Sept. 28.

Colonel Baylor's regiment surprised.

CHAP. IX. corps commanded by general Gray, guided by 1778. some of the country people who perfectly understood the ground, and had made themselves masters of the position of the guards, eluded the patrols, got into the rear of the serjeants guard, posted by colonel Baylor at a bridge over the Hackensack, where the roads leading to Herringtown on both sides the river meet, and surrounded, and cut off this party without alarming Baylor. After which, they completely surprised his whole regiment. The British troops rushed upon them into a barn where they slept; and, refusing to give quarter, bayoneted for a time all they fell in with. Of one hundred and four privates, sixty-seven were killed, wounded, and taken. The number of prisoners, amounting to about forty, is stated to have been increased by the humanity of one of Gray's captains, who, notwithstanding the severity of the orders he had received, gave quarters to the whole of the fourth troop. Colonel Baylor, and major Clough, who were both wounded with the bayonet, the first very dangerously, the last mortally, were among the prisoners.

The cruelty used on this occasion, which was believed to have been unnecessary, excited no slight degree of mingled horror and indignation. Depositions to establish the facts were, in compliance with a request from congress, taken under the directions of governor Livingston of New Jersey, by the reverend doctor Griffith, of Virginia, and published to the CHAP. IX.

world.

1778.

Donop, with

Three days after this, colonel Richard Butler Sept. 30. with a detachment of infantry, assisted by Captain major Lee with a part of his cavalry, fell in his corps with a party of fifteen chasseurs, and about one Butler, and

hundred yagers, under captain Donop, on whom they instantly made so rapid a charge, that without losing a single man, they killed ten on the spot, and took the officer commanding the chasseurs, and eighteen of the yagers prisoners. The extreme roughness of the country, which impeded the action of the horse, and prevented part of the infantry from coming up, alone enabled a man of the enemy to escape. Some interest was taken at the time in this small affair, because it seemed in a measure to revenge and compensate for the loss of Baylor. Having completed their forage, the British army returned to New York.

attacked by colonel

defeated.

This movement had been, in part, designed Expedition to favour an expedition against Little Egg Har- against Egg bour. The facility with which the command of the water enabled the enemy to transport themselves in any direction, gave them an immense advantage in that small kind of war, which depredates and distresses individuals, without tending to conquer a country. This expedition was completely successful, and the works and store-houses, as well as the vessels and merchandises found there, were entirely destroyed. It has been already stated, that

CHAP. IX. count Pulaski, had been appointed general of 1778. the American cavalry. The dissatisfaction given by this appointment to the officers, had induced him to resign his commission, but, thirsting for military fame, and zealous in the American cause, he solicited and obtained permission to raise a legionary corps, which he officered principally with foreigners, and commanded in person. In this corps, which consisted of three incomplete companies of foot, and three of horse, with a few artillerists, and a field piece, one Juliet, a deserter from the enemy, had been admitted as an officer. The count had been ordered to march from Trenton towards Little Egg Harbour, and was lying eight or ten miles from the coast, when this Juliet again deserted and rejoined his countrymen, carrying with him the intelligence of Pulaski's strength and situation. A plan was immediately formed to surprise him, which was completely executed, so far as respected his infantry, who were put to the bayonet. The British account of this expedition represents his whole corps to have been entirely destroyed. In the report made of the affair to congress by Pulaski, he states his loss at about forty, and asserts that on coming up with his cavalry to the relief of his infantry, he drove the enemy from the ground. It is probable that the one account diminishes, as much as the other magnifies, the importance of this enterprise.

Pulaski surprised, and his infantry cut off.

In these expeditions, a determination to CHAP. IX. destroy as extensively as possible, seems to 1778. have prevailed. Not only public stores, but the private buildings, and the property of individuals on the coast, within their reach, were reduced to ashes. For this distressing devastation, alike experienced about Bedford, and Little Egg Harbour, some apology was found in the peculiar objects against which those enterprises were particularly directed; both posts having been distinguished as the rendezvous of privateers, from whence they sallied out to the very great annoyance of British commerce.

As soon as admiral Byron, who reached New York and took command of the fleet about the middle of September, had made the repairs to his shattered squadron which were necessary to enable him again to put to sea, he sailed for the port of Boston, for the purpose of blocking up the count D'Estaing, and of availing him- october 18, self of any circumstances which might favour an attack on the French fleet. He had been but a short time in the bay, when fortune again disconcerted all his plans. A furious storm drove him out to sea, and damaged him so essentially, that he was under the necessity of putting into the port of Rhode Island, to refit. This favourable moment was seized by the count D'Estaing, whose fleet was now completely repaired, and he set sail on the third of November for the West Indies, where the

CHAP. IX. operations of the war rendered his aid of essen1778. tial importance.

)

Thus terminated without any material advantage, an expedition, concerning the success of which the most sanguine hopes had, not without reason, been generally entertained. A variety of accidents had defeated plans judiciously formed, having every probability in their favour. The original object of the armament, to the attainment of which it was entirely competent, was the British fleet in the Delaware, and the army in Philadelphia. It has been already shown that a passage of most extraordinary length, on which it was impossible to have calculated, detained it at sea, until the fleet and army had abandoned a position of so much danger; and thereby saved the British power from a blow the most serious it had then experienced.

By a very few days too, the opportunity of finding lord Howe without the bar, and of obstructing the passage of sir Henry Clinton from the continent to the hook, now become an island, was lost.

Nor was the time of D'Estaing's departure from the hook less critical. Within eight days after his leaving that station, four ships of war, one a seventy-four, one a sixty-four, and two of fifty guns, came in singly, and, in all probability, had they reached their destination sooner, they would have fallen into his hands. This re-enforcement was the more essential,