Smyrna times., 1879-07-30

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mel, John Haslet of Dover, an Irish doctor
and minister, was absent at that battle, but
he had only little while to regret his want
of career. He died charging the British
lines at Princeton, Jan. 3, 1777, and is buried
under q monument in the Presbyterian
ground at Dover, to which place his re.
mains were removed by the Legislature in
l841. His son, Joseph Haslet, was the only |
man Delaware has twice made governor. |
Cunning Bedford, lieutenant colonel of the |
regiment, was a volunteer, and great fav- |
orite of Washington, who also had militia |
ry secretary, Tench Tilghman, from the |
Delaware peninsula.
The provisional Delaware regiment was |
disbanded after the battle of Princeton,
and the veteran Delaware regiment, was |
mustered in at the brink of Winter, 1776, |
and thenceforward recruited from Delaware |
until the end of the war. It's Colonel was
David Hall, lawyer of Lewes, who had
been wounded at Germantown. He was
made governor of Delaware in 1902. The
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Pope of
Smyrna, resigned in 1779. The Majors,
Joseph Vaughan of Bridgeville and John
Patten of Dover, both farmers, were taken
prisoners at the battle of Camden. Robert
Kirkwood of Newark therefore became col
onsl, and was the leading regular officer of
Delaware in the Revolution.
KIRKwooD.
His life is so bold and homely that, even
after this long lapse of time, it touches the
heart and the sympathies, and gives, q
plaintiVeness to the modest farmerhood
Of Delaware.
Having fought at Brooklyn and White
Plains, and at Brandywine, Germantown
and Monmouth, he took command of the
| Delaware line as its senior captain when it
was left a mere fragment after the slaughter
at Camden, 1873 remaining out of about 500.
He led those men at Cowpens and on
| Greene's great retreat, also at Guilford and
Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs. "The
gallant infantry of Delaware" Greene fre-
gently called them. The regiment was
moved to Sassafras river, up the Chesapeake
marched to Christiana Bridge and disband-
ed. "No regiment in the army" wrote Har-
ry Lee, " surpassed it in soldiership; but as
the line of Delaware consisted of only one
regiment and that reduced to a captain s
command, Kirkwood could never be pro-
NOTED in regular routine" The veteran
subsidized to keep village store until the
army of st. Clair was raised to subdue the
Indians of Ohio. There in the massacre of
the army, the Oldest captain of the Oldest
regiment, fighting his thirty-third battle,
fell dead, closing in modesty an eventful
but unrewarded life.
THE DELAWARE M'LANEs.
Delaware had two military battalions on
home guard, "The Flying Camp" under
Colonel Samuel Patterson, miller OF
Christiana and the I'd Battalion, command
ed by Colonel Henry Neill of Appoquini
mink. They were not engaged in battle
But its celebrated partisan company, coma
manded by Captain Allen McLane, attract
ed as much attention as Mosbys command
in the Rebellion. 1t contained about thirty
men as a nucleus, all of whom had to bC
picked and tried for their nerve, strength
or subtlety, and they ranked as foot sol
diers, although generally troopers" Nc
,, Lane was 81 years old when commissioned
by the United States, and his best work wa
performed while the British occupied Phil
: adelphia, the United States having then NJ
3, regular cavalry except that which Pulaski
0 who lived awhile at Port Penn, Delawar
a where his dwelling yet stands, was drillin
4 at Valley Forge, McLane was attached t
}. Lees legion of riders, but it seems that hi
i prowess gave him seperate fame, and pie
O lures were current in taverns and club
: after the revolution of his individual en-
: counters. Once at Shoemakertown,
y roadside place, since adorned by Jay Cooke
y the banker, he was riding far ahead of hi
g command with o couple of scouts behln
g. him for the purpose of silently notifyin
him of danger, when he heard the men CRY
3 "Colonel the British ~ and they droppe
6 away. The British lined the road. M
Is Lane dashed to the woods, though his fin
e fresh horse was wounded. He next rod
a. through picket upon q considerable fore
{. at q farm house, the picket supposing b
l. meant to surrender, but he swerved froI
9, the main body while at their musket
e, mouths, the cry ringing in his ears of "Su
render or diel'' A number pursued hi
but only two with unusual spirit, kept u
II the chase unwearied, until their thre
!. horses were exhausted and could only wall
nj McLane then sought an individual encoul
m ter by slackening his pace at times an
in conversing with the pursuers. "Surrend'
y. YOU - rebel, or we'll cut you topieces
1t But when one, more hardy than the othe
Nv pushed his horse afresh and seized McLar
u. by the collar, the partisan fred ba
n. through his heart, and the British troop
to tumbied dead in the road. Almost at tn
n. moment he received a sword slash aero
n the veins and tendons of the back of IL
IL
rt er, and thus wounded and bleeding profus
IS. ly, was nearly lifted out of the saddle
e. his enemy's hand upon his collar. Witho
at flinching, and steady of purpose as an ex
,ss cutioner, McLane put his second pistol b
us tween the brave mans eyes and scatter
", his brains in the lane. Then, droppil
IF from his horse, he crawled into mill POI
ar. bleeding to death as it appeared, al
er crouching there, staunched his wound a.
he sought and found succor.
Ter Similar adventures gave the Delaws
J." partisan reputation which his little Sta
las has had no literature to embalm, but
in vigor in civil life made him one of the b
els politicians Delaware has possessed, and gs
al him line of posterity still recognized
wo the affairs of two great cities. He becal
,ed collector of the port of Wilmington, and
To was whispered that this office and man
el. fectei James A. Bayard, the Federalist,
he his detection from Burr to- Jefferson WI
, a they we're candidates Before Congress.
etn az DELAWARE IN '76.
ior Thomas Collins, one of the six Revoluti
lst aly governors of Delaware, lived at Smyr