'20S IllSTOUY OP 



privalos, niui two of llu^st^ wiM'o tVozon to doaili. He 

 was al iho I'aunoiuulitii; oi' TiiMiton, .lanuaiy i, 1777; 

 wliou llio Auiorioans \voro ivpulsod, "1 ran," said the 

 votoran to us, in his nintMy-lirst yiwr, "like a Hollander, 

 \v\\'\\c \\\c bnlKMs \vhistl(Hl about my oars, and rattled 

 like hailstonos against tlu^ tonrt*." Ho was in tlio oii- 

 gagoniont whcro tlioro was a t'oarful odds in numbers and 

 tact against the Americans, when they had to contend 

 against Lord Cornwaliis's troops, and reinlbrced by regi- 

 ments under the eonuuand ol' Colonel Maywood, at the 

 battle of Princeton, .lanuary ;?rd, 1777; here the British 

 loss was more than oiu^ lunuh\Hl kilKnl, and rising of 

 three hundred prisoners taken. "Hut the victory was 

 by no means a bloodless one to the An.iericans; (anieral 

 Mercer was mortally wouudcil. Col. llaslci, (\)1. Potter, 

 and other ollicers of submdinate rank, were killed." 



He was with the American army at IVlorristown, in 

 winter (|uartcrs. Hero Washington, not trusting to the 

 barriers nature had thrown around his position, sent out 

 detachments to assail and harass General Howe's troops; 

 and it was in those expeditions DieffenderiTer frequently 

 t(X>k part. 



In a skirmish at INlonmouth, in the spring of '77, 

 DielTcndcrtTcr was taken ]irisoner and shamet'nlly mal- 

 treated by one oi the Hrilish, who struck him in his 

 face with his musket; a scar is still visible on his u]iper 

 Hp; blow upon blow would have been repeated, but for 

 the manly and timely interposition of a small Scotch- 

 man, he was treated as a prisoner. He, and twenty-live 

 or thirty tellow-prisoners, were conveyed to New York, 

 and confined in a sugar-refinery, covered in part with 

 tile. The sulVcrings they endured, excited universal 

 indignation, and will, everlastingly, rellect reproach on 

 the Ih'ilish commander. JNlany of them sunk imdeir 



