[71] Colonel Knox to his wife.—Drake's Life of Gen. Knox, p. 131.
[72] "General Washington was very handsomely dressed, and made a most elegant appearance. Colonel Patterson appeared awe-struck, as if he was before something supernatural. Indeed, I don't wonder at it. He was before a very great man, indeed."—Ibid. p. 132.
[73] Memorandum of an interview between General Washington and Colonel Patterson.—Sparks' Washington, vol. iv., p. 510.
[74] On August 17th Washington requested the New York Convention to remove the women, children, and infirm persons, as the city was likely soon to be "the scene of a bloody conflict." He stated that when the Rose and Phœnix sailed past, "the shrieks and cries of these poor creatures, running every way with their children, was truly distressing." Pastor Shewkirk says: "This affair caused a great fright in the city. Women and children, and some with their bundles, came from the lower parts and walked to the Bowery, which was lined with people."
[75] Captain Nathan Hale, the "Martyr-spy," says in a letter of the 20th of August: "Our situation has been such this fortnight or more as scarce to admit of writing. We have daily expected an action—by which means, if any one was going, and we had letters written, orders were so strict for our tarrying in camp, that we could rarely get leave to go and deliver them. For about six or eight days the enemy have been expected hourly, whenever the wind and tide in the least favored."—[Document 40].
[76] Original in possession of Chas. J. Little, Esq., Cambridge, Mass.
[77] Greene's Life of Greene, vol. i.
[78] General Orders, August 20, 1776.—... "General Sullivan is to take command upon Long Island till General Greene's state of health will permit him to resume it, and Brigadier Lord Stirling is to take charge of General Sullivan's division till he returns to it again."
[79] In a letter to Peter Van Schaack, dated New York, February 23d, 1776, Fred. Rhinelander says: "We are going to raise a new battalion; Colonel Lasher and Gouverneur Morris are candidates for the command. As both the gentlemen have great merit, it is hard to tell which will succeed." The reference here is probably to a plan formed by private citizens in New York to raise a battalion of fifteen hundred men for nine months, on condition that the projectors could appoint the officers. This being refused by the Provincial Congress the plan was abandoned.—Life of G. Morris, vol. i. p. 89, n.