We are not insensible that Bancroft, (nislonj of the United Stales, original edition, ix., 180 ; the same, centenary edition, v., 444,) has so framed bis sentence that his readers must suppose the abatis was us extended as the "lines of entrenchments ;" but tlie feebleness of the Army and the scarcity of teams could not have securetl so great a work, in so short a lime ; neither General Washington nor General Heath nor General Knox, among the Americans, nor General Howe nor General Lord Cornwallirt, among the King's troops, all of whom have more or less described the American defenses, has made the slightest allusion to such a general defense, before the long line of American entrenchments ; and Stednian expressly stated that "the point of the hill, on theenemy'g " right," [thai on the line of the Harlein Railroad, immediately northward from the Itaiiroad-statioH,] "exceedingly steep and rocky, was covered by " a strong abatis in front of the entrenchment," the very place, as we have said in the text, where such an additional mean of defense was least needed. For these reasons, we prefer to believe that the American lines were not, generally, furnished with an abatis.

' Vide page 448, ante.

' General Jlowe to Lord Ueorge Gemiaine, " New-York, 30 November, " 1776."

* General Heath said, (Sfomoirs, 79,) "the British having got posses- " eion of this hill, it gave them a vast advantage of the American lines, " almost down to the center;' and General Knox, in a letter to his