David McCullough Library E-book Box Set

by David McCullough

  693 “great satisfaction”: London Morning Chronicle, October 15, 1776.

  694 “unfortunate beginning”: Josiah Bartlett to Nathaniel Folsom, September 2, 1776, in Letters of Delegates to Congress, V, Paul H. Smith, ed. (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), 91.

  695 “disaster”: John Adams to Abigail Adams, September 4, 1776, in Adams Family Correspondence, II, L. H. Butterfield, ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), 118.

  696 “All in solicitude”: The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles: President of Yale College, II Franklin Bowditch Dexter, ed. (New York: Scribner, 1901), 51.

  697 “a masterpiece”: New England Chronicle, September 19, 1776.

  698 “The manner”: Virginia Gazette, September 14, 1776.

  699 “Providence favored us”: New England Chronicle, September 19, 1776.

  700 “We have thought”: Massachusetts Spy, October 23, 1776.

  701 “It was a surprising change”: Ewald Shewkirk Diary, in Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society), Part II, 115.

  702 “A hard day this”: Personal Recollections of Captain Enoch Anderson (Wilmington, Del.: Historical Society of Delaware, 1896), 22.

  703 “entirely unfit”: George Washington to John Hancock, August 31, 1776, in PGW, VI, 177.

  704 “much hurried”: Ibid., 178.

  6. Fortune Frowns

  705 “I have only time”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 2, 1776, NYHS.

  706 “a mere point”: Joseph Reed to Charles Pettit, August 4, 1776, in Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, I, William B. Reed, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), 212.

  707 “dispensations of Providence”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 2, 1776, NYHS.

  708 “But only consider a minute”: Joseph Hodgkins to Sarah Hodgkins, September 5, 1776, This Glorious Cause: The Adventures of Two Company Officers in Washington’s Army, Herbert T. Wade and Robert A. Lively, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958), 217.

  709 “I had my sleeve button shot”: Ibid., 219.

  710 “I fear General Washington”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 227–228.

  711 “who when fortune frowns”: Henry Knox to Lucy Knox, September 5, 1776, NYHS.

  712 “Now is the time”: George Washington, General Orders, September 2, 1776, in PGW, VI, 199.

  713 “The militia”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 2, 1776, in PGW, VI, 199.

  714 “stand as winter quarters”: Ibid., 200.

  715 “desirous of an accommodation”: Josiah Bartlett to William Whipple, September 3, 1776, in Paul H. Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, V (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1979), 94.

  716 “no damage”: John Hancock to George Washington, September 3, 1776, in PGW, VI, 207.

  717 “no doubt”: Ibid.

  718 “leave no stone”: George Washington to William Heath, September 5, 1776, in PGW, VI, 224.

  719 “We think”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 6, 1776, in William B. Reed, ed., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, I (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), I, 230–231.

  720 “When I look round”: Ibid.

  721 “I think we have”: Nathanael Greene to George Washington, September 5, 1776, in PGW, VI, 222.

  722 “ ’Tis our business”: Ibid., 223

  723 “I give it as my opinion”: Ibid.

  724 “put nothing to the hazard”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 8, 1776, in PGW, VI, 251.

  725 “Had I been left”: George Washington to Lund Washington, October 6, 1776, in PGW, VI, 494.

  726 “On every side”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 8, 1776, in PGW, VI, 248–251.

  727 “We should on all occasions”: Ibid.

  728 “On the other hand”: Ibid.

  729 “a pleasing circumstance”: Ambrose Serle, September 6, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 94.

  730 “so critical and dangerous”: Officers to George Washington, September 11, 1776, in PGW, VI, 279.

  731 “It is desirable”: Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, I (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958), 453.

  732 “grand military exertion”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 14, 1776, in Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, William B. Reed, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), I, 235.

  733 “a moment longer”: Paul H. Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, V, 97, n. 1.

  734 “We are now taking”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 14, 1776, in PGW, VI, 308–309.

  735 “lined with men”: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative of His Campaigns, 1775–1782, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 45.

  736 “an entire dependence”: Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, I (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 45.

  737 “We will alter your tune”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin, 2001), 30.

  738 “I think if we stand”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 70–71.

  739 “as distinctly as though”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin), 30.

  740 “We lay very quiet”: Ibid., 31.

  741 “When they came”: Ibid., 30.

  742 “by damning themselves”: Francis, Lord Rawdon, to Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, September 23, 1776, in Report on the Manuscripts of the late Reginald Rawdon Hastings, III (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1930–1947), 183.

  743 “So terrible”: Ambrose Serle, September 15, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 104.

  744 “frog’s leap”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin, 2001), 31.

  745 “but they mostly overshot”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part II, 71–72.

  746 “happy to escape”: Francis, Lord Rawdon, to Francis, Earl of Huntingdon, September 23, 1776, Report on the Manuscripts of the late Reginald Rawdon Hastings, III (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1930–1947), 184.

  747 “I saw a Hessian”: Journal of Bartholomew James, September 15, 1776, in Naval Documents of the American Revolution, William James Morgan, ed., VI (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Navy, 1972), 841.

  748 “flying in every direction”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 16, 1776, in PGW, VI, 313.

  749 “Take the walls!”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 182.

  750 “Are these the men”: William Heath, Heath’s Memoirs of the American War (New York: A. Wessels Co., 1904), 70.

  751 “The demons of fear”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin, 2001), 32.

  752 “Nothing could equal”: Ambrose Serle, September 15, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 104.

  753 “Thus this town”: Ibid., 105.

  754 “Having myself been a volunteer”: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 89.

  755 “disgraceful and dastardly”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 6, 1776, in PGW, VI, 314.

  756 “Fellow’s and Parson’s whole brigade”: Nathanael Greene to Nicholas Cooke, September 17, 1776, in PNG, I, 300.

  757 �
�The wounds received”: William Heath, Heath’s Memoirs of the American War (New York: A. Wessels Co., 1904), 70.

  758 “The men were blamed”: Benjamin Trumbull, “Journal of the Campaign at New York, 1776–1777,” Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, VII (1899), 195.

  759 “We ought to have men”: Henry Knox to William Knox, September 23, 1776, NYHS.

  760 Mrs. Robert Murray: Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1878), Part I, 239.

  761 “Mrs. Murray treated them:” Ibid.

  762 Washington sent Reed cantering: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 17, 1776, NYHS.

  763 “I have sent out”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 16, 1776, in PGW, VI, 314.

  764 “I went down to our most advanced”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 17, 1776, NYHS.

  765 “I never felt such a sensation”: Ibid.

  766 “to recover that military ardor”: George Washington to Patrick Henry, October 5, 1776, in PGW, VI, 479.

  767 Washington ordered a counterattack: George Washington to John Hancock, September 18, 1776, in PGW, VI, 331.

  768 “rushed down the hill”: Joseph Hodgkins to Sarah Hodgkins, September 30, 1776, in This Glorious Cause, Herbert T. Wade and Robert A. Lively, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958), 222.

  769 Knowlton’s encircling move: George Washington to John Hancock, September 18, 1776, in PGW, VI, 331.

  770 “[We] drove the dogs”: Henry Phelps Johnston, The Battle of Harlem Heights, September 16, 1776 (New York: Macmillan, 1897), 155.

  771 “The pursuit of a flying enemy”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 1776, in Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, William B. Reed, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), 238.

  772 “They were seen to carry off”: Joseph Hodgkins to Sarah Hodgkins, September 30, 1776, in This Glorious Cause, Herbert T. Wade and Robert A. Lively, eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958), 222.

  773 “greatest loss”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, September 17, 1776, NYHS; George Washington to John Washington, September 22, 1776, in PGW, VI, 374.

  774 “a pretty sharp skirmish”: George Washington to Philip Schuyler, September 20, 1776, in PGW, VI, 357.

  775 “They find that if they stick”: Henry Knox to William Knox, September 23, 1776, NYHS.

  776 “Our people beat the enemy”: Nathanael Greene to William Ellery, October 4, 1776, in PNG, I, 307.

  777 “impetuosity”: Sir Henry Clinton, The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 46.

  778 “as if they were a thousand”: Tench Tilghman, Memoir of Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman (New York: Arno Press, 1971), 143.

  779 “If we cannot fight them”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, October 11, 1776, in Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, I, William B. Reed, ed. (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), 244.

  780 “many fair houses”: Ambrose Serle, September 19, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 109.

  781 “The shore of the Island”: Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, I (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 66.

  782 “The infinite pains”: Ambrose Serle, September 19, 1776, in The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, Jr., ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 109.

  783 “judge for themselves”: Troyer Steele Anderson, The Command of the Howe Brothers During the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 1936), 160.

  784 “pyramid of fire”: Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, I (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 60.

  785 “The sick, the aged”: Ibid.

  786 “thrown into the flames”: Ibid., 59.

  787 “There is no doubt”: Ibid., 59–60.

  788 “lurking”: Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six I (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958), 475.

  789 “The Yankees [New York Loyalists]”: James Grant to Richard Rigby, September 24, 1776, James Grant Papers, LOC.

  790 called it an accident: George Washington to John Hancock, September 22, 1776, in PGW, VI, 369.

  791 “Providence, or some good honest fellow”: George Washington to Lund Washington, October 6, 1776, in PGW, VI, 495.

  792 “New England man”: New York Gazette, September 30, 1776.

  793 “a person named Nathan Hales”: Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 61.

  794 “too frank and open”: Henry Phelps Johnston, Nathan Hale, 1776 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1914), 106.

  795 “reflect, and do nothing”: Ibid., 107.

  796 “I only regret that I have but one life”: Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, I (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958), 476.

  797 “We hung up a rebel”: I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909, I (New York: Arno Press, 1967), 1025.

  798 “A spirit of desertion”: Joseph Reed to Congress, in William B. Reed, ed., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, I (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), 240.

  799 Reed had seen a soldier running: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, in William B. Reed, ed., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, I (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), I, 238.

  800 “I should have shot him”: PGW, VI, 367, n. 3.

  801 “presenting his firelock”: George Washington, General Orders, September 22, 1776, in PGW, VI, 366.

  802 “suffer death without mercy”: George Washington, General Orders, September 23, 1776, in PGW, VI, 375.

  803 “To attempt to introduce discipline”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, October 11, 1776, in William B. Reed, ed., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, I (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), 243.

  804 “Unless some speedy, and effectual measures”: George Washington to John Hancock, September 23, 1776, in PGW, VI, 394.

  805 “fly hastily and cheerfully”: Ibid.

  806 “To place any dependence”: Ibid., 396.

  807 “lust after plunder”: Ibid., 399.

  808 “atrocious offenses”: Ibid., 398.

  809 “Such is my situation”: George Washington to Lund Washington, September 30, 1776, in PGW, VI, 441–442.

  810 “That in the parlor”: Ibid., 442.

  811 “To our surprise and mortification”: George Washington to John Hancock, October 8–9, 1776, in PGW, VI, 507.

  812 “little more to fear”: Nathanael Greene to Nicholas Cooke, October 11, 1776, in PNG, I, 315.

  813 “Tweedledum business”: Sir Henry Clinton, July 6, 1777, The American Rebellion, William B. Willcox, ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1954), 49, n. 23.

  814 “their former scheme”: George Washington to Nicholas Cooke, October 12–13, 1776, in PGW, VI, 546.

  815 “absurd interference”: John R. Alden, General Charles Lee: Traitor or Patriot? (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1951), 142.

  816 “retained as long as possible”: George Washington, Council of War, October 16, 1776, in PGW, VI, 576.

  817 “obstruct effectually”: William James Morgan, ed., Naval Documents of the American Revolution, VI (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Navy, 1972) 1221.

  818 “As the movements of the enemy”: George Washington, General Orders, October 17, 1776, in PGW, VI, 582.

  819 “one of the others gave it a shove”: Joseph Plumb Martin, A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier (New York: Penguin, 2001), 46.

  820 “Oh! The anxiety of mind”: Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., The Spirit of ’Seventy-Six, I (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958), 487.

  821 enemy dead: George Athan Billias, General John Glover and His Marblehead
Mariners (New York: Holt, 1960), 121.

  822 “The sun shone bright”: William Heath, Heath’s Memoirs of the American War (New York: A. Wessels Co., 1904), 88.

  823 “Yonder is the ground”: George F. Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats (New York: Da Capo Press, 1957), 194.

  824 “The air and hills smoked”: Peter Force, American Archives, III (Washington, D.C.: M. St. Clair and Peter Force, 1837–1853), 474.

  825 Washington ordered more men: PGW, VII, fn. 3, 52–53.

  826 “Opinions here are various”: Joseph Reed to Esther Reed, November 6, 1776, in William B. Reed, ed., Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, I (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1847), 248.

  827 “Others, and a great majority”: Ibid.

  828 “without attempting something more”: George Washington to John Hancock, November 6, 1776, in PGW, VII, 97.

  829 “If we cannot prevent”: George Washington to Nathanael Greene, November 8, 1776, in PGW, VII, 115–116.

  830 “His Excellency General Washington”: Nathanael Greene to Henry Knox, November [17], 1776, in PNG, I, 351.

  831 “The movements and designs”: George Washington to John Hancock, November 14, 1776, in PGW, VII, 154.

  832 “No wind for some days past”: Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, I (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 99.

  833 “probably be against Fort Washington”: Ibid.

  834 “the first object”: Ibid., 95.

  835 William Diamond: Ibid.

  836 “dreaming, sleepy-headed”: Ambrose Serle, December 8, 1776, The American Journal of Ambrose Serle, 1776–1778, Edward H. Tatum, ed. (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1940), 156.

  837 “It is easy to see”: Ibid., November 10, 1776, 138–139.

  838 “of much service to General Howe”: Frederick Mackenzie, Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, I (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1930), 97.

  839 “from the general appearance”: Ibid., 105.

  840 “Sir, if I rightly understand”: PGW, VII, n. 1, 162.

  841 “it being late at night”: George Washington to John Hancock, November 16, 1776, in PGW, VII, 163.