TO THE INHABITANTS OF QUEENS COUNTY, DESCENDANTS OF THOSE WHO LIVED HERE DURING THE STORMY PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION, THIS ATTEMPT TO RESCUE FROM OBLIVION THE HISTORY OF THE OPINIONS, DEEDS, AND SUFFERINGS, OF OUR COMMON ANCESTRY, Is respectfully Enscribed, BY THEIR FELLOW-CITIZEN. PREFACE. THE present work is not a history, but rather a contribution towards a history, of Queens County during the Revolution. The materials are derived from the following sources: I. The printed Journals of the Continental and NewYork Provincial Congresses; and the MS. Journal, Letters and Papers of the N. Y. Provincial Congress. II. The military papers of Col. John Sands and Major Richard Thorne, kindly loaned me by T. W. Smith and J. W. Thorne, respectively. III. Force's American Archives, Almon's Remembrancer and Parliamentary Register, Gentleman's Magazine, and the Brodhead Documents. IV. Rivington's Gazette, Gaine's Mercury, Holt's Journal, Loudon's Packet, Hartford Courant, New Haven Journal, New London Gazette, New Jersey Gazette, Kollock's New-York Gazetteer. V. Sparks's Writings of Washington, Graydon's Memoirs, Hinman's Connecticut, Simcoe's Journal, Gaine's Almanac and Register, Thompson's Long Island, |