ection with Lake Champlain, was, very properly, the
chief object of the British government, Howe's next aim was to loosen
Washington's grip on the peninsula north of the Harlem. The position
seeming to him too strong for a front attack, he decided to strike for
its left flank and rear by way of Long Island Sound. In this, which
involved the passage of the tortuous and dangerous channel called
Hell Gate, with its swift conflicting currents, the Navy again bore
an essential part. The movement began on October 12th, the day after
Arnold was defeated at Valcour. So far as its leading object went it
was successful, Washington feeling obliged to let go the line of the
Harlem, and change front to the left. As the result of the various
movements and encounters of the two armies, he fell back across the
Hudson into New Jersey, ordering the evacuation of Fort Washington,
and deciding to rest his control of the Hudson Valley upon West Point,
fifty miles above New York, a position of peculiar natural strength,
on the west bank of the river. To these decisions he was compelled
by his inferiority in numbers, and also by the very isolated and
hazardous situation in which he was operating, between two navigable
waters, absolutely controlled by the enemy's shipping. This conclusion
was further forced upon him by another successful passage before the
guns of Forts Washington and Lee by Hyde Parker, with three ships, on
the 9th of October. On this occasion the vessels, two of which were
frigates of the heaviest class, suffered very severely, losing nine
killed and eighteen wounded; but the menace to the communications of
the Americans could not be disregarded, for their supplies came mostly
from the west of the Hudson.

It was early in November that Washington crossed into New Jersey with
five thousand men; and soon afterwards he directed the remainder of
his force to follow. At that moment the blunder of one subordinate,
and the disobedience of another, brought upon him two serious blows.
Fort Washington not being evacuated when ordered, Howe carried it by
storm, capturing not only it but its garrison of twenty-seven hundred
men; a very heavy loss to the Americans. On the other hand, the most
explicit orders failed to bring the officer left in command on
the east of the Hudson, General Charles Lee, to rejoin the
commander-in-chief. This criminal perverseness left Washington with
only six thousand men in New Jersey, seven thousand being i