FOR a month after the battle of Harlem Heights the Americans held possession of the northern end of the island, with the works they had erected there. There were three main lines in the Heights. The first was at 147th Street, the second, with four redoubts, along 153d to 155th Street, and the third, incomplete and with no redoubts, was at i6ist Street. Mount Washington, as it was then called, was substantially fortified, the defences there covering several acres between what are now i8ist and i86th Streets. The armament of this citadel consisted of thirty-two pieces of heavy ordnance. Besides these fortifications the neighbouring heights from Manhattanville to Kingsbridge were the sites of several earthworks, the whole constituting a formidable system, to assail which, after the disastrous attempt of September i6th, the British commander naturally hesitated. At the point known as Jeffrey's Hook, that juts into the river at the base of Mount Washington, a redoubt had been built to cover the famous structure of sunken

1 82 The Hudson River

vessels and floating bombs that General Putnam had bestowed so much labour and ingenuity upon. One needs only to insj^ect the river, or even a good map of it, to be convinced that if a reasonable hope of controlling navigation from any point below the Highlands could be entertained, this was the place. The river between Forts Washington and Lee is narrow and is commanded upon both banks by high hills. But the stream is swift and deep, as well as narrow, and the task of obstructing it was by no means as light a one as at first glance it might appear. Then, too, the necessity of retaining possession of the shores in order to make the blockade effectual would demand the