Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 1.

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About the first of July, 1779, Colonel Burr, then in feeble health,
visited his friends in Connecticut. He was at New-Haven when, on the
5th of July, the British landed, with 2600 men, in two divisions; one
under Governor Tryon, at East Haven, and the other under Garth, at
West Haven. At East Haven, where Tryon commanded, great excesses were
committed, and the town set on fire. Colonel Burr was at this moment
confined to his bed; but, on hearing that the enemy were advancing,
rose and proceeded to a part of the town where a number of persons had
collected. He volunteered to take command of the militia, and made an
unsuccessful attempt to rally them. At this moment he was informed
that the students had organized themselves, and were drawn up in the
college-yard. He immediately galloped to the ground, and addressed
them; appealing, in a few words, to their patriotism and love of
country; imploring them to set the example, and march out in the
defence of those rights which would, at a future day, become their
inheritance. All he asked was, that they would receive and follow him
as their leader.

The military character of Colonel Burr was known to the students. They
confided in his intrepidity, experience, and judgment. In their ranks
there was no faltering. They promptly obeyed the summons, and
volunteered. Some skirmishing soon ensued, and portions of the militia
united with them. The British, ignorant of the force that might be
presented, retired; but shortly returned, with several pieces of
artillery, when a cannonading commenced, and the boys retreated in
good order. An American historian says,--"The British entered the town
after being much galled and harassed." The slight check which they
thus received afforded an opportunity for the removal of some
valuables, and many of the women and children.

Trifling and unimportant as this skirmishing appears to have been,
Colonel Burr never referred to the incident but with exultation and
pride. Perhaps no event in his military life has he more frequently
mentioned. The confidence evinced by these young men he considered
complimentary to himself as a soldier; and usually alluded to the
circumstance as evidence of the effect which the character of an
officer would ever have upon undisciplined men, when called to command
them upon trying occasions.

The following letter, written by Colonel Platt, will close all that is
intended to be said of Colonel Burr as a soldier. More space has been
occupied with an account of his military character than would have
been thus occupied, if it was not known that he felt proud of his own
career as an officer. For history Mr. Burr entertained a great
contempt. He confided but little in its details. These prejudices were
probably strengthened by the consideration that justice, in his
opinion, had not been done to himself.

COLONEL RICHARD PLATT TO COMMODORE VALENTINE MORRIS.

New-York, January 27th, 1814.

DEAR SIR,

In reply to yours of the 20th of November last, requesting to be
informed what was the reputation and services of Colonel Burr during
the revolutionary war? I give you the following detail of facts, which
you may rely on. No man was better acquainted with him, and his
military operations, than your humble servant, who served in that war
from the 28th of June, 1775, till the evacuation of our capital on the
memorable 25th of November, 1783; having passed through the grades of
lieutenant, captain, major, major of brigade, aid-de-camp, deputy
adjutant-general, and deputy quartermaster-general; the last of which
by selection and recommendation of Generals Greene, McDOUGALL, and
Knox, in the most trying crisis of the revolution, viz., the year
1780, when the continental money ceased to pass, and there was no
other fiscal resources during that campaign but what resulted from the
creative genius of Timothy Pickering, at that crisis appointed
successor to General Greene, the second officer of the American army,
who resigned the department because there was no money in the national
coffers to carry it through the campaign, declaring that he could not,
and would not attempt it, without adequate resources, such as he
abounded in during the term of nearly three years antecedently as
quartermaster-general.

In addition to the foregoing, by way of elucidation, it is to be
understood by you, that so early as from the latter part of the year
1776, I was always attached to a commanding general; and, in
consequence, my knowledge of the officers and their merits was more
general than that of almost any other in service. My operations were
upon the extended scale, from the remotest parts of Canada, wherever
the American standard had waved, to the splendid theatre of Yorktown,
when and where I was adjutant-general to the chosen troops of the
northern army.

At the commencement of the revolution, Colonel Burr, then about
eighteen years of age, at the first sound of the trump of war (as if
bred in the camp of the great Frederick, whose maxim was "to hold his
army always in readiness to break a lance with, or throw a dart
against, any assailant"), quit his professional studies, and rushed to
the camp of General Washington, at Cambridge, as a volunteer from
which he went with Colonel Arnold on his daring enterprise against
Quebec, through the wilds of Canada (which vied with Hannibal's march
over the Alps), during which toilsome and hazardous march he attracted
the attention and admiration of his commander so much, that he
(Arnold) sent him alone to meet and hurry down General Montgomery's
army from Montreal to his assistance; and recommended him to that
general, who appointed him an aid-de-camp, in which capacity he acted
during the winter, till the fatal assault on Quebec, in which that
gallant general, his aid McPherson, and Captain Cheeseman, commanding
the forlorn hope, fell. He afterwards continued as aid to Arnold, the
survivor in command.

Here I must begin to draw some of the outlines of his genius and
valour, which, like those of the British immortal, Wolf, who, at the
age of twenty-four, and only major of the 20th regiment, serving on
the continent, gave such specimens of genius and talents as to evince
his being destined for command.

At the perilous moment of Montgomery's death, when dismay and
consternation universally prevailed, and the column halted, he
animated the troops, and made many efforts to lead them on; and
stimulated them to enter the lower town; and might have succeeded, but
for the positive orders of Colonel Donald Campbell, the commanding
officer, for the troops to retreat. Had his plan been carried into
effect, it might have saved Arnold's division from capture, which had,
after our retreat, to contend with all the British force instead of a
part. On this occasion I commanded the first company in the first
New-York regiment, at the head of Montgomery's column, so that I speak
from ocular demonstration.

The next campaign, 1776, Colonel Burr was appointed aid-de-camp to
Major-general Putnam, second in command under General Washington at
New-York; and from my knowledge of that general's qualities and the
colonel's, I am very certain that the latter directed all the
movements and operations of the former.

In January, 1777, the continental establishment for the war commenced.
Then Colonel Burr was appointed by General Washington a
lieutenant-colonel in Malcolm's regiment, in which he continued to
serve until April, 1779, when the ill state of his health obliged him
to retire from active service, to the regret of General McDOUGALL,
commanding the department, and that of the commander-in-chief, who
offered to give him a furlough for any length of time, and to get
permission from the British general in New-York for him to go to
Bermuda for his health. This item will show his value in the
estimation of Generals Washington and McDOUGALL.

During the campaign of 1777, Malcolm's regiment was with the main
army, and commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Burr. For discipline, order,
and system, it was not surpassed by any in the service; and could his
(the lieutenant-colonel's) and Wolfe's orderly-books be produced, they
would be very similar in point of military policy and instructions,
and fit models for all regiments.

This regiment was also but led at the Valley Forge in 1777 and winter
of 1778, under General Washington, and composed part of his army at
the battle of Monmouth on the 28th of June, 1778, and continued with
it till the close of the campaign of that year, at which time it was
placed in garrison at West Point by General Gates; but, upon General
McDOUGALL's assuming the command of the posts in the highlands in
December, Malcolm's, Spencer's, and Patten's regiments were together
ordered to Haverstraw. The three colonels were permitted to go home
for the winter on furlough, and Lieutenant-colonel Burr had the
command of the whole brigade, at a very important advanced post.

At this period General McDOUGALL ordered a detachment of about three
hundred troops, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Littlefield,
of the Massachusetts line, to guard the lines in Westchester county,
then extending from Tarrytown to White Plains, and from thence to
Mamaroneck or Sawpits, which last extension was guarded by Connecticut
troops from Major-general Putnam's division.

In this situation of affairs a very singular occurrence presented,
viz., that neither Lieutenant-colonel Littlefield, nor any other of
his grade, in the two entire brigades of Massachusetts troops
composing the garrison of West Point, from which the lines were to be
relieved, was competent, in the general's estimation, to give security
to the army above and the lines of those below; and, in consequence,
he was compelled to call Colonel Burr from his station at Haverstraw
to the more important command of the lines in Westchester, in which
measure, unprecedented as it was, the officers acquiesced without a
murmur, from a conviction of its expediency. At this time I was doing
the duty of adjutant-general to General McDougall.

It was on this new and interesting theatre of war that the confidence
and affections of the officers and soldiers (who now became permanent
on the lines, instead of being relieved every two or three weeks as
before), as well as of the inhabitants, all before unknown to Colonel
Burr, were inspired with confidence by a system of consummate skill,
astonishing vigilance, and extreme activity, which, in like manner,
made such an impression on the enemy, that after an unsuccessful
attack on one of his advanced posts, he never made any other attack on
our lines during the winter.

His humanity, and constant regard to the security of the property and
persons of the inhabitants from injury and insult, were not less
conspicuous than his military skill, &c. No man was insulted or
disturbed. The health of the troops was perfect. Not a desertion
during the whole period of his command, nor a man made prisoner,
although the colonel was constantly making prisoners.

A country, which for three years before had been a scene of robbery,
cruelty, and murder, became at once the abode of security and peace.
Though his powers were despotic, they were exercised only for the
peace, the security, and the protection of the surrounding country and
its inhabitants.

In the winter of 1779, the latter part of it, Major Hull, an excellent
officer, then in the Massachusetts line, was sent down as second to
Colonel Burr, who, after having become familiarized to his system,
succeeded him for a short time in command, about the last of April, at
which time Colonel Burr's health would not permit him to continue in
command; but the major was soon compelled to fall back many miles, so
as to be within supporting distance of the army at the highlands.

The severity of the service, and the ardent and increasing activity
with which he had devoted himself to his country's cause, for more
than four years, having materially impaired his health, he was
compelled to leave the post and retire from active service. It was two
years before he regained his health.

Major Hull has ever since borne uniformly the most honourable
testimony of the exalted talents of his commander, by declaring his
gratitude for being placed under an officer whose system of duty was
different from that of all other commanders under whom he had served.

Having thus exhibited the colonel's line of march, and his operations
in service, I must now present him in contrast with his equals in
rank, and his superiors in command.

In September, 1777, the enemy came out on both sides of the Hudson
simultaneously, in considerable force, say from 2 to 3000 men. On the
east side (at Peekskill) was a major-general of our army, with an
effective force of about 2000 men. The enemy advanced, and our general
retired without engaging them. Our barracks and storehouses, and the
whole village of Peekskill, were sacked and burnt, and the country
pillaged.

On the west side, at the mouth of the Clove, near Suffren's, was
Colonel Burr, commanding Malcolm's regiment, about three hundred and
fifty men. On the first alarm he marched to find the enemy, and on the
same night attacked and took their picket-guard, rallied the country,
and made such show of war, that the enemy retreated the next morning,
leaving behind him the cattle, horses, and sheep he had plundered.

The year following, Lieutenant-colonel Thompson was sent to command on
the same lines in Westchester by General Heath, and he was surprised
at nine or ten o'clock in the day, and made prisoner, with a great
part of his detachment.

Again, in the succeeding winter, Colonel Greene, of the Rhode Island
line, with his own and another Rhode Island regiment, who was a very
distinguished officer, and had with these two regiments, in the year
1777, defeated the Hessian grenadiers under Count Donop, at Red Banks,
on the Delaware, who was mortally wounded and taken prisoner,
commanded on the lines in Westchester; there receded to Pine's bridge,
and in this position Colonel Greene's troops were also surprised after
breakfast and dispersed, the colonel himself and Major Flagg killed,
and many soldiers made prisoners, besides killed and wounded.

On the west side of the Hudson, in the year 1780, General Wayne, the
hero of Stony Point, with a large command and field artillery, made an
attack on a block-house nearly opposite to Dobbs's ferry, defended by
cowboys, and was repulsed with loss; whereas Colonel Burr burnt and
destroyed one of a similar kind, in the winter of 1779, near
Delancey's mills, with a very few men, and without any loss on his
part, besides capturing the garrison.

Here, my good friend commodore, I must drop the curtain till I see you
in Albany, which will be on the first week in February, where I can
and will convince you that he is the only man in America (that is, the
United States) who is fit to be a lieutenant-general; and let you and
I, and all the American people, look out for Mr. Madison's
lieutenant-general in contrast.

I am your friend,

RICHARD PLATT.

CHAPTER XII.

On retiring from the army, Colonel Burr visited his friends in
New-Jersey and Connecticut. He had previously determined, as soon as
his health would permit, to commence the study of law. During the four
years he was in public service, his patrimony was greatly impaired.
Towards his brethren in arms he had acted with liberality. Naturally
of an improvident character, he adopted no means to preserve the
property which he inherited. The cardinal vices of gaming and drinking
he avoided. But he was licentious in the extreme, and regardless of
consequences in the gratification of his desires. His extravagance was
unrestrained when, in his opinion, necessary to the enjoyment of his
pleasures. From the arms of his nurse until he had numbered fourscore
years, he was perpetually the dupe of the artful and the selfish.

Colonel Burr was about five feet six inches in height. He was well
formed, and erect in his attitude. In all his movements there was a
military air. Although of small stature, yet there was about him a
loftiness of mien that could not pass unnoticed by a stranger. His
deportment was polished and courtly. His features were regular, and
generally considered handsome. His eye was jet black, with a
brilliancy never surpassed. The appropriate civilities of the
drawing-room were performed with a grace almost peculiar to himself.
His whole manner was inconceivably fascinating. As a gentleman, this
was his great theatre. He acted upon the principle that the female was
the weaker sex, and that they were all susceptible of flattery. His
great art consisted in adopting it to the grade of intellect he
addressed. In this respect he was singularly fortunate as well as
adroit. In matters of gallantry he was excessively vain. This vanity
sometimes rendered him ridiculous in the eyes of his best friends, and
often enabled the most worthless and unprincipled to take advantage of
his credulity.

Such traits of character would appear to be incompatible with an
elevated and towering mind; yet they usually influenced, and
frequently controlled, one of the greatest and most extraordinary men
of the age. A volume of anecdotes might be related as evidence of
Colonel Burr's quickness of perception and tact at reply, when an
ill-judged or thoughtless expression was addressed by him to a lady.
One is sufficient for illustration.

After his return from Europe, in 1812, he met a maiden lady in
Broadway somewhat advanced in life. He had not seen her for many
years. As she passed him, she exclaimed to a gentleman on whose arm
she was resting, "Colonel Burr!" Hearing his name mentioned, he
suddenly stopped and looked her in the face. "Colonel," said she, "you
do not recollect me."

"I do not, madam," was the reply.

"It is Miss K., sir."

"What!" said he, "Miss K. _yet_!"

The lady, somewhat piqued, reiterated, "Yes, sir, Miss K. _yet_!"

Feeling the delicacy of his situation, and the unfortunate error he
had committed, he gently took her hand, and emphatically remarked,
"Well, madam, then I venture to assert _that it is not the fault of my
sex_."

On Burr's being appointed, in 1777, a lieutenant-colonel in the army,
he joined his regiment, then stationed at Ramapoa, in New-Jersey. At
Paramus, not far distant, resided Mrs. Prevost, the wife of Colonel
Prevost, of the British army. She was an accomplished and intelligent
lady. Her husband was with his regiment in the West Indies, where he
died early in the revolutionary war. She had a sister residing with
her. It was her son, the Hon. John B. Prevost, who in 1802 was
recorder of the city of New-York, and subsequently district judge of
the United States Court for the district of Louisiana. The house of
Mrs. Prevost was the resort of the most accomplished officers in the
American army when they were in the vicinity of it. She was highly
respected by her neighbours, and visited by the most genteel people of
the surrounding country. Her situation was one of great delicacy and
constant apprehension.

The wife of a British officer, and connected with the adherents of the
crown, naturally became an object of political suspicion,
notwithstanding great circumspection on her part. Under such
circumstances, a strong sympathy was excited in her behalf. Yet there
were those among the Whigs who were inclined to enforce the laws of
the state against her, whereby she would be compelled to withdraw
within the lines of the enemy. In this family Colonel Burr became
intimate in 1777, and in 1782 married the widow Prevost.

JAMES MONROE TO MRS. PREVOST. [1]

Philadelphia, November 8th, 1778.

A young lady who either is, or pretends to be, in love, is, you know,
my dear Mrs. Prevost, the most unreasonable creature in existence. If
she looks a smile or a frown, which does not immediately give or
deprive you of happiness (at least to appearance), your company soon
becomes very insipid. Each feature has its beauty, and each attitude
the graces, or you have no judgment. But if you are so stupidly
insensible of her charms as to deprive your tongue and eyes of every
expression of admiration, and not only to be silent respecting her,
but devote them to an absent object, she cannot receive a higher
insult; nor would she, if not restrained by politeness, refrain from
open resentment.

Upon this principle I think I stand excused for not writing from B.
Ridge. I proposed it, however; and, after meeting with opposition in
-----, to obtain her point, she promised to visit the little
"Hermitage," [2] and make my excuse herself. I took occasion to turn
the conversation to a different object, and plead for permission to go
to France. I gave up in one instance, and she certainly ought in the
other. But writing a letter and going to France are very different,
you will perhaps say. She objected to it, and all the arguments which
a fond, delicate, unmarried lady could use, she did not fail to
produce against it. I plead the advantage I should derive from it. The
personal improvement, the connexions I should make. I told her she was
not the only one on whom fortune did not smile in every instance. I
produced examples from her own acquaintance, and represented their
situation in terms which sensibly affected both herself and Lady
C----. I painted a lady full of affection, of tenderness, and
sensibility, separated from her husband, for a series of time, by the
cruelty of the war--her uncertainty respecting his health; the pain
and anxiety which must naturally arise from it. I represented, in the
most pathetic terms, the disquietudes which, from the nature of her
connexion, might possibly intrude on her domestic retreat. I then
raised to her view fortitude under distress; cheerfullness, life, and
gayety, in the midst of affliction.

I hope you will forgive me, my dear little friend, if I produced you
to give life to the image. The instance, she owned, was applicable.
She felt for you from her heart, and she has a heart capable of
feeling. She wished not a misfortune similar to yours; but, if I was
resolved to make it so, she would strive to imitate your example. I
have now permission to go where I please, but you must not forget her.
She and Lady C---- promise to come to the Hermitage to spend a week or
two. Encourage her, and represent the advantage I shall gain from
travel. But why should I desire you to do what I know your own heart
will dictate? for a heart so capable of friendship feels its own pain
alleviated by alleviating that of another.

But do not suppose that my attention is only taken up with my own
affairs. I am too much attached ever to forget the Hermitage. Mrs.
Duvall, I hope, is recovering; and Kitty's indisposition is that of my
nearest relation. Mrs. de Visme has delicate nerves. Tell me her
children are well, and I know she has a flow of spirits, for her
health depends entirely on theirs.

I was unfortunate in not being able to meet with the governor. He was
neither at Elizabethtown, B. Ridge, Princeton, nor Trenton. I have
consulted with several members of Congress on the occasion. They own
the injustice, but cannot interfere. The laws of each state must
govern itself. They cannot conceive the possibility of its taking
place. General Lee says it must not take place; and if he was an
absolute monarch, he would issue an order to prevent it.

I am introduced to the gentleman I wished by General Lee in a very
particular manner. I cannot determine with certainty what I shall do
till my arrival in Virginia.

Make my compliments to Mrs. and Miss De Visme, and believe me, with
the sincerest friendship,

Yours,

JAMES MONROE

Mr. Peter De Visme, the brother of Mrs. Prevost, was captured at sea,
and made prisoner of war. As she was personally acquainted with
General Washington, she solicited his influence to promote his
exchange, to which the general replied:--

Headquarters, Middlebrook, 19th May, 1779.

MADAM,

It is much to be regretted that the pleasure of obeying the first
emotions in favour of misfortune is not always in our power. I should
be happy could I consider myself at liberty to comply with your
request in the case of your brother, Mr. Peter De Visme. But, as I
have heretofore taken no direction in the disposal of marine
prisoners, I cannot, with propriety, interfere on the present
occasion, however great the satisfaction I should feel in obliging
where you are interested. Your good sense will perceive this, and find
a sufficient excuse in the delicacy of my situation.

I have the honour to be, madam,

Your obedient servant,

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

FROM WILLIAM PATTERSON.

Morristown, 29th September, 1779.

DEAR BURR,

About four weeks ago I received a letter from you of the 8th of
August, and, a week after, another of the 23d. They came by the way of
Moorestown, from which to Rariton, where I reside. The conveyance is
easy and safe. I cannot point out any mode of sending your letters
better than that which you have adopted.

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