General Lincoln left Peekskill with eight hundred men, on the morning of the first of June, proceeded to Teller’s Point; there took boats, and with muffled oars rowed down Tappan Bay by night, hugging the eastern shore. On the morning of the second, he reached Dobb’s Ferry, without being discovered by the enemy. At three o’clock, on the morning of the second, Washington started, without baggage, and leaving all tents standing; passed through Tarrytown, reaching Valentine’s Hill, four miles above King’s Bridge, by sunrise of the third, where he gained a good position for the support of either expedition.
When General Lincoln crossed the Hudson, at Fort Lee, he at once noticed that the British expedition into New Jersey had returned and reoccupied the post near Fort Washington; and that a British man-of-war had anchored in the stream, near the shore just below that fort. A surprise of Fort Washington became impossible. He had, however, before leaving Peekskill, been supplied with alternate instructions, anticipating this very emergency. It had been Washington’s real purpose, now that the French army was immediately within his control, to draw Clinton, if possible, into a general engagement; and the entire French force awaited his signal for the movement. So soon as Lincoln discovered the British camp, he recrossed the Hudson and landed his troops just above Spuyten Duyvil Creek, near old Fort Independence; and then moved to high ground near King’s Bridge, so as to act in concert with the Duke de Lauzun and cut off any detachment which might attempt to cross the Harlem to support Delancey. Meanwhile the Duke de Lauzun had only reached East Chester, after a hot march over very rough country, and was several hours later than the hour designated for the assault. The troops of Lincoln were discovered by a large foraging force of fourteen hundred men which was sweeping over the country from right to left, in search of cattle and other supplies, and a sharp skirmish ensued. The Duke de Lauzun, hearing the firing, pressed forward with forced step to join in the action. Washington also moved rapidly to the front, and at his appearance the British fell back rapidly to New York. During the afternoon, after carefully reconnoitering the position, Washington also retired to Valentine’s Hill, and then to Dobb’s Ferry, as if entirely withdrawing his troops; but, on the sixth, he was joined by Rochambeau, and on the seventh, the American camp was fully established. Its right rested on the Hudson, covered by earthworks, and its left crossed Saw Mill River. (See Map, “Hudson River Highlands.”) The French army occupied the hills still farther eastward, as far as the river Bronx.
Washington at once made an effort to force General Clinton to fight for the possession of New York. Pickets were ostentatiously posted. Letters, designed to fall into Clinton’s hands, were written, and as early as the sixth, Clinton captured some of these “confidential” papers and enclosed them to Lord Cornwallis, saying: “I am threatened with a siege. Send me two thousand troops; the sooner they come, the better.”
The agitation in New York is described by contemporary writers as “most intense and universal.” It was kept under all possible control; but the coast-guards were doubled, so that no stray boats might pass unchallenged, by night or day, and mounted couriers constantly passed and repassed, to furnish the speediest possible information at British headquarters of any hostile advance. The report published in slips, that “brick ovens were to be erected in New Jersey, opposite Staten Island, to supply bread rations, daily, for thirty thousand men,” was encouraged by Washington, and was accepted as true by the country near by, and generally at the north, New Jersey included.
When the camps were fully established, and guns were disposed for their best effect, Washington, accompanied by Count de Rochambeau and Generals de Boville and Du Portail, crossed to Jersey Heights, and with a small escort of one hundred and fifty Jersey troops, examined all the New York outposts, as far down as the ocean. Neither was this a mere sham—hollow in substance. The projected attack upon New York was a deliberate alternative; to compel Clinton to withhold reënforcements from the Southern army so that Cornwallis could be overpowered and captured; or, if he ventured to aid that officer, he must lose New York.
This reconnoissance in New Jersey was known to Sir Henry Clinton, and he might have been very thankful to General Washington for information that some of “his [Clinton’s] stores were inadequately guarded”; that “at some posts the small garrisons were doing no watchful guard duty”; and that there was “no serious difficulty whatever in seizing or destroying all the stores on Staten Island, without material loss or risk.”
A second reconnoissance of the entire British front, from King’s Bridge down the Hudson, and along Hell Gate channel, occurred on the evening of July 21st. This was no feeble “feeling of the enemy.” Five thousand choice troops took part in the investigation of the British position. General Chastellux commanded one division, and General Lincoln commanded the second. As early as the eighth of the month, Sir Henry Clinton wrote to Lord Cornwallis, as follows: “As your lordship is now so near, it will be unnecessary for you to send your despatches to the minister; you will therefore be so good as to send them to me in the future.”
It is a fact that Cornwallis was encouraged by the British War Office and the Ministry to write directly to those departments. He stood high in esteem; and, as will appear under his name in the Index, was subsequently honored, although captured at Yorktown. The letter of the eighth, thus referred to, was followed by letters on the eleventh, thirteenth, and nineteenth of June, with similar appeals for reënforcements; and these appeals were forwarded by special couriers or fast frigates. Then came the allied parade of the twenty-second. The troops reached King’s Bridge at daybreak. Lauzun’s lancers in their brilliant uniform, and Sheldon’s Light Corps, scoured the vicinity of Morrisania, and the dragoons went as far as Throgg’s Neck. The royalist refugees fled to islands, vessels, and the woods. This demonstration lasted during the twenty-second and twenty-third of June. Then Washington and Rochambeau, escorted by French dragoons, examined all advance posts, passing directly within range of fire from both vessels and picket posts. There was no pretence of secrecy in this inquisitive inquiry as to the British strength and British positions. It was a bold, deliberate challenge of the garrison to retire if they so desired, or to fight if they preferred battle. On the twenty-third, the troops resumed their places in the quiet camp.
On the twenty-sixth, Clinton called upon Cornwallis for “three more regiments,” to be sent from Carolina, writing: “I shall probably want them, as well as the troops you may be able to send me from the Chesapeake, for such offensive and defensive operations as may offer in this quarter.” Cornwallis had previously offered to send two of the Hessian regiments, then in South Carolina, “as they could be spared in the hot summer months,” and Clinton begged him to “renew that offer.”
A brief glance at the Southern Department is necessary in order fully to measure the designs of the American Commander-in-Chief, which, on the surface, seemed to be local in their purpose. The army of Cornwallis, with reenforcements, numbered about seven thousand effective troops when he entered upon his active campaign against Lafayette. It will be remembered that Cornwallis had promised Clinton to drive Lafayette from Richmond. When Lafayette saw that by attempting to hold Richmond he would risk a general action, with the possible loss of Virginia and consequent ruin to Greene’s army at the South, he permitted that city to abide the fate of war, and marched northward to the upper Rappahannock; to effect an union with the forces of Wayne, approaching from the north. He decided to avoid further contest with Cornwallis, unless on terms of his own dictation.