He served in the French and Indian War, and, as related in a previous chapter, was an active patriot partisan at the beginning of hostilities between America and Great Britain, being a member of the New York provincial convention, one of the committee which made the first inspection of the heights at Kingsbridge with a view to their fortification, and colonel of one of the first four regiments raised in the Province of New York. But on account of private grievances he resigned his commission in 1777 and retired to his farm at Bedford. Here he soon became known as one of the disaffected, and in 1778, at the instance of some of his neighbors, he was arrested by the committee of safety. Escaping from custody, he joined the British in New York. His name thus became an odious one in Bedford, but his connection with the burning of the village by local report was unjust to him. He certainly was not with Tarleton's party. Soon after this event he was seized while on a visit to Bedford occasioned by the death of his brother, was thrown into prison, escaped, was again taken, and again escaped. Then, his estate having been confiscated, he accepted the appointment of lieutenant-colonel of the Westchester County Refugees in the British service. This was in the summer of 1781. It is but just to say that Colonel James Holmes was a type of the unfortunate rather than the bloody-minded Westchester County Tories who ultimately took up arms against their country. Just previously to his raid on Poundridge and Bedford, Tarleton, in conjunction with Simcoe's Bangers, successfully attacked an American militia force at Crompond, in the present Town of Yorktown. This was on the 21th of June. About thirty of the Americans were killed or taken prisoners, the captives being conveyed to New York and incarcerated in the notorious Sugar House.