Not only the whole North River, but much of New York Bay, was frozen solid,1 and if the army under Washington had been in any condition to assume the aggressive New York, with its relatively small garrison, must probably have succumbed. But never was Washington's army in a more deplorable plight than during that terrible winter. It was encamped in two divisions, one 1 General Heath relates in his Memoirs, under date of February 7, 1780, that " A body of the enemy's horse, said to be about 300,

and the Seventh British regiment, came over from Long Island to Westchester on the ice."

FROM

JANUARY,

1779.

SEPTEMBER,

under Heath at Peekskill and in the Highlands, the other and principal part under Washington at Morristown. The principal event of the winter in Westchester County was the so-called " Affair at Youngs's House," a considerable and very disastrous engagement, in which some 250 men were concerned on the American side and more than twice that number on the enemy's. This house, owned by Joseph Youngs, was situated about four miles east of Tarrytown and about the same distance northwest of White Plains, at the intersection of an east and west road from Tarrytown and a north and south road from Unionville; and the locality was hence called " The Four Corners.'' As a result of the conflict there the dwelling was burned, and during the remainder of the war the place was known as " The Burnt House/' After the Revolution the Youngs farm was purchased by Isaac Van Wart, one of the captors of Andre, who built upon it the historic "Van Wart House,'" which subsequently, with the whole property, was owned for many years by his son, the Rev. Alexander Van AYart. The house was in the present Town of Mount Pleasant, just beyond the Greenburgk border.