Revolutionary Services of General Hull, as taken from his Defence before the Court Martial, in March, 1814.

“For more than half a century I supported a character without reproach.  My youth was devoted to the service of my country; I fought her battles in that war which achieved her liberty and independence, and which was ended before many of you, gentlemen, who are my judges, were born.  If upon any occasion a man may speak of his own merits, it is at such a time as this; and I hope I may be permitted to present to you, in very few words, a narration of my life, while I was engaged in scenes which were calculated to prove a man’s firmness and courage.  I shall do it with less reluctance, because the testimony I have offered of the venerable men who served with me in the revolutionary war, will vouch for all I have to say.  In the year 1775, at the age of about twenty-one years, I was appointed a captain in one of the Connecticut regiments; during that campaign, and until March, 1776, when the enemy evacuated Boston, I served with the army at Cambridge and Roxbury, and in the immediate command of General Washington.  I was with that part of the army, in March, 1776, which took possession of Dorchester heights—­the movement which compelled the enemy to evacuate Boston.  The next day, the regiment to which I belonged marched for New York.  I was on Long Island when the enemy landed, and remained until the night the whole army retreated.  I was in several small skirmishes, both on Long Island and York Island, before the army retired to the White Plains.  I then belonged to Colonel Charles Webb’s regiment, of Connecticut.

“This regiment was in the severest part of the action on Chatterdon’s Hill, a little advanced of the White Plains, a few days after the main body of the army abandoned New York.  This battle is memorable in the history of our country; and the regiment to which I belonged received the particular thanks of General Washington, in his public orders, for its bravery and good conduct on the occasion.  It was particularly distinguished from all the other troops engaged in the action.  I received a slight wound by a musket ball in my side, but it did not prevent me from remaining at the head of my company.

“I was in the battle of Trenton, when the Hessians were taken, in December, 1776; and, being one of the youngest captains in the army, was promoted by General Washington the day after the battle, to a majority, for my conduct on that occasion.  The 1st of January, 1777, I was in the battle of Princeton.  In the campaign of the same year, the regiment to which I belonged served in the northern army.  I was early in the spring ordered to Ticonderoga, and commanded the regiment (being the senior officer present) under General St. Clair, and I was with that officer in his retreat from that post.

“After General St. Clair’s army formed a junction with General Schuyler’s