[16] So early as January, 1776, congress had recommended the reduction of St. Augustine to the southern colonies.—Secret Journals of Congress, page 38.
[17] Ramsay.
[18] The author was in the covering party, visited the fort next day, and conversed with the officers who had been engaged in storming the works.
[19] The author states these facts from his own observation, and conversations with other officers of the detachment.
[20] While Sullivan was preparing to invade their country, the savages were not inactive. At the head of a small party of whites and Indians, Joseph Brandt fell upon the frontiers of New York, murdered several of the inhabitants, carried others into captivity, and burnt several houses. He was pursued by about one hundred and fifty militia, whom he drew into an ambuscade, and entirely defeated. A few days afterwards, Captain M'Donald, at the head of a small party, of whom a third were British, took a fort on the west branch of the Susquehanna, and made the garrison, amounting to thirty men, prisoners of war. The women and children, contrary to the usage of Indians, were permitted to retire into the settled country.—Gordon.
[21] The author has seen notes taken by a member of congress, of communications made by Mr. Girard, when admitted to an audience, which avow these sentiments. The secret journals of congress sustain this statement.
[22] After the fleet passed the fort, Colonel Pinckney and a part of the garrison were withdrawn.
[23] Colonel Parker and Captain Peyton, two valuable officers from Virginia, fell in this manner.
[24] Lieutenant Bowyer, an American officer who was in the engagement, near the person of Colonel Buford, in a letter which the author has lately seen, states this affair in a manner not much conflicting with the statement made of it by Colonel Tarlton.
[25] Journal of Colonel Williams.