History of Westchester County, New York — Passage 212 (part 2)
[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] He always evinced both sound judgment and tact in the duties assigned him. March 14th, while absent at his home in Roxbury, Mass., he received orders to take command of the Eastern Department, with headquarters at Boston. After Heath's transfer, Brigadier-General McDou-gall assumed command at Peekskill, which was a depot for the military stores of the American army. Howe, in March, 1777, determined on their destruction. He accordingly sent a force against what he denomi-nates "the port of that rough and mountainous tract called the Manor of Courtlandt." McDougall having learned of the proposed expedition, and having with him only two hundred and fifty men, removed as much of the stores as possible to the forts in the Highlands. On the 23d, five hundred British troops, with four light field-pieces landed at Leni's Cove, about one