At daybreak of the thirtieth, British pickets entered the American works; and the most advanced were enabled to fire a few shots at the last American detachment as it landed safely upon the New York side.
CHAPTER XII.
WASHINGTON IN NEW YORK.
Washington’s labors were neither lessened nor interrupted when he assembled his army on the thirtieth day of August, 1776. He had been in the saddle or on foot, without sleep, for more than forty-eight hours; and it would require a large volume even to outline the mass of minute details which had to receive his attention. His own account, as contained in private letters, can be summed up in suggestive groups—such as, “tools carelessly strewn about”; “cartridges exposed to the rain”; and, “the soldiers, too often the officers, ignorant as children of the responsibility of a single sentry or gunner, wherever located, along rampart or trench.”
On the evening of the thirtieth, he thus described the situation: “The militia are dismayed, intractable, and impatient to return home. Great numbers have gone off; in some instances almost by whole regiments, by half ones, and by companies, at a time. With the deepest concern I am obliged to confess my want of confidence with the generality of the troops.”
He urged Congress to establish a regular army at once; to enlist men for the war; pressed the immediate abandonment of the city, and put the plain question, whether it “should be left standing for British headquarters.”
On the second day of September, the number of men present for duty was less than twenty thousand. On the same day he reorganized its formation into three grand divisions, or corps: one under Putnam, in command of the city; one under Spencer, in the absence of Greene, at Harlem, to prevent a British landing there; and the third under Heath, at King’s Bridge.
On the third of September, Congress ordered two North Carolina battalions, under General Moore, to march with all possible expedition to reënforce the army at New York; also a Continental battalion from Rhode Island; and urged Virginia to forward all the troops within her power to furnish. On the same day, Putnam urged the fortification of Harlem Heights, Mount Washington, and the Jersey shore; if possible, to prevent Howe’s ascending the Hudson River to attack the northern army. On the next day, the fourth, Washington was again compelled to occupy himself with such minute details as belonged to officers of the lowest rank. Such “diabolical practices as robbing apple orchards and gardens, and straggling without aim or purpose, instead of drilling and preparing for their country’s safety,” were officially reprimanded, and three roll-calls per day were advised, to keep the men near their duty. On the fifth of September, Greene advised a general and speedy retreat from the city, and a council was called to meet on the day succeeding, for consideration of the proposition. The council did convene on the sixth, and Washington thus announces to Congress its action: “The Council was opposed to retiring from New York, although they acknowledged that it would not be tenable if attacked by artillery”; and adds significantly: “Some, to whom the opinion of Congress was known, were not a little influenced in their opinions, as they were led to suspect that Congress wished it to be retained at all hazards.” General Putnam, in concurring with his Commander-in-Chief, shrewdly observed: “This dooms New York to destruction; but what are ten or twenty cities, to the grand object?”
On the eighth of September, Washington reported the militia of Connecticut as reduced from six thousand to two thousand men; and in a few days their number was but nominal, twenty or thirty in some regiments. The residue were discharged and sent home with a recommendation to Governor Trumbull, “that it was about time to begin dealing with deserters.”
Although Washington concurred in Putnam’s general idea of strengthening the Hudson River shore by earthworks and redoubts, he anticipated failure to make them adequate for control of its waters, because of the limited power and range of his guns. The British had already extended their right wing as far as Flushing (see map), with posts at Bushwick, Newtown, and Astoria, and had also occupied Montressor and Buchanan’s, now Ward’s and Randall’s islands.
Upon appeal to Massachusetts, that Colony made a draft of one-fifth of her population, excepting only certain exposed localities and certain classes. Connecticut was no less patriotic, and Governor Trumbull made earnest effort to place the Colony foremost in support of the cause in peril. That Colony, so closely adjoining New York on the west, and exposed on its entire southern boundary to maritime excursions, was peculiarly in danger. On the fourteenth, Congress at last authorized eighty-five regiments to be enlisted for five years; and the advice of Greene, when he first joined the army in 1775, and of Washington, after assuming command at Cambridge, began to be accepted as sound policy and essential to ultimate success.