the general
order of battle prescribed at the beginning of the campaign.
After the death of Colonel Stone, the original manuscript fell
into the hands of that distinguished scholar, Dr. Lyman C.
Draper, Secretary of Wisconsin Historical Society, who
purchased it at the sale in a bound volume of manuscripts. In
June, 1879, he placed it in my hands for examination and
directed my attention to the fact, of its unquestionable
identity with the many fragments ascribed to Captain Fowler and
others. The Journal is substantially a history of the movements
of the Second regiment from the date of the first entry to the
time of the consolidation in 1780, when it closes. It contains
abundant evidence to warrant the conclusion that it must have
been written by an officer of that regiment. This appears
effectually to dispose of the claims of the supposed authorship
of Captain Fowler, as he was made Captain of the First New York
June 21, 1778, and continued in service with that regiment
until the consolidation 1780, when he was assigned to the new
New York Second, and continued in that position to the close of
the war. It is highly probable that Captain Fowler was on duty
with his regiment, which remained to guard the Mohawk Valley
during Sullivan's campaign, and consequently could not have
participated in the westward march, and if the author of a
Journal it certainly cannot be the one in question, which
beyond any doubt was written by an officer actively engaged in
the main expedition. A careful examination of the manuscript
disclosed the fact that unmistakably it is the hand writing of
Captain Nukerck, and presumably his Journal. On being advised
of this fact Dr. Draper addressed a note to Mrs. Miller, of
Englewood, N.J., a granddaughter of Captain Nukerck, who
answered "that she remembered distinctly, that her father
loaned to Mr. Campbell the Diary of her grandfather relating to
Sullivan's Campaign, and that afterward it was loaned to an
agent of Colonel Stone, who failed to return it." The
manuscript is in an excellent state of preservation, every word
from beginning to end being plain and distinct, especially the
proper names. It contains several maps indicating the line of
march and encampments, and at the end a single leaf is missing,
pr