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DENYSE'S FERRY
THE SCENE OF THE FIRST RESISTANCE TO BRITISH ARMS IN THE MIDDLE STATES
A stirring scene was enacted at Denyse's Ferry on the 22d
of August, 1776, when a fleet of British vessels arranged
themselves a half-mile distance from the Long Island shore.
Across on Staten Island thousands of Hessians
marched to the water's edge to embark, and twice as many British
soldiers followed them. A signal gun roared out, and simultaneously
hundreds of oars tossed up the water, and the great vessels prepared
to come closer to the shore. Ships' boats advanced, spitting flame
into every thicket and toward every point where Patriots might
be concealed. At Denyse's Ferry, which is
now Fort Hamilton, there were three houses, the dwelling
of Denyse DENYSE, that of Adrian BENNET, and the house of
Simon CORTELYOU, violent Loyalist. A ball fired from one
of the British ships passed through BENNET's kitchen;
another tore away part of a fence in front of the house of
Denyse Denyse; but the house of Simon Cortelyou, where a
woman is supposed to have waved a red petticoat as a signal
for the British to land, remained unscathed. Up on the bluff
near the landing at Denyse's Ferry a tiny battery spit at the
boats of the advancing horde. Soon the shore was dense with
the landing troops, and Long Island paralyzed, knowing not
where to turn. The country people dwelling on the plain bordering
Gravesend Bay had the choice of placing themselves under the
protection of unwelcome invaders or of abandoning their farms.
Most of the neighborhood in the vicinity of Denyse's Ferry were
Loyalists, who hailed the coming of the troops as their natural
protectors. 15,000 strong the British came, Bringing fear to
the inhabitants and spreading their forces like a pestilence over
Long Island. "Thus," it is recorded, "commenced the first resistance
to British arms in the Midd1e States, on the spot where Fort Hamilton
now stands."
Robert E. LEE, when he was stationed at Fort Hamilton, was a
vestryman at old St. John's Church, and "Stonewall" JACKSON was
baptized in this church. It is said he was a rigid keeper of the Sabbath,
never travelling on that day nor attending to any details. of business.
He attended church morning and evening, and taught in the Sabbath school.
Boughton Homestead
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