The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy Book 1)

by Rick Atkinson

That respite was just long enough. An American column of 3,500 men snaked from the city at midafternoon on Sunday for the twelve-mile march along the Hudson toward Harlem Heights. Three British warships—Renown, Repulse, and Pearl—had hurried the evacuation by lobbing a few broadsides into the town. Dressed in a sleeveless waistcoat over a dirty shirt, Putnam rode up and down the line astride a wild-eyed, foaming horse, barking encouragement and urging speed. His new aide, Major Aaron Burr, galloped to a cantonment a mile above the city, persuaded the officers there that the risk of a running battle with the British was less than the risk of being trapped, then guided the men to safety. Left behind in New York were the entrenchments, redoubts, redans, and ditches built over the past eight months but now useless. Also abandoned was over half of Washington’s heavy artillery—sixty-four guns,