Congress having left the decision relating to the evacuation of New York entirely to the Commanderin-chief, and nearly all of his officers determining, upon a second council being held, that retreat was a necessity, preparations were rapidly made to complete the withdrawal of the Continental forces. The attack of the British, concentrated upon the forces under Greene and Spencer, on the 15th, precipitated the movement. The Connecticut levies at Kipp's Bay and Turtle Bay fled, making hardly any resistance. The presence and almost frantic opposition of Washington himself did not serve to check the panic into which they were thrown. An express was immediately dispatched to Putnam^ ordering him to retreat. He called in his pickets and guards and abandoned the city, leaving most of his stores and the heavy guns to fall into the hands of the foe. The day was sultry and torrid and the little army encumbered with women and children, besides a heterogeneous assortment of baggage. The strength of the men w^as overtaxed and the morale of the command low, but the commanding officer was as full of fire and courage as ever, and pulled his army through by the sheer force of his own personality. Colonel Humphreys, acting at the time as a volunteer with Putnam, has left the following account of him :

1/4 The Hudson River

I had frequent opportunities that day of beholding him, for the purpose of issuing orders and encouraging the troops, flying on his horse covered with foam, wherever his presence was most necessary. Without his extraordinary exertions, the guards must have been inevitably lost, and it is probable the entire corps would have Ijeen cut in pieces. When we were not far from Bloomingdale, an aide-de-camp came to him at full speed, to inform him that a column of British infantry was descending upon our right.