The Great Raid of 1779


by Amber Hammrich




She drew her cloak about her face to protect against the biting winds and tucked her basket of food closer to her to prevent the food inside from turning cold. “This way,” a British guard in a woolen red uniform growled, gesturing with his musket the direction she should go. The guard was a hard man, and his appearance matched his temper. His teeth were blackened and crooked, he had an ugly scar on his cheek, his wide mouth was etched into a permanent scowl, and his stride was haughty. They stopped in front of a wooden trap door. She could already smell the familiar smells of death and sickness before the guard even opened the door. “Creeak.” The eerie sound jangled her tense nerves as the guard opened the trap door. Hundreds of shivering, ill-clad, emaciated, and filthy American prisoners crowded the stairs leading down below decks. “Back!” The guard cried, swinging his musket wildly, the bayonet’s steel glinting off of the dim whale oil lantern that a British guard behind them carried.

The prisoners scurried away from the deadly range of the British bayonet. Once the prisoners saw who their guest was, they crowded around her and extended their bony hands towards her. She shook the hands, amazed by how cold they were. She smiled at the men as they erupted in wild shouts of exclamations. “Did you bring us food? Tell me, what news of the outside? Did you send my letter to my wife? Have we won our freedom yet?” She held her hands up in the air to quell their barrage of questions. “One question at a time!” She stared with compassion at these unfortunate souls. She always wished she could do more to relieve their suffering. If only there was a way she could release them from their prison…if only…

Her name was Elizabeth Burgin. We would not know her name or even of her aid towards the American prisoners if we did not have the following letter written by George Washington to the Continental Congress:

“Regarding Elizabeth Burgin, recently an inhabitant of New York. From the testimony of our own (escaped) officers…it would appear that she has been indefatigable for the relief of the prisoners, and for the facilitation of their escape. For this conduct she incurred the suspicion of the British, and was forced to make her escape under disturbing circumstances.”

But, who was Elizabeth Burgin? How did she free prisoners without the guards knowing? How did they finally discover her part in the missing prisoners? These questions are difficult to answer. As to the first question, not much is known about her early life or her marital status at the time she freed the prisoners, but we do know that she lived in New York during the American Revolutionary War and was the parent of small children.  She was obviously a staunch patriot who had heard about the terrible suffering American prisoners were undergoing on the hellish prison ships in Wallabout Bay.  Since only women were allowed into the prison ships, she visited the prisoners as often as she could. She brought food, comfort, and cheer to the discouraged Americans.

An American officer named George Higday was part of Washington’s secret Culper Ring in New York. His name is mentioned for the first time in General Washington’s correspondence on June 27, 1779. George Washington was casting about for an agent to spy on the British in New York. George Higday was brought to the attention of Benjamin Tallmadge and General Washington by three officers whom he freed from captivity on Long Island. These were the same officers Elizabeth Burgin mentions in her letter to General Washington on November 19, 1779. “…Major Van Burah, Captain Crain, Lieutenant Lee, who made their escape from the guard on Long Island.” Washington suggested to Benjamin Tallmadge, who was then in Connecticut, that he contact, “a man on York Island, living on or near the North River, of the name of George Higday.”

It seems that George Higday was secretly freeing American prisoners (mainly officers) and might have already been helping the Culper Ring spy on the British in Long Island. In General Washington’s words, George Higday: “hath given signal proofs of his attachment to us…” (Emphasis mine).  If this is true, how does Elizabeth Burgin fit into this picture? How did George Higday know about her? Was she part of the Culper Ring? Was this plan to free the American prisoners birthed in General Washington’s headquarters? A tantalizing hint that this might have been a planned event is found in Elizabeth Burgin’s letter, “George Higby brought a paper to me from your aide directed to Colonel Magaw on Long Island.” Colonel Magaw was an American officer who had been in captivity on Long Island ever since the fall of Fort Washington in 1776.  General Washington could still have been in contact with him via one of his aides, as Elizabeth Burgin states. Also, if George Higday was a spy, then he could easily have slipped into Colonel Magaw’s quarters to pick up the letter. George Higday then would probably have approached Elizabeth Burgin with this plan to free the prisoners, asking her to participate, knowing that only women were allowed on the prison ship. He wanted her to tell the prisoners of his plans and to prepare for their escape. He told her to free two hundred prisoners, which she did. How she smuggled them out is up for conjecture; we are given no clues to aid us in figuring out how or when.



Elizabeth Burgin does not say what was written on the paper, but then again, if it was top secret, she had a purpose for not disclosing it in her letter to General Washington. If this was a planned event, that could explain the “friends” who helped sneak Elizabeth away from captivity in New York, and it could explain how she was able to free two hundred prisoners. It could also explain why she is vague in her letter about how she freed the prisoners. She might have been trying to protect the identities of the people who helped her. If this was orchestrated by General Washington, then this was the first major Great Raid in U.S History!

Unfortunately, General Washington’s letter to Benjamin Tallmadge was intercepted by the British a week after he wrote it. Colonel Banastre attacked Benjamin Tallmadge’s camp at about five in the morning on July 2nd, 1779. The British dragoons were beaten off, but not before they stole twelve horses, including Benjamin Tallmadge’s horse with the letter about George Higday in the saddlebags.

  

 



When the British found the letter and the word C___r, they became suspicious. Earlier, the British had intercepted another letter from General Washington with the word C___r written in plain view. Like a fox after the hound, the British began to sniff out the American patriots who could tell them where and who the mysterious C___r was. Their lead was George Higday. On July 13, using General Washington’s intercepted letter to find Higday, British troopers broke into Higday’s home and arrested him. They dragged him off to the infamous Provost. His wife, probably concerned that the British would hang him as a spy, decided to tell the British about Elizabeth Burgin. How she came by this information is unclear. According to Elizabeth she, “Told General Patterson that he carried out two hundred American prisoners for me.”


The British immediately counted their prisoners on the prison ship. (They never bothered to count, thinking escape of that magnitude was impossible) Upon finding it was true, they placed a bounty of two hundred pounds on Burgin’s head so that if she ever tried to flee New York there would be great incentive to recapture her. The British placed her under house arrest. Through the help of her friends, Burgin fled to Long Island and stayed there five weeks. Who hid her there, we will never know. Then, “William Sheriddon came to Long Island in Whale boat and I made my escape with him we being chased by two boats half way to the Sound then got to New England and came to Philadelphia.” Once in Philadelphia, Elizabeth wrote to the Board of War asking for a flag of truce into New York. Elizabeth had left her children behind and she wanted to return to New York. (She must have left her children in the care of her friends who helped her escape.) On September 15, 1779, she received a reply from the board of war, “Madam, Last evening took an opportunity of writing upon Mr. Mattock, informed him of your circumstances and particularly in the manner and for what you were obliged to leave New York. Also informed him that you intended making application for a flag. From my representation of your character, your polite and humane conduct towards the American prisoners in general, and one in particular, he has promised to pay particular attention to your application and grant you anything in his possession were it possible. I shall wait upon you this evening and depend a stone shall not be left unturned by me to procure anything you may want. Madam, I am your Most Obedient Servant, Robert Campbell. ” Accordingly, she received the flag of truce from the Board of War. “Then I got a pass of the Board of War to go to Elizabeth Town to try to get my Children from New York which I obtained in three or four weeks but could not get my clothes or anything but my children when application was made by Mr. John Frankling my clothes and furniture they should be sold and the money given to the Loyalist.”

She closed her letter to General Washington by saying, “I am now sir very desolate without money without clothes or friends to go to. I mean to go Philadelphia where God knows how I shall live a cold winter coming on for the truth of the above your Excellence can inquire Major John Franklings and by their desire make this application if your Excellence pleases you can direct Mr. Thomas Frankling in Philadelphia where I can be found. If the General thinks proper I should be glad to draw provisions for myself and children in Philadelphia where I mean to remain.”

If this escape was planned by General Washington, then it would make sense that she would write to him about her distress. In reply, General Washington wrote to Congress about her plight.

Congress responded by giving her a pension for her part in the patriot’s Cause. Elizabeth Burgin was also given money by a friend, one Leonard van Buren. She traveled to Philadelphia where we last see her staying at a Mr. Frankling’s house. George Higday was eventually released by the British. He returned to his home in Long Island where he disappeared from public view.  As for Elizabeth, the rest of her life remains a mystery as is the story of her heroic part in one of the greatest escapes in American History. We may never know all the details nor all the facts of how she freed the prisoners, or if it was part of a greater plot masterminded by General Washington. What we do know is that she never regretted what she did. In the closing line to General Washington she wrote this unselfish sentence: “Helping our poor prisoners brought me to want which I don’t repent.”


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: In her own words.


My name is Amber Hammrich. I was born and raised on the plains of South Dakota. When I was fourteen, my mother married a wonderful man named Darren Fujitani.  He moved us down to South Carolina when he was accepted for a Biomedical Technician job at Self Regional Hospital in Greenwood, SC. When my dad had to travel to North Carolina for Biomed Training in 2008, we went with him. However, we did not stay with him in the hotel. Instead, as my mom and dad agreed upon, we would go to history lover’s Disneyland: Colonial Williamsburg. When we returned from Williamsburg, I was forever changed by what I saw and experienced. I wanted to know more about this incredible epoch in our history. This led me to scour the Library for books about the American Revolutionary War. Once I started, I could not stop. I continued to read endless books about the Revolutionary War; falling further in love with the Revolutionary War at every turn of the page. To this day, all the books I read are about the Revolutionary War. When I was sixteen, I saved all my money to travel to George Washington’s Mount Vernon. When I was seventeen, I received my GED Diploma, and started College. When I was eighteen I signed up to reenact the Revolutionary War with the 2nd NC Regiment. By this time, I already had traveled to four Revolutionary War sites eight different times. On January 14, one of the happiest days of my life, I reenacted at Cowpens, SC. What I experienced at that reenactment has left an indelible impression on my mind. I will never forget waking up in the morning and hearing people talking, horses neighing, and fifers playing. It was a great experience; if you excuse the two nights shivering in a cold tent and having a British musician keeping you up at night playing Darth Vader’s Imperial Army March theme on his fife! Notice that I did not say a lot about my life beyond history, but that is because history is me. The Revolutionary War has been an inseparable part of my life since I was fourteen. I hope, in the future, to travel to every single Revolutionary War site in America. It is my enduring dream.


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http://www.breedshill.org/The_Breeds_Hill_institute/Past_articles.html