Cowboys and Skinners were the names given to the marauders who terrorized the no-man's-land between the British and Revolutionary lines in Westchester County, New York. The names were used during the Revolutionary War (1775-83) and were later made famous by James Fenimore Cooper in his novel The Spy (1821).

Although used generically, both Cowboys and Skinners referred to specific units. The Cowboys were known as De Lancey's Cowboys, also called the Westchester Refugees, a unit of about 500 volunteer Loyalists who were organized by James De Lancey and stationed at King's Bridge. Labelled Cowboys for taking so many cattle, they kept the road to King's Bridge open so that supplies could be delivered to the British army while they raided behind enemy lines in foraging parties. The Skinners were the Cowboys' Revolutionary counterparts. Their name may have two possible derivations. First, the Skinners have been associated with a New Jersey regiment under General Courtlandt Skinner. Second, the unit reportedly skinned their victims of their purses and valuables. In half-mocking tones, Cooper described the depredations of both groups by declaring that "neither stopped to ask the politics of horse or cow which they drove into captivity; nor, when they wrung the neck of a rooster did they trouble their heads to ascertain whether they were crowing for congress or King George."

As losers in the war, De Lancey's Cowboys suffered the most in reputation. Although some men in the Westchester Refugees committed excesses and crimes, for the most part the unit maintained discipline despite their involvement in irregular warfare. In reality, units from all the forces in the region--the British, Hessians, Loyalists, regular Continentals, Revolutionary militia, and the French--at times took advantage of the lack of law and order in the no-man's-land between the lines. Moreover, criminal elements without allegiance to either side were also active and willing to blame their thievery on Cowboys, Skinners, or both.

Bibliography:

Catherine S. Crary, "Guerrilla Activities of James De Lancey's Cowboys in Westchester County: Conventional Warfare or Self-Interested Freebooting?" in Robert A. East and Jacob Judd, eds., The Loyalist Americans: A Focus on Greater New York (Tarrytown: Sleepy Hollow Restorations, 1975), 14-24.

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