It is true that he ordered every Regiment who was under his immediate command, to be under arms, there, that it might be ready to act as occasion might require; that he authorized General Heath to make such disposition of the troops, in Westchester-county, including two Regiments of Militia who were posted near Kings-bridge, as he should think proper; and that he begged and trusted that every possible opposition would be given to the enemy, adding " God bless and lead you "on to Victory; " * but it was hardly consistent with his duty, as Commander-in-chief of the Army, at that important moment, to remain at Head-quarters ; to give the absolute command of all the trooj)s which were before the enemy to an Officer, excellent though he evidently was, as a subordinate, whose experience

* Vide page 407, ante.

6 Memoirs of General Heath, 70.

^ General Washinffton, hy his Secretrtrt/, Calnnel Robert IT. Harrison, to General Heath, " Head-qxtabters, 12 October, 1776."

In the same connection, it is a noticeable fact that the General Orders of the day and there were no After Orders, on that eventful twelfth of October, made no mention whatever of the movement of tlie enemy or of the disposition of the American troops ; that they were written, entirely, in only tliree short Uaea-- (General Ordi'rs, " Head quakters, Harlem '■ Heights, October 12, 1776")-- that General Washington, on that day, appeal's to have completed none of his letters which were unfinished when General Heath's e.xpress arrived at Head-quarters; and that no allusion whatever was made, by him, to the enemy's occupation of Westchester-county nor to any movement of his own command, consequent on that occupation, in anything which he wrote or ordered to be written on that day, which we have found, except in that note, written by his Secretary, under his own eye, to General Heath, of which mention has been made in the text.