By this means, Davenport's house was surrounded by the enemy, and all possibility of escape cut of!:' before the danger was discovered. De Lancey remained on the south side of the river, probably with a view to cover the retreat of his party, if it should prove necessary.

To General Heath's account of the surprisal, we must be permitted to add the following extract from Colonel H. Let;'s history of the Southern war : --

" In the spring of 1781, when General Washington began to expert the promised naval aid from our best friend, the ill-fated Louis XVI., he occasionally approached the enemy's lines on the side of York island. In one of these movements. Col. Green, with a suitable force, was posted on the Croton River, in advance of the army. On the other side of this river lay a corps of refugees, (American citizens who had joined the British army,) under the command of Col. Delancy. These half citizens, half soldiers, were notorious for rapine and murder, and to their vindictive conduct may justly be ascribed most of the cruelties which stained the progress of our war, and which at length compelled Washington to order Captain Asgiil, of the British army, to be brought to head-quarters, for the purpose of retaliating, by his execution,

See page 333.

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 393

for the murder of Capt. Huddy, of New Jersey, perpetrated by a Capt. Lippincourt, of the refugees. The commandant of these refugees, (Delancy was not present,) having ascertained the position of Greene's corps, which the colonel had cantoned in adjacent farm houses -- probably with a view to the procurement of subsistence -- took the resolution to strike it. This was accordingly done, by a nocturnal movement, on the 13th of May. The enemy crossed the Croton before daylight, and hastening his advance, reached our station with the dawn of day, unperceived.