id fevers and dysentery; others were absent
on furlough or command; the rest had to be distributed over posts and
stations fifteen miles apart.

Washington kept the most watchful eye upon the movements of the enemy.
Beside their great superiority in point of numbers as well as
discipline, to his own crude and scanty legions, they possessed a vast
advantage in their fleet. "They would not be half the enemy they are,"
observed Colonel Reed, "if they were once separated from their ships."
Every arrival and departure of these, therefore, was a subject of
speculation and conjecture. Aaron Burr, at that time in New York,
aide-de-camp to General Putnam, speaks in a letter to an uncle, of
thirty transports, which, under convoy of three frigates, had put to
sea on the 7th of August, with the intention of sailing round Long
Island and coming through the Sound, and thus investing the city by
the North and East Rivers. "They are then to land on both sides of the
island," writes he, "join their forces, and draw a line across, which
will hem us in, and totally cut off all communication; after which,
they will have their own fun."

In this emergency, Washington wrote to General Mercer for 2,000 men
from the flying camp. Colonel Smallwood's battalion was immediately
furnished, as a part of them. The Convention of the State ordered out
hasty levies of country militia, to form temporary camps on the shore
of the Sound, and on that of the Hudson above King's Bridge, to annoy
the enemy, should they attempt to land from their ships on either of
these waters. Others were sent to reinforce the posts on Long Island.
Many of the yeomen of the country, thus hastily summoned from the
plough, were destitute of arms, in lieu of which they were ordered to
bring with them a shovel, spade, or pickaxe, or a scythe straightened
and fastened to a pole. This rustic array may have provoked the
thoughtless sneers of city scoffers, such as those cited by Graydon;
but it was in truth one of the glorious features of the Revolution, to
be thus aided in its emergencies by "hasty levies of husbandmen."

By the authority of the New York Convention, Washington had appointed
General George Clinton to the command of the levies on both sides of
the Hudson. He now ordered him to hasten down with them to the fort
just erected on the north side of King's Bridge; leaving two hundred
men under the command of a brave and alert officer to throw up works
at the pass of Ant