Loyalist Patrols.—The Delanceys and their Movements.
ments of the two armies were occupying their relative positions, many skirmishes took place, especially between the Americans and corps of Loyalists, formed under various leaders. The latter traversed Lower West Chester, annoyed the American outposts and patrols, and distressed the inhabitants. *
In the summer of 1777, Washington, believing the post at New York to be weak, because the main army of the British was in New Jersey and a large detachment was on
* One of the earliest, most influential, and efficient of the Loyalist leaders was Oliver Delancey, who, with his son Oliver, and nephew James, performed active service for the king in Lower West Chester. He was a brother of Chief Justice (also lieutenant governor) Delancey, and was a man of large property and great influence. He was a member of the King's Council before the Revolution; and at the beginning of hostilities, leaned rather to the popular side. Deprecating a separation from Britain, he espoused the royal cause after the Declaration of Independence went forth. He was commissioned a brigadier, and authorized to raise three battalions of Loyalists. This he finally effected. His son Oliver was commissioned a captain of horse in 1776; was present at the capture of General Woodhull; became major of the 17th regiment of dragoons; and, after Major Andre's death, was appointed adjutant general, with the commission of lieutenant colonel. At the close of the war General Delancey went to England, was elected a member of Parliament, and died at Beverly in 1785, at the age of sixty-eight years. His son Oliver accompanied him, and rose gradually to the rank of major general. At the time of his death he was almost at the head of the British army list. James, a nephew of General Delancey, commanded a battalion of horse in his uncle's brigade. Because of his activity in supplying the British army with cattle from the farms of West Chester, his troopers were called Cow-boys. Sir William Draper, "the conqueror of Manilla," married General Delancey's daughter. The Confiscation Act of the New York Legislature swept away the largest portion of the Delancey estate in America. *
* Many attempts were made to destroy or disperse the Delancey Loyalists. On the twenty-fifth of January. 1777, some Americans attacked a block-house, erected hy Delancey on the site of Mapes's Temperance House, at West Farms. Several of the guard were wounded, but none were killed or made prisoners. In the winter of 1779, Colonel Aaron Burr, with some Americans, attacked this block house to destroy it. Provided with hand grenades, combustibles, and short ladders, about forty volunteers approached cautiously, at two o'clock in the morning, and cast their missiles into the fort, through the port-holes. Soon the block house was on fire in several places, and the little garrison surrendered without firing a shot. A few escaped. A corp of Delancey's battalions occupied the house of Colonel Lewis G. Morris, at Morrisania, for a short time. They were attacked there on the fifth of August, 1779, by some of Weedon's and Moylan's horse, a detachment from Glover's brigade, and some militia. Fourteen Loyalists were made prisoners. These attacks becoming frequent, Delancey was compelled to make his head quarters at the house now owned by Mr. Samuel Archer, in the vicinity of the High Bridge, where he was under the guns of fort No. 8, one of the redoubts mentioned on page 825, cast up by the British to cover the landing of their troops on the morning of the attack upon Fort Washington.
* Near the entrance to Mr. Archer's mansion was a building wherein Colonel Hatfield had his quarters in January, 1780, when he was attacked by some levies and volunteers from Horseneck and Greenwich. The assault was made at one o'clock in the morning. Unable to dislodge the enemy, the assailants fired the house. Some escaped after leaping from the windows; the colonel and eleven others were made prisoners.
* In May, 1780, Captain Cushing, of the Massachusetts line, guided by Michael Dyckman, surprised Colonel James Delancey's corps near No. 8. He captured over forty of the corps; the colonel was absent. Cushing retreated, followed some distance by a large number of Yagers and others. In January, 1781, Lieutenant-colonel Isaac Hull (General Hull of the war of 181214), who was in command of a detachment of troops in advance of the American lines, successfully attacked Colonel Oliver Delancey at Morrisania, with three hundred and fifty men. Hull surrounded the Loyalists, forced a narrow passage to their camp, took more than fifty prisoners, cut away a bridge, burned several huts and a quantity of stores, and retreated to camp, closely pursued. A covering party, under Colonel Hazen, attacked the pursuers, and killed and captured about thirty-five more. Hull lost twenty-six men in killed and wounded. At sunrise on the fourth of March, 1782, Captain Hunneywell and a body of cavalry, having a covering party of infantry under Major Woodbridge, entered Delancey's camp at Morrisania, dispersed the Loyalists, and killed and wounded several. Others in the neighborhood were collected and pursued Hunneywell, when they fell into an ambush formed by Woodbridge, and were driven back. In this skirmish Abraham Dyckman was killed.
* At Jefferd's Neck, in the township of West Farms, Colonel Baremore, a notorious Tory marauder, was captured by Colonel Armand (see page 466) on the night of November 7th, 1779. Baremore was at "the Graham Mansion," which stood on the site of the house of William H. Leggett, Esq., and with five others was made a prisoner. The Graham family were dispossessed of their house, to make room for British officers. When Colonel Fowler, who last occupied it, was about to leave, it was fired, and consumed while that officer and his friends were eating dinner in a grove near by. That night Colonel Fowler was mortally wounded while leading a marauding party in East Chester. On another occasion, Armand marched down from Croton to the vicinity of Yonkers, below Cortlandt's house, made a furious charge, with his cavalry, upon a camp of Yagers, and captured or killed almost the whole party.
* The ancestor of the American Delanceys (De Lanci) was Etienne, or Stephen, a Huguenot, who came to New York in 1681. He was descended from a noble French family, known in history in the sixteenth century. He married Ann Van Cortlandt, and became active in public affairs. The chief justice and the general were his sons. Another son, James, married a daughter of Caleb Heathcote, lord of the Manor of Scarsdale. James's third son was the father of William Heathcote Delancey, D.D., the present Protestant bishop of the diocese of Western New York. The seat of General Oliver Delancey was upon the Bronx, opposite the village of West Farms, three miles from the mouth of that stream. There he had extensive mills, which are now the property of Mr. Philip M. Lydig. The old mansion, where British officers were so often entertained, was destroyed by fire several years ago. He owned another residence at Blooming-dale, on York Island, which was burned on the night of the twenty-fifth of November, 1777. It is supposed to have been fired by some daring Whigs, in retaliation for the burning of some houses in the vicinity of Yonkers, by the Tories.
Operations near King's Bridge.—Valentine's Hill and its Associations.