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Excerpt from Journal of Dr. Elias Cornelius: A Revolutionary Surgeon, Graphic Description of His Sufferings While a Prisoner in Provost Jail, New York, 1777 and 1778, With Biographical Sketch Augt. 22, 1777. - This morning I marched down to East Chester with the main body of our troops in that division Viz. Gen Varnum's Brigade of Continental troops & Gen Ward's of Conneticut Malitia where we went and surprized one of the Enemies Piquets and took two officers and some privates with some Tories & Negroes. After that I went with our two guides and Dr Tunison of the General Hospital, and seized some stores that was within the Enemies Lines and kept for their use. After that (which was about two o'clock P. M.) the Gen thought proper to send out Piquet Guards. Capt Y Alden of Col Samuel B. Webbs Regiment, was detached, with about fifty men to command the advanced Piquet on the left, near West Chester. Capt David Dexter of Israel Angell's Regiment was detached with the same number of men to command the advanced Guards on the right at Miles Square. I, wishing to be where most was to be done, rode down with Capt Dexter. He stopped at Miles Square; but seeing a body of men at a distance on the right towards North River, not knowing who they were I sat out with a determination to find out. I had gone but half way when I met Col Dammond. After some conversation we concluded to ride to the Enemies advanced Post, and see what discoveries we could make. After riding in sight of Fort Independence, we returned unmolested to Col Dammond's Regiment. While we were riding we heard cannonading and firing of small arms, which we supposed to be the enemy attacking our advanced Guards on the left; here I left Col Dammond and returned to Capt Dexter's Piquet and there tarried some minutes, after which set out for Head Quarters, where I had left the Gen and main bodys of the troops at East Chester. It had become late in the afternoon, but I thought myself safe, as I had been six miles nearer the enemy than I was at that time. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.