He replied that the defensible state of that ground had not escaped him, and that as the posts at King's Bridge were of such great importance, he hoped the convention would artbrd aid for their defense. When it became evident in September that the city was untenable by the Americans in the face of the superior British force, Washington determined to take post at King's Bridge and along the Westchester shore, where

- Fort Washington, near n liicli the old Blue Bell tavern stood. 'The night guard in this work, October 17, 1770, was one captain, two lieutenants and fifty men.

V52

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

barracks could be procured for the part of the army without tents. He concluded to leave five thousand men on the island for defense of the city, and to post nine thousand at King's Bridge and its dependencies. On the 8th Heath was instructed to fell trees across the roads towards the bridge, to dig holes in them, break them up and destroy them so as to be impassable. The next day one hundred and sixty thousand boards were ordered for the barracks at the bridge, also brick and stones for ovens, which all soldiers who were masons were ordered to assist in making.

Meanwhile the inhabitants suffered from the occupation of their farms. Fences were pulled down and burned and corn-fields, gardens and orchards pillaged. The orders of the day pronounced it "cruel as well as unjust and scandalous thus to destroy the inhabitants by destroying the little property for which they have been sweating and toiling through the summer and were expecting very soon to reap the fruits of."