November, 1776, to September, 1783 169 



intelligence of Washington's movement and so gave up the 

 Rhode Island expedition and returned to New York. This, 

 in turn, obliged Washington to abandon his plan, and the troops 

 were again returned to their cantonments on the west shore of 

 the Hudson. On the twenty-first of September, the British 

 force from Harlem to Kingsbridge was reported at fifteen 

 hundred. 



During December of this year, rumors reached the Ameri- 

 cans that De Lancey was planning a raid into North Castle, 

 above White Plains, and the lines were disposed so as to meet 

 him. The expedition was made on the twenty-ninth, and De 

 Lancey's party of one hundred infantry and fifty horse was 

 turned back and most of their plunder retaken. 



On January 18 and 19, 1781, troops were ordered down for 

 an expedition under Lieutenant-Colonel William Hull (the 

 commander of Detroit, War of 1812) for an attempt against 

 De Lancey's post at Morrisania. Hull's force consisted of 

 about three hundred men. He surrounded the loyalists, forced 

 a passage to their camp, destroyed the pontoon bridge, took 

 fifty prisoners, burned the huts and forage, and took a large 

 number of cattle which he drove up to the American lines. He 

 was closely pursued, but his covering party under Lieutenant- 

 Colonel Hazen attacked the pursuers and killed and captured 

 thirty-five more. Hull's loss was twenty-six men in killed, 

 wounded, and missing. The enemy retaliated on the seven- 

 teenth of February by raiding Bedford, where they burned 

 five houses, plundered and stripped the inhabitants, and re- 

 turned with eight prisoners, three of whom were lieutenants in 

 the army. On the twentieth, six of our guides reconnoitring 

 towards Kingsbridge, fell in with a similar party of De Lan- 

 cey's and took five of them prisoners, all wounded. Number 

 Eight continued to be a favorite point of attack, for, on the 



