st necessary. "Without
his extraordinary exertions," says Colonel Humphreys, who frequently
saw Putnam that day, "the guards must have been inevitably lost, and
it is probable the entire corps would have been cut in pieces." Much,
too, of the success of the march was due to Burr's skill and
knowledge. Near Bloomingdale, the command fell in with a party of the
British, when Silliman formed three hundred of his men and beat them
off. After making a winding march of at least "twelve miles," these
greatly distressed troops finally reached Harlem Heights after dark,
to the surprise and relief of the other brigades, who had given them
up for lost.

[Footnote 186: Hezekiah Munsell, a soldier of Gay's regiment in
Wadsworth's brigade, says: "We soon reached the main road which our
troops were travelling, and the first conspicuous person I met was
Gen. Putnam. He was making his way towards New York when all were
going from it. Where he was going I could not conjecture, though I
afterwards learned he was going after a small garrison of men in a
crescent fortification which he brought off safe."--_Hist. of Ancient
Windsor_, p. 715.]

[Footnote 187: Affidavits in Davis' "Life of Burr," vol. i.]

[Footnote 188: The line of Putnam's retreat appears to have been from
Bayard's Hill Fort on Grand Street across the country to Monument Lane
(now Greenwich Avenue), which led to the obelisk erected in honor of
General Wolf and others at a point on Fifteenth Street, a little west
of Eighth Avenue. (See Montressor's Map of New York in 1775,
"Valentine's Manual.") The lane there joined with an irregular road
running on the line of Eighth Avenue, known afterwards as the Abington
or Fitz Roy road, as far as Forty-second or Third Street. There
Putnam, under Burr's guidance probably, pushed through the woods,
keeping west of the Bloomingdale Road, and finally taking the latter
at some point above Seventieth Street, and so on to Harlem Heights.
(See Map of New York, Part II.)]

Although skilfully conducted, this escape is to be referred, in
reality, to Howe's supineness and the hospitality of Mrs. Robert
Murray, at whose house the British generals stopped for rest and
refreshment after driving back our troops. Instead of continuing a
vigorous pursuit or making any effort to intercept other parties, they
spent a valuable interval at the board of their entertaining hostess,
whose American sympathies added flavor and piquancy to the
conversation.