History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
On the following day, [Janiiari/ 27, 1770,] the Committee of Safety issued its Instructions for the RccruitiiKj Oj/irrrs who should be employed in the enlistment of men for the service referred to, in that new Order -- the pay of the Privates was to be five dollars per month ; each was to receive, as a bounty, a ielt hat, a pair of yarn stockings, a pair of shoes, and, if they could be procured, a hunting-shirt and a blanket; and the men were to provide their own Arms. There
1 Colonel Samuel Diake to the Proeiiiciiil Omgnss, " Nzw-YoRK, Feby. 1776," compared with the letter of Dirck Leflferts, poU. C 'lonel ISinnuel Drake fo the Pruvhieinl O'lhjress^ "New-York. Feby. "IC, 177G."
Dirck Lejferts to the Deputies of the severtd Couvties^ etc., " May 1, " 1776."
* Journal of the Prorincinl Comjrcss, "Die llaitis, 3 ho., P.M., Marcli "12, 1776."
5 Journal of the CoiitineiUal GonffresB, " Friday, January ID, 1770."
6 Journal of the Committee nf Safety, "Die Veueris, 3 ho., P.M., .Jany. "26, 1776," aod the Circular Letter, containing the proposed system, which was ordered to be sent to ea*:h of the several County Committees, on the same day.
was no specified term of service ; but the Privates -- not the Officers -- were " liable to be discharged at any " time, on allowing them one month's pay extraordi- " nary." '
There appears to have been great backwardness in enlisting, however -- those who were expected to step into the ranks and to do the fatigue duty and the fighting, while the more favored ones of the Rebellion had occupied all the offices, in advance, and were predestinated to enjoy till that was comfortable and to issue all the orders and to be implicitly obeyed, were slow in their responses ; only those who were extremely poor, and whose actual necessities obliged them, or those whose morals were questionable, and who enlisted either to retire from adverse observation or to secure a wider field for their unholy practices, aj)- pcaring to have been willing to support "the Liber- "ties of America," in tlie field, even where there was no enemy and where none was really expected.^ Indeed, so discouraging were the rci)orts from those who had been entrusted with the Warrants for recruiting, that, on the fifteenth of February, the Provincial Congress, on the recomnicMdation of a Committee who li:id been aj)pointed to consider the subject, determined to apportion a spocifieil quota of Officers and Privates to each of the Counties in the Colony, in order that the organization of the required Battalions might be effected in the shortest possible ])eriod." Three days sul>sc(iucntly, \_F<i>ni(iri/ IS, 1771),] tinothcr Committee who had been appointed to apportion the tlifferent quota of Officers and Privates to be raised in the sevcrtil Counties, made a Report, which was adopted, two Companies, as we have already stated, being ajiportioned to Westchester- county ; and, on the afternoon of the same day, a Circular Letter was sent by the Provincial Congress to each of the County-committees throughout the Colony, informing it of the arrangement and urging its attention to the matter of the enlistments.