thunder shower; we were ordered into some barns near by, the officers, as usual, ordering themselves into the houses. I thought I might get a nap if it did storm, but hardly had I sunk into a slumber when we were informed that we were discovered by the enemy, and that two or three thousand Hessians were advancing upon, and very near us. We were immediately hurried out, the shower then being at its height, and the night as dark as Egypt, except when it lightened, which, when passed, only served to render it, if possible, still darker; we were then marched across fields and fences, pastures and brooks, swamps and ravines, a distance of two or three miles, and stationed upon a hill, or rather a ledge of rocks, which was as completely fortified by nature with a breastwork of rocks as it could have been by art. Here we waited for Mynheer till the sun was two hours high, but no one coming to visit us, we marched off, and left the enemy to do the same, if they had not already done it.
We remained on this hard and fatiguing duty about six weeks, during which time many things transpired incidental to a military life, but which would be of little interest to the reader, and tedious for me to relate.
We marched to Peekskill and rejoined our regiments sometime in the fore part of the month of August. A short time after my arrival at Peekskill, I was sent off to King's ferry (about five miles below) to take some batteaux that were there and carry them to fort Montgomery, in the edge of the Highlands. While upon this tour of duty, an accident happened to me which caused me much trouble and pain. After we had arrived at the fort with the boats, we tarried an hour or two to rest ourselves, after which we were ordered to take a couple of the boats and return again to King's ferry. Wishing to be the first in the boat, I ran down the wharf, and jumped into it. There happened to be the butt part of an oar lying on the bottom of the boat, and my right foot, on which the whole weight of my body bore, alighted, in my leap, directly upon it, lengthwise; it rolled over and turned my foot almost up to my ankle,—so much so, that my foot lay nearly in a right angle with my leg. I had then to go to the ferry, where I was landed, and having no acquaintance with any of the party,
