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 fleches 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.



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 18s. 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, Caesar, 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.]



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 commence," 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.