To George Washington from Major General Robert Howe, 8 July 1780
From Major General Robert Howe
Highlands [N.Y.] 8th July 1780
Dear Sir
The Enemy both with Horse and Infantry in all as Capt. Sackett Writes me,1 about One Hundred and Fifty of Delancys Corps2 were up the other day into our Settlements—a Party of this State Troops attach’d to this Command who were Posted on the lines under Captain Sackett, turn’d out to Oppose them, but the Captain finding them Double his number and the Ground he possess’d not very Defensible, he prudently Retreated, Determin’d however to Ambuscade them in their way down—They Collected above a Hundred Head of Cattle, and above two Hundred sheep with th⟨ese⟩—they were returning in Triumph when they were suddenly Attack’d by Captain Sacket and his Party, they were thrown into Confusion, but rallied and Attack’d our Party, who though not above half their number defeated and Pursued them several miles, and Retook all the Cattle and sheep—Captain Sacket writes me these Particulars—and many Persons of judgement down there Speak of this little affair as Clever—and having done Captain Sacket and his men and Officers Honour—The Enemy had one man kill’d and three or four mortally wounded—The Connecticut State Troops also fell in with this Party lower down, and after some fire Drove them, Colo. Beby who Commanded the Party3 lost one man and had a Lieut. Shot thro’ the sholder, one man of the Enemy was kill’d and a good many wounded.4 I am Dear Sir with great Respect Your Excellencys most Obd. Sert
Robert Howe
LS, DLC:GW. GW acknowledged receipt of this letter on 11 July.
1. The letter from Capt. Richard Sacket to Howe has not been identified.
Richard Sacket (Sackett; c.1745–1799) had been a lieutenant and captain in a regiment of Westchester County, N.Y., militia before serving in 1780 and 1781 as a captain in Lt. Col. Albert Pawling’s regiment of militia levies raised to defend the New York frontier.
2. Col. James De Lancey commanded the Loyalist Westchester County Refugees and Militia.
3. Bezaleel Beebe (c.1741–1824) served as a lieutenant in the 1st Connecticut Regiment in 1775 before joining a Connecticut state regiment as a captain in 1776. Captured at the fall of Fort Washington on 16 Nov. of that year, Beebe was exchanged in July 1777. He subsequently served as major and lieutenant colonel of militia. In January 1780 the legislature appointed Bebee lieutenant colonel commandant of a volunteer state regiment raised to serve for one year, and the following November named him to command a regiment of sea coast guards (see , 2:458–59 and 3:239, 271–72). He later represented Litchfield in the state legislature.
4. The Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy Or, American Oracle of Liberty for 13 July 1780 printed under the dateline “FISH-KILL, July 6” an “Extract of a letter from the continental Village, July 2,” an account of this skirmish: “Yesterday about 200 of the enemy’s horse and some infantry, under Col. [Isaac] Hatfield, came into Middle Patten[t] and its vicinity, and collected upwards of 100 head of horned cattle, some horses, and upwards of 200 sheep. Capt. Sacket, commanding about 40 of the levies of this State, waylaid them in the neighbourhood of Benjamin Clapp’s, retook all their cattle and sheep, and wounded a number of them; they then endeavoured to retire between him and the Sound, where Col. Bebee with some Connecticut levies was posted, who also fired on them,—took some prisoners, killed 6, and wounded a number—Col. Bebee lost one man.”