On the night of the first of July, a strong detachment, under General Lincoln, went down the river from Tappan, in boats with muffled oars, and landed half a mile below the village of Yonkers, * upon the land now owned by Thomas W. Ludlow, Esq. ** Lincoln marched cautiously over the hills to Tippett's Brook, unobserved by Emmerick, who, with his light horse, was patrolling toward Boar Hill. Also avoiding Pruschanck's corps, stationed upon Cortlandt's Bridge, Lincoln reached the house of Montgomery, near King's Bridge, before dawn, where he was discovered and fired upon by the enemy's pickets. Delancey, at fort No. 8, ever on the alert, heard the firing, and retreated in time for safety, for Lauzun had not approached by West Farms as was intended. Washington had advanced to Valentine's Hill, and when he heard the firing he pressed forward to the aid of Lincoln. The British troops immediately fell back, and withdrew behind their works, near King's Bridge. Lincoln ascertained that the detachment had returned from New Jersey; that the British were re-enforced by some fresh troops; that a large party was on the north end of the island, and that a ship of war was watching at the mouth of the creek, near King's Bridge. In view of these difficulties, Washington withdrew to Dobbs's Ferry, where he was joined by Rochambeau on the sixth, and both armies were soon on their way to Virginia to capture Cornwallis. No other military operations of importance took place in this vicinity until the passage of King's Bridge by American troops in the autumn of 1783, when the British were about to evacuate New York.
Stretching away eastward beyond the Sound, is Long Island, all clustered with historical associations. Almost every bay, creek, and inlet witnessed the whale-boat warfare while
* Yonkers is an old settlement on the Hudson, at the mouth of the Nepera or Saw-mill River, about four miles north of King's Bridge. Here was the later residence of the wealthy proprietor of the Phillipse manor, and here is the spacious stone manor-house where, on one of his rent days, the patroon feasted his friends and tenantry.
* Its exterior is plain, but the interior displays rich wainscotings and cornices, and elaborately wrought chimney-pieces. Here, on the third of July, 1730, Mary Phillipse was born; she was the young lady of whom Washington became enamored (see pages 141, 816) in 1756. She is represented as a beautiful and accomplished woman. She was attainted of treason, and the whole Phillipse estate was confiscated. It is believed that she and her sister (Mrs. Robinson), and the wife of Reverend Charles Inglis, rector of Trinity church, in New York, were the only females who suffered attainder during the war.
