[EDITORIAL NOTES ON THE AUTHORITIES.]
I. The Campaign around New York City in 1776.—The Americans had been early warned of the British plans to secure the line of the Hudson (Journal of the Provincial Congress of New York, 172; Lossing's Schuyler, ii. 16), and on the American side plans of obstructing and defending the river had been made as early as Sept., 1775, and they ever after constituted a chief anxiety of the continental and provincial authorities.[743] Several early maps making record of these efforts have been preserved.[744]
FORT MONTGOMERY, May 31, 1776.
CHAIN AT FORT MONTGOMERY.
Reduced from the cut in Ruttenber's Obstructions to the Navigation of Hudson's River, p. 64.
Key. A, Fort Montgomery. B, Fort Clinton. C, Poplopen's Kill. D, Anthony's Nose. a, floats to chain. b b b, boom in front of chain. c c c, chain. d, rock at which the chain was secured and large iron roller. e e, cribs and anchors. f, blocks and purchase for tightening chain. g h, ground batteries for defence of chain. [S, section showing floats and chain; c c c, chain; f f f, floats.] The cut follows the original drawing found in the papers of the secret committee. There is a plate showing the boom and chain at West Point in Boynton's West Point, p. 70.