[786] Cf. Washington's views, 5 Force, ii. 495, and Niles's Principles and Acts, etc. (1876 ed.), p. 464. "As the army now stands", said Knox in 1776, "it is only a receptacle for ragamuffins" (Drake's Knox, 32). Cf. Greene's Life of Greene, i. ch. 6. The British army was perhaps nearly double in numbers. On the extent of the opposing armies, see 5 Force, i. and ii.; Carrington's Battles, p. 224; Johnston's Campaign of 1776, ch. 3; Jones's N. Y. during the Rev. War, i. App. 599. On Oct. 3d a committee of Congress reported on the condition of the army around New York (5 Force, ii. 1385), and Ibid. (iii. 449) there is a return of the entire army made Nov. 3d.
[787] Original sources: Evidence of the Court of Inquiry in 5 Force, ii, 1251; Washington to Congress in Sparks, iv. 94; Greene to Cooke, Sept. 17th, in 5 Force, ii. 370 (cf. Green's Greene, i. 216); Cæsar Rodney to Read, Sept. 18th, in Life of George Read, 191; Smallwood, Oct. 12th, in 5 Force, ii. 1013; letter of Nicholas Fish, Sept. 19th, in Hist. Mag., xiii. 33; letter, Sept. 24th, in Evelyns in America; Major Baurmeister's account, Sept. 24th, in Mag. of Amer. Hist., Jan., 1877, p. 33 (Johnston, p. 95),—a MS. owned by Bancroft; Rufus Putnam's Memoirs (Johnston, p. 136); Heath's Memoirs, p. 60; Jas. S. Martin's Narrative (Johnston, Doc., p. 81). Cf. note on the authorities in Bancroft, orig. ed., ix. p. 122; also Gordon, ii. 327. Later accounts: Johnston, pp. 92, 232; De Lancey in Jones, App. p. 604; Irving's Washington, ii. 333.
Captain Nathan Hale, of the Connecticut troops, had been sent over to Long Island to discover the intentions of the enemy; but, being apprehended, was hanged as a spy, Sept. 22, 1776. Cf. Hinman's Connecticut during the Rev., 82, and other histories of Connecticut; I. W. Stuart's Life of N. Hale, Hartford, 1856, and New York, 1874; Memoir of N. Hale, New Haven, 1844; Lossing's Two Spies (N. Y., 1886); Moore's Diary of the Rev., p. 314; Songs and Ballads of the Rev., 130; Worcester Soc. of Antiquity Proc., 1879; H. P. Johnston in Harper's Monthly, June, 1880 (vol. lxi. p. 53); Greene's Hist. View, 338; and references in Poole's Index, p. 566. Congress voted him a monument. Poore's Descriptive Catal., etc., index, p. 1294.
[788] See the plan in Johnston's Campaign of 1776 (ch. vi. p. 259), with topography based on Randall's map and old surveys.
[789] There is in the N. Y. Hist. Soc. a contemporary view of Harlem from Morrisania (1765), drawn from an original in the British Museum, and this is reproduced in Valentine's Manual, 1863, p. 611. (Cf. King's Maps, Brit. Mus., i. 476.)
[790] Original sources: Washington's letter to Congress, in Dawson, i. 163, and Sparks, iv. 97; Geo. Clinton's letter in Dawson, i. 164, and in Dawson's N. Y. City during the Rev. (1861), 108; General Silliman's in App. of Jones's N. Y. during the Rev. War, p. 606; John Gooch's in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., July, 1876, p. 334; original documents in Mag. of Amer. Hist., iv. 375; viii. 39, 627; and in 5 Force, ii.
On the British side, Gen. Howe's letter is in Dawson, i. 165; a letter (Sept. 22d) in the Lord Wrottesley MSS., noted in Hist. MSS. Com. Second Rept., p. 48; and Lushington's Lord Harris, p. 79. Later accounts: Johnston, Campaign of 1776; Dawson's Battles, i. 160, and his account in the N. Y. City Manual, 1868, p. 804; Carrington's Battles, ch. 34; Lossing's Field-Book; Gay, iii. 509; J. A. Stevens in Mag. of Amer. Hist., iv. 351, vi. 260,—also see vii., viii. 39; E. C. Benedicts Battle of Harlem Heights (N. Y., 1881), read before the N. Y. Hist. Soc., 1878; John Jay's Centennial Discourse, 1876, with App. of documents, including extracts from Stiles's diary; Smyth (Lect. Mod. Hist., Bohn's ed., ii. 459) on Washington's proposed Fabian policy. Cf. also Greene's Greene, Reed's Joseph Reed, i. 237; Colonel Humphrey's Life of Putnam; Memoirs of Col. Tench Tilghman (Albany, 1876). Letters of Tilghman and others at this time, copied from the papers in the N. Y. Hist. Soc., are in the Sparks MSS., no. xxxix. Cf. histories of New York city. The amplest details of the movements which led to the actions at Harlem, of the various changes thereabouts, and of the later retreat to White Plains will be found in Dawson's Westchester County, p. 229 et seq., abundantly fortified with references.
[791] Cf. current accounts from the newspapers in Moore's Diary, p. 311. A popular colored print published in Paris not long afterwards assigned the cause to American incendiaries (Dufossé's Americana, 1879, no. 5,480). There is in Valentine's Manual, 1866, p. 766, a diagram marking the spread of the fire in 1776 compared with that of 1778. A view of Trinity Church, in New York, as ruined by the fire, is given in Harper's Mag., xlvii. p. 24; Valentine's Manual, 1861, p. 654; and Gay, iii. 510.
[792] There were reports at the time that the British troops had set the fire. Read's George Read, p. 196. De Lancey (Jones, i. p. 611) collates the accounts, both British and American, citing that of Henry, who had just been brought by water from Quebec, and who saw it from the transport, as one of the best descriptions (Henry's Campaign against Quebec). Sparks (iv. 100, 101) gives a note to Washington's account. Howe's account is in 5 Force, ii., with other documents. Cf. J. C. Hamilton's Republic, i. 127; Reed's Joseph Reed, 1, 213. Mahon (Hist. England, vi. 116) believes it was not set. Lecky (England in Eighteenth Century, iv. p. 5, with references), who is usually very considerate in his criticisms, cites Washington's desire to burn New York as a sort of justification of the British burning of Falmouth and Norfolk; but he fails to distinguish between such wanton, isolated destruction and one of strategical use.
[793] The original map is entitled A Plan of the Operations of the king's army under the command of General Sir William Howe, K. B., in New York and East New Jersey against the American forces commanded by General Washington from the 12th of October to the 28th of Nov., 1776, wherein is particularly distinguished the engagement on the White Plains, the 28th of October, by Claude Joseph Sauthier. Engraved by Wm. Faden, 1777. Published Feb. 25, 1777. The original MS. draft is among the Faden maps (library of Congress), no. 58. The engraved map is given in fac-simile in Dawson's Westchester County, p. 227. The direction of the American movements is indicated by arrows on the broken line (— — — —), and triple lines ≡ mark camps and positions. The British marches are shown by line and dot (—·—·—·) and their camps by □.