Very respectfully yours, &c.
SAMUEL ROWLAND.
_Certificate of the Rev. Hezekiah Ripley_.
On being inquired of by Samuel Rowland, Esq., of Fairfield town and
county, in the State of Connecticut, relative to my knowledge and
recollection respecting the merits of Colonel Aaron Burr as an officer
and soldier in the late revolutionary war between the United States
and Great Britain, can certify as follows:--
Hezekiah Ripley, of said Fairfield, doth certify, that on or about the
fifteenth day of September, 1776, I was the officiating chaplain of
the brigade then commanded by Gen. Gold S. Silliman. From
mismanagement of the commanding officer, that brigade was
unfortunately left in the city of New-York, and at the time before
mentioned. While the brigade was in front, and myself considerably in
the rear, I was met by the late General Putnam, deceased, who then
informed me of the landing of the enemy above us, and that I must make
my escape on the west side of the island. Whereupon I on foot crossed
the lots to the west side of the island, unmolested excepting by the
fire from the ships of the British, which at that time lay in the
North river. How the brigade escaped, I was not an eyewitness; but
well recollect, from the information I then had from General Chandler
(now deceased), then acting as a colonel in said brigade, that Mr.
Burr's exertions, bravery, and good conduct, was the principal means
of saving the whole of that brigade from falling into the hands of the
enemy, and whose conduct was then by all considered judicious and
meritorious.
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