that the above said places should be one distinct Beat or district ; We the Subscriber being appointed a Committee of Inspection to preside at the Election for Officers of the Jlilitia for said beat do most humbly represent to the Honor the Provincial Congress for the Province of New York, that they have proceeded to the choice of Officers ia Conformity to the Orders of the s'' Hon'ble Provincial Congress, when the underwritteD Persons were unanimously Chose. Capt. Nicholas Berrian, 1" Lieut. Gilbert Taylor, 2>i Do. Daniel Devoe, Jun', Ensign Benjamin Valentine.

"Thomas Hunt.

".\11UAI1AM LEiiCETT.

"[Commissions issued this 31"' Oct', 1775.] "

In the spring of 1776 the war between Great Britain and the colonies had broken out ; the battle of Bunker Hill and the evacuation of Boston by the British had taken place, and Washington, with his enthusiastic but illy equipped army, was on Manhattan and Long Islands, in front of the British invaders. On July 5, 1776, General Mifflin, then stationed at the north end of Manhattan Island, wrote Washington that he feared the British might take possession of the heights north of King's Bridge (now known as Spuyten Duyvil), and asked if he should detach a party to oppose theni.'^ At the same time the British ships " Roebuck " and " Vidture" sailed up the North Riveras far as King's Bridge and dropped anchor near the shore. A violent cannonade ensued, as the Americans had ojiened a battery against them. The British raised anchor and went farther up the North River.' This battery damaged the British fleet both in hull and rigging. This action must have occurred near Fort Washington, and a few of the shells only fell on the Westchester shore, but the raid of the British fleet impressed General Mifflin as to the necessity of fortifying King's Bridge, Spuyten Duyvil and Fordham Heights, for on August 6, 1776, he dispatched Col.