ΧΧΧ.

Hudson. He ordered, encouraged, and aided, and by his CHAP. extraordinary exertions, it is said, saved his corps from entire destruction. However, his heavy artillery and three 1776. hundred men fell into the hands of the enemy.

Now the British had possession of the city, and the main body of the Americans was encamped on the northern portion of the island, across which they threw a double. row of lines, about four and a half miles below Kingsbridge. Two miles above these lines, was Fort Washington, and a few miles below them were the British lines, extending also from river to river.

On the sixteenth the enemy made an attack upon the Sept. American advanced posts, but were repulsed and driven off by Virginia and Connecticut troops, but their commanders, Major Leitch, and the brave Colonel Knowlton, one of the heroes of Bunker Hill, both fell in this encounter. The spirits of the soldiers, depressed by repeated defeats and disasters, were somewhat revived by this successful skirmish.

The armies watched each other for some weeks. Many were sick in the American camp; "it was impossible to find proper hospitals; and they lay about in almost every barn, stable, shed, and even under the fences and bushes."

Sir William Howe now began to collect forces at Throg's Neck, a peninsula in the Sound about nine miles from the American camp. This peninsula was separated from the mainland by a narrow creek and a marsh, which was overflowed at high tide. By means of the bridge and fords, Howe hoped to pass over to the mainland and gain the rear of the Americans, and cut off their communication with New England, whence they received most of their supplies. His plans, though well laid, were defeated. General Heath was on the alert; he was joined by Colonel William Prescott, who commanded at Bunker Hill, and by Hand with his riflemen, and others; every pass was guarded, and the planks of the bridge removed. Howe,

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CHAP. with his usual caution, waited six days for reinforcements. By this time General Lee, now more a favorite than ever, 1776. had returned from his successful campaign at the South, and Sullivan, Stirling, and Morgan had been restored to the army by exchange. While Howe thus delayed, it was decided, in a council of war, that every American post on New York island, excepting Fort Washington, should be abandoned. This plan was promptly executed. The army, in four divisions, commanded by Generals Lee, Heath, Sullivan, and Lincoln, withdrew across Kingsbridge, and gradually concentrated their forces in a fortified camp near the village of White Plains.

Oct.

23.

Still hoping to gain their rear, Howe moved on toward New Rochelle, where he was reinforced by light-horse troops, and Hessians under General Knyphausen, who had recently arrived from Europe. He advanced upon the camp. Scarcely had the Americans intrenched themselves at White Plains, when a rumor of his approach reached them. On the twenty-eighth, as Washington, accompanied by his general officers, was reconnoitring the heights in the neighborhood, the alarm was given that the enemy had driven in the picket-guards, and were within the camp. When he reached headquarters he found the army already posted in order of battle. The enemy did not advance upon them; they turned their attention to a height known as Chatterton's Hill, which lay a little south of the camp, and was separated from it by the river Bronx. This height was occupied by sixteen hundred men under General McDougall, and the attack was made at this point. After a feeble resistance, the militia fled, but Hazlet's and Smallwood's regiments, so famous on Long Island, made a brave stand, and repeatedly repulsed the enemy; but, at length, overpowered by numbers, they retreated across the bridge to the camp. This battle of

A NIGHT OF LABOR-THREATENED DANGERS.

383

XXX.

White Plains was a spirited encounter, in which each of CHAP the parties lost about four hundred men.

The British took possession of the hill, and began to 1776 intrench themselves; and now, for the third time, the "armies lay looking at each other;" they were within long cannon-shot.

Could the undisciplined, war-worn, and disheartened Americans hope to escape from a force so well equipped and so powerful? That night was to them an anxious one. It was passed in severe labor; they doubled their intrenchments and threw up redoubts. Some of these were hastily constructed of stalks of corn, pulled up from a neighboring field, with the earth clinging to the roots. These piled with the roots outward, presented an appearance so formidable, that Howe, deceived as to their strength, did not attack them, but ordered up reinforcements.

Howe's cautious conduct of the war has been severely criticised, and various reasons have been assigned, but it has never been satisfactorily explained; whatever his reasons may have been, his delay at this time cost him another golden opportunity. Washington withdrew his army in the night-time to the heights of North Castle, a strong position, about five miles distant. His enemy had again eluded him, and Howe retired with his forces to Dobb's Ferry, on the Hudson.

This movement awakened new fears;-did he intend to pass down the river to Fort Washington, or to cross into New Jersey? "He must attempt something," writes Washington, "on account of his reputation, for what has he done yet with his great army

? "

To meet the threatened dangers a new disposition was made of the American forces. Lee, with a portion, was to remain at North Castle; Putnam, with another, was to guard the west side of the Hudson; Heath, the guardian of the passes of the Highlands, was to encamp at Peeks

kill; while General Greene commanded at Fort Lee, and

Nov. 4.

XXX.

CHAP. Colonel Magaw, with the Pennsylvania troops, occupied Fort Washington.

1776.

Nov. 16.

With respect to maintaining Fort Washington, there was a diversity of opinion, as neither that fort nor the obstructions across the channel had prevented the passage of vessels up the Hudson. Washington, with Lee, Reed, and others, was in favor of withdrawing the troops at once. He addressed a letter to Greene, in which he advised this course, but left the matter to his discretion. Greene and Magaw, who were both on the spot, and knew the condition of the fort, decided that it could be maintained, and made preparations accordingly. This was, as the result proved, an injudicious decision. The post was compara

tively useless; it was accessible on three sides from the water; the fort was very small, and would not contain more than a thousand men, the lines were very extensive, and the garrison insufficient to man them.

Washington visited the posts along the river. When he arrived at Fort Lee, he was greatly disappointed to find that the troops had not been withdrawn from Fort Washington; and, before he could make a personal examination, the fort was invested. It was attacked on all sides. The garrison, after a brave resistance, which cost the enemy four hundred men, was driven from the outer lines, and crowded into the fort, where they were unable to fight to advantage, and were exposed to the shells of the enemy. Further resistance was impossible, and Colonel Magaw surrendered all his troops, two thousand in number. During this action, the troops of Cadwallader especially distinguished themselves. Of the officers, Colonel Baxter, of Pennsylvania, fell while cheering on his men.

From the New Jersey shore, the Commander-in-chief witnessed a portion of the battle, and again he saw some of his brave troops bayoneted by the merciless Hessians, and wept, it is said, with the tenderness of a child."

It was resolved to abandon Fort Lee, but before it

XXX.

was fully accomplished, Cornwallis, with a force six thou- CHAP sand strong, crossed the Hudson to the foot of the rocky cliffs known as the Palisades. The force sent down from 1776. North Castle was encamped at Hackensack, which lay between the river of that name and the Hudson, and Washington saw at once that the object of the enemy was to form a line across the country, and hem them in between the rivers. To avoid this he retreated, with all his forces, including the garrison of Fort Lee, to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, thence across the Passaic to the neighborhood of Newark. This retreat was made in such haste that nearly all the artillery was abandoned, the tents left standing, and the fires burning. That night the enemy found shelter in the tents of the deserted camp. From Newark, the army moved on across the Raritan to Brunswick, thence to Princeton, where they left twelve hundred men, under Lord Stirling, to check the enemy, while the main body proceeded to Trenton, and thence beyond the Delaware. The enemy pressed so closely upon them, that the advance of Cornwallis entered Newark at one end, as their rear-guard passed out at the other, and often during this march, "the American rear-guard, employed in pulling up bridges, was within sight and shot of the British pioneers, sent forward to rebuild them."

Thus less than four thousand men-a mere shadow of an army-poorly clad, with a scant supply of blankets, without tents, and enfeebled for want of wholesome food, evaded, by an orderly retreat, a well appointed force that far outnumbered them, well fed, well clothed, well disciplined, and flushed with victory. When the enemy reached the Delaware, they were unable to cross over, not a boat was to be found; Washington had taken the precaution to have them all secured for a distance of seventy miles, and transferred to the west side. Thus ended this famous retreat, remarkable for the manner in which it was conducted, and the circumstances under which it took place.