Posted on 02/19/2006 1:23:22 PM PST by Pharmboy
This spring, a forgotten battle will be remembered.
It happened in Fort Lee 225 years ago, in the final years of the Revolutionary War.
On one side: some 300 Bergen County militiamen, loyal to the rebel cause. On the other: 200 Americans still loyal to King George.
Behind the clash was a desperate shortage of firewood in British-controlled New York City after the harsh winters of 1779 and 1780. What is today Bergen County offered a plentiful supply of wood, and Britain's Loyal Refugee Volunteers wanted it.
The skirmishes between the two sides in May 1781 came to be known as the Battle of Fort Lee. At times, the fighting was fierce.
"The 1781 battle was the only true battle of Fort Lee," said Todd W. Braisted, past president of the Brigade of the American Revolution and the Bergen County Historical Society. "This was the only time when land units were engaged in battle at that spot.
"Those fighting on both sides were American. It truly was an all-American affair."
The rebels and loyalists battled for five days as the British loyalists tried to establish a base by building a blockhouse at the ruins of the rebel fort in Fort Lee.
"The Palisades have long been associated with the events of the Revolution in Bergen County, particularly the events that unfolded at the end of 1776," said Eric Nelsen, a historical interpreter for the New Jersey section of the Palisades Interstate Park. "But the story of the blockhouse [in 1781] is one that had sort of fallen through the cracks."
Soon, that will change.
The Battle of Fort Lee will be commemorated with living history demonstrations and lectures in Fort Lee Historic Park in May. At the helm of the effort are Braisted and John Muller -- the director of the Fort Lee Historic Park for the New Jersey section of the Palisades Interstate Park and an expert on the Revolution and the 18th century. Braisted is president of the 4th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, one of the reenactment groups taking part in the event.
Historians have turned to the accounts of the rebel militia and British sources for a written history of the Battle of Fort Lee, Braisted said. Members of the militia recorded their stories 50 years after the end of the Revolutionary War when they were applying for U.S. government pensions. British history and newspaper accounts provide additional accounts.
The Loyal Refugee Volunteers had a simple goal when they made their way north from what are now Bayonne and Guttenberg.
"The British needed a stable, local supply of wood and that was just across the river in Bergen County," Braisted said. "Ships were broken up for firewood and it was extremely difficult to get wood from Long Island."
The Loyal Refugee Volunteers began to build a blockhouse on the ruins of the rebel fort at Fort Lee that had been virtually abandoned since the November 1776 retreat by George Washington.
"The Loyal Refugee Volunteers were not members of the regular British Army," Braisted said. "Their job was to cut wood for the British, who would pay them for it. To supplement that wood income, they raided into the Bergen County countryside to take horses and cattle, which they then would sell."
In Washington's 1776 retreat, Nelsen said, the rebels "had to leave almost everything behind in Fort Lee, even blankets and tents."
In 1781, the British saw the fort's reoccupation by the Loyal Refugee Volunteers as advantageous.
"The ruins were still there and it was still a strategic point," Braisted said. "It had a ferry crossing and was adjacent to the English Neighborhood [Edgewater, Fort Lee, Leonia and Englewood] as well as Closter, Tenafly, and Teaneck."
Wood secured by the loyalists was to be shipped downriver to New York.
But the Loyal Refugee Volunteers didn't get the operation off the ground.
After clashes with the militia from May 14 to 18, they were ordered by superiors to leave the area.
They knew that more trouble was coming. Washington, based to the north, had been aware that the loyalists were attempting to establish the outpost. He ordered 400 Continental light infantry under Col. Alexander Scammell to cross the Hudson to Nyack and attack the loyalists.
The move, and the daily attacks by the Bergen militia, had prevented the loyalists from fortifying their position, leading British officers to rethink their strategy, Braisted said. Maj. Oliver DeLancey Jr., the adjutant general of the British Army in America, recommended the post's evacuation.
"Refugees attempting to build the blockhouse on the remains of the fort never mounted ... cannons although they may have had at least one with them," Braisted said.
Scammell's force of light infantry had not yet arrived on the scene when the loyalists departed.
"This averted what might have been an exceedingly severe contest," Braisted said. Documents show that "the militia credit themselves for driving the British away, when it was just a simple decision that the post was untenable," he said. "It was too far away to really be supported.
"It was the only time in the war ... that the whole Bergen County militia turned out as one," Braisted said.
The fighting took its toll on the militiamen. One wrote in his pension application years later of wounds across the head from a broad sword from a British dragoon. He also suffered a musket blow to the temple and a stab wound from a bayonet.
Another militiaman wrote of leg injuries he suffered when a musket ball passed through both his thighs. Those accounts have helped keep the memory of the battle alive.
"It's paper archaeology from the pension applications, the newspaper accounts, the correspondence of George Washington, and some British journals," Braisted said.
The British could not hold Philadelphia because once France entered the war they had to divert the shipping they were using to supply the Philadelphia garrison to the West Indies. I wondered, why couldn't they supply Philadelphia overland from New York through New Jersey which was supposedly Tory ?
Hell, if they couldn't even get firewood in Bergen County no wonder.
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Wow, Jersey was screwed up even then...
Of course, Fort Lee was the subject of a more peaceful conquest 200 years later by the forces of Synghman Ree. The best Korean barbecue is to be found in Fort Lee as a result.
On the negative, it is also home to MSNBC.
Another place where fighting was common during the war and was considered a bit of a no-man's land was Westchester County, NY. Here, the Tory fighters were called "Cowboys" since they rustled or bought cattle for the hungry Brits and Hessians in NYC.
LOL! As a strange coinkydink to your comment, I visited Korean-American friends yesterday (they recently moved closer to me from FORT LEE!) and my friend's mom made a great Korean lunch with three types of kimchi, barbecued beef, rice, squid and what they call tempura, but is not like the Japanese kind. What a treat...
I'm ashamed to say that I've never had Korean food. What is kimchi -- I've heard mixed reviews.
Kimchi is fermented vegetables. It is usually cabbage, but can be any number of other vegetables grown in Korea. It has a pungent, hot flavor and varies from cook to cook. As Clemenza was saying, Fort Lee is "Little Korea" and if you want to try it go to a restaurant in that town.
There's also a "little korea" over by Herald Sq. I go there sometimes to buy electronics cheap. Though usually when in the area, I'll hike up to 49th and B'way to eat Japanese at Sappora.
I find that the first two bites of kim chi vegetables, after a long abstinence, are delightful- the third is banal and I can't handle any further atempts at all.
LOL!! You are not alone among Americans...good description.
"As a matter of fact, there was a famous switch among a patriot militia group in Staten Island that turned Loyalist when the Brit fleet landed!"
And it was on Staten Island, Tory stronghold, that Admiral Lord Howe asked for a meeting with rebel emissaries in a last-minute effort to bring the colonies back into the fold and avoid war. This meeting was to be held at the manor house of Colonel Christopher Billopp, on the South Shore of Staten Island in an area now known as Tottenville.
Fearing a trick, but nonetheless intrigued, the invitation was accepted, and the rebel delegation consisted of 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin, New Englander John Adams and southerner Edmund Rutledge. Understand that all three men were considered to be traitors to the British Crown and could have been hanged on the spot.
In fact, during the course of the meeting, Howe guaranteed to Franklin that pardons could be arranged as part of any deal. Interestingly, he made the guarantee only to Franklin - the other two would have most assuredly been put to death.
Needless to say, the meeting ended with no compromise and no resolution, and the rest is, as we say, history. The Billopp manor is now known as the Conference House, on the grounds of Conference House Park.
By the way. The date of that famous meeting?
September 11th, 1776.
Indeed--thanks for adding this part of the Staten Island/RevWar story. I will someday visit that house--it's been on my list for a while.
Living History: A nest of Tories, Refugees, and British featuring an 18th Century Encampment at Fort Lee Historic Park
May 19, 20, 21
Free Admission, $5 parking per car
Info: 201-461-1776
http://www.njpalisades.org/pubinfo.htm
Thanks for posting...I will try and be there.
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