The site of the fort is on the left of the head of the ravine, in the ascent, and is now marked by only a few mounds and a venerable pine-tree just south of them, which tradition avers once sheltered the tent of Washington. As the great patriot never pitched his tent there, tradition is in error. Washington was at the fort a short time at the middle of November, 1776, while the combined British and Hessian forces were attacking Port Washington on the opposite shore. He saw the struggle of the garrison and its assailants, without ability to aid his friends. When the combat had continued a long time, he sent word to the commandant of the fort, that if he could hold out until night, he could bring the garrison off. The assailants were too powerful; and Washington, with Generals Greene, Mercer, and Putnam, and Thomas Paine, the influential political pamphleteer of the day, was a witness of the slaughter, and saw the red cross of St. George floating over the lost fortress, instead of the Union stripes which had been unfurled there a few months before. The title of Port Washington was changed to that of Port Knyphausen, in honour of the Hessian general who was engaged in its capture. Port Lee was speedily approached by the British under Cornwallis, and as speedily abandoned by the Americans. The latter fled to the Eepublican camp at Hackensack, when Washington commenced his famous retreat through New Jersey, from the Hudson to the Delaware, for the purpose of saving the menaced federal capital, Philadelphia.