Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Wool On The Beekmantown Road



Source

In the evening of the fifth instant [September 1814], Major Wool was ordered forward with his corps, to support the militia on the Beekmantown road. It was designed to reinforce him with two pieces of artillery, before daylight; but the officer having charge of the guns did not join him in season. At early dawn on the sixth, the enemy were in motion. The column on the Beekmantown road, consisting of the divisions of Generals Power and Robinson pushed forward with great rapidity. Major Wool and his men withstood them for some time with matchless hardihood and bravery, killing Lieutenant Colonel Wellington, of the Buffs, the leader of the advanced parties; but the militia were seized with an unhappy panic, occasioned, in part, by the red coats of the New York cavalry, stationed as look-outs on the hills; whom they mistook for the British soldiers. The firmness and intrepidity of Major Wool and his command failed to encourage them, and their premature flight soon compelled him to retire. [Source] 

Wool's actions from another source.



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