compliance with your request, I have to reply, that the relation made
by Mr. Wakeman and Mr, Jennings corresponds with my recollection. I
was near Colonel Burr when he lead the dispute with General Knox, who
said it was madness to think of retreating, as we should meet the
whole British army. Colonel Burr did not address himself to the men,
but to the officers, who had most of them gathered around to hear what
passed, as we considered ourselves as lost. But Colonel Burr seemed so
confident that he could make good a retreat, and made it clear that we
were all lost if we stayed there, that we all agreed to trust to his
conduct and courage, though it did appear to us a most desperate
undertaking; and he did not disappoint us, for he effected a retreat
with the whole brigade; and I do not think we lost more than thirty
men. We had several brushes with small parties of the enemy. Colonel
Burr was foremost and most active where there was danger, and his
conduct, without considering his extreme youth, was afterwards a
constant subject of praise, and admiration, and gratitude. This affair
was much talked of in the army after the surrender of Fort Washington,
in which a garrison of about 2500 men was left under circumstances
very similar to ours; this fort having no bomb-proof. That garrison
surrendered, as is well known, the very same day our army retreated;
and of those 2500 men, not 500 survived the imprisonment they received
from the British. I have, since then, heard it repeated hundreds of
times by the officers and men of Silliman's brigade, that our fate
would have been the same had it not been for Colonel Burr. I was a
sergeant-major in Chandler's regiment of Silliman's brigade at the
time of the retreat.

I am your very obedient servant,

NATHANIEL JUDSON