Two terms come up when describing roving bands of colonial plunderers who preyed on the residents of Westchester County, New York during the American Revolution: British marauders were called cowboys and patriotic pillagers were referred to as skinners. Though countless historical publications support this or claim that skinners were composed of both British and American partisan groups, colonists who took one side or the other to basically fight a civil war, the truth of the matter is that skinners were not patriots, but British partisan groups. Both cowboys and skinners were two and the same and the source of this confusion can be traced to one individual.
At the start of the American Revolution, the county of Westchester, just north of New York City, was among the richest and most populous of the rural counties in the colonies. By war’s end, most of the county, especially a twenty-mile-wide region labeled the neutral ground, would be totally devastated. Farms were abandoned and entire communities became ghost towns. Roads were vacant of traffic. Bridges destroyed and left in ruins. Most of the county’s residents eventually fled the carnage. Those who remained witnessed frequent clash of arms between British and American troops stationed in and around the borders of the county; dragoon horsemen and light infantry who left their posts to forage and gather information on their enemy’s movements. But most horrific to those who tried to continue their lives in the war-torn region were the constant threat of ‘barbarous behavior’ by bands of thugs and highwaymen who claimed loyalty to both England and America. Labeled cowboys and skinners, they professed their actions as sanctioned by passions of patriotism or loyalty to the crown.
As rhetoric boiled over into outright hostilities and clash of arms, the residents of Westchester County, content in their prolific lifestyle, wished to remain out of the fray. To many engulfed in the passions of change, there was no place for an impartial county that just wanted to be left alone. To the agitators of the times, this neutral, apathetic population of the County of Westchester appeared as Tories or Loyalists; perhaps on the principle that “those who are not with us are against us.” Westchester County was labeled a “hotbed of inimicals” and would be dealt with cruelly by patriotic bands of soldiers and vigilantes as well as partisan groups of Tories foraging for the British army. Add to this mixture were those of lesser means who were envious of the county’s wealth and saw an opportunity to exact not only revenge, but an opportunity for self-worth through looting.
At the time of the American Revolution, skinners was a term applied to British partisan units who pilfered the citizens of the Westchester County region – not patriot partisan groups. Yet the patriotic men who caught Major Andre (Benedict Arnold’s co-conspirator spy at West Point, NY) have since been referred to as skinners. Historically, skinners have been identified as strictly American patriots. But this is incorrect. The Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, attempting to walk the middle road, defined skinners as a “band of guerrillas and irregular cavalry claiming attachment to either British or American troops operating in Westchester County in New York during the American Revolution.” However, there is but one mention of skinners as patriot pillagers in any portion of the vast collection of Revolutionary daybooks and dispatches. The term skinners was bandied around frequently and often recorded among Westchester County residents and American troops, but only in the context of describing Tory or partisan bands of plunderers. The referral to patriots did not begin until some decades after the war ended, a gross twist on historical accuracy by one author, and from there snowballed over the years by countless others until our scholarly texts joined the bandwagon.
The origin of the term Skinner did not come from any patriot guerrilla group ‘skinning’ Hudson Valley farmers of their food or household goods. Skinners were simply the three battalions of British refugee or partisan volunteers raised by the fifty-year-old attorney general of New Jersey, Brigadier General Cortland Skinner. Under his Tory leadership, his skinners saw partisan service for King George III in and around New York City from 1778 – 1783. They, like cowboys (another term loosely applied to British Tory groups or partisan marauders who stole or confiscated cattle and drove them to British markets and army camps) foraged and pilfered the county and it was from the residents and rebel troops that the term was applied. Plumb Martin, a private in Douglas’ State Militia wrote in 1776 that a local militia officer had gathered some goods, but part of the enemy “dominated “Cowboys” destroyed his stores.” However, when Martin’s book was edited by George F. Scheer for publication in 1964 under the new title Private Yankee Doodle, he added a footnote claiming that rebel sympathizers called themselves skinners.
So, how did skinners become associated with patriots? As mentioned, there is only one primary source referral to skinners as purely patriotic plunderers. Surgeon’s mate William Lawton of the 5th Mass. wrote: “More than savages; men who under the guise of patriotism prowl through the community with a thirst for plunder that is unsalable and a love of cruelty that mocks the ingenuity of the Indian—fellows whose mouths are filled with liberty and equality, and whose hearts are overflowing with cupidity and gall— gentlemen they are yclept the Skinners.” Could one quote buried in a single journal spiral to put a twist on historical accuracy? The answer lies in an author’s desire to gain profits overshadowing historical content. The use of skinner to describe rebel highwaymen was the brainchild of an 1820’s popular author, James Fenimore Cooper.
Having married a direct descendent of Lt. Colonel James De Lancey, Susan De Lancey Cooper, he came across a publication of her ancestor’s actions during the war. James De Lancey was the nephew of Oliver De Lancey who British General Howe put in charge of organizing bands of “cowboys” to comb Westchester County to provide forage for the British army stationed in New York City. His nephew, James, commanded the more notorious outfit whose brutality in dealing with both citizens and soldiers was shocking and inhumane. Cooper read the manuscript and decided to write a novel based loosely on the material within. The Spy; a Tale of the Neutral Ground was published in 1821 and became a huge success, both in America and abroad, even translated into Russian. He was the first to constantly refer to patriot marauders in Westchester County as skinners. No doubt to gain points with his wife, he downplayed De Lancey’s role of the atrocities committed against the residents and pinned the blame squarely on the shoulders of rebel rouges. Skinner became synonymous with rebel bands of plunders. It became so popular in use that countless authors have identified patriot ‘rouge raiders’ as skinners. A misconception that continues just as strongly today as it did nearly two hundred years ago.
For Further Reading on the American Revolution in and around New York City, check out the free previews of the following books on Amazon.
Also on Revolutionary War Journal
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
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.
Dawson, Henry B. Westchester-County New York During the American Revolution. 1886: Published by author for the Massachusetts Historical Society, Morrisania, New York.
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.
Martin, James “Joseph Plumb” Sullivan. A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers, and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier… 1830: Glazier, Masters & Co., Hallowell, Maine, Sheer, George F. editor. Yankee Doodle Boy: A Young Soldier’s Adventures in the American Revolution, Told by Himself. 1964: Reprint published by the editor.
Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. 1968: Springfield, MA.
Tiedemann, Joseph S & Fingerhut, Eugene R. Other New York: The American Revolution Beyond New York City, 1763 – 1787. 2012: SUNY Press, Albany, New York.