6

"The following is an extract from the general return of officers and privates surrendered prisoners of war, the 19th of October, 1781, to the allied army under command of General Washington, taken from the original muster rolls':

“Queen's Rangers-1 Lieut.-Colonel, 1 Major, 10 Captains, 15 Lieutenants, 11 cornets, 3 quartermasters, 2 surgeons, 24 sergeants, 5 trumpeters, 248 rank and file-total, 320.'"

It may be useless now to further recall the character and acts of Colonel Simcoe while serving his king on Staten Island. Let the century that has intervened soften our feelings toward a vanquished foe. When the war ended he was a prisoner and went directly to England where he became a member of Parliament, while holding a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in the regular army. When Canada was divided into two provinces, Simcoe was appointed Governor of Upper Canada. His headquarters were at York, now called Toronto. It seems that then his chief ambition was to increase the prejudice of the Canadians and Indians against the people of the United States, and the unpleasant, and frequently bitter, feeling existing in that province toward our people to-day, can be traced to the bigotry and vindictiveness of John Graves Simcoe. In 1796 he was appointed Governor of Saint Domingo, and in 1798 he was commissioned a Lieutenant General in the British army. He was sent to join Lord St. Vincent in the expedition to Portugal, and died a few moments after he landed.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SKINNER'S BRIGADE OF AMERICAN LOYALISTS.

S soon as General William Howe arrived at Staten Island, the first week in July, 1776, so pleased was he with his reception in the harbor of New York, that he wrote these words to the British government:

"I have great reason to expect an enormous body of the inhabitants to join the army from the provinces of York, the Jerseys and Connecticut, who, in this time of universal oppression, only wait for opportunities to give proofs of their loyalty and zeal for government. Sixty men came over two days ago with a few arms from the neighborhood of Shrewsbury, in Jersey, who were de

sirous to serve, and I understand there are five hundred more in that quarter ready to follow their example."

General Howe soon after this began to appoint recruiting officers in different parts of New Jersey, and to organize detachments of Provincials as fast as they presented themselves for service in the army. Mr. Cortlandt Skinner, whose devotion to the interests of the British King before the war had made him a prominent man in New Jersey, was selected as the proper officer to organize and to command the men who were anxious to enroll themselves under the standard of Great Britain.

He was commissioned at first a colonel, BRIGADIER-GEN. CORTLANDT SKINNER, and afterwards a brigadier-general,

with authority to raise five battalions to consist of two thousand and five hundred soldiers, "under command of gentlemen of the country nominated by himself."

General Skinner established his headquarters, while on Staten Island, in the old Kruzer house, now familiarly known as the Pelton house, at West New Brighton, and occupied by Mrs. General Dufié. The two families had long been on intimate terms, and the Kruzers were in consequence subjected to no hardships. Staten Island at once became the refuge for all tories of New York and New Jersey, as well as for deserters from the Continental army.

General Skinner himself seems to have been stationed on Staten Island and in New York City during most of the war, and it is very seldom that we meet him even with his soldiers in any other part of the contiguous country. We learn from General Howe's Narrative that at the beginning of the campaign of 1777 General Skinner had been able to recruit but five hundred and seventeen men of his complement; but in November, 1777, he had eight hundred and fifty-nine men on his brigade rolls, and in May, 1778, "after several months of active exertions," he had enlisted one thousand one hundred and one

men.

But at that time the nucleus for six battalions had been made and the officers commissioned. During that year five hundred and fifty additional volunteers, mostly from New Jersey, and a few native Staten Islanders, were enrolled for service, and afterward sent to Charleston, South Carolina. It is then apparent that General Skinner recruited about two-thirds of the quota first assigned to him. All of these soldiers immediately on enlistment were placed in active service, and they began to distinguish themselves at an early day in their great zeal to annoy, intimidate and injure their former patriot friends and neighbors.

In a letter written by General Howe to Lord George Germain, dated New York, December 20th, 1776, this remark is made: " I cannot close this letter without making mention of the good service rendered in the course of the campaign by Courtlandt Skinner, Esq., Attorney-General in the Jerseys, who has been indefatigable and of infinite service since the army entered those provinces. I therefore humbly recommend him as a gentleman meriting royal favour." Thus early was General Skinner showing his devotion to the King. This was just after Washington's retreat through New Jersey, and General Skinner was urging his own friends to take protection from the British.

In Brasher's Journal, February, 1777, appears the following new catechism:

"Q. Who is the most ungrateful man in the world?

"A. Governor Skinner.

"Q. Why do you call him Governor?

"A. Because when Lord and General Howe thought that they had conquered the Jerseys they appointed him Lieutenant Governor of that State. Skinner assumed that title over one-tenth part of said State and continued his usurpation for six weeks, five days. thirty-six minutes, ten seconds and thirty-one hundreth parts of a second and was then deposed.

"Q. Why is he called ungrateful?

"A. Because he had joined the enemies of his country and enlisted men to fight against his neighbors, his friends and his kinsfolk; because he had endeavored to transfer the soil that gave him bread from the rightful possessors to a foreign hand; and because, to gain

present ease and transitory honours, he would fasten the chains of slavery on three millions of people and their offspring forever."

The answers to these questions clearly show the opinion which patriotic people held of General Skinner and of the efforts which he had already made to restore them to their allegiance to England.

In Rivington's Army List of 1778, we find the first complete roster of the officers of the six battalions of Skinner's Brigade. This probably shows the state of the organization in the early part of the summer of that year. The compilation has been carefully made, the spelling of the names corrected, and it is now set forth in proper official style:

Brigadier-General, Cortlandt Skinner; Chaplain, Edward Winslow. FIRST BATTALION.-Lieutenant-Colonel, Elisha Lawrence; Major, Thomas Leonard; Adjutant, Patrick Henry; Quartermaster, James Nelson; Surgeon, William Peterson; Captains, John Barbarie, John Longstreet, Garret Keating and Richard Cayford; Captain-Lieutenant, James Nelson; Lieutenants, John Taylor, Thomas Oakason, Samuel Leonard, John Throckmorton, John Monro, Patrick Henry and Robert Peterson; Ensigns, John Robbins, John Thompson, Richard Lippincott, William Lawrence and Hector McLean.

SECOND BATTALION.-Lieutenant-Colonel, John Morris; First Major, John Antill; Second Major, John Colden; Adjutant, Thomas T. Pritchard; Quartermaster, Thomas Morrison; Surgeon, Charles Earle; Surgeon's mate, James Boggs; Chaplain, John Rowland; Captains, Donald Campbell, George Stanforth, Waldron Bleau, Norman McLeod, Cornelius McLeod and Uriah McLeod; Lieutenants, John De Monzes, Thomas T. Pritchard, William Van Dumont, Josiah Parker and William Stevenson; Ensigns, William K. Hurlet and Thomas Morrison.

THIRD BATTALION.1-First Major, Robert Drummond; Second Major, Philip Van Cortlandt; Adjutant, John Jenkins; Quartermaster, John Falker; Surgeon, Henry Dongan; Captains, John Hatfield, Samuel Hudnut and David Alston; Captain-Lieutenant, John Alston; Lieutenants, Anthony Hollinshead, John Jenkins, John Troup, William Chew, and Francis Frazer; Ensigns, James Brasier Le Grange, John Camp, John Willis and Jonathan Alston.

FOURTH BATTALION.-Lieutenant-Colonel, Abraham Van Buskirk; First Major, Daniel Isaac Browne; Second Major, Robert Timpany; Adjutar.c, Arthur Maddox; Quartermaster, William Sorrell; Surgeon, John Hammell; Captains, William Van Allen, Samuel Heyden, Peter Ruttan, Patrick Campbell, Daniel Bessonet, Samuel Ryerson and Arthur Maddox; Lieutenants, Edward Earle, Martin Ryerson, John Van Buskirk, Michael Smith, James Servanier, Donald McPherson

1 The Third Battalion had no lieutenantcolonel at first, when it was commanded by Major Drummond. Shortly afterward, however, Edward Vaughan Dongan, formerly of

Staten Island, was appointed lieutenant-colonel to command it, and he continued to serve as such until his death in 1778.

and John Hyslop; Ensigns, John Simonson, James Cole, Justus Earle, John Van Norden, Colin McVane and George Ryerson.

FIFTH BATTALION.-Lieutenant-Colonel, Joseph Barton; Major, Thomas Millidge; Adjutant, Isaac Hedden; Quartermaster, Fleming Colgan; Surgeon, Uzal Johnson; Surgeon's mate, Stephen Millidge; Captains, Joseph Crowell, James Shaw, Benjamin Barton and John Williams; Lieutenants, John Cougle, Isaac Hedden, Joseph Waller, William Hutchinson, Christopher Insley, Daniel Shannon and John Reid; Ensigns, Patrick Haggerty, Ezekiel Dennis, Peter Anderson and Joseph Bean.

SIXTH BATTALION.-Lieutenant-Colonel, Isaac Allen; Major, Richard V. Stockton; Captains, Joseph Lee, Peter Campbell and Charles Harrison; Lieutenants, John Vought, John Hatton and Edward Steele; Ensigns, Daniel Grandin, Cornelius Thompson and James Service.

Some mention must be made of the skirmishes of detachments of the New Jersey Militia and of the Continental Line with "Skinner's Greens," as they were called, whenever those loyalists left Staten Island for a tour of plunder on the rich fields of New Jersey, and note must also be made of direct attacks on the tory forces on Staten Island, as well as a brief statement of the conduct of those loyal battalions in their campaign in the South.

On the morning of February 18th, 1777, Colonel John Neilson, of the Second Regiment, Middlesex county, New Jersey Militia, with a small detachment of his command, captured Major Richard V. Stockton, of the Sixth Battalion of Skinner's Brigade, with fifty-nine enlisted men, on Lawrence Island. Four men were killed in the skirmish, and their arms and camp equipage taken.

During the Spring and Summer of 1777, Skinner's Brigade made various excursions into New Jersey for forage for the British army. This became so annoying that Colonel Matthias Ogden, of the First Battalion, New Jersey Continental Line, then commanding the post at Elizabeth Town, with Colonel Elias Dayton, of the Third Battalion, who was stationed at Newark, and a party of one hundred militia from Essex County, determined to inflict some severe punishment on Skinner's tories. On the 22d of August they were re-inforced by a thousand men of the brigade of Brigadier-General William Smallwood, of Maryland, and of Brigadier-General Chevalier Proudhomme De Borro, and just before midnight they crossed from Halstead's Point, near the mouth of Morse's creek, to Staten Island. Skinner's Brigade was then stationed from Decker's Ferry [Port Richmond] to Billopp's, now Ward's Point.

The attack by the New Jersey Continentals, before daylight the next morning, resulted in capturing Lieutenant-Colonel Elisha Lawrence, of the First Battalion, and Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Barton, of the Fifth Battalion of Skinner's Brigade, with one hundred and