuracy. The plan is a photographic reduction of Ratzer's, Randall's, and Coast Survey charts.

THE PORTRAITS.

[The portraits are those of representative officers--men who rendered good service, not only during the campaign, but, in the case of three of them, during the war. Lasher's and Hand's have never been published; and the other two are not found in any general work. They are given here (two of them, at least) as contributions to the list of Revolutionary portraits. All have been specially photographed and transferred to steel by Mr. Egloffstein's process, for the present volume.]

COLONEL LASHER'S portrait is enlarged from a finely-painted and well-preserved miniature in the possession of Mrs. Kernochan, of New York.

COLONEL HAND'S portrait is in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. S.B. Rogers, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

COLONEL GLOVER'S portrait appeared first in the publications of the Ess.e.x Inst.i.tute at Salem, Ma.s.sachusetts.

COLONEL HUNTINGTON'S portrait appears in the Huntington family _Memoir_. The original is a miniature by Trumbull, in possession of General Huntington's descendants at Norwich.