Yet during all that period lie had his army drawn up or disposed in New Jersey, the Highlands, or Westchester County, within easy striking distance of New York; and, moreover, the recapture of New York was the grand goal of the lie volution. He did not attempt it because it would have been a simply mad thing to do with the forces at his disposal. When, finally, with the assistance of the French, he was ready to move on New York as a formal matter, he arranged a perfect combination to take Kingsbridge by swift surprise. This, the first and only attempt to surprise Kingsbridge, did not come even to the fightingstage. How merely foolhardy would have been the ordinary expeditions against Kingsbridge which ambitions officers were continually planning. Finding that the British at the outposts of New York were not to be surprised, it remained for Washington to institute deliberate operations. The next day (July 4) he retired from Valentine's Hill to Dobbs Ferry, where he encamped, also marking out a camp for the French on his left. Rochambeau had advanced as far as North Castle (seventeen miles distant), where Washington visited him on the 5th. On the 6th the French joined the Americans. The latter lay in two lines, resting on the Hudson at Dobbs Ferry, covered by batteries, and extending toward the Nepperhan River; while their allies were in a single line on the hills farther east, reaching to the Bronx. The left of the French position was at Chattel-ton's Hill, the scene of the battle of October 28, 1776. A very pleasing description of the united encampment is given by Irving in his Life of Washington : " It was a lovely country for a summer encampment, breezy hills commanding wide prospects, umbrageous valleys watered by bright pastoral streams, the Bronx, the Sprain, and the Nepperhan, and abounding with never failing springs.