Chapter 9
MID-SUMMERSince our arrival from Westchester the weather had been more or
less unsettled— fog, rain, chilling winds alternating with days of
midsummer heat. But now the exhausting temperature of July remained
constant; fiery days of sunshine were succeeded by nights so hot
and suffocating that life seemed well-nigh insupportable under
tents or in barracks, and officers and men, almost n***d, lay
panting along the river bank through the dreadful hours of darkness
which brought no relief from the fiery furnace of the day.
Schott's riflemen mounted guard stripped to the waist; the
Oneidas and Stockbridge scouts strode about unclothed save for the
narrow clout and sporran; and all day and all night our soldiers
splashed in the river where our horses also stood belly deep,
