affairs, "Not too much zeal." Major Kissam, to whom they were addressed and by whom they were preserved to see the light oddly enough about the same time with this MS. volume of Clinton's Headquarters Records, was John Kissam, Major of the Queens County Militia regiment, commanded by Gabriel G. Ludlow-the eldest son of Daniel Kissam, of the well-known Long Island family of that name, who was a magistrate of the county, its representative at one time in the Provincial Legislature, and a brother of Benjamin Kissam, the great New York lawyer, in whose office John Jay and Lindley Murray acquired their legal education. The Kissams were loyalists and, like nine-tenths of those of New York, they opposed the measures of the British ministry, but would not take arms against the king. Their estate and home was "Flower Hill," in North Hempstead, near Long Island Sound, three or four miles from Westbury, in Queens County. In virtue of his commission, which he received from Gen. Tryon, December 9, 1776, Major Kissam was actively employed during the war, especially in collecting forage for the British forces. brought him in correspondence with many officers and others. The estate was confiscated, but was bought in by the Major's mother, and upon his return from Nova Scotia, after the war, was his residence till his death on the 10th of July, 1828, at the age of So years. Among a number of the revolutionary papers of Major Kissam are the following relating to Heron and Parsons, which were first published in 1883, by Mr. Henry G. Onderdonk, under the heading of “Flags of Truce," in a contribution to the Roslyn News, a Long Island newspaper, simply as an illustration of that subject, and without, of course, being aware of what the “Flag" in this case was really the cover. The originals are in the possession of a grand-daughter of Major Kissam, who kindly permitted the writer of this note to examine them. To Major Kissam, Sir: This Westbury, 21st of April, 1781. I had the honor to receive yours this evening, and have forwarded the letter to Major De Lancey immediately. The bearers of flags of truce, agreeably to general orders, are to be sent back as soon as they have delivered their dispatches; but if Wm Heron has to transact business in his private affairs on this Island, he must first obtain His Excellency Gov. Robertson's particular leave for that purpose; and I shall therefore have the honor to wait upon you, sir, to morrow morning at 10 o'clock in order to see whether Heron's request is likely to be granted; and till that time I beg to detain him at your house or any other proper place. I am with great regard sir, your most obed't humble servant. L. J. A. DE WURMB, L. Col. To Major Kissam, Cow Bay, Westbury, 23 April, 1781 Sir: I enclose a passport for Mr. Heron, and should wish for his return to Stamford whenever the wind will permit of it. I have not yet received an answer from New York, but as soon as those things wanted by Gen. Parsons shall arrive I will not fail to forward them to the General by another flag. I have the honor to be with great regard, sir, your most obed't humble L. J. A. DE WURMB, L. Col. servant. To Capt. Poers, Commander of His Majesty's brig Argo, &ca. &ca. &ca. Brooklyn, April 26, 1781 Sir: Maj. Gen. Baron de Riedesel begs you will, in compliance with the directions from Head Quarters, (as you will see by the enclosed extracts of a letter from the deputy Adjutant Genera!) order Mr. Wa Heron's boat which you took possession of a few days ago, back in all haste to the place where you first found her; and the men who navigated her will be sent without any delay to that place to receive their boat, and it is requested, sir, that you will please to give such particular directions to your people that she and every thing belonging to her may be restored to them as complete as she was found, without any further detention whatever. I have the honor to be with all respect, Sir, Your obedient humble servant [The Aid who wrote this letter omitted to sign it, and the extracts of a letter from the Deputy Adjutant-General" are not among the Kissam Papers.] To Major Kissam, Westbury, April 27, 1781 Sir: The enclosed papers will inform you that the people belonging to the flag of Mr. Heron are to be sent to the other side as soon as Mr. Heron returns. The prisoners I hereby send, and beg you will be kind enough to guard them until they leave the Island; and in case of necessity to furnish them with provisions which shall be paid for whenever you let me know the price thereof. The boat which was taken by the Argo brig will perhaps arrive at Hempstead Harbor to-day. L. J. A. De Wurmb, L. Col. N. B. If you think it necessary, some Jagers may stay with the prisoners as a guard. The entries of 24th and 25th of April, 1781, in this "Private Intelligence," give the information brought by Heron on this occasion, when the Argo's unlucky capture of his boat gave Col. de Wurmb and the other officials so much trouble. But they make no mention whatever of "those things wanted by Gen. Parsons." What the "things" were must be left to conjecture. "L. J. A.De Wurmb, L. Col.," as he signs himself, was Ludwig Johann Adolph de Wurmb, Commander of the German Jager Regiment, then stationed on the north side of Long Island, with its head-quarters at Westbury. Early in the following summer De Wurmb and his regiment were transferred to Kingsbridge, and he was the officer who from that point several times informed Clinton of the first movements of the allied armies toward Virginia, without being credited by that Commander. He became Lieut. General, and Commander of Cassel in 1806, and died in 1813. -Von Elking, 264. From the very outbreak of hostilities in 1775, there seems to have existed in Connecticut violent personal and military antagonisms among her officers and soldiers, and between the troops, officers and men, and the civil authorities of the State. Troubles were breaking out continually, with more or less force, throughout the Revolutionary war. Military and personal jealousy seems to have been the rule rather than the exception, and it was more than even so strong a man as Governor Trumbull could do, to regulate matters successfully. The difficulties about rank, command, pay, and arrears of pay increased the bitterness, and led to the demands and charges, so disastrous to Washington and Trumbull, which Gen. Parsons in writing brought before each of them. "I am honored with your Excellency's letter of 25th of June last," writes Trumbull to Washington on the 9th of July, 1781, "enclosing a copy of one addressed to you by General Parsons, enclosed. Your feelings of distress excite a sympathy in my breast, and a readiness to do all in my power to remove the occasion. That the Committee from the Connecticut line of the Army did not accomplish a full settlement, was to me a matter of sorrow, and fear for its consequences. The veteran troops who faithfully served, and bravely endured so many distresses in defence of their own, and their country's righteous cause, in the unhappy contest with the British King and Ministry, and continue therein to the end, will be rewarded, acknowledged, and remembered with love and gratitude by this and future generations. Surely, none will forsake it, or cause disturbances at this time when in a near view of a happy issue. Those who do will meet with reproach and regret." III. Sparks's Corr., 350. Eight days later, on the 17th July, 1781, Trumbull again writes Washington: 'Dear Sir-Since my last to your Excellency, I have received a letter from General Parsons, dated the 10th (This was two days after the above letter of the 8th of July sent by Parsons through Heron to Clinton) filled with severe remarks and reflexions on our Legislature. A copy thereof with my answer is enclosed." And then, after giving at length the measures taken in relation to the pay of the Line and the officers, Trumbull exclaims: "Shall we suffer avarice to divide and ruin us and our cause, and give them (the enemy) opportunity to exult and triumph over us." . . . I wrote yesterday to the Treasurer to inform me this week what sum of hard money is and can be immediately collected for the army, which shall be sent forward without delay. The measures directed and orders given for raising and marching our troops to the army, are now diligently carrying into execution. I have the honor to be, with every sentiment of esteem and consideration, Jonathan Trumbull." III. Sparks's Corr., 350. Parsons's letter and Trumbull's answer Sparks does not give. MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS, mentioned above, born at Lyme, Conn., May 14, 1737, was the third son of the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, the friend and supporter of Whitfield, by his wife, who was a daughter of Gov. Matthew Griswold, of Connecticut, with whom, after graduating at Harvard University in 1756, he read law at the place of his birth. He was admitted to the bar in 1759, elected to the Connecticut Legislature in 1762, and re-elected annually till 1774, when he moved to New London, having the year before been appointed "King's Attorney" for New London County. He was one of the eleven persons who, without any authority, took out of the Connecticut Treasury £810 to get up an expedition to take Ticonderoga, giving their notes for the same, which notes the Connecticut Assembly, on Parsons' petition in May, 1777, directed to be cancelled and the said sum "to be charged over to the General Government." In April, 1775, he was appointed Colonel of the 6th Colony regiment; was later, after the war began, transferred to the Connecticut Line, made Brigadier General by Congress in 1776, and Major-General in October, 1780. He succeeded Gen. Putnam as Commander of the Connecticut Line in the Continental Army, in 1779, in which command he continued to the end of the war. He then returned to the practice of the law at New London. In 1786 he was one of the persons appointed by Congress to hold the treaty of that year with the Indians at the mouth of the Miami. In 1787 he was appointed by Congress one of the Judges of the Northwestern Territory, and went to reside at Marietta, Ohio. In 1789 he was appointed by Washington Chief Judge over the same territory, and in the same year, as one of the Commissioners of Connecticut, he went to the Western Reserve of Ohio to arrange for a treaty with the Wyandots and other Indians to extinguish their title to that region; and, while on his return, was accidentally drowned in descending the rapids of the Big Beaver River, the 17th November, 1789, at the age of 52. He was also a member and President of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati. Hinman's Cont. in the Revolution, 144, etc. Hildreth's Pioneer Settlers of Ohio, 186, etc. Sir, From Cap Marquard to Major De Lancey. Morris House, 17th July, 1781. Captain Henricks* who returned last night with the flag after having delivered the letters, says that he went by Stephen Ward's to the Whiteplains; that he met no Picket at all till he came to Chatterton's bridge, where there was a guard of a corporal and three men. No troops encamped on the east side of the Bronx. The French Legion at the Whiteplains, the horse on Chatterton's, and the foot on Captain John Heinrichs, of the Jager Regiment, is here meant. He went to White Plains with a flag to deliver certain letters sent by Joshua Loring, Commissary of Prisoners, to the allied camp. This bridge was over the Bronx at the northeastern foot of Chatterton Hill. On the road from Tuckey-hoe is a Picquet at a little distance from the camp, and another between the horse and foot of the Legion. The French Infantry under Count Rochambeau, near one mile and a half behind the Legion, having the 2nd position of Washington in the year 1776, in their rear. The French Artillery Park is [in] front of the Reg' of Soissonnois. The communication of the troops on the other side of the Sawmill River,* with those on this side,† is by Storm's bridge. The French provision train drawn by oxen. He believes they receive their provisions by way of Bedford and North Castle. The Rebels get theirs by water from King's ferry to Tarrytown. It is said the heaviest French cannon were drawn by six horses. The cavalry of the Legion consists of two squadrons, each 150 strong; but Henricks thinks them no more than 230 in all-40 of them very good, 60 middling, the rest not good. Thirty-five men are armed with Lances, wear fur Caps, are the best mounted, and exempted from mounting guards. The whole Legion a fine body of men, and their accoutrements for horses and men very good. Eight men lay in a tent, from the number of which he concludes the foot of the Legion cannot be 600 strong. Their forage, fresh hay and Indian corn. There is no harmony between the Rebel and French officers; the latter, being [for] the greatest part of good families, cannot bear to be in the same rank with men who were Farmers, Butchers, Tanners, &c., and now are Generals, Colonels, &c. As the Americans do not like the French, the Inhabitants bring little or no provisions or greens to their Camp. The want of wine and good beverage, and the difficulty of having good dinners, makes their situation disagreeable, and they hate the American Inhabitants in return.‡ The Signal of alarm to the Army is two guns from the Right and two from the Left Wing, and beating Drums. Five beacons are upon Hunt's Hill. The whole army has been in great confusion the night before last; some cavalry from the right increased this confusion by running full speed into the Camp of the Main Army. Henricks cannot believe that they were more than 8,000 strong. They give themselves out for 12,000. They estimate the British army in this District 10,000 Regulars, and 6,000 Refugees and Provincials. Some French officers pretended that Gen! Washington shewed great Generalship There was a great deal of this feeling here spoken of, on both sides, very much more than American writers are willing to admit. The different accounts subsequently published by French officers show it on the one side; and to it, on the other, is to be ascribed much of the unwillingness of the New England people to furnish their quotas of troops. The French will fight it out for us, having agreed to do so, and there is no need of our troubling ourselves about more men,' was the view they took and acted upon. A century of almost continuous contest with France for supremacy in North America. left impressions on the people of the new States too deep to be effaced by a single year's alliance with their and their fathers' former foes, aliens in race, language, and religion. Arnold used this feeling in defending his treason, and as this "Private Intelligence" shows, Heron refers to it in Parsons (entry of 25th April ante), as a reason for the same thing in the affair of the 3a, as he [succeeded*] that day in reconnoitring Spiken Devil, which on another he might not have been able to effect without risking a Battle.↑ You will kindly excuse the length of this letter, it is taken from Henricks's German original, and I could find no means to shorten it. Five armed vessels weighed anchor yesterday evening before 6 o'clock, and proceeded up the North River. Several Rebel boats were seen to get away as fast as they possibly could. Between 10 and 11, a severe cannonade was heard; the flashes that were seen left no doubt of its being near and about Dobb's ferry. The Rebel Drums beating an alarm were distinctly heard. This morning at day-break we saw the shipping off Tarrytown. One cannon played upon them from the shore till eleven o'clock this day. About 12 o'clock we could plainly see that they had 4 pieces of cannon. The ships went higher up Tappaan Sea.§ Cap! Henricks, of the Jagers, who went out with a flag of truce, and delivered the letters sent here by Mr. Loring, returns just now and says, that M. Le Duc de Lauzun told him the British ships had taken the American vessels loaded with flour, and had set a house on fire with their cannon. The whole Rebel and French army were under arms last night, since the first firing, in full expectation of an attack. The consternation has not been trifling; the men got under arms with nothing but their shirts on. I am, &c., Marquard. From Cap Beckwith. 16th July, 1781 S. A. returned to Kingsbridge this forenoon, and says, he has been upon Tuckey-hoe heights, near the widow Underhills, which he left at 10 this morning. 66 * This word in the MS. is unintelligible, but it is evident that it was intended to mean succeeded." These italics are underscored in the MS. Captain Marquard, whose name appears so often in this "Intelligence," was a Captain of the Hessian Regiment, styled "Battalion Grenadiers Von Minnegerode," and aide-de-camp of General Knyphausen, as appears from the Army lists in Gaines's N. Y. almanacs during the war. Washington thus describes the naval force which made the attack mentioned (Journal May and July 11 and 15): The Savage sloop of war 16 guns-the ship Genl. Washington lately taken by the enemy--a ten Galley (so in the original)—and two other small vessels passed our fort at Dobb's Ferry (which was not in a condition to oppose them.") The object of the attack was to destroy the stores at Dobbs Ferry and Tarrytown. |