that the enemy were "not disposed to
storm our lines, but set down to make regular approaches to us." Reed
also puts as much stress on this point as any other. Giving the
reasons for the retreat to Governor Livingston, he said: "The enemy at
the same time possessed themselves of a piece of ground very
advantageous and which they had [fortified]. We were therefore reduced
to the alternative of retiring to this place or going out with
[troops] to drive them off." Washington, too, is to be quoted. In his
letter to Trumbull, September 6th, he writes: "As the main body of the
enemy had encamped not far from our lines, and as I had reason to
believe they intended to force us from them by regular approaches,
which the nature of the ground favoured extremely, and at the same
time meant, by the ships of war, to cut off the communication between
the City and Island, and by that means keep our men divided and unable
to oppose them anywhere, by the advice of the General officers, on the
night of the 29th, I withdrew our troops from thence without any loss
of men and but little baggage."

William B. Reed's account (Reed's Life of Reed) is to the effect,
briefly, that a heavy fog settled over Long Island on the 29th, and
that during the day Colonel Reed, Colonel Grayson, and General Mifflin
rode to Red Hook inspecting the lines. While at the Hook, "a shift of
wind" cleared the fog from the harbor, enabling the officers to catch
a glimpse of the fleet at the Narrows. From certain movements of boats
they inferred that the ships would sail up with the favorable breeze
if it held until the tide turned and the fog cleared off. They
immediately hurried to Washington, informed him of the impending
danger, and induced him to call a council and order a retreat. Mr.
Bancroft, however, has shown very thoroughly that this account cannot
be accepted, because the fog did not come up until the morning of the
30th, and no change of wind occurred. Colonel Reed himself says in the
Livingston letter, written only the next morning, that the enemy's
fleet were attempting every day to get up to town with "the wind
_ahead_"--thus directly contradicting his biographer. The Reed account
has several errors of detail, one being the statement that the Red
Hook battery had been badly damaged by the guns of the Roebuck on the
27th. It would be nearer the truth to say that it was not hit at all.
The fleet could do nothing that day; as Admiral Howe reports, the
Ro