[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] I passed [on his way north] through another Peeks-kill [old village],2 where the Americans have their magazines and their arsenals. Here are large wooden barracks, built recently, situated between two ranges of mountains. This other Peekskill is on the bank of the river; it is there they are building our ovens." t On his return from Poughkeepsie he reached Peeks-kill on the 28th. " I passed by General Washington's quarters, but as he had changed them I did not see him and I proceeded directly to the inn at which I had previously dismounted at Peekskill." He speaks of seeing children twelve and thirteen years old in the army. On the 28th General Washington invited him to dine at his quarters [Birdsall house].3 "I re-paired thither; there were twenty -five covers used by some of the officers of the army, and a lady to whom the house belonged in which the General lodged. He dined under the tent. I was placed alongside of the General. One of his aides-de-camp did the honors. The table was served in American style and pretty abundantly : vegetables, roast-beef, lamb, chickens, salad dressed with nothing but vinegar, green peas, pudding and some pie, a kind of tart, greatly in use in England and among the Americans, all this being put on the table at the same time. They gave us on the same plate beef, green peas, lamb, etc.