6 General Greene to Governor Cooke, " Head-quarterb, New-York Is- "land, October 16, 1776."

Singular as it would appear to be, were not the propensity for securing all the honor which belongs to them and as much more as is possible, so generally prevalent among those who have occupied public places, Gordon, who was so largely the exponent of General Greene's opinions and pretensions, made the latter take a leading part, in the Council, in opposing the movement of the Army from Harlem Heights; but the official Minutes of the Council clearly show that General Greene was notj>reBent, and, therefore, could not have taken any part in the proceedings of that body, (Compare the Proceedings of a Council of General Officers at the Head quarters of General Lee, October 16, 1776, with Gordon's History of the American Revolution ii.. 338.)

1 Proceedings of a Cmmril of General OJJictrs held at the Head-quarters of General Lee, Octobor 16, 177«.

Because of evident errors in the copy of that paper which is printed in Force's American Archives, V., ii.,1117, 1118, we have preferred the copy of it, evidently taken from the original manuscript, which appears in Sparks's Writings of George Washington, Ed. Boston : 1834, iv., 155, note.

In his evidently new-born zeal, adverse to the military and personal character of General Charles Lee, Bancroft has exposed his entire inability to understand and correctly describe a military movoment, whatever his capability of understanding and correctly describing a political movement may be, in what he has written concerning '■ the origin of " the retirement of the American Army from New York," (History of the United States, Edit. Boston : 1866, ix., 175, note ; the same, centenary edition, v., 440, note.)