Beyond the fortifications lay the country, “the most
beautiful,” says a Hessian officer, “that I have ever
seen.”[1] Corn-fields, meadows, and orchards covered
the charming land, and from the hill-tops the old colonial
houses, each surrounded by its piazza and crowned
with its balustrade, looked down on the smiling
landscape. The Hessian lieutenant, in his enthusiasm, calls
them palaces; and truly, there was a dignity in the
best domestic architecture of the time that makes that
name hardly inappropriate.
In spite of the anxiety of Washington and of Congress to keep possession of New York, the town was clearly indefensible. The British had complete command of the harbor, and a greatly superior force on land. Consequently, when, on the 15th of September, 1776, the royal troops landed on the island, the only care of Washington, who had for several days been removing guns and stores, was to bring off the rear-guard of his army before its retreat should be prevented by the British. The landing was effected under protection of English ships of war at a place called Kip's Bay, near East Thirty-fourth Street. My Hessian lieutenant calls it four miles from New York, but he overstates the distance. The Hessians, with the advanced guard, were, as usual, the chasseurs and grenadiers under Von Donop. These marched immediately on New York, while the English light infantry and Highlanders hastened to occupy the Incleberg, now known as Murray Hill. The Americans, meanwhile, under old Israel Putnam, were making the best of their way up the roads nearest the North River, towards Bloomingdale.
- ↑ Lieutenant Hinrichs, in Schlözer's “Briefwechsel,” vol. ii. p. 108.
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