On this day 250 years ago in New York, Gen. Washington issued General Orders from his Headquarters at the Roger Morris mansion on Harlem Heights (the Morris-Jumel Mansion in present-day Manhattan) that discussed the burial of Maj. Thomas Henley killed the previous day:
Major Henly Aid-de-Camp to Genl Heath, whose Activity and Attention to duty, Courage and every other Quality, which can distinguish a brave and gallant Soldier, must endear him to every Lover of his Country, having fallen in a late Skirmish on Montresor’s Island while bravely leading a party on—his Remains will be interr’d this afternoon, at five, OClock, from the quarters of Major David Henly, acting Adjt Genl below the hill where the Redoubt is thrown up on the road.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0298
On this day 250 years ago from Saybrook, Connecticut, Col. Henry Beekman Livingston wrote to Gen. Washington that
I have made a little excursion upon Long Island and braught off 3,129 Sheep and 400 Head of Horned Cattle from Shenecock Plains about thirty Miles from Sag Harbour there Hearing a Mr Richard Miller and some others were raiseing Companies to aid and Assist General How I dispatched Captain Roe with about thirty Men to Seize their Leaders and hinder the People from Collecting, at the Time of Captain Roe’s Arrival at Satauket he found that Mr Millar had inlisted about 40 Men and was on his way to Head his Company, when he fell in with Captain Roe and his Party who lay in wait for him in hopes to make him their Prisoner he was hailed several times and Ordered to Stop but attempting to make his Escape was Shot through the Body
In a separate letter written that day in Saybrook, Capt. Daniel Roe wrote that counting himself exactly 30 men had rowed across Long Island Sound but he left 15 men to guard the boats while he and 14 men went on to Brookhaven. Their mission was not a raid but a rescue operation to remove Roe’s family and other Patriot families and goods needed for the Continental Army to Connecticut. Capt. Roe had ordered his men to arrest the local Tory leader Richard Miller as he was passing by but Miller refused to surrender and fired his pistol at Roe’s men so they shot and mortally wounded Miller.
Sources: “Lieutenant Colonel Henry Beekman Livingston to George Washington, 24 September 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0302. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 6, 13 August 1776 – 20 October 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase and Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, pp. 390–392.]; Roe, Alfred Seelye, The Diary of Captain Daniel Roe, Worcester, Massachusetts: Blanchard Press (1904) at pp. 15-16 accessed at https://www.myfamilybusiness.org/familytrees/roe/DiaryOfCaptainDanielRoe.pdf
