Lieutenant-Colonel Eld, of the Coldstream Guards, during his service in America in the Revolutionary War, saying:

Mr. President, - Toward the end of last summer, our colleague, the librarian of the Public Library, purchased for that institution a copy of Tarleton's " History of the War in the Southern States," which he had found under the general title "America," thus set forth in the July number of Sotheran's catalogue of second-hand books:

"History of the Campaigns of 1780-81 in the Southern Provinces of North America, by Lt.-Col. Tarleton, Commandant of the British Legion. Large map, and 4 plates of battles. 4to, interleaved and bd. in 2 vols.: hf. calf. £1. 18. 1787." To this description was added in small type the words: "Contains additional information in MS. of some historical importance; evidently by an actor in the scenes described."

I have recently examined these volumes, and found that they agree, in one sense, literally with the bookseller's description of them. The manuscript gives no account of the war in the South; but it contains so interesting a contribution to the minor accounts by British officers of their service in the Colonies during our war for independence, that, brief as it is, I have caused it to be copied for publication in our Proceedings, if, as I venture to believe, my own opinion of it is confirmed by the favorable judgment of the Society.

The name of "Lt.-Col. Eld" at the top of the titlepage, and the manuscript itself are alike written in the same bold and beautiful hand. The watermark and quality of the interleaved sheets upon which the diary is written show that soon after Tarleton's book was published, this copy of it was sent to a binder, taken apart, divided into two volumes, interleaved and rebound, to enable the owner, who, as he himself says, wrote "only for the sake of reference and personal recollection," to copy into the work thus enlarged a record of his military service in America, from his arrival at New York, in the summer of 1779, till the incorporation of his regiment in the Southern army under command of Lord Cornwallis, in January, 1781. The diary stops short, however, with a brief entry under date March 26 (1780). Why Lieutenant-Colonel Eld abandoned the task at so early a date, unless by reason of his death in battle, cannot now be determined.

Of the author of this manuscript I have found in the ordinary sources of information but slight mention. Although it is stated in the "Gentleman's Magazine" that he was born

in America, it is probable that he was related to the only county family of the name, the Elds of Seighford Hall, in Staffordshire. Burke, however, makes no mention of him in the brief genealogy of that family given in the "Landed Gentry." According to the roll of the Coldstream Guards as given in Colonel Mackinnon's history of that regiment, George Eld was appointed an "ensign, 30 March, 1776; lieutenant, 5 May, 1780; captain, 16 December, 1789; surrendered prisoner of war at Yorktown, 19 October, 1781; embarked for England, October, 1782."

Colonel Eld, it is thus seen, had been three years in the Guards, when, an ensign, he accompanied his regiment to America, and began his notes for the diary he was never to complete. During the remainder of the war he served both in the Northern and Southern States. On the 3d of February, 1780, he was in the attack on Young's House, at White Plains, and again on the 23d of March (as he has the date), in the unsuccessful expedition against the American post at Paramus, in the Jerseys. Of both these actions Colonel Eld gives in his diary interesting accounts. In the following November, soon after the Guards, under the command of MajorGeneral the Honorable Alexander Leslie, had been sent to Virginia, Colonel Mackinnon relates that "a detachment under the Honorable Lieutenant-Colonel Steuart and Captain Maitland of the First Guards, also Captain Schutz and Eld of the Coldstream, were engaged with a party of Continentals and militia at the Great Bridge," and defeated them, taking four pieces of cannon. The Guards were soon re-embarked after this success, and on the 13th of December were landed at Charleston. Ordered at once to join the forces under Lord Cornwallis, they overtook his troops on the 18th of January, 1781. When the British army crossed the Catawba on the 1st of February, Captain Eld escaped unhurt, although the light infantry of the Guards to which he belonged, who were the first to enter the water, suffered severely while crossing, from the fire of a small body of militia under General Davidson, who gallantly held his ground, till, surrounded by the enemy, he was killed.* The same good fortune preserved Captain Eld on the 15th of March in the hard-fought battle which followed Lord Cornwallis's attack on General Greene's army at Guildford Court House. In this stubborn contest, where the British army were so weakened by their loss, that, although able to hold their ground on the night

* See Lamb's Journal, pp. 343-345.

after the battle, they were forced on the next day to retreat toward the coast "for rest and refitment," the Guards lost heavily in officers and men. The war was soon afterward transferred to Virginia, where, a few months later, the British army was hemmed in at Yorktown and compelled to surrender.

Colonel Eld arrived in England in the beginning of 1783. For ten years the care and pleasure of London life compensated him for the hardships and captivity he had undergone in America.

When, in January, 1793, England joined the other great powers in declaring war against France, the first battalions. of the three regiments of the Guards received orders to prepare for active service. Their companies were at once filled up and made complete. On the 25th of February, after inspection by the king himself, the Guards were marched to Greenwich, where, in the presence of the royal family, who had come down to witness their departure, they embarked for Flanders. Joining the Prussian and Austrian forces at Maulde, the Guards, who formed part of the Duke of York's army, lost heavily, on the 8th of May, in the attack upon General Dampierre's forces near Tournay. Valenciennes was captured by the British on the 28th of July; on the 29th, Colonel Eld, who had been sent to London a few weeks before on special duty, rejoined his regiment in command of a light infantry company, which, after the departure of the Guards for the Continent, had been raised in England, under a royal warrant, dated April 19, 1793. On the 14th of August the British army separated from the allied forces near Cambray, and marched toward Dunkirk, in the vain attempt to besiege that fortress, and, by its capture, to restore it once more to the crown of England. Passing through Ypres on the 20th, the troops encamped on the evening of the next day, near Furnes, the westernmost town of Flanders, close to the French frontier. On the retreat of the French outposts toward Dunkirk on the 22d the British forces occupied the ground it was intended to hold during the siege.

Two days later, in a general attack on the outposts, the light infantry battalion to which Colonel Eld was attached, forcing their way through thick hedges and deep ditches, between the canal of Furnes and the sea, drove the enemy at last into the town. But, when the fight was over, Lieutenant-Colonel Eld, who had fallen gallantly leading on his command, lay dead upon the field. His body was carefully taken up and carried back to camp, and on the 26th of August, 1793, was buried

in the presence of the Duke of York and of many officers of the army with full military honors.

In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for September, 1793, there appeared the following obituary of Colonel Eld:

August 24. Unhappily slain in an attack upon the French outposts between the canal of Furnes and the sea, Colonel Eld, of the Coldstream Regiment of Footguards, and Lieutenant-General Count Edward d'Alton, in the Austrian service. The former (a brave and experienced officer) went to Holland with the first detachment of guards that left this country, but was in town again, for a few days, about six weeks since, and was presented to his Majesty upon receiving a commission in the light infantry brigade. He was born in America, but received his education in England. His fortune descended to

him from his uncle, the late Mr. Eld, who was well known in this country. Colonel Eld was interred on the 26th with great pomp, the Duke of York, the light infantry of the guards, and many of the officers attending."

It may be that among Colonel Eld's letters, if they are still preserved by any of his race, additional information may hereafter be found and made known. But, from the little that is known of him, we may be sure that he was a gallant gentleman, brave and deserving, whose short life reflected honor upon the land of his birth, and the distinguished corps to which he belonged.

Mr. CHASE then read extracts from the diary which is here printed.

It should be observed, that Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, on the appointment of the Right Honorable the Earl of Cornwallis to the command in the East Indies, had applied to that nobleman for permission to accompany him. Lord Cornwallis's refusal to such request. if it did not positively produce the history of the campaigns of '80 and '81, influenced the work to establish conclusions and censures, but too frequently unjust, because decided from events without fairly bringing forward the local circumstances, and partial situations that were productive of such events and perhaps swerved the wisdom of the moment. To exemplify this; Colonel Tarleton, with more ingenuity than is absolutely necessary to the character of a brave and liberal soldier, negatively implies that the conduct of the Earl Cornwallis was exceedingly injudicious when, speaking of the battle of Guildford, he says, "The reasons which now induced General Greene not to decline a general engagement equally indicated his wisdom and professional knowledge. A defeat of the British would have been attended with the total destruction of Earl Cornwallis's infantry, whilst

a victory at this juncture could produce no very decisive consequences against the Americans."

Under impressions of this description, no reader can deny that the conduct of Earl Cornwallis appears highly reprehensible to hazard the total destruction of his army, when no material advantage could be gained; it is true, that these observations made by Colonel Tarleton are introduced as a compliment to the discernment of General Greene, yet the concealed censure, intended for the Earl, is but too artificially covered, not to be obvious to the eye of the most inattentive reader.

Earl Cornwallis was so far advanced in the country that he had no alternative; he had either to pursue or be pursued. To retreat before a superior army is equally as hazardous and perhaps more destructive than a general engagement, nor was it possible to follow an army, one day's march in advance only, where forage and provisions were to be obtained but by skirmishing; it should also be ever remembered that delay would have added fresh vigor to General Greene's army, that each day would have poured in recruits to the American arms, whilst the British forces must have experienced a fatal decrease; and, thus circumstanced, Earl Cornwallis would have had not the most distant hopes of success, but would have experienced all the calamities of destruction and conquest that were avoided by his timely and welljudged conflict at Guildford. This allowed, the conduct of General Greene will not appear to merit the high encomium that LieutenantColonel Tarleton has so unnecessarily given to him, for in the short space of fourteen days the above suppositions would have been realized.

I have dwelt thus long upon this, to show how easy it is to misrepresent under the semblance of truth and candor.

During the time that General Sir Henry Clinton was besieging Charlestown, General Knyphausen had the command of the British forces at New York.

The Guards and other detachments amounting to 2,500 joined Lord Cornwallis Jan. 20, 1781, in South Carolina, to which period I shall endeavor to recollect such events as more immediately concerned myself, without endeavoring to give a general history of the campaigns to the northward, as I write only for the sake of reference and personal recollection.

May 1, 1779. Set sail for America, in the "Grand Duke" (formerly an East India ship), arrived off Sandy Hook, August 23, and landed in the city of New York 25th.

No unusual events attended this voyage: a storm which took away the foremast, the ship ran foul of the "Romulus " (74 guns), that took away the quarter galley, and three gales of wind and a waterspout.

On my arrival at New York, I was appointed to the light infantry company of the Guards, although an ensign, and in January, 1780, for two months had the command of that company, &c. Quartered in the city of New York.

Oct. 23. A skirmish in the Jerseys; destroyed some boats; lost six or seven of the light company, &c.