was so very limited ; to transfer to that officer the entire responsibility of the opposition which was to be made against the powerful enemy who was actually moving against the very existence of the young States, not yet confederated and very poorly connected even by the ties of a common danger; and to give to him his parting if not his farewell blessing ; and nothing else than the bitterness of despair, the hopelessness which seemed to overwhelm all other traits of his character, could, possibly, have produced such unusual, such remarkable, such extremely dangerous results. It is, indeed, stated that he rode over to the village of Westchester and to the head of the creek, late in the afternoon ; but no one has pretended that he issued an Order or did any other act which the Commander-in-chief, under such peculiar circumstances, might have been expected to have done. 1

When General Greene, who was at Fort Constitution, as Fort Lee was then called, heard of the movement of the enemy, he wrote to General Washington, stating that three Brigades, at that time in New Jersey, were in readiness to be sent over the river, for the reinforcement of the main Army ; and he hoped, if the force which was then on the eastern side of the river was insufficient to repel the enemy, that those Brigades, and he with them, might be ordered to cross the river, for its reinforcement, during the latter part of the coming night, as the enemy's shipping might move up, from below, and impede, if they should not totally stop, the troops from crossing. 2 But the proffered help was not accepted ; 3 and Greene, notwithstanding his honorable anxiety, appears to have remained in New Jersey, without having received any answer to either his offer of help or his reasonable enquiries.