In order justly to appreciate the circumstances in which Henry Ludington and his young family found themselves about fifteen years after his return from the French and Indian war, it will be desirable to recall briefly the political and social conditions generally prevailing throughout the Colonies at that time, which were nowhere more marked than in New York City and the rural counties lying just north of it. During the two or three years before the actual declaration of American independence, or secession from England, the people of the Colonies were divided into two parties, the Patriots and the Loyalists or Tories. The latter maintained the right of England to govern the Colonies as she pleased, and regarded even a protest against the maladministration of George III’s ministers as little short of sacrilege. The former were by no means as yet committed to the idea of American separation from the mother country, but they were most resolute in their demand for local self-government, and for government according to the needs of the Colonies rather than the caprices of English ministers. When they first placed the legend “Liberty and Union” upon their colonial flag, and called it the “Grand Union Flag,” they had in mind liberty under the British constitution and continued union with England. Nevertheless, antagonism between the two parties became as bitter as ever it was between Roundhead and Cavalier in Stuart days; and while in some respects Boston and Philadelphia figured more conspicuously in the pre-revolutionary agitation and operations than did New York, there was probably no place in all the Colonies where the people were more evenly and generally divided between the two parties, or where passions rose higher or were more strongly maintained, than in and about the last-named city. No ties of neighborliness, friendship, or even family relationship sufficed to prevent or to quell the animosities which arose over the political interests of the Colonies. Nowhere had the Patriots a more ardent or persuasive leader than young Alexander Hamilton, or the Tories a more uncompromising champion than Rivington, the printer, whose office was at last sacked and gutted by wrathful Patriots. An illuminating side-light is thrown upon the New York state of mind by an item in the New York “Journal” of February 9, 1775, as follows:

Nor were these passions by any means confined to the urban but not always urbane community on Manhattan Island. They prevailed with equal force in the rural regions of Westchester and Dutchess counties. During the Revolutionary War that border region, between the British garrison on Manhattan Island and the American strongholds in the Highlands of the Hudson, was the fighting ground of the belligerents, and was also unmercifully harried and ravaged by the irregular succors of both sides, the “Cow Boys” and “Skinners,” and others, celebrated in the unhappy AndrÉ’s whimsical ballad of “The Cow Chase.” Patriots from Westchester County were foremost among those who wrecked Rivington’s Tory printing shop, and an aggravated sequel to the item just cited from the New York “Journal” is provided in the annals of Dutchess County a little later in the same year. At that time a County Committee, or Committee of Safety—of which we shall presently hear much more—had been formed in that county, for the purpose of holding the Tories in check, and it had forcibly deprived some men of their arms and ammunition. The despoiled Tories made appeal to the Court of Common Pleas for redress, and James Smith, a justice of that court, according to a contemporary narrative, “undertook to sue for and recover the arms taken from the Tories by order of said committee, and actually committed one of the committee who assisted at disarming the Tories; which enraged the people so much that they rose and rescued the prisoner, and poured out their resentment on this villanous retailer of the law.” The “resentment” seems to have been poured out of buckets and pillows, for we are told that Justice Smith and his relative, Coen Smith, were “very handsomely tarred and feathered, for acting in open contempt of the resolves of the County Committee!”

In or near that part of Dutchess County in which Henry Ludington lived a third small but not insignificant factor was involved in the problem. This was provided by the members of the Society of Friends, who were settled at Quaker Hill, near Pawling, in The Oblong. This was the first community in America to abolish negro slavery, in 1775, and on that account it was probably regarded with some suspicion. But worse still was the regard given to it in the strife between Patriots and Tories. There can be little doubt that the sentiments and wishes of the Quakers were largely with the Patriots. Yet their religious principle of non-resistance forbade them to take up arms or to engage in forcible conflict of any kind. They were therefore generally looked upon by the Patriots as Tories, and were on that account sometimes fined and otherwise punished, while on the other hand, the Tories made themselves free to quarter troops upon them and to demand aid of them at will. On the whole, however, they appear to have commanded the respect of the Patriots, for their sincerity, and thus to have been far more leniently dealt with than were the more militant Tories outside the Society of Friends.

The earliest organization of the Patriots in and about New York was a Committee of Vigilance, the chief functions of which were to watch for oppressive acts of the British Government and incite colonial protests against them. This was in 1774 superseded by a Committee of Fifty-One, and it in turn in the same year gave place to a Committee of Inspection, of sixty members. In both of these latter John Jay, who was a neighbor and friend of Henry Ludington, was conspicuous, and it is to be presumed that Henry Ludington himself was either a member of the committees or at least was in active sympathy with their work. In April, 1775, came a crisis and the turning point in the movement for independence. The old Colonial Assembly of New York went out of existence on April 3. Then came the news of the first clash of arms at Lexington and Concord, acting as a spark in a powder-magazine. “Astonished by accounts of acts of hostility in the moment of expectation of terms of reconciliation,” said the lieutenant-governor of New York in his account of the occurrence, “and now filled with distrust, the inhabitants of the city burst through all restraint on the arrival of the intelligence from Boston, and instantly emptied the vessels laden with provisions for that place, and then seized the city arms and in the course of a few days distributed them among the multitude, formed themselves into companies and trained openly in the streets; increased the number and power of the committee before appointed to execute the association of the Continental Congress, convened themselves by beat of the drum for popular resolutions, have taken the keys of the custom house by military force; shut up the port, drawn a small number of cannon into the country; called all parts of the country to a Provincial Convention; chosen twenty delegates for this city, formed an association now signing by all ranks, engaging submission to committees and congresses, in firm union with the rest of the continent, and openly avow a resolution not only to resist the acts of Parliament complained as grievances, but to withhold succors of all kinds from the troops and to repel every species of force, wherever it may be exerted, for enforcing the taxing claims of Parliament at the risk of their lives and fortunes.” This only half coherent but wholly intelligible and graphic narrative tells admirably how the Patriot sentiment of New York startled into life and action. A year later it was forcibly repressed by the British garrison on Manhattan Island, but in the counties at the north it continued dominant and triumphant.

The “association now signing by all ranks” was promptly entered into by Henry Ludington and his neighbors in Dutchess County, as the following transcript, from the MS. collection of Mr. Patrick, shows, the date of the original being April 29, 1775:

One other signature is illegible. Those of the two Ludingtons are clear and firm.

The new Provincial Congress of New York met in the New York City Hall on May 22, 1775, and remained in session until May 29, its most important act being the adoption of the following resolution:

This obviously “meant business.” It compelled every inhabitant of the colony to align himself, either with the Patriots or with the Loyalists; with a certainty that if he chose the former, he would be held as a traitor by the British Government, and if he chose the latter, he would be subject to whatever pains and penalties his incensed Patriot neighbors might see fit to impose upon him. Into the work thus recommended by the Congress, Henry Ludington entered with zeal and ardor. He was at the head of the local committee, in Fredericksburgh Precinct, and also a member of the Dutchess County Committee, among his colleagues being John Jay, William Duer, Jacobus Swartwout, and other eminent Patriots.

How vigorously and unsparingly these committees went to work will appear if we anticipate for a moment the chronological record by a year. On a motion offered by John Jay on June 16, 1776, the Provincial Congress of New York declared guilty of treason, with the penalty of death, all persons inhabiting or passing through the colony, or state, as it then began to be called, who should give aid or comfort to the enemy. A week later the Continental Congress adopted a similar resolution. It does not appear that this penalty was ever actually imposed, but the terror of it was held as a powerful measure of restraint over the Tories. Again, at Conner’s tavern, at Fishkill, Dutchess County, on October 8, 1776, there was organized a secret committee “for inquiring into, detecting and defeating conspiracies … against the liberties of America,” with full power to send for persons and papers, call out the militia, and arrest or expel persons regarded as dangerous to the state, apparently without any judicial process. Thereafter numerous parties of suspects were sent in by the various local committees, including men, women, and children. All who consented to sign an oath of allegiance to Congress were dismissed. The others were variously dealt with. Some were exiled from the State, some were imprisoned, and some released on parole, to remain near Fishkill within call and surveillance of the committee. The chairman of this committee was William Duer, and if Henry Ludington was not actually among its members he was certainly one of its most trusted and efficient agents. It continued in existence and action until February 27, 1777, when it was dissolved by the State Convention and was replaced by a Board of Commissioners. Two minutes of the proceedings of this committee will serve the double purpose of showing the character of its activities and the part which Henry Ludington played in executing its decrees. The first is dated only four days after the organization of the committee:

The second is dated eight days later:

In the margin of this warrant, which is here copied from the original in the possession of Charles H. Ludington, are these additional names:

The Charles Cullen mentioned in the warrant was a brother-in-law of the distinguished jurist, Chancellor Kent.

In order to understand clearly the geographical scope of the operations already and hereafter credited to Henry Ludington, the division of that part of Dutchess County into precincts should here be explained, with the aid of a map. The reference is to that southern part of Dutchess County which was afterward set off, as at present, into Putnam County. From 1737 down to March 24, 1772, it was known as the South Precinct. On the latter date it was divided into three longitudinal strips, that along the Hudson being called Phillipse, or Philipsburgh Precinct; that in the central and east central part being called Fredericksburgh Precinct; and the smallest strip at the extreme east, consisting of part of The Oblong hitherto mentioned, being known as South East Precinct. It may be added, in anticipation of the narrative, that on March 17, 1788, these names were changed to Philipstown, Frederickstown, and South East, respectively; that on March 17, 1795, the towns of Carmel and Franklin were formed from Frederickstown, and the remainder of the last named was called Fredericks; that on April 6, 1808, Franklin was changed to Patterson, and on April 15, 1817, Fredericks was changed to Kent. It may further be explained that the Philipsburgh Precinct was subdivided into two nearly equal longitudinal strips, and the one along the Hudson River was again divided laterally into three parts, making four lots in all, which were numbered from 1 to 4, and which in the partition of the original Phillipse Patent were apportioned as follows: No. 1, at the extreme southwest, Susannah Robinson; No. 2, next at the west center, Philip Phillipse; No. 3, at the northwest, Mary Phillipse; and No. 4, the long strip inland from the river, Susannah Robinson. The Fredericksburgh Precinct was likewise divided into three longitudinal strips, and the easternmost of them into three laterally, making five lots in all, numbered from 5 to 9, and these were apportioned as follows: No. 5, the long strip next to No. 4 of Philipsburg, to Mary Phillipse; No. 6, a long strip next to No. 5, to Philip Phillipse; No. 7, a “short lot” at the northeast, to Susannah Robinson; No. 8, a short lot at the east center, to Philip Phillipse; and No. 9, a short lot at the southeast, to Mary Phillipse. When, as we shall presently see, Henry Ludington became colonel commanding a militia regiment, his territorial command included all of these nine lots excepting Nos. 7 and 8. He was thus of all the militia commanders nearest to the seat of government when it was at Fishkill, and was brought much into contact with state officials there.

Appreciating the important part which the militia would play in the conflict which was then seen to be impending and inevitable, the Provincial Congress of New York, in session at New York City on August 22, 1775, adopted an elaborate measure for the enlistment, organization and equipment of such troops. Every county, city, manor, town, precinct, and district within the colony was to be divided by a local committee into districts or beats, in such a manner that in each beat might be formed one military company, ordinarily to consist of eighty-three able-bodied men and officers, between the ages of sixteen and fifty—afterward sixty—years. Not less than five nor more than ten such companies were to form a regiment, and the regiments were to be organized into brigades. One brigade was to be formed of the militia of Dutchess and Westchester counties, commanded by a brigadier-general. It was also ordered—

That every man between the ages of 16 and 50 do with all convenient speed furnish himself with a good Musket or firelock & Bayonet Sword or Tomahawk, a Steel Ramrod, Worm, Priming Wire and Brush fitted thereto, a Cartouch Box to contain 23 rounds of cartridges, 12 flints and a knapsack agreeable to the directions of the Continental Congress under forfeiture of five shillings for the want of a musket or firelock and of one shilling for want of a bayonet, sword or tomahawk, cartridgebox, cartridge or bullet. That every man shall at his place of abode be also provided with one pound of powder and three pounds of bullets of proper size to his musket or firelock.