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 a patriot of that name, who was of the Society of Friends, made a halt to seek some refreshment. The proprietor of the house was absent; but his wife set cake and wine before them in abundance. So grateful were these refreshments in the heat of the day, that they lingered over their wine, quaffing and laughing, and bantering their patriotic hostess about the ludicrous panic and discomfiture of her country- men. In the meantime, before they were roused from their regale, Putnam and his forces had nearly passed by, within a mile of them. Digitized by Microsoft® The Island and the River in 1776 175 Washington's retirement from his previous head- quarters to the Jumel mansion in Richmond Hill occurred on the evening of the 14th, before the British had gained possession of the lower end of the island. The enemy's line extended from Horen's Hook on the East River across the island to about 91st Street on the North River. The vanguard was commanded by General Leslie, whose most advanced picket posts did not go above 95th Street. The main body of the Americans was resting upon Harlem Heights, their pickets about 13 2d Street. On the morning of the i6th, before daylight, Colonel Thomas Knowlton, of Bunker Hill fame, was directed by Washington to advance with a reconnoitring party of Rangers, to determine the position and strength of the enemy. It is not known whether he started from the right of our pickets or from a point farther to the east; nor is the question important. Professor Henry P. Johnston, whose study of the action on Harlem Heights has been exhaustive, says in this connection: It is enough to know that when we hear of them [the Rangers] a httle later, they were at the most important point on the enemy's front. We find them stirring up their pickets on the left, that left which rested, as we have seen, somewhere on the Bloomingdale Road, not far above Apthorpe's (91st Street), between which and our pickets at the Hollow Way (Manhat- tanville) intervened the wooded and rolling ground of the two farms on Morningside Heights. That wooded and rolling ground covered the enemy and concealed his possible movements on the western Digitized by Microsoft® 176 The Hudson River or North River side of the island. That was the reason for dispatching Knowlton and his Rangers. At 1 06th Street, west of the Boulevard, upon a knoll, stood the stone farmhouse of Nicholas Jones. The reconnoitring party reached this place about sun- rise and appear to have used it as a cover, advancing cautiously, in the manner that many of the American recruits had learned in Indian warfare. They had barely passed the farmhouse when they were discovered by the British pickets and a sharp skirmish ensued. The Rangers were composed of Con- necticut men, and they still smarted under the taunts of cowardice that must have been their portion after the ]Danic and retreat of the isth. The honour of Con- necticut was smirched and the Rangers, picked men, were eager to remove that stain. But the odds against them were too great, and after holding their ground valiantly for a while, losing about ten men, they fell back, the line of their retreat being along the old Bloomingdale road "As it was subse- quently extended through Manhattan ville to the Kings- bridge road above." Close to where Columbia University and Barnard College now stand the British light troops pushed the Rangers till they reached the site of Grant's tomb, where they halted. Beyond that point the ground was probably more open and the pursuers could get a view of General Greene's force; but they sent after the retreating Connecticut men a message that made their Digitized by Microsoft® The Island and the River in 1776 177 very ears tingle. The bugle ranig out the notes of the fox-chase, a call which to the men of that day needed no interpreter. As the trees and rocks echoed back those derisive notes it seemed as if the cup of humiliation had been drained to its dregs. How many of the King's troops joined in that pur- suit is