November, 1776, to September, 1783 167 



ing straw in one of the closets in the lower room. This com- 

 pelled the defenders to jump from the windows to escape the 

 flames, and the whole party, consisting of Colonel Hatfield, 

 one captain, one lieutenant, one quartermaster, and eleven 

 privates, was taken prisoner. On the return, a number of the 

 soldiers, tired out by their night's work and believing there 

 was no danger, straggled behind their companions and were 

 overtaken by a body of horse sent in pursuit, so that several 

 of them were killed or taken prisoners. 



The same winter of 1 778-1 779, Colonel Aaron Burr made 

 an attack upon the block-house at West Farms in an attempt 

 to destroy it. Provided with hand grenades, combustibles, and 

 short ladders, about forty volunteers approached cautiously 

 at two o'clock in the morning and cast their missiles into the 

 fort through the port-holes. Soon the block-house was on 

 fire, and the little garrison surrendered without firing a shot; 

 a few escaped. The block-house commanded the crossing of 

 the Bronx River at De Lancey's Mills. Its site was after- 

 wards occupied by Mapes's Temperance Hotel at the north- 

 east corner of East 179th Street and the Boston Road. 



In the autumn of 1779, the British began an active cam- 

 paign in the South, and troops were withdrawn from New York 

 and its vicinity. In order to contend with the American part- 

 isans, — Marion, Pickens, Sumter, Lee, and others — similar 

 corps were needed by the British, and so the light horse of 

 Simcoe, Tarleton, and Emmerick, so long the scourges of the 

 Neutral Ground, were withdrawn from the Borough and sent 

 to Georgia and the Carolinas, where we find them doing active 

 service against Morgan, Greene, and other patriot leaders. In 

 consequence of these withdrawals, about the middle of Sep- 

 tember, all of the redoubts at Spuyten Duyvil and Fordham 

 Heights, including Number Four (Fort Independence), were 



