Willis Fletcher Johnson

“ There was probably no region in which borderland friction was more severe and intrigues more sinister than that which lay between the British in New York City and the Americans at the Highlands of the Hudson, nor was there a highway of travel and communication more important than that which led from Hartford in Connecticut to Fishkill and West Point in New York. ”

“ The Border States in our Civil War were the deadliest battle-grounds, not only the meeting-places of the contending armies but also the scene of innumerable local feuds and conflicts between the inhabitants, half of whom inclined to one side and half to the other. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Among his associates in the army there is but one sentiment—that of regret for his loss and admiration for his professional and private character, and love for his estimable qualities. His associates in the army are not the only sufferers; but many and many in various parts of the land have lost a warm and true friend, and the country has lost an honest man and a Christian soldier.... ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the French and Indian War the Colonial troops were paid for their services by the various Colonial governments, which latter were afterward reimbursed for such expenditures by the British Government. It was, however, with a view to compelling the Colonies to bear the cost of the war, by levying taxes upon them at the will of Parliament, that the [33] British Government entered upon the fatal policy which a few years later cost it the major part of its American possessions. Because of that change of government, no pension system was ever created for the veterans of that war. ”

“ Nevertheless, antagonism between the two parties became as bitter as ever it was between Roundhead and Cavalier in Stuart days; and while in some respects Boston and Philadelphia figured more conspicuously in the pre-revolutionary agitation and operations than did New York, there was probably no place in all the Colonies where the people were more evenly and generally divided between the two parties, or where passions rose higher or were more strongly maintained, than in and about the last-named city. ”

“ The first clash of arms after the Declaration of Independence occurred on the shores of New York Bay. The retirement of the American Army, after unsuccessful engagements, from Long Island, and then from Manhattan Island, brought the theater of war closer and closer to Dutchess County, and made the active participation of the militia more imminent. Indeed, even before those operations, the militia was called out to assist in securing the passes of the Hudson Highlands, and thus preventing any communication between the British at New York and those in Canada and the North Woods. ”

“ George Clinton suffered heavy losses in troops, and narrowly escaped capture; the State capital, Kingston, was exposed to the enemy’s advance; and Putnam retired to the mountains, sending word to Gates that he must prepare for the worst as he could not prevent the enemy from advancing up the river to the aid of Burgoyne. “The enemy can go to Albany with great expedition and without any opposition.” In the presence of this disaster two things were uncommonly fortunate for the American cause. ”

“ Whereas, The late destruction of the town of Kingston, and a vast number of dwelling houses, improvements, grain and fodder on either side of Hudson’s River, by a cruel, inhuman and merciless enemy, has deprived many persons and families, the good subjects of the State, of shelter and subsistence for themselves and their cattle—calamities which by the blessing of God on the fruits of this land those who have not shared in so uncommon a misfortune are enabled in a great measure to relieve ”

“ Ludington remained at Peekskill, where there presently was a prospect of strenuous work. For having, as they imagined, put Washington to hopeless flight in New Jersey, the British turned a part of their attention to the very thing to which their chief attention should at the outset have been given. Plans were made for an advance up the Hudson, by land and water. West Point was to be avoided by marching up the east shore, where the defenses were not so strong. Such a movement must, of course, be resisted at all hazards. ”

“ Every county, city, manor, town, precinct, and district within the colony was to be divided by a local committee into districts or beats, in such a manner that in each beat might be formed one military company, ordinarily to consist of eighty-three able-bodied men and officers, between the ages of sixteen and fifty—afterward sixty—years. Not less than five nor more than ten such companies were to form a regiment, and the regiments were to be organized into brigades. One brigade was to be formed of the militia of Dutchess and Westchester counties, commanded by a brigadier-general. ”

“ Colonel Ludington was to find some one to serve as a spy in New York, and he was to do it with such prudence and tact that nobody but himself would seem responsible for the negotiations until they had proceeded far enough to give assurance of the fitness and trustworthiness of the man selected for the work. ”

“ The local needs of Dutchess County were not, however, to be overlooked. A committee of the New [73] York Congress on June 20 reported that there were many disaffected and dangerous persons in Dutchess and Westchester counties, who greatly disturbed the peace, and who would probably take up arms whenever the enemy should make a descent upon that region, and that the requisitions of troops made by the Continental Congress had left the militia incapable of keeping peace and order “without great inconvenience to themselves and much injury to and neglect of their private property.” ”

“ For nearly twenty years Lewis Ludington was the head of the firm of Ludington & Co., which was one of the foremost in Milwaukee, and which conducted what was for those days a business of great magnitude. The firm also had lumber mills at Oconto and docks at Milwaukee. About 1843, Lewis Ludington bought a tract of land in Columbia County, Wisconsin, and in July of the following year laid out thereon the city of Columbus. For many years he personally [226] directed and encouraged the development of the new community, which grew to be a city of considerable population and wealth. ”

“ Each company was permitted to elect its own officers; the companies were to be formed into regiments or battalions, officered with a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, two majors, an adjutant or quartermaster. All officers above the rank of captain were to be appointed by the respective Provincial Assemblies, or Conventions, or by the Committees of Safety.
One fourth part of the militia in every county was to consist of minute men, who were ordered “to be ready on the shortest Notice to march to any Place where their Assistance may be required for the Defence of their own or a neighboring Colony.” ”

“ William Johnson, who, with a Colonial army and numerous Indian allies under the famous Mohawk chieftain Hendrick, was moving to meet the French at Lake George. The march from New Haven was made by way of Amenia and Dover, in Dutchess County, New York, to the Hudson River, and thence northward to the “dark and bloody ground” of the North Woods. Young Ludington was of a lively and venturesome disposition and, as family traditions show, had a propensity to practical joking which more than once put him in peril of not undeserved punishment, which, however, he managed to avoid. ”

“ On November 6, the British began their fatuous movement toward New Jersey, imagining that the American Congress at Philadelphia, rather than the American Army and fortresses along the Hudson, was the strategical objective. The American Council of War unanimously agreed that Washington’s army should thereupon cross into New Jersey, anticipating the British advance, while three thousand troops, including Colonel Ludington’s Dutchess County militia, should be sent to reinforce the defenses of the Highlands. ”

“ It was one of the most brutal and disgraceful performances of British arms in all the war, and was unhesitatingly denounced as such by self-respecting British officers. It does not appear that the raid had any other object than the destruction [89] of Danbury, or the stores at that place, for as soon as the soldiers could be sufficiently sobered up thereafter, a retreat toward the British shipping on the Sound was begun. But on the American side the incident gave occasion for one of the most thrilling and gallant exploits of the war. ”

“ In the work of enlisting and organizing these militia levies the most efficient men were naturally those who had already had military experience and command as officers in some of the colonial wars. Henry Ludington was among these. He had had such experience in a noteworthy degree, and to it [67] he added both physical and temperamental aptitude for military labors, and an ardent spirit of patriotism. Leaving the service in 1759 as a lieutenant, he had, as already related, resigned his commission in indignation at the Stamp Act. ”

“ He often boasted privately that his friend Ludington would one day accompany him on a visit to General Howe at New York—meaning, of course, as a prisoner. Colonel Ludington, however, completely turned the tables upon his old neighbor and would-be captor. Learning from his secret agents that Holmes was collecting a company of Tories on the Fishkill Plains, he quietly gathered his [150] own regiment for what he warned them was to be an undertaking of much activity and danger. After several days of preparation, he led his men at night to the Tory rendezvous. ”

“ Colonel Ludington appears at this time not to have been among those called to duty at Peekskill, but to [87] have been left for a few weeks among those “not in actual service” who were to act under Nathaniel Sackett, as already related, for the suppression of conspiracies. The call to duty was not very well responded to by the other officers and men. The militia had been in the field in the early part of the winter longer than they had expected to be, and now, in the spring, they were desirous of remaining at home as much as possible to attend to the season’s work on their farms. ”

“ On December 18, Governor Clinton referred to this project in a letter to General Putnam. He urged the necessity of strengthening the defenses of the Hudson River, and said that he expected the Committee of Safety at Poughkeepsie in a few days. He would then lay before them the proposal for a new regiment of regulars and added, “I should be glad to have Colo. Ludington’s Plan.” That winter, the winter of Valley Forge, was a hard one in which to raise recruits of [107] any kind, especially in view of the fact that the troops had received no pay for their services for a long time past. ”

“ In or near that part of Dutchess County in which Henry Ludington lived a third small but not insignificant factor was involved in the problem. This was provided by the members of the Society of Friends, who were settled at Quaker Hill, near Pawling, in The Oblong. This was the first community in America to abolish negro slavery, in 1775, and on that account it was probably regarded with some suspicion. But worse still was the regard given to it in the strife between Patriots and Tories. There can be little doubt that the sentiments and wishes of the Quakers were largely with the Patriots. ”

“ The next year the college was chartered and was formally opened at Saybrook, and in 1716-17 it was permanently removed to New Haven. At the time of Henry Ludington’s birth, therefore, New Haven had become fully established as the metropolis of that part of the colony, and Branford, which had at first been its peer and rival, had become reconciled to the status of a suburban town. The educational facilities of Branford were similar to those of other colonial towns; to wit, primitive in character and chiefly under church control. ”

“ The 100 men in Dutchess County were organized in two companies. On July 16 the Provincial Congress, or Convention, was in session at White Plains, and it there ordered that one fourth of the militia of those two counties should be summoned into active service, until the end of the year; each man receiving $20 bounty, and the same pay and subsistence as the Continental soldiers. Among those thus drawn into the service was Colonel Ludington. ”

“ The “black-list” at first comprised only the names of Bowen, Holmes & Co., Lathrop, Ludington & Co., and a few others, but in time was increased until it embraced about forty of the leading houses in wholesale lines in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, and was widely published throughout the South, to injure if possible the business of those who, like Bowen, Holmes & Co., “sold their goods but not their principles.” Of course the outbreak of the war ended what little trade remained for these houses in the South, but Lathrop, Ludington & Co. ”

“ On November 30, 1651, William Ludington was mentioned in the will of Henry Sandyes, of Charlestown, as one of the creditors of his estate, and in 1660 he was enrolled as a juror in Malden. Early in the latter year, however, he removed from Malden or Charlestown to the New Haven, Connecticut, colony, [13] and there settled at East Haven, adjoining Branford, on the east side of the Quinnipiac River. Five years before there had been established at that place the first iron works in Connecticut. ”

“ But our unremited exertions are still necessary to bring us to the Haven of rest. Else all our past Labors may still prove in vain, all our fair prospects be darkened by Intervening Clouds, that may drive us again upon a tempestuous sea of trouble till we are overwhelmed and Lost. ”