vious to rain. Its massive trunk measures at a height of four feet from the ground, seventeen feet ten inches. Its roots, interwoven in a network platform, cover an extensive circumference. From the beach the broad causeway leads up the ravine between the Stony Point. hill and that to the northward. It is now entirely covered with grass, but its breadth and evident strength are sufficient evidence that it was constructed by competent engineers for the rough uses of army movement. The slope of the northern hill is now covered with a fine orchard. The causeway runs between the hills nearly at right angles with the river and strikes the main road, the Albany turnpike, at a distance of about half a mile. Washington watched the crossing of the allied forces from a marquee prepared for him at Verplanck's Point by the French officers; a brilliant pageant it was he witnessed these bright summer days. The broad stream glittering in the sunlight, flecked with innumerable boats bearing their martial array, in continuous line from Verplanck's Point, where the American colors waved from the little post of Fort Lafayette, to the beach beneath the guns of Stony Point. The chivalry of France, the war-worn veteran, de Rochambeau, the elegant and learned de Chastellux, the brilliant brothers de Vioménil, followed by their staffs, in which rode the flower of French nobility, Dukes, Barons, Knights and Squires of high degree. The reading of their names sounds like a page from the Chronicles of Froissart. The feeling with which Washington regarded this initial move of the Southern campaign is related with charming naturalness by M. Blanchard, the Commissary of the French army, who was at his side. "He seemed," says the French officer, "in this crossing, in the march of our troops toward the Chesapeake Bay, and our reunion with M. de Grasse, to see a better destiny arise at the period of the war, when, exhausted and destitute of resources, he needed a great success which might raise courage and hope." Bianchard adds that Washington pressed his hand with much affection when he left Verplanck's Point and crossed the river himself, at two o'clock on the afternoon of the 25th, to rejoin the army. During the days from the 21st to the 25th August, Washington had his headquarters at Belmont, an elegant mansion still standing, and famous in American history as the residence of Joshua Hett Smith, and the spot where the final details of the plot to deliver over West Point to Sir Henry Clinton were completed by the traitor, Arnold, who commanded the post, and Major André, Adjutant-General of the British army, and it was the owner who, ignorantly perhaps, but more probably with entire cognizance of the general purposes of the chief actors, guided the disguised officer through the American lines, beyond which he fell prisoner. The building, which had acquired the name of Treason House, had lost somewhat of its grandeur, and with its grounds had suffered depredation from marauders, but its situation for the headquarters of a commander-in-chief was unrivalled. Standing on high tableland, it overlooks the whole of the broad bay of Haverstraw, here five miles wide, and the Hudson southerly for a far greater distance. Not a vessel could pass the points of the shore, on upward or downward course, not a boat or canoe ply between the river banks, without being seen from this natural observatory. Washington knew it well, and had often been the guest of its old owner on his many passages to and fro from West Point to the Jerseys to threaten or defend the Jersey plains or the Highland approaches. This was the house to which he invited Rochambeau to a farm breakfast on the morning of the 21st of August, and it was here that M. Blanchard, bearing a dispatch to him from the French commander, took a cup of tea with the American chief on the evening of the same day; and it was in the commanding position of the neighboring fields that the French troops made and held their camps. II. THE MARCH FROM KING'S FERRY TO PHILADELPHIA On the morning of Friday, the 24th August, Washington in General Orders directed that the troops be supplied with three days' rations, and hold themselves in perfect readiness to march; and in after General Orders of the same day they were detailed to march in two columns the next morning, by the right, at four o'clock; the right column to consist of Olney's regiment, park of artillery, sappers and miners, the Commander-in-Chief's baggage, baggage of the artillery, spare ammunition, baggage and stores of every kind. The next morning, Saturday, the 25th, the army moved. General Lincoln, with the light infantry and the First New York Regiment, which had lain in camp at Kakeat since the night of the 19th, was ordered to pursue the route by Paramus to Springfield, while Colonel Lamb, with his regiment of artillery, the park and stores, covered by Olney's Rhode Island regiment, proceeded to Chatham by the way of Pompton and the two bridges. The same day the French broke camp, the Legion of Lauzun leading the van, followed by the first division of the French army, com posed of the regiments of Bourbonnais and Deux-Ponts, with their parks of heavy artillery. The Baron de Vioménil commanded this corps. Their line of march was to Percipany, by way of Suffern's and Pompton. They took the route through Hackensack, reached Suffern's, about fifteen miles distant, where they encamped. Washington left the Ferry in the afternoon, and joined the advance of the right column, which had reached Ramapo and gone into camp, whence he issued his orders for the next day's march, which was to be continued in the same order, save that the baggage of the Commanderin-Chief was to precede the park. So long as there was business and danger in the rear, Washington remained behind. He now passed to the front of the army to remove all obstructions and hasten its movement. On the 26th the Light Infantry marched from Kakeat to Paramus, the right column to the forks of the Passaic, where they encamped, and orders were issued for a renewal of the march on the next morning, shortly after daybreak, in the same order. The first division of the French moved from Suffern's to Pompton, crossing the river Pompton three times over the wooden bridges, which were in excellent repair. The distance was about fifteen miles. So entirely were all but the chiefs in the dark as to the real objective point of the campaign, that even on this day the Duke de Deux-Ponts, who commanded the regiment which bore his name, sets it down in his diary that the corps under Washington's immediate command had taken another direction, and seemed to be about to move towards Paulus Hook (now Jersey City) or Staten Island; and he expresses himself as unable to form a fixed opinion as to the object of the march. The same day the second division of the French army left their encampment at Haverstraw and marched to Suffern's, where they encamped on the ground the first had left in the morning. This division, consisting of the regiments of Soissonnais and Saintonge, was commanded by the Vicomte de Vioménil; they brought up the rear with all the baggage and stores. On the 27th the American troops continued the feint upon New York, manoeuvering at Springfield, preceded and covered by the Light Infantry. On this day the Duke de Deux-Ponts records that he was for the first time informed under injunction of the strictest secrecy, that the real purpose of the campaign was the capture of Cornwallis. The first division of the French marched from Pompton to Whippany or Hanover. Whippany lies on the stream of the same name, and is not far from Morristown. The same day the second division of the French continued over the same route. In his general orders of the 28th, is |