| Citation |
PG-Y.778.003
24 Jan 1778:32
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Transcribed in column format.]
Anecdote. During the cannonade upon Fort Mifflin in the
river
Delaware, Captain Lee erected a little battery at
mouth of Mantua-creek, a few miles below the
to annoy the enemy's shipping. The enemy
perceived the danger to be apprehended from
battery, and began a furious cannonade upon it.
Sergeant, of the name of Ellis, had occasion in
course of his duty to expose himself upon the top
the breast-work, in the height of the cannonade.
son, a lad of eleven years of age, a fifer in the
[com]pany, seeing the extreme danger of his father,
d upon him to come down. The father told him
was in the way of his duty and feared nothing.--
boy called to him a second time to come down,
bid his father think of his poor mamma and his
[bro]thers and sisters, who would suffer by his being
ed. The father chided him for his fears, and told
that he must do his duty, and not to desert ant
ger when his country called him to it. Immedia
ly after he has spoken these words a cannon ball
ck his two thighs, and fractured them to pieces.
son ran up to him after he fell, wrung his hands
cried out, "Oh, my poor mamma!--I wish it
been me that had been killed instead of my dad-
--she could live well enough without me, oh, my
ar dadda, did not I tell you all this."
A gentleman in the neighbourhood of the battery sent
the poor man a 30 dollar bill. He
took it with thankfulness, and delivered
it to his son, with the follow-
g advice, --"Here, my boy, give this money to
your mother.--You must be a good boy, and you must love
your mother and take care of your brothers
and sisters: But you must not leave the company;
ht for your country while you are able, and rather
e than submit or disgrace yourself by being a cow-
rd." With these words on his lips he expired about
an hour after he was wounded.
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