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a.
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Note: "He had only the commission of a militia officer, but was exceedingly active against the tories in the Highlands, and especially in intercepting parties on their way from Albany to New York; his regiment being under the command of Col. Jesse Woodhull. Claudius Smith, with a band of marauders from New York, waylaid him in the mountains and fired at him without harm; but on November 6, 1778, they went to his house and fired at him in his bed room through the window, which, though without any shutter, was curtained, and fired without effect. The major's pistols, although loaded, were useles at the moment, from the fact that their priming was covered with paper. Promising that his life should be spared if no opposition was made to their ingress, they broke into his house and through the locked door of his private toom, and shot him dead upon the spot. The assassins fled to New York, but hearing ere long that they were staying at a certain house on Long Island, a party of the major's friends crossed the Sound at once, captured the villains and brought them to Orange County for trial, where at a court of Oyer and Terminer, Smith was tried and convicted, and soon afterwareds exeduted. The principal witness was a sister of Mrs. Mathews, who saw them do the deed. A son of Claudius Smith was executed with him for the same offense, and either then or soon afterwards, another son. Major Nathaniel Strong resided in Blooming Grove, N.Y."
(Benjamin W. Dwight, 1871)
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