yards of the height now known as Fort Greene. He saw that they intended to force his lines by regular approaches, which the nature of the ground and his want of heavy cannon extremely favored; he saw that all Long Island was in their hands, except only the neck on which he was intrenched, and that a part of his camp would soon be exposed to their guns; his men were cast down by misfortune, and falling sick from hard service, exposure, and bad food; his force was divided by a channel, more than half a mile broad, and swept by swift tides; on a change of wind, he might be encircled by the entrance of the British fleet into the East River; or ships which had sailed round Long Island into Flushing Bay might suddenly convey a part of the British army to Harlem, or to Fordham Heights, in his

rear.

It was his first care to provide means of transportation for the retreat which it was no longer safe to delay. Through Mifflin, in whom he confided more than in any general on the island, and who agreed with him in opinion, he despatched, at an early hour, a written command to Heath, at King's Bridge, "to order every flat-bottomed boat and other craft at his post, fit for transporting troops, down to New York as soon as possible, without the least delay." In like manner, before noon, he sent Trumbull, the commissary-general, to New York, with orders for Hugh Hughes, the assistant quartermastergeneral, "to impress every kind of water-craft, on either side of New York, that could be kept afloat, and had either oars or sails, or could be furnished with them, and to have them all in the East River by dark.”

1776.

Aug. 29.

These orders were issued in such profound secrecy that not even his aids knew his purpose. All day long he continued abroad in the wind and rain, visiting the stations of his men as before, and restraining their impatience. Not till "late in the day" did he alight from his horse to meet his council of war at the house of Philip Livingston on Brooklyn Heights. The abrupt proposal to retreat startled Morin Scott, and against his better judgment he objected to “giv ing the enemy a single inch of ground." But unanswerable

reasons were urged in favor of Washington's design the Americans were invested by an army of more than 1776. double their number from water to water; MacdouAug. 29. gall, whose nautical experience gave weight to his words, declared "that they were liable every moment, on the change of wind, to have the communication between them and the city cut off by the British frigates;" their supply of almost every necessary of life was scant; the rain which had fallen for two days and nights with little intermission had injured their arms and spoiled a great part of their ammunition; the soldiery, of whom many were without cover at night, were worn out by incessant duties and watching. The resolution to retreat was therefore unanimous; yet, in the ignorance of what orders Washington had issued and how well they had been obeyed, an opinion was entertained in the council that success was not to be hoped for.

After dark, the regiments were ordered to prepare for attacking the enemy in the night; several of the soldiers. published to their comrades their unwritten wills; but the intention to withdraw from the island was soon surmised. At eight o'clock Macdougall was at Brooklyn ferry, charged to superintend the embarkation; and Glover of Massachusetts, with his regiment of Essex county fishermen, the best mariners in the world, manned the sailing-vessels and flat-boats. The rawest troops were the first to be embarked; Mifflin, with the Pennsylvania regiments of Hand, Magaw, and Shee, the Delawares, and the remnant of the Marylanders, claimed the honor of being the last to leave the lines. About nine, the ebb of the tide was accompanied with a heavy rain and the continued adverse wind, so that for three hours the sail-boats could do little, and, with the few row-boats at hand, it seemed impossible to transport all the army; but, at eleven, the north-east wind, which had raged for three days, died away; the water became so smooth that the row-boats could be laden nearly to the gunwales; and a breeze sprung up from the south and south-west, swelling the canvas from the right quarter. It was the night of the full moon; the British were so nigh that they were heard with their pickaxes and shovels; yet neither Agnew, their general officer

1776.

for the night, nor any one of them, took notice of the deep murmur in the camp, or the plash of oars on the river, or the ripple under the sail-boats. All night long, Washington was riding through the camp, insuring the regularity of every movement. Some time before dawn on Friday morning, Mifflin, through a mistake of orders, Aug. 30. began to march the covering party to the ferry; it was Washington who discovered them, in time to check their premature withdrawing. The order to resume their posts was a trying test of young soldiers; the regiments wheeled about with precision, and recovered their former station before the enemy perceived that it had been relinquished. As day approached, the sea-fog came rolling in thickly from the ocean; welcomed as a heavenly messenger, it shrouded the British camp, completely hid all Brooklyn, and hung over the East River without enveloping New York. When, after three hours or more of further waiting, and after every other regiment was safely cared for, the covering party came down to the water-side, Washington remained standing on the ferry-stair, and would not be persuaded to enter a boat till they were embarked. It was seven o'clock before all the companies reached the New York shore. At four, Montresor had given the alarm that the Americans were in full retreat; but the English officers were sluggards, and some hours elapsed before he and a corporal, with six men, clambered through the fallen trees, and entered the works, only to find them evacuated. From Brooklyn Heights four boats were still to be seen through the lifting fog on the East River; three of them, filled with troops, were half-way over, and escaped; the fourth, manned by three vagabonds who had loitered behind to plunder, was taken; otherwise the whole nine thousand who were on Long Island, with their provisions, military stores, fieldartillery, and ordnance, except a few worthless iron cannon, landed safely in New York.

"Considering the difficulties," wrote Greene, "the retreat from Long Island was the best effected retreat I ever read or heard of."

rests.

NOTE.

My account of the retreat from Long Island differs so materially from that given by the biographer of Joseph Reed, that I will not demand it to be received as accurate without explaining the authority on which it This is the more necessary, as the ability and reputation of that author, William B. Reed, have misled others to adopt his narrative. The biographer represents Washington in council "on the night of the 26th" (Reed's Reed, i. 221); that "sources of deep anxiety were open, and yet Washington acted as if in command of veteran troops" (Ibid. 222); that on the 28th "he still adhered to his intention to risk a battle at his intrenchments" (Ibid. 224); that the heavy rain of the 28th was succeeded on the 29th by a fog on the island" (Ibid. 225); that " Colonel Reed, with Mifflin and Grayson, rode to the western extremity of the lines;" that," whilst there, the fog was lifted by a shift of wind, and the British fleet within the Narrows could be plainly seen;" that "some movement was in contemplation, and if the wind held, and the fog cleared off, the fleet would come up and surround the American army" (Ibid. 225); that "it was determined that the three officers should at once return to General Washington's quarters, and urge the immediate withdrawal of the army;" that "they" [namely, Colonel Reed nd Mifflin and Grayson] "had reason to believe that this counsel would not be acceptable, and that the commander in chief desired to try the fortune of war once more in his present position; " that "Colonel Reed, as the most intimate, and the most entitled to respect, was fixed on as the one to suggest the movement;" and that Colonel Reed's advice, thus forced upon the general, prevailed, and occasioned the call of a council of war (Ibid. 226).

That this story would lead to the inference that Washington was a most incompetent general, and a very weak man, and utterly unfit for his place, must not bias the mind of the historical inquirer. It is the office of the historian to find out the truth and to tell it, even though it should convict Washington of imbecility, while placing Colonel Reed among the saviors of the country.

The main authority of the biographer for his statement is a paper purporting to be a letter from an old man of eighty-four, just three days before his death, when he was too ill to write a letter, or to sign his name, or even to make his mark, and professing to detail the substance of conversations held by the moribund fifty-six years before, with Colonel Grayson of Virginia, ten or eleven years after the retreat from Long Island, to which the conversations referred. The eyes of the witness closed too soon to admit of his being cross-examined, but nature comes in with its protest: his story turns on a change of wind, which he represents as having taken place before the council of war was called; now no such change of wind took place before the council of war met, as appears from their unanimous written testimony at the time. (Proceedings of a council of war held August 29, 1776, at head-quarters in Brooklyn, printed by Onderdonk, 161, and in Force's Archives, fifth series, i. 1246.)

The lifting of the fog, and consequent sight of the British fleet, which the biographer dwells upon, is, as far as I know, supported by no witness at all; and this bit of romance, which forms the pivot of the biographer's attribution of special merit to Colonel Reed, is refuted by positive testimony. The sea-fog following the change of wind did not take place till after the retreat began. The accounts of contemporaries all agree that the fog did not rise till the morning of the thirtieth. Account in the Boston "Independent Chronicle of September 19, 1776: "At sunrise" on the thirtieth. Benjamin Tallmadge's Memoirs, 10, 11: "As the dawn of the day approached, a very dense fog began to rise." Gordon's History of the American Revolution, ii. 314, English edition of 1788: "A thick fog about two o'clock in the morning." Gordon wrote from the letters of Glover, and from the information of persons who were present. Note to the Thanksgiving sermon of Dr. John Rogers of New York, delivered in New York, December 11, 1783, and printed in 1784: "Not long after day broke, a heavy fog rose." Graydon makes his first mention of the fog in his account of what happened in the morning of the thirtieth. Some of these authorities are cited in the accurate and judicious work of Henry Onderdonk, Jr.: Revolutionary Incidents in Suffolk and King's Counties, 158, 162.

Graydon, who is cited by Reed's biographer as a corroborative witness, leaves Mifflin out of the number of those who spoke with Reed in favor of a retreat. (Littell's edition of Graydon's Memoirs, 166.)

The biographer of Reed seems not to have borne in mind the wonderful power of secrecy of Washington, in which he excelled even Franklin; for Franklin sometimes left the impression that he knew more than he was willing to utter, but Washington always seemed to have said all that the occasion required. The perfect unity and method of the retreat prove the controlling mind of one master. Washington's order given to Heath, who was stationed at King's Bridge, to provide boats for transportation, may be found in Force (American Archives, fifth series, i. 1211); how Heath understood and executed it is told by Heath himself (Heath's Memoirs, 57). Of the precise hour in which Washington's order to Heath was issued or received I have found no minute; but that it must have been issued soon after daylight on the twenty-ninth appears from this: the messenger who bore it had to cross the East River against a strong head-wind, and to travel about fifteen miles by land; and Heath received the order in season to execute it thoroughly well, and he makes no complaint of any want of time or necessity for hurry. The council of war was not held till "late in the day," as we know from a member of the council itself, writing within a few days of the event. (BrigadierGeneral John Morin Scott to John Jay, September 6, 1776.) It follows, therefore, if Reed during the day was ignorant of Washington's design to retreat from Long Island, that Washington kept it as much a secret from him as he did from others. I have met with no evidence that Washington, before noon, communicated his intentions to more than two persons on Long Island, namely, to Mifflin, through whom the order was sent to Heath, and to Colonel Joseph Trumbull, the commissary-general,