Colonel Henry Ludington: A Memoir

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

I do most solemnly swear by Almighty God Who Liveth forever and ever that I will well and Truly keep every matter and thing Committed to my Charge by Henry Ludington Esqr a profound secret, and that I will not Directly or indirectly either by words or actions signs or Tokens or by any other ways or means whatever disclose or divulge the same to any manner of Person or Persons whatever.

Benajah Tubbs.

Sworn before me Feb. 23, 1777.

Benajah Tubbs was a well-approved military comrade of Colonel Ludington’s, as appears from the records. In the Correspondence of the Provincial Congress of New York there appears a communication from the Dutchess County Committee of Safety, under date of January 3, 1776, recommending Benajah Tubbs to be adjutant of “the regiment of militia lately commanded by Beverly Robinson, Esq.,” together with Henry Ludington as 2nd major and John Kaine as colonel. The extent of Tubbs’s services as a secret agent of the Revolutionary government does not appear, nor is it at this time possible to ascertain how many and what other men were selected by Colonel Ludington for such perilous errands. The career of Enoch Crosby is, however, a matter of specific and exact record. It is to be found related not only in the fascinating pages of Cooper, but also in various affidavits made by Crosby himself, and others who knew him, at the time of his application for a pension for his services. These papers, which have been transcribed from the originals by Mr. Patrick, are in chief as follows:

State of N. Y.
Co. Putnam. ss.

On this 15th day of October in the year 1832 personally appeared before the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery of the said County of Putnam, Enoch Crosby, of the town of South East in the Co. of Putnam and State of New York, aged 82 years, who being duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7, 1832:

That he entered the service of the U. S. under the following named officers and served as herein stated:

That in the month of April or the fore part of May, 1775, he enlisted in the town of Danbury in the State of Connecticut into Captain Noble Benedict’s Co. in Col. Waterbury’s Regt. of troops to defend the country for 8 mos service. The regiment met at Greenwich in Ct., staid there two or three months, then went to N. Y. under Genl. Wooster. Staid in N. Y. a few weeks. The Regt. was then carried to Albany in sloops & went directly to Half Moon, was there a few days. Went thence to Ticonderoga, where the batteauxs furnished which were to convey them further. Genl. Schuyler had the command of the Isle aux Nois, when Genl. S. being unwell, Genl. Montgomery had the command. The declarant went off to St. John which being by us at time besieged by the Americans in about 5 weeks surrendered and the fort was taken. The decl. then went to Montreal, that he came from there with Col. Waterbury’s regt to Albany, and having served the eight mos. was at that place (Albany) permitted to leave the regt. and return home, and that he had no written discharge. And this dec. further says that in the latter part of the mo. of Aug., 1776, he enlisted into the regt. commanded by Col. Swartwout in Fredericksburgh, now Kent, in the County of Putnam and started to join the army at Kingsbridge. The co. had left F. before declarant started & he started alone after his said enlistment & on his way at a place in Westchester Co. about 2 miles from Pine’s Bridge he fell in company with a stranger who accosted him & asked him if he was going down. Decl. replied he was. The stranger then asked if decl. was not afraid to venture alone, and said there were many rebels below and he would meet with difficulty in getting down. The decl. perceived from the observation of the stranger that he supposed the decl. intended to go to the British, and willing to encourage that misapprehension and turn it to the best advantage he asked if there was any mode which he the stranger could point out by which the decl. could get through safely. The stranger being satisfied the decl. was willing to join the British Army told him that there was a company raising in that county to join the British Army, that was nearly completed and in a few days would be ready to go down and that dec. had better join that co. and go down with them. The stranger finally gave to decl. his name, it was Bunker, and told the decl. where and shewed the house in which he lived and also told him that ⸺ Fowler was to be the Captain of the Co. then raising, and ⸺ Kipp Lieut. After having learned this much from Bunker the Decl. told him he was unwilling to wait until the Co. could be ready to march and would try and get through, and parted from him on his way down and continued until night, when he stopped at the house of a man who was called Esy Young, and put up there for the night. In the course of conversation with Esy Young in the evening decl. learned that he was a member of the Com. of Safety for the County of Westchester, and then communicated to him the information he had obtained from Mr. Bunker. Esy Young requested the decl. to accompany him the next morning to the White Plains in Westchester Co. as the Com. of Safety for the Co. were on that day to meet at the Court House in that place. The next morning the decl. in company with Esy Young went to the White Plains and found the Com. there sitting. After Esy Young had had an interview with the Com. the decl. was sent for and went before the Com. then sitting in the Court Room and there communicated the information he had obtained from Bunker. The Com. after learning the situation of decl. that he was a soldier enlisted in Col. Swartwout’s regiment and on his way to join it engaged to write to the Col. and explain why he did not join it, if he would consent to aid in the apprehension of the company then raising. It was by all thought best that he should not join the regiment but should act in a different character, as he could thus be more useful to his country. He was accordingly announced to Capt. Townsend, who was then at the White Plains commanding a company of Rangers, as a prisoner and the Captain was directed to keep him until further orders.

In the evening after he was placed as a prisoner by Capt. Townsend he made an excuse to go out and was accompanied by a soldier, over a fence into a piece of corn then nearly or quite full grown. As soon as he was out of sight of the soldier he made the best of his way from the soldier and when the soldier hailed him to return he was almost beyond hearing. An alarm gun was fired but decl. was far from danger. In the course of the night the decl. reached the house of the said Bunker, who got up and let him in. Decl. then related to Bunker the circumstances of his having been taken prisoner, of his going before the Com. at the Court House, of being put under the charge of Capt. Townsend, and of his escape; that he had concluded to avail himself of the protection of the Co. raising in his neighborhood to get down. The next morning Bunker went with decl. and introduced him as a good loyalist to several of the Co. Decl. remained some days with different individuals of the Co. and until it was about to go down, when the decl. went one night to the house of Esy Young to give information of the state and progress of the Co. The distance was four or five miles from Bunker’s. At the house of Esy Young decl. found Capt. Townsend with a great part of his Co., and after giving the information he returned to the neighborhood of Bunker, and that night decl. with a great part of the Co. which was proposing to go down were made prisoners. The next day all of them, about 30 in numbers, were marched to the White Plains and remained there several days, a part of the time locked up in jail with the other prisoners. The residue of the time he was with the Com. The prisoners were finally ordered to Fishkill in the Co. of Dutchess, where the State Convention was then sitting. The decl. went as a prisoner to Fishkill. Capt. Townsend with his Co. of Rangers took charge of the Co. at Fishkill. A Com. for Detecting Conspiracies was sitting, composed of John Jay, afterwards Gov. of N. Y., Zephaniah Platt, afterwards first Judge of Dutchess Co., Col. Duer of the Co. of Albany, and a Mr. Sackett. The decl. was called before that Com., who understood the character of the decl. and the nature of his services. This the Com. must have learned either from Capt. Townsend or from the Com. at White Plains. The decl. was examined under oath and his examination reduced to writing. The prisoners with decl. were kept whilst decl. remained at Fishkill in a building which had been occupied as a Hatter’s shop, and they were guarded by a Co. of Rangers commanded by Capt. Clark. The decl. remained about a week at Fishkill, when he was bailed by Jonathan Hopkins. This was done to cover the character in which the decl. acted. Before the decl. was bailed the Fishkill Com. had requested him to continue in this service, and on decl. mentioning the fact of his having enlisted in Col. Swartwout’s company and the necessity there was of his joining it, he was informed that he should be indemnified from that enlistment, that they would write to the Col. and inform him that decl. was in their service.