These have been indulged with a parole to return to New York, while a number of our prisoners are detained here, and not one indulged with a parole to return home. Altho' many have applied, particularly Lieut. Jacob Van Tassel, whose house has been burned, and whose wife and children to mv knowledge, reduced to beggary and himself in poor state of health for a long time. There is said Lieut. Van Tassel, and ors, whom I beg" you would use your influence to have exchanged for some of the aforementioned,

James H Amman.

To Ilis Excellency, Gov. Geo. Clinton.

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HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

The State Controller's office shows the following account rendered and audited :

To Licut.-Col. Jas. Hammond, to pay from May 27, 1779, to May 25, 17S0,

on different alarms, ^ 250. S

To time in Captivity, from May 25, 17S0, to 26th Nov. 17S1, . . 432-°

Allowed for Rations, t42-3

£824.11

The following is the inscription upon Col. Hammond's modest tombstone in the old Dutch Churchyard :

Col. Hammond, died July 26, 1S10, in the 83d year of his age.

'Tis finished, 'Tis done,

The spirit is fled,

The Prisoner is gone,

The Warrior is dead.

Col. Jas. Hammond was certainly a typical character of the Revolutionary period, and the fact that from first to last he was the acknowledged leader of the Patriot soldiers of this Manor evinces him to have been a man of more than common ability as a leader; for the people having just come into their enfranchisement very naturally each was inclined to set up his own individual sovereignty, and not easily controlled. He unquestionably must have been a man of resources as well as of courage, tactful as well as masterful, of the people and yet a leader of them; strongly supporting the Congresses and Conventions and Coinmanders-in-Chief, responding to every call to duty, and yet shrewdly looking out for the personal welfare and safety of the people of this Manor and of the men under his command, and everywhere asserting himself in their interest and giving voice to their desires.