Serving Under Washington

Serving Under Washington

         An Interview with the oldest living veteran of the                                       Revolutionary War: Lemuel Cook         By Reverend Hilliard in 1864

         An interview with 105 year old Lemuel Cook in

         Clarendon, New York during the summer of 1864

         “When I applied to enlist, Captain Hallibut told me I was so small he couldn't take me unless I would enlist for the war. The first time I smelt gunpowder was at Valentine's Hill. Troops of British horse were coming. ‘Mount your horses in a minute,’ cried the Colonel. I was on mine as quick as a squirrel. There were two fires - crash! Up came Darrow, good old soul! And said, ‘Lem, what do you think of gunpowder? Smell good to you?’

         “Mr. Cook was at the battle of Brandywine and at Cornwallis’ surrender. Of the latter he gives the following account: ‘It was reported Washington was going to storm New York. We had made a by-law in our regiment that every man should stick with his horse; if his horse went he should go with him. I was waiter for the Quartermaster; (Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge) and so had a chance to keep my horse in good condition. Baron Steuben was Muster master. He had us called out to select men and horses fit for service. When he comes to me, he said, ‘Young man! How old are you?’ I told him. ‘Be on the ground tomorrow morning at nine o'clock,’ said he. My Colonel didn't like to have me go. Next morning old Steuben had got my name; there were eighteen out of the regiment. ‘Be on the ground tomorrow morning with two days provisions,’ said he. ‘You're a fool,’ said the rest; ‘They're going to storm New York’. No more idea of it than going to Flanders. My horse was a bay, and pretty.

         “Next morning I was the second on parade. We marched off towards White Plains. Then ‘left wheel,’ and struck right north. We got to King's Ferry, below Tarrytown. There were boats, scows, & such. We went right across into the Jerseys. That night I stood with my back to a tree. Then we went to the head of Elk. There the French were. They were a dreadful proud nation. They stepped as though on edge. It was dusty; I peered to me I should have choked to death. One of them handed me his canteen; ‘Lem,’ said he ‘take a good horn we're going to march all night.’ I didn't know what it was, so I took a full drink. It liked to have strangled me.

         “Then we were in Virginia. There wasn't much fighting. Cornwallis tried to force his way north to New York; but fell into the arms of Lafayette, and he drove him back. Old Rom Chambeau told them, ‘I'll land five hundred from the fleet, against your eight hundred.’ But they darsn't. We were on kind of a side hill. We had plague little to eat and nothing to drink under heaven. We hove up some brush to keep the flies off. Washington ordered that there should be no laughing at the British; said it was bad enough to have to surrender without being insulted.

         “The Army came out with guns clubbed to their backs. They were paraded on a great smooth lot and there they stacked their arms. Then came the devil-old women and all (camp followers). One said as they passed where we was, ‘I wonder if the d-d Yankees will give me any bread. ‘The horses were starved out. Washington turned out with his horses and helped them up the hill. When they see the artillery, they said, ‘There, them's very artillery that belonged to Burgoyne.’ Greene came from the south; the awfullest set you ever see. Some, I should presume, had a pint of lice on them. No boots, nor shoes!”