Two days before, the British General Grant was at de Lancey's Mills (West Farms), on the Bronx : another brigade was at Mile Square, and the Waldeck Regiment was at Williams' Bridge. On the 12th Rahl with his Hessians had advanced on Manhattan Island as far as Tubby Hook (Inwood), and Fort Washington being already threatened on the south by the British who were left on the island, and the opposite Westchester shore being covered with British troops, Washington advised its surrender,^ but left its evacuation to General Greene's discretion, who was in command of a force on the Jersey shore, at Fort Lee. Congress advised Greene to hold the fort. On the night of the 15th thirty British flat-boats passed up the Hudson, and by both forts, and lay concealed in Spuyten Duyvil Creek. In the mean time the British had erected heavy batteries on Fordham Heights or Ridge extending from the Boston road as far south as the present High Bridge, and on the evening of the 15th Howe summoned Colonel Magaw, who was in immediate command at Fort Washington, to surrender. The post of Fort Washington, or rather the grounds which he had to defend, extended from the Hudson to the Harlem River, and were bounded on the north by a line which will about corresjjond to Inwood Street on the New York City nuip, and on the south by One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street. Its extreme length north and south was about two and a half miles, its circuit say six miles. The northernmost point, near what is now known as Inwood Station, was under command of Colonel Rawlings, with a ^Maryland regiment. Magaw ke]>t a small reserve in the citadel or main fort, which was situated on the site of the residence of James Gordon Bennett.