STATEMENT OF ED RIELEY (AND PROGRAM) AT THE 9/21 DEDICATION OF THE HISTORICAL MARKER FOR JOHN PATTERSON. CLICK ON THE IMAGES FOR THE EVENT PROGRAM. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS FROM THE CEREMONY ARE HERE - THERE WILL BE AN ADDITIONAL POST THIS WEEK ABOUT THE BETHEL CHAPEL.
WELCOME Thank you for coming here today to help us dedicate this Historical Marker in honor of John Patterson, a humble man, one of our forefathers, a brave man. He risked his life and risked his personal freedom for our liberties our country’s independence. We know about him mostly from his US Government Revolutionary War Pension Applications of April 1818 and September 1820, which required Affidavits, References, and Assets Lists. Between 1777 and 1780, we can track the activities of his Continental Regiment, the 2nd New York, to know where he was and what he was doing militarily. His Commander, Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, wrote a book about it. In addition to those sources a disabled lawyer named John MacDonald turned amateur historian began interviewing surviving Revolutionary War Veterans in the 1840s.
Recounting a long skirmish with a Tory raiding party east of White Plains, “We were not encamped but scouting about the country and living in the woods…..We went out with twenty, and two were taken prisoners…Captain Sackett and his brother…They (the Loyalists) were a little more than two hours attacking us. The field of contest was a little east of the Blind Brook and General Thomas’ saw mill, on the south side of the road between Purchase Street and King Street opposite the White Plains Road……Captains Kipp and Holmes (the Tory leaders) called upon us to surrender, promising us quarter, Mosier (our Lieutenant) refused…Kipp had recently taken me prisoner….I was confined in Morrisania and New York….Kipp insulted me.....‘there’s another black rascal who has been a prisoner’….I left my ranks and bayoneted him…..our Prince Sackett stood firm, but he was a little afraid of the bullets….I, on the contrary, had no such fear about me.” The elderly Patterson then proceeds to identify by name, for the written record, all twenty of the men in this small company. Remarkable! Almost all these names can found and cross checked on the State Enrollment Lists.
HE LIVED A VERY LONG LIFE. He was 72 when in 1818 he applied for his Federal Pension of $8 dollars a month. He was in his LATE NINETIES when he was interviewed by Lawyer MacDonald. He had lived through the War of Independence and the founding of the United States Government, the adoption of the Constitution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Erie Canal, the invention of Steamships, Railroads, and the Telegraph. And, he lived to see Emancipation adopted in New York, his state, and half of the other states in the Union. He died at age 104.
ADDRESS THE SECOND SIGN ISSUE, The Pomeroy Foundation, finding Sylvanus Tomkins, and the Village adopting the Patriot Burial Project Sign.
WHY DID OUR LEGIONNAIRES ADOPT HIS PROJECT? If you were a local boy, you knew something about his legend, we heard the stories and they were exciting. When we looked more deeply into his Revolutionary War experiences, it was more extensive than we imagined. As we discussed this project we felt a special connection to this old veteran, and enthusiastically adopted his cause. With research, we found that he had a lot more to tell us about himself, his comrades, and his times. He had some common experiences we could strongly relate to him even though we were separated by centuries. Bill Tuttle and others saw this right away. When he gave the Sign Project his blessing, we moved ahead with it immediately.
WE FOUND MORE ABOUT JOHN PATTERSON with the help of some historians who showed us where to look: Marc Cheshire, Croton Historian, got his Pension Records, John Curran, of the Peekskill Historical Society, showed us “New York in the Revolution” the definitive list of New York’s RevWar Veterans, and Catalina Hannan, of Historic Hudson Valley, gave us four volumes of The Van Cortlandt Papers, most noteworthy, “The Revolutionary War Memoir” of Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt, edited by Jacob Judd. Philip Van Cortlandt commanded John Peterson’s regiment, the 2nd New York and knew him personally. Philip Van Cortlandt served in the military throughout the War. Philip Van Cortlandt wrote the reference letter that helped to secure Patterson his Pension.
HARD SERVICE AND A HARD LIFE. John Patterson was not a young man when the War started. He was 30 years old in 1776, and was 37 years old when it ended. Because of the Militia System it was very likely he spent the entire War in some level of Military Service, well beyond his documented four years of full time Military Service. He may have spent four more years as a militiaman in this hotly contested County.
In 1776, 1782, and 1792 Congress provided PENSIONS to DISABLED, BROKEN, SICK, and WOUNDED Revolutionary Veterans. If you could qualify for a Service Connected and DISABLED you got half pay. The lack of dependable Rations, the Hard Daily Chores of Military Life, Inadequate Clothing, inadequate shelter, operating Adverse Weather took a HEAVY TOLL every soldier. In a typical campaign of that time, a soldier might March or Trek hundreds of miles on foot, ford rivers, build fortifications, fight the enemy, suffer injury and debilitating illnesses that sap ones strength, and RUIN THEIR HEALTH.
DETAIL THE SULLIVAN CAMPAIGN in describing HARD SERVICE. On a New Jersey retreat one veteran described the remnant of the Washington’s Army as one made up of Old Men and Boys, and “for a while you could follow the Army by the trail of blood their feet made in the snow”. TIRED and WORN OUT it’s not surprising that John Patterson reported in 1820, that he
“……….is of indigent circumstances, ….….by occupation a laborer. He has a wife who is a cripple having lost one arm. She is fifty-six years of age. He has six children who he maintains from his labor which together with aid from the government in his Pension heretofore received has enabled him to afford himself and family a scanty support. That aid being now cut off, he is unable to support his family, without the aid of private charity. He is now more infirm of body, being subject fits and that he has no other evidence but what is annexed to his original application. That he is inscribed on the pension list roll of the New York Agency at eight dollars per month and that his certificate is numbered 2172.”
Did he get his 1818 Pension reinstated after the Pension Review of 1820? Did he qualify for the FULL PAY Pension of 1828 that was available to all surviving Revolutionary Veterans regardless of Rank? I don’t know? Was he the John Peterson who got 330 acres of land and a $1500 Mortgage from the Van Cortlandt’s in 1830? We will have to research for that LATE happy development in John’s life.
The Bounty System, sign up CASH Bonuses and Land Grants. As system that goes back to Roman Times.
PROBABLY LOOKED FORWARD THE FIGHTING (looked forwarded) the sickness in camp, the accidents
THEY WALKED EVERYWHERE boats on the Hudson, Mohawk, and the Chesapeake. Van Cortlandt rear guard with BOATS
More information about the road they built Easton to the Wyoming Valley
Fighting on the frontier, never stopped vicious battling there
Even after the Sullivan Campaign 1777 Herkimer and Fort Stanwix
1778 Wyoming Valley Massacre and Cherry Valley Massacre. The June-October 1779 Sullivan Campaign destroyed 40 Villages in Central New York. Fighting more than the Iroquois: Mohawk, Senaca, Onieda, Onondaga, Cayuga, and after 1722, the Iroquoian-speaking Tuscarora. In Pennsylvania three of these — the Erie, the Susquehannock, and the Haudenosaunee spoke Iroquoian languages. While the Shawnee, Munsee, and Lenape (Delaware) spoke Algonquian languages. Joseph Brandt, was a Mohawk War Chief, Cornplanter, was a Senaca War Chief, and Fish Carrier, was a Cayuga War Chief. Attack on Wyoming Valley, PA lead by John Butler, the Attack on Cherry Valley lead by Walter Butler (son of John Butler) and Joseph Brandt.
Peterson & Moshier family united
WE FOUND OUR SECOND REVWAR VETERAN TOMPKINS
Pomeroy Foundation Sign
WHERE HE FOUGHT: DESCRIBE THE MOHAWK Valley, Fort Stanwix, Wyoming Valley, Cherry Valley, the 3000 Palatine Germans !725), WHERE WAS the TREATY LINE! Settlers in the WEST how very MANY THERE WERE! AND HOW LARGE the TRYON COUNTY MILITIA WAS
CIVIL WAR: The Onieda and some of the Tuscaroras, DETAIL the other tribes
The TORIES: Joseph Brandt, Butler, William Johnson, other Johnson and the TWO Governors of Canada
SARATOGA: Its MANY NAMES: Freeman’s Farm, Stllwater, Bemis Heights
Describe New York Geography
How Did This Come About Unusual?
60 MILES The troops began to arrive at Easton early in May, 1779, and two regiments acting as pioneers at once began the construction of a road suitable for the passage of the army between Easton and Wyoming, a part of this road still known as Sullivan's road, extends from the Bush The army gathered in Easton to march north to the Wyoming Valley, then to upstate New York. No roads existed over the Pocono Mountains to transport an army north into Iroquois territory. Sullivan ordered the building of a road from Tannersville to the Wyoming Valley for his army to pass through swamps and heavily forested areas over the mountain. The road builders were 500 men strong, of the 2nd New York Regiment and the 5th New Jersey Regiment. The two regiments congregated at Learns Tavern (at today’s Tannersville) and set off on May 15-16 to transform a footpath into a crude road.
A rise in elevation from 883 feet to over 1,900 feet, densely forested areas, swamps, and the rocky terminal moraine of the Wisconsin Glacier made road building difficult. Upon completion of the first nine miles of road on May 23, 1779, the road builders created an encampment in today’s Tobyhanna Township. They named it Hungry Hill due to their lack of provisions. It was at this encampment where they buried a soldier, and where the current memorial stands today.
Alfred Mathew’s 1886 “History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania” states:
“Soon after crossing Mud Run, they came to a knoll, or small round hill, and encamped, and sent back to Fort Penn (Stroudsburg) for provisions, and lay there several days making a road through a swamp at the northwestern base of the hill while waiting for provisions from Fort Penn. Sullivan named the two places respectively “Hungry Hill” and “Hell’s Kitchen.” While at Hungry Hill one of Sullivan’s soldiers died, and was buried by the side of the road, on the crest of the hill, and the grave is plainly to be seen by all passers, being indicated by the mound and a large stone at the head of the grave.”
Garrick M. Harding’s 1899 account in “The Sullivan Road” stated:
“A camp for the road builders was established here, some working Westerly still further on, and some finishing the parts intervening Easterly. While it was difficult to get sufficient supplies forward as fast as the needs of the men required, and hence a name — “Hungry Hill” — was given to the location. The name still lasts and will last always. It was here, too, that a fatal accident befell one of the soldiers- a falling tree killed him. His comrades buried him by the roadside at this top of the hill, and the grave today can be seen by the passer-by as plainly as when it was first made.”
The road to the Wyoming Valley (Wilkes-Barre) was completed on June 15. On Friday, June 18, 1779. Sullivan’s forces of more than 3,500 soldiers, 800 cattle, scores of horses, baggage and supply wagons, pack horses, cannon and gun carriages, broke camp in Easton. Using the newly constructed road, the army reached the Wyoming Valley on June 23.
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