o raise three regiments of militia in New York
City to be commanded respectively by Henry Remsen, John Jay, and
Abraham P. Lott; but the enlistment of men into other corps made it
impossible to organize them.[82] In this campaign, too, we first meet
with young officers from this State who subsequently rose to
distinction in the service. Here Alexander Hamilton appears; and we
read that upon the certificate of Captain Stephen Badlam, that he had
examined Hamilton and found him qualified for a command, the New York
Convention appointed him, March 14th, Captain of the "Provincial
Company of Artillery of the Colony." Among others were Lieutenant-Colonel
Henry B. Livingston, Majors Nicholas Fish and Richard Platt, and Hugh
Hughes, teacher of a classical school, who, as assistant
Quartermaster-General, rendered, at least on one occasion, a most
important service to the army.

[Footnote 82: Lewis Morris, one of the Signers of the Declaration, was
appointed brigadier-general of the Westchester County militia, but he
remained in Congress until later in the fall, when he took the field
for a short time with New York militia in the Highlands.]

Long Island was represented in the New York quota by two regiments of
militia and two small companies of "troop." The Suffolk County
regiment, at the eastern end, was commanded by Colonel Josiah Smith,
of South Haven parish, and that from King's County by Colonel Rutgert
Van Brunt. But the militia, especially in disaffected Kings and Queens
counties, could be mustered, as volunteers, with difficulty; and early
in August the New York Provincial Congress ordered a draft to be made
from these counties, and the troops so raised to be commanded by
Colonel Jeronimus Remsen, of Queens, with Nicholas Cowenhoven, of
Kings, for lieutenant-colonel, and Richard Thorne, of Queens, for
major. Colonel Smith's lieutenant-colonel at this time was John Sands,
and his major, Abraham Remsen. The two regiments--Smith's and
Remsen's--did not report to Greene until August 15th and after, and
mustered together probably less than five hundred men. The troopers,
not over fifty in all, were a few horsemen from Brooklyn under Captain
Adolph Waldron and Lieutenant William Boerum; and others, representing
King's County, under Captain Lambert Suydam. About the middle of
August, Nathaniel Woodhull, of Mastic, brigadier-general of the Long
Island militia, and now President of the State Convention, dropping
his civil func