The grandfather and father of the author.-Where born and educated.-The latter, engaged in the Revolutionary struggle in 1774.-Was chairman of the Committee of Public Safety.-Treatment of the Tories.-Dr. B. elected to Congress.-Appointed Physician and Surgeon General of the eastern department, April, 1777.-Stationed at West Point when the treason of Arnold was discovered.-Capture of Major Andre.-Measures to procure his liberation. Threats used.- Offer to exchange him for Arnold.-Firmness of Washington.-Delicate treatment of Andre.—Tried, convicted and hung.— Military movements on Long Island.-York Island.-Retreat to the Delaware. Battle of Trenton.-Battle of Princeton.-American army put in winter quarters.—Attempts to injure the character of Washington.-His character defended.
THE writer of the following chapters is the son of Dr. William Burnet, the elder, of Newark, New Jersey; and the grandson of Dr. Ichabod Burnet, a native of Scotland, who was educated at Edinburgh-removed to America soon after his education was finished, and settled at Elizabethtown, in the province of New Jersey; where he practiced his profession with great success, as a physician and surgeon, till 1773, when he died at the advanced age of eighty years.
His only son, William, was born in 1730-educated at Nassau Hall, during the presidency of the Reverend Aaron Burr-and graduated in 1749, before the institution was removed to Princeton.
He studied medicine under Dr. Staats, of New York, and practiced it with assiduity and success, till the difficulties