The Capture of Long Island and New York: Harlem Heights and Putnam

This timely deliverance moved every pious American heart to profoundest gratitude, for if once the English fleet had moved up the East River and cut off communication between New York and Brooklyn, nothing could have saved the army from capture. Howe, not supposing an escape possible, had taken no precautions against such an event. It is said that a tory woman sent her negro servant to inform the British of the movements of the patriot army, but he fell into the hands of the Hessians, who, not understanding a word of English, kept him until morning. After daybreak, and the fog had lifted, a British captain, with a handful of men, stealthily crept down through the fallen trees, and, crawling over the intrenchments, found them deserted. A troop of horse hurried to the river and captured the last boat, manned by three vagabonds who had stayed behind for plunder.

Washington, conscious of his weakness, wished to evacuate the city, but Congress would not consent. During the interval Captain Nathan Hale, of Connecticut, visited the English camp as a spy, and was arrested on his way back by a tory relative, and handed over to Howe, who executed him the next morning.

Having occupied Buchanan's and Montressor's Islands, now Ward's and Randall's, Clinton, with a heavy body of troops, crossed the East River under the fire of the fleet early Sunday morning, September 15, and landed at Kip's Bay, at the foot of the present Thirty-Fourth Street. The American troops at this point fled from the intrenchments. It was all-important that the position should be held, as Putnam was in the city below with four thousand men, and time must be gained for them to escape. Washington came galloping among the fugitives and rallied them. But when two- or three-score red-coats came in sight, they broke again without firing a shot, and scattered in the wildest terror. Losing all self-command at the sight of such cowardice, Washington dashed forward towards the enemy, exclaiming, "Are these the men with whom I am to defend America?" General Greene writes of this scene, that the poltroons "left his Excellency on the ground, within eighty yards of the enemy, so vexed at the infamous conduct of his troops that he sought death rather than life." He might, indeed, have fallen into the hands of the British, so overcome was he by the dastardly conduct of his soldiers, had not an aide-de-camp seized his horse by the bridle and hurried him away. Rallying his self-possession, Washington hastened to look after the safety of the rest of his army. It was a moment of extreme peril. Fortunately, on landing, Howe, Clinton, and some others called at the house of Robert Murray for refreshments. The owner, who was a Quaker, was absent, but his wife, a stanch whig, regaled them with such an abundance of cake and wine, and listened with such admirable attention to their humorous descriptions of her countrymen's panic, that their appetite and vanity got the better of their judgment and kept them long at her delightful entertainment. Meanwhile, Putnam was hurrying his men along the Bloomingdale road, not a mile distant, under a burning sun, through clouds of dust, and liable at any moment to be raked by the fire of the English ships anchored in the Hudson. Thanks to the wit of the good Mrs. Murray, the British troops came up only in time to send a few parting shots at their rear-guard. Washington collected his army on Harlem Heights.

That night the wearied troops lay on the open ground, in the midst of a cold, driving rain, without tent or shelter. Anxious to encourage his disheartened men, Washington, the same evening, ordered Silas Talbot, in charge of a fireship in the Hudson, to make a descent upon the English fleet. Accordingly, this brave captain, dropping down with the tide, steered his vessel alongside the Renomme. Stopping to grapple his antagonist surely, and to make certain of firing the trains of powder, he was himself fearfully burned before he could drop into the water. It was an awful scene. The British ships poured their broadsides upon his little boat as he was rapidly rowed away, while huge billows of flame bursting out from the fireship lighted up the fleet and the harbor with terrible distinctness. From every side boats put off to the rescue of the endangered vessel, which was finally brought safely away. But the entire British fleet slipped their moorings and quitted the stream.

Shortly after the entrance of the British into New York a fire broke out which destroyed five hundred houses and reduced their hopes of warm winter-quarters. Washington fortified himself on Harlem Heights. But his army was in a deplorable state, and on the verge of dissolution, the term of service of the men being nearly expired, while they were so disheartened as to desert by hundreds, whole regiments returning home. Howe made an effort to get into the rear of the Americans, which his watchful foe negatived by a hasty retreat to White Plains. Here the British made an attack, resulting in a minor advantage. Soon afterwards Washington retreated to the heights of North Castle, and after a short interval crossed with his main body to the Highlands, being apprehensive that the British might invade New Jersey and perhaps seek to capture Philadelphia.