A. There was not. After entering the lines, Sir William Howe, on the enemy's evacuating, followed the road to the point, to examine and see if he could get out at that part, which he could not do, and we were obliged to return and go out of a sally port of the lines....
Q. Can you say of your own knowledge, that the right redoubt of the lines at Brooklyn had an abattis before it?
A. I have already said that the whole had an abattis before it.
[He produces an actual survey of the lines.]...
Q. If any one of these redoubts were taken, did not they flank the line in such a manner to the right and left that the enemy could not remain in the lines?
A. I have already said, that they could not be taken by assault, but by approaches, as they were rather fortresses than redoubts."—A View of the Evidence Relative to the Conduct of the American War under Sir William Howe, etc.; second edition; London, 1779. Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, 1870, p. 884.
The maps in the early London editions of Gordon's and Stedman's histories of the war, each put five fortifications on the line from the Wallabout to Gowanus Creek.
[44] One of Greene's orders refers to this fort as follows: "Camp on Long Island, July 19, 1776.—The works on Cobble Hill being greatly retarded for want of men to lay turf, few being acquainted with that service, all those in Colonel Hitchcock's and Colonel Little's regiments, that understand that business, are desired to voluntarily turn out every day, and they shall be excused from all other duty, and allowed one half a pint of rum a day." Two guns fired from Cobble Hill were to be the signal that the enemy had landed on Long Island.
[45] "Our fort [Defiance] is much strengthened by new works and more troops, and it is in so good a posture of defence, that it would be almost impossible to take it either by attack or surprise. To guard against the latter, each man is every other night on duty."—Memoir of Samuel Shaw, p. 17.
[46] Documents, Col. Hist. of New York, vol. viii., p. 792.