are said to have been in so far destroyed and so
completely discouraged in this expedition that they took
no further part in the war.[1]
Ewald does not confine himself to stories that tell to the glory of his own side. Besides accounts of Trenton, Redbank, and other important actions in which Hessians or Englishmen were defeated, he has a chapter on the bold and lucky strokes made by small parties of Americans. Thus, he tells how, in the spring of 1777, the British had collected a large quantity of forage at Sag Harbor, on Long Island, and how Colonel Meigs started from Guilford, in Connecticut, with less than two hundred men, in whale-boats. They crossed the Sound on a stormy night, dragged their boats over the land, launched them again, landed near Sag Harbor, surprised the guard, destroyed the provisions, burned several vessels, took a number of English prisoners, got into their boats again, and reached Guilford safely. A similar descent was made at Cow Bay in broad daylight in November, 1780. In 1781 a Brunswick major was kidnapped from his quarters on the north side of Long Island. Indeed, it was the custom for small bands of Americans to land on the island, dodge the English and German soldiers, and plunder the Tories. These expeditions were conducted with great boldness, and are a complete answer, according to Ewald,
- ↑ Eelking's “Hülfstruppen,” vol. ii. p. 17 and note; Ewald's “Belehrungen,” vol. ii. pp. 312-318. I can find no other account of this skirmish either in German journals or in Washington's correspondence, which at this time is almost entirely devoted to events on Rhode Island. Ewald was an eye-witness, however, and he is very trustworthy as to the main facts of his stories, though they generally lose nothing in his telling.
