Early one mornimg, in the month of August, a party of the militia, three in number, brought a young man by the name of Palmer, whom they had taken on suspicion of his being a spy and having enlisting orders from Tryon, the British general then commanding iu New York. The enormity of his offence was such that if proved, it demanded the most vigorous punishment. A court martial was therefore immediately convened, and from the circumstances given to the court by those who arrested him, and the evidence of many of the country people, who gave an unfavorable account of his conduct, he was convicted and sentenced to be executed as a spy.

" The prisoner was a young man of athletic form, and possessed elegant attainments, had a wife and children then residing in Yorktown, the place of his nativity, and was connected with some of the most respectable families of West Chester. The most urgent intercessions were immediately made to obtain his release, but in vain ; the stern justice of Putnam was not to be overcome by any feelings of pity. The British general wrote a letter to the American commander, demanding his prisoner, and threatening him with vengeance if a compliance with his demand was not immediately acceded to ; but he received for answer that the prisoner was " taken as a spy, tried as a spy, convicted as a spy, and that he should be hung as a spy." Here the matter rested until the morning previous to