The battle of the Swash and the capture of Canada

by Samuel Barton

These young men, desiring to go out of town in style, went to a fashionable undertaker's establishment, and hired his handsomest hearse and four of his best horses, and having fitted up a lot of seats on top of the hearse, and supplied themselves with two or three coaching horns, drove wildly up through Central Park to Yonkers, waking the echoes from one end of the route to the other, with the shrill notes of their horns, and attracting universal attention to this novel style of a four-in-hand drag.

Anything that had wheels to run on, and horses to draw it, was eagerly snapped up at the most exorbitant price. The hegira was something unprecedented, and almost incredible. It was estimated at the time, that not less than 500,000 persons left the city between the hours of noon and midnight, on that memorable sixteenth of May. Of course there was a vast amount of inconvenience and suffering involved in such a hasty invasion by such a horde of people, of a country totally unprepared to receive them; and thousands of cases of illness and death resulted from the exposures and discomforts to which the fugitives were subjected. It was also the occasion of many ludicrous and embarrassing incidents, which were fully described in the newspapers in the racy and sensational style so prevalent at that time.

I have ample material in the shape of extracts and clippings from those journals, to make a chapter which would be both thrilling and amusing to the reader. But I forego the introduction of such matter here, lest it should be deemed too trivial in its nature, to be incorporated into a sober and truthful historical work like this.

The exodus continued, but in diminishing proportions, throughout the two following days; until by noon of the 18th (the time fixed upon for the commencement of the bombardment) there remained probably less than 100,000 people in the two cities of New York and Brooklyn. Those who remained, were either unable from illness or some similar cause, to get away; or else they had determined, through curiosity or indifference to consequences, to remain and "see the thing through." But their members were so few, that they merely emphasized the magnitude of the exodus which had taken place.

Immediately upon the announcement of the intended bombardment, the Sub-Treasurer had telegraphed to Washington for instructions. There were in the Sub-Treasury vaults gold and silver coin and bullion, amounting to nearly $300,000,000. In case of the capture of the city, this would be at the mercy of the British; and as they had practically announced money to be their chief object in coming across the Atlantic, it was not at all probable that they would fail to snatch such a rich booty as this. What, therefore, was to be done? A Cabinet meeting decided to order the removal of this vast amount of treasure to a place of safety; and instructions to that effect were telegraphed to the Sub-Treasurer, who was also authorized to demand a suitable Military escort from the force of regulars, which had been hurriedly summoned to New York as soon as war was declared.

Accordingly, the Sub-Treasurer at once set about securing transportation for the gold and silver. The proportions were about one-third gold and two-thirds silver; and the total weight of the two metals was found to exceed 5,000 tons. It was found almost impossible to secure men and teams enough to transport this enormous amount of metal. The flight of the inhabitants had taken so many horses and trucks from the lower part of the city, that it was found necessary to telegraph to all neighboring places; and Newark, and Elizabeth and Staten Island, and the nearby portions of Westchester County, were scoured for horses or ox teams, or any thing that could draw a load of money. There were heavy trucks and brewery wagons in abundance, which had been deserted for lighter vehicles by their owners and drivers, so that the only imperative need was animal power to drag the loaded vehicles.

The supply of horses, mules, and oxen having been exhausted, it was necessary to fall back on men, and the strange spectacle was seen of a procession of heavily loaded trucks and beer wagons being dragged up Broadway from Wall Street to the Thirtieth Street freight station of the N.Y.C. and H.R.R.R., by long lines of men, pulling drag ropes, in the same manner as had formerly been the method of dragging fire engines and hook and ladder trucks to fires. A large number of freight trains were accumulated here by the railroad company, into which the gold and silver were stowed; and then, with a strong military guard on each car, the cars were made up into trains, and taken up the river to Albany.

A very large proportion of those who remained in the city, belonged to the idle and criminal classes, and this fact soon made itself apparent in the sudden breaking out of what might be called an epidemic or carnival of crime. Numerous incendiary fires occurred, and hundreds of residences, which had been abandoned by their owners and tenants in their mad flight, were broken into and rifled of their valuable contents, by troops of thieves and tramps, who seemed to rise out of the ground, as it were, by magic; and were so numerous and so bold, that they bid utter defiance to the over-worked police. During the days of the bombardment, these outcasts of society, would lounge around Central Park, out of reach of the exploding shells, which were creating such havoc in the lower portions of the city, and then at night-fall, when the fire from the fleet slackened, they would organize themselves into little supper parties, and deliberately break into any private residence whose imposing exterior happened to strike their fancy, and proceed to make themselves at home.

As long as the bombardment and the armistice lasted, the aristocratic regions of Fifth Avenue and Murray Hill, resounded nightly with the songs and shouts of these rough and drunken revellers of both sexes, who seemed never to tire of their unaccustomed surroundings, and exhibited the most remarkable diligence and perseverance in searching for mansions (as yet undisturbed) whose larders and wine-cellars were liberally stocked. These little parties were sometimes broken up by the police; but probably less than half of them were interrupted in this way; as they were so numerous in all parts of the city, and the police were so thoroughly over-worked and exhausted, that it was impossible for them to afford anything like adequate protection to the property of the absentees.