JUSTIN MORGAN 89 



Major Andre's death, was appointed adjutant-general, with the com- 

 mission of lieutenant-colonel. At the close of the war, General De- 

 Lancey went to England, was elected a member of parliament, and 

 died at Beverly in 1785, at the age of sixty-eight years. His son, 

 Oliver, accompanied him, and rose gradually to the rank of major 

 general. At the time of his death he was almost at the head of the 

 British army list. James, a nephew of General DeLancey, com- 

 manded a battalion of horse in his uncle's brigade. Because of his 

 activity in supplying the British army with cattle from the farms of 

 Westchester, his troopers were called cowboys. 



" Many attempts were made to destroy, or disperse, the DeLan- 

 cey loyalists. On the 25th of January, 1777, some Americans at- 

 tacked a block-house erected by DeLancey on the site of Mapes's 

 Temperance House, at West Farms. Several of the guard were 

 wounded, but none were killed or made prisoners. In the winter 

 of 1779, Col. Aaron Burr, with some Americans, attacked the block- 

 house, to destroy it. Provided with hand grenades, combustibles and 

 short ladders, about forty volunteers approached cautiously, at two 

 o'clock in the morning, and cast their missiles into the fort, through 

 the port holes. Soon the block-house was on fire in several places, 

 and the little garrison surrendered without firing a shot. A few es- 

 caped. A corps of De Lancey's battalion occupied the house of Col. 

 Lewis G. Morris, at Morrisania, for a short time. They were attacked 

 there on the 5th of August, 1779, by some of Weedon's and Moy- 

 lan's horse, a detachment from Glover's brigade, and some militia. 

 Fourteen loyalists were made prisoners. These attacks becoming 

 frequent, DeLancey was compelled to make his headquarters at the 

 house now owned by Mr. Samuel Archer, in the vicinity of High 

 Bridge, where he was under the guns of Fort No. 8, one of the re- 

 doubts cast up by the British to cover the landing of their troops, on 

 the morning of the attack upon Fort Washington. Near the entrance 

 to Mr. Archer's mansion was a building where Col. Hatfield had his 

 quarters in January, 1780, when he was attacked by some levies and 

 volunteers from Horseneck and Greenwich. The assault was made 

 at one o'clock in the morning. Unable to dislodge the enemy, the 

 assailants fired the house. Some escaped after leaping from the 

 windows ; the colonel and eleven others were made prisoners. 



" In May, 1780, Captain Cushing of the Massachusetts line, 

 guided by Michael Dyckman, surprised Col. James DeLancey's corps, 

 near No. 8. He captured over forty of the corps; the colonel was 

 absent. Cushing retreated, followed some distance by a large num- 

 ber of yagers and others. In January, 1781, Lieutenant-Colonel 



