ime, upon a review of all the circumstances, it is
difficult to escape the conviction that but for General Greene's
earnest opposition to an abandonment of the fort, the disaster would
not have occurred. It was an error of judgment, an over-confidence in
the sufficiency of the preparations made for the defence, and a belief
that if matters came to the worst the garrison could be withdrawn in
spite of the enemy. That Greene himself felt that he would be held
largely accountable for the loss of the post, is evident from his own
expressions in the letter he wrote to Knox on the next day. "I feel
mad, vexed, sick, and sorry," are his words. "Never did I need the
consoling voice of a friend more than now. Happy should I be to see
you. This is a most terrible event; its consequences are justly to be
dreaded. Pray, what is said upon the occasion?"[222]

[Footnote 222: This is what Tilghman said upon the occasion: "The loss
of the post is nothing compared to the loss of men and arms, and the
damp it will strike upon the minds of many. We were in a fair way of
finishing the campaign with credit to ourselves and I think to the
disgrace of Mr. Howe, and had the General followed his own opinion the
garrison would have been withdrawn immediately upon the enemy's
falling down from Dobb's Ferry; but Gen'l Greene was positive that our
forces might at any time be drawn off under the guns of Fort Lee.
Fatal experience has evinced the contrary."--_Correspondence in
Proceedings of the N.Y. Provincial Congress_, vol. ii.]

There were those who censured Washington for not overruling Greene,
but the chief kept his counsels to himself, and it was not until
nearly three years later, in August, 1779, that he gave his version of
the affair in a private letter to Colonel Reed. In that he frankly
admits that Greene's representations and other reasons caused a
"warfare" and "hesitation" in his mind, by which the evacuation was
delayed until too late. But he indulged in no censures on Greene. His
confidence in the latter remained steadfast. The disaster was one of
those misfortunes which occur in the career of every great general,
and become, indeed, a step by which he rises to greatness. Greene,
more than any general of the Revolution, learned by experience. Every
battle, whether a defeat or victory, was for him a training-school;
and at the close of the war we find him ranking hardly second to the
commander-in-chief, in military talents, and enjoy