Y- FROM

SIMCOE'S

JOURNAL).

EVENTS

City attempted nothing either against New England or the Highlands, Washington drew the army down from the northerly station where he had temporarily posted it, and distributed it in cantonments extending from Connecticut across Westchester County as far as Middlebrook, N. J. This was its situation throughout the winter of 1778-79. All expectation of early assistance from the French was now given up, d'Estaing's fleet having sailed to the West Indies.

CHAPTEB FROM

JANUARY, 1779, TO SEPTEMBER,

ROM the middle of January to the middle of March, 1779, the command "on the lines" in Westchester County was held by the youthful Colonel Aaron Burr; and never in the history of the Neutral Ground before or after did that distressed region enjoy conditions of order and quiet in the least comparable to those which obtained during Burr's brief rule. His administration of the delicate and difficult duties of the command in our county constitute the most noteworthy chapter in his military career, and even his severest biographers concur in regarding this part of his public record with unmixed admiration. Burr was just twenty-one when appointed by Washington to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the continental army, receiving his commission at PeeksMU in July, 1777. He was at the time an aide on the staff of General Putnam. He was soon afterward assigned to a regiment in New Jersey, where he at once set to work to introduce much-needed improvements in discipline and organization. "Severe drills and vigorous inspections," says his charming biographer, Barton, " took the place of formal ones." Finding that many of the officers were hopelessly inefficient, he presently " took the bold step of ordering several of them home on the simple ground of their utter uselessness. If any gentleman, he told them, objected to his dismissal, he, Colonel Burr, held himself personally responsible for the measure and was ready to afford any satisfaction that might be desired." Yet he was no mere martinet.