reducing it to ashes, while others protested vehemently against such drastic meas- ures. Acting upon the theory that the enemy would follow his recent successes by further aggression, the Commander-in-chief ordered that all of the sick and Digitized by Microsoft® 172 The Hudson River wounded should be removed to Orange, in New Jersey, while surplus stores and baggage were to be trans- ported to Dobbs Ferry. Desertions were the scandal of the day. Two thirds of the Connecticut troops were smitten with an irresistible attack of nostalgia, that nothing but a sight of their own firesides could remedy- Still the indefatigable Putnam continued to construct forts and plan chevaux-de-frise. Fort Constitution, op- posite Fort Washington, was commenced, and a strong detachment of troops stationed there. It was evident to Washington and his officers that the plan of the British was to enclose us on the island of New York, by taking posts in our rear, while the shipping secures the front, and thus, by cutting off our communication with the country, oblige us to fight them on their own terms or surrender at discretion; or by a brilliant stroke endeavour to cut this army to pieces and secure the collection of arms and stores, which, they well know, we shall not soon be able to replace. On the yth of September the question of the abandon- ment of the city was discussed and the council of war finally decided upon a partial withdrawal. Putnam, who had been strongly in favour of evacua- tion, was to be left in the city with five thousand soldiers, while Heath was to keep the upper part of the island with nine thousand, opposing the attempts of the enemy to land. A third division, under command of Generals Greene and Spencer, was stationed near Turtle and Kipp's bays, on the East River. Accord- ing to several authorities Washington had his head- Digitized by Microsoft® The Island and the River in 1776 173 quarters in the old Apthorpe mansion, a short distance out of the city, on the Hudson River side. Congress having left the decision relating to the evacuation of New. York entirely to the Commander- in-chief, and nearly all of his ofhcers determining, upon a second council being held, that retreat was a necessity, preparations were rapidly made to complete the with- drawal of the Continental forces. The attack of the British, concentrated upon the forces under Greene and Spencer, on the 15th, pre- cipitated the movement. The Connecticut levies at Kipp's Bay and Turtle Bay fled, making hardly any resistance. The presence and almost frantic opposi- tion of Washington himself did not serve to check the panic into which they were thrown. An express was immediately dispatched to Putnam, ordering him to retreat. He called in his pickets and guards and abandoned the city, leaving most of his stores and the heavy guns to fall into the hands of the foe. The day was sultry and torrid and the little army encumbered with women and children, besides a hetero- geneous assortment of baggage. The strength of the men was overtaxed and the morale of the command low, but the commanding officer was as full of fire and courage as ever, and pulled his army through by the sheer force of his own personality. Colonel Humphreys, acting at the time as a volun- teer with Putnam, has left the following account of him: Digitized by Microsoft® 174 The Hudson River I had frequent opportunities that day of beholding him, for the purpose of issuing orders and encouraging the troops, flying on his horse covered with foam, wherever his presence was most necessary. Without his -extraordinary exertions, the guards must have been inevitably lost, and it is probable the entire corps would have been cut in pieces. When we were not far from Bloomingdale, an aide-de-camp came to him at full speed, to inform him that a column of British infantry was descending upon our right. Our rear was soon fired upon, and the colonel of our regiment, whose order was just communicated for the front to file off to the left, was killed upon the spot. With no other loss, we joined the army after dark upon the heights of Harlem. From Bayard Hill Fort, which was on what is now Grand Street, the line of retreat was, according to the best evidence, across country to the neighbourhood of Greenwich village, and then by way of the road that was afterwards called the Abingdon-Fitz-Roy road to the neighbourhood of Forty-second or Forty-third Street. From that point the direction was toward Harlem Heights. An incident of the march is thus told by Irving : Tradition gives a circumstance which favoured Putnam's re- treat. The British generals, in passing by Murray Hill, the country residence of