The countersign was: 'Long Live King George,' with three slaps of the hand above the head. There were more than seventeen prisoners taken - my father always said about thirty - seventeen or eighteen were taken at DeLancey's Quarters, and the rest at another house. During the retreat Michael Dyckman rode by the side of Captain Cushing, and it was owing as my father always said principally to his good judgement, decision and knowledge of the country that it was successful.
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I had the life of Captain John Underhill printed in 1756. I lent it to William N. Dyckman of New York who now has it. My address is: Jackson Odell Dobbs Ferry Post Office, West Chester County [Greenburg.]
Decr. 19th. Jackson Odell. "In Cushing's affair, he captured seventeen or eighteen at De- -Lancey's Quarters, and immediately af- -terwards Lieutenant Blake surprised an adjacent post and made prisoners of seventeen or eighteen more. When General James Clinton escaped from Fort Montgomery, he was retreating along up Poplopen's (?) Creek in the dark attended by his black servant, when the latter came
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in contact with a man whom he made prisoner. The black man told General James Clinton he saw the prisoner swal- -low something in haste. An emetic was soon after given to him and he thereupon threw up a silver bullet which was found to be hollow and to contain a small scroll of paper directed to General Burgoyne, containing with these words in writing: "Fort Montgomery is taken and the command of the Hudson is ours." This mans name was Stevens ? I think - and a native of Dutchess County. He was immediately afterwards tried by a Court Martial, found guilty of being a spy, and executed."
An emetic was soon after given to him and he thereupon threw up a silver bullet which was found to be hollow and to contain a small scroll of paper directed to General Burgoyne, containing with these words in writing: "Fort Montgomery is taken and the command of the Hudson is ours." This mans name was Stevens ? I think - and a native of Dutchess County. He was immediately afterwards tried by a Court Martial, found guilty of being a spy, and executed."