[Light Camp, Passaic, N.J., 10 Nov. 1780]. Smith begins a long letter focused on his actions and those of Col. Israel Shreve during the period from the Battle of Connecticut Farms, 7–8 June, to the Battle of Springfield, 23–24 June: “I do not know how I can answer your Excellency’s letter of the 9th1 better than by a detail of the facts to which Colo. [Matthias] Ogden alludes.” Smith tells how Shreve turned over command of his regiment to him just before the fighting began at Springfield because “he was a heavy man and should the regiment be press’d he should be obliged to leave it.” Shreve participated in the battle in a hesitant manner that suggested cowardice, but Smith concludes that he heard of Shreve being “with the Brigade” and “exposed to the fire of the Enemy.”