124 The Story of The Bronx 



sizes, shapes, qualities, and materials; brass, bronze, and iron; 

 good, bad, and indifferent. They were stored at several 

 places, fifty or more at John Williams's ( Williamsbridge) , 

 probably one hundred at Valentine's Hill, others at the north- 

 ern end of Manhattan. They were not protected or guarded 

 in any way, so that any one who wished to injure them could 

 do so with impunity. On January 17, 1776, most of them 

 were found spiked, while others s re choked up with stones, 

 and all of them were in an unserviceable condition. Suspicion 

 fell upon the loyalists of Westchester, Eastchester, West 

 Farms, and Yonkers; but an inquiry placed the deed upon 

 John Fowler and William Lounsberry of Mamaroneck, both 

 of whom were imprisoned. The purchase of a quantity of 

 rat- tail files led to their conviction. Jacamiah Allen was 

 employed to unspike the guns at a cost of twenty shillings a 

 gun. This he succeeded in doing, and they were later moun- 

 ted upon the fortifications built by the Americans. 



The committee of which Captain Richard Montgomery was 

 the head reported June 3, 1775, as to the fortifications at 

 Kingsbridge. They recommended that a post of three hun- 

 dred men be established on Marble Hill, near Hyatt's Tavern, 

 Manhattan, and selected sites on Tetard's Hill to the east, and 

 on Tippett's Hill to the west of the bridge for the placing of 

 redoubts when the troops had been properly organized, so that 

 the work could be done by them. Under the command of 

 Major-General Charles Lee, who was ordered from Boston to 

 the command of New York and its environs, work was begun 

 upon the suggested redoubts; but it was not until after the 

 evacuation of Boston by the British on March 17, 1776, and 

 the assumption of the command in New York by Washington 

 in person, that any great progress was made upon the forti- 

 fications. Early in the month of June, he visited the neigh- 



