George Washington, Vampire Slayer!

Excuse the Halloween hyperbole but now that I have your attention I can discuss hauntings in the time of the Yankee Doodle Spies. Truth be told, had I begun the action and adventure series with a book titled, say, "The Marching Dead," I'd be on easy street today. People like to be scared and they prefer the macabre and horrifying over mundane things such as action and intrigue. Just imagine if you will, a tale of a rebel unit massacred while bivouacking at a cemetery. Only this unit of wraiths rises, Zombie-like, whenever the Cause needs them. Imagine still a team of cunning British officers desperately trying to find a way to stop this phantom army's onslaught not realizing that silver, not lead balls would do the trick... what's in your ammo box?

Greenwood cemetery in Brooklyn, New York

The American Revolution has more than its share of hauntings and spooky tales. Most of these are known only locally (most hauntings are locally celebrated). And most are tied to places... a Poltergeist-like phenomenon. But one legend is a national story of long-standing: Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. The original story of Ichabod Crane, the superstitious schoolmaster fearful of the legendary headless horseman of the Old Dutch Church spooked young and old alike for generations. I recall driving through the tale's setting, Tarrytown New York, with my father as a boy. I was around ten. As we drove south on NY 9, he pointed to the church and cemetery and said, "the Headless Horseman of sleepy Hollow is here, the Hessian's ghost haunts the cemetery,"  and a chill went down my spine. It was broad daylight in the summer. Imagine how I'd feel on a dark October night? I'm not sure I knew what a Hessian was back then. But he had me at Headless Horseman. The tale evolved as new media brought the story to larger audiences and stretched the original plot to its breaking point. It has been made into radio shows, TV dramas, cartoons, and recently a major film (with Johnny Depp) and then a TV series (that stretches the plot to the next galaxy).

The Headless Horseman is the iconic RevWar Spook

Ringwood Manor

The Mid-Atlantic is chock full of RevWar hauntings. In a past Yankee Doodle Spies Blog, I discussed the Morris-Jumel house in New York's Harlem and the speculation and tales of its haunting. The Van Cortland Mansion, Greenwood Cemetery (ground zero for the Battle of Long Island - a place the saw the most bloodshed of the war) are other New York venues. Just across the great North River, in Passaic, New Jersey stands Ringwood Manor. This was once the home of General Robert Erskine, who was the geographer for George Washington's army. Later he ran an ironworks on the grounds. He's buried near the manor house, and it's said that at dusk he sits on his grave, looking at the pond beyond. Some have reported his ghost walking the grounds, carrying a lantern. There are also French soldiers buried nearby, who fought for the American cause. They, too, come out at night and walk alongside the pond, speaking in French. The house itself is not the original but it has hauntings of its own stemming from the 19th century.

Erskine's ghost haunts Ringwood cemetery

New England, home of the Salem witch trials a century earlier, is no stranger to tales of the macabre. Boston Harbor’s scenic Long Island is home to one of the most tragic Boston ghost stories. At the close of the American Revolution's actions around Boston, the British still had several ships in the harbor, primarily to evacuate Loyal Americans who wished to depart before the rebels seized the city. Onboard one of these ships were William and Mary Burton. The young couple, ardent Loyalists were among those fleeing. While sailing from the harbor, a shot from the besiegers' battery on Long Island struck Mary in back of the head.

Mary Burton's ghost roams the Long Island Dunes

According to the legend, she lingered on for several days in excruciating pain before dying. In her death throes, Mary allegedly asked her husband not to bury her at sea. After she died, William returned to Long Island to fulfill his love's dying wish. He wrapped her bloodied corpse into a red blanket that Mary owned and buried her under the island's sand dunes. Her headstone was a piece of driftwood carved with her name.  Before leaving her grave, William swore that he would return someday with a real headstone. He never did. But according to the legend, Mary still waits for him. Over the years visitors to the island report seeing a woman with pallid skin covered in mud in a scarlet cloak walking among the dunes. Many report blood on her cloak and a gaping hole in the back of her head, where the cannon fire had struck her skull.

The South is no stranger to fantastic stories and RevWar hauntings are no exception. Ground zero for this is the site of THE major event of the war itself, Yorktown, Virginia. Here, in October (hmm...) 1781, a desperate British General Charles Cornwallis led his army in the vain expectation that the Royal Navy would extract him from a land now crawling with rebel soldiers and their French allies. Weeks of siege under trying conditions would set the stage for tales of the macabre that linger to this day. The depredations and sufferings of the siege make Yorktown frightfully haunted. From “Cornwallis’ Cave on the banks of the York River to Crawford Road – the town is a magnet for urban legends and ghostly tales. Cornwallis’ Cave has no specific connection to Cornwallis. But legend has it British troops took shelter in the cave to escape the incessant bombardment by Continental and French artillery.

Cornwallis's Cave

Some legends hold that the civilian residents of Yorktown took refuge there. Evidence does show that after the war the cave was probably used by smugglers. It is located along the waterfront. Perhaps they spread haunting tales to keep prying eyes from their lair? There are still reports that voices can be heard at night coming from the dark recesses of the cave. Those who follow such things believe them to be the voices of Revolutionary War soldiers, the moaning of the injured and dying hiding in the cave.

Myths are to cultures what dreams are to people. In a similar way, horror stories are to cultures what nightmares are to people. The eight-year war for independence was a nightmare for all involved. The Americans who suffered in rebellion; the Loyalists who lost their homes and property; and the British who lost their empire. It is perhaps only fitting that such a war be the well-spring of myth... and of horror. Have a spooky Halloween.  Stay frightened my friends...

Fort William and Mary

The scenic town of New Castle, New Hampshire is the site of the ruins of Fort William and Mary. Like the college in Virginia, the fort was named in tribute to the (sort of) iconic British rulers of the Glorious Rebellion fame. It is ironic that each played a role in establishing the British monarchy in America under the rubric of a revolution. But it did and some claim here the first armed resistance to royal authority began long before Lexington and Concord.

The Agitation

Royal Governor Wentworth

In May of 1774, the closure of Boston's port had most New Englanders inflamed. British authorities demanded the "salt-water tea" be paid for and Bostonians to show concede. In New Hampshire, the  Committee of Correspondence vowed to make Boston's fight their own.
Royal Governor John Wentworth knew there was now a radical shift in public opinion.  Recognizing a potential threat to Royal authority the governor tried to install a garrison at his only military post, Fort William and Mary in New Castle. But the Assembly, now antagonistic to the British, voted to grant him only 200 pounds to the enterprise. But Wentworth appointed an officer and three men to administer the fort, thus demonstrating the King's authority.  Not much of an army to stave off a revolution.



The Politics

The Assembly was not intimidated by Wentworth's measures. They voted later in the same month to establish a second Committee of Correspondence. Wentworth and the Rockingham County sheriff tried to intimidate and shut down the Assembly and dismissed them from the chamber for holding an illegal meeting. Undaunted, they retired to a local tavern and in that congenial atmosphere made plans for a Provincial Congress to be held at Exeter in July. Over the next few months, the situation around Boston went from simmer to boil and the impact spread across New England like a forest fire.





The Action

On December 13th, 1774, Paul Revere rode south to Portsmouth to report the ban importing military stores by the British and that rumors of expected British troops were the worst sort of rumors:  true rumors. John Sullivan, a Patriot leader and firebrand who just returned from the First Continental Congress, decided to take action. Along with local Patriot merchant John Langdon, he vowed to take the bastion of Royal authority

John Sullivan

sitting under their noses at New Castle. On the 14th, Langdon made his way through Portsmouth with a drummer rattling away. When he had collected a crowd, he spoke to them. About 400 joined him, forming a mob that went to take the powder from the fort. A single volley rang from the fort and was answered by some shots from the crowd, but there were no injuries. They stormed into the fort in a rush.  Breaking into the magazine, they removed about 100 barrels of powder. Overwhelmed, the fort's commandant, Captain John Cochran, quickly surrendered his four-man garrison. This marks Fort William and Mary as the setting for one of the first overt actions of the American struggle for independence. Some likened it to Lexington and Concord, but the lack of bloodshed makes it a little less compelling. Still, it was the first organized resistance to the King.

Fort William and Mary 1704

The Take

The next day, John Sullivan led additional rebel forces now streaming in from across the colony. They first surrounded the governor's home, but violence was avoided there, as Wentworth gave in to their demands. That evening, December 15th, they returned to the fort and removed all of the arms and supplies as well as some cannon. The action resulted in the Americans taking some booty, a tangible benefit. This included some sixty muskets, sixteen cannons, and one hundred barrels of precious powder. The gunpowder was quickly moved inland and spread among various armed groups in New Hampshire. Some of it may have gone to the Patriots around Boston. In a land starved of ordnance, this was a minor trove desperately needed.

Gunpowder from the fort moved inland over ice

The Place

History is about a sense of time, people, and place. So on a picturesque promontory overlooking the ocean, a colonial people, inflamed by perceived injustice, made their mark. In fact, New Castle is a scenic town of around 900. It is also the smallest town in the state and the easternmost. Its narrow streets are lined with colonial-style houses. The fort itself was built at the beginning of the 18th century upon the site of an earlier fort built to deter pirates. Its major landmark is the Fort Point Lighthouse built in 1877 on the site of an earlier lighthouse built-in 1771. Until the latter was built, the only navigational aid for the rocky harbor was a lantern hung high on Fort William and Mary.

Site of Fort William and Mary today