1 66 The Story of The Bronx 



tion. That same night, the Colonel led a marauding expedi- 

 tion towards Eastchester, where a skirmish occurred with the 

 Americans and he was mortally wounded. 



On November thirteenth, Lieutenant Oakley took five 

 prisoners near Morrisania and came near capturing Colonel 

 De Lancey, the active leader of the Westchester Light Horse, 

 who occupied the Archer house lying under the guns of Fort 

 Number Eight. 



On December second, De Armond made another raid toward 

 Morrisania and captured Captain Cruger of Baremore's corps 

 and two other prisoners. Cruger was exchanged later and 

 became lieutenant-colonel of De Lancey's First Battalion of 

 Loyalists, and as such, with a corps of New York loyalists, 

 successfully held the redoubt at Ninety-Six, South Carolina, 

 for twenty-seven days against the attack of Greene and 

 Kosciuszko. 



The winter of 1 778-1 779 was an exceedingly cold one, and 

 people passed from Long Island to New York on the ice. On 

 February 7, 1779, a party of three hundred horse and a regi- 

 ment of infantry crossed from Long Island to Westchester 

 town. Notwithstanding, predatory operations continued. 



About January 19, 1779, a body of volunteers from the 

 militia regiments at Greenwich, Connecticut, to the number of 

 eighty, under command of Captains Keeler and Lockwood, 

 marched to the house of Colonel Hatfield at Morrisania, near 

 the site of High Bridge, and attacked it about one o'clock in 

 the morning. They first surprised the pickets, killing three 

 and driving the rest into the house, where the whole of the 

 attacked party took to the upper floor and fired from the win- 

 dows and down the stairs upon those who entered the house. 

 The possibility of capturing the enemy under such circum- 

 stances being remote, the house was fired by placing some burn- 



