cked them with intrepidity, but were
repulsed and broken. Tryon, availing himself of this respite,
re-embarked his troops, and returned to New York.

[Footnote 57: Congress voted a monument to his memory.]

The loss of the British amounted to about one hundred and seventy men.
That of the Americans, was represented by Tryon, as being much more
considerable. By themselves, it was not admitted to exceed one
hundred. In this number, however, were comprehended General Wooster,
Lieutenant Colonel Gould, and another field officer, killed; and
Colonel Lamb wounded. Several other officers and volunteers were
killed. Military and hospital stores to a considerable amount, which
were greatly needed by the army, were destroyed in the magazines at
Danbury; but the loss most severely felt was rather more than one
thousand tents, which had been provided for the campaign about to
open.

Not long afterwards this enterprise was successfully retaliated. A
British detachment had been for some time employed in collecting
forage and provisions on the eastern end of Long Island. Howe supposed
this part of the country to be so completely secured by the armed
vessels which incessantly traversed the Sound, that he confided the
protection of the stores, deposited at a small port called Sagg
Harbour, to a schooner with twelve guns, and a company of infantry.

[Sidenote: Expedition of Colonel Meigs to Sagg Harbour.]

{May.}

{May 24.}

General Parsons, who commanded a few recruits at New Haven, thinking
it practicable to elude the cruisers in the bay, formed the design of
surprising this party, and other adjacent posts, the execution of
which was entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Meigs, a gallant officer,
who had accompanied Arnold in his memorable march to Quebec. He
embarked with about two hundred and thirty men, on board thirteen
whale boats, and proceeded along the coast to Guilford, where he was
to cross the Sound. With about one hundred and seventy of his
detachment, under convoy of two armed sloops, he proceeded across the
Sound to the north division of the island near South Hold, in the
neighbourhood of which a small foraging party, against which the
expedition was in part directed, was supposed to lie; but they had
marched two days before to New York. The boats were conveyed across
the land, a distance of about fifteen miles, into a bay which deeply
intersects the eastern end of Long Island, where the troops
re-embarked. Cross