e plan of raising regular corps,
to be exclusively under state authority, and thus be a perpetual
substitute for the yeomanry of the country, presented itself as the
most effectual and convenient mode of protecting the coasts from
insult.

During the winter, General Howe kept his troops in their quarters,
attending to their comfort. As the season for more active operations
approached, his first attention was directed to the destruction of the
scanty supplies prepared by the Americans for the ensuing campaign. A
small place on the Hudson called Peekskill, about fifty miles above
New York, was generally the residence of the officer commanding in the
Highlands, and was used for the reception of stores, to be distributed
into the neighbouring posts as occasion might require. Its strength,
like that of all others depending for defence on militia, was subject
to great fluctuation. As soon as the ice was out of the river, General
Howe took advantage of its occasional weakness, to carry on an
expedition against it, for the purpose of destroying the stores there
deposited, or of bringing them away.

{March 23.}

[Sidenote: Destruction of stores at Peekskill.]

Colonel Bird was detached up the river on this service, with about
five hundred men, under convoy of a frigate and some armed vessels.
General M'Dougal, whose numbers did not at that time exceed two
hundred and fifty men, received timely notice of his approach, and
exerted himself for the removal of the stores into the strong country
in his rear. Before this could be effected, Colonel Bird appeared; and
M'Dougal, after setting fire to the remaining stores and barracks,
retired into the strong grounds in the rear of Peekskill. The British
detachment completed the conflagration, and returned to New York.
During their short stay, a piquet guard was attacked by Colonel
Willet, and driven in with the loss of a few men; a circumstance,
believed by General M'Dougal, to have hastened the re-embarkation of
the detachment.

[Sidenote: At Danbury.]

{April.}

Military stores to a considerable amount had likewise been deposited
at Danbury, on the western frontier of Connecticut. Although this
place is not more than twenty miles from the Sound, yet the roughness
of the intervening country, the frequent passage of troops from the
eastward through the town, and the well known zeal of the neighbouring
militia, were believed sufficient to secure the magazines collected at
it. Ag