THE MILITARY HUT-CAMP OF THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION ON THE DYCKMAN FARM MANHATTAN Explored by the Members of the Committee on Field Exploration of III Some of the officers quartered in the Camp apparently found its crowded area unpleasantly cramped, and established themselves in the woods near by. This was indicated by the discovery of a hut-site among the trees on the hillside, south of the Camp, near the Bolton Road. The hut or shack had been erected on a large flat rock, and the rubbish of its occupants had been carelessly pitched over the edge and was found crowded into the crevices of the stony foreground. It included some Canton porcelain of interesting pattern, and some salt-glazed table-ware of English manufacture. One octagonal "Willow pattern" plate was pieced together nearly complete. The usual military debris included a small solid-shot, cutlery, buckles, glassware, and a pair of ice-creepers. These "creepers proved later to be quite a common feature of the life in this camp, for they have been found in almost every hut-site, and sometimes in such quantities as to indicate the number of occupants of the hut. A comparison of the specimens discloses considerable variety in their dimensions and they were evidently made to suit the size of the shoe, or rather, of its instep, the wider sizes probably suited to the clumsy boots of the Hessian soldiery, and the smallest the shoe of the daintiest among the officers. The smallest are 234 inches wide between the eyelets, and the plate is less than an inch across and of a thickness of only 3-32nds of an inch, while the largest run to 31⁄2 inches by 15-16, and are nearly 3-16 of an inch thick. Returning to the line of hut-sites, Number Five, situated alongside Prescott Avenue, proved of considerable interest. On its blackened sand floor a garment had been left, probably a vest, of which some carbonized fragments still maintained the texture of the weave of the cloth, and a piece of the silver braid with which it had been bound. Seven small silver buttons of the Seventeenth Foot Regiment had once fastened the vest, and hard by was a pair of tailor's scissors, a thimble, and a brass pin. It may be reasonably assumed that the hut was occupied by some regimental tailor, doing mending work for a commissioned officer, when the call for abandonment came, or the hut took fire. The hut-site next the Tailor's, or Number Six of our series, proved more prolific than usual, for it proved to be an abandoned hut which had been used as a receptacle for camp rubbish from the surrounding huts. A mass of ashes, bones and charcoal contained ironwork of all kinds, many barrel hoops, pot hooks and nails, with a number of ice-creepers, a skate, and an iron pail. The latter had once contained a quantity of white clay, possibly that substitute for pipe-clay to which von Krafft refers in April, 1781, as having been brought from Newtown, Long Island, "for whitening" the soldiers' accoutrements. The china and glass ware was of unusual variety, and indicated the wastage of officers' quarters. A whole bottle, and a complete salt-glazed tea cup rewarded the enthusiasts in ceramics. The distinctive finds, however, were of a purely military character. Numerous pewter buttons of the Tenth, Fourteenth, Seventeenth, Fifty-fourth and Seventy-first regiments, combined with a copper coin of George III, of the year 1776, to define the period of the deposit, and a specimen of the Twenty-eighth, and one of the U. S. A., added to its interest. A handsome silver shoe-buckle, a gold plated silver sleeve link, with four silver buttons of the Seventeenth, indicated the character of the command. The choicest object, however, was a complete bronze badge, bearing the royal initial, G. R. and Crown above, the eyelets of which were still attached to a fragment of the canvas pouch of which it had once formed a part. This object is 3 inches in height, of excellent design, and appears to have been an ornament of an officer's pouch attached to the sword-belt, and known as a "sabretache." The coin and buttons afford some information as to the period of the use of this part of the Camp. The Fourteenth regiment was in New York in 1776, but left for Europe in 1777, and must, therefore, have been at this spot the winter immediately succeeding the capture of the locality. The Tenth left New York for England in October, 1778, and the Twenty-eighth embarked for Barbadoes, November of the same year. The Seventeenth came to Inwood in 1778, and was captured in 1779. The seventh hut-site proved to have been dug on the same space once occupied by aboriginal residents. A large pocket of oyster shells had been disturbed, and on the re-filling of the space had been turned back into it, mingled with some military rubbish, such as window-glass, bricks, nails and broken bottles. In the Indian material there was found a fine spear-head of black chert, of excellent workmanship, which had thus run the gauntlet of discovery in its disturbance by the soldiers, only to be captured more than a century later by the persistent archeologist. On the floor of the hut was abundant ash in which was a deposit of seven buttons of the Seventeenth Foot. Near by was a whole rumbottle, and a small copper coin bearing traces of a German coat-ofarms, which had been pierced with a small square hole, and designed to be used as a pendant, perhaps by some Hessian soldier in remembrance of his lost home. The most interesting objects of the period were two bars of printers' type, one the letter "D," upper case, and one the letter "n," lower case; which, of course, led to the surmise as to the intermediate letters being "a" and "m." The use of printers' type in such a place may have been only for the practical purpose of melting down the material for re-use as bullets, but it may have been part of a military printing outfit, such as that described in the Records of Congress, under date of 28 November, 1781: "Resolved, that the Sec. of War take order for furnishing a Wagon with 4 horses and a driver for the purpose of transporting to the Southern Army a Printing press and necessary apparatus." This indicates that it was probably the practice to have a press in operation near a commanding officer's headquarters, to produce such material as orders and proclamations. It may be noted that in Fort Number Four, on Fordham Heights, there was found part of a printer's brass rule, and in two other huts on the Prescott Avenue site, other pieces of type were found intact. REGINALD PELHAM BOLTON, Secretary. NATHAN HALE. In the April, 1918 Bulletin, we published an article on the site of the execution of Captain Nathan Hale, the exact location of which has always been a matter of conjecture. In the neighborhood of the Dove Tavern, 66th Street and Third Avenue, is the generally accepted location where Captain Nathan Hale met his fate, and the following extract of a letter of a British Officer published in the "Kentish Gazette" for November 6-9, 1776, is another bit of historical evidence confirming the above location. The British Headquarters referred to below was in the Beekman House at Fifty-first Street near First Avenue. The letter is dated New York, September 26, 1776: "We hung up a rebel spy the other day, and some soldiers got out of a rebel gentleman's garden, a painted soldier on a board, and hung it along with the Rebel; and wrote upon it-General Washington-and I saw it yesterday beyond headquarters, by the road side." THE FIRST SAVINGS BANK IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. The earliest efforts to establish a savings bank in the City of New York began 1816 and after an unsuccessful attempt to secure a charter from the State of New York in 1817 the "Bank for Savings in the City of New York" was incorporated on March 26, 1819, just one hundred years ago. Associated with this Institution and one of its founders was John Pintard, the founder of The New York Historical Society. He became a Trustee of the Savings Bank in 1816 and President in 1828, serving in both capacities until 1841 when he resigned. The first meeting of the Directors after incorporation was on April 5, 1819, since which time the Bank for Savings has continued in its career of usefulness and now occupies the southwest corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-second Street. Among the Board of Officers are the following members of this Society, Mr. Adrian Iselin, Mr. Frederic W. Stevens, Mr. Lewis B. Gawtry and Mr. John Harper, the present Comptroller, who has served forty years with that Institution. |