160 ESSAY ON THE 



movinor the troops destined for that service. The or-teams effectually 

 performed the transportation of baggage and stores lo liie points where 

 they were relieved by water conveyances. From the head of Elk in 

 Maryland (sixteen miles eastward of the Susquehanna) to James' 

 River in Virginia, near tliree hundred miles, the ox-teams (without 

 loads) travelled expediiiously. Tlie heavy artillery, shot, shells, &:c., 

 brought from the head of Elk by water, were landed on the shore of 

 James' River, i think at or near Jamestown, whence they were trans- 

 ported by the ox-teams to our camp before Yorktown, a distance, I 

 believe, of about fourteen miles. In the performance of this service, 

 those teams were of essential importance. 



" The late Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth of Connecticut (one of 

 the most judicious and efficient men in business that I ever knew) 

 was then the contractor for supplying the French army with provi- 

 sions, teams, carriages, — in a word, with everything necessary for it, 

 in the quarter-master's and commis9ar}''s departments. I introduce 

 his name, because he had provided a great number of ox-teams and 

 wagons for the use of the French army during the same campaign, 

 and these also travelled to Virginia. 



" I always understood that the great transportation of provision and 

 stores from IVIassachusetts and Connecticut to the troops on Hudson's 

 River, was almost wholly performed by ox-teams during the war. 



"Just at the close of the war, in the summer of 1783, I recollect 

 being at the house of an agricultural gentleman of Princeton, in New 

 Jersey, where Congress was then sitting, and that Charles Thomson, 

 the Secretary, was present. One of Arthur Young's Agricultural 

 Tours in England lay on the table, and gave rise to a conversation 

 on the use of oxen for the draft, particularly when geared with collars, 

 hames, and traces, like horses; and Mr. Thomson related the follow- 

 ing fact, now, for substance, perfectly in my recollection. Travelling 

 in that part of Chester county in Pennsylvania w'hich lay between 

 Lancaster in that State and'Newport on Christiana creek, Mr. Thom- 

 son fell in with a team of a novel character in that country, being 

 composed of one pair of horses and one pair of oxen : and the latter 

 were accoutred with harness like horses, only with the collars turned 

 upside down. His curiosity being excited, he stopped and made some 

 inquiries, and received from the driver an account as follows : that 

 he and a neighbour, each having a horse-team and wagon, had enter- 

 ed into a contract to transport a quantity of flour (I think in a given 

 time) to Newport ; that in the midst of the work one or two of his 

 horses failed, (fell sick or died), and he was not in circumstances 

 conveniently to procure others ; but he had a pair of oxen, and he 

 concluded to try whether they would supply the place of his horses; 

 that he made the experiment and succeeded. He told Mr. Thomson 

 that the oxen were more useful to him than horses ; for after some 

 fall-rains, when the roads had become miry, he continued to carry 

 his full complement of barrels of flour, while his neighbour's horse- 



