his own immaculate reputation from defilement. After
the culprit had hung the time prescribed by law, or
custom, the hangman began stripping the corpse; the
clothes being his perquisite. He began by trying to pull
off his boots, but for want of a boot-jack he could not
readily accomplish his aim; he kept pulling and hauling
at them, like a dog at a root, until the spectators, who
were very numerous, (the guard having gone off,) growing disgusted, began to make use of the stones, by tossing several at his pretty carcass. The Brigade-Major
interfering in behalf his aid-de-camp, shared the same
usage; they were both quickly obliged "to quit the field;" as they retreated the stones flew merrily. They
were obliged to keep at a proper distance until the soldiers took their own time to disperse, when they returned and completed their honourable business.
We remained at and near Peekskill till some time in the month of December. The cold weather having commenced earlier than usual, we had hard combatting with hunger, cold, nakedness and hard duty, but were obliged to grapple with them all as well as we could. As the old woman said by her husband, when she baked him instead of his clothes, to kill the vermin, "You must grin and bear it."
About the middle of this month (December) we crossed the Hudson, at King's ferry, and proceeded into New-Jersey, for winter-quarters. The snow had fallen nearly a foot deep.—Now I request the reader to consider what must have been our situation at this time, naked, fatigued and starved, forced to march many a weary mile in winter, through cold and snow, to seek a situation in some (to us, unknown) wood to build us habitations to starve and suffer in. I do not know how the hearers of this recital may feel, but I know how I felt at the time, and I know how I yet feel at the recollection of it; but there was no remedy, we must go through it, and we did go through it, and I am yet alive.
Our destination was at a place in New-Jersey, called Baskinridge. It was cold and snowy, we had to march all day through the snow and at night take up our lodgings in some wood, where, after shovelling away the snow, we used to pitch three or four tents facing each other, and then join in making a fire in the centre.
