the firing was heard at the forts above him, could he be persuaded to send forces to the relief of the beleaguered posts."

"But Governor George Clinton was not so easily blinded. As soon as he heard that the fleet was on the river, he adjourned the Legislature, then in session at Kingston, and collecting such militia as could be assembled, proceeded to the point to which he had before been assigned by Congress. He had scarcely time to throw himself with four hundred followers into the works, when the British, having deceived Putnam, landed at Stony Point at daybreak on the morning of the 6th of October."* Tory,

"Five hundred regulars and four hundred loyal Americans under Colonel Beverly Robinson, the whole commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, moved as an advanced guard around the Dunderberg to the base of Bear Mountain, followed by General Vaughn with twelve hundred men. Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell was directed to make the détour of Bear Mountain seven miles around to the west, and débouche in rear of Fort Montgomery; while General Vaughn was to proceed eastward between the two mountains, accompanied by Sir Henry Clinton, and assail Fort Clinton on its south flank and rear. The rear-guard, under Ex-Governor General Tryon, was left in the valley, at the point of separation of the two columns.

"The former body reached the vicinity of Fort Clinton at about 5 P. M., and receiving a scornful refusal from the garrison to surrender, commenced the assault at about the same moment the first column under Campbell at

*Life and Times of Colonel Lamb, 174.-Leake.

tacked Fort Montgomery, aided by the vessels of war which had moved up the river to participate in the conflict."*

The garrisons, for the most part composed of untrained militia, and wholly inadequate to man the extensive lines, resisted and repeatedly repulsed with great vigor the attack of superior numbers, and not until darkness closed around were the six hundred brave defenders overpowered.

Part of the garrisons were made prisoners, but both commanders escaped: Governor George Clinton by a boat across the river, while General James Clinton, the commander of the fort bearing his name, forced his passage to the rear.

A sloop of ten guns, the frigate Montgomery, and two row-galleys, stationed near for the defence of the boom and chain, were burned to prevent their capture by the enemy. The frigate Congress, ordered up the river on the 5th, ran on the flats near Fort Constitution, and shared the same fate.

Lighted by the flames of the burning vessels, the fugitives dispersed through the mountains, and pursuing their flight over the plain at West Point, found a resting-spot with General James Clinton, at New Windsor.

"The garrison at Fort Constitution, reduced to a mere guard under Captain Gershom Mott, who had there assumed command on the 9th of August, and now completely at the mercy of an enemy's battery if planted at West Point, awaited a summons to surrender, borne under a white flag, on the morning of the 7th. Captain

* Sir H. Clinton's Despatch.

Mott fired on the flag, and that night abandoned the island, after burning the barracks and leaving his guns unspiked, with a portion of his stores unconsumed.

"On the morning of the 8th, two thousand men under General Tryon proceeded on the fleet from Fort Montgomery up the river, and landing on the east side, completed the demolition of the 'Fortifications in the Highlands.'"*

Thus was effected, in the brief time of two days, the destruction of works and stores which had cost the country not less than a quarter of a million of dollars, no portion of which had been appropriated to the erection of a single battery at West Point, so often urged as "the key to the passage in the Highlands."

A portion of the British force, left as a garrison at Fort Clinton, commenced its reconstruction under the name of Fort Vaughn, while another party made an expedition to "Continental Village," on the east side of the river, and about four miles distant.

At this point a large amount of supplies, and barracks for fifteen hundred men, were destroyed without molestation.

The capture of the army under General Burgoyne having been ascertained, the whole expedition abandoned the Highlands, after twenty days' occupation, and returned to New York.

*Life and Times of Colonel Lamb, 185. Idem, MSS. N. Y. Hist. Col.

CHAPTER IV.

RENEWED EFFORTS TO OBSTRUCT THE HUDSON.-SELECTION OF WEST POINT AS A SUITABLE PLACE.-LETTERS OF WASHINGTON TO PUTNAM AND CLINTON UPON THE SUBJECT.-APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE BY THE NEW YORK PROVINCIAL CONVENTION TO CONFER WITH PUTNAM.-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE, IN WHICH THEY RECOMMEND THE FORTIFICATION OF WEST POINT.-COMMENCEMENT OF THE WORKS BY GENERAL PARSONS.-CONTRACT MADE BY COLONEL HUGHES FOR THE GREAT CHAIN AT WEST POINT.-REPORT OF GENERAL PUTNAM ON THE PROGRESS OF THE FORTIFICATIONS. REPORT OF GENERAL PARSONS ON THE SAME.-GENERAL MCDOUGALL ORDERED TO RELIEVE GENERAL PUTNAM.-INSTRUCTIONS TO GENERAL PARSONS RELATIVE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE WORKS. IMMEDIATELY after the return of Sir Henry Clinton's expedition to New York, the necessity for a more thorough fortification of the Highlands engaged the attention of those to whom the defence of this most important point had been intrusted.

On the 6th of November, Colonel Hughes wrote General Gates from Fishkill: * "The General, Governor Clinton, and General James [Clinton], an Engineer, and your humble servant, were at the forts yesterday, viewing the River, Bluffs, Points, &c., in order to erect some further obstructions, which are immediately set about. The Boom will be near Fort Constitution, and a work on the west shore to defend it."+ * * From New Windsor, on the 24th of November, General Clinton wrote General Gates: "I know of no other method of obstructing the passage of Hudson's River, but by Chevaux-de-frise,

Gates, MSS. N. Y. Hist. Col.

*

Chains, and Booms, well defended by heavy artillery and strong works on the shore. The former is impracticable at any place lower down than where the present are, near this place; and even there, the river is rather too wide to admit of their being properly defended; they may, however, when completed, be a very considerable obstruction. This with a chain or boom, at a part of the river called the West Point, where it is quite narrow, and the wind, owing to the crookedness of the river, very uncertain, with proper works on the shore to defend it, and water-batteries on shore calculated to annoy shipping, would, in my opinion, perfectly obstruct the navigation." "We have a boom, calculated for the narrow part of the river, well forward, but our works go on extremely slow indeed, for want of tools,""&c. This feeling of solicitude was not confined to the local commanders. The comparative ease with which the British expedition had passed the Highlands had awakened an apprehension of its early repetition in the mind of General Washington, who, in a letter dated December 2d, 1777, instructed General Putnam to consult with Governor Clinton, General Parsons, and the French engineer, Lieutenant-Colonel Radière, with a view to the erection of such "works and obstructions as may be necessary to defend and secure the river against any future attempts of the enemy."

The following is Washington's letter:

* * *

"HEAD-QUARTERS, 2d December, 1777. "DEAR SIR-The importance of the Hudson River in the present contest, and the necessity of defending it, are subjects which have been so frequently and fully

*Gates, MSS. N. Y. Hist. Col.