The Americans, with great labor and outlay of means, had constructed a chevauxde-frise, for the protection of the navigation, above Fort Washington ;* and it was hoped it would have intercepted the further passage of the ships while the batteries, at Fort Washington and Fort Lee, and the galleys, which had been stationed behind the chevauxdt-Jrise, played on them ; but, " to the surprise and " mortification" of General Washington and his command, they passed all the obstructions, " without the " least difficulty, and without receiving any apparent " damage from our forts, 5 though they kept up a " heavy fire from both sides of the river." 6

3 General Washington to the President of Congress, " Head-quarters, "at Colonel Morris's house, 16 September, 1776;" General Sowe to Lord George Germaine, "Head-quarters, New- York, September 21, " 1776 ;" The New-York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury, No. 13U3, New- York, Monday, October 14, 1776.

General Heath, {Memoirs, 60,) said these Ships were "sent up the "river, as far as Greenwich," only, on the fourteenth of September.

4 Doctor Sparks, in his Writings of George Washington, (iv., 30, note,) said " the mode of constructing the chevaux-de-frise was a contrivance of "General Putman's;" and, in support of that statement, he quoted from a letter written by the General to General Gates, dated July 26th, in which were these words : " We are prepariug chevaux-de-frUe, at which " we make great dispatch by the help of ships, which are to be sunk ; a " scheme of mine, which you may be assured is very simple, a plan of "which Isend you."