The Belligerent Armies

Howe, with his usual sluggishness, did not move at the time appointed, though he had given out the significant parole of Quebec, and the countersign of Wolfe. The admiral sent more ships-of-war up the East River; and on the morning of the 15th, others went up the Hudson as far as Bloomingdale, and put a stop to the removal of the American stores. On the same day, toward noon, those in the East River anchored a little below Blackwell's Island and began a heavy cannonade, to cover a force, chiefly Germans, who, in eighty-four boats, crossed the river and landed at Kip's Bay. The rest of the British army was stretched along the shore to Hell Gate, and over Ward's and Randall's Islands. Washington suspected the British would land near Harlem. He was on Harlem Plains when he heard the cannonading. Springing into the saddle, he rode swiftly, with his staff, in the direction of the din of battle. He soon met fugitive Continentals flying in terror. The guard at Kip's Bay had fled at the first cannon-shot hurled against them, and the brigades of Parsons and Fellows, that were to support them, panic-stricken, were scattering in all directions, without firing a musket. Their officers tried, in vain, to check their flight. Washington was alarmed and exasperated--alarmed because Putnam must be captured of the British could not be kept back for a few hours; exasperated because of the cowardice of his soldiers at that moment of supreme necessity for sturdy valor. He used every means in his power to rally them. He set a sublime example of bold courage by pressing forward within eighty yards of the battle-line, when, finding himself without followers, he wheeled his horse and gave judicious orders for the salvation of Putnam and the security of his army on the Heights of Harlem. He succeeded in rallying the troops sufficiently to make an orderly retreat to Bloomingdale, while the invaders moved forward, took possession of a redoubt, and halted on the Incleberg, an eminence between Fifth and Sixth avenues and Thirty-fourth and Thirty-eighth streets.

Meanwhile Putnam had been apprised of his danger. He struck the flag on Fort George at the foot of Broadway, and retreated by the roads nearest the Hudson River. The fugitive Lord Dunmore, who was with the fleet, went ashore and unfurled the red-cross of St. George over the fort, while Putnam was marching speedily and stealthily along ways sheltered by the woods, to the Bloomingdale road, which he reached at Sixtieth street. At the same time, Howe, with Clinton, Governor Tryon and other officers were enjoying refreshments at the house of Mr. Murray, on the Incleberg. Mrs. Murray was a charming Quaker lady, and a warm Whig. She adroitly concealed her politics, and offered her guests her choicest wines and cakes. With sprightly conversation she captivated the warriors, and detained them and their troops long enough to allow every follower of Putnam to pass safely by within a mile of her house. The British leader was soon apprised of the startling fact, and ordered General Robertson to take possession of the deserted city with a strong force. For seven years, two months, and ten days thereafter, the British held possession of the city of New York. General Howe made the spacious Beekman mansion, at Turtle Bay (demolished in 1874), his headquarters. Washington had left the Apthorp mansion (yet standing), at Bloomingdale, only a few minutes before British light infantry took possession of it. That night (September 15, 1776), the American army were encamped in a line from the East River to the Hudson. Harlem Plains lay between the two armies.