Singular ns it would appear to be, were not the propensity for securing all the honor which belongs to them and as much more as is possible, so genenilly prevalent among those who have occupied public places, Gordon, who was so largely the exponent of General Greene's ujtinions and pretensions, made the latter take a leading part, in the Council, in opposing the movement of the iVrmyfrom HarleniHeights ; but the official Minutes of the Council clearly show that General Greene was not present, and, therefore, could not have taken any part in the proceedings of that body, {CoDipiire the Proceedings of a Council of General Officers at the Head quartei-s of Gi nenil Lee, October 16, 1776, irilh Gordon's History of the American Revolution ii.. :t.'58.)

'> ProceedinijB of a L'ounril of Getieral Officers held at the Head-quarters of General Lee, October 16, 177fi.

Because of evident eiTors in the copy of that paper which is printed in Force's American Aichives, V.,ii.,ni7, 1118, we have preferred the copy of it, evidently taken from the original manuscript, which appears in Sparks's Writings of George Washington, Ed. Boston: 18.34, iv., 155, note.

In his evidently new-born zeal, adverse to the military and personal rhanicter of General Charles Lee, Bancroft has exposed his entire inability to understand and correctly describe a military movement, whatever his capability of understanding and correctly describing a political movement nuiy be, in what he ha* written concerning '• the origin of " the retirement of the .\merican .-Vrmy from New York." (Histonjof the I'nited Stiites, Edit. Boston : 1860, ix., 175, note ; the same, centenai-y edition, v., 440, note.)