e of the
convention, to four thousand one hundred and twenty-nine.
The sick exceeded two thousand five hundred men.]

The drafts made from Peekskill for both armies had left that post in a
situation to require the aid of militia for its security. The
requisitions of General Putnam were complied with; but the attack upon
them being delayed, the militia, who were anxious to seed their farms,
became impatient; many deserted; and General Putnam was induced to
discharge the residue.

Governor Clinton immediately ordered out half the militia of New York,
with assurances that they should be relieved in one month by the other
half. This order was executed so slowly that the forts were carried
before the militia were in the field.

Great pains had been taken, and much labour employed, to render this
position, which is naturally strong, still more secure. The principal
defences were forts Montgomery and Clinton. They had been constructed
on the western bank of the Hudson, on very high ground, extremely
difficult of access, and were separated from each other by a small
creek which runs from the mountains into the river. These forts were
too much elevated to be battered from the water, and the hills on
which they stood were too steep to be ascended by troops landing at
the foot of them. The mountains, which commence five or six miles
below them, are so high and rugged, the defiles, through which the
roads leading to them pass, so narrow, and so commanded by the heights
on both sides, that the approaches to them are extremely difficult and
dangerous.

To prevent ships from passing the forts, chevaux-de-frise had been
sunk in the river, and a boom extended from bank to bank, which was
covered with immense chains stretched at some distance in its front.
These works were defended by the guns of the forts, and by a frigate
and galleys stationed above them, capable of opposing with an equal
fire in front any force which might attack them by water from below.

Fort Independence is four or five miles below forts Montgomery and
Clinton, and on the opposite side of the river, on a high point of
land; and fort Constitution is rather more than six miles above them,
on an island near the eastern shore. Peekskill, the general head
quarters of the officer commanding at the station, is just below fort
Independence, and on the same side of the river. The garrisons had
been reduced to about six hundred men; and the whole force under