Lyon, Samuel
John M. McDonald interview — 1851-10-18
Samuel Lyon (c.1783-1853) of Weaver Street in Greenwich, Connecticut, recounts an incident in which Major Thomas Huggeford of DeLancey’s Refugees stopped at the house of Ebenezer Knapp and forced him to serve as a guide to the home of Horton Reynolds, which was serving as the headquarters of American Colonel Levi Wells. Huggeford’s force captured Wells. Lyon also recalls a raid conducted by the Refugees against the flour mills of American Colonel Thomas Thomas on the Byram River. Among those who participated in the raid was Silvanus Simmons, who had been given his parole and was treated kindly by Colonel Thomas while he was a prisoner at West Point. Lyon concludes his interview with a comment regarding Brom Barrett.
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Transcription
- Hufeland Index Page 1066 -
October 18th Samuel Lyon of Weaver Street: “When Major Huggeford cut off the American regulars in North North street, he called, in the middle of the night, at the house of Ebenezer Knapp and woke him up suddenly by thundering at the door. Knapp, supposing it a hostile visit, sprang up and took hold of his musket, but Huggeford called out to him: “Knapp! You needn’t
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get your gun or show any fight, for you are in my power. I have a regiment behind me but I won’t hurt you. Dress quickly and come along. I want you for a guide. You’re a great rascal I know, but you can do me good service. Take me to Colonel Wells’ quarters.” Upon this occasion Major Huggeford had forded the Byram three quarters of a mile or more above Sherwood’s Bridge, and also above the farm of John Green where Major Huggeford had been brought up, and which Green was his uncle. About the middle of the war, General Thomas’s flour mills on the Byram, near his house, were taken and plundered by a party of Delancey’s Refugees who took off a great quantity of flour. Among the Refugees who came upon this occasion was one Silvanus Simmons who belonged to Delancey’s corps, but who a short time previously was found by General Thomas at West Point where he had been
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for sometime in prison, from which he was taken by Thomas (who knew him) on parole and very kindly treated. Brom Barrett, I think, was a British subject – probably, an Irishman.