Young's Corners

     Every morning as I drive to work, I pass a little monument.  Recently, it occurred to me that I had never bothered to find out what it commemorates, so I pulled over to examine it and found that it marks the site of a common grave, discovered in 1922, of men killed at the Battle of Young's Corners (also known as Young's House or Four Corners), an engagement I'd never heard of.  

     There was, to my surprise, a quite detailed article on Wikipedia, which I encourage the reader to peruse.  I was interested in visiting the exact location of the battle and learning a bit more about it, however, and with the kind assistance of the librarian of the Westchester County Historical Society, I was able to pinpoint the location of the battle, aided in particular by an article written by a local historian, a Mr. William Abbatt, on the occasion of the discovery of the bones of the fallen in '22.

   Young's House was a tavern at the intersection of two local roads.  It served as a Patriot outpost during the rough years of the Revolution, when much of Westchester was a no-man's land ravaged by both sides.  In 1799, with the departure of a substantial part of the New York garrison for the Southern campaign,  the Continental army was at last able to establish its lines closer to the city.  General von Knyphausen, who now commanded the garrison, was an aggressive officer and planned a number of raids in strength on Continental strongpoints.  Young's House, held by five companies from Massachusetts regiments, was an obvious target, and on the evening of Feb. 2nd, 1780, an elite force of Guardsmen, Hessians, and the much-feared Westchester Refugees departed Kingsbridge in the Bronx and marched North.  The winter of 1779-80 was especially severe, and the deep snow delayed and disrupted the columns, so that they arrived piece-meal at the tavern the following morning.  Despite having been alerted to the presence of the British, Lt Col. Thompson, commanding the garrison, was totally unprepared for the attack, and in characteristically aggressive fashion the British and Hessians, though in some disorder from the march, fell on the defenders, flanked them on both sides, and, after a short but bloody encounter drove them off.  The Refugees rode down or captured many of the fleeing Continentals while the British fired the tavern, unfortunately burning to death several wounded men trapped in the building.  The operation was a total success, and the Tavern was not rebuilt, though Continental patrols frequently passed near it;  Major Andre, on his fateful voyage towards New York, deviated from his planned route to avoid men posted at "the burnt house."

     The only monument to the battle is this rather odd structure, which marks the common grave of both Continental and British soldiers who were killed.  It is in itself a somber and reverent memorial and stands in a grove of very stately Eastern red cedars.  What the photos don't show is that it is located on what is effectively a highway median (near the on-off ramps for the South-bound Sprain Brook Parkway).  It is a very noisy spot on account of the traffic, and it is also used as a staging/storage ground for road maintenance projects; the effect, needless to say, is less than peaceful.

     Looking east along Route 100C (Grasslands Road) towards the Sprain Brook Parkway.  On roughly this ground the British left column (Hessians and the light companies) engaged the Continentals: the company from the 15th under Roberts in what is now the road-bed of the Sprain Brook, and Stoddard's company from the 1st marching belatedly East along 100C and arriving just in time to participate in the general rout. Roberts' men put up stiff resistance for a few minutes, but while they were pinned the attackers slipped around Roberts' right flank and routed them.  Roberts was mortally wounded in the defense.  Incidentally, the grave marker is in the stand of conifers on the left.

     Using the map provided in Mr. Abbatt's article, I estimate Young's House to have stood more or less on the same spot as this building, near the main entrance of Blythedale Children's Hospital on Bradhurst Avenue.  There were also a number of outbuildings, as well as an orchard immediately to the tavern's North.  Lt. Col Thompson and Watson's company from the 9th Massachusetts were stationed here.  Apparently, the tavern's chimney survived the conflagration and was incorporated into a new house built after the war.

     Again looking East along Grasslands Road, this time toward Westchester Community College.  Farley's and Cooper's men (9th Massachusetts) were strung out in this direction, Farley's company driven off by the British right column and Cooper's arriving too late to do much of anything.