[New York City]
12th [July] The 44th and 15th Regiments were added to these, and Colonel O’Hara1 took the command and marched from Bedford to be embarked for Sandy Hook. They were here employed in throwing up a battery of two 8-inch howitzers and three 32-pounders. Eight Companies from the Light Infantry and Grenadiers were distributed on board the ships of war. The Companies were chosen by lot and the whole drew at their own request. The ardor to serve and the confidence in Lord Howe were as conspicuous in the seamen of the transports, who almost to a man were Volunteers to go on board the King’s Ships. Those at the Hook at this time were:
with three sloops, three fire-ships, two bombs and three galleys. The flank Companies came ashore again and the 23rd Regiment (Welsh Fusilers) took that duty.
Major André’s Journal: Operations of the British Army Under Lieutenant Generals Sir William Howe and Sir Henry Clinton June 1777 to November, 1778 [Tarrytown, N.Y.: William Abbatt, 1930], 82.
1. Col. Charles O’Hara of the Coldstream Guards. In a loose note for his history of the American Revolution, Sir Henry Clinton wrote that he had given O’Hara the command because he was a good engineer and well known to Viscount Lord Richard Howe. Clinton added: “But I soon found he was the last man I should have sent with a detached corps—plans upon plans of defense; never easy, satisfied, or safe; a great, nay plausible, talker.” Clinton, The American Rebellion, 100n.
