f an
Army on an Island, or to engage them with a part, and therefore
unequal numbers; whereas now our whole Army is collected together,
without water intervening, while the enemy can receive little
assistance from their ships. Their Army is, and must be, divided into
many bodies, and fatigued with keeping up a communication with their
ships; whereas ours is connected and can act together. They must
effect a landing under so many disadvantages, that if officers and
soldiers are vigilant, and alert to prevent surprise, and add spirit
when they approach, there is no doubt of our success....

[Force, 5th Series, Vol. I., p. 1248.]

[No. 4.]

GEN. WASHINGTON TO THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY

HEAD-QUARTERS, Colonel Roger Morris's House, ten miles from }
New York, September 19, 1776. }

GENTLEMEN: I was honoured the night before last with your favor of the
13th instant, and at the same time that I conceive your anxiety to
have been great, by reason of the vague and uncertain accounts you
received respecting the attack on _Long Island_, give me leave to
assure you that the situation of our affairs, and the important
concerns which have surrounded me, and which are daily pressing on me,
have prevented me from transmitting, in many instances, the
intelligence I otherwise should have conveyed.

In respect to the attack and retreat from _Long Island_, the publick
papers will furnish you with accounts nearly true. I shall only add,
that in the former we lost about eight hundred men; more than
three-fourths of which were taken prisoners. This misfortune happened
in great measure, by two detachments of our people who were posted in
two roads leading through a wood, in order to intercept the enemy in
their march, suffering a surprise, and making a precipitate retreat,
which enabled the enemy to lead a great part of their force against
the troops commanded by Lord _Stirling_, which formed a third
detachment, who behaved with great bravery and resolution, charging
the enemy and maintaining their posts from about seven or eight
o'clock in the morning till two in the afternoon, when they were
obliged to attempt a retreat, being surrounded and overpowered by
numbers on all sides, and in which many of them were taken. One
battalion (_Smallwood's_ of _Maryland_) lost two hundred and
fifty-nine men, and the general damage fell upon the regiments from
_Pennsylvania_, _Delaware_ and _Maryland_, and Colon