d), makes no allusion to such an order, but on the contrary states
that he and the other colonels of the covering party were told that
they were to retreat. An order to attack would have been a poor
disguise for a retreat, for every man must have felt its utter
rashness and at once suspected some other move.]

[Footnote 170: A letter from Tilghman, Washington's aid, shows that
the troops received the impression that they were to be relieved. The
retreat, he says, "was conducted with so much Secrecy that neither
Subalterns or privates knew that the whole army was to cross back
again to N. York; they thought only a few regiments were to go
back."--_Document_ 29.]

At dark, the withdrawal began. As one regiment moved away towards the
ferry another would have its situation "changed" to fill the gap, or
extended from right to left. Every move at first was conducted busily,
yet quietly and without confusion. Colonel Little, referring to his
part this night, leaves the simple record that the general ordered
each regiment to be paraded on their own parades at seven o'clock
P.M., and wait for orders. "We received orders," he says, "to strike
our tents and march, with our baggage, to New York." Colonel Douglas
writes: "I received orders to call in my guard _all_, and march
immediately with the utmost silence." Hitchcock's Rhode Islanders
carried their baggage and camp equipage to the boats on their
shoulders "through mud and mire and not a ray of light visible." The
embarkation was made from the ferry--the present Fulton Ferry--where
General McDougall superintended the movements. Between seven and eight
o'clock the boats were manned by Glover's and Hutchinson's men, and
they went to work with sailor-like cheer and despatch. The militia and
levies were the first to cross, though there was some vexing delay in
getting them off. Unluckily, too, about nine o'clock the adverse wind
and tide and pouring rain began to make the navigation of the river
difficult. A north-easter sprang up, and Glover's men could do nothing
with the sloops and sail-boats. If the row-boats only were to be
depended upon, all the troops could not be ferried over before
morning. Discouraged at the prospect, McDougall sent Colonel Grayson,
of Washington's staff, to inform the general as to how matters stood,
but unable to find him Grayson returned, and McDougall went on with
the embarkation in spite of its difficulties. Most fortunately,
however, at eleven o'c