im, when I would crawl forward to the fence, close by him.
Just before I reached him I would ask him what he saw.

=Captain:= He replies, "There are some hostile foot soldiers coming up
this road."

=Corporal James:= I would crawl forward and look.

=Captain:= You see three or four men, about 500 yards north of you,
coming up the Chester Pike. They are scattered out.

=Corporal James:= I would say, "Crawl into the lane, keep behind the
stone wall, watch those fellows, and work your way to that farm"
(indicates the Mills' farm). I would start towards the Mills' farm
myself, under cover of the trees along the lane and would wave to the
other men to move rapidly west, towards the hills.

=Captain:= Why didn't you try to hide near where you were and allow
the hostile men to pass?

=Corporal James:= There does not seem to be any place to hide near
there that a patrol would not probably examine.

=Captain:= What is your plan now?

=Corporal James:= I want to get my patrol up to that small woods near
the Mills' farm, but I hardly expect to be able to get them up to that
point without their being seen. In any event, I want them well back
from the road where they can lie down and not be seen by the enemy
when he passes.

=Captain:= You succeed in collecting your patrol in the woods without
their being seen, and you see four foot soldiers in the road at the
entrance to the land. One man starts up the lane, the others remaining
on the road.

=Corporal James:= I say, "Brown, go through these woods and hurry
straight across to York. You should be able to see the village from
the other side of the woods. Report to the captain that a hostile
patrol of four foot men is working south up the valley, two miles
northeast of York. We will go further north. Repeat what I have told
you." (Par. 979.)

=Captain:= Why didn't you send this message before?

=Corporal James:= Because we were moving in the same direction that
the messenger would have had to go, and, by waiting a very few
minutes, I was able to tell whether it was a mere patrol or the point
of an advance guard.

=Captain:= Do you think it correct to send a messenger back with news
about a small patrol?

=Corporal James:= Ordinarily it would be wrong, but as nothing has
been seen of the enemy until now, this first news is important because
it proves to the Captain that the enemy really is in this
neighborhood, which it seems to me is a very important thing for him