[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] 1770 he returned to Ticonderoga, when dates took command, and was sent to Skenes borough in place of Colonel Wynkoop, who was ill. "I remained sulli-cient time to discover the vile conduct of Arnold, in procuring goods from the merchants of Montreal, and appropriating them, I believe, to his benefit; he would have been arrested, but escaped by procuring an order from General Gates to send me the morning after the court had adjourned, to Skenesborough, by whic h means the court was dissolved, Ha/.en releases from arrest,' and Arnold escaped the censure whic h he ought to have had." ' A return of fever sent Van Cortlandt south, and he joined Washington at King's Bridge, near the residence of the Yonkers Van <\>rt-landts, and acted for a few days as aid to Washington. Shortly afterwards the battle of White Plains was fought, and Colonel Ritzema having displayed dis-affection or fear, absconded to New York, and Wash-ington filled up one of the blank commissions furnished him by Hancock with the name of Van Cortlandt, appointing him Colonel of the Second New York Regiment, in November, 1770. He joined the regiment immediately after the battle of Prince-ton, recruiting and disciplining it, and in 1777 they were sent to Peekskill to join the Fourth Regimen] under the command of Colonel Henry B. Livingston, as a number of British ships and transports had ap-peared in the Hudson.