REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS
OF
QUEENS COUNTY*
Onderdonk 1846
Hempstead
Hempstead was selected as one of their outposts by the British, and as convenient quarters
for their light-horse, who would be near the city in case of attack, and could also make
excursions to gather forage, &c., for the city, and scour the country when
the rebels landed from the Main.
The streets were garnished with sentry boxes, and the horse patroled for
miles around. Col. Birch was quartered at Capt. Pintard's, (now Mrs. Thorne's.)
When the troops first came here in '78, they used the Presbyterian church as a barrack for
soldiers. J. A. was impressed to cart brick from Brower's kiln, Rockaway, to build a chimney therein.
The church was used as a guard house, and prison also, J. J. has seen culprits flogged at the whipping-post in it.
At last the floor was ripped up, the sills taken out, and the building turned into a riding school for drilling the light-horse.
The grave stones were used for fire-backs, hearths and oven-bottoms, so that the impress of the letters was left on the
loaves.
On the outside of the church were rings to which soldiers were suspended by one hand with their foot resting on a sharp
stake or picket set in the ground, the remaining hand and foot being tied together. These pickets were occasionally of iron,
and, by the writhing of the sufferer, would sometimes pierce through the foot. The culprit was then sent to the hospital,
and would often be lame for weeks. There were also pickets in the rear of Simonson's barn, the rope running over the
roof. This torture could be endured only for a short time. Sometimes by the connivance of the guard a chip or dollar
might be slipped under the stocking. This was the punishment of the light-horse. The Hessians ran the gauntlet; that is, the
culprit walked between two files of soldiers, each of whom gave him a blow with a birch rod, an officer walking before the
criminal so that he should not go too fast, and another seeing that each soldier gave a good hearty blow.
An apple-tree east of the Presbyterian burying ground, was also used as a whipping-post. Here J. B. saw two deserters of
the 60th receive, as was said, 1000 lashes save one. The blue facing of their red coats was torn off, and they were then
turned out of the regiment.
There were huts for the soldiers built of sods, with ridge poles, east of the village, along the brook.
Boards were in great demand for barracks and stables, and they were taken wherever found.
A. O. had some excellent Albany boards selected for repairing his house, which were carried off to Hempstead.
The Presbyterian church, at Foster's Meadow, was taken to pieces, and I. D. assisted in removing it to Hempstead.
A chimney was built in each end.-W. Hart was at school in the Presbyterian church at Islip, when a company of
light-horse rode up and bid the teacher dismiss school, and the boys take their books home. In a few hours, the church,
boards, timbers and all, were carted in six-horse wagons to Hempstead. The poor-house, a long building was also used as
a barrack. Probably many other outbuildings were taken to pieces.
Soldiers were at time billeted for three or four miles around Hempstead. The school-house at Christian Hook was
occupied by some of the 60th regiment. A half-pay officer hung himself by a strip of linen at the Parsonage Bars.
There were Hessians at L. Cornell's mill, and at Patrick Mott's (now Simonson's.)
The light-horse (16th and 17th united) lay at Hempstead every winter from '78 till the peace, and occasionally in the
summer, when they also lay about the county in tents. Their horses were turned out to pasture on the salt meadows, and
sometimes in clover fields just ready to be cut, or into oats as it was heading out, and continued there till the crop was
ruined. A fixed price, though very inadequate, was usually allowed for the damage.
The horsemen wore a brass cap, sword proof, (shape of a jockey cap,) surmounted by a cone, from which chestnut
colored hair dangled down upon their shoulders, a red coat, spurs, black boots, buckskin breeches, (kept of a bright
yellow with a buff-ball.) and had a long sword, with a carbine supported by the muzzle in a socket at the stirrup.
These horsemen were called the "Queen's Own," and were a model of discipline and beauty, and when mounted on their
noble chargers, 16 hands high, they were indeed formidable.
They would lash on behind them hay for a week's expedition, twisted and trussed up like a bundle of cord. Their oats
(large black and white) and peas came from England, and with other foreign articles, were landed at White Stone, and
conveyed over land to Hempstead.+ So wearied were the farmers with this vexatious labor, that they became desperate,
and would let a hogshead of rum roll full tilt against something to set a leaking, and then fall to and drink.
Hence, Black Stump got its name. A lane was opened in carting, by a black stump.
One night before the troops were to set out on a expedition, a stable with all its horses was burnt, supposed to be the work
of some one impressed, who did not wish to with them.
The horses stood
on poles
laid lengthwise, or on sand daily renewed.
The wood-yard and hay magazine were north of Sammis's Inn, enclosed and guarded. There were to be seen numerous
long stakcs of hay, containing 100 or 200 loads. The wood or hay was inspected as the farmers brought it in, and
certificates given, payable at the Forage Office, N.Y.
Once G. H. was carting wood, and the inspector, (who was also sutler,) wanted some cider, ($8 a barrel) But Mr. H. had
to bring his cord a day, and so had no time to bring the cider. "Bring the cider." said the sutler, emphatically. H.
took the hint, corded in a barrel of cider with the wood, and all passed inspection; and so he kept on till all the cider was
delivered, and saved as much wood in each cord as the space occupied by the barrel.
The Rev. L. Cutting taught school, and preached here, at Huntington, and Oyster Bay. From the disorder of the times.
religion was a a low ebb. G. J. has attended church here, (when the Chaplain of the light-horse preached,) and there was
but one citizen present.
338. Hempstead was a small village in the war, only nine houses between the brooks,
three taverns, viz: Sammis's; Simonson's (now Anderson's) and opposite, Jacobus
Lawrence's, who could boast of nine good feather-beds, and entertained all the gentry.