Military officer; born in
Newmarket, Va., Jan. 12, 1752.
Soon after
Washington's arrival at
Cambridge in 1778, he appointed (Aug. 15) young
Baylor as his aide.
He was a participant in the
battle at Trenton, and carried the news of the victory to Congress, when that body presented him with a horse caparisoned for service, and made him colonel of dragoons (Jan. 8, 1777). On the night of Sept. 27, 1778, his troop of horse, lying in barns, unarmed, near old
Tappan, were surprised at midnight by the
British while asleep.
The
British had silently cut off a sergeant's patrol and fell suddenly upon the sleeping troopers.
The latter, without arms and powerless, asked for quarter.
General Grey had given special orders not to grant quarter, and out of 104 prisoners sixty-seven were killed or wounded.
Some of the men were bayoneted in cold blood.
Baylor was wounded and made prisoner.
He died in
Bridgetown, Barbadoes.
in March, 1784.
