ndard. On arriving at New
York, he was informed by the British commander that if he would raise
sixty men he would receive a captain's commission. He returned to his
native place, and raised the complement of men in a few days. Joseph,
who was then only fifteen years of age, entered the army the 6th of May,
1776, as a cadet. He was too small and weak to handle a musket, and
received a light fowling-piece, with which he learned the military
exercise in a few days. In the course of a few months an order was
received to embody a portion of these New Jersey volunteers into a corps
of Light Infantry, to go to the South to besiege Charleston. Joseph
Ryerson was one of the 550 volunteers for this campaign. When Colonel
Ennis (the Inspector-General of the troops at New York) came to Joseph
Ryerson, he said, 'You are too young and too small to go.' The lad
replied, 'Oh! sir, I am growing older and stouter every day.' The
colonel laughed heartily, and said, 'Well, you shall go then.' These
Light Infantry volunteers were attached at different times to different
regiments; and Mr. Ryerson was successively attached to the 37th, 71st,
and 84th Regiments. Such was the hard service performed by these Light
Infantry volunteers, that out of 550 men, rank and file, exclusive of
officers, only eighty-six of them returned, three years afterwards,
after the evacuation of Charleston.

"The Light Infantry corps having been broken up, the few remains of the
men composing it returned to the regiments out of which they had
volunteered. About eighteen months after leaving New York, before he was
seventeen years of age, Mr. Ryerson received an ensign's commission, and
he was, in the course of a year, promoted to a lieutenancy in the Prince
of Wales' Regiment. His first commission was given him as the immediate
reward of the courage and skill he displayed as the bearer of special
despatches from Charleston, 196 miles into the interior, in the course
of which he experienced several hairbreadth escapes. He was promoted to
his lieutenancy for the manner in which he acquitted himself as the
bearer of special despatches by sea to the north, having eluded the
enemy in successive attacks and pursuits. He was in six battles, besides
several skirmishes, and was once wounded. At the close of the war in
1783, he, with his brother Samuel, and many other Loyalists and
discharged half-pay officers and soldiers, went to New Brunswick, where
he married in 1784, and