Home / Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. / Passage

History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I

Scharf, J. Thomas, ed. History of Westchester County, New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I. Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886. 271 words

There must, therefore, have been '' other good consequences dependent on '■ that measure;" and we are not inclined to admit that any Arms were aboard the ships, for the equipment ol' Westcliester-county Loyalists, nor that any design against the Highland piusses wiis on the programme of their proposed operations -- we incline, rather, to the belief that only ostensibly were those ships sent up the river to cut off the suj>p]ies ; and that, really, they were sent up to sound, not only the river but the inhabitants of the Fhilipsborough and the Cortlandl Manors, on the eastern bank of the river, and, to some extent, those of Orange-county, below the mountains, on the western bank, as to their disposition to declare themselves favorable to the Royal cause. The vigilance with which the AVestchester-shore of the river was generally watched and the extreme backwardness of even those who had been outraged by the County and Town Committees, to abandon their fsimilies and their homes, even in retaliation or because of their honorable loyalty t(» their Sovereign, were so painfully evident, however, that (reneral Howe became convinced that if " the Militia of Westchester-county "could not be depended on," in the revolutionary interest, it was equally untrustworthy, in the interest of the King; that the farmers of Westchester-county were reliable, mainly, in their love of their respective homes; that they desired nothing more than a peaceful occupation of their respective fiirms; and that he need not expect any military co-operation from them. He learned the lesson, faithfully ; and no one who reads what he subsequently wrote,^ no one who studies