Several of the council, among whom was
General Putnam, were for a total and immediate removal from the city;
urging that one part of the army might be cut off before the other
could support it; the extremities being at least sixteen miles apart,
and the whole, when collected, being inferior to the enemy. By
removing, they would deprive the enemy of the advantage of their
ships; they would keep them at bay; put nothing at hazard; keep the
army together to be recruited another year, and preserve the unspent
stores and the heavy artillery. Washington himself inclined to this
opinion. Others, however, were unwilling to abandon a place which had
been fortified with great cost and labor, and seemed defensible, and
which, by some, had been considered the key to the northern country.

After much discussion a middle course was adopted. Putnam, with five
thousand men, was to be stationed in the city. Heath, with nine
thousand, was to keep guard on the upper part of the Island, and
oppose any attempt of the enemy to land. His troops, among whom were
Magaw's, Shee's, Hand's, and Miles's Pennsylvanian battalions, and
Haslet's Delaware regiment, were posted about King's Bridge and its
vicinity.

The third division, composed principally of militia, was under the
command of Generals Greene and Spencer, the former of whom, however,
was still unwell. It was stationed about the centre of the island,
chiefly along Turtle Bay and Kip's Bay, where strong works had been
thrown up, to guard against any landing of troops from the ships or
from the encampments on Long Island. It was also to hold itself ready
to support either of the other divisions. Washington himself had his
head-quarters at a short distance from the city. A resolution of
Congress, passed the 10th of September, left the occupation or
abandonment of the city entirely at Washington's discretion.

Convinced of the propriety of evacuation, Washington prepared for it
by ordering the removal of all stores, excepting such as were
indispensable for the subsistence of the troops while they remained. A
letter from a Rhode Island officer, on a visit to New York, gives an
idea of its agitations. "On the 13th of September, just after dinner,
three frigates and a forty-gun ship sailed up the East River with a
gentle breeze, toward Hell Gate, and kept up an incessant fire,
assisted by the cannon at Governor's Island."

On the 14th, Washington's baggage was removed to King's Bridge,
whith