Odell, Jackson
John M. McDonald interview — 1847-09-07
Jackson Odell (1792-1849) was the son of Westchester Guide John Odell. In 1780 an American force commanded by Captain Nathaniel Cushing attacked the Archer House in present-day Bronx County in an attempt to capture Loyalist Colonel James DeLancey. Although the Americans did not capture DeLancey, they did take several prisoners. On their return northward, Cushing’s men were attacked in Greenburgh. According to Odell, the attack took place at Acker’s slope along the Saw Mill River Road. Odell also notes that when Rochambeau’s French troops withdrew northward from their camp in Hartsdale in 1781, it moved its artillery north along the “Allaire road.” Remnants of the causeways that the French soldiers built for this movement were still visible in the 1840s.
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Transcription
- Hufeland Index Page 498 -
Septr. 7th Jackson Odell – “It was Acker’s slope (that is, smooth fields moved owned by a family named Acker, and descending towards the Saw Mill river road just above Howland’s) where the Refugee horse
- Hufeland Index Page 499 -
prepared to charge Cushing, in April, 1780. – When the French army retired in August 1781, from their camp at Isaac Tompkins’ they (or at least their artillery) retreated by the Allaire road where in several places they made causeways of rails over low places for the passage of the cannon. There are still some remains of these causeways to be seen.”