The committee of safety, in its instructions to the recruiting officers charged with enlisting men under this act, prescribed that the pay of privates should be |5 per month, and that each should receive, as a bounty, a felt hat, a pair of yarn stockings, a pair of shoes, and, if they could be procured, a hunting-shirt and a blanket. On the other hand, the men were to furnish their own arms, or, if too poor to do so, were to be armed at the public expense, the value of their weapons to be deducted from their pay. Concerning this matter of arms, the following explicit statement was made in a circular letter from the president of the provincial congress: "It is expected that each man furnishes him-

FROM

JANUARY,

1775,

JULY

9, 177G

self with a good gun and bayonet, Tomahawk, knapsack or haversack, and two bills. But those who are not able to furnish themselves with these arms and accoutrements will be supplied at the public expense, for the payment of which small stoppages will be made out of their monthly pay, till the whole are paid for; then they are to remain the property of the men." Little wonder that the relative numbers of officers and volunteer privates were somewhat disproportionate. On the 13th of February, 177(5, at a meeting in Harrison's Precinct, a cavalry force was organized, Samuel Tredwell being elected captain. This was the beginning of the well-known Westchester Troop of Horse. About the same time there were various enlistments in the county for the infantry service. Local zeal for the cause continued to manifest itself in the ominous forms of information and arrest, and it was even proposed by some Westchester enthusiasts, who doubtless had acquired thorough experience in that particular line at home, to proceed to other counties where Tories notoriously abounded and lay upon them the heavy hand of discipline.