Portrait of an unidentified Revolutionary War sailor. For more information visit: Africans in America Image Credit: The Newport Historical Society

Pompey Lamb Revisited Black Soldiers in the American Revolution By Don Loprieno Site manager Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site

Probably there is no single historical event about which absolutely everything is known; and, just as nature abhors a vacuum, so, apparently do people - which may account for the very human tendency to believe engaging tales based on hearsay and speculation rather than accept what appears to be a void. But if we are to discover what really happened during a historic event or period, we need to cast a critical eye on information sources about because of the tendency for legends, particularly colorful or appealing ones, to try to pass for fact.

Research is an ongoing process by which facts are separated from such legends, and the methods we use to make that distinction must not vary, particularly when we want to believe something that may not be true. This is a vital guideline because if anything is to be learned from the past, we have to know what happened, not what we'd prefer to have occurred. Otherwise, the legend - or the myth or the embellished tale or the colorful story - replaces the factual account, and in that substitution, erases the real version. It is a confusing - and misleading - state of affairs when we can no longer tell the fanciful from the real, whether it be in the present or the past.

To avoid that dilemma, research must focus on primary sources -that is, letters, written descriptions, journal entries, military documents, and other contemporary accounts produced by witnesses to the event - not someone who wasn't there, not someone who heard about it from someone else, not someone who was there but recalled the event many years later. Otherwise, the result is likely to be either totally false or a knotty combination of fantasy and fact, with no way to tell one from the other.

An important concern, however, is that even documented accounts of historical events may reflect the social attitudes of the time in which they occur. During the era of the American Revolution, for example, contributions made by blacks, women, and minorities in general were often unreported, except, it seems, in usual cases. That's how we know about "Molly Pitcher" (Mary Ludwig Hayes), Margaret Corbin, Deborah Sampson, and Crispus Attucks, among many others, including the African-Americans cited later in this article - so while the historical yardstick of reliance on primary source material may be imperfect or incomplete, it is still the only way to establish a firm basis for an accurate version of a given event. It is the bedrock upon which we must build to learn from what we know.

A case in point regarding the Battle of Stony Point is the account of Pompey Lamb which appeared in print in 1855 in The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution by Benson Lossing:

"Mr. Ten Eyck, the old ferryman at Stony Point, informed me that he knew this negro [Pompey] well. His name was Pompey, and for his services that night his master gave him a horse to ride, and never exacted any labor from him afterward. Pompeyıs master was a warm Whig, and himself was a shrewd negro. Soon after the enemy took possession of the Point, Pompey ventured to go to the fort with strawberries to sell. He was kindly received; and as the season advanced, and berries and cherries became plentiful, he carried on an extensive traffic with the garrison, and became a favorite with the officers, who had no suspicion that he was reporting everything to his Whig master. Finally, Pompey informed them that his master would not allow him to come with fruit in the daytime, for it was hoeing-corn season. Unwilling to lose their supply of luxuries, the officers gave Pompey the countersign [password] regularly, so that he could pass the sentinels in the evening. He thus possessed a knowledge of the countersign on the night of the attack, and made good use of it. That countersign was "The fort's our own," and this was the watchword of the Americans as they scaled the ramparts."

Pompey, a slave belonging to a Captain Lamb, is also alleged to have served as a guide to the Americans during the attack. A few pages after this account is related, Lossing mentions that the ferryman, David Ten Eyck, "held up a bottle of whiskey and proffered a draught [offered a drink] " and then enjoyed the beverage himself with two of his neighbors. A few sentences later, Lossing identifies Ten Eyck as an octogenarian, and refers to his "adventurous tales." At no time did Ten Eyck claim to have been at the battle, which had occurred 76 years before, nor did he offer documentation of Pompey's role except that "he knew him well." Certainly, the recollections of an old man about long-ago events while under at least the partial influence of alcohol cannot be considered the most credible historical source.

The tale has been repeated many times since in print, though with embellishments added. Sometimes Pompey overcomes the sentries, one by one, by himself or with the aid of another black slave. In a recent version, he is even credited with thinking of a way "to storm the fort," though Washington's plan, dated July 10, 1779, is a matter of historical record.

Is the Pompey account, as reported by Lossing, true? Continuing efforts have failed to locate any primary source that would support the version of events related by the "old ferryman." In fact, research based on primary sources tends to indicate just the opposite. Although Pompey's name appears on the roster of the Orange County militia - an American military unit that was not at the Battle of Stony Point - not a single eye-witness on either the British or American side mentions Pompey or any individual who did what the account claims. Additional research conducted by the staff of Stony Point Battlefield State Historic Site in the winter of 1998-99 focused on records in the National Archives in Philadelphia confirmed Pompey's service in the militia, and also indicated that he (or someone with the same name) also enlisted in the 2nd New York Regiment in 1780. Orderly books for that military unit are located in the New-York Historical Society and will be examined at the first opportunity. Battlefield staff also conducted research at the David Library in Washington's Crossing, Pennsylvania, and discovered a pension application by William Babcock, who, in 1854 at the age of 100, claimed that Pompey led the Americans at the Battle of Stony Point "through a copse of cedars and brushwood, and they passed the sentries, and fired upon the British troops. . ." In the same document, however, Babcock confuses the Americans with their British counterparts when he states that "they [the Americans] were in danger of being surrounded and destroyed. . ." In fact, the attacking columns of American Light Infantry, armed only with unloaded muskets and fixed bayonets, flanked the British on both sides and soon captured the fort and garrison. Even primary source material must be carefully evaluated.

Further, a close look at what is probably the single, richest primary source known to us - a transcript of the court-martial of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Johnson, commander of the British garrison at Stony Point, available at the Public Records Office in London - reveals new information which makes the Pompey account implausible at best. Two officers - Ensign Henry Hamilton and Captain William John Darby, both captured during the battle, testify that Colonel Johnson would not allow passwords - paroles and countersigns - on the night of the battle or any other night, probably because of security concerns.

Further, even if there were paroles and countersigns in effect by the British at Stony Point, the Articles of War under which the British army operated in North America and other "foreign parts," strictly forbade revealing such information, under penalty of death. Finally, as Ensign Hamilton (adjutant or chief administrative officer of the regiment) also stated in the court-martial there were no fewer than 88 sentries on duty during the night of the battle and other nights as well, deployed into six pickets or groups, with individual sentries between each picket, forming a human chain across the peninsula - far too many soldiers to be overcome by one or two men.

Applying the criteria described here of reliance on primary sources for historical accuracy, we have to conclude, until and unless reliable primary source information is discovered, that the role that Pompey Lamb is supposed to have played during the Battle of Stony Point runs counter to the known facts and seems highly unlikely. Scholars tend to agree. The eminent black historian Benjamin Quarles, in his Negro in the American Revolution, published by the Institute of Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Virginia, conducted extensive research into the military role played by black Americans during the Revolutionary War and concluded that "It is doubtful that a Negro slave, Pompey, guided the assaulting parties commanded by General Wayne at Stony Point." One consequence of the retelling of Pompey's alleged exploit is that it replaces those accounts that are supported by the facts. Students and the general public learn about Pompey; they do not learn about Lieutenant Colonel de Fleury, the first man inside the British fortifications on the night of the battle, or Lt. George Knox of Pennsylvania, leader of the first twenty men in the main American assault column. Thus the historical record is eclipsed, and documented acts of heroism may as well not exist.

Ironically, Pompey's apparent willingness to serve the cause of liberty through his service in the militia and possibly in the 2nd New York Regiment as well, despite a social order which often denied those of his race freedom, may, in fact, be diminished by the attribution of a tale that is implausible and unproven.

However, many blacks did play a role during the Revolutionary War; one source estimates that about 5000 African Americans served in the American forces. At Fort Ticonderoga in 1777, the First Rhode Island Regiment was formed by Udney Hay, quarter master general, who took blacks from various regiments and formed them into the First Rhode Island. Led by Major Samuel Ward, the regiment contained some 125 blacks, 30 of whom were free. At the Battle of Rhode Island, in August of 1778, they presented themselves as a distinctive group, holding their positions during the attack by the British. Individual Afro- Americans were also active during the Revolution. The following examples - only a few of many - are taken from the Quarles book, considered one of the best scholarly sources on the subject.

James Lafayette, a slave of William Armistead in Virginia, was a spy/counter spy for the Marquis de Lafayette. He was sent by the Marquis along with many others in 1781, to Benedict Arnold's base at Portsmouth, Virginia. There he delivered letters to other American spies and hovered around British camp. Louis Gotschalk in his book Lafayette and the Close of the American Revolution states "When the defeated Cornwallis paid the Marquis de Lafayette a courtesy call before leaving Yorktown he was surprised to find at Lafayette's headquarters a Negro who had been in the pay of the British to spy on the Americans, but who, as it now became obvious, had really been a counter-spy for the Americans."

Lafayette stated that James "properly acquitted himself with some important communication I gave him . . . . . his intelligence from the enemy's camp were industriously collected and more faithfully delivered." (Taken from the Certification of Lafayette, November 21, 1784, which also gave James his freedom).

John Banks, a free black from Goochland County, Virginia, saw two years of service as a cavalryman in Theodoric Bland's Regiment. His case is an exception; men in this service were of great reputation and property - Banks had neither.

Paul Cuffe, of Massachusetts, was the captain of ships which were built in his own yard. He initiated a petition which was introduced to the Massachusetts legislature stating that Negroes should not have to pay taxes since they had "no voice or influence in the election of those who tax us." (Taken from Herbert Aptheker's Documentary of History of the Negro People) He later asked that free Negroes receive the same voting rights as the white population.

Prince Hall, Born in Barbados, came to America in 1765, settling in Massachusetts. As a free man, he became fairly well to do by the Revolution, through industry and private study. In 1775, Hall was initiated into the Masonic Order by a British military lodge then garrisoned in Boston and later became grand master of the Negro Masons. Hall urged the General Court in Massachusetts "to abolish the traffic in human beings." The legislature quickly responded by passing an act prohibiting the slave trade and establishing a procedure by which persons who were kidnapped or decoyed out of the commonwealth could obtain redress." (taken from Quarles book) Soon after, Hall saw action in the Battle of Bunker Hill. In April of 1778 he was enlisted by town of Medford, and received bounty of $100 currency.

Salem Poor, a part of Colonel Frye's Regiment and Captain Ames Company, in the Battle of Charleston, he was said to have behaved like "an experienced officer, as well as an excellent soldier," and a petition was warranted on his behalf by fourteen Massachusetts officers. The officers stated, "We only beg to say, in the person of this said Negro centers a brave and gallant soldier. The reward due to so great and distinguished a character, we submit to Congress." Poor also served at both Valley Forge and White Plains, earlier in the war.

History is continuous and pervasive, and if we are learn from and be inspired by it, we must know, as completely and as accurately as possible, what happened in a particular time or place, relying upon the necessity of critical research based on an unchangeable principle: reliable information about historical events must come from the primary sources created by the people of that time. Anything less does a grave disservice to the brave men and women of different races and diverse backgrounds who helped win our independence - and to the valiant individuals on both sides who fought the Battle of Stony Point.