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properly officered, with their guns unloaded, their whole dependence to be on their bayonets, will move 20 paces in front of the column by the rout No. 1, enter the sally port C., he is to detach an officer and 20 men a little in front of him, whose business it will be to secure the sentries, and remove the abattes, and other obstructions, for the column to pass through. The column will follow close in the rear, with shouldered arms, under the command of col. Fabager, with gen. Wayne in person; when the works are forced, (and not before) the victorious troops will as they enter give the watchword, the Fort's our own, with repeated and loud voice, driving the enemy from their works and guns, which will favor the pass of the whole; should the enemy refuse to surrender, or attempt to make their escape by water or otherwise, vigorous means must be used to compel them to the former, and prevent their

ISSUED ON THE evening prevIOUS TO THE accomplishing the latter. Col. Butler will move ATTACK ON STONY POINT.

HEADQUARTERS, Fort Montgomery.

Light Infantry-July 15, 1779.

The troops will parade on beating the assemble. Taking it from the right, they will march on beating the troop, and move by the right. Proper halting places will be fixed and every officer and non-commissioned officer will remain with and be accountable for every man of their platoons. No soldier to be permitted to quit the ranks on any pretence whatever until a general halt is made, and then to be attended by one of the officers of the platoons. As soon as the troops assemble, this order to be read at the head of each:

The troops will march from Clement's to Stony Point, at 11 o'clock, and move by the right. Every officer and non-commissioned officer will remain with and be accountable for every man in his platoon. No soldier to be permitted to quit the ranks on any pretence whatever, until a general halt is made, and then to be attended by one of the officers of the platoon.

When the van of the troops arrive in the rear of the hill, col. Fabager will form his regiment in a solid column of half platoons, in front, as fast as they come up; col. Meigs will form next in Fabager's rear and major Hull in the rear of Meigs, which will be the right column; col. Butler will form a column on the left of Fabager, and major Murphy in his rear-every officer and soldier will then fix a piece of white paper in his hat or cap, to distinguish him from the enemy.

At the word march, col. Flury will take charge of 100 determined and picked men,

by the rout No. 2, preceded by 100 men with fixed bayonets and unloaded muskets, under the command of major Stewart, who will observe a distance of 20 paces in front of the column, which will immediately follow under the command of col. Butler, with shouldered muskets, and will enter the sally-port C. or D.

The officer commanding the above 100 men will also detach a proper officer, with 20 men, a little in front, to remove the obstructions—as soon as they gain the work, they will also give and continue the watch-word, which will prevent confusion and mistakes.

Major Murphy will follow colonel Butler to the first figure, No. 3, where he will divide a little to the right and left and wait the attack on the right, which will be a signal to begin and keep up a perpetual and galling fire, and endeavor to enter between, and pass the work A. A. If any soldier presumes to take his musket from his shoulder, attempts to fire or begin the battle till ordered by his proper officers, he shall be immediately put to death by the officer next to him; for the cowardice and misconduct of one man is not to put the whole in danger and disorder with impunity. After the troops begin to advance to the works, the strictest silence must be observed and the greatest attention paid to the command of the officers; as soon as the lines are secured, the officers of the artillery, with their commands, will take possession of the cannon, to the end that the shipping may be secured and the Fort at Verplank's Point annoyed, so as to facilitate the attack upon that quarter. The general has the fullest confidence in the bravery and fortitude of the corps he has the happiness to command.

The distinguished honor conferred on every officer and soldier who has been drafted into this corps, by his excellency general Washington, the credit of the states they respectively belong to, and their own reputation will be such powerful motives for each man to distinguish himself, that the general cannot have the least doubt of a glorious victory: And further, he solemnly engages to reward the first man who enters the works with $500 and immediate preference, to the second 400, to the third 300, to the fourth 200 to the fifth 100, and will report the conduct of every officer and soldier who distinguishes himself on this occasion, in the most favorable point of view, to his excellency, who always takes the greatest pleasure in rewarding merit. But should there be any soldier so lost to every feeling, every sense of honor, as to attempt to retreat one single foot, or shrink from the places of danger, the officer next to him is to put him immediately to death, that he may no longer disgrace the name of a soldier, the corps or the state to which he belongs.

As the general is determined to share the dangers of the night, so he wishes to participate the glory of the day, in common with his brother soldiers. (Signed)

A. WAYNE.

erty to write to major Gates for his advice, and this is his answer. He has also wrote to major Hay, to give me every indulgence the service will admit of. I hope your honor will give me your opinion what is best to be done. I read the letter; but had not read far, before I was sensibly touched with the sentiments of the writer. After re-capitulating the service the veteran had rendered him at Braddock's field, he says, "do as you please, respecting your small pittance of pension. Thou hast served long, but thy service has not brought thee rest for thy wounds and infirmities. I find by your letter that you wish to continue in America, therefore make yourself easy; when you receive your discharge, repair to my plantation on Potomac river. I have got a fine tract of land there, which not only furnishes me with all the necessaries, but all the comforts of life; come and rest your firelock in my chimney corner and partake with me; while I have, my saviour Penfold shall not want; and it is my wish, as well as Mrs. Gates's to see you spend the evening of your life comfortably. Mrs. Gates desires to be affectionately remembered to you."

GRATITUDE OF GENERAL GATES.

CAPTAIN CHEESEMAN,

HIS DEATH AT QUEBEC.

In storming the works of Quebec by general Montgomery, the gallant captain Cheeseman, of New York, aid to Montgomery, being as active as he was brave, the moment he reached the picket, placed his hand on one of the palisadoes, exclaiming to his comrades, "If there be any honor in being the first man in Quebec, I have it." He sprung over and fell by a shot within the picket.

From the genuine letter of an officer. An old soldier of the royal regiment of artillery, who served me while the 18th regiment was at Fort Pitt and the Illinois, on our return from that country to Philadelphia, 1772, came to me with a happy smile on his countenance, and told me he had the honor to receive a letter from major Gates, and begged me to read it. I asked him how he came to correspond with major Gates. Please your honor, said the old man, major Gates was dangerously wounded at Braddock's defeat, and was left OF THE REV. MR. PAYSON, OF CHELSEA,

among the slain. I was wounded also, but made a shift to carry the worthy captain Gates (he was then a captain) off the field. He has often told me since that he owed his life to me, and charged me at parting, that whenever I thought he could in any instance serve me, to write to him without reserve; so please your honor, (this is a soldier's dialect to all officers) I am now grown old, and worn out in the service, and expect to be invalided and sent home, but have been long in America, and I like America, please your honor; I accordingly took the lib

GALLANTRY

MASSACHUSETTS.

The Rev. Mr. Payson, of Chelsea, near Boston, a gentleman of the mildest manners, soundest learning, and most amiable character, who has ever been so warm on the side of government, that parson Treadwell, and others, on the side of the people, have repeatedly refused to let him preach in their pulpits: being at Lexington, and with his own eyes seeing that the king's troops had fired first, and committed murder-and, being himself a witness of other of their barbarities, could not endure

the sight without taking vengeance; he there- | which the world may censure as wrong; I have fore put himself at the head of a party, and ever acted from a principle of love to my counwith his musket, led them on to the attack-try, since the commencement of the present engaged, and killed, or wounded, and took prisoners, the whole party mentioned in one of the accounts, as going up with provisions and ammunition for the main body. What will government say to this desertion of one among many of their warmest friends?-It seems as if the cause was such that no honest man could appear in it.

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AT THE BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN.

Among numberless feats of valor performed by individuals of the American revolutionary army, none has pleased me more than the following, related by an eye witness :-" During the heat of the battle at Germantown, while bullets flew as thick as hail-stones, one Barkelew (of Monmouth) was levelling his musket at the enemy, when his lock was carried away by a ball.-Undismayed, he caught up the gun of a comrade just killed by his side, and taking aim, a bullet entered the muzzle, and twisted the barrel round like a corkscrew! Still undaunted, our hero immediately kneeled down, unscrewed the whole lock from the twisted barrel, screwed it on to the barrel from which the lock had been torn, and blazed away at the enemy." Can ancient Sparta or modern Britain boast a more brilliant display of cool, deliberate, unshaken courage? This hero is still living.

BENEDICT ARNOLD'S

LETTER TO GENL. WASHINGTON, PALLIAT-
ING HIS TREASON.

"ON BOARD THE VULTURE, Sept. 25, 1780.
"Sir-The heart which is conscious of its
own rectitude cannot attempt to palliate a step

unhappy contest between Great Britain and the colonies; the same principle of love to my country actuates my present conduct, however it may appear inconsistent to the world, who very seldom judge right of any man's actions.

"I have no favor to ask for myself. I have too often experienced the ingratitude of my country to attempt it; but from the known humanity of your excellency, I am induced to ask your protection for Mrs. Arnold, from every insult and injury that the mistaken vengeance of my country may expose her to. It ought to fall only on me; she is as good and as innocent as an angel, and is incapable of doing wrong. I beg she may be permitted to return to her friends in Philadelphia, or to come to me as she may choose; from your excellency I have no fears on her account, but she may suffer from the mistaken fury of the country.

"I have to request that the enclosed letter may be delivered to Mrs. Arnold, and she permitted to write to me.

"I have also to ask that my clothes and baggage, which are of little consequence, may be sent to me; if required, their value shall be paid in money.

"I have the honor to be, with great regard and esteem, your excellency's most obedient humble servant,

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Each falchion sharpen that the Britons wield,
And lead their fiercest lion to the field;
Then, when each hope of thine shall end in night,
When dubious dread, and unavailing flight
Impel your haste, thy guilt up-braided soul
Shall wish, untouch'd, the precious life you stole ;
And when thy heart, appall'd and vanquish'd pride,
Shall vainly ask the mercy you denied:
With horror shalt thou meet the fate thou gave,
Nor pity gild the darkness of thy grave.

were called upon for assistance, who contributed with alacrity their several quotas of men, to effect the grand object of British enterprise. It is a fact still within the recollection of some of our oldest inhabitants, that the British army lay encamped, in the summer of 1755, on the eastern bank of the Hudson, a little south of the city of Albany, on the ground now belonging to John I. Van Rensselaer, esq. To this day vestiges of their encampment remain; and after a lapse of sixty years, when a great proportion of the actors of those days have passed away, like shadows from the earth, the inquisi

Thus does poetic petulance dispense its invectives. We will now ask who accelerated the death of Andre? Who made the extension of mercy toward him an act of mistaken mercy and of criminal indulgence? Unquestionably sir Henry Clinton? Unquestionably the mantive traveller can observe the remains of the who was propagating these false alarms of treason in the American camp. He rendered this severe measure for common security perfectly indispensable, as the commander in chief could not, at that time, know but what those who shared his confidence were the most deeply implicated in Arnold's machinations. Was he to reprieve the victim, and thus sanction to his surrounding officers the treason of Arnold, by his own signature, or to mitigate the severity of his fate, and teach them by this example to hope for mercy if detected? It is not meant to criminate sir Henry Clinton. Such artifices are justifiable in war. That he did, however, by the promulgation of such reports, render the death of Andre inevitable, it is conceived impossible to doubt. The solicitude of Washington to save the life of this unfortunate man was such, that he hazarded one of the bravest of his own soldiers in the camp of the enemy, for that purpose and nothing but a concurrence of unpropitious circumstances, that could not have been foreseen by mortal eye, or guarded against, if they could have been, prevented its accomplishment. It is a singular fact, that while the British commander was hastening the death of Andre, Washington was exerting himself to ward off that calamity.

ORIGIN OF "YANKEE DOODLE."

INTERESTING HISTORY.

It is known as a matter of history, that in the early part of 1755, great exertions were made by the British ministry, at the head of which was the illustrious earl of Chatham, for the reduction of the French power in the provinces of the Canadas. To carry the object into effect, general Amherst, referred to in the letters of Junius, was appointed to the command of the British army in North Western America; and the British colonies in America

ashes, the places where they boiled their camp kettles. It was this army, that, under the command of Abercrombie, was foiled, with a severe loss, in the attack on Ticonderoga, where the distinguished Howe fell at the head of his troops, in an hour that history has consecrated to his fame. In the early part of June, the eastern troops began to pour in, company after company, and such a motley assemblage of men never before thronged together on such an occasion, unless an example may be found in the ragged regiment of sir John Falstaff, of right merry and facetious memory. It would, said my worthy ancestor, who relates to me the story, have relaxed the gravity of an anchorite, to have seen the descendants of the Puritans, marching through the streets of our ancient city, to take their station on the left of the British army-some with long coats, some with short coats, and others with no coats at all, in colors as varied as the rainbow, some with their hair cropped like the army of Cromwell, and others with wigs whose curls flowed with grace around their shoulders. Their march, their accoutrements, and the whole arrangement of the troops, furnished matter of amusement to the wits of the British army. The music played the airs of two centuries ago, and the tout ensemble, upon the whole, exhibited a sight to the wondering strangers that they had been unaccustomed to in their own land. Among the club of wits that belonged to the British army, there was a physician attached to the staff, by the name of Doctor Shackburg, who combined with the science of the surgeon, the skill and talents of a musician. To please brother Jonathan he composed a tune, and with much gravity recommended it to the officers, as one of the most celebrated airs of martial music. The joke took, to the no small amusement of the British corps. Brother Jonathan exclaimed it was nation fine, and in a few days nothing was heard in the provincial camp but the air of Yankee Doodle.

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FROM THE AMERICAN MERCURY.

This appears from the speech of M'Fingal, the tory Sagamore, to the Yankee mob. "Was there a Yankee trick ye knew, They did not play as well as you? Did they not lay their heads together, And gain your art to tar and feather?" TARRING AND FEATHERING LAWFUL!

This appears by the authority of the sentence which was pronounced on M'Fingal (M'Fingal, by John Trumbull, esq. page 60— 1). This sentence, be it remembered, though seemingly the order and decree of a committee, in fact, had its origin in the brain of a man who was a judge of the supreme court, of the state of Connecticut. Whether appointed judge from this specimen of his judicial knowledge, or not, is not now in question-but let us hear the sentence pronounced on M'Fingal, king of the tories.

"Meanwhile beside the pole, the guard
A bench of justice had prepared,
Where, sitting round in awful sort,
The grand committee hold the court:
While all the crew in silent awe,
Wait from their lips the lore of law.
Few moments with deliberation,
They hold the solemn consultation,
When soon in judgment all agree,
And clerk declares the dread decree :
"That squire M'Fingal, having grown
The vilest tory in the town,
And now on full examination,
Convicted by his own confession,
Finding no token of repentance,
This court proceed to render sentence:
That first the mob a slip-knot single,
Tie round the neck of said M'Fingal ;
And in due form do tar him next,
And feather, as the LAW DIRECTS:
Then thro' the town attendant ride him,
In cart with constable beside him.
And having held him up to shame,

Bring to the pole from whence he came."

Vision and prediction of M'Fingal, king of the tories, when in his coat of tar and feathers.

"Tar yet in embryo in pine

Shall run on tories' backs to shine ;

Trees rooted fair in the groves of fallows,
Are growing for our future gallows :
And geese unhatched, when pluck'd in fray,
Shall rue the feath'ring of that day."

M'Fingal by J. Trumbull, esq. page 60.

LORD EFFINGHAM

TO THE BRITISH SECRETARY OF WAR, RESIGNING HIS COMMISSION IN PREFERENCE TO TAKING ARMS AGAINST THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

April 12, 1775TO LORD BARRINGTON, Secretary at war.

My lord-I beg the favor of your lordship to lay before his majesty the peculiar embarrassment of my present situation.

Your lordship is no stranger to the conduct, which I have observed in the unhappy disputes with our American colonies.

The king is too just and too generous not to believe, that the votes I have given in parliament have been given according to the dictates of my conscience. Whether I have erred or not, the course of future events must determine. In the mean time, if I were capable of such duplicity, as to be any way concerned in enforcing those measures of which I have so publicly and solemnly expressed my disapprobation, I should ill deserve what I am most ambitious of obtaining, the esteem and favorable opinion of my sovereign.

My request therefore to your lordship is this, that after having laid those circumstances before the king, you will assure his majesty, that he has not a subject who is more ready than I am with the utmost cheerfulness to sacrifice his life and fortune in support of the safety, honor, and dignity of his majesty's crown and person. But the very same principles which have inspired me with these unalterable sentiments of duty and affection to his majesty, will not suffer me to be instrumental in depriving any part of his people of those liberties which form the best security for their fidelity and obedience to his government. As I cannot, without reproach from my own conscience, consent to bear arms against my fellow subjects in America, in what, to my weak discernment, is not a clear cause; and as it seems now to be finally resolved, that the 22d regiment is to go upon American service, I desire your lordship to lay me in the most dutiful manner at his majesty's feet, and humbly beg that I may be permitted to retire.

Your lordship will also be so obliging to entreat, that as I wave what the custom of the

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