ebuck was "the only ship that could fetch high enough to the
northward to exchange _a few random shot_ with the battery on Red
Hook."

In a word, Washington, after receiving Mifflin's report in regard to
the approaches of the enemy, and probably other reports from Grayson,
Reed, and others in regard to the general condition of the troops (for
instance, Colonel Shee's uneasiness, referred to by Graydon), found
that the moment had come for decision. That decision was to retreat
that night; and during the forenoon, several hours before the council
met, he issued secret orders for the concentration of boats at the
ferry, as described in the text.]

The first thing necessary was to provide all the transportation
available in order to accomplish the retreat in the shortest time
possible after beginning it. There were boats at the Brooklyn ferry
and across at New York, but these were too few for the purpose.
Accordingly, on the forenoon of the 29th, Washington sent an order
through Mifflin to General Heath at King's Bridge to the following
effect:

LONG ISLAND, August 29th, 1776.

DEAR GENERAL--We have many battalions from New Jersey which
are coming over to relieve others here. You will please
therefore to order every flat bottomed boat and other craft
at your post, fit for transporting troops, down to New York
as soon as possible. They must be manned by some of Colonel
Hutchinson's men and sent without the least delay. I write
by order of the General. I am Affectionately Yours

MIFFLIN.

At about the same time, Colonel Trumbull, the commissary-general, was
directed to carry a verbal order to Assistant Quartermaster Hughes at
New York, "to impress every kind of water craft from Hell Gate on the
Sound to Spuyten Duyvil Creek that could be kept afloat and that had
either sails or oars, and have them all in the east harbor of the City
by dark."[165] These two orders were carried out with great energy,
promptness, and secrecy by all who had any part in their execution.
Heath "immediately complied" with what Mifflin had written, and sent
down all his boats under Hutchinson's men from Salem, who, like
Glover's from Marblehead, were, many of them, the best of sailors. He
brooked the less delay, perhaps, because he saw at once that
Washington's "real intention" was, not to be reinforced from New
Jersey, but to retreat from Long Island.[166] Hughes, on his part, was
untiring, and r