After an offer of surrender had been made by the Americans, a shot was fired from one of the windows (by Lieut. Paddock) which, unfortunately, killed Captain Campbell. The British, seeing their commander fall, instantly forced the house, and, no resistance being made, revenged his death by killing upwards of twenty on the stairs and in the adjoining rooms; a few effected their escape by jumping out of the back windows. The dead who fell upon this occasion, were interred among the locusts on the west side of the road.

John Dibble, on the 3d of Nov. 1844, (one of the American soldiers who took an active part in this affair) thus relates the circumstances attending the surprisal in 1776: -- "I was at the attack made upon Ward's house by Major Campbell. In the morning of that day we went down to William's Bridge, on a scout to cover a foraging party consisting of five or six teams. Our intention being to forage in the vicinity of Morrisania, and return to Eastchester in the evening. The enemy came up from King's Bridge to oppose us, and we fought them across the river (Bronx) all day long until the teams returned. We numbered about eighty strong, forty accompanying the teams, while the rest remained to oppose the enemy. The British were about fifty strong and had a fort at the bridge. It was night before we returned to Ward's house. Captain Samuel Delavan commanded us, and he was saved that night in consequence of wearing a red coat, thus passing for a British officer. The enemy approached Ward's house from the west side of the road. A sentinel was posted near, or perhaps in the road, who challenged the British. The latter rushed up to the house, and soon surrounded it.