142 The Story of The Bronx 



Heath, "as we are strangers to a suitable place." On the 

 same day, General Charles Lee arrived from the south; and 

 being the senior major-general and next in rank to Washington, 

 was entitled to the command of all the troops in the county; 

 but, though placed in command, he was requested not to exer- 

 cise it until he had acquainted himself with the number and 

 disposition of the troops and with the topography of the 

 country; so that Heath remained the responsible commander. 

 Considering the character of Lee, it is remarkable that he 

 acceded to this request ; for, if we are to judge him by his own 

 estimate of himself, all this knowledge and information should 

 have been his intuitively from his very presence on the ground. 



On the evening of the same day, all possible information 

 being in possession of the officers, the council of war reassem- 

 bled at the quarters of General Lee at Kingsbridge. There 

 were present, besides the Commander-in-chief, Major-Generals 

 Lee, Putnam, Heath, Spencer, and Sullivan, and Brigadier- 

 Generals Lord Stirling, Mifflin, McDougal, Parsons, Nixon, 

 Wadsworth, Scott, Fellows, Clinton, and Lincoln, and Colonel 

 Knox, commanding the artillery. With only one dissentient 

 voice, that of General George Clinton, it was decided that it 

 was not possible in their present positions to prevent the 

 American army from being cut off from the upper county, 

 and that a retirement was not only expedient but necessary to 

 prevent the surrender of the army as prisoners of war. In 

 deference to the ill-advised wishes of the Continental Congress, 

 it was decided to maintain Fort Washington as long as possible. 



On the fifteenth, the movement of troops to the relief of 

 Heath continued; on the sixteenth, Washington finished his 

 survey of the threatened points by visiting Pell's Point and 

 directing the establishment of an outpost at the entrance to 

 the Neck. How important that act was we shall see later. 



