following extract: "A correspondent informs us that one of the
gentlemen appointed to command a company of riflemen to be raised in
one of the frontier counties of Pennsylvania had so many applications
from the people in his neighborhood, to be enrolled in the service,
that a greater number presented themselves than his instructions
permitted him to engage, and being unwilling to give offence to any he
thought of the following expedient: He, with a piece of chalk, drew on
a board the figure of a nose of the common size, which he placed at
the distance of 150 yards, declaring that those who came nearest the
mark should be enlisted. Sixty odd hit the object.--General Gage, take
care of your nose!"

From the _Pennsylvania Journal_, July 25th, 1775: "Captain Dowdle
with his company of riflemen from Yorktown, Pa., arrived at Cambridge
about one o'clock today, and since has made proposals to General
Washington to attack the transport stationed at Charles River. He will
engage to take her with thirty men. The General thinks it best to
decline at present, but at the same time commends the spirit of
Captain Dowdle and his brave men, who, though they just came a very
long march, offered to execute the plan immediately."

In the third volume of American Archives, is an extract from a letter
to a gentleman in Philadelphia, dated Frederick Town, Maryland, August
1st, 1775, which speaks of the same company of riflemen whose
wonderful marksmanship we have already noted. The writer says:

"Notwithstanding the urgency of my business I have been detained here
three days by a circumstance truly agreeable. I have had the happiness
of seeing Captain Michael Cresap marching at the head of a formidable
company of upwards of one hundred and thirty men from the mountains