t he who has read thus far
may think I am taking too much credit to my comrades and myself, by
calling ourselves Minute Boys:

No less a soldier than General Lafayette himself told us four, for we
insisted on having Uncle 'Rasmus with us when an orderly came to say
that the young French general would speak with those who had befriended
the Jerseyman--even General Lafayette himself told us that we had done
in coming to the town of York that which advantaged the Cause, and asked
what should be given us by way of reward.

Then it was that Pierre, speaking to him in his native tongue, told how
we lads would have formed a company of Minute Boys but for the fact that
we were shut up in the town of York, and asked that we be allowed,
despite our age, to enroll ourselves as soldiers under his command.

This prayer he readily granted, claiming that he was pleased to do so,
and from then on we served as real soldiers, although as you know full
well the war was nigh to being ended.

It was General Lafayette who reclaimed for Saul and me our horses. When,
after the surrender, I rode out with my father to see my dear mother,
Silver Heels was the beast that carried me, and from that day to this we
have never been parted, although she is getting now so far along in
years that I fear death may soon step in and do that which the
Britishers failed of doing.

* * * * *

It is to be regretted that he who set down the movements of those lads
who took upon themselves the name of Minute Boys despite the smallness
of their numbers, did not tell what part they played in the surrender of
Cornwallis, which must have been a magnificent military spectacle, and
because he has brought his story to an end without giving any of the
details, it seems well to set down here that which has been written
concerning it by the historian Fiske:

"The combination against Cornwallis had been completed, and day by day
the lines were drawn more closely about the doomed army. Yorktown was
invested, and on the 6th of October the first parallel was opened by
General Lincoln. On the 14th, the second parallel, within three hundred
yards of the enemy's works, was opened by Steuben. On the night of the
14th Alexander Hamilton and the Baron de Viomenil carried two of the
British redoubts by storm. On the next night the British made a gallant
but fruitless sortie. By noon of the 16th their works were fast
crumbling to pieces, under the