Howe was much criticised for his dilatoriness and his failure promptly to use his fleet to get in the rear of Washington's army.[784] There was a division of counsels among Washington's officers as to the advisability of attempting to hold the city; but a decision to evacuate finally prevailed.[785] Washington's army was gradually dwindling, for Congress and the country had hardly reached a conception of the necessity of long enlistments.[786] Finally on Sept. 15th the British passed over from Long Island to Kip's Bay, and the Americans fled in a panic;[787] and, with loss of many stores, Washington gathered his forces within the Harlem lines. Johnston's draft of the works on Harlem Heights follows Sauthier's plan. The site of the fight thereabouts is west of Eighth Avenue and north of One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street of the modern city. Johnston (p. 258) identifies the localities by the present landmarks, and says (p.264) that "some of the works are well preserved to-day" (1878). He also says that Randall, when he surveyed the island in 1812, found the remains of the works agreeing with Sauthier's drafts.[788]
Sauthier's draft of the conflict at Harlem Plains is reproduced in the Mag. of Amer. Hist., May, 1880. Later plans of the locality, drawn with reference to the landmarks of the battle, or interesting for comparison, are the map of 1814 in Valentine's Manual (1856) and the large folding plan of the upper part of New York, with the modern streets, upon which, in colors, is superposed a draft of this action. This last is given, with an account of the fight, in Shannon's N. Y. City Manual, 1868, p. 812.[789] We may note some of the principal contemporary and later authorities on this action of Harlem Plains.[790]
The origin of the fire of Sept. 21st, by which a considerable part of New York was burned, has been a subject of dispute, the Tories charging it upon the Americans;[791] but later authorities, English as well as American, agree in not believing it the work of incendiaries. It is known that Washington advocated the burning of the city if evacuation became necessary, and Jones (i. p. 84) says committees of Congress had agreed upon it, but that body certainly in the end directed Washington to spare it (Journals, Sept. 3, 1776).[792]
JOHNSTON'S NEW YORK ISLAND, 1776.
A marks the position of Trinity Church; B, the City Hall Park; C, the Mortier house, the American headquarters; D, Badlam's fort; E, Spencer's fort; F, the redoubt on Jones's hill; G, Bayard Hill fort; H, Hospital. Fort Stirling, in Brooklyn, is at K. The figures represent the batteries and redoubts: 1, Grand battery; 2, Whitehall battery; 3, Waterbury's battery; 4, redoubts; 5, Grenadier battery; 6, Jersey battery; 7, McDougal's battery; 8, Oyster (?) battery. The other marks indicate the positions of barricades.
When the British, leaving Newtown Creek, on Long Island, landed at Kip's Bay, the shore batteries thereabouts were abandoned by the Americans. Scott, at L, retreated by the broken line (— — —), and crossed along Bowery Lane, the ground now covered by Union and Madison squares (shown by the dotted oblongs). Wadsworth and Douglas retreated from M and N respectively, back upon Parsons at P and Fellows at Q, and all pursued the Bloomingdale road, just skirting the southwesterly corner of the area now known as Central Park (the large dotted oblong E E). Meanwhile, the garrison of the town lines, under Putnam and Silliman, retreated by the road leading from Fort G towards Greenwich; and near Bloomingdale the several columns joined and pursued their march to the lines on the heights above Harlem. Parton (Life of Burr, 86) describes how Burr at this time led Knox's brigade successfully away from Bunker Hill. Howe, who had advanced from Kip's Bay, dallied at the Murray house at O, and so failed to intercept the fugitives. Chester (R) and Sargeant (S) also deserted the works at Horn's Hook, and, striking the Kingsbridge or post read, retreated through McGowan's Pass at T. Thus all, by one road or another, got within the lines on Harlem Heights. Farther on in the text this map will be again referred to, for later movements. Cf. map in Gay's Pop. Hist. U. S., iii. 491.