So unmerciful and continued were these persecutions, that, as men of the firmest mould afterward related of them-selves, they started with alarm on hearing the baying of a watch-dog, and suffered nervous disturbance even from a simple knocking at the door. Such were the circumstances under which the farmers of the "Neutral Ground" contrived to prolong a precarious existence throughout a civil war of seven years' duration; tormented in the morning by marauders who shouted "God and the King," and at night by plunderers, who huzzaed for "God and Congress." From an early period of the war, the advanced posts of the British lines in Westchester had been held, mainly, by two

4 THE McDONALD PAPERS

bodies of American-born chasseurs, consisting, for the most part, of young men, natives of the lower towns, of refugees from the upper and middle portions of the county, and of loyalists, who had fled or been driven from Dutchess and Connecticut. The first raised of these corps consisted of two infantry companies, one of musketeers and the other of rifle-men; together with a troop of light dragoons, and was under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Andreas Emmerich. This officer was by birth a Hanoverian, educated to arms from early life, who in his youth had served in Germany during the celebrated "Seven years' war," at the head of a small body of rangers, and was sent out to the assistance of royalty in this country with a reputation, which he is said to have justly deserved, of possessing extraordinary abilities as a partisan. During the first years of the war, his chasseurs became very celebrated, and did the crown good service; but afterward, partly from the severity of his discipline, and partly from his foreign birth and manners, his men became dissatis-fied and deserted, and most of his officers sought service under other commanders.