Page 17
History of Orange County
Town of New Windsor
Page 17
COL. JAMES MCCLAUGHREY.--This individual was of Irish origin-though, doubtless, the family was originally Scotch. We are not informed when the first settler of this name came to this town. The individual of whom we speak was born in Philadelphia, and brought to this town when a small boy. His father died when James was young, and when his mother died, she requested on her death bed, that he be sent to his uncle, John McClaughry, at Little Britain, to be brought up. John, learning the request, proceeded to Philadelphia, and brought him home; the boy riding behind him on the same horse all that distance. This must have been as early, perhaps, as 1740; for we find his name on the records of the town, holding office between 1763 and 1770.
He married Miss Caty Clinton, a sister of Governor Clinton, and resided on a farm the vicinity of Robert R. Burnett, Esq. The old house is still standing, and the last time we passed it, it was tenant by a family of color.
At the commencement of hostilities he was appointed a Colonel of a militia regiment, and did duty in the Highlands. His regiment was a portion of the garrison of Fort Montgomery in October, 1777, when assaulted by the English. In a dispatch from Governor Clinton, dated the day after the Fort was taken, he speaks thus of Col. McClaughrey:
“We received intelligence that the enemy were advancing on the west side of the mountain, with design to attack us in the rear. Upon tins I ordered out Cols. Bruyn and McClaughrey, with upwards of 100 men, towards Doodletown, and a brass field piece, with a detachment of 60 men, on every advantageous post on the road to the Furnace. They were not long out before they were both attacked by the enemy with their whole force; our people behaved with spirit, and must have made great slaughter of the enemy.”
One of the 100 men here spoken of, was James Humphrey of Little Britain, a member of McClaughrey's regiment, and a brother-in-law of the Colonel, who, while retreating before the enemy, and clambering up and down the precipitous sides of the mountain, lost his gun, by slipping through his hand. In his emergency he informed the Colonel of his loss, and asked him what he should do; who replied in tones of thunder, “Hurl stones upon the d-d Tories.”
At the reduction of Forts Montgomery and Clinton, Col. McClaughrey was taken prisoner, carried to the city of New York, and put in the hospital, where his personal comfort was provided for in part by the kind attentions of his wife, as previously related. There was a Mrs. Johnston, the daughter of Mr. Dean, who owned Dean's wharf, who in compassion of the sufferings and deprivations of the American prisoners, had some large pockets made, which she filled with eatables and fed the prisoners. When the weather was cold and she could wear a cloak, she increased the number of her friendly sacks to fours, and as commissary of the prison, conducted quite an extensive, though not very profitable business. Oh! that we could inscribe her name on an undying tablet.
The Colonel was in the lower story of the hospital, and Col. Allen, also a prisoner, was in the room above him, and floor between them was old and full of wide cracks.--Some friend told the Colonel, that Burgoyne and his army were captured. He wrote it on a scrap of paper, and by means of a stick passed it up through the floor to Allen, who instantly proclaimed out of the window to the English officers in the street, that “Burgoyne had marched to Boston to the tune of Yankee Doodle.” After this the prisoners were treated more humanely. For this and other offences, we believe, Allen was sent in chains to England.