and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor so to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country. The Honorable Continental Congress, impelled by the dictates of duty, policy and necessity, having been pleased to dissolve the connection which subsisted between this country and Great Britain, and to declare the United Colonies of America free and independent States,—the several brigades are to be drawn up this evening on their respective parades at six o'clock, when the declaration of Congress, showing the grounds and reasons of this measure, is to be read with an audible voice. The General hopes this important point will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and courage; as knowing that now the peace and safety of his country depend (under God) solely on the success of our arms; and that he is in the service of a State possessed of sufficient power to reward his merit and advance him to the highest honor of a free country. PAROLE-OGDEN. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK, July 10, 1776. General Heath's brigade, instead of repairing to their alarm posts to-morrow morning, to hold themselves in readiness to march, will receive their orders from the Brigadier-General on the parade at four o'clock; the Brigadier will attend at headquarters this afternoon for orders. Though the General doubts not the persons who pulled down and mutilated the statue in the Broadway, last night, were actuated by zeal in the public cause; yet it has so much the appearance of riot and want of order in the army, that he disapproves the manner, and directs, that in future, these things shall be avoided by the soldiery and left to be executed by proper authority. This rebuke for pulling down the statue of George III., standing in the Bowling Green, may have been expedient as a measure of discipline; but it does not appear to have been very severe. HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK, July 2d, 1776. PAROLE-ARMSTRONG. General Mifflin is to repair to the Pest near King's Bridge, and use his utmost endeavors to forward the Works there; General Scott, in the meantime, to perform the Duty required of General Mifflin in the orders of the 29th June. No Centries are to stop or molest the Country people coming to Market or going from it, but to be very vigilent in preventing Soldiers leaving the Army. Col. Cortland, of the New Jersey Brigade, is to send over 500 of the Militia under his command to reinforce General Greene's Brigade. These Troops are to be distinguished from the old Militia, in future, by being call'd new Swiss. The QuartermasterGeneral to furnish them with Tents; the detachment from General Spencer's Brigade to return when those get over. The Militia not under the immediate Command of General Herd, are to be under that of General Mercer, until the arrival of their own General Officer. The time is now near at hand which must, probably, determine whether Americans are to be free men or Slaves-whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses or farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a state of wretchness from which no human efforts will, probably, deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions, will now depend under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this Army; our cruel and unrelenting Enemy, leaves us no choice but a Brave resistance or the most abject Submission. This is all we can expect. We have, therefore, to resolve to Conquer or Die! Our Own, Our Country's Honour,—all call upon Us, for Vigorous and wearly exertion, & if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole World. Let us therefore, rely upon the goodness of our Cause and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great & noble actions. The eyes of all our countrymen, are now upon us; and we shall have their praises and Blessings if happily we are the Instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us, therefore, animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole World, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own Ground, is superior to any slavish Mercenary on Earth. The General recommends to the Officers great coolness in time of action, and to the Soldiers a strict attention and obedience, with a becoming firmness & Spirit. PAROLE-GOSHEN. HEADQUARTERS, July 7th, 1776. Brigadier for the day, Heath; Field officers for piquet, Col. Huntington, Lt.-Col. Hardenburgh & Major Heydon; Brigade Major for the day, Livingston. A working party of 150 men properly officered, to go to King's Bridge to-morrow, to March at 6 o'clock from the parade; they are to take two days' provisions with them; after which they will draw out of the stores there; to take their Arms and Tents with them; when there, Gen'l Mifflin give them orders. As the Enemy may make an Attack in the morning, when there may not be time for the Soldiers to fill their Canteens, the Gen'l directs that they be fill'd every Evening; the officers to take care that it be not neglected, as it is a matter of much consequence at this Season. Some persons having barbarously wounded and maimed some cattle belonging to Leonard Lispenard, Esq., on Friday last. The General hopes no Soldier in the Army is concerned in so base & scandalous an action; but if it should appear otherways, such person may depend on the severest punishment. Any person who can give any information in the matter, will be well Rewarded. I have thus given you parts of the journal, and copies of a few of the orders in my father's handwriting; and in like manner, I shall publish, for your benefit, some of the many notes and letters from well-known personages of the time of the Revolution, calculated to reflect the habits and characteristics of the period. They would be out of place in a work prepared for the public eye; but it is the only way in which, in this purely family affair, I can render you all participants in my Treasures. PART II. At the close of the Revolutionary War, my father settled in New York, and lived at 25 Broadway; and as his old associates and friends, Governor Morgan Lewis, Major Popham, Col. Richard Platt and others informed me,-was a leader of fashion, and one of the most elegant men of the day. The late David S. Jones, a very dear friend of mine, said to me, that one of his amusements, as a boy, was, regularly and daily, to watch Gouverneur Morris and your grandfather make their appearance, about midday, from the fashionable barbershop of the city near Courtland street, and, with powdered hair and hats in hand, commence their daily walk on the fashionable lounge, which extended from Courtland street to Morris street, on the west side of Broadway, the front of old Trinity being the point of attraction, where the loungers most lingered. From David Frank's New York Directory for 1786, republished by Patterson, 61 Liberty street, in 1874, we learn that "Webb, Samuel B., Gentleman," had removed to 4 Dock street. He was, as before stated, one of the sixteen officers of the Revolutionary Army who founded the Society of the Cincinnati ; and Colonel Richard Platt and Governor Morgan Lewis always alleged that, but for him, the Society would never have had existence. This may or may not be true; but it is quite certain, that all the early records of the New York State Society of the Cincinnati are in my father's handwriting. In the old Directory referred to, is published a complete list of the members of the New York Branch of the Cincinnati Society -one hundred and sixty-nine in all; showing the estimation in which the members, and officers of the Revolutionary Army, were then held. Also, the following 1783, BARON DE STEUBEN, GENERAL WEBB, COLONEL TROUP. FOUNDERS OF THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. At the Cantonment on the Hudson (Newburgh), 17th May, Major General Baron de Steuben presiding. Major General Howe, Brigadier General Patterson, Brigadier General Huntington, Colonel Webb, Colonel Jackson, Lieut. Colonel Hull, Major Pettingill, Major General Knox, Lieut. Colonel Maxwell, Lieut. Whiting. General Washington was elected first President, General Knox first Secretary. From my father's old associates, whom I found living in 1819, I learned very many characteristic anecdotes of him, and of the state of society, in this city, at the close of the Revolution. The political separation from the mother country had not then, and did not, for the next third of a century, exercise much influence upon social life; or change the character of the society of the city, or the standing and character of the old families, who, under the colonial system, represented the aristocracy of the mother country. Family only was then the passport to society; and as New York, during the whole of our Revolutionary struggle, had been |