Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/23

Rh a letter written to England said, 'Lord Rawdon has this day stamped his fame for life.' A month later he was promoted Captain in the 63rd Foot, and soon afterwards was appointed aide-de-camp to Sir Henry Clinton. The following year he was present at the taking of Brooklyn, at the action of the White Plains, and was with the invading column under Lord Cornwallis which temporarily subjugated New Jersey and reached Trenton.

In the year 1777 he was again with Cornwallis when Philadelphia was occupied, and there he raised a Regiment of Irish Volunteers, drawn from the same sources from which the American levies were mainly recruited. He commanded this regiment till he left the country in 1781, and under his leadership it greatly distinguished itself, especially at the Battles of Camden and Hobkirk's Hill, where it lost heavily. Rawdon had, however, great difficulties with his men at first, owing to the numerous desertions that occurred among them; but he soon put an end to this trouble, by the following expedient. A man was caught in the act of going over to the enemy; instead of trying him by court-martial, Rawdon brought him on parade before the whole regiment, and delivered him over to his comrades, in the most impressive way, to be judged, and punished or acquitted. The officers were all ordered to withdraw, and in a short time the offender was convicted and immediately hanged on the next tree. Desertion thenceforward was almost unknown among the men of the Irish