The Troops will be allowed Continental Pay & Rations & a Bounty to be raised agreeable to the within Resolve from the Fines levied on the Exempts refusing Service.
A few days later another alarm was caused by the uncertainty which attended the movements of the British fleet, which, after sailing from New York to the capes of the Delaware as if to attack Philadelphia, suddenly put to sea again and disappeared for a time. Washington communicated his observations and suspicions to Clinton, and Clinton, on August 5, countermanded his orders to Ludington in the following letter:
By Dispatches just Rec’d from his Excellency Genl. Washington dated at Chester in Pensylvania 1st Aug’t, I am informed that the Enemy’s Fleet have left the Capes of Delaware & are steering Eastward & his Excellency is fully of Opinion they intend (proceeding) up Hudson’s River. From this Intelligence & the great Preparations making by the Enemy at Kings Bridge for an Expedition, I have not the least Doubt but that their Designs are against this Quarter & by vigorous Exertion they hope to join their two Armies before ours can arrive to oppose them. His Excellency is apprehensive of this also & has requested me to call out all the Militia of this State to oppose the Enemy till he can arrive with his Army. You will, therefore, on receipt hereof with the utmost Expedition march your Regt. to Fort Montgomery compleatly armed and accoutred, leaving the frontier Companies at Home embodied & on Duty to guard ag’t any small Parties of Tories or Indians. I mean to repair to the Fort with all Expedition & take the Command.
Clinton then notified Putnam at Peekskill that he had ordered Ludington’s and also Field’s and Brinckerhoff’s regiments to join him forthwith, and on August 9 reported this action to Washington. But it was one thing to order and another thing to have the order fulfilled. The militia exhibited their former reluctance to go into camp unless the enemy were actually in sight. This applies, however, to the other regiments rather than to Colonel Ludington’s. No complaint of his inactivity or his inability to furnish his quota of men appears. But on August 20, Colonel Humphrey reported that his regiment was unwilling to march northward, meaning, no doubt, to go up the river beyond the Highlands to the aid of Gates against Burgoyne, as there was some desperate talk of doing; and John Jay and Gouverneur Morris reported that Gates’s army could hope for no militia reinforcements excepting from Albany County, and that garrisons should be provided for the Highland forts when the terms of enlistment of the militia should expire. This was the more essential as the regular garrisons had largely been sent north to aid Gates. A little later, on September 4, Colonel Dirck Brinckerhoff wrote from Fishkill to Clinton in answer to some strictures as follows:
Sir,
You Blame me in Your Letter for Disobeying the Orders I first Receiv’d for all the Militia to go to Peekskill, but it was by Consent of General Putnam, that Only part should go, and be Reliev’d by the Same number from time to time in Such Manner as I thought proper, which has Strictly been done.
Agreeable to your Last I have Order’d half the Militia out, but it is allmost impossible to get them to go, on account of the Exempts not going, Aledging this is not a General Alarum; therefore, should be Glad of Some further Regulation in that Respect, and Possitive Orders from you how to act in that affair, I am Sir,
Your Ob’t. Hble. Serv’t
Dirck Brinckerhoff.
To His Excellency George Clinton Esq.