Posted on 11/02/2011 9:07:01 AM PDT by Pharmboy
NYC at the time of the RevWar...Jedediah was writing from King's Bridge, which was at the north end of the island (in today's Harlem) and was quite rural at the time.
The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list...
When the Continentals escaped NYC in the south and stayed in the northern part of the island, General Washington stayed at the Jumel Mansion which still stands today and you may visit. Worth a trip uptown to see where the General stood on the balcony as he watch NYC burn.
His appearance was striking and unmistakable making his presence noticed and remarked upon everywhere he went. .
Just a little remembrance of reading long ago.
He's convinced this was only possible if the evacuation was conducted along a nearly two-mile stretch of water front running from just down river from what became the navy yard to north of Red Hook. Earlier historians assumed a single embarkation point in the vicinity of Fulton Ferry.
Providence conspired with the colonials by means of a dense fog that hung over the East River the entire night.
Your remembrance is correct, kind sir. Hale was a teacher in CT, and was a well-known Patriot. When he went to Long Island to spy, he was dressed as laborer or farmer, and it was Robert Rogers of Rogers Rangers fame (French and Indian War) who spotted the buckled shoes he was wearing and figured he might have been a spy. Rangers was a Loyalist, obviously...also, plaque on 65th and Third Ave. in NYC near to where he was likely hung.
But, perhaps your historian was right...
Cool map. Was the Wall still there?
Notice the inlet which is today's Broad St. Today there remains a "Bridge St." which crosses Broad where a foot bridge over the inlet. Local Indians used to paddle up the inlet to trade with the Dutch...it was filled in about the same time the wall was removed.
He’s a self-taught guy. I think he leads tours occasionally in the neighborhood. The topography really doesn’t lend itself to the two-mile theory (e.g., steep bluffs along Brooklyn Heights, marshes in lots of places). I think it’s possible that separated units may have disembarked at different places commandeering boats where they found them.
Well, that certainly makes more sense. But, it was Glover's Marblehead Regiment (made up mostly of fishermen) who went back and forth across the North (East) River ferrying the Continentals to Manhattan. However, as you say, some probably did commandeer boats in Brooklyn.
Now that is really cool.
And Check this out - “Afbeeldinge van de Stade Amsterdam in Neuw Neederlande”
Grimm’s law run rampant - “Aufbuildung von Der Stadte Amsterdam in Neue Niederlaende”
“Map of the city Amsterdam in the New Netherlands.”
I never NY was once called Amsterdam.
The British were going to convey him elsewhere either for trial or incarceration when spectators immediately recognized him and called to him. He was hanged there and then as a spy... and without a trial.
BTW I am not a sir.
There are a few stories about Hale's capture, the one involving Rogers is often cited by historians, but I have seen others similar to what you relate. The following is from wiki:
An account of Nathan Hale's capture was written by Consider Tiffany, a Connecticut shopkeeper and Loyalist, and obtained by the Library of Congress. In Tiffany's account, Major Robert Rogers of the Queen's Rangers saw Hale in a tavern and recognized him despite his disguise. After luring Hale into betraying himself by pretending to be a patriot himself, Rogers and his Rangers apprehended Hale near Flushing Bay, in Queens, New York.[6] Another story was that his Loyalist cousin, Samuel Hale, was the one who revealed his true identity.
Isn’t that the truth? Reading first-hand accounts from the front and recent engagements brings it truly alive. There is a lot of intelligence in the letter that I imagine would have been very useful to the enemy if it had fallen into their hands. Were there any censors of letters during the Revolution?
The description of the British treatment of NYC citizens is awful — throwing people into the flames, binding their legs and cutting their throats. Were these true? Or the normal rumors of enemy brutality? I recall similar rumors spread after the battle at Concord and on the King’s Road retreat to Boston.
They may have been right, but we'll never know...Washington gave strict orders NOT to burn the city as they retreated north, but it was reported that he was happy it burned after all.
When Washington was inaugurated in 1789 in NYC, he could not go to Trinity afterwards to worship (it had not yet been rebuilt), but had to proceed a few blocks uptown to St Paul's Chapel. The same St. Paul's that served as a staging area during 9-11.
I grew up in upstate NY and we had to study NY State history to graduate from Jr. High School. I recall NYC being called Amsterdam by the Dutch, but I never heard the area called “New Netherlands” before.
Which part? My father is from Westerlo, and we own property in Herkimer.
The name is my awkward tanslation of the map.
“Die Niederlaende” is german for “the lowlands” - stand in Manhatton and look at the palisades, it makes sense.
This defined New Netherland in the early years. The Dutch displaced the Swedes (they had a fort there) in southern NJ in the 17th Century. Traces of Swedish settlements can still be found in the names of towns and streets in southern Jersey and in Delaware.
Utica, Whitesboro (Utica suburb), Ithaca and Fayetteville (Syracuse). I recall Dad had friends in Herkimer. I always that that was a mellifluous name for a town. We moved to Missouri for HS and I went to Mizzou, then headed west to CA where I’ve stayed ever since. I look back fondly on those years in NYS when it truly was the “Empire State.”
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