Home / Dawson, Henry B. Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution. Morrisania, NY: (privately printed by the author), 1886. / Passage

Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution

Dawson, Henry B. Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution. Morrisania, NY: (privately printed by the author), 1886. 455 words

We have no meaus for ascertaining their exact losses, on the twenty-eighth of October.

11 We are not insensible that Stedman, in his History of the American War, (I., 214,) said " the reason of their " [tfie Americans,] "occupying " this posture," [on ChaUerton' s-hill,] " is inexplicable; unless it be that "they could not be contained within the works of their Camp;" but the reason assigned was too evidently ridiculous to be regarded with the slightest respect.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

ing no portion of the American lines ; and nothing else than a supposition, on the part of General Washington's advisers and on that of the General himself, that the continued occupation of it was absolutely essential to the safety of the main body, in the position which it then occupied, could possibly have led him to make such a costly and hazardous experiment, under the existing circumstances and in the immediate presence of such an overwhelming enemy, as the continued occupation and defence of Chatterton's-hill. But General Washington had evidently planned better than he knew ; and, in the providence of God, some results which were more beneficial to the Americans than any which he had conceived and hoped for, were unquestionably derived from that seemingly unpromising experiment of occupying and holding that exceedingly exposed position, on the western bank of the Bronx ; among which results, in America, we may mention the effect of that occupation, as an apparent menace against the left flank and rear of the Boyal Army, in whatever movement that Army, under General Howe, should make against the American lines ; the delay in that evidently projected movement of the Boyal Army, to enable its commanding General to remove what appeared to have been a dangerous element from Chatterton's-hill -- a delay which enabled the Americans to strengthen their defensive works and to become better prepared for defending them, whenever the Boyal Army should move against them ; -- and the reduction of that great Army, which was, then, in front of the American lines, and ready to move against them, for the purpose of assaulting the Americans who had occupied the hill as well for that of holding the hill, subsequently, which reduction of the strength of his main body compelled General Howe to wait for the arrival of reinforcements, to abandon his intention to assault the works which sheltered the main body of the American Army, and, finally, to retire from Westchester-county -- the firstmentioned of which consequences affording still further time and opportunities to General Washington and his feeble command : the latter two affording to the Americans, everywhere, the eclat, as well as some of the advantages, of better generalship and of consequent success.