Belchers Breeches

The Belcher Journal has truly revolutionized our understanding of the life of the common soldier in the Continental Army.  Thanks to Belcher, we now know that there were camp counselors at Valley Forge and that von Steuben’s “Model Company” was outfitted in wigs made from goatskin backpacks.  Those of us who glean through every scrap of available information about the material culture of the Jersey troops have been astonished to learn from Belcher that in 1777, one company of the 1^st NJ was outfitted in reverse colored regimentals thanks to a miscommunication between him and the contract tailors. 

While it is well known that New Jersey provided large numbers of buckskin breeches to its soldiers in the first years of the war, only the Belcher Journal provides crucial information about the way that these were sized and fitted to the troops.

[Jun. 13^th 1777] – To Day after the General ye men wair issued leathern breechers by Quartmast^r Periam -  Ye officers sized thair Coys & Direct^d

 Them to be breech^d  – ye men grately distemper^d as  breeches are but large size only & much vex^d as to how to fall out without thair fallin’ down – Colo. Ogden spoke warmly & order^d Battalion form colum – Did march at Quick Step into a brook wair ye ford was half fathom deep - Oncet on ye far side Colo. Ogden did order ye men ground^d & stack^d head to foot much as a snake rail fence to dry in the Sun – Lay to ‘til nooning when ourn leather breeches fit all alike as to a second skin.”

Belcher and Baseball

The origins of our national pastime are as shrouded in myth as the stories that are told about the founding of our nation.  Historians of the development of baseball have long acknowledged that the game did not emerge fully formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus in a Cooperstown meadow as the brainchild of Abner Doubleday. 

There are numerous references to games played with bats and balls in America going back to the 18^th century.  A 1791 bylaw in Pittsfield Massachusetts, for example, reads as follows:

“At a legal Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Pittsfield qualified to vote in Town Meetings, holden on Monday the fifth day of Sept. 1791 Voted

The following ByeLaw, for the Preservation of the Windows in the New Meeting House in said Town ______ viz,

Be it ordained by the said Inhabitants that no Person, an Inhabitant of said Town, shall be permitted to play at any Game called Wicket, Cricket, Baseball[emphasis added], Batball, Football, Cat, Fives or any other Game or Games with Balls within the Distance of Eighty Yards from said Meeting House __ and every such Person who shall play at any of the said Games or other Games with Balls within the Distance aforesaid, shall for any Instance thereof, forfeit the Sum of five schillings to be recovered by Action of Debt brought before any Justice of the Peace to the Use of the Person who shall sue and prosecute therefor _____

And be it further ordained that in every Instance where any Minor shall be guilty of a Breach of this Law, his Parent, Master, Mistress or Guardian shall forfeit the like Sum to be recovered in Manner and to the Use aforesaid ____”

These games of protoball were also known during the Revolution.  Members of the 3^rd New Jersey played a ball game called Whirl while on garrison duty in the Mohawk Valley in 1776, involving some of the local Indians, certain officers and even the chaplain.  

It was with great pleasure, then, that I discovered the following passages in the Belcher Journal that also make reference to the antecedents of baseball in the Jersey Brigade, and even more significantly, provide the earliest known reference to one of the greatest sports rivalries of all time.

[May 3^rd 1777] “To Day some Gentlemen of the 3^rd battalion exercised among us with great familiarity with leathern ball and washing beetle.  

[May 6^th 1777] A most diverting play at ball this day / saw ye Neue Yorckers  in stripe^d ticken overhawls contest  a considerable time with sum Easterners in red hose. 

[May 8^th 1777] Sum of ye men Play^d again at base-ball / Am more a crank than ballist, for tho’ I did catch one foul tick at short scout still muff’^d another daisy cutter & wair dead at Home point.

[May 10^th 1777] After drill this Day made 2₤ 7s 10 a-sellin’ Cracker jack & water beer at ye ball game.”

Belcher and Arnold's Treason

Benedict Arnold's betrayal of the cause of American liberty has made his name a byword for the blackest of traitors.  In late September, 1780, while in command of the important Hudson River fortification at West Point, Arnold arranged to hand over detailed plans and other information to Major John André, the British adjutant-general and spymaster, in exchange for General Rank in the British army and £20,000.  The plot was foiled when André was captured between enemy lines under an assumed name and subsequently hanged, while Arnold slipped away before he could be apprehended.  

Captain Aaron Ogden was at this time in command of a company of the 1st NJ serving as Light Infantry under Maj. General Lafayette in the Hudson Highlands.  In a posthumous personal memoir published by one of his descendants, Ogden recounted how he was engaged by General Washington to pass through the lines under a flag of truce and offer to exchange the unfortunate André for Arnold, only to be informed that "a deserter is never given up."  

Ogden makes no mention of his waiter Constant Belcher during this episode, but fortunately for posterity the Belcher Journal also covers this time period.  It sheds new light not only on his activities at the time of Arnold's treason but on a personal brush with history that might well have changed the course of the war, not to mention American literature, had not the hand of fate intervened.

21^st  Sept. [1780]  To Day Cap. Ogden instrust^d  me with Dispatches for Genl. Washington, off avisitin' ye Froglanders in Neuport / Accordingly did take Passage over ye water to  Continental Village where I oated my horse & did have a dram or 2 ye weather being Very Cold & Blustering & so miss^d  my Road & got most Confoundedly lost /  Towards night had no fire & hobbl^d my horse lest ye Cow Boys or Skinners Abscond with it, tho' did Fashion a Wigwam so as not to perish from Cold. 


22^nd Sep. - This Day a hard Frost & Prodigious fog / Met on ye way a Dutchman one Brom Bones a hard looking rascal learnt I was far off course for Yankeedom & even now on Neutral Ground / Did tarry at Tarrytown at van Tassel's wair they had much merriment for a Harvest Home / Did find ye cyder much to my liking & also th' Psalmody of Crane ye Schoolmaster /  A curious tradition in these Parts is to fashion Lanthorns from ye flesh of ye Pompion /  Ye wind blew Very chilly & they had a Warm fire I sat down close to it / Did share a flask of Malmsey with a merchant of Nieu Yorck one James Anderson had a round hat & blue Cloak his features most delicate / Anderson claimed a fair hand at scribbling & offered to make for me my Portrait if he had but Paper & it seem^d to me that I had Some & found a few Leaves in my Dispatch case that had writing on one side only & these I give to him at which he appear^d most pleased / I know not whether or no he made of them a Good Likeness for at Last ye Heat of ye fire overcame me & I fell down like a Log & faint^d away.

23^rd Sept. - Awoke before ye cock's Crow to find my horse gone & Dispatches as well without even a Rude sketch in recompense / Apprehending my condition to be Most Perilous did find another Mount in ye great black horse of Menheer Bones & taking up a Grate Pompion for a glim went Hell for Leather after ye villain Anderson /  On passing a boneyard did see a figure that skulk^d thair & taking Him for ye Thief let fly with the landhorn / He did fall like a Stone but unhappily prove^d to be Crane & thot it best not to Tarry more in Tarrytown but to cross the North River & so return to my Duty.

24^th  Sept.  -  Nothing of importance this day /  No mention of Dispatches.

25^th Sep. -  Genl Washington 'tis said to be most vexed with Genl Arnold./  Maj Tallmadge in conference with Capt. Ogden on matters of Base Treachery could make but little sense of thair Talk tho' appears to involve Vultures or Buzzards & Plans of ye Fort at the Point & other documents of a Sensitive nature found on a British Officer now a Prisoner.

26^th Sept. - Genl Arnold prove^d a traitor & gone over to the British /  Prisoner one Maj. John Andray had on him such documents as to shew his Crime /  Cap. Ogden says this Andray was taken ye very Time I staid by Tarrytown by three roguish chaps who found him on ye Road without Uniform in disguise even as a Niew Yorck Merchant with Dispatches in his Stockings /  Am now most unwell.

27^th  Sept.  - Still feeling poorly / Understand the Prisoner is a gentleman with no little talent for portrait-making / Had a puke & went early to bed.

29^th Sep. - Maj Andray under Sentence of Death as a Spy.

30^th Sept - Summonded to Head Quarters with Cap. Ogden expecting the Worst /  Grate Relief to learn we are to Pass through the Lines under a Flag & seek to Exchange Maj. Andray or Anderson for ye Traitor Arnold /  Accordingly went together with an Escort to the British post wair Cozen Aaron gave his message & ye officer sent down to Genl Clinton at thair Head Quarters for instruction / Took some refreshment & also some first quality Sausages for ye Journey back / After 2 houres came ye reply a Dessert is Never given up so left without prospect of anything Sweet after our meal.

October ye Second -  On this Day Maj. Anderson or Andray so called was hang^d as a Spy / Many Officers much affect^d to see a fellow Gentleman meet a low End on a halter, but for me it seem^d Just Deserts /  In ye After noon Cap. Ogden did shew me some of the papers as were Found on the Spy, including Returns of ye Strength of diverse battalions & a fair rendition of one of our Light Infantry, perhaps says he even of our own good Jersey Regiment / Did venture in reply that this could not be, for ye fellow in that picture did Lie at ease in a most Unsoldierly fashion & appear^d to have ye head of a Pompion / Beyond this saith not.

Belcher at Camp

The Belcher Journal is maddeningly disheveled, as at times its author appears to have been as well - with pages missing or all out of order and some entries lacking a date or other readily identifiable notation.  Larry and I, as co-curators of the Belcher archive, have been trying to piece together the portion of the Journal that deals with The Philadelphia Campaign and Valley Forge with little success.   After months of eye-straining late night scholarship, we were rewarded only with a couple of brief accounts near the end of the Winter encampment in April and May of 1778 when Belcher served most grudgingly in Von Steuben's Model Company and on a visit to the home of the vivacious Sally Wister.

Now we have one more fragmentary account to share, which because of certain obscure geographic references we feel confident can be placed at some time in January, 1778 at Valley Forge.  Belcher reveals several details not previously know from any firsthand account of the activities in camp during that crucial winter when the army stayed in the field rather than dispersing as was usual at the end of a single campaign.  It emerged, so most historians would have it, from that icy crucible a formidable, professional fighting force, with much credit is given to von Steuben for the results.  

Perhaps, but if what Belcher says is true, there were other "change agents" at work, so typically marginalized in the conventional narrative, who now thanks to the Belcher document will have their due. 

"Ye New year is but a few days on - am most unwell & melancholic / wrote my letter home but No thing arrived with ye Post from that quarter /  Did stand gard by Gulph Mills with naught to cover my nakit feet but a length of macreme Cloath fashion^d  by my own por Hand / The camp counselors at This place incorrigibly cheerful of aspect, esp. Miss Pennypacker who despite our Privations is seemingly possess^d with spirit enuf to rout a company of Grenadiers all on her own at Tug-a-War.

Did receive a sliver in my finger from an ash splint in Basket weaving class that discomfits me some / Tomorrow ye Jersey Brigade is to muster on Parade for to play at Capture ye Flag at Redoubt No. 9 hard by the Skull Kill/ shall visit ye Infirmary for a nurse's note with regard to my injury rather than take part in that foolishness.  Next year would prefer a different Camp, mayhap at Middle Brook closer to home wair much good is said of the Programme and accommodations."

Belcher on the Declaration

It is unlikely that there were many in New Jersey who were aware on July 2nd the Continental Congress in Philadelphia had voted for Independence.  New Jersey's own Third Provincial Congress, meeting in a Burlington tavern, were busy adopting a state constitution on that same date that staunchly proclaimed all civil authority of the King over the colonies to be at an end, but also included the disclaimer:

"Provided...that if a reconciliation between Great-Britain and the Colonies should take place, and the latter be taken again under the protection and government of the crown of Britain, this Charter shall be null and void - otherwise to remain firm and inviolable."  

With the Ministerial Juggernaut gathering on Staten Island and poised to strike New York and the Middle Colonies, this may have been more a matter of prudence than evidence of less than patriotic sentiment on the part of the framers of New Jersey's constitution.

Constant Belcher's Journal entries for that week show that he was likewise both politically aware and concerned with more practical matters.

2nd July [1776]    "this Day did go to the Point in the forenoon at ebb tide for a frolic with Mrs. Ireland that is cook to Rev. C [aldwell] / Pass ^d a most pleasant Hour at Chicken neckin'  / a Prodigious rain commens^d at the Flood whilst engag^d  filling her oyster basket.

3rd July                Some of our People are come from Staaten I[sland] with devilish news the forces of Tyranny are disembark^d  the militia at Richmond-town all turn^d Tory. 

4th July               Nothing Remarkable

5th July               news from Burlington the Jerseys declar^d  a Republick.

6th July               employ^d  this day cutting Brush for Eliza. Town Committee of Safety had 3s.2p

7th July               Came over to New Yorck / saw the Ministerial Shipping in the LowerBay thick by the Watering Place / Streets abound with Yankees all stop^d  with Breast works /   Joyous news that Congress at Phila. Have Proclaim^d  an Independency /  Went to a Publick house to give joy to our Libertie/  the owner, one Braisted of Bergen, a Notorious Tory being return^d to that place we had the Libertie of the Property.

8th July                Had chocolate at the Coffee-House in Water-Street.  
 
9th July                This day the New-York Provincial Council  did print broadsides of the late Declaration of Congress /  Joined a Flash-Mob hard by the Fort at Bowling-Green to pull the Leaden George from his horse for musquet Balls / King Sears and his Sons of Libertie did appear most Zealous to apprehend the Leaf that gilt the lead."

The Pied Belcher

It was customary for 18th century diarists to note on such and such a date that nothing worth mention occurred.  Given the tedium and drudgery of soldiering during this period,  Constant Belcher would certainly be excused for following suit in his journal, but having spent a number of months now with this material, I am starting to think that for Belcher there was usually something going on to make even the most unremarkable episodes noteworthy.

So it was on a Spring day near the end of the Valley Forge encampment, when tired of endless drill under the martinet Von Steuben, and ravenously hungry after a Winter's worth of short rations, Belcher turned an ordinary day into something else altogether.

Apr 12^th 1778 – This day once more call^d to drill in ye model company of that dam^d Dutchman [von Steuben] / What his Excellency sees in this Fancy Proosian I know not, for we Jersies stood well enuf gainst ye Regulars on ye Plowed Hill & at Chew’s House while Mine Herr & his yelping hound were a-mincing round ye Continent / It does a poor soldjer hard to stand  to attention in but rags & without belly timber whilst this onion-eyed game cock splutters & crows like German George / This After noon we are to have dress Parade & no wair to find hair powder as all the flower is gone to fire-cake.  

Did hear river herring are to seen beyond our Lines in ye Skull Kill by Penny Packer’s Mill & resolved to plank sum Shad before Parade /  Pass^d  in stealth from Camp & made for ye River /  Hard by Mill race did see prodigious shoals of fish & so look^d within for a pitch fork or other Implement to land them by /  Discovered instead a fine goose & it not being a Friday determin^d  ye fowl fairer dining.

Did tuck Noble bird under my wing but soon found it made as grate Clamour as a bag full of cats /   In truth ye Goose played such a nice pentatonic scale that I feared our Sentries might mistake me for a company of Highlanders & so take Alarm /  Efforts to silence bird did only produce more Scottish Airs, so return^d  bird in hand to ye bush & returned emptyhand^d.  

Happily did come upon a goatskin pack unattended behind an Officer’s Hutt, such as ye lobster Grenadiers are wont to wair, & consider^d  it lawful plunder /  Found no provender within but a goodly supply of pipe clay & so fashion^d  from ye bag a serviceable wig for Parade /  Receiv^d what Capt. Walker did say were von Steuben’s compliments /  Ye jack-a-nape Dutchman did then instruct rest of ye model company to follow my example /  British Grenadiers being in short supply in Camp, must now go aforaging for goatskin packs on the morrow.   Ye ways of war are passing strange.