placed them und[er] the command of who to execute these exterminating orders marched several thousand troops into our settlements in where unrestrained by fear of law or Justice and urged on by the highest authority of the they laid waste our fields of corn shot down our cattle and hogs for sport burned our dwellings inhumanly butchered some 18 or 20 defenseless citizens dragged from their hiding places little children and placing the muzzle of their guns to their heads of shot them with the most horrid oaths and imprecations. An aged hero and patriot of the Revolution who served under Gen. [George] Washington while in the act of pleading for quarters was cruelly murdered and cut <​hewed​> in pieces by <​with​> an old corn cutter and in addition to all these savage acts of barbarity they forcibly dragged virtuous and inoffensive <​females​> from their dwellings bound them upon benches used for public worship where they in great numbers ravished <​brutally them in the most brutal manner​> them <​some​> to death and leaving others <​them​> bound in this indescent & inhuman manner <​condition​> Some fifty or sixty of the citizens were thrust into prisons and dungeons where, bound in chains, they were fed on human flesh while their families and some twelve <​fifteen​> thousand others were at the point of the bayonet forcibly expeled from the In the mean time to pay the expenses of these horrid outrages they confiscated our property and robbed us of all our possessions Before our final expulsion with a faint & lingering hope we petitioned the state Legislature then in session Unwilling to believe that the virtue and patriotism of the venerable fathers of the Revolution had fled from the bosoms of their illustrious descendants Unwilling to believe that American citizens could appeal in vain for a restoration of liberty cruelly wrested from them by cruel tyrants. But in the language of our noble ancestors “Our repeated petitions were only answered by respected injuries.” <​*​> <​*The Legislature instead of hearing the cries of 15000 suffering bleeding unoffending citizens sanctioned and sealed the unconstitutional acts of the & his troops by appropriating 200,000 Dollars to defray the expenses of exterminating us from the ​> No friendly arm was stretched out to protect <​us​> a suffering people The last ray of hope for redress in that was now entirely extinguished We have no other [p. 5]