The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-07-18

erty and for repelling any hostile Invasion
thereof would consist of nine companies They
were to be commanded by Col. William Th0mp-
of Carlisle with Edward Hand of Lancaster
as Northumberland and Robert MagaW as
major. all men whose courage we have the
highest opinion of.
Each company consisted of one captain three
leutenants, four sergeants, four corporals a
drummer or trImpeter, and 6S pryates. The cap
tain received so a month"; the lieutenants S13ls.
the sergeants IS. the corporals and the drummer
or trumpeter S1H, and the privates S6.a.
These rifiemen were miscellaneous lot The
majority of them Irish, German or Welsh,
the second generation Of some Of the thousands
of immigrants who. In the early years of the
Eighteenth century had settled In William
penns colony. Then too, there were many de-
seendants of the Scots who had been driven by
religious persecution from their native high
lands In the Seventeenth century. They had
sought temporary refuge In the province OF
Ulster Ireland, whence between the years 1T20
and 174o, thousands of them migrated to Amer
lea and peopled the hills Of Pennsylvania from
tier with a sturdy, rugged race that was destined
to play an important part In the formation OF
our national character Besides these, there
were others of pure English stock and, to make
the cosmopolitan nature of the battalion more
complete, the rolls of Captain Lowdons COM
pany carried the name Of John Shawnee a
Shawanese Indian warrior.
On these same rolls were three other names
which should have made Lowdon's company for
ever famous. One of them was a German, Peter
Bentz. Pennsylvania would later hail him. under
the name of Peter Pence, as one of her great
est Indian fighters. Another a seventeen
year-old boy, red headed Irish lad named Sam
uel Brady The future would see him making the
name of Capt. Sam Brady, Chief Of Rangers
household word along the Pennsylyania-Ohio
border 1t would know him as the hero OF
"Brady's Leap" across the chasm OF the Cnya-
hoga river In northern Ohio But this would be
only Of many of his hairbreadth escapes
from the red men.
The third another Irishman, a rollicking,
dark eyed Celt named Timothy Murphy. Two
years later the sharp crack of his long rifle
would sound the doom Of a British army as his
bullet nunetuated the death sentence of Gen.
Simon Fraser at Saratoga. Another year would
add to his fame as the most redoubtedly notori-
Gus marksman In North America and, as the
"Scout Of thes Schoharie," he would become the
terror of his IroQuois and Tory enemies In New
York.
No less notable than the eagerness Of such
men as these to enlist In the fight for liberty
was their speed in reaching the theater of war;
Between the 2Sth. of July and the ID instant
the rifle men under the command of Captains
Smith Lowdon, Doudel, Chambers, Nagel, Miller
and Hendricks passed through New Windsor Ca
few miles north OF West Point In the New
York government their way TO Boston,. said
a New York item In the Philadelphia Evening
Post of August IL 1TI5. But 1t was evidently
Incorrect so far two OF the companies
Nages and Doudel' s--were concerned A letter.
dated from Cambridge July "A. ITS, says The
Reading company of rifles got into camp lDst
Tuesday (lsth) the rest are hourly expected
and much wanted" Thus the men from Berks
county had the honor or being the first Penn
syvania company to appear on the scene OF
action.
by July % they had been Joined by their
sharpshoong brethren from York county under
Captain Doudel Captain Chambers company ar
rived August 7 and Captain Hendricks on
August s. On the same day Tim Murphy Sam
Brady, Peter Bentz and their mates In Captain
LowTgs company shuffled their welworn moe
casins through the grass on the campus Of Har-
ward college and shook the dust Of the weary
miles from their green-thrummed hunting shirts,
Ten days later Captain Ross and his company
swung into camp, to be met with much good
natnred banter AT his tardy arrival because his
Lancaster county Dutchmen were SO slow Al