ps were immediately
at their alarm posts. It was about half-past three o'clock in the
afternoon as the ships and three tenders came sweeping up the bay with
the advantage of wind and tide, and shaped their course up the Hudson.
The batteries of the city and of Paulus Hook, on the opposite Jersey
shore, opened a fire upon them. They answered it with broadsides, but
continued their course up the Hudson. They had merely fired upon the
batteries as they passed; and on their own part had sustained but
little damage, their decks having ramparts of sand-bags. The ships
below remained in sullen quiet at their anchors, and showed no
intention of following them. The firing ceased. The fear of a general
attack upon the city died away, and the agitated citizens breathed
more freely.

Washington, however, apprehended this movement of the ships might be
with a different object. They might be sent to land troops and seize
upon the passes of the Highlands. Forts Montgomery and Constitution
were far from complete, and were scantily manned. A small force might
be sufficient to surprise them. Thus thinking, he sent off an express
to put General Mifflin on the alert, who was stationed with his
Philadelphia troops at Fort Washington and King's Bridge. The same
express carried a letter from him to the New York Convention, at that
time holding its sessions at White Plains in Westchester County,
apprising it of the impending danger.

Fortunately George Clinton, the patriotic legislator, had recently
been appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Ulster and Orange
counties. Called to his native State by his military duties in this
time of danger, he had only remained in Congress to vote for the
declaration of independence, and then hastened home. He was now at New
Windsor, in Ulster County, just above the Highlands. Washington wrote
to him on the afternoon of the 12th, urging him to collect as great a
force as possible of the New York militia, for the protection of the
Highlands against this hostile irruption. Long before the receipt of
Washington's letter, Clinton had been put on the alert. About nine
o'clock in the morning of the 13th, two river sloops came to anchor
above the Highlands, before the general's residence. Their captains
informed him that New York had been attacked on the preceding
afternoon. They had seen the cannonade from a distance, and judged
from the subsequent firing, that the enemy's ships were up the river
as far