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FATIGUE AND SORROW.

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did he suffer more intense anxiety, or undergo more exertion, than on the occasion of this early and disastrous defeat; and in no subsequent emergency did he find a better opportunity for the display of his peculiar talents.

It is almost the only time when he has to apologize to the President of Congress for not having written immediately on the occurrence of any thing impor

tant.

He says in the despatch of August 31st, four days after the battle :

"NEW YORK, 31st August, 1776.

"SIR,-Inclination as well as duty would have induced me to give Congress the earliest information of my removal, and that of the troops, from Long Island and its dependencies to this city, the night before last; but the extreme fatigue which myself and family have undergone, as much from the weather since, as the engagement on the 27th, rendered me and them entirely unfit to take pen in hand. Since Monday scarce any of us have been out of the lines, till our passage across the East River was effected yesterday morning; and, for forty-eight hours preceding that, I had hardly been off my horse, and never closed my eyes; so that I was quite unfit to write or dictate till this morning."

The letter goes on to state particulars, in a tone of

sadness which shows that the aspect of things was at the moment very discouraging. He writes again:

"September 2d, 1776.

"SIR, AS my intelligence of late has been rather unfavorable, and would be received with anxiety and concern, peculiarly happy should I esteem myself, were it in my power at this time to transmit such information to Congress, as would be more pleasing and agreeable to their wishes; but, unfortunately for me, unfortunately for them, it is not. Our situation is truly distressing. The check our detachment sustained on the 27th ultimo, has dispirited too great a proportion of our troops, and filled their minds with apprehension and despair."

It very soon became evident that the enemy meant, with the aid of their naval force, to enclose the island of New York, cut off communication with the country, and thus force the Americans to a surrender.

The question was agitated whether it would be better to burn the town or to evacuate it, and the inhabitants had the agreeable consciousness that as two-thirds, at least, of their number were supposed to be tories, the settlement of the course to be pursued would be very little influenced by consideration for them or their property. The decision was, however, favorable so far as the destruction of the town was concerned. Congress forbade all injury to it, hoping it would ultimately

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CANNON MAKE NO DISCRIMINATIONS.

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be restored, even although it should for a time be used by the enemy for his advantage.

The inhabitants, however, suffered continual alarms from the cannonading by the ships-of-war that lay in both rivers and in the bay. A private letter quoted by Mr. Irving, gives a vivid picture of the state of things:

"On the 13th of September, just after dinner, three frigates and a forty-gun-ship sailed up the East River with a gentle breeze, toward Hell Gate, and kept up an incessant fire, assisted by the cannon at Governor's Island. The batteries of the city returned the ships the like salutation.

"Three men agape, idle spectators, had the misfortune of being killed by one cannon ball. One shot struck within six feet of General Washington, as he was on horseback, riding into the fort."

With all this, the commander-in-chief had the mortification of knowing that he could not depend upon all his soldiers.

He writes, Sept. 9, 1776:

"I fear the militia, by leaving their homes so suddenly, and in a manner unprepared for a long absence, have sustained some injury. To this cause I must impute their impatience to return, &c. Their want of discipline, the indulgencies they claim and have been allowed, their unwillingness-I may add refusal-to submit to that regularity and order essential in every army, have been of pernicious tendency, and occa

sioned a good deal of confusion and disorder. As to drafting seamen from the Continental regiments, it cannot be done; as their numbers have been reduced so low already that some of them have hardly any thing left but the name. Besides, I must depend chiefly upon them for a successful opposition to the enemy."

CHAPTER XXVI.

Discouragement of the army-General Howe threatens New York-Talk of burning the city-Washington fortifies Harlem-Cowardice of some of the troops thereRetreat to White Plains-Illiterate officers-Disaster there-Capture of Fort Washington-Temporary defection of Colonel Reed.

THE terrible result of the battle of Long Island could not be forgotten in the splendor of the retreat, by which all that human skill and effort could do had been done to retrieve it. The army felt the defeat and the slaughter of their brave comrades with a keenness unknown to veterans in the art of war, who learn to regard fellow-soldiers more in the light of machines and less in that of fellow-citizens. Washington wrote to Congress that the minds of the troops were filled with apprehension and despair. The militia, in particular, deserted by hundreds, and their example still further disaffected the other part of the army. He adds that the number of troops fit for duty is less than twenty thousand, and it proved scarcely more than eleven thousand.

General Howe, with a superior force, now theatening New York, it became Washington's care to devise means