The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. VIII, 1909Various
History
The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. VIII, 1909
Various
American-Irish Historical Society -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- United States -- Periodicals; Irish Americans -- Periodicals
“I have elsewhere compared the scenes I now witnessed to the dramatic
scenes of Wallenstein’s Lager. Here was centered in addition to the
soldiery cantoned at the place all those drawn in from the Delaware,
Princeton and Brunswick, together with the flower of the army, English,
Scotch, and German, which had been brought in from Rhode Island. Here
was to be seen a party of the Forty-Second Highlanders in national
costume, and there a regiment of Hessians, their dress and arms a wide
contrast to the first. The slaves of Anspach and Waldeck were there, the
first somber as night, the second gaudy as noonday. Here dashed by a
party of the Seventeenth dragoons, and there scampered a party of
Yagers. The trim, neat and graceful English Grenadier, the careless and
half-savage Highlander, with his flowing robes and naked knees, and the
stiff German, could hardly be taken as members of one army. Here might
be seen soldiers driving in cattle, and others guarding wagons loaded
with household furniture instead of the hay and oats they had been sent
for.
“The landing of the grenadiers and light infantry from the ships which
transported the troops from Rhode Island; their proud march into the
hostile neighborhood, to gather the produce of the farmer for the
garrison; the sound of the musketry, which soon rolled back upon us; the
return of the disabled veterans who could retrace their steps; and the
heavy march of the discomfited troops, with their wagons of groaning
wounded, in the evening, are all impressed on my mind as pictures of the
horrors and the soul-stirring events of war.
“These scenes and others more disgusting—the flogging of English men and
thumping and caning of German—which even my tender years could not
prevent me from seeing all around, and the increased disorder among my
fathers’ negroes, from mingling with the servants of officers, these
were my sources of instruction in the winter of 1776–1777.”
[Illustration:
JAMES H. DEVLIN. Jr.,
Of Boston, Mass.
President of the Boston Charitable Irish Society, now in its 172d
Year.
]
THOMAS P. JOHNSON, NOTED LAWYER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Among the distinguished men who have adorned the New Jersey bar few, in
their day, were held in higher repute for eloquence and extensive legal
knowledge, and especially for intellectual vigor and versatility of
talent, than Thomas P. Johnson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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