De Lancey's Brigade, also known as De Lancey's Volunteers, De Lancey's Corps, and De Lancey's Provincial Corps, was a British Loyalist provincial military unit, raised for service during the American War of Independence. Its commander was Brigadier General Oliver De Lancey.
Oliver's nephew, James De Lancey, commanded his own unit of rangers or partisans. That unit, known as De Lancey's Raiders, De Lancey's Refugees, Westchester Refugees, and the "Cowboys" or "Cow-boys," harassed the enemy near New York City and procured supplies for the British army by conducting cattle raids. James acquired the sobriquet “Outlaw of the Bronx” (he had his headquarters near the Bronx River.) It was James De Lancey's Cowboys who ambushed and brutally killed Col. Christopher Greene in the Battle of Pine's Bridge. The Cowboys often operated under the broader umbrella of the De Lancey name and worked closely with the Brigade.
History
De Lancey's Brigade was raised in September 1776 on Long Island, New York, after the Patriot forces had lost the Battle of Brooklyn during the British New York Campaign. The Brigade consisted of three battalions of five hundred men each, with De Lancey serving both as brigadier general and colonel of the 1st Battalion.
In the winter of 1776–1777, De Lancey's three battalions were stationed (one each) at Oyster Bay, Huntington, Brookhaven, Long Island, and Kingsbridge, Bronx. In May 1777, the 1st and 2nd Battalions moved to the Kingsbridge area, north of Manhattan. The following month, the 1st returned to Long Island, while the 2nd remained at Kingsbridge. In the spring of 1778, the forts that had been erected at Huntington and Brookhaven were abandoned, and the 1st and 3rd Battalions were removed to encamp near New Town.
Brigadier General Oliver De Lancy conducted regular military operations in the region north of New York City, in Westchester County, New York, between Morrisania and the Croton Rivers, which was known as the Neutral Ground. Guerrilla warfare was carried out by James De Lancey's Cowboys and their compatriots, Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner's Greens, known by their nickname, "Skinner's Skinners" (the term "skinners" was also applied to all marauders, including Patriot-aligned guerrilla bands). Both were groups of Loyalist marauders who stole cattle, looted, and gathered military intelligence in the New York countryside.Lincoln Diamant, Skinners: Patriot "Friends or Loyalist Foes?, The Hudson Valley Regional Review, September 1987 Volume 4, Number 2
In November 1778, although the Brigade had originally been formed "for the defense of Long Island", the 1st and 2nd Battalions were ordered South, where they served under Lt. Col. Archibald Campbell. The 1st and 2nd Battalions fought successfully in the Siege of Ninety-Six and at the Battle of Eutaw Springs and other battles in the Carolinas. The 3rd Battalion remained on Long Island for the entire war, as did De Lancey himself.
The entire brigade was disbanded in Woodstock, New Brunswick in 1783. Many of the regiment settled in Nova Scotia after the war. A detachment of the 2nd regiment was shipwrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia on 27 April 1783, killing 99 of 174 on board.
References
Further reading Gue, Belle Willey and John D. Felter. The Neutral Ground. Boston: Stratford Company, 1922. Johnson, James M., Christopher Pryslopski, Andrew Villani, Eds. Key to the Northern Country: The Hudson River Valley in the American Revolution. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2013. Kemble, Lieut. Col. Stephen. Journals of Lieut. Col. Stephen Kemble, 1773-1789: And British Army Orders: Gen. Sir William Howe, 1775-1778; Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, 1778; and Gen. Daniel Jones, 1778, American Revolutionary series: British accounts of the American Revolution, British accounts of the American Revolution, Volume 16 of Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the year ... New York: Ardent Media, 1972. Ward, Harry M. Between the Lines: Banditti of the American Revolution. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2002.
External links Index to DeLancey's Brigade History - The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies DeLancey's Brigade, Second Battalion, Captain Allison's Company, recreated unit Westchester County Archives, WCHS McDonald Interviews, topic: DeLancey, James (1746-1804)