Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 5

3. On 21 Aug., Gen. Sullivan ordered a reprisal attack on Staten Island in response to a British raid on Woodbridge, N.J. His long account of it to Washington lists 9 officers, 1 surgeon, 127 privates captured by the enemy and an approximately equal number of the British captured by his forces. The losses without visible gains caused the congress to order an investigation. In October, Sullivan was exonerated by a court of inquiry, which declared he merited “the approbation of his Country and not its censure” (Sullivan, Papers , 1:437–442, 482–532; Hancock to Washington, 3 Sept., PCC, No. 12A, f. 264).