Battle of Bull's Ferry

Battle of Bull's Ferry
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Bulls Ferry Road descends from the top of the Hudson Palisades down to the river.
Date 20–21 July 1780 Location Bulls Ferry, New Jersey 40.789°N 74.000°W / 40.789; -74.000 Result British victory
Belligerents
United States	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
Anthony Wayne	Thomas Ward
Strength
2,000	70
Casualties and losses
15 killed, 49 wounded	5 killed, 16 wounded

The Battle of Bull's Ferry on 20 and 21 July 1780 saw two American brigades under Brigadier General Anthony Wayne attack a party of Loyalist Americans led by Thomas Ward. The Loyalists successfully defended a blockhouse against an ineffective bombardment by four American artillery pieces and a failed attempt to storm the position by Wayne's infantry. During the action, American light dragoons under Major Henry Lee drove off a large number of cattle that were kept in the area for the use of the British army in New York City. The clash inspired British Major John André to write a satirical ballad entitled The Cow Chace. The skirmish was fought at Bulls Ferry, New Jersey in the Northern theater of the American Revolutionary War after Saratoga.

Battle

On 20 July 1780, George Washington ordered Anthony Wayne to take the 1st and 2nd Pennsylvania Brigades, four artillery pieces, and Stephen Moylan's 4th Continental Light Dragoons to destroy a British blockhouse at Bulls Ferry, opposite New York City. The stockaded position was held by 70 Loyalists commanded by Thomas Ward, providing a base for British woodcutting operations and protection against raids by American militia.

At that time, the British kept cattle and horses on Bergen Neck to the south, within easy reach of foragers from the British garrison at Paulus Hook. A second motive for Wayne's operation was to seize the livestock for the use of Washington's army. Wayne sent his cavalry under the leadership of Light Horse Harry Lee to round up the cattle, while he took three regiments and the artillery to attack the blockhouse.

Early on 21 July, Wayne bombarded the blockhouse with his four cannons, but an hour later there were no discernable results. After being peppered with accurate fire from the blockhouse, the American soldiers from the 1st and 2nd Pennsylvania Regiments became impatient. Despite their officers, attempts to stop them, the soldiers dashed forward through the abatis to the base of the stockade. Once there, they found it impossible to break into the defensive works, and were defeated.

Result

Aside from John André's ballad, the consequences of the skirmish were the loss of lives and the seizure of cattle. Wayne reported losses of 15 enlisted men killed, plus three officers and 46 enlisted men wounded. The British commander, General Henry Clinton estimated that Wayne had almost 2,000 troops available. He admitted the loss of 21 casualties and reported that 50 round shot penetrated the blockhouse. In a poetical note at the end of The Cow Chace, André suggested that five Loyalists were killed.

Five refugees ('tis true) were found,
Stiff on the blockhouse floor;
But then 'tis thought the shot went round,
And in at the back door.

British Major John André penned a satirical verse The Cow Chace about the battle.

In one stanza, the British major poked fun at American claims that their cannon balls could not damage the blockhouse.

No shot could pass, if you will take
The General's word for true;
But 'tis a d(amna)ble mistake,
For every shot went through.

Lee rounded up a substantial number of cattle and returned them to Washington's camp. Wayne burned the wood-cutters' boats and captured some of the boatmen. From André's fifth stanza, it is clear that Colonel Thomas Proctor commanded Wayne's artillery. Proctor was born in Ireland ("remoter Shannon").

And sons of distant Delaware,
And still remoter Shannon,
And Major Lee with horses rare,
And Procter with his cannon.

André mocked Wayne's subordinate Brigadier General William Irvine, who fought at Bull's Ferry. The British major credited Irvine, misspelled "Irving", with command of the attack on the blockhouse while Wayne and Lee had the easy work of cattle rustling.

William Irvine was viciously lampooned by André.

At Irving's nod 'twas fine to see,
The left prepare to fight;
The while, the drovers, Wayne and Lee,
Drew off upon the right.

Two later stanzas made fun of the retreat of Irvine's column.

Irving and terror in the van,
Came flying all abroad;
And cannon, colors, horse, and man,
Ran tumbling to the road.

Still as he fled, 'twas Irving's cry,
And his example too,
"Run on, my merry men – For why?
The shot will not go through."

Light Horse Harry Lee's dragoons rounded up cattle.

The British major even took a swipe at William Alexander, Lord Stirling who was not even involved in the operation. Alexander had made an unsuccessful attempt to claim a Scottish earldom between 1756 and 1762. His hard-drinking ways were well-known to British officers.

Let none candidly infer,
That Stirling wanted spunk;
The self-made peer had sure been there,
But that the peer was drunk.

Alluding to his pre-war career as a tanner, André poked fun at Wayne in the first and last stanzas.

To drive the kine one summer's morn,
The tanner took his way;
The calf shall rue that is unborn,
The jumbling of that day.

And now I've clos'd my epic strain,
I tremble as I show it,
Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne,
Should ever catch the poet.

References

• americanrevolution.org. "The Cow Chace 1780". Retrieved 30 December 2011.
• Boatner, Mark M. III (1994). Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-0578-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Nead, Benjamin M. (1880) usgwarchives.net Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography. Vol. 4 No. 4. A sketch of Gen. Thomas Proctor, with some account of the First Pennsylvania Artillery in the Revolution (Retrieved 30 December 2011)
• Preston, John Hyde (1962). Revolution 1776. New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)