Private Isaac Morehouse, American Revolution

From my genealogical researches, I thought it might be interesting to share on a July 4th some of the Revolutionary War experiences of ancestors or forebears.  This year, the spotlight is on fifth great-uncle Isaac Morehouse, son of my fifth great-grandfather Andrew Morehouse (1726-1801).  Colonel Andrew Morehouse played key roles in the Northern Campaigns and it appears that all Morehouse males of service age served in the War, Andrew and his brother John as well as six of Andrew's sons of whom Isaac was one.

Isaac was only nineteen at the beginning of the war.  He signed up initially as a Minute Man in the county militia, served the entire war, the latter part in the Continental Line.  

During the course of the war, we have documentation of his service at the battles of Harlem Heights, (September 16th, 1776) and White Plains, (October 28th, 1776), as well as Fort Independence, January 18-19, 1777

His records at the Department of Defense.  

From around January 1, 1776, Isaac Morehouse served one year as a private and waiter in Captain Andrew Billings’ and Benjamin Pelton’s Companies, Colonel Rudolphus Ritzema’s Regiment, and was in the battles of Harlem Heights and White Plains

From April 1777 four months as a private in Captain Scribner’s Company, Colonel Lamb’s Regiment; immediately after the expiration of his service, five months in Captain Anthony Post’s Company, Colonel Lamb’s Regiment; following this service, six weeks in Captain Scribner’s Company, no dates stated, and six weeks in Captain David Hecock’s Company.  

Was in the attack on Fort Independence, where he was slightly wounded; from in April 1778, until February, 1779, as a private in Captain William Pearce’s Company, Colonel Graham’s Regiment.  In June, 1779, he served five days under Sergeant Butler and was out against the Tories, and in 1780, he served eight days at Westpoint.  He continued in the service until the end of the war as a private in Captain Pearce’s Company, Colonel Graham’s Regiment.  

From Niagara frontier: a narrative and documentary history Volume III Biographical, we have a more detailed account.

Isaac Morehouse served throughout the Revolutionary war and was pensioned.  He was an orderly with General George Washington, was present when General Washington signed the death warrant of Major Andre, the British spy, and also witnessed the execution of this English officer.  He was engaged in practically all the important battles fought on New York ground, and was with General Greene in the latter's southern campaign, fought at Eutaw Springs, Cowpens, Guilford Court House, and was with General Washington at Valley Forge and at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Jamestown.  Isaac Morehouse also served his country during the War of 1812, and was engaged with six of his sons (including Peter) at the Battle of Plattsburg, New York, in 1814.

I have not been able to document the claims regarding Isaac's involvement in the Southern Campaign.

The Morehouse family had moved into New York in the 1750s from their roots in Fairfield, Connecticut and Saybrook Connecticut.  Isaac Morehouse ended up on Chatterton Hill during the Battle of White Plains, possibly because there was a Connecticut regiment under Colonel Gold S. Silliman there.  Silliman's account of the action on Chatterton Hill in which Isaac Morehouse partook is from The campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn by Johnston, Henry Phelps, 1842-1923

Page 52.  “COL. GOLD S. SILLIMAN TO HIS WIFE, FAIRFIELD, CONN.”

Colonel Silliman’s account of the Battle of White Plains and in particular, the battle for Chatterton Hill in a position collocated with Private Isaac Morehouse.  

“Camp at White Plains Oct. 29th 1776.

... Yesterday about 10 o'clock in the morning we had news that the enemy were approaching, when I with my regiment & 3 others were ordered out about 1½ miles below our lines to take post on a hill to gall them in their march as they advanced. We accordingly took our post & mine & one other regiment had the advantage of a stone wall right in front at which we had been waiting but little time before the enemy came up within 6 or 8 rods,—when our men rose from behind the wall, poured in a most furious fire.

The enemy retreated & came on several times & were so hotly received every time that finally we drove them off from the hill. We killed some they did not carry off & some they did.

I had not one either killed or wounded. On this the enemy were coming upon us with a number of field pieces & as we had none there to meet them with, we were ordered to retreat over West on to another Hill & join another party of men & accordingly did it & formed a line of battle. We were I believe near 2000 on the Hill (Chatterton's). The enemy soon brought their main body opposite to us & formed them into three lines, one back of the other, & a large number of field pieces in their front & howitzers with which they threw small bombs on another Hill. Then they marched their first line off from the Hill where they stood, down into a deep Valley that lay between us & then they played on us most furiously with their artillery to keep us from meeting their people in the hollow & in short the shot & shells came like hail. I lay right in the heaviest of their fire, with my men by a fence & had two wounded there & were soon ordered to another post further on the line of battle up to which the enemy soon came as they did for a long way in lengths. We gave them a heavy fire which made them retreat but they soon returned when a most furious fire followed which continued for a few minutes when their numbers were increased so amazingly that we were obliged to retreat which we did thro' a most furious fire from the enemy for half a mile for so far there was so far there was nothing to cover us from it.... I have lost but 4 out of my reg't & can hear of only 10 or 12 wounded. We are all now within our line & the enemy are posted on a number of the neighboring hills & we expected they would have come on this morning when we should have had an engagement with both armies but they don't yet move & it is now about 12 o'clock.

[Originals in possession of Mrs. O.P. Hubbard, New York.]

Here is David McCullough' account in Seventeen Seventy-six.  

At last, on October 28, ten days after landing at Pell’s Point, William Howe sent 13,000 redcoats and Hessians up the main road to White Plains. It was early morning and yet another sparkling fall day. Washington, determined to avoid any test of strength on an open field, was well dug in on high ground in back of the village, his lines reaching more than a mile in length. For a brief time, it looked as though Howe intended to attack head-on, as the Americans hoped he would. British field guns opened fire, and Howe’s army marched in perfect order in two columns straight for where Washington commanded at the center. “The sun shone bright, their arms glittered, and perhaps troops never were shown to more advantage than these now appeared,” wrote General Heath of the oncoming foe.

Suddenly, one column wheeled sharply left in the direction of a higher hill on the American right, on the other side of the Bronx River. Chatterton’s Hill was thickly wooded on its slopes but had open fields above, and it dominated the American lines. “Yonder is the ground we ought to occupy,” Charles Lee had reportedly told Washington, but only at the last hour had troops been rushed to defend Chatterton’s Hill and these were mainly militia.

The British artillery moved to closer range. Cannon roared on both sides. “The air and hills smoked and echoed terribly,” wrote a Pennsylvania soldier. “The fences and walls were knocked down and torn to pieces, and men’s legs, arms, and bodies mingled with cannon and grapeshot all round us.”

Washington ordered more men to the top of Chatterton’s Hill. The British and Hessians forded the river, and the Hessians, part of the newly arrived 7,000 led by Colonel Johann Rall, launched the uphill charge. The militia broke and ran, and while the reinforcements, including Colonel Haslet’s Delaware troops and Smallwood’s Marylanders, fought bravely, they had to give way at the last.

The Battle of White Plains was the battle of Chatterton’s Hill and the British and the Hessians carried the day. But it was at a cost of more than 250 casualties, twice what the Americans suffered. Nor was it a victory that achieved anything.