[205] Heath states that Henley was buried by Knowlton's side, and the spot is indicated in the orders of September 24th: "Thomas Henley will be buried this p.m. from the quarters of Maj. David Henley below the hill where the redoubt is thrown up on the road." During the action of the 16th, troops were throwing up intrenchments across the island at about One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street. This was the first and most southerly of the three lines constructed on the Heights. Sauthier's map, the authority in the case, shows this line with a battery across the King's Bridge Road, just at the top of what is known as Breakneck Hill. It was on the slope of this hill that Knowlton and Henley were buried. Mr. Lossing puts his grave in one of the redoubts on the second line, afterwards included in Trinity Cemetery; but that line had not been thrown up when Knowlton died. (Silliman's letter of September 17th, p.m. [Part II., page 55].) Mr. Jay and others have suggested the erection of a monument to Knowlton and Leitch. No finer site could be found than the spot where they fell in Morningside Park.
Respecting Major Henley, spoken of by Washington as "another of our best officers," see Glover's letter, [Document 35].
[206] The position of the various works at Harlem Heights appears on Sauthier's plan which seems to have accompanied Howe's report of the capture of Fort Washington. Good copies of it may be found in Stedman's history and in the New York Revolutionary MS., vol. i. In 1812, when Randall surveyed the island, many of these works were still traceable. He gives parts of the second and third lines, Fort Washington and the others above, all of which agree with Sauthier's locations. Some of the works remain well preserved to-day.
[207] "Frog's Neck and Point is a kind of island; there are two passages to the main which are fordable at low water, at both of which we have thrown up works, which will give some annoyance should they attempt to come off by either of these ways."—Tilghman to William Duer, October 13th, 1776. MS. Letter. On hearing that they had landed on the Neck, Duer replied from the Convention at Peekskill, on the 15th: "There appears to me an actual fatality attending all their measures. One would have naturally imagined from the Traitors they have among them, who are capable of giving them the most minute description of the Grounds in the county of Westchester, that they would have landed much farther to the Eastward. Had they pushed their imaginations to discover the worst place, they could not have succeeded better than they have done."—MS. Letter.
[208] The Convention's Committee on Correspondence consisted of William Duer, R.R. Livingston, Egbert Benson, and two others. Nearly all of Tilghman's letters to the committee have been published either in Force or in the Proceedings of the N.Y. Provincial Congress. Of Duer's replies, however, but few are in print, the originals being in the possession of Oswald Tilghman, Esq., of Easton, Talbot County, Md., to whom the writer is under obligations for the favor of quoting the extracts given in the text. (See [biographical sketch] of Colonel Tilghman.)
[209] As evidence of the estimation in which Lee was held at this time, Duer writes on the 15th to Colonel Harrison: "I beg my affectionate compliments to Genl Lee, whom I sincerely congratulate on his arrival in camp—partly on account of himself as he will have it in his [power] to reap a fresh Harvest of Laurels, and more on account of his Country which looks to him as one of the brave asserters of her dearest rights."—MS. Letter.
Lee had just returned from South Carolina, and was associated by the army with the brave defence of Charleston harbor. The honor of that affair, however, belonged entirely to Moultrie.
[210] In this skirmish Captain Evelyn, the British officer who captured the patrol of American officers on Long Island, was mortally wounded, and died soon after, much regretted. He is supposed to have been buried in New York.
[211] Stirling, who with Sullivan had recently been exchanged as prisoner, was now in command of Mifflin's brigade, Mifflin being absent in Philadelphia.
[212] See letters of these officers, [Documents 17], [22]. Also Tallmadge's account, [Document 26].