and his command were accepted by the Committee of Safety, as one of the two Companies required from Westchester-county ; l and it subsequently constituted the Fifth Company of the First Regiment of the New York Line, commanded by Colonel Alexander Mc- Dougal. 2 It was said of the Company, afterwards, that the Captain " has deceived the Convention " [the Provincial Congress f\ " in Enlisting the men " for 6 & 12 months instead of doing it for the " war ; " 3 that the men, who had, also, been deceived by their Captain, deserted in large numbers ; 4 that the Regiment was greatly reduced by the desertions, of which those from this Company were part ; 5 and the Company was thereby disgraced, through all time. Of Captain Hyatt, it was stated that he was " unfit" to be retained in the service, 6 as " he wants authority "to make a good Officer :" 7 of the three Subalterns, the same record stated, " These three wish to de- " cline the service ; they will be no loss to it." 8
Two days after Ezekiel Hyatt, through the Chairman of the Committee of Westchester-county, had secured a place for himself and his command, in the New York Line of the Continental Army, [April 27, 1776,] Cornelius Steenrod appeared, personally, before the Committee of Safety, in the City of New York, and informed that Committee " that he can enlist a "complete Company of men for the Continental ser- " vice, in fourteen days ; " and the Committee, after due consideration of the proposal, adopted a Resolution giving to him "full assurance that he and his "Subalterns, with the said Company, will be em- " ployed as part of the troops raising for the defence " of this Colony," provided a full and complete Company of able bodied men should be enlisted and made ready to join a Regiment, within the designated period of fourteen days. 9