the tree; the discovery of this article is highly important, and it may be considered as a valuable acquisition to our materia medica. The country people have for some time been in the practice of using it, and Dr. Rush, who was for a short period at the head of our hospital department, has recommended the employment of it among our patients, as a mild yet sufficiently active cathartic, and a valuable and economical substitute for jalap. It operates without creating heat or irritation, and is found to be efficacious in cases of dysentery and bilious complaints. As the butternut tree abounds in our country, we may obtain at a very little expense, a valuable domestic article of medicine. Though there is much reason to suppose that our own soil is prolific in remedies adapted to the diseases of our country, the butternut is the only cathartic deserving of confidence, which we have yet discovered.

30th.-Dined at West Point, with Dr. Thomas, and accompanied him to General Patterson's quarters, the general humorously apologized, that he could afford us nothing better than a miserable glass of whiskey grog. Passed the river to the hospital. Dr. Eustis being indisposed, he requested me to bleed him, and I passed the night at the Point.

Intelligence has reached us, that Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth, who commanded a detachment of militia at a place called Camden, in the province of Maine, has been surprized and taken prisoner, in the night, by a party of British soldiers, sent for this purpose from their post at Penobscot. It is added, that the general defended himself in the most daring and spirited manner, till he received a wound and was entirely overpowered. See the particulars of this extraordinary affair, in the Appendix.

I accompanied Dr. John Hart to New Windsor, to pay our respects to Dr. John Cochran, who is lately promoted to the office of Director General of the hospitals of the United States, as successor to Dr.

Shippen, resigned. We dined with Dr. Cochran, in company with Drs. Eustis and S. Adams. Dr. Cochran, is a native of Pennsylvania. He served in the office of surgeon's mate in the hospital department during the war between the English and French, which commenced in America in 1755, and left the service with the reputation of an able and experienced practitioner. From that time to this, he has devoted himself to his professional pursuits in New Jersey, and has been eminently distinguished as a practitioner in medicine and surgery. Finding his native country involved in a war with Great Britain, his zeal and attachment to her interest, impelled him to the theatre of action, and he proffered his services as a volunteer in the hospital department. General Washington, justly appreciating his merit and character, recommended him to Congress, by whom he was in April, 1777, appointed physician and surgeon general in the middle department. He is now promoted to the office of director general of the hospitals of the United States.* Dr. James Craig, who now succeeds Dr. Cochran, as surgeon and physician general, was also employed in the French war of 1759, with General Washington, who held the office of major, and when a mutual attachment was formed between them.

By intelligence from our army of the south, under command of Major General Greene, affairs in that

*Not long after the close of the war, Dr. Cochran removed with his family to New York, where he attended to the duties of his profession, till the adoption of the new constitution, when his friend, President Washington, retaining, to use his own words, "a cheerful recollection of his past services," nominated him to the office of commissioner of loans for the state of New York. This office he held till a paralytic stroke disabled him in some measure from the discharge of its duties, on which he gave in his resignation, and retired to Palatine, in the county of Montgomery, where he terminated a long and useful life, on the 6th of April, 1807, in the 77th year of his age.

"He united a vigorous mind and correct judgment, with information derived and improved from long experience, and faithful habits of attention to the duties of his profession." He possessed the pure and inflexible principles of patriotism, and his integrity was unimpeachable. It is gratifying to have this opportunity of expressing a respectful recollection of his urbanity and civilities, and of affording this small tribute to his cherished memory.

quarter are exceedingly unpropitious and discourag ing. The troops are so destitute of clothing, that their footsteps are marked with blood for want of shoes; their food consists, part of the time, of rice, with frogs from ponds and ditches, and sometimes of peaches and berries. When they obtain a small supply of beef, it is so miserably poor as scarcely to be eatable. The army is continually harassed in marching through the country, sometimes executing successful and honorable exploits, and again compelled to retreat before a victorious enemy with hair breadth escapes. Never perhaps were opposing commanders more equally matched, than General Greene and Lord Cornwallis, though the former is almost constantly laboring under the disadvantage of inferiority of numbers, and of physical force. General Greene communicates to Congress, an account of a very obstinate and bloody battle fought by the two armies, at Guilford court-house, North Carolina, a few weeks since. Our commander was compelled to yield to his adversary, but it is a victory purchased at a ruinous price. Seven days after the action, General Greene writes, that Cornwallis' troops were too much galled to improve their success, that he had been preparing for another action, expecting the enemy to advance, but of a sudden they took their departure, and left behind them evident marks of distress. All the wounded at Guilford who had fallen into their hands; and seventy of their own, too ill to be moved, were left behind. Most of their officers suffered; Lord Cornwallis had his horse shot under him. Colonel Stuart, of the guards, was killed. General O'Hara and Colonels Tarleton and Webster wounded. Their whole loss is reported to be six hundred and sixty three, exclusive of officers. General Greene returned three hundred and twenty nine killed, wounded and missing; many of the latter went to their homes after the action. Generals Stevens and Hugar were wounded.

A large detachment of British troops and refugees, embarked at New York some time since, bound on an expedition to Virginia, under the command of the infamous traitor Arnold. He took possession of Portsmouth, on James river, where they are employed in ravaging and rifling the plantations, and destroying public and private property. Another body of royalists has lately been sent from New York, under Major General Phillips, who, now having the chief command of the British in Virginia, united with Arnold in a predatory warfare. General Phillips died soon after, and Arnold again resumed the command. The Marquis de la Fayette, with a command of about one thousand five hundred light infantry, detached from our main army, is on his march to Virginia, where he is to join a body of continentals and militia under Baron Steuben and General Muhlenburg, for the purpose of protecting that country from the depredations of the enemy.

The continental army in Carolina, were successful after the action of Guilford, and gained the ascendency in that quarter over the British. On the 10th of May, Lord Rawdon evacuated Camden with precipitation, leaving behind three of his officers and fifty privates, who had been dangerously wounded and were unable to be removed. He burnt the stores, baggage, &c.; and left the town a heap of ruins. The next day the strong post of Orangeburg surrendered to General Sumpter. One colonel, several other officers, and eighty rank and file were made prisoners. Next followed on the 12th, fort Motte, the garrison consisting of nineteen officers and one hundred and sixty men, who surrendered to General Marion, as did also fort Granby, on the 14th, to Lieutenant Colonel Lee, when one lieutenant colonel, two majors, six captains, six lieutenants, three ensigns, one surgeon, and three hundred and thirty three rank and file, became his prisoners. Large quantities of provisions and some military stores,

were found in several of the forts, and in the baggage belonging to the nineteenth regiment were found seven hundred guineas, which it is said General Greene distributed among his troops, as a reward for their bravery and sufferings.

May. The spirit of desertion appears to prevail to a considerable degree among both the British and Hessians at New York. Instances have been frequent for several months past, of two or three coming out together. Some of them offer to engage in our service, but they are rejected and sent into the country, where they cannot effect any mischievous purpose. Deserters are always to be suspected, as they are not unfrequently employed as spies, who desert back again, with intelligence for the enemy. Not long since, a Captain Simmons, of Delancy's corps, came over to our lines and was sent up to West Point. He asserted that, being disaffected with the enemy on some pretences, he had resigned his commission and deserted from them; he was delivered over to the governor of the state. A few days since a groom belonging to an officer in the British service, deserted with a valuable horse from his master, which he sold for one hundred dollars in specie.

A party of continental troops, commanded by Colonel Christopher Greene, of Rhode Island, being stationed on our lines near Croten, river, were surprized by a party of the enemy, about sunrise on the 13th instant. They first attacked Colonel Greene's and Major Flagg's quarters, and killed the major while in bed. The colonel being badly wounded in the house, was carried into the woods and barbarously murdered. Two subalterns and twenty seven privates were also killed, and a lieutenant and surgeon, with about twenty men taken prisoners. This melancholy event is most deeply regretted ; Colonel Greene bravely distinguished himself in defence of fort Mercer, at Red bank, in October, 1777, and has ever been considered as a valiant and vigilant