Several British were killed, the quarters were burned, and Hat field, three other officers, and eleven men were taken prisoners. Another raid on Morrisania, on a larger scale and much more effective, was made in May. It was led by Captain dishing, of the Massachusetts line, with one hundred infantry. More than forty of de Lancey's troopers were killed or made prisoners. The object of the expedition was to capture de Lancey himself, but he was absent. On this occasion Abraham Dyckman, the guide, distinguished himself by capturing Captain Ogden in Emmerick's quarters at the Farmers' Bridge, although a British sentry was within musket shot at the time.1 At the beginning of May, f ISO, says Bancroft, the total continental troops between the Chesapeake and Canada did not exceed 7,000, and in the first week of June those with Washington and fit for

■v. (Ml., ii., 525.

FROM

JANUARY,

1779,

SEPTEMBER,

duty were only 3,760, who, moreover, were unpaid and almost unfed. Knyphausen now invaded New Jersey with a large force, but soon afterward Sir Henry Clinton, returning from the South, put an end to that enterprise, which he regarded with dissatisfaction. Once more Washington was reduced to conjecture as to the purposes of the enemy, and once more he moved up toward the Highlands. On the 10th of July a new French expedition arrived on our shores, this time at Newport. The fleet was commanded by Admiral de Ternay, and the land force (5,000) by the Count de Rochambeau, the instructions of the latter being to act subject to the orders of Washington as commander-in-chief. Three days later Clinton, at New York, was re-enforced by the fleet of Admiral Craves, which gave him a naval superiority. He now decided to attack the French at Newport, and as a preparatory measure (says Irving) marched 6,000 men to Throgg's Neck in our county, intending to dispatch them from there on transports.