Part 7 (2/2)

The American troops, so far as clothing or equipment was concerned, were in a pitiable condition, and the result of the struggle makes one of the darkest pages of the war. On the 12th of November Was.h.i.+ngton started from Stony Point for Fort Lee and arrived the 13th, finding to his disappointment that General Greene, instead of having made arrangements for evacuating, was, on the contrary, reinforcing Fort Was.h.i.+ngton. The entire defense numbered only about 2000 men, mostly militia, with hardly a coat, to quote an English writer, ”that was not out at the elbows.” ”On the night of the 14th thirty flat-bottomed boats stole quietly up the Hudson, pa.s.sed the American forts undiscovered, and made their way through Spuyten Duyvil Creek into Harlem River. The means were thus provided for crossing that river, and landing before unprotected parts of the American works.”

Faith's pioneers and Freedom's martyrs sleep Beneath their shade: and under their old boughs The wise and brave of generations past Walked every Sabbath to the house of G.o.d.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

According to Irving, ”On the 15th General Howe sent a summons to surrender, with a threat of extremities should he have to carry the place by a.s.sault.” Magaw, in his reply, intimated a doubt that General Howe would execute a threat ”so unworthy of himself and the British nation; but give me leave,” added he, ”to a.s.sure his Excellency, that, actuated by the most glorious cause that mankind ever fought in, I am determined to defend this post to the very last extremity.”

”Apprised by the colonel of his peril, General Greene sent over reinforcements, with an exhortation to him to persist in his defense; and dispatched an express to General Was.h.i.+ngton, who was at Hackensack, where the troops from Peekskill were encamped. It was nightfall when Was.h.i.+ngton arrived at Fort Lee. Greene and Putnam were over at the besieged fortress. He threw himself into a boat, and had partly crossed the river, when he met those Generals returning. They informed him of the garrison having been reinforced, and a.s.sured him that it was in high spirits, and capable of making a good defense. It was with difficulty, however, they could prevail on him to return with them to the Jersey sh.o.r.e, for he was excessively excited.”

Hark! Freedom's arms ring far and wide; Again these forts with beacons gleam; Loud cannon roar on every side-- I start, I wake; I did but dream.

_Wallace Bruce._

”Early the next morning, Magaw made his dispositions for the expected attack. His forces, with the recent addition, amounted to nearly three thousand men. As the fort could not contain above a third of its defenders, most of them were stationed about the outworks.”

About noon, a heavy cannonade thundered along the rocky hills, and sharp volleys of musketry, proclaimed that the action was commenced.

”Was.h.i.+ngton, surrounded by several of his officers, had been an anxious spectator of the battle from the opposite side of the Hudson.

Much of it was hidden from him by intervening hills and forest; but the roar of cannonry from the valley of the Harlem River, the sharp and incessant reports of rifles, and the smoke rising above the tree-tops, told him of the spirit with which the a.s.sault was received at various points, and gave him for a time hope that the defense might be successful. The action about the lines to the south lay open to him, and could be distinctly seen through a telescope; and nothing encouraged him more than the gallant style in which Cadwalader with inferior force maintained his position. When he saw him however, a.s.sailed in flank, the line broken, and his troops, overpowered by numbers, retreating to the fort, he gave up the game as lost. The worst sight of all, was to behold his men cut down and bayoneted by the Hessians while begging quarter. It is said so completely to have overcome him, that he wept with the tenderness of a child.”

”Seeing the flag go into the fort from Knyphausen's division, and surmising it to be a summons to surrender, he wrote a note to Magaw, telling him if he could hold out until evening and the place could not be maintained, he would endeavor to bring off the garrison in the night. Capt. Gooch, of Boston, a brave and daring man, offered to be the bearer of the note. He ran down to the river, jumped into a small boat, pushed over the river, landed under the bank, ran up to the fort and delivered the message, came out, ran and jumped over the broken ground, dodging the Hessians, some of whom struck at him with their pieces and others attempted to thrust him with their bayonets; escaping through them, he got to his boat and returned to Fort Lee.”

Up and down the valley of the Hudson the contending armies surged like the ebbing and flowing of the tides.

_William Wait._

Was.h.i.+ngton's message arrived too late. ”The fort was so crowded by the garrison and the troops which had retreated into it, that it was difficult to move about. The enemy, too, were in possession of the little redoubts around, and could have poured in showers of sh.e.l.ls and ricochet b.a.l.l.s that would have made dreadful slaughter.” It was no longer possible for Magaw to get his troops to man the lines; he was compelled, therefore, to yield himself and his garrison prisoners of war. The only terms granted them were, that the men should retain their baggage and the officers their swords.

=Fort Lee=, directly across the river, had a commanding position, but was entirely useless to the Revolutionary army after the fall of Fort Was.h.i.+ngton. It was therefore immediately abandoned to the British, as was also Fort Const.i.tution, another redoubt near at hand.

It will be remembered that the American army after long continued disaster in and about New York, retreated southward from Fort Lee and Hackensack to the Delaware, where Was.h.i.+ngton with a strategic stroke brought dismay on his enemies and restored confidence to his friends and the Patriots' Cause.

=The Palisades, or Great Chip Rock=, as they were known by the old Dutch settlers, present the same bold front to the river that the Giant's Causeway does to the ocean. Their height at Fort Lee, where the bold cliffs first a.s.sert themselves, is three hundred feet, and they extend about seventeen or eighteen miles to the hills of Rockland County. A stroll along the summit reveals the fact that they are almost as broken and fantastic in form as the great rocks along the Elbe in Saxon-Switzerland.

The Palisades in sterner pride Tower as the gloom steals o'er the tide, For the great stream a bulwark meet That laves its rock-enc.u.mbered feet.

_Robert C. Sands._

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