three thousand, eight hundred, and thirty were absent, " on command ;" and ninety -six were on furlough ; leaving only about sixteen thousand men, including the Artillery and excluding the Officers, who were actually present and fit for duty. 6 Of these, thirteen Regiments were Militia, temporarily serving in the service of the Continent ; ' and, since the disastrous results on Long Island and in the City of New York, the entire Army was greatly dispirited and inspired no confidence in its Commander-in-chief. 8 On the thirtieth of September, the number of rank and file,

General Return of tlm Army in the service of the United States of America at Kiug's-Bridge and its dependencies, Sept. 21, 1776.

' Ibid.

8 "The check our detachment sustained on the 27th ultimo has dis- " pirited too great a proportion of our troops, and filled their.minds with, "apprehensioo and despair. The Militia, instead of calling forth their " utmost efforts to a brave and manly opposition, in order to repair our "losses, are dismayed, intractable, and impatient to return. Great num- " hers of them have gone off ; in some instances, almost by whole Regi- " inents, by half ones, and by Companies, at a time. This circumstance, "of itself, independent of others, when fronted by a well-appointed "enemy, superior in number to our whole collected force, would be " sufficiently disagreeable ; but, when their example has infected another "part of the Army, when their want of discipline and refusal of almost "every kind of restraint or government have produced a like conduct "but too common to the whule and an entire disregard of that order " and subordination necessary to the well-being of an Army, and which "had been inculcated before, as well as the nature of our military es- " tablishment would admit of, our condition becomes still more alarm- "ing; and, with the deepest concern, I am obliged to confess my want "of confidence in the generality of the troops." (General Washington to the President of ttw Congress, " New-York, September 2, 1770.")