With all the information, concerning " the enemy's " intention to surround " the American Array, which the General had been able to .^ecure; with all the knowledge which his personal and careful reconnaissance of the country had imparted to him ; and with all the intelligence concerning " the turbulence of " the disaffected in the upper parts of this State," which the Convention had communicated to him, he re-iissembled the Council of War which had met and adjourned on the preceding Sunday,^ {_October 13 ;] and he laid all these matters before it, for its consideration.

That very notable Council was assembled at the Head-quarters of General Lee ; and, besides the Com-

' Although General Lincoln wns considered and named, in the Grnerul Ordef now under notice, as a Slajor-general, it is probable that that was only his rank in the .Militia of Massachusetts, since, in the Cunncil of War, which was held on the following day, [October 16,] ho w:is ranked aa only a Brigadier-general, and then only at the lower end of the line of Brigadiere.

•Ueneral Ordcrt, " UEA»-QU.\BTEits, Uablem Heights, October 15, " 1776." ' Mrmoin of Gaieral Beulh, 71.

* The first reconnaissance which the General made, after the enemy's occupution of Tlirogg's-neck, included "the Necks adjacent," so that he was not ignorant of the character of the ground on and near Pell's- Beck ; but, on the morning of the sixteenth-- probably because of information received, on the preceding day, from some deserters from the fleet, who had been taken to Head-quarters and personally examined by the General, with evident confidence in their testimony, (OViimil Wimliinri- Im to Gocemor Tninibull, " HeaI)-«carters, Heights or Harlem, Octo- "bor 16, 1776,")-- another and more minute exnminatioD of the ground was made, as stated in the text.