Some of our elders gave us encouragement by word of mouth. More than that, the most generous could not do, for we had already exhausted our resources in providing for those who had joined the American army; but a goodly number of the people laughed outright when we proposed to take upon ourselves, so far as might be, the defence of the settlements. A motley party it was when we were first assembled, but I question whether in many of the colonies could have been found an equal number of lads who were more earnest in their purpose, and more ready to brave hardships and fatigue than we. Since it is not probable that this poor apology for a history of our doings will be read by any who knew us, there is no good reason why I set down all the names here, save as it shall be necessary to speak of what this or that one did during the years which followed, for until the colonies were free, we Minute Boys of the Wyoming Valley remained together, an independent company even after we joined the Continental Army. As I was the one who had proposed that we band ourselves together, my comrades made me their captain, and Elias Shendle was the lieutenant. Other officers were not needed. As a matter of course, we all owned muskets of some kind, for lads of our age were forced to seek food in the forest, and, without meaning to boast of our skill, I dare venture to say that two out of every three could kill a squirrel by “winding him,” which is to say that we could bring him down without inflicting a wound. We were accustomed to hardships of every kind; it was not considered a serious matter, save when there might be danger from Indians, for us to go so far afield as to find it necessary to camp in the woods overnight, whatever the season, and, therefore, were we in good bodily condition to take up such duties as we voluntarily, and in the face of the laughter of our neighbors and friends, proposed to assume. And now that I may arrive the more quickly to the setting down of our deeds, rather than our intentions, let him who reads imagine that we twenty-two lads bound ourselves to come together in the half-ruined hut which had been built by Isaac Bassett, and abandoned when he journeyed with the other Tories to join Johnson, every morning at seven o’clock, in order to drill and otherwise put ourselves in as near soldierly shape as might be come at by me, who had no knowledge whatsoever of military matters. In three days we had arrived at that point where all of us understood the necessity of obeying without question a word of command, but more than that had not been accomplished, and then was come the time when all those people who had ridiculed the idea of our attempting anything of the kind began to realize that we might be of valuable assistance.