Reduced Fac-simile of Letter from Abraham Bancker to Col. Henry Ludington.
(Original in possession of Charles H. Luddington, New York City.)
The annals of the New York Convention, under date of July 20, 1776, relate that this letter was received, read, and filed, and that—
On reading the said letter from Colonel Ludenton, of Dutchess County, and considering the state of his Regiment at this critical time,
Resolved, That Commissions be issued to the two gentlemen therein named in said letter, and that 20 other Commissions be signed by the President and countersigned by one of the Secretaries and transmitted to Colonel Ludenton, to be filled up for the Captains and Subalterns of his Regiment when necessary, by the Precinct Committee and himself; that said Precinct Committee and Colonel Ludenton return to this Convention an exact list of the names, rank and dates of the Officers commissioned, which they shall fill up and deliver.
And Resolved, That the sending blank commissions to a Precinct Committee shall not from this instance be drawn into precedent.
In this fashion Colonel Ludington prepared for the stern activities before him. The “critical time” referred to in the resolutions of the Convention was indeed critical. New York was in imminent danger of being occupied by the British, and British warships were likely soon to ascend the Hudson River. John Jay was intrusted with the making of plans for the defense of the Hudson Highlands. On August 1, Jay, Duer, and others, were made a committee to draft a plan for a new government for the State of New York. The battle of Long Island was fought on August 27, and a little later the British were in full possession of New York and its environs. The Convention was driven to Harlem, to Kingsbridge, to Odell’s in Phillipse Manor, to Fishkill, to Poughkeepsie, and to Kingston. On October 20 the battle of Chatterton Hill was fought, at White Plains, in which Colonel Ludington’s regiment was engaged, and in which he himself served as one of Washington’s aides, and thus began his acquaintance with the commander-in-chief. When Washington’s army crossed the Hudson River, however, for the “devil’s dance across the Jerseys,” and the superb turning at bay at Trenton, the New York militia levies remained at home, where indeed they were sorely needed. The Tory element in Westchester and Dutchess counties had from the first been ominously strong. With the British victories in and around New York, and with the American Army in apparently hopeless rout and flight, they were emboldened to open hostility to the Patriot cause. A report to the Convention, or to the Committee of Safety, on September 4, made it appear that in the four counties of Dutchess, Westchester, Orange and Ulster there were only 3,100 armed and trustworthy militia, while there were 2,300 disaffected Tories and 2,300 slaves to be held in order. A month later the situation was much worse, and it was then that there was formed the committee already mentioned, “for inquiring into, detecting and defeating conspiracies against the liberties of America.” The war was now on, in earnest, and “malice domestic, foreign levy,” were both at once to be grappled with by the Patriot soldiers.