[30] It seemed strange that the hero of Stony Point should have been a vain man; but he was said to be vain both for himself and his regiment. At the beginning of the war he told his regiment that there would be a barber in each company to shave the soldiers and dress their hair; (their hair was to be plaited and powdered) and that any man who came on parade with a long beard, carelessly dressed, or dirty, was to be punished. He told General Washington he would rather lead his men into action well dressed and with only one round of cartridges, than with all the ammunition that they needed and yet ragged and dirty. [31] This was no vain threat. During the attack one unfortunate soldier stepped out of the ranks to load his musket, and the officer in charge immediately ran him through with his bayonet. [32] One of Wayne’s friends wrote that the only drawback to the attack was that the General would probably lose his hearing;—he would be deafened by his own praises. [33] The grave of Mary Vining is in the Old Swedes’ Church yard in Wilmington. [Illustration] How Once Upon A Time MacDonough Sailed The Sea. [Illustration: A “Frigate”—Old-time War-Ship · 1800] COMMODORE THOMAS MACDONOUGH was sometimes called “the Boy Commodore,” for he was the youngest Commodore in the American navy. He was born December, thirty-first, 1783, on a farm in New Castle county where his father and grandfather had lived before him. When he was seventeen he joined the navy as a Midshipman, and made his first cruise on the ship “Ganges.” He was a tall, thin, shy youth. He was never strong, but he was so brave that he was ready for any dangers or hardships. Cooper called him “the modest but lion-hearted MacDonough.” At the time MacDonough joined the navy, the United States was at war with France, and his first cruise was against the French in the West Indies. The “Ganges” captured three of the enemy’s vessels, and sent them home as prizes. Then the yellow fever broke out on board the “Ganges.” MacDonough was one of the men who had it. He and the other sick men were carried on shore to a miserable dirty Spanish hospital at Havana. Here, for many weeks, he lay ill. When he was able to get up and go about again he found that the “Ganges” had sailed away, and that he was left, poor, alone, and almost without clothing, in a strange land. All the Americans who had been brought to the hospital had died except himself and two others. These two were in as much distress as himself. The American agent at Havana gave them some shirts and other pieces of clothing, and they got back to the United States on a sailing vessel.