the enemy to land on the Jersey shore for the purpose of reaching the upland to attack him, or cut off his retreat, he convened a council of war on the field. This body soon arrived at the conclusion to retreat without delay. Wayne immediately sent word to Colonel Moylan to drive off the cattle from the Three Pigeons and proceed with all despatch to the Liberty Pole. When the troops, however, comprehended the situation and that they were to retreat, leaving the works undestroyed and the garrison uncaptured, the First Regiment left the hollow in which they had awaited the effect of the artillery fire, and with impetuosity, broke through the abatis and rushed up to the stockade. The Second caught the enthusiasm and also rushed forward. The Tenth, being in the ravine, and General Irvine's troops, being below the rocks along the river, were unable to advance. It was at this juncture that the heavy losses of the day occurred. The attacking force was unable to pass the stockade. This being within easy musket range of the block-house, the refugees, firing through the loop-holes, deliberately shot down the baffled troops. After considerable effort of the officers to withdraw their troops they fell back, and with the artillery moved up towards Fort Lee and Closter to meet the enemy should they attempt to land. This, however, was not attempted. After destroying some wood-boats at the landing near the mouth of the ravine, and capturing the deck-hands and cabin-boys, the disappointed troops marched back to New Bridge, taking with them the killed and wounded, except three who lay dead under the stockade. General Wayne remained at New Bridge that night, and reached his headquarters at Totowa on the following day.

The results of this expedition were not gratifying to the Americans. They drove off, between the Three Pigeons and New Bridge, "several hundred quadrupeds, consisting of horses, horned cattle, sheep and hogs;" or as Major André described it:

All in a cloud of dust were seen
The sheep, the horse, the goat,
The gentle Heifer, as obscene,
The Yearling and the shoat.

They captured a few men in charge of the wood-boats at the landing, and burned the boats. They killed six and wounded fifteen refugees. Nothing more than this was accomplished, notwithstanding the comparatively large force employed, the labor performed and the bravery exhibited. But as a set-off to these meagre results were the works at the post undestroyed, fifteen killed and forty-nine wounded.

The

failure produced a keen and deep-felt mortification. Washington deeply regretted the misfortune, and hastened to explain away its bad effect upon Congress. General Wayne spoke of the attack as only a ruse to draw the enemy over to the Jersey shore, that he might cut them to pieces in the gorges of the mountain. He afterwards assigned another object to the expedition, in which he claimed to have been successful, but which to me seems an afterthought, viz., to prevent, or at least delay, the British sailing from New York to attack the French, then recently arrived at Newport, yet all of these ideas may naturally have made part of the general combination to keep the British force at New York alarmed and on the alert.

To add yet a keener pang to the mortification of failure, the enemy indulged in great exultation. In their sarcasm it did not require the trained soldiers of the King to rout the "rebels" with the hero of Stony Point at their head—a few mercenary wood-choppers were able to withstand the flower of the American army, although about twentyfive times their number. Sir Henry Clinton testified to them "his very particular Acknowledgement of their Merit." The King of Great Britain acquainted "the survivors of the brave seventy that their behavior is approved of by their Sovereign," and characterized their resistance as a "very extraordinary instance of courage." A sarcastic notice was published in Rivington Gazette of July 28, 1780:

"A lady presents her compliments to the Sir Clement of the Philadelphia Ball Room, and desires the next country dance may commence with a new movement, called

A TRIP TO THE BLOCK-HOUSE,

OR THE

WOODCUTTERS' TRIUMPH,

in compliment to a certain General, who (emulating his brother Arnold) was lately checked on the North River by a malheureuse event, and his glories (now on the Wane) threatened with an insuperable mortification." The most keen and clever satire of the expedition was the mock heroic poem, by Major André, called "The Cow Chase." But notwithstanding all this rejoicing, the Refugees did not care to try the experiment of another attack. They had been saved, not through their own prowess, but through a mistake in attacking them with such light guns. On the 9th of August following they evacuated the place, burnt the block-house, and retired to Fort Delancey, on Bergen Neck.

Thus ends the story of Wayne's attack on the block-house, near Bull's Ferry, July 21, 1780. What little glory is derivable from it does not belong to the American side. It is true, while they were Loyalists in sentiment, the Refugees were American born. The only comfort the patriots could derive from repulse was found in the fact that they were so manfully withstood by Refugees and not by the British. If when Greek meets Greek in the tug of war, the glory of triumph belongs alike to victor and vanquished, then the patriots could insist upon their right to a share of what the Refugees claimed for themselves for the stubborn defence of their works. Viewed in any other light, they were entitled to but little credit for the labors and sacrifices of that day. Block-House Point did not add freshness to the laurels which Stony Point had placed upon the brow of General Wayne.

Jersey City.

CHARLES H. WINFIELD

1 N. Y. Historical Society Collections, 1875, 152. 2 Ibid., 318. 5 Ibid., 391.

6 Ibid., 397.

Ibid., 413.

8 In a letter, dated " near the Liberty Pole, Bergen County, August 26th, 1780," Washington writes to Governor Livingston: "Our extreme distress for want of provision makes me desirous of lessening the consumption as much as possible. Some brigades of the army have been five days without meat. To endeavor to relieve their wants by stripping the lower part of the county of its cattle, I moved two days ago to this place, and yesterday completely foraged Barbadoes and Bergen Necks. Scarcely any cat:le were found but milch cows and calves of one and two years old, and even those in no great plenty." (New Jersey Revolutionary Correspondence, 254.) For an interesting account of this foraging party, vide New York Journal, Sept. 11, 1780, and Winfield's History of Hudson County, 183.