hailed and fired. We rushed on. The first hand-grenade that was thrown in drove the enemy from the upper story, and before they could take any measure to defend it, the block-house was on fire in several places. Some few escaped, and the rest surrendered without our having lost a single man. Though many shots were fired at us, we did not fire a gun.

During the period of Colonel Burr's command, but two attempts were made by the enemy to surprise our guards, in both of which they were defeated.

After Colonel Burr left this command, Colonel Thompson, a man of approved bravery, assumed it, and the enemy, in open day, advanced to his head-quarters, took Colonel Thompson, and took and killed all his men with the exception of about thirty.

My father's house, with all his out-houses were burnt. After these disasters, our troops never made an effort to protect that part of the country. The American lines were afterward changed and extended from Bedford to Croton Bridge, and from there, following the course of that river, to the Hudson. All the intermediate country was abandoned and unprotected, being about twenty miles in the rear of the ground which Colonel Burr had maintained.

The year after the defeat of Colonel Thompson, Colonel Green, a brave, and in many respects a valuable officer, took the command, making his head-quarters at Danfords, about a mile above the Croton. This position was well chosen; but Colonel Green omitted to inform himself of the movements of the enemy, and, consequently, was surprised. Himself, Major Flagg, and other officers were killed, and a great part of the men were either killed or taken prisoners; yet these officers had the full benefit of Colonel Burr's system.

Having perused what I have written, it does not appear to me that I have conveyed any adequate idea of Burr's military character. It may be aided a little by reviewing the effects he produced. The troops of which he took command were, at the time he took the command, undisciplined, negligent, and

discontented; desertions were frequent. In a few days these very men were transformed into brave and honest defenders orderly, contented, and cheerful, confident in their own courage, and loving to adoration their commander, whom every man considered as his personal friend. It was thought a severe punishment as well as a disgrace to be sent up to the camp, where they had nothing to do but to lounge and eat their rations.

During the whole of his command, there was not a single desertion; not a single death by sickness; not one made prisoner by the enemy; for Burr had taught us that a soldier with arms in his hand ought never, under any circumstances, to surrender; no matter if he was opposed to thousands, it was his duty to fight.

After the first ten days, there was not a single instance of robbery. The whole country under his command enjoyed security. The inhabitants, to express their gratitude, frequently brought presents of such articles as the country afforded; but Colonel Burr would accept no present. He fixed reasonable prices, and paid in cash for everything that was received, and sometimes I know that these payments were made with his own money. Whether these advances were repaid, I know not.

Colonel Simcoe, one of the most daring and active partisans in the British army, was, with Colonels Emerick and Delancy, opposed to Burr on the lines, yet they were completely held in check.

But perhaps the highest eulogy on Colonel Burr is, that no man could be found capable of executing his plans, though the example was before them.

When Burr left the lines a sadness overspread the country, and the most gloomy forebodings were too soon fulfilled, as you have seen above.

The period of Colonel Burr's command was so full of activity and of incident, that every day afforded some new lesson of instruction.

But you will expect only a general outline, and this faint one is the best in my power to give.

I am, with real esteem,

(Signed)

Your obedient servant,

SAMUEL YOUNG.

MARGARET MONCRIEFFE, GENERAL PUTNAM, AND AARON BURR.

From Parton's Life of Aaron Burr, pp. 88-95.

At Kingsbridge, about the date of this letter,* Burr was engaged in an adventure little in harmony with the warlike scenes around him.

The breaking out of the Revolutionary War found a number of British officers domesticated among the colonists, and connected with them by marriage. In New York and the other garrisoned towns, officers of the army led society, as military men still do in every garrisoned town in the world. When hostilities began, and every man was ordered to his post, some of these officers left their families residing among the people; and it happened, in a few instances, that the events of war carried a father far away from his wife and children, never to rejoin them. The future Scott of America will know how to make all this very familiar to the American people by the romantic and pathetic fictions which it will suggest to him.

Margaret Moncrieffe, a girl of fourteen, but a woman in development and appetite, witty, vivacious, piquant, and beautiful, had been left at Elizabethtown, in New Jersey, by her father, Major Moncrieffe, who was then with his regiment on Staten Island, and of course cut off from communication with his daughter. Destitute of resources, and anxious to rejoin her father, she wrote to General Putnam for his advice and

* September, 1776.

assistance. General Putnam received her letter in New York about the time that Major Burr joined him, and his reply was prepared for his signature by the hand of his new aid-de-camp. The good old general declared in this letter that he was her father's enemy, indeed, as an officer, but as a man, his friend, and ready to do any good office for him or his. He invited her to come and reside in his family until arrangements could be made for sending her to Staten Island. She consented, an officer was sent to conduct her to the city, and she was at once established in General Putnam's house. There she met and became intimate with Major Burr.

What followed from their intimacy has been stated variously. Great indeed was my astonishment, on recurring to the work itself, to find that her narrative, read in connection, not only affords no support to Mr. Davis' insinuations, but explicitly, and twice, contradicts them. It is known and conceded that the young officer whom she extols in such passionate language, and whom she miscalls "colonel," was Major Burr. Thus writes Mrs. Coughlan, née Moncrieffe:

"When I arrived in Broadway (a street so called), where General Putnam resided, I was received with great tenderness, both by Mrs. Putnam and her daughters, and on the following day I was introduced by them to General and Mrs. Washington, who likewise made it their study to show me every mark of regard; but I seldom was allowed to be alone, although sometimes, indeed, I found an opportunity to escape to the gallery on the top of the house, where my chief delight was to view, with a telescope, our fleet and army on Staten Island. My amusements were few; the good Mrs. Putnam employed me and her daughters constantly to spin flax for shirts for the American soldiers, indolence, in America, being totally discouraged; and I likewise worked for General Putnam, who, though not an accomplished muscadin, like our dilettanti of St. James' street, was certainly one of the best characters in the world, his heart being composed of those

* Memoirs of Major Coughlan, published by Swords, New York.

"Not long after this circumstance, a flag of truce arrived from Staten Island, with letters from Major Moncrieffe, demanding me, for they now considered me as a prisoner. General Washington would not acquiesce in this demand, saying that I should remain a hostage for my father's good behavior.' I must here observe, that when General Washington refused to deliver me up, the noble-minded Putnam, as if it were by instinct, laid his hand on his sword, and, with a violent oath, swore that my father's request should be granted.' The commander-in-chief, whose influence governed the Congress, soon prevailed on them to consider me as a person whose situation required their strict attention; and that I might not escape, they ordered me to Kingsbridge, where, in justice, I must say, that I was treated with the utmost tenderness. General Mifflin there commanded. His lady was a most accomplished, beautiful woman-a Quaker. And here my heart received its first impression-an impression that, amidst the subsequent shocks which it has received, has never been effaced, and which rendered me very unfit to admit the embraces of an unfeeling, brutish husband.

"O, may these pages one day meet the eye of him* who subdued my virgin heart, whom the immutable, unerring laws of nature had pointed out for my husband, but whose sacred decree the barbarous customs of society fatally violated. To him I plighted my virgin vow, and I shall never cease to lament that obedience to a father left it incomplete. When I reflect on my past sufferings, now that, alas! my present sorrows press heavily upon me, I cannot refrain from expatiating a little on the inevitable horrors which ever attend the frustration of natural affections: I myself, who, unpitied by the world, have endured every calamity that human nature knows, am a melancholy example of this truth; for if I know

*Col. Aaron Burr.