Blue Coats and Red Coats
I am a daughter of the American Revolution, not to be confused with
DAR (capital D.) My Aunt Jean, though, performed the steps required to officially become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) using our Foy-Burr and Tuttle-Howard lines. Not all of my ancestors were patriots, however. My Barker-Bacon family resided in England during the revolution and undoubtedly were rooting for the British troops to knock some sense into those
Yankees. My Pennock ancestors were Royalists, loyal to the king but one direct line grandfather married into the Hyde family who fought under George Washington.
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| Betty Pennock whose portrait was found in an old family trunk in recent years. Her family were Royalists. |
I imagine that sides were chosen with much prayer and soul-searching, but ultimately each person had to decide if freedom or loyalty was the guiding principal. God speaks in the scriptures for both principals; I am sure that each man and woman had to decide based on how the spirit spoke to him or her in the still hours of the night. And after the war those who returned home had to get along with those they had previously considered traitors. My grandson, Brooks, is preparing to leave for a
church mission to West Virginia where that those decisions were also a reality during the American Civil War.
While thinking ahead to the 4th of July celebration of Independence I refer to a history of James Hyde and Betty Pennock compiled in 1965, by Mrs. Myrtle S. Hyde whose sources are numbered and listed at the end post. I have taken only a portion of the history referencing James Hide who volunteered at almost sixteen years of age most likely with the bravado of youth, family politics and under the dictates of conscience. Myrtle's history follows with permission.
James Volunteers
On New Year’s day, in 1777, a young lad of only fifteen years, by the name of James Hyde (or Hide, before he later changed the spelling), enlisted in the
Connecticut army from Stratford, Connecticut, the town of his birth.
1,2 His desire to serve his country in the struggle for independence from England, as his older brother Agur was doing, was so strong that his family could not keep him home, in spite of his youth. We can almost hear him say,
“But I’ll be sixteen in only two months, and besides, the army needs all the help it can get.”
He spent the next summer and fall with the troops along the
Hudson River. He then joined the troops in Pennsylvania under the command of General George Washington, and was soon “engaged in the sharp action of
Whitemarsh,” where the army “lost a number of officers killed and wounded.
2
On December seventeenth of the same year, Washington’s army, young James included, made quarters at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the enemy, under Sir William Howe, being secure in Philadelphia.
2,3 That winter was one never to be forgotten by James Hyde: seeing and experiencing the gnawing pains of hunger with food so scarce, the worn coats and trousers that were scant protection against the snow and cold, the wind howling through the threadbare tents at first, and then the damp cold of the makeshift log huts, the sore and bleeding feet when shoes finally gave way and the rags that replaced them would hardly hold together, and worst of all the itch and resultant sores—from not being able to bathe for so long. But through it all, though
he thought of home and family and comfort, he, along with the rest, resolved that he could do it if the others could, and if their honored leader George Washington would continue to do his best in their behalf. By the time the Prussian soldier, Von Steuben, came and started drilling and training the troops, the food, clothing and shelter situation was somewhat improved. And now things looked even better with something to do besides think of hardships, especially for James, young and energetic. However, he sometimes wondered if all this marching and maneuvering was going to serve any good purpose in the future.
3,4
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| Yellow Springs hospital (now ruins) where James was sent when he became ill at Valley Forge. |
The Bitter Glory of Battle
Summer approached at last, and Clinton, who had replaced Howe, left Philadelphia. James Hyde and his companions were elated when the word came that Washington was ready to “set out in pursuit of Clinton.” They were soon on their way.
3
“On the night of June 27, the British army, 16,000 strong, was near
Monmouth Court-House (New Jersey). It was Washington’s plan to strike with an advance of 5000 men, following with an attack by the main army. He had offered Charles Lee command of the advance, Lee being senior major general in the army. . . .
“The morning of June 28 came on intensely hot (and sultry); the thermometer registered 96 degrees in the shade. The British army had passed the court-house when Lee began the advance ordered by Washington. . . .
“Out across the fields, reeling with heat, they marched, exuberant, foreseeing victory; over a deep ravine on a causeway where swamps steamed in the hot sun; on for a mile, and over another ravine, and then out upon the plain, where the British, perceiving them, had hastened to give battle. The American lines were beginning to fold (the British) in. . . .”
3
But Lee ordered the Americans to retreat! “The soldiers, at a loss to understand, disappointed, fretting to be at the red-coats, halted, wiping their brows, cursing. Their ground was superb for offense; they outnumbered their foe at this time, and nearly surrounded them; but they must fall back! What could it mean? What sudden and unknown danger forced them from their vantage? Victory, within their grasp, was slipping away from them. Back they turned to the high ravine they had so lately crossed, and so proudly. Across the ravine, out upon the fields, hot under the sun, straggled the soldiers of liberty, angry, sweltering; many fell by the
side of the way, stricken by the terrible heat. Behind them came the British, making the most of the strange retreat. . . .”
3
Then came Washington, having received word of what was happening, “riding furiously. The sight of the commander was terrifying; his face worked with a rage as mighty as his soul; his eyes flashed fire. Hot and fast the words flew” between him and Lee. (It was later learned that Lee was indeed a traitor, planning and working with the British.)
3
The soldiers, pouring around them, raised a cheer at sight of Washington. After letting Lee know, in strongest terms, that he had expected his orders to be obeyed, Washington set about restoring order from the confusion.
3
“The British were coming, not a quarter of an hour away. Hastily, with great skill, a line was thrown along an eminence behind the ravine, commanding the causeway crossing it. In a moment the shock came; fiery red over the quivering fields, the British lines advanced. . . .”
3
“It was fearful fighting quietly shepherded by Von Steuben, who thought that this truly new army fought ‘with as much precision as veteran troops.’ Others had been skeptical about the value of all that wheeling and marching and pacing on the Valley Forge plateau. Alexander Hamilton admitted that never until that day had he ‘known or conceived the value of military discipline’. . . .
“Despite the inhuman heat, despite the endless, killing march from Philadelphia, Clinton’s men came on and on until the sun or American fire took them out of action. By now both sides were staggering with heat and exhaustion. Men died right and left under the touch of the sun or collapsed, helpless, with purpling faces while sweat pattered down on scarlet coats, blue coats, or on mended threadbare homespun.”
4 These were not happy scenes of which James Hyde was a part.
“All through the remainder of the terrible day the English strove to break down the defense of the Americans; all through the day the patriots held. Deeds of valor were done on every hand. Molly Pitcher, wife of an artillery-man, while bringing water to the battery saw her husband shot down beside his gun. Without hesitation she took his place and fought the gun throughout the battle. Against such spirit the attack grew hopeless. When the sun was sinking in the west, the British broke, withdrawing to the ground where Lee had encountered them early in the morning.
“On the morning of the next day the British were gone, marching in the night toward New York. . . ,
3 and James Hyde, though he was still a youth, shared with the other Americans a feeling of bitter glory, knowing that if the first plan had succeeded the war might be over instead of just seeing the British go on their way.
3,4
James Hyde wintered the next season (1778-9) with his company at
Redding, and during the following two years continued to serve wherever his regiment was called.
2
By the fall of 1781 he was a part of the force commanded by Marquis de Lafayette, and had moved south to Williamsburg, Virginia, preparatory to fighting Cornwallis at
Yorktown.
2,3 Washington was commander-in-chief of the whole army, which included the Americans under Lafayette, reinforced by several thousand French troops, and with a strong French fleet off shore on the Atlantic.
3,4
On October 6 the battle began, with Cornwallis ill-prepared for the attack. “Day in and day out the big guns of the besieged and the besiegers roared and stunned. It was probably the heaviest artillery concentration that the continent had ever known.”
4
During the evening of October 14th a bayonet and musket assault was made on the foremost British fortifications. “Surprise seems to have been complete, and the two enemy works were taken quickly and smartly.”
4
Three days later, with Cornwallis having launched but a weak counter-attack, probably because of his knowledge that he needed, but could get no reinforcements, the morning dawned with the “French and American artillery thundering into fullest action. . . . ‘The whole peninsula trembles under the incessant thunderings of our infernal machines,’ wrote Dr. James Thacher. . . .”
4
“It must have been difficult for gunners and observers to make out the British works. The haze of a lovely Virginia October day was thickened by heavy cannon smoke, and by clouds of soft earth hurled skyward. Somewhere about ten o’clock the air cleared a little. Cannoneers began yelling, pointing toward what turned out to be . . one little British drummer beating the request for a parley . . . (then) a bigger man appeared on the parapet . . . and waved a white handkerchief. There was a moment of stunned unbelief through the American and French lines, though every man must have expected (this) sooner or later. . . .
“Back at Williamsburg, the commander-in-chief was busily writing letters. Later he meant to ride out and watch the morning’s bombardment. . . . As he wrote, gunfire down by Yorktown seemed to be slacking off a little, but it was nothing to notice. . . . Up to Washington’s quarters galloped a sweating dragoon courier with a letter. The Virginian broke the seal, read it, and was on his feet in an instant, staring and staring. . . . ‘. . . Surrender. . . !’ . . . .
“George Washington had rallied swiftly and coolly from many an adverse blow. Now the hand of success had fallen stunningly on his back, and the effect must have been almost as numbing as, say, the sight of Charles Lee’s unbeaten men in full retreat from Monmouth. But he soon shook off the impact of the news . . . an answer to Cornwallis was approved.
“Couriers went out with this reply, with warnings to commanders in all parts of the allied line. Slowly the gunfire died away. . . . Far to the right,” James Hyde, and the other men in the “Massachusetts-Connecticut battalion, worked out into the warm air, peered at the silent British lines, and then stretched out gratefully in the sun, yawning in luxury in spots where a man could not have lived a few hours ago. Throughout the day men walked cautiously, as though afraid that a sudden move, a loud noise might shatter the brittle-seeming hush that hung over the peninsula. . . . Night fell and the air cleared. . . . Dawn came and the hush was still
unbroken and men began to believe in it and in its duration.
Yorktown 1781
“Bright sun on the noon of October 19, 1781, poured down on the fields of the peninsula. The allied camps were aboil with men shuttling about as drums beat out their urgent clamor. In the calm air that was rich with the smell of trampled grass and wood smoke and tobacco and oiled leather, company after company formed. . . . The fields then began to flow. The long columns of smartly dressed French troops swung off toward the road to Yorktown, and halted at its flat western edge.
“To the east, drabber troops were on the move, but it was (also) dazzling, hypnotic. Swarming men and women stood on tiptoe, trying to catch a glimpse of men of whom they had heard or read. There was a deep murmur from the massed bystanders, a rising tide of welcome and wonder as these people saw their own massed army for the first time.
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| American troops storming the redoubt. |
“Now the army was halting on the east side of the road to Yorktown, facing its French allies with the deserted enemy works looming somber on its right. Drums began to beat, orders snapped out, and right and left the waiting ranks bristled to attention. There were hoofbeats far off to the American left. There on a huge bay horse, gleaming in blue and buff, rode the one man who was, the one man who could have been, the living embodiment of those hard, drab ranks to his right, who could have welded them to the white-and-blue men on his left. From the beginning George Washington had met every blow, stood up under every discouragement, every frightening disaster that the army as a whole had known. The hoofs clopped on,” and, as Washington rode by him, James Hyde’s bosom swelled with pride at the thought that he had known this very special man. “Washington took his post at the far right of the American line. “Then from
Yorktown, sad drums began to roll,” and the British army marched out between the French and American lines, stacked its arms, and at last marched back, emptyhanded, to Yorktown for further orders.
“On the plains about Yorktown the music was gay and soaring again as the French and American armies filed away, quietly joyous, to their quarters.”
4
Thus James Hyde, Private, was part of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War and watched the British army surrender
2,3,4 — an experience that would remain vivid for a long time.
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| The British Army marching out to surrender at the end of the
Battle of Yorktown. |
Mustering Out
It wasn’t until June 8, 1783, however, that he was mustered out of service, the peace-treaty negotiations taking all this time. He was discharged at West Point, having been with the army in New York for quite some time.
2 He felt indeed honored that George Washington, himself, signed his release papers, as attested by his application, in 1818, for a Revolutionary Service Pension:
I James Hyde of Strafford in the County of Orange and State of Vermont Testify and declare that on the first day of January AD. 1777 I enlisted into the Army of the United States in Captain John Mills’ Company in Colonel Charles Webbs Regiment in General Huntingtons Brigade (if I rightly ?????) for during the War, and served in the capacity of a private Soldier untill the 8th day of June AD. 1783, when I was honorably discharged at West Point, sd discharge was signed by his Excellency George Washington, but which I have not now in my possession, I further say that by reason of my reduced circumstances in life I am in need of assistance from my Country for support and therefore request that I may be put on to the pension list according to a late Act of Congress
[signed] James Hyde
Chelsea April 7.1818
James Hyde had served his country for six years, being now twenty-two years of age. He had seen more than his share of valor and bravery, of death and suffering — and emerged a man.
After his release he went to Manchester, Vermont, where his father, Nehemiah Hide, had located. James’ brother, Clark Hide, deeded land to him at Manchester in 1785, and his father deeded some more to him there in 1788. In these deeds James is called a tailor.
6 Perhaps he learned this skill during the war years, as possibly an assistant to a tailor in his company, most probably during his long stay at New York before being discharged.
James was married at Manchester, 16 April 1786, to Betty (or Betsey) Pennock.1 One child, Heman, was born here in 1788.
1,6 Soon after this the family moved to Strafford farther north in Vermont, a “new” town to the white man, James’ wife’s grandfather, James Pennock, being the first settler just twenty years before. There was still land to be cleared and much building-up to do. In Strafford five more children were born to Betty: James, Roswell, Betsey (who died), Hiram, and Betsey Florinda.
1,7
______________________
Notes:
The Valley Forge Legacy web site records seven roll call events in which James was present in the encampment December 1777 to June 1778. He was in the Continental Army 1st Division of the State of Connecticut in Huntinghton's Brigade, 2nd Regiment, Capt. John Mills Company. The last two roll calls show that he was sick at the Yellow Springs Hospital. Source: http://valleyforgemusterroll.org/muster.asp. More can be read about hospitals during the Colonial time period in Supplying Washington's Army http://www.history.army.mil/books/RevWar/risch/chpt-13.htm written by Erna Risch for the Center of Military History, United States Army. 1981.
Sources of information:
1. Willard S. Morse, Descendants of Humphrey Hide of Fairfield, Conn., about 1913.
2. Connecticut Men in the Revolution, pp. 162, 331, 353.
3. Edwain Markham, ed., The Real America in Romance, 9 (1912): 310, 311, 313, 322-330.
4. Bruce Lancaster, From Lexington to Liberty, 1955, pp. 327, 329, 334-5, 355, 356, 446, 449-454.
5. Revolutionary War Pension File of James Hyde, General Services Administration, Washington, D. C.
6. Manchester, Vermont, Deeds and Vital Records.
7. Strafford, Vermont, Deeds and Vital Records.
8. Abby Maria Hemenway, Vermont Historical Gazetteer, 2 (1871):1080.
9. Private Journal of William Hyde (1818-1874).
Picture of Betty Pennock found online at FamilySearch.
Pictures of Yorktown found on the BritishBattles.com website.
Picture of Valley Forge found on the Encyclopedia Britannica website. Credit: The Granger Collection, New York.
Picture of Battle of Monmouth found on the American Revolution website
http://www.americanrevolution.org/leutzelg.html
