, formed as
early as January, 1775. He was a Presbyterian of the old stamp, a rigid
Calvinist, and a man of exemplary piety.

After the battle of Monmouth Sir Henry Clinton occupied New York. The
arrival of a French fleet under D'Estaing reanimated the hopes of the
Americans. Arthur Lee argued unfavorably of the removal of D'Orvilliers
and D'Estaing's appointment. Washington took a position at White Plains,
on the Hudson. About this time Colonel Baylor's regiment of cavalry was
surprised in the night by a British corps under General Gray. Of one
hundred and four privates forty were made prisoners, and twenty-seven
killed or wounded. Colonel Baylor was himself dangerously wounded and
taken prisoner.

In the year 1778 the town of Abington was incorporated. Virginia sent
General George Rogers Clarke on an expedition to the northwest. After
enduring extreme sufferings in marching through a wilderness, he and his
hardy followers captured Kaskaskias and its governor, Rocheblave. In
December, 1778, Hamilton, British lieutenant-governor of Detroit, under
Sir Guy Carleton, governor-in-chief, took possession of the post (now
the town) of Vincennes, in Indiana. Here he fortified himself, intending
in the ensuing spring to rally his Indian confederates to attack
Kaskaskias, then in possession of Clarke, and to proceed up the Ohio to
Fort Pitt, sweeping Kentucky in the way, and finally overrunning all
West Augusta. This expedition was ordered by Carleton. Clarke's
position was too remote for succor, and his force too small to withstand
a siege; nevertheless, he prepared to make the best defence possible. At
this juncture a Spanish merchant brought intelligence that Hamilton had,
by detaching his Indian allies, reduced the strength of his garrison to
eighty men, with a few cannon. Clarke immediately despatched a small
armed galley, with orders to force her way and station herself a few
miles below the enemy. In the mean time, early in February, 1779, he
marched, with one hundred and thirty men, upon St. Vincennes: many of
the inhabitants of the country joined the expedition; the rest
garrisoned the towns. Impeded by rain and high waters, his little army
were occupied for sixteen days in reaching the fertile borders of the
Wabash, and when within nine miles of the enemy it required five days to
cross "the drowned lands" near that river, "having to wade often upwards
of two leagues, up to our breasts in water." But for the unusual
mi