Simcoe's Military Journal: A History of the Operations of a Partisan Corps, Called the Queen's Rangers, Commanded by Lieut. Col. J.G. Simcoe, During the War of the American Revolution ; Now First Published, with a Memoir of the Author and Other AdditionsFirst edition, Exeter, Eng., 1787, issued with title, A journal of the operations of the Queens rangers. |
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advance guard ambuscade American appeared arms army Arnold arrived attack Billop boats bridge British British army camp cannon Capt Captain cavalry Charles Town Colonel Simcoe Commander in Chief corps creek Delaware detachment directed dragoons duty Earl Cornwallis Elizabethtown embarked Emmerick's encamped enemy enemy's escape execution expedition fatigue Fayette fence fire flank forage force front George Town Governor halted honour horses Huzzars Jersies joined killed Kingsbridge land Legion letter Lieut Lieutenant Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe light infantry light troops Lord Lord Cornwallis loyalists Major Simcoe ment miles militia morning mounted New-York night numbers occupied officers orders Oyster bay party passed patrole Philadelphia piquet Portsmouth prisoners quarters Queen's Rangers rank rear rebel received redoubts regiment retreat returned Richmond river road sent sentinels Serjeant shot Simcoe's Sir Henry Clinton soldiers soon Staten Island taken Tarleton tion Washington's whole Williamsburg wood wounded Yagers York Town
Popular passages
Page 306 - Our numbers had been diminished by the enemy's fire, but particularly by sickness, and the strength and spirits of those in the works were much exhausted, by the fatigue of constant watching and unremitting duty. Under all these circumstances, I thought it would have been wanton and inhuman to the last degree to sacrifice the lives...
Page 29 - This article is inadmissible in every extremity ; sooner than this army will consent to ground their arms in their encampment, they will rush on the enemy, determined to take no quarter.
Page xv - He is acquainted with the military history of all countries ; no hillock catches his eye without exciting in his mind the idea of a fort, which might be constructed on the spot; and with the construction of this fort he associates the plan of operations for a campaign, especially of that which is to lead him to Philadelphia.
Page 293 - I have thus freely disclosed what I wished to make known before I surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me. The task is now accomplished. I now bid adieu to your Excellency as the chief magistrate of your State, at the same time I bid a last farewell to the cares of office and all the employments of public life.
Page 116 - and found himself when he recovered his senses prisoner with the enemy, his horse being killed with five bullets, and himself stunned by the violence of the fall." As he lay thus a lad was prevented from bayoneting him, and for a while his life was in imminent danger. When he regained his senses he had to face for some days the fury of the people in that locality on account of the killing of Captain Vorhees by one of the Rangers.
Page 321 - Rangeri, and had during the war signalized himself upon various occasions. He was a man of letters, and like the Romans and Grecians, cultivated science amid the turmoil of camp. He was enterprising, resolute, and persevering ; weighing well his project before entered upon, and promptly seizing every advantage which offered in the course of execution.
Page 172 - ... incessant lightning. This small party slowly moved back toward Herbert's Ferry. It was with difficulty that the drivers and attendants on the cart could find their way ; the soldiers marched on with their bayonets fixed, linked in ranks together covering the road. The creaking of the wagon and the groans of the youth added to the horror of the night ; the road was no longer to be traced when it quitted the woods, and it was a great satisfaction that a flash of lightning, which glared among the...
Page 111 - Simcoe called together the officers : he told them of his plan, — " that he meant to burn the boats at Van Vacter's bridge, and, crossing the Raritan at Hillsborough, to return by the road to Brunswick, and, making a circuit to avoid that place as soon as he came near it, to discover himself when beyond it, on the heights where the Grenadier Redoubt stood while the British troops were cantoned there, and where the Queen's Rangers afterward had been encamped ; and to entice the militia, if possible,...
Page 162 - Simcoe was ordered to dislodge them : he mounted the hill in small bodies, stretching away to the right, so as to threaten the enemy with a design to outflank them ; and as they filed off, in appearance to secure their flank, he directly ascended with his cavalry, where it was so steep that they were obliged to dismount and lead their horses. Luckily, the enemy made no resistance, nor did they fire ; but on the cavalry's arrival on the summit, retreated to the woods in great confusion.
Page xv - is bashful and speaks little, but she is a woman of sense, handsome and amiable, and fulfils all the duties of a mother and a wife with the most scrupulous exactness. The performance of the latter she carries so far as to act the part of a private secretary to her husband. Her talents for drawing, the practice of which she confines to maps and plans, enables her to be extremely useful to the governor.