* The Rose and Phoenix, after remaining in Haverstraw Bay three weeks, had passed the American batteries and joined the fleet.—See page 802.
** Lieutenant-general De Heister was an old man, and warmly attached to his master, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. The long voyage of almost fourteen weeks dispirited him, "and," says Sir George Collier, "his patience and tobacco became exhausted." A sniff of land breeze revived him. "He called for Hock, and swallowed large potations to the health of his friends."
*** This view is from the road on the high shore, a little below Fort Hamilton, looking southeast; the house in the center belonged to Simon Cortelyou, a Tory, during the Revolution, and has not been altered. Gravesend Bay is seen beyond the house, and the distant land is Coney Island beach.
Alarm in New York.—General Putnam.—General John Morin Scott
When this movement of the enemy was known in New York, alarm and confusion prevailed. * Re-enforcements were sent to General Sullivan, then encamped at Brooklyn, and the next day the veteran General Putnam ** was ordered thither by Washington, to take the supreme command there. The military works on Long Island had been constructed under the immediate direction of General Greene, who made himself acquainted with every important point between Hell Gate and the Narrows. Unfortunately, he fell sick, and none knew so well as he the importance of certain passes in the rear of Brooklyn. The chief fortifications were within the limits of the present city, *** while at the passes alluded to
* Many Whig families left the city, and for seven long years of exile they endured privations with heroic fortitude. * Many of their houses were destroyed by fire, and others were ruined by military occupants.
** Israel Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on the seventh of January, 1718. He was a vigorous, athletic lad, and in 1739 we find him cultivating land in Pomfret, Connecticut. He was appointed to the command of the first troops raised in Connecticut for the French and Indian war in 1755, in which capacity the reader has met him several times in these volumes. He returned to his farm after the peace, where he remained until he heard of the affair at Lexington. At the head of Connecticut troops, he distinguished himself in the battle of Bunker Hill. He was one of the four major generals appointed by Congress in 1775. His services during the war are mentioned in many portions of this work, and we will not repeat them here. His last military services were performed at West Point and vicinity in 1779, where he was chiefly engaged in strengthening the fortifications. Paralysis of one side impaired the activity of his body, but his mind retained its powers until his death. He lived in retirement after the war, and died at Brooklyn, Windham county, Connecticut, on the twenty-ninth of May, 1790, aged seventy-two years. His remains repose beneath a marble slab in the grave-yard south of the village, upon which is an appropriate inscription.