130 The Story of The Bronx 



Castle, White Plains, and Peekskill; but the Borough section 

 of the county, so long occupied by the British forces, must have 

 had numerous fortifications, which the local historian has 

 failed to record, and which modern improvements have 

 obliterated. Kingsbridge has been more fortunate in both 

 respects; it is still a rural community, and the local historian, 

 the late Mr. Thomas Henry Edsall, has determined the sites 

 of the ancient redoubts before the knowledge of their position 

 has passed away with the older inhabitants. The Head- 

 quarters map, published in 1900, also gives us these redoubts 

 with a fair amount of accuracy. 



As if to confirm Mifflin's idea of the landing place of the 

 British, on the twelfth of July, the Rose and the Phoenix, 

 British vessels of war, with several tenders, sailed up the 

 Hudson and, being unaware of the American fortifications, 

 anchored off the entrance to Spuyten Duyvil Creek. Their 

 ignorance was soon dissipated, for the batteries opened fire on 

 them and did great execution. The vessels then proceeded 

 up the Hudson as far as Fort Montgomery in the Highlands. 

 Their object was, probably, to communicate with the loyalists 

 along the banks of the river and to provide them with arms; 

 but their presence called for more troops, and reinforcements 

 were hurried to the neighborhood of Kingsbridge. 



On August thirteenth, General Heath, to whose Memoirs 

 we owe so much for our knowledge of Revolutionary affairs in 

 Westchester County, was appointed to the command of the 

 district of the Highlands, extending south to the Harlem 

 River. On the seventeenth, the vessels were anchored off 

 Mount Saint Vincent (then called the Yonkers), and an 

 attempt was made to destroy them with fire-ships. One of 

 the tenders was consumed, and the next morning the remain- 

 der of the vessels dropped down stream, easily passing through 



