SIMCOE'S RAID IN THE RARITAN VALLEY.

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But for this inveterate hatred against the United States, which he too loudly professes, and which carries him too far, General Simcoe appears in the most advantageous light. He is just, active, enlightened, brave, frank, and possesses the confidence of the country, of the troops, and of all those who join him in the administration of public affairs.

It was on the morning of the twenty-sixth of October that this famous raid of the Queen's Rangers through the Raritan valley occurred. Its object is said to have been two-fold,-the capture of Governor Livingston, whom Simcoe had been falsely informed was staying with Philip Van Horne at "Phil's Hill"-Middlebrook; and the destruction of fifty large flat-boats which he had been told were at Van Veghten's bridge, on their way to the army. These boats had been built on the Delaware by Washington's orders so as to be ready to aid in an attack on New York city which he was then meditating. They held seventy men each, and had been hauled across country on wheels to the Raritan. Simcoe's plan was to move with his cavalry with great expedition from Amboy to Bound Brook and Van Veghten's bridge; and then hastily return on the opposite side of the Raritan. When nearing New Brunswick he purposed bearing off to the south, in the hopes of being able to entice the militia and others, that by this time might be following him, into an ambuscade near the South river, where a supporting force of his infantry were to lie in wait for the expected victims.

To execute this purpose Major Richard Armstrong, who commanded the foot, was despatched to South Amboy, from which place he was directed to march with haste and in silence six miles to the bridge crossing South river, the point where his troops were to await in ambush the arrival of the cavalry with, it was hoped, the Jersey militia in pursuit. Colonel Simcoe, with a mounted force of about eighty picked men, had expected to embark at Billop's-point, Staten Island, for Perth Amboy early on the night of the twenty-fifth, but owing to the lateness of the hour at which his bateaux arrived it was six in the morning before he was fairly on the march. Major Armstrong, with the foot, who had crossed with Simcoe in order to guard the approaches to the town, then re-embarked for South Amboy. The raiding column embraced forty-six men of the Ranger hussars, twenty-two of the Buck's light dragoons, (a Pennsylvania refugee corps), commanded by Captain Sandford, and a few guides and volunteers,

under Lieutenant James Stewart. This last officer was a loyalist Jerseyman, and well known and hated in Middlesex and Somerset as "Tory Jim."

Simcoe moved with great rapidity through Piscataway township to Quibbletown-New Market-taking pains on the way to impress everyone met with the idea that his force was a body of Americans. This he was the better able to do because the uniform of his command differed but little from that of Lee's legion, the men wearing green coatees, leather breeches, and cocked hats bound with white braid. Indeed, Lee, who greatly admired Simcoe, says in his memoirs that the colonel, with the most successful audacity, stopped during the march at a depot of forage, and announced to the commissary that his force was the Virginia light-horse. He drew the forage he needed, paying the customary vouchers therefor, signing them in the name of Lee's quartermaster. Before reaching Quibbletown one Justice Crow was overtaken, whom the colonel, in order to make him believe that the raiders were from Washington's army, charged with being a tory: to further the belief the justice for a time was carried along, under guard, with the detachment, notwithstanding the protestations of the countryman that he had "only been a-sparkin'."

A short halt was made at the Quibbletown tavern, ostensibly to look for tories; then the troopers hurried on to Bound Brook where they rested for a little while at a public house kept by Peter Harpending, and afterwards known as the Frelinghuysen tavern. It stood on the main street where is now the store and dwelling of B. B. Matthews. Its boniface was a stanch patriot and was one of the men of Somerset whom the Howes stigmatised as "arch-traitors," and excepted from the general amnesty offered in 1776. This was not the first appearance of the Queen's Rangers in Bound Brook. An affidavit made in 1782, by the widow of Ennis Graham, shows that on the nineteenth of December, 1776, this partisan corps suddenly dashed into the village under the guidance of George H. Fisher, a tory refugee. Among the other inhabitants who suffered at their hands was her husband, who was robbed of cash, watches, and jewelry. A few days later he went to New Brunswick hoping to obtain some satisfaction from British headquarters; his satisfaction proved to be the further loss

SIMCOE AT VAN VEGHTEN'S BRIDGE.

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of the fine horse he rode, which was taken from him "for his majesty's service."

On leaving Bound Brook Colonel Simcoe, having secured a guide in a country lad, made his way up the heights toward Chimney Rock, to Washington's camp of the year before. According to an account published in "Rivington's Gazette" by a junior officer accompanying the expedition it was intended to destroy the huts and buildings, but on learning that they had been sold to some of the inhabitants the colonel decided to leave them standing. The raiders' next stop was at Philip Van Horne's, Middlebrook, where they were disappointed at not finding Governor Livingston. Here, in lieu of nobler game, they captured a captain, a lieutenant, and another person, who being sick were placed under parole. The troops then continued their march to Van Veghten's bridge, on the Raritan. The greater part of the boats they expected to find there had been sent forward, but, with hand-grenades brought for the purpose, they destroyed eighteen that were left, together with their traveling carriages, an amnunition wagon, some harness, and a quantity of forage and stores. Here they committed what the Reverend Doctor Messler characterizes as a barbarous actionthe burning of the Dutch Reformed church building. Simcoe, in his report of the raid, excused this act by saying that the "Dutch Meeting"-as he termed it-had been converted into a forage depot, and that a rifle shot was fired at the soldiers from the opposite side of the river. Messler insists that this is not true; asserting that he was informed by a creditable eye-witness that the only forage was the ropes and tackle used in bringing the boats from the Delaware; that the shot was from a young man "out shooting pigeons," who, at a distance of six hundred feet, to alarm the dragoons discharged his fowlingpiece, and then ran off to escape capture.

The rangers were not over one hour at Van Veghten's bridge; they then crossed the Raritan and pushed on to HillsboroughMillstone. There they burned the Somerset court-house, after first releasing from jail three loyalist prisoners, one of them, according to Simcoe's report, being a dreadful spectacle; "he appeared to have been almost starved and was chained to the floor." This county building stood about twelve rods west of

the present bridge over the Millstone. While burning, its flames ignited and consumed the near-by dwellings of William Cocks and Cornelius Lott, the latter being valued, according to its owner's affidavit, at six hundred and twenty pounds ten shillings and eleven pence. By this time the country people were up in arms and the militia gathering, so the column was soon again in motion. Filing to the east it crossed the river and hurried along the Amwell road in the direction of New Brunswick. Simcoe's plan was, on reaching the dwelling of Garret Voorhees, which was supposed to be standing at the corner of a cross-road leading into the Princeton road, to turn to the right and make his way rapidly to the South river, where he hoped to pilot his pursuers into the ambuscade. Both he and his guide kept a bright lookout for the house which was to mark the diverging road. Unhappily for the success of the expedition they were neither of them aware that this was one of the many buildings that the British had wantonly destroyed when they retreated from Millstone, in June, 1777. Consequently the rangers passed this cross-road at a sharp trot without recognizing it, and were within two miles of New Brunswick before the error was known.

During the early part of the march of this command its character had not been discovered, but on reaching Quibbletown some one at the tavern recognized Colonel Simcoe. A messenger was at once dispatched to New Brunswick, whereupon Colonel John Neilson moved with his regiment-the 2d Middlesex militia-to Raritan Landing, where the smoke from the burning buildings at Millstone announced the position of the enemy. Had Neilson crossed the river, with but little doubt the raiding column would have been either captured or destroyed; but he, thinking that the rangers must re-embark where they had landed in the morning, remained on the Middlesex side to oppose their passage of the bridge. Meanwhile he sent forward Captain Moses Guest with thirty-five men to harass the foe on the march. This officer, on reaching a point where the narrow Amwell road was flanked by thick woods, ambushed his men and awaited the coming of the enemy. The British colonel's situation had now grown distressing. He well knew that his guide was at fault and had missed the cross-road; shots were popping on his flanks, a Captain Voorhees, with some militia horsemen, was pressing on

CAPTURE OF COLONEL SIMCOE.

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On

his rear, and he was in great concern over possible ambuscadęs in front. When the wood was reached where Guest and his men lay concealed, Simcoe, who was riding in advance with the guide, was fearful that it contained an ambushed enemy. discovering an opening in the fence he wheeled his horse, intending to lead his men to the right, and thus avoid the possible danger. Just then, as he said in his report, he heard the words "Now! Now!" and knew nothing more until he found himself a prisoner in the hands of the Americans. A sudden fusillade had killed his horse with five bullets, and stretched him on the

ground, stunned by the violence of the fall. His troopers, being on the canter, swept by without discovering that it was intended to leave the highway. The timber was too dense to admit of charging the enemy, so the rangers pushed on through the woods, in open files, receiving a volley from the militia which killed one man, and wounded three others and some horses.

The command now devolved on Captain Sandford of the Bucks county troop, who, supposing the colonel to be killed, continued toward New Brunswick at an increasing pace. The raiders found themselves in a critical situation. The mounted force hanging on their rear were increasing in numbers, and the militiamen in their front were rapidly multiplying to oppose their further advance. But the desire of the rangers was to avoid, not to enter, New Brunswick, so, on reaching a point within the present city limits where Town lane and George's road come together, Captain Sandford suddenly faced about his squadron and charged the pursuers, putting them to flight. Their leader, Captain Peter V. Voorhees, in attempting to break through a fence became entangled, and was so cut and slashed by the troopers' sabres that he died in a few hours. The killing of this officer was considered by the Americans little less than a murder, as he was wholly in the enemy's hands and incapable of resistance. Captain Voorhees' death was greatly lamented; he was a brother-in-law of Colonel Neilson of New Brunswick, and a gallant officer of the continental line, having entered the service in 1775 as a second-lieutenant in New Jersey's first establishment of troops. Since November, 1777, he had commanded a company in Colonel Matthias Ogden's 1st Regiment of the New Jersey line, with which he had just made