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The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn

by Henry Phelps Johnston · English · Gutenberg #21990 · 1,029,299 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn

Author: Henry Phelps Johnston


        
Release date: July 3, 2007 [eBook #21990]

Language: English

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Produced by Suzanne Shell, Linda Cantoni, and the Online
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[Transcriber's Note: In quoted passages and in the documents in Part
II of this e-book, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation,
and abbreviations have been retained as they appear in the original.
In the remainder of the text, obvious printer errors have been
corrected, but archaic spellings (e.g., "reconnoissance" for
"reconnaissance," "aid" for "aide") have been retained.

This book contains a few instances of the letters m and n with
macrons, indicating that the letter is to be doubled. The letter with
the macron is represented here in brackets with an equal sign. For
example, "co[=m]ittee" stands for "committee"; "ca[=n]on" stands for
"cannon."]




THE

CAMPAIGN OF 1776

AROUND

NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN.


INCLUDING A NEW AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF

THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND AND THE LOSS OF NEW YORK,

WITH A

_REVIEW OF EVENTS TO THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR_,

CONTAINING MAPS, PORTRAITS, AND ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.


BY

HENRY P. JOHNSTON.


BROOKLYN, N.Y.:
PUBLISHED BY THE LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
1878.

COPYRIGHT, 1878,
BY HENRY P. JOHNSTON,
FOR THE SOCIETY.

S.W. GREEN,
PRINTER AND ELECTROTYPER,
16 and 18 Jacob Street,
NEW YORK.


[Illustration: NEW YORK and BROOKLYN WITH THEIR ENVIRONS IN 1776.

Compiled by H.P. JOHNSTON.

Steel Engr. F. von Egloffstein, N.Y.]




PREFACE.


The site now occupied by the two cities of New York and Brooklyn, and
over which they continue to spread, is pre-eminently "Revolutionary
soil." Very few of our historic places are more closely associated
with the actual scenes of that struggle. As at Boston in 1775, so here
in 1776, we had the war at our doors and all about us. In what is now
the heart of Brooklyn Revolutionary soldiers lay encamped for months,
and in the heat of a trying summer surrounded themselves with lines of
works. What have since been converted into spots of rare
beauty--Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park--became, with the ground
in their vicinity, a battle-field. New York, which was then taking its
place as the most flourishing city on the continent, was transformed
by the emergency into a fortified military base. Troops quartered in
Broad Street and along the North and East rivers, and on the line of
Grand Street permanent camps were established. Forts, redoubts,
batteries, and intrenchments encircled the town. The streets were
barricaded, the roads blocked, and efforts made to obstruct the
navigation of both rivers. Where we have stores and warehouses,
Washington fixed alarm and picket posts; and at points where costly
residences stand, men fought, died, and were buried. In 1776 the cause
had become general; soldiers gathered here from ten of the original
thirteen States, and the contest assumed serious proportions. It was
here around New York and Brooklyn that the War of the Revolution began
in earnest.

The record of what occurred in this vicinity at that interesting
period has much of it been preserved in our standard histories by
Gordon, Marshall, Irving, Hildreth, Lossing, Bancroft, Carrington, and
others. In the present volume it is given as a single connected
account, with many additional particulars which have but recently come
to light. This new material, gathered largely from the descendants of
officers and soldiers who participated in that campaign, is published
with other documents in Part II. of this work, and is presented as its
principal feature. What importance should be attached to it must be
left to the judgment of the reader.

The writer himself has made use of these documents in filling gaps and
correcting errors. Such documents, for example, as the orders issued
by Generals Greene and Sullivan on Long Island, with the original
letters of Generals Parsons, Scott, and other officers, go far towards
clearing up the hitherto doubtful points in regard to operations on
the Brooklyn side. There is not a little, also, that throws light on
the retreat to New York; while material of value has been unearthed
respecting events which terminated in the capture of the city by the
British. Considerable space has been devoted to the preparations made
by both sides for the campaign, but as the nature of those
preparations illustrates the very great importance attached to the
struggle that was to come, it may not appear disproportionate. The
narrative also is continued so as to include the closing incidents of
the year, without which it would hardly be complete, although they
take us beyond the limits of New York.

But for the cheerful and in many cases painstaking co-operation of
those who are in possession of the documents referred to, or who have
otherwise rendered assistance, the preparation of the work could not
have been possible. The writer finds himself especially under
obligations to Miss Harriet E. Henshaw, of Leicester, Mass.; Miss Mary
Little and Benjamin Hale, Esq., Newburyport; Charles J. Little, Esq.,
Cambridge; Mr. Francis S. Drake, Roxbury; Rev. Dr. I.N. Tarbox and
John J. Soren, Boston; Prof. George Washington Greene, East Greenwich,
R.I.; Hon. J.M. Addeman, Secretary of State of Rhode Island, and Rev.
Dr. Stone, Providence; Hon. Dwight Morris, Secretary of State of
Connecticut; Dr. P.W. Ellsworth and Captain John C. Kinney, Hartford;
Miss Mary L. Huntington, Norwich; Benjamin Douglas, Esq., Middletown;
Mr. Henry M. Selden, Haddam Neck; Hon. G.H. Hollister, Bridgeport;
Hon. Teunis G. Bergen, Mr. Henry E. Pierrepont, J. Carson Brevoort,
Esq., Rev. Dr. H.M. Scudder, and Mr. Gerrit H. Van Wagenen, Brooklyn;
Mr. Henry Onderdonk, Jr., Jamaica, L.I.; Frederick H. Wolcott, Esq.,
Astoria, L.I.; Hon. John Jay, Charles I. Bushnell, Esq., Miss Troup,
Mrs. Kernochan, Prof. and Mrs. O.P. Hubbard, Gen. Alex. S. Webb, Rev.
A.A. Reinke, New York City; Mr. William Kelby, New York Historical
Society; Prof. Asa Bird Gardner, West Point; Hon. W.S. Stryker,
Adjutant-General, Trenton, N.J.; Richard Randolph Parry, Esq., Hon.
Lewis A. Scott, and Mr. J. Jordan, Philadelphia; Hon. John B. Linn,
Harrisburg; Mrs. S.B. Rogers and Mr. D.M. Stauffler, Lancaster; Dr.
Dalrymple, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore; Hon. Cæsar A.
Rodney, J.R. Walter, and W.S. Boyd, Wilmington, Del.; Oswald Tilghman,
Esq., Easton, Md.; Hon. Edward McPherson, Rev. Dr. John Chester, and
Lieutenant-Colonel T. Lincoln Casey, Washington; President Andrews and
Mr. Holden, Librarian, Marietta College; and Mr. Henry E. Parsons and
Edward Welles, Ashtabula, Ohio.

The cordial and constant encouragement extended by the Rev. Dr.
Richard S. Storrs, President of the Long Island Historical Society,
and the interest taken in the work by Hon. Henry C. Murphy, Benjamin
D. Silliman, Esq., and the Librarian, Mr. George Hannah, are
gratefully acknowledged.

NEW YORK CITY, June, 1878.




CONTENTS.


PART I.

                                                                 PAGE

CHAPTER I.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CAMPAIGN--PLANS AND PREPARATIONS               13

CHAPTER II.
FORTIFYING NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN                                   35

CHAPTER III.
THE TWO ARMIES                                                    105

CHAPTER IV.
THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND                                         139

CHAPTER V.
RETREAT TO NEW YORK                                               207

CHAPTER VI.
LOSS OF NEW YORK--KIP'S BAY AFFAIR--BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS      225

CHAPTER VII.
WHITE PLAINS--FORT WASHINGTON                                     263

CHAPTER VIII.
TRENTON--PRINCETON--CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN                         287


PART II.

LIST OF DOCUMENTS:

  No. 1. General Greene's Orders--Camp on Long Island               5

   "  2. General Sullivan's Orders--Camp on Long Island            27

   "  3. General Orders                                            30

   "  4. Washington to the Massachusetts Assembly                  32

   "  5. General Parsons to John Adams                             33

   "  6. General Scott to John Jay                                 36

   "  7. Colonel Joseph Trumbull to his Brother                    40

   "  8. Colonel Trumbull to his Father                            41

   "  9. Colonel Moses Little to his Son                           42

   " 10. Lieutenant-Colonel Henshaw to his Wife                    44

   " 11. Deposition by Lieutenant-Colonel Henshaw                  47

   " 12. Colonel Edward Hand to his Wife                           48

   " 13. Major Edward Burd to Judge Yeates                         48

   " 14. Lieutenant Jasper Ewing to Judge Yeates                   49

   " 15. John Ewing to Judge Yeates                                50

   " 16. Colonel Haslet to Cæsar Rodney                            51

   " 17. Colonel G.S. Silliman to his Wife                         52

   " 18. Colonel Silliman to Rev. Mr. Fish                         57

   " 19. Account of the Battle of Long Island                      58

   " 20. Journal of Colonel Samuel Miles                           60

   " 21. Lieutenant-Colonel John Brodhead to ----                  63

   " 22. Colonel William Douglas to his Wife                       66

   " 23. General Woodhull to the New York Convention               73

   " 24. General Washington to Abraham Yates                       74

   " 25. Colonel Hitchcock to Colonel Little                       75

   " 26. Major Tallmadge's Account of the Battles of Long Island
         and White Plains                                          77

   " 27. Account of Events by Private Martin                       81

   " 28. Captain Joshua Huntington to ----                         84

   " 29. Captain Tench Tilghman to his Father                      85

   " 30. Captain John Gooch to Thomas Fayerweather                 88

   " 31. Account of the Retreat from New York and Affair of
         Harlem Heights, by Colonel David Humphreys                89

   " 32. Testimony Respecting the Retreat from New York            92

   " 33. Major Baurmeister's Narrative                             95

   " 34. Colonel Chester to Joseph Webb                            98

   " 35. Colonel Glover to his Mother                              99

   " 36. General Greene to Colonel Knox                           100

   " 37. Diary of Rev. Mr. Shewkirk, Moravian Pastor, New York    101

   " 38. Major Fish to Richard Varick                             127

   " 39. Surgeon Eustis to Dr. Townsend                           129

   " 40. Captain Nathan Hale to his Brother                       131

   " 41. Extract from a Letter from New York                      132

   " 42. Extracts from the _London Chronicle_                     133

   " 43. Extract from the Memoirs of Colonel Rufus Putnam         136

   " 44. Scattering Orders by Generals Lee, Spencer, Greene,
         and Nixon                                                141

   " 45. General Lee to Colonel Chester                           145

   " 46. Captain Bradford's Account of the Capture of General
         Lee                                                      146

   " 47. General Oliver Wolcott to his Wife                       147

   " 48. Captain William Hull to Andrew Adams                     151

   " 49. Colonel Knox to his Wife                                 152

   " 50. Colonel Haslet to Cæsar Rodney                           156

   " 51. Journal of Captain Thomas Rodney                         158

   " 52. Position of the British at the Close of the Campaign     162

   " 53. Narrative of Lieutenant Jabez Fitch                      167

   " 54. Extract from the Journal of Lieutenant William
         McPherson                                                168

   " 55. Deposition of Private Foster                             169

   " 56. Letters from Captain Randolph, of New Jersey             170

   " 57. Extract from the Journal of Captain Morris               172

   " 58. British Prisoners Taken on Long Island                   174

   " 59. A Return of the Prisoners Taken in the Campaign          175

   " 60. List of American Officers Taken Prisoners at the
         Battle of Long Island                                    176

   " 61. List of American Non-Commissioned Officers and
         Soldiers Taken Prisoners, Killed, or Missing, at the
         Battle of Long Island                                    180

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES                                             187

THE MAPS                                                          193

THE PORTRAITS                                                     195

INDEX                                                             197




LIST OF MAPS.


1. NEW YORK, BROOKLYN, AND ENVIRONS IN 1776.

2. PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND AND THE BROOKLYN DEFENCES.

3. PRESIDENT STILES' SKETCH OF THE BROOKLYN WORKS.

4. EWING'S DRAUGHT OF THE LONG ISLAND ENGAGEMENT.

5. MAP OF NEW YORK CITY AND OF MANHATTAN ISLAND, WITH THE AMERICAN
DEFENCES.

6. FIELD OF THE HARLEM HEIGHTS "AFFAIR."




PORTRAITS.


1. JOHN LASHER, COLONEL FIRST NEW YORK CITY BATTALION.

2. EDWARD HAND, COLONEL FIRST CONTINENTAL REGIMENT, PENNSYLVANIA.

3. JOHN GLOVER, COLONEL FOURTEENTH CONTINENTAL REGIMENT,
MASSACHUSETTS.

4. JEDEDIAH HUNTINGTON, COLONEL SEVENTEENTH CONTINENTAL REGIMENT,
CONNECTICUT.




PART I.

THE CAMPAIGN.




CHAPTER I.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CAMPAIGN--PLANS AND PREPARATIONS.


"Our affairs are hastening fast to a crisis; and the approaching
campaign will, in all probability, determine forever the fate of
America."

So wrote John Hancock, President of Congress, June 4th, 1776, to the
governors and conventions of the Eastern and Middle colonies, as, in
the name of that body, he reminded them of the gravity of the struggle
on which they had entered, and urged the necessity of increasing their
exertions for the common defence. That this was no undue alarm,
published for effect, but a well-grounded and urgent warning to the
country, is confirmed by the situation at the time and the whole train
of events that followed. The campaign of 1776 did indeed prove to be a
crisis, a turning-point, in the fortunes of the Revolution. It is not
investing it with an exaggerated importance, to claim that it was the
decisive period of the war; that, whatever anxieties and fears were
subsequently experienced, this was the year in which the greatest
dangers were encountered and passed. "Should the united colonies be
able to keep their ground this campaign," continued Hancock, "I am
under no apprehensions on account of any future one." "We expect a
very bloody summer in New York and Canada," wrote Washington to his
brother John Augustine, in May; and repeatedly, through the days of
preparation, he represented to his troops what vital interests were at
stake and how much was to depend upon their discipline and courage in
the field.

But let the significance of the campaign be measured by the record
itself, to which the following pages are devoted. It will be found to
have been the year in which Great Britain made her most strenuous
efforts to suppress the colonial revolt, and in which both sides
mustered the largest forces raised during the war; the year in which
the issues of the contest were clearly defined and America first
fought for independence; a year, for the most part, of defeats and
losses for the colonists, and when their faith and resolution were put
to the severest test; but a year, also, which ended with a broad ray
of hope, and whose hard experiences opened the road to final success.
It was the year from which we date our national existence. A period so
interesting and, in a certain sense, momentous is deserving of
illustration with every fact and detail that can be gathered.

       *       *       *       *       *

What was the occasion or necessity for this campaign; what the plans
and preparations made for it both by the mother country and the
colonies?

The opening incidents of the Revolution, to which these questions
refer us, are a familiar chapter in its history. On the morning of the
19th of April, 1775, an expedition of British regulars, moving out
from Boston, came upon a company of provincials hastily forming on
Lexington Common, twelve miles distant. The attitude of these
countrymen represented the last step to which they had been driven by
the aggressive acts of the home Parliament. Up to this moment the
controversy over colonial rights and privileges had been confined,
from the days of the Stamp Act, to argument, protest, petition, and
legislative proceedings; but these failing to convince or conciliate
either party, it only remained for Great Britain to exercise her
authority in the case with force.

The expedition in question had been organized for the purpose of
seizing the military stores belonging to the Massachusetts Colony,
then collected at Concord, and which the king's authorities regarded
as too dangerous material to be in the hands of the people at that
stage of the crisis. The provincials, on the other hand, watched them
jealously. King and Parliament might question their rights, block up
their port, ruin their trade, proscribe their leaders, and they could
bear all without offering open resistance. But the attempt to deprive
them of the means of self-defence at a time when the current of
affairs clearly indicated that, sooner or later, they would be
compelled to defend themselves, was an act to which they would not
submit, as already they had shown on more than one occasion. To no
other right did the colonist cling more tenaciously at this juncture
than to his right to his powder. The men at Lexington, therefore, drew
up on their village grounds, not defiantly, but in obedience to the
most natural impulse. Their position was a logical one. To have
remained quietly in their homes would have been a stultification of
their whole record from the beginning of the troubles; stand they
must, some time and somewhere. Under the circumstances, a collision
between the king's troops and the provincials that morning was
inevitable. The commander of the former, charged with orders to
disperse all "rebels," made the sharp demand upon the Lexington
company instantly to lay down their arms. A moment's confusion and
delay--then scattering shots--then a full volley from the
regulars--and ten men fell dead and wounded upon the green. Here was a
shock, the ultimate consequences of which few of the participants in
the scene could have forecast; but it was the alarm-gun of the
Revolution.

Events followed rapidly. The march of the British to Concord, the
destruction of the stores, the skirmish at the bridge, and, later in
the day, the famous road-fight kept up by the farmers down to
Charlestown, ending in the signal demoralization and defeat of the
expedition, combined with the Lexington episode to make the 19th of
April an historic date. The rapid spread of the news, the excitement
in New England, the uprising of the militia and their hurried march to
Boston to resist any further excursions of the regulars, were the
immediate consequence of this collision.

Nor was the alarm confined to the Eastern colonies, then chiefly
affected. A courier delivered the news in New York three days later,
on Sunday noon, and the liberty party at once seized the public
military stores, and prevented vessels loaded with supplies for the
British in Boston from leaving port. Soon came fuller accounts of the
expedition and its rout. Expresses carried them southward, and their
course can be followed for nearly a thousand miles along the coast. On
the 23d and 24th they passed through Connecticut, where at Wallingford
the dispatches quaintly describe the turning out of the militiamen:
"The country beyond here are all gone." They reached New York at two
o'clock on the 25th, and Isaac Low countersigns. Relays taking them up
in New Jersey, report at Princeton on the 26th, at "3.30 A.M." They
are at Philadelphia at noon, and "forwarded at the same time." We
find them at New Castle, Delaware, at nine in the evening; at
Baltimore at ten on the following night; at Alexandria, Virginia, at
sunset on the 29th; at Williamsburg, May 2d; and at Edenton, North
Carolina, on the 4th, with directions to the next Committee of Safety:
"Disperse the material passages [of the accounts] through all your
parts." Down through the deep pine regions, stopping at Bath and
Newbern, ride the horsemen, reaching Wilmington at 4 P.M. on the 8th.
"Forward it by night and day," say the committee. At Brunswick at nine
the indorsement is entered: "Pray don't neglect a moment in
forwarding." At Georgetown, South Carolina, where the dispatches
arrive at 6.30 P.M. on the 10th, the committee address a note to their
Charleston brethren: "We send you by express a letter and newspapers
with momentous intelligence this instant arrived." The news reaching
Savannah, a party of citizens immediately took possession of the
government powder.

The wave of excitement which follows the signal of a coming struggle
was thus borne by its own force throughout the length of the colonies.
And from the coast the intelligence spread inland as far as settlers
had found their way. In distant Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, men
heard it, and began to organize and drill. At Charlotte, North
Carolina, they sounded the first note for independence. From many
points brave and sympathetic words were sent to the people of
Massachusetts Bay, and in all quarters people discussed the probable
effect of the startling turn matters had taken in that colony. The
likelihood of a general rupture with the mother country now came to be
seriously entertained.

Meanwhile the situation to the eastward assumed more and more a
military aspect. On the 10th of May occurred the surprise and
capture, by Ethan Allen and his party, of the important post of
Ticonderoga, where during the summer the provincials organized a force
to march upon and, if possible, secure the Canadas. The Continental
Congress at Philadelphia, after resolving that the issue had been
forced upon them by Great Britain, voted to prepare for self-defence.
They adopted the New England troops, gathered around Boston, as a
Continental force, and appointed Washington to the chief command. Then
on the 17th of June Bunker Hill was fought, that first regular action
of the war, with its far-reaching moral effect; and following it came
the siege of Boston, or the hemming in of the British by the
Americans, until the former were finally compelled to evacuate the
city.

       *       *       *       *       *

It is here in these culminating events of the spring and summer of
1775 that we find the occasion for the preparations made by Great
Britain for the campaign of 1776. Little appreciating the genius of
the colonists, underrating their resources and capacity for
resistance, mistaking also their motives, King George and his party
imagined that on the first display of England's power all disturbance
and attempts at rebellion across the sea would instantly cease. But
the sudden transition from peace to war, and the complete mastery of
the situation which the colonists appeared to hold, convinced the home
government that "the American business" was no trifling trouble, to be
readily settled by a few British regiments. As the season advanced,
they began to realize the fact that General Gage, and then Howe
succeeding him, with their force of ten thousand choice troops, were
helplessly pent up in Boston; that Montreal and Quebec were
threatened; that colonists in the undisturbed sections were arming;
and that Congress was supplanting the authority of Parliament. A more
rigorous treatment of the revolt had become necessary; and as the time
had passed to effect any thing on a grand scale during the present
year, measures were proposed to crush all opposition in the next
campaign. Follow, briefly, the course of the British Government at
this crisis.

Parliament convened on the 26th day of October. The king's speech,
with which it opened, was necessarily devoted to the American
question, and it declared his policy clearly and boldly. His
rebellious subjects must be brought to terms. "They have raised
troops," he said, "and are collecting a naval force; they have seized
the public revenue, and assumed to themselves legislative, executive,
and judicial powers, which they already exercise, in the most
arbitrary manner, over the persons and properties of their fellow
subjects: and although many of these unhappy people may still retain
their loyalty, and may be too wise not to see the fatal consequence of
this usurpation and wish to resist it, yet the torrent of violence has
been strong enough to compel their acquiescence, till a sufficient
force shall appear to support them. The authors and promoters of this
desperate conspiracy have, in the conduct of it, derived great
advantage from the difference of our intentions and theirs. They meant
only to amuse by vague expressions of attachment to the parent state,
and the strongest protestations of loyalty to me, whilst they were
preparing for a general revolt. On our part, though it was declared in
your last session that a rebellion existed within the province of the
Massachusetts' Bay, yet even that province we wished rather to reclaim
than to subdue.... The rebellious war now levied is become more
general, and is manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing
an independent empire. I need not dwell upon the fatal effects of the
success of such a plan.... It is now become the part of wisdom, and
(in its effects) of clemency, to put a speedy end to these disorders,
by the most decisive exertions. For this purpose, I have increased my
naval establishment, and greatly augmented my land forces, but in such
a manner as may be the least burthensome to my kingdoms. I have also
the satisfaction to inform you, that I have received the most friendly
offers of foreign assistance, and if I shall make any treaties in
consequence thereof, they shall be laid before you."

A stranger in Parliament, knowing nothing of the merits of the
controversy, would have assumed from the tone of this speech that the
home government had been grossly wronged by the American colonists, or
at least a powerful faction among them, and that their suppression was
a matter of national honor as well as necessity. But the speech was
inexcusably unjust to the colonists. The charge of design and
double-dealing could not be laid against them, for the ground of their
grievances had been the same from the outset, and their conduct
consistent with single motives; and if independence had been mentioned
at all as yet, it was only as an ulterior resort, and not as an aim or
ambition. The king and the Ministry, on the other hand, were wedded to
strict notions of authority in the central government, and measured a
citizen's fidelity by the readiness with which he submitted to its
policy and legislation. Protests and discussion about "charters" and
"liberties" were distasteful to them, and whoever disputed Parliament
in any case was denounced as strong-headed and factious. The king's
speech, therefore, was no more than what was expected from him. It
reflected the sentiments of the ruling party.

As usual, motions were made in both houses that an humble address in
reply be presented to his Majesty, professing loyalty to his person,
and supporting his views and measures. The mover in the Commons was
Thomas Ackland, who, in the course of his speech at the time, strongly
urged the policy of coercion, and emphasized his approval of it by
declaring that it would have been better for his country that America
had never been known than that "a great consolidated western empire"
should exist independent of Britain. Lyttleton, who seconded the
motion, was equally uncompromising. He objected to making the
Americans any further conciliatory offers, and insisted that they
ought to be conquered first before mercy was shown them.

The issue thus fairly stated by and for the government immediately
roused the old opposition, that "ardent and powerful opposition," as
Gibbon, who sat in the Commons, describes it; and again the House
echoed to attack and invective. Burke, Fox, Conway, Barré, Dunning,
and others, who on former occasions had cheered America with their
stout defence of her rights, were present at this session to resist
any further attempt to impair them. Of the leading spirits, Chatham,
now disabled from public service, alone was absent.

Lord John Cavendish led the way on this side, by moving a substitute
for Ackland's address which breathed a more moderate spirit, and in
effect suggested to his Majesty that the House review the whole of the
late proceedings in the colonies, and apply, in its own way, the most
effectual means of restoring order and confidence there. Of course
this meant concession to America, and it became the signal for the
opening of an impassioned debate. Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, poured
out a torrent of remonstrances against the conduct of the Ministry,
who had precipitated the nation into "an unjust, ruinous, felonious,
and murderous war." Sir Adam Fergusson, speaking less vehemently and
with more show of sense, defended the government. Whatever causes may
have brought on the troubles, the present concern with him was how to
treat them as they then existed. There was but one choice, in his
estimation--either to support the authority of Great Britain with
vigor, or abandon America altogether. And who, he asked, would be bold
enough to advise abandonment? The employment of force, therefore, was
the only alternative; and, said the speaker, prudence and humanity
required that the army sent out should be such a one as would carry
its point and override opposition in every quarter--not merely beat
the colonists, but "deprive them of all idea of resistance." Gov.
Johnstone, rising in reply, reviewed the old questions at length, and
in the course of his speech took occasion to eulogize the bravery of
the provincials at Bunker Hill. It was this engagement, more than any
incident of the war thus far, that had shown the determination of the
"rebels" to fight for their rights; and their friends in Parliament
presented it as a foretaste of what was to come, if England persisted
in extreme measures. Johnstone besought the House not to wreak its
vengeance upon such men as fought that day; for their courage was
deserving, rather, of admiration, and their conduct of forgiveness.
Honorable Temple Lutrell followed with an attack upon the "evil
counsellors who had so long poisoned the ear of the Sovereign."
Conway, who on this occasion spoke with his old fire, and held the
close attention of the House, called for more information as to the
condition of affairs in the colonies, and at the same time rejected
the idea of reducing them to submission by force. Barré entered
minutely into the particulars and results of the campaign since the
19th of April, as being little to England's credit, and urged the
Ministry to embrace the present opportunity for an accommodation with
America, or that whole country would be lost to them forever. Burke,
in the same vein, represented the impolicy of carrying on the war, and
advised the government to meet the colonists with a friendly
countenance, and no longer allow Great Britain to appear like "a
porcupine, armed all over with acts of Parliament oppressive to trade
and America." Fox spoke of Lord North as "a blundering pilot," who had
brought the nation into its present dilemma. Neither Lord Chatham nor
the King of Prussia, not even Alexander the Great, he declared, ever
gained more in one campaign than the noble lord had lost--he had lost
an entire continent. While not justifying all the proceedings of the
colonists, he called upon the Administration to place America where
she stood in 1763, and to repeal every act passed since that time
which affected either her freedom or her commerce. Wedderburne and
Dunning, the ablest lawyers in the House, took opposite sides. The
former, as Solicitor-General, threw the weight of his opinion in favor
of rigorous measures, and hoped that an army of not less than sixty
thousand men would be sent to enforce Parliamentary authority.
Dunning, his predecessor in office, questioned the legality of the
king's preparations for war without the previous consent of the
Commons. Then, later in the debate, rose Lord North, the principal
figure in the Ministry, and whom the Opposition held mainly
responsible for the colonial troubles, and defended both himself and
the king's address. Speaking forcibly and to the point, he informed
the House that, in a word, the measures intended by the government
were to send a powerful sea and land armament against the colonists,
and at the same time to proffer terms of mercy upon a proper
submission. "This," said the Minister, "will show we are in earnest,
that we are prepared to punish, but are nevertheless ready to
forgive; and this is, in my opinion, the most likely means of
producing an honorable reconciliation."

But all the eloquence, reasoning and appeal of the Opposition failed
to have any more influence now than in the earlier stages of the
controversy, and it again found itself in a hopeless minority. Upon a
division of the House, the king was supported by a vote of 278 to 110.
The address presented to him closed with the words: "We hope and trust
that we shall, by the blessing of God, put such strength and force
into your Majesty's hands, as may soon defeat and suppress this
rebellion, and enable your Majesty to accomplish your gracious wish of
re-establishing order, tranquillity, and happiness through all parts
of your United Empire." In the House of Lords, where Camden,
Shelburne, Rockingham, and their compeers stood between America and
the Ministry, the address was adopted by a vote of 69 to 33.[1]

[Footnote 1: Outside of Parliament, all shades of opinion found
expression through the papers, pamphlets, and private correspondence.
Hume, the historian, wrote, October 27th, 1775: "I am an American in
my principles, and wish we could let them alone, to govern or
misgovern themselves as they think proper. The affair is of no
consequence, or of little consequence to us." But he wanted those
"insolent rascals in London and Middlesex" punished for inciting
opposition at home. This would be more to the point than "mauling the
poor infatuated Americans in the other hemisphere." William Strahan,
the eminent printer, replied to Hume: "I differ from you _toto
coelo_ with regard to America. I am entirely for coercive methods
with those obstinate madmen." Dr. Robertson, author of _The History of
America_, wrote: "If our leaders do not exert the power of the British
Empire in its full force, the struggle will be long, dubious, and
disgraceful. We are past the hour of lenitives and half exertions."
Early in 1776, Dr. Richard Price, the Dissenting preacher, issued his
famous pamphlet on the _Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of
Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War_, which had a great
run. Taking sides with the colonists, he said: "It is madness to
resolve to butcher them. Freemen are not to be governed by force, or
dragooned into compliance. If capable of bearing to be so treated, it
is a disgrace to be connected with them."]

This powerful endorsement of the king's policy by Parliament, however,
cannot be taken as representing the sense of the nation at large. It
may be questioned whether even a bare majority of the English people
were ready to go to the lengths proposed in his Majesty's address. The
Ministry, it is true, pointed to the numerous ratifying "addresses"
that flowed in, pledging the support of towns and cities for the
prosecution of the war. Some were sent from unexpected quarters. To
the surprise of both sides and the particular satisfaction of the
king, both Manchester and Sheffield, places supposed to be American in
sentiment, came forward with resolutions of confidence and approval;
and in ministerial circles it was made to appear that substantially
all England was for coercion. But this claim was unfounded. As the
king predicted, the loyal addresses provoked opposition addresses.
Edinburgh and Glasgow, despite the efforts of their members, refused
to address. Lynn was said to have addressed, but its members denied
the assertion, and claimed that the war was unpopular in that town.
The paper from Great Yarmouth was very thinly signed, while Bristol,
Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, and
other places sent in counter-petitions against the war. The justices
of Middlesex unanimously voted that it was expedient to reduce the
colonies to a proper sense of their duty; but at a meeting of the
freeholders of the same county, held at Mile-end, to instruct their
members in Parliament, little unanimity prevailed, "much clamor
arose," a protest was entered against the proposed resolutions, and
only one of the sheriffs consented to sign them all. London, as the
country well knew, sympathized largely with America, but in a manner
which nullified her influence elsewhere. Her populace was noisy and
threatening; Wilkes, her Lord Mayor, was hated at court; her solid men
kept to business. "Are the London merchants," wrote the king to Lord
North,[2] "so thoroughly absorbed in their private interests not to
feel what they owe to the constitution which has enriched them, that
they do not either show their willingness to support, either by an
address, or, what I should like better, a subscription, to furnish
many comforts to the army in America?" An address from this quarter,
signed by "respectable names," he thought might have a good effect,
and one was presented on October 11th, with 941 signatures; but it was
entirely neutralized by the presentation, three days before, of
another address more numerously signed by "gentlemen, merchants, and
traders of London," in which the measures of government were
condemned. When the point was made in the Commons that the war was a
popular measure in England, Lutrell promptly replied that he had made
many a journey through the interior of the country during the summer
season, and had conversed with "a multitude of persons widely
different in station and description," only to find that the masses
were in sympathy with the colonists. The division of sentiment was
probably correctly represented by Lord Camden early in the year, in
his observation that the landed interest was almost wholly
anti-American, while the merchants, tradesmen, and the common people
were generally opposed to a war.[3]

[Footnote 2: "Correspondence with Lord North." Donne.]

[Footnote 3: Upon this point Dr. Price said: "Let it be granted,
_though probably far from true_, that the _majority_ of the kingdom
favor the present measures. No good argument could be drawn from
thence against receding."]

Having voted to push the war in earnest, Parliament proceeded to
supply the sinews. On November 3d, Lord Barrington brought in the army
estimates for 1776. Fifty-five thousand men, he reported, was the
force necessary and intended to be raised for the purposes of the
nation, the ordinary expense of maintaining which would be something
over £1,300,000. Of these troops, twenty thousand would be retained
to garrison Great Britain, ten thousand for the West Indies,
Gibraltar, Minorca and the coast of Africa, while the actual force
destined for America was to be increased to thirty-four battalions,
each of 811 men, including two regiments of light horse, amounting, in
the aggregate, to upwards of twenty-five thousand men. Barrington, at
the same time, frankly acknowledged to the House that these figures
showed well only on paper, as none of the regiments for America were
complete, and, what was a still more unwelcome admission, that great
difficulty was experienced in enlisting new recruits. Nothing, he
said, had been left untried to secure them. The bounty had been raised
and the standard lowered, and yet men were not forthcoming.
Anticipating this dearth, he had warned the king of it as early as
July, when the latter first determined to increase the army. "I wish,
sir, most cordially," wrote this faithful secretary, "that the force
intended for North America may be raised in time to be sent thither
next spring; but I not only fear, but am confident, the proposed
augmentation cannot possibly be raised, and ought not to be depended
on."

Barrington was compelled to give an explanation of this state of
things, for the point had been made in and out of Parliament that few
recruits could be had in England, because the particular service was
odious to the people in general. For the government to admit this
would have been clearly fatal; and Barrington argued, per contra, that
the scarcity of soldiers was to be traced to other and concurrent
causes. The great influx of real and nominal wealth of recent years,
the consequent luxury of the times, the very flourishing state of
commerce and the manufactures, and the increased employment thus
furnished to the lower classes, all contributed to keep men out of the
army. Above all, it was represented that the true and natural cause
was an actual lack of men, which was due chiefly to the late increase
of the militia, who could not be called upon to serve except in
extreme cases, and who were not available for the regular force.
Barrington, a veteran in official service, true to the king, and
justifying the war--though not at all clear as to the right of taxing
the colonies--no doubt expressed his honest convictions in making this
explanatory speech to the House. There was much, also, that was true
in his words; but, whatever the absolute cause, the fact did not then,
and cannot now escape notice, that in preparing to uphold the
authority of Parliament, and preserve the integrity of her empire in
America, Great Britain, in 1775, found it impossible to induce a
sufficient number of her own subjects to take up arms in her behalf.

It remained, accordingly, to seek foreign aid. Europe must furnish
England with troops, or the war must stop. The custom of employing
mercenaries was ancient, and universally exercised on the Continent.
Great Britain herself had frequently taken foreign battalions into her
pay, but these were to fight a foreign enemy. It would be a thing new
in her history to engage them to suppress fellow-Englishmen. But the
king regarded war as war, and rebellion a heinous offence; and the
character of the troops serving for him in this case became a
secondary matter. A more serious question was where to get them. No
assistance could be expected from France. Holland declined to lend
troops to conquer men who were standing out for their rights on their
own soil. In Prussia, Frederick the Great expressed the opinion that
it was at least problematical whether America could be conquered, it
being difficult to govern men by force at such a distance. "If you
intend conciliation," he said in conversation to a party of
Englishmen, "some of your measures are too rough; and if subjection,
too gentle. In short, I do not understand these matters; I have no
colonies. I hope you will extricate yourselves advantageously, but I
own the affair seems rather perplexing."[4]

[Footnote 4: "A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland,
and Germany." By John Moore, M.D. Lond., 1786. Vol. V., Letter 75.]

Of all the European powers, Russia and the German principalities alone
presented a possible field of encouragement.[5] To the former, King
George looked first; for England's friendly attitude had been of the
greatest advantage to Russia in her campaigns against Turkey. The
king, therefore, at an early date, gave directions that Gunning, the
British Minister at Moscow, should approach the Empress Catherine on
the subject of lending aid; and, on the proper occasion, Gunning held
an interview with Panin, the Russian Prime Minister. Catherine
promptly returned what appeared to be a very favorable reply. To use
Gunning's own words communicating Russia's answer: "The empress had
ordered him (Panin) to give the strongest assurances, and to express
them in the strongest terms, of her entire readiness on this and all
other occasions to give his Majesty every assistance he could desire,
in whatever mode or manner he might think proper. She embraced with
satisfaction this occasion of testifying her gratitude to the king and
nation for the important services she had received in the late
war--favors she the more valued and should not forget as they were
spontaneously bestowed.... We were as fully entitled to every succor
from her as if the strongest treaties subsisted."[6]

[Footnote 5: Respecting sentiment in Europe on American affairs, the
English traveller Moore wrote as follows from Vienna in 1775: "Our
disputes with the colonies have been a prevailing topic of
conversation wherever we have been since we left England. The warmth
with which this subject is handled increases every day. At present the
inhabitants of the Continent seem as impatient as those of Great
Britain for news from the other side of the Atlantic; but with this
difference, that here they are all of one mind--all praying for
success to the Americans, and rejoicing in every piece of bad fortune
which happens to our army."--_Moore's View_, etc. Letter 96.]

[Footnote 6: "History of England from the Accession of George III. to
1783." By J. Adolphus. Vol. II., p. 326.]

Greatly elated by this unequivocal tender of aid, King George wrote to
the empress in his own hand, thanking her for the proffer; and Gunning
at the same time was instructed to ask for twenty thousand Russians,
and enter into a treaty formally engaging their services. If he could
not secure twenty thousand, he was to get all he could. But Gunning's
negotiations were to fail completely. To his surprise and chagrin,
when he opened the subject of hiring Russian troops, the empress and
Panin answered with dignity that it was impossible to accommodate him;
that Russia's relations with Sweden, Poland, and Turkey were
unsettled, and that it was beneath her station to interfere in a
domestic rebellion which no foreign Power had recognized. This sudden
change in Catherine's attitude, which without doubt was the result of
court intrigue,[7] filled the English king with mortification and
disappointment, and compelled him to seek assistance where he finally
obtained it--in the petty states of the "Hessian" princes.

[Footnote 7: Two views have been expressed in regard to this. The
English historian Adolphus charges Frederick of Prussia and secret
French agents with having changed Catherine's mind, and he gives
apparently good authority for the statement. The secret seems to have
been known in English circles very soon after Catherine's refusal. On
November 10th Shelburne said in the House of Lords: "There are Powers
in Europe who will not suffer such a body of Russians to be
transported to America. I speak from information. The Ministers know
what I mean. Some power has already interfered to stop the success of
the Russian negotiation." Mr. Bancroft, on the other hand, concludes
(Vol. V., Chap. L., Rev. Ed.) that "no foreign influence whatever, not
even that of the King of Prussia, had any share in determining the
empress;" and Vergennes is quoted as saying that he could not
reconcile Catherine's "elevation of soul with the dishonorable idea of
trafficking in the blood of her subjects." But since Catherine, four
years later, in 1779, proposed to offer to give England effective
assistance in America in order to be assured of her aid in return
against the Turks, it may be questioned how far "elevation of soul"
prompted the decision in 1775. (See Eaton's "Turkish Empire," p. 409.)
In view of England's relations with most of the Continental Powers at
that time, Shelburne and Adolphus have probably given the correct
explanation of the matter.]

Success in this direction compensated in part for the Russian failure.
What the British agent, Colonel Faucett, was able to accomplish, what
bargains were struck to obtain troops, how much levy money was to be
paid per man, and how much more if he never returned, is all a
notorious record. From the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, Faucett hired
twelve thousand infantry; from the Duke of Brunswick, three thousand
nine hundred and a small body of cavalry; and from the reigning Count
of Hanau, a corps six hundred and sixty strong. These constituted the
"foreign troops" which England sent to America with her own soldiers
for the campaign of 1776.

The plans for the campaign were laid out on a scale corresponding with
the preparations. When Sir William Howe was sent out to reinforce
General Gage at Boston, in the spring of 1775, it was assumed by the
Ministry that operations would be confined to that quarter, and that
if Massachusetts were once subdued there would be nothing to fear
elsewhere. But the continued siege of Boston changed the military
status. Howe was completely locked in, and could effect nothing. The
necessity of transferring the seat of war to a larger field became
apparent after Bunker Hill, and military plans were broached and
discussed in the Cabinet, in the army, and in Parliament. Lord
Barrington, who well knew that men enough could not be had from
England to conquer the colonies, advocated operations by sea. An
effective blockade of the entire American coast, depriving the
colonists of their trade, might, in his view, bring them to terms. Mr.
Innes, in the House, proposed securing a strong foothold in the south,
below the Delaware, and shutting up the northern ports with the fleet.
But the basis of the plan adopted appears to have been that suggested
by Burgoyne at Boston in the summer of 1775, and by Howe in January,
1776. "If the continent," wrote the former to Lord Rochfort, Secretary
of State for the Colonies, "is to be subdued by arms, his Majesty's
councils will find, I am persuaded, the proper expedients; but I speak
confidently as a soldier, because I speak the sentiments of those who
know America best, that you can have no prospect of bringing the war
to a speedy conclusion with any force that Great Britain and Ireland
can supply. A large army of foreign troops such as might be hired, to
begin their operations up the Hudson River; another army, composed
partly of old disciplined troops and partly of Canadians, to act from
Canada; a large levy of Indians, and a supply of arms for the blacks
to awe the southern provinces, conjointly with detachments of
regulars; and a numerous fleet to sweep the whole coast, might
possibly do the business in one campaign."[8] To Lord Dartmouth, Howe
represented that with an army of twenty thousand men, twelve thousand
of whom should hold New York, six thousand land on Rhode Island, and
two thousand protect Halifax, with a separate force at Quebec,
offensive operations could be pushed so as to put "a very different
aspect" on the situation by the close of another year.

[Footnote 8: _Fonblanque's Life of Burgoyne_, p. 152.]

The plan as finally arranged was a modification of these two views. It
was decided that Howe should occupy New York City with the main body
of the army, and secure that important base; while Carleton, with
Burgoyne as second in command, should move down from Canada to
Ticonderoga and Albany. By concert of action on the part of these
forces, New England could be effectually cut off from co-operation
with the lower colonies, and the unity of their movements broken up.
It was proposed at the same time to send an expedition under Lord
Cornwallis and Admiral Parker, to obtain a footing in Virginia or
either of the Carolinas, and encourage the loyal element in the South
to organize, and counteract the revolt in that quarter. By carrying
out this grand strategy, King George and his advisers confidently
expected to end all resistance in America at one blow.

Thus Great Britain, instead of attempting to recover her authority
over the colonists by a candid recognition of privileges which they
claimed as Englishmen, resolved in 1775 to enforce it. The government
went to war, with the nation's wealth and influence at its back, but
with only half its popular sympathies and moral support. Parliament
refused to listen to the appeals of its ablest members to try the
virtues of concession and conciliation. A heavy war budget was voted,
the Continent of Europe was ransacked for troops which could not be
enlisted in England, and every effort made to insure the complete
submission of the colonies in 1776.

       *       *       *       *       *

How America prepared to meet the coming storm is properly the subject
of the succeeding chapter of this work. But we find her in no position
in 1775 to assume the character of a public enemy towards the mother
country. She still claimed to be a petitioner to the king for the
redress of grievances. If she had taken up arms, it was simply in
self-defence, and these she was ready to lay down the moment her
rights were acknowledged. A revolution, involving separation from
England, was not thought of by the mass of the American people at this
time. The most they hoped for was, that by offering a stout resistance
to an enforcement of the ministerial policy they could eventually
compel a change in that policy, and enjoy all that they demanded under
the British constitution. Towards the close of the year, however, when
the intelligence came that the king had ignored the last petition from
Congress, and had proposed extreme war measures, the colonists felt
that serious work was before them. Independence now began to be more
generally discussed; Washington's troops were re-enlisted for service
through the following year, and Congress took further steps for the
common defence.

Future military operations were necessarily dependent on the plans to
be developed by the British. But as the siege of Boston progressed, it
became obvious that that point at least could not be made a base for
the ensuing campaign. No other was more likely to be selected by the
enemy than New York; and to New York the war finally came.

The topography of this new region, the transfer to it of the two
armies, and the preparations made for its defence by the Americans,
next claim attention.




CHAPTER II.

FORTIFYING NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN.


New York City, in 1776, lay at the end of Manhattan Island, in shape
somewhat like an arrow-head, with its point turned towards the sea and
its barbs extended at uneven lengths along the East and Hudson rivers.
It occupied no more space than is now included within the five lower
and smallest of its twenty-four wards. Excepting a limited district
laid out on the east side, in part as far as Grand street, the entire
town stood below the line of the present Chambers street, and covered
an area less than one mile square. Then, as now, Broadway was its
principal thoroughfare. Shaded with rows of trees, and lined mainly
with residences, churches, and public-houses, it stretched something
more than a mile to the grounds of the old City Hospital, near Duane
street. Its starting-point was the Battery at the end of the island,
but not the Battery of to-day; for, under the system of "harbor
encroachments," the latter has more than trebled in size, and is
changed both in its shape and its uses. The city defences at that time
occupied the site. Here at the foot of Broadway old Fort George had
been erected upon the base of the older Fort Amsterdam, to guard the
entrance to the rivers, and with its outworks was the only protection
against an attack by sea. It was a square bastioned affair, with walls
of stone, each face eighty feet in length, and within it stood
magazines, barracks, and, until destroyed by fire, the mansion of the
colonial governors. For additional security, about the time of the
French war, an extensive stone battery, with merlons of cedar joists,
had been built just below the fort along the water's edge, enclosing
the point from river to river, and pierced for ninety-one pieces of
cannon.[9]

[Footnote 9: The site of Fort George is now covered in part by the
buildings at the west corner of the Bowling Green block, where the
steamship companies have their offices. South and west of this point
the Battery is almost entirely made-land. (Compare Ratzer's map of
1767 with the maps recently compiled by the New York Dock Department.)
As to other old defences of the city, Wm. Smith, the historian,
writing about 1766, says: "During the late war a line of palisadoes
was run from Hudson's to the East River, at the other end of the city
[near the line of Chambers street], with block-houses at small
distances. The greater part of these still remain as a monument of our
folly, which cost the province about £8000."]

At this period, the city represented a growth of one hundred and sixty
years. Give it a population of twenty-five thousand souls[10]--more
rather than less--and line its streets with four thousand buildings,
and we have its census statistics approximately. The linear
characteristics of the old town are still sharply preserved. Upon the
west side, the principal streets running to the North River--Chambers,
Warren, Murray, Barclay, Vesey, Dey, and Cortlandt--retain their names
and location; but the water-line was then marked by Greenwich street.
The present crowded section to the west of it, including Washington
and West streets and the docks, is built on new ground, made within
the century. Behind Trinity Church, and as far down as the Battery,
the shore rose to a very considerable bluff. Necessarily, much the
greater part of the city then lay east of Broadway. The irregular
streets to be found on this side are relics of both the Dutch and
English foundation; of their buildings, however, as they stood in
1776, scarcely one remains at the present time. New streets have been
built on the East River as well as on the North, materially changing
the water boundary of this part of the island. Front and South streets
had no existence at that date. On the line of Wall street, the city
has nearly doubled in width since the Revolution.

[Footnote 10: The last census before the Revolution was taken in 1771,
when the population of the city and county of New York was returned at
21,863. (Doc. Hist. of N.Y., Vol. I.) At the time of the war alarm, in
1775, this total must have risen to full 25,000. Philadelphia's
population was somewhat larger; Boston's, less.]

Before its contraction, and in view of its convenience and protection
from storms, the East River was the harbor proper of New York. Most of
the docks were on that side, and just above Catherine street lay the
ship-yards, where at times, in colonial days, an eight-hundred-ton
West Indiaman might be seen upon the stocks.

What is now the City Hall Park was called in 1776 "the Fields," or
"The Common." The site of the City Hall was occupied by the House of
Correction; the present Hall of Records was the town jail, and the
structure then on a line with them at the corner of Broadway was the
"Bridewell." The City Hall of that day stood in Wall street, on the
site of the present Custom-House, and King's, now Columbia, College in
the square bounded by Murray, Barclay, Church, and West Broadway.
Queen, now Pearl, was the principal business street; fashion was to be
found in the vicinity of the Battery, and Broad and Dock streets; the
Vauxhall Gardens were at the foot of Reade; and to pass out of town,
one would have to turn off Broadway into Chatham street, which
extended through Park Row, and keep on to the Bowery.

John Adams has left us a brief description of New York, as he saw it
when passing through to the first Congress at Philadelphia in 1774, in
company with Cushing, Paine, and Samuel Adams. His diary runs:

"_Saturday, Aug. 20._--Lodged at Cock's, at Kingsbridge, a pretty
place.... Breakfasted at Day's [127th street], and arrived in the city
of New York at ten o'clock, at Hull's, a tavern, the sign the Bunch of
Grapes. We rode by several very elegant country-seats before we came
to the city.... After dinner, Mr. McDougall and Mr. Platt came, and
walked with us to every part of the city. First we went to the fort,
where we saw the ruins of that magnificent building, the Governor's
house [burned Dec. 29, 1773]. From the Parade, before the fort, you
have a fine prospect of Hudson River, and of the East River, or the
Sound, and of the harbor; of Long Island, beyond the Sound River, and
of New Jersey beyond Hudson's River. The walk round this fort is very
pleasant, though the fortifications are not strong. Between the fort
and the city is a beautiful ellipsis of land [Bowling Green], railed
in with solid iron, in the centre of which is a statue of his majesty
on horseback, very large, of solid lead gilded with gold, standing on
a pedestal of marble, very high. We then walked up the Broad Way, a
fine street, very wide, and in a right line from one end to the other
of the city. In this route we saw the old Church and the new Church
[Trinity]. The new is a very magnificent building--cost twenty
thousand pounds, York currency. The prison is a large and a handsome
stone building; there are two sets of barracks. We saw the New York
College, which is also a large stone building. A new hospital is
building, of stone. We then walked down to a shipyard. Then we walked
round through another street, which is the principal street of
business. Saw the several markets. After this we went to the
coffee-house, which was full of gentlemen; read the newspapers,
etc.... The streets of this town are vastly more regular and elegant
than those in Boston, and the houses are more grand, as well as neat.
They are almost all painted, brick buildings and all."

Other glimpses we get from English sources. The traveler Smyth, while
visiting this city during the British occupation, has this to say:[11]
"Nothing can be more delightful than the situation of New York,
commanding a variety of the most charming prospects that can be
conceived. It is built chiefly upon the East River, which is the best
and safest harbour, and is only something more than half a mile wide.
The North River is better than two miles over to Powles Hook, which is
a strong work opposite to New York, but is exposed to the driving of
the ice in winter, whereby ships are prevented from lying therein
during that season of the year. The land on the North River side is
high and bold, but on the East River it gradually descends in a
beautiful declivity to the water's edge.... Amongst the multitude of
elegant seats upon this island, there are three or four uncommonly
beautiful, viz., Governor Elliot's, Judge Jones's, Squire Morris's,
and Mr. Bateman's. And opposite, upon the Continent, just above
Hell-gates, there is a villa named Morrisania, which is inferior to no
place in the world for the beauties, grandeur, and extent of
perspective, and the elegance of its situation." Eddis, who had been
compelled to leave Maryland on account of his loyal sentiments, was
hardly less impressed with the city's appearance when he stopped here
on his way to England in 1777. "The capital of this province," he
wrote, August 16th, "is situated on the southern extremity of the
island; on one side runs the North, and on the other the East River,
on the latter of which, on account of the harbour, the city is
principally built. In several streets, trees are regularly planted,
which afford a grateful shelter during the intense heat of the summer.
The buildings are generally of brick, and many are erected in a style
of elegance.... Previous to the commencement of this unhappy war, New
York was a flourishing, populous, and beautiful town....
Notwithstanding the late devastation [fire of 1776], there are still
many elegant edifices remaining, which would reflect credit on any
metropolis in Europe."[12]

[Footnote 11: "A Tour in the United States," etc. By J.F.D. Smyth.
London, 1784.]

[Footnote 12: "Letters from America, 1769-1777." By Wm. Eddis.
London.]

Beyond the limits of the city, Manhattan Island retained much of its
primitive appearance. Roads, farms, country-seats, interspersed it,
but not thickly; and as yet the salient features were hills, marshes,
patches of rocky land, streams, and woods. Just upon the outskirts,
midway between the rivers, at about the corner of Grand and Centre
Streets, the ground rose to a commanding elevation on the farm of
William Bayard, which overlooked the city and the island above a
distance of more than three miles. Further east, a little north of the
intersection of Grand and Division Streets, stood another hill,
somewhat lower, where Judge Jones lived, from which opened an
extensive view of the East River and harbor. On the west side, on this
line, the surface sank from Bayard's mount into a spreading marsh as
far as the Hudson, and over which now run portions of Canal and Grand
and their cross streets. Where we have the Tombs and surrounding
blocks, stood the "Fresh Water" lake or "Collect," several fathoms
deep, with high sloping banks on the north and west, and on whose
surface were made the earliest experiments in steam navigation in
1796.

One nearly central highway, known as the King's Bridge or Post Road,
ran the entire length of the island. Where it left the city at Chatham
Square, it was properly the Bowerie or Bowery Lane. Continuing along
the present street by this name, it fell off into the line of Fourth
Avenue as far as Fourteenth Street, crossed Union Square diagonally to
Broadway, and kept the course of the latter to Madison Square at
Twenty-third Street. Crossing this square, also diagonally, the road
stretched along between Fourth and Second Avenues to Fifty-third
Street, passed east of Second Avenue, and then turning westerly
entered Central Park at Ninety-second Street. Leaving the Park at a
hollow in the hills known as "McGowan's Pass," just above the house of
Andrew McGowan, on the line of One Hundred and Seventh Street, west of
Fifth Avenue, it followed Harlem Lane to the end of the island. Here,
on the other side of King's Bridge, then "a small wooden bridge,"[13]
the highway diverged easterly to New England and northerly to Albany.

[Footnote 13: "King's Bridge, which joins the northern extremity of
this island to the continent, is only a small wooden bridge, and the
country around is mountainous, rocky, broken, and disagreeable, but
very strong."--_Smyth's Tour, etc._, vol. ii., p. 376.]

This portion of the island above the city was known as its "Out-ward,"
and had been divided at an early date into three divisions, under the
names of the Bowery, Harlem, and Bloomingdale divisions. Each
contained points of settlement. The Bowery section included that part
of the city laid out near Fresh Water Pond and around Chatham Square
below Grand Street, and the stretch of country above beyond the line
of Twenty-third Street. In this division were to be found some of the
notable residences and country-seats of that day. James De Lancey's
large estate extended from the Bowery to the East River, and from
Division nearly to the line of Houston Street. The Rutgers' Mansion
stood attractively on the slopes of the river bank about the line of
Montgomery Street, and above De Lancey's, on the Bowery, were the De
Peysters, Dyckmans, and Stuyvesants.

The Harlem division of the Out-ward, with which are associated some of
the most interesting events of 1776, included what is now known as
Harlem, with the island above it as far as King's Bridge. Dutch
farmers had settled here a hundred years before the Revolution. As
early as 1658, the Director-General and Council of New Netherland gave
notice that "for the further promotion of Agriculture, for the
security of this Island, and the cattle pasturing thereon, as well as
for the greater recreation and amusement of this city of Amsterdam in
New Netherland, they have resolved to form a New Village or Settlement
at the end of the Island, and about the lands of Jochem Pietersen,
deceased, and those which adjoin thereto." The first settlers were to
receive lots to cultivate, be furnished with a guard of soldiers, and
allowed a ferry across the Harlem River, for "the better and greater
promotion of neighborly correspondence with the English of the
North."[14] In 1776, the division was interspersed with houses and
fields, especially in the stretch of plains or flat land just above
One Hundred and Tenth Street, and from the East River to the line of
Ninth Avenue. The church and centre of the village were on the east
side, in the vicinity of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, and the
old road by which they were reached from the city branched off from
the main highway at McGowan's Pass.

[Footnote 14: _Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands._]

Bloomingdale was a scattered settlement, containing nearly all the
houses to be found along the Bloomingdale Road, but the name appears
to have identified principally the upper section beyond Fiftieth
Street. Here lived the Apthorpes at Ninety-second Street; the
Strikers, Joneses, and Hogelands above; and, lower down, the
Somerindykes and Harsens. As fixed by law, at that time, this road
started from the King's Bridge Road, at the house of John Horn, now
the corner of Twenty-third Street and Fifth Avenue, and followed the
line of the present Broadway and the recent Bloomingdale Road to the
farm of Adrian Hogeland, at One Hundred and Eighth Street.[15] Nearly
on a line with Hogeland, but considerably east of him, lived Benjamin
Vandewater; and these two were the most northerly residents in the
division.

[Footnote 15: The caption to the act in the case passed 1751, and
remaining unchanged in 1773, reads: "_An Act for mending and keeping
in Repair the publick Road or Highway, from the House of John Horne,
in the Bowry Division of the Out-ward of the City of New York, through
the Bloomendale Division in the said ward, to the house of Adrian
Hoogelandt._"]

Still another suburb of the city was the village of Greenwich,
overlooking the Hudson on the west side, in the vicinity of Fourteenth
Street, to which the Greenwich Road, now Greenwich Street, led along
the river bank in nearly a straight line. The road above continued
further east about as far as Forty-fifth Street, and there connected,
by a lane running south-westerly, with the Bloomingdale Road at
Forty-third Street. Among the country-seats in this village were those
of the Jeaunceys, Bayards, and Clarkes; and above, at Thirty-third
Street and Ninth Avenue, stood the ample and conspicuous residence of
John Morin Scott, one of the leading lawyers of the city, and a
powerful supporter of the American cause.

Across the East River, the "Sister City" of Brooklyn in 1776 was as
yet invisible from New York. A clump of low buildings at the old
ferry, and an occasional manor-seat, were the only signs of life
apparent on that side. Columbia Heights, whose modern blocks and row
of wharves and bonded stores suggest commercial activity alone, caught
the eye a century ago as "a noble bluff," crowned with fields and
woods, and meeting the water at its base with a shining beach. The
parish or village proper was the merest cluster of houses, nestled in
the vicinity of the old Dutch church, which stood in the middle of the
road a little below Bridge Street. The road was the King's highway,
and it ran from Fulton Ferry--where we have had a ferry for two
hundred and forty years at least--along the line of Fulton Street, and
on through Jamaica to the eastern end of Long Island. Besides the
settlements that had grown up at these two points--the church and the
ferry, which were nearly a mile and a half apart--a village centre was
to be found at Bedford, further up the highway, another in the
vicinity of the Wallabout, and still another, called Gowanus, along
the branch road skirting the bay. These all stood within the present
municipal limits of Brooklyn.

As it had been for more than a century before, the population on the
Long Island side was largely Dutch at the time of the Revolution. The
first-comers, in 1636 and after, introduced themselves to the soil and
the red man as the Van Schows, the Cornelissens, the Manjes, and the
like--good Walloon patronimics--and the Dutch heritage is still
preserved in the names of old families, and even more permanently in
the name of the place itself; for the word Brooklyn is but the English
corruption of Breukelen, the ancient Holland village[16] of which our
modern city appears to have been the namesake. Smyth, the English
traveler, makes the general statement towards the close of the
Revolution, that two thirds of the inhabitants of Long Island,
especially those on the west end, were of Dutch extraction, who
continued "to make use of their customs and language in preference to
English," which, however, they also understood. "The people of King's
County [Brooklyn]," he says, "are almost entirely Dutch. In Queen's
County, four fifths of the people are so likewise, but the other
fifth, and all Suffolk County, are English as they call themselves,
being from English ancestors, and using no other language." Major
Baurmeister, one of the officers of the Hessian division which
participated in the battle of Long Island, leaves us something more
than statistics in the case. He appears to have noted every thing with
lively appreciation. To a friend in Germany, for instance, we find him
writing as follows: "The happiness of the inhabitants, whose ancestors
were all Dutch, must have been great; genuine kindness and real
abundance is everywhere; any thing worthless or going to ruin is
nowhere to be perceived. The inhabited regions resemble the
Westphalian peasant districts; upon separate farms the finest houses
are built, which are planned and completed in the most elegant
fashion. The furniture in them is in the best taste, nothing like
which is to be seen with us, and besides so clean and neat, that
altogether it surpasses every description. The female sex is
universally beautiful and delicately reared, and is finely dressed in
the latest European fashion, particularly in India laces, white cotton
and silk gauzes; not one of these women but would consider driving a
double team the easiest of work. They drive and ride out alone, having
only a negro riding behind to accompany them. Near every
dwelling-house negroes (their slaves) are settled, who cultivate the
most fertile land, pasture the cattle, and do all the menial
work."[17] That the English element, however, had crept in to a
considerable extent around Brooklyn at this time, is a matter of
record.

[Footnote 16: The Hon. Henry C. Murphy, who visited this place in
1859, says of it: "The town lies in the midst of a marshy district,
and hence its name; for Breukelen--pronounced Brurkeler--means marsh
land." "There are some curious points of coincidence," continues Mr.
Murphy, "both as regards the name and situation of the Dutch Breukelen
and our Brooklyn. The name with us was originally applied exclusively
to the hamlet which grew up along the main road now embraced within
Fulton Avenue, and between Smith Street and Jackson Street; and we
must, therefore, not confound it with the settlements at the
Waalebought, Gowanus, and the Ferry, now Fulton Ferry, which were
entirely distinct, and were not embraced within the general name of
Brooklyn, until after the organization of the township of that name by
the British Colonial Government. Those of our citizens who remember
the lands on Fulton Avenue near Nevins Street and De Kalb Avenue
before the changes which were produced by the filling-in of those
streets, will recollect that their original character was marshy and
springy, being in fact the bed of the valley which received the drain
of the hills extending on either side of it from the Waalebought to
Gowanus Bay. This would lead to the conclusion that the name was given
on account of the locality; but though we have very imperfect accounts
as to who were the first settlers of Brooklyn proper, still, reasoning
from analogy in the cases of New Utrecht and New Amersfoort, we cannot
probably err in supposing that Brooklyn owes its name to the
circumstance that its first settlers wished to preserve in it a
memento of their homes in Fatherland. After the English conquest,
there was a continual struggle between the Dutch and English
orthography.... Thus it is spelled Breucklyn, Breuckland, Brucklyn,
Broucklyn, Brookland, Brookline, and several other ways. At the end of
the last century it settled down into the present Brooklyn. In this
form it still retains sufficiently its original signification of the
_marsh_ or _brook land_."--_Stiles' History of Brooklyn_, vol. i.,
App. 4.]

[Footnote 17: Part II., Document 33. On the other hand, some later
English descriptions are not as pleasant; but the wretchedness the
writers saw during the war was what the war had caused.]

The topography of this section of Long Island was peculiar, presenting
strong contrasts of high and low land. Originally, and indeed within
the memory of citizens still living, that part of Brooklyn lying
south and west of the line of Nevins Street was practically a
peninsula, with the Wallabout Bay or present Navy Yard on one side of
the neck, and on the other, a mile across, the extensive Gowanus creek
and marsh, over which now run Second, Third, and Fourth Avenues. The
creek set in from the bay where the Gowanus Canal is retained, and
rendered the marsh impassable at high-water as far as the line of
Baltic Street. Blocks of buildings now stand on the site of mills that
were once worked by the ebb and flow of the tides. The lower part of
what is known as South Brooklyn was largely swamp land in 1776. Here
the peninsula terminated in a nearly isolated triangular piece of
ground jutting out into the harbor, called Red Hook, which figured
prominently in the military operations. From this projection to the
furthest point on the Wallabout was a distance of three miles, and the
scenery along the bank presented a varied and attractive appearance to
the resident of New York. The "heights" rose conspicuously in all the
beauty of their natural outline; lower down the shore might be seen a
quaint Dutch mill or two; on the bluffs opposite the Battery, the
mansions of Philip and Robert Livingston were prominent; and not far
from where the archway crosses Montague Street stood the Remsen and,
nearer the ferry, the Colden and Middagh residences. From every point
of view the perspective was rural and inviting.[18]

[Footnote 18: In describing some of the characteristic features of
Long Island, Smyth, the traveler already quoted, mentions what seemed
to him "two very extraordinary places." "The first," he says, "is a
very dangerous and dreadful strait or passage, called _Hell-Gates_,
between the East River and the Sound; where the two tides meeting
cause a horrible whirlpool, the vortex of which is called the Pot, and
drawing in and swallowing up every thing that approaches near it,
dashes them to pieces upon the rocks at the bottom.... Before the late
war, a top-sail vessel was seldom ever known to pass through
Hell-Gates; but since the commencement of it, fleets of transports,
with frigates for their convoy, have frequently ventured and
accomplished it; the Niger, indeed, a very fine frigate of thirty-two
guns, generally struck on some hidden rock, every time she attempted
this passage. But what is still more extraordinary, that daring
veteran, Sir James Wallace, to the astonishment of every person who
ever saw or heard of it, carried his Majesty's ship, the Experiment,
of fifty guns, safe through Hell-Gates, from the east end of the Sound
to New York; when the French fleet under D'Estaing lay off Sandy Hook,
and blocked up the harbor and city of New York, some ships of the line
being also sent by D'Estaing round the east end of Long Island to
cruise in the Sound for the same purpose, so that the Experiment must
inevitably have fallen into their hands, had it not been for this bold
and successful attempt of her gallant commander." The other spot was
Hempstead Plains, which presented the "singular phenomenon," for
America, of having no trees.]

Vastly changed to-day is all this region, which was now to be
disturbed by the din and havoc of war. Its picturesqueness long since
disappeared. Upon Manhattan Island, the city's push "uptown"-ward has
been like the cut of a drawing knife, a remorseless process of
levelling and "filling-in." Forty times in population and twenty in
area has it expanded beyond the growth of 1776. Brooklyn is a new
creation. Would its phlegmatic denizen of colonial times recognize the
site of his farms or his mills? Even the good Whig ferryman, Waldron,
might be at a loss to make out his bearings, for the green banks of
the East River have vanished, and its points become confused. The
extent of its contraction he could learn from the builders of the
bridge, who have set the New York pier eight hundred feet out from the
high-water mark of 1776, and the Brooklyn pier two hundred or more,
narrowing the stream at that point to a strait of but sixteen hundred
feet in width.

       *       *       *       *       *

The first active steps looking to the occupation of New York were
taken by the Americans early in January of this year. Reports had
reached Washington's headquarters that the British were fitting out
an expedition by sea, whose destination was kept a profound secret. In
Boston, rumors were afloat that it was bound for Halifax or Rhode
Island. In reality it was the expedition with which Sir Henry Clinton
was to sail to North Carolina, and there meet Cornwallis, from
England, to carry out the southern diversion. Ignorant of the British
plans, and suspecting that Clinton might suddenly appear at New York,
Washington on the 4th of January called the attention of Congress to
the movement, and suggested that it would be "consistent with
prudence" to have some New Jersey troops thrown into the city to
prevent the "almost irremediable" evil which would follow its
occupation by the enemy. Two days later, General Charles Lee, holding
rank in the American army next to Washington, pressed a plan of his
own, to the effect that he be sent himself by the commander-in-chief
to secure New York, and that the troops for the purpose (there being
none to spare from the force around Boston) be hastily raised in
Connecticut. This was approved at headquarters, and on the 8th inst.
Lee received instructions as follows:

     "Having undoubted intelligence of the fitting out of a fleet
     at Boston, and of the embarkation of troops from thence,
     which, from the season of the year and other circumstances,
     must be destined for a southern expedition; and having such
     information as I can rely on, that the inhabitants, or a
     great part of them, on Long Island in the colony of New
     York, are not only inimical to the rights and liberties of
     America, but by their conduct and public professions have
     discovered a disposition to aid and assist in the reduction
     of that colony to ministerial tyranny; and as it is a matter
     of the utmost importance to prevent the enemy from taking
     possession of the City of New York and the North River, as
     they will thereby command the country, and the communication
     with Canada--it is of too much consequence to hazard such a
     post at so alarming a crisis....

     "You will therefore, with such volunteers as are willing to
     join you, and can be expeditiously raised, repair to the
     City of New York, and calling upon the commanding officer of
     the forces of New Jersey for such assistance as he can
     afford, and you shall require, you are to put that city into
     the best posture of defence which the season and
     circumstances will admit, disarming all such persons upon
     Long Island and elsewhere (and if necessary otherwise
     securing them), whose conduct and declarations have rendered
     them justly suspected of designs unfriendly to the views of
     Congress.... I am persuaded I need not recommend dispatch in
     the prosecution of this business. The importance of it alone
     is a sufficient incitement."[19]

[Footnote 19: Washington had some misgivings as to his authority to
assume military control of New York, and he sought the advice of John
Adams, who was then at Watertown. The latter replied without
hesitation that under his commission as commander-in-chief he had full
authority. To President Hancock, Washington wrote: "I hope the
Congress will approve of my conduct in sending General Lee upon this
expedition. I am sure I mean it well, as experience teaches us that it
is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves, than it is
to dislodge them after they have got possession."]

Washington wrote at the same time to Governor Trumbull, of
Connecticut, Colonel Lord Stirling, of New Jersey, and the New York
Committee of Safety, urging them to give Gen. Lee all the assistance
in their power.

Lee, who had been an officer in the British army, serving at one time
under Burgoyne in Portugal, had already established a reputation for
himself in Washington's camp as a military authority, and enjoyed the
full confidence of the commander-in-chief, despite certain
eccentricities of manner and an over-confidence in his own judgment
and experience. The defects and weaknesses of his character, which
eventually brought him into disgrace as a soldier, were not as yet
displayed or understood. At the present time he was eager to be of
essential service to the colonies, and he entered into the New York
project with spirit. In Connecticut the governor promptly seconded his
efforts, by calling out two regiments of volunteers to serve for six
weeks under the general, and appointed Colonels David Waterbury, of
Stamford, and Andrew Ward, of Guilford, to their command. By the 20th,
Lee found himself ready to proceed; but while on his way, near
Stamford, he received a communication from the Committee of Safety at
New York, representing that the rumors of his coming had created great
alarm in the city, and earnestly requesting him to halt his troops on
the Connecticut border, until his object were better known to the
committee. Here was something of a dilemma, and it may be asked how it
should have arisen. Why, indeed, was it necessary to organize a force
outside of New York to secure it? Was not this the time for the city
to prepare for her defence, and welcome assistance from whatever
quarter offered? The answer is to be found in the exceptional
political temperament of New York at this time. Her population
contained a large and powerful loyalist element, which hoped, with the
assistance of the three or four British men-of-war then in the harbor,
to be able to give the place, at the proper moment, into the hands of
the king's troops. Only a short time before, Governor Tryon had
informed Howe that it only needed the presence of a small force to
secure it, and develop a strong loyal support among the inhabitants of
both the city and colony. The patriotic party had abated none of its
zeal, but it recognized the danger of precipitating matters, and
accordingly pursued what appeared to colonists elsewhere to be a
temporizing and timid policy, but which proved the wisest course in
the end. The city was at the mercy of the men-of-war. Any attempt to
seize it could be answered with a bombardment. The situation required
prudent management; above all, it required delay on the part of the
Americans until they were ready for a decisive step. That the
Committee of Safety was thoroughly true to the country, no one can
doubt a moment after reading their daily proceedings. In their letter
to Lee they say: "This committee and the Congress whose place we fill
in their recess, are, we flatter ourselves, as unanimously zealous in
the cause of America as any representative body on the continent: so
truly zealous, that both the one and the other will cheerfully devote
this city to sacrifice for advancing that great and important cause."
But knowing the state of affairs in their midst better than others,
they urged caution instead of haste in bringing the war to New York.
In this case, they informed Lee that no works had been erected in the
city, that they had but little powder, that they were sending out
ships for more without molestation from the men-of-war, their object
being kept secret, and that a general alarm then in the dead of
winter, driving women and children into the country, would work great
distress. "For these reasons," continue the committee, "we conceive
that a just regard to the public cause, and our duty to take a prudent
care of this city, dictate the impropriety of provoking hostilities at
present, and the necessity of saving appearances with the ships of war
till at least the month of March. Though we have been unfortunate in
our disappointments with respect to some of our adventures, yet be
assured, sir, we have not been idle. Our intrenching tools are almost
completed to a sufficient number; we are forming a magazine of
provisions for five thousand men for a month in a place of safety, and
at a convenient distance from this city; we have provided ourselves
with six good brass field-pieces; have directed carriages to be made
for our other artillery, and are raising a company of artillery for
the defence of the colony on the Continental establishment. These
things, when accomplished, with other smaller matters, and with the
arrival of some gunpowder, the prospect of which is not unpromising,
will enable us to face our enemies with some countenance." Lee, with
due consideration, replied to the committee that he should comply with
their request about the troops, and do nothing that could endanger the
city.

It was not until the 4th of February that the general entered New
York. On the same day Clinton arrived in the harbor from Boston, with
his southern expedition, but only to make a brief stay. The coming of
these officers threw the city into great excitement. Many of the
inhabitants expected an immediate collision, and began to leave the
place. One Garish Harsin, writing from New York to William Radclift at
Rhyn Beck, sums up in a single sentence the effect of the harbor
news:[20] "It is impossible to describe the confusion the place was in
on account of the regulars being come." And when rumors magnified
Clinton's two or three transports into a British fleet of nineteen
sail, Harsin informs his friend that the people were taking themselves
out of town "as if it were the Last Day." Pastor Shewkirk, of the
Moravian Church, in his interesting diary[21] of passing events, tells
us that "the inhabitants began now to move away in a surprising
manner," and that "the whole aspect of things grew frightful, and
increased so from day to day." To add to the discomfort and suffering
of the people, the weather was very cold, and the rivers full of ice.

[Footnote 20: "New York in the Revolution." Published by the New York
Mercantile Library Association.]

[Footnote 21: Part II., Document 37.]

The Committee of Safety, in their anxiety as to the effect of Lee's
occupation of the city, had already written to the Continental
Congress on the subject, and that body at once sent up a committee,
consisting of Messrs. Harrison, Lynch, and Allen, to advise with Lee
and the New York Committee. The latter accepted the situation,
consented to the entry of the troops into town, and at a conference
with Lee and the Congress Committee on the 6th, agreed to the
immediate prosecution of defensive measures.

Upon his arrival, the general sent his engineer, Captain William
Smith, "an excellent, intelligent, active officer," to survey and
report upon the salient points of the position, especially around Hell
Gate and on Long Island. Lee and Stirling also went over the ground
several times. As a result of these inspections, the general became
convinced that to attempt a complete defence of the city would be
impracticable, because the ample sea-room afforded by the harbor and
rivers gave the enemy every advantage, enabling them, with their
powerful fleet, to threaten an attack in front and flank. Lee saw this
at once, and reported his views to Washington, February 19th. "What to
do with the city," he wrote, "I own, puzzles me. It is so encircled
with deep navigable waters, that whoever commands the sea must command
the town;" and to the New York Committee he said that it would be
impossible to make the place absolutely secure. In view of this, he
proposed to construct a system of defences that should have an
alternative object, namely, that in case they should prove inadequate
for the city's protection, they should at least be sufficient to
prevent the enemy from securing a permanent foothold in it.

Under this plan, the line of the East River required the principal
attention, as here it seemed possible to offer the best resistance to
British attempts upon the city. First, to cut off the enemy's
communication between the Sound and the river, it was proposed to
blockade the passage at Hell Gate by a fort on Horn's Hook, at the
foot of East Eighty-eighth Street, as well as by works opposite, on
the present Hallet's Point. A further object of these forts was to
secure safe transit between Long Island and New York. In the next
place, batteries were planned for both sides of the river at its
entrance into the harbor, where the city was chiefly exposed. On the
New York side, a battery was located at the foot of Catherine Street
at the intersection of Cherry, and where the river was narrowest. This
was called Waterbury's Battery. To cover its fire a stronger work was
ordered to be built on Rutgers' "first hill," just above, which was
named Badlam's Redoubt, after Captain Badlam, then acting as Lee's
chief artillery officer. Lower down a battery was sunk in a cellar on
Ten Eyck's wharf, Coenties Slip, a short distance below Wall Street,
and called Coenties Battery. These three, with part of the Grand
Battery and Fort George, included all the works planned by Lee to
guard the East River from the New York side.

In connection with these, works were laid out on the bank opposite on
Long Island, the importance of which was apparent. Not only was the
site well adapted for guns to sweep the channel and prevent the
enemy's ships from remaining in the river long enough to do the city
serious damage, but it also commanded the city, so as to make it
untenable by the British should they succeed in occupying it. This
bluff, "Columbia Heights," was in fact the key to the entire
situation. Lee considered its possession and security of "greater
importance" than New York; and to hold it he proposed establishing
there an intrenched camp[22] for three or four thousand men,
fortified by "a chain of redoubts mutually supporting each other." Of
these redoubts, one was located on the edge of the bluff opposite the
Coenties Battery, and stood on the line of Columbia Street, at about
the foot of the present Clark Street. This came to be known as Fort
Stirling. In its rear, near the corner of Henry and Pierrepont
streets, it was proposed to erect a large citadel; but this, although
begun, was never completed.[23] Lee's scheme of defence did not
include the fortifying of either Red Hook or Governor's Island.

[Footnote 22: Lee wrote to Washington, February 19th: "I wait for some
more force to prepare a post or retrenched encampment on Long Island,
opposite to the city, for 3000 men. This is, I think, a capital
object; for, should the enemy take possession of New York, when Long
Island is in our hands, they will find it almost impossible to
subsist."]

[Footnote 23: The location and strength of Fort Stirling, the citadel,
and the other works on Long Island, are noted more in detail further
along in this chapter.]

The East River thus provided for, attention was paid to the city and
the North River side. Lee examined Fort George and the Grand Battery,
but gave it as his opinion that neither of them could be held under
the concentrated fire of large ships. He advised, accordingly, that
the northern face of the fort be torn down, and a traverse built
across Broadway above it at the Bowling Green, from which the interior
of the work could be raked, should the enemy attempt to land and hold
it. As the North River was "so extremely wide and deep," the general
regarded the obstruction of its passage to the ships as out of the
question. Batteries, however, could be erected at various points along
the west side where it rose to a ridge, and the power of the ships to
injure the town very considerably diminished. All the streets leading
up from the water were ordered to be barricaded to prevent the enemy
from coming up on the flanks; forts were to be erected on Jones',
Bayard's, and Lispenard's hills, north of the town, covering the
approach by land from that direction; the roads obstructed to
artillery; and redoubts, redans, and flêches thrown up at defensible
points throughout the entire island, as far as King's Bridge.[24] "I
must observe," said Lee to the Committee of Safety, "that New York,
from its circumstances, can with difficulty be made a regular tenable
fortification; but it may be made a most advantageous field of
battle--so advantageous, indeed, that, if our people behave with
common spirit, and the commanders are men of discretion, it must cost
the enemy many thousands of men to get possession of it."

[Footnote 24: "_Feb. 23d, 1776._--... General Lee is taking every
necessary step to fortify and defend this city. The men-of-war are
gone out of our harbor; the Phoenix is at the Hook; the Asia lays
near Beedlow's Island; so that we are now in a state of perfect peace
and security, was it not for our apprehensions of future danger. To
see the vast number of houses shut up, one would think the city almost
evacuated. Women and children are scarcely to be seen in the streets.
Troops are daily coming in; they break open and quarter themselves in
any houses they find shut up. Necessity knows no law."--_Letter from
F. Rhinelander. "Life of Peter Van Schaack._"]

To construct these extensive works Lee could muster, two weeks after
his arrival, but seventeen hundred men. Waterbury's Connecticut
regiment was first on the ground; the First New Jersey Continentals,
as yet incomplete, under Colonel the Earl of Stirling, soon followed;
and from Westchester County, New York, came two hundred minute-men
under Colonel Samuel Drake. Dutchess County sent down Colonels
Swartwout and Van Ness with about three hundred more; and on the 24th
Colonel Ward arrived with his Connecticut regiment, six hundred
strong, which had rendezvoused at Fairfield. Stirling's regiment was
quartered principally in the lower barracks at the Battery;
Waterbury's at the upper, on the site of the new Court House; Ward's
was sent to Long Island; and Drake's minute-men were posted at Horn's
Hook, opposite Hell Gate, where they began work on the first battery
marked out for the defence of New York City during the Revolution.

[Illustration: [signature: John Lasher]

COLONEL FIRST NEW YORK CITY BATTALION 1775-1776.

Steel Engr. F. von Egloffstein N.Y.]

But Lee's stay at this point was to be brief. The Continental Congress
appointed him to the command of the newly created Department of the
South, and on the 7th of March he left New York in charge of Lord
Stirling, who, a month before, had been promoted by Congress to the
rank of brigadier-general. This officer's energy was conspicuous. His
predecessor had already found him "a great acquisition," and he pushed
on the defences of the city as rapidly as his resources would permit.
The force under his immediate command, according to the returns of the
13th, amounted to a total of two thousand four hundred and twenty-two
officers and men,[25] besides the city independent companies under
Colonels John Lasher and William Heyer, and local militia,[26] who
swelled the number to about four thousand. On the 14th, Washington
wrote to Stirling that the enemy appeared to be on the point of
evacuating Boston, and that it was more than probable they would sail
southward. "I am of opinion," he wrote, "that New York is their place
of destination. It is an object worthy of their attention, and it is
the place that we must use every endeavor to keep from them. For,
should they get that town, and the command of the North River, they
can stop the intercourse between the Northern and Southern
colonies, upon which depends the safety of America. My feelings upon
this subject are so strong, that I would not wish to give the enemy a
chance of succeeding at your place.... The plan of defence formed by
General Lee is, from what little I know of the place, a very judicious
one. I hope, nay, I dare say, it is carrying into execution with
spirit and industry. You may judge of the enemy's keeping so long
possession of the town of Boston against an army superior in numbers,
and animated with the noble spirit of liberty; I say, you may judge by
that how much easier it is to keep an enemy from forming a lodgment in
a place, than it will be to dispossess them when they get themselves
fortified." Stirling immediately sent urgent appeals for troops in
every direction. He ordered over the Third New Jersey Continental
Regiment under Colonel Dayton, and wrote for three hundred picked men
from each of the six nearest counties of that State. Ward's and
Waterbury's regiments, which were impatient to return home to attend
to their spring farming, were many of them induced to remain two weeks
beyond their term of enlistment until Governor Trumbull could supply
their places with troops under Colonels Silliman and Talcott. Congress
also ordered forward five or six Pennsylvania regiments. Meanwhile the
New York Committee of Safety co-operated zealously with the military
authorities.[27] At Stirling's request they voted to call out all the
male inhabitants of the city, black and white, capable of doing
"fatigue duty," to work on the fortifications--the blacks to work
every day, the whites every other day;[28] and the same orders were
conveyed to the committee of King's County, where the inhabitants were
directed to report to Colonel Ward, with spades, hoes and pickaxes. To
troops needing quarters the committee turned over the empty houses in
the city, or those that were "least liable to be injured;" coarse
sheets were ordered for the straw beds in the barracks; the upper
story of the "Bridewell" was converted into a laboratory or armory for
repairing guns and making cartridges; and all necessary details
provided for as far as possible. In case of an alarm, the troops were
to parade immediately at the Battery, in the Common, and in front of
Trinity Church. To annoy expected British men-of-war, the committee
despatched Major William Malcolm, of the Second city battalion, to
dismantle the Sandy Hook Light, which the major effected in a thorough
manner, breaking what glasses he could not move, and carrying off the
oil. On Long Island, a guard of King's County troopers was posted at
the Narrows, and another at Rockaway, to report the approach of ships;
and in the city, cannon were mounted in the batteries as fast as they
were completed. On the 20th, Stirling could report that everybody
turned to "with great spirit and industry," and that the work went on
"amazingly well."

[Footnote 25: Privates present fit for duty: Stirling's regiment, 407;
Waterbury's, 457; Ward's, 489; Drake's, 104; Swartwout's, 186; Van
Ness', 110; Captain Ledyard's company, N.Y., 64.]

[Footnote 26: In the chapter on "The Two Armies," some further account
is given of the troops furnished during the campaign by New York and
the Brooklyn villages.]

[Footnote 27: The committee humored Governor Tryon, however, with a
few civilities as late as April 4th, when they provided his fleet with
"the following articles, viz.: 1300 lbs. beef for the 'Asia'; 1000
lbs. beef for the 'Phoenix,' with 18_s._ worth vegetables; 2 qrs.
beef, 1 doz. dishes, 2 doz. plates, 1 doz. spoons, 2 mugs, 2 barrels
ale, for the packet; 6 barrels of beer, 2 quarters of beef for the
governor's ship, 'Duchess of Gordon.'"--_Journal of the Provincial
Congress._]

[Footnote 28: Stirling's orders, March 13th, 1776: "It is intended to
employ one half of the inhabitants every other day, changing, at the
works for the defence of this city; and the whole of the slaves every
day, until this place is put in a proper posture of defence. The Town
Major is immediately to disperse these orders."--_Force_, 4th series,
vol. v., p. 219.

The citizens were divided off into reliefs or "beats." In the "N.Y.
Hist. Manuscripts," vol. i., p. 267, may be found the "Amount of
officers and Privates of ye 22d Beat at work 17 March"--59 men
under Captain Benj. Egbert. Negroes belonging to the 22d Beat--"Pomp,
Cæsar, Peter, Sam, Jo, Cubitt, Simms, John, Cato," etc., 11 in all.]

On the same date Brigadier-General Thompson, of Pennsylvania, reported
at New York, and held the command until the arrival, a few days later,
of Brigadier-General Heath, of Massachusetts, who in turn was
relieved, April 4th, by Major-General Putnam.

       *       *       *       *       *

Affairs at Boston now reached a crisis. The siege, which the
provincial troops had so successfully maintained for ten months,
terminated to their own unbounded credit and the secret mortification
of the enemy. On the 17th of March the city was evacuated by the
British, and immediately occupied by the Americans--an event that had
been foreseen and provided for at a council of war held on the 13th,
at General Ward's headquarters in Roxbury. The commander-in-chief
there stated that every indication pointed to an early departure of
the enemy from Boston, with the probability that they were destined
for New York, and he questioned whether it was not advisable to send a
part of the army to that point without delay. The council coincided in
this opinion, and on the following day the rifle regiment under
Lieutenant-Colonel Hand, and the three companies of Virginia riflemen,
under Captain Stephenson, were put on the march southward. These were
followed on the 18th by five regiments under Brigadier-General Heath,
who had been ordered to march by way of Providence, Norwich, New
London, and the Sound. As the enemy's transports lingered around
Boston for several days, no more troops were sent southward until the
29th, when six regiments were ordered on, under Brigadier-General
Sullivan. On the same date Major-General Putnam received orders to
proceed to New York, assume command, and continue the work of
fortifying the city upon the plan adopted by General Lee. On the 1st
of April, Brigadier-General Greene's brigade moved in the same
direction, and was followed in a day or two by General Spencer's. Five
regiments remained at Boston, under Major-General Ward.

Waiting until all the troops were on the march, Washington, on April
4th, himself set out from Cambridge for New York. Crowned with his
first honors as the deliverer of Boston, he was greeted on his route
with respectful admiration and enthusiasm. He had come to New England
comparatively unknown--"a Mr. Washington, of Virginia;" he left it
secure in the affections and pride of its people. Expecting him at
Providence the next day, the 5th, General Greene, who had been delayed
at that place, ordered two regiments of his brigade--Hitchcock's Rhode
Island and Little's Massachusetts--to appear in their best form and
escort the general into the city. The minuteness of Greene's
directions on the occasion furnishes us with the material for a
picture of the personal appearance of the early Continental soldier
when on parade. As preserved among the papers of the Massachusetts
colonel, the order runs as follows:

     "_Providence April 4, 1776._--Colo. Hitchcock's and
     Colo. Little's regiments are to turn out to-morrow
     morning to escort his Excellency into town, to parade at 8
     o'clock, both officers & men dressed in uniform, & none to
     turn out except those dressed in uniform, & those of the
     non-commissioned officers & soldiers that turn out to be
     washed, both face & hands, clean, their beards shaved, their
     hair combed & powdered, & their arms cleaned. The General
     hopes that both officers & soldiers will exert themselves
     for the honour of the regiment & brigade to which they
     belong. He wishes to pay the honours to the Commander in
     Chief in as decent & respectable a manner as possible."[29]

[Footnote 29: MS. Order Book of Colonel Moses Little.]

Governor Cooke, of Rhode Island, was not less attentive, and in
addition to calling out "the several companies of cadets, of
grenadiers, and light infantry" in Providence to meet the
commander-in-chief, he had a house prepared for his reception and the
accommodation of his suite, which, besides his officers, included Lady
Washington and Mr. and Mrs. Custis.[30] Passing on to New London,
where he hurried the embarkation of the troops, Washington kept on
along the shore road, reached New Haven on the 11th, and on the 13th
arrived at the city of New York. Putnam had come ten days earlier.
Owing to insufficient transportation and slow sailing on the Sound, it
was April 24th before the last of the soldiers reported on the ground.

[Footnote 30: R.I. Hist. Coll. Vol. VI.]

       *       *       *       *       *

The new military base in this vicinity was thus fairly established,
and the commander-in-chief, after personally inspecting the position,
urged on the work of defence. As the regiments on their arrival had
been quartered at haphazard in the city, he first arranged the army
into five brigades, with the view of putting them into suitable and
permanent camps. To the command of these he assigned Heath, Spencer,
Sullivan, Greene, and Stirling, in the order of their rank. The
twenty-five battalions which made up the force at this date numbered
together not quite ten thousand men.

But hardly were the orders for this new arrangement issued before
events required its modification. Our affairs proving to be in a bad
way in the direction of Canada, it became necessary to despatch
General Sullivan with six regiments to the northward, and on the 29th
of April the troops in New York were formed anew into four brigades,
and assigned to their respective camps. Heath's first brigade was
posted on the Hudson, just without the city above the Canal Street
marsh and about Richmond Hill; Spencer's second, on the East River,
around the Rutgers' farm and Jones' Hill; and Stirling's fourth, in
the centre, near Bayard's Hill and the Bowery Road; while Greene's
third brigade was assigned to "the ground marked out upon Long
Island." But one work now lay before these soldiers, namely, to put
New York and its vicinity in a complete state of defence in the
shortest possible time. Howe and his Boston army, it was now known,
had gone to Halifax instead of sailing for New York; but he could
still reach, and, with reinforcements from England, attack the city
before the Americans were ready to receive him. The situation,
accordingly, admitted of no delays, and digging was made the order of
the day. No one could have anticipated, however, that preparations
were to be continued full four months longer before active campaigning
opened.

This interval of fortifying is not without its interest; and we may
cross, first, with Greene to Long Island, to note what further was
done towards securing that "capital" point in the general system of
defence.

       *       *       *       *       *

From the orders of April 24th and 25th it would appear that it was
Washington's original intention to give the Brooklyn command, not to
Greene, but to Sullivan. The latter was assigned to the Third Brigade
before going to Canada, and on the 25th the encampment of this brigade
was ordered to be marked out "upon Long Island." The fact that
Sullivan was senior to Greene in rank, and was entitled, as between
the two, to the honor and responsibility of the separate command, was
doubtless the ground of his assignment in this case. But a greater
responsibility was reserved for Sullivan in Canada, and Greene was
sent to Long Island. Owing to bad weather, it was the 3d or 4th of
May before the latter crossed with troops. He took with him his old
brigade, consisting of Colonel Edward Hand's Pennsylvania Riflemen,
his two favorite Rhode Island regiments under Colonels James Mitchell
Varnum and Daniel Hitchcock, and Colonel Moses Little's regiment from
Massachusetts. These ranked as the First, Ninth, Eleventh, and Twelfth
of the Continental Establishment, and were as well armed and under as
good discipline as any troops in Washington's army. Hand's regiment,
numbering four hundred and seventy officers and men, was already on
Long Island, having come from Boston in advance of the brigades, and
was engaged in scouting and patrol duty at the Narrows and along the
coast. Varnum's, Hitchcock's, and Little's, having an average strength
of three hundred and eighty each, were the only troops around
Brooklyn.[31] The Long Island militia were not as yet in the field,
and the small company of Brooklyn troopers under Captain Waldron and
Lieutenant Boerum, which had patrolled the coast during the early
spring, do not appear on duty again until late in the season.

[Footnote 31: Ward's, we have seen, was the first regiment stationed
on Long Island. It was there from February 24th until about the end of
March. The _N.Y. Packet_ of February 29th, 1776, says: "Saturday last
Col. Ward's regiment arrived here from Connecticut, and embarked in
boats and landed on Nassau [Long] Island." Lee gave orders that a
Pennsylvania battalion, supposed to be on its way to New York, should
encamp from the Wallabout to Gowanus, but no Pennsylvania troops are
included in Stirling's return, and certainly none were on Long Island
until Hand's riflemen came from Boston. It is probable that Colonel
Chas. Webb's Connecticut Continentals relieved Ward, as Captain Hale
writes that it had been there three weeks, sometime before May 20th.
Greene's brigade were the next troops to cross over.]

It now remained for these regiments to go on fortifying the
water-front of this site to keep the ships out of the river, and, in
addition, to secure themselves against an attack by land. What Lee's
plan was in reference to Columbia Heights has already been seen. Here
he proposed to establish a camp with Fort Stirling and the Citadel
among its defences, the former of which had been nearly completed and
the latter begun by Ward's regiment and the inhabitants. In
consequence, however, of a move made by General Putnam soon after his
arrival, it had evidently become necessary to enlarge this plan.
Governor's Island, just off the edge of which were moored the British
men-of-war, had not been occupied by either Lee or Stirling; but it
lay within cannon-shot of the Battery and Columbia Heights, and an
enemy once lodged there could work us mischief. General Putnam noticed
its position, and he had not been here three days before he wrote,
April 7th, to the President of Congress: "After getting the works [in
New York] in such forwardness as will be prudent to leave, I propose
immediately to take possession of Governor's Island, which I think a
very important post. Should the enemy arrive here, and get post there,
it will not be possible to save the city, nor could we dislodge them
without great loss."[32] On the very next night he carried out his
proposal, as appears from the following account of the manoeuvre
preserved among the papers of Colonel G. Selleck Silliman, of
Fairfield, Connecticut, who had recently come down to relieve the
troops under Ward and Waterbury:

[Footnote 32: _Force_, Fourth Series, vol. v., p. 811.]

"_Tuesday Morning, 9th April._--Last Evening Draughts were made from a
Number of Regiments here, mine among the Rest, to the Amount of 1,000
Men. With these and a proper Number of Officers Genl Putnam at
Candle lighting embarked on Board of a Number of Vessels with a large
Number of intrenching Tools and went directly on the Island a little
below the City called Nutten [Governor's] Island where they have been
intrenching all Night and are now at work, and have got a good Breast
Work there raised which will cover them from the fire of the Ships;
and it is directly in the Way of the Ship coming up to the Town. The
Asia has fallen down out of Gun Shot from this Place and it deprives
the Ships of the only Watering Place they have here without going down
toward the Hook."[33] There was something of the Bunker Hill flavor
about this move, and it was Prescott's Bunker Hill regiment that was
first stationed[34] on the Island, which subsequently became one of
the strongest posts of the position. At the same time another party
occupied Red Hook,[35] on Long Island, which commanded the channel
between the Hook and Governor's Island.

[Footnote 33: MS. letter from Colonel Silliman to his wife, in
possession of Mrs. O.P. Hubbard, New York City.]

[Footnote 34: General Orders, April 16th, 1776: ... "Colonel
Prescott's Regiment is to encamp on Governour's Island as soon as the
weather clears. They are to give every assistance in their power to
the works erecting thereon."...]

[Footnote 35: "Monday night 1000 Continental troops stationed here
went over and took possession of Governor's Island and began to
fortify it; the same night a regiment went over to Red Hook and
fortified that place likewise." _New York Packet, April 11, 1776._]

The occupation by Putnam of these two points, which was clearly
necessary for a more effective defence of the East River, required, or
at least resulted in, the modification of Lee's plan, and the adoption
of a new line on Long Island. It was now decided to hold the Brooklyn
peninsula with a chain of works thrown up across the neck from
Wallabout Bay to the Gowanus Marsh; and it was in this vicinity that
the encampment for Greene's brigade was marked out by Mifflin, the
quartermaster-general, and afterwards approved by Washington.[36] By
the fortunate recovery of the daily orders issued by General Greene on
Long Island, and also of original sketches of the site, it has become
possible to fix the location of this line and the names of the works
with almost entire accuracy.

[Footnote 36: General Orders, April 25th, 1776: "The encampment of the
Third Brigade to be marked out in like manner, upon Long Island, on
Saturday morning. The chief engineers, with the quartermasters, etc.,
from each regiment, to assist the quartermaster-general in that
service. As soon as the general has approved of the encampments marked
out, the troops will be ordered to encamp...."]

To defend the approach between the bay and marsh, the engineers laid
out three principal forts and two redoubts, with breastworks
connecting them. The site occupied was a favorable one. On the left
rose the high ground, now known as Fort Greene Place or Washington
Park, one hundred feet above the sea-level; and on the right, between
the main road and the marsh, were lower elevations on lands then owned
by Rutgert Van Brunt and Johannes Debevoise. The flanks were thus well
adapted for defence, and they were near enough each other to command
the ground between them. Two of the works were erected on the right of
the road, and received the names of Fort Greene and Fort Box; three
were on the left, and were known as the Oblong Redoubt, Fort Putnam,
and the redoubt "on its left." In view of the fact that local
historians heretofore have put but three fortifications on this line,
where, it is now well established, there were five, a more particular
description of them becomes necessary. Extending from right to left,
they were laid out as follows:[37]

[Footnote 37: Consult map accompanying this work, entitled "Plan of
the Battle of Long Island, and of the Brooklyn Defences in 1776;" also
the note in regard to it under the title "Maps," in Part II.]

FORT BOX.--It has been supposed that the fort by this name occupied an
independent site south-west of the main line, with the object of
defending Gowanus Creek where it was crossed by a mill-dam. That it
stood, however, on the right of the line is beyond question. Thus the
letter of a spectator of the battle[38] says: "Our lines fronted the
east. On the left, near the lowest part of the above-described bay
[Wallabout], was Fort Putnam, near the middle Fort Greene, and towards
the creek Fort Box." In his order of June 1st, General Greene directs
five companies to take post "upon the right in Fort Box;" and on
August 16th a fatigue party is detailed "to form the necessary lines
from Fort Box to Fort Putnam," clearly indicating that the two were on
the same continuous line. To confirm the correctness of this locality,
we have the fort and its name distinctly indicated on the outline map
sketched by President Stiles, of Yale College, in his Diary of
Revolutionary Events. By reference to the fac-simile of the sketch
here presented, it will be seen that although there are errors in the
drawing, the relative position of the principal works is preserved,
and the site of Fort Box finally determined. It stands nearest Gowanus
Creek, and on the right of the other forts. The work appears to have
been of a diamond shape, and was situated on or near the line of
Pacific Street, a short distance above Bond.[39]

[Footnote 38: "Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society," vol.
ii., p. 494. "Battle of Long Island." By Thomas W. Field.]

[Footnote 39: As the British demolished all the Brooklyn works very
soon after their capture, it would be difficult to fix the exact site
of some of them, but for data which have been preserved. That they
were destroyed is certain. Baurmeister, the Hessian major, states that
Howe directed the Hessian division to level the "Brocklands-Leinen,"
but recalled the order when General De Heister represented that "this
could not be done by soldiers without compensation, especially as it
would be the work of four weeks." According to tradition, the
inhabitants levelled them by Howe's orders. General Robertson
testified in 1779 that "there were no vestiges of the lines soon after
they were taken." Cornwallis on the same occasion said that, being
detached to Newtown after the battle, he had "no opportunity of going
to Brooklyn till the lines were nearly demolished." But with the
assistance of Lieutenant Ratzer's accurate topographical map of New
York and Brooklyn of 1766-7, the Hessian map published in vol. ii. of
the Society's _Memoirs_, the plan of the lines thrown up in the 1812
war, and other documents, the forts of 1776 can readily be located.
Ratzer's map shows all the elevations where works would naturally be
put; and the Hessian map, which is a reduction of Ratzer's, adds the
works. The accuracy of the latter, which heretofore could not be
proved, is now established by the fact that the position of the forts
corresponds to the location assigned them relatively in Greene's
orders. There can be little doubt that this map was made from actual
surveys soon after the battle, and that the shape as well as the site
of the works and lines is preserved in it. Another guide is the 1812
line as marked out by Lieutenant Gadsden, of the Engineer Corps. A
copy of the original plan of this line, furnished by the War
Department, shows a close correspondence with the Hessian draft. The
same points are fortified in each case. Fort "Fireman" of 1812
occupies the site, or very nearly the site, of Fort Box; Fort
"Masonic," that of Fort Greene; Redoubt "Cummings," that of the Oblong
Redoubt; and "Fort Greene," that of Fort Putnam. The site of the
"redoubt on the left" was inclosed, in 1812, in the outer intrenchment
which was carried around the brow of the hill. Although the British
obliterated all marks of the Brooklyn defences of 1776, we thus find
nature and the records enabling us to re-establish them to-day.]

[Illustration: SKETCH OF THE BROOKLYN WORKS IN 1776.

FACSIMILE FROM THE STILES DIARY

Yale College Library.

_"From one who was stationed at Red Hook all last Summer together with
a Map of the ground, I learn our Fortifications there were as I here
draw them out on the Peninsula around Brooklyn Church." Dr. Stiles,
March 21, 1777._

_J. Bien Photo. Lith. N.Y._]

As to its name, we must assume that it was called Fort Box in honor of
Major Daniel Box, Greene's brigade-major (an office corresponding to
the present assistant adjutant-general), whose services were then
highly appreciated. Box first appears as an old British soldier, who
had been wounded in the French war, and afterwards as an organizer and
drill-master of Independent companies in Rhode Island, which
subsequently furnished many fine officers to the Continental army.[40]
In a letter to Colonel Pickering in 1779, Greene speaks of him in
flattering terms, as having been invaluable in the earlier years of
the war. That he was something of an engineer, as well as an
excellent brigade-major, is evident from the fact that he assisted in
marking out the lines around Boston in 1775, and later superintended
the construction of Fort Lee, on the Jersey side. No doubt he had much
to say about the building of the Brooklyn lines, and of the work in
particular which bore his name.

[Footnote 40: MS. letter of General Greene to Colonel Pickering,
August 24, 1779, in possession of Prof. Geo. Washington Greene, East
Greenwich, L.I.]

FORT GREENE.--About three hundred yards to the left of Fort Box, a
short distance above Bond Street, between State and Schermerhorn,
stood Fort Greene, star-shaped, mounting six guns, and provided with a
well and magazines. Colonel Little, its commander, describes it as the
largest of the works on Long Island; and this statement is
corroborated by the fact that its garrison consisted of an entire
regiment, which was not the case with the other forts, and that it was
provided with nearly double the number of pikes. It occupied an
important position on one of the small hills near the centre of that
part of the line lying south-west of Washington Park, and its guns
commanded the approach by the Jamaica highway. Being the principal
work on the line, the engineers, or possibly Little's regiment, named
it after their brigade commander.

OBLONG REDOUBT.--Still further to the left, and on the other side of
the road, a small circular redoubt, called the "Oblong Redoubt," was
thrown up on what was then a piece of rising ground at the corner of
De Kalb and Hudson avenues. The reason of its name is not apparent.
Greene's orders refer to it as the "Oblong Square" and the "Oblong
Redoubt." Major Richard Thorne, of Colonel Remsen's Long Island
militia, speaks of being on guard at "Fort Oblong" all night a short
time before the battle.[41] This redoubt had very nearly direct
command of the road, and in connection with Fort Greene was depended
upon to defend the centre of the line.

[Footnote 41: "_Force_," Fifth Series, vol. ii., p. 202.]

FORT PUTNAM.--From the Oblong Redoubt, the line ascended
north-easterly to the top of the hill included in Washington Park,
where the fourth in the chain of works was erected. This was Fort
Putnam. Star-shaped like Fort Greene, it was somewhat smaller than the
latter, and mounted four or five garrison guns. Its strong natural
position, however, made it the salient point of the line, and it
became, as will be seen, the main object of attack by the British
during and after the battle.[42] The fort may have taken its name, as
usually supposed, from Major-General Israel Putnam; but it is
altogether more probable that it was named after Colonel Rufus Putnam,
the chief engineer, who marked out many of the works on Long Island as
well as in New York, and who must have frequently crossed to give
directions in their construction.

[Footnote 42: Mr. Field states that the site of Fort Putnam was
unfortunately overlooked by the high ground east of it, Greene and his
engineers probably not noticing the fact until after the woods were
cut down. The official surveys of the ground, made before it was
levelled, show no such commanding elevation, the Fort Putnam Hill
being as high as any _within range_; nor can we credit Greene or his
officers with fortifying a point which was untenable, or with not
observing that it was untenable. As the engineers of 1812 occupied the
same site, it could be safely concluded, were no surveys preserved,
that it was entirely defensible.]

REDOUBT ON THE LEFT.--At the eastern termination of the hill, a short
distance from Fort Putnam, and on a lower grade, stood the last of the
works, which is identified in the orders and letters of the day as the
"redoubt on the left." It was a small affair, and occupied a point at
about the middle of the present Cumberland Street, nearly midway
between Willoughby and Myrtle avenues; but in 1776 the site was twenty
feet higher, and appeared as a well-defined spur extending out from
Fort Putnam. As it was commanded by the latter, its capture by the
enemy would bring them no advantage, while as an American defence it
could materially assist in protecting the left.

Between these five works a line of connecting intrenchments was laid
out, while on the right it was to be continued from Fort Box to the
marsh, and on the left from the Fort Putnam Hill, "in a straight
line," to the swamp at the edge of Wallabout Bay. Anticipating their
construction, we may say that each work became a complete
fortification in itself, being surrounded with a wide ditch, provided
with a sally-port, its sides lined with sharpened stakes, the garrison
armed with spears to repel storming parties, and the work supplied
with water and provisions to withstand a siege if necessary. The
greater part of the line was picketed with abattis, and the woods cut
down to give full sweep to the fire of the guns. As every thing
depended upon holding this front, the necessity of making it as strong
as possible was fully realized, and at the time of the engagement in
August it was considered a sufficient barrier to the enemy's
advance.[43]

[Footnote 43: Some important and interesting information relative to
the main line at Brooklyn was brought out in 1779 at the examination
of Captain John Montressor, before the Parliamentary Committee which
investigated Howe's conduct of the war. Montressor was a British army
engineer, acting as Howe's aid on Long Island. Being one of the
general's witnesses, he naturally made out the American position as
strong as possible, but the main facts of his testimony are to be
accepted. The examination was in part as follows:

"_Q._ Can you give a particular account of the state of those
[Brooklyn] lines?

_A._ Yes--the lines were constructed from Wallabout Bay, on one side
to a swamp that intersects the land between the main land and Read
Hook, which terminates the lines. The lines were about a mile and a
half in extent, including the angles, cannon proof, with a chain of
five redoubts, or rather fortresses, with ditches, as had also the
lines that formed the intervals, raised on the parapet and the
counterscarp, and the whole surrounded with the most formidable
abbaties.

_Q._ Were those lines finished on every part, from the swamp formed by
the Wallabout on the left, to the swamp on the right?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Do you know the particulars of the left part of the line towards
the Wallabout? Have you any reason for knowing that?

_A._ The line runs straight from the rising ground where Fort Putnam
was constructed, in a straight line to the swamp that terminates
itself at the bottom of Wallabout Bay.

_Q._ Was there a possibility of a single man's passing round the left
part of the line?

_A._ There was not. After entering the lines, Sir William Howe, on the
enemy's evacuating, followed the road to the point, to examine and see
if he could get out at that part, which he could not do, and we were
obliged to return and go out of a sally port of the lines....

_Q._ Can you say of your own knowledge, that the right redoubt of the
lines at Brooklyn had an abattis before it?

_A._ I have already said that the whole had an abattis before it.

[He produces an actual survey of the lines.]...

_Q._ If any one of these redoubts were taken, did not they flank the
line in such a manner to the right and left that the enemy could not
remain in the lines?

_A._ I have already said, that they could not be taken by assault, but
by approaches, as they were rather fortresses than redoubts."--_A View
of the Evidence Relative to the Conduct of the American War under Sir
William Howe_, etc.; second edition; London, 1779. _Manual of the
Corporation of the City of New York_, 1870, p. 884.

The maps in the early London editions of Gordon's and Stedman's
histories of the war, each put _five_ fortifications on the line from
the Wallabout to Gowanus Creek.]

FORT COBBLE HILL.--Passing to the remaining works on Long Island, we
find a redoubt on the crest of a cone-shaped hill, which stood alone
near the intersection of the present Court and Atlantic streets, and
which was known by the Dutch inhabitants as _Punkiesberg_. As it does
not appear to have been called Cobble Hill before this date, the
reasonable inference may be drawn that it was so named by Greene's
troops because of its close resemblance to the Cobble Hill which
formed one of the fortified points in the siege of Boston, but a short
distance from Winter Hill, where Greene's brigade was posted. In the
orders of the day, the redoubt is known as "Smith's barbette,"
Captain William Smith, the engineer whom Lee brought with him, having
it in charge. The work mounted four guns, and, from its central
interior position, could have prevented the enemy from securing a
foothold on the peninsula in the rear or flank of the main line in
case they effected a landing back of Red Hook or crossed Gowanus Creek
above. This hill was long since cut away.[44]

[Footnote 44: One of Greene's orders refers to this fort as follows:
"_Camp on Long Island, July 19, 1776._--The works on Cobble Hill being
greatly retarded for want of men to lay turf, few being acquainted
with that service, all those in Colonel Hitchcock's and Colonel
Little's regiments, that understand that business, are desired to
voluntarily turn out every day, and they shall be excused from all
other duty, and allowed one half a pint of rum a day." Two guns fired
from Cobble Hill were to be the signal that the enemy had landed on
Long Island.]

REDOUBT AT THE MILL.--Near the corner of the present Degraw and Bond
streets, a small battery or breastwork, in the form of a right angle,
mounting one gun, was thrown up to cover the narrow passage over a
mill-dam which here crossed Gowanus Creek. It stood at the extremity
of a long low sand-hill, and the dam connected this point with a
tongue of land on the opposite side, on which two mills were built,
known as the upper or yellow, and lower mills. The upper mill was
immediately opposite the redoubt, and it was here that the Port Road
came down to the edge of the creek.

RED HOOK--FORT DEFIANCE.--This work, already referred to, was
originally a single water battery, mounting four eighteen-pounders,
_en barbette_, to prevent the passage of ships east of Governor's
Island, as well as to keep the enemy from landing at the southern
extremity of the peninsula. Washington speaks of it in May as being "a
small, but exceedingly strong" fort. Lieutenant Samuel Shaw, of Knox's
artillery, who was stationed there most of the summer, states that it
was named "Fort Defiance," and subsequently strengthened by additional
works, which, from the Hessian map and the Stiles draft, appear to
have consisted of a second and larger redoubt connected with the first
by an intrenchment or inclosed way.[45] On the 5th of July, Greene
wrote to Washington that he regarded Red Hook as "a post of vast
importance," and proposed stationing a considerable force there
permanently, as in that case the commanding officer would be "more
industrious to have every thing in readiness, and obstinate in
defence" when the attack came; and on the 8th we find the order for
"Col. Varnum's regiment to remove their encampment to Red Hook, and do
the duty of that post."

[Footnote 45: "Our fort [Defiance] is much strengthened by new works
and more troops, and it is in so good a posture of defence, that it
would be almost impossible to take it either by attack or surprise. To
guard against the latter, each man is every other night on
duty."--_Memoir of Samuel Shaw_, p. 17.]

FORT STIRLING.--The first work laid out on Long Island, as we have
seen, was Fort Stirling, which, in connection with batteries on the
New York side, was designed to command the East River channel. Its
exact site has been a point of dispute. Several writers and old
inhabitants associate the name with the remains of a large
fortification which stood at the corner of Henry and Pierrepont
streets as late as 1836. It is clear, however, that this was a work
erected by the British during the latter part of the Revolution.
General Robertson, acting as Governor of New York in 1780, wrote to
Lord Germaine, May 18th, that, among other works thrown up to make New
York more secure against an attack by the Americans, "a large square
fort is built at Brooklyn Heights."[46] The traveller Smyth, writing
in the same year, says, "The town [New York] is entirely commanded by
a considerable eminence in Long Island, directly opposite to it, named
Brookland Heights, on which a strong regular fort with four bastions
has lately been erected by the British troops." This exactly describes
the work in question.[47] The corner of Henry and Pierrepont streets,
moreover, being a thousand feet back from the river's edge, could not
have been selected at that time as the site for a strictly water
battery intended for effective resistance. The fort must be looked for
nearer the edge of the bluff, and there we find it. Both the Stiles
and the Hessian maps place it directly on the bank of the river--the
latter, a little north of what was then known as the Bamper House, or
at about the intersection of Clark and Columbia streets.[48]

[Footnote 46: _Documents, Col. Hist. of New York_, vol. viii., p.
792.]

[Footnote 47: The recollections and incidents preserved by Stiles and
Furman go to show that this was not an American-built fort.--_Stiles'
Brooklyn_, vol. i., pp. 314, 315.]

[Footnote 48: A return of the batteries around New York, March 24th,
describes Fort Stirling as opposite the "Fly Market" in Maiden Lane
[_Force_, Fourth Series, vol. v., p. 480]. Clark, Pineapple, and
Orange streets, Brooklyn, can all be called "opposite" Maiden Lane in
New York. The Hessian map puts the fort nearest the line of Clark.]

The fort was a strong inclosed work, mounting eight guns. Ward's men
broke ground for it about the 1st of March, and continued digging, as
their major, Douglas, writes, through "cold, tedious weather," until
other troops took their place.[49]

[Footnote 49: The work, which was to be known as the _Citadel_, was in
all probability the "redoubte commencé," or unfinished fort, indicated
on the Hessian map in the rear and to the south of Fort Stirling. The
site corresponds with that of the British fort of 1780, corner of
Henry and Pierrepont streets, which was then, as it still is, the
highest point on Brooklyn Heights, and hence the natural position for
a citadel or commanding fortification. Stirling, in his letter to the
President of Congress of March 14, says: "The work [Fort Stirling]
first begun on Long Island opposite to this city is almost completed,
and the cannon carried over. The grand citadel there will be marked
out to-morrow, and will be begun by the inhabitants of King's County
and Colonel Ward's Regiment."

The list of batteries, March 24th, contains a note to the effect that
a citadel covering five acres, called the _Congress_, was to be built
in the rear of Fort Stirling. Major Fish writes, April 9th: "There are
_two_ fortifications on Long Island opposite this city, to command the
shipping." One of these was Fort Stirling--the other, undoubtedly, the
citadel then in process of construction. The latter, though not in as
favorable a position for the purpose as the former, could still fire
on ships entering the river.

The position of these two works, taken in connection with Lee's plan
of forming an intrenched camp on Long Island, fortified with a chain
of redoubts, which, according to one of his letters, were to be three
in number, indicates quite clearly that this general intended to hold
simply the heights along the river. The facts fail to bear out the
supposition that the lines, as finally adopted on Long Island, were of
Lee's planning. Work on the citadel was probably discontinued, because
his plan was so much enlarged as to make that fortification
unavailable.]

       *       *       *       *       *

Greene's soldiers, whose experience around Boston had made them
veterans, at least in the use of the spade, now went to work to throw
up these lines. He reminded them early of the importance of the post,
and the necessity of preparation and vigilance. "As the security of
New York greatly dependeth on this _pass_," runs his order of May 5th,
"while these works are constructing, the general hopes the troops will
carefully forward the same as fast as possible;" and this he followed
up with the caution that if any soldier left his work without liberty,
he should do fatigue duty for a whole week. Orders from headquarters
in New York at the same time directed General Greene to report "all
extraordinaries" to the commander-in-chief; the officers at Red Hook
and Governor's Island to do the same; and the officer commanding the
riflemen on Long Island to "constantly report all extraordinaries to
General Greene." Although no enemy had yet appeared, every regiment in
the army was ordered to mount a picket every evening, to lie on their
arms, and be ready to turn out at a moment's notice.

It is possible to follow the troops on Long Island in their routine of
camp life all through the tedious summer they were to spend on this
ground. Digging was the main thing at first, and they had so much of
this that the officers complained of their inability to keep the men
in clothes, they wore them out so fast, and they made themselves so
begrimed with dirt at the trenches, that the allowance of soap would
not clean them; all which moved Greene to write to Washington that it
would be no more than "a piece of justice to the troops" to allow them
a double quantity of soap. Their encampment, in the rear of the lines,
appears to have been a pleasant one. The soldiers lived in bell-shaped
tents with board floors, and varied their regulation fare with the
produce of the Dutch farms; with the permission of their
field-officers they could occasionally cross on a visit to the city.
Their general, however, held them closely to duty, and we find in
these early orders the beginnings of that strictness which
subsequently made him known, with his other soldierly qualities, as a
thorough disciplinarian. No enemy being near them, the men, when put
on guard, perhaps relaxed even ordinary vigilance; but they were soon
brought up sharply by the general, with the direction that every part
of camp duty must be done with as much exactness as if the British
were in their front, for bad habits once contracted, they are told,
"are difficult to get over, and doing duty in a slovenly manner is
both disgraceful and dangerous to officers and men." They were sure of
being watched, too, by Lieutenant-Colonel Cornell, of Hitchcock's
regiment, whose habit of reprimanding the men for every neglect had
won for him the title of "Old Snarl" throughout the camp;[50] but his
subsequent promotion to offices of responsibility showed that in other
quarters his particular qualities were appreciated. As the warm
season came on, Greene cautioned his soldiers about their health. The
"colormen" were to keep the camps clean, and look after the hospitals.
Many soldiers being down with fever in July, the general recommends
"the strictest attention to the cookery, and that broiling and frying
meat, so destructive to health, be prohibited;" going into the water
in the heat of the day is also forbidden. A neglect of these matters
at this critical season, Greene continues, "may be attended with
dreadful consequences."

[Footnote 50: _Letter from General Greene written at Fort Lee. Mrs.
Williams' Life of Olney._]

Occasionally it was found necessary to give the soldiers a sharp
reproof for insulting the inhabitants or trespassing on their
property. When the complaint was brought to Greene that some of his
men had been stealing watermelons, he promptly issued an order that
such practices must be punished. "A few unprincipled rascals," he
said, "may ruin the reputation of a whole corps of virtuous men;" and
on another occasion he called upon the soldiers to behave themselves
"with that decency and respect that became the character of troops
fighting for the preservation of the rights and liberties of America."
Perhaps the offenders found an excuse for their conduct in the Tory
character of the complainants; but Greene, though no friend himself to
such people, could never accept this as a provocation to justify a
breach of military discipline.

The Tory element in the population required other and sterner
treatment.[51] It had developed to such an extent in Kings and Queens
counties as to require its suppression by the civil and military power
combined. The refusal of the majority of the voters in Queens to send
delegates to the New York Provincial Convention in 1775 indicated not
only a confidence on their part that the Home Government would succeed
in crushing the rebellion, but a secret intention as well to give the
British troops upon their arrival all the aid and comfort in their
power. As they provided themselves with arms and the British fleet
with provisions, the Continental Congress took up the matter, ordered
the arrest of the leaders, and dispatched Colonel Heard, of New
Jersey, with a regiment of militia to execute the business. Arrests
were made, but the complete suppression of the loyalists here was
never effected.

[Footnote 51: A history of the Tories on Long Island and in New
York--the trouble they gave in the present campaign, and the measures
taken for their suppression--properly forms a subject by itself. The
scope of the present work admits of but brief allusions to them.
However honest this class of the population may have been in taking
sides with the British, and whatever sympathy may be expressed for
them in their trials, losses, and enforced dispersion during and at
the end of the war, there was obviously no course left to the
Americans, then in the midst of a deadly struggle, but to treat them
as a dangerous and obstructive set. The New York Provincial Congress,
in the fall of the year and later, dealt with them unsparingly; and no
man wished to see the element rooted out more than John Jay--a fact to
be borne in mind by those who condemn Lee and other American officers
for attempting to banish the Long Island Tories, as a military
precaution, in the early part of the year.]

While Lee was in command he saw no solution of the problem other than
to remove the entire Tory population to some other quarter where they
could do less mischief in the event of active operations; but
Congress, to the regret of Washington, could not sanction so radical a
method. Greene did his best to root out this element, but we may
imagine that it was uncongenial work, and that he took far more
interest in the progress of his redoubts than in chasing suspected
persons on the island.[52]

[Footnote 52: What General Greene thought of the Tories, and what
treatment he proposed in certain cases, appears from a report on the
subject signed by Generals Heath, Spencer, Greene, and Stirling, and
submitted to Washington towards the close of June: "With regard to the
disaffected inhabitants who have lately been apprehended," say these
officers, "we think that the method at present adopted by the County
Committee, of discharging them on their giving bonds as a security for
their good behavior, is very improper and ineffectual, and therefore
recommend it to your Excellency to apply to the Congress of this
province to take some more effectual method of securing the good
behavior of those people, and in the mean time that your Excellency
will order the officers in whose custody they are to discharge no more
of them until the sense of the Congress be had thereon."--_Journals of
the N.Y. Prov. Congress_, vol. ii.

On this subject Colonel Huntington wrote to Governor Trumbull, June
6th, as follows: "Long Island has the greatest proportion of Tories,
both of its own growth and of adventitious ones, of any part of this
colony; from whence some conjecture that the attack is to be made by
that way. It is more likely to be so than not. Notwithstanding the
vigilance of our outposts, we are sure there is frequent intercourse
between the Asia and the shore, and that they have been supplied with
fresh meat. New guards have lately been set in suspected places, which
I hope will prevent any further communication."--_Force_, 4th Series,
vol. vi., p. 725.]

By the 1st of June the works around Brooklyn appear to have so far
progressed as to admit of the mounting of some of the cannon, and on
the evening of that date the troops were ordered to parade with arms
and man the lines. On the 17th the general assigned them to permanent
positions as follows:

     "Colonel Varnum's regiment is to take Fort Box and the
     Oblong Redoubt for their alarm-posts--Fort Box, six
     companies; Oblong Redoubt, two companies. Captain
     Wolverton's Independent Company[53] to join those in the
     redoubt, and to receive orders from Colonel Varnum.

     Colonel Hitchcock's regiment to take Fort Putnam and the
     fort or redoubt on the left of it for their alarm-posts.

     Colonel Little's regiment to take Fort Greene for their
     alarm-posts."

[Footnote 53: This was a company of New Jersey Minute-men from Essex
County, which had been sent over to Long Island on May 17th.]

To impress his soldiers with his own sense of the great importance of
the Long Island front, Greene added the determined words: "In case of
an attack, _all these posts are to be defended to the last
extremity_." And Colonel Little, who had proved his fitness to command
the post assigned him by his cool and soldierly conduct at Bunker
Hill, quietly resolved that if the enemy assaulted Fort Greene it
should never be surrendered while he was alive.[54]

[Footnote 54: Colonel Little to his son. Doc. No. 9.]

Guards were now stationed at the forts and greater vigilance enjoined
about the camp. Even as early as May 25th, when the works were still
far from complete, the orders were strict that none but a general
officer should be admitted to them without special leave. The lines
were to be manned every morning "between day and sunrise," and the
troops exercised at parapet firing. The orders of July 1st directed
the commanding officers of the regiments "to make a line round each of
the forts and fortifications for the troops to begin a fire on the
enemy if they attempt to storm the works, and the troops are to be
told not to fire sooner than the enemy's arrival at these lines,
unless commanded. The line should be about eighty yards from the
parapet." The officers of the guards were to be accountable for every
thing in the forts, but particularly for the rum lodged there for the
use of the men in time of action. Provisions also were to be supplied
to each alarm-post "in case of siege," and the water-casks kept
constantly full of fresh water. To assure the effectiveness of the
means of defence, one hundred spears were to be placed in Fort Greene,
thirty in the works to the right, twenty in the Oblong Redoubt, fifty
in Fort Putnam, and twenty to the left of it.

And so the work went on under Greene's eye, and by the middle of
summer his troops[55] had inclosed themselves on the Brooklyn
peninsula, with lines which, though unfinished, were still of very
respectable strength.

[Footnote 55: It is a somewhat singular fact, indicating perhaps the
scantiness of our material heretofore, that none of the local accounts
of operations on Long Island mention either Hitchcock's, Varnum's, or
Little's regiments in any connection, whereas these, with Hand's,
formed the permanent garrison on that side and threw up the greater
part of the works.]

       *       *       *       *       *

Recrossing the river to New York, we find the other brigades there at
work as uninterruptedly as Greene's on Long Island. The many
well-known "general orders" issued by the commander-in-chief during
this season testify to the great amount of fatigue duty performed by
the troops. Washington regretted that the necessity for it left so
little opportunity for drilling and he urged his officers to make the
most of what time they had for this purpose. But his chief anxiety was
to have the defences pushed on, and by the middle of June the
principal works were completed or well under way. The location and
names of these are indicated in the orders and maps of the day.[56]
Beginning on the North River side and continuing around the city, they
were as follows:

[Footnote 56: In locating the works in New York City, the writer
follows the list of batteries reported March 24th, 1776 (Force, 4th
Series, vol. v., p. 480); Putnam's order of May 22d, naming the
several works; Knox's artillery returns of June 10th, giving the
number of guns in each; and Hills' map of the fortifications, drawn at
the close of the war. The first list shows the works as they stood at
about the time the Boston troops came down, and which Lee had planned.
There are alterations and additions in Putnam's and Knox's lists,
which are to be followed where they differ from the list of March
24th. Although many other works were erected, no names appear to have
been attached to them, those only being designated which occupied the
most important points and were provided with guns and garrisons.

The Hills map is indispensable in this connection. John Hills,
formerly a British engineer, surveyed the city and island of New York
as far as Thirty-fourth Street in 1782, and in 1785 made a careful map
of the same, which John Lozier, Esq., presented to the Common Council
in 1847. This is still preserved, and is consulted at times for
official purposes. In addition to giving all the streets, blocks,
docks, and squares, Hills added all the works thrown up in and around
the city during the Revolution, giving their exact location and shape.
Part of the lines have a confused appearance, but they become clear on
referring to the following memorandum on the map: "All the works
colored yellow were erected by the Forces of the United States in
1776. Those works colored Orange were erected by Do and repaired by
the British Forces. Those works colored Green were erected by the
British Forces during the War." In the map of New York accompanying
the present work, Hills' "yellow" line has been followed, showing all
the American forts. Their location corresponds precisely with that
which Putnam gives, so far as he names them; and by projecting the
present streets over Hills' plan, it is possible to ascertain where
they stood in the plan of our modern city.]

GRENADIER BATTERY.--This was a "beautiful" circular battery, situated
on the bank of the North River where it ran out into a well-defined
bluff, at the corner of the present Washington and Harrison streets.
Captain Abraham Van Dyck's Grenadier Company of New York City
Independents built it while Lee and Stirling were in command, and
received the thanks of Washington in general orders for the skilful
manner in which they had executed their work. The fort mounted two
twelve-pounders and two mortars. The grenadier company was organized
by Stirling a few years before, when he lived in New York, and he
watched the construction of the battery with considerable pride. The
_Pennsylvania Gazette_ of May 8th, 1776, contains a letter from
Captain Van Dyck to Stirling, informing him of the completion of the
work, and desiring "the approbation of their former captain." Stirling
replied that he had frequently admired the battery, and reflected with
"real satisfaction" on the hour when he formed the company.

JERSEY BATTERY.--A short distance below, on the line of Reade Street,
just west of Greenwich, stood the Jersey Battery--a five-sided work,
mounting two twelve and three thirty-two pounders. A line of
intrenchments connected these two batteries, and, extending beyond on
either side, made the position a particularly strong one. Their guns
had the range of the bank up and down the river, and could enfilade an
enemy attempting to land in that vicinity.

McDOUGALL'S AND THE OYSTER BATTERY.--The works next below on the
Hudson consisted of two batteries situated on the high ground in the
rear and to the south of Trinity Church. The one on the bluff near the
church, or on the line of the present Rector Street, a little east of
Greenwich, was known under Stirling as McDougall's Battery; but this
name does not appear in the return of June 10th, and in its place in
the order of the works we have the "Oyster" Battery. It is possible
that this was the work a little south of McDougall's, at the
intersection of the present Morris and Greenwich streets. Its location
is described by Putnam in May as "behind General Washington's
head-quarters."[57] It mounted two thirty-two-pounders and three
twelve-pounders. In March, McDougall's Battery was provided with six
guns.

[Footnote 57: WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK.--This reference
creates some uncertainty as to the particular house occupied by
Washington in New York during the first part of the campaign. If the
site of the Oyster Battery were known exactly the house could be
identified. On the other hand, if headquarters, as generally supposed,
were at the Kennedy Mansion, No. 1 Broadway, then the battery should
have stood still lower down, at the corner of Battery Place and
Greenwich Street; but the Grand Battery terminated there, and Hills'
map shows no distinct battery at that point. Mr. Lossing states
("Field Book of the Rev.," vol. ii., p. 594, n.) that Washington, on
his first arrival in the city, took up his quarters at 180 Pearl,
opposite Cedar Street, his informant being a survivor of the
Revolution, and that, on his return from a visit to Philadelphia, June
6th, he went to the Kennedy House. That Washington, however, spent the
greater part of the summer at the "Mortier House," on Richmond Hill,
is well known. He was there on June 22d and probably much earlier, as
appears in _Force_, 4th Series, vol. vi., p. 1157, where one Corbie is
described as keeping a tavern "to the south-east of General
Washington's house, to the westward of Bayard's woods, and north of
Lispenard's meadows." The house referred to was the Mortier. From Mr.
Lossing's informant, and the reference in the orders of August 8th,
which speaks of the "old head-quarters on the Broadway," we may
conclude that Washington first put up at 180 Pearl Street; that if he
then went to the Kennedy House at all, it was but for a short time;
that it is more likely, from the position of the batteries, that the
house he did occupy was one of the two or three next above it; and
that in June he moved his quarters to the Mortier House, where he
remained until September 14th, when he went to the Morris Mansion at
Harlem Heights. The Kennedy House was Colonel Knox's artillery
headquarters during part if not all of the time, his wife being with
him there up to July 12th. (_Drake's Life of Knox._)]

FORT GEORGE AND THE GRAND BATTERY.--These works at the lower end of
the city had been pronounced almost useless by Lee, but as it was of
course necessary to include that point in the system of defence they
were repaired and greatly strengthened under Washington. In Fort
George were mounted two twelve-pounders and four thirty-two-pounders.
The walls of the Grand Battery were banked up from within, and mounted
thirteen thirty-two-pounders, one twenty-four-pounder, three
eighteen-pounders, two twelve-pounders, one thirteen-inch brass
mortar, two eight-inch and one ten-inch iron mortars.

WHITEHALL BATTERY.--A small work on the Whitehall dock on the East
River, and practically a continuation of the Grand Battery. It carried
two thirty-two-pounders.

WATERBURY'S BATTERY.--On the dock at the north-east angle of Catherine
and Cherry streets, mounting, in June, two twelve-pounders.

BADLAM'S REDOUBT.--On the hill above, south of Market and between
Madison and Monroe streets. It mounted seven guns in March, but
appears not to have been occupied later in the season.

SPENCER'S REDOUBT.--This was either the horseshoe redoubt at the
intersection of Monroe and Rutgers streets, or the larger star redoubt
between Clinton and Montgomery, east of Henry Street.[58] It mounted
two twelve-pounders and four field-pieces.

[Footnote 58: Spencer's Brigade probably built both works, as it was
stationed in the vicinity of both. Colonel John Trumbull, who was then
Spencer's brigade major, and afterwards in the Canada army, says in
the "Reminiscences" of his own time: "The brigade to which I was
attached was encamped on the (then) beautiful high ground which
surrounded Colonel Rutgers' seat near Corlear's Hook."]

JONES' HILL.--From Spencer's Redoubt a line of intrenchments extended
around along the crest of the high land above Corlear's Hook to a
circular battery on the northern slope of Jones' Hill, a little north
of the intersection of Broome and Pitt streets, and was pierced for
eight guns. During Stirling's command it was proposed to call this
fortification "Washington," but it was known subsequently simply as
Jones' Hill. From this battery the works continued along the line of
Grand Street to the Bowery, and included two more circular
batteries--one on Grand at the corner of Norfolk Street, and the other
near the corner of Grand and Eldridge streets.

BAYARD'S HILL REDOUBT.--Upon this commanding site, west of the Bowery,
where Grand and Mulberry streets intersect, was erected a powerful
irregular heptagonal redoubt, mounting eight nine-pounders, four three
pounders, and six royal and cohorn mortars. It had the range of the
city on one side and the approach by the Bowery on the other. Lasher's
New York Independent companies first broke ground for it about the 1st
of March, and continued digging there as well as on the redoubt around
the hospital until May 16th, when they were relieved, with
Washington's "thanks for their masterly manner of executing the work
on Bayard's Hill."[59] In the March return this battery is called the
"Independent Battery," and it also received the name of "Bunker Hill,"
which was retained by the British during their occupation; but its
proper name as an American fort was "Bayard's Hill Redoubt," this
having been given to it officially in general orders; and it was so
called in letters and orders repeatedly through the summer.

[Footnote 59: _Force_, 4th Series, vol. v., p. 492. Compare, also,
Documents 38 and 41.]

THOMPSON'S BATTERY.--This was the name given to the work thrown up at
Horn's Hook by Colonel Drake's Westchester minute-men soon after Lee's
arrival. It mounted eight pieces.[60]

[Footnote 60: This work stood at the foot of East Eighty-eighth
Street. See Document 41. Some ten years after the war, Archibald
Gracie occupied this site, and it became known as Gracie's Point. The
writer of a city guide-book in 1807, referring to Mr. Gracie, says:
"His superb house and gardens stand upon the very spot called
_Hornshook_, upon which a fort erected by the Americans in 1776 stood
till about the year 1794, when the present proprietor caused the
remains of the military works to be levelled, at great expense, and
erected on their rocky base his present elegant mansion and
appurtenances."--_The Picture of New York, etc., 1807, New York._]

GOVERNOR'S ISLAND.--The forts erected on this island were among the
strongest around New York. According to a letter from Colonel Prescott
of July 3d, they consisted of a citadel with outworks, and were
garrisoned during the latter part of the summer by Prescott's and
Nixon's regiments. The works mounted in June four thirty-two and four
eighteen pounders.

PAULUS OR POWLE'S HOOK.--The point of land on the New Jersey side,
opposite the city, and which is now the site in part of Jersey City.
Works were commenced here about May 20th, and in June they mounted
three thirty-two-pounders, three twelve-pounders, and two
three-pounder field-pieces.[61]

[Footnote 61: The fortifications erected at the upper part of the
island are noticed in Chapter V. Mr. Lossing, it should be said, gives
a very full list of the Revolutionary works in and around New York
("Field Book of the Rev.," vol. ii., p. 593), from which the list as
given here, based on Hills' map, differs in several particulars.]

In addition to these, several other redoubts were erected north of the
town, in which no cannon were mounted, and which had no names. They
were probably thrown up to be ready for occupation in case the enemy
succeeded in landing above the city. There was a circular battery at
the corner of Broome and Forsyth streets; another in the middle of
Broadway, opposite White Street; another, of octagonal shape, near the
corner of Spring and Mercer streets; a half-moon battery above this,
between Prince and Spring, on the line of Thompson Street; another on
the northwesterly continuation of Richmond Hill, at McDougall and
Houston streets; and still another on the river-bank, near the
junction of Christopher and Greenwich streets. The hospital on Duane
Street was strongly fortified, and breastworks were thrown up at
numerous points between and around the forts. On June 10th the entire
number of guns fit for service in and around New York was one hundred
and twenty-one, thirty-three of which were held as a reserve for field
service, "to be run where the enemy shall make their greatest
efforts." The mortars were nineteen in number.

As for barricades, the city was full of them. Some were built of
mahogany logs taken from West India cargoes. Not a street leading to
the water on either side that was not obstructed in this manner; so
that, had the enemy been able to gain a footing in the city under the
fire of their ships, they would still have found it, to use Lee's
expression, "a disputable field of battle." The City Hall Park was
almost entirely inclosed. There was a barrier across Broadway in front
of St. Paul's Church, another at the head of Vesey Street, and others
at the head of Barclay, Murray, and Warren. On the Park Row or Chatham
Street side a barricade stretched across Beekman Street; another, in
the shape of a right angle, stood in Printing House Square, one face
opposite Spruce Street, the other looking across the Presbyterian
churchyard and Nassau Street;[62] another ran across Frankfort
Street; another at the entrance of Centre Street; and still another
near it, facing Chatham Street.

[Footnote 62: One side of this barricade ran in front of the _Times_,
and the other in front of the _Tribune_ building.]

Another element in the defence was a motley little fleet, made up of
schooners, sloops, row-galleys, and whale-boats, and placed under the
command of Lieutenant-Colonel Benjamin Tupper,[63] who had
distinguished himself by a naval exploit or two in Boston Harbor
during the siege. Crews were drafted from the regiments and assigned
to the various craft, whose particular mission was to scour the waters
along the New Jersey and Long Island coast, to watch for the British
fleets, and prevent communication between the Tories and the enemy's
ships already lying in the harbor. Tupper, as commodore, appears first
in the sloop Hester as his flag-ship, and later in the season in the
Lady Washington, while among his fleet were to be found the Spitfire,
General Putnam, Shark, and Whiting. The gallant commodore's earliest
cruises were made within the Narrows, along the Staten Island shore,
and as far down as Sandy Hook, where he attempted the feat of
destroying the light-house. But he found this structure, which the
enemy had occupied since Major Malcom dismantled it in March, a hard
piece of masonry to reduce. He attacked it confidently, June 21st,
after demanding its surrender, but retired when he found that an
hour's bombardment made no impression upon its walls.[64] He kept a
good lookout along these waters, gathered information from deserters,
and when reporting on one occasion that the enemy's fleet were short
of provisions and the men reduced to half allowance, he added, with
unction, "May God increase their wants!" A little later we meet again
with the adventuresome Tupper and his flotilla.

[Footnote 63: This officer was Lieutenant-Colonel of Jonathan Ward's
Massachusetts Regiment, and subsequently became colonel in the
Massachusetts Continental Line.]

[Footnote 64: _Force_, 4th Series, vol. vi., p. 1011.]

As the soldiers went on with their exacting duties, the monotony of
the routine was now and then relieved by some diversion or excitement.
One day there is "Tory-riding"[65] in the city, in which citizens
appear to have figured principally. Then the whole camp is startled by
the report that a "most accursed scheme" had come to light, just "on
the verge of execution," by which Washington and all his generals were
to have been murdered, the magazines blown up, and the cannon spiked
by hired miscreants in the army at the moment the enemy made their
grand attack upon the city.[66] Again, on the 9th of July, the
brigades are all drawn up on their respective parade-grounds, listen
to the reading for the first time of the Declaration of Independence,
and receive it, as Heath tells us, "with loud huzzas;" and, finally,
to celebrate the event, a crowd of citizens, "Liberty Boys," and
soldiers collect that evening at Bowling Green and pull down the
gilded statue of King George, which is then trundled to Oliver
Wolcott's residence at Litchfield, Ct., for patriotic ladies to
convert into bullets for the American soldiers.[67]

[Footnote 65: "_Thursday, 13th June._--Here in town very unhappy and
shocking scenes were exhibited. On Munday night some men called Tories
were carried and hauled about through the streets, with candles forced
to be held by them, or pushed in their faces, and their heads burned;
but on Wednesday, in the open day, the scene was by far worse;
several, and among them gentlemen, were carried on rails; some
stripped naked and dreadfully abused. Some of the generals, and
especially Pudnam and their forces, had enough to do to quell the
riot, and make the mob disperse."--_Pastor Shewkirk's Diary, Doc.
37._]

[Footnote 66: The particulars of this plot need hardly be repeated;
indeed, they were never fully known. It was discovered that an attempt
had been made to enlist American soldiers into the king's service, who
at the proper time should assist the enemy in their plans. They were
to spike cannon, blow up magazines, and, as at first reported,
assassinate our generals; but the latter design seems not to have been
proved, though universally believed. Governor Tryon and Mayor
Matthews, of the city, were suspected of furthering the plot and
furnishing the funds. Matthews was arrested at Flatbush by a party of
officers under Colonel Varnum, but the evidence against him was
insufficient. Among the soldiers implicated was Thomas Hickey, of
Washington's guard, who was tried by court-martial, found guilty of
sedition, mutiny, and correspondence with the enemy, and executed in
the presence of the army on June 28th. Something of the feeling
excited by the discovery of the plot is exhibited in the letter from
Surgeon Eustis of Colonel Knox's regiment (_Document_ 39). This is
better known as the "Hickey Plot."]

[Footnote 67: The following memorandum, preserved among Governor
Wolcott's papers, is of interest in this connection:

"An Equestrian Statue of George the Third of Great Britain was erected
in the City of New York on the Bowling Green at the lower end of
Broadway. Most of the materials were _lead_ but richly _gilded_ to
resemble gold. At the beginning of the Revolution this statue was
overthrown. Lead being then scarce and dear, the statue was broken in
pieces and the metal transported to Litchfield a place of safety. The
ladies of this village converted the Lead into Cartridges for the
Army, of which the following is an account. O.W.

Mrs. Marvin,                    Cartridges        6,058
Ruth Marvin,                        "            11,592
Laura Wolcott,                      "             8,378
Mary Ann Wolcott,                   "            10,790
Frederick   "                       "               936
Mrs. Beach,                         "             1,802
Made by sundry persons              "             2,182
Gave Litchfield Militia on alarm,                    50
Let the Regiment of Col. Wigglesworth have          300
                                                 ------
                                                 42,088 Cartridges."]

       *       *       *       *       *

But now occurred a much more stirring and important event to engage
the attention of the army, and this was the arrival of the enemy. It
was full time for them to make their appearance. Nearly three months
and a half had elapsed since the evacuation of Boston; the spring and
a whole month of summer had gone; the best season for active movements
was passing rapidly; and unless the British began operations soon,
all hope of conquering America "in one campaign" would have to be
abandoned. Rumors of their coming took definite shape in the last week
of June, when word reached camp that an American privateer had
captured a British transport with more than two hundred Highlanders as
prisoners. On the 25th and 26th three or four large ships arrived off
Sandy Hook, one of which proved to be the Greyhound, with Sir William
Howe on board; on the 29th a fleet of forty-five sail anchored off the
same point, and four days later the number had increased to one
hundred and thirty.[68] This was the fleet from Halifax with Howe's
Boston veterans. Preparations were made to land them on the Long
Island coast near the Narrows; but on being informed that the
Americans were posted on a ridge of hills not far distant, Howe
disembarked his troops opposite on Staten Island,[69] and there went
into camp to wait the arrival of the reinforcements from England under
Admiral Howe. The middle of July saw these also encamped on the
island, with the fleet increased to nearly three hundred transports
and ships of war. On the 1st of August there was an unexpected arrival
in the shape of the discomfited expedition under Generals Clinton and
Cornwallis, that was to gain a foothold in the South;[70] and last of
all, on the 12th of August came the British Guards and De Heister's
Hessians, after a tedious voyage of thirteen weeks from Spithead,
completing Howe's force, and swelling the fleet in the Narrows to more
than four hundred ships. England had never before this sent from her
shores a more powerful military and naval armament upon foreign
service.

[Footnote 68: "For two or three days past three or four ships have
been dropping in, and I just now received an express from an officer
appointed to keep a lookout on Staten Island, that forty-five arrived
at the Hook to-day--some say more; and I suppose the whole fleet will
be in within a day or two."--_Washington to Hancock, June 29th._]

[Footnote 69: Extract of a letter from an officer in the Thirty-fifth
Regiment at Staten Island, July 9th, 1776: "Our army consisted of 6155
effectives, on our embarkation at Halifax; they are now all safe
landed here, and our head-quarters are at your late old friend, Will
Hick's Mansion house."--_London Chronicle._]

[Footnote 70: The expedition sailed from Cork for the Cape River in
North Carolina, where Clinton joined it. It was expected that the
loyalists in the State would rise in sufficient numbers to give the
expeditionary corps substantial aid; but not over eighteen hundred
were mustered, and these under General McDonald were completely
defeated by the North Carolina Militia under Colonels Caswell and
Lillington at Moore's Creek Bridge on the 27th of February. The
expedition then moved against Charleston, S.C., and there met with the
famous repulse from Colonel Moultrie off Charleston Harbor on the 28th
of June. Clinton and Cornwallis after this could do nothing but join
Howe at New York.]

The arrival of the enemy hastened Washington's preparations. The
troops which Congress had called out to reinforce his army were coming
in too slowly, and expresses were sent to governors, assemblies, and
committees of safety, announcing the appearance of the enemy, and
urging in the most pressing terms the instant march of the
reinforcements to New York. To his soldiers with him the
commander-in-chief issued both warning and inspiring orders. On the 2d
of July, a few days after Howe arrived, he reminded them that the time
was at hand which would probably determine whether Americans were to
be freemen or slaves. "The fate of unborn millions," he said, "will
now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our
cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance
or the most abject submission. This is all we can expect. We have,
therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. Our country's honor calls
upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully
fail we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us, therefore,
rely upon the goodness of the cause and the aid of the Supreme Being,
in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and
noble actions. The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we
shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the
instruments of saving them from the tyranny meditated against them....
Any officer or soldier, or any particular corps, distinguishing
themselves by any acts of bravery and courage, will assuredly meet
with notice and rewards; and, on the other hand, those who behave ill
will as certainly be exposed and punished: the general being resolved,
as well for the honor and safety of the country as of the army, to
show no favor to such as refuse or neglect their duty at so important
a crisis."

The digging still went on; the troops were ordered to keep their arms
in condition for immediate use; the officers cautioned to look after
the health of their men, as the season was excessively warm and
sickly; and every attention to necessary details enjoined.

       *       *       *       *       *

In addition to their military and naval commands, the two Howes were
invested by their government with extraordinary powers as civil
commissioners. They were authorized to issue pardons, and to open up
the question of reconciliation and a peaceable settlement of the
troubles; but their first advances in a civil capacity completely
failed, though not without furnishing an entertaining episode. On the
14th of July they dispatched an officer in a barge with a
communication for General Washington. The barge was detained by one of
Commodore Tupper's boats in the harbor until Washington's pleasure in
regard to it could be known. Suspecting, by previous experience at
Boston, that Howe would not recognize his military title, Washington
consulted a few of his officers in the matter, and it was the
unanimous opinion that should the communication be addressed to him as
a private individual it could not, with propriety, be received.
Colonel Reed, the adjutant-general, and Colonel Knox immediately went
down the bay and met the British officer. The latter, with hat in
hand, bowed politely and said to Colonel Reed, "I have a letter from
Lord Howe to Mr. Washington." "Sir," replied Reed, "we have no person
in our army with that address." "But will you look at the address?"
continued the officer, at the same time taking out of his pocket a
letter marked

"GEORGE WASHINGTON, ESQ.,
  NEW YORK.

HOWE."

"No, sir," said Reed, "I cannot receive that letter." "I am very
sorry," returned the officer, "and so will be Lord Howe, that any
error in the superscription should prevent the letter being received
by _General Washington_." "Why, sir," replied Reed, whose instructions
were positive not to accept such a communication, "I must obey
orders;" and the officer, finding it useless to press the matter,
could only repeat the sentiment, "Oh! yes, sir, you must obey orders,
to be sure." Then, after exchanging letters from prisoners, the
officers saluted and separated. The British barge had gone but a short
distance when it quickly put about, and the officer asked by what
particular title Washington chose to be addressed. Colonel Reed
replied, "You are sensible, sir, of the rank of General Washington in
our army." "Yes, sir, we are," said the officer; "I am sure my Lord
Howe will lament exceedingly this affair, as the letter is quite of a
civil nature, and not of a military one. He laments exceedingly that
he was not here a little sooner." Reed and Knox supposed this to be an
allusion to the Declaration of Independence, but making no reply, they
again bowed, and parted, as Knox says, "in the most genteel terms
imaginable."[71]

[Footnote 71: _Colonel Knox to his wife._--_Drake's Life of Gen.
Knox_, p. 131.]

But Howe was unwilling to have the matter dropped in this fashion, and
on the 20th he sent his adjutant-general, Lieutenant-Colonel
Patterson, to hold an interview with Washington in person, if
possible, and urge him to receive the letter and also to treat about
the exchange of prisoners. Patterson landed at the Battery, and was
conducted to Colonel Knox's quarters at the Kennedy House, without the
usual formality of having his eyes blindfolded. Washington, "very
handsomely dressed"[72] and making "a most elegant appearance,"
received him with his suite, and listened attentively while Patterson,
interspersing his words at every other breath with "May it please your
Excellency," explained the address on the letter by saying that the
etc. etc. appended meant every thing. "And, indeed, it might mean any
thing," replied Washington, as Patterson then proceeded to say, among
other things, that the benevolence of the king had induced him to
appoint General and Admiral Howe his commissioners to accommodate the
unhappy disputes; that it would give them great pleasure to effect
such an accommodation, and that he (Colonel Patterson) wished to have
that visit considered as preliminary to so desirable an object.
Washington replied that he himself was not vested with any authority
in the case; that it did not appear that Lord Howe could do more than
grant pardons, and that those who had committed no fault wanted no
pardons, as they were simply defending what they deemed their
indisputable rights.[73] Further conversation followed, when
Patterson, rising to leave, asked, "Has your Excellency no particular
commands with which you would please to honor me to Lord and General
Howe?" "Nothing," replied Washington, "but my particular compliments
to both;" and, declining to partake of a collation prepared for the
occasion, the British adjutant-general took his departure. Again the
king's "commissioners" had failed, and Washington had preserved the
dignity of the young nation and his own self-respect as the commander
of its armies.

[Footnote 72: "General Washington was very handsomely dressed, and
made a most elegant appearance. Colonel Patterson appeared awe-struck,
as if he was before something supernatural. Indeed, I don't wonder at
it. He was before a very great man, indeed."--_Ibid._ p. 132.]

[Footnote 73: Memorandum of an interview between General Washington
and Colonel Patterson.--_Sparks' Washington_, vol. iv., p. 510.]

An incident, of greater moment as a military affair, and which
disturbed Washington as much as the Patterson interview must have
diverted him, was the easy passage, on the 12th of July, of two of the
British men-of-war, the Rose and Phoenix, past all the batteries,
unharmed, up the North River. Taking advantage of a brisk breeze and
running tide, the ships with their tenders sailed rapidly up from the
Narrows, and to avoid the fire of the batteries as much as possible
kept near the Jersey shore. The American artillerists opened upon them
with all their guns along the river, but could do them no serious
damage, while by accident, in their haste to load the pieces, six of
their own gunners were killed. The ships sent many shots into the
city, some crashing through houses but doing no other injury, while
the roar of the cannon frightened the citizens who had not already
moved away, and caused more to go.[74] At the upper end of the
island, around Fort Washington, where the batteries and river
obstructions were as yet incomplete, the ships suffered still less
harm, and sailing by, anchored safely in the broad Tappan Bay above.
Their object was to cut off the supplies which came down the river to
Washington's army, and, as supposed, to encourage the loyalists in the
upper counties and supply them with arms. Washington acknowledged that
the event showed the weakness and inadequacy of the North River line
of defences, and reported to Congress that it developed a possible
plan of attack by the British upon his rear. Measures were taken to
annoy if not destroy the ships, and, on the 3d of August, Commodore
Tupper, with four of his sloops and schooners, boldly attacked the
enemy, but though, as Washington wrote, "our officers and men, during
the whole affair, behaved with great spirit and bravery," neither side
sustained serious damage. On the night of the 16th two fire-rafts were
directed against the ships, which were successful so far as to destroy
one of the tenders; and on the 18th the enemy weighed anchor and
returned to the Narrows as readily as they came up.

[Footnote 74: On August 17th Washington requested the New York
Convention to remove the women, children, and infirm persons, as the
city was likely soon to be "the scene of a bloody conflict." He stated
that when the Rose and Phoenix sailed past, "the shrieks and cries
of these poor creatures, running every way with their children, was
truly distressing." Pastor Shewkirk says: "This affair caused a great
fright in the city. Women and children, and some with their bundles,
came from the lower parts and walked to the Bowery, which was lined
with people."]

It was now apparent that the great struggle between the two armies
could be postponed no longer, and no day after the arrival of the
Hessians passed that the British attack was not looked for. The orders
of August 8th cautioned the men to be at their quarters, "especially
early in the morning or upon the tide of flood," when the enemy's
fleet might be expected, and every preparation was made to resist the
landing of the British at any point upon Manhattan Island.[75]

[Footnote 75: Captain Nathan Hale, the "Martyr-spy," says in a letter
of the 20th of August: "Our situation has been such this fortnight or
more as scarce to admit of writing. We have daily expected an
action--by which means, if any one was going, and we had letters
written, orders were so strict for our tarrying in camp, that we could
rarely get leave to go and deliver them. For about six or eight days
the enemy have been expected hourly, whenever the wind and tide in the
least favored."--_Document_ 40.]

Upon Long Island General Greene and his men were still at work on the
defences, and, since the arrival of the enemy, doubly vigilant. Hand's
riflemen kept close watch at the Narrows and reported every suspicious
movement of the fleet. Word was brought in on the 9th that a large
number of regulars were drawn up at the Staten Island ferry, and
Greene immediately sent around the order for "no officer or soldier to
stir from his quarters, that we may be ready to march at a moment's
warning, if necessary." Upon another alarm, when probably he himself
was indisposed, he directed Colonel Little, the senior regimental
officer present, to superintend the disposition of the troops. His
hastily written letter, penned apparently not long after midnight,
runs as follows:

     THURSDAY MORNING [August 8 or 15?]

     DEAR SIR--By Express from Col Hand and from Red Hook, and
     from on board the Sloop at Governor's Island it is very
     evident there was a General Imbarcation of the Troops last
     evening from Statten Island--doubtless they'l make a dessent
     this morning. Youl please to order all the troops fit for
     duty to be at their Alarm posts near an hour sooner than is
     common--let their flints arms and ammunition be examined and
     everything held in readiness to defend the works or go upon
     a detachment. A few minutes past received an Express from
     Head Quarters. Youl acquaint the Commanding officers of Col
     Hitchcock's Regiment and Col Forman's Regiment of this, and
     direct them to observe the same orders, also the Artillery
     officers.

     I am ys,
       N. GREENE.

     [Addressed to Col. Little.][76]

[Footnote 76: Original in possession of Chas. J. Little, Esq.,
Cambridge, Mass.]

Greene had been promoted to the rank of major-general on the 9th, and
his old brigade on Long Island given to Brigadier-General John Nixon,
of Massachusetts, who was promoted from a colonelcy at the same time.
A new arrangement of the army was effected, and Brigadier-General
Heard's brigade of five New Jersey regiments was ordered to Long
Island to reinforce Greene. His division, now consisting of these two
brigades--Nixon's and Heard's--numbered, August 15th, two thousand
nine hundred men fit for duty. Parts of two Long Island militia
regiments under Colonels Smith and Remsen which joined him about this
date, and Colonel Gay's Connecticut levies, who had been on that side
since the 1st of August, increased this number to something over
thirty-five hundred.

But Greene was not to be a participator in the approaching scenes. The
prevailing fever which had prostrated so many officers and men seized
him with all but a fatal hold, and he was obliged to relinquish his
command. He clung to it, however, to the last moment in hopes of a
change for the better. "I am very sorry," he wrote to Washington on
the 15th, "that I am under the necessity of acquainting you that I am
confined to my bed with a raging fever. The critical situation of
affairs makes me the more anxious, but I hope, through the assistance
of Providence, to be able to ride before the presence of the enemy may
make it absolutely necessary;" and he assured the commander-in-chief
that his men appeared to be "in exceeding good spirits," and would no
doubt be able to render a very good account of the enemy should they
land on Long Island. On the 16th there was no change for the better in
his condition, but on the contrary Livingston, his aid, reported that
he had "a very bad night of it;" and in a day or two he was removed to
New York, to the house of John Inglis now the intersection of Ninth
Street and Broadway where with rest and care he slowly passed the
crisis of his illness.[77]

[Footnote 77: _Greene's Life of Greene_, vol. i.]

On the 20th Washington gave orders to General Sullivan, who had
recently returned from Canada, to take the command upon Long Island,
until General Greene's state of health should permit him to resume
it.[78]

[Footnote 78: _General Orders, August 20, 1776._--... "General
Sullivan is to take command upon Long Island till General Greene's
state of health will permit him to resume it, and Brigadier Lord
Stirling is to take charge of General Sullivan's division till he
returns to it again."]




CHAPTER III.

THE TWO ARMIES.


Right here, before entering upon the details of the coming struggle,
we may delay a moment to glance at the two armies as they lay in their
opposite camps waiting to engage in the serious business before them.
What was their composition and organization, what their strength, who
their officers and leaders? In the case of the American troops
particularly may these questions be asked, because to them and their
services the country has long acknowledged its obligations, and so far
bound itself to perpetuate their memory. Who were the men who stood
with Washington in this first and critical year of our national
life--who came to this vicinity to fight on strange ground for a
common cause? We are called upon to remember them, not as soldiers
simply, but as public-spirited citizens arming to secure themselves in
their privileges, or perhaps as ancestors who had a thought for the
peace and happiness of present generations.

The original army of the Revolution was that ardent though disjointed
body of provincials which gathered around Boston immediately after the
Lexington alarm, and came nominally under the command of General
Artemas Ward, of Massachusetts. As a military corps it entirely lacked
cohesion, as the troops from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut were under independent control, and yielded to General
Ward's authority only by patriotic consent. The appointment of
Washington as commander-in-chief of all the American forces relieved
this difficulty, and the adoption by Congress of the Boston troops as
a Continental army, under the orders and in the pay of Congress, gave
that army more of a military character. But the terms of enlistment
were short, and it became necessary to reorganize the entire body by
new enlistments for a year's service from the 1st of January, 1776.
This force thus recruited was the nucleus of the army which Washington
mustered at New York in the present campaign. It consisted of
twenty-seven battalions, or "regiments of foot," as they were styled,
each divided into eight companies, and having a maximum strength of
about six hundred and forty officers and men. With the exception of
the First Regiment, or Pennsylvania Riflemen, all were from the New
England States; and, as already stated, twenty-one of them, after the
evacuation of Boston, marched to New York under the command of
Generals Heath, Spencer, Sullivan, and Greene.

This force, diminished by the regiments sent to Canada, was quite
inadequate for the purposes of the campaign, and on the 1st of June
Congress issued a call for large reinforcements both for the New York
army and that on the Canada border. For the former thirteen thousand
eight hundred troops were voted necessary, and for the latter six
thousand, while in addition it was resolved to establish a "flying
camp" of ten thousand men, who could be sent wherever needed. The
quota Massachusetts was to furnish for New York was two thousand;
Connecticut, five thousand five hundred; New York, three thousand; and
New Jersey, three thousand three hundred. For the flying camp,
Pennsylvania was to recruit six thousand; Delaware, six hundred; and
Maryland, three thousand four hundred. All these men were to be
militia or State troops, but to serve under the orders of Congress and
in its pay until at least the 1st of December following.

The necessity of these calls was impressed upon the country by urgent
letters from the President and members of Congress and the leaders of
the day. "The militia of the United Colonies," wrote Hancock, "are a
body of troops that may be depended upon. To their virtue, their
delegates in Congress now make the most solemn appeal. They are called
upon to say whether they will live slaves or die freemen." To the
governors and State assemblies he added: "On your exertions at this
critical period, together with those of the other colonies in the
common cause, the salvation of America now evidently depends....
Exert, therefore, every nerve to distinguish yourselves. Quicken your
preparations, and stimulate the good people of your government, and
there is no danger, notwithstanding the mighty armament with which we
are threatened, but you will be able to lead them to victory, to
liberty, and to happiness." But the reinforcements came forward
slowly, and it was not until the enemy had actually arrived that the
peculiar dangers of the situation were appreciated and the militiamen
hurried to Washington's assistance at his own pressing call for them.
By the 27th of August, his army, which on July 13th numbered a little
over ten thousand men fit for duty, had been increased in the
aggregate to twenty-eight thousand; but so many were on the sick list
during this month, that he could muster not quite twenty thousand
effectives, officers and men, at the opening of active operations.

To this force the State of New York contributed thirteen regiments. Of
her Continental battalions then in the service, three were in the
Northern department under Schuyler, part of another in the Highlands,
and two, commanded by Colonels Alexander McDougall and Rudolph
Ritzema, here with Washington, both of which were largely recruited
from New York City. McDougall, colonel of the first battalion, had
identified himself early with the liberty party in the city, became a
member of the Provincial Congress, and by his zealous and energetic
efforts in both his civil and military capacity contributed much
towards preserving the honor and interests of the colony in the
present crisis. In August he was promoted to the rank of
brigadier-general in the Continental army, and rose to the grade of
major-general before the close of the war. Nine of the other regiments
from this State, chiefly militia, formed two brigades under
Brigadier-Generals John Morin Scott and George Clinton. In Scott's
command were two battalions which were credited to and represented the
city distinctively. The oldest and largest was the "First Independent
Battalion," commanded by Colonel John Lasher, remembered as one of the
substantial citizens of the place. A man of property and influence,
with a taste for military affairs and evidently popular, he had been
elected colonel of the Independent Companies during the colonial
régime, and now, with most of his officers and men, had taken up the
Continental cause.[79] The battalion was a favorite corps, composed of
young men of respectability and wealth, and when on parade was
doubtless the attraction of the city. Its companies bore separate
names, and the uniform of each had some distinguishing feature. There
were the "Prussian Blues," under Captain James Alner; the "Osw

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