Home / Dawson, Henry B. Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution. Morrisania, NY: (privately printed by the author), 1886. / Passage

Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution

Dawson, Henry B. Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution. Morrisania, NY: (privately printed by the author), 1886. 355 words

"towards Frog's Point," to "endeavour to support "the Regiments that are posted at the passes, there;" " should the attack be made at or near East Chester "landing," to ''make the best disposition of his "troops and repel the enemy;" and if any new movement of thes enemy should be discovered, "to "send notice thereof, immediately, by one of the " Light-horsemen," General Heath also informed General Nixon " that a guard was absolutely necessary at " Rodman's-point,?' [the same as Pells-point, on the opposite side of ttie. Hutchinson' s-river, from Throgg'sneck,] "next to East-Chester-creek." He said that Colonel How was near the landing-place, "with a " Regiment of Militia ;" but it was evident that not enough was known of Colonel How's military qualifications for the command of so important a position • and General Nixon was directed to make inquiries on the subject. 1

While the military authorities were thus engaged in preparing to meet the enemy, in arms, whenever the latter should endeavor to move from the Neck on which he was then quietly encamped, the Convention of New York, by }ts Committee of Safety, as we have already stated in our review of the proceedings of that Convention,? as soon as information could have possibly reached it, that the enemy had moved towards Westchester-county, provided for the immediate disposition of all the Cattle, Horses, Hogs, Sheep, Grain, J>Straw, and Hay, on the well-cultivated farms throughout that County, in order that the enemy should not secure them for his Commissariat ; 3 and the careful reader may gather from that decided action of the Committee of Safety, how completely desolated all that flourishing County must have become, before that enemy secured a foothold on the main-land -- indeed, before that foothold had been secured, all that portion of the County which was below Tarrytown, the White Plains, and Rye had, probably, been generally stripped of the various agricultural productions of that season, excepting only the Potatoes, the Buckwheat, and the Corn ; and, of the Live-stock, of every description, it is scarcely probable that any remained, within that portion of the County.