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HISTORY

Just Passing Through

Two lieutenants of the New York State militia dragoons, Matthew Standish and Roswell Wait, dressed in their red coats (looking like British uniforms), rode directly into British columns. Since officers were not attached to columns on the march (but arrived after troops got to their destination), Standish and Wait were able to chat up the soldiers regularly. In this way the two Lieutenants were able to gather Order of Battle information, Troop movement orders, capabilities and unit counts directly from common British soldiers and report this back to American commanders.