The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 2 (of 2) / or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence

by Benson John Lossing

On the eighth of July he landed nine thousand men upon Staten Island, *** and there awaited the arrival of his brother, Admiral Howe, with English

* John Morin Scott was appointed to the command of the New York troops, with the commission of a brigadier.

** I was informed by the venerable Anna van Antwerp, * about a fortnight before her death, in the autumn of 1851, that Washington made his head-quarters, on first entering the city, at the spacious house (half of which is yet standing at 180 Pearl Street, opposite Cedar Street), delineated in the engraving. The large window, with an arch, toward the right, indicates the center of the original building. It is of brick, stuccoed, and roofed with tiles. There Washington remained until summoned to visit Congress at Philadelphia, toward the last of May. On his return, he went to the Kennedy House, No. 1 Broadway, where he remained until the evacuation in September.

*** The main body of Howe's troops landed near the present quarantine ground, and encamped upon the hills in the vicinity. The fleet had anchored off Vanderventer's point (the telegraph station at the Narrows), and three ships of war and some transports brought the English troops within the Narrows, to the landing-place.—(Howe's Dispatch to Lord George Germaine.) Howe made his head-quarters at the Rose and Crown Tavern, upon the road leading from Stapleton to Richmond, near New Dorp. The house is near the forks of the Richmond and Amboy roads, and overlooks the beautiful level country between it and the sea, two miles distant. It is now (1852) the property of Mr. Leonard Parkinson, of Old Town, Staten Island. The house was built by a Huguenot, one of the first settlers upon that part of the island. When Howe landed, the great body of the people on the island formed a corps of Loyalists, under Tryon, and some of them were in the battle near Brooklyn.

* Mrs. Van Antwerp left the city with her parents when the British took possession, and retired to Tappan, where she was married. They returned to the city after the war, and her husband purchased the lot No. 38 Maiden Lane, where she resided from that time until her death, a period of almost seventy years. Her style of living was that of the Revolution, and all the persuasions of her wealthy children could not lure her from that simplicity and the home of her early years of married life. She arose one morning, sat down by her table, leaned her head upon it, and expired like a waning ember, at the age of ninety-five years. Almost all of the few who knew her half a century ago, had forgotten her.

Plot to destroy Washington.—Declaration of Independence read to the Army.—Destruction of the King's Statue.

regulars and Hessian hirelings. These arrived in the course of a few days, and on the eleventh, Clinton and Parker, with their broken forces, joined them. Another debarkation took place on the twelfth, and there, upon the wooded heights of Staten Island, above Stapleton and Clifton, and upon the English transports, almost thirty thousand men stood ready to fall upon the republicans. * Already the Declaration of Independence had gone abroad; ** the statue of the king in New York had been pulled down, *** and brave men, pledged to the support of the Continental Congress and its measures, were piling fortifications upon every eligible point around the devoted city.

* A plot, originated by Tryon, to murder the American general officers on the arrival of the British, or at best to capture Washington and deliver him to Sir William Howe, was discovered at this time. It was arranged to blow up the magazine, secure the passes to the city, and at one blow deprive the Republicans of their leaders, and by massacre or capture annihilate the "rebel army." Mayor Hicks was one of the conspirators; and from his secure place on board the Duchess of Gordon, Tryon sent money freely to bribe Americans. Two of Washington's Guard were seduced, but the patriotism of a third was proof against their temptations, and he exposed the plot. Hicks, Gilbert Forbes (a gunsmith on Broadway), and about a dozen others, were immediately arrested, and sent prisoners to Connecticut. It was ascertained that about five hundred persons were concerned in the conspiracy. Thomas Hickey, one of the Guard, was hanged on the twenty-seventh of June, 1776. This was the first military execution In New York.—See Spark's Writings of Washington, iii., 438; Force's American Archives, vi., 1064; lb., i. (second series), 117; Game's New York Mercury.

** Washington received the Declaration of Independence on the ninth of July, with instructions to have it read to the army. He immediately issued an order for the several brigades, then in and near the city, to be drawn up at six o'clock that evening, to hear it read by their several commanders or their aids. The brigades were formed in hollow squares on their respective parades. The venerable Zachariah Greene (commonly known as "Parson Greene," the father-in-law of Mr. Thompson, historian of Long Island), yet (1852) living at Hempstead, at the age of ninety-three years, informed me that he belonged to the brigade, then encamped on the "Common," where the City Hall now stands. The hollow square was formed at about the spot where the Park Fountain now is. He says Washington was within the square, on horseback, and that the Declaration was read In a clear voice by one of his aids. When it was concluded, three hearty cheers were given. Holt's Journal for July 11, 1776, says, "In pursuance of the Declaration of Independence, a general jail delivery took place with respect to debtors." Ten days afterward, the people assembled at the City Hall, at the head of Broad Street, to hear the Declaration read. They then took the British arms from over the seat of justice in the court-room, also the arms wrought in stone in front of the building, and the picture of the king in the council chamber, and destroyed them, by fire, in the street. They also ordered the British arms in all the churches in the city to be destroyed. This order seems not to have been obeyed. Those in Trinity church were taken down and carried to New Brunswick by the Reverend Charles Inglis, at the close of the war, and now hang upon the walls of a Protestant Episcopal church in St. John's.