But they, regarding his youth,
would not give their consent, but took their departure without him.
"However, the second night after their arrival in camp (which was at
Bergen, New Jersey), they were astonished by the arrival of my father,
he having run off from home and followed them all the way on foot, and
now appeared before them, haggard and weary and half starved by the
lengths of his march. * * * My father was taken prisoner at the
battle of Fort Washington, and the privations and cruel treatment
which he then underwent gave a blow to his constitution from which he
never recovered. After the close of the Revolution he returned home
with a constitution much shattered. * * *"
Many years after the Revolution Dr. Draper, who died in Madison,
Wisconsin, and left his valuable manuscripts to the Historical Society
of that State, interviewed an old veteran of the war, in Kentucky.
This venerable relic of the Revolution was Major George Michael
Bedinger, a brother of Daniel. Dr. Draper took down from his lips a
short account of the battle of Fort Washington, where his two brothers
were captured. Major G. M. Bedinger was not in service at that time,
but must have received the account from one or both of his
brothers. Dr. Draper says: "In the action of Fort Washington Henry
Bedinger heard a Hessian captain, having been repulsed, speak to his
riflemen in his own language, telling them to follow his example and
reserve their fire until they were close.
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