lines, Sir William Howe, on the
enemy's evacuating, followed the road to the point, to examine and see
if he could get out at that part, which he could not do, and we were
obliged to return and go out of a sally port of the lines....

_Q._ Can you say of your own knowledge, that the right redoubt of the
lines at Brooklyn had an abattis before it?

_A._ I have already said that the whole had an abattis before it.

[He produces an actual survey of the lines.]...

_Q._ If any one of these redoubts were taken, did not they flank the
line in such a manner to the right and left that the enemy could not
remain in the lines?

_A._ I have already said, that they could not be taken by assault, but
by approaches, as they were rather fortresses than redoubts."--_A View
of the Evidence Relative to the Conduct of the American War under Sir
William Howe_, etc.; second edition; London, 1779. _Manual of the
Corporation of the City of New York_, 1870, p. 884.

The maps in the early London editions of Gordon's and Stedman's
histories of the war, each put _five_ fortifications on the line from
the Wallabout to Gowanus Creek.]

FORT COBBLE HILL.--Passing to the remaining works on Long Island, we
find a redoubt on the crest of a cone-shaped hill, which stood alone
near the intersection of the present Court and Atlantic streets, and
which was known by the Dutch inhabitants as _Punkiesberg_. As it does
not appear to have been called Cobble Hill before this date, the
reasonable inference may be drawn that it was so named by Greene's
troops because of its close resemblance to the Cobble Hill which
formed one of the fortified points in the siege of Boston, but a short
distance from Winter Hill, where Greene's brigade was posted. In the
orders of the day, the redoubt is known as "Smith's barbette,"
Captain William Smith, the engineer whom Lee brought with him, having
it in charge. The work mounted four guns, and, from its central
interior position, could have prevented the enemy from securing a
foothold on the peninsula in the rear or flank of the main line in
case they effected a landing back of Red Hook or crossed Gowanus Creek
above. This hill was long since cut away.[44]

[Footnote 44: One of Greene's orders refers to this fort as follows:
"_Camp on Long Island, July 19, 1776._--The works on Cobble Hill being
greatly retarded for want of men to lay turf, few being acquainted
with that service, all those in Colonel Hitchcock's and Col