Dawson's extreme compassionate feeling for the miserable Tories of Westchester County procures naturally from his magnanimous pen a properly respectful reception of the British forces sent to their relief by a gracious sovereign; and in this particular he goes so far in several places as to express impatience at the traductions of General Howe as a military commander which so characterize the writings of American partisan critics.1 On the other hand, Dawson nowhere discovers any favorable conceit of the mission of the mercenaries, which for aught that can be detected to the contrary he may even regard in the conventional fashion as mere infamous butchery business for pay. It hence occurs to us that while every way incapable of wronging the British troops by conjectures or suspicions of battlefield losses disadvantageous to their prowess or to the integrity of their official reports, he has no such scrupulous concern for the fair fame of the hireling arm of the army, and indeed is quite indifferent how mercilessly the Hessians are peppered in the pages of history. At least we can not otherwise account for his conclusion that the loss suffered by the mercenaries, compared with that of their British comrades-in-arms (who equally were "massed in a closely compacted column and cooped up in a narrow country roadway ")3 was in the ratio of thirty or forty to one. For ourselves, we firmly disbelieve that there was any such slaughter of Hessians in the Manor (let it therefore never be called the shambles) of Pelham as Dawson inclines to think. The gallant behavior of Colonel (Hover and his men was made the subject of very complimentary observations in general orders issued by Washington; and General Lee, to whose command they belonged, paid a visit to them in their cam]) and tk publickly returned his thanks for their noble-spirited and soldier-like conduct during the battle." After the retreat of this obstructing American brigade, General Howe, without encountering any further opposition, moved a portion of his army forward to New Rochelle, and by degrees during the next few days brought all his forces up to that point, also receiving additional troops from New York City.2 On the 21st of Oc1 Every true American should be most profoundly grateful that this incompetent general was placed at the head of the British army, mit for his own merits, but because of his connection with royalty through his grandmother's frailty.