One of Delancey's men was up with a flag and talking of some prisoners they had recently made, said to Cornelius Oakley: "We'll have you next."- Oakley replied, "That may well be for none of us can tell what may happen." He soon after received information from a spy (a cripple who was suf fered to go about among the Refugee posts and settlements unmolested and unsuspected) that there was to be a great ball at a house near Fort No.8. Oakley, [Dyckman?] and a party went down on the
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Samuel Oakley cont'd.
appointed night. They passed the advanced posts undiscovered and crept along a wall by Redoubt No.8, close to the sentinels and reached the house in question, without being seen or heard. The revellers were completely surprised, being engaged in dancing while they surrounded the house and up to the moment when they entered. The men were seized before they could get their arms and threatened with death if they resisted. The women shrieked, and a scene ensued when their partners were captured, but they brought off most, if not all, the prisoners. The garrison of No.8 was alarmed, and pursued; but Oakley's party retreated successfully, having taken among other prisoners the very man who predicted his (Oakley's) capture. Nimham was intimate with some of the Ferris [X] family, and either
[X] Farmer James Ferris owned lands on Lake Champlain which accounts for his acquaintance with Nimham. (C Y. Ferris)
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