Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1876-04-28

remaining were much demoralized
The soldiers Of the army did not es
cape corruption, nor even officers o
considerable rank. When Col. Burr
took command of the lines, at White
Plains in january, l779, he found a
scouting party of a hundred and fifty
men, under command of a colonel
just setting out for New Rochelle, tc
watch, as they said, the enemy S
movements. The new commander
unwilling to begin his term Of service
by issuing a disagreeable order, let
the party 90, but enjoined upon the
officers to respect the property Of
friend and foe. Next morning, to the
wonder and disgust Of Burr, the
troops returned loaded with pluudet,
and an hour after, the farmers began
to come in, protesting they were good
Wings and begging the restoration OF
their property.
Colonel Burr was one of the most
vigilent Of officers, and he succeeded
in putting stop to this system but
in doing so, he made such exertions
by night and by day, that his health
impaired by lormer hard service, COM
pletely broke down and he WAS com
! pelled to resign his commission, and
he remained an invalid for eighteen
months. After he left the post, the
county again became scene Of plum
der and desolation, and such was its
condition when Major Andre was TO
pass over it in September, 1850.
At that lime the American head
quarters were at the village Of North
Castle, six miles north Of White
Plains, and ,hirty-three miles north
of the city Of New York-Col. Jane
son in Command. For four days,
there had been lurking about the
camr, a tall, alert countryman, aged
twentv-one, who had been much con-
cerned in scouting during the war,
Twice he had ieen taken prisoner,
and coniiued in New York, and twice
escaped to resume his scouting He
had been back from NeH York only
four days, and he still wore regi
mental coat which he had picked up
in the city. This Vas John PAulding
native OF the county, whose fAtI.er :
farm hai been laid waste early ia the
war, and lie was thus deprived Of reg
ular employment Neither at this
time, nor at any former period, had
lie been a regular solder, nor even Il
militia man. lie belonged to no reg
iment or corps OF any description. An
act Of the Legislature, however, made
it lawful for any mau or body OF men
to seize and possess cattle going to
the enemy.
Isaac Van Wart, another country
man, a native Of the county, was also
! idling about headquarters, and to him
JOHN Paulding proposed they should
90 on a scouting expedition. Van
Wart consenting they started toward
Tarrytown, joined on the way by Da-
v.d Williams, Van Warts cousin, Of
the same occupation, and about the
same age as themselves. Williams
had served under Montgomery in Can
ada, and strange to say, he had assist
ed at the capture OF St. Johns, where
Andre and his regiment were taken
prisoners. Neither Of the men at the
time belonged to the service, but
all of them had occasionally Joined
in the predatory warfare just de-
scribed nor need we suppose that, in
their scouting expeditions they had al
ways kept within the strict letter Of
the law. On this occasion they were
certainly mere adventurers. They
were three young men out of employ
ment, trying to pick up something
from the enemy, which they could
turn to account. On their way to-
ward the Hudson river they were
Joined, it seems, by four other scout
ers, making a party Of seven, armed
with muskets.
That night they slept in barn near
by, and about half past seven next
morning, took post near the road that
still runs along the Hudson river, at
a point about half a mile from Tar
rytown. The three friends kept watch
by the road, while their four compan-
ions watched from the summit ef a