Note 772 — Chapter IV · (continued 2)

Respecting the retreat, Washington had ordered Heath (5 Force, i. 1211) to send down boats from up the Hudson, which he did (Heath, Memoirs, 57). Washington's reasons for a retreat are told in a letter of Joseph Reed, Aug. 30th, to Wm. Livingston, given in Sedgwick's Livingston, 201. (Cf. Sparks, Washington, iv. 81.) Johnston collates the authorities upon the reasons (p. 215), and thinks Gordon's account the most probable, that the American lines were unfit to stand siege operations, which Howe had begun. The proceedings of the council of war (Aug. 29th) which decided upon the retreat are in 5 Force, i. 1246, and in Onderdonk's Rev. incidents in Suffolk County, p. 161.