Lieutenant John Ross, 71st Regiment

"I was posted with a Picquet of 30 men at a place commonly called the Jaeger Post, on the 15th of July, 1779. At about 12 o'clock at night one of the sentries that I had posted fired a shot. . . Another Sentry posted at the same place then fired a shot, and I then got the picquet collected together and ordered the drummer to Beat to Arms. . . I saw no enemy, and the night being extremely dark and very windy, made me suppose that what the men reported to me to have heard was occasioned by the wind rustling amongst the bushes. . . I had hardly said this when I heard a volley of small arms.. . I got all the sentries collected and retired by the 3 pounder. I had just got within the Works when I received the push of a bayonet from a man who knocked me down the hill with the butt end of his firelock. Imagining that this was one of our men, who had done it through a mistake, I damned him for a scoundrel, whereupon several shots were immediately fired from behind us."