Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/281

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NEW YORK IN 1780-81.
257


the journal of the Anspach musketeer Doehla, Eelking makes the following quotation: “We took considerable booty, both in money, silver watches, silver dishes and spoons, and in household goods, clothes, fine English linen, silk stockings, gloves, and neckerchiefs, with other precious silk goods, satin, and stuffs. My own booty, which I brought safely back, consisted of two silver watches, three sets of silver buckles, a pair of woman's cotton stockings, a pair of man's mixed summer stockings, two shirts and four chemises of fine English linen, two fine table-cloths, one silver tablespoon and one teaspoon, five Spanish dollars and six York shillings in money. The other part, viz., eleven pieces of fine linen and over two dozen silk handkerchiefs, with six silver plates and a silver drinking-mug, which were tied together in a bundle, I had to throw away on account of our hurried march, and leave them to the enemy that was pursuing us.”[1]

Knyphausen claimed to have inflicted on the Americans a loss of sixty-five killed and three hundred and twenty prisoners during the winter.[2] The beginning of the summer brought round the time for more important action. On the evening of the 6th of June, 1780, the first of the five divisions of a British expeditionary force was landed in New Jersey at Elizabethtown Point, and the four other divisions followed the next day. They comprised almost all the regular soldiers at Knyphausen's disposal. The first and second divisions pressed on through Elizabethtown and Connecticut Farms, meeting with some resistance. At the latter place the army halted, and the chasseurs

  1. Eelking's “Hülfstruppen,” vol. ii. p. 86.
  2. Ibid. p. 87.