90 THE MORGAN HORSE 



William Hull fGen. Hull of the war of 1812), who was in command 

 of a detachment of troops in advance of the American lines, suc- 

 cessfully attacked Col. Oliver DeLancey at Morrisania, with three 

 hundred and fifty men. Hull surrounded the loyalists, forced a nar- 

 row passage to their camp, took more than fifty prisoners, cut away 

 the bridge, burned several huts and a quantity of stores, and retreated 

 to camp, closely pursued. A covering party, under Col. Hazen, at- 

 tacked the pursuers and killed, and captured about thirty-five more. 

 Hull lost twenty-six men in killed and wounded. 



"At sun-rise on the fourth of March, 1782, Captain Hunneywell 

 and a body of cavalry, having a covering party of infantry under 

 Major Woodbridge, entered DeLancey's camp at Morrisania, dis- 

 persed the loyalists, and killed and wounded several. Others in the 

 neighborhood were collected, and pursued Hunneywell, when they 

 fell into an ambush formed by Woodbridge, and were driven back. 

 In this skirmish Abraham Dyckman was killed. 



"The ancestor of the American DeLanceys (De Lanci) was 

 Estienne, or Stephen, a Huguenot, who came to New York in 1681. 

 He was descended from a noble French family, known in history in 

 the sixteenth century. He married Ann VanCortlandt and became 

 active in public affairs. The chief justice and the general were his 

 sons. Another son, James, married a daughter of Caleb Heathcote, 

 lord of the manor of Scarsdale. James's third son was the father of 

 William Heathcote DeLancey, D.D., the present Protestant bishop of 

 the diocese of western New York. 



"The seat of Gen. Oliver DeLancey was upon the Bronx, oppo- 

 site the village of West Farms, three miles from the mouth of that 

 stream. There he had extensive mills, which are now the property 

 of Mr. Philip M. Lydig. The old mansion, where British officers 

 were so often entertained, was destroyed by fire several years ago. 

 He owned another residence on York Island, which was burned on 

 the night of the twenty-fifth of November, 1777. It is supposed to 

 have been fired by some daring whigs, in retaliation for the burning 

 of some houses in the vicinity of Yonkers by the tories." 



In this connection we desire to call attention to certain informa- 

 tion sent us by Judge Charles J. McCurdy of Lyme, Connecticut, 

 one of the leading citizens, and now over ninety years old. In his 

 letter to us, dated July 3, 1886, he calls attention to his communica- 

 tion to the "American Cultivator" of February 8, 1885, of which he 

 encloses a copy. And in speaking of DeLancey's Wildair, he pro- 

 ceeds as follows : 



