1845. Sept. 23. James Mandeville. On Friday morning January 24th 1783. we started from Peekskill hamlet or village (a village of five or eight houses at this time) being about or upwards of fifty in number, that is, thirty three from near Peekskill, (and the rest about twenty from the east part of Courtlandt's Manor. (Sprinks and Salem) It was an enterprise planned by Colonel Samuel Drake and Mr. Peter Van Tessel to carry off Colonel Delancey, because he had been a public disturber and his men plunderers, and to guard against treachery the point of attack was to be kept secret from us till we reached West Farms, that is, we did not know prewhere, precisely, we were going to strike. We went down the North River road to Dobbs Ferry, then turning east got upon the Tuckahoe road, and crossing Nint's Bridge entered West Farms by way of East Chester about midnight [page break] 1845. (Ten or twelve of us were left near the Bridge with the horses, of which guard I was one.) Notwithstanding every precaution and although we pushed forward and rapidly, there seemed to be a general alarm the moment we appeared. bells ringing and bugles blowing. We crossed the bridge and surrounded the house, but the Colonel was not to be found, having gone out as the inmates told us to a cock fight, but we afterwards learnt he concealed himself in an out-house on the first alarm of our approach and so escaped. We took the Colonel's house two prisoners fifteen horses and a variety of plunder, - and then retreated by the North River road with as much expedition as our jaded horses could bear. We feared a pursuit and before we reached Yonkers a party overtook us. It being night, however, and their number at first probably small we kept them at bay until we reached the new Livingston villa [page break] 1845. near Dobbs Ferry when daylight appeared and they seemed preparing for a charge.