It will be seen, from General Washington's anxiety concerning his supplies and concerning the lines of communication between the Army and the country, and from other evidence, that he was becoming convinced that the enemy intended to take NewRochelle for the base of his proposed operations, and, from that place, hy way of the White Plains, to form his command, in a line, to the Hudson-river,' at Tarrytown -- a plan of operations, as we have already stated,- which was formed, after due consideration, before General Howe had left the City of New York, as will have been seen in the disposition of the Phoenix, the Roebuck, and the Tartar, oft' Tarrytown, to cover the objective point, the right of the proposed new line, of the Army,^ and in the selection of Mill's-creek, or New Rochelle-harbor, as the base of his operations, the left of the proposed line,* and, because of that new-born conviction, as early as noon, on the

'See, also, General WatUington, thromjh his Secretary, to the Presidmt of Ihe Coiitiuentiil Cotujress, "KiNu"s BiiiuuE, October20, 177(i, lialf-afterone " o'clock, P. M."

• Vide i)age 231, ante.

3 Vide page 229, 230, ante.

We are not insensible that Bancroft, {llUtory of ttic Vitited Statrs, original edition, ix. 177 ; centenary edition, 1876, v., 441,) said it was as early as his fifth day on Throgg's-ncck, that General Howe " gave up the hope of '* getting directly in Washington's rear ; and that, in consequence of that disappointment and at that time, " he resolved to strike at AVhite '•Plains." Little credit is given to General Howe and the very able Officers whom he commanded, by any cue who can really suppose they would open a Campaign, or even a series of important movements, without having, previously, formed a plan, as carefully and as intelligently constructed as possible, for the general guidance of the oiierations of the Army ; and if from nothing else, the selection of Tarrytown and New Rochelle-harbor, as the two extremes of the proposed line, while the Army was yet unknown on Throgg's-neck, might have indicated to a less experienced reader than the venerable ex-Secretary of War, that the proposed lino from New Rochelle, by way of the White Plains, to Tarrytown, was vastly more, in the milit.-iry operations of the Royal .\rmy, than a sudden inspiration which sprung up to cheer the disappointed General, when, on the sixteenth of October, the latter is alleged to have given up all hope of getting in the rear of the Americans -- the whole of it a finely constructed creation of the venerable historian's peculiarly lively and poetical imagination.