countermarched. Garbled shouts could be heard, and a few random shots echoed along the dense green face of the ridgeline. The commanding general turned his horse and headed back to the Brooklyn ferry. After returning to his headquarters, he would set aside the cares of this day by devoting a few minutes to Mount Vernon. In an eight-paragraph note to his overseer, Washington offered advice on where best to sell flour, when to plant new trees, and how to find nails to renovate the north end of the house. As for his British enemies here in New York, he confessed before closing the letter, “What
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