During the stay of the troops at the foot of the Otsego a soldier was shot for desertion.
The Otsego is about nine miles in length, varying in breadth from half a mile to a mile and a half.
In 1779 an expedition was sent against the hostile Indians, who dwelt about a hundred miles west of Otsego, on the banks of the Cayuga.
Otsego, in common with most of the interior of the province of New York, was included in the county of Albany previously to the war of the separation.
When all was ready the troops embarked, the damn was knocked away, the Otsego poured out its torrent, and the boats went merrily down with the current.
One brigade ascended the Mohawk until it reached the point nearest to the sources of the Susquehanna, whence it cut a lane through the forest to the head of the Otsego.
Although the settlement of this part of Otsego a little preceded the birth of the author, it was not sufficiently advanced to render it desirable that an event so important to himself should take place in the wilderness.