"When Burgoyne found that his boats were not safe, and were in fact much nearer the main body of our army than his own, it became necessary to land his provisions, of which he had already been short for many weeks, in order to prevent his being actually starved into submission. This was done under a heavy fire from our troops. On one of these occasions a person by name of Mr.----, well known at Salem, and a foreigner by birth, and who had at the very time a son in the British army, crossed the river at De Ruyter's, with a person by name of McNeil; they went in a canoe, and arriving opposite to the place intended, crossed over to the western bank, on which a redoubt called Fort Lawrence had been placed. They crawled up the bank with their arms in their hands, and peeping over the upper edge, they saw a man in a blanket coat loading a cart. They instantly raised their guns to fire, an action more savage than commendable. At the moment the man turned so as to be more plainly seen, when old M---- said to his companion, 'Now that's my own son Hughy; but I'm dom'd for a' that if I sill not gie him a shot,' He then actually fired at his own son, as the person really proved to be, but happily without effect. Having heard the noise made by their conversation and the cocking of the pieces, which the nearness of his position rendered perfectly practicable, he ran round the cart, and the ball lodged in the felly of the wheel. The report drew the attention of the neighboring guards, and the two marauders were driven from their lurking place. While retreating with all possible speed, McNeil was wounded in the shoulder, and, if alive, carries the wound about with him to this day. Had the ball struck the old Scotchman, it is questionable whether any one would have considered it more than even handed justice commending the chalice to his own lips." A map of Washington County would show that it was on the war path that led to some terrible conflicts related in American history. Occupying a part of the territory between the Hudson and the northern lakes, it had borne the feet of warlike Hurons, Iroquois, Canadians, New Yorkers, New Englanders, French, English, Continentals and Hessians, who proceeded in their mission of destruction and vengeance. As the district occupied by the Highlanders was close to the line of Burgoyne's march, it experienced the realities of war and the tomahawk of the merciless savage. How terrible was the work of the ruthless savage, and how shocking the fate of those in his pathway, has been graphically related by Arthur Reid, a native of the township of Argyle, who received the account from an aunt, who was fully cognizant of all the facts. The following is a condensed account: