n8 The Story of The Bronx 



County was formed, with Gilbert Drake as chairman. On the 

 twenty-third of the same month, a Provincial Congress was 

 organized in New York City by delegates from all the counties 

 in the colony, and Philip Van Brugh Livingston was elected 

 its president. 



The importance of fortifying the pass at Kingsbridge was 

 recognized at an early period ; and immediately after the arrival 

 of the news of the Concord fight, without any formal order 

 from the Committee of One Hundred, numbers of men were 

 employed in transporting cannon from the city to that point. 

 Though the Provincial Congress appointed a committee to 

 report upon a plan of entrenchments, nothing further was done. 

 On May twenty-fifth, however, the Continental Congress 

 resolved : 



"First, that a Post be immediately taken and fortified at or 

 near King's Bridge, in the Colony of New York, and that the 

 ground be chosen with a particular view to prevent com- 

 munication between the City of New York and the country 

 from being interrupted by land; Secondly, that the Militia 

 of New York be armed and trained, and in constant readiness 

 to act at a moment's warning ; and that a number of men be 

 immediately embodied ... to prevent any attempts that 

 may be made to gain possession of the City, and to interrupt 

 its intercourse with the country." 



These resolutions, with instructions to keep them as secret as 

 possible, reached the Provincial Congress at New York on the 

 twenty-ninth of May; and a committee was accordingly 

 appointed, consisting of Captain Richard Montgomery of 

 Kingsbridge, Henry Glenn, Robert Yates, and Colonels James 

 Van Cortlandt and James Holmes, the last two of Westchester 

 County, both of whom later became loyalists. This committee 

 was instructed "to view the ground at or near King's Bridge, 



