DRAFT: REVOLUTIONARY WARwick (Orange County, NY)

The Orange County militia was originally organized as three regiments. Soon it was realized that the Goshen Regiment covered  too large an area to be practical, so it was split into the Third (Goshen) Regiment and the Fourth (Warwick & Florida Regiment). 

John Hathorn was appointed Colonel of the Fourth, after having initially been recommended for a New York Line Colonel (Continental Army). Research shows that by the end of the war, over 1,000 men served under him during the Revolution.

Troop lists and information are here: https://guides.rcls.org/hathornj/troops

Many of the Fourth Regiment militia men were at the major battles of the Hudson River corridor and elsewhere.  They were often called upon to boost the efforts of the small and struggling Continental Army. 

Many of them, during the long war, often switching between units of militia or the Continental Army and its Levies, saw action far away. 

Battles and actions men of Warwick were at, either in combat or as reserves. Although few of the men lived long enough to document their service when pension applications were finally allowed in 1832, we can glean these few names of the many who served, from surviving records:

• 1774 The Boston Tea Party (John Cowdrey, Sr.; stayed often in Warwick, buried here)
• 1775 Lexington & Concord (John Cowdrey, Sr.)
• 1775 The Invasion of Quebec (As part of the Third NY Regiment, Continental Line: McCain, William;Garret Reed)
• 1776 The Battle for New York (Col. John Hathorn; Bayles, Nehemiah;Blain, William; Burt, Thomas; Clark, Richard; Dolen, Abraham; Finton, John: Ketchum, Nathaniel; Luckey, George; Reed, Garrett; Sammons, John; Sayre, Nathan; Smith, Abraham; Wisner, Asa; Wisner, John Sr.)
• 1776 The Battle of White Plains (Babcock, James; Bailey, John, Bayles, Nehemiah, Brooks, John; Burt, Thomas; Carpenter, Benjamin; Clark, James; Demorest, Peter; Foght, John m., Capt.; Gilbert, Daniel; Hall, John; Hopper, Lambert; Jackson, Enoch; Ketchum, Azariah; Ketchum, Nathaniel; Lamoreaux, Joseph; McWhorter, Henry; Miller, James; Nanny, David;  Sayre, Job; Smith, Abraham; Totten, Levi; Wisner, John Jr., Capt.)
• 1776 Battle of Trenton (Knapp, Caleb; Miller, James; Miller, James, Jr.)
• 1777 Battle of Fort Montgomery (Bower, Joel; Finton, John)
• 1777 Battle of Saratoga (Knapp, Caleb; McCain, William; Miller, James)
• 1777 Sept. Battle of Brandywine (Knapp, Caleb)
• 1778  Battle of Monmouth (Babcock, James; Bower, Joel)
• 1779 July 16: Battle of Stony Point (Knapp, William)
• 1779 Battle of Minisink (Hathorn, John, commanding; Babcock, James;  Bayles, Nehemiah; Bertholf, Henry; Burroughs, Philip; Curry, William; Finch, Nathaniel (KIA); Jennings, Isaac [guarding horses]; Miller, John; Poppino John [guarding horses]; Totten, Levi; Wood, John, Lieut. (KIA)
• 1781 Battle of Yorktown (Benjamin, Samuel; Knapp, Caleb)

Wounded or killed in action:

• Adams, Matthew: Wounded and invalided in August 1781, wounded by sentry while encamped at Dobbs Ferry with Continental Army just prior to march to Yorktown.
• Babcock, James: Wounded at Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1779 with Continental Army
• Carpenter, John: Killed in action at the Battle of Minisink, July 22, 1779.
• Finch, Nathaniel, Adj.: Killed in action at the Battle of Minisink, July 22, 1779.
• Little, James: Killed in action at the Battle of Minisink, July 22, 1779.
• Michell, John: Wounded near Colt's Neck, 1782; in POW hospital.
• Ward, Isaac: Killed in action at the Battle of Minisink, July 22, 1779.

Prisoners of War:

• Hall, John: Sugar House prison for seven months, May 28, 1779-Jan 1780.
• Hall, Stephen: Sugar House prison for seven months, May 28, 1779-Jan 1780.
• Mitchell, John: Sugar house prison, 1782 

Guarding British and other POWs:  

• Prisoners of  Stony Point 1779: Blain, William, Major (commanded the guard for the march of prisoners to Easton, PA; left Stony Point July 19, 1779); Bennit, Ephraim; Hall, Stephen; Poppino, John; Sayre, Nathan.
• March of the Convention Army (Burgoyne's captured troops) 1778 : The thousands of British troops captured at Saratoga marched though Warwick in the early winter of 1778, on their 700 mile trek between Cambridge, MA and Virginia. The first week of December, two diaries mention their passage through our area:
  • "Dec. 4, 13 Miles.  Through a place called Florida to Warrick, a Township.  The weather was very changeable during our march through York State.  It froze at night, but was warm enough in the day to melt the ice again.  The part of the province of New York through which we marched is little cultivated.  The houses are miserable and most of the country is wooded.  There are some good corn fields, however.  A great part of the inhabitants is for the King and many have for this reason, besides kept prisoners, lost all their possessions.  The Tories are treated very badly in this province and sometimes tortured half to death." (Journal of Du Roi the Elder.)
  • "Dec. 1, 1778.  Departed 8 AM from here (Goshen), passed Goshen Court House, where there were various nice, well-built houses; we had very poor roads today, and arrived at 9PM at Warwick, where we remained, 11 miles." ("German Accounts of the March of the Convention Army Through Orange County" by Col. Donald Londahl-Smidt. Orange County Genealogical Society Journal. Vol. 18, Nov. 1999.

Why Levi Totten joined the Continental Army

Excerpt from pension application S21,538; Continental Army & Hathorn's militia

“Your Petitioner was born in the Precinct of Goshen, in the County of Orange, in the Province, now State of New York on the second Day of May AD 1759, Was the Son of a Farmer of that Place. …Your Petitioner further states that when he was yet a Youth, the Acts of the British Parliament for blocking up, or shutting the Harbor of Boston, and for seizing and carrying Persons accused or suspected of Crimes, to Places beyond Sea for Trial, not by a Jury of their Peers, or the Law of the Land, together with other arbitrary Decrees of the British Government, raised in the mind of your Petitioner, a Spirit of Opposition which never forsook him. That on Reading an Account of the Commencement of Hostilities at Lexington, by a Detachment from the British Army at Boston. Your Petitioner, with Intent to assist, if necessary, in defending the Rights and Liberties of his Injured Country, diligently learned the Use of the Firelock and Bayonet. And on or about the twenty second Day of February AD 1776, He left a Peaceful and comfortable Home, against the Consent of his Parents, and inlisted for one Year, a private Soldier in a Company, of which Daniel Denton of Goshen was Captain.”

Thomas Burt at the Battle for New York
Excerpt from pension application S23,140

“About the first of April, 1776 he enlisted in the company of Captain William Blain in the Orange County Militia in the State of New York in the Regiment of Col. Beardslee (Hathorn) of Warwick in the same County for the term of nine months and was marched on to Long Island where he remained till after the battle and the retreat of the American forces which he thinks took place in August in all which he took an active part. He was then at the Harlem Heights, Kingsbridge and White Plains and in the engagements at those places…”

Alexander Miller on constant attacks
Excerpt from pension application W23,990

“entered the service of the United States…about the month of April 1775..in a company of militia at Florida…under the command of Capt. Nathaniel Elmer, in the regiment commanded by Col. Hathorn... he (was at) West Point…where they were engaged in building a fort…the County of Orange aforesaid (in which he resided during the war of the revolution) subjected to attacks from the enemy and the Tories along the North River (who were sustained and encouraged by the British forces…) on the one side, and the Indians on the other, the inhabitants of the said county were in an almost constant state of alarm…he lived in the town of Warwick after the close of the Revolutionary War until the month of March 1795…”