The Glorious Cause - Jeff Shaara [56]
ON HARLEM HEIGHTS, THERE WAS LITTLE ACTIVITY, THE SOLDIERS AT their posts, lookouts scanning the horizon across the plain below them. They had seen the flag of truce, the small parade of British horsemen, and Washington had sent Putnam to receive it. The officer who led the party was an engineer, John Montresor, a name vaguely familiar to Washington. Montresor had brought a letter from General Howe, a protest about some brutality from the rebel soldiers. But there was more meaning to the note, and the last paragraph, written as nearly an afterthought, had made it clear that Howe was telling him something more significant, a boasting of sorts. It was just a brief mention that a spy had been hanged, a man with a diploma in his pocket from Yale College.
Washington revealed nothing to his staff, folded the note away, moved out on the point of rocks, could see far to the south, where clouds of black smoke still rose over New York, where fires still burned in the wreckage of a quarter of the city. He glanced behind him, wasn’t sure if Putnam was still there, looked again toward the south, said quietly, “It seems that Providence, or some good honest fellow, has done more for us than we could do for ourselves.”
9. CORNWALLIS
HOWE HAD FINALLY ORDERED A LINE OF TROOPS TO PUSH ACROSS Manhattan Island, a tight seal to keep the rebels pinned on Harlem Heights. There had been one minor engagement near the rebel position, a place near the Hudson River called the Hollow Way. It was not part of Howe’s instructions, but the response to a rebel patrol sent down into the plain beneath the Heights to determine where the British main lines might be positioned. The patrol was successful, and found themselves confronting the British Forty-second Highlanders, one of the most historic units in King George’s army. The Highlanders were also known as the Black Watch, and brought into battle a reputation for brutal efficiency. Dressed in the kilts and tartan of their ancestors, and driven forward by a rolling cascade of bagpipe music, the Highlanders responded to the sudden encounter with the rebels by making an advance of their own, and the rebels, who were outnumbered, wisely withdrew. But Washington made use of the aggressiveness of the British. In quick response, he sent out another, larger force, Knowlton’s Rangers and a company of Virginia riflemen. The intent was to flank and possibly surround the British, who had remained out in front, separated from Howe’s main force. Despite a brief and brisk action, there was little positive result for either side, and when the Highlanders were reinforced by a company of Hessian reserves, the rebels retreated to their fortifications at Harlem Heights. The official report that reached Howe’s headquarters indicated that among the casualties, two rebel officers had been killed, one of them the man who had founded the elite squad of Rangers, Colonel Thomas Knowlton.
OCTOBER 11, 1776
To the British, the skirmish with the Highlanders had seemed to remove any inclination the rebels had to leave the safety of their defenses, and beyond the occasional raid of some farmhouse, Cornwallis had heard nothing of any rebel movement at all.
He rode now through McGown’s Pass, the tall rocks and narrow trails now the geographical center of the British line. The staff followed in single file, and Cornwallis tried to ignore their nervousness, men not accustomed to riding close to the front lines, some of them searching the rough ground to the north for the chance encounter with a rebel marksman.
He had been to a farmhouse, a low flat building bordered by an apple orchard, that served now as one of the many reconnaissance posts. The house had been owned by a man known to be sympathetic to the rebel cause, and the heavy front door had been branded with a crude letter