[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] This debatable land was overrim by predatory bands from either side; sacking henroosts, plundering-farmhouses, and driving off cattle. Hence arose those two great orders of bor-der chivalry, the Skinners and Cowboys, famous in the heroic annals of Westchester County. The former fought, or rather marauded, under the American, the latter under the British banner; but both, in the hurry of their military ardor, were apt to err on the safe side and rob friend as well as foe. Neither of them stopped to ask the politics of horse or cow which they drove into captivity; nor, when they wrung the neck of a rooster, did they trouble their heads to ascertain whether he were crowing for congress or King George. Numerous graphic accounts of the awful conditions prevailing in the Neutral Ground have been printed from the pens of contem-porary narrators, both military and civil. kk From the Croton to Kingsbridge," says one writer, " every species of rapine and lawless-ness prevailed. No one went to his bed but under the apprehension of having his house plundered or burnt, or himself or family massa-cred, before morning.-' The following picture of the times is from the " Bevolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull," who was an officer on duty in Westchester County during a portion of the war: 41^ HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY The Cowboys and Skinners ravaged the whole region/" The first, called Refugees, ranged