* (vi) These heights are now (1852) partly wooded and partly cultivated; then they were covered by the primitive forest, except around the house above delineated, where Howe made his quarters. That house is upon the eastern side of the highway from New Roehelle to White Plains, about a mile from the former village. It was very much dilapidated when I visited it, and was occupied by a colored family. Half a mile beyond this dwelling, on the same side of the road, is the marble monument erected to the memory of Thomas Paine. A sketch of this monument may be found in the Supplement, page 853.
American Army in West Chester.—Skirmishes.—Condition of the Army.
Washington viewed this first planting of the British standard upon the main land in proclaimed free America with great anxiety, for clouds were gathering In the horizon of the future. Nominally, he had an army of nineteen thousand men, but in discipline, order, and all the concomitants of true soldiers * they were not one third of that number. The time of service of many of them was drawing to a close, and cold weather was approaching to chill the ardor of half-clad patriots. A powerful enemy, well provided, was crouched as a tiger within cannon-voice, ready to spring upon its prey. Yet Washington's spirit did not quail, and he resolved to confront the foe with his motley troop, as if with a parity of veterans. He called a council of war at his quarters at Morris's house,Oct 16, 1776 to decide upon the propriety of evacuating Manhattan Island. General Lee, fresh from the field of victory at Charleston, had just arrived and gave his weighty opinion in favor of a total abandonment of the island.
The main army was speedily marched toward the Bronx, in West Chester, leaving a garrison, under Colonel Magaw, of Pennsylvania, sufficient to hold Fort Washington and its dependencies. In four divisions, under Generals Lee, Heath. Sullivan, and Lincoln, the American army moved slowly up the western side of the Bronx, and formed a series of intrenched camps upon the hills from the heights of Fordham to White Plains, a distance of about thirteen miles. While presenting a front parallel to that of Howe, frequent skirmishes occurred, in which the Americans were generally the winners. ** General Greene with a small force garrisoned Fort Lee, situated upon the Palisades, *** nearly opposite Fort Washington, and on the twenty-first of October the commander-in-chief left Morris's house and made his head-quarters near White Plains, where, directed by a French engineer, the Americans
* Cotemporary waiters give a sad picture of the army at that time. Among many of the subordinate officers, greed usurped the place of patriotism. Officers were elected on condition that they should throw their pay and rations into a joint stock for the benefit of a company; surgeons sold recommendations for furloughs, for able-bodied men, at sixpence each, and a captain was cashiered for stealing blankets from his soldiers. Men went out in squads to plunder from friend or foe, and immorality prevailed throughout the American army. Its appointments, too, were in a wretched condition. The surgeon's department lacked instruments According to a general return of fifteen regiments, there were not more than sufficient instruments for one battalion.—See Washington's Letter to Congress, Sept. 24, 1776; Gordon, ii., 114.
** On the night of the twenty-first of October, Lord Stirling sent Colonel Haslet, with Delaware and Maryland troops, to surprise some Loyalists then lying at Mamaroneck, under Colonel Rogers, the ranger during the French and Indian wars. These troops were the Queen's Rangers, afterward commanded by Simcoe. Almost eighty men were killed or captured, and the spoils were sixty stand of arms, and provisions and clothing. Rogers escaped. On the twenty-third, Colonel Hand and his riflemen attacked two hundred and forty Hessian chasseurs near East Chester, and routed them; and almost nightly the British pickets were disturbed by the Americans. These events made Howe cautious and slow in his movements.
*** The high perpendicular rocks extending along the western bank of the Hudson from Weehawken north about twenty-three miles, are so called on account of their resemblance to palisades. Congress had ordered Washington, "by every art and whatever expense, to obstruct effectually the navigation of the North River, between Fort Washington and Mount Constitution [whereon Fort Lee stood], as well to prevent the regress of the enemy's frigates lately gone up, as to hinder them from receiving succors."—Journals, ii., 385.