University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER X.

April 1.—The pasteboard dollars of the Congress are now
refused by the hottest among the rebels themselves. One, who
was a member of a committee to punish those who might refuse
them, was lately punished for refusing them himself; and,
in short, every one is putting them off from himself, in exchange
for almost any thing that can be got for them.[1]

Yesterday, a Connecticut parson, with a parcel of the rag
money in one of his moccasins, was taken at Kingsbridge and
brought into New York. He was this morning obliged to
chew up all the money, and declare, in the presence of a large
assemblage of people, that he will not again pray for the Congress,
or their doer of dirty work, Mr. Washington; on the
conclusion of which he was set at liberty, with orders not to
go above the third line. He is an obstinate hypocrite, but
will now have plenty of time for psalmody and repentance,
which latter, I veouw, he stands much in need of.[2]

April 5.—Last Thursday, a party of rebels, under the
command of one George Babcock, came into the house of Mr.

Charles Slocum, at North Kingston.[4] His son
coming to the door, was immediately collared by
one of the banditti. Young Slocum clenched with him, and
would soon have made him repent his rashness, had it not
been for the interference of the rest of the gang. His father,
seeing the scuffle, came out of the house to interfere in behalf
of his son, when the infamous Babcock discharged a pistol at
him. The ball entered a little below his heart, and he died in
about three hours. Not content with the misery they had already
occasioned to this unhappy family, they took both his
sons and dragged them before their assembly, who, in their
clemency, permitted them to return under a strong guard to
attend the funeral of their murdered father. The mourning
relatives were accordingly escorted to the grave by this unfeeling
clan, who immediately upon their return home, carried
both the young men off to Providence jail. This unparalleled
barbarity is said to be occasioned by the information of some
villain that has escaped from Newport.

Every breast susceptible of the miseries of its fellow creatures
must feel for this unhappy family—a husband murdered!
a number of orphan children deprived of him to whom they
were wont to look up for support; and to complete the tragic
scene, two sons, whose presence at home might in some measure
have alleviated the loss of their parent, are likewise torn
from their wives, expecting soon to share the same cruel fate.
And all this performed by men who have decorated their standard
with the specious names of Liberty and Justice. [5]

April 14.—Day before yesterday, General Lord Cornwallis,
Generals Grant and Matthews, with the first battalion of
grenadiers, one battalion of light infantry, a de-

tachment of the guards, the light horse, two battalions
of Hessians, and the Yagers, commanded by Colonel
Donop, marched from New Brunswick, in New Jersey, between
eight and nine o'clock at night, in order to surprise
a large body of the rebels stationed at Boundbrook, seven
miles distance from that city, commanded by a General Lincoln.
The expedition was conducted with so much secrecy
that scarce any of the inhabitants knew of the departure of
the troops till Sunday morning. They avoided the roads, and
got close to the rebel intrenchments before day; heard the
sentinels cry "All's well," and were ordered to lie on their
arms till the rebels should fire their morning gun. The order
being given for the attack, their troops rushed on with their
usual intrepidity, and put the rebels to flight, killed upwards
of one hundred, took seventy-three prisoners, (among whom
was one of Lincoln's aide-de-camps, one captain, one lieutenant,
and a man in irons, sentenced by the rebels to be shot,)
three brass cannon, a quantity of arms, two wagons loaded
with ammunition, a number of horses, one hundred and twenty
head of cattle, sheep, hogs, &c., besides destroying three
hundred barrels of flour, several hogsheads of whiskey and
New England rum, with sundry other articles that the flourishing
States cannot very well spare. The troops returned on
Sunday forenoon, and the rebels crawled back to Boundbrook
on their departure. Our loss was one man killed, and two
Yagers wounded.

Many of the friends of government availed themselves of
the confusion the rebels were thrown in by the above disaster,
and came into Brunswick with the troops; several of the rebels
embraced the same opportunity, and brought in their arms.

It is said that the rebel general had not time to collect his
clothes, his safety requiring his utmost dexterity and swiftness.

The prisoners were brought to New York to-day, and are
lodged in gaol with their wretched brethren.[7]

The late proclamation, issued by Sir William Howe, we

hear, has been read to the several corps in the rebel army, by
their respective leaders, who strove to show them that the design
of it was to lead them to bondage and destruc-
tion, to alienate them from their allegiance to Messieurs
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and the other members
of the Congress, and to bring them out of their present state
of happiness and freedom. Many and wonderful were the
speeches made upon this occasion, all founded upon an evident
fear lest their poor deluded followers should see and think for
themselves. Their fear seems to have been just; for many, in
following their own senses, have quitted the desperate and
wicked cause they have been engaged in, and have brought in
(some of them at least) two or three muskets apiece, for which
they have been handsomely paid in silver dollars.[9] Some
whole companies have come in, and particularly from the
northward. A party of them who came up a few days since
from Amboy, in order to join the royal provincials, were astonished
to see any ships in New York harbor, as it had
been industriously reported among the rebels that they were
all sailed for England, and that the troops were to quit the
colonies as soon as fresh ships could arrive to carry them home.
A very few weeks will convict these impostors of their numberless
falsehoods.

Several men-of-war, and above one hundred transports, are
stationed in the North River. The East River is crowded with
merchantmen, prize-vessels, and ships of all sorts.

A correspondent remarks, that whilst most of the other
seaport towns and colonies groan under the dearness of provisions,
and the common necessaries of life, New York is supplied,
at very little more than the usual rate in this season of the year,
with every species of food and all kinds of clothing and dry
goods.

The Philadelphia newspapers are stuffed with continual
false accounts of skirmishes and other exploits of their ragamuffins
in the Jerseys, in which they always obtain most wonderful

and "never-to-be-heard-of-victories." The following may
serve for a specimen, taken from the Pennsylvania Journal
of the second of April. In a skirmish, which is stated to have
happened near Quibbletown on the twenty-fourth of March,
they say the British "must have lost some men, as they were
seen carrying them off in the time of action, which happened
within half a mile of their breastworks. We had two rifles
broke, but not a man hurt in this skirmish; an evident proof,
that Providence shields the just and brave, (they mean themselves,)
for we forced them from an advantageous wood, where
they were posted behind trees and our people entirely exposed
in an open field. The troops that were engaged with ours
were British and not Hessian. Our whole party did not
exceed one hundred and thirty, and the enemy not less than
three hundred men." What opinion must these people have
of their followers, when they suppose them capable of believing
such enormous falsehoods as these?

Some days ago, the daughter of Mr. Jonathan Kniffin, of
Rye, in Connecticut, was murdered by a party of rebels near
or upon Budd's Neck. She was carrying some clothes to her
father in company of two men who had the charge of a herd
of cattle. They were fired upon by the rebels from behind a
stone wall. The poor young woman received a ball in her
head, of which she instantly died. The men escaped unhurt.
They plundered her dead body of its clothes, cut one of her
fingers almost off in order to take a ring, and left the corpse
most indecently exposed in the highway. Such are the advocates
of this cursed rebellion! Yet the officer (so called) who
commanded the party, and who is said to be a colonel among
the rebels, gloried in the exploit, and swore it was better to kill
one woman than two men; adding, moreover, that he would
put both man and woman to death, who should presume to
cultivate their farms or their gardens in the neighborhood of
Rye this spring.[10]

Three men-of-war have sailed up the Delaware, and anchored

off Reedy Island. This has thrown all the rebellious
part of Philadelphia, with the congress at their head, into the
utmost perturbation. Handbills have been distributed to
implore the people to assemble in arms against the troops of
their sovereign, but it won't do. The people begin to see the
baseness and villany of their leaders, and think it high time to
take care of themselves. Some of the New England and other
people who do not belong to the province, have attempted to
burn the city, and actually did set it on fire in two places.
This has induced the Quakers and other inhabitants to mount
guard every night for the preservation of their property from
destruction by these lawless incendiaries.[11]

April 18.—The committee appointed by Congress some
time ago to inquire into the conduct of the British troops in
their different marches through New York and

New Jersey, have to-day reported:—That in every
place where the enemy has been, there are heavy complaints
of oppression, injury, and insult, suffered by the inhabitants,
from officers, soldiers, and Americans disaffected to their country's
cause.

The committee found these complaints so greatly diversified,
that as it was impossible to enumerate them, so it appeared
exceedingly difficult to give a distinct and comprehensive
view of them, or such an account as would not appear extremely
defective when read by unhappy sufferers or the country
in general. In order, however, in some degree to answer the
design of their appointment, they determined to divide the object
of their inquiry into the following parts, and briefly state
what they found to be the truth upon each.

First:—The wanton and oppressive devastation of the
country, and destruction of property.

The whole track of the British army is marked with desolation,
and a wanton destruction of property, particularly through
Westchester county, in the State of New York, the towns of
Newark, Elizabethtown Woodbridge, Brunswick, Kingston,

Princeton, and Trenton, in New Jersey. The fences destroyed,
houses deserted, pulled in pieces or consumed by fire, and the
general face of waste and devastation spread over a rich and
once well-cultivated and well-inhabited country, would affect
the most unfeeling with compassion for the unhappy sufferers,
and with indignation and resentment against the barbarous
ravagers.

It deserves notice, that though there are many instances of
rage and vengeance against particular persons, yet the destruction
was very general and often undistinguished; those who
submitted and took protections, and some who were known to
favor them, having frequently suffered in the common ruin.
Places and things which from their public nature and general
utility should have been spared by civilized people, have been
destroyed or plundered, or both. But above all, places of
worship, ministers, and other religious persons of some particular
Protestant denominations, seem to have been treated with
the most rancorous hatred, and at the same time with the
highest contempt.

Second:—The inhuman treatment of those who were so unfortunate
as to become prisoners.

The prisoners, instead of that humane treatment which
those taken by the United States experienced, were in general
treated with the greatest barbarity. Many of them were kept
near four days without food altogether. When they received
a supply, it was insufficient in quantity, and often of the worst
kind. They suffered the utmost distress from cold, nakedness,
and close confinement. Freemen and men of substance suffered
all that a generous mind could suffer from the contempt
and mockery of British and foreign mercenaries. Multitudes
died in prison. When they were sent out, several died in being
carried from the boats on shore, or upon the road attempting
to go home. The committee, in the course of their inquiry,
learned that sometimes the common soldiers expressed
sympathy with the prisoners, and the foreigners more than
the English. But this was seldom or never the case with the
officers; nor have they been able to hear of any charitable assistance
given them by the inhabitants who remained in or resorted

to the city of New York, which neglect, if universal,
they believe was never known to happen in any similar case
in a Christian country.

Third:—The savage butchery of those who had submitted,
and were incapable of resistance.

The committee found it to be the general opinion of the
people in the neighborhood of Trenton and Princeton, that
the British, the day before the battle of Princeton, had determined
to give no quarter. They did not, however, obtain any
clear proof that there were general orders for that purpose, but
the treatment of several particular persons at and since that
time, has been of the most shocking kind, and gives too much
countenance to the supposition. Officers wounded and disabled,
some of them of the first rank, were barbarously mangled
or put to death. A minister of the gospel, who neither
was nor had been in arms, was massacred in cold blood at
Trenton, though humbly supplicating for mercy.[13]

Fourth:—The lust and brutality of the soldiers in abusing
women.

The committee had authentic information of many instances
of the most indecent treatment and actual ravishment
of married and single women; but such is the nature of that
most irreparable injury, that the persons suffering it, though
perfectly innocent, look upon it as a kind of reproach to have
the facts related, and their names known. Some complaints

were made to the commanding officers on this subject, and one
affidavit made before a justice of the peace, but the committee
could not learn that any satisfaction was ever given, or punishment
inflicted, except that one soldier in Pennington was kept
in custody for part of a day.

On the whole, the committee are sorry to say that the cry
of barbarity and cruelty is but too well founded; and as in
conversation those who are cool to the American cause, have
nothing to oppose to the facts but their being incredible and
not like what they are pleased to style the generosity and clemency
of the English nation, the committee beg leave to observe
that one of the circumstances most frequently occurring in the
inquiry, was the opprobrious, disdainful names given to the
Americans. These do not need any proof, as they occur so
frequently in the newspapers printed under their direction, and
in the intercepted letters of those who are officers, and call
themselves gentlemen. It is easy, therefore, to see what must
be the conduct of a soldiery greedy of prey, towards a people
whom they have been taught to look upon, not as freemen
defending their rights on principle, but as desperadoes and
profligates, who have risen up against law and order in general,
and wish the subversion of society itself. This is the
most charitable and candid manner in which the committee
can account for the melancholy truths which they have been
obliged to report. Indeed, the same deluding principle seems
to govern persons and bodies of the highest rank in Britain;
for it is worthy of notice that not pamphleteers only, but
King and Parliament, constantly call those acts lenity, which
on their first publication filled this whole continent with resentment
and horror.[14]

April 20.—To the Tories.—Wanted for his Majesty's service,
as an assistant to his Excellency General Howe and
Hugh Gaine, printers and publishers of the New York Gazette,
a gentleman who can lie with ingenuity.

Enquire of Peter Numbskull, collector and composer of

lies for their Excellencies at New York. N. B.—A good hand
will receive the honor of knighthood.[15]

A correspondent in England says:—An American privateer
was some time since taken by one of our frigates. She carried
the continental colors, which are thirteen red and white
stripes; but it was observed that this privateer had but twelve
stripes in his colors. On being asked the reason, he answered
that since we had taken the province of New York, the Congress
had a province less; and that whenever they lost any of
the provinces, it was their orders to cut away one of the stripes
from their colors, so that there should be no more stripes than
provinces.

A gentleman, who was a prisoner in America, has brought
to Whitehaven, a Boston almanac for the year, in which the
days of his Majesty's birth, accession, &c., are not marked as
usual, but the particular days relative to Oliver Cromwell instead
of them. The year is denoted by the "first of American
Independence, which began July 4, 1776."[16]

April 30.—Last Friday, the twenty-fifth instant, twenty-six
sail of British ships appeared off Norwalk Islands, standing
in for Cedar Point, where they anchored at

four o'clock P. M., and soon began landing troops.
By ten o'clock they had landed two brigades, consisting of upwards
of two thousand men, and marched immediately for
Danbury, where they arrived the next day at two o'clock in
the afternoon.

The handful of continental troops there were obliged to evacuate
the town, having previously secured a part of the stores
and provisions. The British, on their arrival, began burning
and destroying the stores, houses, provisions, &c.

On their appearance, the country was alarmed. Early the
next morning Brigadier-General Silliman, with about five hundred
militia, (all that were collected,) pursued them. At Reading

he was joined by Major-General Wooster, and Brigadier-General
Arnold. The heavy rain all the afternoon retarded
the march of the Americans so much that they did not reach
Bethel (a village two miles from Danbury) till eleven o'clock
at night, much fatigued, and their arms rendered useless by
being wet. It was thought prudent to refresh the men and
attack the enemy on their return. Early the next morning,
(which proved rainy,) the whole were in motion. Two hundred
men remained with General Wooster, and about four
hundred were detached under General Arnold and General
Silliman, on the road leading to Norwalk. At nine o'clock A.
M., intelligence was received that the British had taken the
road leading to Norwalk, of which General Wooster was advised,
and pursued them. He came up with them about eleven
o'clock, when a smart skirmishing ensued, in which General
Wooster, who behaved with great intrepidity, unfortunately
received a wound by a musket ball through the groin, which
it is feared will prove mortal. General Arnold, by a forced
march across the country, reached Ridgefield at eleven o'clock,
and having posted his small party, (being joined by about one
hundred men,) waited the approach of the British, who were
soon discovered advancing in a column, with three field-pieces
in front and three in rear, and large flank guards of near two
hundred men in each. At noon they began discharging their
artillery, and were soon within musket shot, when a smart
action ensued between the whole, which continued about an
hour, in which the Americans behaved with great spirit; but,
being overpowered by numbers, were obliged to give way,
though not until the enemy were raising a small breastwork,
thrown across the way, at which General Arnold had taken
post with about two hundred men, (the rest of our small body
were posted on the flanks,) who acted with the greatest spirit.
The general had his horse shot under him, when the enemy
were within about ten yards of him, but luckily received no
hurt; recovering himself, he drew his pistol and shot the soldier
who was advancing with his fixed bayonet. He then ordered
his troops to retreat through a shower of small and
grape shot. In the action the British suffered very considerably,
leaving about thirty dead and wounded on the ground,
besides a number unknown buried. Here we had the misfortune
of losing Lieutenant-Colonel Gold, one subaltern, and
several privates killed and wounded. It was found impossible
to rally our troops, and General Arnold ordered a stand to be
made at Saugatuck bridge, where it was expected the enemy
would pass.

At nine o'clock on the morning of the 28th, about five
hundred men were collected at Saugatuck bridge, including
part of the companies of Colonel Lamb's battalion of artillery,
with three field-pieces, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Oswald, a field-piece with part of the artillery company from
Fairfield, sixty continental troops, and three companies of volunteers
from New Haven, with whom Generals Arnold and
Silliman took post about two miles above the bridge. Soon
after the enemy appeared in sight, their rear was attacked by
Colonel Huntington, (commanding a party of about five hundred
men,) who sent to General Arnold for instructions, and
for some officers to assist him. General Silliman was ordered
to his assistance. The enemy finding our troops advantageously
posted, made a halt, and after some little time wheeled
off to the left and forded Saugatuck River, three miles above
the bridge. General Arnold observing this motion, ordered
the whole to march directly for the bridge, in order to attack
them in the flank, General Silliman at the same time to attack
their rear. The enemy, by running full speed, had passed the
bridge on Fairfield side with their main body, before our troops
could cross it. General Silliman finding it impossible to overtake
them on their route, proceeded to the bridge, where the
whole were formed. They marched in two columns, with two
field-pieces on the right, the other on the left of the enemy,
when a smart skirmishing and firing of field-pieces ensued,
which continued about three hours. The enemy having gained
the high hill of Compo, several attempts were made to dislodge
them, but without effect. Having landed a number of
fresh troops to cover their embarkation, which they effected a
little before sunset, they weighed anchor immediately, and
stood across the Sound for Huntington, on Long Island. Our

loss cannot exactly be ascertained, no return being made; it is
judged to be about sixty killed and wounded. Among the
killed are one lieutenant-colonel, one captain, four subalterns,
and Doctor David Atwater, of New Haven, whose death is
greatly lamented by his acquaintance. Among the number
wounded are Colonel John Lamb, (of the artillery,) Arnah
Bradley, and Timothy Gorham, volunteers from New Haven,
though not mortally.

The enemy's loss is judged to be more than double our
number, and about twenty prisoners. They behaved, on this
occasion, with their usual barbarity, wantonly and cruelly
murdering the wounded prisoners who fell into their hands,
and plundering the inhabitants, burning and destroying every
thing in their way.[18]

The following is Gaine's account of this affair:—"In consequence
of information received of the rebels having collected

large magazines at Danbury, in Connecticut, a
detachment of two hundred and fifty men from
each of the following regiments, fourth, fifteenth, twenty-third,
twenty-seventh, forty-fourth, and sixty-fourth, a subaltern's
command of dragoons, three hundred of Governor Brown's
corps, and six three-pounders, under the command of Major-General
Tryon, and Brigadier-Generals Agnew and Sir William
Erskine, proceeded up the East River, and on Friday
evening last, at six o'clock, landed at Compo Point, near Norwalk.
The debarkation being completed about ten, the troops
got in motion, and after a march of twenty-five miles, arrived
without opposition at Danbury, at three o'clock on Saturday
afternoon. The remainder of that day, and part of next morning,
were employed in destroying the stores, which were found
to exceed their expectation. At nine o'clock they began their
march back to the shipping, and proceeded without interruption
until they approached Ridgefield, where they found a
body of the rebels, under the command of Mr. Arnold, who
had fortified the entrance of the town, which they carried after
small opposition, with considerable loss on the side of the rebels,
the rear repulsing another body, who attacked them at the
same time, under Mr. Wooster. The troops continued their
march next morning at four o'clock, the rebels firing on their
flanks and rear, but from such a distance as to do them but
little injury. About half a mile from the ships where the
troops halted, part of the rebel army, which consisted of at
least four thousand, kept up a heavy fire from behind stone
walls, whilst two columns made a show of attacking; but part
of the detachment charged them with fixed bayonets, and put
them to a total rout, with considerable slaughter. The troops,
after remaining some time upon the ground, embarked with
the greatest regularity and order, without further interruption
from the rebels, who never showed themselves more.

"The spirit and firmness shown by the troops on this occasion,
does them infinite honor.

"The loss sustained was fourteen men killed, ten officers and
eighty men wounded, most of them slightly."[20]

We are here presented with an account of the Danbury
expedition from two different sides; by which it appears, that
the English paid dear for their entertainment in Connecticut;
but if we may judge of Mr. Gaine's modesty in telling a
story from the account he gave of the action at Princeton in

January last, where he says (speaking of the British troops)
"that they had ten killed, and a few wounded;" when it is
an uncontroverted fact, that we buried one hundred and four
regulars who were killed outright, and left fifty wounded at
Princeton, besides above two hundred taken prisoners; we
have, by a comparison of their accounts of the two affairs, good
reason to think they have paid such a price as that a few
more of those bargains would lower the stock of Howe & Co.,
so that they would be obliged to keep close, or beat a retreat.[21]

May 3.—Major-General David Wooster died this day, of
the wounds he received in the late affair at Danbury, in Con-

necticut. He was born at Stratford, in that State,
on the second of March, 1710-'11, and was educated
at Yale College, where he graduated in the year 1738. Soon
after the Spanish war broke out in 1739, he was employed, first
as lieutenant, and then as captain, of the armed vessels built
by Connecticut for a Guarda Coasta. After this he engaged
in the military service of this country, and was a captain in
Colonel Burr's regiment, in the expedition against Louisburg
in 1745.

After the reduction of that place, he was sent to France,
with a part of the prisoners taken there, and from thence went
to England, where he received the honor of a captaincy on the
establishment, in Sir William Pepperell's regiment. During
the peace which soon followed, he received his half pay, and
was chiefly employed in his private affairs. When the war
with France was renewed in 1755, he was soon thought of as
a gentleman qualified for a higher sphere of command, and
served his country as colonel and commandant of a brigade to
the end of the war.

From the first rise of the present controversy with Great
Britain, in 1764, though his interest as a half-pay officer
might have apologized for him, if he had observed a perfect
neutrality, yet so fully convinced was he of the ruinous
measures of the British court, and so jealous was he for his
country's rights, that regardless of his private interest, he took
an open and decisive part, and avowedly espoused the cause

of America, and persisted in that line of conduct to the day of
his death. As soon as hostilities were commenced in the
Lexington battle, the General Assembly of Connecticut set
about raising an army, and Colonel Wooster, from his approved
abilities, well-known courage, and great experience, was
appointed to the chief command. The same summer he was
appointed a brigadier-general in the continental service. Honored
with these commissions, he first commanded the troops
sent to guard New York, where it was expected that part of
the British army, which came over in 1775, would land. In
the latter part of that campaign, he, with his troops, went into
Canada, and assisted much in the reduction of St. John's, Montreal,
&c., and after General Montgomery's death, had the chief
command in that province. He returned home in the summer
of 1776, and not long after was appointed first major-general
of the militia of Connecticut.

He had been out the whole of the last winter, at the head
of a body of men raised by the State for its own security,
and was but lately returned, when on Saturday the 26th of
April last, he received the news that the enemy, in a large
body, had landed at Compo. He immediately set off for Fairfield,
leaving orders for the militia to be mustered and sent forward
as fast as possible. When he arrived at Fairfield, finding
General Silliman had marched in pursuit of the enemy with
the troops then collected, he followed on with all expedition,
and at Reading overtook General Silliman, with the small body
of militia, of which he of course took the command, and proceeded
that same evening to the village of Bethel. Here it was
determined to divide the troops, and part were sent off under
Generals Arnold and Silliman, the rest remained with General
Wooster, and them he led by the route of Danbury, in pursuit
of the enemy, whom he overtook on the Sabbath, about four
o'clock, near Ridgefield. Observing a part of the enemy who
seemed to be detached from the main body, he determined to
attack them, though the number of his men was less than two
hundred; he accordingly led them on himself with great spirit
and resolution, ordering them to follow him. But being inexperienced
militia, and the enemy having several field-pieces,

our men, after doing considerable execution, were broken and
gave way. The general was rallying them to renew the attack,
when he received the fatal wound. A musket ball from
the distance of fifty rods, took him obliquely in the back,
broke his back bone, lodged within him, and never could be
found. He was removed from the field, had his wounds
dressed by Doctor Turner, and was then conveyed back to
Danbury, where all possible care was taken of him. The surgeons
were from the first sensible of the danger of the case,
and informed the general of their apprehensions, which he
heard with the greatest composure.

The danger soon became more apparent, his whole lower
parts became insensible, and a mortification, it is thought,
began very early. It was designed to carry his remains to
New Haven, to be interred there, but that being found impossible,
they will be interred at Danbury.[27]

May 5.—This day, Earl Percy, the hero of Lexington,
weary of the American war, though covered with laurels, sailed
from Newport, in Rhode Island, for England, in a ship
mounting fourteen guns only. The command devolves on
General Prescott.

A person belonging to the nest of pirates at Providence
presents his compliments to Sir Peter Parker, at Newport.
Should Sir Peter attempt an expedition up the bay, he might
possibly find that a nest of pirates would prove as fatal to his
breeches as the nest of hornets on Sullivan's Island, which Sir
Peter so very imprudently disturbed.[28]

It is now thought, says a writer in London, that General
Washington will hold the two posts of Protector and General,
in imitation of the redoubtable hero of republicanism, Oliver
Cromwell, who was, many years after he was raised to the
Protectoral chair, his own generalissimo. And the former
will doubtless regard the orders of Congress, as Oliver did those
of the Rump Parliament.—The writer of this article is cer-

tainly entirely ignorant of the characters of General Washington
and Oliver Cromwell. [29]

May 6.—We have often had occasion to observe, that
lying and misrepresentation, to the greatest extent, is a necessary
part of the ministerial plan of operation

against us. They have given us a thousand proofs
of this, and continue to give new ones every day, to the utter
disregard of truth or justice, sincerity, honor or honesty.

The original design of the court of Great Britain, in their
contest with America, was so base and treacherous, and so
utterly inconsistent with the principles of the English Constitution,
that they were obliged to have recourse to every artifice,
in order to deceive the people of England, and even their
own emissaries who were not yet so abandoned and hardened
in villany, as heartily to co-operate in the destruction of the
English Constitution, which had so long been the boast and
glory of the nation, had raised it to its highest degree of opulence
and splendor, and had been the distinguishing characteristic
of England from every other nation. In speculation, one
would have thought it impossible to persuade Englishmen, or
any of those who were real friends to them, to lend a helping
hand to the destruction of that revered Constitution, which
it had been the work of ages to form and establish; a Constitution
which secured the freedom and property of the people,
gave the King as much power as any wise man could wish to
have, or as any wise people could, with safety to themselves,
possibly trust in the hands of their supreme magistrate. He
had an almost unlimited power to do good, and was only restrained
from doing evil, and becoming a tyrant in stead of a
father to his people. But a wicked and abandoned court
and ministry were not content with this. They had broke
through every moral and religious restraint, and run into
boundless extravagance and expense, which no honest income
was sufficient to support; and in defrauding the public, by
betraying the trust reposed in them, and converting the national

revenues to their own use, they knew they were liable
to be called to a severe account and punishment, and could
not be screened even by the King himself, under a Constitution,
where the law was above him, and bound him as well as
his subjects. They knew that under a government where the
King is arbitrary and makes his will the supreme law, they
could, by keeping in his favor, effectually secure themselves
from being called to account for the most atrocious and treasonable
breaches of trust they could possibly be guilty of;
they therefore, with much application and artful contrivance,
formed a deep-laid design to destroy the Constitution, by
making the King absolute, and the people slaves.

To execute this design, they found means to draw in a formidable
combination, partly of men in similar circumstances
with themselves, and the rest, such as had a greater relish for
the advantages they might expect under a despotic prince,
than in a government where every member, from the highest
to the lowest, was under the restraint of law. It was no difficult
matter to seduce the King himself to enter into this combination,
and promote the design with all his power and influence.
He was not of a disposition to resist so strong a temptation
as appeared in the offer of unlimited power; and as
little doubtful of his qualifications to exercise it with propriety
as Phæton was of his ability to drive the chariot of the Sun.
Such were the motives of the King and his ministry for their
conduct respecting America. But it was necessary to deceive
the people, and pretend other motives for this conduct, in order
to conceal these. To this end, the expedient of lying and
deception was adopted, and has been continually appropriated
by the ministry and all their emissaries, both in Europe and
America, to serve their purposes upon all occasions.

Whenever we have had an opportunity to examine any accounts
they have published, either from England or America,
we have found them either absolutely false, or grossly misrepresented;
we have, therefore, reason to suppose they have had
the same disregard to truth in those accounts we have not had
the means of examining, as we have found in others.

The following paragraphs, lately published, are illustrations

of these observations:—"The New Yorkers, we are informed,
are exasperated to the highest degree against the Congress, and
the army acting under their orders; and declare, that when
they act against the rebels, they will neither give nor receive
quarter."

Who are the persons here styled New Yorkers? The city
of New York, that rueful scene of ruin, violence, and distress,
is inhabited at present by a few sorts of people, viz.:

1. A crew of bloody murderers and base robbers, sent by the
King of Great Britain to enslave the Americans, and plunder
them of their property.

2. A still more infamous and execrable herd of Tory natives
and former inhabitants of New York, who, with unparalleled
folly and villany, have joined the foreign enemies of their
country in promoting its destruction, in entailing upon it and
even their own posterity, endless slavery and subjection to a
tyrant's will. And all this for the despicable consideration of
a little present emolument, or perhaps only the delusive hopes
even of that; or from the basest cowardice, which, to shun a
lesser evil, has plunged them, loaded with guilt, into a greater.

3. A number of poor, helpless, or indigent people, who,
unable to remove, or having nothing to lose, have remained in
New York, and been forced to submit to every imposition of
an insolent, tyrannical enemy.

4. A number of honest, worthy men, who have unfortunately
fallen into the enemy's hands, and because they had
acted as friends to their country, as they were in duty bound
to do, have not only been detained as prisoners, but treated
with every kind of insult, cruelty, and inhumanity. These
four sorts make up the present inhabitants of the city of New
York.

As to the two first, we have no doubt of their rancor,
malice, and cruelty; they have repeatedly given unquestionable
proofs of it, and they never had, or ever will have, a disposition
to give quarter to any honest man that has had the
misfortune to fall into their hands, or even to treat him with
humanity. And it is not improbable, that at a time when
they thought to carry all before them—that all was quite over

with us, that we were entirely in their power and should be
obliged to ask for quarter, which they were determined to refuse,
they might have made such a declaration, that they
would neither give nor receive quarter, in order to give a
color of reason and equity to their barbarous treatment of our
people. At this time they did not imagine they should ever
be in our power, and have occasion to ask that quarter for
themselves which they refused to us. But the tables being
turned since they made that declaration, we may be assured
their humor of refusing quarter has subsided, and they would
receive it now with as much humility as they possessed of
haughtiness and cruelty when they refused it to us. But their
behavior having left them no room to hope for it, there remains
only to them a fearful looking for of judgment and retribution.
Meanwhile their number is become so small, their
strength so weak, their distress and anxiety so great, that their
very existence seems to have become a curse, and those they
have most injured can hardly wish them to be more miserable.
than they really are.

"By a letter received from Rhode Island, we have advice
that an engagement lately happened near that place between
seven privateers, fitted out by the colonists, and four King's
frigates, when, after a warm contest, one of the privateers was
sunk, and the others were beat off."

This engagement of the vessels we do not remember to
have heard of, and believe it to be no more than a fiction, invented
to make their principals think they were still going on
with mischief, and had done more than it has been in their
power to do; though we must do them the justice to own,
they do as much as they can.

"We hear that government has received advices by the way
of Holland, from New York, which give an account of some
further advantages gained over the rebels, and that several despatches
had passed between Lord and Sir William Howe and
the ruling powers of the Congress, but that nothing decisive
had been resolved on when these advices came away."

This, of their negotiation with the Congress, &c., is a lie
throughout, devised, probably, in part for the same purpose as

the last mentioned, and partly to amuse the opposite party in
England, to whom the ministry pretended that Sir William
and Lord Howe were sent out principally with a view to accommodate
differences, and effect a reconciliation between Great
Britain and America; though the full powers of these famous
commissioners extended no farther than to the grant of pardons,
if they thought proper, to such of the Americans as
should consent to unconditional submission to the authority of
the King and Parliament of Great Britain, and to be bound
by laws of their making, in all cases whatsoever.

"We hear that of the thirty nurses that lately took care of
the sick in the Philadelphia hospital, no less than twenty-seven
of them died in one week."

The death of twenty-seven of the thirty nurses in the Philadelphia
hospital, is probably a wilful mistake. That it is not
true is certain. If the account had been, that of thirty sick
persons who had been prisoners at New York, twenty-seven
had died under the care of the nurses in the Philadelphia hospital,
we might have believed the relation to be true; because
it is well known that those poor prisoners were generally
starved to death, or from want of food and through barbarous
usage in many respects, died in nearly the above proportion,
after they were released in exchange for prisoners in our hands,
who were well kept, and returned in health and good order.

There are many other articles in the English papers, and
from them republished in American papers, that ought not to
appear in any of our papers without proper notes to guard the
unwary reader from deception and false impressions.[31]

May 8.—A correspondent has offered the following query
and remarks to General Howe:—"If with thirty thousand
men you conquered two towns and one village in

one year, how many years will it be before you
will be able to conquer and occupy all the towns and villages
on the continent of America?"

It is incumbent upon your excellency to answer this question

immediately, in order that the few recruits whom you
have enlisted by your late proclamation, in which you have
offered them the forfeited property of the Whigs, may know
exactly how many hundred years they must wait before you
eject the Whigs, and give them the peaceable possession of
their estates.

Oh, fie, Sir William; fie, for shame! Such proclamations
become a general at the head of a powerful and victorious
army, and a whole country almost prostrate at his feet, and
not the poor, contemptible chief of a vanquished, blockaded,
half-starved, half-naked, half-rotten, half-paid, mongrel banditti,
composed of the sweepings of the jails of Britain, Ireland,
Germany, and America. Oh, fie; Sir William! Blush,
blush for your proclamation!

Some days ago a villain was taken up at Peekskill, in New
York, in whose custody were found eighty-eight counterfeit

Connecticut forty shilling bills, and one of thirty
dollars, Continental currency, badly done, being
paler and fainter impressed than the true ones. Those of Connecticut
are done on copper-plate, and not easily to be distinguished
from the true ones, but from that circumstance; the
true ones being done off at the common printing press. Another
of these adventures, with two thousand seven hundred
pounds of counterfeit money about him, is secured at Peekskill.

It seems they are tempted to follow this desperate employment
by the terms offered in the following advertisement
taken from H. Gaine's Gazette of the 14th of April last,
viz.:

"Persons going into the other colonies may be supplied
with any number of counterfeited Congress notes for the price of
the paper per ream. They are so nearly and exactly executed
that there is no risk in getting them off, it being almost impossible

to discover, that they are not genuine. This has been
proved by bills to a very large amount, which have been successfully
circulated. Inquire for Q. E. D., at the coffee house,
from eleven P. M., to four A. M. during the present month."[35]

May 12.—The rebels have industriously reported, and even
had the assurance to publish in some of their newspapers, that
the King's troops employed in destroying the

magazine at Danbury, "behaved with great barbarity,
wantonly and cruelly murdering the wounded prisoners
who fell into their hands, and plundering the inhabitants,
burning and destroying every thing in their way." That this
is a most audacious falsehood, fabricated to delude the weak
and credulous into a state of desperation, the inhabitants of
the country from Norwalk to Danbury can, if they dare, sufficiently
testify. The country people know that not the least
plunder was committed either upon their goods or cattle, even
where the houses were abandoned; that the soldiers paid for
every article they wanted; and that neither man, woman, nor
child received the least injury or molestation from the army,
except the rebels who attacked them, or were found in arms.
They accomplished the object for which they entered the country,
and then returned, in the utmost order, to the place of
embarkation.

For the same inflammatory purpose, the following article,
taken from the Connecticut Journal of the thirtieth of April,
was evidently composed: "A member of Congress, in a letter
dated April fifteenth, 1777, writes to his friend in this
town, (New Haven,) that an extract of a letter from England
to the commissioners, (Doctor Franklin, &c., in France,) mentions,
that the British ministry intends totally to destroy the
New England States, and make slaves of the southern." So
we see what we poor people of New England have to depend
on. A certain old gentleman would be puzzled to exceed this
story in impudence or falsehood. The author at least must
have had his full inspiration to invent it.[37]

May 24.—Yesterday, General Parsons having received
information that the British had collected, and were collecting

large quantities of forage at Sag Harbor, on Long
Island, together with about two hundred of the
continental troops who had previously rendezvoused at Sachem's
Head, in Guilford, embarked on board a number of whale
boats, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Meigs, to destroy it.
At about six o'clock in the afternoon they arrived at the beach,
on the side of Plumgut, and transported their boats about
fifty rods over the beach, when they again embarked, and
landed several miles from Sag Harbor, where (after leaving a
suitable guard to protect the boats) they marched with such
secresy as not to be discovered till within a few rods of the
sentry. They soon set about destroying the forage, &c. As
the enemy stationed there were entirely off their guard, the
troops met with little opposition. An armed schooner of
twelve guns, which lay not far from the shore, kept an incessant
fire on them, but happily did them no damage. The
Americans returned the fire with their small arms, but whether
with effect is not known; five or six of the enemy on shore
were destroyed, and three or four made their escape; the others
were made prisoners. The Americans then set fire to the
hay, (about one hundred tons,) which was on board transports,
and on the wharves, and entirely destroyed it, with ten transport
vessels, mostly sloops and schooners, and one armed vessel
of six or eight guns, two or three hogsheads of rum, &c. They
then returned to Guilford, having performed their expedition
in twenty-four hours.[39]

A late letter from England says:—"Mr. Rigby has proposed
in the cabinet a scheme for adjusting all disputes with

America. His plan is to decide the quarrel after
the Roman fashion, by single combat. Mr. Rigby
offers himself as the champion of England; he will box Washington,
Lee, or Putnam. This is at least as good a mode of reconciliation
as that projected by the Howes.[41]

May 29.—General G—y, from Amboy, to-day, says the
rebels in Philadelphia are very unsettled in their minds, and
are mostly friendly to government, although their

situation prevents their acting so. In the evening
before the meeting at the State house on the tenth instant, a
gentleman who reached Amboy a short time before G—y
left, passing the hour at Mrs. D—'s, where a cheerful party
of out-of-door-rebels had met, amused himself in preparing the
following advisory petition to the Congress, which was highly
applauded, and forthwith voted to be sent to old Thomson:[43]

Low and lousy beggars, rebel tailors, lawyers, pimps, parsons,
and cobblers:—Since by your machinations you have led
us into difficulty with our just and gracious King George the
Third, and now have left us at the mercy of a worse than lord
protector, we humbly veouw we will see you all to the devil before
we'll continue our allegiance to you or your pious Connecticutian
tricks, either by love, labor, or lying; for which last we
are in constant expectation of a judgment. And we further
advise and declare, that if you don't "disband, and at once return
to the peaceful employments" discerning nature hath
pointed out for you, (you, W., to your ink and horn book;
you, A., to your cheating; you, H., to your goose, and you,
D., to your wax,) you must expect to receive unseasonable
things at unseasonable hours.

We have been misled by the knaves among you, bewrayed
by the dirtiest of you, and soporated by the stupidity of all
of you, until we know not where to go, are unclean, and
are become mere tools in your hands, and without the least
spark of the ancient freedom of Britons. Therefore, beware!
Get home! Get out of debt, and make your wives happy, and
leave the affairs of kingdoms to those your God has placed
over you.[44]

William Stone, a traitor and spy, who was convicted of

having a commission from General Howe, and endeavoring to
enlist men to serve in the ministerial army, was executed at
Hartford, in Connecticut, pursuant to the sentence of a court-martial.[45]

June 2.—This day, came on the trial of Mather Byles, late
minister of the gospel in Boston, charged with being an

enemy to the United States; when, after a fair
and candid examination of evidences, the jury returned
their verdict, that he, Mather Byles, is and has been
since the nineteenth of April, 1775, inimically disposed
towards Massachusetts and the other United States, and that
his residence in the State is dangerous to the public peace and
safety. He was then delivered into the custody of a proper
officer, who conducted him to the Honorable the Board of
War, there to be dealt with agreeable to a late act for such
persons made and provided.[47]

The American republicans, like the rebels of all ages, from
their justice, peaceloving, and mercy, pretend to have the espe-

cial favors of God, and none of the devil's, on their
side, and for this reason we rarely see a proclamation
from the rebel camp, without a pious sentence bringing
up the rear. The late orders given by the head rebel at
Morristown, in the Jerseys, a copy of which is printed in all
the rebel prints, is a greater illustration of this Yankee piety
than any yet come out. In it Mr. Washington forbids card
playing under the penalty of a court-martial, ostensibly for
the reason that it is wicked and brings a disgrace on the
officers, but in reality to enlist the parsons and other old
women stronger in the cause of rebellion.

Old De Heister used to say, "Isht dakes de veek to fool
der Deutsche, isht dakes de day to fool de Anglees, isht dakes
der tyfel to fool de rebel, but all together couldn't fool de
Lord." So it is with Mr. Washington:—However easily he
may bait old Witherspoon, Billy Livingston, Jacky Jay, and
some of the other pious ones, who are hanging on the rear of
his moral forces; when the time comes, he'll find he can't
"fool the Lord" with pretended piety or Presbyterian general
orders.[49]

June 3.—A writer in London, says:—A young fellow named
Dawkins, who was some time since tried at Chelmsford assize,
and transported for stealing cheese, &c., has, we hear, just sent |

* * * * * * * * *

The commanding officer of every corps is strictly enjoined to have this order
frequently read, and strongly impressed upon the minds of those under his command.

Any officer or soldier, or other person belonging to, or following the army,
either in camp, in quarters, on the recruiting service, or elsewhere, presuming,
under any pretence, to disobey this order, shall be tried by a court-martial, etc.—
Pennsylvania Evening Post, May 13.

a letter to his mother, informing her the American Congress
have presented him with a captain's commission. He says
several other Essex patriots, who like him were torn from their
dearest connections, and banished for their firm attachment to
the cause of Liberty, now rank high in the American army.[50]

June 9.—Abraham Patten, a spy from the rebel army,
was executed at Brunswick, New Jersey, last Friday, between

eleven and twelve o'clock. He had agreed to
give a grenadier fifty guineas to carry four letters
to Washington and Putnam; the soldier took the cash, and
carried the letters to his Excellency Lord Cornwallis, wherein
was proposed on a certain day to set fire to Brunswick in four
places at once, blow up the magazine, and then set off a rocket
as a signal for the rebels to attack the town. At the gallows
he acknowledged all the charges brought against him, and said
he was a principal in setting fire to New York, but would
not accuse any of his accomplices. The said Patten formerly
lived in New York and has left a wife and four children at
Baltimore in Maryland.[52]

June 13.—This day the Assembly of Pennsylvania resolved,
that Mr. Parker, Colonel Coats, and Mr. Whitehill, be
a committee to purchase a coach and present the same to the
Honorable Mrs. Washington, the worthy lady of his Excellency
General Washington, as a small testimonial of the sense the
Assembly have of his great and important services to the
American States.

June 14.—The committee appointed to purchase a coach
to be presented to the Honorable Mrs. Washington, reported,
that they had bought a very elegant one, and, in the name of
the House, had presented it to that lady, by whom it had been
politely accepted.[53]

Congress this day resolved that the flag of the United States

be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; and that the union
be thirteen stars white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.[54]

June 17.—A memorial was lately transmitted from England
to Sir Joseph York, at the Hague, to be presented to the
States-General. The memorial complains of the

conduct of the States for permitting the Americans
to be supplied, through the means of their subjects, with
such warlike stores as have been prohibited by proclamation.
Sir Joseph York delivered the memorial to the monthly president
of the assembly, who, after laying it before the assembly,
returned to the ante-chamber, in which Sir Joseph was waiting.
Sir Joseph requested an answer. The president informed him
that the memorial was then under consideration. Sir Joseph
wished the assembly to be informed "that unless a categorical
answer was returned to the memorial, he should quit the
Hague immediately." The president delivered this message
to the assembly, and soon returned with the following retort:
"I am desired by the States-General to acquaint your excellency
that there are not any gates to the Hague."

A gentleman just returned from making the tour of France,
says:—"From Dunkirk to Brest, from thence to Bordeaux to
Bayonne, then through Toulouse to Marseilles, and lastly,
through Lyons and Dijon to Paris, I met neither men nor
women, in high or low stations, but were friends to the Americans."[56]

A correspondent in London says:—When the Congress
had declared for Independence, a new mode of government
was consequently the first object to be considered, and Adams
had himself prepared almost a complete code of laws; but
many were rejected, though with great caution, and an explanation
of each particular impropriety, from a dread of too
much offending that great man, who, to make use of an expression
in a letter received some time since in America, was

"so clever a fellow, and so dangerous a v—n, that it was no
man's interest to quarrel with him."[57]

June 25.—This day, the Senator's Remembrancer, a curious
performance of Mr. John Stewart, of London, consisting of
fourteen copper-plate prints, done on white satin, and most ele-

gantly framed and gilt, presented to the public by
Doctor Benjamin Franklin, were placed in the
council chamber at Philadelphia. This performance is dedicated
by the author to Doctor Franklin.[59]

June 30.—On Sunday morning, the 22d, the British left
Brunswick, in Jersey, apparently with an intention to embark;

they gave out that they were going to Philadelphia
by water, but their real design was to draw
General Washington from the mountains above Quibbletown,
and force a general engagement. Their policy, however, was
not an overmatch for our prudence. Light parties harassed
him, but not in such numbers as to produce any considerable
action. Great part of our army, however, had left the mountains,
and General Lord Stirling was posted at the short hills
with about one thousand men.

On Thursday morning, General Howe having reinforced
his army with all the marines that could be spared, began his
march towards the American camp. By accounts of deserters
and others, his numbers were from twelve to fourteen thousand.
He met with Lord Stirling's party early in the morning; a
smart engagement ensued, and the Americans stood their
ground manfully for a considerable time; but the amazing superiority
of numbers obliged them to retreat; and, the enemy
having flanked them, they lost two pieces of cannon with a
number of men. No return having yet been made, the exact
number of killed, &c., cannot be ascertained. The British continued
near the place of engagement that day, and are now at
Westfield. The Americans are encamped in the old spot, only
large bodies are posted at all the passes, and in some advantageous

places below the mountains. It is suspected that the
enemy would force our camp if possible; but to attack us in
the mountains is a thing devoutly to be wished for by every
one that desires to see the destruction of the British army.

We must not omit to mention a little affair that happened
in the engagement. The fire growing hot, and our men
beginning to retreat, a British officer singly rode up to a cannon
that was playing on the enemy, and with his pistols and
hanger forced every man from it; then seeing Lord Stirling,
he cried, "Come here, you damned rebel; and I will do for
you." Lord Stirling answered him by directing the fire of four
marksmen upon him, which presently silenced the hardy fool
by killing him on the spot.[61] Our men recovered the field-piece,
which their want of small arms obliged them to
abandon.[62]

General Howe, in a letter to Lord George Germaine,
gives the following account of the above:—

Having established a corps sufficient to the defence of
Amboy, the army assembled at Brunswick on the 12th of
June.

The enemy's principal force being encamped upon the
mountains above Quibbletown, with a corps of two thousand
men at Princeton, it was thought advisable to

make a movement in two columns from Brunswick
on the 14th, in the morning, leaving Brigadier-General
Mathew with two thousand men to guard that post. The first
division, under the command of Lord Cornwallis, advanced to
Ailsborough, and the second to Middle Bush, under the command
of Lieutenant-General De Heister, with a view of drawing
on an action, if the enemy should remove from the mountain
towards the Delaware; but on finding it to be their intention
to keep a position which it would not have been prudent
to attack, I determined without loss of time to pursue the principal
objects of the campaign, by withdrawing the army from
Jersey; and, in consequence of this determination, returned to
the camp at Brunswick on the 19th, and marched from
thence to Amboy on the 22d, intending to cross to Staten
Island, from whence the embarkation was to take place.

Upon quitting the camp at Brunswick, the enemy brought
a few troops forward, with two or three pieces of cannon, which
they fired at the utmost range, without the least execution, or
any return from us; they also pushed some battalions into
the woods to harass the rear, where Lord Cornwallis commanded,
who soon dispersed them with the loss of only two men
killed and thirteen wounded; the enemy having nine killed
and about thirty wounded.

The necessary preparations being finished for crossing the
troops to Staten Island, intelligence was received that the
enemy had moved down from the mountain, and taken post at
Quibbletown, intending, as it was given out, to attack the rear
of the army removing from Amboy; that two corps had also
advanced to their left, one of three thousand men and eight
pieces of cannon, under the command of Lord Stirling, Generals
Maxwell, and Conway, the last said to be a captain in the
French service; the other corps consisted of about seven hundred
men, with only one piece of cannon.

In this situation of the enemy, it was judged advisable to
make a movement that might lead on to an attack, which was
done on the 26th, in the morning, in two columns; the right,
under the command of Lord Cornwallis, with Major-General
Grant, Brigadiers Mathew and Leslie, and Colonel Donop, took
the route by Woodbridge, towards Scotch Plains; the left
column where I was, with Major-Generals Sterne, Vaughan,
and Grey, Brigadiers Cleveland and Agnew, marched by
Metuchin meeting-house, to join the rear of the right column
in the road from thence to Scotch Plains, intending to have
taken separate routes about two miles after the junction, in
order to have attacked the enemy's left flank at Quibbletown.
Four battalions were detached in the morning, with six pieces
of cannon, to take post at Bonam-Town.

The right column having fallen in with the aforementioned
corps of seven hundred men, soon after passing Woodbridge,
gave the alarm, by the firing that ensued, to their main army
at Quibbletown, which retired to the mountain with the
utmost precipitation. The small corps was closely pushed
by the light troops, and with difficulty got off their piece of
cannon.

Lord Cornwallis, soon after he was upon the road leading
to Scotch Plains from Metuchin meeting-house, came up with
the corps commanded by Lord Stirling, whom he found advantageously
posted in a country much covered with wood, and
his artillery well disposed. The King's troops, vieing with each
other upon this occasion, pressed forward to such close action,
that the enemy, though inclined to resist, could not long
maintain their ground against so great impetuosity, but were
dispersed on all sides, leaving behind three pieces of brass
ordnance, three captains and sixty men killed, and upwards
of two hundred officers and men wounded and taken.

His lordship had five men killed, and thirty wounded.
Captain Finch of the light company of the guards was the only
officer who suffered, and to my great concern, the wound
he received proving mortal, he died on the 29th of June, at
Amboy.

The troops engaged in this action were the 1st light infantry,
1st British grenadiers, 1st, 2d, and 3d Hessian grenadiers;
1st battalion of guards, Hessian chasseurs, and the Queen's
Rangers. I take the liberty of particularizing these corps, as
Lord Cornwallis, in his report to me, so highly extols their
merit and ardor upon this attack. One piece of cannon was
taken by the guards, the other two by Colonel Mingerode's
battalion of Hessian grenadiers.

The enemy was pursued as far as Westfield with little
effect, the day proving so intensely hot that the soldiers could
with difficulty continue their march thither; in the mean time
it gave opportunity for those flying to escape by skulking in
the thick woods until night favored their retreat to the mountains.

The army lay that night at Westfield, returned the next

day to Rahway, and the day following to Amboy. On the 30th,
at ten in the forenoon, the troops began to cross over to Staten
Island, and the rear guard, under the command of Lord Cornwallis,
passed at two in the afternoon, without the least appearance
of an enemy.

The embarkation of the troops is proceeding with the
utmost despatch, and I shall have the honor of sending your
lordship further information as soon as the troops are landed
at the place of their destination.[64]

Whereas a certain William Howe, alias General Howe,
alias Sir William, alias any thing or nothing, has lately gone
off, greatly in debt to sundry persons in New Jer-

sey and other parts of the continent, and has not
left wherewithal to make payment for the same; this is therefore
to caution all persons not to trust him on any account, as
they will certainly lose their money. Said Howe is charged
with having, in company with one Cornwallis, not yet taken,
broken into several houses in New Jersey, and stolen and carried
off many valuable effects; likewise with being concerned
in counterfeiting the currency of this continent, and of having
starved to death several good subjects of the States, while he
was chief jailer at New York. He is a very ill-looking fellow,
and is an indented servant to a certain George Whelp, alias
Guelph, alias King George.

Whoever will secure said Howe in any of the jails of this
continent, or will give notice where he is to the American
army, shall be handsomely rewarded.

N. B.—He was lately seen skulking about Amboy, Westfield,
and Spanktown, in the Jerseys, and has not since been
heard of. Should he attempt to practice any more of his villanies,
'tis hoped all persons will be on their guard to apprehend
him.[67]