When not on duty, they occupied the woods and fields of Morrisania, whose proprietors were re-publicans, and for the most part, in the service of the United States. There, where populous villages now gladden the eye, the British refugees lived in log-huts, upon lands assigned them by the royal authorities, making free use of the soil, and committing waste at discretion, upon what they termed the property of rebels. Bands of this daring and restless

THE NEUTRAL GROUND 5

legionary corps, particularly of the dragoons, continually ranged across the "Neutral Ground," and, under leaders desirous of distinction, attacked the patrols and out-posts of their opponents, and sometimes captured and bore away supplies intended for the continental army. This was legiti-mate warfare, but from this they would often degenerate. They did not always respect the lives or property of those who in-habited the neutral domain, and beyond that protected dis-trict, they levied contributions upon every whig obnoxious for his activity; they not unfrequently sought their former homes in search of vengeance for private griefs, and rarely failed to discover and take off a fine horse, without regard to the politics of the owner. To countercheck the operations of this formidable corps of light troops, volunteer associations were formed among the young whigs, composed for the most part of American refu-gees, a few of whom had fled from New York and Long Island, but who were principally from the middle and lower parts of Westchester county. These bands, like those of their adversaries, consisted of both horse and foot, and held themselves ready at all times, for a march against their royal antagonists. In large operations, they never failed to accom-pany the regular troops and New York levies, acting upon such occasions under the command of the continental and state officers, while they always planned and conducted their own excursions.