Chapter III THE WESTCHESTER GUIDES IN THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION

"MANY brave men," says an ancient writer, "lived before the days of Agamemnon, but unhonored by the bard and disregarded by the historian, their names have perished and their deeds are unknown." This observation if applied now to the times of the Revolution, would accord with truth as exactly as it did when first uttered with respect to the ages of the early world. It seems to be among the hard condi-tions of our fate that those who play subordinate parts in the drama of life, however ably they may act, should soon be consigned to oblivion; that the many cannot be long remem-bered; and that in war especially, although honors and tri-umphs reward the few who become conspicuous in command, the great multitude of the deserving are left to seek their recompense in the cold satisfaction of having discharged their duty. In our particular commonwealth, those who during the great contest did the state good service, were numerous, but for the most part, their names have not been recorded, and their actions lost in the passing crowd of events, have almost disappeared. I have never felt more saddened at this injus-tice of fame, than when contemplating the merits of a class of men, who during the war of American Independence, steadily upheld "the good cause," acting sometimes as guides to the Continental and combined armies while operating in the adjacent county of Westchester, and sometimes as volunteers, but who in our days are scarcely remembered. In the latter part of 1775, and the beginning of the follow-ing year, the sons of such of the Westchester farmers as ear-nestly favored the proceedings of the Continental Congress, formed themselves into voluntary companies of horse and