The horses, alarmed and wounded, kicked and plunged, and broke from their fastenings in great confusion, and running north for home were, many of them, captured by the party which had advanced to the northward to cut off our retreat. We lost here about twenty horses of our own, and likewise ihe fifteen we had taken at West Farms, and the two prisoners. When the alarm was first given we were engaged in selling our spoils. Considering ourselves secure we had posted no sentinels. We ran on the instant for our horses, but most of them had escaped, mine among the rest, and not being able to make any resistance, I surrendered. I was then a boy of sixteen only, and wore my brother's uniform and arms, he being a Captain of the Westchester Troop of Horse, but at the time sick. Williams escaped by the fleetness of his horse, and riding along at the edge of the ice where the enemy dare not pursue him. Kieut. John Odell mounted the first horse he could find, his famous Cortlandt gray having broken loose and escaped to Colaberg ; but was pursued by Kipp and Totten for half or three-quar-

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