ANTHONY WALTON WHITE
[Concluded from January Number.]
At the end of the “Western Insurrection,” in 1794, General White issued the following address to the troops:
Bedford (Pa.), December 5, 1794.
The dismission and sudden departure of the Cavalry, by Troops, from Pittsburgh to their respective states and counties, prevented the General of Cavalry from conveying in Orders, at that place and period, the thanks and good wishes of the Commander-in-Chief, so handsomely and friendly expressed in the following extract from his Excellency’s last Orders, viz.: “To the Officers of every description he presents his warmest thanks, for the faithful and able support which he has derived from their exertion, in every stage of the execution of the objects intrusted to his direction; and he intrusts them to convey to his fellow-soldiers, in the most lively terms, his respectful attachment, and his best wishes for their safe return, and happy meeting with their friends.”
This praise, though flattering and justly due, cannot equal the self-approbation every good citizen must experience, who has taken so decided a part to check rebellion, restore order, and establish the best of Constitutions. The nature of Cavalry service directed the propriety of ordering a separation of the Brigade, after passing the mountains, and now affords the General an opportunity of congratulating those officers, who were favoured with separate commands, on the success attending the design of the separation; as it must be acknowledged, that the Brigade of Cavalry, with those three very respectable Troops from the city of Philadelphia, commanded by Captains Dunlap, Singer, and M’Connel, capturing in one day, and almost at the same hour, every Insurgent of the western counties of Pennsylvania, who had not previously fled from Justice, or signed a submission to the laws to which they had so basely encouraged an opposition. The complete execution of this enterprise expresses, in lively colours, the great address of the Cavalry Officers, and the military prowess of their respective Commands.
Deign, fellow-citizens and brother-soldiers, who have acted under the General’s Orders, to accept of his warmest thanks for the cheerfulness and promptitude you have shown in obeying and executing his Orders. The satisfaction he experienced in commanding you can never be erased from his mind. This became sometimes painful, by observing old military rank, gray hairs, wealth, and character, placed, by choice, in a subordinate situation, which unpleasant circumstance could only be removed by beholding, at the same time, such honourable evidence of this fact, that a true American will never embrace considerations of this kind, to shield him from dangers and hardships, when called to support the laws of his country, should they ever again be insulted or opposed by any men or set of men, wickedly combined for that purpose. Dictates of Justice direct the General of Cavalry to request Doctor Charles Smith, Brigade Surgeon; Major Carle, Inspector of the Brigade; Major Samuel Clarkson, Brigade-Quarter-Master, and Major John Striker, Brigade-Forage-Master, to accept his thanks, for the attention they have paid to their respective departments. Acknowledgements are also due from the General to Le Chevalier D’Auterroches, his Aid-de-Camp, and to Brigade-Major Dunham and Coejeman, for their faithful services. Colonels Hubley and Gibbons, who honoured the General with acting under his Orders as volunteer Brigade-Majors, will likewise please to accept his unfeigned thanks for the aid he received from them. Major James Dunham, who has the honour to bring up the rear of the Army, and is intrusted with the deposite of their victories, has fully merited that honour, by the great attention and humanity shown, by him, to those unfortunate prisoners under his immediate charge; which has been often noticed by the General, with the greatest satisfaction, during the march to this place; and speaks in strong language, the goodness of the Major’s heart. A continuation of the same attention, with every precaution for the safety of those unhappy instruments of designing men, is warmly recommended, till they shall be delivered up to the Marshal of the state of Pennsylvania. To every individual of the Cavalry, whom the General has had the honour to command, he now bids an affectionate farewell; and sincerely wishes them every domestic happiness.
Anthony W. White,
Brig. Gen. commanding the Cavalry
ordered on the western Expedition.
(FROM CONTEMPORARY PRINTS)
New Brunswick, Feb. 3, 1795.
On Monday, the 26th, seventy-five officers of the New Jersey cavalry, met in this city and dined together at the White Hall Tavern, His Excellency the Governor and suite honored them with their company at dinner, after which fifteen toasts were drank. The next day all the officers waited on General White, delivered the following address to him, and partook of a cold collation at his house.
Sir.
With unfeigned satisfaction, we embrace this occasion, the earliest we have been able to command, to make our warmest acknowledgements to you for the very polite and friendly sentiment conveyed to us in your last cavalry orders. This public testimony of your partiality to us and interest in our happiness, has been fully evinced in many trying circumstances. Raw and undisciplined as we were, to have met the approbation of one, so complete in military science, cannot but vastly enhance the pleasing sensations we derive, from having lent a willing aid in support of our happy constitution. If we have acted with a degree of reputation to ourselves; if we have rendered service to our country, to you sir, are we much indebted for both these advantages. Your activity, combined with an extensive knowledge of your important duties, have at all times been eminently conspicuous; your zeal for the public good, and an affectionate regard for the honor and happiness of the New Jersey cavalry, have been too well noticed and too sincerely approved, ever to be effaced from our remembrance. To see the man, who has spent years in a continued struggle for freedom, and bled in asserting our dearest rights, again at the call of his country, step forward with that ardent enthusiasm which true liberty ever inspires, did not fail to command our grateful admiration and render us emulous of such virtue. May that sacred flame of liberty which you have been so instrumental in lighting up and supporting, long burn bright in this new world and extend its genial influence from continent to continent, until tyranny shall disappear and the whole world would be emancipated.
Accept sir, our warmest approbation of your conduct and our sincere prayer that your life may be long continued, as useful to your country, an honor to the New Jersey Cavalry, and full of every comfort to yourself.
In behalf of the officers of the New Jersey Cavalry on the late expedition.
Benj. Williamson, Maj.
Com. 1st. Reg. Jersey Cavalry.
January 27, 1795.
To which the General replied: That the polite and affectionate address of his fellow citizens and brother soldiers, expressing their approbation of his conduct added to the heart felt satisfaction he had already experienced from his late honourable commands, claimed our warmest acknowledgements, and sincerely wish that they might enjoy every happiness and a tender of his friendship and services.
The officers spent several days together in that harmony and true friendship, to be expected only from men warmly interested in the good of their country, and the happiness of each other.
Judge Paterson, Major General Dayton and several gentlemen and officers of character and distinction, visited the social board of this patriotic band of citizen soldiers. We are told that they have appointed Major Williamson of Essex, Major Meeker of Bergen, Major Laddle of Morris, Major Baily of Sussex, Major Carle of Hunterdon, Major Quay of Monmouth, Major Dunham of Middlesex, Captain Vanderveer of Somerset, and Captains Wollcot and Shute of the Western counties, a committee to wait on the Legislature with a memorial, praying redress of certain grievances which the cavalry are subject to, from the present militia law, and that the same may be formed into regiments, we also hear that they have agreed to meet annually, at such time and place as their General may please to fix.
On Thursday last, Anthony Walton White, Esq., Adjutant-General of the Militia of New Jersey, accompanied by Generals Frelinghuysen and Bloomfield, and politely attended by the members of Congress from this State, waited upon the President of the United States, and, in behalf of the officers of the New Jersey Militia, presented the following address:
Sir.
The Commander-in-Chief, the General Officers, the General Staff and Field Officers of the Militia of the State of New Jersey, feel in common with their numerous fellow citizens who have addressed you in the present critical situation of our nation, and most cordially join them in expressing to you their high approbation of your conduct in the management of its foreign concerns, and their indignation for the insult offered to the honor and independence of the American people.
We come not, Sir, to dictate—whether peace can be preserved with the safety of our national dignity, or whether an appeal is to be made to arms, are questions intrusted to those in whose patriotism we confide, and according to their decision we shall always be prepared to act. But, Sir, at this eventful period, we deem it our duty, and feel it a pleasure, respectfully to approach our Commander-in-Chief, and to make him a solemn proffer of our lives and fortunes in the service of our country. It is not, Sir, for soldiers to boast; but we know the troops whom we have the honor to command; we have been eye witnesses to their zeal in the cause of freedom; we have been their companions in many toils and many sufferings, and if our beloved country calls, we shall again cast the eye of confidence along their embattled ranks.
Let our enemies flatter themselves that we are a divided people. In New Jersey, Sir, with the exception of a few degraded and a few deluded characters, to whose persons and to whose services the invading foe shall be welcome the moment of their arrival, and whom we engage to convey in safety to their lines—in New Jersey, Sir, there is but ONE VOICE, and that is the voice of confidence in the federal government: the voice of perfect satisfaction with your administration of it; and the voice of firmness and determination to support the laws and constitution, the honor and dignity of the United States; and, Sir, for the defence of these, we do this day, in the presence of the God of armies, and in firm reliance in his protection, solemnly pledge to you our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
COMMANDER IN CHIEF AND GENERAL STAFF OFFICERS
| Richard Howell, | Commander-in-Chief. |
| Anthony W. White, | Adjutant-General. |
| D. Woodruff, | Sec’ry to Commander-in-Chief. |
| R. Boggs, | Judge Advocate. |
| Aaron Ogden, | Aids to Commander-in-Chief. |
| J. Rhea, | |
| Mark Thompson, | |
| Aaron Dunham, | |
| B. Loyd, | |
| John Lacey, | |
| Wm. Wykoff, | |
| James F. Armstrong, | Chaplains to Commander-in-Chief. |
| John Croes, | |
| John Neilson, | Paymaster General. |
| James Schureman, | Quarter-Master Gen. |
| Thomas Lowry, | Commissary General. |
| N. Belleville, | Physician General. |
| Moses Scott, | Surgeon General. |
| Charles Smith, | Surgeon of Cavalry. |
MAJOR GENERALS
Elias Dayton,
Wm. Helmes,
F. Frelinghuysen,
Joseph Bloomfield.
BRIGADIER GENERALS
John N. Cumming,
Richard Dey,
John Doughty,
James Giles,
Elisha Lawrence,
John F. Morris,
Clarkson Edgar,
John Hilt,
Joseph Brearly,
Franklin Davenport,
John Heard,
A. V. Middlesworth,
Wm. Todd,
Clement Wood,
John Hardenburgh,
Wm. M’Kussack,
John Frelinghuysen,
Gershom Dunn,
Samuel Morford,
John Baird,
J. Veghte,
Andrew Lyle.
LIEUT. COLONELS
James Heddin,
Wm. Crane,
Jedediah Swan,
C. Ford,
Jacob Arnold,
Wm. W. Bell,
Thomas Blanch,
Nehemiah Wade,
Prudden Alling,
Samuel Quay,
Wessel T. Stout,
Barnes Smock,
James Green,
Elias Conover,
P. J. Stryker,
Henry Vanderveer,
James Henry,
E. Beatty,
Robert Ross,
Wm. M’Cullough,
Chs. Pemberton,
David Bishop,
David Schamp,
John Vancleve,
Jona. Black,
P. Hunt,
Thomas Heston,
Joshua L. Howell,
Daniel Benszett,
Dayton Newcomb,
Aula M’Calta,
Eli Elmer,
Joshua Sihnn,
I. Beekman,
Andrew Sinnickson,
Phinehas Carman,
Joseph Marsh,
Andrew M’Dowell,
C. Shipmons,
Thomas Paul,
Wm. Kolberdieu,
Wm. Gasill,
John M’Peck,
Richard Edsall,
Elias Ogden,
Solomon Broderick,
John Stevens,
John Stevenson,
Charles Reading,
Jona. Smith,
Jona. Porter,
Wm. Dumont,
Samuel Becks,
Robert Lucas,
Joseph M’Ilvaine,
Wm. Pearson,
John Lawrence,
Samuel I. Keer,
Wm. Dick,
John Forman,
Albemarle Collins,
Joel Gibbs,
Thomas Wilkins,
Samuel Flaninggam,
E. L. Whitclock,
Nathaniel Beach,
Matt Williamson, Jun.
Wm. Dayton,
Wm. Shute,
David Clark,
Nathan Ford.
MAJOR COMMANDANTS
Peter Keenon,
Ralph P. Lott,
James Dunham.
MAJORS
Cornelius Hoagland,
Benjamin Jackson,
James Craig,
Thomas Little,
Isaac Kip,
Jon. Vanbueren,
Samuel Reading,
Hiram Smith,
E. Vangelden,
James Conover,
James Cox,
Samuel P. Forman,
Gared Stillwell,
John Stillwell,
John Budd,
Wm. Colfax,
Abraham Pust,
Marmaduke Stokes,
John Tice,
James Williams,
Enoch Leeds,
Ephraim Buck,
Almerain Brooks,
Morris Beasley,
Jacob Hussy,
Robert G. Johnson,
Richard Fisher,
Wm. Gordon Forman,
J. H. Imlay.
To which the President returned the following:
ANSWER:
To the Commander-in-Chief, the General Officers, the General Staff and Field Officers of the State of New Jersey.
Gentlemen:
Among all the numerous addresses which have been presented to me, in the present critical situation of our nation, there has been none which has done me more honor, none animated with a more glowing love of our country, or expressive of sentiments more determined and magnanimous. The submission you avow to the civil authority, an indispensable principle in the character of warriors in a free government, at the same moment when you make a solemn proffer of your Lives and Fortunes in the service of your country, is highly honorable to your dispositions as Citizens and Soldiers, and proves you perfectly qualified for the duties of both characters. Officers and Soldiers of New Jersey have as little occasion as they have disposition to boast. Their country has long boasted of their ardent zeal in the cause of freedom and their invincible intrepidity in the day of battle.
Your voice of confidence and satisfaction, of firmness and determination to support the laws and Constitution of the United States, has a charm in it irresistible to the feelings of every American bosom; but, when in the presence of the God of armies, and in firm reliance on his protection, you solemnly pledge your lives and fortunes and sacred honor, you have recorded words which ought to be indelibly imprinted in the memory of every American youth.—With these sentiments in the hearts, and this language in the mouths of Americans in general, the greatest nation may menace at its pleasure, and the degraded and deluded characters may tremble lest they should be condemned to the severest punishment an American can suffer—that of being conveyed in safety within the lines of an invading enemy.
John Adams.
Philadelphia, May 31st, 1798.
A. S. Graham.
New Brunswick, N. J.
