He request let him take 1,000 The to , refused was that when and his troops, should march from soldier single a not that d latter bluntly declare in command, to senior as , assumed then Lee order. his bv the post a statemenl sign to him d require Heath but , himself order issue the bility. responsi own his certifying that he did this exclusively upon use own his for ts regimen Lee thereupon detached two of Heath's ed that but the next morning, after sober second thought, he conclud back to Heaths he was playing too bold a part, and ordered them

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

camp. On the 4th, while at Haverstraw, says Bancroft, he intercepted 3,000 men who had been hurried down for Washington's relief by General Schuyler, of the Northern Army, and incorporated them in his division. Later he ordered General Heath to send him three regiments which had come from Fort Ticonderoga. He marched leisurely through New Jersey, still taking pains to have it understood that he considered himself an independent commander. To a committee of congress he stated that it was not his intention " to join the army with Washington," and to Heath he wrote, " I am in hopes of reconquering the Jerseys." On the 13th of December, ten days after passing the Hudson, he was made prisoner at Baskingridge, N. J., by some British horsemen, having just completed a letter to General Gates, in which he said: " Entre nous, a certain great man is most damnably deficient." His troops, thus happily disencumbered of him, presently joined Washington, although not in time to participate in the glorious victory of Trenton. General Lee's occupation of the North Castle position for nearly a month after the dismemberment of the army was not attended by events or proceedings of any noteworthy character.