A diorama of the Loyal American Regiment storming the North Redoubt of Fort Montgomery. On display at Fort Montgomery State Historic Site.

          On October 6, 1777, the Hudson Highlands saw what proved to be their largest battle of the war. Late in the day, British, Hessian, and loyalist forces marched on the paired forts of Clinton and Montgomery, located roughly 40 miles north of New York City near the site of the modern Bear Mountain Bridge. The Battle of Fort Montgomery is notable both for its ferocity and for the role that loyalists from the Hudson Valley played in it.

            Construction began on the forts in 1776, as it became clear that the British were going to take New York City and use it as a launching point for future offensives into the Hudson Valley. Over the winter of 1776-77, a chain to stretch across the Hudson was fashioned at Sterling Iron Works and the Ancram Iron Works in Poughkeepsie. Rebel commanders hoped that this chain could trap any British ships that advanced up the river, allowing the heavy guns of Fort Montgomery to destroy them. From the river, the forts presented a difficult target, with steep cliffs and rocky terrain promising to make any direct attack a costly affair.

The south-looking view from Fort Montgomery’s Grand Battery. In the forground is the modern Historic Site’s 32-pounder cannon, one of the few to be regularly fired today. In the distance is the Bear Mountain Bridge.

            Unfortunately for the rebels, General Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander tasked with destroying the forts, allowed one of the area’s loyal residents to advise him in developing a plan of attack. Beverly Robinson, who is discussed in the previous post as the first Warden of St. Philip’s Chapel, had fled to New York City in late February or early March of 1777. On March 14, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army’s Provincial Corps, and authorized to raise a regiment. Two months later, on May 13, this unit, the Loyal American Regiment, had recruited 394 men and 33 officers and was deemed suitable to be ordered into action. Robinson noted that “many of these were his own Tenants and most of them from his own Country.” Though it fought under a different flag, the Loyal American Regiment was as much a unit of the Hudson Valley as any of the rebel bodies raised in the area.

A rifleman of Emmerick’s Chasseurs. Several men who had enlisted in the Loyal Americans were selected to serve in this elite corps of light infantry. They were some of the few soldiers at the battle using rifles as opposed to smoothbore muskets.

            In addition to supplying troops to the British Army, Robinson was also tasked with gathering intelligence in the Hudson Highlands. His numerous friends in the area, and his understanding of the region’s geography, allowed him to form a sound strategy for attacking the Twin Forts that was adopted almost without alteration by General Clinton. Rather than a direct assault against the front of the forts, Robinson recommend that the British forces land at Stoney Point, ten miles to the south, then  march through a along a small road running through the Timp Pass. Branching off at the small settlement of Doodletown, one half of the British force would advance on the rear Fort Clinton, while the other half followed the trail around Bear Mountain to fall upon Fort Montgomery from behind. Robinson’s spies also told him that the two forts were incomplete on their rear sides, further sweetening the plan.

Map of the Battle of Fort Montgomery. Note the incomplete walls on the back side of the fort and Loyal American Regiment on the left of the British formation.

On the morning of October 6, British and loyalist forces landed at Stoney Point and began their advance northward. After several small skirmishes, the two attack forces arrived in position behind the forts in the late afternoon. Robinson’s Loyal Americans marched in the north most column, tasked with taking Fort Montgomery. As the autumn sun set, the force’s commander, Lt. Colonel Mungo Campbell, led his troops in an attack against the fort’s North Redoubt, one of the strongpoints on the forts half-completed rear wall. The attack was repelled with heavy losses, among them Lt. Colonel Campbell.

            With no senior British officers present, command of the assault now fell to Beverly Robinson. Reorganizing the battered Royal forces, he personally led the next attack. The Loyal American Regiment, attacking in column, spearheaded the effort to breach the redoubt’s walls, and was successful. A brief but brutal melee erupted when the Loyal Americans came over the wall, with loyalists from Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster Counties fighting their rebel neighbors and relations. After a few hectic and bloody minutes, the crush of green- and red- coated men proved to be too much for the outnumbered rebel defenders, and the garrison surrendered. The loyalists of the Hudson Valley had won their biggest victory of the war.

The North Redoubt as it appears today. Viewed from the southeast. The depression mark cannon embrasures.

            The Loyal American Regiment suffered heavy causalities in their attack. In addition to the rank and file that were killed and wounded, the unit lost its Lieutenant Colonel and at least one Captain. Two of these vacancies were filled by Beverly Robinson’s sons; 26 year-old Beverly Jr., was named the unit’s new Lieutenant Colonel, and Robinson’s third son, Morris Robinson, was promoted to Captain.

            The bulk of Loyal Americans spent the rest of the war garrisoning King’s Bridge and Bloomingdale near New York City, though detachments of the unit fought again at the Battle of Stoney Point and in the Southern Campaigns under Lord Cornwallis.

            After the War, the Loyal Americans were granted land around what is now Fredericton, New Brunswick. They were lead to their new home in Canada by Beverly Robinson Jr.; Beverly Sr. decided to move to England after the war, though he was offered an influential position in the Canadian government. The men of the Loyal American Regiment did not end their military careers with the Revolution. Veterans of the Loyal Americans made up the backbone of a militia unit from the area, the King’s New Brunswick Regiment, during the War of 1793. Some of the younger Revolutionary War veterans even joined a later unit, the New Brunswick Fencibles, which fought during the War of 1812.

St. Philip’s as it appears today.

St. Philip’s in the Highlands is an Episcopalian church that was originally founded by Beverly Robinson, one of the Hudson Valley’s most prominent loyalists. A devout Anglican, Robinson built the chapel to service the other Anglicans living on his 60,000 acre estate in lower Dutchess (now Putnam) County. The estate included the entirety of the modern town of Putnam Valley, and parts of Philipstown, Kent, Patterson, and Garrison.

            St. Philip’s suffered from a turbulent beginning. Opening its doors in 1771, the small congregation was quickly divided by the American Revolution. The Wardens and Vestrymen of the Revolutionary Generation were divided almost evenly by the war, with members rising to prominence on both sides of the conflict. Most famous of these was Beverly Robinson himself, who raised a loyalist regiment (the Loyal Americans) to fight for the King and was intimately involved with both the treason of Benedict Arnold and attempts to lure Vermont’s Ethan Allen to the British cause.

Colonel Beverly Robinson, from Benson Lossing’s Fieldbook of the American Revolution

            Robinson ultimately suffered for his allegiance to the Crown. He was attainted (declared an outlaw) by New York State in 1777, and as such was subject to be executed on site and buried “without benefit of clergy” should he ever be found in New York again. His home and property were confiscated in 1779, an estimated value of ₤148,000 (by way of comparison, States Dyckman was able to live comfortably in London on ₤200 a year). Robinson settled in England after the war, and died in Bath on April 9, 1792.

A memorial plaque dedicated to Beverly Robinson that hangs near the baptismal font at St. Philip’s.

            St. Philip’s fared little better than its chief benefactor during the War. The chapel closed its doors in 1774 when its minister, John Doty, fled the area for Schenectady in the face of the Revolution.  The vacant church grounds were used by as a camp ground by the American and French armies, due to the abundant timber resources in region and the church’s location directly across from West Point. The American forces were largely made of New England Congregationalists, who had little love of the Anglican Church. The church was gravely damaged by these troops, who its fencing and walls for firewood or the construction of winter “hutts.” From this period in the Church’s history comes one of its most famous stories: Supposedly, as a band of drunken New Englanders were on their way to burn down the chapel, George Washington himself ran ahead of them, stood in the doorway of the church, and boldly declared “This is my church!” A stained glass window by the church’s door marks this event; however, it is somewhat unlikely that it ever occurred. A history of the church, written by E. Clowes Chorely in 1912, makes no mention of an attempt to burn St. Philip’s down. Rather, Chorely reports that Washington, an Anglican himself, commented on the church being his own when one of his aides picked it out as “a Tory church.”

The aforementioned stained glass window.

            After the war, the parishioners of St. Philip’s struggled to rebuild. Funding to rebuild the church was raised by two of Robinson’s more affluent tenants, William Denning and Mr. Olgive. However, St. Philip’s struggles were not over. In the 1790’s, the local Presbyterian congregation, which had aided in the reconstruction, attempted to seize possession of the chapel. The congregation also had trouble securing a stable minister, with several rectors leaving St. Philip’s for successful careers elsewhere in the Episcopal Church. In 1862, the rebuilt wooden chapel was replaced by a stone structure that still stands today.

            To learn more about the history of St. Philip’s in the Highlands, please visit their website at http://stphilips.highlands.com/

     Boscobel, as it appears today.

States Dyckman was born in 1755, the son of a humble Harlem innkeeper, Jacob Dyckman.  He died in 1806 as perhaps the only Loyalist to make a fortune in England during the war and return to America to live in comfort. The mansion that was to be the culmination of his life’s work, Boscobel, still stands as a beautiful example of Federal architecture and luxury.

States Dyckman. Artist Unknown

States first brush with the turmoil of the American Revolution came on the night of June 4, 1776. On that night, States and several Albany loyalists (including the Royal Mayor of Albany, Abraham Cuyler) gathered at Cartright’s Inn to celebrate the birthday of King George III. However, their toast wishing “Damnation to the enemies of the King” did not sit well with the rebellious populace of the city.  A mob gathered around the inn, and the party goers were promptly arrested. After spending several days in captivity, he was brought before Albany’s Committee of Safety. Though he refused to sign an Association that pledged his support to the rebel cause, Dyckman was eventually freed under the promise that he would not flee the city or take up arms against the rebellion.

While he never violated the later term of his parole, States did eventually flee Albany. He met with his friend Abraham Cuyler in Fishkill in January of 1777, and together the men fled to British-held New York City. There, States found work as a clerk in the quartermaster department of the British Army, starting a career that spanned over two decades and won him two fortunes.

Specifically, Dyckman was tasked with monitoring the hiring of wagons by the army. This was a section of the Quartermasters Department long known for its corruption, and its conduct during the Revolution would prove no different. It was common practice for officers in the Quartermasters to purchase wagon companies upon assuming command, which they then contracted with to transport supplies. Free on any form of supervision, this system lent itself to corruption, as the quartermasters would falsify pay rates and the number of wagons being hired. States and other accounts were tasked with preparing a clean set of books for official scrutiny, while keeping another set that more accurately tracked where the money was going. In this capacity, he entered into association with Quartermaster General Sir William Erskine and his successors, Lord Cathcart and General John Dalrymple, as well as several other officers in the department, His accountant’s salary was supplemented by generous financial gifts from these men, allowing him to live in comfort in the occupied city.

            In the summer of 1779, General Erskine invited States to travel with him to England to help him prepare his accounts for audit. Here, States enjoyed several things that proved to be rarities to other American exiles: access, success, and employment. While many other Americans (including several from much higher station than he) spent their exile relying on government handouts and seeking a way to gain the ear of the government, States was able to enjoy British high society (as much as a class distinctions allowed) and meet face-to-face with members of the British Army’s command staff.

While in London, States became friends with several other exiled New Yorkers, most prominent amongst them Peter Van Schaack. The letters that survive between these men offer a fascinating look into the oft-ignored American exile community in London. Like many of Dyckman’s papers, they are preserved at the reconstructed Boscobel in Garrison, NY.

After spending three years in London, States returned to New York in July of 1781.  Ever the businessman, States brought back over six hundred pounds worth of cloth and garments with him to sell in the occupied city. This was only the beginning of States’ career as a small time trafficker in luxuries. He would carry back a small fortune in clothing and other luxuries every time he returned to America from a stay in London. His fine tastes would continue to supplement (and, at times, drain) his income and eventually made Boscobel one of the most beautifully furnished homes in America.  

Though Dyckman had lead a long and successful defense of the Quartermasters during his stay in London, Parliament was far from through investigating the wasteful department. During States’ trip to New York, Parliament created the Commission to Examine, Take, and State the Public Accounts of the Kingdom and charged it with investigating in detail the activities of the quartermasters. States was quickly recalled to London to face this new threat, and arrived in July of 1782, a month after the Commission published their Seventh Report. It accused the quartermasters of committing “numberless…frauds and impositions” against the government, and dismissed the findings of previous, less forceful investigations. Frighteningly, the Commission was the first to strike at the heart of the corruption in the Department, and thus at States’ livelihood: the ownership of the wagon trains by the quartermasters’ themselves.

It took Dyckman and the other lawyers and accountants employed by the Quartermasters another six years to defeat the latest charges. Ultimately, he was successful, and several of States’ grateful employers granted him lifetime annuities for securing their ill-gotten fortunes. In 1788, he returned to America a wealthy man. Surprisingly, he was the last of his émigré friends to return to America. Many of States’ closest friends returned to America in the years immediately following the Revolution. From there, they, along with States’ family, kept up a steady writing campaign aimed at luring Dyckman home. His other loyalist friends described in generally positive terms their experiences in the new nation, and very quickly re-established themselves (though not as opulently as Dyckman himself). States’ relatives were able to purchase a small farm for him by King’s Ferry, near one of his brothers and far away from Albany, where he had been arrested as a known Loyalist.  

States lived for several years in the quietude of his new home. In 1794, he married Elizabeth Corne Kennedy, the granddaughter of one of his neighbors, Peter Corne. Peter had also been a Loyalist during the war, as were Elizabeth’s parents, though the historic record is very unclear as to their fates. Elizabeth was many years Dyckman’s junior, and her propertied family seem to take exception to her marriage to a particularly well-to-do accountant. In an effort to prove his worth, States began a series of improvements to his house and property. The improvements proved costly, so much that States was forced to sell many of his prized possessions, most notably his 1,400 book library (now restored, in part to Boscobel’s collections and on display to the public). Crisis came when one of States’ main benefactors, General Erskine, died, and his heirs stopped their payments.  Faced with bankruptcy, States was obligated to return to England in 1799.

Elizabeth Kennedy Dyckman, States’ young bride.

     States’ stay in England proved to be longer than expected. While there, a new round of investigations were opened into the quartermasters’ accounts, and Dyckman was once again pressed into service to defend them. The proceedings played out over the next four years, earning States another fortune and renewed annuity payments. In 1803, once again a wealthy man, States sailed for home.

The snuff box, with the face of Charles II visible.

      States Dyckman died from gout, a disease that plagued him for much of his adult life, on August 11, 1806. Two years later, Boscobel was completed. States may be unique among the Loyalists of the Hudson Valley. No one else that I have come across seems to have been a confirmed opponent of the Revolution, worked for the British army, lived in exile, and returned home to live in prosperity with few if any words said of his political leanings.  Despite his troubles, States Dyckman stands as an impressive and resilient success, finding some measure of happiness throughout a turbulent life.

      To learn more about Boscobel and the amazing story of its salvation and reconstruction, please visit their website, www.boscobel.org. As mentioned, Boscobel’s collections contain numerous original documents to and from States, and offer an insightful look into the life of a Loyalist exile both during and after the Revolutionary war. Those with an interest in 18^th century clothing will take an interest in the carefully preserved receipts and bills from William Butler (another Loyalist), who supplied both States’ wardrobe while in London and many of the fineries he transported with him to America. These papers are largely untouched by historians, and could serve as an exciting jumping-off point for future research.