Interview with Odell, Jackson
General Philip Van Court= land used to say that he considered him as a tactician fully equal to Baron Steuben. His defection was said to have arisen from paternal advice, and the father in consequence became unpopular and was com= pelled to move up the river near Albany where he continued to preach long after the Revolutionary war.
Among the papers which De =lancey found at Colonel Greene's quarters on the 13th of May 1781, and which were soon after sent by him with
a pocket book, some money, other papers and letters, It was a letter from General Washington to Colonel Greene, in which this expression was used, "Take DeLancey at all events." DeLancey said he was informed of this by his spies and determined to strike the first blow. My father used to say he considered this one of the boldest and best conducted enterprises that occurred during the war. DeLancey marched his detachment along by-roads and across fields so as to pass all American outposts and patrols unobserved and gained the Croton without discovery.
My father being down with a flag in 1778, Colonel DeLancey took him aside and told him he had better withdraw from the lines for a while, as some of his men whose
[marg: x] relatives had had their houses and barns destroyed were determined to retaliate upon the Odell and Dyckman families and he would not be able to prevent them from destroying the houses of his father and relatives. In consequence of this friendly caution Colonel Odell with drew for [to the] Mohawk Valley.
My father being down with a flag in 1778, Colonel DeLancey took him aside and told him he had better withdraw from the lines for a while, as some of his men whose [marg: x] relatives had had their houses and barns destroyed were determined to retaliate upon the Odell and Dyckman families and he would not be able to prevent them from destroying the houses of his father and relatives. In consequence of this friendly caution Colonel Odell with drew for [to the] Mohawk Valley. Abraham Dyckman was a dark complexioned broad shouldered thick set short athletic man.