called to arms; Captain Montresor, aide-de-camp of General Howe, followed by a handful of men, climbed cautiously over the crest of the works and found them deserted. Advanced parties were hurried down to the ferry. The fog had cleared away, sufficiently for them to see the rear boats of the retreating army half-way across the river. One boat, still within musket shot, was compelled to return; it was manned by three vagabonds, who had lingered behind to plunder.

This extraordinary retreat, which, in its silence and celerity, equaled the midnight fortifying of Bunker's Hill, was one of the most signal achievements of the war, and redounded greatly to the reputation of Washington, who, we are told, for forty-eight hours preceding the safe extricating of his army from their perilous situation, scarce closed his eyes, and was the greater part of the time on horseback. Many, however, who considered the variety of risks and dangers which surrounded the camp, and the apparently fortuitous circumstances which averted them all, were disposed to attribute the safe retreat of the patriot army to a peculiar Providence.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Long Island in Possession of the Enemy. - Distressed Situa tion of the American Army at New York. - Question of Abandoning the City. - Letters from Either Camp. - Enemy's Ships in the Sound. - Removal of Women and Children from the City. - Yearning for Home among the Militia. — Tolerant Ideas of Washington and Greene. - Fort Constitution. Conference of Lord Howe with a Committee from Congress.

HE enemy had now possession of Long Island. British and Hessian troops garrisoned the works at Brooklyn, or were distributed at Bushwick, Newton, Hell Gate, and Flushing. Admiral Howe came up with the main body of the fleet, and anchored close to Governor's Island, within cannon shot of the city.

"Our situation is truly distressing," writes Washington to the President of Congress, on the 2d of September. "The check our detachment sustained on the 27th ultimo, has dispirited too great a proportion of our troops, and filled their minds with apprehension and despair. The militia, instead of calling forth their utmost efforts to a brave and manly opposition in order to repair our losses, are dismayed, intractable, and impatient to return. Great numbers of them have gone off; in some instances almost by whole regiments, by half ones, and by companies, at a time.

With the deepest concern, I am obliged to confess my want of confidence in the generality of the troops. Our number of men at present

fit for duty is under twenty thousand. I have ordered General Mercer to send the men intended for the flying camp to this place, about a thousand in number, and to try with the militia, if practi cable, to make a diversion upon Staten Island Till of late, I had no doubt in my own mind of defending this place; nor should I have yet, if the men would do their duty, but this I despair of.

"If we should be obliged to abandon the town, ought it to stand as winter quarters for the enemy? They would derive great conveniences from it, on the one hand, and much property would be destroyed on the other. It is an important question, but will admit of but little time for deliberation. At present, I dare say the enemy mean to preserve it if they can. If Congress, therefore, should resolve upon the destruction of it, the ressolution should be a profound secret, as the knowledge will make a capital change in their plans." Colonel Reed, writing on the same day to his wife, says, "I have only time to say I am alive and well; as to spirits, but middling.

My country will, I trust, yet be free, whatever may be our fate who are cooped up, or are in danger of so being, on this tongue of land, where we ought never to have been."1

We turn to cite letters of the very same date from British officers on Long Island, full of rumors 1 Force's Am. Archives, 5th Series, ii. 123.

RUMORS IN THE BRITISH CAMP. 363

and surmises. "I have just heard," writes an English field-officer, "there has been a most dreadful fray in the town of New York. The New Englanders insisted on setting the town on fire and retreating. This was opposed by the New Yorkers, who were joined by the Pennsylvanians, and a battle has been the consequence, in which many have lost their lives. By the steps our general is taking, I imagine he will effectually cut off their retreat at King's Bridge, by which the island of New York is joined to the continent."

An English officer of the Guards, writing from camp on the same day, varies the rumor. The Pennsylvanians, according to his version, joined with the New Englanders in the project to set fire to the town; both had a battle with the New Yorkers on the subject, and then withdrew themselves from the city which, "with other favorable circumstances," gave the latter writer a lively "hope that this distressful business would soon be brought to a happy issue."

❝ In

Another letter gives a different version. the night of the 2d instant, three persons escaped from the city in a canoe and informed our genera! that Mr. Washington had ordered three battalions of New York provincials to leave New York, and that they should be replaced by an equal number of Connecticut troops; but the former, assured that the Connecticutians would burn and destroy all the houses, peremptorily refused to give up their city, declaring that no cause of exigency whatever should induce them to intrust the defense of it to any other than her own inhab

itants. This spirited and stubborn resolution prevailed over the order of their commander, and the New Yorkers continue snugly in possession of the place." 1

"Matters go on swimmingly," writes another officer. "I don't doubt the next news we send you, is, that New York is ours, though in ashes, for the rebel troops have vowed to put it in flames if the tory troops get over."

An American officer writes to an absent New Yorker, in a different tone. "I fear we shall evacuate your poor city. The very thought gives me the horrors!" Still he indulges a vague hope of succor from General Lee, who was returning, all glorious, from his successes at the South. "General Lee," writes he, " is hourly expected, as if from heaven, with a legion of flaming swordsmen." It was, however, what Lee himself would have termed a mere brutum ful

men.

These letters show the state of feeling in the opposite camps, at this watchful moment, when matters seemed hurrying to a crisis.

On the night of Monday (Sept. 2d), a forty gun ship, taking advantage of a favorable wind and tide, passed between Governor's Island and Long Island, swept unharmed by the batteries which opened upon her, and anchored in Turtle Bay, above the city. In the morning, Washington dispatched Major Crane of the artillery, with two twelve-pounders and a howizter to annoy her from the New York shore. They hulled her

1 Force's Am. Archives, 5th Series, ii. 168.