October 26, 1776
Dear Mother
A small group of us come to the white plains
last knight with the General. we marched all
day arived here midknight the general could tell by the
stars. on are way here we try to get food but no
one has any Tom shot a rabbit the only food we had
since we left the Bronks i done some thing awful
bad when we arived i was so hungry we took
the man chickens. the woman of the house forgave us
and said a prayer for the war to be over soon the
man was real mad maby because we wok him up
the General is staying in the house below the hill
the woman from the house come up to day and fixed
my hand when jonnie feet get better he will go
home. i will mis him are officer told us to
day they expect a battle soon i hope not i get
scared tell father to keep the cow in the cellar where
it will be safe i will be home to help with the plowing
The General held service for us this morning when
(missing words)he will go home if he get a horse
(missing words)can not see the house any more we are
not aloued to have fires General W. is very
good to us to morrow he will go farther north
Your loving son
Elijah

Photocopy and transcriptions taken from xeroxed materials in the Jacob Purdy House application for the National Register of Historic Places. Transcriber indicated that the missing words resulted from a torn section in the letter.