Hall, Stephen, 1762-1848
John M. McDonald interview — 1845-11-05
On January 18, 1780, a force of Connecticut militia led by Samuel Keeler and Samuel Lockwood conducted a raid into present-day Bronx County where they captured Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Hatfield of DeLancey’s Refugees. Stephen Hall (1762-1848) recalls that during their retreat to Connecticut, the Americans were pursued by Refugees. A portion of the force was overtaken at Mamaroneck, and unsuccessfully attempted to escape over the ice in the frozen harbor. Hall then notes that a British force was encamped near Mamaroneck in 1779, and describes the August 1776 engagement at Mamaroneck where William Lounsbury, the commander of a company of Loyalists, was killed. Hall then gives a lengthy description of the Battle of Heathcote Hill, beginning with an interesting anecdote of meeting British Colonel Robert Rogers at the schoolhouse he attended.
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Transcription
- Hufeland Index Page 396 -
November 5th Stephen Hall, of Mamaroneck: – “When Keeler and Lockwood surprised Hatfield in January 1780, the Refugees overtook them on their retreat near Dr. [Riely’s] and, charging, took some prisoners. Another part of them was overtaken here at [Mamaroneck], and took to the ice (the harbor being then frozen over) when the Refugee horse pursued and cut them to pieces. This was in the midst of a snow storm, I believe. The British army, in 1779, lay for some weeks on the high ground from the Great Lots to where Nathaniel Brown lived about two miles from Mamaroneck village.
[Stephen Hall contd. In the original this subject breaks off abruptly on page 75 – is then continued on page 77, and ends on p. 76.]
It was in the summer of 1776, that William Lounsberry [X] came to Mamaroneck to enlist a company of men for the royal cause. The British army then lay at Staten Island. A good many from our neighborhood en=isted under him. He and his party were unarmed and lay in the Great Lots, one and a half or two miles from Mamaroneck village to the west
[X] sometimes written Lounsbury.
- Hufeland Index Page 397 -
west of the White Plains road. He had or was to have a Captain’s commission if he succeeded in raising a company. Lounsbury (?) was a bold, enterprising, determined. The party that was against him was commanded by Capt (?) Daniel Townsend of New York (Rye Neck?) I think, and they meant to kill him, as I have always heard. They hunted him from his place of concealment among the rocks, and refused quarter as I have heard and believe (shooting and then bayonetting him). He and his men were furnished every day with provisions by his friend in Mamaroneck village. I was a schoolboy at the commencement of the war at Mamaroneck village. On Monday morning, October 21: 1776, on entering the schoolhouse I found Col. Rogers there, and our master told us there would be no school that day. Colonel Rogers was a very rough looking, red eyed man, and occupied the schoolhouse as his quarters
- Hufeland Index Page 398 -
quarters for some days afterwards. It stood on the west side of the Post road, opposite to the road leading to my house and Delancey’s Neck. Rogers’s regiment, (the Queen’s Rangers) was 300 or 400 strong, well armed, but not in uniform, and, when night came, bivouacked around fires, 100 or 200 yards back of Delancey’s house, in what used to be called Heathcote’s heights or hill. Here they were surprised on Monday or Tuesday (21st or 22nd) by an American party, said to have been three times as numerous, that advanced across the fields by way of the Quaker Meeting House. A sentinel was posted near the cross road to the Quaker Meetinghouse a little north of the road and close
- Hufeland Index Page 399 -
to the low ground about 300 yards west of the Post road. This sentinel was killed by the Americans whose guides were good and well acquainted with the grounds occupied by Rogers. Schofield is mistaken in saying it was an outpost the Americans attacked. (Mr. Hall is mistaken about this and admits it.) They attacked, as I have always understood, the main body, and took one company prisoners. Rogers was said to have behaved well. He was asleep in the schoolhouse when the alarm was given, and immediately put himself at the head of his men, and fired several times very heavily upon the assailants who retreated. – In the morning of the 21st when Rogers was come upon the ground first, he a small skirmish with an American scouting party which he drove away. He was much censured for suffering himself to surprised, and, as I have heard, it was with reason he,
- Hufeland Index Page 400 -
he gave up the command of the Queens Rangers. He destroyed at Maroneck a very considerable quantity of rum and molasses which the Americans could not remove for want of teams. The American party that attacked Rogers came across the fields [X] (but the cross road to the Quaker Meeting house was then in nearly its present state, notwithstanding what Mr. Schofield says).
[X] This, also, Mr. Hall admits was, probably, a mistake.