Mention cowboys and John Wayne slinging his saddle over his arm during a clip from the classic 1939 John Ford movie Stagecoach might come to mind. Cowboys are synonymous with rough and tumble ranchers, cowhands, and gunslingers of the old west, strutting up to the bar, slapping the dust off their chaps, and ordering a bottle of whiskey before sitting down to a game of poker. But turn the clock back to 1777 and the word cowboy immediately struck fear in the hearts of thousands of farmers and residents throughout Westchester County, New York, just north of New York City. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), cowboys were roving bands of Loyalists or Tories in what has become known as partisan groups. For citizens of Westchester County, whose only concern in the war was to be left alone, not taking either side, their worst nightmare bore out. Far more terrifying than being caught in the crossfire of battling troops, was the expectation that at any moment, a group of banditti thugs would swoop down, bust in your door in the name of the crown or patriotism, take all you had, clean out your barn of supplies and livestock, and if you were fortunate, you and your family would escape with your lives. It was terrorism pure and simple and both Americans and British condoned it.
While British and American troops squared off and battled on the ‘field of honor’, colonials from both sides of the conflict banded together to form their own battalions and regiments of what could be described as organized mobs of vigilantes. Besides supporting the British military or Continental Army, these Whig and Tory units became embroiled in a form of civil war – colonials fighting colonials in a contest of patriotism verses the crown. Whereas Washington and British General Howe had a strict code of discipline and respect of one’s enemy, ‘a code of honor’ so to speak, for these groups of marauders and plunderers, there was no code but kill or be killed, while taking anything and everything you could. Greed and revenge often won out over moral or ‘worthy causes’, exacting some of the most horrendous bloodshed and hideous actions of the war. The British took one step further than their rebel adversaries, they actively recruited armed Tory groups and outfitted them, complete with weapons, uniforms, and in many cases, horses for quick, guerrilla type tactics to achieve their lawless ends. They were the cowboys, the first true use of the word, and far from the image of Alan Ladd as the noble western gunslinger Shane, who stood firmly for justice and the victims of ruthless violence.
Once the British invaded New York City in August of 1776 and chased Washington’s army north into Westchester County and the Hudson Valley, the two sides would remain fixed and embedded on the same static lines for the next seven years. The British would hold the key harbor of New York as winter quarters and a base for all future waring operations throughout the colonies. So too, Washington kept a division, at times his entire army, stationed in the Peekskill region of Westchester County to act as a buffer against any incursion the British might affect towards New England while also keeping the redcoats and their German allies hemmed in at New York. To the south, the British maintained posts at Kingsbridge (just north of Manhattan), Morrisania, and Westchester to the Long Island Sound. To the north the Americans encamped troops at Peekskill and outfitted posts from the Croton River across the county to Long Island Sound. The region that separated these adversaries, a large portion of Westchester County, which was not controlled by either side, was termed the Neutral Ground.
Between these two foes, literally caught in an enormous vice, this Neutral Ground, was the heart of Westchester County, considered one of the most prosperous and wealthiest counties of all the colonies – a virtual English County of rolling hills and neat, well stocked farms. As the war progressed, these farmers and residents soon found themselves in a ‘no man’s land’ of constant fighting with frequent skirmishes between armed parties. However, both the American and British military rarely patrolled this twenty-mile-wide buffer zone between their forces. This area was left to fend for itself and was subjected to the whims of partisan groups such as cowboys and another term loosely applied to Tory armed units, skinners. [Skinners have mistakenly been identified as patriot partisan groups. This is incorrect, skinners were also Loyalists. For an in-depth explanation and source of this misinformation, see Revolutionary War Journal’s article “Skinners” Land Pirates of the American Revolution Myths and Reality]
The word cowboy referred to British partisan groups who forged and rounded up cattle to be driven back to British lines, or to vessels at ports along the Long Island Sound to be shipped through Hell’s Gate to the army stationed at New York City. Among the most notorious and numerous of these vigilante-like bands of Tory militias was the battalion led by Lt. Colonel James De Lancey[1] (1746-1804) who had been labeled the “Commander of the Cowboys” or “Outlaw of the Bronx”. Oliver De Lancey[2] (1718-1785), James De Lancey’s uncle, was a wealthy New York City Loyalist. Once British General William Howe successfully invaded and captured the city, Oliver raised and equipped three battalions ultimately consisting of 1,500 loyalist volunteers. They roamed and raided farms on foraging excursions throughout New Jersey, Long Island, and Westchester County. It was in Westchester County that Oliver’s nephew James became famous for his ruthless and barbaric actions.
Among the most hideous acts Colonel De Lancey’s cowboys committed during the war was the attack and brutal dismemberment of Colonel Christopher Greene (1737-1781)[3], third cousin to Major General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. De Lancey’s attack preceded the racial barbarism committed during the American Civil War and later by the KKK and mob lynchings of the racially motivated viciousness of the “Jim Crow” south. Colonel Greene commanded the first ‘all black regiment’ of mainly African Americans – the 1st Rhode Island. On May 14, 1781, he and Major Ebenezer Flagg, along with several African American soldiers were attacked at their camp in the middle of the night. Greene’s men formed a circle around their commander and fought to the death to try and save his life, but they were overwhelmed by the cowboys and all were put to the sword. De Lancey was not content to see Greene dead, but desired to make an example of one who led black soldiers and former slaves against the crown. He ordered Greene’s body to be mutilated. It was reported that “his body [Greene’s] was found in the woods, about a mile distant from his tent, cut, and mangled in the most shocking way.”
The result of countless forays had almost reverted the county back to its original condition of a wilderness, especially within the limits of the Neutral Ground; roads were obliterated, bridges were destroyed, farm-steads with their barns and outbuildings were fired, and the land, deprived of its usual careful cultivation, went back to its natural state. The population of the county decreased over thirteen thousand during the seven years that it was the field of this kind of fighting (a loss of sixty per cent on the enumeration of 1771). By war’s end the Neutral Ground was almost deserted.[4]
Timothy Dwight, a chaplain in the army, and afterwards president of Yale College, wrote: “These unhappy people [the inhabitants of Westchester county] were, therefore, exposed to the depredations of both [sides of the conflict]. Often, they were actually plundered; and always were liable to this calamity. They feared everybody whom they saw; and loved nobody… Fear was, apparently, the only passion by which they were animated.” He went on to write: “Their houses in the meantime, were in a great measure, scenes of desolation. Their furniture was extensively plundered, or broken in pieces. The walls, floor, and windows were injured both by violence and decay; and were not repaired, because they had not the means of repairing them, and because they were exposed to repetition of the same injuries. Their cattle were gone. The fields were grown with a rank growth of weeds, and wild grass…. The world was motionless and silent; except when one of these unhappy people ventured upon a rare, and lonely, excursion to the house of a neighbor…”[5]
During the last year of the war, when both sides were awaiting the news of the completion of the arrangements for peace, the operations of the regular military were suspended; and the neutral ground was given over to irresponsible bands of cowboys and greed-driven patriots – thieves, plunderers and cutthroats, who paid very little attention to the politics of their victims, seeking anything that could be stolen. The withdrawal of the British posts and garrisons from the territory adjacent to the Harlem River and the Long Island Sound opened up a fresh field for the operations of these plunderers among those inhabitants who had chosen to remain instead of going into the city of New York with the retiring British troops. By the end of the war, the once populous county of Westchester was an empty and depleted land, reminiscent of a battleground which had been fought over for seven bloody years.
For Further Reading on the American Revolution in and around New York City and African American Soldiers, check out the free previews of the following books on Amazon.
Also on Revolutionary War Journal
“Skinners” Land Pirates of the American Revolution Myths and Reality
American Light Dragoons and Partisan Corps in the Revolutionary War
Battle of White Plains – Oct. 28, 1776. Washington Draws His Foot in the Sand
SOURCE
Chopra, Ruma. Unnatural Rebellion, Loyalists in New York City During the Revolution. 2011: University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA.
Daughan, George C. Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence. 2016: W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY.
Diamant, Lincoln. Editor Johnson, James M. Patriot Friends or Loyalist Foes. Chapter 6 in Key to the Northern Country: The Hudson River Valley in the American Revolution. 2013: SUNY Press, Albany, NY.
Foley, Gerard. The Hudson River Valley Institute: The Hudson Valley Cowboys and Skinners: Separating Truth from Myth https://hudsonrivervalley.wordpress.com/2018/10/19/cowboys-and-skinners-in-the-revolution/
Jenkins, Stephen. “The Cowboys, The Skinners, And the Neutral Ground.” New York State Historical Association. Vol. IX. (1910) pp 160- Published by the New York State Historical Association, Glens Falls Publishing and Printing, Glens Falls, NY.
Salmon, Stuart. The Loyalist Regiments of the American Revolutionary War 1775-1783. 2009: Dissertation Phd Requirements for History, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK.
FOOTNOTES
[1] James De Lancey would live through the war and escape New York City when the British evacuated it in November of 1783. He would become notorious again when as an active slave holder, he tried to force the courts of Nova Scotia Canada to allow him to legally obtain his slaves. He was denied this action by the British courts which had by then acknowledge slavery as a hideous, illegal act.
[2] Oliver De Lacey, a notorious loyalist with a price on his head, his home had already been plundered and confiscated by patriots, left New York City with the British army in November, 1783. Of poor health, he died two years later in Yorkshire, England.
[3] Colonel Christopher Greene, besides making his mark in history as being the first commander of an “all black” regiment during the American Revolution (excepting British Lord Dunmore Ethiopian Brigade of Virginia), he was one of the commanders during the Battle of Red Bank in which 400 Americans defeated a Hessian army over four times their size – resulting in the second largest casualties of the British forces in the war.
[4] Jenkins, pg. 163.
[5] Ibid.