REMINISCENCES OF THE LAST SIXTY-FIVE YEARS, COMMENCING WITH THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. ALSO, SKETCHES OF HIS OWN LIFE AND TIMES. BY E. S. THOMAS, Formerly Editor of the Charleston (S. C.) City Gazette, and lately IN TWO VOLUMES, VOL. II. HARTFORD. PRINTED BY CASE, TIFFANY AND BURNHAM, FOR THE AUTHOR. 1840. 7382122 U525990.9 BOUND. AUG 14 1911 Entered According to act of Congress, in the year 1840, By E. S. THOMAS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. SKETCHES OF MY LIFE AND TIMES. THERE is no faculty of the mind, in my opinion, so important as a good memory; in fact, without it, we learn but little, and retain but a small portion of that; how far I am possessed of that faculty these Reminiscences must decide. Circumstances of a domestic character I remember from the age of less than two years and a half; the first thing of general interest is the extraordinary deep snow in January, 1780, a period long remembered for the severity of the cold, as well as the depth of the snow, which was six feet deep upon a level. The severity and suffering of that winter, can never be forgotten while there survives a soldier of that army who were exposed to its inclemency, half fed, and worse clothed, fighting for that freedom we now enjoy, unmindful of its cost. There is no parallel to their sufferings, except in the mad expedition of Napoleon to Russia, and that exceeded in numbers only, not in suffering. The cause of the one was holy, while that of the |